Dice/dicey

Origin of: Dice/dicey

Dice/dicey

Dice as a verb meaning to race or drive a car dangerously dates from the early 1950s and was originally connected with grand prix racing where drivers were described in newspapers as dicing with death. The allusion of course is to gambling dice, so they were gambling with death. Out of this usage, the word dicey evolved, a few years later, meaning dangerous or dodgy.