rock n.
1. in monetary senses.
(a) (US) one dollar; thus half a rock, 50 cents.
| [ | ![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 59: His mother was upon board-wages when he was ushered into the world, which accounted for his not having a ‘rock’ too much!]. |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Pickings from N.O. Picayune 143: Here I am in town without a rock in my pocket, and without a skirt to my coat, or a crown to my hat. | |
 | Sharps and Flats; or, The Perils of City Life 17/1: His pockets lined with rocks, the dashing knave left town for his personal safety. | |
| Down in Tennessee 113: Rocks is sca’ce, jest now; I hain’t got on’y three dollars in the wurle. | |
| Slaver’s Adventures 151: Her dad has got the rocks — four or five million, I s’pose. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘Prince Albert’s Fashion’ at warrenfahey.com 🌐 An’ runs accounts for underwear / An’ banks their beans an’ rocks. | |
| Powers That Prey 178: You remember that fellow from Vienna ’t I borrowed a hundred from [...] nice enough bloke, an’ had the rocks an’ all that. | |
| Types From City Streets 335: ‘You mean not enough money?’ ‘Na, there’s plenty o’ rocks.’. | |
| Amer. Negro Folk-Songs 401: [reported from Auburn, Ala., 1915–1916] Save up yo’ money / And haul out your rocks; / You will always have tobacco / In your own tobacco box. | |
| Reading (PA) Eagle 20 Mar. 7/3: Half a dollar is ‘half a schnooze’ ‘half a schmier’ or a ‘half a rock’. | |
| ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1003: I don’t bet, but I’ll double you. Five rocks! | |
| ‘Carnie Talk’ in AS XXVIII:2 116: half a rock, half a slug, n. A half dollar. | |
| Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1994) 50: And goddam if she doesn’t lay half a rock on me for the cigarettes. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 163: Another half a rock down the drain. |
(b) (US prison) one carton of prison cigarettes, the equivalent of $1 in a barter economy.
| Prison Sl. 65: Rock A prison dollar, equivalent to one pack of name brand cigarettes. |
2. a diamond, thus bum rock, a flawed stone.
| Tales of the Ex-Tanks 69: I had [...] several Kimberley rocks. | |
| St Paul Globe (MN) 28 Feb. 26/5: The New Yorkers deposited their shiny rocks with the hotel clerk. | |
| Maison De Shine 83: Did you pipe the rocks she had on? | |
| Spokane Press (WA) 22 Sept. 7/3: The thief calls [...] diamonds with flaws [...] ‘bum rocks’. | |
| ‘Alibi Ike’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 48: I wouldn’t trust no strange girl with a rock o’ mine. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 44: ‘Austrian Max’ was a stone-getter [...] Sometimes Max rode for miles on different lines before he spotted a desirable ‘rock’. | |
| Taxi-Dance Hall 250: It’s about how they ‘fished’ a man for a ring with a big ‘rock’ in it. | |
| High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 290: I’ll take all the rocks and give you a fair price for them. | |
| (con. 1920s) Hoods (1953) 92: How much shall we ask Nutch for the rocks? | |
| Pimp 160: The rock on his finger exploded blue-white. | |
| Come Monday Morning 49: Four rings on her wedding finger one of ’em had a rock big’s a horse turd. | |
| Homeboy 38: I still cant imagine a man of your intelligence slinging that rock around Gloria Monday’s neck. | |
| Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 rock n 1. a wedding ring. (‘Man, stay away from her. Didn’t you see that huge rock on her finger?’). | |
| Snitch Jacket 57: She made me nervous, with her big rock and chinchilla coat. | |
| Wherever I Wind Up 113: I pick out a rock and the setting, and pray that it’s not a fake. | |
| ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 72: He fences the rocks, washes the proceeds. |
3. a man who is sturdy and solid both emotionally, physically and in his character.
| ‘Miss Lonelyhearts’ in Coll. Works (1975) 268: The rock remained calm and solid. | |
| Fallen Angels 177: Walowick was a rock, a fucking rock, and he had freaked out. |
4. (US) a fool.
| Boys of Summer 335: ‘Of all the dumb dago things to do. I was going to find a spot for you. Now I can’t. [...] What a rock’. |
5. in drug uses.
