Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus. Und.) a five-year prison sentence.

1950

S.J. Baker in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/3: Slang words for sentences of various lengths include: ‘deuce,’ two months; ‘drag,’ three months; ‘sprat,’ six months; ‘the clock,’ twelve months; ‘spin’ or ‘full hand,’ five years; ‘brick,’ ten years; ‘the lot,’ life imprisonment.

2. (Aus. Und) a life sentence.

1953

K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 38: A life sentence, a full hand, is fifteen years — with remissions.

3. (also full house, nap hand) a simultaneous dose of both syphilis and gonorrhoea; but note cite 1958.

1940		‘Argot of the Sea’ in AS XV:4 Dec. 450/2: full house. A sailor contracting several diseases at the same time complains of a full house.
c.1943		S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 9: full hand: Gonorrhoea and syphilis.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 75/2: Full house. Simultaneous infection with gonorrhea and syphilis, often accompanied by body lice or crabs.
1958		C. Lee diary 13 Nov. in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 179: Half of them have got a full house anyway [...] gonorrhoea, diarrhoea and pyorrhoea .
1958		L.F. Cooley Run For Home (1959) 170: He knew that a ‘full house’ meant coincidental cases of gonorrhea and syphilis.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 184: Full house To have both syphilis and gonorrhoea.
1984		(con. WW2) T. Jones Heart of Oak [ebook] I’d had a knee trembler with a bird outside the Heffelent and got a nap hand ... and I went adrift ‘cos I didn’t want to be in the rattle for the next bleeding ten years.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

4. an infestation of both head lice and body lice.

1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 184: Full house [...] To have more than one form of body infestation with parasites, e.g., both head and body lice.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

5. (US milit.) a combination of any varieties of disease.

1947

‘Imaginary Diseases’ in AS XXII:4 Apr. 305/1: full house. This generally means, in connection with these fictitious diseases, a combination of any number of them, usually the Crud and the Lergy. Soldiers at a port of embarkation have been told in detail about the foregoing ailments and then told: ‘If you get a full house, you might just as well stay over there.’.

6. (Aus.) the male hand in the act of masturbation, it is ‘full’ of the genitals.

1991		R.G. Barratt ‘I’m Pulling for Ya, Pee Wee’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] Pee Wee got caught with a full hand.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] George’s mother catches him with a full hand going alone and starts running around screaming: ‘My son’s a pervert’.