Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see top number under top adj.

1. to make and smoke a marijuana or hashish cigarette.

1978		J. Webb Fields of Fire (1980) 248: Hey man, wanna do a number?
2002		wet1 posting at SciForums.com 21 Apr. 🌐 In my time I heard it refered to as ‘doing a number’, go figure...
c.2003		M. Riley ‘Doing a Number’ on West Virginia Northern Community College 🌐 In my 30s, ‘doing a number’ meant sharing a ‘joint’, or marijuana cigarette, with one or more friends.

2. of cannabis, to take effect.

1978

H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 34: This is some nice hash. Uh huh. Its really doin a number on my head.

1. to make a fuss, to become emotional; to subject someone to emotional blackmail or at least some form of moral, friendship or ethical pressure.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 142: number [...] 2. one’s skit, act, schtick; contrived actions used to gain attention. [...] 4. ‘routine, as in running a number on somebody.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 14: How to get even with Leonard for doing that absolutely unbelievable number on her [Ibid.] 27: If Kate was going to do a number like that on him, he’d take his daughter to dinner instead.
1980		T. Lewis GBH 18: ‘Don’t do a number on me, Dennis. Everybody down there knows what our relationship is’.
1994		T. Wolff In Pharoah’s Army 28: [M]y assumption that his ability to run different numbers on other people meant that he would run numbers on me.

2. to harm.

1977		N.Y. Mag. 12 Dec. 42/1: During the blackout, they really did a number on us. They took all our drugs. They ripped out our storefront. [...] Three weeks later, we were burglarized again.
1988		R.J. Randisi Full Contact 136: ‘What happened?’ ‘Somebody did a number on him, Jack — maybe like somebody tried to do on you’.
2012		(con. 1954) ‘Jack Tunney’ Tomato Can Comeback [ebook] I hadn’t realised how nervous I’d been through the fight,. [...] It did a number on my stomach.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 207: ‘They did a real number on you’.

3. to manipulate emotionally, esp. through sexuality; to cheat, confuse or deceive someone.

1979		AFL-CIO Biennial Convention (Alabama Labor Council) Proceedings 60: A governor who we had every reason to believe was supportive of the labor movement, did a number on us.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 97: I’d say she really did a number on Guy Clinch. No half-measures there. It beats me how she keeps a straight face.
1991		P. Cornwell Body of Evidence (1992) 174: If he was, it’d probably be soprano after the number you done on him.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 393: She’d told him what a big number she was doing on the band.
2000		Eminem ‘Kim’ 🎵 You really fucked me Kim / You really did a number on me.
2006		C. Marriner Southern Style 7: Didn’t stop him doing a number on me, though. Smoother than a peeled onion, our Jock. [...] Still, it had to happen: every London virgin eventually gets fucked.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 158: He’d [...] not told them the reason. Let their heads do a number on them.
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles : [Y]ou’d be the last person on earth to do a number on me.

4. to flirt, to entice someone with sexual behaviour.

1979		Spectator Winter 15: Her big baby blues were too busy doing a number on my bloodshot brown ones.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 7: She was doing a number on a grape Popsicle to make your peter wish it was frozen on a stick.

5. to have sexual intercourse.

1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 21: ‘He and me did a little number last month on his house boat in Sausalito.’ ‘A little number?’ ‘Fucked.’.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 93: We got a really great-looking hooker [...] She used to do numbers for Ralph Atlas’ clients.

6. to beat savagely.

1973		R. Daley Target Blue 471: [O]nce outside, someone would be waiting who either took the customer for a ride, or for a walk. The number was done to him on the outside.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 20: I get about half a chance I’m gonna do a number square on his nappy fucken head.
2000		personal correspondence 7 July: doing a number on his head can mean either repeated blows, kicks, etc to head, [...] doing a number on the ribs is more tightly tied to physical violence.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 304: Get your busted as down the bar [...] so’s I can see for myself the number this guy did on you.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] ‘They sure did a number on you. See that frothy blood. That’s an embolism. You’ve got a collapsed lung’.

7. (US) to get married.

1983

N. Heard House of Slammers 93: Me and the bitch gon’ do the number.

8. to break, to cause harm (other than through deliberate, person-to-person violence).

