Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entry.

(US black) an (artificially) aggressive facial look, used for antagonistic situations.

1970		D. Jenkins Saturday’s America 260: [H]e started working up his mad for the game; putting on his ‘game face’.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 103: T.J. was getting his game face on.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 16: His partner has already gone cold, his hardest game face now showing only hate.
2005		G. Pelecanos Drama City 83: Mark was keeping that pleasant half smile, that game face he used.
2012		S. Blass Pirate for Life 122: [Y]ou’ve got your game face on from 4:00 until first pitch three hours later.
2023		S. Ayad When Kids Say They’re Trans 142: [L]earn how to put on your game face when you need it. Your game face is a neutral or serious facial expression that is often displayed by a sports player or gambler.

(N.Z. prison) life imprisonment.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 76/1: game over n. life imprisonment.

in sado-masochistic sex, a torture chamber.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 163: Game room = torture chamber.

(US) in difficulties.

1899–1900

C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 122: It sounded as if the chin-whiskered constable had been against the game himself.

(US black) to abandon a pose, to act in a spontaneous, genuine manner.

1972

Milner & Milner Black Players 241: Most people cannot come ‘off their game’ and be ‘for real,’ since they cannot tell when they are playing a game unless they have a tennis racket in hand.

a prostitute; usu. in pl.

c.1602		Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida IV v: O! these encounterers [...] That give a coasting welcome ere it comes, And wider unclasp the tables of their thoughts To every ticklish reader! set them down For sluttish spoils of opportunity and daughters of the game.
1891		in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads VII:2 446: Great is the Empire of Cant! Those Vigilants who loudly rail against impurity [...] have generally had early fellowship with the ‘daughters of the game’, and when no longer rakes and libertines, they set up as moralists and prate of Purity.

see play at all fours under play (at)... v.

(US black) to interfere in someone else’s business.

1973

D. Goines Street Players 81: One of you no-good bitches are always trying to get in somebody else’s game.

1. (also get one’s program together) to be in full control of a situation.

1978		R. Charles Brother Ray 266: LBJ struck me as a hard-nosed dude. He did good things we’ve already forgotten about. He had his program together.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 239: get (one’s) act/game/self together Assert control over one’s life (financial, emotional, situational, etc.).
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 21: ‘You need to get your act/game/program/shit together,’ Clive said.
2007		W.D. Myers ‘society for the preservation of sorry-butt negroes’ in What They Found 138: If I got my game together I don’t want to be hanging with anybody who doesn’t even have a game.

2. as a pimp, to define one’s image by a variety of material/symbolic ‘props’.

1972

Milner & Milner Black Players 38: To get your game together usually involves the presentation of self in a particular way which requires certain props. For the pimp these may consist of flashy clothes, an expensive car, a roll of money. Although he often desires these things for their own sake or as symbols of ‘success,’ he is also aware that they constitute his front, the props he needs to make the proper impression.

(orig. US black) to be in full control of a situation.

1972		‘Soulful Spider’ ‘Pimp in a Clothing Store’ in Milner & Milner (1972) 286: That man you gone bring money right straight home to him any old way and so he had his old game together.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 70: Gots to have program together. [Ibid.] 127: There are a number of vernacular expressions that characterize the state of being and staying cool [...] to have your [...] program together, and to have it covered [Ibid.] 128: Get in d’ [police] station be cool, keep yo’ game together [Ibid.] 241: have (one’s) act/game/program/shit together; have (one’s) game uptight Have control over one’s life (financial, emotional, situational, etc.).

(US black) a well conceived and executed plan of action.

1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 39: Strong game or heavy game is well thought out and masterfully executed. Reverse game means turning the tables on someone.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 48: You know heavy game when you see it, don’t you, girl.

(Aus.) wealthy.

1924

G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 GAME, IN THE – To be one of the affluent.

to continue enjoying oneself.

1880		E.J. Milliken ‘Cad’s Calendar’ in Punch Almanack n.p.: If a chap’s a genuine hot member, / He can keep the game up in November!
1882		Cremorne III 77: And so they kept up the game for a long while, but it would not last for ever.

(US black) to use any means whereby one attempts to gain economic, psychological or other advantages over a rival or victim.

