Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) 100, usu. of dollars.

1919		D. Runyon in Little Rock Dly News (AR) 4 July 7/5: Mr Lardner has already placed five yards on Jess [Willard].
1920		R.J. Brown ‘Thirty Days on the Island’ in Argosy 3 Jan. 🌐 [...] puttin’ the two extra yards of jack into my kick.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Tobias the Terrible’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 109: Guys with two yards in their pocket are by no means common.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Dead Don’t Dream’ in Hollywood Detective July 🌐 Nick him for a grand; we’ll split it two ways — five yards apiece.
1946		J.E. Dadswell Hey, Sucker 87: Half-yard and yard respectively for fifty and one hundred dollars; these terms have been used by carnival people for years.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 182: ‘You understand all right. How much you shake him for ? I bet it’s not more than a couple of yards.’ ‘What’s that ? Couple of yards ?’ ‘Two hundred bucks.’.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 203: I fast counted a yard and seventy-five slats.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 24: Who else is going to [...] see you go for a yard when your bread is down.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 41: I should just pluck those two yards [i.e. $200] from his fingers and run.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 14: To schlep a girl back to a hotel cost two hundred up front. One yard for Maurice, one for the girl.
2007		T. Dorsey Hurricane Punch 20: You needed to lean on a twist, throw hopheads a yard, throw lead, no one snooped.
2012		T. Pluck ‘Junkyard Dog’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 204: ‘Jello give you five hundred for that dog, Cee,’ the fat footballer says. ‘You got five yards, old man?’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 94: I slipped him five yards. He [i.e. a ‘bent ex-cop’] slipped me the Ad Vice package on the Nest [nightclub].

2. (US) one dollar.

1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 10 Dec. [synd. col.] W.C. Fields [...] rates 5200 yards per in ‘Vanities’.
1929		W. Winchell On Broadway 31 Dec. [synd. col.] Helen Morgan got 1500 yards for mooing three ditties at a deb’s party.

3. (US prison) a year, thus a sentence of one year.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Yard, a year.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 37: Party went back to the joint for a ‘yard.’.
1976		Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) 30 Mar. 2/3: A five year term, aside from a ‘fever’ is known as a ‘fin.’ [...] a year stretch becomes a ‘yard.’.

4. (drugs) $100 worth of heroin.

1961

Rigney & Smith Real Bohemia xx: The purchases are made in cash: an ace ($1) [...] half-a-yard ($50), a yard ($100).

5. A$1000.

1986

R.G. Barrett Real Thing 174: We’re stuck with twenty kilos of bloody pot [...] I’ll flog it the first bloke that comes up with 15 yards.

6. (US Und.) a sentence of 100 years.

1992

Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 24: Yard A 100-year prison sentence. (Archaic: one hundred smackers).