Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) wealthy.

1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 9 Dec. 1/1: As Nutty is reported to be coming back silvery, lug-bites will be large, and plentiful.
1915		Drew & Evans Grafter (1922) 84: ‘[H]e muzzled me. I suppose he thought I was silvery’.

(W.I.) handcuffs.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 48: Silver-bangle handcuffs: u. me nuh wan’ wear nuh silver bangle.

(N.Z. prison) marijuana.

1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 249: Grass (n) ... 3. Cabbage, lettuce, or silverbeet.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 167/1: silverbeet n. marijuana.

1. a counterfeit banknote or forged document.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (also silver lurker) a beggar who claims to have suffered in some disaster or other, e.g. a fire or shipwreck, and asks for money in order to rebuild their life; such pleas are accompanied by a variety of documents, supposedly ‘proving’ the legitimacy of their claims [lurker n. (1)].

c.1842		Exposure of Impositions practised by Vagrants 4: I shall begin with those vagrants who, generally, obtain the most, and are considered of the first class, and by some termed ‘Silver Beggars’, but by travellers they are called ‘Lurkers’ .
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 146: Did you never hear of cadgers, silver-beggars, shallow-coves? Why, sir, that fellow in rags, with the imitation paralysis, who goes shivering along, will have veal for supper tonight.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 230: silver beggar, or lurker a vagabond who travels through the country with ‘briefs’ containing false statements of losses by fire, shipwrecks, accidents, &c. Forged documents are exhibited with signatures of magistrates and clergymen. Accompanying these are sham subscription-books.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 413: When I was fouteen I slung my ’ook and joined some travellin’ Barks – turnpike-sailors and silver-beggars.

(Aus.) a can of Resch’s Pilsener.

1998		Google Groups: soc.culture.australian 4 Aug. 🌐 Reschs. They’re called silver bullets.
2003		Aus. Word Map 🌐 Silver Bullet in Sydney always referred to a can of Resch’s Pilsener which came in a silvery can.
2011		B. Fingerton Rock The Bloody Boat! 31 Aug. 🌐 [blog comment] The Silver Bullet used to be on tap. It disappeared in most pubs some time in the early to mid 90’s.
2015		Aussie Home Brewer 24 June 🌐 Wadeville general store (miles from anywhere) stock it as well so if I’m driving past I generally call in for a ‘Silver Bullet’ or 6 to takeaway. Easy drinking, malty-ish, a fine lawn-mower beer. I had a 2 tallies yesterday and may well have 2 more this afternoon.

a kidnapper.

1772		Public Advertiser 1 Dec. 2/1: I apprehend that Silver Coopers must be a very ignominious Term and is therefore equally applicable to English Crimps as to Dutch.
1815		(con. 18C) Sir W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 192: You rob and you murder, and you want me to rob and murder, and play the silver-cooper, or kidnapper, as you call it.

a graying or gray-haired man who remains sexually attractive.

2020

C. von Ziegesar Cobble Hill 73: [A] silver-haired gentleman [...] slid onto the barstool next to hers. [...] Dr. Conway was a silver fox .

a low-class casino.

1842		Westmorland Gaz. 15 Jan. 4/4: Hereabouts [...] are most of those inferior gambling houses, or ‘silver hells’.
1846		Sth Aus. Register (Adelaide) 1 July 3/5: [W]hen unfortunately he passed a low gaming-house, termed in slang parlance a ‘silver hell,’ and the infernal spirit for play returning, the impulse was irresistible.
1843		W.T. Moncrieff Scamps of London I i: He’s the principal partner in all the silver hells in at the West-end.
1844		Bentley’s Misc. 15 44: My first care [...] was to assure myself of the identity of Mr. Mears, the banker's clerk, with my venerable acquaintance at the silver hell [...] I could not be mistaken in my man. The Sexegenarian at the silver hell and the demure Mr Mears were the same .
1889		(ref. to 1843) All Sloper’s Half-Holiday VI 268 15 June 1/3: In 1843, Abe Goodman, the proprietor of the ‘Little Nick,’ a silver hell, and [...] the associate of all kinds of swindlers and blacklegs.
1894		(con. 1840s) G.A. Sala Things I Have Seen II 90: The lower-class dens were known as ‘silver hells,’ for the reason that stakes as low as half-a-crown were accepted.

(US) a quarter or a nickel coin.

1954		‘Bop Dict.’ Mad mag. July 20: nickel – silver jeff.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 477/2: silver jeff a quarter [...] a nickel [...] Both meanings in rock-and-roll use since c.1955.

suffering from an infestation of lice.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Silver Laced. Replete with lice. The cove’s kickseys are silver laced: the fellow’s breeches are covered with lice.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(drugs) a type of marijuana.

2003

‘Silver Pearl’ on BuyDutchSeeds 🌐 Silver Pearl is a three way hybrid developed in the early 90’s. Early girl, Skunk #1 and Northern lights, make up this tasty strain.

a beautiful upper-class woman.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

see serpent n.

(UK Und.) a pawnbroker.

1821

Egan Life in London (1869) 92: Cant-term for a Pawnbroker: this class now prefer the term Silversmith!

see separate entries.

a grey-haired man.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

(US) a 50-cent piece.

1954		‘Bop Dict.’ Mad mag. July 20: half dollar – silver wing.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 477/2: silver wing A fifty-cent piece [...] Rock-and-roll and general teenage use since c.1955.

in possession of silver (or gold) coins; thus relatively well-off.

1904

Chelmsford Chron. 20 May 8/7: Witness said to the prisoners, You are well “breeched” to be in silver-street on a Monday morning. Taylor replied, I am better “breeched” than that; I am in gold street, and produced a soveriegn from his pocket.