nelly
/ˈnɛli
/(also nellie)
noun (plural nellies) informal
1A silly person.The inability of these nervous nellies to hold their peace for a couple of months and save their moaning for the appropriate ALP forum is seriously hampering the ALP's chances of victory on November 10....
- Is it any wonder that he gets impatient with the nervous nellies from the old nations who think they have a bit more experience with wars designed to bring peace to the world, and are reluctant to jump into yet another one.
- We're raising a generation of nervous nellies.
2 offensive An effeminate homosexual man.Straight Eye for the Queer Guy - five ‘real men’ teach a nelly how to play Sports....
- Are we all supposed to be limp-wristed nellies?
Phrases
not on your nelly
Origin
1930s: from the given name Nelly.
The expression not on your nelly was originally used in the form not on your Nelly Duff. In the 19th century Nelly Duff was rhyming slang for ‘puff’ (meaning ‘breath of life’), and so the phrase is roughly equivalent to not on your life. Nobody now knows who Nelly was, if indeed she was ever a real person.
Rhymes
- the Theocracy
- the thick end of something
- the thin blue line
- the thin end of the wedge
- the three Es
- the Three Graces
- the three Rs
- the thrill of the chase
- the time of one's life
- the Times
- the tip of an (or the) iceberg
- the tip of the iceberg
- Thetis
- the top of the tree
- the Tower
- the Transvaal
- the Trek
- the Trinity
- the triple jump
- the Troubles
- the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
- the Twelve
- the tyranny of distance
- the unco guid
- the Underground