Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (S.Afr.) wine sold in 2½- or 5-litre (4½–8¾-pint) containers, placed in a cardboard box.

1981		Cape Times 27 Oct. 5: First it was the ‘happy box’, the five-litre bag-in-box wine package that swept the wine trade some time ago, now it’s the instant refill [DSAE].
1990		A. Jermieson Dealers’ Daughters 102: The usual cask [...] was missing from the top of the piano [...] ‘Where’s your happy box?’ she asked [DSAE].
2006		Boxed Wine Spot 9 Sept. [blog] This is just all about boxed wine. Whether you call it ‘boxed wine’, ‘box wine’, ‘wine-in-a-box’, ‘bag in box wine’, ‘BIB wine’, ‘BNB wine’, ‘cask wine’, a ‘happy box’, or a ‘party box’.
2008		Tonight 9 Oct. 🌐 The ‘happy box’ is the perfect wine storage method for somebody who likes an occasional glass without having to go to the trouble of opening a bottle.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1991

Grocott’s Mail (S.Afr.) 24 May 9: You will be assured of a glass of wine, on the house nogal — a really good vintage happy box variety [DSAE].

(drugs) a marijuana cigarette.

1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 51: I’m bringin’ in more pounds of barbecue and Scotch and them funny little old cigarettes than you have ever dreamed about .
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 95: I wants t’get gone, honey; so pass me that funny cigarette.
1981		Boston Globe (MA) 10 May 269/2: That looks like a pack of Luckies [...] but you have actually put in a few funny cigarettes that male you feel all nice and easy.
1982		Abel Marihuana Dict.
1999		C. Hernández-Ramdwar Mercury Retrograde 38: A rolled up happy cigarette pressed between my world history pages.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 11: Happy cigarette — Marijuana cigarette.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 123: [A]fter a few Happy Fags he can’t be fussed and [...] just slouches.

anti-depressants.

1956		Changing Times (Wash., DC) Oct. 24/2: Often, depressed persons become even more depressed in their calm states following drug therapy. Some have even been known to attempt suicide under the influence of happy drugs.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 167: Faro went out first that night, filled with happy-drugs, managers and promoters beaming about him.
1974		US News & World Report 76 172: Most of them make you feel relaxed— they’re happy drugs. And this is the irony: We condemn our children when they use these drugs on the street, yet the medical profession is handing them out like candy.
1986		Mother Jones Sept. 32/2: ‘Besides, there may be some time off work in the deal or, at the very least, some get-happy drugs.’ Time off work? Get-happy drugs? I didn't see much need for either.
2010		J.M. Peterson Frequently Asked Questions about Antidepressants 13: Antidepressants are ‘happy pills’ or ‘happy drugs.’ Fact: Antidepressants are not chemically related to drugs like amphetamines (“uppers”) or to illegal drugs that cause users to initially feel happy.

1. (orig. US drugs) cocaine; thus happy duster, a cocaine user or seller.

1912		Public Health Bull. 55-61 266: Happy dust. See Cocaine.
1914		Nat. Drug Clerk 2 281: Some of them call it ‘snow,’ ‘happy dust,’ etc. and you will hear them talk about taking a sleigh ride.
1914		Everybody’s Mag. 31 276/2: Officers discovered that the broad strip of braid forming the binding of the edges contained something that felt like sawdust, and on ripping this open poured out a full ounce of the ‘happy dust’ — about one thousand average doses.
1915		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 3 June [synd. col.] Possibly you do not known what a snow-bird is? Some call them ‘happy-dusters’ and others ‘sleigh-bells.’ They are the cocaine fiends of Broadway.
1919		C.H. Darling Jargon Book 16: Happy Dust – Cocaine.
1920		C.S. Montanye ‘Perfect Crime’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2007) 351: ‘Walk in a snow storm, brother?’ ‘It’s dope, isn’t it?’ [...] ‘Happy dust. Have some?’.
1922		E. Murphy Black Candle 10: The snuffers of cocaine are frequently designated as ‘happy-dusters’.
1925		D.B. Heyward Porgy (1945) 57: He poured a little pile of white powder into it [...] ‘Happy dus’!’ she said.
1931		R. Bradford John Henry 212: Maybe de happy dust cross me up and de preacher put me in de dozens.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1952		Lannoy & Masterson ‘Teen-age Hophead Jargon’ in AS XXVII:1 26: HAPPY DUST, n. Cocaine.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 309: happy duster. An addict who sniffs cocaine up his nostrils. Also a peddler of cocaine.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 802: happy dust – Cocaine.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 39: Sportin’ Life [...] Happy dust. This stuff is an American institution.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
2002		in N.Y. Times 5 Mar. 🌐 As the lights go up in a dingy square of Catfish Row [...] you see a teeming street: rowdy men playing craps and picking fights, women hassling their husbands, wet clothes hanging, peddlers selling honey, crabs and ‘happy dust.’.

