Green’s Dictionary of Slang

egg n.1

1. in pl., the testicles.

[UK]Talk of Ten Wives in Furnivall Jyl of Brentford 32: A sory laueroke satt ... Opon two adyll eggis.
[UK]Fletcher Bloody Brother IV ii: Pox, he feedes With leachery, and lives upon th’exchange Of his two Eggs and Puddings with the market woman.
[UK]White ‘New Made Gentlewoman’ in Chappell Roxburghe Ballads (1874) II 380: [A clap which makes me] go stradling with swelling my eggs you may drive a wheelbarrow between my two legs.
[UK]Hell upon Earth 42: [Male whores approach men] with a chuck under the Chin, and O you bold Pullet I’ll break your Eggs.
[UK]‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) V 959: It contains two stones called also testicles, which feel from the outside about the size of bantams’ eggs, and some people call them their eggs.
[UK]‘Confessions of a Virtuous Wife’ in Cabinet of Venus 303: Kissing and fondling his eggs as his yard worked in and out.
[US] ‘The Castration of the Strawberry Roan’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 93: The boss held his head, and I hog tied his legs, / Got out his jackknife and went for his eggs; / When I carved on his bag, he let out a squall, / And squealed like a pig when I whittled one ball.
[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 290: Meat-rationing did not terrify Miss Davey, / She got married to a sailor in the Navy, / For she knew between his legs / He had ham and he had eggs / A big wienie, and oodles of white gravy.
[US] in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 652: [as cit. c.1940].
[US]D. Jordan in Heller In This Corner (1974) 362: He hit me right in the nuts, the cup pressed against my egg, and it hurt.
[US]J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 229: George Junior [...] had cupped himself in such a way that the main event was hidden. All eggs and no sausage.
[UK]R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 202: I reefed again, sharpering desperately for my petty egglets. Nix jewels. nanti testicles!

2. (also eggshell) the head or skull.

[US]R. Lardner ‘A Frame-Up’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 419: Nate had to [...] say Burke had hurt one of his hands on Kemp’s egg.
[US]R. Starnes Another Mug for the Bier 41: ‘[S]someday you are going to get that old eggshell of yours caved in for carrying money like that’.

3. a grenade, a bomb; thus lay an egg v., to drop a bomb.

[Aus]F. Garrett diary 19 June 🌐 At about 4.00 p.m. one of our aeros went over head and dropped some eggs for the Turks’ tea.
[UK] ‘I Want to Go to Essen’ in C.H. Ward-Jackson Airman’s Song Book (1945) 60: I want to go to Essen to lay my little egg [...] So to Essen we’ll go with a hell of a bombing formation.
[Aus](con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: lay-an-egg. (of an aeroplane) Drop a bomb.
[US](con. 1914–18) L. Nason Three Lights from a Match 280: ‘Ready with the eggs?’ he asked.
[Aus](con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 248: That night Fritz dropped five eggs on Querrieu [Ibid.] 262: ‘I’d like the goold Hun up there to drop fifty of his very biggest eggs all at once along Whitehall, and we might win the war — what?’.
[US](con. WWI) G. Bruce ‘The Flaming Arrow’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 49/2: Avery pulled the releases and sent the twenty pound eggs plunging earthward.
[UK]R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 143: The escort is also armed – with small grenades filled with liquid paint, known amongst bank messengers as ‘eggs’. They are useful weapons against the thief who relies on a quick getaway by mingling with the crowd.
[UK] ‘The Heavy Bombers’ in C.H. Ward-Jackson Airman’s Song Book (1945) 143: The eggs may miss the goods yard, but they muck up poor old Hamm.
[US](con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 324: The boom-boom-booms came from the gasoline dump [...] Tojo had laid his egg dead center.
[US]W.C. Anderson Bat-21 104: Some barstardly F-4 pilot had put some eggs in too close and blown up his cornfield.
[US]D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 299: Yep! It’s bombs away, as I like to say. the old eggs heading for the heart of the city!
[US]J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 164: The Japs [...] dropped those eggs on Pearl Harbor.

4. (orig. US) a bruise.

[US]‘Paul Cain’ Fast One (1936) 17: Dave is cold with an egg over his ear.
[Scot]G. Armstrong Young Team 46: [H]e kin fight. A kin feel a few eggs awready.

5. (US) a baseball or football (see cite 1901).

[US]S.F. Call 17 Nov. 8/2: I seen ’em put the leather egg [...] About the middle of the field.
[US]Weseen Dict. Amer. Sl.
[US]Slanguage Dict. Mod. Amer. Sl.
[US]R. Blount Jr About Three Bricks Shy of a Load 55: ‘Hold on to that egg, guv’nor,’ Rooster said in the direction of a rookie receiver. ‘’Cause you can’t score without that apple’.

6. in fig. use of sense 1 above, courage, virility.

Schwendinger & Schwendinger Adolescent Subcult 194: They really got their eggs (testicles or ‘balls’) to fight [HDAS].

7. (US) a large precious stone.

[UK]‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 113: [Y]ou a married woman with a ring like that size. Don’t let the egg fool ya Justin I am washing that man right outta my hair.

