Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a general term of address.

1679		Proceedings at Sessions Old-Bailey 27–8 Aug. 3: One Goddin, (formerly a Barber) a notorious Highway-man and Thief, Captain of a Gang, who by way of Reverence usually called him Daddy.
1756		Sham Beggar I i: Now, Daddy, I advise you to go and pick up a damn’d large Jack Whore, and spend One Shilling upon her.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Daddy. Father. Old daddy; a familiar address to an old man.
1809		Horry & Weems Life of General F. Marion (1816) 165: ‘Why where are you going this course!’ ‘Going, old daddy! why, to the devil, perhaps.’.
1836		N.Y. Herald 24 Feb. 1/4: When the sentence was passed, Hibbard got up and exclaimed — ‘that’s right, old daddy’ — and went off gaily.
1840		E. Howard Jack Ashore II 148: You will smoke, daddy?
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend I 19: ‘How old are you, daddy if you please?’ added he respectfully.
1868		C. White The Hop of Fashion in Darkey Drama 4 Act I: Say, daddy, ain’t dere going to be a ball somewhere in dis shanty, eh?
1869		J.C. Parkinson Places and People 219: The whole occupants of the ward could not produce that sum, and old Daddy—they are all called Daddies—said, ‘Well, I nivver seed anything like it!’.
1882		London Dly News 11 Jan. 2/1: One or two ancient bucks, grey-headed and very well dressed, pass to and fro [along Piccadilly], saluted with remarks addressed to ‘Daddy’ and ‘Old ’un’.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney at Home 16: How’s business, daddy?
1922		Adair Co. News (Columbia, KY) 3 Jan. 7/5: I found a mighty sober-faced old Daddy putting breakfast on the table [...] ‘Well, Daddy’ said I [...] ‘where does this leave me?’.
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 157: ‘Hullo, daddy’ she says.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues Dedication: To the sweet-talkers, the gumbeaters, the high-jivers, out of the gallion for good and never going to take low again. (You got to make it, daddy.).
1952		T. Southern ‘The Night the Bird Blew for Doctor Warner’ 55: ‘Hey, man [...] what’s happenin’?’ [...] ‘You tell me, daddy.’.
1964		R. Abrahams Deep Down in The Jungle 131: She looked me up and down and said, ‘You look like you ain’t had none, Daddy, in quite a while’.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 375: ‘We’re doing like you said, Daddy’.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 304: Do it again, Daddy, I didn’t see that one!
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 72: ‘Shake it, daddy, what else do you want to know?’ he said. Besides suffering from terminal cancer, he was suffering from terminal hipsterism.
1999		Indep. Rev. 6 Aug. 5: One of the senior members of the community, someone known as a ‘decent daddy’.

2. (UK Und.) an accomplice who is pre-ordained to win the prize in a fake raffle or lottery.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 116: Daddy at mock raffles, lotteries, &c., the daddy is an accomplice, most commonly the getter-up of the swindle, and in all cases the person that has been previously arranged to win the prize.
1873		Sl. Dict.

3. the old man, generally an aged pauper, in charge at a tramp’s lodging house or casual ward.

1832		Morn. Chron. (London) 4 Jan. 3/3: Herre, you — here’s the keys of the Gaol, and here’ the daddy of them.
1866		J. Greenwood Night in a Workhouse 8: ‘Come in,’ said Daddy, very hospitably [...] The porter went his way and I followed Daddy into another apartment where were ranged three great baths.
1873		Sl. Dict. 138: Daddy the old man in charge ? generally an aged pauper ? at casual wards. Most people will remember ‘kind old daddy’.
1882		Dundee Courier 18 Aug. 7/4: ‘Come, daddy, it’s your turn now,’ said I to him.
1895		Mirror of Life 21 Sept. 6/1: [A] casual ward presided over by kind old Daddy.

4. the man who gives away the bride at a wedding, trad., but not invariably, her father.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1873		Sl. Dict.

5. an influential, powerful person, e.g. a civic leader.

