Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(N.Z. prison) an informer.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 49/1: cross-dresser n. an informer.

(Aus. Und.) criminality.

1828

Australian (Sydney) 13 Feb. 3/4: Being such an expert thief, that he would be able to live like a gentleman when he reached Botany [Bay], by his dexterity in the cross-trade.

(UK Und.) a gang leader, a major criminal.

1851

‘Greenhorn’ [G. Thompson] Bristol Bill 29/2: His reputation as a ‘cracksman,’ and as a ‘captain of the cross’ had come with him from England.

(UK Und.) to discover that someone is cheating, usu. by using cunning or deception oneself.

a.1909

press cutting in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 91/2: A good way of copping her on the cross is to pretend to go off into the country for a day or two, and come down on her in the middle of the night.

(Und.) to retire from crime, to ‘go straight’.

1848

Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Feb. 1/4: Then you mean to cut the cross, and work the square.

to work as a criminal.

1846		Lives of the Felons 45: I take such chances when I go the ‘cross’.
1869		Manchester Courier 19 May 3: I went on the cross and got four years. After I had finished that bit, I went and lived with a moll I knew.

(US black) in trouble, at a disadvantage; usu. in the phr. put in a cross, to put into a difficult situation.

a.1954		‘Mexicana Rose’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 40: I go for you, Sam, I think you’re the boss, / But don’t think you can ever put me in a cross.
a.1963		‘The Fall’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 85: So down I fell to the depths of hell, / For I’d put myself in the cross.

1. surreptitiously, illegally.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1828		‘A Flat Enlightened’ Life in the West I 136: ‘I have always thought it extremely weak of a sporting man, to risk money upon “square,” when he makes it upon the “cross”’.
1835		Salisbury & Winchester Jrnl 15 June 2/5: This here defendant is vat va calls in our perfession ‘a shy cock,’ cause you sees as how he vorks on the ‘cross’ .
1847		Era 28 Mar. 10/1: For years Ginger got his living on the ‘cross’.
1847		[A. Harris] (con. 1820s) Settlers & Convicts 337: The dogs [...] had just got hold of the entrails of a sheep the men had been killing ‘on the cross,’ so that they did not hear me till I came close up to the hut.
1851		Lancaster Gaz. (Lancs) 28 June 3/5: Although cross coves often beg daily bread [...] they get what they can on the cross (by theft).
1853		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 8 Oct. n.p.: Has your sister gone to Canada on the cross or square?
1859		C.J. Lever Davenport Dunn 162: Every fellow [...] can tell you how he was squared, for it’s all on the ‘cross’ with them, Grog., just as in the ring.
1861		Age (Melbourne) 1 Oct. 5/2: A magistrate, Mr Smith added, was obliged to be conversant with slang. It was only the other day that he had to put a policeman right, when he said ‘on the square,’ and meant ‘on the cross’ .
1869		‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Jan. 217: A very considerable number of convicts left the prison with the intention of ‘hawking’ from place to place, and doing a little bit on the ‘cross’.
1879		London Life 6 Sept. 8/1: The only difference between the Prime Minister and the acknowledged head of the Christian Church. One died upon the Cross, the other lived upon it.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/2: Lame Jack is pattering. He pads Pitt and George streets and the Parks. and touches coves on the blob. He blew on Sam who frisked a lobb and the same day came it on Joe for fencing the prad got on the cross.
1884		A. Griffiths Chronicles of Newgate 470: A consignment of cheap ‘righteous’ watches, or such as had been honestly obtained, and not ‘on the cross’.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 2 Nov. 8/6: ‘Vell, vun thing abouth it now,’ said Cohen, ‘ven ve run anything on the cross, ve only cruthify the punters [...] ith vould be terrible if we cruthified the horth’.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Dec. 26/3: Boxing is the only profession in which the better the performer the harder it is for him to make money – if he is colored. [...] Sam Langford, according to the U.S. papers, spends most of his time fighting ‘on the cross’ as a means of evading insolvency.

