Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Irish) a disappointment, something depressing.

1980

B. Farrell Canaries n.p.: A good one, isn’t it? His wife left him to go to Paris with a woman. That must’ve been a right lemoner, what? [BS].

(Aus.) the fig. name for the ‘spiritual home’ of censorious or socially repressive people.

1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Oct. 19/4: Send the bottle round the table, raise your glasses in your hand; / A toast I give to guide you and remind – / E’er we hail the water-waggon, and depart for Lemon Land, / Drink a farewell to The Days We Leave Behind.
1943		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. (2nd edn).

(US) an English person.

1978		Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 162: Lemon-eaters, Lemon-suckers Same origin and meaning as Limey.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 229: lemon eater or -sucker, an Englishman.

(US Und.) a way of cheating at pool, whereby a victim is enticed into the game and allowed to win. Once they are sufficiently confident to bet heavily, their opponent has a ‘run of luck’ and takes all their money; also attrib.

1906		Houdini Right Way to Do Wrong 55: Such is the principle of the bunco game, and it is worked under many guises [...] our pool-room bunco is known as ‘selling the lemon,’ as bets are made on the yellow ball--but always with the idea of making the victim believe he is going to get something for nothing.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 55: Lemon, [...] a confidence game in which skill at pool is the bait, though its successful negotiation is based upon the dishonesty or avarice of the victim.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 410: Lemon game – swindle scheme, generally a pool game.
1933		C. Himes ‘Prison Mass’ in Coll. Stories 163: One could get umpteen years for clipping one bus. [...] The next time it would be something in the confidence rackets—the ‘slide game’ or maybe just some plain ‘lemon pool’.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 15: Putting down some lemon pool action with the smooth roundies.
1968		J. Colebrook Cross of Lassitude 101: The termites of the life [...] who carry out the ‘lemon,’ the ‘tap,’ the ‘wire’.
1989		(con. 1930s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 167: I got married in 1939. I used to go to a lay-down joint – that’s where I met my first husband. He was a con man, a lemon hustler.

(US) a deliberately malicious person.

1968

‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 50: lemon hand – A name for a person who does something unpleasant to someone.

(US) a fool.

1947		J. Archibald ‘When a Body Meets a Body’ in Popular Detective Sept. 🌐 ‘It means I will, lemon-head,’ Gertie sniffed.
1949		J. Archibald ‘State Penmanship’ Popular Detective Jan. 🌐 ‘Look, lemonhead!’ Satchelfoot Kelly snapped, ‘I’m takin’ none of that from you.’.

(N.Z.) very angry.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

1. (US) a subway car.

1922

Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) 14 Sept. 4/4: The Flappers’ Dictionary [...] Lemon-squeezer: Subway car.

2. (Aus./N.Z.) a hat with a peaked crown and broad, flat brim worn by Aus. and N.Z. soldiers; also attrib .

1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 27: The Battalion’s other V.C. [...] sheepish under his lemon-squeezer hat.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 48: The young soldier with the neatly-pressed uniform and the level brim on his lemon-squeezer.
1963		B. Crump ‘One of Us’ in Best of Barry Crump (1974) 132: Toddy’s old man and himself as privates in lemon-squeezer hats, talking all the time about World War I.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 126: One of them whipped off his ‘lemon-squeezer’ hat and set it on the cretin’s head.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 69/1: lemon-squeezer peaked Kiwi infantry hat, still worn in ceremonial parades.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

1. (US) an effeminate man.

1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 83: There’s a swell bunch of Lizzie boys and lemon-suckers and pie-faces.
1996		R. Doyle Woman Who Walked Into Doors 136: The priest. I can’t remember his name. A real lemon-sucker.

2. see lemon-eater

(Aus. Und.) when one gang employs a known police informer to give information about its rivals to the police.

1991

M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 153: There is a secret tactic often used in the criminal world which says it all about the betrayal and hypocrisy which is part of the underworld. It is called the Lemon Twist, and nobody in the straight world knows how it works. A drug gang wishes to to maintain its standing in the eyes of the criminal world, yet remain out of jail. They pick a known police informer, some physically weak wimp who is easily frightened. They call him in and explain to him that he now works for them – after a nice little beating, of course. They then find out from him which police he is working for. They provide him with a weekly sling of money and supply him with a regular line of drugs. He is happy under the protection of the gang. He is given good information on the drug dealings of other gangs and crews. Every bit of information the informer gives to the police is handed to him by his controlling crew. All the information is geared to help the police catch members of other gangs and upset their drug and gambling businesses.

