child, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

child n.

1. a brothel prostitute.

1761

Memoirs of [...] Jane D****s 123: She was above the mean practice of sending out her daughters and children (for so the bauds stile their whores) at night, in order to pickm up gallants, and bring them home.

2. a person.

1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 149: Maister Swipey is [...] no a chield that’ll stand nonsense.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 24 Dec. n.p.: ‘You are a sucker, d—n you, and i am just the child that dares to tell you so’.
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 202: ‘Hech, sirs, but that chiel’s riding hard!’ A horseman appeared making for the station at full speed.
1862		Golden Age (Queanbeyan, NSW) 4 Sept. 3/3: [I]n his opinion, an ‘upper cut,’ or a ‘rattling cross buttocker’ would do you good; and he is the child that can give it you.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 317: ‘We is in a tight box this time,’ Hackett said; ‘but I have known sicker children than we is to live!’.
1917		W.Y. Stevenson At the Front in a Flivver 11 July 🌐 Listening to the whining of the shells from both sides passing overhead, and now and then one breaking entirely too near for comfort is, believe me, no place for a nervous child!
c.1951		N. Algren ‘Watch Out for Daddy’ in Entrapment (2009) 117: Daddy went into a simply terrible huff [...] How that child did huff and puff.

3. (orig. US black) usu. constr. with this, I, myself, e.g. this child don’t need no more trouble; thus used as a stereotype of African-American speech, and as such derog.

1837		N.Y. Herald (N.Y.) 16 Jan. 2/5: When committed by the magistrate, Mary [a black woman] flatly refused to stir, and said, ‘I want a rumpus, and now I’ll have one!’ and she instantly threw herself on the floor, and screamed, ‘There now, carry me if you want me, but as to walking, this child don’t do that!’.
1848		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers (1880) 95: An’ not a hundred miles away frum ware this child wuz posted.
1857		Knickerbocker (N.Y.) l (Dec.) 587: Dem common niggers is only good to hoe de corn an’ fry do hoe-cake. De next ting, he’ll say he knows more about cookin’ dan dis chile does.
1861		G.J. Whyte-Melville Good for Nothing (1890) 212: I saw the muzzle of a pistol point-blank for this child’s head.
1867		A.L. Gordon Sea-Spray 139: No champagne / For this child.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 221: The backwoodsman [...] speaks of himself in mock modesty as this child, or more self-asserting, as this horse.
1884		H. Smart Post to Finish I 23: A hoondred to seven once was good enough for this child.
1885		Illus. Police News 10 Oct. 3/4: I never work the slang racket myself, not this child!
1898		Regiment 21 May 117/1: ‘Ah, Sambo, You are an honest, faithful fellow, I'll give you a drink.’ ‘With all my heart, sar,’ says Sambo, ‘with all dis child’s heart’.
1898		(con. 1875) F.T. Bullen Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 64: Ef yew spects ter fool dis chile wiv any dem lime-juice yarns [...] yew’s ’way off.
1905		‘Mustering Song’ in ‘Banjo’ Paterson Old Bush Songs 112: Now the scrub grows thick and the cattle are wild, / A regular caution to this ’ere child.
1910		E. Rosen In the Foreign Legion 41: ‘This child’s been fooled, see?’.
1916		R.D. Doughty diary 19 June 🌐 Damn all Huns. Don’t mind them bombarding of a night because all the noise they kick up never affects the rest of this child, but with gas its different.
1917		A. Brazil Madcap of the School 11: ‘Oh, hold me up! This child’s knocked me over entirely!’.
1925		R. Lardner ‘Zone of Quiet’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 69: It’s a wonder I got up at all! Two nights in succession is too much for this child!
1930		C. Witke Tambo and Bones 169: De debble kotch ye, shoa! but bress de lam’, he habn’t cotch dis child yet! [DA].
1969		J. Crumley One to Count Cadence (1987) 262: You think I been on your back, son, well this child is gonna show you what that means.

4. (US campus) a general term of address to anyone.

[1731		Fielding Letter Writers I iv: mrs wisd.: Child, why will you put on that odious Night-Gown [...] you don’t look pretty in it, Lovey, indeed you don’t. mr. wisd.: Pshaw! it doth not become a Wife to dislike her Husband in any Dress whatsoever].
1934		C.S. Johnson Shadow of the Plantation 34: The Yankees come through and said slavery’s done gone. Child, the niggers got to yelling and whooping all over the place.
1969		U. Hannerz Soulside 20: I told him, ‘Child, I couldn’t care less if you come or not!’.
1985		T. Wolff ‘The Poor Are Always With Us’ in Back in the World 68: ‘Go on, child, go on,’ he insisted when Russell shook his head.
1997		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

child father (n.)

see baby-father under baby n.

child-getter (n.)

the penis.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

child meister (n.)

(N.Z. prison) a paedophile.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 41/2: child meister n. a paedophile.

In phrases

child-dropping (n.)

(UK und.) the leaving of a child outside some form of public institution in the hope that it will be taken into care.

1858

Home News for India 17 Apr. 543/1: heartless case of child-dropping. Two slang-looking persons [were] charged with having deserted a child, at the door of the St. Stephen's Head, a well-known public house in Westminster.

child of darkmans (n.) [darkmans n. (1)]

a bellman.

1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 204: [...] The child of darkmans, i.e., a bell-man.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.

child of darkness (n.)

(UK Und.) a bellman or nightwatchman who walked the streets at night calling out the hours.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1725		New Canting Dict.

child of the horn-thumb (n.) [horn-thumb under horn n.²]

a cut-purse.

1614

Jonson Bartholomew Fair II iii: I mean a child of the horn-thumb, a babe of booty, boy, a cutpurse.