split v.
1. to have sexual intercourse (with).
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Eng. Moor I i: But he will never split her, that’s the best on’t. I hope she’le break his heart first. | |
| Belle’s Stratagem 57: Hardy: I foresee my Letty and you will fit one another to a hair. Silver Tongue: It will afford me infinite pleasure, then, to split the hair! | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | in Erotic Muse (1992) 247: A lady came in for some pea soup one day. / ‘What will you have?’ said I. / ‘Split,’ she said, and split her I did. | |
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 42: He laid her down beside a stump, / And then he missed her cunt and split the stump. | |
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 30: Oh, mother, oh, mother, / I thought I was able, / But he split me up the belly / From the cunt up to the navel. | |
| East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 58: This magic sceptre that laser-like splits and cracks through walls. |
2. in lit. or fig. senses of departure [the fig. split or ‘tear’ in a group that such a departure makes].
(a) (also take a split for it) to walk or run at great speed.
| Contrast II ii: I was glad to take to my heels and split home, right off . | |
| Clockmaker I 246: Higglety piglety, heels over head, like sheep taken a split for it over a wall. | |
| Oliver Twist (1966) 133: To see him splitting away at that pace, and cutting round the corners [...] oh, my eye! | |
| Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains 32: The enraged animal sprung to its feet and made at him. Creighton wheeled and ‘split’ for the camp; the buffalo pursuing. | |
 | ‘Wolf and Hound’ in Poems n.p.: We had run him for seven miles and more, As hard as our nags could split [F&H]. |
(b) to leave, to depart.
| Sporting Mag. 12 57/1: He‘s had — he’ finsh’d — he‘s tipt all nine! / He’s split — he’s cut and run. | |
| London Guide 55: Nothing was then done, for had there been, i should have split and turned honest, as is usual. | |
| Morn. Post 15 Sept. 4/1: As soon as ever they split, I seed it was all over. | |
| Proc. Old Bailey 12 May 116: I did not say to Mrs. Woodfield, ‘Do not split, for God's sake! for I shall be a ruined young woman’. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 30/1: I instantly pressed myself between her and the ‘wire’ [...] at the same time telling them all to ‘split,’ and Jack to ‘namase’. | |
| First Fam’lies in the Sierras 93: Go! Split! | |
| ‘Lady Kate, the Dashing Female Detective’ in et al. Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (1990) 33/2: We all ‘split’ when the drum beat. | |
| ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 374: split, v. To run away hurriedly. | |
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. | |
| Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 127: Give her a hundred dollars and let her split [...] let her haul herself out of here. | |
| letter 21 Nov. in Joint (1972) 96: There is a time to sit and a time to split. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Address: Kings Cross 26: ‘This is funny, just watch the girls split ,’ he said. ‘There must be a prowl car on the way’. | |
| Howard Street 49: I gotta go ’cross the street a minute. Be right back, hear? Then we can split. | |
| Inner City Hoodlum 129: We could’ve just split. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 156: Pack a bag so we can split. | |
| Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 263: They would split in a heartbeat and talk about your ass on the way out. | |
| Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] ‘I wouldn’t be hanging around here too long when you get back. Just grab your stuff and split. Pronto’. | |
| Guardian G2 12 July 4: The four Asian boys realised it was getting nasty and split. | |
| Crumple Zone 164: Clarke’s itchy on his bike, ready to split. | |
| Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] ‘Call a doctor before I split for Sydney’. | |
| Snitch Jacket 64: Why not just split and save the hundred bucks? | |
| Border [ebook] The girl split town. | |
| (con. 1991-94) City of Margins 33: ‘She split for grad school’. | |
| Orphan Road 13: The first opportunity, Chance split, made his way to the New South Wales town of Byron Bay. |
(c) (US black) to die.
| Hiparama of the Classics 15: These fine Studs have Not Split in Vain!! |
3. in senses of disclosure [to split or break a confidence].