1999		Dr Dre ‘Let’s Get High’ 🎵 Niggaz bout the sex and which bitch to hit next / while I’m kickin my game and collectin them checks.
2002		Teen Lingo: The Source for Youth Ministry 🌐 kick game see spittin’ game [i.e. ‘To try to impress someone of the opposite sex, or “picking up” on someone by “sweet talking” them’] .

(US black) to lose control of a situation or plan.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 127: Terms like to let your game slip [...] mean that you are losing a grip on yourself.

(US black) to improve one’s situation financially, emotionally etc.

1984		Parlty Debates in Weekly Hansard (Aus.) 987: The Treasurer (Mr Keating) in this discredited Government ought to lift his game.
1997		J. Marsden Dead of Night 115: ‘Jeez,’ I thought, ‘I’ll have to lift my game.’ All these weeks without Mum had left me pretty slack.
2002		N. Earls Perfect Skin 45: Great song, but I’ve really got to lift my game. I pick up a couple of thirty-six packs.
2008		P. Kelly Hawke Ascendancy 290: He wanted him to ‘lift his game’ . He told Hayden the party needed fresh ideas and a better image.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 69: The fear that I might have missed the boat [...] makes me think of how tae up my game.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 134: When I was there was when they started to really up their game.

1. (Irish) eccentric, unbalanced.

2015

L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 194: The woman’s actually off her game [...] You know she lives in cuckoo land.

2. malfunctioning by one’s personal standards.

2021

‘Aidan Truhen’ Seven Demons 205: [O]kay I have been off my game that thing with the lady whose car we stole [and] the unfortunate business with Mr Sharkey’s exploding face.

1. working as a thief.

1839		H. Brandon Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 163/1: On the game – thieving.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 4: Game (on the) - Thieving.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 33: Then he put her on the game (had her taught thieving).

2. involved in prostitution.

1889		‘John Law’ In Darkest London 247: Except for the girl being ‘on the game’ the home would long since have broken up.
1898		Daily News (London) 21 July 8/6: The prosecutrix pestered her to ‘go on the game’, i.e. the streets .
1912		F. Harris Women of Shakespeare 213: The phrase of the prostitute to-day on the streets of London is: ‘I’m on the game’ .
1934		J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 17: I remember when I started on the game – I wasn’t fourteen yet.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 267: ‘Here’s another mystery [...] that a girl on the game would [...] not want money for it’.
1959		F. Norman Fings I i: Lil has been on the game for over ten years, but, like Fred, she is now past it.
1963		C. Wood ‘Prisoner and Escort’ in Cockade (1965) I iii: I wasn’t on the game properly – never took money.
1967		N. Dunn Poor Cow 40: I mean I wouldn’t go on the game meself.
1975		Sun. Times Mag. 12 Oct. 30: The girls are all on the game.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 106: Birds out on the game / all legs / then to stand about / flaunt themselves for all to see.
1994		(con. 1940s) K.C. Kearns Dublin Tenement Life 158: They were a mixture of country girls and Dublin girls, generally uneducated girls, who might have been exploited by her employer. Then they’d ‘go on the game’.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 133: Natalie decided to [...] go on the game.
1997		(con. 1960s) A. Frewin London Blues 88: His mother was reputed to be a French whore (as, indeed, were most of the girls on the game fifty years ago).
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 72: Oh my God, Anna’s on the game.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 29: game, the n. Prostitution - on the game.
2006		in D. Seabrook Jack of Jumps (2007) 202: She’d been on the game for years.
2010		K. Richards Life 45: The scandal that two of Gus’s sisters [...] were - she would say it in a whisper - ‘on the game’.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] ‘Back on the game?’ ‘Fuck you [...] Stripping isn’t prostitution’.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 103: ‘Only the leader guy knows that I was on the game’.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 44: ‘Lorna was on the game?’ he asked.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 18: I’m too young to [...] ‘go on the game’.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 16: From the looks I get, you’d swear I’d said she was thinking of going on the game.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 380: I told my mum and stepdad that unless they pay for the [...] breast and buttocks pump-up etc so I can become a top adult star I’m going to go on the game.

3. (US gay) walking the streets looking for sex.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 56: to search for sex [...] on the game (Brit gay sl, fr pros sl = streetwalking).

incoherent, unconscious, collapsed (through drink or drugs).

