Green’s Dictionary of Slang

and no mistake.

1885

‘’Arry [...] at the Grosvenor Gallery’ in Punch 10 Jan. 24/1: An eye as ’d fetch a old ’ermit slap out of his ’ole, and no chips!

1. to change one’s way of life.

1895

in J.L. White Git Along, Little Dogies (1975) 66: I’m going to get [religion]. You had better [...] cash in your chips with me [HDAS].

2. (US) to give oneself up.

1897

A.H. Lewis Wolfville 55: He throws up his hands an’ allows he cashes in his chips for whatever the bank says.

3. (also cash in one’s stack) to die.

1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 61: He jest grabs a gun in a frenzied way an’ cashes in his chips abrupt. [Ibid.] 75: He’s done cashed in his stack. Why! girl, he’s dead.
1907		C. M’Govern By Bolo and Krag 17: Nearest I ever come to cashing in my chips was down Talisayan way.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1939		L. Short Raiders of the Rimrock 241: I’m cashin’ in my chips. And I want to die on my own land, in my own house.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Heads You lose’ in Dan Turner Hollywood Detective Feb. 🌐 She cashed in her chips from acute alcoholism coupled with chronic gizzard trouble.
1954		J. Steinbeck Sweet Thursday (1955) 23: A lot of people are going to cash in their chips.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 80: Already starting to gloat over the goods we’ll leave behind. Can’t wait till we cash in our chips.
1970		(con. 1941) R. Beilby No Medals for Aphrodite 164: ‘Has he had his chips?’ ‘Dunno. Got it low down, Darcy said.’.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 78: [of a dog] So Donald cashed in his chips.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 200: Cashed in his chips — a fatal stroke.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 250: I thought that the cunt would cash in his chips before I could execute my plan.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 24: Buy the farm To die, peg out, cash in your chips.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 200: It’s likesay the no-hopers like muggins here whae ye think should jist cash in the chips.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] VITAL AUSSIE VERNACULAR Dead: 1. Carked it 2. Kissed the concrete 3. Lights out 4. Wheels up 5. Bit the dust 6. Cashed in her chips 7. Curled up the toes 8. Pulled the pin.

4. to kill someone.

1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 239: If she’s cashed ’Doby’s chips for him that a-way, I’ll shorely sa’nter over an’ lay waste all Chihuahua to play even for the blow.
1929		(con. 1917–18) C. MacArthur War Bugs 193: Our boyfriends were being yanked out, and the Marines were about to cash in on their chips.
1984		W.J. Caunitz One Police Plaza 173: ‘I think they’ve cashed in my chips for me,’ he said to the familiar face kneeling over him.

5. to be ‘over’, to be finished.

1959

D. Niland Big Smoke 170: She’s cashed her chips, that old battler, he thought. A two-bob touch around the corner, and who’d want to touch her?

6. to commit suicide.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 290: I’ve started to cash in my chips a dozen times.

(N.Z.) to use up or squander one’s money.

1960		R.M. Muir Word for Word 253: I’d blown all my chips so it was a case of getting down to some hard yakker for a while.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

to die; note extrapolation in cit. 1901.

1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 233: Two years afterwards the worthy gentleman handed in his chips, which disastrous event was caused by sizing up too heavily against the brandy bottle.
1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 106: His chips were all in and he was Simon with the Souse, for sure.
1936		L. Pound ‘Amer. Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 200: Handed in one’s chips.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 217: The Dealer handing in her chips.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 79: By this time most of the brawlers among ’em [...] had handed in their chips.

1. to have died; lit. or fig.

1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 402: ‘Hard going, old thing’, ‘You’ve had your chips’.
1969		B. Mason Awatea (1978) 28: Bad enough going down, athout having to reverse! Just about did me chips!
1972		‘Hergé’ Tintin and the Land of Black Gold 7: If someone’s snooping, he’s had his chips!
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 112: Poor old Yorgo’s had his chips.
1989		Beano Special No. 13 n.p.: Poor Tonio’s had-a his chips, Marco!
1999		Ian Dury ‘Cacka Boom’ 🎵 If you don’t get to grips with it, / you’ve had your chips with it.
1999		Indep. Traveller 25 Sept. 12: If air passenger duty increases [...] the travel industry will have had its chips.

2. to have been rejected, dismissed.

1954		K. Horne Aunt Clara [film script] He has had his chips — lost his job .
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 265: ‘I think Goldilocks has had his chips.’ ‘The push?’ he said.
1982		P. Barker Union Street 5: Does that mean Wilf’s had his chips?

(orig. US) financially secure, well-off.

1940		Black Mask Mar. XXII 17: He must be in the chips to live in a jernt like the Huyler Arms.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Heads You lose’ in Dan Turner Hollywood Detective Feb. 🌐 The guy himself had a stack of shekels salted away from the days when he was in the blue chips.
1944		G. Fowler Good Night, Sweet Prince 23: I am now in the chips.
1947		Kerouac letter 26 Aug. in Charters I (1995) 115: If you’re in the chips and Burroughs feels good, all three of you could come out here for kicks sometime.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 207: I thought this Emmerich guy was really in the chips.
1954		J. Thompson Swell-Looking Babe 72: If you were in the chips [...] she’d come running.
1962		R. Hauser Homosexual Society 61: I never make love to a man when I’m sober or when I am in the chips (when he is affluent).
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 244: The young fine whores are wild to hump for a pimp in the chips.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 99: Bingley now being in the chips.
1991		O.D. Brooks Legs 2: Sure must be nice to be in the chips and eat food like that.

(orig. US) to die.

1884		A.P. Hill Tales of the Colorado Pioneers 160: He one day passed in his chips and the box he had so long used with economy was not utilized for himself [DA].
1889		H. O’Reilly Fifty Years on the Trail 325: I found that thirty-two of his band had ‘passed in their chips’.
1890		A.C. Gunter Miss Nobody of Nowhere 67: ‘Has he passed in his chips?’ queries the leader.
1905		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy Abroad 157: Dad and I [...] are now winding up our career by taking the last degree, before passing in our chips and commiting suicide.
1907		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 xi: He passed in his chips last night.
1936		J.A. McKenna Black Range Tales 56: But we kept alive, and we learned afterwards that we had been lucky, for several cowboys passed in their chips in that snowstorm [DA].
1961		R.S. Close With Hooves of Brass 152: ‘It’s no use, Bombo matey!’ he panted. ‘I’m done...! Jesus! Me chips are in...!’.

in the final event, at the denouement, when one has no option.

1943		G. Marx letter in Groucho Letters (1967) 43: The previews are always more fun than the actual shows. Since the chips are not down, everyone is at ease.
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 36: When the chips were down [...] the boys were all brothers behind the sights.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 38: Whitey was a fourflusher, he’d be yellow when the chips were down.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 42: Now that the chips are down, I’m as surprisingly relaxed as I was that day I skipped in the ocean.
1976		H. Leonard Time Was (1981) Act II: You know, when the chips are down you’ve really got to hand it to the British.
1982		J. Davis Kullark 44: When the chips are down he’ll be out on ’is ear.
1982		J. Sullivan ‘A Losing Streak’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Oi, when the chips are down I can be just as sharp as you.
1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 103: Even so, before Vietnam you’d hear shit about black guys not having it when the chips were down.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 162: [W]hat the Sydney papers started calling ‘Factor X’. That indefinable something that Queensland teams seemed to have which lifted them when the chips were down.
2001		Guardian G2 8 May 11: But now the chips are down and so Barbie is retreating to her least controversial and biggest selling role, as a fairy-tale heroine.