"deedy" meaning in English

See deedy in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Forms: deedier [comparative], deediest [superlative]
Etymology: From deed + -y. Cognate with Scots deedie, deedy (“active”). Compare also German tätig (“active”). Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|deed|-y|id2=adjectival}} deed + -y, {{cog|sco|deedie}} Scots deedie, {{cog|de|tätig||active}} German tätig (“active”) Head templates: {{en-adj|er}} deedy (comparative deedier, superlative deediest)
  1. Industrious; active.
    Sense id: en-deedy-en-adj-AI3de~ji
  2. Earnest; serious.
    Sense id: en-deedy-en-adj-um9G-Fnl Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -y (adjectival), Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 2 85 13 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -y (adjectival): 3 73 24 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 0 98 2 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 0 98 2
  3. (dialectal) Genuine, authentic; actual, real. Tags: dialectal
    Sense id: en-deedy-en-adj-XsS46B5O
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: deedily, deediness

Inflected forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "deedily"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "deediness"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "deed",
        "3": "-y",
        "id2": "adjectival"
      },
      "expansion": "deed + -y",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sco",
        "2": "deedie"
      },
      "expansion": "Scots deedie",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "tätig",
        "3": "",
        "4": "active"
      },
      "expansion": "German tätig (“active”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From deed + -y. Cognate with Scots deedie, deedy (“active”). Compare also German tätig (“active”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "deedier",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "deediest",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "er"
      },
      "expansion": "deedy (comparative deedier, superlative deediest)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              154,
              159
            ],
            [
              162,
              167
            ],
            [
              373,
              378
            ],
            [
              597,
              602
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2004 December 31, John Derbyshire, “Yes, Un-Deedy”, in National Review:",
          "text": "The novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett, asked by the London Times to give a brief account of her life, replied: \"There isn't much to say. I haven't been at all deedy.\" Deedy! This is one of those words that, once you have seen it, makes you wonder why it isn't in everyday use. The job interviewer, going through a pile of submitted résumés: \"This one's all right, but … no, not deedy enough.\" The biographer or obituarist: \"The next few years were his deediest …\" The self-improvement guru: \"Deediness depends on a positive attitude!\" The psychiatrist's patient: \"I married George because he seemed so deedy, but …\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Industrious; active."
      ],
      "id": "en-deedy-en-adj-AI3de~ji",
      "links": [
        [
          "Industrious",
          "industrious"
        ],
        [
          "active",
          "active"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "2 85 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 73 24",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -y (adjectival)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 98 2",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 98 2",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Earnest; serious."
      ],
      "id": "en-deedy-en-adj-um9G-Fnl",
      "links": [
        [
          "Earnest",
          "earnest"
        ],
        [
          "serious",
          "serious"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "Genuine, authentic; actual, real."
      ],
      "id": "en-deedy-en-adj-XsS46B5O",
      "links": [
        [
          "Genuine",
          "genuine"
        ],
        [
          "authentic",
          "authentic"
        ],
        [
          "actual",
          "actual"
        ],
        [
          "real",
          "real"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dialectal) Genuine, authentic; actual, real."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dialectal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "deedy"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English terms suffixed with -y (adjectival)",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "deedily"
    },
    {
      "word": "deediness"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "deed",
        "3": "-y",
        "id2": "adjectival"
      },
      "expansion": "deed + -y",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sco",
        "2": "deedie"
      },
      "expansion": "Scots deedie",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "tätig",
        "3": "",
        "4": "active"
      },
      "expansion": "German tätig (“active”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From deed + -y. Cognate with Scots deedie, deedy (“active”). Compare also German tätig (“active”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "deedier",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "deediest",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "er"
      },
      "expansion": "deedy (comparative deedier, superlative deediest)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              154,
              159
            ],
            [
              162,
              167
            ],
            [
              373,
              378
            ],
            [
              597,
              602
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2004 December 31, John Derbyshire, “Yes, Un-Deedy”, in National Review:",
          "text": "The novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett, asked by the London Times to give a brief account of her life, replied: \"There isn't much to say. I haven't been at all deedy.\" Deedy! This is one of those words that, once you have seen it, makes you wonder why it isn't in everyday use. The job interviewer, going through a pile of submitted résumés: \"This one's all right, but … no, not deedy enough.\" The biographer or obituarist: \"The next few years were his deediest …\" The self-improvement guru: \"Deediness depends on a positive attitude!\" The psychiatrist's patient: \"I married George because he seemed so deedy, but …\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Industrious; active."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Industrious",
          "industrious"
        ],
        [
          "active",
          "active"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Earnest; serious."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Earnest",
          "earnest"
        ],
        [
          "serious",
          "serious"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dialectal terms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Genuine, authentic; actual, real."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Genuine",
          "genuine"
        ],
        [
          "authentic",
          "authentic"
        ],
        [
          "actual",
          "actual"
        ],
        [
          "real",
          "real"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dialectal) Genuine, authentic; actual, real."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dialectal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "deedy"
}

Download raw JSONL data for deedy meaning in English (2.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-19 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (d1270d2 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.