Green’s Dictionary of Slang

joint n.

1. (US) the penis.

[UK]Chapman All Fooles III i: Faith, Pock, ’tis a joint I would be loath to lose for the best joint of mutton in Italy.
[UK]W. Goddard Mastif Whelp Bv: To his great detryment he lost a joynte, But fudge where twas: oh! hard at’s Codpeece poynte.
[UK]W. Sampson Vow-breaker II ii: I have daunc’d till every joynt about me growes stiffe but that which should be.
Midwives Just Petition A3: [They] stand Sentinel two or three hours in the cold ... and it may be lose a limbe or some other good joynt: when ... they need not stand at home so long by nineteene parts, and have more thanks ... for their paines.
[UK] ‘A Mayden heade’ in Furnivall & Hales Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript of Loose and Humorous Songs (1868) 111: See how the little Phillipp Sparrow, / whose ioynts doe ouer-fflow with marrow, / on yonder bough how he doth proue / with his make (mace, a wife) the ioyes of loue.
[UK]F. Fane ‘Iter Occidentale’ Harleian Mss. 7319.20: But drawing up, the Sickly Joynt was varnisht With Tears of penitent Pricks, modishly garnisht With Chips of rotten C-ts ... & Menstruous Flowers for Sallats.
[UK] ‘The Butcher’s Tail and The Lamb’s Stones’ in Icky-Wickey Songster 5: My own private joint, and my own private stones.
[UK] ‘The Mysteries of London’ in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 25: Then you walk to the market with your wife for a treat, / And see some old butcher exposing his meat, / She thinks the joint heavy.
[UK]Harry Champion [perf.] ‘Aunt Tilly’ 🎵 Oh Aunt Tilly, if you want some meat, / Walk into the shop old dear, we'll let you have a treat / Oh Aunt Tilly, a loverly joint for you I’ve found.
[US] (ref. to 1868) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 89: A guest could [...] have his joint copped, or be blown.
[US] ‘Pete in “No Pay”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 43: Some joint ya got daddy!
[US]N. Algren ‘El Presidente de Méjico’ in Texas Stories (1995) 83: ‘Lucky as a dawg with two joints,’ was the way Jesse put it.
[US]Southern & Hoffenberg Candy (1970) 153: Natch I was hip to the lay the moment I dug his joint.
[US]L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 211: Mr. Newman, you’ve got your joint out!
[US]D. Mamet Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1994) 75: Halfway through [the movie] he reaches over and grabs my joint. Reaches over another guy and grabs me by the joint.
[US]H. Selby Jr Song of the Silent Snow (1988) 73: He squeezed his joint so just a thin stream of urine came out.
[US]R. Campbell Wizard of La-La Land (1999) 60: Women ready to spread thighs, suck joints, swing from chandeliers, do anything anywhere, anyhow, any time.
[US]J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 153: I oughta chop your joint off and feed it to the dog, you fuckin’ homoloid.
[US]C. Stella Charlie Opera 50: I don’t need to get my joint copped in a gymnasium.
[US]C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 30: I will fuck your sightless skull with my fifty-four-year-old joint.
[US]D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘We better get upstairs before they think you’re sucking my joint’.

2. a man or woman.

(a) a person, a fellow, a ‘chap’.

