Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see Ada from Decatur n.

(US) the black area of a town or city.

1874		Tunkhannock Republican (PA) 6 May 3/4: ‘Little Africa’ was shaken to its very centre [...] on the occasion of a grand dance at the house of Chauncey Wright. The ‘boys’ did not behave very well.
1874		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 18 Aug. 4/4: The central portion of Thompson street, New York, known as little Africa, on account of the number of negroes who inhabit [...] the street.
1875		Sedalia Democrat (Sedalia, MS) 8 Oct. 4/3: It consists of a town of some three or four humndred colored people , and it rejoices in several euphenious and classic appellations, such as Lincolnville, Niggertown, Darkeytown, and Little Africa.
1885		Dallas Morning News 25 Nov. 6: The French colony [...] is situated below Washington Square [NYC], in and about Bleecker street and very near to ‘Little Africa,’ where the colored people reside.
1891		Phila. Inquirer (PA) 31 May 4/8: [O]n Bainbridge street in ‘Little Africa’ had been a funeral from one of the many homes of colored people [and] a group of pickaninnies [...] repeated the performance.
1900		N.Y. Times 12 July 9/5: [headline] Disinfecting Corps of Health Department in ‘Little Africa’ / Colored Tenants in Houses Give No Trouble.
1910		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 6 July 19/3: Chicago, July 6 — ‘Little Africa’ [...] was so boisterous Monday night after news of Jack Johnson’s victory.
1920		Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 5 Dec. A7/1: [headline] Uplift Work in Little Africa / Colored people Receive Good Measure of Attention.
1932		Delaware Co. Dly Times (Chester, PA) 1 Aug. 6/3: ‘Little Africa,’ as the northwestern section of the Borough of manhattan is now known (the older New Yorkers still call it Harlem).
1942		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 20 Mar. 2/5: [of Lousiville, KY] ‘I represent more than 200,000 people in my district, including a section known as little Africa.
1954		Courier-Jrnl (Louisville, KY) 30 May sect. 4 6/6: A large amount of vacant land, including many cvaguely titled shacks and shanties, is available in ‘Little Africa’ in Southwest Louisville.

see separate entry.

(US black) a child, a young teenager.

1971

R.T. Sale Blackstone Rangers 46: ‘It’s them little bits,’ Cliff said. I did not understand. ‘Kids—these little things, thirteen, fourteen years old. They the hit men’.

1. (US Und.) police files, kept secret.

1929		C.G. Givens ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 133: little black book, n.phr. Secret police records.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. the volume in which every bachelor supposedly keeps lists of available and willing women; also fig. as any address book.

1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 24: The heat working off my little black book you know, all those numbers.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 170: Joyless bed-hopping? Tell that to the hundreds of conquests noted in the little black book I now liked to keep.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 140: People of your type know people who know people [...] I want to see your little black book.

a quart jug.

1829

Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 55: Come here daddy Guillotin; a little black father, four year old, for eight mag (A four quart jug for eight sous).

(orig. US) a coy euph. for a men’s lavatory.

1936		Indianapolis News 26 Mar. sect. 2 7/4: The tinest member of the troupe was not quite housebroken [...] so before every performance he was escorted to the little boys’ room.
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 155: It burns me to haveta shell out five francs to some old doll every time I take a notion to relieve myself in the little boys’ room.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 246: I am returning from The Lulu or Johny or Little Boy’s Room.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 152: Excuse me, where’s the little boys’ room?
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 343: I excused myself to leave for the little boys’ room.
1988		J. McDonald Dict. of Obscenity etc.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 495: We had better hurry along to the little boys’ room.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 33: Scuse me, the little boys’ is this a-way.

an affectionate term of address to a small boy; or a term of abuse.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Little breeches, a familar appellation.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1841		W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 337: What! you mean Little-breeches, the skipper, what I call Mounseer?
1871		Bradford Obs. 5 Jan. 6/3: We looked in [...] and thar sot Little Breeches [...] As pert as ever you see.
1903		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:v 299: little breeches, n.pl. Epithet of a small boy.

1. (US gambling) the point of three in craps dice or a three in cards.

1935

Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 140: A frenzied slapping of cards on the table. ‘Ha! we caught little britches!’ (low) ‘Pull off again!’.

