Green’s Dictionary of Slang

of a woman, wantonness, promiscuity.

1592		Shakespeare Henry VI I ii: He hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it.
1611		J. Cook Greenes Tu Quoque Scene xiv: Kindnesse is tearmed Lightnesse in our sex.
1640		R. Brathwaite Ar’t Asleepe, Husband? 226: What loose passage ha’s there fallne from us, or wherein have you seene any argument of Lightnesse by us?
1652		G. de La Calprenède [trans.] Cleopatra 64: [Cleopatra] hath much forgotten her self in discovering so much of her lightness to the whole Empire.
1659		J. Dee A true & faithful relation 419: [H]ow far are you in love with the World, and her pomp, with the flesh and her lightness or wantonness, with the Divel and his damnable subtilty!
1664		The most pleasant and delectable history of Amadis de Gaule bk V n.p.: [She] cast her self into Esplandian's arms, kissing him with so great affection, as if she had séen, loved and known him all her life time. [...] Queen Minoresse [...] reproved her lightness.
1671		J.-F. Senault [trans.] The use of passions 313: [T]hough she be a Cheater, she will appear to be faithful; and even in her lightness she gives proofs of her constancy.
1689		G. Buchanan A detection of the actions of Mary Queen of Scots 1: For, as in making of her Marriage, her Lightness was very headlong and rash.

see lightheaded under lighthead n.

a prostitute.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Light Friggat a Whore. [Ibid.] Light Woman, or Light Huswife Lewd, Whorish.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.

1. (US drugs) one who restricts their drug intake to ‘light’ drugs, e.g. cannabis.

1957

H. Simmons Corner Boy 45: There was pod for the light heads, boy and girl for the mainliners.

2. see separate entry.

see separate entry.

a promiscuous (married) woman; prostitute.

1538		T. Elyot Dict. cited in Halliwell Dict. Archaic and Provincial Words II 519/2: An harlot, a brothel, an hoore, a strompet, a light housewyfe .
1579		J. Amyot [trans.] Plutarch The lives of the noble Grecians and Romanes 925: This Nepos mother was reported to be a light housewife, and he as suttle witted and vnconstant.
1592		Greene Philomela in Brydges Archaica 15: Her that many hath worn, and more than thyself may vanquish: a light housewife and a lewd minion.
1594		R. Barnfield Hellen’s Rape 3: Helen, a light Huswife, now a light some starre in Olympus.
1619		T. Gataker Of the nature and vse of lots 329: We might as well [...] hire some light Huswife to entice a man to lewdnesse and to play the Whore with him.
1621		R. Burton Anatomy of Melancholy (1893) I 479: I write not this to patronize any wanton, idle flirt, lascivious or light housewives, which are too forward many times.
1635		S. Birckbek The Protestants evidence 17: You say well, they [i.e. opinions] be fathered on them, even as sometime a light housewife layes her burthen at an honest mans doore.
1653		M. de Scudéry [trans.] Artamenes 3: [T]here are some insolent fools, who think that valour is enough to make up a compleat man; so Isalonide thinks, that because she is not a light housewife, she is the most vertuous woman of the age.
1668		W. Davenant Man’s the Master IV i: You must follow me apace then; for I’m a very light hus-wife.
1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 213: His Visage thou do’st gaze and look on / (Which none but your light Huswives do).
1683		Fifteen Real Comforts of Matrimony 27: In pops the light Housewife in the dark out of her close Sedan, and goes for the wife of a bad husband gone beyond the Sea.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Light Woman, or Light Huswife Lewd, Whorish.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I:5 15: Others, like Flags of Truce, wore white, / Houss’ives that seem’d a Grain too light.
1760		Bailey New Universal Eng. Dict. (5 edn expanded) n.p.: gill flurt, a proud Minks; also a Slut or light Housewife.
1813		Ray Proverbs (5 edn) 266: A light housewife, who, under the pretence of modesty, sought to cover her shame, and the fruits of her wantonness.
1847–81		Halliwell Dict. Archaic and Provincial Words II 519/2: A light-housewife, a married woman of bad character.

see separate entry.