(a) to betray, to inform against; usu. split on/split upon; note mis-defined as a n. in cit. 2001.
| New Dict. Cant (1795). | |
| ‘Cant Lang. of Thieves’ Monthly Mag. 7 Jan. n.p.: He has Split or turned Snitch against his Palls, He has turned evidence against all his Companions. | |
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 268: split to split upon a person, or turn split, is synonymous with nosing, snitching, or turning nose. To split signifies generally to tell of any thing you hear, or see transacted. | |
| London Guide 80: He that very blessed night split [...] upon Bill-Bill of Golden Lane. | |
| Eng. Spy I 178: You munna split on me, or I shall get the zack for telling on ye. | |
| Heart of London III i: If you split, I’ll blow your brains out. | |
| Sydney Herald 18 June 4/2: [I]f you don't get me up out of this ere place, blow me if I von't split. | |
| Sydney Herald 2 Jan. 2/2: [O]ffering large rewards [...] to the accomplices and pals of these that may split, as it is termed, and turn approvers, to bring their forner associates to condign punishment. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 68: She split on him [...] So-help my say so! send me to school, if she arnt a twister and no flies. | |
| It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 245: I don’t want a canting son of a gun for my pal – ten to one if he does turn tail and perhaps split. | |
| in Slave Testimony (1977) 340: One of the colored men split on me, and there was a search [...] but they did not find me. | |
| Little Ragamuffin 105: If I tell you all about it, will you promise that you won’t split. | |
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 121: All goes smoothly until either the two ‘mates’ ‘split’ or the ‘blooming bloke’, the obliging officer, falls foul of the possessor of the secret. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 236: He would not ‘split,’ as it is called, on his comrades, and he was reduced. | |
| Mysteries of N.Y. 62: These commodities he now has for sale at advantageoiusly low prices, provided his patrons will not ‘split’ upon him. | |
| My Secret Life (1966) V 885: The poor girl had let this out to the cook [...] and the cook split upon her. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Aug. 24/1: Knatchbull urged him to join in one of the many conspiracies which he initiated only to betray, and Tappin consented. Of course, he was ‘split upon.’ He was removed from his post [...] and [...] received a third sentence – that of ‘life.’. | |
| Illus. Police News 24 Dec. 4/1: ‘Do you think of blowing the gaff — of splitting?’. | |
| World of Graft 141: You’ll never reform me tryin’ to persuade one o’ my pals to split on me. | |
| Gold Bat [ebook] ‘Look here, O’Hara, you won’t split, will you?’ ‘I’m not an informer by profession, thanks,’ said O’Hara. | |
| Marvel 15 Oct. 16: When I said I’d split on him, he told me to split. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 29 May 2nd sect. 9/1: They Say [...] That the giddy, girleens threaten to puncture with hatpins the sneak who split. | |
| Handful of Ausseys 175: They’d be goin’ yet but for bein’ split on by a couple uv tabbies. | |
| Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 180: Broncho Billy went to hospital. Nobody split. No official action was taken. | |
| Child of Norman’s End (1967) 336: I wonder [...] if that old woman is on her balcony – old Miss Hackett, who split on us last time. | |
| Sudden Takes the Trail 103: Evans was scared the marshal would split to Morley ’bout his bein’ in Dirty Dick’s. | |
| Long Good-Bye 50: I expect to make a big noise in the papers out of this. Get lots of business. Private eye goes to jail rather than split on a pal. | |
| On the Yard (2002) 160: Some lousy rat mother fucker always splits on me. | |
| Bar Mitzvah Boy Scene 61: This is someone he split on at school yesterday who prefers to remain anoymous. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | (con. 1920s) Emerald Square 80: ‘Bejasus,’ said Ernie between his teeth, ‘if you split to the feckin’ master, I’ll bloody well kill yeh.’. | |
| OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 split n. to inform an authority (teacher, parent, police etc ) of a rule transgression, used as ‘to split on someone’, e.g. ‘don’t split on me – don’t tell teacher!!’. |
(b) to believe.
| Life in London (1869) 183: This is the common error most of the ‘darlings’ and swell kids of the Metropolis split upon. |
(c) to disclose, to reveal secrets.
| Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) I 218: What [...] the public accuser! Are you going to split (confess)? | |
| Sixteen-String Jack 146: Put a brace of pops to the nob of the ole Tyewig and his darter, and they’ll soon split. | |
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 185: The partners split, and told ‘Handsome Jack’ that he was quite welcome to keep the buffer, as they had got the ten shillings each. | |
| More Pricks than Kicks 240: So the night-nurse had split. The treacherous darling! | |
| Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 161: When wishing a person to keep a thing quiet children ordinarily enjoin ‘Keep it dark’ [...] ‘Don’t split’. |
4. to quarrel with someone, to break off relations, to reject; thus split out adj., no longer friends; rejected.
