Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. UK Und.) a hiding place for stolen goods; thus the goods themselves.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Plant [...] The Plant is the place in the House of the Fence, where the Stoln Goods are deposited.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Plant. The place in the house of the fence where stolen goods are secreted. Any place where stolen goods are concealed.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 258: plant: To hide, or conceal any person or thing, is termed planting him, or it; and any thing hid is called, the plant, when alluded to in conversation; such article is said to be in plant; the place of concealment is sometimes called the plant, as, I know of a fine plant; that is, a secure hiding-place.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		Sydney Herald 18 June 4/2: [T]he little-un grabbed you, and there was sich a plant in your fob as never was seen.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 108: The plant’s as safe as the Bank.
1845		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 15 Nov. 101/4: A few days since [...] a boy [...] accidentally noticed in the crevice of a rock a small package of sheet lead, neatly wrapped and securted with wire [...] This is what is technically termed ‘a plant’ and no doubt the money has been left thus deposited by some thief.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 14 Mar. 2/5: Dwyer brought her into an interior apartment, where, on lifting a cask, she proved her veracity by exhibiting ‘her plant,’ [i.e. 100 stolen sovereigns] rolled up in brown paper.
1853		Westmorland Gaz. 26 Mar. 4/2: He informed me that he had a ‘plant’, which he would make over to me, as it might be ‘sprung’ while he was in gaol.
1873		Sl. Dict. 256: Plant a hidden store of [...] valuables.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Sept. 5/4: Before the day is over he confesses all about it and the next night is occupied by him, and the police, in unearthing the ‘plant.’.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 59: Plant, the hidden store of money or valuables.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 302: I found the plant, fenced it, and have left enough behind for George’s lawyer.
1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 99: Then I would go away and plant everything in a prearranged hiding place [...] I would return, lift my plant, go on to New York.
1938		D. Runyon ‘The Three Wise Guys’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 406: His plant may be discovered.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1952		(con. 1920s) G. Fowler Schnozzola 72: The club had two ‘plants’, a plant being the hiding place where the owners stored illegal liquor.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 813: plant – A hiding-place for loot.

2. a swindle, a fraudulent trick.

1779		Nocturnal Revels 2 207: I’ve three horses to start [...] at Newmarket — a dead hollow thing — a regular plant — I must clear a thousand at least.
1781		G. Parker View of Society II 47: A dead plant is made upon him.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 52: The gentleman was bothered into the deposit of his money to play with one who was a dead nail! A plant!
1825		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 241: A regular plant was to be made, by some of his myrmidions, to clear me out, by first letting me win a few thousands, when they were to pounce upon me, double the stakes, and finish me off.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 189: ‘He should have tried mustachios and a pair of military trousers,’ said the Jew. ‘So he did [...] and they warn’t of no more use than the other plant.’.
1846		Westmorland Gaz. 3 Jan. 3/6: A ‘plant’ was made for another ‘shove,’ but luckily the scheme got wind.
1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 16: I never suspected a ‘plant’ of any kind.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 346: He had formed a scheme for doing our Sponge—a man that we do not think any of our readers would trouble themselves to try a ‘plant’ upon.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Jan. 5/1: Her doom was fixed, ’twas a regular plant!!
1856		Melbourne Punch 20 Nov. 3/3: DODGE.-Noun, a move, a fakement, a notion a fixin, humbug, hankypanky, a plant, &c., &c. This word is of almost universal application.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 75/1: I sez, sez I, it’s a plant which the Flash ’un set on, and Mat’s only his decoy.
1878		‘’Arry on the Turf’ in Punch 29 Nov. 297/1: But if M.P.’s can’t give the straight-tip, wy our Parlyment’s simply a ‘plant.’.
1884		A. Griffiths Chronicles of Newgate 409: Thrilling long-winded descriptions of robberies and other ‘plants’.
1891		T.B. Reed Cock House Fellsgarth 83: [T]here’d been a regular plant among ’em to rig the Elections [...] it’s a howling swindle.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 23 Dec. 1/4: The Scandinavians thought it was a plant, and got into a blue funk.
1895		Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] He knows a Good Thing When He Sees It 🎵 I thought, ‘This is a bit of a plant’ / My poor mind I couldn’t quite ease it.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 8 June 562: I didn’t steal the nuggets! [...] nor did the boy; but if you want my opinion I’ll give it you. The whole thing is a plant.
1910		Marvel 15 Oct. 16: Fifty quid, supposed to be stolen from Mr. Barker last night [...] I know where that’s gone to. It’s a plant.
1924		D. Hammett ‘Death on Pine Street’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 212: Everybody understands that the whole thing was a plant.
1938		D. Runyon ‘The Brakeman’s Daughter’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 509: How can anybody be sucker enough to fall for such a plant as this?
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1965		C. Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 33: Did you suspect it might be a plant?

