Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) a young woman.

1586		A. Day Eng. Sec. II (1625) 80: Antaphrasis, when a word scornefully deliuered, is vnderstood by his contrary, as [...] of a blacke Moore woman to say: Will yee see a faire pigeon? [OED].
1594		Gesta Grayorum (1688) 19: He do provide for a Mess of the Yeomen of the Guard [...] eight Loins of Mutton [...] and for every Gentleman-Pensioner [...] Coneys, Pidgeons, Chickens, or such dainty Morsels.
1674		T. Duffet Empress of Morocco Act III: Jove in disguise has been a Sculker On Earth to find him out a Bulker [...] Which shews no Game i’th’ Upper Region, Can be compare’d to the sweet Pigeon.
1822		D. Carey Life in Paris 237: He was, next day, to give what we emphatically call a spread* (*Flash for Entertainment) and that some pigeons were expected to compose a part of the entertainment.
1844		D. Jerrold Story of Feather 117: ‘Oh, she’s a sweet, quiet little pigeon’.
1857		Paul Pry (London 15 Aug. n.p.: A half- bred Cure [...] to be seen at a certain house in the Smyrkes-road, who is re-quested by Paul not to be so ‘fast’ in drawing the stray pigeons away, because if he can't catch them himself he may let others do so.
1879		London Life 5 July 5/1: Labby likes ‘pigeons’ so much that he cannot live without one, which he has now kept for some time.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Oct. 12/3: Lillian Cooper is a delightfully young, fresh, pretty Marguerite. And the plump pigeon’s plumage, though traditionally correct, is decorative and up-to-date.
1916		Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 116: Is that you, pigeon?
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 203: [She] was only interested in soiled doves—Borstal girls. Borstal was a philanthropist who gave money to establish two reformatories—one for boys and the other for girls—for first offenders. I think Miss Van was of the opinion that our crew was composed of dirty pigeons.
1939		P. Di Donato Christ in Concrete 52: Between us pigeons – is it true, Dame Katarina, that you once rubbed bellies with the Devil?
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 217: You sure got the ups on us pigeons.
1953		D. Goodis ‘Professional Man’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] ‘I packed her in.’ ‘No,’ Ziggy said. His tone was incredulous. ‘Not Pearl. Not that pigeon’.
1959		Galton & Simpson ‘The Picnic’ Hancock’s Half-Hour [radio script] Not far, my little pigeon.
1966		R. Stone Hall of Mirrors (1987) 56: Anyhow this here girl ain’t like that. Are you, pigeon?
1970		G. Greer Female Eunuch 265: The basic imagery behind terms like honey, sugar, dish, sweety-pie, cherry, cookie, chicken and pigeon is the imagery of food.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 111: Lookit here, little pigeon, you got no cause to wee-wee.

(b) (Aus.) a prostitute.

[1830		Owl (NY) 25 Sept. n.p.: [He] is trying to make people believe he goes to see pigeons, but instead of pigeons is all the while rumning after the girls].
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 31 Jan. 3/5: A pair of Pigeons.—Marin Randall, one of the Pitt-street promenaders, was charged by Eliza Butterworth, another frail fair one, with assault and robbing her of a watch and locket valued at ten pounds; each of the litigants appeared in their gaudiest costume.
1870		Sydney Morn. Herald 8 July 5/4: ‘The pigeons’ however who house at this shelter are not very particular.

(c) (US black) a woman who trades sex for drugs.

2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 pigeon Definition: a person that sucks dick in return for money or drugs. Example: That pigeon is trife because she’ll dick for a hit.
2008		in J. Miller Getting Played 74: ‘She’ll call him a scrub, he’ll call her a pigeon...Somebody playing too much’.

(d) (US campus) a lazy, worthless woman.

1999

Eble Campus Sl. Nov.

(e) (US teen) a promiscuous young woman.

2002

Teen Lingo: The Source for Youth Ministry 🌐 pigeon [...] 2. a girl who goes with all the guys, whether or not she has a boyfriend, usually just for sexual favors.

(f) a woman’s breast.

2001

J. Baker Shooting In The Dark (2002) 88: Her pigeons are several sizes too small for a bra.

(g) (US teen) an unattractive young woman.

2002

Teen Lingo: The Source for Youth Ministry 🌐 pigeon ugly girl. ‘Quit mackin’ on those pigeons over there!’.

(a) (orig. UK Und.) one who is susceptible to a confidence trick or other variety of fraud.

