Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./US Und.) the best-performing prostitute in a brothel.

1914		Sport (Adelaide) 12 June 4/1: Mrs B’s star boarder, N.P., was seen having a drink with the flies the other evening.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.

see sense 7 above.

see separate entries.

1. one who ogles celebrities.

1831

Satirist (London) 6 Nov. 245/2: The chesnut-cab, chesnut-horse chesnut-harness, and chesnut Tom-foolery of the Earl and Countess of Harrington, is the theme of the star-gazers [...] What asses some people make of themselves!

2. (US) a womaniser, a prostitute's client [he walks the streets at night, staring at the girls].

1842

Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 17 Dec. n.p.: The next most important of our ‘star gazers’ is Wm T. [...] who, so soon as the sable goddess draw her invisible mantle over the earth [is] prepared to accomplish such deeds as would cause the heart of the sensitive and virtuous to shudder with horror.

(N.Z. prison) a white-collar criminal who has stolen a great deal of money.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 177/1: star behind bars n. a white collar criminal, esp. one in prison on a huge fraud charge, e.g. the embezzlement of millions of dollars.

(N.Z. prison) prison, the image is of an inmate looking out at the night sky.

1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 35: stars behind bars n. Prison.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 177/1: stars behind bars n. prison [from the inmate’s point of view: when he looks out at night, the stars can be seen behind the bars of his cell window.

(US black) a pimp’s favourite prostitute.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

1. the erect penis.

1980

Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 195: A stand or a hardon is an erection or stargazer, which can also be a hedge-whore.

2. a horse that persistently throws its head up; thus star-gazing adj.

1654		E. Gayton Pleasant Notes I v 17: The Lackey had laid upon his back so, that he was spoyled for a star-gazer.
1768		E. Gayton Festivous Notes I v 31: He was so bruised by the mule-driver when he lay on the ground, that he was spoiled for a star-gazer.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1801		‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 80: Star Gazers, [...] horses holding their heads too high in the air.
1945		(con. WWI) L. Nason ‘Among the Trumpets’ in Mason Fighting American (1945) 460: That’s a great way to treat an officer and an ally. Give him a star-gazin’ goat [horse] like that!

3. a country prostitute who plies her trade in the open air or under hedges.

1707		N. Ward London Terraefilius I 27: He [...] peeps more narrowly into every Woman’s Face, than a Moorfields Stargazer does into an Eclipse.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		D. Carey Life in Paris 122: The peaceable street-walkers, including even the fair star-gazers of the night, retired in dismay.
1828		Sussex Advertiser 14 Apr. 4/3: [We] soon passed a long string of gaggers, priggers, Adam Tylers, fancy coves, autum [sic] morts, gammoners, sweetners, uprightmen, bully huffs, lully priggers, star gazers, and coves of all sorts.
1833		Satirist (London) 10 Feb. 469/2: Venus is our evening planet, / And star-gazers often scan it.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 86: star-gazers Prostitutes; street-walkers.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 80: Star Gazers, night street walkers.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 195: A […] stargazer, which can also be a hedge-whore – that is one who goes stargazing on her back and receives an Anglo-Indian back. In other words, she has done a rural.

1. a state of unconsciousness.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Jun. 24/1: He was prone twice afterwards and was star-gazing when ‘corners’ sounded.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 24/2: [C]atching ‘Cocker’ at some ‘gallery play,’ he swung the right with piston-rod like precision and sent Tweedie star-gazing.

2. (Aus.) love-making (not necessarily intercourse) in the open air.

1913

Sport (Adelaide) 2 Aug. 9/2: They Say [...] That Bill P. and Johnny S. were up on the Dewdrop lookout one night with the two little tabbies stargazing.

3. (US) guesswork.

1950

R. Starnes Another Mug for the Bier 153: Perhaps if the antidotes had been applied instantly they would have saved her. It’s star-gazing.

the open air; esp. as sleep in the star hotel v., to sleep in the open air.

1904		West Australian (Perth) 20 July 8/8: The benefit to the country was obvious, but to our party, who had to sleep in the ‘star hotel’ without a tent, that which benefited the country was a decided discomfort.
1913		Bunbury Herald (WA) 3 June 8/2: To advocate the reading of bad books [...] is like saying it is better to sleep in a stuffy room full of disease germs, and risk illness, than to have a roof at all when the whole range of the ‘Star Hotel’ with its health giving atmosphere is available .
1925		Gosford Times (NSW) 11 June 5/1: We had just comfortably got to sleep under ‘The Stars Hotel,’ when a regular deluge of rain began to fall, and the two tied up horses began to try and tie themselves in knots .
1928		Northern Standard (Darwin) 7 Sept. 28/4: And there on the wide earths face / You make your bed, sleep ill or well, / A guest at the blinking Star Hotel.
1938		Press (Canterbury) 2 Apr. 18: ‘To be a dag at,’ ‘to put across a beaut,’ ‘to jerry to,’ ‘ducks’ breakfast,’ ‘to float up to,’ ‘to blow up to,’ ‘to sleep in the Star Hotel’ need no explanation.
1939		Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 4 Mar. 3/1: Nothing has been done of recent times to relieve the pressure for accommodation. Many families, as well as single men are sleeping at the ‘Star Hotel’ (under the stars.
1947		Dly News (Perth) 30 May 11/2: Asked by a policeman for his address a man replied ‘The Star Hotel.’ This, it was explained in Perth Police Court today, meant ‘in the open air’.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 240/1: star hotel – outdoors. have a room at the star hotel – ‘put up’ out on the park bench, the ground or what have you.
1988		(ref. to 1930s) McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 104/1: sleep in the star hotel open-air slumber under a clear sky, in tramps’ words, c.1932.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 191: sleep in the star hotel/starlight hotel/star and moon hotel Open-air sleep.

(UK/US tramp) sleeping in the open air.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

of a woman, to have sex in the open air.

c.1750		‘The Cuckold’ in Tom-Tit Pt 3 2: The Captain upon the Sea prays for fair weather, / Whilst his wife and the mast sail both together, / Star-gazing on her Back at the Moon’s motion, / Whilst the poor Cuckold is at his Devotion.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 26: Had an assig. with a Quicunque Vult—a snug little cinder-gabbler. [...] winter caterwauling cursed unhealthy;—too cold to study astronomy.
1834		‘The Three Degrees of a Rake’s Life’ in Flare-Up Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 276: Star gazing is all the go, / With peasant, peer and commoner.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 195: A […]stargazer, which can also be a hedge-whore – that is one who goes stargazing on her back and receives an Anglo-Indian back. In other words, she has done a rural.

to experience dizziness as a result of a blow to the head.

1855

T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature I 117: Mrs. Snell boxed your ears till your eyes shot stars.

used to refer to someone’s flies being undone.

1995

A. Higgins Donkey’s Years 153: Thornley whispered, ‘Star in the east,’ glancing down at my fly-buttons undone.

see separate entry.

(US campus) a course in basic astronomy.

1982

W. Safire What’s The Good Word? 300: More recent examples [of nicknames for courses] are astronomy’s ‘Stars for Studs,’ art’s ‘Nudes for Dudes,’ psychology’s ‘Nuts and Sluts,’ European civilization’s ‘Plato to NATO,’ anthropology’s ‘Monkeys to Junkies,’ and comparative religion’s ‘Gods for Clods’.