1. (drugs) any non-addictive drugs, e.g. cannabis.

1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 223: I started to hustle pot — light stuff, here and there a few bucks. But no mo’ junk.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 142: light stuff marijuana or other non-opiate drugs, as opposed to heavy stuff.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 14: Light stuff — Marijuana.

2. an unimportant person.

1975

E. Torres Carlito’s Way 164: The judge [...] had to know I was light stuff compared to them thugs.

(US black) eccentric, insane; unintelligent.

1969		R.L. Keiser Vice Lords 40: Old Dude was one of the least important members of the 15th Street Lords. He was thought by everyone to be ‘light upstairs’ (not too intelligent) .
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: light upstairs adj. not mentally alert; crazy.

(US) effeminate, homosexual.

1935

S. Lewis It Can’t Happen Here 336: ‘Say, talking about sissies, what do you see in a light-waisted mollycoddle like Julian?’ .

see separate entries.

(US) a fool.

[1720		Defoe Shrewish Wife in Lee Life II (1869) 237: If this Mr. Lovewit, or more properly Mr. Lightwit, had as much Reason to complain, or expatiate on his misfortunes, as I have, surely he would publish Volumes].
1909		N.Y. Observer 87543/2: ‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,’ remarked Lightwit, meeting Sharp at a reception the other evening. ‘That's right, my boy,’ rejoined Sharp, extending his hand, ‘but I'm delighted to see you here, just the same’.
1927		Judge 93 9: In this cornah, Mr. ‘Takes us’ Rickard, heavyweight publicity champ of the woild, and in that cornah, ‘Battling Sucker’ Public, the woild’s champion lightwit!
1946		(con. 1910s) J. Thompson Heed the Thunder (1994) 47: He’s bamboozled and bulldozed a lot of these light-wits into signing over their property to him.

a prostitute; in weaker sense, an immoral or promiscuous woman.

1535		Biblia the Byble 266: The foolish maner of a light woman.
1568		Erasmus [trans.] A modest meane to mariage n.p.: [A] yong man and a light Woman, who in times past had bene further acquainted then honestie required.
1577		Eusebius of Caesarea Ecclesiastical history 330: [A] certaine light woman, sumpteously attyred and gorgeously arayed to feede the eyes of fonde people.
1582		T. Bentley The sixt lampe of virginitie 269: [T]his light woman caught this foolishe man and kissed him, and with an impudent face and shamelesse countenance, she sayde vnto him: Come, I haue peace offringes, & meate at home,.
1594		R. Barnfield [title] Hellen’s Rape or A light Lanthorne for light Ladies.
1608		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) VI ii: Light wenches are no idle fraight.
1619		A. de Guevara [trans.] Archontorologion 229: The fraile flesh is somwhat to blame, but much more is the foolish and light woman in faulte.
1621		R. Burton The anatomy of melancholy 680: The vndiscreet carriage of some lasciuious gallant, (& è contrae of some light woman,) by his often frequenting of an house.
1639		J. Taylor Juniper Lecture 93: Shee makes her husband a very Asse, an Abram, and a Ninnihammer [...] though shee be counted a Whoore or a light woman.
1640		W. Whately Prototypes [W]ithout doubt this woman is a light woman, and this man a libidinous and incestuous man: .
1654		C. Love The combate between the flesh and spirit 126: By varnishing over sinne with the colour and paint of grace. As a light woman may sometimes dress her self in modest attire, that so she may not be suspected.
c.1665		‘A Merry Dialogue’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 149: But if you’l believe me, I’le tell you true / What light Women are like unto.
1676		Wycherley Plain Dealer (1735) 91: ’Tis often the poor-press’d Widow's Case, to give up her Honour to save her jointure; and seem to be a light Woman, rather than marry.
1685		M. Poole Annotations upon the Holy Bible n.p.: [notes] [H]er whoredomes of fame [...] is not ill expressed here by lightness of her whoredom, noting her impudence in it, as we use to term a common Harlot a light Woman.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Light Woman, or Light Huswife Lewd, Whorish.
1710		Tatler 270 363: All which they utter in Company is as much above what you meet with in other Conversations, as the Charms of a modest are superior to those of a light Woman.
1722		Miscellany Letters in Mist’s Wkly Jrnl I 301: There is nothing certainly a more, abject Thing than a light Woman; and often one single Indiscretion lays a Woman under that Infamy, which all her future Care And Conduct can never wipe off .
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1787		R. Jephson Julia III:xi: Let that light woman, and her minion, answer.
1855		Browning Men and Women I [title] A ‘light woman’.
1933		‘Paul Cain’ Fast One (1936) 90: Politician Plugged as Prowler by Light Lady.
1953		A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 122: Kentucky Babe, a light lady from Louisville.