2. heroin.

1915		War Terror 261: ‘Happy dust,’ he answered briefly. ‘Happy dust?’ I repeated, looking at him a moment in doubt as to whether he was joking or serious. ‘What is that?’ ‘The Tenderloin name for heroin — a comparatively new derivative of morphine.’.
1934		F. Tuohy Inside Dope 46: Now an instructed Bowery and Loop clamoured for this variety of ‘happy dust’ as possessing double the kick of ‘coke’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1961		(con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 228: Kayo-san, Dallas’ junkie girl, who, either through an overdose of her happy dust or a bad fix [...] sang out with a banshee scream.

3. morphine.

1929		V.W. Saul ‘Vocab. of Bums’ (in AS IV:5) 341: Happy dust—Morphine.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 95: Happy Dust.–Cocaine or any other powdered narcotic.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

1. marijuana.

1935

A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Happy gas, mariahuana [sic].

2. (US) heroin.

1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness 250: Lay off the happy-gas.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 323: Lay off that happy gas, Frankie.

3. (US) laughing gas or nitrous oxide.

1995		Chicago Dental Soc. Rev. 88 19: We introduce children to nitrous oxide by calling it ‘happy gas’.
2002		Gentle Dental 🌐 Does the thought of a dentist’s drill make you shiver? New laser technology offers pain-free tissue removal. It’s also effective in treating canker sores and sensitive teeth. Still a little nervous? To help you relax, we have nitrous oxide (happy gas).
2011		J. Dee See You in My Dreams 95: ‘Did he give you happy gas?’ Tasha asked. ‘Who?’ ‘Duh. The dentist.’.

(US drugs) marijuana.

1938		Winnipeg Trib. (Manitoba) 15 Sept. 9/1: [N]ames applied to a marijuana cigarette [are] ‘reefers,’ ‘happy grass,’ ‘loco-weed’.
1973		J. Nagel Slick Revenge 129: Four niggers, smoking that happy grass, might decide that they can fly, know what I mean?
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 171: Marijuana is identified in terms of the effect it produces (joy, happy grass).
2007		K. Redd Da Mission 16: Fa ole time sake, git'chu, git'chu a lil hit of dis Happy Grass, den [...] pass it on down da line, Man! Don't Bo-Guard it.

(Aus. drugs) cannabis.

1997		Trancenet.org News 🌐 The familiar smell of very happy herb would sometimes waft out of the open door, and their behavior was becoming notorious.
2001		Age (Melbourne) 20 Jan. 🌐 They (young people) seem to see it as the ‘happy herb’; that it does no harm. They don’t understand that not only is it bad but it can introduce then to a tobacco habit as well.

(US) good humour, usu. resulting from alcohol or drug intoxication.

1922		(con. 1918–19) S.V. Benét Beginning of Wisdom 290: He was too full of happy-juice.
1953		F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 56: Pass on some of that happy juice to Sad Sack.

a tranquillizer or stimulant.

1956		Catholic Digest 21 13: The American Psychiatric association, appalled by the nature of the ‘happy-pill’ ballyhoo, recently issued a warning to the general public.
1959		M. Brown ‘Wheelbarrow and the Whirlwind’ in Drake-Brockman West Coast Stories 138: He swallowed a whole bottle of happiness pills.
1966		I. Asimov Fantastic Voyage 11: You’ve got that tranquillizer gleam in your eye, doctor. I don’t need any happy pills.
1970		US Congress Hearings by Committee on Education and Labor 391: Our children are turning to the happy pills, in an agony of disappointment and distrust.
1985		Lee & Shlain Acid Dreams 189: Another doctor soon put him on ‘happy pills,’ although these drugs did not seem to cheer Ruby up.
1994		F. Jacobs Pitiless Parodies 74: Happy pills! Crammed with crazy chemicals that give all kinds of thrills!
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] They upped her dose of happy pills.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 60: No mixing booze with the happy pills. Doctor’s orders.
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 20: Various happy pills were doled out —and a few biffs of the liquid cosh.

1. cocaine.

1935		R. Chandler Killer in the Rain (1964) 223: He looked at me and shrugged. ‘Maybe it’s happy powder,’ he said. ‘Maybe he peddles a little of that.’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 309: happy powder. [...] cocaine.
1993		I. Trump For Love Alone 408: You didn’t happen to sniff some happy powder in there, did you?
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 11: Happy powder — Cocaine.
2006		R.P. Fregault Fatal Curiosity 20: He had tried to skim some of the white happy powder for himself and had gotten caught.
2011		R. Bruguiere Collision 186: I did travel with my ‘happy powder’ – no drug-sniffing airport dogs in those days [...] My happy powder was intended, so I thought; to make me the hippest kid on the block.

