Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a face.

1660		Wandring Whore II 4: If he did not expect to see old Nick’s picture there instead of his own.
1825		J. Neal Brother Jonathan III 387: Young Bob’s dad – consarn his pictur – spry as a cat, swom like a fish.
1837		R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods I 182: Thought there was nothing in the woods but Injuns, blast their ugly picturs!
1845		W.T. Thompson Chronicles of Pineville 167: Dadfetch your everlastin’ picter to dingnation!
1852		Daily Morning Herald (St. Louis) 28 Dec. It was’nt any fellow of that name, but Bill Jones, that kissed me; and, confound his picture, I told him everybody would find it out.
1860		T. Haliburton Season Ticket 295: Cuss your ugly pictur.
1881		‘Bill Nye’ Bill Nye and Boomerang 121: Blast his picture! Why didn’t he have some style about him.
1902		W.N. Harben Abner Daniel 234: Blast his ugly pictur’!

2. (also movie, picture-book) anything or anyone considered very pleasing, shocking or amusing to the viewer, e.g. you look a picture, she looks a picture, a picture of good health.

1831		‘Gallery of 140 Comicalities’ Bell’s Life in London 24 June 1/2: Well, to be sure, that is a picture! [...] It warms the cockles of one’s heart to think of it.
1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. I 226: The gal looked like a picter and a darned purty picter.
1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 317: [brandy bottles] They are a brace of bloodlike beauties! [...] the very race-horse of bottles – perfect pictures.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 216: Here he is, aunt. Did you ever see such a pictur?
1879		G.R. Sims Dagonet Ballads 80: He went like the wind; such a pictur; the coves as had chaffed me before, / Their hi’s was a-startin’ with envy.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 181: Ain’t he just a picture! Some call him a picture; I call him a panorama!
1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 41: Well, well, you are a pair of pictures. What in hell yeh been up to?
1904		B.L. Farjeon Amblers 126: Margaret, you looked a perfect picture.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Jan. 4/7: She ’as a boshter figger [...] My oath, she was a picture-book.
1914		M. Glass Abe and Mawruss 87: What a beautiful boy that was, Mr. Feldman – a regular picture!
1921		H.C. Witwer Leather Pushers 286: The Kid’s face is a movie.
1927		P. O’Donnell Islanders (1933) 147: Isn’t he a picture?
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 41: ‘Ah be dawg,’ said the little negro, ‘if Harry wasn’t a picture, yassuh.’.
1943		G.A. Little Malachi Horan Remembers 106: Troth, she was no picture, and getting sore long in the tooth.
1957		‘Neville Shute’ On the Beach 245: Her first narcissi were in bloom, and the daffodils behind them were already showing flower buds. ‘They’re going to be a picture,’ she said happily.
1960		J.R. Ackerley We Think The World Of You (1971) 29: You ought to see them laying on the rug of an evening, it’s a picture.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘May the Force be with You’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] rodney: I can’t wait to see his face when you come through the door, eh? slater: It’ll be a picture Rodney, it’ll be a picture!
1999		(con. 1900s) R. Doyle A Star Called Henry (2000) 24: Aren’t they the picture?
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 160: Your face looked a picture when you came up those stairs.

3. (US Und.) in pl., counterfeit notes.

1838

N.Y. Daily Express 7 Dec. 2/3: [A counterfeiter’s] gang are known in Canada by the title of koniackers, and among them, in conversation, they have adopted a set of slang phrases, such as ‘smashing’ (counterfeiting) ‘conack’ [sic] or ‘pictures’ (counterfeit notes) ‘bogus’ (counterfeit coin) &c.

4. in pl., playing cards.

1853		W.G. Simms Sword and the Distaff 304: I want to get at the pictures. I want to win back some of my money.
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act IV: Now, fork out the pictures, old boy.
1879		A. Pinkerton Reminiscences 195: Hyr’s a hatful of picturs as backs the winnin’ keerd, which is always the queen.
1938		Reading (PA) Eagle 20 Mar. 7/3: Students playing a game of cards are known to be ‘busy in the movies’ or watching pictures’.

5. a currency note, money [the pictures of US presidents printed on the different denominations of dollar bills].

1879		Sporting Times 22 Mar. 2/3: ‘Here’s a hundred on account, and, when you’ve done the job, [...] [t]here’s some more pictures for you to cock your one eye at; nine on ’em’.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 162: ‘After de race we’re ten pictures to de good’.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 98: It takes a lot of pictures to pay off attorneys and grease the boys downtown.

6. (orig. milit.) a situation.

1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 187: Fran butted her nose into the picture?
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 175: Would you say you were legal in this picture.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 215: I played my cool role. I didn’t feel the picture much. It was like mixing rice and beans with corned beef and cabbage.
1977		Rolling Stone 22 Sept. 44: They were somewhat excited about getting me in the picture with them.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 163: Then the Big Picture kicked him.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 137: ‘Him visit Miz Lucy maybe two year ago, wanted to set up export business?’ ‘That the picture.’.