Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gelt n.

money.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Gelt c. Money. There is no Gelt to be got, c. Trading is very Dead.
1707		N. Ward Wooden World 102: This, with a little Credit ashore, brings him in Gelt again.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 206: [as cit. c.1698].
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1815		(con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 181: All the gelt was gone, and the house was shaking, and I thought the job was clayed over and forgotten.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. Ser. 2 26: Down with the dust — rouse out your gelt — out with your goldfinches.
1839		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 360: Money’s the secret, my dear Barnet, – money – l’argong, gelt, spicunia.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 108: Gelter, money.
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II Ser. 2 341: Oh, then, he stumped the guelt?
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1869		C.G. Leland ‘Breitmann in Politics’ in Hans Breitmann About Town 40: So dey roon it troo de newsbapers, / Und shbeech do make pegan, / Dat Breitmann shtole de gelt himself / Und rop der oder man.
1871		C.G. Leland ‘Breitmann Takes the Town of Nancy’ in Hans Breitmann as an Uhlan 33: Boot der Breitmann sooplimely, / Like von who nodings felt, / Said, ‘Instet of le champagner / Nous brentirons du gelt’.
1882		Dly Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 1 Nov. 3/3: [Villains] have lots of names for money, such as [...] ‘gelt’.
1884		M.A.C. Hobson At Home in the Transvaal 501: The Englishman’s ‘geld’.
1890		‘Morris the Mohel’ ‘Houndsditch Day By Day’ in Sporting Times 11 Jan. 3: Ach, vhat a rubbish! A reg’lar flimsy, frippery hussy — all guiver ’n no geldt.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 31: Gelt, money.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 16 Jan. 1/5: When ‘gelt’ is in question, you can’t beat Yidden grafting for it.
1905		Bluefield Daily Tel. (WV) 11 Mar. 4/2: A guest at a recent banquet [..] counted twelve different words used [...] in place of ‘money.’ They were: tin, cush, gelt, rock, sand, candy, dough, sugar, mazuma, spondulix, glad weather, the welcome green.
1911		Truth (Perth) 18 Feb. 8/6: Which the job as he did give me, / Were a short ’un with the gelt.
1913		C. Pettman Africanderisms 185: Geld This word often takes the place in ordinary South African conversation of the word ‘money’.
1914		H. Hershfield Abie the Agent 29 May [synd. cartoon strip] Oh, Miss Gotgelt, don’t be patienceless. My shoyfer should be here any second.
1924		C.S. Montanye ‘The Dizzy Dumb-Bell’ in Top Notch 1 Aug. 🌐 Lay a finger on him and instead of getting her gelt she’ll be selling lead pencils in the street.
1934		P. Allingham Cheapjack 188: ‘As soon as I can lay me ’ands on a bit of gelt,’ he went on, ‘I’m going to lay it out in some good knocker gear. You can’t beat gear.’.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 269: Theah’s always a lot of jobs, a lot of easy gelt.
1951		W. Burroughs letter 5 May in Harris (1993) 87: I wasn’t about to [...] have his Dago friends heist me for the goods or pay me in counterfeit gelters.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 162: You better be prepared to bring a footlocker to help bring home the ghelt.
1953		B. Behan Scarperer (1966) 37: The gelt is as safe as the Bank of England.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 64: Quite worried [...] for the sort of language all them Yid bookies would be using by now at getting separated from their gfelt.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 43: Always make them fork over the gelt.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 65: All you need now is the mazuma, the dough, the lettuce, the gelt, the loot, the spondulicks.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 123: To launch him on the path of hate / that’s lined in gelt.
1992		(con. 1950s) J. Ellroy White Jazz Prologue 🌐 Get the picture, kats and kittens? Mickey Cohen is Skidsville, U.S.A., and he needs moolah, gelt, the old cashola.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 223: Maybe there’s some extra geld in it for us.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 3: Cyberokies on the rebound [...] returning flush, pockets stuffed with plundered gelt.
2007		(con. 1962) in E. Bunker Stark 10: The title character is a hophead and a grifter out to fill his pockets with gelt.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 12: Our gelt was running thin. We were splurging on cheeseburgers and rustic motels.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 293/1: gelt, gent money.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 6: Julie produced turgid turkeys about farmworker strife. Call him Mr Guilt for Gelt.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 280: Marcus had [...] ... no Vanier gelt... no option... other than finding someone else to fund his debauchery...