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Calf vs Billy - What's the difference?

calf | billy |

As a noun calf

is a young cow or bull or calf can be (anatomy) the back of the leg below the knee.

As a proper noun billy is

a diminutive of the male given name william.

calf

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) cealf, from (etyl) .

Noun

(en-noun)
  • A young cow or bull.
  • Leather made of the skin of the calf; especially, a fine, light-coloured leather used in bookbinding.
  • A young elephant, seal or whale (also used of some other animals).
  • A chunk of ice broken off of a larger glacier, ice shelf, or iceberg.
    • (Kane)
  • A small island, near a larger island.
    • the Calf of Man
  • A cabless railroad engine.
  • (informal, dated) An awkward or silly boy or young man; any silly person; a dolt.
  • * Drayton
    • some silly, doting, brainless calf
    Synonyms
    *
    Derived terms
    * * * *
    Related terms
    *
    See also
    * cow * veal

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) kalfi, possibly derived from the same Germanic root as ().

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (anatomy) The back of the leg below the knee.
  • The muscle in the back of the leg below the knee.
  • * 1988 , Steve Holman, "Christian Conquers Columbus", , 47 (6): 28-34.
    • Sure, his calves are a little weak, but the rest of his physique is so overwhelming, he should place high.
    (-)

    Anagrams

    * English nouns with irregular plurals English terms with multiple etymologies ----

    billy

    English

    Noun

    (billies)
  • A billy club.
  • A billy goat.
  • * 1970 August, Valerius Geist, Mountain Goat Mysteries'', '' , page 62,
    • Then, during three days, I was amazed to see nannies with kids attack and chase off large billies .
  • * 1992 , Dwight R. Schuh, Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus)'', in ''Bowhunter's Encyclopedia , page 276,
    • In fact, distinguishing between billies and nannies isn't necessarily a sure thing.
  • * 2002 , Douglas H. Chadwick, A Beast the Color of Winter: The Mountain Goat Observed , page 159,
    • It isn't just billies that enter the bleak season with rut-depleted fat reserves, but rams, bull elk, buck deer, and others.
  • # A male goat; a ram.
  • (Geordie) A good friend.
  • (Australia, New Zealand) A tin used by bushmen to boil tea, a billypot.
  • * (seeCites)
  • (UK, Australia) A billycan.
    • Let's get the billy and cook some beans.
  • * 1889 , Ernest Giles, Australia Twice Traversed , 2004, page 239,
    • We had been absent from civilisation, so long, that our tin billies', the only boiling utensils we had, got completely worn or burnt out at the bottoms, and as the boilings for glue and oil must still go on, what were we to do with ' billies with no bottoms?
  • * 2011 , Rod Moss, The Hard Light of Day: An Artist's Story of Friendships in Arrernte Country , unnumbered page,
    • Over the fence, in a shallow gully 100 metres away, this guy and his wife were living on the dirt in the open weather with just a blanket, billies , a dog and a transistor radio. They didn't even have water.
  • (slang) A condom (From the E-Rotic song "Willy, Use a Billy...Boy")
  • A slubbing or roving machine.
  • * 1840 , The Citizen , page 347,
    • at the time there existed in Dublin and its immediate neighbourhood, “forty-five manufacturers, having twenty-two billies , giving employment to 2885 work people, on whom depended for support 7386 individuals, manufacturing 29,312 pieces of cloth, of various qualities, valued at £336,380.”
  • * 1967 , Jennifer Tann, Gloucestershire Woollen Mills: Industrial Archaeology , page 126,
    • On the second floor there were 2 billies , 1 carding and 1 scribbling machine.

    Derived terms

    * billycan, billy-can * billy cart * Silly Billy, silly billy

    References

    * * Sceilig: Information Pack for Troops (p. 4) * The Patrol goes to Camp (pp. 9, 11).