sky (rocket), n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sky (rocket) n.

[rhy. sl.]

a pocket.

1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 502: A slavey piped the spoons sticking out of my skyrocket (pocket).
1879		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Meg’s Diversion’ in Sporting Times 4 Sept. n.p.: For she’d an empty sky, And nothing to bullock’s horn.
1883		N. Devon Jrnl 8 Feb. 7/2: [from The Echo] Come, cows and kisses, put the battle of the Nile on your Barnet Fair, and a rogue and villain in your sky-rocket.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 27 July 6/4: The whole thing cost about £10,000. [...] With this alone in his ‘sky rocket’ Wood shouldn’t want for tucker.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 94: I’d two bob in my sky.
1898		J.D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 221: ‘Wot cher, my noble,’ says ’e ‘’Ave a cigar,’ an’ ’e pulls a ’andful outer ’is skyrocket.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Humours of the Chase’ Sporting Times 28 Apr. 1/4: Something told him to examine / The condition of his pockets, his voluminous ‘skyrockets’.
1900		Sidney Truth 7 Jan. in Baker (1945) 269: I ’ad a brown I’m afloat, a green Jacky Lancashire in me lef-’and sky, and tan daisy roots.
1900		E.W. Rogers [perf. Harry Freeman] ‘Four-p'ny-a'p'ny Banquet’ 🎵 So as I'd sixpence in my ‘sky’ I thought I'd have a dinner.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 25 May 3/4: ‘I had over fifteen quid in my skyrocket’ .
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/7: It’s not because I’m ‘short,’ / For my ‘sky’s’ not light.
1909		‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/2: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] A sky is a pocket.
1910		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 3 Aug. 4/1: Putting his 'German' ('German band' hand) into his 'sky' ('sky rocket' pocket) he finds he has left his 'I'm so funny' (money) at home.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Protean Policeman’ Sporting Times 26 Nov. 1/3: Some ‘nuts’ from Pincher’s Alley, out for trade, / Were just holding up a toff, and clearing his ‘skyrockets’ out.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 22 May 2nd sect. 12/5: Guarantee I’d rat a sky-rocket slicker than any of them old-timers.-Pickpocket Pete.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 July 3rd sect.17/8: Now the meanest coolie thinks himself as high as the Caucasian, and is openly insulting when it doesn’t actually touch his pocket, or whatever is the equivalent for ‘sky’ in their fifthy garments.
1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 274: He must be fly enough to pipe off a man at a glance, to tell whether he’s got a brightful of posh or only his kip-money in his sky.
1924		Mail (Adelaide) 16 Feb. 1/4: A few of the ways that clothes are referred to:— Pockets— Sky rockets.
1925		E. Jervis 25 Years in Six Prisons 16: I talked to him of his [...] ‘yellow clock and slangs’ (gold watch and chain) in his ‘sky’ (sky-rocket’ rhymes with ‘pocket’).
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 98: No sense in hanging around in the West End with a cane and Christ knows what else in my sky-rocket.
1938		J.B. Booth Sporting Times 89: An’, s’elp me, I’d ’ardly got a touch-me in my sky.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 61: ’E [...] picked up the bitser paper, an’ stuck ’em all in ’is sky-rocket.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 116: Upon my blinking sam, [...] If I ain’t been and gone and left ’em in me sky again.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 294: He may [...] inquire if anyone has got a linen draper in his sky-rocket (newspaper in his pocket).
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 19: I’ll shove them in your sky-rocket.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 41: I fumbled in my sky and took out my driver’s licence.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 64: One of ’em digs a coin out of his sky-rocket.
1979		R. Barker Fletcher’s Book of Rhy. Sl. 27: A rich four-by-twoish merchant [...] put his hand into his sky rocket.
1981		B. Hoy ‘Uncle George’ in Wright Cockney Dial. and Sl. (1981) 108: There wasn’t no trips to Majorca / Wiv good bees an’ ’oney to spend / Yer’d be livin’ it ’igh / Wiv two bob in yer sky / On a charrybang bahnd for Sahfend.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 253: Sky rocket (n) pocket.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 15: [They] always managed to have plenty of folding stuff in their ‘sky rockets’.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Sky rocket. 2. Rhyming slang for pocket.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 87: ‘A hundred what?’ ‘Smackeroos. In readies. In your back sky-rocket.’.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 205: Now that he had a few quid in his sky he was in too much of a hurry.
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: I does the deal, slips the green in the sky rocket and the ned slopes off.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 62: This money usually went into the bookie’s pocket or, in rhyming slang, ‘sky rocket’.
2021		Betoota-isms 251: ‘Can’t for the life of me find my wallet, I swear it was there in my left Skyrocket’.

In phrases

dive into one’s sky (v.)

to put one’s hand in one’s pocket, esp. to remove money.

a.1889		Sporting Times n.p.: Then Uncle Ben dived into his sky and brought up a nice bright jubilee half-dollar, and little Willie went off to the confectioner’s singing [B&L].
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

get down someone’s sky (v.)

(UK police/und.) to rob (in the street).

1950

P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 190/2: Get down his Kick or Sky. To rob a person.