subs. (common).—A comrade; a partner: see BULLY.
1845. B. DISRAELI, Sybil; or, The Two Nations, Wks. III., i. Suppose we were to make a shift for a month or six weeks,… and have no tommy out of the shop, what would the BUTTY say to me? [A note to foregoing explains that a BUTTY in the mining districts is a middleman: a Doggy is his manager. The BUTTY generally keeps a Tommy or Truck shop and pays the wages of the labourers in goods.] Ibid., 385. The BUTTY has given notice to quit in Parker’s field this se’nnight. Ibid., 389. The enemies of the people: all BUTTIES, doggies, dealers in truck and tommy.
1859. H. KINGSLEY, Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, xxxi. He and I cottoned together, and found out that we had been prisoners together five-and-twenty years agone. And so I shouted [stood drinks] for him, and he for me, and at last I says, ‘BUTTY,’ says I, ‘who are those chaps round here on the lay?’