2. see little breeches

see separate entry.

see brown eye n. (1)

see separate entry.

a young chimney-sweep.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Little Clergyman, a Chimney sweeper.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

the penis.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

young women who are involved in some way with the stage.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 169/1: Little deers (Soc. Anglo-American). Young women – generally associated, or declaring themselves to be associated, with the stage. New spelling of ‘ dears’ to form a feminine to stags.

(US gambling) in craps, the point of four.

1674		C. Cotton Compleat Gamester 170: [of Hazzard] Four and Five to Seven is judged to have the worst on’t, because Four (called by the Tribe of Nickers little Dick-Fisher) and Five have but two chances, Trey Ace and two Deuces, or Trey Deuce and Quarter Ace.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Little Dick, a 4 in craps.
2004		‘Animated Dominoes, Dice’ at Old and Sold 🌐 Some of the best-known nicknames in dice are: [...] Little Dick, Little Joe, Little Joe from Baltimore, Little Joe from Kokomo: the total of four.

see separate entry.

(Aus.) a regular per diem payment.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Feb. 12/3: The publican must take his chance; / The church some one must pay, / You know the parson’s got to get / His ‘little eight’ a day. [Ibid.] 28 Feb. 12/1: Droop not; for, till the fatal fray, / You’ll get your ‘little eight’ a day; / Your rum and beer to warm each heart, / And not a single cent to part.

1. (US black) a loud-mouthed white woman.

1994

C. Major Juba to Jive.

2. (US) used to reinforce a negative statement [f. sense 1].

1953

L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 368: Oh sure, the Commandant is watching this outfit . . . bullcrap, little Eva.

(US gambling) the point of four in craps dice.

1965

J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 6: Little Four has little going for him.

(orig. Can./Aus.) menstruation; thus my little friend has come, I am menstruating.

1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1999		J. Randall ‘A Visit from Aunt Rose’ in Verbatim XXV:1 Winter 25: Generally the period takes on the identity of a friend or relative, usually female, who comes for a visit: my friend, my little friend, my aunt, my grandmother, Mother Nature.

a coy euph. for the ladies’ lavatory.

c.1934		in P. Smith Letter from My Father (1978) 323: Being in the ‘little girls room’ with a female.
1946		W.P. McGivern ‘Manchu Terror’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 27/1: The little girl’s room is up there.
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 79: She kept saying these very corny, boring things, like calling the can the ‘little girls’ room’.
1967		J. Orton Diaries (1986) 18 Dec. 102: I [...] woke up to hear an American woman saying ‘I’m going to the ‘little girls’.’.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 49: ‘Going to Mary’s room’ or ‘going to visit Mary’ or ‘aunty’ are examples of a range of euphemisms used by some women [...] The ‘little girls’ room’ is still heard of.
1987		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 5: LGR – little girls’ room.
2001		Tom of Cheyenne ‘Flo Flea’s Wild Ride’ BarnYarns 🌐 Well, the man’s old lady was just coming from the little girl’s room when she saw her old man get whomped.

see separate entries.

(Irish) a small bottle of whisky.

2001

G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Little green man (phr): a small bottle of Jameson’s.

the human brain.

1920		A. Christie Mysterious Affair at Styles (1954) 145: ‘The affair must all be unravelled from within.’ He tapped his forehead. ‘These little grey cells. It is “up to them” – as you say over here.’.
1930		Hull Dly Mail 23 June 11/3: ‘It would seem that derangement of the little grey cells is not confined to one person in this room,’ commented Dr Phillippe.
1937		A. Christie Murder in the Mews (1954) 36: I always thought it was the little grey cells of the brain.
1946		Post 18 Aug. 8/3: How many seconds might be expected to elapse before the Lieutentant-Colonel’s little grey cells began to work.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 30: Being fairly well fixed with the little grey cells.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 106: Ballantine has the balls and the little gray cells.
1980		‘John le Carré’ Smiley’s People 231: Just working it, you see, George [...] Just getting my ducks in a row. Haven’t got your little grey cells.

(US) the penis.

2013

E. Hagelstein ‘Neighbor’s Dog’ in ThugLit Aug. [ebook] My little head doesn't do as much of the thinking for me as it used to [...] so now I was able to avoid doing something stupid.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

in bingo, the number one.

