Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the hand and sometimes the arm; cite 1843 (Surtees) refers to a fox’s leg.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1791		‘Anthony Pasquin’ Shrove Tuesday 87: Each had a whanghee ’neath his fin, / And breech’d from ancle to the chin: / And kept his pad, and drove his gig, / And up to ev’ry flashy rig.
1810		‘Jonny Raw and Polly Clark’ in Batchelar’s Jovial Fellows Collection of Songs 4: Calls him spooney Jonny Raw; Ri tol de rol. / Then claps her fins and bullies him.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 53: And here and there, explor’d with active fin / And skilful feint, some guardless pass to win.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 77: Fin — the arm.
1833		M. Scott Tom Cringle’s Log (1862) 381: I see you have one of your fins in a sling.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 31: H’are you, boy? said he: give us your fin.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 112: We killed our fox [...] and there were two or three ’ossmen up who each took a fin and I took the tail.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 41: He hitched up his waistband, with his dexter fin.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 11 Oct. 2/5: Drake’s larboard fin was little use to him.
1850		Thackeray Pendennis II 165: [He] succeeded in getting the General’s dirty old hand under what he called his own fin.
1855		Fife Herald 15 Mar. 2/6: He is further threatened with having his —brains blown out if he attempots to lower his arms (or fins).
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1879		Eve. Chronicle (Virginia City) 10 June in M. Lewis Mining Frontier (1967) 201: There was a sight o’ racin’ goin’ on in them times and I wanted my fin in everything o’ that kind.
1892		J. Newman Scamping Tricks 13: Now you have it. Shake fins.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 28: Fin, a hand, as ‘tip us your fin,’ give us your hand.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Oct. 12/1: Where they dwell in naked modesty, and never deem it sin, / And extend unto the stranger a simple, friendly fin.
1904		Ade ‘The Fable of the Boy with the Steadfast Ambition’ in True Bills 44: He was a little slow in withdrawing the Left Fin and the Bumpers caught him. When he came out of the Hospital his Left Hand looked like a Pair of Scissors.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 95: Gettin’ perked in Odgson’s bes’ funeral suit, ’n’ cake-walkin’ on their King’s ’ighway with er flash tom on each fin.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Nov. 28/1: This massive watch, this priceless pin, / These rings which gleam on either fin, / I gained by ‘stiffening’ a lad / Whose mounts the public rushed like mad.
1917		A. Baer Putting ’Em Across 9 Apr. [synd. col.] He swore that the opposing outfielders wore hard bandages on their fins.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 34: ‘You have saved my good name’ [...] he said, massaging the fin with some fervour.
1931		E. Hemingway letter 1/12 Nov. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 344: With my damned finn paralysed 8 months or so.
1933		(ref. to 1868) H. Asbury Barbary Coast 220: The heavy knife sheared cleanly through the flesh and bone of his wrist [...] Devine struggled to his feet, shrieked curses at Maitland for a moment, and then cried: ‘Hey, Billy, you dirty bastard! Chuck out me fin!’.
1944		C.S. Montanye ‘Publicity for the Corpse’ in Thrilling Detective Dec. 🌐 He stretched out the fin to shake hands.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 69/1: Fin. 2. The human hand.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 40: [He] had taken Phyllis’s hand in his [...] Hearing my ‘What ho’, he turned, hurriedly released the fin.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 251: Dinky old fin job.

2. (US) a hand of cards.

1905

F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 74: ‘I think you miscalled that last hand o’ yours, Clancy, [...] just spread yer fin out so everybody can get a Brooklyn at it!’.

3. (US black) a female hip that resembles in its opulent curve the fins of a 1950s model automobile.

1983

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