1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Sept. 4/2: Bungaree had no such difficulty, being backed (we believe) by his ‘daddy’ (Mr. Humphreys), the individual under whose auspices he was first brought out, and by whom he was pronounced superior to all men of his weight.
1846		Durivage & Burnham Stray Subjects (1848) 30: I’m a sexton, sir, and undertaker – Jack Crossbones, at your service – ‘Daddy Crossbones’ they call me at Porter’s.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 23 Dec. 5/5: And ‘Cubby’, being the ‘daddy’ of his acquaintances, always succeeded in obtaining a generous echo of approbation to this eulogy.
1905		Sporting Times 15 Apr. 2/3: They’ve got old Daddy Mills inside for sloshin’ one o’ the King’s physicians.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 52: He’s the daddy of the outfit.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 93: Not many a daddy (do-right or do-wrong) is satisfied simply to own a back. He has to kick loose of home and fireside now and again. He has to ball with outlaws, play the fool on the door-rock.
1959		Mad mag. Sept. 41: Fourscore and like seven years ago / our old daddies came on in this scene.
1979		E. Bond Worlds Part I vi: Is daddy going to be naughty and take me to a show?

6. as the daddy, the supreme example, the most important, powerful, the best, the best known etc, often as the daddy of them/us all.

1843		‘Madison Tensas’ Louisiana ‘Swamp Doctor’ (1850) 136: It was the dog of a daddy on one hand, and the daddy of a dog on the other.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 July 14/1: Golding was the builder of the 20ft. half-decker, Nereus, the ‘daddy’ of her class, which was some time since destroyed by fire, and the first boat to be laid down in the new shed will be a craft of a similar class.
1894		H. Lawson ‘O’Hara, J.P.’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 272: The guest of the evening, the soul of the spree— / The daddy of all was O’Hara, J.P.
1896		Mirror of Life 18 Apr. 3/2: [I]f Ted had been as abstemious as his old father, he would still have been the daddy of the English crowd of pugilists at his weight.
1905		R. Beach Pardners (1912) 13: Of all the cordial, why-how-do-you-do mule kicks handed down [...] that wallop was the adopted daddy.
1905		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Aug. 16/1: As ye know, boss, I was clever; I wuz allus on the spot / When a decent job wuz tackled – I wuz ‘daddy’ of the lot! / And the ‘Johns’ could never nail me – I ’ad too much brains.
1918		Aussie (France) 7 Sept. 4/2: [W]e have a bloke I’d back as a banjo-swinger against any cove in the A.I.F. He’s the daddy of ’em all, and no matter how hot the day is, he never raises a sweat. [...] [H]e shovels so fast he can work in the shade of the muck he shifts.
1927		P. O’Donnell Islanders (1933) 130: I thought Charlie Doogan’s bruscan was bad, but yours is the daddy of all. I never smelt nothing like it.
1939		(con. 1880–90s) S. O’Casey I Knock at the Door 116: Ball in the Decker, would be O’Halloran’s choice; the daddy of them all, he’d add, an’ I’m first.
1942		The Will Bradley Trio ‘Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’ 🎵 When he jams it’s a ball, / He’s the Daddy of them all.
1958		G. Casey Snowball 222: We’ll git the old bastard, anyway—the daddy of the whole rotten bunch.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 24: I grinned like a mature old Daddy of the World.
1969		P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 53: Isn’t he the last word [...] He’s the daddy of them all, I tell you.
1975		J. Carr Bad (1995) 44: I’d known a lot of hot-dog guys before [...] but never had I seen the likes of Maynard Farrell. Maynard was the doggie daddy, master of the homos.
1975		J. Ryan Remembering How We Stood 43: The daddy of them all had been Jonathan Swift himself.
1982		E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt Is Black 133: Now here is the daddy of it all!
1991		R.G. Barratt ‘Plenty to Grumble About’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] But what about her minge? [...] I’ve seen a few teds in my day, but this is the daddy of them all.
1992		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Travel 14 Nov. 5: Superclubs is the daddy of the all-inclusive resorts.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 100: I’m looking round the Number One and that, the daddy [...] and there he is, this big handy-looking cunt. No doubt about it. That’s him. The Kiddie.
2010		K. Richards Life 88: Alexis Korner was the daddy of the London blues scene.

7. (orig. US) an older man who is willing to provide the various material desires of his younger mistress or, if gay, male lover.