[US]E.W. Townsend Chimmie Fadden 64: While de Duchesse was dressing Miss Fannie [...] I was piping off de artist joint, and he was piping off me.
[Aus]Worker (Brisbane) 4 Sept. 8/3: His boss he gives some funny names, when he can't hear the joke. / He calls him ‘joint’ and ‘finger,’ and he sometimes calls him ‘bloke’.
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Polyglot Policeman’ Sporting Times 1 Apr. 1/4: There’s the parlour-maid at number six, a tasty joint from France.
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Barter’ Sporting Times 1 Feb. 1/3: Take my tip, and look at home, marm, and maybe you’ll want to barter / Your own joint.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 19 Mar. 12/3: Till a Joint who’d once been warder / In the quod at Wellington, / Spottin of her once a-servin / In the shop, put her pot on.
[UK]Funny Wonder 5 Feb. 1: I discovered a joint of extreme age.
[UK]Film Fun 24 Apr. 20: All these jolly little joints who were tied up in the tent started to kick their heels.
[UK]P. MacGill Moleskin Joe 80: I’ve been a lag, a crook [...] a joint as can keep puttin’ down tipple in the four-ale when my butties are on the sawdust.
[UK]Whizzbang Comics 19: Hold it down, Jenny, old joint. [Ibid.] 29: Being a generous joint he handed over much reward.
[US](con. 1940s) S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 341: A dazed collection of tough old joints – not knowing much of what was going on or caring.

(b) a wife; a girlfriend.

[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 12 June 4/4: They Say [...] That Spiff H. has thrown up the old joint and taken on one under 15 hands.

(c) (Aus.) a wedding.

[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 28 Aug. 5/4: The joint was made in Baptist Church [...] at last with Elsie G. and F.C .

(d) (US black/gay) a feminine male homosexual partner.

[US]L. Pettiway Honey, Honey, Miss Thang 144: At the time, they used the word ‘joint.’ You know, ‘You’re my joint,’ you know. They didn’t use ‘girlfriend,’ ’cause we weren’t no girls, you know.

3. a place [according to the OED the orig. use applied spec. to Chinese-run opium dens and thence to illicit saloons; in both cases the joint was seen as a gathering place for criminals, a low-life nuance that remains with the word, even in its more general sl. use].

(a) (US drugs, also pipe joint) an opium den.

[US]Harper’s Weekly 24 Sept. 646: In order to make my investigation of the matter thorough and truthful, I made myself acquainted with some fifty male and female American smokers in this city, became a daily visitor, staying for hours at the principal smoking-house or ‘joint’.
[US]N.Y. Times 28 Sept. 2: A girl of twelve years halted in front of Lee Young’s opium joint, 104 Park Street, looked up and down the street in a half-scared way, and went swiftly into the place.
[UK]Mirror of Life 27 Jan. 7/4: The opium joints run by the almond-eyed wretches are that filthy and offensive to a respectable citizen.
[US]C.R. Wooldridge Hands Up! 215: Smokers can be found in all kinds of recumbent attitudes in a joint. They frequently lie with their heads on each other’s shoulders in order that they may be convenient to the lamp.
[US]Amer. Mag. 77 June 31–5: When I became a regular smoker I bought a ‘layout’ — pipe, bowls, lamp, tray, yen hocks, everything — and indulged my habit in the ‘joint’ of a white smoker where I was a favored patron.
[Aus] (?) H. Lawson ‘The Green Lady’ in Roderick (1972) 896: Detectives lookin’ as innercent as fifteen Chinamen outside a fantan an’ opium joint.
[US]‘Willie the Weeper’ in Lomax & Lomax Amer. Ballads and Folk Songs 185: Went to the Chink’s joint the other night [...] He called in the Chink and ordered a toy of hop.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

(b) (orig. US) any place, esp. a bar or club, a brothel, a gambling establishment, a restaurant.

