Green’s Dictionary of Slang

oof n.

also offtish, ooftish, uffster
[Ger. auf tische, on the table. The term originated c.1850 and, according to the Sporting Times ‘the aristocracy of Houndsditch, being in the habit of refusing to play cards, unless the money were “on the table”’; thus Grey, Hoods (1952): ‘Tauchess offen tisch, boyus. What’s my cut?’]

money.

[Aus]Brisbane Courier 8 Apr. 3/6: To enter the Cambridge Music Hall [in Shoreditch, London] was to cross the border of another country. We found the Yeddishers in force, and a free flow of ooftish.
[UK]Sporting Times 28 Feb. 1/1: The subject of oof is enough to interest anybody.
[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 27 July 6/4: A thieving villain did guy-a-whack with the ooftish of sundry backers.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 8/3: What [he] really wishes to imply is that they mean getting the oof, even though they have to go to blazes for it.
[Scot]Dundee Eve. Teleg. 3 Apr. 2/5: Palm oil [...] such an obviously appropriate name for [money] that ‘shin-plaster’ seems feeble by comparison, and the young but widely popular ‘oof,’ ‘oof-bird,’ and ‘oof-tish’, imbecile.
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘On the Shelf and Off It’, Sporting Times 18 Jan. 1: She laid in the largest stock of toilet accessories that she could procure on the curtsey, / For she hadn’t the ooftish to buy it.
[Ind]Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 28 July 3/1: [A]s the means for procuring the necessary ‘oof’.
[UK]J. Tabrar [perf. Marie Lloyd] A Bird in the Hand 🎵 If he won I became his wife, / Thinks I, besides his ‘oof’.
[UK]Mirror of Life 2 Feb. 10/3: Knowing the state of the ‘broady’ the old ’un did not look too minutely [...] as the ‘uffster’ was slung into his hand.
[UK]A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 184: S’pose we can’t find the oof.
[Aus]W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Jan. 7/2: The Jackal felt the glow of unaccustomed offtish in his pocket.
[UK]A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 33: Greenboam [...] thays: ‘Ooftish, Larzaruth, ooftish’ — meanin’ ‘put up the money to pay uth vith in case you’re beat; show uth you ain’t callin’ on the off chance’.
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 17 Oct. 1/3: Dawson and Co. then planked the oof down on Mona.
[US]J. Flynt World of Graft 157: As a rule when I’m busted I settle the wif’ in some boardin’-house on tick, an’ stay by my lonely till I’ve located some more oof.
[UK]D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 109: He’s not much to look at, but he’s got the ‘oof’ .
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 7 Feb. 1/1: He now lurks up lanes to avoid meeting the man to whom he owes the oof.
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 28 Sept. 2/3: [A] wealthy drone, who wants to get rid of his ooftish anyhow.
[Aus]Morwell Advertiser (Vic.) 21 Dec. 2s/1: She would not be stopped and / The ‘oofish’ was dropped.
[UK]A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 16: Then the oof got very low indeed.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 31 July 2nd sect. 10/6: Some owners, who race for the sport alone, and with whom the ‘ooftish’ which represents the winning of ä big race is of little importance.
[UK]Gem 23 Sep. 21: Did your cashier slip off with all your oof?
[Aus]E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 28: The ’ole family’s down on its knees [...] hunting the oof.
[UK]W.L. George Making of an Englishman III 319: It’s dollars to doughnuts we couldn’t get fixed without you had the ooftish.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 404: Up to you, matey. Out with the oof.
[Aus]Central Qld Herald (Rockhampton) 6 Sept. 12/2: Think of all the slang terms for money : rhino [...] gilt, ooftish, and so on.
[UK]A. Christie Murder in Mesopotamia (1952) 58: Here’s the oof!
[Aus]West. Mail (Perth) 27 May 43/1: She tuned me down cold in the finish for a guy with plenty of ‘oof’.
[UK]T. Woottwell [perf. Tom Woottwell] ‘Another Attempt to Murder Me’ 🎵 They’re trying all they know to get the ‘oof’.

In derivatives

oofless (adj.)

impoverished.

