window, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

window n.

also pane (of glass), windowpane

1. a monocle, an eyeglass.

1890		Sporting Times 22 Feb. 3/1: Up comes a toff, all cuffs and collar, and a pane o’ glass in his eye.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 262: Putting up his ‘windowpane,’ as his cousin irreverantly called his eye-glass.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 30/2: When these young bits of haw-haw borrow a swallow tail coat and a crook stick, and a bit of window to shove into their weak peepers, and then go into the Gaiety with an order, strike us purple if they’re not at their best then.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 385: Pane of Glass. Monocle.
1923		J. Manchon Le Slang.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 190/1: Dressed with a Pane. Wearing an eyeglass.

2. see windows n.¹ (1)

SE in slang uses

In compounds

window-blind (n.)

a sanitary towel.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

window climber (n.)

see porch climber under porch n.

window-licker (n.) [‘Comes from the ‘special’ people who ride on ‘special’ buses, sitting on the bus, face leant against the glass, tongue hanging out’ Dict. Playground Sl.]

(UK juv.) a mentally handicapped person, thus adj. window-licking.

2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [suimmer 2016]: [Y]e never can tell a windae-licking Jambo cunt anything.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 window licker n. derog. A spacker.

window-man (n.) [Afk. vensterkies, a little window or vensterjies kyk, to look at little windows, i.e. one who pretends to be gazing into shop windows when embarrassing friends appear]

(S.Afr.) a coloured person who is trying to pass as white and thus cuts their darker friends or relatives when they see them in public.

1957

A. Sampson Drum 206: They’re called Vensterkies, or ‘window-men,’ because when they see their old Coloured friends they stare into a shop window.

window-monkey (n.)

(US) a shop window mannequin.

1931

P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘I was promised the Commissioner’s job—the damn, dressed-up, window monkey!’.

window-peeper (n.) [he ‘peeps’ at the number of windows a house has]

a collector of the window tax.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

window shop (v.) [play on SE]

(US) to go out looking for desirable members of the opposite sex; thus window-shopping n.

1960		E. Hoagland Circle Home 85: Kelly sauntered uptown on Ninth Avenue to watch the women who were buying groceries and doodads. What made better scenery than women? He was in a mood to windowshop.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 215: window shop to browse, just look over the material.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 102: We do not allow window-shopping here [i.e. in a gay brothel].
2000		Guardian Editor 7 Apr. 9: I window shop. I say to Jules ‘look at the backside on that,’ but I’m just not really the cheating kind.

window warrior (n.)

(UK prison) a prisoner who shouts from his cell window.

2003

Observer Crime 27 Apr. 28: Window warrior. A prisoner who constantly shouts from his cell window.