Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entry.

1. (also show clean heels, show a clean pair of legs, show a light/nimble/round pair of heels, show one’s heels) to leave at speed, to flee.

c.1597		Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 1 II iv: Darst thou be so valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture and show it a fair pair of heels and run from it?
1607		Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe III i: All the women in Italy would shew their husbands a Million of light paire of heeles, and flie ouer into England.
1633		Rowley A Match at Midnight I i: Shew her cozen a round paire of heeles.
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 98: [He] now was ready set on Wheels, / To shew a nimble pair of Heels.
1725		Bailey (trans.) Erasmus’ Colloquies 471: If you can so nothing else, you must shew them a Pair of Heels, and run into the Army or a Riot.
1746		W. Dunkin Parson’s Revels (2010) 68: Then for his Heels I must declare. / Achilles could not shew a Pair / [...] half so fair / For Speed, Sir.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 4: Unless you shew your heels, and so / Escape the rage of my great toe.
1816		W.T. Moncrieff All at Coventry I i: I showed him a fair pair of heels – ran away – and here I am.
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 220: So saying, he shewed his heels, and ran down stairs.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans.) W. McGinn II 8: I shall get out of quod, and show them my heels, whilst you are still clinking the darbies.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 254: It’s all up, Bill! [...] drop the kid and show ’em your heels.
1840		W.G. Simms Border Beagles (1855) 299: Show ’em clean heels.
1842		‘Harry of Kentucky’ in Littell Clay Minstrel (1844) 161: Each striving which to Whigs can show / The cleanest pair of heels.
1850		Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 26 Nov. 2/3: Having got to the top of the hill, he showed them ‘a clean pair of heels,’ and soon put himself beyond [...] danger.
1863		G.A. Sala Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous 304: He e’en showed his Creditors a clean Pair of Heels, and took Shipping for Harwich.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 54: She will have to show her heels most effectually to overhaul us.
1879		‘’Arry on the River’ in Punch 9 Aug. 57/1: Of course we bunked off in the scurry, and showed ’em a clean pair o’ legs.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 145: Stephen was bowling through the chute and showing the rival boat a two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar pair of heels.
1883		R.L. Stevenson Treasure Island 15: Out upon the road, Black Dog, in spite of his wound, showed a wonderful clean pair of heels.
1891		‘’Arry on Wheels’ in Punch 7 May 217/1: I’ve took to the bicycle, yus, — and can show a good many my ’eels.
1894		Morn. Post (London) 1 Oct. 5/5: One wag suggests that in case the crowd becomes too thick or too menacing, it will be sifficient for the Prefect to let loose a bull for all [...] to show a clean pair of heels.
1895		‘’Arry and the [...] Lady Cyclists’ in Punch 15 June 285/3: We’ll soon ’ave some duchess, on wheels, / A-cuttin’ all records, and showing young Zimmy a clean pair of ’eels.
1908		Sporting Times 22 Feb. 1/4: You’re running against a lot o’ crabs—a good horse like you! Now, just for the sake of old times, show your heels to these plurry crawfish, will you?
[1914		Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA) 29 July 7/1: The graceful Belle Helene [a boat] chose to show us her light disdainful heels].
1921		‘Max Brand’ Seventh Man 112: I s’pose Molly showed a clean pair of heels to the whole lot of ’em.
1934		Gloucs Echo 30 Oct. 1/6: [advt] If you want a Car with ‘Sports’ Performance [...] the Sunbeam ‘Dawn’ will show a clean pair of heels to most sports cars.
1942		Eve. Teleg. (Angus, Scot.) 23 July 2/5: His idea was to show the police a clean pair of heels.
1952		Age (Melbourne) 10 June 12/7: ‘He showed the opposition a clean pair of heels’.
1964		Age (Melbourne) 8 Oct. 2/5: He showed Pirie and me a clean pair of heels most of the way. It took everything I had to ‘pip’ him at the tape.
1978		(con. 1940s) J.G. Farrell Singapore Grip 338: I told you my mother was Russian princess, forced to show ‘clean heels’ during the Revolution.
1989		S. Armitage ‘Finding Your Own Feet’ in Zoom 72: Showing / a clean pair of heels.

2. to be bankrupt [? sent to debtor’s prison].

1678

J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 89: A Bankrupt. [...] He hath shown them a fair pair of heels. He is marched off.

of a man, to have a fly-button undone, to have one’s penis sticking inadvertently through one’s flies.

