Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see also separate entries.

the Devil.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 821/2: C.19–20.

the Devil; often in phr. like old billy, very hard, very energetically.

1797		‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized II ii: But my conscience flew in my face, and as Old Billy says, ‘Conscience makes cowards of us all!’.
1847		Grant Co. Herald (Lancaster, WI) 26 June vol. 5 16: The bombs flew and fell, and hissed and fried [...] as if Old Billy up there [...] had been reigning [sic] half-eagles on’em.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 213: The [cannon] balls did whistle round like ‘old Billy’.
1906		Marvel 16 June 558: If I don’t write to ’im now there’ll be old Billy to pay.

(usu. Scot.) the Devil.

1786		Burns ‘Address to the Devil’ in Poetical Works (1871) 26: O Thou, whatever title suit thee! / Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie.
1841		Knickerbocker Mag. Nov. 54: In my boyhood I had been accustomed to gaze at those windows, and wonder whether ‘old Clootie,’ as Burns calls him, ever had come through them .
1848		Manchester Times 4 July 7/1: The monks then chained Old Clootie down, despite his yells and cries.
1863		Dundee, Perth & Cupar Advertiser 14 Apr. 2/5: These illustrations are very amusing, ‘Old Clootie’ [...] represented with the orthodox tail and horns.
1869		Man about Town 2 Oct. 27/2: And such a devil too; not the fiery-horned ‘Auld Cloutie’ of Burns, but a benevolent-looking devil.
1872		Bucks Herald 3 Feb. 4/2: Here lies the cobbler, George Odger, / In politics an Artful Dodger, / [...] / Yet we in kindness do forgive him, / If old ‘Clootie’ will but take him.
1882		Dundee Courier 6 Feb. 4/2: A black figure, with horns and wings and hoofs and a forky tail — / In fact old Clootie himself.
1884		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 26 Jan. 6/2: The house enjoyed the reputation of being haunted [...] by no one more or less than auld Clootie himself.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Mar. 10/1: Where’er you are, just ‘give it lip,’ / Smack Clootie on the crown, / And you will find, sir – take our tip – / They cannot put you down.
1890		Leeds Times 1 Feb. 6/4: I picked myself up, and ran as though Old Clootie himself were after me.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 28 Apr. 1/7: Sandy hauds the Turf as Auld Clootie’s ain hop-scotch.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Dec. 31/1: Imagine the sensation created in Bungville by [...] a highly-respected Judge [...] madly flying before Auld Clootie himself, armed with a red-hot crowbar.

(US) the Devil.

1858

W. Pratt Ten Nights in a Bar-Room III i: Say, Green, I don’t know whether you believe in a hot place, [...] but I do, and if old clubfoot don’t treat you to a brimstone bath before long, he will neglect his business most confoundedly.

see Davy Jones’s locker n.

the Devil.

1877		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (4th edn) 437: Old Driver, euphemism for the devil.
1895		K.D. Wiggin Village Watch-Tower 68: Pitts’ relations or not, they’re all wuss’n the Old Driver [DA].

the Devil.

1939

P.G. Brewster ‘Folk “Sayings” From Indiana’ in AS XIV:4 268: The following terms referring to the Devil: ‘the Old Boy,’ ‘old Hairy,’ ‘the Old Scratch,’ ‘old Nick,’ ‘the booger (bogie) man,’ ‘the Bad Man,’ ‘the Black Man,’ and ‘old Ned’.

see Old Harry n. (1)

1. the Devil.

1786		Burns ‘Address to the Devil’ in Poetical Works (1871) 26: O Thou, whatever title suit thee! / Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie.
1832		John Menzies of Aberdeen 1: It is auld Hornie sure enough, / He is a mongrel man.
1844		R. Huddleston ‘Doddery Willowaim’ Collection of Poems and Songs 29: Auld Horn was in a quarry planted [...] On ane sae noted, in disguise; / ’Twas seated close to Satan’s left.
1853		in DARE.
1866		Dundee Advertiser 10 July 5/5: This juvenile representative of ‘Auld Hornie’ managed to gain an entrance.
1874		Lincs. Chron. 29 May 8/4: When a poet [...] addresses him as ‘Auld Hornie’ or ‘Auld Cloots’.
1886		Star (Guernsey) 8 Apr. 4/3: We may consider Acham [...] a representative of ‘uld Hornie’.
1896		R.L. Stevenson Weir of Hermiston 287: Auld Hornie, the Devil.
1900		Eve. Post (Lanarks) 19 Nov. 5/2: ‘Auld Horney’ appeared in a different light — as a nineteenth century gentleman.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 80: ‘And who the hell is Old Horny? [...]’ ‘Old Horny is the devil.’.

2. see also SE compounds below.

1. (Aus.) the Devil.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 25 July 14/4: You’ve euchred the Old Lad, Poll Cott, / And very badly too, / If ever he was ‘had,’ Poll Cott, / He has been had by you; / He held you in his mesh, Poll Cott, / He thought, beyond a doubt; / You’ve tipped him something fresh, Poll Cott, / By deftly wriggling out!

2. see also SE compounds below.

1. the Devil.

1785

Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. see also SE compounds below.

1. (US) the Devil.

1929		Blanche Calloway ‘Black and Blue’ 🎵 Pains in my head, / Feel like Old Ned, / What did I do / To be so black and blue?
1939		P.G. Brewster ‘Folk “Sayings” From Indiana’ in AS XIV:4 268: The following terms referring to the Devil: [...] ‘old Ned’.
1949		Journal of Amer. Folklore Jan.–Mar. 63: The devil was referred to as ‘Old Ned’ or ‘Old Scratch’ [DA].

2. see also SE compounds below.

the Devil.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1793		Sporting Mag. May II 128/1: This breeze like the Old One will kick us / Abut on the boisterous main.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1818		Morn. Post (London) 2 Jan. 3/4: A Word for the Old One [...] The Devil knows how to take care of his own.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1846		Durivage & Burnham Stray Subjects (1848) 23: They call me Dare-Devil Hans – ’Egad! I wish I could only get the speech of the Old-One, I fancy we could strike a bargain.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

the Devil.

a.1797		H. Walpole Letters iv 359: As if old Poker was coming to take them away [F&H].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Old Poger. The Devil.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1811].

(later use Irish) the Devil.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: old roger the Devil.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1828		Berks. Chron. 22 Mar. 1/5: John Fletcher complained of certain young people [...] for insulting him on his own premises. The mother [...] was a very violent women; for she [...] came into his shop and calls out, ‘What, Old Roger, won’t you have a bit of tripe>’.
1975		E. Brady All in! All in! 119: Old Roger got up got up and he gave her a clout, / Gave her a clout, gave her a clout.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 277: Old Nick. One of many old nicknames for the devil, e.g., the Old Gentleman, Old Harry, Old Roger, and Old Scratch.

(US black) the Devil.

1834		W.A. Caruthers Kentuckian in N.Y. I 29: Suppose you should meet with some fine lady acquaintances, what, in the name of old Sam, would you do with me?
1980		(con. 1930s) J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 227: When I was a girl in the country, the Negroes used to speak of the devil as Old Sam.

the Devil; thus raise old Scratch v., to cause a disturbance.

