‣ dill dilly han a serving maid 19-. etymology: Partridge ‘an admiring substantive for a pretty attractive girl: young men’s 1950s-60s’; but older in Cant and in Scottish Traveller usage; attested by Perthshire and Argyleshire Tinkler-Gypsies, SR, BS in TDITA, SS and ET, collected by Simson (1865); also collected by EMcC/PS; form dili attested in Shelta; noun and dilly han also attested and collected by JS note:
Canadian Paul Pope (2013) cites the forms dillie and dill ‘a girl or younger woman’ or ‘a serving maid’.