Meaning of ditty in English

Examples from literature
  • And I thought it was a ditty rather too dolefully appropriate for a company that had met such cruel losses in the morning. 
  • He once asked an old dame of Palermo to repeat him some of these ditties. 
  • The 'people,' too, seem to have forgotten their natural gift of poetry, for the only songs now heard about the streets are badly translated French or English ditties. 
  • The suggestive music hall ditty was still in his mind. 
  • Those who did not know the words either whistled the air or improvised an impossible ditty. 

Examples of ditty

ditty
Folk-song had died out in country villages and the music hall 'ditty' was to be found in its place.
The ditty of the court is to exact the penalty which is the price of putting in the receipt.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
If persons are given powers of that kind, there really ought to be some clear definition of their ditties.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
There was a popular ditty a number of years ago which went by the name.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Important legal considerations are involved in these ported into this country, together with the rate of ditty at present paid on such imports?
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
When prayers are replaced by political ditties, it is time to consider seriously whether worship is really being thought about.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
We may dismiss for good the idea that something is being done in these ditties to give our workmen a chance against sweated work.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
We shall, no doubt, have other ditties which will recognise and salute their achievement.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
It is no 1onger the principle around which the ditties, the conduct and the rights of nations revolve.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
This does not exempt public utilities from doing their clear ditty, but there is a public safety element involved here, for instance, in the case of railway embankments.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
That was another of my father's ditties.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
The motor industry, clocks, watches and the other manufactures included under these ditties, were selected because these things were not being produced in this country at that time.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
The law already protects the soldier wherever he is, and whatever his ditty may be for the moment so long as he is in actual military service.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Outside she and the other children sang revolutionary ditties, played pranks and took part in rival gang fights.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
With wonderful deathless ditties, we build up the world's great cities.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
 
B1

Translations of ditty

in Chinese (Traditional)
小曲,小調,短歌…
in Chinese (Simplified)
小曲,小调,短歌…
in Spanish
cantinela, cancioncilla…
in Portuguese
toada…
in more languages
in Turkish
in French
in Dutch
in Czech
in Danish
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Ukrainian
in Russian
basit kısa şarkı, kısa/basit şarkı…
chansonnette…
deuntje…
popěvek…
vise…
lagu sederhana…
เพลง…
bài hát ngắn…
piosnka, śpiewka…
lagu yang pendek dan senang…
das Liedchen…
vise(stubb), sang, melodi…
пісенька…
короткая песенка…
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