Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. naut.) a second drink, a drink bought in return for another; cite 2000 reefrs to a second bottle of wine.

1894		H. Lawson ‘A Wild Irishman’ in Roderick (1972) 195: And he — to his credit, perhaps — came the other half.
1938		Sun. Dispatch (London) 3 July n.p.: Publand...first round is known as ‘one’, second as ‘the other half’, third as ‘same again’, fourth as ‘a final’, fifth as ‘one for the road’, sixth as ‘a binder’, and seventh as ‘swing o’ the door’ [DSUE].
2000		P. Temple Dead Point (2008) [ebook] He emptied his glass. Let’s get the other half.

2. see better half n.

(US black) a white person, esp. the owner of a neighbourhood store in a black area.

1962

N.Y. Times Mag. 20 May 45: other man: the liquor dealer.

1. (UK Und.) Southwark, south of the River Thames; or from south London, north of the Thames.

1747		Life and Character of Moll King 12: I heard she made a Fam To-night, a Rum one, with Dainty Dasies, of a Flat from T’other Side.
1861		‘The Rat-Catcher’s Daughter’ in Bryant’s Songs from Dixie’s Land 14: Not long ago in Vestminster there lived a rat-catcher’s daughter, / And yet she didn’t live in Vestminster, ’cause she loved ’tother side of the water.
1897		W.S. Maugham Liza of Lambeth (1966) 91: I’ll tike a room in a lodgin’ ’ouse in ’Olloway [...] I can git get work over the other side as well as I can ’ere.

2. either America or Britain (or Europe, see cite 1875) depending on which side of the Atlantic one is; thus this side; also England when used in Ireland, and Britain when in Australia.

1791		C. Macklin True-Born Irishman Act I: O aye, you politicians promise us the devil and all while you are among us, but the moment you get o’ t’other side, you have devilish bad memories.
1833		J. Neal Down-Easters I 64: You’re from tother side arter all, I’m a’ thinkin’? [...] From over there – away yender, pointing to the high seas.
1875		J.H. Warren Crying Shame of NY 277: The importer, in the case of still wines, on draft, the old heavy dinner wines, says that the doctoring is all done ‘on the other side’.
1890		Sporting Times 12 Apr. 7/1: I have tried to induce him to stay here the rest of his natural life just as a pattern of what we can do on the other side of the pond.
1899		C.J.C. Hyne Adventures of Captain Kettle 187: If you can—well—so contrive that he doesn’t land at the other side, it means you are set up for life.
1912		Mencken letter 16 Mar. in Bode New Mencken Letters (1977) 36: I ought to be able to pull out during the summer. I am going to be very careful on the other side.
1920		(con. WW1) Coffs Harbour Advocate 29 May 2/6: If you see a man ‘poking borak’ (1916-1918 Franco-Australian slanguage) you can bet your fifty bob boots and ten- shilling socks that he never saw the other side [i.e. European battlefields].
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 17: Hits the belly better this way. I l’arned it over the other side.
1934		T. Wood Cobbers 10: We want people from the other side to see our State.
1953		B. Behan Scarperer (1966) 12: But I th-thought you were the other side – in the shovel – in Parkhurst – on the island.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 14: My old man? Square guy [...] strictly from the other side [i.e. Sicily].
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 156: I’m talking about the ones on the other side.
1991		Tony Gray Mr Smyllie, Sir 1: It is October 1940, and it is dark outside in Westmoreland Street. On the other side, as we used to say in those days, the Battle of Britain is at its height .
1993		(con. 1920s) W. Woodruff Road to Nab End (2003) 101: ‘It’s better for the likes of us at t’ other side,’ he said to me one day. I sensed that he had made a mistake in leaving America.

3. (N.Z.) Australia, i.e. the other side of the Tasman Sea.

1933		(ref. to 1890–1910) L.G.D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs (1951) 389: Other side, the – Australia.
1988		(ref. to 1880) McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 80/1: Other Side, The Australia, the other side of the water; c.1880.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

4. (Aus.) depending on the speaker’s home, Tasmania or Sydney, the ‘other side’ of Australia.

1895		H. Lawson ‘Since Then’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 289: They are all friends and strangers who belong to the Sydney-side. / ‘T’other-siders! T’other siders!’ Yet we wake the dusty dead. / For ’twas we that sent the backward province fifty years ahead; / We it is in trim Australia—making narrow country wide— / Yet we’re always T’other-siders till we sail for Sydney-side.
1896–9		(?) H. Lawson ‘A Gentleman Sharper and Steelman Sharper’ in Roderick (1972) 223: The gentleman sharper from the Other Side had been hanging around them for three days.

1. (also other side, the) of sexual intercourse, anal rather than vaginal.

1963		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 38: He shoved it in until she died, / And then he tried the other side.
1994		Penguin Bk of Aus. Jokes 343: Let him do anything he likes, but if ever he asks you to do it ‘the other way’ don’t let him.

2. homosexual.

2000

J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 176: ‘Crazy Larry was the other way?’ [...] ‘Bent as a nine-bob note.’.

1. (US) to be bisexual or homosexual.

1966

Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases 92: go the other way (Sl.) Descriptive of being Bi-Sexual or Homosexual.

2. to alter one’s position, to back down on a promise.

1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 81: Sneed glanced up at the judge, then back at the slag in the witness-box, wondering why he was going the other way, what he hoped to gain from it, whether he now hated all CID so-much because of his nicking.
2002		R. Sullivan LAbyrinth 159: McCauley already had one sustained allegation of ‘lying and denying’ in his personnel package, and [...] it was possible the officer might be on the verge of ‘going the other way.’.

3. of a judicial verdict, to find against the plaintiff.

1977

G.F. Newman A Prisoner’s Tale 49: ‘It does go the other way [...] I’ll have to plot one up, s’all.’ ‘Out of here? You got to be joking,’ Collins said.