ace adj.
1. (also acey, acey-deucey) best, excellent, wonderful.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Albuquerque Jrnl (NM) 13 Sept. 4/6: Why didn't you play the ace ideas when you held them? | |
| New York Day by Day 6 Nov. [synd. col.] The toughest audiences in flush vaudeville days were not at the ace houses. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Phenomena in Crime 13: ‘Ace’ crooks and petty thieves. | |
| USA Confidential 168: The town’s ace madame attends every council meeting. | |
| Hiparama of the Classics 15: Hip to the cool sweet groove of Liberty and solid sent upon the Ace Lick that all Cats and Kitties, Red, White, or Blue! are created Level, in front. | |
| Jackie 6 June n.p.: I met a real acey chick [KH]. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Great Aust. Gamble 84: [H]e got back those losses with interest when ace lightweight jockey E. Gorry got her up to take both the Spring Handicap and the Free Handicap . | |
| (con. 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 227: Hey! That’s straight ace! | |
| Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, IL) 7 Apr. 4/1: Prison Slang [...] Acey-deucey: OK. | |
| Traveller’s Tool 25: As a shag she might score zero, but she’s ace at washing, ironing, and keeping a man’s tucker warm. | |
| Awaydays 154: Telling me how she’d planned our first shag and how ace it was going to be. | |
| Dead Point (2008) [ebook] She’s [i.e. a boat] ace, Mr Fil [...] Runnin smooth. | |
| Soho 93: That ace wankah Ellis Hugo Bell was here. | |
| Stump 6: Think about how ace the day will be; one of them clear and crisp spring days. | |
| Good Girl Stripped Bare 84: ‘Oh wow, that’d be ace,’ I say, like a sixteen-year-old cheerleader. | |
| Widespread Panic 144: ‘That must have been an ace gig for a guy in your trade’. |
2. expert.
| Dames Don’t Care (1960) 83: I wonder if Mr Lemuel H. Caution, the ace ‘G’ man, is going to do a forlorn woman a good turn ace, in cards. | |
| Catcher in the Rye (1958) 190: I’ll show you the door in short order if you flunked in English, you little ace composition writer. | |
| Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 19: His two ace detectives with their identical big hard-shooting, head-whipping pistols. | |
| Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 160: He was an ace musician. | |
| Fixx 298: An ace intelligence maverick on the loose. | |
| Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 215: [T]here were two ace jockeys who shared the Professor nickname - Higgins (who was also known as ‘Roy The Boy’) and Jack Thompson. | |
| Indep. on Sun. Culture 9 Jan. 2: Shot by ace cinematographer Darius Khondji. | |
| Sucked In 39: You’d think Melbourne’s ace crime reporter would have more newsowrthy leads to pursue. | |
 | ‘The Hurt Business’ in ThugLit July [ebook] Takes me a good five minutes with my ace lock pick kit to get in. |
In compounds
see separate entry.
(US campus) one’s best friend.
| ‘Buy Me that Blade’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 101: You’re my ace-buddy, ain’tcha? | |
| Book of Negro Folklore 559: He’s my ace-boy, / Gone away. | |
| ‘The Checker Board’ in Lover Man 11: Mutton head didn’t never play the dozens with nobody, not even me, his ace-cut. | |
| A Chosen Few (1966) 47: This is my ace boy, Blood. | |
| (con. 1958) Been Down So Long (1972) 61: Who [...] was [...] Hop Harrigan’s ace buddy? | |
| Campus Sl. Apr. 1: ace buddy – close friend. |
(US black) God.
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 15 Mar. 21: Last ink a splo[...] unwound his spiel to the Ace Face in the Righteous Face. |
(US) excellent, first-rate.
| ‘Peanuts! The Pickle Dealers’ in AS XVI:3 Oct. 189: Ace-flat copper. A decent, fair-minded, considerate policeman. |
(US black) a very close friend.
| St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 2 June 6A/3: Ace kool — Best friend. | |
| Drive-by 298: Because of his closeness to the late FlashMan, FlashMan having been his ‘ace kool’ or mentor, Little Flash now truly was under [...] suspicion. | |
| Atlanta Parent ‘A Street Gang Primer’ 🌐 Ace Kool — best friend. | |
| hartleyscreek.com 25 May 🌐 Yesterday, Three of the Crips in Ft. Worth got arrested by the K-9’s being the KLUCKAS that they are. This ain’t no C World G. One banger had 130g’s and you can bet he was no one’s ACE KOOL. He ‘cracked’ with the fear of b-in shackled in the Fed. academy. He spilled his info. at first chance. | |
| Ashley Jordan’s Secret 42: We ain’t ace kool, you know. [...] I was getting ready to kick you to the curb. |
(US black, mainly Southern/Midwest) one’s most important lover, the most important member of the opposite sex one knows, e.g. a husband, a pimp, a boyfriend.
| (con. 1940s) ‘The Jive Bible’ at JiveOn.com 🌐 Ace-lover: n. One’s superlative companion of the opposite gender, usually implying some degree of sexual prowess; ‘Girl, you’d never think it by checkin’ him out, but Marvin be my ace-lover. The good lord blessed him with man muscle in the double digits and the ’bility to hit it all through the dims and brights!!’. |
1. (US teen) the leader of a teen street gang.
| Chicago Defender 7 Dec. 17: The ‘Twigglers’ kept 37th street hot [...] The ‘Jazzbows’ had ‘Slick’ Shelby and Willie Jenkins as ace-men. | |
| Teen-Age Gangs 3: He had already heard that Riff, one of the Ace-men, and a few other boys intended to hijack a bundle of the Daily News and hawk them in the subway. | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 247: You was our first ace-man. |
2. (US black) a male lover, a boyfriend.
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 29 June 19: The chick from Westchester got sapped up so thoroughly by her angry Ace Man. |
(US black) very best.
| ‘The Letter’ in et al. Life (1976) 141: If you see another bone from this here gal, / St. Peter will call Satan his ace-one pal. |
1. (US black) one’s favourite girlfriend.
| ‘Back Door Stuff’ 20 Aug. [synd. col.] Trying to figure out [...] why your ace queen come up short on your ‘Partial Plan’. |
2. (N.Z./US gay/prison) a very effeminate (prison) homosexual.
| Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐 ace queen: [70’s prison] one that appears as womanly as possible with shaven legs plucked eyebrows. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Gayle. |