Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) one who is tattooed.

1999

People 5 July 74/1: ‘Got a job?’ ‘Nah, I actually want to open my own business — a tattoo shop.’ ‘You’re an inky?’ ‘Nah, my other half is.’.

see sense 2 above.

(N.Z. prison) derog./racist term for a M?ori with facial tattoos.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 92/2: inkhead n. a white supremacist term for a Māori with facial tattoos.

(US) a tattoo parlor.

2013

T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] Junior and me hit the ink shops with the picture of Snake and came up with zilch.

(US) a derog. term for a black person.

(US) a black person, usu. derog; also as adj.

1910		N.Y. Eve. Journal 7 May 10: You love that little ink-spot [HDAS].
1931		A. Bontemps God Sends Sun. 18: Little ink-spot jockeys.
1966		Dakin Dialect Vocab. Ohio River Valley 2.449: Other miscellaneous terms, all clearly derogatory in intent . . burr head, [...] and ink spot.

to receive coverage in the printed media for one’s actions, speech etc.

1992		P.H. Aykroyd Anniversary Compulsion 64: Fisher had hired a publicist to get some ink and air time out of the junket.
2002		Saratoga (CA) News 10 Apr. 🌐 The person in charge, Community Access Director Carolyn De Los Santos, under whose feet no grass grows when it comes to promoting the cause, was only too happy at the prospect of getting some ink for it.

1. (US prison) to apply a tattoo.

1992

Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 85: Slingin’ Ink also Sling Ink The application of a tattoo.

2. see also SE phrs. below.

a clerk.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

journalism, writing, also attrib; the inference is of negative opinions.

1881		‘’Arry on Women’s Rights’ Punch 2 Apr. 156/2: What with ink-flinging, hart, and all that, / They’re a-besting us fast, my dear boy.
1882		Preston Chron. 17 June 4/5: A continual stream of correspondence, and not a little of it refers to matters [...] too small for what the Yankees call ‘ink-flinging’.
1883		N. Melbourne Advertiser 30 Mar. 3/2: Beware, all ye scribbling, ink-flinging, salanderous tribes of critics.
1948		Healesville Guardian (Lilydale, Vic.) 21 Aug. 1/3: It must be amusing to your readers to read, from the ever-growing army of critics, how they protest that they have no Intention of indulging in ink-flinging and then proceed to do so.

see inkwell

1. (US) a writer, esp. a journalist.

1865		Harper’s Mag. 683/2: This rattle-brained scribbler, this miserable ink-jerker [DA].
1882		Port Augusta Dispatch (SA) 5 Aug. 3/2: [A] rev. gentleman [...] wants £1,000 for some damage alleged to have been done by the ink-jerker of the Maryborough Standard.
1900		B. Mitford Aletta 34: Maagtig! but they are liars, those English news-paper men [...] I would like to get those miserable ink-squirters who wrote that.
1910		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 11 May 7/3: Skinny Jim, the ink jerker from the sacred precincts of the Herald office.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 207: ink-jerker, -slinger, -spiller, -waster, a scribbler.

2. (Aus.) a clerk.

1905

Sun. Times (Perth) 31 Dec. 6/3: ‘Good job for him lie went,’ said young Sprigging, senior ink-jerker.

1. a sly, dishonest lawyer.

1898

F.W. Hume Hagar of the Pawn-Shop 7: Here, stop that stuff, you inkpot!

2. (US Und.) anywhere people gather to drink (either a private house or a bar) esp. when frequented by criminals.

1903		O. Kildare My Mamie Rose 23: My father’s popularity made our home the calling place for many visitors. At these visits the most frequently used utensil was the ‘can,’ or ‘growler,’ and the functions usually assumed the character of an ‘ink pot.’.
1910		J. Sullivan ‘Criminal Sl.’ in Amer. Law Rev. LII (1918) 891: An ‘ink pot’ is a resort for low characters.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 106/2: Inkpot. A drinking establishment, especially as a rendezvous for underworld members.

1. (orig. US) a writer, esp. a journalist.

