Green’s Dictionary of Slang

drop v.2

[the money is dropped on the table]

1. to pay over money, to spend money.

[UK]Wycherley Plain-Dealer III i: After a tedious fretting and wrangling, they drop away all their money on both sides.
[UK]G. Parker Life’s Painter 134: It won’t do I say, to stand here for nicks — all hearers and no buyers — what, will none of you drop your loose kelter?
[UK]Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 237: drop: to give or present a person with money, as, he dropp’d me a quid, he gave me a guinea. A kid who delivers his bundle to a sharper without hesitation, or a shopkeeper who is easily duped of his goods by means of a forged order or false pretence, is said to drop the swag in good twig, meaning, to part with it freely.
[UK]Egan Life in London (1869) 324: The covess of the ken [...] was quite pleased with the Corinthian, from the very liberal manner in which he had dropped his blunt at her house.
[UK] ‘Smith’s Frolic’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 61: I told her in plain I would drop but six win.
[UK] ‘Sal Stuff’ in Ri-tum Ti-tum Songster 12: Only drop the browns, and I’m game to the backbone yet.
[UK]‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 24 Jan. 4/1: He was told it [i.e. a racehorse] was a first chop good thing, and he dropped heavily.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 22 Dec. 3/2: [I] was a depending mostly on what the gennelmen used to tip me; some of ’em would drop me a shilling or so now and them, but most of 'em was uncommon scaly.
[UK] ‘So, I Said to Myself’ in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 48: Says I, my old gal, you must think people funny men, / Who’d drop you a crown for a fly in a dunniken.
London Figaro 7 June n.p.: The money dropped by the turf prophets [...] is quickly returned to them [F&H].
[US]Caldwell Journal 16 Oct. in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 515: Their first break was to ‘drop their wad’ on the wrong horses.
[UK]A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 184: He’ll probably drop for almost any amount.
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘His Lincoln Form’ Sporting Times 12 Mar. 1/4: To see good coin dropped makes me weary.
[UK]J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 68: I know you’ll enjoy it, and I want you to ‘drop’ a bit after.
[UK]S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 62: Clubmen [...] often stopped to chat and drop him a bob or two.
[UK]F. Norman Fings II i: I want to be the chap who drops / Instead of me (who only cops).
[UK]E. Bond Saved Scene vi: Drop ’er a few bob.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 69: It’s a gamble for me to spend the money for the tubs; I don’t think I can afford to drop five tonight.
[UK]A. Higgins ‘The Bird I Fancied’ in Helsingør Station and Other Departures 149: Drop him the hundred, Beamish said, and see what he’ll say.
[US]G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 128: Hey, Nestor [...] how much you drop on that suit, a buck?
[UK]J. Niven Kill Your Friends (2009) 16: Why isn’t the dribbling megamongol spending his entire salary [...] Why isn’t he dropping stacks of dough?

2. to lose money.

