What it means
A very Cornish way of saying I’ll do it eventually, just not right this second and definitely not to anyone else’s stopwatch. It comes from directly, but in local use it drifted off, had a sit-down, and lost any real sense of urgency. Dreckly could mean in a minute, later on, tomorrow, or when the stars, kettle, and mood line up.
Usage examples
"When you going to mend that gate, my lover? Been hanging off the hinge all week. Alright, dreckly. I’ll sort 'ee after I’ve had me pasty and a cuppa."
"I will have the kitchen tap sorted dreckly, said my dad in Newquay last March, here we are in June and the leak has now spread to the floor underneath, but he is in no rush whatsoever."
"Wasson, will you call your mother back about Sunday lunch in St Austell, she rang at noon. Yeah dreckly, after the football match, after the gardening, after the kettle, before the pasty."
"You taking that rubbish out or is it doing another overnight shift by the door? Dreckly, I’m just finishing this tea first."
"I asked Gran if she’d ice the cake before everyone got here and she just went, dreckly, my bird, no need to gallop at a sponge."
Where it comes from
Dreckly is a real Cornish dialect form of directly. In Cornwall, directly drifted in pronunciation and then loosened in meaning, so instead of meaning straight away, it came to mean sometime soon, when I get to it. That stretchy, no-panic timing is a big part of its local charm.
Other ways to say it
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