Green’s Dictionary of Slang

kale n.

(US) money.

1902		C.C. Munn Rockhaven 4: ‘Wal,’ he says, pullin’ out a roll o’ bills [...]. ‘Here’s the kale seed’ [DA].
1907		Sun (NY) 18 Oct. 11/1: All of the track kale has went away.
1911		L. Chevalier ‘Getting into Society’ Variety Stage Eng. Plays 🌐 Furthermore I got the kale for the cash radiator when the waiter breaks the bad news.
1913		Day Book (Chicago) 11 Dec. 31/2: Keep your gift. Not that I don’t need the kale seed, but this is my day off.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 83: I’d turned over some Bronx buildin’ lots not long before [...] and the kale was only drawin’ three per cent.
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 238: A person walking into a big Fifth Avenue bank and asking the bird in the gilded cage for some kale, and getting it in fresh green bank notes don't often think of the boys that dig out the actual gold.
1923		‘Gila Monster Route’ in N. Anderson Hobo 195: They were charged with vag, for they had no kale.
1932		(con. 1919) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 626: His father was a jailbird and his mother had no kale.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 62: Where’d you raise the kale for the bottle?
1953		Mad mag. Apr.–May 8: The only important thing is the good ol’ do-re-mi ... lettuce ... kale ... shekels ... get it? Cash!
1961		R. Gover One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 22: Ain you got no skins, no kale?
1972		R. Barrett Lovomaniacs (1973) 12: And the dough, baby. The iron men. The shekels. The kale.
1980		L. Kwesi Johnson ‘It Noh Funny’ in Inglan Is A Bitch 10: Dem wi’ tek chance / fi get a likkle kile.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 260: A guy like you could be in a good position to [...] make a little kale for himself .
2015		T. Pluck ‘Letters to Santa’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 86: A quarter of my assets was a lot of kale.

In compounds

kale-pot (n.) [northern dial. kale-pot, a large saucepan used for cooking vegetables]

(UK North) the head.

1812

J. Bell Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 185: She cowp’d him o’er the kale-pot with a kevel [...] She made his scalp ring like the clap of a bell.