8. in drug uses.

(a) usu. pl., any drug in capsule form, or the capsule itself.

[US](con. 1952) R. Kahn Boys of Summer 122: Roy Campanella [...] indicated two vitamin pills [...] ‘You’d be amazed,’ he said, ‘at all the power that’s in them little eggs’.
[US]J. Allen Assault with a Deadly Weapon 161: Most of the time people call the cap an egg: ‘Give me twenty eggs’ [ibid] 162: Man, you better go in there and sniff two or three of them eggs.

(b) temazepam, a tranquillizer.

urban75 Urban75.com 🌐 Benzodiazepines (Benzos, temazies, jellies, eggs, moggies, vallies). [...] temazepam (Tems, Temazzies, Eggs, Green Eggs, Jellies, Norries, Rugby balls).
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 64/2: egg n. 1 a temazepam capsule.

(c) crack cocaine.

[US]ONDCP Street Terms 8: Egg — Crack Cocaine.

(d) (Aus.) MDMA tablets.

RaveSafe South Australia RaveSave.doof.org 🌐 Ecstasy: Also known as Es, eccies, pills, XTC, X, Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), biccies, tabs, eggs, googs, vitamin E, essence, adam. Eve, the hug drug, the love drug.

In phrases

out of one’s egg (adj.)

(Aus.) insane.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Sept. 35/4: Sampson waxed shrill. ‘Man, man, man!’ he said, ‘are ye out of your egg? Have ye senses and brains?’.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

eggbeater (n.)

1. (US) an autogiro or helicopter.

[US]L.F. Engler ‘Gloss. Air Force Sl.’ in AS XXX:2 120: WHIRLIGIG; EGG BEATER; INFURIATED PALM TREE, n.; n. phr. Helicopter.
[US]W.C. Anderson Penelope 189: They [...] had spent most of the daylight hours flying above the submerged submarine in their eggbeater.
[US](con. 1950s) C.S. Crawford Four Deuces 101: Red [...] told me about the ‘whirlybirds,’ the ‘eggbeaters,’ the ‘windmills’.
[Aus]M. Walker How to Kiss a Crocodile 103: A very windy journey across the tarmac, hair vertical, climb aboard the vibrating egg beater, up into the air.
[UK]K. Lette Mad Cows 163: They looked up as the airborne eggbeater descended.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

2. an old car.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr.
egg-boiler (n.) [in hot weather it ‘boils’ one’s sense 2]

(Aus.) a bowler hat.

[Aus]H. Eyre Hilarities 132: Mr Bruce should adopt the style of head cover once used to be known as an ‘egg-boiler’.
[Aus]L. Lower Here’s Luck 161: ‘Where did you get that boy-size egg-boiler?’ asked Flannery.
[Aus]Le Courrier Australien (Sydney) 5 June 7/1: You call a bowler hat a darby or hardboiled hat: we line it up as a boxer, bocker, hardhitter, eggboiler, plug hat, peadodger, bun or hap harry.
[Aus]N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 233/1: egg boiler – bowler hat.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 73: egg-boiler Any confining hat, originally a bowler hat — on a hot day your egghead boils in it. ANZ c1920.
egg-crate (n.) [resemblance]

1. (US) an old car or aeroplane.

[US]T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 35: If he can make that egg crate go I’ll suggest his name for a medal.
[US]Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
[US]L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 108: Where the hell did they dig up this crap detail, guarding them goddam egg crates.
[US]T. Berger Nowhere 180: Who you think’s flying this egg-crate?
[US]E.R. Salvini Hobey Baker: Amer. Legend 112: He craved the excitement that could be achieved only on the stadium field or in a flying egg crate thousands of feet over the deadliest playing field of all.

2. an old elevator.

[US]A. Halper Foundry 27: The men [...] were pounding down the iron stairs, not waiting for old Charley’s slow-going egg-crate.
egg-eye (n.)

(US) one who stares or gawps foolishly.

[US]E. Hoagland Cat Man 225: Brownie shriveled the townies. He let them have the benefit of his advice. ‘You half-asses are getting out of here if I have to goose the jizz out of every one of you. Egg-eyes!’.
egghead/headed

see separate entries.

eggnog (n.)

(US) a foolish or unpleasant person.

[US] in W.C. Fields By Himself (1974) 117: What an awful egg-nog he is....You say the word and I’ll throw him off the back platform [HDAS].
egg roll (n.) [the foodstuff]

1. (Aus//N.Z. prison) a general term of abuse.

[NZ]G. Newbold Big Huey 118: Brian [...] was spewing over them [...] saying they were eggrolls and lashers and weaklings, for failing to stick fat.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Godson 325: Peregrine can be a bit of an egg roll at times.

2. (US) a derog. term for a Korean immigrant.

[US]Maledicta VII 23: In New York in 1983 the new Korean immigrants and probably other Asian groups are sometimes called egg roll.

3. (US gay) a Chinese man’s penis.

[US]H. Max Gay (S)language.
eggshell blond(e) (n.)

