DCHP-3

dozy

DCHP-2 (Nov 2016)

Spelling variants:
dosey, dozey

adj. — informal, slang

dim-witted or lazy.

Type: 2. Preservation — Dozy is a preservation from British English, where it is used colloquially to describe someone who is slow-witted. The OED-3 (s.v. "dozy"(1a)) lists "doze" as the adjective's origin, an obsolete transitive verb meaning 'to bewilder, confuse, perplex' that dates back to the early 1600s. Due to the surge of immigrants from the British Isles around the mid-19th century, the informal term was likely orally transferred into local vocabulary, appearing in the print record early on (see the 1852 quotation).
See also COD-2, s.v. "dozy"(2), which is marked "Brit. & Cdn informal". Not found in the American dictionaries DARE, DAE, DA, HDAS or AHD-5.

Quotations

1852
The article under review, bears indications of the prosy, dozy, misrepresentations of Captain Swabey, a member of the Government; [...].
1920
Well for half an hour he had been caged up with a dozen lions, leopards and tigers, and there wasn't a stale, dozy one in the crowd. Every last one of the outfit was on its toes all the time, and Helliott had the next thing to a battle royal before some of his animal stars would obey.
1976
Finally we come to Mike Abercrombie who is affectionately known as "Zee" by his comrades. The tag was originally given to him by "Snake" (Baker) and it stands for zombie or dozy and after seeing Mike make an entrance down a set of stairs in a matter of seconds, ignoring the usual mode of conveyance we call walking, the nickname isn't all that inappropriate.
1991
Somewhere out there, I know another dozy parent is locking a child in the car and dashing off for a quick visit, a frenzied errand or a cool drink.
1994
The fact that the dozy receptionist gets a panic attack after stupidly calling emergency instead of 911, thus delaying the ambulance, and the fact she now blames herself for the woman's death is not only implausible, but illogical -- a cheap placebo of silly sensationalism from the story department.
2002
Fun, fashion, decorating, home improvement, weight control, courage, education, entertainment, practicality, encouragement and credit for being more than dozy housewives looking for another home party or menopause cure of the month.
2004
[...] ,have looks on their faces of absolute spiritual contentment, a pair of dozy, dopey canine and feline expressions more commonly associated with extended belly-rubs and too much catnip.
2014
Our problem is the fact that dozy dopey Dalton, instead of reversing the process started by Mad Mike, has made them even worse with the Green Energy Plan. So I guess we will all have to vote for a political party that promises to dismantle the whole ugly set up.

References

  • OED-3
  • COD-2
  • DARE
  • DA
  • DAE
  • AHD-5
  • HDAS