sleeve, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sleeve n.

1. (US prison) in pl., tattoos running the full length of one’s arms, a sign of one’s prison experience, thus sleeved, having one’s arms covered in tattoos.

1986		Florida Today 10 Apr. 20/2: [A] sleeve — tattoo cut that covers the subject from shoulders to wrists.
1991		Indiana Gaz. 8 Apr. 30/5: [He] had his septum pierced, [...] a tattoo on his shaved head and sleeve tattoos.
2002		(con. 1998–2000) J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 48: Any righteous white boy that’s been down more than a few days got full sleeves, tattoos from the neck down to the wrist, know what I’m sayin’?
2007		W. Ellis Crooked Little Vein 34: A dyed-black wife-beater, and what looked like full-sleeve tattoos.
2012		T. Robinson ‘So Long, Johnnie Scumbag’ in Dirty Words [ebook] Or as innocently as a man sleeved in tattoos [...] can say it.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] [T]he hot water [...] [r]unning down the tattooed sleeves of his arms.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 195: Tattoos run from his neck down into his black shirt, and he has inked sleeves.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 50: His left arm [is] a sleeve of tattoos.

2. (US drugs) a wholesale pack of 100 bags of heroin.

2017

D. Winslow The Force [ebook] Monty reaches under the passenger seat and comes out with a sleeve of smack—a hundred glassine envelopes grouped in tens.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

another pair of sleeves [calque of 16C Fr. phr. une autre paire de manches with similar meaning, but no identifiable ety]

that’s another matter, usu. as quite another... / that’s another...

1849		Lloyd’s Wkly Newspaper (London) 23 Sept. 9/3: ‘We rectify no mistake’ [...] ‘Yes, but you’ve paid me too much money.’ This was quite another pair of sleeves.
1869		Hartford Courant (CT) 13 Feb. 1/3: ‘That is another pair of sleeves,’ said Jim.
1876		Freeman’s Jrnl (Sydney) 4 Nov. 6/1: It is all very well to contemn ‘Castle influence’ when it is exercised in behalf of your neighbour [...] But when you want a post office for yourself it is quite another pair of sleeves.
1889		Watford Obs. 2 Nov. n.p.: We have several slang dictionaries, both English and American — which is quite another pair of sleeves.
1894		Wkly Times (Melbourne) 29 Dec. 6/2: That was another pair of shoes, and another pair of sleeves too, for that matter!
1898		Philadelphia Inquirer (PA) 26 June 31/8: With any of the Latin races ‘it’s quite another pair of sleeves,’ as they say in France.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Jan. 4/5: Lovekin should have written ‘to stimulate the circulation of the Daily Snooze.’ Which is quite another pair of sleeves.
1911		Washington Herald (DC) 8 Nov. 4/5: It was quite another pair of sleeves for a man to slave himself to death for a wife.
1924		Indianapolis Star (IN) 26 Feb. 7/2: As for marrying a man you have known only three months, Mary Anna, that’s another pair of sleeves.
1938		St Louis Star & Times (MO) 26 May 25/7: Getting a husband is one thing, but holding one is quite another pair of sleeves.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang.
1949		Times Record (Troy, NY) 26 Jan. 16/6: A diamond ring — no matter whether it is a love token or lolot — that is another pair of sleeves.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 229/2: another pair of sleeves – something else altogether.

on the sleeve

1. using narcotics [the rolling up of a sleeve before the injection].

1949

N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 203: I been on the sleeve since I got out of the army.

2. on credit [varr. on on the cuff under cuff n.²].

2014

D.B. Flowers Bangs 218: Murray advanced bales of marijuana to Bangs and Barrett ‘on the sleeve,’ after which they had two weeks to pay.

put the sleeve on (v.) [the police officer or borrower grabs the target’s sleeve] (US)

1. to arrest.

1931		D. Runyon ‘Blood Pressure’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 84: They [...] will take great pleasure in putting the old sleeve on him.
1950		R. Starnes And When She Was Bad She Was Murdered 179: Let’s go wake up some cops and have them put the sleeve on somebody.

2. to borrow money (from); to request favours (from).

1931		G. Milburn ‘Convicts’ Jargon’ in AS VI:6 440: put the sleeve on. To borrow; to make a touch from a fellow convict.
1947		S.J. Perelman ‘If An In-Law Meet An Outlaw’ in Keep It Crisp 157: Pimply nephews awoke me at eight in the morning to put the sleeve on me for a small loan.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 171/1: Put the sleeve on. To beg or borrow; to defer payment of an obligation, especially a gambling debt. 2. To solicit any favor or concession from [anyone].

3. (US Und.) to manhandle a victim for mugging.

1933

‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 14: We don’t use a gun here to take an ordinary mark; we just use a sap on ’em or sleeve ’em (throwing an arm round his neck while the other man knocks him out). [...] The three of us organized ourselves into a mob for the purpose of jack-hunting. This is taking a man that’s drunk, either by crowding him in a doorway [...] or you can go through him after putting the sleeve on him, strong-arm stuff.