1866		Santa Cruz Wkly Sentinel (CA) 21 Dec. 2/3: The historic scraps compiled by irresponsible ink-slingers and sold broad-cast over the State.
1870		Sportsman (London) 28 Dec. 3/5: [O]ur double-refined and treble-distilled ink-slingers of the daily press.
1873		Australasian (Melbourne) 29 Mar. 7/4: A St. Louis editor, in speaking of a brother ink-slinger, says: ‘He is young yet [etc]’.
1877		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (4th edn) 786: Ink-Slinger. One who habitually writes for publication; particularly an editor or reporter of a newspaper.
1883		‘’Arry on His Critics and Champions’ Punch 14 Apr. 180/1: The ink-slinger’s plainly a flat.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 14/3: The auctioneer wasted most of his valuable time in explaining to his adversary and the surrounding spectators that nothing but the keenest sense of his own magnanimity and the exorbitant charges made for funerals prevented him from mashing the ink-slinger up into stuffing for sausage-rolls.
1888		Texas Siftings Oct 13 n.p.: You don’t consider that insignificant ink-slinger across the way a big gun, do you? [F&H].
1895		Truth (Sydney) 14 Apr. 2/8: H.A. Leighton, an ink-slinger not devoid of fame, and who can wield a facile pen [etc.].
1895		‘Harry on ’Arry’ Punch 17 Aug. in P. Marks (2006) 23: All this talk about ’Arries Abroad, which ink-slingers think such prime fun.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 20: ink slinger n. A writer.
1903		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 July 4/7: An unsuspecting inkslinger in the employ of the Sunday Times.
1905		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 July 28/1: And the players and the playing, so you’d make it all appear, / Are no class for soulful wallopers of ink.
1905		Sporting Times 25 Feb. 3/3: I am a humble inkslinger.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 2 Sept. 1/1: The amount of gushful trash splashed over that cheery soubrette must disgust even the recipient [...] one callow inkist discovered that Grace had an ‘operatic training’.
1908		Truth (Wellington) 11 Jan. 5/6: The ‘slush’ is provided by beery and amateur cockney ink-slingers.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Aug. 2/4: He was a rather quaint and querulous cuss at times, but a better-hearted inkslinger or type-slinger would be hard to find.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 207: ink-jerker, -slinger, -spiller, -waster, a scribbler.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 99: Must be a big board of classy ink-slingers in conference.
1928		Townsville Daily Bull. (Qld) 25 Feb. 14/2: Bowyung, my boy, is just a kid who’s slinging ink in Townsville.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 268: The editor of Western Yarns writes me that the fans are panting to know what their favorite ink-slinger looks like in the flesh.
1943		Copper Camp 94: They didn’t dare press the search too closely for fear [...] any suspicious action might disclose the secret to the ink slingers [DA].
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 117: You’re going to let this ink-slinger get away with it, are you?
1997		J.B. Sanford Intruders in Paradise 54: To the inkslinger, the balladeer, and the teller of tall tales, he wasn’t a kid anymore: he was a saga all by hisself.

2. a clerk.

1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 38: Ink Slingers, office clerks.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 72: Mildred cost the firm a lot more money than her salary, if you reckon up as worth anything the time a lot of two-by-four ink-slingers spent makin’ goo-goo eyes at her.
1913		G.D. Chase ‘Lists From Maine’ in DN IV i 3: pencil pusher, n. A clerk in a lumber camp. Also called ink slinger.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 59: Wotcha tryin’ ter do? Chew de fat wit’ de inkslinger?
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 107: Inkslinger. – A clerk or other office worker.
1941		‘Timberland Terminology’ AS XVI:3 233/2: inkslinger. Any office worker but usually the timekeeper.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 804: ink slinger – A clerk or other office worker.
1990		Hoffman & Kanter Hbk of Law Firm Mismanagement 24: [...] an inkslinger with a decipherable hand to prepare the tabs.

3. a musician who arranges music.

1937		R.B. Nye ‘A Musician’s Word List’ in AS XII:1 46: inkslinger. A musician who arranges music.
1939		P.E. Miller Down Beat’s Yearbook of Swing n.p.: ink slinger: an arranger.

the profession of writing or journalism.

1865		White Cloud Kansas Chief (KS) 2 Nov. 3/3: A Quartermaster’s farewell Address [...] four years’ arduous serrice, marked by unsurpassed ink-slinging and unparallelled hard cursing.
1886		Hartlepool Mail 25 Nov. 3/5: Ink Slinging in Texas. Colonel Bill Snort, who runs the Crisby County Clarion, has fallen out with the editor of a rival sheet.
1889		‘’Arry on the Battle of Life’ Punch 21 Sept. in P. Marks (2006) 136: Mere ink-slinging slop.
1892		E.J. Milliken ’Arry Ballads 91: Wot with ink-slinging, hart, and all that.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 19 Oct. 4/2: Bentley has gone to graft at ink slinging.

a writer, usu. a journalist or clerk.