(Aus./N.Z.) a bald person.

[Aus]Murrumbidgee Irrigator (Leeton, NSW) 25 Aug. 4/3: It was a very happy function, with many good humored references to the ‘Egg-Shell Blonde’ — a sally at the guest's bald pate.
[Aus]Sydney Morn. Herald 15 Mar. 9/3: Some time ago I read that if I massaged my dome for fifteen minutes morning and evening a fine, luxuriant crop of hair would result. [...] Being at the time an egg-shell blond I was much interested in the article, and intended to cut it out.
[Aus]Dly Mercury (Mackay, Qld) 15 Jan. 2/2: NEW THATCH FOR ‘EGGSHELL BLOND’ [...] A ferry fire man who was bald for 10 years now has a thick head of hair.
[Aus] ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiv 4/4: egg shell blonde: Bald headed person.
[UK]K. Lette Llama Parlour 126: The only good thing was that, with his clean-shaven head — an egg-shell blond we called it at home — nobody has recognised him.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
eggsuck/sucker/sucking

see separate entries.

egg-white (n.)

semen; thus egg-white cannon, the penis.

[US] in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 311: The cabin girl ran down the deck. / The villain he pursued her. / The white of an egg ran down her leg. / Columbo, he had screwed her!
[US] in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 504: The white of egg run down her leg, / That son-of-a-bitch, he’d screwed her.
[UK]Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 12: egg-white cannon n. A four inch blue-veined blunderbuss loaded with two balls.

In phrases

egg in your beer

(US) a phr. meaning something for nothing, used as an ironical retort.

[US]E.R. Coulson ‘Aeroplane Factory English’ AS XIII:2 156/1: egg in your beer. An easy job; something for nothing.
H.B. Darrach Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/1: The Sinbads of these [bars] are the salt of the earth — and the egg in the beer of the 47 tavernkeepers.
[US]J.W. Bishop ‘Amer. Army Speech’ in AS XXI:4 Dec. 243: 3. Whaddya want – an egg in your beer? Properly, this is the retort courteous to a gripe, or bitch, which is not fully justified. By loose usage, it has become an answer to any and all complaints.
[US](con. 1942) L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 5: What do you want, chief, eggs in your beer?
[US]J. Ciardi Good Words 101: The mocking Am. phrase, whaddya want—egg in your beer? Variantly, You want egg in your beer, go check into the Ritz.
[US]T. Hanley Flyboys 79: So what are ya waitin’ for? Eggs in your beer? Get goin’!
R. La Vallie ‘Rev. of Return to Firetop Mountain’ at FightingFantasy.com 🌐 Also, it would have been excellent if Russ Nicholson, illustrator of the first novel, was the artist for Return of Firetop Mountain. But, what do you want, egg in your beer???
Grist mag. 11 July 🌐 What do you want, eggs in your beer?
eggs and the coffee (adj.)

(US) trustworthy.

[UK] (ref. to 1920s) L. Duncan Over the Wall 82: I’m pretty sure he’s eggs-and-the-coffee. I’m going to let him in on this caper. [Ibid.] 98: He was ‘eggs and the coffee,’ which in Tom Murray’s lingo meant that he was all right.
eggs in the coffee (adj.)

(US) excellent, wonderful, ideal.

[US]D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 36: It was going to be duck soup — yeh! Eggs in the coffee — yeh!
[US]D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 201: Then everthing will be all right, an’ you don’t have no trouble, an’ it’s eggs in the coffee.
put an egg in your shoe and beat it (v.)

see under beat it v.

In exclamations

egg-a-muffin! [SE egg on + McDonald’s egg McMuffin]

(US campus) enthusiastic response of agreement.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Fall 2: egg-a-muffin – [...] a response indicating agreement.
eggs are cooked!, the (also one’s potato is cooked!) [WWI eggs a-cook, hard-boiled Egyptian eggs]

(N.Z.) that’s it! that’s all! it’s over! etc.

[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 11 Mar. 376: ‘Don’t move an inch or I fire,’ he cried [...] As the Maories say, ‘my potato was cooked,’ and I obeyed.
[NZ]McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 42/2: eggs are cooked, one’s, something undesirable and probably inevitable which somebody has suffered; eg ‘After droughts two years running, his eggs were well and truly cooked.’ c. 1910.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
go lay an egg!

(US campus) excl. of dismissal.

[US]T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 41: [Fan to noisy spectator:] Go lay an egg.
[US]J.P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl 54: Do you think my heart is a revolving door [...] go lay an egg.
[US]Nicholson & Robinson Sailor Beware! I i: Aw, go lay an egg!
[US]C. Odets Awake and Sing! II i: Why don’t you lay an egg, Axelrod?
[UK]B. Vian I Spit On Your Graves (translation) (1996) 50: ‘Now’s the time to take advantage of her, cuty-pie. Go to it.’ ‘Oh go lay an egg. It‘s too easy with somebody that’s drunk.’.
[US]W. Munter My Downside Up Life 38: If our jaws weren’t aching so much by this time, I would have resorted to the well-known command, ‘Oh, go lay an egg!’.