1936

(con. 1900s) F. Richards Old Soldier Sahib (1965) 70: No. 1 – Little Jimmy, or Kelly’s Eye.

(Aus. juv.) urination.

1963–74

B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 19: Bazzie did little jobs in the road.

(US gambling) the point of four in craps dice, esp. as two twos.

1890		J.P. Quinn Fools of Fortune 540: The quaint expressions of [...] ‘little Joe,’ ‘big Dick from Boston,’ and the like.
1897		Ade Pink Marsh (1963) 219: I had ’em comin’ good, but little Joe use me bad, an’ somebody get in hosses.
1919		Crowe & Chase Pat Crowe, Aviator 87: You probably recall the thrilling adventures of Snake Eyes, Little Joe, Phoebe Snow, Ada from Decatur, Richard the Great, and Box Cars.
1921		Truth (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 9/4: In the language of the [craps] players four is ‘Little Joe’.
1927		Bridgeport (CT) Telegram 21 Nov. 4/5: De dice am clickin’ so fast you’d think you was in a telegraph office, and Nappy makes ebery point on de dice and some dat wasn’t on ’em – Little Joe, Feber in de South, Five and a Half, Sixty Days, Two Months and a Half, Eighter From Decatur, Eight and Three Quarters, Three Boxcars and the Caboose.
1937		Wash. Post 3 oct. B8/6: Two is ‘Snake-eyes,’ and four is ‘Little Joe.’.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 11: There it was, Little Joe or Phoebe, Big Dick or Eighter from Decatur, double trey the hard way.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 26: Little Joe for poppa, once, dice.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 139: Eighter from Decatur. Little Joe from Kokomo. Box-cars and two big sixes came up and back around.
1958		Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 202: 4 – Little Joe.
1961		J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling 684: Little Joe or Little Joe from Kokomo – Craps: the point four.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 6: Joe, of course, is the lowest point on the dice. Above it are Phoebe Five (a hard gal to know), Easy Six (three combinations) [etc.].
1968		‘Richard Hooker’ M*A*S*H (2004) 133: ‘The Duke’s trying to make a four.’ [...] ‘Little Joe,’ Duke begged the dice.
1993		Ice Cube ‘It Was a Good Day’ 🎵 Shake em up, shake em up, shake em up, shake em [...] do’ lil Joe I picked up the cash flow .
2001		Word for the Wise 31 Aug. [US radio script] Next on our countdown is a roll of five [...] Then comes four, with the mysterious nickname Little Joe.
2004		‘Animated Dominoes, Dice’ at Old and Sold 🌐 Some of the best-known nicknames in dice are: [...] Little Dick, Little Joe, Little Joe from Baltimore.

(drugs) cocaine.

1992

Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 49: Little Joe in the Snow [...] Cocaine.

(N.Z. drugs) a cannabis cigarette made from two papers.

2002

Stoners’ Dict. 🌐 Little John [NZ] a two-paper joint.

(US) the pea or similar object used in the shell game.

1844		N.Y. Daily Trib. 7 June 2/5: One verdant [...] lost $290 and his gold watch on the ‘little joker,’ [...] but . . . there was very little sympathy expressed for one fool enough to risk his money on the thimbles.
1859		Calif. Police Gazette 16 Jan. 3/2: We are of the opinion that there was some hocus pocus in the case, but we did not see where the ‘little joker’ was, at least not closely enough to swear to it.

(gambling) the point of four in craps dice.

1919		A. Baer in Atlanta Constitution 23 Nov. A2/4: The girls have their own labels for the points. Four is Little Josephine.
1936		R. Chandler Notebks (1976) 59: 4 Little Josie 5 Five in the South.

see under kinchin n.

(US black) an attractive black woman.

1958		Joe Du’Ambra [song title] Come Back A-Little Mama.
1961		Roy Orbison [song title] Mean Little Mama.
1967		Aaron Neville ‘Sweet Little Mama’ 🎵 There’s a new girl in my neighborhood / She’s a sweet little thing, she looks real good / She gets everybody’s attention around / They call her sweet little mama.
1994		C. Major Juba to Jive 286: Little mama n. (1800s–1950s) a black girl, usually attractive.

see separate entry.

the stomach.