[US]Lantern (New Orleans, LA) 10 Nov. 14: A tough joint.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 6/6: Do you mean how I got the joint (i.e., the shop).
[US]Inter-Ocean (Chicago) 4 Mar. 13/6: He was steered into McInerney’s joint. Whisky does not cost anything here for a man playing against the bank.
[US]J.S. Wood Yale Yarns 63: We were mortal hungry, and nothing was open, for we’d tried several joints on the way up.
[US]A.H. Lewis Wolfville 176: He slaps up a joint outen tent-cloth an’ fence-boards, an’ opens a dance-hall.
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 24 Oct. 1/1: If the joint [i.e. race-course] grows so beastly greedy , some of the neighbours will indite their shrieking [...] plot as a common nuisance.
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 23 Jan. 4/1: Dan Carter’s ‘joint,’ as hot a hazard [i.e. card gambling] drum as anyone could wish for.
Sydney Sportsman (Surrey Hills, NSW) 6 Nov. 4/2: [of a pak-a-pu ‘parlour’] he manager of the joint [...] has placed before him a list of every combination marke ooff by the flat investors.
[UK]A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 287: The only faro-joint still unknown to the police was closed for ‘the holidays’.
[US]C.B. Chrysler White Slavery 80: She [...] went into a chop suey ‘joint’ to get a bite to eat.
[US]B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 29 July [synd. strip] I went into a gambling house [...] Gambling’s against the law. You can have the joint pinched.
[US]Day Book (Chicago) 11 Mar. 2/1: ‘We got her in a raid at 3029 Vernon avenue,’ he said shortly. ‘It’s a joint’.
[UK]Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 304: Started some rough woik in me own dance-joint.
[Aus]W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 30: joint — A place.
[US]F.S. Fitzgerald ‘May Day’ in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald V (1963) 153: He’s a waiter in a hash joint.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Feb. 22/4: Frank Gardiner, ex-bushranger, [...] was shot in the ‘joint’ that he ran in ’Frisco after he got away from Australia.
[UK]Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 114: She can’t understand why we never seem to meet anyone I know at these joints.
[Aus](con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 256: ‘I had tea at the first joint I came to — a cheap place where the food was bad’.
A. Seale N.Y. Age 1 Aug. 7/4: [of a speakeasy-cum-brothel] In many of the apartment houses, gin mills were opened [...] Prostitution flourished in these ‘joints’.
[US]D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 200: Suppose I’m running some kind of a joint, gamblin’ say, or bootleg.
[US]‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 17: Sometimes the girls would take me to their joints for a visit. I was fascinated.
[Aus]A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 23 May [synd. cartoon strip] Ask old whiskers if he knows where we can get a beer around this joint!
[US](con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 155: [of a jungle battle site] If we got to stay here a couple of days, the fuggers won’t be stinkin’ up the joint.
[Aus](con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 127: If it’d get me out of this joint I’d put on a mad act meself.
[US]‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 52: The cops will all be in some all-night joint drinking coffee.
[US]C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 292: I’d take him to joints like the Five Spot. I showed him Connie’s.
[UK]B. Reckord Skyvers III iii: [of a school] Yeah let’s break the joint up.
[US]R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 12: [of a welfare hotel] All S.R.O.s were turningto Welfare joints [...] but at least it would seem that this wasn’t a bucket of blood...yet.
[US]D. Goines Street Players 17: Know in and out of all the craps-houses and after hours joints.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Godson 8: ‘You know where this joint we’re staying at is?’.
[US]C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 71: Reynaldo Flemm barely had time to snoop the joint over.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 5: A ritzy frog joint on Geary.
[Aus](con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 3: The muffled sounds of bar music coming up ffom the basement joints.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 4 Sept. 20: There should be no problem [...] getting a drink in a joint where I’ve spent a small fortune over the years.
[US]G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 145: He’s got a dozen joints? I didn’t realize Marvy had access to that much capital.
[Aus](con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 36/2: The coffee bars of Swanstin Street [...] You know the joints.
[Aus]L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] They only places [i.e. brothels] you could work without having to do extras were [...] illegal joints.
[UK](con. c.1945) A. Wheatle Island Songs (2006) 24: Mr Johnstone’s ‘rum joint’ was open for business.
T.P. McCauley ‘Lady Madeline’s Dive’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] ‘We run a gamblin’ joint for Chrissakes!’.
[US]J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 14: A hubbub juked the joint. I knew I radiated fuzz.

(c) one’s house or home.