| Vocabulum 84: Split out, no longer friends; quarrelled; dissolved partnership. | |
| Black-Eyed Beauty 99: Hear that Cora Pearl’s going. Split with Lord de Regamoor, and signed an engagement to go to New York to play in the Black Crook. | |
| Stories of Chinatown 37: He told me you and he had split. What was the trouble? | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 34: An’ they’ve split. | |
| White Slavery 46: As soon as a girl loses her attractiveness she is ‘split out’ and has to go to a resort or class, or degree, lower. | |
| Big Rumble 48: I’m sorry we got to split, sweetmeat. I really go for you. | |
| Dear ‘Herm’ 93: So we have split. | |
| An Eng. Madam 57: ‘Why not?’ was all he said when I suggested we split. | |
| diary 29 June Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 159: We split over the gold lettering on the Caravaggio book. | |
| Birthday 10: He had never thought the responsibility applied to him, a feckless workman of seventeen (by the time they had split). | |
| Apples (2023) 69: She reckoned she’d split with Shane again. |
5. (orig. US, also split the blanket, ...sheets) to divorce.
| ‘Dialect of Southeastern Missouri’ in DN II:v 331: split the blanket, v. phr. Parted (man and wife). | |
| ‘Folk “Sayings” From Indiana’ in AS XIV:4 263–4: Husband and wife who have separated are said to have ‘split the blanket’. | |
| Townsville Daily Bull. 16 Sept. 6/3: She hinted that she’d leave me [...] But if she splits the blanket then the only thing to do / Is to ask if Flossie’ll share the other half. | |
| Moonlight (1995) 86: Kathy and I have split. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 220: Split the blanket To divorce. | |
| One Green Bottle 267: ‘Why did Chris go off early? Is anything wrong?’ ‘We’ve split.’ . | |
| (ref. to c.1890) Always the Young Strangers 164: A newly married couple ‘got hitched’ and if they separated they ‘split the blanket’. | |
| Ball Four Plus Ball Five 435: [T]he day I told Michael, David, and Laurie that their mother and I were actually going to split. | |
| Campus Sl. Nov. 8: split the sheets – get a divorce. | |
| Indep. Rev. 14 Feb. 1: By this time, her parents had split. | |
| ‘Where I Get My Weird Shit’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 30: My folks split the sheets in ’55. | |
| Running the Books 252: My wife, she and I were already split before I got pinched. | |
| Hilliker Curse 4: My parents split the sheets later that year. |
6. to share out profits or proceeds.
| Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 15 Oct. 6/4: The holder of the money gives each a ‘gen net’ and a ‘yenock,’ that is, 10s and 5s, by a process of ‘splitting it’ and ‘cutting it’. | |
| ‘Crime That Failed’ in Sandburrs 79: I lays dead in d’ town, ready to split out me piece of d’ plunder. | |
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 104: You make dough to beat the band / But you have to split it, I understand. | |
| ‘No Business’ in Taking the Count 155: I don’t split with anybody [...] [I] do my own management. No split! | |
| ‘A Picturesque Ceremony’ in Naval Occasions 249: We split a bottle afterwards. | |
| Tomahawk (White Earth, Becker Co., MN) 19 Oct. 3/5: I split my pile. If thet doesn’t make us pards, good turns an’ money ain’t no use. | |
| Little Caesar (1932) 246: [They] were used to doing things on a small scale and hated to split with the authorities. | |
| Brain Guy (1937) 122: We ain’t splittin’ with nobody. | |
| Halo in Blood (1988) 128: No sense splitting the dough two ways. | |
| Tomboy (1952) 84: What do we do now? [...] Split the money? | |
| Syndicate (1998) 64: Lilly and Cassiday would only have to split two ways. | |
| (con. 1950s) Grease II ii: You wanna split a super-burger? | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 113: I’m not splitting the motel score with you. | |
| Shooting in the Dark (2002) 284: He split a bottle with them. |
7. see split a gut
In derivatives
1. (orig. US) the end of a relationship, a divorce etc.
| Mad mag. Mar. 23: Man, like your mag and me are in Splitsville. | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 402: ‘I don’t care, you know [...] I can take it to Splitsville, in a minute’. | |
| Lovomaniacs (1973) 126: He was pretty short in the pants when his ma and me went splitsville. | |
| Because the Night 144: ‘We're separated.’ ‘Serious splitsville?’ ‘I'm not sure. It's been a year’. | |
| Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 78: Her position was that Litman and you were splitsville, and now it was her turn. | |
| Widespread Panic 26: Liz Taylor and Michael Wilding went to Splitsville. |
2. the state of departure.
