Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black/tramp) a chicken.

1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 21: Come on, heart-string, and have some gospel-bird on me. My money spends too.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 105: gospel fowl Chicken.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 801: gospel fowl – Chicken.
1996		J.E. Fortson Worship (2004) 278: ‘I just know you better save some o’ dat gospel bird for me!’ ‘There’s enough.’.
2010		J. Thomas Split Ends [e-book] Miss Lucy calls chicken the gospel bird. Her pastor showed up every time her mama cooked chicken.

(Aus.) a clergyman.

1852		Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: ‘The coves next jigger (door) are hangers on (dependents) of the Autembawlers (ministers)’ [...] ‘Gospel coves on the private vay, but I vill vork my vizzen (neck) so as it villiant reach their vattles (ears)’.
1914		C.J. Dennis ‘The Play’ Bulletin (Sydney) 16 July 47/1: Nex’ day ’e words a gorspil cove about / A secrit weddin’; an’ they plan it out.
1928		Brisbane Courier (Sydney) 30 Apr. 9/4: On tho Nullarbor Plains [...] stands a huge limestone boulder Some gospel cove has painted upon it the words After Death What.

supposedly pious, but actually empty, hypocritical talk about religion.

1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 146: Yes; when I saw I was in for it, I told them my name and all about my father without any reserve; that, with a little gospel-gab and howling penitence, got the church people interested in me, and so I was let off easily.
1897		Eve. News (Sydney) 7 Aug. 7/4: An atrophied nation, debauched by the Gospel of Gab.
1920		Blue Mt. Echo (NSW) 9 Apr. 4/4: Practical support is what the soldiers want, not the gospel of gab.

(Aus.) a preacher.

1890

Dead Bird (Sydney) 1 Feb. 3/2: On Sunday the resident Gospel Grabber exchanged pulpits with a neighbouring sky pilot.

1. (US, also gospel-dealer, -hawk, -huckster, -gent, -sharp, -shooter) a preacher.

1787		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Peter’s Pension’ Works (1794) II 182: The Curate of the Huntingdon Band, Rare breed of gospel hawks that scour the land.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1861		Sunday at Home 25 July 475/1: I heard the whisper as we passed, ‘It’s only the gospel grinder’.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home (1906) 268: ‘What we want is a gospel-sharp. See?’ ‘A what?’ ‘Gospel-sharp. Parson.’.
1876		Besant & Rice Golden Butterfly I 150: Else we should be as stagnant as a Connecticut gospel-grinder in his village location.
1881		N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 22 Jan. 182/2: A colonial gospel-grinder who shall be nameless.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Mar. 10/2: ‘[I]if you move a peg this congregation will bo without a gospel sharp’.
1883		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Jan. 9/3: A newly appointed country J.P., who is an occasional gospel-grinder, rode up to chapel a Sunday or two ago, held a service, and preached a powerful sermon on Christian charity and universal kindness.
1884		E. Nye Baled Hay 79: So old gospel shark, they tell me I must die.
1885		Leics. Chron. 30 May 9/1: Why, the Gospel sharp up at the church was telling us about it just now.
1891		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 5 Sept. 7/3: Kin any o’ you salaried liars put me on the trail of a Gospel sharp that’s out of a job?
1894		W.S. Ross Woman 102: He would whine piously in the prayer, he would let his dollars ring ostentatiously into the plate to support the local gospel-grinder.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 50: I’ve took the trouble to bring a gospel-sharp over from Tucson to do the marryin’. [Ibid.] 230: It all brings up ag’in what that Gospel-gent says about doin’ benev’lences.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 68: I ain’t a goin’ to sit along with no sinners, not me – to be talked down to by a Gospel shark.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘The Big Touch’ Sandburrs 233: I’m a gospel sharp from Hamilton.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 38: gospel-shooter, n. A preacher; used in contempt.
1901		W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum XXI n.p.: At noon today Murphy and Mame were tied. A gospel huckster did the referee.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 13/1: Strange how impressed every gospel-grinder is with Tanna! When Tommy T. isn’t a bloodthirsty cannibal and potential homicide he’s mostly a simple, happy fellow.
1908		Sun (NY) 13 Sept. 5/1: Any gospel sharp layin’ out f’r to interfere with my business...
1908		B. Atkey Easy Money 67: You could do the gospel grinder lovely — lovely, old man. And it’d be dangerous for me, as my missis goes to chapel reglar.
1911		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 Days 61: Mebby it’s th’ branding chute of some gospel sharp. [Ibid.] 76: I [...] dropped into that gospel dealer’s layout to see if he could make me feel any better.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 207: gospel-shooter, -shark, a preacher. ‘We have a new gospel-shooter in our burg.’.
1920–23		in J.M. Hunter Trail Drivers of Texas (1963) I 286: Fightin’ Parson Potter, a reformed gambler, but now a regular gospel shark.
1925		Yorks. Eve. Post 17 Oct. 5/2: I’m not a Gospel-shark. I don’t sneer at the Good Book either.
1930		R.E. Howard ‘Winner Take All’ Fight Stories July 🌐 We better stop by the Waterfront Mission [...] The gospel-shark will bandage your arm.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 63: The following crook’s words and phrases date from the days of the old Old Bailey: [...] City missionary – gospel-grinder.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 105: gospel grinder A preacher.
1952		E. Buckler Mountain & Valley 50: You don’t think I’m a gospel-grinder, do you?