[US]Star-Gaz. (Elmira, NY) 15 May 4/3: Yale College Slang [...] [of a college dormitory] Come around to my joint and feed this noon.
[US]G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 257: Here, git away from this joint.
[US]D. Hammett ‘Dead Yellow Women’ Story Omnibus (1966) 156: Send him up to my joint. I’ll wait there for him.
[US]D. Runyon ‘Blood Pressure’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 85: Let us go to my joint and make my old woman cook us up some breakfast.
[Aus](con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 196: [of a stately home] ‘Some joint,’ said Joe Woods tersely.
[Aus]X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 29: I’ve been pretty busy fixing up the new joint.
[US]R.L. Bellem ‘Daughter of Murder’ Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 Now suppose you give me the lowdown. What are you doing in my joint?
[Aus]T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 198: Bet’s got a promise of half a joint down at Narrabundah.
[US]S. Bellow Henderson The Rain King 15: Hell! How can you live in this stinking joint?
[UK]Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 47: I can apprise her of what’s going on in this joint.
[Aus]Lette & Carey Puberty Blues 86: ‘What’s for tea?’ [...] ‘Chops and peas, dear. All right?’ ‘Don’t we eat anything else around this joint?’.
[US]A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 45: I scanned the joint whle the phone rang.
[UK]Indep. on Sun. Real Life 18 July 9: Our box-like room [...] was still less revolting than the rest of the joint.
[US]P. Cornwell Blow Fly (2004) 82: Shit! [...] Couldn’tcha at least find a joint with an elevator.
[Aus]L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] All the houses were huge [...] I hated to think how much a joint here would cost.
[Aus]P. Papathanasiou Stoning 58: ‘Just don’t trash the joint and we’ll be sweet’.

(d) (orig. US tramp) a meeting place.

[US]S.F. Call 2 Apr. 25/5: Their place of meeting [is] the ‘joint’.
[US]‘Number 1500’ Life In Sing Sing 249: Joint. Meeting house for thieves.
[US]Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
[US]V.W. Saul ‘Vocab. of Bums’ in AS IV:5 341: Joint — A meeting place; see ‘hangout.’.
[US]Da Bomb 🌐 28: The joint: Meeting place; location or place where people hang out. We should meet up at Fatburger because it’s the joint.

(e) (Aus./UK) a bookmaker’s pitch.

[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 29 June 4/2: I gave the public a more than broad hint that one or two noisy over-the-odds silverites were ‘rocky’ and some of the ‘joints’ smellful.
[UK]Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 6: Joint: Bookmaker’s stand.
[Aus]T. Peacock More You Bet 19: A bookmaking set-up or operation [...] is referred to as a ‘joint’.

(f) (Aus.) a firm.

[Aus]Truth (Perth) 10 Dec. 4/8: They do frequent send down for me / While I’m waiting on me point. / If I ain’t available, sir, / They won’t have no other joint.

(g) a factory.

[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘The Intro’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 20: I found ’er lurk / Wus pastin’ labels in a pickle joint.

(h) (Aus.) a public-house bar.

[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘The Joy Ride’ in Backblock Ballads 102: There’s Rose who serves behind the joint / In Mudge’s privit bar.

(i) a country, geographical area, a town, a city.

[US]H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 250: I’ll betcha Pres. Wilson will have dragged them outa Holland, or wherever that joint is they beat it to.
[US]‘Digit’ Confessions of a Twentieth Century Hobo 46: Being told by some other hobos that P—— was ‘a tough joint,’ we decided to jump a rattler out of town.
[US]W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 201: ‘I thought maybe you’d go out some place.’ ‘Where could I go in a joint like this?’.
[Aus]D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 149: Woolgoolie, brother — W-o-o-l-g-o-o-l-i-e. That’s the joint where this story happened.
[Aus]T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 18: Cripes, mate, what a joint! [...] Stay here – at least there’s trams.
[US]W. Wilson LBJ Brigade (1967) 19: The easiest thing ta do in this joint is die.
[Aus] in K. Gilbert Living Black 219: He can go to work same as me, you, and every Tom, Dick and Harry in the joint here.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 6 Nov. 20: An ‘I love New York’ mug. I do indeed adore the joint.
[US]J. Ridley Conversation with the Mann 52: I saw that Washington was a whole other kind of joint, the exact opposite of the city.
[Aus]N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] [M]y memories of the joint [i.e. West Australia] aren’t quite as savage.

