gun n.5
1. a fool, a bungler.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn). | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
2. a thief.
| Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Paved with Gold 70: Shut up, will you – shut up, now! I tell you, you ain’t a-going to make a gun (thief) of this here young flat. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 5/1: One of the ‘guns’ [...] had brought his ‘moll’ with him to show her off before the ‘meet’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Memphis Dly Appeal (TN) 12 Mar. 3/3: A skillful thief is styled a ‘gun’. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 31 July 17/4: [He] would often ‘bash up to a bug,’ assisted by one or two other ‘guns,’ turn him over and take the money. | |
| Jottings from Jail 31: Sheffield for pitchers of snyde (coiners and utterers), signed by Darkey, the gun (or gonoph, i.e., thief), from Wandsworth Road, for a bust. | |
| Signor Lippo 87: If the rozzers were to see him in bona clobber they’d take him for a gun. | |
| Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 149: Circumstances had always been against Scuddy Lond, the gun. The word gun, it may be explained, is a friendly synonym for thief. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 9 Dec. 6/4: When S. saw D [...] cramming his winnings into his pockets [...] he tumbled that he was a copper-fastened flat. Of such are the kingdom of tear-downs and compared to which the ordinary gun is only an amateur. | |
| Barkeep Stories 77: ‘What about this charge the officers make. That you’re always in company with thieves?’ ‘No, sir! Dat’s a lie! I never be wit’ any o’ dem guns at all!’. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 21 Aug. 4/1: Daily the garrotter and gun grow bolder [and] our police force [...] cannot cope with the ever-present obtrusive system of outrage and robbery. | |
| Types From City Streets 317: I’m too good a gun to do any sure-thing work. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 5 June 2nd sect. 13/4: A mob of Eastern crooks landed in the State [...] accompanied by a number of ‘guns’ who have passed through the hands of the police on several occasions. | |
| ‘One Touch of Art’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 209: ‘You’re no burglar—you’re a bungler.’ ‘Well, [...] nobody ever showed me. I’m a self-made gun.’. | |
| ‘The Second-Story Angel’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 221: I had to dodge half the guns in the burg for fear they’d put the finger on me. | |
| ‘They Can’t Do That’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 233: When you’ve just been framed by an upright judge / For a ten year jolt or so / For a job that was done by another gun, / And you weren’t in on the dough. | |
| Big Con 202: All Irish con men [...] go to church the same as guns. | |
| et al. DAUL 88/1: Gun, n. [...] 2. Any thief, especially a pickpocket. | |
| World’s Toughest Prison 802: gun – A crook; gunman or thief. |
3. a pickpocket, also attrib (see cite 1918).
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 46: gun, a thief, an amateur pickpocket. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 43/2: Having seen how easy the ‘guns’ made their ‘tin,’ he wished to ‘pal in’ with a ‘mob’. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Sept. n.p.: Dan Noble [...] sloped to England some time ago with several ‘centuries’ belonging to ‘guns,’ got on the ‘graft’ [and] first made his appearance [...] on the ‘dip’. | |
| Manchester Eve. News 16 Oct. 4/1: His old woman is doing time for taking in some two or three hundred watches from the ‘guns’. | |
| Leaves from a Prison Diary I 106: Hooks — These individuals, who are also known as ‘gunns’ and ‘buzzers,’ in prison slang, constitute the pickpocket class in its various specialities. | |
| Autobiog. of a Gipsey 412: Capting Beresford’s his name and a tip-top gun he is – most in general works the South Coast lines on the mag. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 21 Apr. 5/3: Jones informed me that he was a ‘gun’ and also that Mrs Seymour’s house was a rendezvous for Melbourne thives. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 July 3/5: When poor Outback comes to Sydney, / Just to see the swarmin’ town, / The guns are trained upon him / And they pouch his every brown. | |
| Life In Sing Sing 260: The gun had just lifted his mitt when the conny fell to the graft and tipped the sucker to the lay. | |
| Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 198: A real good gun’s always got his fall money planted, – I mean some ready coin in case of trouble. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 15 May 2/1: There were pickpockets and guns galore at Morphettville, but some of these gentry are reputed squirt carriers. | |
 | Jackson Dly News (MS) 1 Apr. 7/3: Crook Chatter [...] ‘It is imperative that we “dicks” master the “gun talk”’. | |
| ‘Cahoots’ in Smoke and Steel 45: Ain’t it fifty-fifty all down the line, / Petemen, dips, boosters, stick-ups and guns—what’s to hinder? | |
| Sister of the Road (1975) 307: pickpockets, cannons, whizzes or guns. There are many professional and amateur pickpockets who work the road. | |
| Headless Lady (1987) 46: Dip is a winchell [...] A sucker word [...] Gun, from the Jewish gonnif, meaning thief, is preferable, or even the more recent variant, cannon. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| ‘Burglar Cops’ in Men of the Und. 116: The guns had been tearing open the [street] cars so hard. | |
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 85: That’s the worst old place in ragtown for a shuckman or gun. |
4. (Aus.) a confidence trickster.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Feb. 18/3: The publican [...] winked at the spieler, and then bought four purses in succession; simulating great delight as he inspected the contents. This ‘buttoning’ gave the crowd a start, and the Sydney ‘gun’ did well for a while. | |
| Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 77: GUN: thieves a thief, more particularly a well dressed thief or spieler. | |
| Rung In (1931) 260: They are both rich men and as pretty a pair of ‘guns’ as ever prospered on the gullibility of the sporting public. | |
| Man’s Grim Justice 195: Just wait until she gets hep that you’re a ‘gun.’. |
In compounds
(Aus. Und.) a soft felt hat.
| (con. late 1880s) Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 37: In the late ’Eighties the fashion with the larrikin was a ‘gun’ / literally thief / hat, also soft felt, but of smaller crown and brim [i.e. than the higher ‘Yankee hat’]. |
(US Und.) a saloon or bar frequented by pickpockets.
| Dly Press (Newport News, VA) 19 Apr. 12/14: Every big city has its saloons which are known [...] as ‘gun-joints’. |
(US Und.) an older thief who instructs young criminals, esp. pickpockets.
| Life In Sing Sing 255: Gun-Maker. A Fagin; instructor of young thieves. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
(US Und.) an expert pickpocketing team.
| Dly Press (Newport News, VA) 19 Apr. 12/3: ‘Gun mobs’ never consist of less than three men, and often five or six. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | ‘Thieves’ Sl.’ Toronto Star 19 Jan. 2/5: POCKET PICKING GANG Gun mob. | |
| Broadway Racketeers 252: Gun Mob—A group of three or more pickpockets. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 93: Gun Mob.—A gang of pickpockets. | |
| et al. DAUL 88/2: Gun-mob. A gang of thieves, especially of pickpockets. |
see separate entry.
1. a thief.
| Temple Bar xxv 213: ... returned to his old trade of gunsmith, gunning being the slang term for thieving, or going on the cross [F&H]. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
2. (US) an older thief who trains young criminals.
| (ref. to 1910) ‘Lingo of the Good People’ AS X:1 16/2: gunsmith or gun-maker. One who trains young criminals, especially pickpockets. | |
| et al. DAUL 89/1: Gunsmith. An experienced pickpocket who trains young guns, or pickpockets. |
(US Und.) an especially skilful thief.
| Ogden Standard (UT) 7 Mar. 12/2: The pickpocket [...] is known as [...] [...] a ‘cannon.’ Being ‘on the cannon is, in the lingo of thieves, equivalent to being a ‘high gun’ or in the higher realms of thievery. |
In phrases
(US Und.) to shout out that one’s pocket has been picked.
| Big Con 109: He discovered his loss and ‘beefed gun’ at a great rate. |
(US Und.) working as a pickpocket.
| Keys to Crookdom 412: Pickpocket who is busy is ‘out on the gun’. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
(US Und.) to use criminal slang.
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 67: punching gun [...] The use of criminal slang; ostentatious display of sophistication. Example: ‘He can punch gun till the cows come home, but he can’t get a can of water out of a water tank.’. | |
| et al. DAUL 166/2: Punch the gun. (Chiefly carnival) To talk in underworld slang. |