2. (also gospel-peddler, -plugger) an evangelistic missionary or tract-distributor, a Sunday School teacher; thus any unctuous, smug, self-satisfied individual.

1824		Tract Mag. 212: You know I have mocked you, and called you the ‘old Gospel grinder,’ and done all I could to hinder your work.
1854		J.N. Smith Way of the World 20: ‘Yet the beggar, in his dying hour, may enjoy that blessing for which you would freely sacrifice your all!’ ‘Man!’ exclaimed Dutton, ‘you are a regular gospel-grinder’.
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 88: A city missionary or scripture reader – gospel grinder.
1873		Sl. Dict. 180: Gospel grinder a city missionary, or tract distributor.
1881		J.B. Gough Sunlight and Shadow 71: For although they call him [i.e. a temperance campaigner] the ‘Gospel-grinder,’ they are often quite free in their communications to him.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 33: Gospel Grinders, tract distributors, city missionaries.
1926		M. Garvey Papers VI 403: There is only one thing for four hundred million Negroes to do and that is to unite and give the alien robber exploiter and gospel-grinder hell .
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 26: Let’s get out of this, Hell-cat. Good Lord! You ain’t going to help a gospel-peddler!
1927		(con. 1910s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 344: You damn’ lying gospel-shark, I’ll show you —.
1940		R. Service ‘The Ballad of Salvation Bill’ Bar Room Ballads (1978) 603: The gospel-plugger watched me in dismay.

3. (US) a well-behaved, law abiding person.

1910

O. Johnson Varmint 394: Not the high markers and the gospel sharks?

(Aus.) a preacher.

[1864		Star (Ballarat, Vic.) 11 July 2/6: Rev. Brown, Primitive Methodist, expressed his pleasure [...] The great gospel gun had been fired in Smythesdale, and he (the speaker) thanked God that many had been shot down under the faithful preaching of Mr Burnett].
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Jul. 6/1: [W]hen a certain well-known musician was lately introduced to Dr. Kennion, the Anglican Bishop of S. Australia, he took off his hat, bent his bald head in a lowly manner, and informed the great Gospel-gun that he (the musician) looked much more like a bishop than Dr. Kennion.
1906		Traralgon Record (Vic.) 21 Aug. 2/1: The Salvation Army [...] A large crowd assembled at the corner of Franklin and Seymour-streets to witness the bombardment, and the devil got a pretty severe handling from the ‘gospel guns’.
1928		Register (Adelaide) 16 Aug. 15/1: Laymen should, by example as well as by precept, bring men who did not attend church within range of the Gospel guns.

(UK Und.) a Dissenters’ chapel or meeting house.

1846

Swell’s Night Guide 108/2: Anthem cackle ken, a house hired by Methodist preachers or ranting Dissenters, also Gospel lumber, gaming crib.

1. a chapel, a church, thus gospel miller, a clergyman.

