Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US gay) a very masculine lesbian, who refuses to allow her partners to offer sexual advances.

1968		J. Colebrook Cross of Lassitude 266: ‘You gotta be a Butch,’ Stan advises Frankie, ‘a stone Butch.’.
1993		(con. 1950s) Kennedy & Davies Boots of Leather (2014) 204: We confronted Stormy, who referred to herself as an ‘untouchable,’ with the opinion of another narrator, who mainated that stone butches has never really existed, she replied, ‘No, that’s not true I’m an untouchable. I’ve tried to have my lover make love to me, but I just couldn’t stand it’.
1998		R. Scott Rebecca’s Dict. of Queer Sl. 🌐 stone butch — a very masculine woman, usually to the point that she is mistaken for a man frequently.

(Aus.) the absolute end, an intolerable situation.

1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 356: If they sent Monnie back home it would be the stone end of everything for her.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 35: In the finish he hauls off and bellows at ’em, ‘Well, this is the stone end!’.

(US gay) a lesbian who invariably accepts a passive role; a lesbian who does not wish to be touched.

1998

R. Scott Rebecca’s Dict. of Queer Sl. 🌐 stone femme — 1) a femme lesbian who never tries to flip or ‘melt’ her stone butch lover, but prefers to pleasure her lover by taking a passive role in sex 2) a femme lesbian who does not like to be touched, much like a stone butch.

(US black/campus) a beautiful woman.

1968		Minneapolis Star (MN) 12 Sept. 69/4: If she is a stone fox, she is an absolutely beautiful chick.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: stone adj., adv. used to intensify the quality of another word; i.e. a stone fox is a very beautiful girl.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 15: They are ‘homeboys’, ‘gang-bangers’, ‘stone foxes’, ‘chickenheads’.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 185: If a girl turns sweet sixteen in California and she’s not well on her way to being a stone fox, the California Highway Patrol escorts her to the border and exiles her to Nevada.
1999		Guardian Guide 9–15 Oct. 12: The stone foxes and the well-stacked hotties always make it through to the escape pod.
2003		Rev. of Shallow Hal on SkyPublicity.co.uk 11 Jul. 🌐 To the world and Larson’s best pal Jason Alexander, Rosemary is a 300lb space of waist. To Hal, she’s a stone cold fox.

an absolute certainty.

1914		W. Sickert New Age 19 Mar. 631: It is not what I once heard my old friend the sub-editor of the ‘New York Herald’ describe as ‘A daisy story,’ but it is what the sporting touts call ‘a stone ginger’.
1930		(con. 1910s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 160: I knew years ago of a publican’s wife who bought stuff when she thought it was a ‘stone ginger’ (perfectly safe).
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Stone ginger: Certainty.
1938		Press (Canterbury) 2 Apr. 18: ‘Stone ginger,’ a certainty, was the name of an apparently unbeatable Auckland racehorse in 1910.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 154: Have a drink first, they’d be bound to hold him for hours questioning. No, if he had a wet they were stone ginger to smell it.
1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘English as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 90: ‘That’s a stone ginger’ (a dead certainty) conceals the name of a famous and unbeatable horse, Stone Ginger.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 192/1: Stone-ginger. A sure thing.
1977		G.F. Newman A Prisoner’s Tale 75: He’ll get his appeal, get a result, he’s a stone-ginger.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 108/1: stone ginger a certainty; eg ‘Pigmy Pride is a stone ginger for the Great Hurdles.’ c. 1910.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 75: As long as Bimbo performed well on the day, it would be a stone ginger.

(US) a fool.

1943

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 20 Mar. 15: They left so many clinkertops, stoneheads, wireheads and goons down here.

1. a psychopath.

1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 66: The Ducky Boys were stone killers that always attacked in droves.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 174: He’s a stone killer.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 73: The notorious Mexican outlaw bikers Les Fuckeros, stone killers to the man.

2. (US) an outstanding example of a person or thing.

1979

E. Torres After Hours 81: Here’s me diggin’ on this stone-killer of a broad.

(US black) said of one who is considered wholly admirable in every respect.

1973/4

James Brown song title on Payback [album] Stone to the Bone.

(US Und.) a prison.

1940		S. Sterling ‘Ten Carats of Lead’ in Black Mask Stories (2010) 225/2: More than half of ’em are doing their homework up at Stone College.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 177: Stone college Prison.

a prison.

1853

Bell’s Life in Sydney 19 Nov. 3/3: These were sold [...] for the benefit of his creditors, during his six months’ sojourn in Stone Cottage.

(US tramp) a state prison; orig. Sing Sing, New York.

1927		in ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 184: STONE CROCK.–A State’s Prison, and originally applied to the New York institution, Sing Sing.

a prison, esp. Newgate prison.

1694		Motteux (trans.) Rabelais IV xii 237: He be in danger of miserably rotting within a stone doublet, as if he had struck the King.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Stone-doublet a Prison.
1700		T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 22: But shew thy sentiments the same, / And hate stone-doublets after.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I:4 6: These Stony Traps the Laws have set / To catch the poor Unfortunate, / Thought I, most strangely disagree / With boasted Christian Charity. / If Men, for Poverty alone, / Must wear such Dublets made of Stone.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

(US Und.) a prison.

1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 414: Prison. [...] stone dump.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 5: Stone Dump A prison.

(US) a prison.

1979

(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Short Timers (1985) 157: The judge gave me a choice between the Crotch and hard time in a stone hotel.

a prison.