(US) to impress, to appear important; usu. in negative, e.g. that didn’t cut any lemons.

1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 158: A Man who does not cut very many Lemons around his own House.
1903		Ade People You Know 122: What he said cut very few Lemons with the Side-Partner.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 69: The fact that Prominent Merchants were playing them close every Night [...] did not [...] cut any Lemons with Mr. Foster.

US to take an opportunity for gain; to obtain something for oneself.

1851

Manchester Spy (NH) 4 Oct. n.p.: Carlton refused to [stop visiting a girl]. Varnum was angry, for he probably wished to ‘go in for lemons’ himself.

(US) to disdain, to dismiss; thus get the lemon, to be dismissed or ignored.

1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 36: Him gettin’ handed a lemon in that English act, puts us up.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 98: The nutty one had handed me the lemon.
1938		F. Anthony ‘Winter Feeding the Herd’ in Me And Gus (1977) 82: Every time he gets the lemon he tries to put up a bluff.
1991		R.G. Barratt ‘The Republic Starts to Flag’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] I’ve got a bit to lose here if we give old Betty Boo and her kinsfolk the lemon.

(S.Afr. gay) to be in a bad mood, very angry.

2003

K. Cage Gayle.

to sell second-rate or fake drugs.

1968

N. Heard Howard Street 109: He sure as hell would find out from Cowboy what was going on. Selling lemons wasn’t cool at all.

(US prison) to chatter, to gossip.

1918

H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 31/2: SHOOT THE LEMON. Chat. Chew the rag.

a try, an attempt.

1874

‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 36: He had so much to do, so much to attend to; after a bit he would have another squeeze at tbe lemon, but really he must attend to his affairs first.

1. (orig. US black) to have sexual intercourse [esp. in blues use, as a sexual euph.: ‘Squeeze my lemon, till the juice runs down my leg’].

[1796		Sporting Mag. Mar. VII 342/1: Then since with so much care she’s tried / Her punchbowl to supply, / Long may she quaff the pleasing draft, / And squeeze the lemon dry].
1935		Bo Carter ‘Let Me Roll Your Lemon’ 🎵 Baby please let me roll your lemon / And squeeze it the whole night long.
1937		Robert Johnson ‘Travelling Riverside Blues’ 🎵 You can squeeze my lemon ’til the juice run down my leg [...] But I’m goin’ back to Friars Point, if I be rockin’ to my head.
1938		Sonny Boy Williamson (1) ‘Until My Love Come Down’ 🎵 Come on let me squeeze your lemons baby, I mean anyhow / Now I say please let me be your lemon squeezer.
1994		J. O’Connor Secret World of the Irish Male (1995) 114: I could hear my chubby friend singing softly the Led Zeppelin song ‘Won’t Ya Squeeze My Lemon Baby Till The Juice Runs Down My Leg’.

2. in fig. use, to live life to the full.

1944

J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 93: Come, Sara, you’ve had a good innings – you’ve squeezed the lemon. Three husbands and five children – not counting the stand-ins, the Freds and the Dickies.

3. of a man or woman, to urinate.

1952		Larson Barnyard Folklore 84: Urinate...spring a leak, drain your tank, squeeze your lemon, shake your sprinkler, water your stud-horse, pick daisies (or flowers) [HDAS].
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 159: Must squeeze the lemon, said Eric, lurching to his feet.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 198: squeeze a lemon Female urination. ANZ.

1. (US teen) a contraceptive pill.

1970

Current Sl. V:3 9: Lemon drop, n. A birth control pill [...] Lemon drop kid, n. A girl who takes birth control pills.

2. (US drugs) a methamphetamine tablet.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 14: Lemon drop — Methamphetamine with a dull yellow tint.

(N.Z.) shark, as used in fish and chip shops.

1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 69/1: lemonfish euphemism for shark in fish and chip shops.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

(US) to act sourly, to complain, to sulk; thus to go suck a lemon / tell someone to suck lemons, to deride, to dismiss.

1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 170: When she was at home she would suck Lemons and complain about Draughts.
1976		Vancouver Sun (BC) 5 Oct. 9/1: A piece of vitriolic anti-Quebec writing [...] entitled —‘Hey Quebec, Go Suck a Lemon’.
1990		Tampa Trib. (FL) 15 Dec. G-2/10: Should i tell my friend to suck lemons or is he right? [...] Sorry, Doc. Your friend’s right.
1997		M. Walters The Echo 354: You look like you’re sucking lemons every time the subject comes up.