1980

Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 194: He is alleged to have been seen in a ‘tay house’ (teahouse) showing an Abyssinian medal, i.e. with his flies undone.

(US black) to demonstrate.

1991		Queen Latifah ‘Nuff of the Ruff Stuff’ 🎵 on Nature of a Sista [album] Now nuff of the ruff stuff, that’s what I do, and I do it well / The proof is in the puddin, I show and prove, not show and tell.
2003		Tufts Daily 23 Oct. 🌐 ‘Show N Prove,’ claimed Broken Science, ‘will show and prove to the public that I am nice on the mic.’.

(US) an elaborate exhibit intended to impress, persuade or inform; thus in fig. uses.

1974		E.H. Hunt Undercover 189: Liddy told me he had been given a show-and-tell appointment with the Attorney General.
1991		Queen Latifah ‘Nuff of the Ruff Stuff’ 🎵 on Nature of a Sista [album] Now nuff of the ruff stuff, that’s what I do, and I do it well / The proof is in the puddin, I show and prove, not show and tell.
2003		‘This Just In...’ Barnstable Patriot (US) 10 Oct. 🌐 The Barnstable Senior Center hosts the Barnstable Newcomers Club meeting Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m., when world travelers John and Regina McCarthy will do a show-and-tell on Elderhosteling in New Zealand.

(Aus./N.Z.) to swindle, to act dishonourably towards.

1898		W.T. Goodge ‘The Guile of Dad M’Ginnis’ in Bulletin 3 Dec. 32: He became the admiration of the camp along the creek / ’Cause he showed a point to Kangaroobie Riley!
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Aug. 31/1: [T]he boss took the smarty on out of pique. The ‘fly’ man ended by showing the employer a point. In fact, the latter might have known that a man who would work such a trick would go ‘cronk’ first opportunity.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 44: show a point — deceive; use deceitfully.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: show a point. Deceive, use deceitfully.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 188: show a point to To swindle or deceive. Late C19. Now more likely to be show a trick to.

(US) to be tipsy, to be drunk.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

1. (UK Und.) that which reveals one’s presence to the authorities.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 19/2: I’m blest if she ain’t going to ‘pratt’ right beside us, and that will give us a h—l of a ‘showing-up’.

2. a shameful predicament.

1929		(con. 1910) C.G. Gordon Crooks of the Und. 222: Nice showing up you’d get wiv yer fam’ly, and us only been married half a stretch.
1935		(con. 1920s) McArthur & Long No Mean City 57: A dozen other people [...] had joined the group, all of them eager to see the fun or the fight, or the ‘showing up,’ or whatever should come of it all.

see show a leg v.

(US) to appear foolish; to show off, to make an exhibition of oneself.

1961		L. McMurtry Horseman, Pass By 134: ‘Did you hear about Hud’s deal?’ I asked. [...] ‘I heard about ten versions of it,’ he said. ‘Looks like somebody showed their ass, but I don’t know who’.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 219: Whyn’t you cool it [...] Ain’t you showed your ass enough?
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 showing one’s ass Definition: a person that is showin off Example: Hey nigga quit showin yo azz or i will bust a cap in ya azz, mothafucka!

(orig. US) to reveal oneself, usu. to a greater extent than desired.

1858		Buffalo Dly Republic (NY) 11 Feb. 2/4: Mr Marsh determined to show his cards [and] ordered his bills to be immediately posted.
1860		Dublin Eve. Mail 31 Aug. 3: Practical men met him in a practical way; he showed them his cards; he was asked ‘Will you take all risk?’ Yes.
1869		Inverness Courier 11 July 6/5: As to the meeting we had with Mr Gladstone [...] he showed his cards frankly.
1873		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 22 Apr. 2/3: The First Minister was angry, and was wrong; but he then showed his cards .
1885		North Devon Jrnl 7 May 5/1: The object he sought to obtain [...] might be lost sometimes if he showed his cards to an opponent.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Aug. 17/1: Ye gods! the astute ‘Johnny’ Deeble is going to show his hand for ‘nix’ to the general public!
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 23/1: Show the hand (Peoples’). To reveal unintentionally. From cardplaying, where showing the hand is sure to lose the game.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 215: We must have got them scared, or they wouldn’t have shown their hand that way.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 221: I’m showing my hand for the first time.
1929		J.B. Booth London Town 84: He rarely showed his hand, either at cards, or at the more serious game of life.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 97: He wasn’t going to show his cards to anybody again.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 666: If she could stand to let it go on, and he called up, he would just show all his cards.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 169: Molly and Athol were at the hotel until old Macallister should show his hand.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 93: And then Bill showed his hand a little.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 68: That was the week that Kendall really began to show his hand.
1970		Marshall News Messenger (TX) 21 Dec. 1/4: The proposal would mean Reagan ‘has to show his cards’ when applying for future aid.
1998		Chicago Trib. 8 Mar. 3/5: It was time for Starr to wrap up his investigation and ‘show his cards’.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 54: It’s only now you’ve chosen to show your hand.
2014		Times & Democrat (Orangeburg, SC) 4 Sept. 13/1: [headline] Nerves of Steele. Coach won’t show his cards early this year.

