johnny
- noun
- /ˈdʒɑni/
- Slang
- Though his mother's huge breasts swelled beneath her johnny and were ringed with wet cloth, she poked a bottle in his mouth.
- a johnny
Examples
-
" Mark had not gotten under the covers; he was lying on the spread in his johnny and robe.
Fiction book (1999) -
She was working on her hospital johnny now and had one arm free.
Fiction book (1999) -
She reached over and pulled his johnny up.
Fiction book (1999) -
Coreen lay with her head thrown back on her pillow, her johnny pulled low as if she'd clawed at the neck.
Fiction book (1994) -
She went over and made a brief attempt to put Mary's free arm back in the johnny, but Mary shrieked and flailed.
Fiction book (1999) -
"Are you ready to harvest those eggs?" the woman asked brightly as she got a robe, a johnny, and slippers for Marissa.
Fiction book (1991) -
She was short, but so broad that her johnny wouldn't close, exposing a black swatch of buttocks and spine.
Fiction book (1994) -
When Annie changes Benjamin's johnny, I catch a glimpse of his flaccid penis, and I think of the rich phallic symbolism of the motorcycle he rode into oblivion.
Academic text (2001) -
He felt embarrassed wearing just a johnny during his hospital stay.
-
The patient put on a johnny before going into surgery.
Synonyms
A common male name often short for Joseph
A name used for an unknown man in legal or official papers
A thin gown patients wear in hospital
Idioms
Compounds
- Literature
A name for a soldier from the southern states during the American Civil War
- Archaic
A man who waits outside a theatre to meet actors and ask for autographs
- Literature
An old story about Johnny Appleseed, a man who planted apple trees across parts of the United States
A person who plants many trees and encourages others to plant trees too
- Slur
A name used as a joke or insult for a foreigner, especially by British people
Surface Forms
Morphology
johnny = John (semi-transparent) = john + y
The form is transparently based on the name 'John' with the diminutive suffix '-y', but the hospital-gown sense is a lexicalized extension rather than a fully predictable derivation.
Etymology
Johnny comes from the common name John, which people often use to mean 'any man'. Think of a plain shirt given to patients as a 'John's shirt' — so johnny became the name for a simple hospital gown and, by the same idea, a general name for a man or boy.