Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to spend money, esp. on drink.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Melt c. to spend Money. Will you Melt a Bord? c. Will you spend your Shilling? The Cull Melted a couple of Decusses upon us c. the Gentleman spent ten Shillings upon us.
1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 19: And if any of their Acquaintance gives them L’argent, then they jump into their Cellar to melt it.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1748		Dyche & Pardon New General Eng. Dict. (5th edn).
1756		W. Toldervy Hist. of the Two Orphans IV 45: Heartley then gave a crown to Gregory, who [...] had the ambition (according to the words of Humphry) to melt it at Ashley’s pinch-house.
1765		Foote The Commissary 6: mrs. mech.: Give him the sixpence, then. [...] coachm.: It will be to your health, mistress; it shall melt at the Meuse, before I go home.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Melt. To spend; (cant) will you melt a borde? will you spend a shilling; the cull melted a couple of decusses upon us; the gentleman spent a couple of crowns upon us.
c.1790		‘De Kilmainham Minit’ in Luke Caffrey’s Gost 6: And when dat he mill’d a fat slap, / He me-ri-ly melted de winner.
1804		Sporting Mag. Jan. XXIII 189/1: The nobleman whose acres were nightly melting in the dice-box.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1825		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 189: He keeps up such a flashy show; / And then he’s melted down.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II ii: He seems in a melting mood; now’s the time to get something outof him.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 27 Aug. n.p.: The leaders of two of the celebrated fire companies, all evidently pleased as having ‘melted’ a quarter.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 115: Mest [sic], to spend.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 54: melt To spend money. ‘The cove melted a finiff in lush before we parted,’ the fellow spent five dollars for drink before we parted.
1868		Reade & Boucicault Foul Play III 84: I had him arrested before he had time to melt the notes.
1882		‘Paris Inside Out’ in Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 Dec. 6/2: The boys at first were very indignant that Joe should make such a blamed, blooming idiot of himself as to go and melt his pile on a racket in a foreign land,.
1883		J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 228: If there’s a pound earned I’ll wager she melts half of it in gin.
1890		Sporting Times 3 May 1/3: Its a wonderful thing, in connection with cash, / There’s never much trouble in ‘blewing’ it / Some melt it in gargles, or else on a mash.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 48: Melt, to spend money.
1896		Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Maid of London Ere We Part 🎵 So of songs and dresses he'd bought her a perfect feast / Melted just a ‘monkey’.
1904		R. Sunyasee ‘Dad’s Cheque’ in Bulletin 28 Jan. n.p.: There’s this and that the kiddies want, / There’s rent, and tea, and flour; / Dad’s money takes a month to earn – / ’Tis melted in an hour!
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 July 4/7: Turn on the taps like water jets, / And let the juice flow free— / We’ll melt our cheques like blanky men / And part without a pang.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘His Lincoln Form’ Sporting Times 12 Mar. 1/3: The few in the know always cater / In accordance, and take special care so to act / That he shan’t melt it all on some plater.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Father Who Jumped In’ in Ade’s Fables 84: Daughter alone could induce him to un buckle, and melt, and jar loose, and come across, and kick in, and sting the Check-Book.
[2000		Guardian 21 Jan. 32: How is we footballers going to keep up our rep as the biggest of spenders if he can swan around unhindered melting the plastic?].

2. to come to orgasm.

1620		T. Carew ‘Second Rapture’ Poems (1772) 174: In whose sweet embraces I, May melt myself to lust and die .
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 24 8–15 Nov. 105: But come (quoth he) let’s swive[?] and melt together, / Nor Bashfulness nor Modesty weighs a feather.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 24 Jan. 7/3: In your soft arms I’d fain perspire, / And melt in rapture, plump Sophia.

3. to beat up; thus melter n.; melting n.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 118: Melting — a sound drubbing, all one way. A melter is he who punisheth and the thing administered is a melting — a corruption of malletting.

4. to cash a cheque or break a note.

1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 4: ‘Vot; eighteen shillings for that 'ere little pig!’ exclaimed the astounded sportsman [...] But Mr. Stubbs was obdurate [and] Mr. Richard Grubb was compelled to ‘melt a sovereign’.
1868		Reade & Boucicault Foul Play lii: I had him arrested before he had time to melt the notes .
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 272: I’ll be off to melt this before thim thaves of money-changers be closed.
1929		J.B. Booth London Town 245: Sam [...] if the security had his approval, would be prepared to ‘melt’ an acceptance at the rate of sixty per cent.

5. (Aus./N.Z.) to spend one season’s pay on one extended binge.

1862		(ref. to c.1850) Border Watch (Mt Gambier, SA) 4 July 3/2: [A] shepherd would sometimes come in with his entire year’s wages, and in the most classical and approved slang language of these primitive times exclaim, ‘Here is my cheque! — I want to melt it’.
1867		Sth Aus. Register (Adelaide, SA) 7 Oct. 2/4: Their cheques begin to be ‘melted’ at the bush public-house instead of being taken to the settled districts to be invested.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Nov. 16/3: [M]ost of our fellows are fighting, cursing, blaspheming and drinking, drinking, drinking! – notwithstanding the fact that this may be their last shearing cheque for a year or two to come. When their cheques are melted they’ll jump their horses over the bar, and then, maddened and weakened, will have to foot it away across those endless downs to God knows where.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Sept. 36/1: No more his cheques, as the cheques one-time, / He’ll melt in the old way mulish; / No more he’ll graft through a year of grime / For the sake of ‘benders’ foolish.

6. to leave.

1881		Newcastle Courant 16 Sept. 6/5: Vardo, the grabs are leerie, don’t wait for darkmans but melt.
1957		C. MacInnes City of Spades (1964) 65: I could see no sign of Hamilton, and hoped he’d melted.
1962		W.R. Burnett Widow Barony 168: They melted quickly down an alley.

7. (US black, also melt out) to run out of money, to have no money.

1934		J.T. Farrell ‘The Benefits of American Life’ in Short Stories (1937) 221: Takiss was out of work in the winter, and again his savings melted.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 200: At first it was like all right, because I had some bread going for me, but them few hundred bucks melted real fast and all I had was a growing habit.
1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 182: And if I ever did melt out I’d just blasé up.

8. (US) to divorce.

1930

W. Winchell On Broadway 3 Jan. [synd. col.] The jim Tullys, who shelved pride to try it [i.e. marriage] a second times, are being melted in Reno.

9. (US black) to marry.

1936

D. Burley in Chicago Defender 7 Mar. 14: Eddie Matthews [...] will melt with Altonell Hines [...] soon, they say.

10. (US campus) to drink oneself into unconsciousness.

1932

J.A. Shidler ‘More Stanford Expressions’ in AS VII:6 436: A drunkard is a ‘funnel,’ ‘tank,’ ‘blotter,’ or ‘sponge’; he ‘passes out’, ‘folds,’ ‘melts,’ is ‘whipped,’ if he drinks to unconsciousness.

11. (US campus) to delight, thrill or attract someone.

1943		Chicago Trib. Graphic Section 26 Dec. 7/1: Jive Talk [...] Melt me — show me a good time.
1968		Current Sl. II:4 8: Melt, v. To impress.