peanut adj.
(orig. US) second-rate, ‘small-time’.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Memoirs of a Water Drinker II 25: They were your pea-nut fellows, I suppose. | |
 | Life in N.Y. 5 Oct. n.p.: His acting is indentably of the ‘pea-nut’ school. | |
| N.Y. Tribune9 May 6/5: Perhaps [...] he will explain the precise significance of muck-a-muck [...] stating whether [...] ‘trickster’ and ‘peanut politician’ are among its synonyms. | |
| Wash. Standard (Olympia, WA) 5 Sept. 3/2: Three ‘skips’ in a week is something unsual [...] but the principals were doing only a ‘peanut’ business. | |
| S.F. Call 13 Mar. 6/4: Our little peanut Mayor [...] and his pigeon-brained [...] School Board. | |
| Rose in the Ring 203: I suppose that peanut aristocrat friend of yours has told you it ain’t swell or proper to wear tights [DA]. | |
| ‘Omaha Slim’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 117: Votin’ don’ do no good. That’s peanut stuff—retail pennyante. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Ulysses 406: Come on, you dog-gone, bullnecked, beetlebrowed, hogjowled, peanutbrained, weaseleyed four flushers, false alarm and excess baggage! | |
| ‘Flies on the Ceiling’ in Detective-Dragnet May 🌐 It suddenly occurred to her peanut mind that she’d like to stop a minute and telephone a friend. | |
| Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 203: Hell, I thought he sold reefers [...] With the right protection behind him. But hell, that’s a small-time racket. A peanut grift. | |
| ‘Students of the Assassin’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 191: You could stay in the peanut division only so long – then you had to move up. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Horse Under Water (1976) 78: Nerts to those Average Guys [...] they’re just a set of peanut-circuit nogoodniks. | |
| diary in Elkins Heart of a Man (1973) 42: I still had my peanut (standby) gyro. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | How to Shoot Friends 113: I didn’t know the husband, but I did know the peanut, two-bob gangster he was in partnership with. | |
| You Got Nothing Coming 88: I’ll bust a cap upside yo nappy little haid. I crack you little peanut self! | |
| Squeeze Me 18: The man wore [...] a peanut microphone clipped to his lapel. |
In compounds
(US) underhand, clandestine politicking, aimed at the securing of minor personal gains; thus peanut politician, one who indulges in such tactics.
| N.Y. Mail and Express 27 May n.p.: If the Governor would consent not to play pea-nut politics [R]. | |
| Eve. Bulletin (Honolulu) 3 Aug. 4/1: People may be indulging in peanut politics. | |
| Commoner (Lincoln, NE) 16 Dec. 11/2: Its only hope [...] is to utterly cast out the peanut politicians and the bogus democrats. | |
| N.Y. Eve. Post 4 Feb. n.p.: They used to talk about ‘peanut politics’ at Albany, but a peanut is too large and respectable an object to yield a comparison for yesterday’s action of the State Senate [DA]. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Oct. 13/1: Hear the tale of Tincanberra [...] / Where the peanut politicians / Strangled young Australia’s city, / Slew and buried Public Honor / With their rotten reputations! | |
| Morn. Tulsa Dly. World (OK) 4 Apr. 11/1: He is not a bribe taker or a peanut politician. | |
| Dict. Amer. Sl. |