dime, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dime n.

[SAmE dime, ten cents]

1. (US) in drug uses.

(a) $10 worth of a given drug; also attrib.

1909		C.B. Chrysler White Slavery 45: ‘Say, Bell, you know that little red-headed quim that boards over at Scar Face Annie’s. She took a dime’s worth last night.’ [...] When they speak of ‘a dime’s worth’ they mean morphine.
1961		Rigney & Smith Real Bohemia xx: The purchases are made in cash: an ace ($1) [...] nickel ($5), dime.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 43: Sell me and Clearhead a dime paper.
1988		Boogie Down Productions ‘Illegal Business’ 🎵 [of marijuana] It was freezin cold, he was standing on the block / Sellin cheeba, nick’s and dimes.
1992		UGK ‘Pocket Full of Stones’ 🎵 When I first started back in 1989 / I wasn’t movin keys I barely movin dimes.
2002		50 Cent ‘Wanksta’ 🎵 Right now we on the grind / To hurry up and cop and go we sellin nick’s and dimes.
2012		Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 12: I got heroin [....] One dime is all.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] She spits a small green balloon out of her mouth that looks a dime but might be a twenty.

(b) crack cocaine.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 7: Dime — Crack Cocaine.

1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 149: ‘Dimes?’ I ask with weak hope.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 7: Dime — [...] $10 worth of crack.
2004		T.I. ‘Doin My Job’ 🎵 Always stuck in the grind, summertime to wintertime / Cutting school to sell fifty dimes by dinner time.

2. (US prison) a ten-year prison sentence; a period of ten years.

1939		implied in dime store n.
a.1962		‘Konky Mohair’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 105: No doubt he was informed on. / You can bet he had to do that dime.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 19: Guy did a dime — in the labor camps.
1984		J. Ellroy Blood on the Moon 76: ‘Richard, you're looking at a dime minimum this time. Ten bullets. You think you can handle that?’.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 68: Many with comparable crimes did a dime. In those days, and in most places around the world, ten years is a long time to serve in prison.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 74: In a fucking dime you’ll wake up with a hard-on for some guy’s hairy ass just because he’s wearing lipstick.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 367: A dime in Q and a batch of SS tats might be worth a little something.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 284: [W]e book shithead for Rape 1 and mayhem. he’ll do a doomsday dime.

3. (US) the number ten, often as $10.

1937		C. Himes ‘The Night’s for Cryin’’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 133: ‘Dar’s uh green sedan up front, uh fo’ do’ job. Latch on it ‘n earn dis dime, big dime’.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 81: dime [...] Ten dollars, as in ‘sell me a dime bag’.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 59: Take this one! Gimme a dime! And git on!
1995		(con. 1950) B. Helgeland L.A. Confidential [film script] I need an extra fifty. Two patrolmen at twenty apiece and a dime for the watch commander at Hollywood Station.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 114: If Boo wants to try them down at Ramsay and Stricker, they [i.e. crack vials] could go for dimes.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 33: A friend of a friend of mine, some whale bets ten dimes a day.

4. (gambling) $1,000; $10,000.

1974		G. Mayer Bookie 201: ‘You know if there’s over $5,000 in action here, this is a felony rap.’ [...] Since I had more than five dimes bet on the White Sox-Tiger second game, I didn’t comment.
2002		Simon & Burns ‘Lessons’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 8 [TV script] There’s a dime on this cocksucker’s head.

5. (US black/campus, also dime piece) a very attractive person [they score ‘a perfect ten’ i.e. out of ten].