1593		G. Harvey Pierce’s Supererogation 157: The Fox, the finder; as wily a pigeon, as the cunning Goldsmith, that accused his neighbour, and condemned himselfe.
1604		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 I v: Sure hees a pigeon, for he has no gall.
1609		Dekker Gul’s Horne-Booke 35: If you fall to dice after Supper [...] you are to cherish the unthriftinesse of such yong tame pigions, if you be a right gentleman.
a.1661		‘The Committee of Safety’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 101: Brandriffe a harmless and innocent Pigeon.
1770		Cheats of London Exposed 12: When a stranger enters the room, they all, to use their own phrase, stag him [...] and discern if he is a pidgeon.
1788		G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist I 75: And this was the language which the pretenders to the Philosopher’s Stone used to bubble their pigeons with.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘Is’t My Storey’ Collection of Songs I 92: I’ve sat up all night in the morning, / ’Mongst black legs, and coggers, and pigeons, and noodles.
c.1800		‘Landlady Casey’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 153: Let rooks and pigeons mingle.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) II 102: A flatterer may play what game he likes against the pigeons of high life!
1818		W. Perry London Guide 67: [He] dispatched his leg to London [...] to bring back a well-fledged pigeon to be plucked under his own eye.
1828		High Life in London 23 Mar. 2/6: The numbers of the club (500) [i.e. Crockford’s casino] are nearly full, there being only about ten or a dozen vacancies, which are reserved for that species of fish called gulls, and of birds called pigeons.
1838		Crim. Con. Gaz. 25 Aug. 3/2: I was easily plucked, and to all the metropolitan sharpers, Jew money-lenders, and swindlers I was a pigeon .
1840		R. Barham ‘The Black Mousquetaire’ Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 3: Being much more of pigeon than rook, he / Lost large sums at faro.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 90: A few keen-witted fellows [...] were on the lookout for ‘pigeons’.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. II 28: In a low whisper, he tells Carlton that ‘the pigeon is coming’.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 99: There are gentlemen who [...] are as plainly and clearly dupes as though they carried pigeon inscribed in legible characters on their hat-bands.
1859		Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 Apr. 3/4: The pigeons were the last on the list, and a pair of regular ‘pouters’ they were.
1866		Sportsman 30 Aug. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [He] ‘cleared out,’ with 200,000l., leaving behind to his pious ‘pigeons’ [...] something like 12l. 10s. to pay all demands.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 5 Oct. n.p.: He would always make a clean breast of the conspiracy, and the ‘pigeon’ [...] has invariably been arrested.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 138: These gentry never let a fat pigeon escape their fingers until they have plucked him clean.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 13/4: ‘Three ter von to you, as a favour, seein’ ash how id is our first dealings,’ replied the anxious metallician as he mentally gloated over the well-feathered pigeon he was about to pluck.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 191: They way they led that pigeon about the course would have given points to a Savoyard with a tamed bear.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Feb. 8/2: A plump, well-featured pigeon [...] was clean plucked for a thou. by the smart pokerites.
1910		Sporting Times 1 Jan. 1/5: Two Labour lags who lounged hard by laughed so immoderately that they almost let the pigeon go unstripped.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 14 Feb. 9/1: The baker boy seems a real sport or a pigeon for the three girls, as they often go to the Harbor and leave him at the Port.
1927		E. Wallace Squeaker (1950) 153: There was silence till Jim returned and the lift had carried the pigeon out of sight.
1933		‘Leslie Charteris’ Brighter Buccaneer 10: It was his one regret that he never had the additional pleasure of knowing exactly what his pigeons said when they woke up and found themselves bald.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 109: The ‘Black Ring’ marked him on their list of prospective ‘pigeons’.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 136: I wish you weren’t going to California [...] My favourite pigeon.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 231: If he’d been around and we had any reason to suspect murder, he’d make a pretty good pigeon – except that he would have used a knife.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 80: They are always on the look-out for ‘pigeons’ [...] from whom they can scrounge a drink, or whom they can rob.
c.1973		J. Thompson ‘Sunrise at Midnight’ in Fireworks (1988) 167: You could have milked your pigeons for a fortune.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 299: pigeon. [...] a mark or gambler’s victim.

(b) (UK Und.) ‘Pigeons – sharpers who, during the drawing of the lottery, wait ready mounted, near Guildhall, and as soon as the first two or three numbers are drawn, which they receive from a confederate, ride, i.e. ‘fly’, with them to some distant insurance office where there is another of the gang, commonly a decent looking woman; to her he secretly gives the numbers, which she insures for a considerable sum’ (Grose, 1796).

1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1801		‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII .
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London 45: He has been among the Greeks and pigeons, who have completely rook’d him, and now want to crow over him.
1871		Levant Herald 22 Feb. ‘Gambling Table at Constantinople’ n.p.: The police agents... made a sudden razzia... Catching some of the croupiers, bonnets, and pigeons in fragrante delicto [sic] [F&H].
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 58: Pigeon, a simple fellow, the‘magsmen’ and‘hawk’s’ prey.

(c) (UK/US Und.) a professional gambler.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 96/1: We found a few ‘pigeons’ and ‘ropers’ lolling around the room, but play had apparently not commenced.
1886		Lantern (N.O.) 22 Sept. 3: Two to eight players (six of whom are pigeons or Japs).
1890		Sporting Times 22 Feb. 2/4: Real Ladies ... 4. Pigeon Sharps ... 10.