(j) (Aus./US carnival) any ‘sideshow’.

[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 28 Dec. 5/2: [He] was wheeled to the station by a three-up player, who entered a charge against him [...] of stealing his joint.
P.W. White ‘Lang. of the Lot’ in AS III:5 414: A carnival concession is known as a joint or store.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 111: Joint. – [...] A booth or tent in which a gambling game is conducted at carnivals or in amusement parks.
[US] ‘I’ll Gyp You Every Time’ in C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 179: The gambling tents or ‘joints,’ as we call them.
[US]W.L. Alderson ‘Carnie Talk’ AS XXVIII:2 117: joint, n. A concession or establishment.
[Aus]G. Seal Lingo 145: The 19th-century racecourse term for a place or stand where sideshow games were played – a joint – is still used by SHOWIES (show people) today, as is the word for the area of land where the joint is erected, the pitch.
[US]‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 58: ‘What about your joint?’ Fat Jew baby owned and operated the Bobo joint.
[US]W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Joint (sometimes ‘store’) — Any carnival midway concession booth.

(k) (US) prison, also as the joint.

Wkly Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI) 25 May 2/3: Judge Steele did not think he could get to the joint as a killer and wisely ordewred Alkali [Charlie] to leave town.
[US]J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 42: Sing Sing was a tough joint in those days, one of the worst stirs in the United States.
[US]L. Berg Prison Nurse (1964) 95: These crummy bastards won’t know the difference; most of them never guzzled anything but ‘smoke’ before they hit this joint.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 66: ‘Kid, can you keep books?’ ‘Not much, just for the joint and like that.’.
[US]T. Runyon In For Life 76: Every guard in the joint can see us talking.
[US]M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 96: So it seems the only way I can be free of this dolly is by going to the joint.
[US]D. Goines Street Players 119: It ain’t goin’ to keep so-called Earl the Pearl’s black ass out of the joint.
[US]C. Heath A-Team 2 (1984) 134: I could break out of this cush joint on horseback with a bad case of the flu.
[US]E. Bunker Mr Blue 70: You’ll get to read a lot of books in the joint.
[UK]Guardian Rev. 28 Jan. 5: Ashley Judd plays Libby, a sexy, youngish soccer mom who is sent to the joint.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 96/2: joint n. a prison.
[US]G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 172: Inside the Federal joint, he’s marked as a short eyes.
[US]A. Steinberg Running the Books 4: In the joint, where business is slow, the library is The Spot .
[Aus] J.J. DeCeglie ‘Death Cannot Be Delegated’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] Why risk more joint years over her.
[US]D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘I get popped for as much as littering, I die in the joint’.
[Aus]G. Disher Kill Shot [ebook] Kramer was already reaching out to some of the psychos in the joint.
[US]D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 64: [T]here are a lot of guys in the joint who don’t find anything funny about the team [i.e. of detectives].

(l) (US) a police station.

[US]J. Rechy City of Night 134: Poor Trudi’s even checked the joint, and those nasty bulls there and all!

(m) (US) a detoxification facility.

[US]P. Benchley Lush 45: Ever been in a joint before? [...] Gotta beat jail, though. Gotta be a cruise [...] And when you get out, just be careful where you go boozing.

(n) in fig. use; of any kind of object or place; often unspecified.

[US]College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Joint (noun) Restroom.
[US](con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 21: [of a newspaper] Got to be in that joint every single week, Marcus.
[US]G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 110: ‘Where Jimmy’s uncle get the money for a Lexus?’ [...] ‘I don’t know,’ said Lionel, ‘but that joint is tight’.
[US]W.D. Myers Autobiog. of My Dead Brother 165: I was right in the middle of the joint, and it wasn’t a hundred percent clear what the action was.