1994		Nice & Smooth ‘Do Whatcha Gotta’ 🎵 Bag me a dime piece dressed in pink.
1997		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 3: dime – extremely good-looking male or female: ‘Chris Webber is the dime of my dreams’.
1998		Big L ‘Ebonics’ 🎵 If your girl is fine, she’s a dime.
1998		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 3: dime piece – stylishly dressed female. [Ibid.] 5: in dime mode – all dressed up.
2003		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 2: dime/dime piece – very attractive female.
2004		Nasir Jones ‘Remember the Times’ 🎵 Remember the times I hung with the dimes, remember the times I fucked a few.
2012		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. 2011.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 27: You know you ain’t no dime on the streets. Hell you aint even average!
2016		C. Eble UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2016.

In compounds

dime bag (n.) (also dime sack) [bag n.¹ (7a)]

1. (US drugs) $10 worth of a drug.

1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 81: dime [...] Ten dollars, as in ‘sell me a dime bag’.
1974		G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 8: I might’ve had one or two dime bags once or twice, but I just snort them.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 339: bag: A unit of drug sale on the street level. A dime bag of marijuana, for example, is ten dollars’ worth.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 42: I could get this done [...] for a goddam dime bag of rock.
1994		Notorious BIG ‘Gimme the Loot’ 🎵 I’m all that and a dime sack, where the paper at?
2001		Soopafly ‘Everyday’ 🎵 Smoke a quarter or a half, fuck a cheap dime sack.
2004		A. Mansbach ‘Crown Heist’ in Brooklyn Noir 125: [of marijuana] All Laz’s customers were dime-bag-and-bike-peddling yardmen.
2008		T. Dorsey Atomic Lobster 104: ‘What the hell do you want with that stupid TV?’ ‘Hock it. Good for a dime bag.’.
2009		Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 24 Sept. 🌐 When you’re selling half a nickel bag for the price of two dime bags, you’re gonna make some cash.
2011		Schoolboy Q ‘6 Foot 7’ 🎵 You live in a district of dimebags and dummys.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 95: A guy who would, in his former life, have tried to steal the [Cannes red] carpet and trade it for a dime bag.

2. attrib., of a dealer, low in the drug-selling hierarchy.

1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 237: They be robbing connections. Not street-corner nickel-dime-bag mo-fuckers. Heavyweights, righteous importers.
2013		F. Bill Donnybrook [ebook] But this man had presence, something tougher than that greasy-haired dime bag dealer.

dime note (n.)

(US black) a $10 bill.

1938		Better Eng. Nov. 51: dime note: $10.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 219: Pick up on this dime note and call it even-steven so’s I can widen.
1961		R. Russell Sound 45: It cost mother a double dime-note only this morning.

dime piece (n.)

see sense 5 above.

dime store (n.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

double dime (n.) (US)

20 years.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 47: He’s been the brass nuts here for a double dime. [Ibid.] 51: In the last ‘double dime’ he has croaked two white cons and four ‘spades’ .

SE in slang uses

In compounds

dime-ass (adj.)

(US black) worthless, contemptible.

1972

T. Weesner Car Thief (1973) 78: I hang that dimeass mother! Shoot! Hang his ass!

dime dropper (n.) [drop a dime ]

(US) an informer.

1966		in N.Y. Post 24 Aug. 30: Words like [...] ‘dime-dropper’ don’t show up on middle class-oriented intelligence tests [HDAS].
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 33: rat fink – [...] dime dropper.
1970		Current Sl. V:3.
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 246: He knew the punishment for welshers and dime-droppers.
2000		Salon.com 30 Nov. 🌐 But police say locating the dime-dropper is a non-issue.
2005		www.arpaio.com 🌐 Sheriff Joe Arpaio uses the term ‘Dime Dropper’ toward persons (employees and citizens) that contact the media and provide them with concerns that happen within the Sheriff’s Office.

dime-grind palace (n.) [grind n. (2d)]

(US jazz) a cheap dancehall.

1939

P.E. Miller Down Beat’s Yearbook of Swing n.p.: dime-grind palace : a dancehall with a 10c-a-dance attraction.

dime-store (adj.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

don’t take any rubber dimes

(US) be careful, watch your step.