1918		Creamer & Layton [song title] Won’t You Be a Dear, Dear Daddy to a Itta Bitta Doll Like Me?
1921		Broadway Brevities Dec 42/1: An incident of a ‘big’ manager given, on Saturday nights, to the inviting of a dozen of his flapper spear-carriers to some Long Island millionaire’s castle, where [...] they would remain until Monday to entertain and divert a bunch of tired and wealthy business daddies.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 13: The usual Palm Spring daddies lookin’ for somethin ’swell with curves.
1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 18: The following words or phrases are frequently used, seriously or facetiously, in a sense the same as, or equivalent to, their meaning in straight English (Slang) [...] daddy.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 19: I rather dig Belgravia: not because of what the daddies who live there think of it.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 103: The queens will go on looking for their own legendary permanent ‘Daddies’ among the older men who dig the queens’ special brand of gone sexplay.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 336: [of a gay relationship] Candy rolled over in her bunk [...] to see Chilly standing there like a husband coming home from work carrying groceries and to her it didn’t seem at all like a pathetic farce. ‘Hello, daddy,’ she whispered.
1976		Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) 30 Mar. 2/3: Passive homosexuals are known as ‘fags’ [...] Their aggressive counterparts are called ‘daddies,’ or ‘old men,’ sometimes ‘jockers’ in the state institutions.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 47: The Gold Coast daddies who footed the bill.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 59: Dad also Daddy A homosexual’s lover, who owns or controls him.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Daddy: A dominant prisoner who protects or uses a weaker homosexual partner.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 153: You think I’m gonna put on the red dress for you, right? You think you’re my daddy, huh Mac? You my jocker now, you piece of shit?
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] ‘I’m not your daddy and you’re not my bitch. When I want pussy, I’ll get real pussy’.

8. a boyfriend, a lover; also as a term of address.

1922		Sara Martin ‘Tain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do’ 🎵 If my daddy got no money, / And I play bridge all night, honey, / ‘Tain’t nobody’s business if I do, do, do, love, do, do.
1929		Mary Dixon ‘Daddy, You’ve Got Everything’ 🎵 Kiss me till I feel the sting, / Make me want to shake that thing, / Give me everything and how, / If you’re a man then show it now; / Mmm, Daddy, you’ve got everything!
c.1935		‘Annie — The Snooper’ in http://tijuanabibles.org 🌐 — Let’s forget about Annie and do some fucking. — Oke daddy [...] Oh-oh-oooh daddy darling I’m coming.
1939		Bandanna Girls ‘Money Is Honey’ 🎵 When I woke up this mornin’, told my daddy I was through.
c.1940		‘Boots in “Too Good”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 25: Mmm daddy – how could I help falling for a great big handsome brute like you?
1949		in N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 209: I’m a ding-dong daddy from Duma / ‘N you oughta see me do my stuff.
1954		(con. 1920s–30s) J.O. Killens Youngblood (1956) 411: If the New York women love him like the Georgia ones, he musta been a really sweet daddy up there.
1960, 1975		(ref. to 1912) Wentworth & Flexner DAS 137/2: My little Daddy lovin’ all the time.’ From ‘Daddy,’ pop. song.
1968		Champion Jack Dupree & Mickey Baker ‘Early in the Morning’ 🎵 I went down to my baby’s house I knocked upon her doggone door / She told me, daddy don’t knock no more.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 61: ‘Daddy, you feel like making love?’ [...] ‘For real, Baby!’.
1988		R.R. Moore ‘Hurricane Annie’ 🎵 Ooo wee! Daddy! I’m caught up with a baby and I wonder what’s gonna be it’s name?
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 40: Get me a beer [...], bring it over to Daddy, will you?
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 54: My chick ain’t fucking, she’s sitting there waiting on daddy.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] — Please, daddy. — That’s not going to work. — Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy.

9. (US black) a form of address to a black male, esp. by a woman to her lover.