(a) opium.
| (con. 1926) Schnozzola 100: Social unequals, the Piping Rock boys and the White Rock boys, got up to participate in the entertainment, and the ladies and the flossies became sisters under the gin. |
(b) a piece of hashish.
| Duke 106: You buy a small rock, a piece. |
(c) cocaine, when in uncrushed form.
| Dealer 58: ‘What do you do with the rocks,’ I asked, ‘just throw them away?’ Jimmy snapped his head up. ‘Do what? Hey, hold it! I hope nobody’s throwin rocks away. The rocks are pure coke’. | |
| Snowblind (1978) 137: Rocks, in cocaine lore, are the lumps that appear dispersed throughout the sample. [Ibid.] 187: The rock weighed about a quarter of an ounce [...] The rock was cocaine – through and through. As pure as it gets. | |
| (con. 1982–6) Cocaine Kids (1990) 36: He produces a baggie filled with yellowish powder, ‘all flake – stuff off the rock’. [Ibid.] 39: By the winter of 1983, pure rock was the craze much as crack was to be four or five years later. | |
| Curvy Lovebox 86: He opens up a bigger wrap that’s full of selected charlie rocks. | |
| Layer Cake 62: Lick some rock, boot some brown, boost two brew. |
(d) (also rock cocaine, rock crack) crack cocaine; a piece of crack cocaine.
| Central Sl. 44: rock A concentrated form of cocaine. | |
| Hard Candy (1990) 31: The franchise to distribute rock cocaine was disputed by teenage robot-mutant millionaires. | |
| Yardie 41: Robbie inhaled the thick smoke from the now red-hot rock. | |
| ‘Pocket Full of Stones’ 🎵 Rock crack sho ain’t good in the city that / Had a fuckin hoe for every letter in the alphabet. | |
| Urban Grimshaw 220: She goes down for brown and sucks cock for rock. | |
| Alphaville (2011) 189: The price point of a bag of smack made dealers a lot more money a lot more quickly than selling jumbos of rock. | |
| ‘Zed’s Dead, Baby’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] He’d have enough [i.e. money] to get high on the cheap stuff — ten dollar crack rocks. | |
| The Force [ebook] You had as much as a roach on you, an old needle, a pipe with a grain of old rock in it, you’re going. | |
| Razorblade Tears 66: ‘Base heads [...] offering to have their girl suck your dick for a ten-dollar rock’. | |
| ‘Dun Deal’ 🎵 Bro controlling the wok, soda in the pop, lock, make the yola rock. |
(e) heroin, prior to being crushed to powder.
| Deathdeal [ebook] ‘We’ve done business before [...] Buddha sticks [...] White rock. Pink rock’. | |
| Candy 12: I hear there’s some pink rocks coming tomorrow. |
(f) methamphetamine, when in uncrushed form.
| Right As Rain 261: The vial was filled to the top with crystal rocks. |
6. (US Und.) a prison.
| ‘Day of the Alligator’ in Algren Lonesome Monsters (1963) 134: You know him in some other rock? |
7. (US teen) a large, tough person.
| Rock 81: Four of his boys follow him. They’re all rocks. |
8. (US prison) a cellblock.
| NDAS. |
9. (S.Afr.) an Afrikaner. [abbr. rock spider n.].
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | informant in DSAE (1996). | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Style Oct. 40: In the army [...] Afrikaners are ‘rocks’ or ‘pebbles’ [DSAE]. | |
| My Traitor’s Heart (1991) 75: Most policemen [...] were rocks, or Afrikaners. |
10. (US black) a basketball.
| Campus Sl. Spring 5: shoot some rock – play basketball. | |
| Campus Sl. Spring 6: pound the rock – to play basketball. | |
| Campus Sl. Oct. 5: rock [...] basketball ‘Let’s go shoot the rock.’. | |
| Corner (1998) 246: ‘Gimme the rock.’ R.C. powers up over top of Manny Man to snag the rebound. | |
| Way Home (2009) 91: He put English on the rock and bounced it. | |
| Sellout (2016) 4: He could catch the rock on a break, pull up for a bearded three-pointer [...] and talk shit as the ball popped the net. | |
| Twitter 1 Nov. 🌐 Barack with the rock. I like how he grabs his coffee on the way out. |
11. (US) in fig. use, the essence, the ‘bottom line’.
| Spidertown (1994) 98: I’m tellin’ you straight, right? Thass the fucken rock of it, bro’. |
12. a piece of excrement, an individual stool.
