sparrow, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sparrow n.

1. a tip, as given to a dustman or milkman or any regular provider of services to one’s door [its monetary insignificance; note dustman’s jargon sparrow, anything saleable, e.g. a silver spoon or thimble, found in a dustbin].

1879

Good Words 739: There are their ‘sparrows’ (beer or beer money), given by householders [to the dustmen] when their dust-holes are emptied.

2. (Aus./US) a physically weak individual [the image of the small bird].

[1877		Sussex Advertiser 23 June 4/5: Bob Wiper, otherwise the ‘parrow,’ aged about 13].
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 22/2: A shot is heard. Enter the Prince. What not dead? Who, then, is killed? Lover No. 2! a poor innocent sparrow of a lad.
1931		A. Bontemps God Sends Sun. 197: I ain’t nobody. I ain’t nuthin’ [...] I’s jes’ a po’ picked sparrow. I ain’t as big as a dime, an’ I don’t worth a nickel.
1939		(con. 1880–90s) S. O’Casey I Knock at the Door 176: You raspy little juicy-eyed sparrow, roared Ecret savagely.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 7: The ruffled, jittery punk called Sparrow.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 62: Glenn brushed the sparrow away.

3. (US Und.) a young woman who moves from one lover to the next .

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

4. money, a dollar bill.

1960

C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 112: Your eye was on the sparrow [...] Five hundred thousand of them.

5. (UK Und.) a prison sentence [play on bird n.⁴ (1)].

2007

N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 155: He [...] went off to do his bit of sparrow [...] by being a thorn in the side of the authorities.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

sparrow-brain (n.) (also sparrowhead)

a person of little or no intelligence.

1984		I. Doig Eng. Creek 211: Alec interrupted her by simply telling Earl, ‘Stash it, sparrowhead’.
2003		Mon Seingorun ‘Forced Experiment and Forced Injections Los Angeles California (Free Art Music)’ 1 Aug. posting on IndyMedia.org.uk West Country 🌐 W is always pecking on something...sparrow brain.

sparrow-cheater (n.) [the bird’s appetite for horse-dung]

a boy who cleans horse-dung from the streets with a brush and dustpan.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1120/2: ca. 1900.

sparrow chirp (n.)

see sparrow-fart n.¹

sparrow cop (n.) [cop n.¹ (1); a duty often allotted officers currently out of favour with their superiors]

(US) a park police officer.

1896		Ade Artie (1963) 87: I told her if she ever went through the park speedin’ like that she’d have all the sparrow cops layin’ for her.
1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xvi: Why, you low-down, monkey-faced excuse for a sparrow cop.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Marathon in the Mud’ in Ade’s Fables 295: His Motor-Car squawked at the Sparrow Cops when they waved their Arms.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1946		N.Y. Times 15 Dec. SM16: Sparrow cop: policeman in trouble with superiors and assigned to Central Park to guard the grass.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

sparrow-crow (n.)

see sparrow-fart n.¹

sparrow-fart (n.)

see separate entries.

sparrow-grass (n.)

see separate entry.

sparrow-hawk (v.) [var. chicken-hawk n.]

to pick up homeless youngsters of either sex for sexual exploitation, esp. runaways who have just arrived at rail or bus stations.

1990

S. Morgan Homeboy 37: Looking for all the world like [...] a pimp on his way to sparrowhawk runaways at the bus station.

sparrow-mouthed (adj.) [the bird’s anatomy]

of a person, notably wide mouthed.

1621		R. Burton Anatomy of Melancholy (1893) II 178: Shee [...] makes an ugly sparrow-mouthed face, and shewes a pair of uneven, loathsome, rotten, foule teeth.
1675		T. Lupton Thousand Notable Things 269: A Thin lean Chitty-face [...] Sparrow-mouthed [...] Beetle-browed.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Sparrow-mouth’d, a Mouth o Heavenly wide, as Sir P. Sidney calls it.
1725		Bailey (trans.) Erasmus’ Colloquies 18: Can you fancy that Black-a-Top, Snub-nos’d, Sparrow-mouth’d, Paunch-belly’d Creature?
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Sparrow-mouthed. Wide-mouthed, like the mouth of a sparrow: it is said of such persons, that they do not hold their mouths by lease, but have it from year to year; i.e. from ear to ear. One whose mouth cannot be enlarged without removing their ears.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1834		Examiner 8 June 2/1: Crooked, dry, bald, goggle-eyed [...] with staring eyes, sparrow-mouthed.
1923		J. Manchon Le Slang.

sparrow’s chirp (n.)

see cat’s meow n.

sparrow-starver (n.) [sparrows peck at garbage]

(Aus./UK) a street-cleaner; thus a scavenger.

