ridgy-didge

English

Alternative forms

• ridgy didge

Etymology

Fanciful diminutive of obsolete ridge (“real; used in reference to gold”). Australian from 1953.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

ridgy-didge (comparative more ridgy-didge, superlative most ridgy-didge)

1. (Australia, colloquial) Genuine, authentic, true; honest, upright.

   Are you ridgy-didge? - Do you really mean that? Are you telling the truth?

   • 2003, Gabrielle Lord, Lethal Factor, published 2010, unnumbered page:

     ‘Colin Reeves,’ I said. ‘He′s ridgy-didge, is he?’
     ‘Yeah, young Reeves is solid,’ Bob said. ‘Straight up and down. Although you′d never know it from the way he looks these days . . .’

   • 2011, Bill King, King of the Outback, page 162:

     ‘Bullshit.′
     ‘No, it′s ridgy-didge. I kid you not.’

   • 2011, Bruce Guthrie, Man Bites Murdoch: Four Decades in Print, Six Days in Court, page 280:

     In the normal scheme of things a senior editor would have agreed on the sum with the seller having already defrayed the costs around the group, asking for, say, $3000 from each of the Sundays after assuring them the photos were ‘ridgy-didge’.

2. (Australia, colloquial) Good, fine.
   • 2001, Bryce Courtenay, Four Fires, Volume 1, 2010, Large print edition, page 278,

     Sit them in the dam, wait for the fire to pass over, everything will be ridgy-didge.

   • 2004, John Little, Down to the Sea, published 2012, unnumbered page:

     ‘ […] I don′t know if I would have managed a commission. I don′t know if I was bright enough for that. But I was a pretty ridgy-didge soldier.’

Synonyms

• (genuine): dinkum, dinky-die, fair dinkum, for real