2000		N. Griffiths Grits 378: She’s just rambling, just fuckin out uv-a game like, talkin shit.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 152: Don’t fret about this witness thing. Lad with the supposed info was out of the game. Smackhead.

a phr. meaning, listen up, I’m about to tell you a secret.

1993		2Pac ‘Peep Game’ 🎵 Huh. As if I know ya / Then I could show ya / But if I don’t know, I gotta fo’ fo’ fo’ ya / So, so peep game / At point blank range / The fame can’t change what the game maintains.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Peep Game (verb phr. & int.) A command given to alert the listener to pay close attention.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 157: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Peep game. Game tight.

to manipulate, to manoeuvre, to act in a deceptive, dishonest manner; thus game-playing adj.

1942		R. Chandler High Window 199: Morny’s trying to pin it on his wife. She was playing games with Vannier.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 104: The lad you call Earl wanted to play games. I figure it’s too hot.
1962		(con. 1940s) G. Mandel Wax Boom 283: ‘Did he show up?’ [...] ‘No, the game-playing creep. That’s a politician’s trick, to tense me up so he can out-talk me.’.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 136: ‘This your briefcase, Mr du Cann?’ Sneed asked [...] ‘No!’ du Cann said [...] Sneed unfastened the case. There on the inside was du Cann’s name [...] He regarded the man for a moment. ‘All right, uncle, let’s not play games.’.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 282: I wish he wouldn’t bother playing these games.
2001		A. Schulman 23rd Precinct 54: ‘If the DA is nice and professional, you go that extra yard. If the DA wants to play games and have an attitude, you can ask the DA not to put the case on’.

to play at cards or dice with the intention of losing.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

to explain, to put across information.

1981

Kurtis Blow ‘Rappin Blow (Part 2)’ 🎵 Listen very close while I pop more game.

(US black) to confuse, to play tricks on, to deceive.

1884		J. Harrison ‘Negro English’ in Anglia VII 264: To put er game on = to get the better of.
1911		E.B. Morris Junior 41: Highfield. So you boys have been putting up a game on me, eh?
1965		W. King Jr. ‘The Game’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out (1972) 394: ‘You a trick, Dan—a stiffy,’ Herman said. ‘You so square Little Orphan Annie could put game on you’.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 25I: I ain’t trying to put no game on you.

(US black) to interfere in another person’s planned seduction.

1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 46: salt in my game, don’t be puttin To belittle. To front or make fun of. To dog out. ‘Don’t be puttin no salt in my game, zip your fat mouth and let me finish.’.
1994		C. Major Juba to Jive.
2017		Donald ‘Lavish D’ Oliver ‘Speak My Mind’ 🎵 Throwing salt in my name, throwing salt on my game, what you mad at a nigga for?

1. to take advantage.

1969

S. Greenlee Spook who Sat by the Door (1972) 145: It looks like I’m going to throw a little shit in the game.

2. to trick, to deceive.

1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 215: He’s putting a little shit in the game — psychological warfare.
1975		Sepe & Telano Cop Team 77: You dirty no good cunts! You put some shit in the game!
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 327: They had to give themselves an edge — they put shit in the game.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] One of those soft-ass nigguhs put shit in the game. They just wanted us out of the way.

3. (US black) to abuse, to talk negatively.

1971

R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 193: ‘You started it anyway, talking about nobody works here but jailbirds. You always got to put shit in the game’.

(US black) to ensnare a white person for financial gain.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

1. (UK Und.) to rob, to pick someone’s pocket.

1714

T. Lucas Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 257: He [...] concluded her to be one of the Long-Cellar ladies, who had put the high game upon him, by emptying his pockets.

2. to contradict, to give (lying) evidence against.

1858

Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 Feb. 3/3: Mr James Grace and Mr Denham Sweeney, were also called for the defence, and they likewise put the ‘high game’ upon Mr Moses.

to improve one’s performance.

1973

T. Lewis Billy Rags [ebook] [A]ll the [...] cons were up at their windows, shouting encouragement at us but it didn’t raise our game.

see under rank v.²

(US black) to bamboozle, to deceive, to seduce, to confuse, to obtain money by trickery.

