Caddy
name, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A small box or tin (can) with a lid for holding dried tea leaves used to brew tea. also, attributive
"The Carneses imported lacquer teapoys in sets. These sets could be easily stacked in a corner of the drawing room and brought out at teatime to hold a teacup, a set, or a caddy. The Carneses purchased lacquered teapoys sets for four dollars in China and probably sold them for twice that amount in America."
- 2 Alternative spelling of caddie (“a person hired to assist a golfer by carrying their golf clubs and providing advice”). also, alt-of, alternative, attributive
"Caddy, pass me my five iron."
- 3 A Cadillac car. US, informal
"She pulled up in a shiny black Caddy at six o'clock."
- 4 a can for storing tea wordnet
- 5 A (usually small) box, chest, or tin with a lid, and often with partitions, used to keep things in. broadly
"A sauce caddy brought with the tacos offers a choice of salsa cruda, a thin puree of tomatillos, and an emulsion of red chilies."
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- 6 A small lidded bin for food waste. broadly
- 7 A movable tray or other mechanism for holding (sometimes within a piece of equipment or machinery), securing, and transporting a removable component. broadly
"Place the disc in the DVD caddy."
- 8 A lightweight wheeled cart; specifically, one attached to a bicycle as a conveyance for a child, or pulled by hand and used to transport groceries away from a shop. broadly
- 1 Chiefly followed by for: alternative spelling of caddie (“to serve as a caddy (noun sense) for a golfer”) intransitive
"I was honored to caddy for Tiger Woods at a charity golf game."
- 2 act as a caddie and carry clubs for a player wordnet
- 1 A diminutive of the female given name Caroline.
"Call Caddy and tell her to meet us at six o'clock."
Example
More examples"The golfer gave his caddy some medicine."
Etymology
An alteration of catty (“(unit of) weight used in China, equivalent to 1⅓ pounds avoirdupois (about 0.605 kilograms)”), borrowed from Malay kati (“weight used in China, Indonesia, and Japan”), from Tamil கட்டி (kaṭṭi, “measure of weight; clod, lump”), from கட்டு (kaṭṭu, “to coagulate, congeal, or consolidate (into a concretion); to harden”).
A variant of caddie (etymology 1).
From Cadillac + -y.
Related phrases
More for "caddy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.