1732		Delightful Adventures of Honest John Cole 27: If Old Scratch should be White, as the Blacks say he is, then there will be the Devil to pay between them.
1741		‘Conny Keyber’ An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews 27: She is as jealous, and suspicious, as old Scratch.
1762		Smollett Sir Launcelot Greaves II 198: He must have sold himself to old scratch; and being a servant of the devil, how could he be a good subject to her majesty.
1781		J. O’Keeffe Dead Alive (1783) 42: How is Old Scratch and all our black friends below?
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue .
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 134: For by scolds even lawyers surpass’d are; / Law’s limbs may be had by Old Scratch.
1811		J. Poole Hamlet Travestie I v: I thought ’twas Old Scratch.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1837		R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods I 117: Stolen away, sir, by the etarnal Old Scratch!
1838		R.S. Surtees Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 200: ‘Old Scratch, then?’ ‘Old Scratch breeches,’ re-echoed the Countess—‘no, dat shall not do.’ —‘Beelzebub?’ rejoined Mr. Jorrocks.
1840		London Mag. Mar. 88/1: ‘[T]he sky was as black as Thole's cloak, or old Scratch's night-cap’.
1844		J.C. Neal Peter Ploddy and Other Oddities 110: They frighten me like Old Scratch.
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 95: He’s been keeping up such a growling and a scrowling [...] that I thought it was Old Scratch come for you, and getting impatient.
c.1865		‘Divil’s own Boy’ in Fred Shaw’s Champion Comic Melodist 18: I raised old scratch at such a rate, / I had to cut my stick away.
1876		‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer 19: He’s full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he’s my own dead sister’s boy.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 14/2: We have only one thing clear in our minds: we wish the Germans in England, high and highest, to Old Scratch, and that fellow Bismarck, whom they are always helping, to the bottomless pit. He and they are the cause of the mischief.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 23: Sometimes you eat too much, sometimes you drink too much, and sometimes you do both. In any event, you feel like the very old scratch the next morning.
1902		Cornishman 31 July 7/4: Some say that the Devil got the name of Old Scratch from Skrat, the wood-spirit.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 367: Scratch, n. The devil: often with Old. ‘He is as mean as the Old Scratch.’.
1914		G.A. England ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in DN IV:ii 79: Scratcher, the Old, n. The devil.
1926		in J.F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning 92: What in the old Scratch?
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 43: Don’t ever you stray down the pleasure paths of sin Old Scratch would derned well like fer you t’ be a-travellin’.
1949		Journal of Amer. Folklore Jan.–Mar. 63: The devil was referred to as ‘Old Ned’ or ‘Old Scratch’ [DA].
1960		(con. 1925) L. Masters Back-Country Tales 256: Bad cess to you [...] May ould Scratch himself take you.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 675: Stu’s way of saying Old Scratch is after us.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 277: Old Nick. One of many old nicknames for the devil, e.g., the Old Gentleman, Old Harry, Old Roger, and Old Scratch.
1992		P. Earley Hot House 351: ‘I had been stretched out flat on my back for four days, about half-expecting ‘Old Scratch’ to come knocking at the door’ .
2006		R. Hughes Things I Didn’t Know (2007) 131: That round certainly went to Old Scratch.

the Devil.

1884

Leics. Chron. 17 May 12/1: Poor Shenkin went speeding as if the Old Shaver were close at his heels.

the Devil.

1862		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd series (1880) 27: They go at it like an Ericsson’s ten-hoss-power coleric ingine, / An’ make Ole Split-Foot winch an’ squirm, for all he’s used to singein’.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 595: The devil is in like manner concealed behind the deuce (stated by Junius and others to be from deus), and the dickens, Old Nick, Old Harry, Old Scratch, and Old Splitfoot.
1881		Milan Exchange (TN) 28 May 1/5: By jingo [...] ole Split-huf hisself’s out a fishing tonight!

see also separate entries.

(UK Und.) a notorious thief.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

the penis.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1998		P. Bailey Kitty and Virgil (1999) 54: It’s one of the last women [...] I involved myself with – the dreaded ST, who killed off the old Adam in Felix Crozier after a single night of love.

(US) run-down, dilapidated, old.

1969		B. Beckham My Main Mother 148: You jivetime, old-assed motherfucker, you talk like them social workers.
1991		W.T. Vollmann Whores for Gloria 39: He’d sit in goddamn jail till ... till that old-ass buildin’ there fell down in the street!

a priest.

1832		Egan Bk of Sports 85: ‘Old Amen’ comes in for his fee, and perhaps for something to whet his whistle.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 8: Tithe-pig - Priest, cure. Also, Old Amen.

(W.I.) old clothes.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 38: Ol’ bruck any and all items, of used clothing: u. me nuh wear ol’ bruck.

a genial drinker.

1864		Dundee, Perth & Cupar Advertiser 18 Nov. 5/1: ‘Too much spirit in the port, indeed!’ exclaimed old Beeswing to a friendcoc.
1867		M. Lemon Golden Fetters II 264: Mr. Clendon did not call Mr. Barnard ‘old cock,’ ‘old fellow,’ or ‘old beeswing’.

see betsy n.

the penis.

1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 34: Penis [...] old blind bob.
1972		R.A. Wilson Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words.

death.

1772

G. Stevens ‘The Jolly Soul’ in Songs Comic and Satyrical 64: If Master Death thrusts himself into my room, / They tell me, he always makes free, / I’ll try if I can’t tip old Boney a hum, / If not, why, may-hap he hums me.

(Aus. prison) a cell.

1895

C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 54: Old Boss, prison cell.

(Aus.) the anus.

1941

Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

(W.I.) an old person who acts younger than their age.

1956

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

see dirty bundle under dirty adj.

(Aus.) one’s (occas. someone else’s) mother.

1979

Lette & Carey Puberty Blues 54: Seeya later old cheese!

a term of endearment.

1878

‘’Arry to the Front!’ in Punch 9 Mar. 100/2: But Charlie, old chip, there’s a Party, a nasty, mean, snivelling gang.

(Aus.) a general term of intimate affection; lit. ‘old chicken’.

1915		C.J. Dennis ‘Hitched’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 80: ‘My little girl!’ she ’owls. ‘O, treat ’er well! / She’s young-too young to leave ’er muvver’s nest!’ / ‘Orright, ole chook,’ I nearly sez. O, ’ell!
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 100: That ‘old chook’ up the corner shop’d ‘skin a louse for its hide’.

1. a man, esp. as a term of affectionate address.