(US black) to act in a stereotyped way, to behave in the way whites expect blacks to behave.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 27: The expressions act the nigger and show your color [...] generally mean to be foolish or silly, to call attention to yourself.

(US) to smile, esp. in a self-satisfied manner.

1976

P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 300: A broad smile on his face. ‘Gentlemen. Gentlemen. Gentlemen,’ he said in greeting. ‘What are you showing your gums about, Art the Fart?’ Jim Don asked.

to be drunk.

1770

Gent.’s Mag. 559: Besides these modes of expressing drunkenness by what a man is, what he has, and what he has had, the following express it by what he does— [...] Shows his Hob-nails; this is a provincial phrase for being so drunk as not to be able to stand, so that the nails at the bottom of the shoe are seen.

to make an appearance, to come into view.

1700		T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 34: Hither [i.e. the playhouse] come the country gentlemen to show their shapes, and trouble the pit with their impertinence.
1827		T. Morton A School For Grown Children V ii: A stranger! Now to show my shapes.

1. to turn around, to march off.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Show your Shapes, turn about, march off, be gone.
1713		J. Gay Wife of Bath I i: Show your shapes and walk gracefully.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: [...] said (often) to an ill-made Man. Show your Shapes; Turn about, march off, be gone.

2. to take off one’s clothes, esp. preparatory to a judicial flogging.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[1859		Matsell Vocabulum 79: shapes Naked].

see separate entries.

to play pranks, to act in a flighty manner.

1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 33: Nothin’ a’most would tempt me to let Sister Sall show shapes arter that fashion for money.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.

see know a thing or two v.

to show someone how to do a task, to explain something such as the details of a task or operation to someone.

1848		Glasgow Herald 25 Dec. 4/7: Look after him, Jacobs, my lad [...] show him the ropes.
1863		J. Horrocks letter in My Dear Parents 5 Nov. 44: Of course you will show me the ropes, won’t you sargeant.
1886		Carlisle Wkly Herald (PA) 18 Feb. 1/6: Jack consented to make one or two trips with him to show him the ropes.
1899		Manchester Eve. News 7 Oct. 4/3: We must pal on to some old miner — eh? Get him to show us the ropes.
1905		E.W. Hornung A Thief in the Night (1992) 281: I’ll come just to show you the ropes, and I won’t take a penny-weight of the swag.
1915		‘Ian Hay’ First Hundred Thousand (1918) 187: The old hands took our boys to their bosoms at once, and showed them the ropes.
1933		J. Gray ‘The Nudist Gym Death Riddle’ in Vice Squad Detective 🌐 I’ll be back in no time to show you the ropes.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 33: I’m your guide and I’ll show you the ropes.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 90: You stick with me. I’ll show you the ropes.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 64: I am ’ere to show you the ropes.
1946		(con. 1910s) J. Thompson Heed the Thunder (1994) 150: He’d show him the ropes, as Jeff had hoped he would do, and they would be friends again.
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 14: We shall have to show you the ropes, shan’t we?
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 164: Darden, an experienced vice cop, and a new detective he was showing the ropes to.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 139: His father had shown him the ropes.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 118: They assigned us one-on-one to lifters who’ve been there a while, so they could show us the ropes.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 127: Trobridge [...] dragged Walthers and two other rookies off to a daylight dismounted patrol, ‘jus’ ta show ’em the ropes’.
1980		M. Thelwell Harder They Come 141: I a go show you de ropes.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 99: A hooker of some reputation who [...] made her living by doing triples and showing younger, fresher talent the ropes.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 27: Dick showed him the ropes.
1996		J. Murphy A Picture of Paradise in McGuinness Dazzling Dark (1996) Act I: I could show you the ropes ... start you off.
1997		(con. 1950s) J. Byrne Slab Boys [film script] 12: Bit of a balls-up in the Bobbin Shed ... Let me get somebody to show you the ropes.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We Have No 348: She showed him the ropes.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 190: It was me wha’ marked the gaff for him [...] Ah showed him the ropes innit.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 70: ‘[She] showed me the ropes, kicked some lit to me and some knowledge. And then, after that, she made me a queen’.
2012		Detroit Free Press (MI) 17 June A6/3: Tory Rocca said his dad used to stop by to show him the ropes.
2016		Monitor (McAllen, TX) 26 June 147/7: The team’s ace took Martinez under his wing to show him the ropes.