1867		Cambria Freeman (Edensburg, PA) 17 Oct. 3/2: Police business was brisk — no less than five cases having been lodged in the stone house.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1159/2: [...] since ca. 1930.

(US) a prison.

1799

Aurora (Phila.) 21 June n.p.: Paragraphs an hundred times more obnoxious than those for which Abijah Adams was dressed in a stone jacket.

see separate entry.

(US Und.) a prison.

1924

G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 409: Jail. City prison. also jug, poogie, hoosegow, can, dump, stone mansion, booby hatch, bridewell, cooler.

a prison; spec. Newgate.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: stone tavern Ditto [i.e. Newgate].
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1159/1: late C.18–mid–19.

(US) born in prison.

1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 67: Rocked in a Stone Cradle, born in gaol.

a totally unemotional person.

1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 138: Summation, the last roll of the dice. [...] It ain’t easy to get up and sell them stone faces.
1999		‘Casting For a Guide’ at IndustryWeek.com 🌐 Either the guide failed to find any fish, or else he was too much of a stoneface — mouth shut, hands in pockets all day — to make the trip interesting.

1. (also stone-wall) whisky or another spirit mixed with cider.

1809		W. Irving Knickerbocker (N.Y.) 241: Those recondite beverages, cock-tail, stone-fence, and sherry-cobbler.
1838		J.C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (1865) 117: Now he is asked to take a Stone Fence, and now a Railroad, but both are simple whisky, so called, in the latter case, because of the rapidity with which it hurries men to the end of their journey.
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England I 262: The drinks ain’t good here; they hante no variety in them nother; no white-nose, apple-jack, stone-wall, chain-lightning, rail-road.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 10 Mar. 3/4: He had no sooner despatched the ‘malty,’ than he was ready again for a stone fence in the bar.
1856		Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Jan. 2/5: They enjoyed a few of those cups that ‘cheer’, but unfortunately, also ‘inebriate’, and where William found that the ‘stone-fences’ of Sydney were some times as insurmountable as the earthworks of the Redan.
1857		Santa Barbara Gazette 29 Jan. 4/3: The drinks ain’t no good here—there ain’t no variety in them, neither; no white-nose, apple-jack, stone-wall, chain-lightning, railroad, hailstorm [DA].
1858		Bell’s Life in Sydney 3 Apr. 3/5: He could smell brandy and ginger-beer on her; that was what he called a ‘stone fence’.
1860		Spirit of Democracy (Woodsfield, OH) 25 July 4/1: Those brands of whiskey known as [...] Minnie rifle, stone-fence, kill-brain, etc.
1877		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (4th edn) 357: Liquor [...] Stone Wall.
1878		A. Lloyd ‘The American Drinks’ in Comic Songs 13: There’s stone-fence, a rattlesnake, a renovator, locomotive, Pick-me-up.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Jan. 15/2: ‘Did you ever live long on cider?’ ‘ No — I have generally taken it as an element of the drink called a “stone fence”’.
1887		J. Payn Glow-Worm Tales III 23: He prepared a Stone Fence (price one shilling).
1898		Sun (N.Y.) 8 Mar. n.p.: The testator drank large quantities of milk and gin, and sometimes drank thirty stone-fences a day.
1901		Monroe & Northup ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:iii 148: stone-fence, n. A glass of cider with plenty of whiskey added.
1910		J. Hart Vigilante Girl 207: Did you ever tackle that Jersey beverage called ‘Stone Fence?’ [DA].
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of Susan and the Daughter’ in Ade’s Fables 216: With only three Gills of Stone Fence under his Wammus, he spread his Wild-Cat Currency on the Counter.
1947		F. Downey Lusty Forefathers 4: ‘Switchell [...] Spiced Cyder [...] Stone-wall’ [...] the effect of the last listed, a potent mixture of hard cider and rum, would resemble a head-on collision with the structure for which it was named [DA].

2. ginger-beer and brandy.

1835		W. Otter Hist. of My Own Times (1995) 97: He called for a large glass of brandy sling mixed with other liquors, called stone-fence.
1859		F. Fowler Southern Lights and Shadows 52: The following are a few of the names of favourite beverages [...] A Stone-fence . . . Ginger-beer and brandy.
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America II 313: Tom and Jerry, private smiles, corpse revivers [...] stone fence, with other professed ‘American drinks’.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 217: Now he is asked to take a Stone Fence, and now a Railroad, but both are simple whiskey.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Oct. 11/1: The Australian is a hard animal to satisfy in the Yankee line. If one doesn’t everlastingly say ‘Wa-al, I guess – I reckon – I kalkilate,’ and carry a ‘gun’ round, and ask for ‘cock-tails’ and ‘stone-fences’ in every pub. entered, the Commonwealther goes away with a firm conviction that a spurious article has been foisted on to him.

(US) a fool.

1921		T. Thursday ‘Hail the Professor’ in Top-Notch 1 Sept. 🌐 Any stonehead can sit on a platform in a kid show and wear a white tuxedo and a monocle.
1928		T. Thursday ‘Sock of Ages’ in Fight Stories Oct. 🌐 What’s the use of arguing with a stonehead like him, eh?
1951		Railroad Workers Jrnl 19: It was Bert, he recalled, who had christened him Stonehead Smith, as a result of an early railroad boner. Other workers had made greater mistakes but had lived them down, but the Stonehead label had stuck to Tom.
1973		L. Shecter On the Pad 63: [H]e was telling me things for my own good, but I was a stone head. I wouldn’t listen to nobody.

see separate entry.