yellow n.
1. in pl., constr. with the, a venereal infection, esp. gonorrhoea [the pus-filled discharge].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Mercurius Democritus 21-28 Sept. 592: He is so farr gone in this Disease [...] that there is no other way to cure him of the yellows. | |
| Mercurius Fumigosus 6 5 July 45: There is a new-found Well found out in the head of a Holly bush neer Knights-bridge, that by drinking the said Water when the Sun is in his solistice, cures all Diseases incident to the Passions of men or Women; many Ladyes troubled with the Yellows, are removing thither. [Ibid.] 46: Mistris Squirtington, so miserably troubled with the yellows, that she lives in perpetual fear lest her husband should act the Town-Bull of Smithfield, and ride every jade he comes near. | |
| ‘The Hangman’s Last Will and Testament’ in Rump Poems and Songs (1662) ii 149: Lambert I knew was trouble’d with the yellows. | |
| Maronides (1678) VI 36: And fearing she should have the yelllows, / (For Godesses and Parsons Wives, / Mind their punctilios more than lives). | |
| Progress of a Rake 50: She’d have no nasty, pocky Fellows, / Dribbling her Sheets with Greens and Yellows. | |
| Memoirs of [...] Jane D****s 70: His lordship soon after found himself afflicted with the American p—x, commonly called the y—s. |
2. (UK und.) a yellow (silk) handkerchief.
| [perf.] ‘The Artful Dodger’ 🎵 I nailed this yaller from a bloke / Just down in Drury Lane. |
3. cowardice; often as streak of yellow.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Artie 57: This is how I found the streak o’ yellow in him. | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 113: Some of ’em sho got a heap ob yalla insed ’em. | |
| Shorty McCabe 34: Then he stops a cross hook with his jaw and is jarred some. That brings out the yellow. | |
| Jasper News (MO) 24 Dec. 7/2: Spot is a good fellow [...] / He’s no streak of yellow. | |
| Psmith Journalist (1993) 209: Next round I see Benson has a chunk of yellow, and I gets in with a hay-maker. | |
| Classics in Sl. 48: Belleau Woods took all the yellah out of me. | |
 | Popeye the Sailor Man 🎵 in Botkin (1944) 255: I yam Popeye, The Sailor Man. / I yam jus’ a little feller, / But I hasn’t any yeller. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Joyful Condemned 284: Jimmy [...] was known to have a streak of yellow as wide as the main road. | |
| Rope Burns 153: He hit Shawrelle with a left hook yip! to the liver that made him gut-sick and spread yellow all through him. |
4. as gold.
(a) a (counterfeit) sovereign, £1 sterling.
| Harlot’s Progress 27: And if the Cull would tip a Yellow, / He was a very pretty Fellow. | |
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 11 Mar. 886/2: [He] had long engaged in the uttering of forged 5l. notes, and of counterfeit sovereigns; and he stated that for the former, which were called ‘softs,’ he gave 35s. each; and for the latter, which were called ‘yellows,’ he gave 7s. each. | |
| DSUE (8th edn) 1360/2: from ca. 1910. |
(b) (US tramp) a gold watch.
| ‘Vocab. of Bums’ in AS IV:5 346: Yellow — A gold watch. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
5. as skin tone.
(a) an Asian.
| (con. WWII) Hollywoodland (1981) 152: Japs, Chinks, all those yellows are in this war together. |
(b) a light-skinned black person.
| Tropic Death (1972) 89: Among the motley blacks, browns and yellows on the Isthmus, there would be talk. | |
| ‘Big Feeling Blues’ 🎵 Unlucky with my yellow, unlucky with my brown, / the black bitches keep on throwin’ me down. | |
| Man About Harlem 26 Oct. [synd. col.] [T]he big Yellow ankle over to us to whisper, ‘That so-and-so tried to kill me’. | |
| Capricornia (1939) 114: He’s a good sort of coot for a yeller (he remembered Norman’s presence) — er — halfcaste. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 1 Feb. 11: The yellows have constructed a carefully built Negro social empire based on skin color . | |
| (con. 1930s) Black and White Baby 53: I can remember evil, catty comments the high-school girls made about each other. A pale-skinned classmate would be jealously dismissed as ‘wasted yellow,’ a dark-skinned classmate put down as a ‘black ink-spitter’. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 260: yellow/yella See casper. |
(c) a Vietnamese citizen.
| Back to the Dirt 206: Is that what they’re saying, sending us to war to die ’cause these yellas are too weak to reap their own freedom? |
6. a coward.
| ‘The Squeal Widow’ in Gun Molls Oct. 🌐 ‘Shut up, yellow,’ he growled, ‘and drive.’ [Ibid.] ‘Get in, yellow,’ came the harsh command. |
7. (US Und.) a telegram, esp. when fake and used in confidence tricks.
| Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 65: ‘The guy wit’ the yeller [will] flash the wise wire on him like he was lettin’ him in wit’ the main secret of his life’. | |
| Big Con 311: yellow. A telegram, especially a fake telegram used in the pay-off and the rag. |
8. in drug uses.
(a) (drugs, also yellow one) a Nembutal, a depressant [the colour of the pills].
| ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2. | |
| Pimp 127: I put a coupla ‘yellows’ in your bag so you can ‘come down’ and get some ‘doss.’. | |
| ‘Plaistow Patricia’ 🎵 Reds and yellows, purples, blues and greens. | |
| (con. 1982–6) Cocaine Kids (1990) 133: On the corner of 162nd Street, three boys and two girls shout to me [...] ‘got that coke, got that crack, got red caps, got blues, got yellow ones – you choose. What you want, my friend? What you need?’. | |
| Another Day in Paradise 225: Got any downs, homes? Reds, rainbows, yellows . . . | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 23: Yellow — LSD; depressants. |
(b) (N.Z. prison) a 5mg tablet of Valium.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 205/1: yellow n. 1 a 5mg Valium pill a 10mg morphine sulphate tablet. |
(c) see mellow yellow n. (2)
9. (Aus./US) a taxi [colour of New York City taxis].
| Mirror (Perth) 15 Aug. 22/1: We're going to burl past every 'Yellow' we see on the road. | |
| Big Easy 204: He [...] hailed a Yellow from the cabstand. |
In phrases
to run off in a cowardly fashion.
| Bed and Bored 164: ‘Where’s Honest John tonight?’ [...] ‘He done a yellow [...] ’e run off on us.’. |