Green’s Dictionary of Slang

adobe adj.

[Sp. adobe, sun-dried mud or clay, widely used as a building material in Mexico]

(US) a generic, and in sl. use derog., term meaning Mexican; thus generic for second-rate, inferior.

In compounds

adobe dollar (n.)

(US) a Mexican peso.

Show quotations
[US]Arizona Dly Star (Tucson, AZ) 10 July 3/1: This is quite an advantage for the poorer classes who take the adobe dollar for their pay.
[US]Clifton Clarion (AZ) 19 June 3/3: This document was obtained by Abran at the cost of five adobe dollars.
[US]Oasis (Arizola, AZ) 9 Jan. 7/1: Several of the ‘dobies’ used by the bandits [...] are in the pockets of Tucson people who procured them by giving silver dollars in exchange.
[US]El Paso Dly Herald (TX) 21 Dec. 4/3: For Uncle Sam’s bright $5 gold pieces the banks in Manila were paying 10 ’dobe dollars.
[US] in WNID (1930).
[US]Spokane Press (Washinton, WA) 1 Dec. 16/3: Mexican Dollar is a Real Joke [...] The successor to the old ‘adobe (dobey) dollar’ has not a milled edge.
[US]N.Y. Tribune 9 May 13/7: I know about that South American money. They pay off in dobey dollars and it takes a hatful of them to make one American case note.
[US]W.M. Raine Cool Customer 83: Betcha five bucks against a ’dobe dollar the shyster has them out of stir before night.
[US]Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 28 mar. 18/1: There they would unload their cargos of smuggled Mexican goods and adobe dollars and conduct a brisk commerce with the gringos.
, [US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
[US] (ref. to 1915) J.D. Watson ‘The money of the Mex. Revolution’ 🌐 In 1915 the State of Guerrero issued a large number of coins in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 centavos, and 1 and 2 pesos. [...] The large 2 pesos piece became know as the ‘Adobe dollar’. This nickname is said to have come from U.S. troops.