Duppy
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A ghost or spirit, often appearing in the form of a dog barking or howling through the night. Caribbean, Jamaica
"They firmly believe in the apparition of spectres. Those of deceased friends are duppies; others, of more hostile and tremendous aspect, like our raw-head-and-bloody-bones, are called bugaboos."
- 2 A drawn game of noughts and crosses (in Jamaica tii-taa-tuo). Jamaica
- 1 To kill; to murder. Multicultural-London-English, transitive
"2008, Kingsley Ogundele, online message quoted in 2010 January 27, Rob Sharp, "CSI: Chatroom", The Independent He refers to his intention to kill a schoolgirl pregnant with Jolie's unborn baby – who the pair believe is giving Jolie undue hassle. "I'll get da fiend to duppy her den," he writes."
- 2 To excel in. Multicultural-London-English, broadly, transitive
"2011, Kano, guest on Lethal Bizzle, "Pow 2011" I duppied every rave."
Example
More examples"They firmly believe in the apparition of spectres. Those of deceased friends are duppies; others, of more hostile and tremendous aspect, like our raw-head-and-bloody-bones, are called bugaboos."
Etymology
Jamaica, circa 18th century. From Bube dupe (“ghost”) (compare Akan adɔpe).
Related phrases
More for "duppy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.