Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) free; also as n, one who obtains services for free.

1935		News (Frederick, MD) 15 Feb. 4/7: Food or drink ‘on the cuff’ is on the house — gratis. And a ‘cufferoo’ is an influential individual to whom waiters don’t give checks.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 72: It was not a spending party, strictly cufferoo.
1945		D. Kilgallen Voice of Broadway: 17 Jan. [synd. col.] Those tie-ups are for me but no cufferoos — little Arline gets cash.
1963		J. Hatlo They’ll Do It Every Times 18 Jan. [synd. cartoon] He’s been riding these pools on the cufferoo since the Dempsey-Firpo fight.

(US und.) an area of a nightclub reserved for gangsters and policemen, neither of whom paid.

1933

S. Walker Night Club Era 148: [S]itting in the ‘cuff’ or ‘red ink’ corner, a spot reserved for accomplished gangsters, representatives of the law, and a few Broadway columnists who don't feel they should be called upon to pay for their food, drink and entertainment.

1. on account, on credit; thus put on the cuff, to give credit, to ask for credit.

1916		Hall & Niles One Man’s War (1929) 183: Elaine is a charming person who takes care of aviators and ‘writes it on the cuff’ as we say.
1920		A. Baer Two & Three 6 Jan. [synd. col.] Now it’s seven dollars cash and seven on the cuff.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 18: They start in on the cuff, in the red and in hock.
1939		Army and Navy Register (US) 18 Nov. 3/2: ‘Jawbone,’ the equivalent of the civilian’s ‘put it on the cuff’.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 45: The only way of getting enough for the horses was finding a friend to put it on the cuff.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 88: Look, boys, I’m a little short. You don’t mind putting this one on the cuff, do you?
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 164: Big fancy Jew-type car, four hundred dollar suit [...] the whole bit and he wants me to make a hit on the cuff.
1979		G. Wolff Duke of Deception (1990) 233: He stayed ten days, put everything on the cuff, even his amphetamines.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 193: Hoping I could con Gene’s landlady into putting me on the cuff until payday I went with him to his boarding house.

2. for free.

1927		in Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Nov. 134: ‘On the cuff’ is ‘on the house’ or ‘free.’.
1933		C.W. Willemse A Cop Remembers 141: Mrs. Torri had a restaurant there with a famous cuisine that brought to her table [many customers] — also cops, but mostly on the cuff for they made themselves helpful and she paid them in kindness.
1943		H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 183: You get all the restaurants and nightspots you want, on the cuff.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 163: Truck-drivers who transport them, deliver them to madames or macks along the route, in return for fun on the cuff and ten bucks.
1965		D. Pearce Cool Hand Luke (1967) 102: A beat-up guitar that he had bought for [...] twenty-four haircuts on the cuff.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 85: ‘Last high you gets on the cuff,’ Redwood told him now.
1986		S. King It (1987) 39: Instead of going back to Portland when his three weeks on the cuff were over, he found himself a small apartment.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 117: It’s a one-hour operation. He’s gonna do it on the cuff, no charge.

3. (N.Z.) excessive; usu. as a bit on the cuff [? rhy. sl. = SE rough].

1942		NZEF Times 16 Nov. 8: A bit on the cuff, that sort of thing [DNZE].
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 32/2: cuff phr. on the cuff excessive or unfair or inappropriate... ‘Steady on, old boy, that language is a bit on the cuff.’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

to obtain on credit or for free.

1916

T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 29: An’ anytime you’re broke and wanna swing the cuff for a round of drinks mention my name – an’ you’re in right.

1. (Aus.) office workers; thus the respectable middle-class.

1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Jan. 25/3: [She] has helped many a struggling protégé of the cuff-and-collar brigade in many cashful ways.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 5 Feb. 1/1: Her pronounced cuff-and-collar preferences have caused deep wrath is the workshops [and] her oil-grimed admirer offers to job any two Johnnies to stamp his superiority.
1905		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 29 Nov. 4/3: The parties who have taken advantage of these unsuspecting women [...] are what one would recognise as being respectable. [...] in vulgar language they belong to what is known as the ‘cuff and collar brigade’.
1914		Dly Herald 9 July 4/3: In the course of writings by Labourists and Socialists one [...] sees phrases which can only be characterised as sneers at the ‘cuff and collar brigade,’ — the clerks.
1929		Western Times 20 Sedpt. 14/5: The average middle class man [...] is shunned by the so-called upper classes, and referred to by the horny handed sons of toil as the cuff and collar brigade.
1937		Hull Dly Mail 15 July 5/2: There were the large percentage of the population of the country —the backbone of the country — the men they knew as the collar and cuff brigade.

2. a dandy, or one who poses as such.

1915

West Briton & Cornwall Advertiser 1 Nov. 4/3: Ferdy Fullobounce had deigned to honour a seaside hydro with his exquisite presence. He was a perfect ‘filbert,’ a true sample of the ‘cuff and collar brigade’.

(Aus.) middle-class, prissy, pernickety.

1890		Sporting Times 22 Feb. 3/1: Up comes a toff, all cuffs and collar, and a pane o’ glass in his eye.
1901		H. Lawson ‘The Men Who Made Australia’ in Roderick (1967–9) II 7: There’ll be royal times in Sydney for the Cuff and Collar Push, / There’ll be lots of dreary drivel and clap-trap.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Oct. 13/2: One 16-stone hog [...] was informing the boss [...] that ‘there’s too much side about her. She’s a collar-and-cuffs tart, she is. Threatened to throw the tea over me for speaking a word to her.’.

a ref. to pubic hair that matches the colour of the visible hair; thus ostensibly proving that a woman is not dyeing her hair.

1971		L. Sanders Pleasures of Helen 170: [H]er wispy triangle was blond, and it was nice to show men that her collar and cuffs matched.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 11: ‘She a blonde or brunette?’ [...] ‘Neither, orange.’ ‘Orange! Jesus Christ. Cuffs and collars?’ ‘Cuffs and collars.’.
1978		‘Joe Block’ The Flasher n.p.: ‘I see you're a natural redhead,’ he remarked. ‘You have the collar and muff to match’.
[1980		T. Lewis GBH 16: [I]t was three months before I discovered her hair was not its natural colour].
2002		Capital Radio 23 Jan. [London radio] She’s blonde in the pictures but somehow I don’t think the collars and cuffs match.
2005		‘Weather Girl Showdown’ at asstr.org 🌐 Y’know, darling, I just love the red hair, but I can’t help but wonder if cuffs and collar don’t match, if you get my drift...
2011		D.D. Brazill ‘Lady and the Gimp’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] ‘Wasn’t she a blond?’ ‘Yeah [...] but the collars and cuffs didn’t match’.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 243: Hominy posed [...] with the blackfaced women of Nu Iota gamma. ‘Do the curtains match the naps?’ Hominy said drily.

a clerk.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 100/2: Well, what if I am a coster? I earns a dollar (5s.), where a blooming cuffshooter don’t make a ’og (1s.).