sardine n.
1. (US) a general term of abuse, a fool.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | S.F. Call 26 Mar. n.p.: ‘Answer the question.’ ‘Answer it yourself, if you can. I’m no sardine.’. | |
| ‘Breitmann in Politics’ in Hans Breitmann About Town 50: Ash dey shvored dat Copitan Breitmann / Vas a brick-pat, and no sardine. | |
| Petroleum Centre Dly Record (PA) 17 Sept. 2/1: ‘What’s that, you sardine!’. | |
| First Fam’lies in the Sierras 51: Well, Sandy is no sardine. | |
| Wichita Eagle (KS) 24 Dec. 7/1: What excuse can possibly be offered for such words as [...] ‘sardine,’ ‘chump’ [etc.]. | |
| Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 14: sardine n. Fellow, ‘duffer’. | |
| ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 198: sardine, a simpleton. |
2. (US) a person.
| Night Side of N.Y. 118: It was not long before they were recruited by a fresh lot of young ‘sardines’ from some where else. | |
| Ft Worth Dly Gaz. (TX) 29 Aug. 6/3: When we met a good old friend [...] / We greeted him but didn’t say / ‘Hello, you old sardine’. | |
| Dumont’s Joke Book 42: Dudes are called ‘sardines’. | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 370: Where can the old sardine be? | |
| Hollywood Girl 227: Give my love to all the rush hour sardines. | |
| Web and the Rock 402: Every man, the blind could tell you as they struggled through the subway door while there was still room for one more visionless sardine, was ‘getting his’. |
3. (US campus) a young woman.
| This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 55: I’d like to bring a sardine to the prom in June. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Eve. Post (Wellington) 25 Jan. 8/8: Modern Americanisms [...] The names for girls are legion [...] ‘Canary,’ ‘Hairpin,’ ‘Sardine,’ ‘Hotsie-Totsie’ or plain ’darb’. |
4. a run-down prostitute.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 200: sardine A dirty and filthy prostitute. |
SE in slang uses, implying tight packing
In compounds
1. a small railway compartment; note Punch’s nickname (1890) for the underground City & S, London Railway: the sardine-box railway.
| [ |  | Amer. Machinist 25 1168/1: During the rush hours every car of every line is packed like a sardine box]. |
| diary 15 June 🌐 We went up to the railroad station at about 8 Oclock got on the train [...] We were packed in them sardine boxes. |
2. (US) a small apartment.
| ‘Far from the Big, Bright Aisle’ 9 July [synd. col.] I’d sort o’ like to [...] hang me hat up in the sardine box [...] which I called home . |
1. a prison or police van [the close-packing of the prisoners].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. | |
| Blood Posse 301: I [was] slung into a solid iron van known as a sardine can. |
2. (US) a small car.
| Eve. Capital News (Boise, ID) 4 Jan. 33/1: ‘Some sardine can you’re driving, Jeff’. | |
| [ | | ‘Deadbeat’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 28: My cousin Kari’s wants a Chevy Suburban, says she feels like she’s in a tiny can of sardines driving the minivan]. |
(Aus.) a close embrace.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sport (Adelaide) 1 May 4/2: John W reckons the sardine grip is good, but has not caught a tart . |
(US black) a nugatory amount of money.
| Adventures 149: ‘We’re top-billing,’ says Rahiem, ‘and you’re paying us sardine money’. |
(Aus.) any extremely small dwelling.
| Sporting Times 20 Jan. 3/4: Folks called her a floating palace— / Outboard she looked that same— / But a sardine tin she was within, / ’Twas we that gave her the name! |
In phrases
(US black) to stand extremely close to one’s neighbours, e.g. in an auditorium.
| ‘Solid Meddlin’’ in People’s Voice (NY) 14 Mar. 33/1: The auditorium was doing the sardine act and the mitt pounding came up like thunder. |