Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a fair.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 20: Burk will show you where you may buss a Couple of Prads, and fence them at Abingdon Gaff; that is, Burk, will show you a Couple of Horses that you may steal, and sell them at Abingdon Fair.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving 5: In a fair or market, where there is a throng of people, we say, Come Culls, shall us Pike to the Push or Gaff.
1791		‘A Pickpocket’s Song’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 20: I and my blowen to the gaff / Straightway did repair.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: gaff A fair. The drop coves maced the joskins at the gaff; the ring-droppers cheated the countrymen at the fair.
1821		D. Haggart Autobiog. 14: The whole three of us [...] went to Lockerby to attend the gaff.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1934		P. Allingham Cheapjack 302: There was something about the gaff-ground which attracted the show-people even when there was no business to be done.
1959		F. Norman Stand on Me 7: I had been working on a fair gaff for a few summers.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 94: ‘I’ve got the best flash in the whole gaff’.
2006		(ref. to 1940s) D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 312: The bones o’ more than forty years ago [...] My family’d follow Mercy Watts’s old man gaff-catchin’ round the Vale of Evesham.

2. a cheap music hall or theatre; also attrib.

1791		‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 18: A playhouse [...] gaff.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1838		J. Grant Sketches in London 160: Penny Theatres, or ‘Gaffs,’ as they are usually called.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 311: The only subject Billy Fortune could talk about was penny theatres. He was a constant frequenter of gaffs, and had a peculiar knowledge of the performers at them.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 68: Every low district of London has its theatre, or at least a humble substitute for one, called in vulgar parlance a ‘gaff’. A gaff is a place in which, according to the strict interpretation of the term, stage plays may not be represented. The actors of a drama may not correspond in colloquy, only in pantomime.
1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 500: I used to go to the Brit. (Britannia theatre) in Hoxton, or the gaff (penny music-room) in Shoreditch.
1880		R. Rowe Picked Up in the Streets 20: We went next into a ‘penny gaff.’ Two floors of a house had been knocked into one to form a concert-room.
1882		Dly Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 1 Nov. 3/3: The detective [...] pointed out to the newspaper-man [...] a ‘gaff’, a theatre.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/2: I got the thimble to church and fenced it for three cooter, and four deaners for lush for the cross coves and their blowers. We went to the gaff that night and tried to work, but spied a keen-eyed cop marking, and we guyed.
1884		Sporting Times 5 Jan. 5/1: The usual exchange of codding enquiries as to [...] gaff business.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 110: Him as dances at the music-halls, gaffs, and theatres.
1894		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 27 Sept. 1/4: SONGS FOR THE GAFF / (By the Subaltern) / In the Shiny.
1895		Mirror of Life 19 Jan. 11/4: It is all very well to issue advertisements similar to the old gaff productions: ‘Shall a British sailor stand by and see a shipmate in distress? Avast there, you lubbers’.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 27 Jan. 2/8: The door-keeper [...] let in all the nondescript men and boys always to be found hanging around the entrance to any ‘gaff’.
1898		Regiment 30 Apr. 79/2: [of a regimental review] The funny-man is generally the leading star at the regimental ‘gaff.’ He can sing the latest comic song, has all the newest jokes off pat, and [...] regularly brings down the house.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 3 Jan. 4/4: A band of musicians who wouldn’t pass muster at a Whitechapel ‘gaff’.
1905		Aus. Town and Country Jrnl 3 May 16/4: The most curious slang in the world is that of South Africa. [...] If he suspects that the play at the ‘gaff’ (theatre) is poor, he is ‘dead off’ going.
1908		A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 289: An’ you are ole Beaky as travelled along of the gaff.
1924		Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Dec. 13/2: At Lamb’s gaff in Euston-road we used to have two plays running at the same time.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 101: Gaff: A very common old slang term for an Entertainment, Song-Song or Concert.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 295: If I ’ad my way I’d turn the lights up, play ‘God Save the King’, and give everybody a complimentary ticket for another show. Shut the gaff for tonight.

3. a show, an exhibition.

1821		D. Haggart Life 22: We stopped at this place two days, waiting to attend the gaff [F&H].
c.1921		T. Norman Penny Showman 76: The instigator of disorderly scenes at his gaff.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 123: As the gaff is all sold out, it is naturally a terrible predicament.
1958		F. Norman in Sun. Graphic 10 Aug. in Norman’s London (1969) 25: I went into one of those amusement gaffs where they have a load of slot machines.

4. a brothel.

1834

‘The Slap-Up Blowing’ in Flash Chaunter 25: At all the gaffs she is well known, / The smartest girl upon the town, / Her lowest price is half-a-crown.

5. a prison.

1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 227: Can you put me up to this other gaff.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 196: Prisoners who are rounded up in this particular section of the country [...] are usually transferred to a larger gaff after a while.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] [I] walked with him up to his cell, him wobbling all over the gaff.
1998		J. Hoskison Inside 109: In the old days we’d have just thrown them off the fuckin’ landings, but now they run the gaffs.
2000		Sun. Times News Rev. 12 Mar. 2: ‘Aitken’s got the cleanest bogs in the gaff,’ they used to say.

6. a place, an area, e.g. a street.

1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 53: Alight [...] Impossible! D’you want to blow the gaff up?
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 81: Risky gaff, Blackpool [...] For real.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 127: Lookin at Hornsey in the rain. Just cars an houses. All just cars an houses. Hardly no point gracin the gaff with a name.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 193: Australia. Now there’s a gaff I wouldn’t mind dipping my toes into.
2019		A. Killilea Boyo-wulf at https://boyowulf.home.blog 20 Mar. 🌐 [A] young fella bating around the gaff, sent from the lord himself [...] to help the locals.

