Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US Und.) a womanizer; a dandy.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(UK/US Und.) the board or cloth upon which three-card monte n. is played; also attrib.

1833		N.-Y. Daily Advertiser 30 Apr. 2/4: [Street gamblers are caught] in the act of gambling on a certain cloth, commonly called a ‘Sweat Cloth’, with dice boxes, &c.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 90: A crowd of darkies were standing before a little table, upon which lay a ‘sweat-cloth’ or a square piece of oil-cloth.
1849		Knickerbocker (N.Y.) XXXIV 253/1: He was recently the owner of a ‘sweat-board,’ a singular gambling instrument [DA].
1853		N.Y. Clipper 19 Nov. 3/6: [T]hese ‘innocent and instructive little games,’ such as ‘thimble rig,’ ‘sweat-cloth,’ ‘turning the ace,’ &c .
1860		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 21 Aug. 3/2: The game was interrupted by Sergeant Leach who carried off the ‘sweat’ board, the dice, the bank [...] the darkey and the teutonic youths.
1869		N.Y. Times 2 Mar. 1/3: When they have succeeded in robbing some store or some unhappy wayfarer, and have converted their plunder into money at the ‘receivers,’ they go off to the ‘faro’ or to the ‘sweat’ table to get rid of it.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 329: Sweat-cloth, a cloth marked with figures, and used by gamblers with dice.
1875		N.Y. Times 6 July 1/7: One feature of Monmouth Park is the entire absence of the three-card monte and sweat-board men who infest the approaches to Jerome Park.
1884		N.Y. Times 13 June 18/4: McGinnis had been seen in charge of a ‘sweat-board’.
1891		J. Maitland Amer. Sl. Dict.
1903		Times Union (Brooklyn, NY) 18 Sept. 1/2: Passengers on the elevated trains [...] have been greatly annoyed by a number of men working a sweat board or shell game.
1912		Morn. Call (Paterson, NJ) 11 Sept. 8/1: No person [...] shall set up [...] any faro table, faro bank, roulette wheel, sweat board or other device, or game of chance.
1921		Reading Times (PA) 2 May 1/6: Carnival men [...] boasted that they had the police department ‘fixed’, They did not say they could get away with running [a] sweat board [...] but they actually did this.

see separate entry.

1. (US Und.) the third degree n.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. (US drugs) withdrawal from narcotics by simple abstinence.

1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

(Irish) a trad. ‘after-work’ drink.

1995

Irish Times 9 Dec. n.p.: Unions and management in a Dublin hotel are at odds over the so-called ‘sweat drink’. Management at Jurys Hotel had called time on the traditional after work drink [BS].

1. an exceptionally unattractive woman; thus, by stereotype, a wife or girlfriend [hog n. (5b)].

1971		Odessa American (TX) 24 Oct. 40/6: ‘Sweathog used to be [...] someone’s old lady. You know, his wife or girlfriend’.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 192: sweathog squat, fat female.
1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 67: sweat hog n Female who is fat and ugly.

2. (US) a very hard worker, or pursuer of any goal.

1971		Odessa American (TX) 24 Oct. 40/6: ‘Everybody that’s out hustling for something is a sweathog’.
1983		Baytown Sun (TX) 25 Aug. 2-C/1: A sweathog is big, tough, mean, and likes to get down in the dirt.
1999		Livigngstone Co. Dly Press Howell, MI) 29 Sept. 15/2: Hail! to brighton Bulldogs! Hail! to those great big sweathogs.

3. an exceptionally difficult student, singled out at school or college for special attention [SE hog].

1977		Delta democrat-Times (Greenville, MI) 5 May 21/1: Their spiritual leader [...] plays the role of high school teacher to the nincompoop sweathogs.
1995		R. Palmatier Speaking of Animals 366: SWEAT HOG. A sweat hog. A slow-learner; an underachiever.
2007		S. Farley Brooklyn Looper 53: Abruzzo was the equivalent of a ‘sweat-hog.’ He wasn’t too swift, and pretty much did as he was told.

4. a sexually promiscuous woman [hog n. (5b)].

1986

Chapman NDAS.

(Can./US) pancakes.

1900		Vancouver Sun (BC) 27 July 11/3: One bullcook [...] served a breakfast of sweatpads, as pancakes were known.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1945		Rock Is. Argus (IL) 15 Oct. 11/5: More eggs, more coffee, with a 2-inch layer of Montana sweat-pads, familiarly known as pancakes, throw in.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1996		Post Crescent (Appleton, WI) 22 Apr. D-1/5: The slang word the loggers used for pancakes — ‘sweatpads’ — never caught on.

(US) a rag used for wiping the sweat from one’s eyes; thus, a handkerchief.

