peggy

plural peggies

1. Any of several small warblers, the whitethroat, etc.

plural peggies

1. UKslanggovernmentThe petty officers' mess steward.

   The number of "peggies" going aft to fetch the meals had been increasing steadily.

   1955, Willi Frischauer, Robert Jackson, The Altmark affair, page 177

   1 more example

   Against this, her deck staff runs to about a hundred, being made up of some fifty able-seamen, eight or ten 'peggies' […]

   1936, Charles Richard Benstead, Atlantic Ferry, page 178

plural Peggys · plural Peggies

1. A diminutive of the female given name Margaret, also used as a formal given name.

   When Caroline gave birth to another daughter, they named her Margaret Ann, after me and then Oscar's mother. They didn't realize that Peggy was my given name. Now they call her Ann, because I do.

   1996, Elizabeth McCracken, The Giant's House, page 257

   1 more example

   "Peggy Fitzgerald," he had said, laughing in what he later remebered as his one and only attempt at humor with her. "Peggy Fitzgerald," he had said, in his easily remembered brogue. "Puts me in mind of me mither, an Irish lass from County Galway." Margaret Bunker Fitzgerald had not been amused. "You'll never get over it, will you?" she had spat at him furiously. "You'll never get over being an Irishman, a black Irish Catholic from a Boston slum. Don't you ever dare to call me Peggy again. My name is Margaret, and don't you forget it!"

   1956, Grace Metalious, Peyton Place, UPNE, published 1999, →ISBN, Book Two, Chapter 9

2. computingPlaceholder name for the party that supplies a proof.