1835		R.W. Williams Mephistopheles in England II 132: I say, Old Cockalorum! how's your wife?
1850		Fast Man 14:1 n.p.: [Y]ou don't probably know, my young cockleorum, that I've taken the Crown and Cushion in Parker Street.
1855		T. Cooper Family Feud 361: Why, what, my old cockalorum! eh! I say, you look down on your luck!
1876		D. Gilmour Paisley Weavers 67: Thank you, old Cockalorum, I’ll no forget your sermon.
1881		‘New Year’s Day’ in Pearl Christmas Annual 22: It’s a pity such a jolly old cockolorum can’t enjoy a bit of young cunt now and then.
1885		‘’Arry on Law and Order’ in Punch 10 Jan. 249/2: [caption] Ow are you, old cockalorum.
1894		Newcastle Courant 18 Aug. 2/7: The old cockalorum who was a little bit moppy.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Apr. 3rd sect. 17/3: A very beery scribe who insisted on slapping ‘P.P.’ on the spine and calling him ‘old cockalorum’.
1918		S. Bourke & Mornington Jrnl (Richmond, Vic.) 11 July 2/8: Ribuck, old cockalorum.

2. (Aus.) sexual intercourse.

1843

Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 18 Mar. 2/3: Not yet is she fit in the ‘jorum’, / To enjoy the old ‘cock-a-lorum’, / She’s too tender for the bull’s rushing, / Too delicate for a man’s pushing.

(UK Und.) a veteran dice cheat.

1552		G. Walker Detection of Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play 29: This new-nurtured novice [...] is become so good a scholar, that he knoweth readily his flats and barris, and hath been snapper with the old cole at 2 or 3 deep strokes.
1608		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) IV i: Say no more, old cole, meet me anon at the signe of the Shipwracke.

see old boy n.

1. a generally misogynistic ref. to an old woman.

1895		J. Greenwood Behind A Bus 24: Had it been a nice-looking gal, I could have made allowance, but a winegar-faced old crow, like what she is, you ought to feel ashamed of yourself.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 200: ‘And leave me married to that old crow while you skiddoo,’ groaned Pinafore.
1914		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 7 Jan. [synd. cartoon] T’ tell you the truth Dick, I though she was an old crow.
1933		Hecht & Fowler Great Magoo 119: What’s that old crow writing you for?
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 43: Courtesy and civility to all. That’s my motto ... Come on, you old crow!
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 29: I reckon the old crow’s jealous.
1970		C. Brown Down All the Days 82: You that did more work in bed than that frost-bitten oul crow next door ever did in a month of Sundays.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 152: ‘I don’t want to leave this post’ the suspicious crow hints.

2. a general term of abuse, not spec. of a woman.

1898		H. Macilwaine Dinkinbar 115: Where’s that – old crow of a mate of yours.
1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 50: Soon as a old crow gits up in d’ world, he got to grab hisse’f some other guy’s wife.
1935		H.L. Davis Honey in Horn 147: That one-armed old crow was lookin’ her over. You want to look out for him.
1943		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Faustus Kelly in ‘Flann O’Brien’ Stories & Plays (1973) 188: This ould crow is right. You won’t be sanctioned.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 11: I don’t just walk in here and see this boozing old crow and get the drum about a champion.
1969		J. Hibberd Dimboola (2000) 73: Don’t talk to me, you bloody old crow!

1. an old woman.

1851

R.S. Surtees Young Tom Hall (1926) 310: His lordship wishing he could put the old curiosity up the chimney, or anywhere else to get rid of her.

2. one’s wife.

1929

(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 42: Not that I see anything much in these French girls, you know: my ol’ curiosity at ’ome would make most of ’em look silly.

(W.I.) old clothes.

1958

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

the vagina.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see dirt road n.

(Irish/Cork) a girlfriend (age being irrelevant).

2017

L. McInerney Blood Miracles 66: It’s no odds to the dads, is it, whether their sons have ould dolls or not?

(US) a grizzly bear.

1883

Daily News 2 Feb. in Ware (1909) 186/2: The hunter on the lonely heights of the Rocky Mountains is far too well armed to-day to fear [...] ‘Old Ebenezer’, the renowned grizzly bear himself.

(N.Z. prison) a veteran inmate.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 129/1: old egg n. a well-established inmate who has been in prison for some time.

(US) menstruation.

1954		‘Misc.’ AS XXIX:4 298: Reference to Visitors or Persons [...] Old Faithful.
1999		J. Randall ‘A Visit from Aunt Rose’ in Verbatim XXV:1 Winter 25: Other blood codes make reference to the gushing or flowing of blood, such as Old Faithful (which also suggests periodicity) or on a streak (the Rolling Stones song ‘Satisfaction’ includes the lyric ‘Baby, better come back / later next week / ’cause you see / I’m on a losin’ streak’).

a miser.

1841		Dickens Old Curiosity Shop (1999) 61: It’s equally plain that the money which the old flint— rot him— first taught me to expect that I should share with him at his death, will all be hers.
1850		W.K. Northall Life and Recollections of Yankee Hill 163: In modern New England varsion, the select men air ‘old flints,’ I reckon ’cause some on’ em air a leetle flinty-hearted.
1889		Era (London) 21 Dec. 15/1: Dramatic sketch entitled ‘ld Flint; or the Miser’s Daughter’.

(Irish) an affectionate term of address; esp. as my old flower.

[1829		‘Noctes Ambrosianae’ XLIV in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Mag. June 794: I was not speaking to you, my old flower of Aldgate].
1901		Coventry Eve. Teleg. 17 Oct. 3/3: That’s my gay old flower. You’ve spotted the winner.
1944		F. O’Connor Crab Apple Jelly 18: ‘Well, my old flower,’ he said with his rogue’s smile, ‘so ’tis here I find you.’.
1951		F. O’Connor Traveller’s Samples 14: ‘Hullo, my old flower,’ said one tall man, grinning at me.
1966		Eve. Press 21 Nov. n.p.: A hard ticket [...] can take fivepence from a nun with the comment ‘Five dee is dead right — there y’are — God bless you, me oul’ flower’ [BS].
1970		C. Brown Down All the Days 149: Ireland needs more of your sociable kind, me oul flower.
1982		(con. 1930s–50s) E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 150: ‘Ah! It’s not the Union for you me oul’ flower,’ said the conductor.
1995		press advert Kirwans Florists 18 Sept.: samme oul flower, You’re welcome home. Congrats to the Dubs from kirwans [BS].
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Me ould segotia, me ould sweat, me ould flower (n): best friend.
2006		D. Breckenridge Brooklyn Rail Fiction Anthol. 220: ‘I give you da keys when you give me da money’ — Easier said than done Christos my old flower — but I didn’t say that.

(W.I.) describing older people.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 38: Ol’ foot of older people.

(Aus./W.I.) an ageing, unattractive and prob. over-dressed woman.

1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Oct. 13/1: Bill acquired the right to hug; but – unlucky youth! – / That old fowl, Maloney’s wife, told his girl the truth.
1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 FOWL—Old woman; obnoxious women.

an old(er) man.

1905

A. Binstead Mop Fair 4: Féo’s polished, sin-worn, stockbroking old fragment is distinctly [...] flighty.

1. in cards, the ace of spades [the shape of the spade could resemble a beard].

1864		Western Dly Press 1 Jan. 4/3: The shilling duty was to be denoted on the ace of spades [...] the ‘duty one shilling’ ace, called ‘Old Frizzle’ on account of the elaborate flourishes which adorned it.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 824/1: late C.19–20.