7. a house or shop, a home.

1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 7: Well, me an’ the Handshaker gets a peek at him goin’ into the gaff [i.e. an ice-cream parlor].
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 114: He liked the Gaff. His Shack was to be a Bird.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 62: Other slang words used by modern bandits are: Gaff – a shop.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 64: A top-storey gaff.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 11: The gaff was a fair-sized house near a golf course somewhere in the Home Counties.
1958		F. Norman in Vogue Oct. in Norman’s London (1969) 28: Usually one of the slag has got a gaff and he puts up all the others.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 9: I moved out of this gaff where I was staying.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 249: The filth [...] was sitting there like he owned the gaff.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 109: He says he don’t half fancy taking me home / back to my gaff.
1998		M. Newall ‘Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight’ in Indep. Weekend Rev. 26 Dec. 1: What a gaffe! Coquetayle barre, Faery lyghts.
2005		Guardian Society 13 July 🌐 The police used to invade too many gaffs, so no one likes doing it [i.e. drug-dealing] from their house.
2006		C. Marriner Southern Style 161: Didn’t even own ’is own gaff no more.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 67: She’s finally got that new Housing Assocation gaff in the South Side.
2015		410 ‘Kick Down Doors’ 🎵 Bare bluss tings all over the gaff.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 23: ‘How are you with tiling?’ Jimmy asked. ‘I did the bathroom of my own gaff’.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 4: The actual gaff eventually comes into view. It’s some pile of bricks.
2021		Central Cee ‘Tension’ 🎵 Tell the council that we don't need that flat [...] got the brand new gaff.

8. a club.

1909		Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 8 May 3/1: ‘I put the thing out of my mind before night and went ter the gaff.’.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 74: The Canary Club is a very high-class gaff where the food department is really above par.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 254: There must be worse gaffs to stumble on than this.
1999		Observer Rev. 1 Aug. 16: Larging it over the blackjack table at John Aspinall’s gaff.
2000		Guardian Guide 13–19 May 31: This gaff plays host to some of the slickest dresses around.

9. (UK Und.) a warehouse.

1930

(con. 1910s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 47: A chap I knew [...] was ‘doing a woollen gaff’ (robbing a cloth warehouse).

10. a job, an occupation.

1926		(con. WWI) ‘Sapper’ Shorty Bill 158: Now in your gaff – teaching figures an’ all that sort of thing – mistakes don’t matter.
1961		H. Ellison Rockabilly (1963) 132: He won’t last past forty; the gaff’ll kill him.

11. in attrib. use of sense 9.

2017

hubpages.com ‘Roadman Slang 4 Jun. 🌐 Gaff - relating to a house, e.g. ‘a gaff motive’ (a house party).

12. a dance hall.

1933

‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 32: In other words it was a ‘gaff’ (a slum-dance hall).

13. (UK Und.) a place chosen for a robbery.

1935		G. Ingram Cockney Cavalcade 45: Well, I’ve got a ‘gaff’ I want to do [...] ‘Where?’ [...] ‘In Dalston.’.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 190/2: Gaff. Place singled out for robbery.

14. (US Und.) a crooked casino or similar place designed to fleece innocent victims [however the root may be in the cheating, rather than the place: note senses 2-5 of gaff n.³ ; ].

[1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 242: gaff [...] a meeting of gamblers for the purpose of play, any public place of amusement is liable to be called the gaff, when spoken of in flash company who know to what it alludes].
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 6: One o’ these days I’m gonna do that gaff.
1946		S. Jackson An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 92: A thriving ‘gaff’ in Soho is now being run by a notorious Dartmoor graduate.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 76/1: Gaff, n. 1. (Carnival) A special game or concession crookedly operated.

15. (also gaffe) a hotel.

1938		G. Greene Brighton Rock (1943) 176: This gaff stinks.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 22: I reside in a tiny gaff that is called a hotel.
1959		B. Naughton ‘The Little Welsh Girl’ in Late Night on Watling Street (1969) 135: She said she’d she’d go off and get a gaff for the night.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 244: This is Marbella’s poshest gaff, Vicki.
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 81: Two-thirty at my gaffe. The Brobury. Ask for the Tower Suite.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 11: What, burn the fuckin gaff down? [...] If I could get insured.

16. a bar.

1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 195: The first thing I done was to go down Third Avenue to Joe Daly’s gaff (speakeasy).
1996		(con. 1970) G. Moxley Danti-Dan in McGuinness Dazzling Dark (1996) I vi: Bottles of whiskey all over the gaff.
2023		M. Herron Secret Hours 351: [H]e couldn’t fail to notice that this wasn’t a gaff where the house wine came in jugs.

17. a restaurant.

1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 25: It [tea] was so hot that he couldn’t drink it fast enough to suit him. He’d like to get out of this gaff as quick as he could.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 75: She is dealing them off the arm in a little eating gaff on Seventh Avenue.
1981		A. Payne ‘You Need Hands’ in Minder [TV script] 24: There’s this new gaff up West called ‘Au Revoir Tristesse’.
1999		Guardian G2 16 July 6: The first of Michelin-starred [...] cheaper gaffs.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 3: We’ve just had a nice bit of lunch in an Italian gaff offa Marylebone High Street.

18. (UK Und.) a prostitute’s room, where she works, but usu. does not live.

1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice 20: I pay a Bengali eight [pounds] a week for this little gaff [Ibid.] 30: The gaff landlords and the escort-businesses that handle call-girls.
1980		‘Dan Kavanagh’ Duffy 110: At her gaff he dropped ten pounds into a little woven basket on a dresser and got on with it.