Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dried beef.

1987

I. Doig Dance at the Rascal Fair 21: ‘Mahogany horse at dinner, Aberdeen cutlet at supper.’ Which was to say, dried beef and smoked haddock.

a barman.

1911		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 55: Notice the two rising young American mahogany polishers.
1912		T.A. Dorgan Daffydills 3 Jan. [synd. cartoon strip] It was the annual dinner of the Broadway mahogany polishers.

drunk.

1840		Thackeray Shabby Genteel Story (1853) 61: Mr. Brandon, your ’ealth, sir, and may we hoften meet under this ma’ogany.
2003		Drunktionary 🌐 Below the mahogany – The ‘mahogany’ is the wood of which the bar is made; cf. ‘Under the table’.

1. (US) to lay down money, whether for gambling or in payment of a bill.

1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 29: [speaker is a hold-up man] Decorate.
1912		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 30: You haven’t paid the fine yet Come back and decorate the mahogany.
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 7/2: Decorate the mahogany – Lay money on the bar.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 203: Decorate the mahogany – To buy the drinks; to line the bar with thirsty throats and brimming glasses.
1935		S. Kingsley Dead End Act II: Come on, decorate da mahogany!
1942		R.J. Brown Amazing Amazon 128: If you forget to decorate the mahogany, Brazilians are too polite to say outright, ‘It’s your ante, Senhor Roberto’ or ‘The Norte American is shy’.
1969		D.R. Cressey Theft of the Nation 256: I can decorate the mahogany a bit. You know what I mean? See what I mean? I could help with the payments on the new car. I can see that you are taken care of every month.
1974		J.H. Rees Land Baron 98: Like when it was time to ante, he'd say, ‘Decorate the mahogany, boys,’ and when he had three queens, they was three sluts, and two pairs was both beds full, and a full house was both beds full and the baby sleeping crosswise.
2009		J.M. McDermott Goldfish 156: Sorry, Frankie, no more until you decorate the mahogany with a couple Andrew Jacksons. You ain’t paid for your drinks all week.

2. of a man, to hand over one’s housekeeping money to one’s wife.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 298/1: since ca. 1930.

1. a bedbug [colour].

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1895		Sheffield Eve. Teleg. 8 June 2/7: [headline] ‘Mahogany Flats’ Lively This Hot Weather [...] it was not until the warm weather set in that the ‘mahogany flats’ made their appearance.
1913		Day Book (Chicago) 7 Nov. 28/2: That wary, night-faring, blood-sucking, little animal [...] ‘bedug,’ ‘chinch,’ ‘mahogany flat,’ ‘red coat’ or ‘wall louse’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1976		(ref. to1930s) R. Barnes Coronation Cups and Jam Jars 57: If you spotted one [...] you said to the boy in front, ‘Oi, Jimmy. Mahogany Baxter.’ Jimmy would immediately know that a bug was taking its constitutional along his back. I suppose the word ‘mahogany’ was used because the bugs were deep red in colour. ‘Baxter’ was, I suppose, because they seemed to favour people’s backs.

2. (US black) an expensive, well-furnished and situated apartment or home [SE mahogany, as a symbol of luxury + flat].

1983

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

3. in punning use of flat n.² (1), a gullible, wealthy target.

1878

Luton Times 29 Mar. 6/2: He had got lots of ‘quids’ and ‘tin’, having fallen over a ‘mahogany flat,’ who was ‘blooming tight’ [...] and who he had walked up and down the garden and ‘bellowsed’ him.

(Aus./US) any centre of expensive, up-market business, e.g. lawyers; also the head office of a given organization.

2018

C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] Let’s not give those shits in Mahogany Row any ammunition.

tea from a cook-shop or coffee-stall.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 714/2: ca. 1870–1914.

saloop, a stimulating hot drink (cheaper than tea or coffee) that was popular 18C-19C. Initially, it was made from salep, then sassafras.

1812

Spirit of Irish Wit 32: Dominick is a fruiterer, Conner is a turkey merchant, and drinks his mahagony tea every morning.

a red-head.

1880

D.W. Barrett Life and Work among Navvies 49: A man with red hair would be termed a ‘Copper-knob,’ or ‘Mahogany top’.

a mug of coffee.

1888		C.D. Linskill Travels in the Land beyond the Sea 352: Many droll and strange sayings originate in London. One man at a public house asks for ‘half pint of mahogany chips, two door-steps, thick, and a Billingsgate pheasant,’ and they handed him coffee, bread and a red herring.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.