1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 113: Done a total number of your cool jacket. Yo! Maybe Mom could sew it?
2000		M. Collins Keepers of Truth 176: The dust does a number on my sinuses.

9. to hurt severely.

2010

Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 11: The rib shot has done a number on him.

1. to understand another person absolutely, despite all their possible evasions and excuses.

1853		Dickens Bleak House (1991) 775: Whenever a person proclaims to you ‘In worldly matters I’m a child’ you consider that that person is only a-crying off from being held accountable, and that you have got that person’s number, and it’s Number One.
1916		C. Sandburg ‘To a Contemporary Bunkshooter’ Chicago Poems 28: You don’t throw any scare into me. I’ve got your number. I know how much you know about Jesus.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 25: They felt that they had her Number.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 14: Sweet Harlem! Harlem, I’ve got you’ number down.
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 102: ‘She’s got your number,’ I said. ‘She says you’re a worrier.’.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 53: I had his number—Costas didn’t fool me for a moment.
1960		(con. c.1930) J. Havoc Early Havoc 48: ’I’ve got your number I’m not afraid of you’.
1963		C. Wood ‘Prisoner and Escort’ in Cockade (1965) I iii: She’s got your number ’Oskie ... I always thought you were a stinking bastard.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 208: Canadian Jack had had the Hawk’s number from the beginning.
1983		A. Payne ‘Get Daley!’ Minder [TV script] 46: They had my number down when I arrived, chum, I’ll tell you that. They said ‘Here, that geezer is completely healthy.’.
1989		P. Slabolepszy ‘Smallholding’ in Mooi Street (1994) 217: Any fool voel who wants to come and tackle my tomatoes, feel free. Because why? Because I got your bladdy number, jong!
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 58: ‘What did you do to LeRoy?’ Rooster asked. She was thinking: ‘He’s got your number now.’.
1995		D. Lodge Therapy (1996) 102: Oh, yes, this guy has my number alright.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 219: I hate that, people day projects kid, projects girl, like everybody’s got your number .
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 293/1: got your number 1. to know what someone is up to.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 212: MEDBH: Ryan, do you have my number? RYAN: In a fucking manner of speaking, I do, girl.

2. to know something disadvantageous about; to place someone in a difficult position.

1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 66: I guess I got yer numbers now, so in future yuh pay in advance!
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 179: They got our number all right.
1937		W.M. Raine Cool Customer 146: You needn’t bluff, fellow [...] We’ve got your number.
1968		G. Cuomo Among Thieves 218: He’s saying the way he got off so light was that he got everybody’s number now.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 205: Soho wasn’t particularly hospitable any longer because the coppers now had his number.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 218: He’s going to wish he never heard of me. I got his number. He’s mine!
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] The bulls had his number – some bastard had shopped him – and he was done for if they nabbed him.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 293/1: got your number [...] 2. to identify someone as gay.

anything or anyone seen as serious, important etc.

1971		C. Adelman Generations 91: And he puts down this very heavy number and his mind is so fucked up and I just get very uptight.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 184: Look, there’s this very heavy number goin’ down with my father and uncle.
2001		Shaun Traynor 🌐 Pessimistic, serious, truly beautiful, I recommend Port Authority to my readers with the proviso, it is a heavy number.
2002		S-wine 🌐 This heavy number is from Sicily so hence the whopping 14% volume.

a sexually attractive woman or in gay use man, also her or his telephone number, esp. if written on the wall of a phone booth.

1896		in A. Charters Ragtime Songbook (1965) 55: Say gal, you’re sure a red hot number.
1929		S.J. Perelman Dawn Ginsbergh’s Revenge 186: To think of some of the hot numbers I’ve turned away on account of you!
1932		J.T. Farrell ‘A Practical Joke’ in Short Stories (1937) 180: He said she was a hot number, but lousy.
1945		A. Kober Parm Me 33: I told Francey all about this girl [...] and what a hot number she was.
1958		R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 134: Hot number, that Gloria. Really hot!
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 15: She was a ‘hot number’ this daughter of his.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 181: In that place any girl became a hot number.
1987		C. Hiaasen Double Whammy (1990) 45: A very hot number [...] Don’t tell me she’s already got your dick in a knot.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 25: (H)ot-number a sexy female: u. de gal Sharon deh a hot number.
2005		(con. 1970s) E. White My Lives 191: In those days gay guys divided other gay men into three categories: forget-it; hot numbers; and sisters.
2006		(ref. to 1963) D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 60: Marie Anselmo was a hot little number. That’s what we would have called her back in 1963. [...] Nowadays the kids have shortened it to just ‘hottie’.