2. working as a professional criminal.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 60: To ‘live upon the cross’ is to exist by dishonest means.
1839		W.A. Miles Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 113: He has been twice in prison; eight months ‘on the cross,’ that is, thieving.
1842		Edinburgh Rev. July 485: ‘Cross Coves,’ though they beg their bread, can tell a long story about being out of employ [...] yet get what they call on the cross (by theft) . . . one of their chief modes of getting things on the cross, is by shoplifting (called grabbing) . . . another method is to star the glaze (i.e. break or cut the window).
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. IV 95: I’m going to live on the square after this, Frank [...] I shall never go on the cross again!
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 70: It’s a bad game, you know as well as I do, and I won’t stand by and see a mere kid like this here put in the way of being lagged or scragged (transported or hanged) as he is sure to be at last if he goes on the cross like us.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 91: Take a case, now, of a man who is in for getting his living ‘on the cross,’ and who has got a ‘kid’ or two, and their mother, at home.
1871		Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 19?3: He made the acquaintance of these outlaws, and, calling upon them at their home, represented himself as on the ‘cross,’ and proposed a job in which he should be a partner in the profits in consideration of the assistance he would give in carrying it out.
1877		S. James Vagabond Papers (3rd series) 136: I hadn’t got sixpence left and had to go on the cross again.
1883		J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 32: If the ruffians and rascals who get a living ‘on the cross’, as they say on the river, were hand and glove with the same sort who ply their trade ashore.
1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 16: ‘Cabbage Ann’ and ‘One Armed Kitty’ were keepers of establishments, the fame of which was known to the vast majority of persons ‘on the cross’.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 5 May 5/6: I am an Old Lag, and have been more or less ‘on the cross’ all my life.
1901		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 219: Take a fools advice. It don’t pay to ‘go on the cross’ – never did.
1905		‘The Murrumbidgee Shearer’ in ‘Banjo’ Paterson Old Bush Songs 94: Oh, yes, my jolly dandies, I’ve done it on the cross [...] The traps have often chased me more times than can be told.
1906		N.Z. Truth 4 Aug. 5/3: He’s on to every trick of those who live upon the cross.
1937		E. Raymond Marsh 126: Some of us may get our money on the cross, but we don’t bleed it out of them poor janes.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 191/2: On the Cross. Obtaining a livelihood by dishonest methods.

3. dishonest.

1844		C. Selby London By Night I ii: Don’t disturb yourselves, my dear boys, we’re on the square – not on the cross.
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 24: I don’t want any meetings on the cross up at my place in the village.The whole house ain’t mine, and we don’t know who may be listening.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 90/1: I knew well on stating that no ‘square’ man would have anything to do with it, so I had to look around for some one who was on ‘the cross’.
1902		Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 40: He would steal, or beg, or borrow; he was always on the cross.

(UK Und.) to cheat.

1833

H. Smith Gale Middleton 1 149: What, are you coming the cross upon your pals?

to double-cross.

1959		J. Thompson Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 7: Doc was too smart to tangle with Rudy Torrento; he’d know that no one pulled a cross on Rudy.
1980		S. Shagan Formula 233: He had been too long in the game to pull a cross on this bunch. Only an amateur or a goddamn fool would try to swindle the cartel.

1. to double-cross, to cheat.

1848		Era (London) 4 June 4/2: Can you remember Elis, about whom you made a fuss / And forgetful of your little games, put such a cross on us.
1882		‘Thormanby’ Famous Racing Men 80: He could distinguish the words [...] ‘put the cross on – ’.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 130: The last workman that tried to put the cross on me, I —.
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘The Downfall of Mulligan’s’ Three Elephant Power 62: the signal was passed round to ’put the cross on’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 169/2: Put the cross on. 1. To betray; cheat.

2. to mark for death [a cross placed, lit. or fig., against the victim’s name].

1936		L. Pound ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 199: Put the cross on.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 169/2: Put the cross on. [...] 2. To order the murder of. 3. To point out one to be murdered; to lure an intended victim to his death.

to give up thieving.

1872

letter in ‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1996) 511: [as spelt] You told me if i would shake the cross (quit stealing) & live on the square for 3 months, it would be the best job i ever done.