see deliver the goods under goods n.

to point out or visit the sights.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: To shew the lions and tombs, to point out the particular curiosities of any place, an allusion to Westminster Abbey, and the Tower, where the tombs and lions are shewn; to act the Ciceroni.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1817		Times 7 Oct. 3/2: What will be said then, to such slang and slipslop as the following — that the Ambassador and his suit were ‘the lions of the Court’ [...] in the same sense as the vulgar expression of showing the lions?
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1826		W.N. Glascock Naval Sketchbk I 3: Let one of the steadiest midshipmen shew the young gentleman the lions.
1854		Liverpool Mail 7 Jan. 6/6: [headline] Showing the Lions.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 172: lionise to conduct a stranger round the principal objects of attraction in a place; to act as cicerone.
1870		Sporting Gaz. (London) 4 June 12/3: On Monday morning be thoroughly ‘lionised’ the Tower, finding time afterwards for visits to several of of our leading fashionables.
1877		Globe (London) 9 July 1/4: There is little satisfaction in showing the lions to a person who is either unable tor unwilling to see anything astonishing in them.

to surrender or act in a cowardly manner.

1815		T. Moore ‘Epistle from Tom Cribb to Big Ben’ in Morn. Chron. 3: To show the white feather is many men’s doom.
1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 4: And with him came Jack Randall tight, The fibbing, touting, scuttling Blade, Who never yet hath shewn in fight The snow-white Feather’s damning shade.
1837		Newry Examiner 20 Dec. 2/1: Will the Archdeacon and his allies [...] show the white feather? Twenty to one, that they will.
1842		Comic Almanack Feb. 306: Precluding the possibility of anyone, at any time, showing a white feather.
1848		Chambers Journal 341/2: Blessed if he didn’t show the white rag that time! an’ I thought myself as he’d done something bad.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 18 Mar. 1/4: Ben showed the ‘feather’ by shrinking from his adversary.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 158: Oh, blow it, Gig-lamps [...] you’ll never go to do the mean, and show the white feather, will you?
1860		Cheshire Obs. 4 Aug. 7/3: By inserting the above [...] your readers will be able to judge who really did show the ‘white feather’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1872		Sheffield Dly Teleg, 1 May 4/4: ‘Mary Ann’ has been compelled to show the ‘white feather’.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 47: Well, I could not show the white feather, so I called for a basket of wine and invited them all to join me.
1895		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘The Open Steeplechase’ in Man from Snowy River (1902) 72: But they both were game as pebbles — neither one would show the feather.
1900		J. London ‘Dutch Courage’ Complete Short Stories (1993) I 457: No Lafee ever showed the white feather yet.
1902		Bruce Herald (Otago, NZ) 18 July 7: Some men were twitting a son [...] about his father’s exhibition of the white feather.
1906		A. Adams ‘Drifting North’ in Cattle Brands 🌐 It is a common anomaly in life that the bad man [...] shows the white feather when he meets his fate.
1911		Dover Express (Kent) 21 July 7/2: Nobody likes to show the white feather and give in.
1920		Marvel 17 July 4: When he found that he had met his master, he began to show the white feather.
1925		L. Doyle Dear Ducks 251: But there’s no use showin’ the white feather.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 190: It was bad luck to have struck rain for Max’s first night; but he would not show a white feather for all the rain in the world.
1931		O. Strange Law O’ The Lariat 107: Yu ain’t goin’ to show the white feather, are yu, Pent?
1949		Western Dly Press (Bristol) 17 Dec. 8/5: To ’show the white feather’ is a term which comes to us from the old days of cock-fighting.
1953		Arbroath Herald 29 May 8/3: In justice to their bravery [...] we must state that [...] they did not show the white feather until deserted by their officers.
1961		Aberdeen Eve. Exp. 22 Dec. 12/1: Gustav did not show the white feather and held on gamely.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 414: white feather, to show the. To act in a cowardly manner.

see separate entries.

see separate entry.