2. someone wearing a wig e.g. a liveried servant.

1836		Leeds Times 26 Nov. 3/1: Old Frizzle arrives to dress me.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 143: I am the representative of the Count Chantrais, so lead the way to the guv’ner, old frizzle.

3. the vagina [ref. to pubic hair].

1980

Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 189: To play Irish whist is when the Jack takes the Ace (= Old Frizzle).

(N.Z. prison) a 100mg tablet of morphine sulphate.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 129/1: old fulla n. a 100mg morphine sulphate tablet.

a foolish, second-rate man.

1922

Colton & Randolph Rain III i 206: sadie: I’m sorry Handsome, but I see clear. o’hara: See clear! Why this old gadget’s got you so it’s like your doped.

(UK Und.) a rich old man.

1718		C. Hitchin Regulator 20: An old Gager, alias a rich old man.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxviii: An Old Gager A Rich old Man.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving .

a group or clique of friends or colleagues.

1885		J. Chamberlain in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era (1909) 187/1: In deference to his [i.e. Lord Randolph Churchill’s] opinion, there will no doubt be a clearance out of some of those whom the Fourth Party is in the habit of politely designating as the ‘*Old Gang’.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Aug. 11/4: Such an appointee would certainly be one of the old gang.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 164: Walking along [...] wondering what the old gang in New York would think of me.
1910		Aberdeen Jrnl 27 June 3/6: Youth must still wait to be served. The ‘Old Gang’ is not going to surrender easily.
1914		Joyce ‘A Little Cloud’ Dubliners (1956) 73: I met some of the old gang today.
1949		West. Morn. News 19 Apr. 1/2: [He] said that the ‘old gang’ was still at the head of industry.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 86: Half the old gang’ll be there.

1. (US) one’s father.

1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 52: Cicero Mutt said – ‘Yes, ’tis true that that my old gent will assist in my defense.’.
1935		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 8 June [synd. col.] There’s no better description than ‘The Old Gent’ for a type of father.

2. a husband.

c.1940

‘Boots in “Too Good”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 25: Gosh lady this is awful nice of you – but spose yer old gent should walk in.

(US black) anything seen as unfashionable, out of date.

1947

M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl.

1. (Irish) a stubborn individual.

2021

L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 11: ‘Oh, don’t be such an old goat. The lad has a gift, will you let him make use of it?’.

2. see goat n.¹ (1)

human excrement.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Laystall, a dungill [...] where the old gold collected at weddings by the Tom t—d man, is stored.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1785].

smuggled tea.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.

(UK prison) a prison uniform.

1950

P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 191/2: Old Grey Suit. Prison garb.

(US) death.

1881

Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890) 16: Grim. A skeleton. Old Grim. Death.

(UK Und.) an old prostitute.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict. n.p.: Old haggums an old worn out cyprian.

(US black) the sun.

1934		Z.N. Hurston Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 80: When Lucy woke up, old Hannah was riding high.
1951		‘Old Hannah’ in Negro Prison Camp Worksongs 🎵 Well, I looked at old Hannah, well, well, well, she was turning red.
1972		D. Dalby ‘Afr. element in Amer. Eng.’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 184: ol’ Hannah—‘sun’.

see old bean under bean n.²

1. a woman, esp. an old one.

1908		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 4 Apr. 2/3: Because a man called her an ‘old hen,’ a woman has been awarded £40 damages by a jury in [...] Missouri.
1919		(?) H. Lawson ‘The Story of Dotty’ in Roderick (1972) 887: We always knew she was an old hen.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 55: I don’t want all the old hens in the home to start talkin.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 106: I don’t know how to get rid of the old hen.
1946		(con. 1910s) J. Thompson Heed the Thunder (1994) 85: Bella never went visiting [...] A lot of stupid old hens chasing back a forth to each others’ houses.
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 133: You think this Jamaica? You bringing old hen to dance?
1979		(con. 1930s) J. Wolveridge He Don’t Know ‘A’ from a Bull’s Foot 4: I married a wife old hen [...] My wife she dies old hen.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 191: old hen (one that is older than you are).

2. (US) used a man in fig. use of sense 1, an ‘old woman’.

1955

D. Hitchens Sleep with Strangers (1983) [ebook] ‘He’s an awful old hen of a man’.

(US) a $20 bill.

1966

in DARE.

(W.I.) a nagging old woman.

1937

E. Mittelholzer Creole Chips 10: Dah is to keep off de ol’ hye-g. De ol’ hye-g caan’ pass in through de window if you chalk up exes on de wall.

1. the penis.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues V 98/1: Old Horney (or Hornington) [...] (venery) The penis.
2012		P. Quarrington Life of Hope [ebook] It is time to point the finger of shame at the true villain of the tale, Hanging Johnny, also known by the names of Doctor Johnson, Uncle Dick, Jacques, Old Hornington, my man Thomas and Blind Bob.

2. see also Devil compounds above.

a miser.

1578		Lyly Euphues (1916) 92: Though Curio be old huddle and twang [...] I know Curio to be steel in the back.
1600		Munday & Drayton Sir John Oldcastle II i: If ever a wolf were clothed in sheep’s coat, Then I am he; old huddle and twang i’ faith .

1. (Aus./N.Z.) anyone who has lived in the same place for a long time, a regular resident.

1862		Otago Daily Times 15 Apr. 5/2: Among the numerous late arrivals in Otago there is a too general tendency to disparage the older settlers [...] and to apply to them in a semi-contemptuouis manner, a phrase which one ol themselves once employed in the sincerity of his heart, — ‘the old identity’.
1862		C.R. Thatcher Dunedin Songster No. 1 [title] The old identity.
1878		Eve. Star (Waikato, NZ) 7 Feb. 2/2: We are sorry to hear that Mr P. Burke, an old identity, is very unwell, having been prostrated by the breaking of a blood vessel.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Aug. 22/2: Anyway, it is held by an old Clarence River identity, who has just been put through the mill in the most careful manner possible by one of those social pirates known as book-agents.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 21 Jan. 5/2: An Old Australian Identity. On Tuesday, January 16th, there passed away [...] an old identity in at least three colonies [...] a member of the great prolific family of Stephen.
1898		E. Dyson ‘Dead Man’s Lode’ in Below and On Top 🌐 Peter Shaw, variously known as ‘The Identity,’ ‘The Hermit,’ ‘Blue Peter,’ and ‘Old Shaw,’ was a veteran fossicker.
1900		‘The Wayback Family’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 30 Dec. 5/1: Dads had met Billy Watkins, an old Bargo identity.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Apr. 3rd sect. 17: [photo caption] Two Albany Identities.
1937		Cornishman 12 Aug. 6/5: Zennor Man’s Death in Australia. A very old identity, in the person of the late Mr T.H. Daniel, passed away on June 22nd.
1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 88: The phrase old identity, to describe an old inhabitant, was popularized by R. Thatcher, of Dunedin, in a song satirizing the ‘new iniquities’ – the Australian mining immigrants of the 1860’s.
1946		P.L. Soljak N.Z. 117: New Zealanders have coined or adapted many expressions to meet local requirements, as illustrated by the following: [...] old identity: veteran settler.
1964		‘Charles Barrett’ Address: Kings Cross 69: Vince pointed out a lot of the really big identities to me.
1988		(ref. to 1860s) McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 60/1: identity local person of some stature, possibly quaint, usually because long-term resident; short for ‘old identity’; c.1862 [Ibid.] 79/1: old identity long-term resident, popularised by goldfields balladeer Charles Thatcher, coined by E.B. Cargill in Otago Provincial Council when he said early settlers should endeavour to preserve their old identity amidst all these 1860s new goldrush identities.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 158: That well-known Sydney nightclub owner and gambling identity Mr Perce Galea.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] Mr Speight was a well-known local identity.
2022		D. Andrew Aussie Sl. 16: Colourful Racing Identity A member of the criminal underclass.

