Green’s Dictionary of Slang

undeniably homosexual.

1998

P. Bailey Kitty and Virgil (1999) 41: Derek’s not what he seems. I know he gives the impression that he’s queer as a chorus boy’s backside, but he isn’t.

ostentatiously homosexual.

1977

D. Powis Signs of Crime 178: Clockwork orange A male homosexual: ‘He’s as queer as a clockwork orange.’.

1. extremely eccentric.

1930

Harper’s Mag. 160 743/1: After lugging a trout five miles in a bucket of water, without a word he dumped his catch into the river again. At that I stopped short, thinking, ‘Lord save us! this bird has gone queer as a coot. I am to dine with a lunatic’ .

2. undeniably homosexual.

1946		J. Maclaren-Ross ‘Welsh Rabbit of Soap’ in Nine Men of Soho 10: I’ve just divorced him. Queer as a coot.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 63: That dreadful old cub master [...] was queer as a coot and even queerer.
1961		J. Kirkwood There Must Be a Pony! 295: The people that put these out must be queer as coots.
2002		‘Barbara Vine’ Blood Doctor (2003) 165: ‘Queer as a coot,’ he says. ‘But of course you know that.’.

unusual, particularly suspicious; the phrase survives the demise of the currency.

1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 92: This bloke’s as queer as a three pound note, hasn’t got all his marbles.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 198: Queer as a nine-bob note Something very unusual or suspicious, or extreme feminine behaviour by a male.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 139: Queer as a three bob bit and as happy as pigs in shit.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 194: One should not confuse this use of hock with a hock as an associate with poufters, for this means he is as queer as a two quid note or a three-speed walking stick.

(orig. US) ostentatiously homosexual.

1951		D.W. Cory Homosexual in America 113: A gay person will say [...] He’s a grand guy – and as queer as a three-dollar bill.
1958		‘Ed Lacy’ Room to Swing 66: Can’t you tell. Touie? He’s as queer as a six-bit coin.
1960		(con. 1940s) D. MacCuish Do Not Go Gentle (1962) 202: That bastard can’t raise a beard ’cause he’s as queer as a three dollar bill.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 155: In the first interview the nut doctors knew / she was as freakish as a three-dollar bill.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 180: He’s a tail gunner [...] He’s as queer as a nine-dollar bill.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 102: I’m as queer as a three-dollar bill.
1982		M. Braun Judas Tree (1983) 13: I’ll lay odds he’s queer as a three-dollar bill!
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 230: He was as queer as a four-dollar bill, but that didn’t bother me. I’d had three years’ experience dealing with fruits and oddballs.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 123: Craziest Chicano faggot you’ll ever meet. Rock fucking solid, but queer as a three-dollar bill.
1998		R. Scott Rebecca’s Dict. of Queer Sl. 🌐 three dollar bill — as in, ‘queer as a three dollar bill.’ Meaning that the person is family.

(Aus.) extremely odd; outrageously homosexual.

1999

G. Seal Lingo 88: Bodily and mental afflictions, real, imagined or fervently wished, also feature strongly in Lingo. One can be [...] queer as a beer; camp as a row of tents; cack-handed (left-handed) [...] or as a bagful of busted boils.

(N.Z.) ostentatiously homosexual.

1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 90/1: queer as Chloe homosexual.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

1. out of sorts, dispirited, ‘under the weather’.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Queer as Dick’s Hatband. Out of Order, of a nameless disorder.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Queer as Dick’s Hatband. Out of order, without knowing one’s disease.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: I am as queer as Dick’s hatband; that is, out of spirits, or don’t know what ails me.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
2003		Indep. Rev. 1 Oct. 5: ‘I feel as queer as Dick’s hatband,’ moaned Tony.

2. (also odd as Dick’s hatband) odd, eccentric.

1835		Knickerbocker (N.Y.) V:5 May 436: When a person is eccentric, he is pronounced ‘as odd as Dick’s hat band.’ The origin of this native apophthegm is buried in obscurity. In vain does curiosity inquire who was the mysterious Richard, with taste unique, and hat-band odd? Was it Richard the III? or Coeur de Lion? Probably not the former.
1868		Putnam’s Mag. Mar. 392: As the country-folk say, ‘He is as queer as Dick – as queer as Dick’s hatband.’.
1871		Appleton’s Journal (N.Y.) 9 Dec. 669: There is another class of similes scarcely as pertinent; as, for instance: [...] odd as Dick’s hatband; happy as a clam at high water; quicker than you can say jack Robinson; like all possessed; like fury.
1882		G.A. Sala in Living London (1883) July 275: See also the proverbial allusions, ‘as queer as Dick’s hatband,’ ‘as tight as Dick’s hatband,’ and ‘Dick’s hatband which was made of sand’ – all contemptuously indicative of the incapacity of Richard’s head to wear that remarkably heavy coiffure called a crown.
1891		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. (Supp.) 18: ‘As awkward as Dick’s hatband, it went nine times round and wouldn’t tie’ means ‘That is not perfect’.
1909		Carr & Chase in ‘Word-List From Aroostook’ in DN III:v 414: odd as Dick’s hatband, adj. phr. Used to describe a person who is peculiar.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 228: What’s got you, Lup? You’re as queer as Dick’s hatband!
1936		W. Holtby South Riding (1988) 294: She’s the living spit of our poor Anne Eliza that died forty years ago of tumour – nicest little woman in South Riding – then went queer as Dick’s hatband.

(US) ostentatiously homosexual or effeminate.

1942

N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 174: ‘It’s his Detation Waltz he calls it.’ ‘I hope he knows what he’s doin’ is all [...] It looked queer as duck soup t’ me.’.