3. a slander; a false accusation.

1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 20 Feb. 35/3: Harris continued [...] protesting his innocence, declaring it was a plant, because he had been before transported, and that it was the doing of some wicked wretch.
1827		High Life in London 30 Dec. 2/1: The defendants denied that they interfered in the affair at all, and said it was a ‘plant’ on the part of Levy and Money Moses, to ‘draw’ them of 100l.
1850		Bell’s Life in Sydney 5 Jan. 3/3: It’s all a plant upon my virtuous character, which every body knows; I’m a highly moral man, and goes to church.

4. any form of criminal activity.

1828		‘The Song of the Young Prig’ in C. Hindley James Catnach (1878) 171: I have a sweet eye for a plant.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 113: ‘He’ll do,’ said the Dodger. ‘A prime plant,’ observed Master Charley Bates.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 245: He is no use, he has turned soft. I have heard him refuse a dozen good plants the last month.
1869		Sportsman (London) 22 Dec. 2/2: Notes on News [...] The ring-finder had made a ‘plant’ in a very unfavourable quarter [...] having unwittingly selected a police-constable in plain clothes as his victim .
1880		W. Hooe Sharping London 35: Plant, a pre-concerted plan to swindle or commit robbery.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 88: You bet some plant is on that we know nothing about.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 35: He had to make a ‘plant’ in a hotel for all night.
1909		D. Stewart Dead Man’s Gold in Illus. Police News 10 Apr. 12/1: ‘The cove as carries out a plant by which he collars over four thousand quids wasn’t born yesterday’.
1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 259: ’Alf o’ them there gilt-edged barneys as you read about in the newspapers – the big bank scoops that talk in five or six figures o’ speech, the choice plants as ruin perhaps hundreds o’ once happy homes.
1926		Boys’ Realm 16 Jan. 266: It’s a plant from first to last.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Gentlemen, The King!’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 177: This is a perfect plant, indeed.

5. a lit. or fig. trap or an individual waiting to waylay a potential victim.

1832		Satirist (London) 25 Mar. 103/1: There were plants laid for him in every direction, — girls in one place, swell mob in another; so numerous, in fact, that there were no less than twenty different ones counted within view of James's-street alone.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 55/2: This [i.e. thieving] soon became ‘tumbled to,’ and a ‘plant’ was laid for him.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple II 246: It isn’t a plant? [...] It isn’t a dodge to get at me – to show me up?
1880		G.R. Sims Three Brass Balls 101: This is what they call a plant, your ladyship, and the sooner the police know of it the more likely we are to get your necklace back.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 30 Aug. 22/1: By the ‘plant’ was not meant a botanical specimen, but a trap or plot to ‘put away’ another prisoner.
1901		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 83: It’s a bloomin’ plant, I’ll take my oath.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 99: It’s a plant!
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 15: It was a plant for small fry, and I, who was wanted for jobs far different from this one, had stepped into it.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: I wouldn’t have been surpised if Suds Garland had made a plant and then tipped the narcotics agents to raid me.
1937		T. Thursday ‘Good Luck is No Good’ in Federal Agent Nov. 🌐 ‘I might of known it was a plant when I sees that cat!’ whined Mr. Todd.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 237: If this is a plant, two guys goes out in baskets.
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 255: He couldn’t be that dumb! I figgered it was a plant.
1958		R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 115: There’s a pretty good chance we’ll both wind up in the gutter, if your bloodthirsty chums get any ideas this dream of yours is a plant.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 145: If you’re thinking the car was placed there as a plant, I think that’s nonsense.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 158: ‘They caught her with that opium in her room. Got her dead to rights!’ [...] ‘Her manager said it was a kind of plant.’.