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 148: Splitsville — poof and adieu. |
In phrases
1. (also split) to laugh hysterically.
| Clockmaker II 147: Oh Lord! I thought I should have split; I darsn’t look up, for fear I should abust alarfin’ in his face. | |
| Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa (1887) 51: I thought I should split when Pa wanted a drink of water. | |
| ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 374: split, v. [...] 2. To burst with laughter. | |
| Manhattan Transfer 245: Ellie this is Pearline . . . Isn’t it a fine name? I almost split when she told me what it was . . . .But you dont know the joke. | |
| (con. 1945) Goodbye to Some (1963) 274: Laugh, I thought I’d split. What a time! | |
| Big Red 28: ‘I’d call her [i.e. a horse] Duchess of Parma.’ [...] The trader laughed. ‘Don’t make me split a gut.’. | |
| Naples Dly News (FL) 20 Jan. 2/1: A Puerto Rican [...] used to split a gut when a couple of Jewish guys [...] made jokes in a dialect that sounded like Henry Kissinger. |
2. (US) to exert maximum effort.
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Gazette (Montreal) 26 Dec. 4/4: We’d go through hell for [General] Patton [...] every dough in the outfit would split a gut. | |
| Blues for the Prince (1989) 51: The Department won’t split a gut trying to find Joslin. |
3. to become very angry.
| (con. 1945) Tattoo (1977) 378: The general is about to split a gut. |
to tell the truth.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Eve. Teleg. 12 Feb. 6/5: The tailor’s boy is told to ‘split fair’ (tell the truth. |
1. to separate.
| Liverpool Mercury 14 Jan. 38/2: (4) ‘Split out’. Separate. From a MS vocabulary, compiled by a prisoner under sentence of transportation. | |
| ‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 505: There is a reeler over there who knows me, we had better split out (separate). | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 215: It gave Pinafore a thrill of pleasure to split her out from the ornament as she got off and to listen to her woeful plaints as she climbed back on the car and shouted for the police. [Ibid.] 263: Onct before I split you and him out an’ got smashed with a plate for takin’ your part. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 50: Splitting out a wire is one of the most important duties of a stall. If the victim suddenly discovers that his pocket has been picked and the dip is in danger of apprehension the stall splits out his pal and they both escape. |
2. (US) to part company, to take one’s leave.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Life in Jazz 145: ‘Eddie, when I split out, check on what these asses think of my playing ’. |
3. (US prison) to escape.
| Thief 276: Night is no good for splitting out of Chino. |
(US campus) to agree with.
| Star-Gaz. (Elmira, NY) 15 May 4/3: Yale College Slang [...] To split a man’s wood is to understand and agree with him. |
see under beard n.
see sense 5 above.
to depart, to travel, to run fast.
| Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 213: Sling your hook, split the breeze, take off. |
(US black) to deflower a virgin.
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
to sodomize.
| OlderThumbs.com 4 Nov. 🌐 Split the peach / Blowjob auditions / Succulent nipples. |
see under scene n.
see sense 5 above.
(orig. US) to become divorced.
| Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (1970) 18: My father and mother split up when I was about seven or eight years old. | |
| Amer. Thes. Sl. | |
| Death Mask 15: When we split up [...] I felt it was all my fault. I had to be free of him [OED]. | |
| Jazz Masters 164: The couple quarreled a lot and they split up when Armstrong was still an infant. | |
| Soft Detective 115: Well, you know Vicky and I have split up? | |
| Birthday 87: On splitting up with Doreen he had lost sight of him for ten years. |
to become an informer, to inform against someone.
| Flash. Dict. in McLachlan (1964) 268: To split upon a person, or turn split, is synonymous with nosing, snitching, or turning nose. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
the vagina.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 2: Abricot fendu, m. The female pudendum (= split-apricot). |
see separate entries.
see separate entry.
see under beaver n.1
see split n. (3b)
see under bit n.1
a lawyer.