1843		R. Carlton New Purchase I 73: This luxury [...] was used only as a ‘sweat rag,’ and not as ‘a nose-cloth’.
1888		Olean Democrat (NY) 23 Aug. 7/3: A prominent Oleaan republican lawyer calls the red bandanna a ‘sweat rag’. He is right.
1891		Lincoln Jrnl Star (NE) 2 Apr. 4/4: Nice warm days, said he then, as the sweat rag was applied vigorously.
1901		H. Lawson ‘Send Round the Hat’ in Roderick (1972) 474: He wiped his face, neck and forehead with a big, speckled ‘sweat-rag’.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Oct. 10/3: Once more there was a sweat-rag parade in the police court, and this time the revenue of the country benefited.
1922		H. Lawson ‘Bob the Baker and British Breeding’ in Roderick (1972) 922: Glistening black demons used to come to the surface at intervals and wipe the backs of their necks with ‘sweat-rags’.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 28 Oct. [synd. col.] The reason the silk ’kerchief the sailors wear around their necks is black is because it was originally a ‘sweat rag’ and black hid the dirt.
1945		Atlanta Constit. (GA) 6 July 8/3: I really needed a ‘sweat rag’ to mop my brow.
1958		Waco Citizen (TX) 10 July 5/3: Do not be a mop, / Give that seat rag a flop.
1959		Sydney Morn. Herald 5 Apr. 41/3: I am gasping for breath and I press the sweat-rag across mouth and nose.
1973		Vancouver Sun (BC) 14 Aug. 4/1: When i left my old man gave me [...] a deck of cards and a sweat rag.
1983		Dly Oklahoman 23 Sept. 18/6: [He] explained that his bandanna was a ‘sweat rag’ to soak up all the moisture.
1994		Arizona Dly Star (Tucson, AZ) 19 Aug. 31/1: Guitarist and singer [...] packaage and sell [...] toothbrushes, flashlights [...] sweat rags.
1997		(con. 1950s) D. Farson Never a Normal Man 181: Around the world with a sweat-rag. I suppose you think that’s funny.
2006		Ithaca Jrnl (NY) 5 June 22/3: More often than not the man with the sweat rag hasn’t engaged in anything more strenuous [...] He is simply hot.
2019		Arizona Republican (Phoenix, AZ) 3 Mar. A6/2: Mackey took his phone and a dry sweat rag and jogged onto the stage.

1. (US drugs) a room (in jail or hospital) in which a narcotic addict is confined during withdrawal [SE sweat + room].

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1975		Hardy & Cull Drug Lang. and Lore.

2. (US Und.) a room in a police station where suspects are interrogated and/or beaten up [sweat v.² (2) + SE room].

2001

(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 156: They dumped him in a sweat room. They cuffed him to a chair. Two dicks worked on him.

see sweat board

a stressful situation.

1967

P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 218: But sometimes it was a sweat thing.

(orig. US) no problem; don’t worry; it’s all right.

1950		L.A. Times 20 Sept. 2: Three hours and six minutes later, its radio operator, Master Sgt. Edwin C. Perry, Tacoma, Wash., signaled on ground at 1426 (2:26 p.m.) No sweat (no serious trouble encountered.
1955		L.F. Engler ‘Gloss. Air Force Sl.’ in AS XXX:2 118: NO SWEAT; NO STRAIN, n.phr. used adjectivally. Easy; no trouble, no difficulty.
1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 47: No sweat, Pete. No trouble at all.
1975		D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 11: No sweat, my man. No sweat.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 273: ‘I’ve been assaulted!’ ‘Do you know him?’ ‘Yes!’ ‘Then [...] there’s no sweat, is there?’.
1989		R. McDonald Rough Wallaby 76: No sweat, Wan, Terry loves us down here.
1995		D. Lodge Therapy (1996) 286: I drove from London to St. Jean Pied-de-Port in two days. No sweat.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 70: He’ll carry that stinking killer of a ten stone okay. No sweat, baby.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Travel 12 Mar. 1: White stuff, no sweat.
1989		B. Reed ‘Messman on C.E.’s Altar’ in Passing Strange (2015) 22: ‘Hey guysangals, no sweat’.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 64: I find the hotel no sweat.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘No sweat, mate’.

(orig. US) no problem, no worries; of no importance.

1936		J.T. Farrell World I Never Made 185: He ain’t any sweat off my balls.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 44: ‘And after three get heisted they’ll figure out who’s the finger man and string him up by his nuts.’ ‘That’s no sweat off your balls.’.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 265: Look, if you don’t want to hear it’s no sweat off my arse!
1993		J.L. Burke In the Electric Mist 233: I was even proud of my old man. The people who ran this town back then weren’t worth the sweat off his balls.
2006		D.M. George-Kanentiio Iroquois on Fire 141: He made a number of sarcastic remarks about my ‘cause,’ how I was ‘dragging down the others with me’ and that in conclusion I was ‘not worth the sweat off his balls’.

1. (orig. milit.) any veteran.

1900		Regiment 27 Jan. 288/1: An old soldier is designated an ‘old sweat’.
1916		F. Dunham diary 23 Nov. Long Carry (1970) 10: The ‘old sweats’ told me that it seemed a mutual arrangement between Fritz and ourselves.
1919		Athenaeum 8 Aug. 727/2: A ‘gasper’ is a cheap cigarette, an ‘old sweat’ an old soldier .
1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 44: ‘Swinging it on the fucking rookies, they are, the old sweats,’ grumbled Tug.
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 105: Their attitude towards young prisoners is similar to that of old army ‘sweats’ to young ‘rookies.’.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 7: A trained sweat is put in charge of you. [Ibid.] 13: Arguing about nothing for fifteen minutes with an old sweat in the Recruiting Station.
1943		Province (Vancouver) 17 Aug. 22/3: Canada’s ‘old sweats’ are back on the job and they’re loving it.
1945		(con. 1900s) S. O’Casey Drums Under the Windows 29: Cheer up, old sweat – you’ll be all right yet.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 297: These ‘old sweats’ are unaware of the origin of the word they use.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 1: We were, you might say, rather like a couple of old sweats who had fought shoulder to shoulder.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 164: He was a bad one, Gunner felt, the sweatiest of Old Sweats, probably done time in every military boob from the Glasshouse to Abbassia.

2. (Irish) an old friend.

2001

G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Me ould segotia, me ould sweat, me ould flower (n): best friend.

extremely valued, worth a great deal of effort, usu. in negative.

1967		(con. 1950s) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 226: Miller never saw the day he was worth the sweat off Letters’ balls.
2005		L. Waiwaiole Wiley’s Refrain 221: If you catch them young enough, it’s even worth the sweat off your balls to do it.