(US prison) to finish one’s sentence.

1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 107: Kill a Number also Number and Parole to Next Number To complete a prison sentence.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 16: If you croaked before you killed your number, they wouldn’t dump your carcase off-site.

to understand another person, to assess a situation.

1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 11 Jan. 10/4: Don’t act so mart, we knew your number from the start.
1979		T. Rhone Old Story Time II v: She is a distress to me, you see, Missa Mac? But I know her number.

1. a phr. meaning that one dies.

1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 62: Nuvver step and your number’s up.
1915		‘Bartimeus’ ‘Crab-Pots’ in A Tall Ship 11: I think our number’s up, old thing. Thorogood bent and slipped his arms under the surgeon’s body.
1920		(con. WWI) Dos Passos One Man’s Initiation: 1917 (1969) 143: The shells were coming in so thick I thought my number’d turn up any time.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Mob Murder’ in Gangland Stories Mar. 🌐 ‘So he made a deal with Dimples and Clam’s and Bert’s numbers were put up.’.
1943		J. Mitchell McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (2001) 34: When you number’s up, rich or poor, you got to go.
1957		‘Ed Lacy’ Lead With Your Left (1958) 25: The cemeteries are full of ex-cops. When our number comes up we go with the wagon too.
1967		J. Rechy Numbers (1968) 13: When your number comes up —.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 34: Somewhere, I’d see the guy who’d shot me – who’d tried to murder me – and his number would be up.
1980		Jackson & Christian Death Row 278: And that is one thing you never know: when your number is up.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 259: Before he flew off to bomb and strafe the Hun, until the night his number came up.
1999		Guardian G2 14 Oct. 3: But the kid’s number was obviously up.

2. a phr. meaning that one is in trouble or has reached a point from which one cannot escape.

1910		Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 121: The absurd idea that all was over, that you meant all you said — briefly, that his number was up.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 430: I knew there was no choice. With Blenkiron crippled we were pinned to the castrol. Our numbers were up all right.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 211: Number Up, To Have One’s: To be in trouble.
1931		W.R. Burnett Silver Eagle 181: ‘I ain’t standing for it. Michaelson’s number is up. He’ll leave town tonight.’ ‘He’s small fry, see?’ said Frankie, explaining the lenience.
1965		C. Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 42: His number’s up and you’d better get on the winning side.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 22: When his number came up, it was the result of neither a Western District patrolman’s vigilance, nor the business end of a stickup boy’s nine millimeter.
2011		D. Telegraph (Sydney) 22 Apr. 🌐 The moment Jackie O was told her number’s up .

(UK prison) voluntary solitary confinement for the sake of a prisoner’s safety; child molesters, rapists etc. choose this in preference to the ‘natural justice,’ i.e. violence of their peers.

1998

J. Hoskison Inside 7: ‘Want to go “on the numbers?”’ the officer asked.

1. to trick, to deceive.

1973

in Wentworth & Flexner DAS (1975).

2. with a n., to act in a given manner, usu. in order to deceive.

1983		R. Price Breaks 195: He had been anticipating the number I’d pull on him five years later.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 20: Let the backup do it [i.e. frighten a witness]. Have him pull a cop number.
2010		K. Richards Life 418: This little French fucker [...] was trying to pull a number on Lil.

(US und.) to mark down for punishment, assassination, etc.

2012

L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] ‘You have to help us, Benny,’ Quinn said. ‘And have Logan James put a number on me too?’.

(drugs) to prepare a marijuana cigarette; thus rolled number n.

1973		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 3: roll a number – to roll a marijuana joint.
1993		R. Shell Iced 149: I had just rolled myself a night-cap number.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 104: Newton picked a rolled number out of his bag of dope.