1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 7 Dec. 6/5: Al. sent in some stifl rips to Blackmore’s ‘Little Mary’ and made him wince.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 8/8: So if you’d your little Mary / Give a gastronomic treat [etc.].
1934		Central Qld Herald (Rockhampton) 6 Sept. 12/2: Tummy, bingey, bread-basket, Little Mary for stomach.

see small meat under small adj.

(W.I.) a precocious young girl.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 31: Little-miss big young girl with Lolita type precocity.

(US) in poker, a game in which the low spade splits the pot.

1979

Maledicta III:2 170: nigger, little n Poker game in which low spade splits the pot.

(US) the penis.

1953

S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 184: The girl makes my little one stand up. [...] And salute!

(US) a pretty young woman.

1920

R.J. Fry Salvation of Jemmy Sl. II i: I got a date tonight with the swellest little jane in this town — a regular good little pal — a humdinger — a peach!

see Phoebe n.

the clitoris.

1980

Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 1834: Some terms that have survived this ignorance include little man in the boat (or boy in the boat), little ploughman.

1. (US tramp) a dump truck.

1930

‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 209: Little red wagon — a dump wagon.

2. (US black, also red wagon) a problem, a difficulty; usu. in the phr. that’s your little red wagon.

1924		Yazoo Herald (MS) 30 Dec. 3/1: ‘One of the men at the plant got arrested’ [...] ‘That wasn’t your little red wagon,’ I announced rather cooly.
1932		R. Fisher Conjure-Man Dies (1992) 20: ‘Why’ and ‘who’ — those’ll be your little red wagon. ‘How’ right now is mine.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 284: DeWitt was too busy hauling that little red wagon of piled-up woes.
1965		(con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 18: That’s just your little red wagon then!
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 33: Little red wagon, n. Social problem — Living in Watts is your little wagon.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 17: I don’t believe you got no five kids, neither, but if you do that’s your red wagon.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 210: Okay, tiger, it’s your red wagon.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 220: If you go out there and git a big belly, it’ll be your lil’ red wagon.

see under school n.

(US) an insignificant person.

1931		A.B. Reeve Golden Age Crime 115: The millennium of Prohibition has passed for the Little Shots [DA].
1938		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 15 Jan. 17/4: A mob of little shots motivated by the dollars of a big shot.
1949		Time 19 Sept. 11/1: Maragon ‘continued to live like a little shot in a lower-middle-brow home in McLean, Va.’ [DA].
1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] [T]he big-shots and the little shots, the bootleg millionaires and bootleg’s ten-buck-a-day men.

(UK Und.) a small boy in a gang of burglars who is put through a narrow opening into a house, then lets the gang in.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 82: Little Snakes-Man is a rig practised in the following manner. A very small boy is carried by a gang of fellows in the dead of night to a house, the sink-hole of which they have already observed open. When this gang is pretty certain that the family is in bed, they dispatch their ambassador, the boy, or Little Snakesman, to obtain their admittance [...] After the robbery is completed, the Little Snakesman fastens the door thro’ which the gang have departed; and then turns, winds, and twists himself out in the same manner that he entered.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 82: snake A fellow that glides into a store or warehouse, and conceals himself for the purpose of letting in his companions.
1860		Worcs. Chron. 3 Oct. 4/1: A little thief who passes through a small hole to let in the gang — little snakesman.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 89: A boy thief, lithe and thin and daring, such a one as housebreakers hire for the purpose of entering a small window at the rear of a dwelling house – a little snakesman.
1869		Australiasian (Melbourne) 17 July 8/5: A crowbar is a jemmy and jilt. The boy who is put in at the window to open the door is called a little snake.
1877		Sussex Advertiser 23 June 4/6: Well, there’s a little snakesman wanted for a job out at Morningside, and I’ve agreed to supply you, Sparrow.
1882		Dly Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 1 Nov. 3/3: A ‘snake’ sneaks into a house and conceals himself.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 77: Snake, a thief who hides in a house by day and admits his companions at night.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 63: The following crook’s words and phrases date from the days of the old Old Bailey: [...] a little thief passed through a small hole to let in the gang – little snakes-man.

a small measure of spirits.

