Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US Und.) stealing automobiles.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(US) extremely unpleasant tasting coffee.

1943		Bayler & Carnes Last Man Off Wake Island 120: Our volunteer pot-walloper heated up the remainder of last night’s coffee or ‘boiler compound,’ as it was more commonly known.
1966		‘Tom Pendleton’ Iron Orchard (1967) 93: Let’s go to the fire and take on a little more of Charley’s boiler acid.

(US) an unappealing young person.

1922		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 1 May 9/1: Flapper Dictionary boiler factory – An undesirable boy or girl.
1922		Davenport Democrat and Leader (IA) 28 May 32/2–3: We bloused into a nosebaggery with a flat-wheeler and boiler-factory.

1. a 50/50 mix of mild and brown ale.

1978		A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 149: Just one more and make it a boilermaker.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 111/1: since ca. 1920.

2. (US, also boilermaker’s delight, ...helper) beer with a whisky (occas. rum) chaser, the US working man’s trad. drink [subseq. use is SE].

1918		H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 24/2: BOILERMAKERS DELIGHT. Rotgut whiskey; any moonshine.
1934		Weseen Dict. Amer. Sl. 273: [Drinking] Boilermaker’s delight – Poor whiskey, moonshine.
1955		(con. early 19C) A.J. Liebling ‘The University of Eighth Avenue’ in A Neutral Corner (1990) 35: The present notion is that a beer chaser, or boilermaker’s helper, accelerates intoxication.
1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] Clip was drinking boilermakers, a shot of rye washed down with a beer.
1964		Kerouac in Charters II (1999) 381: On July 18, 1964, a reporter from Newsday described a visit to Kerouac’s home in Northport, where Jack sipped boilermakers.
1967		‘Philip Barrows’ Whores, Queers & Others I [ebook] All we could do was sit around the fireplace playing cards and drinking beer-and-rum boilermakers.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 129: They ate all the ribs they could hold, washed down with boilermakers.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 20: He will drink mug after mug of beer with shots of whiskey or schnapps — boilermakers.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 20: Places that open at six, to take care of that wake-up boilermaker crowd.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 280: I would join my fellow thieves at a bar, where would all down boilermakers and swap tall cabbie stories till dawn.

(US) any room full of noisy, energetic activity, e.g. a political campaign headquarters, a newspaper cityroom, a room used by illegal bookmakers, stock swindlers or confidence tricksters.

1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 220: boiler shop — Office for sale of fake securities.
1935		Sun (N.Y.) 19 Feb. 28/2: The ‘dynamiter’ may use a [...] ‘boiler room,’ in which a group of salesmen work by telephone, disregarding expense of long distance talks and probably settling bills every day.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 10: He’d run a boiler room all day, bossing a bunch of phone men.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 113: This looks like a boiler room.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 21: Boiler Room High pressure phone selling office.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 99: Kipper Garth’s law practice was, in essence, a high-class boiler room.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 295: Boca raton supposedly had more telephone boiler rooms than calcutta.

1. as an expression of astonishment.

1846

Swell’s Night Guide 76: ‘What!’ thought she; ‘make it all right with the chanter? She doss with him? Bust her precious boiler!’.

2. to come to grief, to get into trouble, e.g. financially.

1830		Owl (NY) 10 July n.p.: J.G.M. [i.e. a merchant] has burst his boiler not less than three times [...] by sailing upon the high-pressure principle.
1833		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Sept. 14 n.p.: [of a financial collapse] It is reported that Mr. ‘Red Flannel Drawers’ is about ‘bursting his boiler’ [...] But what will the Creditors say?
1842		John o’Groat Jrnl 16 Sept. 4/6: The Rev. Mr Kirk is preaching from six to fourteen sermons per week in Boston. If he goes ahead at this rate he will burfst his boiler.
1858		Northern Whig (Antrim) 18 June 4/4: Bendizzy was rather going it and some expressed a hint that he would burst his boiler.
1860		T. Haliburton Season Ticket 282: His heart has been bleeding without stopping for thirty years [...] It would have burst its boiler long ago, if that large safety-valve hadn’t been fixed in him.
1867		‘Johnny Cross’ ‘Jolly Sam Johnson’ in Orig. Pontoon Songster 15: The Italian from Wexford, she busted her biler.
1882		E.S. Ellis Huge Hunter in Beadles Half Dime Library XI:271 3/1: I thought she had upset or bu’sted her b’iler!

3. to lose one’s temper.

1834		W.A. Caruthers Kentuckian in N.Y. II 207: A man must let off a little of the extra steam, you know, or he would burst his biler.
1837		Burlington free Press (VT) 10 Feb. 2/5: The epithets used in the following apostrophe which we have consented to publish, lest the wirter, whose steam [...] is pretty well up, should burst his boiler.
1844		Cork Examiner 16 Sept. 4/4: The person he was evidently seeking a quarrel with was a doctor, who [...] had been on the ‘pynt of bursting his byler’ ever since this worthy ‘began to carry on’.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 306: Now don’t you get in a rage and burst your boiler.
1888		Scaramento Dly Record (CA) 7 July 6/2: Temper is of itself a good thing. It’s ths steam in your boiler [...] the stuff that gives you snap, crackle and sparkle. But when we let it run away with us [...] then ‘the boiler bursts’.

4. to cause trouble for.

1842

‘Get Out Of The Way!’ in Littell Clay Minstrel (1844) 176: We’ll head him soon or burst his boiler.

5. (also burst one’s boilers, burst the boiler) to overexert oneself physically.

1833		S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 196: We’ve had a kind of a hurly burly time [...] I did n’t know but we should burst the biler one spell.
1834		D. Crockett Narrative of the Life of D.C. (1934) 18: Here I waited until the old gentleman passed by, puffing and blowing, as tho’ his steam was high enough to burst his boilers.
1842		Leeds Times 21 May 6/6: The Rev. Mr Kirk is preached from six to fourteen sermons per week in Boston. If he goes ahead at this rate he will burst his boiler.
1865		‘Jack Lannigan’s Wake’ in I. Beadle Comic and Sentimental Song Bk 58: Teddy the tiler ’most bursted his biler.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Mar. 8/4: I nearly bust me blessed biler a luggin’ up this ’ere perambylatur and these duds for Johnnie, and parygoric for baby, and ’eaven knows what else.
1923		Taunton Courier 29 Aug. 2/6: Have you seen old Farmer Giles, / Arm in arm with Polly Strong, / He looks as if he is going to burst his boiler, / He can hardly walk along.
1940		F. Sargeson ‘A Great Day’ in A Man And His Wife (1944) 26: Pull her round a bit with the left, Fred said. And there’s no need to bust your boiler.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 40: bust your boiler Collapse from over-exertion.

6. (also burst the boiler) to lose emotional control.

1832		J.K. Paulding Westward Ho! I 193: Mrs. Judith would have undoubtedly burst the boiler of her curiosity, and exploded into scalding steam instead of tears.
1850		W.C. Hall ‘Mike Hooter’s Bar Story’ in Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 26: I lay down an’ rolled an’ laughed sorter easy to myself, ’til I was so full I thought I should er bust my biler!
1891		H. Lawson ‘At the Tug-of-War’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 114: I thought he’s burst his boiler then, a-cheering for his boy.
1935		G. Blake Shipbuilders (1954) 182: He roared like any happy boy, slapping his knee, [...] crying repeatedly: ‘Christ! I’ll bust my boiler if he doesna’ stop.’.