English

Noun

neddy ‎(plural neddies)

1. A donkey or ass.
2. (Australia, slang) A horse, especially a racehorse.
   • 1932, Ion Idriess, The Desert Column, extracted in 2006, Rex Sadler, Tom Hayllar, In the Line of Fire: Real Stories of Australians at War, from Gallipoli to Vietnam, page 61,

     Some of the boys whipped off their hats and laughingly smacked their neddies′ rumps, for we hated using spurs on the poor thirsty beggars.

   • 2003 April 29, Fred Nieman, “90 cadence”, in aus.bicycle, Usenet:

     From my uninformed reading of cycliterature (and other stuff), if you are a mainly short-twitch muscle type - a sprinter - then your natural cadence will be higher that^[sic] if you are a mainly long-twitch muscle type - a hill-climber, or in neddy-racing terms, a "stayer" (I think).  

   • 2007 January 8, BearCave, “Peter Holden moving to Now FM”, in aus.radio.broadcast, Usenet:

     AIRNews founder Arthur Stevens wishes Holden well adding, "We will miss his insights into the world of Aussie Rules Football and his understanding of the neddies and the Spring Racing Carnival.

   • 2009 March 23, ^Tems^, “We need a new grid ad”, in aus.tv, Usenet:

     I was up to 6 horses and figured to keep them fit and off the roids and put two in each race and get 1st and 2nd to build up the cash. Got home drunk saturday night saw a fake neddy at 4-1 so put all my $300k on it and lost.
     Glad I wasn't Jean Bridges and spent $300k of my real money

3. (Australia, slang, in the plural, with "the") The horse races.
   • 2010, Peter Klein, Silk Chaser, Pan Macmillan Australia, page 272,

     He′d usually be there at the same place most Saturdays and we ended up sharing a beer talking about the neddies. It just grew from there. I′d nod at him; ask him how he was going. We′d talk racing, have a dig at each other for backing losers.

4. (Australia, colloquial, slang, chiefly in the plural) Horsepower.
   • 1997 December 3, Graham Byrnes, “Heartstopping moment.....”, in aus.motorcycles, Usenet:

     Weird as it sounds, it was because you weren't going fast enough :-) I've found that if you wick it up too much exiting a curve you tend to do one of those feet off the pegs numbers. Fun, huh? Otoh, if you carry more corner speed the back is more likely to let go gradually, because the tyre is already closer to the edge, so it doesn't require a fist full of neddies to break it loose. I still wouldn't recommmend it for the road...

   • 2007 March 24, Noddy nospam, “GT40 on ebay”, in aus.cars, Usenet:

     No chance in ****, even if it was a Gurney Eagle engine. The only way you can get those sort of neddies out of a 302 Windsor would be boost.

5. An idiot; a stupid or contemptible person.
   • 1967, Royal Aero Club (Great Britain), Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom, United Service and Royal Aero Club, Flight International, Volume 91, page 496,

     The trouble is that the neddies in the Board of Trade would probably approve it.

   • 1973, Edmund Cooper, The Cloud Walker, Gollancz, 2011, unnumbered page,

     “The neddies might call it a machine. They might think you guilty of machinism.”

     “Hang the stupid neddies!” Kieron carefully loosened the mooring, and the balloon rose.

Translations

Etymology 2

Variant of netty (q.v.).

Noun

neddy ‎(plural neddies)

1. (Geordie, obsolete) Alternative form of netty: an outhouse; a lavatory; a toilet.
   • 1825, John Trotter Brockett, Glossary of North Country Words:

     Neddy, Netty, a certain place that will not bear a written explanation, but which is depicted to the very life in a tail-piece in the first edition of Bewick's ‘Land Birds’ (1797), p. 285.