1778		‘R. Hill’ Gospel Shop [play script] Beware! thse dire illusions! strange to tell, / A gospel shop’s the very spawn of hell!
1782		G. Parker Humorous Sketches 88: From Whitfield and Romaine to Pope John range; Each gospel-shop ringing a daily change.
1791		J. Lackington letter XVII Memoirs 125: As soon as I had procured a lodging and work, my next enquiry was for Mr. Wesley’s Gospel shops.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Gospel Shop. A church.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1811].
1823		Republican 5 Sept. 1: Your title of Freethinking Christian [...] is a distinction in words alone: a mere name to distinguish one gospel-shop from another; just as Spiller’s gin-shop is distinguished from Thompson's gin-shop.
1831		R. Taylor Astronomico-Theological Discourses 126: And what would it profit a man, say they, should he gain the whole world, and lose such a bag-full of moon-shine, as they’ll sell him at a gospel-shop.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 58: I stalled into a gospel crib last night, and pinched the rum cull of a cotton vipe and medra croon.
1848		Appeal Apr. 37: Some time since, two ungodly and thoughtless young men were wasting the hours of the Lord's-day in a walk of pleasure. On their way they passed the house of God [...] ‘What place is this?’ said one. ‘Oh,’ replied his companion with a sneer, ‘that is the gospel shop’.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 35: I knows of a Gospel-shop w’ere they takes in their Sunday dimes on silver plates.
1851		J.H. Green 12 Days in the Tombs 119: Wonder if we can’t get some old hoss to give us a preach ? That coon over there with a white neckerchief, looks like one o’ them gospel-shop men.
1858		J. Watts Ancient & Modern Freethinkers 324: Unbelievers, who never troubled their minds about religion, and never darkened the doors of a gospel shop.
1863		Story of a Lancashire Thief 10: There’s a gospel-shop in Oxford-road.
1865		T. Parker Coll. Works 347: The Gospel-mill of the minister is managed with as much injustice as the law-mill of the other profession.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 331: Are you the duck that runs the gospel-mill next door?
1879		C. Braden Problem of Problems 376: A preacher is a ‘gospel slinger,’ and a church a ‘gospel shop,’ in the low slang of one of these corrupters of public morals and taste.
1882		‘Paris Inside Out’ in Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 30 6/1: ‘I’ll fix you in two minutes, my old gospel miller’.
1885		C.F. Lummis letter 10 Jan. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 242: Some of the other gospel-mills.
1886		Agnostic Jrnl 18 74/1: May we respectfully bring it under the notice of the professional soul-savers that keeping a tripe-and-onion shop is a moral business, but keeping a gospel-shop is not.
1891		J.A. Riis How the Other Half Lives 204: The Street Arab puts his whole little soul into what interests him [...] whether it be pulverizing a rival [...] or attending at the ‘gospel shop’ on Sundays.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 33: Gospel Shop, a church.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Nov. 14/3: The kanaka is odiously, loathsomely servile. He finds out the gawspil-mill his employer favors, and immediately becomes a regular attendant thereat.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Aug. 4/8: A lady who, when on the Mile /[...] / was managing a gospel mill / [...] /The baldheads flocked to hear her preach.
1909		Carr & Chase in ‘Word-List From Aroostook’ in DN III:v 411: gospel shop, n. A church.
1917		Epworth Era 24 3/2: What do you see beginning at Chartres Street? Saloon, warehouse, saloon, saloon, gospel shop, a lot of chumps running what they call a ‘Rescue Mission,’ and another saloon to redeem the situation.

2. attrib. use of sense 1, thus pious, moralistic, censorious.

1879

‘’Arry on the Rail’ Punch 13 Sept. 109/1: It’s all Gospel-shop gruel, dear boy. We’ll [...] / rap out a hoath now and then without asking a prig on the preach.

(US) the penis.

1916		Mencken letter 16 Dec. in Riggio Dreiser-Mencken Letters I (1986) 282: The man who fights for them is as absurd as the man who fights for the right to walk down Broadway naked, and with his gospel pipe in his hand.
1920		Mencken letter 17 Sept. in Riggio Dreiser-Mencken Letters II (1986) 389: I have severe [...] urticaria (huge hives) all over my arms and legs. One even showed today on my gospel-pipe.

a preacher.

1879		C. Braden Problem of Problems 376: A preacher is a ‘gospel slinger,’ and a church a ‘gospel shop,’ in the low slang of one of these corrupters of public morals and taste.
1940		E.F. Frazier Negro Youth 129: Then came a vivid dramatization of the poses struck by these ‘gospel slingers,’ with their fervent gestures and efforts to ‘shout’ the people.

(Aus.) a preacher.

1890

Dead Bird (Sydney) 1 Feb. 3/2: He was accordingly treated with becoming deference by all from the local Gospel slogger downwards.

(US) a preacher.

1859

Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 5/2: ‘Friend,’ quoth the gospel-wrestler [...] ‘it will harm thee to give thee money’.