2. a person, usu. an eccentric, a ‘character’.

1875		Parlty Debates (NZ House of Reps) 189: Mr. McGLASHAN cordially indorsed the statement of the honorable member for Taieri, and thought it very unfair on the part of the honorable member for Mount Ida to use ‘Old Identity’ as a term of reproach.
1879		W.J. Barry Up and Down 197: The old identities were beginning to be alive to the situation.
1879		Southland Times (Otago) 18 Aug. 2/2: Old Identity’s letter will appear tomorrow.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Oct. 11/2: An old Hawksbury identity [...] was sitting outside his pub., doing a quiet whiff one day, when a colporteur came along.
1887		Sth Bourke & Mornington Jrnl (Richmond, Vic.) 18 May 1s/2: It never seemed to strike those old identities as monotonous.
1894		H. Lawson ‘The Lost Souls’ Hotel’ in Roderick (1972) 155: I’d have to have a ‘character’ about the place — a sort of identity and joker to brighten up things.
1897		N.Z. Observer and Free Lance (Auckland) 27 Nov. 7/2: [picture caption] An Old Identity.
1902		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 1 Aug. 3/5: Mr ‘Billy’ Williams, an old identity of the North-west [of Australia] has found a nugget weighing 400 oz. at Friendly Creek .
1906		Hawera and Normanby Star (NZ) 27 Nov. 2/5: Robert Whetson, brewer, an old identity, is dead, aged 79.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 June 4/7: When an identity dies in Bendigo, as in many other places, a reporter is despatched to write a pathetic paragraph.
1911		Cornishman 27 Apr. 2/3: [from Adelaide Register] There is an old Burma identity whio may be often seen about, although he has reached the 80th year of his age.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 234/2: identity – character, as in our ‘he’s a character’.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] ‘You work for … how should I say it? Well-known racing identity Price Galese’.
2006		P. Carey Theft 181: Our father was a well-known marsh identity.
2014		http://www.pulpcurry.com Sept. 🌐 Melbourne true crime author, Adam Shand, currently working on a book about the life of criminal identity Mark Chopper Read.
2021		Betoota-isms 64: Colourful Racing Identity [...] 1. A euphemism for a person believed to be involved in criminal activity.

(N.Z. prison) cannabiis that has been cultivated outside, rather than indoors and hydroponically.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 129/1: old indica n. any marijuana grown outdoors, esp. in the bush (as opposed to being grown hydroponically as is most skunk weed).

(UK bingo) the number 17.

1980

T. McClenaghan Submariners I ii: Four and five, halfway, one and seven, old Ireland.

see Jack Lang n.

1. synon. of devil, the phr. (1)

1886

Sporting Times 3 Apr. 7/5: [A]sking him ‘What the Old Joe he’d brought him that slush for?’.

2. (US) syphilis.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 110: Twice I got old Joe, you know, a dose.
1972		R.A. Wilson Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words.
1980		A. Pearl Dict. Popular Sl.

1. a man, esp. as an affectionate term of address.

1590		‘Martin Marprelate’ Cuthbert Curry-Knaues Alms B3: Never trust an olde ladde whilest thou liuest.
1604		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 II i: How now old Lad, what doest cry?
1656		Mennis & Smith et al. ‘A Song’ Wit and Drollery 94: There was an old Lad, rode on an old Pad, / Unto an old punk a woing; / He laid the old punk, upon an old trunk, / Oh there was good old doing.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) I 218: I could go through with it [i.e. execuion] as if at a wedding, and particularly with you, old lad!
1848		Sinks of London Laid Open 63: What could any honest-hearted cadger do, but offer their pouch to the willing old lad.
1866		R. Hallam Wadsley Jack 1: Nah, owd lad, hah ar ta – midlin?
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 209: ‘Why, my dear old lad!’ cries he.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 16: Well, pitch it strong, old lad.
1928		A.W. Upfield House of Cain 34: Steady, old lad! Here come the Nosey Parkers.
1947		Sydney Morn. Herald 7 Feb. 7/6: If the old laddie hadn’t come up with his sticker, it would have been us, and no error.
1968		K. Amis letter 20 Apr. in Leader (2000) 697: Yes, and good to see you too, old lad.

2. a father.

1979

H. Leonard A Life (1981) Act II: Mib’s oul’ lad: he says we can bunk here.

3. see also Devil compounds above.

an old woman, or anyone behaving like one.

1975

A. Bleasdale Scully 95: I wasn’t going to dress up in a shawl like an old Mary. [Ibid.] 190: ‘Here,’ me Mam said. ‘Y’whinin’ old Mary.’.

see max n.

(N.Z. prison) a former inmate of the maximum security wing at Paremoremo Prison.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 129/1: old maxi boy n. an inmate who has come to another prison from big Parry, the maximum-security section of Paremoremo Prison.

gold.

1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 177: Old Mr. Cory A Piece of Gold.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Goree, Money, but chiefly Gold. Old-Mr.-Gory, a piece of Gold.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 18: A Piece of old Gold – Old Mr. Gory.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1937		Nott. Eve. Post 30 Apr. 6/3: Lesser known nicknames for sovereigns [...] ‘chip’ [...] ‘canary,’ ‘nob,’ ‘old Mr Gory’ [...] and ‘shiner’.

1. death.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl. 117: Morgue [...] Old Mr Grim’s House.
1987		M. Groening on Tracy Ullman Show [Fox-TV] Passed away...kicked the bucket, pulled the croak chain, had a meeting with Mr. Grim [HDAS].

2. see also Devil compounds above.

the Middlesex Music Hall.

1938		W. Matthews Cockney Past and Present 83: One of the most popular of Victorian halls, the Middlesex Music-Hall (now The Winter Garden Theatre) derived its nickname ‘The Old Mo’ from the name of the original rooms, The Great Mogul.
1995		(con. 1860s) P. Ackroyd Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem 82: Is it Effs tonight [...] or the Old Mo?

1. (US black) salt pork or bacon.