1876

Besant & Rice Golden Butterfly I 95: He was accustomed to call at the house every day about noon, accompanied by two gentlemen, who had their little whack. [...] ‘Little whack!’ thought Phyllis, ‘Little glass!’.

(US) a secondary rank of gang leader; one who has power but remains less important than an actual boss.

1947		Call (Schuylkill Haven, PA) 12 Sept. 3/1: You are only a little wheel in the rotation of the state machine.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 35: A Back Room for big and little wheels.

see bit of all right, a phr.

(Aus.) a woman, usu. attractive.

1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 32: little bits [sic] of eyes right — A girl.
1920		Table Talk (Melbourne) 1 Jan. 5/1: [I]f you meet Billjim coming along the Block with a damsel he may perhaps bestow upon your the pleasure of acquaintance with the little bit of ‘eyes right’ who accompanies him.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: little bit of eyes right. A girl.

see separate entry.

see little man (in the boat) n.

(US) anything very insignificant, utterly unimportant; also intensified as little end of nothing sharpened/whittled down (to a point).

1836		‘Nobody’ ‘Nothing of Consequence’ Maine Monthly Mag. I:3 Sept. 117: If it [i.e. nothing] has neither form or shape, how is it that we hear so often in the mouth of every one, the expression the ‘little end of nothing’.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 70: He actilly looked as small as the little eend of nothin’ whittled down.
1840		N.Y. Daily Express 12 May 1/4: Bowyer [...] felt something like ‘the little end of nothing whittled down’.

(US) failure; usu. in the phr. come out of the little end of the horn; thus as opposite, the big end of the horn.

1805		Baltimore Eve. Post July 5 2/5: I am very much afraid I shall come out at the little end of the horn.
1817		Mass. Spy Feb. 19 n.p.: If the farmers and the traders, instead of attending closely to their proper callings, are busy here and there, they will assuredly ‘come out of the little end of the horn.’.
1828		Yankee 237: [The Portland Argus] has fairly worked itself out of the little end of the horn.
1833		S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 123: Some have laughed at me, and said I come out at the little end of the horn about it.
1847		W.T. Porter Quarter Race in Kentucky and Other Sketches 24: Everywhere I touched was pizen, and I came out at the leetle end of the horn.
1851		R. Hicks Lady Killer 22: You must be strong and right-hearted, and you will come out at the big end of the horn.
1860		Wilmington Jrnl (NC) 29 Mar. 5/3: Abolitionists [...] have forced them out at ‘the little end of the horn’.
1875		Forest Republican (Tionesta, PA) 29 Sept. 1/5: I got some orders, buy shimmy, und you gome de little end dat horn oud.
1882		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 23 Mar. 4/2: It is hoped the present strike will not develop the properties of the Silver Reef affair, for as surely as it does the workmen will come out of the ‘little end of the horn’.
1883		Era (London) 7July 16/1: Acute brokers devote their energies to taking special care of No. 1, and rarely come out ‘at the small end of the horn’.
1893		F. Harris ‘Gulmore, the Boss’ in Elder Conklin & Other Stories (1895) 173: ’Tain’t the first time Hutchin’s has run for mayor [...] and come out at the little end of the horn.
1902		Central Record (Lancaster, KY) 25 Sept. 1/3: Danville, with all her long-tail coats and bee-gum hats, may make a big parade, but for once in her life she is coming out the little end of the horn.
1905		‘Central Connecticut Word-List’ in DN III:i 13: little end of the horn, n. phr. ‘To come out the little end of the horn’ is to get the worst of a bargain.
1912		Seattle Repub. (WA) 20 Dec. 6/1: It is a hard-hearted merchant that will refuse one of his customers a gallon of ‘wet’ for Christmas, even though he did come out at the little end of the horn.
1922		‘Half Way Doings’ in T.W. Talley Negro Folk Rhymes 121: But w’en you sees a lazy Nigger / Stop workin’, shore’s you’re born, / You’se gwineter see him comin’ out / At de liddle end of de horn.
1939		P.G. Brewster ‘Folk “Sayings” From Indiana’ in AS XIV:4 263: If he loses financially on a deal, ‘comes out at the little end of the horn’.

see separate entry.

see roundheels n. (2)

see little man (in the boat) n.