1967		J. Horton ‘Time and cool people’ in Trans-action 4 6/2: ‘I don’t hustle because there’s no security. You eventually get busted.’ Others said there was not enough money on the street or that it was too difficult to ‘run a game’ on people.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 213: I had a bitch of a time convincing her to let me run the game on you.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 13: He tried to run a game on a friend of mine.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 71: Run a game on someone — to outwit, outsmart or outdo another.
1981		Cold Crush Bros ‘Weekend’ 🎵 You ran a game on your favorite dame.
1989		Above the Law ‘Last Song’ 🎵 I got skill to deal and run game on bitches.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 50: With no regrets, she ran her own games on people when she could.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 44: We know Harvey be running a game on us, be trying for that edge.
2000		Phife Dawg ‘Ben Dova’ 🎵 You can’t run game on a gamer.
2008		Buddha Monk ‘Gun Them Down’ 🎵 Now shame on a nigga who try to run game on this nigga.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 146: Dale was smart and mature and was running at least a small game on me.
2017		S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] ‘I know where yo high-yellow ass come from, so you can’t be runnin’ no bougie game with me, nigga’.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 148: He might be running game about the amount of the cut, but he had gotten paid.

(US black) of a pimp, to explain the principles of the pimping business, both from experienced pimps to novices and from the pimp to his prostitutes, telling them the tricks of their trade.

a.1964		‘Sugar Hill’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 93: So I ran down a game to her that would trick the slickest of whores.
1972		‘Adam and Eve’ in Milner & Milner (1972) 293: So he runs the game on down to her and she fell for it, ’cause she didn’t say, ‘No, I can’t do that, I’m not that kind of woman.’ She reached out, man, and therefore she plucked a fruit from that forbidden tree, you dig?
1977		J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 90: The pimp who gives this kind of instruction is running down game to his whores.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 86: Y’all just watch [...] how I run my game down to her.

1. (orig. US black) to talk, to chatter, but spec. of a pimp, to chatter about pimping, whoring and those involved; note earlier colloq. phr. talk a good game.

1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 36: To talk game is to discuss various aspects of pimping and whoring such as how to maintain control over a woman, how to get more money out of a trick, how to steer clear of arrests, and so on.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 56: He talked game with him at every chance, lectured him on the pimping code.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 218: ‘Spittin’ game’ just means talking, but talking about the sort of things that hood boys talk about with other hood boys.
2002		Teen Lingo: The Source for Youth Ministry 🌐 spittin’ game To try to impress someone of the opposite sex, or ‘picking up’ on someone by ‘sweet talking’ them. ‘Check out Jose over there spitting game with those hootchies!’.
2005		A. Swartz ‘Sweet, Tight and Hella Stupid’ in S.F. University High School Update Mar.–Apr. 2: spittin’ game – flirting.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 11: I had already caught the eye of a few honeys that worked there and I had started to spit game to them.
2015		Chief Keef ‘Laurel Canyon’ 🎵 I ain’t gotta talk, ain’t gotta spit game.

2. to deliver rap lyrics.

1988

Too $hort ‘Cusswords’ 🎵 Motherfucker can’t spit straight game on the mic.

(US) to challenge (to a fight).

1894

Mirror of Life 24 Feb. 14/1: As soon as he [i.e. Billy the Kid]had name and fame as a blood letter, every drunken cowboy who happened to meet him alone couldn’t resist the temptation of ‘tapping his game’.

(US black) to hoax, to trick, to deceive, esp. when selling drugs.

1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 27/2: When ‘whupping the game’ on a ‘trick’ or a ‘lame’ (trying to get goods or services from someone who looks like he can be swindled), rapping is often descriptive of the highly stylized verbal part of the maneuver.
1961		H. Ellison ‘High Dice’ in Gentleman Junkie 92: Stop tryin’ to whup the game on me, boy.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: whipping the game on an expression describing the act of successfully manipulating another person by fast talking with an attempt to hasten him into impulsive action. Those good at whipping the game are said to have a heavy game or front. Those poor have a lightweight game; e.g. He tried to whip the game on the kid, but he didn’t know the kid created the game and made the rules.
1972		T. Kochman ‘Kinetic Element in Black Idiom’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 162: Other operators on the street who are looking for a chance to ‘whup’ (Chicago) or ‘run’ (Los Angeles, New York) ‘a game’ (trick someone out of some money) are known as ‘slicks’ or ‘slicksters,’ by virtue of the ease with which they operate their deceptive maneuvers.

see under whup v.

see separate entry.

(W.I.) a risible figure, a laughing-stock.

1943, 1957

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).