benny n.1
1. (orig. US naut.) a straw hat.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Maison De Shine 169: I hate that mutt [...] He went an’ put a new benny on the cheese der me once. | |
| Babbitt (1974) 99: I tip my benny to him! |
2. (US, also binny) an overcoat.
| Sun (NY) 21 May 28/1: ‘If I make fifty or sixty bills dis winter I’ll buy myself some new skates (shoes), a Benny (overcoat) [etc]’. | |
| More Ex-Tank Tales 32: Figuring on where the engraved papers were going to come from that ’ud enable me to yank one of the bennies out of the eaves. | |
| Wash. Post 10 Dec. 4/4: ‘Benny’ used to be the word you used for overcoat. No longer is it good. You wear a ‘heelyar’ now. | |
| Hobo 54: They usually make it a point to get on hand at the beginning of winter a large supply of overcoats, or ‘bennies,’ and other clothes that are either sold at moderate prices or are given away. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 44: If you see a man wearing an overcoat with big pockets on a hot day you may spot him as a dip with big ‘binny.’ A binny is an overcoat with capacious pockets for receiving stolen goods. | |
| Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: Fur Bennie - A term applying to the proverbial raccoon coat. | |
| Milk and Honey Route 145: It is necessary [...] that he should own at least two outer coats, a slicker and a ‘benny’. | |
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 109: Hawkins asks each and every livin’ ’ole man, where’s your benny?’. | |
| et al. DAUL 26/1: Benny. An overcoat. ‘That bum is no heist-man (hold-up man). He got his bit (sentence) for boosting (lifting) a benny.’. | |
| ‘The Be-Bop Santa Claus’ 🎵 With a red beaver Stetson on and a red cashmere benny. | |
| Deep Down In The Jungle 136: He had a camel-hair benny with a belt in the back. | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 11: My teeth chattered in the sleazy thin benny. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 110: Some terms that talk primarily about specific clothing items, such as [...] bennys (coats), brims (hats), kicks (shoes), lizards (lizard-skin shoes), leather pieces (leather jackets), and so on. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 88: They plucked their bennies from the wall hooks. |
In compounds
(US Und.) a pickpocket or shoplifter who disguises their hands under an overcoat.
| ‘Und. and Its Vernacular’ in Clues mag. 158–62: benny worker Pickpocket who works under cover of a light coat. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Crime in S. Afr. 106: A ‘benny worker’ is a shoplifter who operates under the protection of an overcoat. |