English

Proper noun

Tilly

1. A diminutive of the female given name Matilda.
   • 1990 Barbara Vine, Gallowglass, Curley Pub(1991), ISBN 0792705629, page 24:

     Tilly's name is Matilda. It was typical of Mum and Dad that they wouldn't let her be called Tilly when she came to them because that was the unusual shortening of Matilda, the unconventional one, and you never did unconventional things, you never did things to draw attention to yourself. So they called her Matty.

Etymology 2

Habitational surname from places in France named Tilly, brought to England by the Normans. The surname may also have other origins, including a matronymic from Matilda.

Proper noun

Tilly

1. A surname​.

Etymology 3

Noun

Tilly ‎(plural Tillies)

1. Alternative letter-case form of tilly
   • 2012, David Fiddimore, Tuesday's War (ISBN 0330541692)

     By the time he stooped to lift him up, we were all in the Tilly that Fiver had brought out to meet us.

English

Noun

tilly ‎(plural tillies)

1. (Ireland) An extra product given to a customer at no additional charge; a lagniappe.
   • 1855, Legends of mount Leinster, by Harry Whitney:

     Myles: "Indeed your Honour may safely say so : Iwas ploughing away […] when I bethought how I forgot to tell little Jem, when he'd be buying my pen'orth of snuff, to be sure to get it in two separate ha'porths, the way he'd have the two tillies. So what could Ido but run home, to […] go myself for the snuff, and be sure to get my tillies.

   • 1939, James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake:

     A bakereen's dusind with tithe tillies to boot.

   • 2007, Patrick Semple, The Rector who Wouldn't Pray for Rain:

     At each door he poured from the can into a pint measure and into the house-wife's jug, always with a tilly for the cat, whether there was a cat or not, sometimes splashing the step with milk to the annoyance of the housewife.

Synonyms

• lagniappe (America), pasella (South Africa)

Etymology 2

From WWII British Army usage Tilly ‎(“name of a range of British Army vehicles”), from utility.

Alternative forms

• Tilly

Noun

tilly ‎(plural tillies)

1. (Britain) A small open-backed truck.
   • 1978, Ada F Kay (A. J. Stewart), Died 1513-born 1929 / King's Memory, page 83:

     After a fortnight's careful nursing my leg healed and I was packed off in a tilly (utility truck) with my kit-bag to join my comrades at Fairmilehead.

   • 1980, Once Upon a Ward: V.A.D.s' Own Stories and Pictures, page 119:

     One night soon after our arrival in Belgium, four of us set off to a dance in a rest centre, behind the lines, for the forces. We drove across a snowy waste in a tilly truck, singing "Lilly Marlene".

Synonyms

• (small truck): ute (Australia)

Etymology 3

From till +‎ -y.

Adjective

tilly ‎(comparative more tilly, superlative most tilly)

1. Containing till (unsorted glacial sediment).