6. an act of betrayal.

1833

[T. Wontner] Old Bailey Experience 41: Fences [...] will never purchase of a new hand without a proper introduction, for fear of ‘a plant’ (being betrayed).

7. a detective, a spy, a decoy, esp. one who works under cover in a criminal gang; also any undercover police activity.

1850		Man of Pleasure’s Illus. Pocket-book n.p.: Nanty—nanty pallary; she's a plant on the swell to stag his lumber and cop his denarley. Stall away —hook it; nanty piping.
1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 441: The impudent fellow who pretended not to know the Frenchman. Regular plant as ever was made.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 79/2: I was afraid there might be some ‘plant’ on us; so for the remainder of the time it was resolved that we would stay in the old woman’s ‘drum’.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 245: The majority of them did not strike me as being likely subjects for a ‘plant’.
1916		T. Burke Limehouse Nights 240: Sure it’s a toff? [...] Sure it ain’t a plant?
1927		J.B. Hendryx ‘System’ in Underworld Sept. 🌐 ‘How do you know you ain’t up against a plant right now?’ ‘A plant?’ ‘Yes, a plant. How do you know I ain’t been sent here to get your goat?’.
1930		E.H. Lavine Third Degree (1931) 11: He simply tells his superior [...] that he is on a ‘plant’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		‘Ed McBain’ Killer’s Wedge (1981) 21: Brown’s on a plant [...] A plant. A stakeout, call it what you want to.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 165: Hell, for all I know he could be a plant.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 254: ‘You lost me ten quid there, pal,’ the plant said earnestly.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 32: You won’t have to live there [i.e. a brothel], Erich. We’ll have our plants for that.
1999		Guardian G2 14 Sept. 3: Was she a plant?
2022		G.M. Graff Watergate 118: At dinner in California with a woman he hoped to recruit as a potential plant in the Democratic campaign [etc].
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 322: [T]he Provisionals suspected ‘Phil Mathers’ and ‘Johnny Divney’ were plants.

8. (US) one’s home.

1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 July 3/1: I am a Doctor - a vegetable Doctor - vegetating wherever I can get a plant.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 392: He dragged me over to Bayonne, N.J., to have dinner at his plant.
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 37: [J]ust let some good bunk guy [...] show him [i.e. a respectable citizen] where he can beat [...] some bucket shop or somethin like that out of a bunch o’ dough, an’ he'll hang a record to his plant to dig up a bankroll.

9. a hiding place for burglary tools.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 89/2: In that case our ‘drum’ would be ‘turned over,’ the ‘plant sprung’ where the ‘tools’ were hidden and then nothing would save us from a ‘boating’.

10. (UK/US Und./police) a trap; often in the form of an item that is deliberately left vulnerable and under surveillance, e.g. a briefcase, in the hope that a thief will pick it up; occas. used of the act placing such an object.

11. a person targeted for robbery.

1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 88: A person marked for plunder – a plant.
c.1900		E.E. Rogers [perf. Arthur Tinsley] ‘As You Were Before’ 🎵 You dodge in, prayer book in your hand, and when a plant is found / You get to business.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 63: The following crook’s words and phrases date from the days of the old Old Bailey: [...] a person marked out for plunder – a plant.

12. a hiding place for illegally acquired money; cit. 1931–4 refers to money that is not stolen, but the possession of which contravenes prison rules.

1873		Sl. Dict. 256: Plant a hidden store of money.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 7: Plant (A) - Concealed plunder.
1894		‘Price Warung’ Tales of the Early Days 291: ‘That’s thirty pun — I’ll make it guineas!’ ‘Ho, ho! Vy, yer must ’ave a nice plant someveres, Dicky!’.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 181: They only found a few rolls on him. [...] They think he’s made a plant somewheres.
1914		Wash. Post 11 Nov. Misc. 3/5: When he was searched, a ‘plant’ was found in his cuff links consisting of a folded ten-thousand dollar bill.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 334/2: plant, n. 1. Money or loot which is hidden because of danger, or for protection.

