Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus./US/N.Z.) $1 or £1.

1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 411: Money. [...] greenies.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 21: Borrow me a greenie now ’n I’ll show you the machine.
1958		(con. 1890s) S.H. Adams Tenderloin 242: Bending over she drew from her stocking a fifty-dollar bank note. [...] ‘My-my! Where’d you get the pretty greenie?’.
1960		R.M. Rogers Long White Cloud 31: ’E made a pile o’ greenies.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 36: I’d need a stack of greenies before I flashed the old feller on T.V.

2. (US teen, also greener, greeny, gremlin, grolly) a lump of phlegm.

1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 55: It is so dark I can only see as far as the end of my boot, and what’s there but a greenie.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] [I]t was worth the look on the dirt-bird’s face when me big greener was dribbling down his cheek.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 greeny, gremlin, grolly n. something green and unpleasant you cough up – consists of phlegm and spit. As in ‘urgh, he’s coughed up a gremlin!’.
2012		J. Fagan Panopticon (2013) 131: He snorts up a greener and gobs it right in Brian’s face.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] He hoiked a greenie and spat it through the railings.

3. (drugs) an amphetamine.

1967		J.B. Williams Narcotics and Hallucinogens.
1970		J. Bouton Ball Four 81: Greenies are pep pills—dextroamphetamine sulfate—and a lot of baseball players couldn’t function without them.
1974		P. Gent North Dallas Forty 229: ‘Jesus, how strong were the hearts?’ [...] ‘I think they were greenies.’.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 36: Jensen shook a couple of ‘greenies,’ powerful amphetamines, from a small vial.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 11: Greenies — Amphetamines.

4. (US) in pl., green vegetables.

1977

C. McFadden Serial 235: The point is I’ve gotta have a place for greenies.

5. (S.Afr., also greener, green tiger) a ten-rand note.

1979, 1982

cited in J. & W. Branford Dict. S. Afr. Eng. (1991).

6. (US campus) beer, spec. Heineken lager, which comes in predominantly green-labelled bottles or cans.

1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 31/1: crack a greenie [...] opening a bottle of beer.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

7. MDMA.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 11: Greenies — [...] methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).