Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US Und.) a member of a pickpocket team who diverts the victim.

1931		G. Milburn ‘Convicts’ Jargon’ in AS VI:6 438: front gee, n. A blind used by pickpockets.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 74/2: Front ghee. See Front, n.

(orig. US) anyone who covers for illegal activities, posing as a ‘legitimate’ citizen.

1938		J.E. Hoover Persons in Hiding 106: He acted as the ‘front man’ in the purchase of a car for Baby Face.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 146: What a front man!
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 188: He’s a smooth character and was chosen to act as front man for the Detroit end of the syndicate.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 40: The front man.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 42: [as 1957].
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 112: We’ve a shrewd suspicion that they’re using you as a front man.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 42: Front men sometimes had some of their own money in these joints.
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 93: Sometimes front men can be exactly that and other times they start to believe their own publicity.
2004		J. Poprzeczny Odilo Globocnik, Hitler’s Man in the East 401: Globocnik may well have been a ‘front man’ for both Oswald Pohl and Christian Wirth.

(US gay) an unconsummated marriage between a gay man and gay woman to satisfy the norms of non-gay society.

1951		D.W. Cory Homosexual in America 211: A psychiatrist of my acquaintance recently [...] discussed the adjustment to be found in what he termed a ‘front marriage’.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1976		Warren ‘Women Among Men’ in Levine Gay Men (1979) 234: Penny (a masculine lesbian) said she had married a gay guy for companionship in a ‘front marriage’.
1999		Gaymart.com Queer Sl. in the Gay 90s 🌐 Front Marriage – A marriage between a lesbian and gay man in order to ‘pass’ at work and/or with family.

see separate entry.

the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

the vagina.

1999		Indep. Rev. 29 Oct. 4: The MP was trapped into making naughty reference to ‘front bottoms’.
2002		Guardian G2 28 Jan. 8: Soon one will be able to say ‘vagina’ as easily as ‘cup of tea’, but I won’t, for personal reasons [...] I’ll be sticking to ‘front bottom’.
2017		Times Weekend Rev. 8 July 🌐 ‘It [i.e. sea water] all goes up the front bottom and washes the coil out,’ she explained.

the labia majora; the vagina.

[1742		Sawney and Colley 11: Who, except a venal Punkey [...] Would suffer Thee [...] to come Within ten Foot of her Forebum?].
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 185: The seam of her stretch jeans parted her labia perfectly — what we called in Australia a ‘front bum’.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 463: The girls’re tawkin abaht [...] words faw ‘fanny’, it sounds like: [...] ‘Frontbum’, that’s t’wust. As if it has nor function other than tuh excrete lahk.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 211: thick piss up the front bum Male ejaculation into vagina.
2021		Twitter 25 June 🌐 I'm not adept at needlework but I was keen to stitch my front bum up anyway. So I used Wondaweb.

see separate entries.

(N.Z. prison) a new inmate.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 74/2: front-end guy n. a recently sentenced inmate, an inmate beginning his prison sentence.

the vagina.

1888–94

‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) IV 738: Sally had had a prick up her back as well as her front-entrance.

the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

the vagina.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 185: The anatomical relationship of the bower of bliss and its main channel is indicated in such phrases as the front gut, foregut, forewoman, gape over the garter, lower mouth, the upright grin (except, traditionally, in China), a bit on a fork.

(US Und.) a bank robbery in which no money is taken from the safe; only that in the tellers’ drawers.

1933

Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

(US und.) police headquarter, also attribs.

1909		‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/1: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] Front office is [...] police headquarters.
1916		J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 67: The Chief’s pet front-office sleuths slipped over to Jake’s and took on ballast.

the vagina.

1896

Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 94: Devant, m. The female pudendum; ‘the front parlour’.

1. (US) a protruding stomach.

1915

Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 45: You’re looking fine [...] Wheres the front porch and the double chin?

2. the penis.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 320: Ding-dong, dingus, dink, dork, flute, front porch.

1. the vagina.

1630		J. Taylor ‘Sculler’ in Works (1869) III 30: Quoth he I whipt her, for she brake the Lawes, / In letting out her formost Roome for pelfe, / And (for her pleasure) backward lay her selfe.
1798		‘Humbug Club Song’ in Hilaria 46: He told me she’d paper’d her front room with feathers. / But the hair-broom of Nature this room was neglected / [...] / Till a lew son of Adam, a son of a whore, / To get into the room had burst open the door.
1834		‘Tom Tinker’ in Flare-Up Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 292: He would have a s—, and his words they were blunt, / I could not deny him the use of my front.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 17 66/2: Displayed her teeth, and, laughing said, / ‘To Let, is my front-room!’.

2. (US Und.) a sedan; a limousine.

1928		San Bernadino Co. Sun (CA) 25 Mar. 41/1: Shed — a closed car. Front room — a sedan [...] Breezer — an open car.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 81: Front Room.–A sedan or limousine; automobiles with glass windows which allow [...] a glimpse of ladies and gentlemen taking their ease within, as in a parlour or ‘front room.’.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 75/1: Front room. Any large closed automobile; a sedan or limousine.

see separate entry.

(Aus.) the female genitals.

1982

N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 48: A girl’s genitals and urinary area is her ‘front tottie’, her anus is the ‘back tottie’, and this term may also apply to a boy’s anus.

1. the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. in pl., the eyes.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 430/2: from ca. 1860.

3. in pl., spectacles.

1913

in A.H. Dawson Dict. Sl.

see under up front.

see separate entries.