1912		Sport (Adelaide) 27 July 14/3: They Say [...] That Tom, the sparrow starver, has got his father’s Roman nose and watermelon head.
1923		J. Manchon Le Slang.
1925		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 19 Dec. 3/2: Strike me fat, I, as yer guide to ’Eaven, ’as gotter eat, and yer’re the champeen, sparrer-starvin’ congregation on earth.
1950		‘B. James’ Advancement Spencer Button 49: Loutish youths, tough, vocal, conceited and pugnacious, known to the vulgar as ‘sparrow-starvers’, plied to and fro with yard-brooms and a kind of tray on wheels, collecting the manure and other refuse [AND].
1965		G. McInnes Road to Gundagai 113: His humble but essential job was to clean up the droppings from the big drays and waggons that rumble to and from the docks. He and his kind were known, with apposite Australian wit, as ‘sparrer starvers’.
2000		(ref. to 1900s–10s) ‘Hist. of Sydney’ at www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au 🌐 The blockboys, known as ‘sparrow starvers’, cleaned the horse-dung from the streets. These lads started working for Council as young as fourteen and often had little formal education. In their heyday they were equipped with uniforms, scoops on wheels with long handles and brooms, while recessed receptacles in the footpath held the manure they collected until it was removed to a Council depot and sold to the public as fertiliser.

sparrow tail (n.) [the shape of the tails]

a tail-coat, as worn as part of full evening dress.

1888

(ref. to 1840s) E. Eggleston Graysons 290: The lawyers in their blue sparrow-tail coats with brass buttons, which constituted then [about 1840] a kind of professional uniform, moved about with as much animation as uneasy jay -birds .

sparrow(’s) ticket (n.)

(Aus.) to gain admission to a (sporting) event by climbing over the fence.

1899		Sth Aus. Register (Adelaide) 6 Apr. 6/3: Near the Derby Stand entrance I saw hundreds crushing, pushing, and fighting round a small window where Derby Stand tickets had to be obtained, until scores in disgust took a sparrow’s ticket.
1902		Express and Teleg. (Adelaide) 25 Aug. 1/6: Many boys gain admission to the oval by means of ‘sparrow tickets’.
1902		Advertiser (Adelaide) 25 Aug. 4/4: It was on the Adelaide Oval on Saturday afternoon. A boy, with a number of others, had entered by means of ‘sparrow tickets’ to watch the football.
1904		Newcastle Morn. Herald (NSW) 4 Mar. 7/3: Ike and myself were present at the first test match played in Melbourne many years ago, and he was in the responsible position of umpire, while I had a sparrow’s ticket, as the Melbourne fence was not very high in those old days.
1930		Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 4 Dec. 5/5: There was a good attendance, but, compared with the gate receipts, it is understood that a good many patrons got in on a ‘sparrow’s ticket’ - over the fence.
1941		Murray Pioneer (SA) 27 Feb. 11/2: Last week I noticed one party obtaining a ‘sparrow’s ticket’ in an unusual way. A car was backed up against the kerbing of an adjacent street so that anyone seated in it was able to see the screen.
1951		Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 24 Jan. 2/5: The professional tennis matches on the Association courts in Blonde Street last night drew the usual number anxious to obtain a ‘sparrow’ ticket.

In phrases

sparrows and goats in one’s eyes [classical and later writers believed that sparrows had sex up to seven times every hour, thus symbolizing lust (and shortening their lives); the orig. 17C use of the Cockney cliché ‘cock-sparrow’ as a term of address, was invariably linked to the addressee’s sexlife; goats were also considered lecherous animals]

a lustful glance.

1701

N. Ward ‘A Walk to Islington’ in Writings (1704) 65: She puts on a Sanctify’d Look or Disguise, / Yet Sparrows and Goats may be seen in her Eyes.

sparrows flying out of one’s arse/backside (also flock of geese flying out of one’s backside, nest of sparrows flying out of one’s arse, thousand peacocks flying out of one’s arsehole) [arse n. (1)/arsehole n. (1)/backside n.]

(Aus.) a phr. used to describe the sensation of the male orgasm.

1959		G. Hamilton Summer Glare 94: What’s it like? [...] You just wait, son. You’ll think a flock of geese are flyin’ out yer backside.
1977		R. Close Of Salt and Earth 38: I clutched the girl passionately and jammed her against the truck. Then it seemed my navel sprang unscrewed, and a thousand peacocks flew backwards out of my arsehole.
1987		K. Lette Girls’ Night Out (1995) 168: He’ll do his lolly before he even gets it in. The sparrows will fly out of his arse.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 141: nest of sparrows flew out of me arse, a Expression of deep sexual gratification.