1863		Waterford News 24 Apr. 4/1: In this way the sixty millions of Russians are governed by a host of ink spillers.
1868		Harper’s Mag. Aug. 428/2: The marriage question, viewed from the pecunious viewpoint, has become the topic of so many ink-shedders abroad as well as at home [DA].
1871		Times-Picayune (N.O.) 14 May 12/3: Miss Markham says she assured the inexorable ink-spiller that she had no story to tell, but he drew on his fancy to give the book zest.
1881		‘’Arry on Fashion’ Punch 10 Sept. 110/2: O Scissors! it makes a chap shirty, it do s’welp me never, dear boy / To think people ain’t got more savvy than what these inkspillers enjoy.
1886		Glasgow Herald 23 Nov. 3/8: A fourth-rate ink-spiller at a high desk behind a counter.
1891		‘’Arry on a ’ouseboat’ Punch 15 Aug. 77/1: Us on ’Opkins’s Ouse-boat [...] cared nix for the ink-spiller’s ‘slate.’.
1894		Tit-Bits 7 Apr. 7/3: You insulting ink-waster [F&H].
1903		Yorks Eve. Post 18 Feb. 4/5: An abiding and unabashed ink-spiller. Scarce a post but brings her tale of woe.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 207: ink-jerker, -slinger, -spiller, -waster, a scribbler.

see ink-jerker

(US) the vagina.

[1611		J. Cook Greenes Tu Quoque Scene xix: Hee’s the penner that belongs to that Inck-horne].
1974		G. Radano Stories Cops Only Tell Each Other 70: And then every once in a while a dab at the old inkwell.
1986		(con. 1940s) P. Barker Liza’s England (1996) 252: A man dips his pen in the inkwell, and you’re left reading the message for the next eighteen years.

(US) to make money.

1931

D. Runyon ‘A Nice Price’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 188: I [...] am sure to make plenty of black ink for myself.

to write, usu. more general than the professional .

1890

Sporting Times 29 Mar. [letter to Ed.] 2/4: About once in a blue moon, your obedient servant sheds ink.

1. (orig. US, also spill ink) to write, esp. professionally, to work as a journalist.

1865		‘Artemus Ward’ Among the Mormons in Complete Works (1922) 277: The chaps that write for the ‘Atlantic,’ Betsy, understand their bizness. They can sling ink, they can.
1873		J.H. Beadle Undeveloped West 142: All who could sling ink became correspondents.
1888		Waco Eve. News (TX) 17 Oct. 2/1: Carroll can sling ink, and don’t you forget it.
1890		Sporting Times 29 Mar. 2/5: I stands for the ‘ink’ that’s spilt by the staff / In their vigorous endeavours to make people laugh.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 July 13/2: Gov. Broome, who flourished in Westralia 15 years ago, had ‘slung ink.’ He was for a period a considerable contributor to the literary columns of London Times.
1907		N.Z. Truth 26 Jan. 6/7: The late hubby spilt ink occasionally.
1911		‘Sing Sing No. 57,700’ My View on Books in N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Apr. 5/3: Tartarin of Tarascom [...] He’s got some class when it comes to slinging ink.
1917		B.E.F. Times 15 Aug. (2006) 208/1: When the high-brow pens get busy slinging ink [...] they’ll throw the bull.
1921		Dover Exp. 7 Jan. 8/7: They preferred to sling ink [and] consider schemes for improving the circulation of small papers like ‘Comic Cuts’.
1926		H.C. Witwer Roughly Speaking 3: Mr Alexander Pope, who slung some wicked ink the the good old days of 1700.
1931		(con. 1918) E.W. Springs Rise and Fall of Carol Banks 133: You just struck a lucky time to sling your ink and found a soft-minded editor to buy your drool.
1936		(ref. to 1920s) L. Duncan Over the Wall 32: Listen, if you start slinging ink on a bum check racket, you can do it all by your lonesome.

2. (Aus.) to vilify in print.

1895

Truth (Sydney) May 1/3: One cannot now take up the daily papers without finding therein recriminatory ful rainations signed by W. E. Abbott, ‘President, Pastoralists Union, N.S.W.’, and Arthur Bae, ‘President, Australian Workers’ Union.’ Of course the political position [...] has nothing to do with this mutual slinging of ink!

3. see also sl. phrs. above.