Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) one who robs security vans delivering money to banks.

1989

J. Morton Lowspeak.

see under pizza n.

1. (US, also pave pounder) a walker, a marcher.

1904		‘Hugh McHugh’ I’m from Missouri 93: It was certainly a tart collection of enthusiastic pave pounders that marched through Ruraldene that evening.
1919		Richmond Times Despatch 9 Feb. 7/2: The shoes look all right for a chair warmer — but on a pavement pounder like me...

2. (orig. US) a police office, thus attrib.

1888		L.A. Dly Herald 17 Oct. 2/1: [headline] Pavement-Pounders Punished [...] The Police Commissioners met [...] to investigate the charges against Captain Loomis and Officers Maguire and Van Luven.
1903		Sun (NY) 25 May 3/3: The plain-clothes men wore [...] shoes of a pattern which did not expose them as pavement-pounders.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 183: Give me plenty of room to do the hotfoot act, and I don’t mind guyin’ any of them pavement-pounders.
1914		N.Y. Tribune 17 May 10/2: the day of the flat-footed, fat-bellied pavement pounder is gone. The policemen of today [etc.].
1922		Eve. World (NY) 27 May 12/4: The hero-cop is not a sheriff [...] He’s just a pavement-pounder.
1938		E. Hoffman Price ‘Revolt of the Damned’ in Double-Action Gang June 🌐 Busting rackets is no harness bull’s job. A pavement pounder might as well learn that now.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 395: Nicknames current among boys [...] Pavement Pounder, Peeler.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 313: It was pavement-pounder shitwork.

3. a prostitute.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(US) a prostitute.

[1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) IX 1769: Evidently not a professional of the pavé but a quiet well to do one of middle class].
1976		Humboldt Republican (IA) 21 jan. 2/2: Pavement princess — Roadside or truckstop prostitute.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 149: The compilers ought to have looked farther afield and found: [...] pavement princess.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 40: A streetwalker works ‘the streets,’ where she was known as a nymph of the pave or a pavement princess.

(UK Und.) a phr. used of any crime committed in the street.

1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 171: Across the pavement A street situation, e.g., ‘Let’s do one across the pavement’ may mean ‘Let’s commit a robbery in the street’.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 11: Across the pavement – wages snatch.

1. to be ejected, esp. from a nightclub or other place of entertainment.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 860/2: since 1936.

2. to be released from prison.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Hit the pavement, out of jail.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 98/1: Hit the pavement. See Hit the bricks [i.e. to be released from prison].

3. to be dismissed from one’s job.

2001

Observer 16 Mar. 🌐 Read what you want into Stephen Malkmus, but it shows that there is life after you hit the pavement.

4. (US) to leave.

2016

T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] ‘Why don’t you hit the pavement before somebody in here thinks we’re operating a homeless shelter’.

1. (also surveyor of the pavement) one who stands in the pillory.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Surveyor of the Pavement. Man in the Pillory.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Surveyor of the Pavement. One standing in the pillory.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London II 97: [He] has been an exalted character, having once been made inspector of the pavement,* or in other words knapp’d the stoop. [*Inspector of the pavement, or knapp’d the stoop—Cant terms for the pillory].
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 167: ‘Surveyor of the pavements’ — a pilloried person.

2. an impotent man.

1834

‘The Three Degrees of a Rake’s Life’ in Flare-Up Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 276: But after that, what he is then, / She reads a curtain lecture, / He drops his snout, oh! pity men, / Of the pavement he’s inspector.

3. (US Und.) a tramp.

[1894		Truth (Sydney) 23 Dec. 5/8: Frederick Augustus was once more engaged in the delectable but badly remunerated employment of measuring pavements for the Government].
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(US black) a street-walking prostitute.

1935

E. Freeman ‘The Whirling Hub’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 29 June 15/1: Those wise lassies of the pavement set a high price upon ofay lovers .

1. (also on the pave) in prostitution.

1835		‘The Transport’s Complaint’ in Knowing Chaunter 36: Oh, where is my woman – my flashy young Sarah, / Who nightly went out, togged so smart, on the pave.
1838		‘Ax My A-se’ in Sparkling Songster 45: I take my ware all over town / Upon the pave I’m well known.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 58: I takes my pitch last night on Fleet pave.

2. (UK Und., also on the pave) working as a professional criminal, usu. an armed robber.

1835		‘Rampant Moll Was A Rum Old Mot’ in Secret Songster 4: Rampant Moll had a fancy man, / A cracksman, the first on the pave.
1843		W.T. Moncrieff Scamps of London I i: There isn’t a bigger leg on the whole pavement.
1990		D. Campbell That Was Business, This Is Personal 3: The end of the sixties and early seventies saw the emergence of the ‘Face’ [...] They described themselves as ‘at it,’ ‘on the pavement’.

3. (US Und.) set free from imprisonment.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 153/1: Pavement, on the. Free; not in confinement.
1990		R. Campbell Sweet La-La Land (1999) 174: That was Hooligan Houlihan. I asked him to keep my current. Younger’s on the pavement.

see separate entry.

to vomit forcefully.

1989

M. Belmonte Compter Science and Why (1993) 🌐 I was struck with [...] the plethora of words and phrases meaning ‘vomit’ and/or ‘to vomit’ [...] At most American colleges and universities, a weekend cannot pass without seeing multitudes [...] paint the pavement.

see under pound v.²

a prostitute.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 237/2: princess of the pavement – a prostitute.

(orig. US black) to walk around.

1924		C.J. Dennis ‘The Crusaders’ in Chisholm (1951) 82: ‘Is this a frame?’ she shrieks. . . . Without adoos, / We slap the pavemint with four ’asty shoes.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

(US black) a street-walking prostitute.

1935

E. Freeman ‘The Whirling Hub’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 6 Apr. 15/1: What sepia woman of the pavement [...] avwers she is a Filipino and detests sepias?