Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US Und.) the numbers racket.

1935		E. Freeman ‘The Whirling Hub’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 20 Apr. 15/2: The lass [...] was sixteen hundred smackers richer when her digit selection rolled out last week.
1948		Dan Burley ‘Back Door Stuff’ 30 Oct. [synd. col.] Nobody is more open to the loss of his favorite chick than the man who banks the digits.
1970		G. Cain Blueschild Baby 195: ‘Running digits, selling a little dope, got an old lady. Hustling, that’s all, just hustling’.
1973		Maurer & Vogel Narcotics and Narcotic Addiction in Maurer Lang. Und. (1981).

2. (US black, also seven digits) a telephone number (and address).

1985		Pebblee-Poo ‘Fly Guy’ 🎵 You won’t get the seven digits, so get rid of the pen.
1987		LL Cool J ‘Do Wop’ 🎵 In the meantime, put your digits down.
1992		UGK ‘976-Bun B’ 🎵 So dial the digits and I’m divin in that ass like a pool.
1993		Souls of Mischief ‘93 ’til Infinity’ 🎵 Dial the seven digits, call up Bridget.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.
1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 250: He tapped her digits into his Psion organiser.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 134: I hope you haven’t given ’im our phone digits.
2001		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 15 Apr. 54: I gave him my digits, and he called me up.
2004		Danny! ‘My Baby’ 🎵 How ’bout you slip them seven digits and make Danny’s day?
2005		C. Buzzell My War (2006) 11: We exchanged numbers (our parents’ digits of course).
2012		Schoolboy Q ‘Sexting’ 🎵 Get them digits, textin, textin / [...] / All night long we sextin sextin.
2014		B. Kroeber ‘Be My Alibi’ in ThugLit Sept. [ebook] How’d you get my digits?
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 223: ‘So, Your Royal Ripeness! You wanna lay down your digits so we can link up somewhere nice?’.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 88: — Give me your digits and I’ll get in touch with you.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 10: It’s not like man’s gonna chirpse some peng tings and get their digits on the way to doing a move.

3. (US black) money; the amount written on a cheque, usu. a pay cheque.

1996		Dayton Family ‘The Hand That Rocks The Cradle’ 🎵 I cop mo digits than you can hold in a calculator.
2004		T.I. ‘Be better Than Me’ 🎵 Stay on the grind and yo digits'll come, bottom line / You gotta shine no matta what you become.
2012		Obie Trice ‘Hell Yea’ 🎵 The digits I make won’t be a surprise.

4. (US black) welfare benefits or a welfare check.

1981		W.D. Myers Hoops 82: ‘[S]he had to go downtown and see about getting an emergency digit because her check and some others had been stolen.’ .
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 34: Already got three digits going under different names – Digits being welfare benefits.