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Ringer [ebook] There’s a sting in my ring like I’ve just dropped some serious rocks. |
In compounds
(Aus.) an unsophisticated person; a lout.
| (ref. to 1970s) Aus. Word Map 🌐 rock ape. school slang, circa 1970’s [...] similar to Bogan; implied lack of class or style in dress and lack of sophisitication in manners. |
(drugs) a desire for crack cocaine.
| ONDCP Street Terms 18: Rock attack — Crack Cocaine. |
see sense 4d above.
(drugs) methamphetamine.
| ‘Drug Sl. Vault’ on Erowid.org 🌐 Rock Crank Methamphetamine. |
(US drugs) a habitual user of crack cocaine.
| Shame the Devil 243: The dude was a skinny rock-fiend [...] all angles and nerves. |
1. (US) a fool.
| Tough Guy [ebook] [A] rockhead of a gambler up in Boston moving into territory where he had no right. |
2. (drugs) a consumer of crack cocaine.
| High Concept 211: [He] indicates no sympathy for what he calls ‘rock heads and rock doctors’. |
(US black) a woman who takes crack cocaine; thus a general derog.
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 rock hoe Definition: referring to, but not limited to, a slutty biznitch who does crack. More generally, any slut you don’t like. Example: That bitch he’s with ain’t nuthin but a rock hoe. |
(drugs) a place where crack cocaine is sold and smoked; also attrib.
| Central Sl. | |
| 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 13: In the ghetto [...] there are hundreds of independent ‘rock house’ franchises. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 18: Rock house — Place where crack is sold and smoked. |
(UK black/drugs) a smoker of crack cocaine.
| Deadmeat 312: You’re not a rock kid are you? [...] I don’t know which is worse, the rock or AIDS. |
(Aus.) a $20 bill.
| You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 47: He pulled a $20 bill out of his pocket [...] it was so long since the collection box had seen a ‘rock lobster’. [Ibid.] 211: ‘You got change of a rock lobster,’ said Norton, pulling a $20 bill out of his jeans. | |
| Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] [H]e saw Les slip the kiwi waitress a rock lobster. |
(US drugs/campus) an addict who is desperate for a dose of rock or crack cocaine; one who may steal to support their habit.
| Central Sl. 45: rock monster Someone who is in need of rock cocaine. | |
| Campus Sl. Mar. 9: Some rock monster ripped off my tape deck. |
see pipe n.1 (3g)
(drugs) a smoker of crack cocaine, esp. a woman who trades sex for crack cocaine or money to buy crack cocaine.
| ONDCP Street Terms 18: Rock star — Female who trades sex for crack or money to buy crack; a person who uses rock cocaine. | |
| Soul Circus 166: Phil say she was one of those rock stars, from back when he had that, what do they call it, epidemic here in the city. |
In phrases
(US drugs) to smoke crack cocaine.
| ‘Straight and True’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 5 [TV script] If I told anybody else but you you might think I’m ridin’ the rock. |
(US black) sporting diamond jewellery.
| ‘Everybody Wanna Rat’ 🎵 Your hands, wrists, and neck was rocked up. | |
| ‘Iceman’ 🎵 Look at me now, hat cocked up, wristwatch rocked up. | |
| ‘Blow Your Smoke’ 🎵 The sun is out, my wrist rocked up. |
(drugs) to collapse through an excessive consumption of marijuana or pills.
| Compar. Study of Urban Black Argot. |
(N.Z. prison) a weapon whereby a pool ball, a heavy stone, etc is knotted in a sock and used to attack a victim.