4. in Und. uses.

(a) a swindling set-up or a place to be robbed; thus operator of such a place (see cite 1919).

[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 12 Oct. 3/6: [He] noticed a small electric battery under the counter [...] and asked, ‘what’s that?’ Then the game was up. Hayseed’s ‘joint’ was exposed.
[US]W. Irwin Confessions of a Con Man 58: ‘The joint’ is the term used by confidence men to describe the actual operation by which the victim’s money is taken away.
[Aus]Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 10 May 20/3: Take a quiet game of two-up, / Where a big ‘joint’ starts a row.
[US]C.R. Shaw Jack-Roller 202: There is a joint (meaning a place to rob) I’m going to make soon.
[US]J. Gray ‘The Nudist Gym Death Riddle’ in Vice Squad Detective 🌐 Sam Andrew [...] certainly had the right tip when he figured Lestro’s place was a joint. What a swell layout for a blackmail racket!
[UK]J.B. Booth Sporting Times 265: But the ‘joint’ must be transported (whatever else gets off!).
[US]D. Maurer Big Con 300: joint. 1. A place of business. (Legitimate.) 2. A gambling house, big store, or other establishment where marks are trimmed.
[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 805: joint – A prospective place of burglary or robbery.

(b) (Aus. Und.) a situation, usu. corrupt or swindling.

[Aus]Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 87: Any business or swindle among the criminal or larrikin fraternity is a joint.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 26 Feb. 12/4: But at present he are doin / Right well out of that there joint / As she don’t deny him nothin / As he chooses to appoint.

(c) (US Und., also top of the joint) the total amount taken in a single confidence trick.

[US]D. Maurer Big Con 299: The head of the joint or top of the joint. The total amount taken in a single confidence touch. [Ibid.] joint. 3. The score from a confidence game.

5. (orig. US) in drug uses.

(a) an opium pipe or hypodermic syringe and other drug paraphernalia [the ‘joining’ of the opium and its pipe].

[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Joint, a complete hypodermic outfit consisting of syringe and needles (ointjay).
[US]D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in AS XIII:3 186/1: joint. [...] 4. The opium smoker’s outfit complete.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 253: I called up Mike and begged him to bring me the joint (the layout) and put me out of my misery.
[US]‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 159: Works, Outfit, Joint . . . A user’s outfit for injecting junk. Consists of an eyedropper, hypodermic needle, strip of paper to fit the dropper tight into the needle, and a spoon or other container in which to dissolve the junk.
[US]G. Cain Blueschild Baby 18: ‘I can’t baby, got it [i.e. a syringe] in my arm already,’ and she boots the blood smiling. We finish up and clean the joints.
[Aus]V. Viidikas ‘Island of Gems’ in India Ink (1984) 45: We are offered heroin joints as well to settle our nauseous stomachs unused to raw opium.

(b) a cigarette laced with paregoric.

[US](con. 1958) R. Farina Been Down So Long (1972) 23: Paregoric making little lumps in side pocket [...] Both joints were still a bit damp, having been only partially dried.

(c) a marijuana or hashish cigarette [the ‘joining’ of the drug with tobacco to make the cigarette; by the 1990s the drug reference had become sufficiently common for the word to be used almost without comment or identifying quotation marks].