2. heroin; morphine.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 309: happy powder. Morphine [...] or heroin.
1970		Washingtonian 6 83: The ‘hophead’ traded the toaster for one cap of ‘happy powder’.
1987		B. Whitaker Global Connection 170: Young children [...] may not realize that it is heroin they are using, and are deceived into starting by pushers describing it as happy powder or rainbow dust.

(US black) a liquor store.

1996–2000

(con. 1940s) Deuce Ofay Productions ‘The Jive Bible’ at JiveOn.com 🌐 ABC (American Business College):n. A retail establishment specializing in the distribution of alcoholic beverages to the masses; See Happy Shack.

(US black) a liquor store.

1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 20: happy shop – Booze store.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: happy shop n. liquor store.

(US) a home-made cosh.

2015

S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 152: He pulls his Happy Slapper from his coat pocket. The Slapper is a knotted sock [...] the sock’s foot is loaded with ball bearings.

(US) a sock into which one masturbates.

2020

D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 82: Devon got his happy sock, so he alright. Devon you know you go into port you got to leave your happy sock behind?’.

1. marijuana.

1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 183: Then they tried happy sticks and bennies. Getting goofed once in a while was okay.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 335: I’d woken up at four and smoked a couple of happy-sticks.
2008		P.J. McKigney Poetry Stew 120: Car loaded, the teens pile in – Equipped with road pops, munchies and happy sticks, their adventure begins. The time 4:20.

2. marijuana laced with phencyclidine or cocaine.

1984		cited in Spears Sl. and Jargon of Drugs and Drink (1986).
1989		L. Gonzales Still Point 113: They’re selling Happy Sticks, marijuana dipped in PCP.
1999		A. Blake Living through Pop 122: A popular high was ‘happy sticks’: cannabis joints dipped in PCP (angel dust), providing manic energy for the user.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 11: Happy Sticks — PCP.
2010		T. Rempel-Saddul This Road I Walk 137: They smoked the happy sticks, cocaine-laced joints.
2010		M. Collin Altered State 17: There was a juice bar because it was illegal to serve liquor in underground clubs [...] There was a lot of PCP [phencyclidine, or Angel Dust], happy sticks [joints dipped in PCP] and a lot of acid. Ecstasy was really big.

(US) cocaine.

1974

J. Nazel Black Cop 84: Wilson is always right there on time with the happy stuff. Ain’t that right, kid?

1. (UK Und.) the bag in which a shotgun is carried on an armed robbery; the gun makes the victim ‘happy’ to pass over his money.

2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 13: Danny volunteered to deposit the happy-bag in the slaughter.
2005		A. Hailwood Gun Law 196: Mr Glenn was trying to ascertain whether a ‘happy bag’ had been spotted. A happy bag is something their team keeps its robbery kit - guns, masks, tape - in.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 11: Tony took the happy-bag containing the sawn-off.

2. (US) the scrotum [bag n.¹ (1a)].

2001

J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 97: We go over, show her we’re serious, and walk out with Georgie’s happy-bag and the mayor’s kisser.

(US campus) one who is perfectly satisfied with their life and the circumstances in which they find themselves; also as negative, not a happy camper, a dissatisfied, unhappy person; the deliberate levity of the phrase often hides a genuinely deep unhappiness or dissatisfaction.

1986		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 5: happy camper – one characterized by elation.
1998		D. Hecht Skull Session 446: You’re going to be a very happy camper afterward.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 88: He is not a happy camper.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 193: The beggar Boy isnae a happy camper.

a female Salvationist.

1880		Cornishman 13 May 3/3: ‘Happy Eliza’ [...] has been assailed in the streets with stones, rotten fish, and ‘rotten everything’.
1883		broadside ballad: They call me Happy Eliza, and I’m Converted Jane / We’ve been two hot ’uns in our time.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 14 Dec. 4/1: He is less careful in his speech now than when he [...] punched the drum side by side with Happy Eliza in the Army.
1892		Pall Mall Gaz. 15 Dec. 7/1: Happy Eliza’s name became a household word [...] she was the very type and embodiment of the Salvation Army spirit.
1914		Cornishman 14 May 5/7: Happy Eliza; a sketch.
1915		Truth (Melbourne) 9 Jan. 2/4: This is Happy Eliza, / The Salvos all prize her.
1944		Nottingham Eve. Post 12 Apr. 4/1: A notable Salvationist officer has passed away [...] As a young girl she saw an announcement that ‘Happy Eliza’ and Major Reynolds [...] would ‘open fire’ in Sneiton Market. She was at once interested and later joined the army.

(US) a massage that concludes with masturbation of the male client.