(US black) second-rate, insubstantial.

1999

Dr Dre ‘Light Speed’ 🎵 Rap tabloids write Dre’s light in the ass (what?).

see sense 3 above.

see under artillery n.

gin.

1820		‘Peter Corcoran’ ‘Stanzas to Kate’ in Fancy 84: Oh, never again, / I’ll cultivate light blue or brown inebriety.
1834		‘The Mill’ Museum of Mirth 45/1: ‘What’ll you take?’ ‘Don’t care, any thing wet – a drap o’ heavy brown, with a dash o’ light blue in’t.’.
1841		‘Oh! Sarah, You Wixen’ Dublin Comic Songster 104: Of Segar’s light blue you’ll take a few glasses.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

a silver spoon.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.

chewing tobacco.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

(US black) a neophyte to the raffish world of the streets, one who leads a sheltered life and does not properly participate in the tougher ghetto world.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 40: Not a lightweight or lightfoot [...] but a person of substance.

a dockside thief.

1800		P. Colquhoun Commerce and Police of the River Thames 58: Those denominated Light Horsemen seem to have been by far the most pernicious, inasmuch as the pillage they obtained, by their artful practices, was generally extensive and valuable.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 104: A man might as well talk of the beauties of Grecian building in the reign of King Harry, as of the frauds committed by ‘scuffle-hunters, mudlarks, light horsemen and heavy horsemen upon the trade of the river Thames’.
1832		Public Ledger 12 Nov. 3/3: All kinds of plundering on the river and its banks, on board shipping, barges, &c. Light horsemen, heavy horsemen, game watermen, lightermen, scuffle hunters, copemen, &c.
1839		(con. 1715) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1917) 153: Game watermen and game lightermen, heavy horsemen and light horsemen.
1840		Marryat Poor Jack 126: Light Horsemen – that’s a name for one set of people who live by plunder... Then we have the Heavy Horsemen – they do their work in the daytime, when they go on board as lumpers to clear the ships .
1899		Daily News 9 Jan. n.p.: ‘Light Horsemen’ would look out for a lighter having valuable goods on board, and at night, stealing up quietly, would cut her adrift, then following her, as she floated down with the tide, would by-and-by rescue her, and bring her back, claiming salvage.

(US black) co-habiting.

1971

H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: light housekeeping v. living together without benefit of matrimony.

fleas.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 152: heavy dragoons, bugs, in contradistinction to fleas, which are light infantry.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1894		Westminster Gazette 15th Nov. 2/2: The nocturnal assaults of heavy cavalry, as well as light infantry issuing after dark from the cracks of an old wood bedstead [F&H].

see under meat n.

see under piece n.

of a person, slender, thin; thus physically weak.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Light-timber’d Fellow limber or slender Limb’d, also weak.
1719		Free-Thinker 17 July 247: Pumilio, a light-timbered, dapper Youth, who might make an eminent Figure upon a Race-Horse at New-Market.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1732		J.P. Morgan Present Seat of War in Africa 130: The half-famished Infantry were forced to hoof it along very tightly, to keep Pace with their Cavalry; which indeed they did pretty well, the Spaniards being a light timbered Sort of Gentry.

see under time n.

body lice.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Light Troops. Lice; the light troops are in full march; the lice are crawling about.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1811].

see under wet n.

1. pickpockets as a group.

