Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entry.

(Aus./N.Z./UK juv.) boiled sago or tapioca pudding.

1932		B.M. Harvey Me and Bad Eye and Slim 20: Today we had beef and spuds [...] and frog egg pudding.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 298: If that scoundrel Bill had survived to serve us one more meal of that frog-spawn he called sago mince, he’d have reduced me to screaming.
1956		(con. 1925) Sorden & Ebert Logger’s 15: Frog-eggs. Tapioca [HDAS].
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 184: Tapioca or sago is ‘fishes’ eyes’, ‘frogs’ eyes’, ‘fishes’ eyes in glue’ [...] ‘frog spawn’.
1972		(con. 1930s–40s) N. Conway Bloods 73: A couple of dollops of tapioca called ‘gooh’ or ‘frog’s spawn’.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 46/2: frog’s eyes boiled tapioca or sago, as usually inflicted on those in institutions; variant of Australian ‘frog’s eggs’, English ‘frogspawn’.
1999		BBC News 12 Apr. 🌐 Tapioca pudding – widely known as frog’s eggs by many school pupils – may after all be good for you.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

see cat’s whiskers n.

the very smallest degree; in phr. like within a frog’s hair, to a frog’s hair.

1897		Kansas University Quarterly (ser B) 6. 53: Frog-hair: something infinitesimal, as, ‘fine as frog-hair.’.
1927		C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words and Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 354: Those scratches are finer ’n frog’s hair.
1958		McCulloch Woods Words 68: Frog hair – One frog hair is a very fine measurement in forest surveys.
1965–70		in DARE.
1981		Hogan D. Bullet 108: You came within a frog’s hair of getting yourself killed [HDAS].
1984		Chapple Outlaws in Babylon 172: He stays only a frog’s hair inside the law [HDAS].
2002		L. Roberson Rainbow Bridge Farm 129: ‘Fine as frog’s hair,’ she replied [...] ‘And that’s so fine, why you can’t even see it!’.
2003		Stock Option Weekly 5 May 🌐 NASDAQ Composite comes within a ‘frog’s hair’ of December high.

see separate entries.

see frogmarch v.

(US) a long-bladed pocket-knife; in milit. use a bayonet.

1836		W.G. Simms Mellichampe xliii 357: Wait a bit, till I [...] find my frog-sticker, which has somehow tumbled out of the belt [DA].
1885		C.A. Siringo Texas Cow Boy (1950) 95: I then concluded to cut the rope and let her go, so getting out my old frog-sticker [...] I went to work.
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 80: frog-sticker, n. Facetious for any kind of pocket-knife.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 576: frog-sticker, n. A pocket knife, especially one with a long, pointed blade.
1919		Crowe & Chase Pat Crowe, Aviator 92: We found a French soldier with a four-foot frog-sticker on the end of a rifle guarding it.
1925		J. Tully Beggars of Life 232: They [potatoes] were peeled with pocket knives, called ‘frogstickers’.
1927		C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words and Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 354: It is against the law to carry such a frog-sticker.
1938		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 17 Dec. 11/1: An ofay momma chased him down Seventh avenue with a frog sticker.
1945		Chicago Trib. 14 Oct. [cartoon] n.p.: Step soft now, Sherrif, or out comes yer liver on th’ end of this frogsticker! [DA].
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 13: [He] pulled his frog-sticker and began shouting how he was going to teach the mother-raper some respect.
1966		L.L. King One-Eyed Man (2001) 240: The frog sticker made a sharp, snapping sound as the blade clicked.
1992		R. Ford in Granta Book of the Amer. Short Story 27: [A] frogsticker, which will snap out ready when you press a button in the handle.
2003		R. Stewart A Crooked Mile 63: Calm down, kid [...] I’m here to help. I won’t hurt you. Put that frog sticker away.

(US) a small or out-of-the-way place.

2000

F.X. Toole Rope Burns 18: A homeboy member of Hoolie’s Frogtown gang.

(US black) to avoid, to overlook.

1936

D. Burley in Chicago Defender 5 Dec 14: I’ll play a lot of frog as I skip the one [i.e. an anecdote] in which Ia well known young couple [...] Joe Louis it frequently.