[UK]Sporting Times 1 May 1/2: His pockets were oofless.
[UK]Northampton Mercury 26 Jan. 2/2: Lord De Oofless: ‘My congratulations. I have consented to marry your daughter.’ Mr M’Midas (a man of business): ‘What....’.
[UK]Era (London) 16 Oct. 23/1: So the ‘Oofless Duke’ was next seen in his ultra-swell get up.
[UK]H.B. Norris [perf. Vesta Tilley] The Oofless Duke 🎵 Ladies step this way, come plonk your dollars down / Who speaks first for the elegant, oofless Duke of Tinpot town.
[UK]Bucks Herald 17 Feb. 2/2: Matilda Riche: You say that I possess a quality which will always affird you interest. What is it, Jack?’ Jack Oofless: ‘Your strength of principal, dearest’.
[UK]T. & G. LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] I Like You and You Like Me 🎵 If you are oofless, let that make no odds, / I’ll share what I’ve got amongst you all.
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘They Begged To Differ’ Sporting Times 15 Apr. 1/3: If a man lacks ruddy gold, / And others roll in quids untold, / The oofless merchant, if he’s bold, / Should drop in uninvited.
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Happy, Though Worried’ Sporting Times 26 Feb. 1/3: Many worry when they’re oofless, oft a fuss about it’s made.
oofy (adj.) [note Wodehouse’s wealthy character Oofy Prosser (lit. ‘Rich Scrounger’]

rich, wealthy.

[UK]Sporting Times 3 Jan. 5/2: There were three in the crowd, and they were not ‘oofy.’ One owed the Roman eight of the best and another was indebted to him in the sum of six of the reddest.
[UK]Binstead & Wells A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 112: His eagle eye was soon taking a hasty inventory of the ‘oofy’ stranger.
[UK]A. Binstead More Gal’s Gossip 118: Grace is ‘out after’ an exceedingly oofy widower.
[UK]Sporting Times 11 Feb. 4/1: I told him he would get more on it at the place I bought it than anywhere else, and I think he went there, for he came back a different man, and oofy.
[UK]Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 55: This Tom has a peculiarity I’ve noticed in other very oofy men.

In compounds

oof-bird (n.) (also oof-bag)

a source of money, one who can supply money.

[UK]Sporting Times 9 Jan. 5/4: There might be disappointments in Snaring the Oofbird or Hunting the Tart.
[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 5 Nov. 1/3: [He] accumulated the droppings of the oof bird to some tune.
[UK] ‘’Arry on the Battle of Life’ in Punch 21 Sept. in P. Marks (2006) 137: The oof bird flies out o’ the winder when sentiment dabs at the door.
[UK]Sporting Times 25 Jan. 1/3: Ready to go for any soul suspected of possessing the tinest and wee-est feather of the tail of the oof-bird.
[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 15 Mar. 2/3: [...] having found a new species of bird, certainly new to him. It is called [...] the ‘Oof’ bird.
[UK]Leeds Times 15 June 7/6: I’d wager a ‘monkey’ if I had the ‘needful’ — but the ‘oof-bird’ is moulting.
[UK]E.W. Rogers [perf. Vesta Tilley] The Latest Chap on Earth 🎵 [A]ll the ladies fair / Said, ‘Oh, bai jove, here come the “oof bird”,’ and they plucked his feathers bare.
[UK]A. Binstead More Gal’s Gossip 2: He had no possible chance of pursuing the oof-bird at Lingfield unless a scratched horse won at Manchester.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 1 July 4/8: [headline] The Oof Bird.
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Penny Numbers’ Sporting Times 11 July 1/3: The old oof-bag, no doubt, / Should, without any bother or bicker, / Have unloaded his parcel, and handed it out!
[Aus]E. Dyson ‘At a Boxing Bout’ in Benno and Some of the Push 119: ‘Listen t’ the oof bird twitter,’ he said. ‘How does it talk ’em down.’.
G. Parker Wild Youth 🌐 Ch. iv: Money – what won’t we do for money, Mary? But if she’s as young as they say, she could have waited a bit for the oof-bird to fly her way.
[Scot]Sun. Post 23 Jan. 8/3: Who was it killed the goose / That golden eggs did lay? / Illingworth played the deuce, / With the 'oof bird' men say.
[UK]Nottingham Eve. Post 9 Oct. 5/4: ‘To make the oof-bird walk’ is to circulate money.

In phrases

pad the oof (v.)

(Aus. Und.) to present a roll of banknotes folded in such a way that each one is counted twice.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Oct. 10/1: The device of the moment for taking in the stranger with gum-trees in his whiskers is a roll of notes so folded that each counts two or more if the wad is not fully unrolled. [...] The device is called ‘padding the oof.’.
[Aus]E. Dyson ‘The Big Spoof’ in Benno and Some of the Push 204: The clerk made a collection of scraps of soft, suitable paper, folded them into a neat pad and around this he tenderly wrapped the decayed fiver. [...] Benno having padded the oof, patted his wad into nice shape, and felt a better and bigger man as he looked at it.