sugar n.1
1. money.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Paved with Gold 379: In order to find out which of the inhabitants ‘was with most sugar’. | |
| ‘Cheap John’ in Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 50: Hand me over the ‘sugar’ – alias the cash – for it. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 5/1: ‘Sugar’ was plentiful, and of course the ‘lush’ was ditto. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 5 Oct. n.p.: The rest of the ‘cops’ were putting up their ‘sugar’ on the races. | |
 | S.F. Trade Herald Aug. 2/2: To soak—to hock—Yer upper benjamin at yer uncle’s, to get the ‘sugar’ for a good square meal [DA]. | |
| Body Snatchers 5: Give me part of the sugar and I’m with you. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 10 Jan. 14/1: ‘Don’t you be afraid about the “sugar,” she’s fixed’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Jan. 5/3: All my ‘sugar’ was done, and they offered me 2 to 1 in thousands. I took £500 to £200, being my last ‘bob,’ and looked upon it as finding the money. | |
| ‘Possum’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 81: No, he wa’n’t the kind er cockeroach that on’y kums ter shirk, / That wants ter git the sugar, but is fri’tended ov the work. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Aug. 11/4: An innovation was made this season at the Richmond by the local manager, in allowing growers to cut their own crops, and thereby make an extra bit of ‘sugar.’. | |
| Mop Fair 9: I am [...] fiscally crippled till the end of the month; what sugar have you? | |
| Hist. of Mr Polly (1946) 22: ‘Short of sugar, O’ Man,’ said Mr. Polly, slapping his trouser-pocket. | |
| Truth (Perth) 10 Dec. 4/8: How the sugar it were flying / That there she would surely find; / And some cheques she would discover, / Which as how she never signed. | |
| Smile A Minute 204: He can’t even give them any sugar from this fight, because he’s fighin’ for the Red’s Cross for nothin’. | |
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 21 Jan. 3/4: ‘I’ve done my sugar’. | |
| Boy in Bush 249: ‘And his money is his sugar?’ ‘Right-O! son!’. | |
| ‘Gorilla Grogan’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 40/4: Gorilla was favorite. Most of the hardheads walloped their sugar on him. | |
| Prison Nurse (1964) 96: Instead of paying off right after – like they used to – all I been getting is a beef that no sugar came in from the outside. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 159: My sugar’s gone. | |
| Runyon à la Carte 147: She is just letting me take care of her until she can get well and marry somebody with a lot of sugar. | |
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 25 Dec. 6/3: ‘I’m sick and tired of actors and suchlike who keep falsing to me so’s they can get more sugar out of me’. | |
| Shiralee 150: He would square that account, too when he got a little sugar together. | |
| Reinhart in Love (1963) 199: If you’d ever stop worrying for two minutes, you’d be knee-deep in sugar. |
2. a premium, an unexpected bonus.
| Daily Tel. 24 Dec. in (1909) 169/1: She applied for five Ordinary shares at £1 premium, paying £2, 10s. with her application, and on allotment she paid up the balance, £7, 10s. in full. She held all the shares when the corporation was wound up, and received nothing for her money. You didn’t get anything of Goodman’s ‘little bit of sugar’? (Laughter.) – No. |
3. monetary gifts or bribes; also attrib.
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 236/2: Sugar shop (Electioneering) [...] a head centre of bribery. | |
| (con. late 19C) A Cop Remembers 120: Of course there were gratuities occasionally, or call it graft or sugar, if you like. [Ibid.] 154–5: The wardmen were bringing in collections many times a day […] Around the first of the month the ‘sugar’ rolled in fast. No checks. All good hard cash. | |
| Lowspeak 135: Sugar – 2. bribe money. |
4. see sugar daddy n.
In derivatives
(UK Und.) in funds, holding money.
| Worcs. Jrnl 21 Feb. 3/5: Hollad [...] said to his ‘pal’ — ‘The mollisher is sugared’ (i.e.) Wood had some money about her. |
In compounds
see separate entries.
see sugar daddy n.
see separate entry.
see separate entry.
see separate entry.
see separate entry.
see sugar daddy n.
In phrases
(Aus.) a large amount of money.
| Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 BIG SUGAR—Big money. |
1. (orig. US) a large amount of money; also attrib.; thus heavy sugar guy, a big spender; heavy sugar daddy/papa, a sweet old man with a fat purse.
| New York Day by Day 14 Sept. [synd. col.] Here were ‘wise guys’ who spent their days shearing the sheep and yet at night they proved to be ‘heavy sugar papas.’. | |
| Sex (1997) I i: Oh, I’m going somewhere where I can play around with the heavy sugar daddies and see life. | |
| ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 449: Heavy sugar guy, A good spender, the prey of the mush worker. | |
| Harlem in Coll. Writings (2003) 347: the kid: I’m Kid Vamp. [...] I likes all the ladies. cordelia: Heavy sugar papa – eh? | |
| ‘Sl. Terms for Money’ in AS IV:5 357: Recently we have begun to hear (or at least, to read, in such writings as those of H.C. Witwer) of important or serious money or of heavy sugar. | |
| ‘Sleeping Dogs’ in Spicy Detective Sept. 🌐 Frankly, I’m out after the heavy sugar. [...] I aim to get my pile. | |
| Night and the City 56: Let’s do real business for a change — we’re in on the heavy sugar. | |
| Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 24 May 11/2: Heavy Sugar — Quite a wad of money. | |
| Dead Ringer 54: Don’t waste a torch, Eddie. She’s got a date with heavy sugar. An honest-to-God banker. | |
| Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 24: The terms were identified with news stories which he inevitably skipped over, but he guessed they probably meant heavy sugar to a lot of people. | |
| Snitch Jacket 125: I’m sitting on what you call a heavy-sugar proposition. |
2. see sugar daddy n.