411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Dodgy Brothers
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
From characters the Dodgey Brothers (a pair of unscrupulous businessmen played by Stephen Blackburn and Geoff Brooks) in the 1980s and '90s Australian sketch comedy series Australia You're Standing In It and Fast Forward (Australian TV series) Fast Forward. The brothers' name is a homophone of the Australian term "dodgy" (meaning dishonest or unreliable), and the spelling of the name in figurative uses typically matches the slang term rather than the original spelling.
Noun
p Dodgy Brothers
en Australia informal A dishonest or unreliable company or group of people.
en 18 April 2023 Bruce Banfield Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade – 18/04/2023 – Inquiry into Tourism and Australia's International Education Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Official Committee Hansard 45 https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=committees/commjnt/26747/&sid=0004 William Angliss students under higher education visas will apply for a transfer and go to a school where they can do cookery packaged with a Bachelor of Business. They have no intention, from what we've heard, of going on to Bachelor of Business; it's just to get that cookery qualification. Now, the reason why William Angliss doesn't package cookery with bachelor degrees is that you don't require a bachelor degree to be a cook or a chef […] However, if onshore they want to transfer and not change their visa status, they are just packaged, as I said, through to 'Dodgy Brothers' and up to higher education.
Adjective
Dodgy Brothers
en Australia informal Dodgy; dishonest.
en 2010 Ben Elton Meltdown Random House 9780552775106 25 "Look, he continued, I know it's a leeetle bit Dodgy Brothers, babes. I'll admit that, not saying it isn't. But that's the way things work.
en terms derived from fiction
en eponyms