"wood and water joey" meaning in English

See wood and water joey in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: wood and water joeys [plural]
Etymology: As common tasks would include fetching wood and water. "Joey" ("young marsupial, notably a young kangaroo") as wood and water joeys were usually young. Etymology templates: {{m|en|joey|Joey}} Joey Head templates: {{en-noun}} wood and water joey (plural wood and water joeys)
  1. (Australia, dated) A person who performs odd jobs; a rouseabout or handyperson. Tags: Australia, dated
    Sense id: en-wood_and_water_joey-en-noun-Yt8YTm8Z Categories (other): Australian English, English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for wood and water joey meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "joey",
        "3": "Joey"
      },
      "expansion": "Joey",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "As common tasks would include fetching wood and water. \"Joey\" (\"young marsupial, notably a young kangaroo\") as wood and water joeys were usually young.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wood and water joeys",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "wood and water joey (plural wood and water joeys)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Australian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1873, New South Wales. Parliament. Legislative Council, Votes & Proceedings, page 682",
          "text": "I have known a case where a gentleman, since the Premier of a neighbouring colony, recommended to the Government of which I was a member the appointment of two persons at New England, one of whom was, we were afterwards told, what is called a wood and water joey in a squatter's employment, and the other was a shepherd.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1921, Queensland. Public Service Commissioner, Annual Report",
          "text": "\"A wood and water joey\"! The prospect of such a career for their son is not alluring to many a town father and mother, and hence their reluctance to permit the boy to take a job in the country even though he may feel the call of the land.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 December 1, Lennie Wallace, Cape York Peninsula, Boolarong Press, page 29",
          "text": "As 'wood and water joey,' he was responsible for supplying wood for the fire and water for the camp.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 30, D. M. Horner, The Commanders: Australian Military Leadership in the Twentieth Century, Routledge",
          "text": "After the campaign commenced Bennett was determined that the AIF would take an active part in the defence of Malaya and not become just a collection of 'wood and water joeys' for the British.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who performs odd jobs; a rouseabout or handyperson."
      ],
      "id": "en-wood_and_water_joey-en-noun-Yt8YTm8Z",
      "links": [
        [
          "odd job",
          "odd job"
        ],
        [
          "rouseabout",
          "rouseabout"
        ],
        [
          "handyperson",
          "handyperson"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Australia, dated) A person who performs odd jobs; a rouseabout or handyperson."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "dated"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "wood and water joey"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "joey",
        "3": "Joey"
      },
      "expansion": "Joey",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "As common tasks would include fetching wood and water. \"Joey\" (\"young marsupial, notably a young kangaroo\") as wood and water joeys were usually young.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wood and water joeys",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "wood and water joey (plural wood and water joeys)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Australian English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1873, New South Wales. Parliament. Legislative Council, Votes & Proceedings, page 682",
          "text": "I have known a case where a gentleman, since the Premier of a neighbouring colony, recommended to the Government of which I was a member the appointment of two persons at New England, one of whom was, we were afterwards told, what is called a wood and water joey in a squatter's employment, and the other was a shepherd.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1921, Queensland. Public Service Commissioner, Annual Report",
          "text": "\"A wood and water joey\"! The prospect of such a career for their son is not alluring to many a town father and mother, and hence their reluctance to permit the boy to take a job in the country even though he may feel the call of the land.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 December 1, Lennie Wallace, Cape York Peninsula, Boolarong Press, page 29",
          "text": "As 'wood and water joey,' he was responsible for supplying wood for the fire and water for the camp.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 30, D. M. Horner, The Commanders: Australian Military Leadership in the Twentieth Century, Routledge",
          "text": "After the campaign commenced Bennett was determined that the AIF would take an active part in the defence of Malaya and not become just a collection of 'wood and water joeys' for the British.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who performs odd jobs; a rouseabout or handyperson."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "odd job",
          "odd job"
        ],
        [
          "rouseabout",
          "rouseabout"
        ],
        [
          "handyperson",
          "handyperson"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Australia, dated) A person who performs odd jobs; a rouseabout or handyperson."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "dated"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "wood and water joey"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). 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.

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