Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) to pay one’s share.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1991		J.T. Pickle Aus.-Amer. Dict. 6: ALLEY UP: Cough up. To settle all debts.

(Aus./N.Z./S.Afr.) to make a good impression on someone, to ingratiate oneself, to improve one’s position.

1894		Truth (Sydney) 7 Oct. 3/8: And when I’d ‘made my marble good,’ / I’d gaily guy-a-whack.
1904		Gundagai Indep. (NSW) 27 July 2/7: He came back and ‘made his marble good’ for: three months.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 15 Jan. 4/6: [H]is walking -stick, a cheap affair, but a talisman that has made his alley good with Cupid for the last two decades.
1907		Truth (Perth) 17 Aug. 5/6: They are now ‘making their alleys good,’ so to speak, in cutting down expenditure by the employment of cheap boy labor.
1910		N.Z. Truth 16 Mar. 7/3: The Chow seems to have made his marble good at Masterton.
1911		Truth (Sydney) 22 Oct. 5/4: Thus, did the early Bird seek to make his alley good in a lot of ponderous piffle.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘Spike Wegg’ in Rose of Spadgers 144: That ’e ’ad swore to [...] make ’is alley good with Rose.
1937		Dly Teleg. (Sydney) 12 Jan. 6/7: A cable from friends here has ‘made his marble good’ with the Government.
1937		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 18 Nov. 13/4: [T]he car salesman was trying to make his alley good with the car buyer concerning the comfort of the machine.
1946		Advertiser (Adelaide) 10 June 6/9: He seeks a US loan of £A15O millions and to make his alley good he has announced ‘adoption of Democratic ideals’.
1946		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 5 Oct. 10/5: [H]e will still have to make his marble good with the Comrades Molotov and Vyshinsky.
1951		Nat. Advocate (Bathurst, NSW) 6 Aug. 1/1: McEwen doesn’t care one hoot about the unfortunate housewives, so long as he can make his marble good with that section which are predominant in his electorate.
1960		C.P. Snow Affair (1961) 19: That was no mystery. He just wanted to make his marble good.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 163: Making his marble good with the missus.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 67: Ernie saw the boss’s face one day after someone else had made his alley good by dobbing them.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 132: make your marble good To improve your position, as you attempt to do in the game of marbles. ANZ c1925.

(US) incorrect, mistaken.

1906

S. Ford Shorty McCabe 213: But it was a case of being off the alley again. Say, I’m glad I wasn’t backin’ my guesses with good money that night, or I’d come home with my pockets wrong side out.

1. (also shie in one’s marble, throw one’s alley in) to give up, to cease from an action.

1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 13 Apr. 4/4: Curio and Snowy ought to shie in their marble at trapping donahs.
1896		Nth Melbourne Gaz. 10 July 3/3: Umpire Hassett has had enough of fourth rates — tossed in his alley.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Jan. 4/8: They [i.e. the government] have thrown their alley in without a doubt / For the writing’s on the wall that on the next election day / Some bounders that we know of will be out.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘A Digger’s Tale’ in Chisholm (1951) 102: Uv course, I threw me alley in right there. / This Princess was a dinkum Aussie girl.
1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. Aus. Words and Terms 4: alley, toss in the — To give in.
1942		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 27 Feb. 8/3: The messenger in the Town Clerk's office also tossed in his alley, he, too, haying secured a job as a cleaner.

2. (also chuck in one’s alley, pass in..., roll...) to die; as vtr. to kill oneself.

1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 19 Jan. 4/8: ’E threatened to throw in ees alley / When the School took ’im down for ees tin.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 20 Dec. 8/3: Tom [...] nearly passed in his ally through eating shark .
1912		Truth (Perth) 2 Mar. 2/4: A person named Knight [...] tossed in his alley, leaving a fair amount of ‘oof’ to be whacked up among the family— or those of it who survived him.
1919		E. Dyson ‘Bricks’ in ‘Hello, Soldier!’ 33: When Ulrich stopped a Port bookay he rolled his alley in.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘The Faltering Knight’ in Chisholm (1951) 72: When my pal, Ginger Mick, / Chucked in ’is alley in this war we won, / ’E left things tangled.

3. to commit oneself to an action (which one may come to regret).

1910

Sthn Argus (Perth) 10 Dec. 2/6: [C]oming to the conclusion that our champion fat man had tossed in his alley [i.e. agreed to marriage], owing to over-enlargement of the potato-trap.