1822		Morn. Chron. (London) 21 Aug. 3/4: The light-fingered tribe mustered in great strength [...] among the crowd at Lord Londonderry’s funeral.
1825		Age (London) 31 July 94/3: [T]heir old ‘pal,’ young Ned Stockman, once the cock of the walk among the light-weights,-and always the friend and patron of the light-fingers.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 2 Oct. 290/1: The following day, another of the light fingered gentry was detected in picking a pocket.
c.1858		J.H. Green Reformed Gambler 203: He made farther developments as to the mode pursued by the light-fingered gentry to swindle unsuspecting men out of their money. He stated that places in this city kept persons employed to ‘rope in’ strangers.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 25: ‘Mobsmen,’ or those who plunder by manual dexterity — as the ‘light-fingered gentry.’.
1868		Sportsman 14 Mar. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [A] gang of female swell-mob thieves—a Mrs Helen Pope, just arrested in Paris, with twelve more of her London light-fingered friends.
1871		Leinster Indep. 30 Sept. 4/3: ‘I was one night working with a mag’s-man,’ said the light-fingered gentleman [...] ‘About half-past twelve I saw a man with a white waistcoast, decorated with a red slang (chain) attached to a red jerry (gold watch)’.
1882		‘Some Varieties of Thieves’ in Star (London) 23 Feb. 4/2: The wide doman known among light-fingered gentry as ‘the fly’.
1904		O. Kildare Good of the Wicked 14: Levitt, surprising ‘Tippy’ Mason in the act of ‘lifting a super’ [...] subjected the light-fingered gent to a ‘deal,’ which kept him in the hospital for months.
1919		V.J. Marshall World of Living Dead (1969) 129: The truly light-fingered gentry [...] never hesitate to express their contempt for the more roughly inclined of the profession.
1935		X. Petulengro Romany Life 247: The light-fingered gentry with the mackintoshes, over one arm, who gently taps your pocket and marks you with a chalk [...] to indicate to his friend the tea-leaf or poke-lifter, the true pickpocket, where the money lies.

2. a cheat whose skills depend on their desterity in manipulating cards, dice, the ‘pea’ in ‘the shell game’ etc.

1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 June 2/3: The gambling mania has reached Auckland. Michael Gallagher, who keeps a ‘sporting’ house in that town, has been fined in the Police Court for allowing professional ‘speelers’ to play in his house; and the light-fingered gentry were ordered by the Bench to ‘ seek fresh scenes and pastures new’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. /: We admit that the new ruling isn’t exactly bread-and-cheese and ‘colonial’ to the light-fingered talent, because the first move the delusive match-box proprietor or the enterprising gentleman with the ’pictur’ card makes, after fleecing a flat, is to lodge the cash which his artful little game has pooled in a bank.

(US) homosexual.

1969		Current Sl. IV:1 11: Light on . . . feet, adj. Pertaining to effeminacy in a fellow.
1987		W. Lamb Ground Zero Club 207: Wasn’t Alexander the Great a little light in the loafers?
1999		J. Stahl Perv (2001) 82: You’re one of them sit-down-to-pee’ers, am I right? A little light in the loafers.
2005		(con. 1950s) E. White My Lives 108: ‘Trade’ – men who could be ‘serviced’ though of course they’d never reciprocate since they were real men and ‘not at all light in the loafers.’.
2012		L. Welch Half-Truths, Total Lies 83: ‘I think he's a bit too light in the loafers to be effective, if you know what I mean,’said Robert with a smirk. [...] ‘What does light in the loafers even mean?’ ‘Airy fairy, rainbow child’.

(US black) smoothly, effortlessly.

1933		Martin International House [film] Now pat that thing slightly, lightly and politely [HDAS].
1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ Novels and Stories (1995) 1009: Lightly, slightly, and politely: doing things perfectly.
1961		in R.S. Gold Jazz Lex. (1964) n.p.: ‘Lightly and po-lightly!’ Red exclaimed.

of a woman, unfaithful, promiscuous.

1701

N. Ward Pleasures of a Single Life 5: No light-tail’d Hippocrite to raise my Fears; / No Vile Impert’nence to torment my Ears .

see take it light under take it v.