Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. personal possessions, esp. money used as gambling stakes.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1887		‘’Arry on Law and Order’ in Punch 26 Nov. 249/2: It’s as rough, as he says; / No marbles, no lodging, no grub, and that sort o’ thing kep up for days!
1924		D. Hammett ‘The Golden Horseshoe’ in Continental Op (1975) 62: I’m catching the evening train, betting my marbles that the job was made in Tijuana.
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 38: We’re not in Korea to protect our own marbles.
1968		J. Alard He who Shoots Last 39: They look such a lovely lot of geese. I promise not to take all their marbles Jack.
1974		R. Blount Jr About Three Bricks Shy of a Load 5: The Steelers and the people around them were [...] held firmly but hazardously together by the goal of winning all the marbles.

2. pearls.

1939

R. Chandler ‘Pearls Are a Nuisance’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 102: So you think I stole some marbles and am sitting around here waiting for a flock of dicks.

3. dollars; money in general; thus big marbles, a large sum of money.

1938		R.L. Bellem ‘Grappling Trilby’ in Popular Sports June 🌐 We collect our forty marbles.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 408: If I wuz jus’ twenty-five years younger tonight, I’d give you gents a honest ta God run fer yer marbles.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 42: Forty G’s a week is not exactly what you would call marbles.

4. in fig. use, one’s health, strength.

1948		J. Archibald ‘Klump a la Carte’ Popular Det. July 🌐 He got a cramp and had to park until he got his marbles back.
2012		A. Prentice ‘The Break’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] I have my marbles in all the right places. I can still fuck like a pneumatic drill.

5. intellectual ability.

1953		F. Flora ‘Collector Comes after Payday’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] ‘What the hell’s the matter with you, Frankie? You lost your marbles?’.
1955		M. Millar Beast in View (2016) 273: ‘I don’t think she’s playing with all her marbles’.
1962		L. Davidson Rose of Tibet 13: [D]espite his apparent senility, Mr. Oliphant had kept his marbles in very fair trim.
1973		Bernstein & Woodward All the President’s Men 300: ‘He hits the sauce every once in a while, but nothing serious. He’s still got his marbles’ .
1983		Jrnl. Gaz. (Matton, IL) 8 Sept. n.p.: ‘I have an 87-year-old widowed aunt [...] She is educated [...] and has all her marbles’.
1994		M. Hayes Tell Us Anotheree! 88: ‘That Jonesy’s a nut [...] He’s definitely got a few marbles missing’.
2008		P. Corris Open File 60: ‘I could ask my granny. She’s still got her marbles and she might know’.
2015		T. Pluck ‘Moody Joe Shaw’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 248: ‘l may be old, but I still have my marbles’.
2016		V. McDermid Out of Bounds (2017) 317: ‘I may be knocking on the door of eighty but I’ve still got all the marbles God blessed me with’.
2019		P. Temple ‘High Art’ in The Red Hand 49: ‘[C]ount yourself lucky if you have Maurie’s marbles when you’re eighty-two’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 105: [S]he’s lucky to have her legs and her marbles when her few surviving contemporaries are dribbling liquids from plastic straws.
2025		C. Hiaasen Fever Beach 510: Well, dude, you’ve lost your marbles’.