stake, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

stake n.

1. a large sum of money.

1738		W. Byrd Dividing Line (1901) 178: [We] recommend to the men to manage this, their last stake, to best advantage [DA].
1863		Rio Abajo Press 21 Apr. 1/1: Not finding any one [...] willing to donate or lend him another ‘stake,’ he had recourse to Dona Luiza [DA].
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 229: If a gambler ‘went broke’ he betook himself to Peggie for a fresh ‘stake’.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 80: When he is ‘broke’ he goes out on some job and is not seen for two or three months or until he has another stake.
1937		J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 42: If we put the old Badger Game over on this Dickie steamer of yours, why gawd blimey all bleeding hurrah we’ve got a stake.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 84: Thus, I get a stake, and get my face lifted.

2. the booty gained in a robbery.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 313: [note] ‘You are a pretty cove,’ an’t you? To nap a prime stake and then to ding it.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 387/1: We ‘propped him’ (knocked him down), and robbed him. We did good stakes that way.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 33/1: The only one excepting the ‘wire’ who knew anything about the ‘stake’ just come off.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 20: It is usually immaterial to him what happens to society as such, so long as he can make a ‘stake’.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 77: George’s stake should be about a thousand; he’s not entitled to it because he didn’t do anything, but he’s been hustling with us.

3. gambling winnings.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 269: stake [...] a sum of money won at play, is called a stake, and if considerable, a prime stake, or a heavy stake.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1812].
1840		Era (London) 20 Dec. 9/1: Having been selected by the touting fraternity, who know everything — that is, in their opinion — to carry off this stake.

4. money saved up for future use.

1873		J.H. Beadle Undeveloped West 510: It is a splendid country to travel through; a miserable poor one to stop in to make a ‘stake’.
1883		‘The Jolly Vaquero’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 337: He’ll share his ‘stake’ with his partner, too.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 248: I’m goin’ to try an’ put past a stake before long for old age.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 249: He was busy sorting the gold and silver into heaps, first putting aside his stake, two pounds ten.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 51–2: Scarcely a day goes by on Madison Street but some man is relieved of a ‘stake’ by some ‘jack’.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 9: You’ll see me coming out [...] squared up and with a stake.
1948		A.K. Williams Gold Rush Days 13: Almost any kind of a shelter sufficed for the man who came to make his stake and leave again [DA].
1968		D. O’Grady A Bottle of Sandwiches 128: Twenty quid a week, and found. Couldn’t turn that down. It would give us a bit of a stake.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 14: Then I unscrewed the brass ball off the bedpost, where I’d stashed my getaway stake.

In compounds

stake-man (n.) [their need of money]

(US) a hobo, a tramp; varying as a short and long stake man, depending on how long they work to save money before spending it .

1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 391: There are hundreds of ‘stake-men’ and ‘gay-cats’ on the road to-day where there were dozens a decade ago. [Ibid.] 397: STAKE-MAN: a fellow who holds a position only long enough to get a ‘stake’ – enough money to keep him in ‘booze’ and tobacco while he is on the road. The tramps call him a ‘gay-cat’.
1899		Windsor Star (Ontario) 21 Feb. 3/2: The ‘stake-man,’ like the tramp, knows how to care for himself.
1900		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 30 June 6/1: A blanket stiff is despised because he is a Western tramp and they are considered to be onlky a shade better than stake men, who sometimes prefer work to begging.
1914		Ashland Tidings (OR) 2 Mar. 1/2: The small stakeman will work till he gets a few dollars and then beat it [...] while the large stakeman gets a good big stake before quitting.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 304: Stake-Man—a tramp who works for a stake — ‘booze’ and tobacco money while he is on the tramp. To ‘blowed-in-the-glass stiffs’ he is a ‘gay-cat’.
1927		Lincoln Jrnl Star (NE) 10 June 16/5: Daniels drifted with the ‘push’ [...] for twenty-five years [and] dropped from a ‘long stake man’ to a ‘short stake man’.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 181: Stake Man.– [...] A ‘gay cat’ or migratory worker who works only long enough to amass a ‘stake’ and then moves on, taking to the road and a life of ease until the money has been used.
1936		Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS) 5 Feb. 6/3: A ‘short stake man’ would work hard, go down Saturday night to the town [...] and blow his wholew week’s wages. A ‘long stake man’ [...] would save up soberly [...] One day suddenly he would draw his whole stake [and] light out.