[US](con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 171: You got a couple of joints to take along?
[UK]T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 71: [Y]ou see the joint burning badly because there’s too many seeds in it.
[UK]T. Keyes All Night Stand 122: Sach pulls out the red papers and makes a three-paper joint.
[US]D. Goines Street Players 8: He picked up a joint and pointed it towards Billy before lighting up.
[US]P. Califia Macho Sluts 29: [They] were sharing a joint in a not-too-dark corner.
[US]Snoop Doggy Dogg ‘Doggy Dogg World’ 🎵 You think you got the bomb cuz I rolled you a joint.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 3 July 5: A spliff here, a toke there, a joint’s-worth handed over to a friend.
[UK]R. Antoni Carnival 119: He [...] pulled out a joint and lit it with a Bic lighter.
[Aus]L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] [She] dug around in her bra, finally producing a bent-up joint.
[SA]Big Issue (Cape Town) 10 Jan. 20/2: You must be pretty high to think it’s OK to cuff someone just for carrying a joint.
[UK]Times 20 Aug. 34/3: The decision to develop the market for pre-rolled joints, cannabis cookies, spiked soft drinks.
[Aus]G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] Passing the cigarette back and forth like it was a joint.
[Scot]G. Armstrong Young Team 8: His big cuz taught him up n he kin roll joints.
[US]S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 21: A jar of moonshine [...] and two joints in his truck.
[Ire]Breen & Conlon Hitmen 236: [A man under surveillance] ‘Talks of Daniel and Christopher and joints of weed’.
[UK]J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 124: I like to be tucked up by 9 o’clock with a mug of Horlicks and a fat joint.

(d) marijuana.

[US]L. Pettiway Honey, Honey, Miss Thang 35: I was more of a marijuana freak. I would, you know, go across town to find a good bag of joint. Or a larger amount of joint for a lesser — if I could get a nickel bag — get a bigger one somewhere in North Jefferson.

6. (orig. US) a gun.

H. Ellson Duke 33: ‘You got a joint?’ [...] ‘What kind?’ ‘A .38.’.
[US]W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 83: Sure, the f---- stud, almost s-- his pants when I pulled a joint (gun).
[Aus] ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxv 6/3: joint: A revolver or hand gun.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 105: a gun [...] joint (black sl).
[US]L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.
[UK]T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Joint - gun.
[US](con. 2016) in J. Fenton We Own This City 173: ‘Yo, they found a joint in the alley,’ the man told the person, using slang for a gun.

7. (orig. US black) something excellent, as in the phr. the serious joint, the real thing.

[US]W.D. Myers It Ain’t All for Nothin 96: ‘I bet you get all the pies you want, right?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘That’s the joint, man. That’s really okay’ [ibid.] 127: ‘Maybe you’d be a nice husband.’ ‘I’d be the serious joint,’ I said.
[US]Funky Four + 1 ‘Rappin and Rockin the House’ 🎵 [Sha-Rock] I can never be the wack. [All] And we hear you, Sha-Rock / She’s the joint.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Fall 4: the joint – the most popular, the best.
[UK](con. 1973) T. White Catch a Fire 239: The Wailers were back on top. ‘Dem de joint in jamdung,’ as [...] DJ Don Topping put it.
[UK]D. Hebdige Cut ’n’ Mix 137: He would shout phrases like ‘Rock on my mellow! This is the joint!’.
[UK]P. Baker Blood Posse 61: His suede Pumas and sharkskin pants were the joint.
W.D. Myers Dope Sick 19: Home Depot was the joint. I knew if I could cop a job with them, I could get my thing together.

8. (orig. US black) an artistic creation, typically a record or film [popularized by film-maker Spike Lee (b.1956) who credits his films ‘Another Spike Lee Joint’; subseq. used by many hip-hop/rap artists to describe their music].

S. Lee School Daze [film titles] A Spike Lee Joint.
[US]De La Soul ‘Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa’ 🎵 Around this time the slamming joint was ‘Milik is Chillin’.
[US] Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 11: [advert] New and exclusive joints from the hip hop underground.
[US]G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 60: I got my eye on the new Forums [i.e. trainers] [...] Them joints is wet.
[US]A. Steinberg Running the Books 227: You still got that penguin joint [i.e. a DVD]. We didn’t finish it yesterday.
[UK]J. Cornish Attack the Block [film script] 23: HI-HATZ Yo Moses, hear my beats? [...] That’s my new joint.

9. (US black/prison) a prison sentence.

Blaze June–July 128: I only did three joints. I knew guys who had 15 joints with five more to go.

10. (US black) speciality, primary interest/pursuit.

