Meaning
Only one: a single, sole one, said with a sense of how little or how alone it is. 'One deggeh mango' is a lone mango, and 'one deggeh-deggeh pickney' is an only child. Doubling the word stresses the point, and it often carries a note of complaint, as when someone is handed just one thing, or only a few dollars, and feels short-changed.
Examples
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She have one deggeh-deggeh pickney.
She has just one single child.
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Mi down to mi last deggeh-deggeh dollar.
I'm down to my last single dollar.
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One deggeh-deggeh mango lef pon di tree.
One solitary mango is left on the tree.
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Him gi mi two dege-dege dollar.
He gave me a measly two dollars.
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A dege-dege likkle piece a bread lef.
Only a tiny little piece of bread is left.
Origin
A doubled word: Jamaican talk often stresses a word by saying it twice. See One-one, Fenke fenke.
How it’s used
Also spelled degge or dehgeh, and sometimes shortened to 'dege'. See One-one, So-so, Dibby-dibby.