1833		J.E. Alexander Transatlantic Sketches II 83: A snow-white cloth was spread, on which were placed bacon, or ‘Old Ned,’ as it is called in Tennessee [DA].
1869		Overland Monthly (CA) Aug. 129: Southern smoke-cured pork, in distinction from the Northern salted article, in allusion to the famous negro song, was termed ‘Old Ned,’ from its sable appearance [DA].
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 353: Ol(d) Ned, n. Bacon. ‘We had plenty of Old Ned and corn dodger.’.
1936		Randolph & Clemens ‘5th Ozark Word List’ in AS XI:4 316/2: Old Ned, n. Home-cured bacon.

2. (N.Z. prison) the head [rhy. sl.].

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 129/1: old ned n. head.

3. see also Devil compounds above.

(W.I.) ragged work-clothes.

1959

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

(W.I.) a disreputable, down-at-heel person.

1954

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

(UK Und.) burglary.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

1. sexual intercourse.

2003

J. Duly ‘Breasts, Discrimination and Liberals’ From the Foot of Mount Belzoni 🌐 Breasts are just decoration. Oh, sure, they’re fun to play with, but when it comes to the old one-two, they’re not that involved in the process.

2. a lit. or fig. knockout blow.

1915		Day Book (Chicago) 6 Oct. 12/1: The veteran lightweight was put out with the old one-two punch, a right to the heart [...] and a left to the jaw.
1917		El Paso Herald (TX) 20 Oct. 34/1: His old ‘one-two’ is not as deadly as it used to be.
1933		Hecht & Fowler Great Magoo 83: The old one-two ... Bing! Bing!
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 152: I let loose with the old one-two and he fell on his ombongpong.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 148: Then she hit him with the old one-two.
2002		Time 160:19 4 Nov. 🌐 Competition chief suffers the old one-two in court [...] Last week Monti took a one-two punch from Bo Vesterdorf, president of the Luxembourg-based Court, in separate rulings.

3. (US) a forem of ‘double-act’ where one individual plays the ‘good guy’ and one plays the ‘bad guy’, esp. among police during an interrogation.

1959

Corsicana Dly Sun (TX) 17 Jan. 12/3,: When [the police] wanmted something very much, like getting a guy to admit to a stick-up, they put on an act,a tough-guy-soft-guy which they used to call the old one-two.

4. any form of deception or trickery.

2023

M. Herron Secret Hours 216: ‘Always pulling the old one-two shuffle. And instead of being right in front of me, you’re behind me with something large and pointy in your hand’.

(US) insincere, effusive talk.

1970

San Diego Sailor 28: [She] gave him the old one-two-three about how much she’d missed him.

a general term of address, esp. to a reserved, uncommunicative person.

1885		‘’Arry on the Elections’ in Punch 12 Dec. 277/2: It’s the cumpany does it, old hoyster, the cumpany!
1895		‘’Arry on the Elections’ in Punch 27 July 39/2: But ’ang it, I’m preaching, old oyster.

(Irish) one’s parents.

2000		P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 104: Christian tells me his old pair are having a lot of borneys lately.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 12: Showing her old pair around a gaff in Monkstown.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 16: Yeah, no, it’s Sorchas’s old pair.

(US) an old prostitute.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

see under pie adj.¹

(US) a spoilsport.

1905		N.Y. Tribune 4 June 29/2: Uncle Cy Bryant, who is a kind of near-sighted old poke, came humping into the store.
1933		B. Ross Tragedy of Z 189: ‘Oh, come on,’ I said. ‘Don’t be an old poke.’.

(orig. Aus.) an old man, esp. one’s father.

1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 58: You must know that my old pot was a bark.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Oct. 4/7: It’s over the odds fer that bloke to poke borak at me on account of me old pot’s politiks.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Aug. 52/1: ’Ey, ’Arris, give th’ old pot a rest, f’r Gossake! ’E’s near drivin’ me barmy torkin’ about shooger!
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 6/1: Portly old pots [...] pass the holidays at Redcliffe watching the leg show .
1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 93: While Barney could talk with effrontery to any old pot, general or politician, who came along.
1931		Mail (Adelaide) 30 May 9/5: ‘The old pot’ representing father [...] ‘the old pot and pan’ stood for ‘the old man’.
1959		‘Ed McBain’ Killer’s Wedge (1981) 91: What time is it, Bucky old pot?

(US) the weather bureau or its staff.

1871		Detroit Free Press 4 July 4/1: How many a prayer went up, or down, to ‘Old Probabilities,’ who presides at the head of the last paragraph of the weather record, as reported from Washington.
1872		Memphis Dly Appeal (TN) 23 Jan. 1/3: ‘Old Probs’ at Washington prognosticates the weather as follows [etc].
1878		Dly Globe (St Paul, MN) 7 July 4/4: Old Probs and his assistant settle on the weather and I write out the reports.
1880		Bismarck Trib. (ND) 13 Feb. 8/4: Old Probabilities don’t give us a rest on the blizzard business.
1886		Popular Science Monthly Aug. 546: The official publications embrace the ‘probabilities’ and the so-called ‘weather-maps’ [DA].
1887		Memphis Appeal (TN) 28 Apr. 8/7: By order of Old probs you are hereby ordered to provide the following April weather for Memphis, Tenn.
1888		N.Y. Herald 4 Nov. n.p.: When you come to think of the sort of weather we have had in New York upon the occasions of great popular political turnouts... you will find that as a rule old probabilities has been rather kindly disposed to both parties [F&H].
1890		L.A. Dly Herald 2 Oct. 5/2: September Weather. What Old Probs has to Say About it.
1898		Wheeling Dly Intelligencer (VA) 1 Feb. 5/2: ‘Old Probs’ says colder weather is in sight.
1905		Hawaiian Star 23 Feb. 3/4: After Old Probabilities. [...] ‘I see the attorney general is going to stop all this guessing business in the newspapers.’ [...] ‘Whom do you suppose that’s aimed at?’ ‘The weather bureau?’.
1914		Bisbee Dly Rev. (AZ) 5 July 1/5: Old Probabilities was in league with District. He sent a heavy shower shortly before sunrise which laid the dust and cooled the air.
1918		Ogden Standard (UT) 18 May 5/2: The other day died [...] the man who a generation ago was known as ‘Old Probabilities,’ or more informally as ‘Old Probs’.

(S.Afr. drugs) marijuana.

1949

H.C. Bosman Cold Stone Jug (1981) II 23: The Bombardier takes a piece of paper [...] and tears it into the right size and then pulls out some of the old queer and mixes some cigarette tobacco with it, and in a few minutes we [...] pulling away at that dagga-stoppie. [Ibid.] 28: They also spoke of it as ‘the weed’, or ‘the herb’, or ‘the queer stuff’ (although this latter appellation is more usually applied to methylated spirits).

(US) syphilis.