[US]W.D. Myers ‘Kitty and Mack: A Love Story’ in 145th Street 87: [B]aseball was Mack’s joint and that was where he figured to be headed.

11. (US black) a plan, a team talk.

[US]W.D. Myers Game 15: I loved ball and knew I was going to bust it, whatever joint he [the coach] was running.

In derivatives

jointwise (adj.) [-wise sfx]

(US prison) well-adjusted to prison life, capable of sustaining one’s existence in prison .

[US]Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 111/2: Joint wise. Familiar with the ways of a specific prison and its officials, hence able to serve a sentence there with a minimum of discomfort.
R.P. Rettig Manny 120/1: You played it cool, hustled, and stayed clear of the cops, squares, snitches, and administrators. But streetwise and jointwise definitions of reality don't make sense in Synanon.
[NZ]G. Newbold Big Huey 250: Joint-wise, meaning versed in prison life and ways, is recorded (USA) as from 1933.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 355: Speaker’s jointwise. He’s got friends in there.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 96/2: joint-wise adj. (of an inmate) well­ versed in the lifestyle and customs of the prison.

In compounds

jointman (n.)

(Can./US prison) any prisoner who toadies to the authorities.

[US]Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 36: Joint Man An inmate who conducts himself in such a manner that resembles a guard or employee, rather than a prisoner.
joint togs (n.) [togs n. (1)]

(US Und.) the clothes worn by a whore in a brothel .

in A. Banks (ed.) Fed. Writers Project (1980) 178: O'Connor's complaints when he wrote about those who ‘charged the girls double for joint-togs and drinks, rent, fines, towel service, and such’.
[US]N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 94: He charged the girls double for joint-togs and drinks, rent, towel service and such.

In phrases

all over the joint

(US) everywhere.

[US]M. Spillane One Lonely Night 22: The guy who was kicking the politicians all over the joint.
E.J. Dickey Drive me Crazy 242: Clothes were all over the joint, everything I saw had been cut to pieces.
black joint (n.)

(US black/Harlem) any black nightclub catering spec. to white ‘tourists’.

[US](con. 1920s–30s) I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 94: In the 1920s and early 1930s, the ultimate night out on the town was to go slumming in Harlem and do the various clubs — black joints, black-and-tan resorts, as they were called — and maybe smoke a little marijuana.
go to the joint (v.)

(US) to come to the point, to achieve one’s aim, esp. in a criminal context.

[US]Dodge City Times 12 May in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 276: Joe is a quiet young man [...] but will not fail to ‘go to the joint’ in case of a row. He will make a good officer.
have someone by the joint (v.)

of a woman, to have a man sexually enslaved.

[US]J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 86: I woulda bought it that night. I was hurtin for certain. She had me by the joint, you know.
hot joint (n.) [hot adj. (5f)]

(US tramp) somewhere that is robbed while the owners are in occupation.

[US]G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 53: The better class of burglar may also be a holdup man, who doesn’t bother with a ‘cold slough’ [...] but who takes a ‘hot joint’.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 104: HOT JOINT. – A house or store to be robbed while occupied or while business is being conducted.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 103/1: Hot joint. 1. An occupied residence which is the object of a robbery.
[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 804: hot joint – A house or store to be robbed while occupied or while business is being conducted.
jump the joint (v.) [ext. use of SAusE jump, to take possession of a parcel of land, esp. in a deceitful or illegal manner]

(Aus.) to take command.

[Aus]N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 235/1: jump the joint – to take charge.
pipe joint (n.)

see sense 3a above.

real joint (n.)

(US Und.) any nightspot frequented by criminals, spec. pimps and prostitutes.

[US]Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 253: real joint One [i.e. a night club] frequented by underworld personnel, especially by pimps and prostitutes.
stand on one’s joint (v.)

(US) to have an erect penis.

[US](con. late 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 579: And she gives you your money’s worth. Got some liquor in her and me and Buck just stood on our joints.
top of the joint (n.)

see sense 4c above.