Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bank n.1

1. the vagina, esp. when seen as a means of making money; one of a number of terms pointing up the commercial potential of the vagina; the man also ‘places a deposit in it’.

[UK] ‘The Swell Coves Alphabet’ in Nobby Songster 27: J. for Joe the Stunner, whose Banks may never burst.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 44: Bours, f. [...] 2. the female pudendum; ‘the bank’.

2. (Aus./US black/campus) money, one’s fortune.

[UK]Ordinary of Newgate His Account 6 Aug. 17/1: I told them, that I had no Bank, (no Money) Izzard bid me never Mind that, — he'd find Bank .
[UK]Marvel 21 Apr. 345: ’Pon me civvy, ’e’s worth a bank!
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Derby Bet’ Sporting Times 28 May 1/4: If one man desires to be honest, and t’other man’s bank’s running short; / Well, a hundred odd’s not to be sneezed at.
[Aus]Aussie (France) 10 Jan. 2/1: ‘Double it, me lucky lad, and win a bank!’ said the spinner.
[Aus]Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 24: They’re in the banks up to the neck now.
[Aus]J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 14: It had been built from a bank of seven pounds ten shillings with which he arrived on the course [ibid.] 106: Once he built up a bank of more than £7000.
[US]T.R. Houser Central Sl. 9: bank [...] At the first and fifteenth of every month the dudes got bank, got big bank.
[US]Ice-T ‘High Rollers’ 🎵 Most men don’t understand it / Till they peep the huge bank that these girls have landed.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 21: Price is giving me a pretty good bank to get this together.
[US]Eble Sl. and Sociability 63: College students in the early 1990s called ‘money’ metonymically bank or paper, as in ‘I’ve got to get some bank/paper before I leave town’.
[Aus]J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 109: In next to no time the lad had built his threepenny bank into £12.
[US]W. Shaw Westsiders 21: More words seem to be invented each week, faster than any Webster’s could keep track: ‘G’, ‘grip’, ‘bank’, ‘mail’ [...] It is the fecund vocabulary of desire.
[US]T.I. ‘Whatever You Like’ 🎵 Ya need to never ever gotta go in your wallet / Long as I got rubber band banks in my pocket.
[UK]Sun. Times Mag. 19 Dec. 34/1: I could have sold to Russia or China and made bank.

3. (Aus.) a rag-shop.

[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 6: Banks, rag shops.

4. (US black) the lavatory; esp. visit the bank, take a trip to the bank.

[US]E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 22: bank, n. Water-closet.
[US] ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

5. (US prison) a solitary confinement cell [the prisoner is secure as ‘money in the bank’].

[US]D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 330/1: bank, n. A solitary cell in prison.

6. (US police/und.) a centralized location for accumulating gambling proceeds and calculating gambling results.

[US]Knapp Commission Report Dec. 78: [A]ll betting slips and the money bet are collected from the various runners and taken either directly to the ‘bank’ or to a ‘drop’ [...] At the bank, clerks with adding machines tally the day’s take and figure the money owed to winners.
[US]Lehr & O’Neill Black Mass 83: One informant [...] reported that starting that year ‘there was a large Money Bank at the garage on Lancaster Street where the ‘Big Boys’ go to deliver money collected as a result of illegal gaming operations.

7. (N.Z. prison) the prison canteen.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 13/1: bank, the n. the canteen.

In phrases

make bank (v.)

(US black) to make money.

[US]E. Little Another Day in Paradise 135: I really need to make serious bank now.
[US]Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 make bank Definition: to get a lot of money, legal or illegal. Example: Shiiit, yo, Im gonna make bank slingin’ this dope.
[US]G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 190: We gonna make some large bank on this motherfucker.
[US]C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. 2011.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

bank-bandit pills (n.) [their calming effect, suitable for use during a robbery]

(drugs) depressants.

[US]R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 37: bank bandit pills barbiturates or other sedative pills.
[US]ONDCP Street Terms 2: Bank bandit pills — Depressants.
bank-man (n.)

(US Und.) a bank robber.

[US]J. Flynt World of Graft 78: Do you think Boston is as much of a bank-man’s hang-out as it used to be?

In phrases

bank of Dunlop (n.) [brandname Dunlop, manufacturer of rubber tyres]

a fig. ‘bank’ on which ‘rubber’ cheques are drawn.

Olebut ‘Postal payments now an option’ posting 20 May at WriteWords.org 🌐 As the first user of it I can confirm it works like a charm. / David hasn’t spotted yet my cheque is drawn on the Bank of Dunlop though (he he).
bank off (v.) [similarity of the punishment block to a bank vault]

(US prison) to place an inmate in the punishment cells.

[US]Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 266: More unfamiliar are the expressions to bank off or to lay down to describe a prisoner being placed in a punishment cell.
bank on (v.) [gambling jargon bet the bank, to commit oneself completely]

to take for granted, to assume as a certainty.

[US]E. Nye Baled Hay 127: The man who ranks as a dignified snoozer, and banks on winning wealth and a deathless name.
[US]J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 134: They will take things that do not belong to them if they are sure of not being caught, but this safety is so vain a hope that it is seldom ‘banked on’.
[US]J. London Smoke Bellew Pt 8 🌐 Copper! Raw, red copper! An’ they think it‘s gold! [...] The poor devils banked everything on it.
[UK]Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 127: You can always bank on Bertie.
[US]J. Lait Put on the Spot 182: I’m going to treat you right, Annie, you can bank on that.
[UK]A. Wright Under the Whip 15: Maybe he was banking on the Lad’s accident a week ago?
[UK]Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 102: I’m banking on him.
[US]‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 20: Only suckers and losers bank on what they have.
[US]S. Stallone Paradise Alley (1978) 216: ‘Be by at six?’ ‘Bank on it.’.
[UK]‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 25: There would have to be at least two of them, you can bank on that.
[UK]Observer Cash 11 July 15: An online revolution in money management? Don’t bank on it.
[US]C. Cook Robbers (2001) 29: I ain’t from nowhere. Well, I been there too [...] You can bank on it.
right as a bank (adj.) (also right as the bank)

(N.Z.) perfectly satisfactory, perfectly happy.

‘Tasma’ In her Earliest Youth II 178: There—now—don’t you fluff! Everything’s as right as the bank, I tell you.
[Aus]Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 145: She’s as right as the bank.
[NZ]D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 301: ‘How’s the leg, Rusty?’ asked Frank [...] ‘Right as a bank. No trouble at all.’.
[NZ]G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 165: I’m all right I tell ya. Right as a bank.
[NZ]D. Davin Breathing Spaces 81: Drink that up and you’ll be right as a bank.
take to the bank (v.)

to place absolute confidence in (a piece of information).

[US]Shorthorn County 11 7: You can take it to the bank that this will be an excellent opportunity.
[US]C. Hagan Make Me a Star 196: 🎵 And you can take it to the bank , hoss, / That I am an outlaw , too!
[US]B. Gretz Hail to the Chiefs 56: ‘He doesn’t say very much, but when he does, you can take it to the bank’.
[US]H.R. 3703 US Congress 106: When he compliments you, you can take it to the bank.
[US]The 13th Juror 64: ‘He said a law enforcement officer did it [i.e. the murder of Martin Luther King], you can take that to the bank?’.
[US]Wash. Post (DC) 20 Jan. n.p.: Take it to the bank: Obama will veto the U.N. resolution.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 151: And before you ask, Bobby don’t stray. Take that to the bank.