1899		J.M. Harrell Hot Springs Doctor 77: ‘Ral,’ which had come to signify a certain social disease.
1908		W.G. Davenport Butte and Montana 17: ‘Whiskey Bill’...lay dying with...the old ral...in the heart of Butte’s underworld district [HDAS].
1929		R. Bradford This Side of Jordan 142: ‘The old ral,’ suggested the doctor. ‘Know what that is?’.
c.1930		(ref. to mid-19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 23: My father called her ‘an old hurr with the old rale’.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 334/1: old rall, n. Syphilis.
1938		in V. Randolph Pissing in the Snow (1988) 86: He had lost his manhood so the family sent him to Hot Springs. [...] The Hot Springs policeman put him in the Old Ral bath-house.
1951		E. Hemingway letter 11/12 Apr. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 724: I could write from now until the end of next week case histories of soldiers and bull fighters I have known [...] who had what we called the old rale.
1958		(con. 1890s) S.H. Adams Tenderloin 41: We don’t want some of our leading citizens coming down with the old ral.
1968		(con. mid–late 19C) S. Longstreet Wilder Shore 216: It was also called the Old Rale.
1978		S. Longstreet Straw Boss (1979) 17: He had been lucky—knock wood— to escape it and the old rale.

one who has a notably red nose, presumably a drunkard.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

(Ulster) the pope.

1997

Share Slanguage.

(US gay) the anus.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 19: the rectal opening, anus [...] old rip (’30s–’40s: ‘No more hot peppers for me, Gracie, or old rip will be throwing it up on my face tomorrow’).

see root n.¹ (1a)

the penis.

1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 44: Another [would call it] her sugar-plum, her kingo, her old rowley, her touch-trap, her flap dowdle.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see bag n.¹ (3b)

see under school n.

(US black) a woman in her thirties or older.

1965

(con. 1940s) Malcolm X Autobiog. (1968) 202: I’d gues she was pushing thirty; an ‘old settler’ as we called them back in those days.

see sherbet n.

(Aus.) an old, crafty person.

1890

‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer III 86: I saw the old boy was down to every move I had made. Knowing old shot, too, in spite of his politeness and humbug.

(US prison) the electric chair; thus ride old Smokey, to be electrocuted.

1929		C.G. Givens ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 133: Old Smoky, n. Electric chair. [Ibid.] 134: ride Old Smoky, v.phr. Be electrocuted.
1936		L. Pound ‘Amer. Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 201: Ride Old Smoky.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 177/2: Ride old smoky. (Scattered; South) To die by electrocution in capital punishment.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 105: Old Smokey Electric chair in an execution chamber.

(Aus./US) a term of address to a man.

1867		G.W. Harris Sut Lovingood’s Yarns 186: Thinks I, ole Sock, I know what fotch yu tu this frolic.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Sept. 9/3: The Australian [...] said: [...] ‘Tip us your flipper, old stocking.’ The Prince tipped it – but not quite in the manner expected.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 375: Well, Bud, old socks, how are you?
1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 183: Old socks, goodbye.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 310: I mean, old socks, [...] I mean there are some fellows here who are worth while and some who are not.
1914		S. Lewis Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 165: Yuh – sure, old socks.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 173: Well, old socks, I think we’re saved.
1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 98: Bill, old sock!
1931		P. Stevenson Gospel According to St Luke’s 110: Well, Chuck old socks, you’re rooming with an owl.
1938		R. Chandler ‘The King in Yellow’ Spanish Blood (1946) 82: I didn’t register Leopardi, old sock.
1943		M. Curtiss Letters Home (1944) 24 May 22: So long, ole sock, ole pal.
1943		L. Bennett ‘Cunny’ in Jam. Humour 2: A bwoy coulds fool an’ holy / Like Parson Joe ole socks.
1950		S. Murphy Stone Mad (1966) 159: You’re in great voice tonight, old stock.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 178: The name of the joint is Ye Olde London Shoppe, old bean, old sock.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 56: Goodbye, old socks, I’ll come and see you.
1966		‘Tom Pendleton’ Iron Orchard (1967) 377: So you got some hot leases, have you, Jim, old sock?

(US) a pawnbroker.

1879

Cincinnati Enquirer 7 Sept. 10/7: Uncle or Old Sol—The Pawnbroker.

see old man n. (1d)

(drugs) any form of narcotic in powder form.

1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 124/2: old steve. One of several terms which may refer to morphine, heroin, or cocaine.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 313: Old Steve. Any powdered drug.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 16: Old Steve — Heroin.

one’s father.

1851		Berks. Chron. 8 Nov. 4/1: Speaking to [one’s father] say, ‘Govnor’ or ‘Old Strike-a-light’; of him, — ‘The Old ’Un’.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

a tiger.

1869		Glasgow Herald 2 Dec. 3/6: A Tiger Hunt [...] The dogs were in full cry after him [...] but ‘stripes’ took no notice [...] Poor old ‘stripes’ fell off mortally wounded.
1883		‘My Tiger Watch’ Cornhill Mag. July 🌐 Catch old Stripes come near my bullock, if he thought a ‘shooting-iron’ was anywhere about. Even if there were another Stripes, he would not show himself that night.
1898		Regiment 23 Apr. 63/2: There were reports of a tiger [...] and loud was the boast of one of the party, a notoriously bad shot, as to how he would bring down ‘stripes’.
1900		Dly Morn. Jrnl & Courier (New Haven, CT) 12 Apr. 7/1: S. and I had many friendly arguments as to the courage of the lion, he holding the view that ‘stripes’ was more formidable.
1967		Disney Jungle Book [film script] Buzzy: He’s got a tiger by the tail. [...] Fire! It’s the only thing old stripes is afraid of!

an old woman.

c.1350		William of Palerne 4769: Þat þo tvo trattes þat William wold haue traysted [OED].
1512–3		G. Douglas Virgil B iv 96 l 97: Out on the old trat agit wyffe or dame .
1550		Udall Ralph Roister Doister I iii: But the devil cannot make old trot hold her tongue.
1566		G. Gascoigne (trans.) Supposes III v: Go, that the gunpowder consume thee, old trot!
1575		‘Mr. S’ Gammer Gurton’s Needle in Whitworth (1997) II ii: I will have the young whore by the head and the old trot by the throat!
1593		Shakespeare Taming of the Shrew I ii: An old trot with ne’er a tooth in her head.
1640		The Wandering Jew 24: An old trot, a Beldame, a Witch looking in my hand, told me [...] I should dye a beggar.
1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I vi: An ugly old trot in the company, who had the repute of being an expert she-physician.
1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 217: Thus to make a poor old Trot / Fly raging up and down.
1680		Character of a Town-Miss in C. Hindley (1873) 7: An Old Trot, that understands the Town, and goes between Party and Party.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: An old Trot, a sorry base old Woman.
1713		W. King York Spy 49: I thought I saw an Old Trot bolt in at the Door, with ne’er a Tooth in her Head.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1786		W. Cowper Letters and Prose (1981) II 620: I suspect therefore that it stuck at Newport, the Old Trott of that Post House being past her business, and the occasion consequently of many delays.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1829		Dundee Courier 28 Jan. 3/3: An old trot with ne’er a tooth in her head.
1851		Notts. Guardian 3 July 6/5: She therefore called out, ‘You old trot, do you want to drown me,’ to which Widdowson replied ‘Yes’ and threw a bucketful of water at her.
1854		Dublin Eve. Mail 16 Oct. 2/4: Madame Eugenie and the General, it seems, ‘understood each other’ better than Peter Burroughs and the old trot did at Kilkenny.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1896		‘’Arry on Spring-Time & Sport’ Punch 18 Apr. 184/1: If Mrs. Grundy ’ad seen / Us downing that ’ill neck and neck, the old trot would ’a’ simply turned green.
1932		E. Blair ‘Clink’ Aug. Complete Works X (1998) 259: In Dartmoor we used to fuck old women down on the allotments [...] old trots seventy year old.