2002		Patriot-News (Harrisburg, PA) 6 Aug. A9/5: One of Soderbergh’s plot lines, a massage with a ‘happy ending,’ was already featured on two HBO shows, Larry David’s and ‘Mind of the Married Man.’.
2007		K.R. Sullivan Embodied Tensions 121: Some therapists still perform sexual services, typically masturbation, by performing what is known as a ‘happy ending’ massage.
2012		Makunga & Madsen L.A. Adventures 75: This is not an oil on skin massage, and it’s not a happy-ending massage either, despite the rumors.
2012		S. Moore in Guardian 5 July 🌐 He gives intimate ‘Loving Touch’ massages. Or what we might call Happy Endings.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] [T]his old lady [...] lifts up my shirt, scrunches up some leaves and rubs them on my chest, armpits, and feet. Is this what is meant by a ‘happy ending’.
2020		T. Pluck ‘Hula Hula Boys’ in What Pluckery Is This? (28 Jan 2024) 🌐 ‘What are you doing here? I thought you were getting a happy hula-hula ending’.

(US) a psychiatric institution.

1961

Rigney & Smith Real Bohemia xv: happy farm mental hospital.

a psychiatric institution.

1966		‘Napoleon XIV’ ‘They’re coming to take me away’ 🎵 They’re coming to take me away ho ho hee hee ha haaa / To the happy home with trees and flowers and chirping birds.
1970		Bulletin of the N.Y. Academy of Medicine 204: A few years later his [i.e. Ezra Pound] come-uppance was somewhat longer than a mere weekend in the ‘happy house’.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Wanted’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] She’s as nutty as a fruit cake. She spends most of her time in the Happy Home.

1. death.

1826		J.F. Cooper Last of Mohicans (1831) 400: A young man has gone to the happy hunting grounds.
1848		G.F. Ruxton Life in the Far West (1849) 135: After a long journey, they will reach the happy hunting-grounds.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 30 May 6/3: John Pearson, […] lately deceased, was what may be termed a ‘funeral crank,’ nevertheless he was pretty level-headed. When John found that he was on the eve of departure for the happy hunting grounds, he sat himself down to dispose of his property, and [...] to make arrangements for his own funeral.
1890		A.C. Gunter Miss Nobody of Nowhere 57: Old Mescal is now keeping a sharp eye out for the child and the cowboy, that he may send them to the happy hunting-grounds also.
1917		‘Ian Hay’ Carrying On 5: Ogg and Hogg [...] have gone to the happy hunting-grounds.
1926		Z. Grey Fighting Caravans (1992) 114: I found four Injuns alive yet, so I sent them off to the Happy Huntin’-grounds.

2. the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(Aus.) the act of vomiting.

1889-90		D. Sladen in Barrère & Leland Sl., Jargon and Cant I 448/1: Happy returns (Australian popular), throwing up one’s food. If a person feels sick [...] he will say that ‘he has the happy returns.’.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 234/1: happy returns – vomit.

(N.Z. prison) a makeshift weapon made by tying batterinto a sock.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 84/2: happy sack n. a weapon made from batteries in a sock.

a bisexual.

1999		D. Lypchuk ‘A dirty little story’ in eye mag. 8 July 🌐 Secretly, though, he was a bit of a happy shopper.
1999		Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 17: Happy Shopper 1 n. prop. A cheap ’n’ cheerless grocery brand. 2. n. A bisexual — one who shops on both sides of the street.

(US) a line of chest hair down the middle of a man’s torso leading to the penis.

2003		RedMoon posting 24 Jul. on ‘What should I do about body hair’ at Spankmag.com 🌐 I have more hair on my happy trail than on my happy place.
2003		scooby posting 24 Jul. on ‘What should I do about body hair’ at Spankmag.com 🌐 gotta love that treasure trail.
2003		SerialKiller posting 24 Jul. on ‘What should I do about body hair’ at Spankmag.com 🌐 snail trail a.k.a. the divine line? I like them because I have one. They’re cool.

1. (Aus.) an area of shantytowns.

c.1935		in Seal ( 1999) 98: When your hair has turned to silver / I will still be on the ‘dole’ /And we’ll live in Happy valley / When the ‘reds’ have got control.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 97: happy valleys sprang up. They were shantytowns of cardboard, tin, and anything else that the unemployed could scavenge to build a shelter for their families.

2. the female genitals.

1966

Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.

3. (US gay) the cleft of the buttocks.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 103: happy valley the cleft separating the right buttock cheek from the left; [...] Related terms: ski up and down Happy Valley (late ’60s) to rub the cock in between and over the buttocks of the partner.

(US) a prison or police van.

1950		WELS.
1961		G.L. Coon Meanwhile, Back at the Front (1962) 13: The squad of marines reached the Happy Wagon.
1987		P. Bucheister Dragon Slayer 100: You [...] had better come in before the neighbors call the happy wagon to come and cart you away.

(US black) superficial.

1948

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 17 Jan. 21: An operator referred to one of her clients as a ‘happy-headed so and so’.