13. a trick, a tease.

1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 Nov. 6/1: I perceived by this time that I had been once more the victim of a deliberate ‘plant’.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 114: PLANT: a plan, plot, or surprise.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 295: I’m sick of cops.’ He looked surprised. Then he grinned. ‘That was a plant, kiddo,’ he said cheerfully.

14. (US) a buried corpse.

1885

Salt Lake Herald (UT) 5 Dec. 7/1: I raised a plant last week and sold it as a valuable specimen.

15. (UK/US Und.) a place targeted for a crime, e.g. a bank.

1893		J. Hawthorne Confessions of Convict 171: The ‘plant’ we were aiming at was a one-story building of brick.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 261: They had a plant further on. But we had to wait till one of the mob went for some soup.
1906		D. Stewart Vultures of the City in Illus. Police News 8 Dec. 12/1: ‘This ’ere is the crib [...] The best plant, Jem, we’ve had for a blooming long spell’.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 414: Plant. A place located to burglarize.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 158/2: Plant, n. [...] 10. A place marked to be robbed.
1906		D. Stewart Vultures of the City in Illus. Police News : .

16. (US) a venue, e.g. to display one’s wares.

1902

C.L. Cullen More Ex-Tank Tales 223: The gin-millist was to get his’n as the provider of the plant for the display and the raffling of the goods.

17. a site where a street-seller is established.

1902

C.L. Cullen More Ex-Tank Tales 43: The darky bootblack whose plant was outside the moistmill.

18. (US) a casino, a gambling den.

1903

Inter Ocean (Chicago) 25 Jan. 34/4: Not even in the half-on-the-level plants was it esteemed the proper quirk to let a soused man push over his gig-lamps for chips.

19. a hiding place for a person.

1911

E. Dyson ‘The Picnic’ in Benno and Some of the Push 13: Me ’n’ a John discovered the plant.

20. (UK Und.) the manufacture and selling of counterfeit money.

1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 269: I’ve known fair topping daddies at the plant – no kid!
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 158/2: Plant, n. [...] 3. An establishment for the production of illicit commodities, as tax-evading whiskey, counterfeit labels or currency.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 61: For each bill passed, one good dollar went into his own pocket. The rest [...] moved into the symbiotic levels of a passing line to end at the plant.

21. (orig. US) someone who has been deliberately placed in an environment, typically an audience, where they respond (ostensibly as just another punter) to a call from the stage for ‘volunteers’.

1926		P. White ‘Stage Terms’ in AS I:8 437: Plant—A member of an act planted in the audience or the orchestra pit who performs his share of the act from there, or who comes upon the stage from the audience to take part in the performance as a supposed non-member of the profession.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 593: The priest here is not a real member of the clergy, he has been serving as a plant in our initiations.
1968		P. Terson Apprentices (1970) II iii: There were these three fellers, but they were just plants.
2000		Observer Rev. 9 Jan. 2: Am I being honest? Am I a plant?
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 149: Can we ignore the hecklers at the back. They’re obviously plants.

22. (drugs) a hiding place for drugs or drug-taking equipment; thus the drugs or equipment thus hidden.

1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 33: A ‘plant’ is a package of dope sewed deep in the lining of a fiend’s clothes or tucked snugly in the toe of his shoe. It is his cache in the event that he is thrown in jail.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 134: He got my plant, Georgie [...] but you saved yours, didn’t you, Georgie? [...] The sack contained his ‘plant,’ an eye-dropper with a hypodemic nedle soldered to it with sealing wax, and a small paper of morphine in a little tin box.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 118: Luciell and Jimmie always carried a small heroin ‘plant,’ or supply, sewed in their clothing.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in AS XIII:3 189/1: plant. 3. Equipment for taking narcotics, or materials from which such equipment can be made, concealed about the person or in one’s cell in prison.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 211: plant (1) a hiding place or a cache.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 17: Plant — Hiding place for drugs.

23. (UK und.) the act of placing an incriminating item where it may then be ‘discovered’ during a police raid.

1961

T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 50: Danny’s plant isn’t the first time it’s happened and it won’t be the last.