1. an old person, esp. a parent; a veteran.

1824		Morn. Advertiser (London) 19 Feb. 3/2: He was down to a thing or two; was always fly, and not to had even by an old-un.
1831		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 20: Vill you get out, though? but you von’t, old ’un.
1840		Bell’s Life in London in Fights for the Championship (1855) 151: Burke, for an ‘old ’un’, who had contended in 17 prize battles [...] was remrkably well.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. II 12: ’Ow’s the old ’un’s crib?
1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 332: You want to be able to write to each other without the old ’un getting hold of your letters.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 417/1: It’s a great thing with the children; but no go with the old ’uns.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple III 102: You’re alluding to what the old ’un [...] said before he went out.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Feb. 7/1: For many years, the old ’un not only put up his cash to swell the racing funds of the colony, but he kept a string of flyers himself as well, and was no mean judge of a prancer, either.
1890		Sporting Times 29 Mar. 1/1: From this we infer that the ‘old ’un’ means to go for it tooth and nail.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Dangerous Dad’ Sporting Times 3 Feb. 1/4: The gal took no notice o’ me, in the least, / But she soon with the old ’un got chummy.
1912		H. Lawson ‘Ah Dam’ in Roderick (1972) 798: The old ’un died of Chinese old age.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 168: Make way f’r an old ’un, let the pore old --- get in.
1999		C. Dexter Remorseful Day (2000) 358: Everybody called it a ‘radio’ these days – well, everybody except Morse and one or two of the old ’uns.
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 136: People are watching the telly [...] The old ’uns, anyway.

2. (Aus.) a superior, a manager.

1856

Melbourne Punch 20 Nov. 3/2: Boss —Noun. A cove, a beak, a guvnor, a nob, an old ’un, a big-wig etc.

1. a working man with long, unkempt, greying whiskers, usu. shouted out by impudent children.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

2. an old man.

1828		R.B. Peake Bottle Imp II i: What has become of old whiskers?
1841		D. Boucicault London Assurance in London Assurance Comedies (2001) Act II: courtly: (aside) Why, that’s is my governor, by Jupiter! dazzle: (aside) What, old whiskers! You don’t say that!
1920		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 13 Aug. 3/2: He had some of these old men tied up in horrible knots [at chess]. ‘Old Whiskers in the corner [...] I can mate him in three moves’.

(middle class) an ill-tempered, narrow-minded, elderly man.

1829		York Herald 24 Jan. 4/5: Old Wigsby cleared scores with him in grand style.
1839		North. Liberator (Tyne & Wear) 26 Jan. 3/3: There was never a concerted blockhead in this world, from Crispinus [...] down to the old prosing wigsby, Doctor Parr, who did not sin in this way.
1844		Leamington Spa Courier 10 Aug. 2/2: I am, Mr Editor, Your humble servant, Old Wigsby.
1850		N. Wales Chron. 21 Dec. 8/5: Do you think I’m a-goin’ to bear your confounded old harrogance, you old wigsby!
1860		Western Times 21 July 7/6: Mrs S. [...] was quickly waited upon by a vinegar cruet in the shape of a Gradener (the boys call him ‘Wigsby’).
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

grumbling, nagging.

c.1575

in H.G. Wright Arthur Hall of Grantham (1919) 63: Takyng leaue one of another, in the Palace, he plucking his hatte about his eares, mumbling the olde wiues Paternoster, departed.

a phr. used among men to suggest that, whatever actual age a girl is, if she has reached puberty biologically (menstruation, body shape etc), she is old enough for intercourse; occas. used of young boys.

1968		P. Reilly ‘If They’re Big Enough, They’re Old Enough’ Man At The Center series [CBC-TV].
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 591: since ca. 1910 (? earlier).
1996		Eli-the-Bearded Alt.sex.stories 🌐 “You’re still too young.” Blame it on the beer. I ran my hands up and cupped my tits. “‘If they’re big enough, they’re old enough.’ Isn’t that what they say? And aren’t these big enough?”.
1997		D. Abby Sanders Family Book 🌐 Timmy and Tommy were as old as John had been then. ‘The hell with it, If they’re big enough, they’re old enough. It’s never to soon to learn.’ As horny as she was, she decided that she would initiate the boys that very night.

a phr. used among men to suggest that if a girl is old enough to menstruate she is old enough for intercourse; similarly used by homosexuals of young boys.

[1704		Comical Observator 7-14 Nov. 2: I have often heard it said that they are never too Young, if they are but big enough; and never too little if Old enough]-.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 236: ‘If they’re old enough to bleed, they’re old enough to butcher,’ expounded the philosophers with a laugh.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 39: butcher (pej) to fuck, especially to deflower a young man ‘If they’re old enough to bleed, they’re old enough to butcher.’.
1974		C. Loken Come Monday Morning 54: If they’re old enough to bleed they’re old enough to butcher.
1979		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Short Timers (1985) 91: ‘She was just a baby, sir. Thirteen or fourteen.’ Animal Mother grins, spits. ‘If she’s old enough to bleed she’s old enough to butcher.’.
1989		F. Sams Widow’s Mite 206: I’d told him women were like cows; if they’re old enough to bleed, they’re old enough to butcher.
1993		Prairie Schooner LXVII 105: Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed. That’s what Orwell said about Charlie’s little whores. We’d pass them around like candy all night long.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 61: Bit young for me but. Mind you, if they’re auld enough tae bleed...
2001		‘Cougarjock’ ‘The Wrong Bus Stop’ 🌐 ‘Man, you can’t fuck her. She can’t be more than twelve years old! I can find you a better girl, man,’ he said. One of the other gang members piped up, ‘Hey, old enough to bleed, old enough to breed.’.
2002		C. Stella Jimmy Bench-Press 45: You know that old saying, old enough to bleed old enough to butcher? [...] That’s how I feel.
2004		N. Singer Prayer for Dawn 62: Remember the rhyme, ‘Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed?’ Well, she ain’t old enough to bleed, right! So leave her the hell alone!

(US) a phr. used to suggest that an underage girl is still a feasible target for seduction.

1998

(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 96: You know what the Greaseman says, don’t ya? [...] Old enough to sit at the table, old enough to eat.

(US) an order of corned beef and cabbage.

1888

N.Y. Herald 1 Apr. 9/6: During his stay in the restaurant the reporter learned several things he never knew [...] That ‘old friend and shamrock’ meant [corned?] beef and cabbage.

aged, esp. of old women.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 238: ‘Up in the tooth,’ far advanced in age, — said often of old maids.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see holy mackinaw! under holy...! excl.