Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a picture.

1843		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 21 Jan. n.p.: He could daily be found on wharves, freely distributing his ‘pic’s’ among the darkeys.
1884		Ruskin letter 16 Nov. in Birkenhead Illustrious Friends (1965) 304: I am so very sorry I can’t ‘reprieve’ as you call it – the ‘pics’ [...] I want them all.
1891		Kipling Light that Failed 82: I must see your pics first.
1916		J. Lait ‘Pics’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 258: Pics are pictures—photographs—likenesses— reproductions—portraits.
1929		M. Levin Reporter 38: They’re coming. Shoot the pic, shoot!
1934		E. Hemingway Letter 18 Jan. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 403: Use these pics if you want.
1947		F. Brown Fabulous Clipjoint (1949) 14: With her skirts up around her waist as she lay dead on the sidewalk for a good pic for the photographer.
1950		K. Amis letter 21 Aug. in Leader (2000) 244: Did you see that pic. of June Foulds, the 16-year-old women’s 100-metres champion?
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 85: Bring the wedding pic.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 47: Angela Sterling [...] nailing, as she did, a cool one and a quarter big ones per pic.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 101: A pic of dad / when he was fighting for his king.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 157: Eight, ten, maybe twelve pages of feature inside. Loads of beautiful pics.
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 165: I’ve shot a hundred pics already.

2. see piccaninny n. (1)

3. a film.

1944		R.L. Bellem ‘Focus on Death’ Hollywood Detective Jan. 🌐 This smashes my pic to hellangone [...] I’ll have to scrap every scene Trixie appeared in.
1951		(con. 1911) Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 54: ‘Kinemacolor has started something,’ Variety speculated, ‘that will keep the black-and-white pic manufacturers lying awake at night.’.
1982		E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 31: On Easter Saturday we all went to the pics to see if Flash Gordon was still alive.
1999		Guardian Guide 29 May–4 June 19: Re-issue of classic British gangster pic Get Carter.
2000		Indep. Rev. 10 Mar. 12: The Harder They Come is as abrasive as a Warner Bros gangster pic.

4. (orig. US black, also piccolo) a jukebox, a record-player [SE piccolo pianoforte, a small piano].

1938		Lil Hardin Armstrong ‘Harlem on Saturday Night’ 🎵 Hot spots are never cold / Piccolos are thumpin’! / No matter where you go, / Every joint is jumpin’!
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 13: He’s wriggling and twisting with the pic [...] The stud cuts out to drop a flat in the piccolo.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 27: Mary wanted to locate someone with a ‘piccolo’ (victrola).

5. in pl., constr. with the, the cinema.

1948		J. O’Connor Come Day – Go Day (1984) 48: Petey Devlin and the boys are away to the pics.
1987		(con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 34: I was getting on for five years of age now and every Saturday my brother and I were given money to go to the pic’s [sic].