Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a magazine.

1742		Gent.’s Mag. Feb. 103/2: The rest of the evening is past in chit-chat, In admiring the Mag, a song, and all that.
c.1800		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Out At Last!’ Works (1801) V 122: I’ll hire each prostituted Muse, For mags, for newspapers, reviews.
1837		Comic Almanack May 92: And farthing folks, with penny mags, / Made people penny wise.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 295/1: Odd vols. of old Mags. (magazines), a year or half-year bound together, are capital.
1882		Mrs. E.R. Alexander Freres 45: He... is on the staff of I don’t know how many papers and mags [F&H].
1890		‘’Arry on the Sincerest Form of Flattery’ in Punch 20 Sept. 144/2: Yours Truly writes only to you, and don’t spread hisself out in the Mags.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 48: Mag, [...] printers slang for magazine.
1904		A. Bierce letter 14 Jun. in Pope Letters of Ambrose Bierce (1922) 95: I am sending the W. of W. to Scribner’s [...] and if it is not taken shall try the other mags.
1914		E. Wittmann ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 127: mag, from magazine. ‘May I borrow your mag?’.
1917		Hangar Happenings Aug. 1: Here’s to the Wag who started this Mag!
1920		E. Hemingway letter 22 Dec. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 42: The mag has 65,000 circulation.
1925		F. Bason Diary I (1950) 26: I mpw have [...] 425 novels in stock plus 300 mags.
1934		R. Chandler ‘Finger Man’ in Pearls Are a Nuisance (1964) 107: I was readin’ a mag., waiting for time to eat.
1949		F. Brown Dead Ringer 48: She saw my name in Billboard and wrote to me, care of the mag.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 22: Inside it looked cool and costly [...] Yank mags and indoor plants.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 25 Oct. in Proud Highway (1997) 406: Never snub anybody who might someday write for the voyeur mags.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 159: Angela Sterling, lithe and round in her famous wrapper of blue brocade [...] which she wore during most of her movie-mag interviews.
1984		A. Sayle Train to Hell 12: You’re wondering why I was reading a women’s mag.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 66: The porno mags spread around his bedroom.
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 283: Sports presenters and glossy mag aristos.
2011		Observer Mag. 20 Feb. 20/3: Two of his co-stars have taken up with glamorous girlfriends [...] Buckley with a lad’s mag model.
2011		H. Ellison Introduction in Pulling a Train’ [ebook] I was working as an editor for [...] the #2 slick men’s mag in the game at that point.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 23: [C]heesecake mags going back to ’36.

2. a magazine of bullets.

1959		(con. 1940s) G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 56: Mick [...] told me to get the bren mags from the pouches of the Kiwi lying outside.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 305: Karras hefted the Thompson, pulled back the bolt. ‘How many?’ ‘Thirty-shot mag.’.
2012		N. Korpon ‘Three-Large’ in ThugLit Oct. [ebook] He double-checked the mag and chambered a round.

3. magnesium; esp. with ref. to magnesium alloy tires.

1952		Popular Science June 122: The Navy has high hopes for an F9F it has built with an all-mag wing [HDAS].
1977		A. Hoffman Property Of (1978) 73: The silver-studded mag wheels, [...] the custom-made wood-and-chrome steering wheel.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 67: ‘My sixty-five CSi BMW.’ ‘With mag wheels.’.
1993		A. Rodriguez Spidertown (1994) 6: ‘The tinted glass is dope. the four mags gimme speed an’ sleekness.’ [...] ‘The four what?’ ‘The magnesium alloy tires.’.
2001		C. Cook ‘A Tinkling Cymbal’ in Screen Door Jesus 93: I’m gonna [...] get some chrome reverse mags and balloon tyres.

4. (US) a magnum pistol.

1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 9: I’ll take four-inchers. Thirty-eights. I’l take a three-fifty-seven mag if I have to.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 149: Two .38s, three .45s, and a .357 Mag.
1984		J. Ellroy Because the Night 121: [G]oing after that Hollywood psycho with a thirty-ought-six and a forty-four mag.
1993		Dr Dre ‘187’ 🎵 A chrome 38, a Fo’ty-fo’ mag, and mack 10.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 396: He saw a Mossberg pump. He saw a .45. He saw a .357 mag.

5. see magazine n.²

6. see magsman n. (1)