[UK]Satirist (London) 10 June 191/1: [T]hey are paid according to what they make for the bank; and in proportion to what the ‘flats’ drop, whom they have allured to the den.
[UK]Egan Bk of Sports 49: Some to look after the blunt — others to ‘drop it,’ as the sporting folks say.
[UK]Thackeray Pendennis I 42: We played hazard on the dining-table. And I dropped all the money I had from you in the morning.
[UK]Stamford Mercury 18 July 3/3: As usual ‘flats’ were picked up, and we heard that one person [...] was seen to ‘drop’ as much as 40l.
[US]J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 144: I’ve dropped agin them fellers eight hundred, and damn me if I hadn’t rather chucked it into the river than them thieves should have it.
[UK]‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter II 270: ‘[T]hen he increased his stud and made a book, that cooked him, for he dropped heavily on his first Two Thousand [Guineas]’.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Feb. 13/2: A gentleman had dropped £50 by backing the ‘out’ at the wrong time, and he got up in disgust.
[UK]H. Smart Post to Finish I 24: ‘They do say [...] that the Squire’s dropped a power of brass over the race.’.
[US]Wichita Eagle (KS) 11 Nov. 7/1: I saw old Mike McDonald [...] drop $100 simply becauise he was bound to win a seventy-five cent cravat.
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Genteel Occupation’ Sporting Times 22 Feb. 1/2: Elizabeth went with her aunt to a shop / Where the loveliest gems that spondulicks can buy / Were on sale to all those who had money to drop.
[UK]A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 184: I’d rather drop a few thousands to Bob Sinclair than I’d get it off of some of the burglars [...] that passes for workmen nowadays.
[US]J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 181: Dick Golden and I dropped four hundred thousand francs in a week’s play at Monte Carlo.
[UK]Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 44: I dropped my entire month’s allowance.
[US]E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 257: Max Maxwell, who played a highhanded bluff game of klondike and had once dropped four thousand bucks, four year’s savings, in Nogales.
[US]D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 187: He’s scared to tell the wife he dropped the fifty in a crap game.
[US]T. Heggen Mister Roberts 54: I went in with a hundred and I dropped that. I borrowed fifty [...] I came back a little, but then I dropped that too.
[US]R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 73: Once in a while he makes a package, but mostly he drops it.
[Aus]J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 10: If you can place any reliance on the buzzes flashing round this hooker [...] the Jimmie has also dropped a roll.
[US]T. Thackrey Gambling Secrets of Nick The Greek 136: They dropped a bundle.
[US]M. Puzo Godfather 375: The casino has been dropping money lately, which shouldn’t be.
[US]G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 31: They go to Vegas and drop six [thousand dollars].
[US]N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 98: Tommy, and I, took a trip to Vegas, dropped about twenty grand.
[Ire](con. 1945) S. McAughtry Touch and Go 81: How much have you dropped?
[Aus]J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 110: [I]t was nothing for ‘Baron Bob’ who bet like a toff [...] to win or drop £40 000 in a single afternoon’s betting.
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 122: If King Farouk of the Congo wants to drop a hundred G’s at the Sands, I say let him.

3. (US Und.) to sell something inferior for more than it is worth.

[US]A. Greene Glance at N.Y. II i: jake: He made a dive for his pocket-book, but couldn’t make it out. mike: So much the better; we might have got the one I dropped on him this morning.
[NZ]B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 92: We’ll see if we can drop her [a faulty gun] off in a pub somewhere for a fiver. No flies on Fred, eh!

4. (US Und.) to sell stolen property to a receiver.

[US] in Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (2nd edn) 424: I’d stuff watches, drop pocket-books, [...] but I’d never condescend to snug dogs .
[UK]Manchester Eve. News 16 Oct. 4/1: We used to drop nearly all the stuff at Bob Macfarlane’s, and a good fence he was then.
[US]J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 127: If I try to drop the stones here, I have to take what the first man offers me.
[US]‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 61: I asked him where I could drop some slum (sell stolen jewelry).
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

5. to bribe.

[UK]D. Stewart Wild Tribes of London in Illus. Police News 22 Feb. 12/4: ‘De damt police always think I got notning to do [...] but to drop ’em garnish’.
[UK]‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 92: At this stage they may try to drop you.

6. (orig. US) to pass dud cheques or counterfeit money; thus dropping n.

[UK]N. Lucas Autobiog. of a Thief 198: I was wanted [...] for the ‘kites’ (worthless cheques) which I had ‘dropped’ in various places.
[UK]F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 330: dropping: Uttering forged cheques.
[UK]‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 81: Then comes the basic penmanship, and after that the dropping – i.e., presenting the cheque at the bank. Dropping is dodgy work, so dodgy that the penman, who never drops himself, has to send a minder, known as a topper, to keep an eye on the dropper.
[NZ]G. Newbold Big Huey 247: drop (v) 1. Deposit contraband or money. British slang dating from about 1912.

7. to hand over drugs.

[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Drop, to deliver ‘dope’ to buyer.

8. (N.Z. prison) to deliver or pass contraband.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 62/1: drop v. 1 to ferry money or contraband into a prison by giving it to an inmate personally through visits, or by leaving it in or near the prison to be collected by an inmate.

9. to give.

[US]G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 105: I gotta drop a urine every week.

In compounds

drop man (n.)

(drugs) a wholesale drug dealer’s runner, who delivers bulk supplies to less important dealers.

[US]Smith & Gay Heroin in Perspective (1972) 107: drop-man: This person, often a young, dependable nonuser, is used by sellers to make deliveries.