fat, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fat n.

1. (Aus./US) money.

1845		J.J. Hooper Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1851) 58: ‘That brings in the fat in great sleeks as big as my arm!’ observed the Captain, as he won the fifth consecutive bet.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 10 Oct. 3/4: We are glad that all the ‘fat’ has not gone to the Sydney stable.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 31: fat. Money.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 28: Fat, money.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiv 4/5: fat: Money.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] Winter’ comin [...] Need a bit of fat to see you over the winter. Fat’s bin scarce.

2. (Anglo-Ind.) (milit.) butter.

1894

Daily News 8 Sept. 6/3: He does not trouble you to pass the bread or butter, but [...] to ‘chuck up the rooty,’ or ‘fat’ .

3. (Aus./N.Z., also fatman) a generic term for the business elite, the wealthiest members of the community.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 June 15/3: Sorry we cannot invest you with imagination and give you to understand how Fat Man and his daily press would deal with you were you thus demonstrating in a workers’ cause [...]. Had the cause been other than that of the unbounded Money Grub, you would have found yourselves the objects of virtuous diatribes against these ‘brainless ruffians.’.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Aug. 38/2: Then everything will start to burn and crackle, and Satan will appear in the Post Office tower and stop the clock. All the people will be gathered together from the workshops and the mines and Paddy’s Market, and Fat will dock their time.

4. (Aus./N.Z.) an erection; esp. in phr. crack a fat

c.1943		S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 10: hard: An erection. [Hand-written MS addition: a fat].
1960		A. Buzo Front Room Boys Scene i: You’d get a fat as you went in and it’d take about twenty minutes to have a squirt.
1974–5		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 116: Lookin’ up at youse like this [is] enough to give a bloke a sleepin’ fat.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 69: As a matter of fact it gave me a fat.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 65: Norton had a fat so hard you could have cracked fleas on it.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

5. (usu. gay) a fat person, occas. used as term of address; esp. used in small ads, usu. in comb with ‘fems’ (i.e. effeminate rather than macho men), e.g. no fats or fems.

1933		‘Paul Cain’ Fast One (1936) 267: You’re going to stay here - and Fat is going to stay here.
1943		I. Wolfert Tucker’s People (1944) 203: As he turned, Badgley, who was standing nearest, shoved him and said ‘Hurry up, fat!’.
1952		W.R. Burnett Vanity Row 160: ‘Okay, fat,’ said Roy. Now I apologize’.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 84: No fats, fems or dopers, please. I’m sincere. Ron.
1979		J. Rechy Rushes (1981) 203: The tough guards blocking out ‘undesirables’ — ‘Strict Dress Code No Fats Femmes Over35s’.
1998		Q (S. Afr.) 25 Nov. 🌐 Gay male gym culture is as hegemonic in South Africa as it is in the US. And the warning in personal ads is as threatening: ‘no fats or fems’ and then ‘no chancers’ so that the message is clear: ‘You must be straight-looking’ and above all ’straight-acting.’.
2001		R. Kim in Nation 5 June [online] He also indicated an interest in ‘bi-scenes, one-on-ones, three-ways, groups, parties, orgies and gang bangs,’ but not in ‘fats and fems.’.
2006		Gay Sex Personals at M4SexNow.com 🌐 Fats and Femmes please do not respond. I am in search of masculine average to great physical shaped straight, bi, and Masculine gay men for DL action.

6. (US) the vagina.

a.1968

‘School Ma’am on the Flat’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 54: He took his dallies from around horn and opened her hondoo / He took John Henry in his hand and placed it in her fat.

In phrases

crack a fat (v.) (also crack a fatty)

1. (Aus.) to achieve an erection; note mis-defined as a n. in cits. 1988, 2001, 2003 .

1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 39: The way I feel now I don’t reckon I could crack a fat.
1974		Adamson & Hanford Zimmer’s Essay 54: He laid on the bed on his back and -57 stood over him and cracked a fat, and said, ‘Suck this’.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 98: I’ve been bending over with my head under the carpet for at least ten minutes and you haven’t even cracked a fat!
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 31/1: crack a fat, a male erection and/or ejaculation.
1999		‘Dr Dick’ in Bug (Aus.) 24 Feb. 🌐 Besides, if it’s okay for you to crack a fat, it’s okay for me to have a fat crack.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 crack a fat n. an erection.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2014		me-stepmums-too-fuckin-hot-mate at www.fakku.net 🌐 I end up crackin’ a fat over her on a daily basis.
2014		me-stepmums-too-fuckin-hot-mate at www.fakku.net 🌐 You’re crackin’ one hell of a fatty!

2. in fig. use, to become excited (in non-sexual contexts).

2009

P. Temple Truth 106: Still, no leaks, media don’t crack a fat, it’ll go away.

hit the fat (v.)

(US) to win a large sum of money.

1945

H.B. Darrach Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/2: Fanny was once a big horse player. One year in Cuba she ‘hit the fat’ and bought two horses.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

fat is in the fire, (all) the

see separate entry.

fat scraps and glorious bits (n.)

(UK Und.) a sound beating.

1610

Rowlands Martin Mark-all 40: Scrappes, fatte and glorious bittes: sound blowes and bangings. The muggill will tip you fat scraps and glorious bits, the Beadle will well bumbast you.

In exclamations

fat’s a-running!

(UK Und.) a phr. used to indicate that a loaded van is passing along the street and may be robbed, to the greatest possible extent, by opportunists.

[c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Fat, the last landed, inned, or stow’d of any sort of Merchandize whatever].
[1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Fat, the last landed, inned or stowed of any sort of merchandise, so called by the waterside porters, carmen &c].
1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 116: At odd times he would play the scout among the practitioners of the ‘fat’s a-running’ industry [...] A quick-witted scout stood on the look-out for such vehicles as went with unguarded tailboards. At the approach of one such he sent the shout ‘Fat’s a-runnin’’ up Luck Row, and, at a quick signal, a gang scuttled out [and] seized whatever could be snatched from the cart.
1934		E. Mordaunt Tales 545: [She] lay rigid; it was as though something, somewhere [...] were bound to break if she as much as moved a finger. Then he spoke, his breath whistling through the keyhole: ‘Fat’s a-runnin’, fat's a-runnin’!’.
1937		E. Raymond Marsh 50: They waited till you come by with no-one on your tail-board, and then one of ’em cries, ‘Fat’s a-runnin’!’ and that’s the signal for his mates to swarm on your tail and drag all they can from the van.