1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 12: But there wasn’t no boat in with soldiers today, daddy.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 6: ‘Don’t you be so worried, Daddy,’ Imabelle said.
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 111: ‘Why, imagine seeing you daddy,’ Dulcy said in a [...] drunken voice.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 8: [as 1957].
1973		D. Goines Street Players 37: Yes daddy, it’s me.
1999		J. Ridley Everybody Smokes in Hell 129: I’m touching myself, Daddy. Are you touching yourself?
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 6: Inmates exchange intrixcate handshakes and formal titles: OG, young G, boo, bro, baby boy, brutha, dude, cuz, dawg, P, G, daddy, pimpin’, nigga, man, thug thizzle, my boy, my man, homie.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 70: Complete strangers [...] address you as ‘Daddy’. But not in a nasty Ride me, Daddy, right [sic] me right out of town! way.

10. (US tramp) a Cadillac [as a rhyme on Caddy n.].

1931

Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 59: Daddy. – A Cadillac automobile.

11. (US) a pimp, a prostitute’s boyfriend.

1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 164: Daddy, forgive me for hollering. I deserve worse than you gave me.
1938		J.E. O’Donnell ‘Overcoat Bennie’ in Mss. from the Federal Writers’ Project 🌐 Sadie became the talk of the underworld. ‘Spud’ was some ‘daddy.’ her envious friends said. They wished that they had daddies like him. Not every fancy thinking daddy of Subterranea could afford to decorate his moll’s neck with a thirty five gran ‘slang’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 99: Scarcely-twenties looking for a daddy, any old daddy who’d tell them where to lie down.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 4: I’m workin’, Daddy.
1972		‘A Pimp Toast’ in Milner & Milner (1972) 289: I say, ‘Hey baby, what’s goin’ on?’ / She say, ‘Nothin’, Daddy, I’d like to take you home...’.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 42: She cried for the pimp but not for Bosco. Found another Daddy before Bosco’s stump was even healed.
1997		(con. 1960s) A. Frewin London Blues 163: Sonny paid her in pills and told me that he would have to give her ten quid for her daddy.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 20: She was screaming daddy this and daddy that.
2001		UGK ‘Gold Grill’ 🎵 If she hustle, I ball / Long as she payin’ daddy / Ain’t no problems at all.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 260: The wom,en call him [i.e. a pimp] Daddy, and he has indeed become the abusive father figure they have come to expect.

12. a masculine lesbian.

1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 11: daddy (n.): Masculine-type lesbian; usually one who lives with a female-type lesbian (mama).
1982		Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 147: From them she might pick up and more to startle than identify with her sisters use words and expressions such as [...] daddy (butch or diesel dyke).
2018		Tampa Bay Times (St Petersburg, FL) 30 Aug. T44/4: Instead of male or female [are] categories [...] ‘stone butch,’ ‘femme daddy’.

13. (UK prison) a leader (through intimidation and other influence) of the inmates in a borstal or prison.

1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 107: He was the daddy of the wing and what he claimed was his.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
2004		Guardian Rev. 5 Mar. 9/3: [His] intelligent use of violence [...] soon makes him ‘the daddy’ of the institution.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 181: A lifer named Tufty, who was serving a twenty-five year minimum [...] thought he was the ‘daddy’ of the wing.

14. an older male homosexual; a masculine homosexual.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 56/1: Daddy (one’s). (P) The active pederast in unnatural sexual relations.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 338: It must have been your night to play daddy. But the disciplinary committee, they don’t make fine distinctions.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 139: Here’s your daddy . . . Or maybe he’s a sissy too. Or a rat.
1995		Jaffe Cohen & Bob Smith ‘To Think that I Saw Him on Christopher Street’ 🎵 There were dozens of daddies, the bottoms and tops / And hundreds of owners of novelty shops.
2003		K. Cage Gayle 65/1: daddy n. middle-aged, overweight man with a younger lover.

15. (US prison) the ‘active’ or ‘masculine’ partner of a homosexual couple.

1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 39: There are three basic participating sexual roles in prisons for men: stud (or daddy, jocker, wolf; the person who plays the ‘active’ or inserting role).
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 202: Daddy, n. – the term that a homosexual has for his prison husband.

16. (US) a customer, a client.

1970

E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 477: Everyone knows what he’s like. He’s everybody’s daddy.

17. an unspecified object, a thing.

1999

Indep. Rev. 14 July 16: [of cannabis cigarettes] I love to toke up on the fat daddies, er, dude.