1935

(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 543: Take care of yourself, Studs, and don’t take any rubber dimes.

drop a dime (v.) (also drop a dime on, drop (the) dime(s) (on), drop a dollar on, drop a quarter on, put a dime on) [the act of making a call from a public telephone, which in the 1970s cost ten cents. Note basketball jargon drop a dime, to shoot a three-point basket] (US)

1. to leave a tip.

1936

Charleston (WV) Daily Mail 9 Oct. 8/8: ‘Who is “George Eddy”?’ ‘Probably some guy,’ one of the soda dispensers told me, ‘who came in every afternoon a long time ago for a “twist it, choke it and make it squeal” – and never dropped a dime.’.

2. to inform, to inform against; thus dime-dropping; drop one’s own dime, for an officer to call the police anonymously so as to be able to make a raid when there is no official justiification.

1959		E. De Roo Young Wolves 138: Go ahead, ask me to drop a dime. See what ya get.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 37: These stool-pigeon niggas [...] Drop a dime on you ’fore God can git the news.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 20: I decided I want to drop one of them dimes, call somebody [...] in Boston P.D.
1983		in J. Breslin World According to Breslin (1985) 63: ‘You drop a dime, that’s ghetto talk for telling on somebody. put a dime in the phone and call up on him. If you say you drop a quarter, that means you go a lot more to tell [...] If you drop a dollar, you may get killed for it’.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 143: Keefe could have used the opportunity to drop the dime on Al García.
1987		M. McAlary Buddy Boys 79: He reported that there was a man with a gun inside a Brooklyn building. This practice—called ‘dropping your own dime’—enabled the Anticrime officers to report on a bogus gun run when they really entered the apartment to search it for narcotics and money.
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 245: The only way they could know [...] is by that dime-dropping son of a bitch.
1996		Steve Earle ‘Billy and Bonnie’ 🎵 He never knew nothin’ when the dime was dropped.
2000		P. Cornwell Last Precinct 282: You think someone put a dime on Mitch?
2002		50 Cent ‘Wanksta’ 🎵 The D’s ran up in my crib / You know who dropping dimes.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 33: He’s obliged to drop the dime.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Mufuckas sayin’ you dropped a dime on my rap-dog, yo.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] [L]ooking for weapons, dope, most of all information, trying to get someone to snitch, to drop a dime, to sell a name.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘[N]o cowboy bullshit, no illegal wires, no booming, no dropping your own dime’.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 192: [T]hey had better drop a dime if they ever want Duke to bail them out again.

3. to explain, to recount, to pass on information (in a non-criminal context).

1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 9: clue you in – To be informed; told; someone drops the dime in your direction.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 27: One phone call to the newspaper, and any number of people would’ve been happy to drop the dime.

4. (US) to make a bet.

2011

F. Bill ‘Cold, Hard Love’ in Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] ‘Wanna drop a dime on the next fight?’.

on someone’s dime (adv.) (also on someone’s nickel)

at someone’s expense.

2004		R. Cooley When Corruption Was King 112: What do you think the captain is going to say if we go off the reservation on his dime?
2004		R. Cooley When Corruption Was King 33: My friends and I decided to put on our own mixers[...] Some guys used to go out and bring back beer on their own nickel.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] She was on her own dime this trip, not Uncle Sam’s.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 173: [A] safe house for battered women that his tougher bounty hunters guard on his dime.

on the dime (adv.)

(US black) by chance, spontaneously.

1945		C. Himes ‘The Song Says “Keep on Smiling”’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 89: Did you really come down to meet me, sugar, or did I just pop in on the dime?
1978		W. Diehl Sharky’s Machine 186: What the fuck’s so urgent you jokers get me outa the symphony right on the dime.

pocketful of dimes (n.)

(US prison) a well-known and prolific informer.

1984

Arizona Republican (Phoenix, AZ) 31 July B1/5: A pocketful of dimes — A well-known snitch who has informed numerous times.