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 155/1: rocks in socks n. pl. a weapon made from a rock, a pool ball or some batteries in a sock. |
(US) to send someone out with a container to have it filled with beer at the local bar or tavern.
| St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 3 Dec. 17/7: ‘Chasing the can,’ ‘rolling the rock’ and ‘working the growler’ all mean sending the tin can down to the corner bar-room for beer. |
SE in slang uses
Pertaining to prison
In compounds
(N.Z.) a prison.
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 93/2: rock college prison. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |
1. (US) in prison uses [hard labour in the rock quarry].
(a) a convict.
| DAS. |
(b) a prison.
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 44: The three appellate court judges who will investigate the charges of irregularities in the Mutt case. This is Mutt’s only hope of dodging the state rock crusher. |
(c) in fig. use, an overwhelmingly strong criminal case.
| After Hours 69: I got him out of Lewisburg after five years. The feds had a rock-crusher case against him. I reversed the conviction, unanimous opinion by the Second Circuit. | |
| Rough Justice 254: The case is a lock, a rock-crusher. |
2. as a form of machine.
(a) (US) an automobile.
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 24: Listening to an egg with one way pockets as he tries to trade in his old rock crusher for a new rattler. |
(b) (orig. US black) an accordion.
| Charleston (WV) Daily Mail 31 July 6/8: Musicans have slang terms for every instrument [...] Rock crusher – accordion. | |
| Down Beat’s Yearbook of Swing n.p.: rock-crusher : an accordian. |
see separate entries.
In phrases
(US) a prison.
| in DARE. |
General uses
In compounds
see under ape n.
(US tramp/black) diamonds.
| ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 461: Rock candy, Jewelry, usually diamonds. | |
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
(Aus.) a derog. term for a Roman Catholic.
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 93/2: rock chopper Roman Catholic (after initials?). | |
| Lex. of Cadet Lang. 77: chopper a Catholic ( a common shortening of rock chopper). [Ibid.] 296: RC a Catholic. [Ibid.] 303: At Duntroon, rock chopper would seem to have spawned some imitative coinages, with only one term for a Catholic (arsie = RC) punningly using the actual initials themselves. | |
| (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 118: I memorized it the way rockchopper schoolkids learn their taechism. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. | |
| Things I Didn’t Know (2007) 67: The ancient tension between rock-choppers (Catholics) and Anglos. | |
| (con. 1943) Irish Fandango [ebook] Fucken rockchoppers stuck together. |
(US) a stupid person; thus rock-headed adj., very stupid.
| ‘Ten Dollars – No Sense’ in Top-Notch 15 Dec. 🌐 I’ve already got an idea that will prove to you, or any other rockhead, that my theory of honesty is correct. | |
| I, Mobster 86: Rock-heads who wanted to give orders instead of taking them. [Ibid.] 101: He’s just rock-headed enough to start a crazy gang war. | |
| Benny Muscles In (2004) 311: ‘Just what do you call an emergency?’ ‘That I don’t get there, rockhead!’. | |
| Big Gold Dream 119: Here, rockhead, take it and read it. | |
| Going After Cacciato (1980) 25: ‘Why don’t he just leave the trail? Lose us [...]’ ‘A rockhead,’ said Stink Harris. ‘That’s why.’. |
1. a geologist.
| Amer. Union 30 Aug. 1/3: Both were employed on the Enterprise — Dan as the ‘rock sharp’ and Mark as the ‘funny man’ [DA]. | |
| El Paso Herald (TX) 13 Feb. 5/5: A geologist trying to sell his services to an oil companay was called a ‘rock hound’ or a ‘pebble pup’. | |
| Great Falls Trib. (MT) 4 June 12/4: Nature never intended that I should be a rockhound, a peebble-pup or any of the [...] designations, whereby geologists are [...] profanely classified. |
2. an amateur mineralogist.
| A la Calif. 100: They bored everything from a lime-rock to a sandbank, in search of oil, and never struck it, despite the predictions of professional geologists, oil wizards and rock-sharps generally. | |
| National Hist. May 220/1: There are numerous semiprecious stones to interest the ‘rock hound’ [DA]. |
see separate entry.
(US Und.) a seller of cheap jewellery.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
In phrases
see separate entry.