(orig. milit.) an easy job.

1918		Buffalo Commercial (NY) 19 Jan. 12/2: The navy hold the belief that the chaplain of a warship has ‘a soft number’.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 347: Soft Number. Easy job.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 263: Soft Number, A: An easy job.
1941		Clarion Ledger (Jackson, MS) 27 Feb. 14/2: Chalky Wright [...] gets a soft number on the same card.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 184: It’s a nice soft number – stockbroker’s hours, gentlemens’ holidays.

(US drugs) heroin.

1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 313: Number 8. Heroin.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 16: Number 8 — Heroin.

(N.Z.) the best; the strongest; the most likely to succeed.

1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 77/2: Number Eight the best, strongest, most likely to succeed; from the thick gauge No. 8 fencing wire used on farms.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

the Fleet prison, situated at 9 Fleet Market, London.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 128: No. 9 ? Fleet-market the Fleet prison. ‘You’ll find him always at home, at No. 9’.

see separate entries.

(US) very bad (cf. number ten thou adj.).

1966		Times Recorder (Zanesville, OH) 13 Mar. 10/5: Numbah Ten [...] once meant the worst. No more. The real worst is now Numbah One Thou and will stand until somebody finally coins Numbah One Mil.
1978		J. Webb Fields of Fire 252: VC bac-bac Phony? Numbah fucking One Thousand.
1987		(con. 1967) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 54: First Sergeant number fucking one thousand.

(US short order) a steak.

1899

Ft Wayne News (IN) 2 Feb. 7/1: Bowery Eating House Lingo [...] A steak, ’number seven’.

1. a lock of hair shaped like the figure 6 and twisted from the temple back towards the ear.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (US, also number 6) Thomson’s Compound Tincture of Myrrh and Capsicum, a popular household remedy [it was regularly listed as the sixth medicine in the firm’s catalogue].

1842		C.M. Kirkland Forest Life I 83: We stick to thoroughwort,—balmony,—soot tea,—‘number six,’—and the like.
1853		‘Philip Paxton’ A Stray Yankee in Texas 122: His old woman doctored me, and give me ‘number six’.

see separate entries.

(drugs) morphine.

1953

Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 313: Number 13. Morphine.

(drugs) cocaine.

1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 313: Number 3. Cocaine.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 16: Number 3 — Cocaine; heroin.

masturbation, whether by oneself, a partner, or as ‘executive relief’ i.e. from a ‘masseuse’ or prostitute.

1966

Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.

see separate entry.

(US) an accountant.

1938

W.W. Haines High Tension 61: But a big blond number chaser seen some of Beckett’s time sheets and took to weeping red ink.

an accountant or statistician.

1971		A. Sampson New Anatomy of Britain 497: Kenneth Keith, a brusque number-cruncher who had come into banking from accountancy .
1999		Indep. Information 10–16 July 66: Straight denigration of the number crunchers isn’t too difficult to find.
2000		Indep. Rev. 24 Mar. 7: The number-crunchers [...] have discovered that in the last couple of years, the average age at which British senior managers are made redundant has fallen.
2006		D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 57: Us number-crunchers are making a killing!

the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see under numbers, the n.

(Aus.) when the result is known.

1890		‘Tasma’ In her Earliest Youth III 228: ‘And then your children, a growing family, you know, you have two already,’ suggested the agent blandly. ‘Yes, we’ve got two,’ said George meditatively; ‘and as for the family, it’s the same as with everything else – you never can tell till the numbers are up.’.
1911		E.J. Brady Tom Pagdin Pirate 13: ‘Are you goin’ to run away in ’er?’ [...] ‘You never can tell,’ replied Tom, ‘until the numbers go up’.
1920		F.A. Russell Ashes of Achievement 199: He thinks the chances are in favour; I’m inclined to think they’re against. And my guess is as good as his, before the numbers go up.
1969		M. Calthorpe Defectors 181: You can expect a few sharp counter moves [...] You’ll be hard at it until the numbers go up.
1992		J. Anderson Winners can Laugh 123: The numbers were up and that’s what the bookies pay on [AND].
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 8: When a dispute or question had been resolved it might have been said that ‘the numbers are up’.