| Plain Dealer (1731) 69: Come, Mr Splitcause, pray go see when my Cause in Chancery comes on. | |
| Misc. Works 66: For their better Security, they form'd a sort of Confederacy with one Dammyblood, Clumzy their Son-in-Law, Splitcause an Attorney, and Mouse a noted Ballad-maker, and some others. | |
| ‘Martinus Scriblerus’ in Works (1765) IV 126: You may call a young woman sometimes Pretty-face and Pigs-eyes, and sometimes snotty-nose and draggle-tail. Or of Accidents for Persons; as a Lawyer is called split-cause, a Taylor Prick-louse, &c. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| (con. 1737–9) Rookwood (1857) 115: That spider-shanked, snivelling, split-cause. | |
| Vocabulum. |
the public-house sign of the spread eagle.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
see split n. (3b)
1. a grocer.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Split-fig a Grocer. | |
| Rambling Rakes 5: At the same Stall was Old Split-Fig, an Adjacent Grocer. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| Life and Adventures. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. |
2. the vagina [note synon. Ital. fica].
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Roofs of Paris (1983) 14: Marcelle stretches her tiny split fig, holds it open and pushes it down against my dong. |
(US prison/Und.) a (prison) clerk.
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 179: Split Finger.–A clerk or white-collar worker, one whose hands are unaccustomed to hard manual labour, and who would suffer from blistered, split fingers if forced into hard work. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
the vagina.
| Sex-Lexis 🌐. |
see separate entry.
see split n. (3b)
(Aus.) a banknote that has been divided in halves.
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. |
(Aus.) women, viewed sexually.
| [ | | Whip & Satirist (NY) 23 July n.p.: The articles selected [for prosecution as obscene] were ‘Diary of a Rake,’ ‘ [...] Nymphs by Daylight,’ ‘Split Whiskers,’ and illustrations of this nature]. |
| Love me Sailor 20: Ah, but he’s too good a sailor man to get tangled in split-whisker at sea. | |
| 84: splitwhisker, female [DAUS]. |
a lunatic.
| Down These Mean Streets (1970) 300: He ended up in Dannemora, where the split wigs are sent. |
In phrases
to cause a disturbance, to make a commotion.
| Midsummer Night’s Dream I ii: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split. | |
| Scornful Lady II iii: Two roaring boys of Rome, that made all split. | |
| Widow’s Tears VI iii: Her wit I must employ upon this business to prepare my next encounter, but in such a fashion as shall make all split. |
see separate entry.
see separate entry.
In exclamations
see snap! excl. (1)
an oath usu. attrib. by contemporary upper-class dandies (but see cite 1827).
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Split my windpipe, a foolish kind of a Curse among the Beaux. | |
| Love Makes a Man I i: Stark mad! Split me. | |
| Love à la Mode II i: I took all the odds, split me! | |
| Homer Travestie (1764) I 139: Split me, we should have brains enough, / To pillage Troy of all its stuff. | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 178: Think not I threaten what I won’t / Perform; for split me if I don’t. | |
| Belle’s Stratagem 20: Split me, but I’ll humour the deception. | |
| Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 163: Perhaps you think I’ll suffer you / To toy, but split me if I do. | |
| Forest Rose I i: Her simplicity will ruin all, split me! | |
| More Mornings in Bow St. 40: [used by a sailor] Where I went, or what I did, split me if I know. | |
| Paul Clifford I 211: ‘Split my wig!’ (Gentleman George was a bit of a swearer) ‘if I be n’t tired.’ [Ibid.] II 95: If you ride your high horse upon me, splice my extremities if I won’t have satisfaction! | |
| Hereford Times 21 July 4/5: Oh split me [...] if I’m afraid. | |
| Catherine (1905) 635: ‘It is dreadful hot too, I think.’ [...] ‘Stifling, split me!’ added his Excellency. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 57: Multa bona fakement, split me! | |
| Polynesian (Honolulu, HI) 19 July 1/6: ‘Ah, split me but this is rum’. | |
| Wkly Kansas Chief (Troy, KS) 30 Jan. 1/5: Split me if you didn’t accidentally throw a handful of bullets. | |
| Deacon Brodie I tab.I vii: Three graziers, split me! | |
| Mr Trunnell Mate of the Ship ‘Pirate’ Ch. iv: ’Tain’t that. No, split me, it ain’t that. | |
| Washington Herald (DC) 28 Nov. 27/1: ‘Split me figgerhead! [...] What a come of the dang thing?’. |