Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) the quality of having courage or ‘guts’.

1897

C.M. Flandrau Harvard Episodes 31: Their persistent ‘sandiness’ compelled his admiration [DA].

(Aus.) sand flies.

1982

N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 95: Dad, ‘old fuddy-duddy’ (or sceptic) has also lit a mosquito coil against ‘mossies’, ‘sandies’ (sand flies) and other ‘bities’.

see separate entries.

(N.Z. prison) solitary confinement cells.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 158/1: sand bin n. = pound, the sense 1.

(US) a bed.

1842

Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 10 Dec. n.p.: The morning was breaking [...] and we sought the sand box.

(US) a short person.

1953

F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 74: They go crazy for a tall guy! [...] All the guys they go around with are sanddusters.

see cat’s pyjamas n.

see separate entries.

a caisson worker, working under compressed air, digging and laying the foundations of bridges etc.

1877		Saint Nicolas Mag. IV 538/2: ‘Once a sand-hog, always a sand-hog,’ the saying goes. They are simply unfit for work unless stimulated with oxygen. They can only work two hours at a time in this pressure.
1897		N.Y. Times 25 July SM6: These ‘sand hogs’ or caisson men are perhaps the most unique body of laborers in the world. Working in compressed air far below the surface of land or water is a difficult, often, indeed, a dangerous trade, and the wages are proportionately high. ‘Sand-hogging’ is not skilled labor, but few skilled laborers and master workmen get higher pay than these men.
1933		J. Conroy Disinherited 247: We knew how sand hoggers were lowered in hollow tubes to the bed of the river.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 78: He just got through working as a sandhog on the San Jack tunnel.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 303: The bald headed, sandhog shouldered Dhom who towered over Chief Choate even. [Ibid.] 821: It turned out much to everybody’s surprise that his old man had been a sandhog on the Holland Tunnel job.
1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 90: Jobs where you risk your life, normal risks, sandhog, steeplejack, high construction work.
1970		J.H. Johnson Negro Digest 37: [heading] Veteran sandhog has tangled with death ten times in New York tunnel.
1987		L.A. Times 22 Mar. 🌐 Those attracted to the work—known as ‘sandhogs’ in the East; ‘tunnel stiffs’ in the West—are, by reputation, hard-living boomers who travel from job to job and are somewhat casual about risks. ‘You finally get to where you don’t pay much attention,’ said Audrain Weatherl of Sacramento, a veteran tunnel stiff and an official of the Laborers International Union.
1991		in J. Breslin Damon Runyon (1992) 90: These tunnel workers, called sandhogs, started driving the tunnel under Broadway.
2001		S. Cheever Home Before Dark: A Personal Memoir of John Cheever 196: Then we talked about a friend of his at Smithers who had been a sandhog, and how he had dug.
2012		Village Voice 11 Apr. 🌐 Veteran sandhogs are finishing tunnels for the future subway.

(Aus.) a footpad, a mugger.

1941

Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

(US) a derog. term for a Syrian, an Indian (from India).

2001		posting at eSPOmagazine.com 🌐 Do they really think this anthrax is coming over from the taliban I dont think so its coming from a sand scratcher right next door.
2002		Lost Brain.com 27 Dec. 🌐 It will be mandatory that the words ‘towel-head,’ ‘camel jockey,’ ‘camel-humper’ and ‘sand-scratcher’ be added to vocabulary lists of all elementary school classrooms throughout the U.S.

see under dance v.

(US) to act courageously; thus sand in the craw n., courage.

1873		J. Morris Wanderings of a Vagabond 46: You can do it if you will only shove a little more sand in your craw.
1876		Christian Monitor 15 147: I think you’re a chicken-hearted little goose, a whimpering baby just now, but at bottom you really have some sand in your craw.
1886		West Shore 12 177: Have a good crop of sand in your craw, confidence in yourself, trust in God and keep your powder dry, and you will conquer every obstacle.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 588: sand in one’s craw, n. phr. Courage. ‘He won’t do it; he hasn’t any sand in his craw’.
1915		L.R. Dingus ‘A Word-List From Virginia’ in DN IV:iii 183: gizzard, to have sand on one’s, v. phr. To have courage.
a.1946		‘The Open Book’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 115: Now there’s boosters from poor Oklahoma, / And there’s brokers from old Arkansaw; / But they’re cotton pickers and tinhorn dice slickers, / With none too much sand in the craw.

(US black) to make a fuss, to complain.

1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 276: The phrase kick up sand carries the same meaning.
1980		Jackson & Christian Death Row 85: Kick up sand. I do it. I don’t never just sit back and take it.

1. (US) to cause a stir, a commotion.

1896		DN I n.p.: ‘To raise sand’ is slang for to get furiously angry, the same as ‘to raise Cain.’ [To raise Cain means in New England and Michigan to ‘carry on’ noisily, whether from anger or not.
1902		J.D. Corrothers Black Cat Club 14: You black people bin raisin’ san’ wid yo’ Shakespeare ack!
1906		‘This Mornin; this Evenin’ in J.F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning (1965) 177: ’Tain’t no need in raisin’ sand, / ’Cause I got my Gatlin’ in my han’.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 362: raise sand, v. To make a great disturbance, get angry and stir up confusion.
1922		‘Looking For A Fight’ in T.W. Talley Negro Folk Rhymes 118: I went down town de yudder night, / A-raisin’ san’ an’ a-wantin’ a fight.
1936		Casey Bill Weldon ‘Two-Timin’ Woman’ 🎵 You’re always raising sand baby, / And you’re always doggin’ me.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 377: raise sand: make a fuss, cause a stir.
1952		E. Brown Trespass 88: Like in the French Legion movies with all them old fuzzy-wuzzies raising sand.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
2007		N. McCall Them (2008) 200: I didn’t kere bout her raisin sand. I needed that cah for me.

2. (US black) to have a good time.

1926		Blind Lemon Jefferson ‘Dry Southern Blues’ 🎵 Tell me them good-lookin’ womens on the border’s raisin’ sand.
1981		McKee & Chisenhall Beale Black & Blue 173: ‘Course I didn’t have nothing to bother about ‘cause everything was cheap. [...] So I could take in six dollars and raise a lot of sand.

3. to complain.

1935		L. Hughes Mulatto in Three Negro Plays (1969) Act I: That’s de Colonel’s favourite chair. If he knows any little darkie’s been jumpin’ on it, he raise sand.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 219: They been raisin’ sand ever since.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
2006		C. Carr Our Town 40: His white co-workers finally ‘raised sand’ with personnel, and Wise was hired.

4. (US Und.) to fight.

1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1997		D.H. Edwards The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing 159: They fought all night long. They raised so much sand that night .