Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (UK Und.) the parting of a group of criminals.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 23/2: We’ll have to ‘namase now’ [...] Let us shove the ‘sugar’ round and make a ‘split’ to meet at Boulogne.

(b) the division of criminal spoils, or of any sum of money.

1889		Clarkson & Richardson Police! 321: A share ... Regular, split, drop.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘No Business’ in Taking the Count 155: I don’t split with anybody [...] [I] do my own management. No split!
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 96: No jealous comrade, sore over a ‘split,’ can sell him out.
1936		R. Chandler ‘Goldfish’ in Red Wind (1946) 160: Two way split. You and me.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 220: He grafted on the principle of ‘no split and no squeal’.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 60: Big Mac [...] was waiting docilely for his split.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 64: He got a telegram [...] telling him to meet up this afternoon at the club for the split.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 83: The split left me with a shade over $25,000.
1983		A-Team Storybook 38: His fifty thousand split from the A-Team’s last job.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 247: Into you for the publishing splits already, is he?
2006		F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 59: Trini [...] took the comfortable top piece of a 75-25 split.

(a) (also splitter) an informer.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue.
1909		Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 8 May 3/1: ‘I jumped at the chance, you bet, because I thought that it might help me to get away from my friend the split’.
1919		C. Williams A Master of Crime 88: I thought that from what the girl told me that you were a ‘split’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 469: The squeak is out. A split is gone for the flatties.
1936		‘George Orwell’ Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1962) 197: The others were deeply suspicious of him [...] they all declared he was a ‘split’. The police, it was said, often put a ‘split’ into the cells, disguised as a prisoner, to pick up information.
1945		(con. 1937) R. Westerby Mad in Pursuit 153: Do I look like a split? Eh?
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 209: A splitter, a squealer, a snake in the grass.

(b) a detective or police officer.

1895		‘G.G.’ Sporting Sketches in Sportsman (Melbourne) (18/10/1898) 5/8: ‘Two “splits” who ’ad a nark agen Pinky and they sez [...] “We won’t have bad characters like you bettin’ ’ere”’’.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 5: You look a dam sight too much like a split tonight.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 17 Aug. 12/2: ‘Hear all and say nuffing, Joe! There’s more than one split (detective) here to-night’.
1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 260: He’ll see a parcel of wedge – which is plate – into the pot right under the noses o’ the splits, for all it’s got a monogram on it as well known as what the Union Jack is.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 17: One of the ‘splits’ looked reminiscent. ‘Peroin?’ he asked, ‘Peroin? I’ve heard that name before.’.
1930		Eve. Herald (Dublin) 9 Dec. 4/6: Hopping from the crooks’ den to his meeting place with the ‘split’ (detective).
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 195: A couple of splits, two blinking bloodhounds of the blooming Law, were hot on my trail!
1938		L. Ortzen Down Donkey Row 25: The splits say we’re a menace – not the flat-feet from the station round the Johnny Horner.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 49: ’S a good fing the splits can’t read Latin, or you’d be in the Nick.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 132: Split – a detective.

(c) (US Und.) an act of betrayal.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 203/1: Split, n. [...] 3. (Rare) A betrayal to police.

(a) the vagina.

c.1850		in Jones-Conklin Ms (1958) n.p.: And now I climb as sweet a tree as ever plumb grew on, sir, / I will try the split and graft it in, and see what fruit ’twill bring, sir.
1857		Venus’ Miscellany (NY) 23 May n.p.: Suction split, a deep ravine near Cream Lake in the Kingdom of Easy Belly, a warm country in Eth-i-o-pia.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 29: Lucy, fifteen years old, was lying half on her side, naked from her knees to her waist [...] we saw her split, till lost in the closed thighs.
c.1900		‘Ramrod’ Family Connections 51: Sometimes we each had a spout instead of a split on our lips.
c.1930		(ref. to mid-19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 35: There were all kinds of crazy positions and over-sized cocks and hairy pubic splits.
[c.1949		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 184: Oh, the ring-dang-doo, now what is that? / It’s big and round like a pussy cat, / Covered with fur and split in two. / That’s what they call the ring-dang-doo].
1966		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 226: Pussy ain’t nothin’ but a hairy split.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

(b) (also split belly, split end, split stuff ) a female, women, esp. as viewed as sex objects.

1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 132: SPLIT-STUFF: slang for the female commodity.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Split, a girl.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 70: split stuff: Women in general.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 239/2: split stuff – women, all women.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 188: split belly any woman [...] Syn: split stuff .

(a) a drink composed of two different liquids, usu. alcoholic.

1882		Society 11 Nov. 22/2: The ‘nips’, the ‘stims’, the ‘sherries and Angosturas’, the ‘splits’ of young Contango [OED].
1908		Sporting Times 21 Mar. 1/1: The Liberal ‘split’ is vinegar and water.

(b) a half-glass of spirits.

1884		Sporting Times 1 Nov. 3/1: The Honourable Hampton Wick rubicund with the rubicundity that only comes of repeated splits.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1904		Kipling ‘The Bonds of Discipline’ in Traffics and Discoveries 65: Antonio was busy fetchin’ splits for the old man [...] wardroom whisky-an’-soda.
1908		Sporting Times 29 Feb. 1/4: ‘A little given to whisky, aren’t you?’ said the life-assurance doctor to the impossible Pitcher. ‘Oh, I take a split occasionally.’.

(c) (US) a drink composed of half water/half alcohol.

1891		in Punch 17 Jan. 27: NEW IRISH DRINK.—The Parnellite ‘Split.’.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Oct. 19/3: Amongst these sinful fabrications may be mentioned ‘split,’ a beverage made of the cheapest kind of alcohol, mixed with water and a dash of rum.
1913		G.D. Chase ‘Lists From Maine’ in DN IV i 5: split, n. Half water and half alcohol.

(d) (also split soda) a medium-sized bottle of mineral water, suitable for sharing between two.

1896		Bradford Observer 5 Oct. n.p.: Apollinaris [table water]. Now supplied in splits .
1901		A. Binstead More Gal’s Gossip 32: A bottle of the size generally known as a ‘split soda’.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 231/1: Split soda (Tavern, 1860 on). A bottle of soda water divided between two guests. The ‘baby’ soda is for one client.

(e) a half-bottle of champagne.

1884		G. Moore Mummer’s Wife (1908) 219: When she had finished Montgomery tried to persuade her to try a ‘split’ with him .
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 85: The rubicundity that comes only of repeated ‘splits’.
1977		N.C. Heard When Shadows Fall 32: ‘Gimme a champagne split, baby,’ he said to the girl behind the bar.