Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) a beating.

1968

J. Alard He Who Shoots Last 28: ‘Didn’t think no one ’ed rat on a kid. Wot a rotten germ [...] Ya gonna give him a send orf Jack?’.

(UK black) an errand boy.

2020

G. Krauze What They Was 32: Reuben said fuck dat go shop yourself I’m not some sendout.

(US) to send to prison.

1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 416: Send across. Send to prison.
1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 190: So we plead guilty, an’ the judge sends us across.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

to kill.

1907

W.M. Raine Wyoming (1908) 18: Bump me off—send me across the divide.

(N.Z. prison) to send or pass an unsanctioned note to a fellow inmate.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 162/1: send a fax v. 1 = go fishing 2 to give an item (usually a letter) to an inmate about to be transferred, to ensure that the item reaches someone in another prison send a line (also pass down a line or send a fishing line) = go fishing. send a telegram = go fishing. send the mail = go fishing.

to dismiss.

1716		J. Addison Drummer III i: Marry him! [...] there would be no staying in this house for us if she did. That young rake-hell would send all the old servants a grazing.
1721		Penkethman’s Jests 59: A Widow and the Government are ready upon all Occasions to tax the new Husband and the Prince; unless the former Husband was hang’d, and the former King sent to Grass, and then they bid them take fair Warning by their Destiny.

1. (Aus.) to have someone arrested, to send to prison.

1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 12 Oct. 3/5: Next day the Beak said: ‘Such a nice time ought to be worth something to you. I’ll just send you along for three months .
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: send along. See ‘Put up’.

2. (Aus.) to criticize severely.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Sept. 6/3: The ‘Vagabond’ has been lecturing at Charters Towers, and is thus ‘sent along’ by the remorseless Thadeus O’Kane.

3. (US) to cost, to charge.

1899

W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 59: I figured it up on the back of the invitation, and that lady sent me along for just two hundred and ten dollars, not counting what I owe Johnny Black’s brother-in-law.

(UK Und.) a phr. of affirmation: on my honour; I swear.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 60: Why, send I may live, if she was to tumble to you widding about her, she’d mug you like a shot. Wouldn’t she Sall?
1892		Illus. Police News 25 June 4/2: ‘Tommy Toff! — well, send I may live!’.

to imprison, to have someone imprisoned.

1909		H. Green Mr. Jackson 226: She’s makin’ frens with a woman in the next apartment, an’ the udder one’s pumpin’ her. She’ll git us all sent away yet.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 289: They can’t send me away for more than seven years.
1927		C. Coe Me – Gangster 138: Nobody can send me away.
1930		A. Carey Memoirs of a Murder Man 27: He pleaded guilty to possessing burglar’s tools and was sent away.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 92: If the coppers did not send the amateurs away [...] they could not sandwich in the professionals whom they turn loose.
1949		W. Burroughs letter 16 April in Harris (1993) 47: One stick, one cap now could send me away for 7 years as a second offender.
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 87: We send them [i.e. criminals] away for safe custody until they no longer are menaces.
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 177: I may as well help press the charge hard and get you both sent away as long as possible.
1977		G.F. Newman A Prisoner’s Tale 133: ‘How come a bright boy like you ever got sent away, Brian?’ he asked.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 334: Then they started disappearing off the streets; they were being sent away for burglary, theft and all that.
1999		Guardian G2 10 Nov. 8: What they wanted to do was put him in the electric chair or send him away for life.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 106: Guys are getting sent away without the customs seizing product.

to imprison.

1840		N.O. Picayune 2 Aug. 2/5: She scorned to find surety in $500 to keep the peace, so she was sent down.
1846		D. Corcoran Picking from N.O. Picayune 122: I’ll send you down for thirty days.
1859		Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 29 Oct. 7/2: [T]he poor drunkards whom they [i.e. magistrates] send ‘below’ for ten days.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 55/2: Tom became acquainted with two [thieves] of his own age, who were being sent down on suspicion of the ‘dip’.
1907		Truth (Perth) 19 Oct. 4/6: But a white man resenting a nigger is rash. / And is sure to be ‘sent’ for a fiver.
1927		E. Wallace Squeaker (1950) 23: There was a man in the prison laundry who had been sent down for ten years on a ‘squeak’.
1935		G. Ingram Cockney Cavalcade 36: I s’pose you want to see your mates get sent ‘downstairs’ for a ‘sixer’.
1965		C. Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 22: He confessed he hadn’t paid any taxes either. So he got sent down too.
1977		G.F. Newman Villain’s Tale 27: Both of them would have had it, if only to provide for their families while they were away – it was a million they were going to be sent down.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 106: send down: he was ‘sent down’ for three years means he was sent to prison for three years.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) G. Tremlett Little Legs 97: I [...] was sent down for a seven, a four, a three, a two and an eighteen months.
1999		Indep. Rev. 2 July 1: I won’t be sent down. I’ll take as long as it takes to prove that I’m totally innocent.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 273: He was sent down the last time for supposedly dealing cocaine.
2011		D.D. Brazill ‘Lady and the Gimp’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] Penhaligon was sent down for playing hide the salami with an under-aged student.

1. (N.Z.) to dismiss from employment; thus go down the road, to be dismissed; down the track, dismissal.

1951		J. Hall (Otago) postcard in DNZE (1998) 708/2: To be sent down the road [...] Expressions heard used in Central Otago and Fiord Country, by people engaged in gold-mining or bush work. In the beginning, I should imagine, it was a literal description of what happened to the man since there was only one road leading out of the community... It is now used in isolated communities to describe someone being dismissed, even if he can get another job that keeps him in the community.
1952		G. Meek ‘Sheds That Banned The Singing Rousey’s Song’ Station Days in Maoriland 52: If the blinkin’ boss is hangin’ round, you’re next for down the track.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 91: You’ll go down the road if ya don’t wake ya ideas up, I said.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 220: You’d better not criticise boys’ schools like that in front of our Head. He might send you down the road.
1986		Metro (Auckland) July 82: But it didn’t compensate for the [...] slack period when workers went down the road [DNZE].
1994		E.T. Beardsley Blackball 08 85: By God, he’d keep a close eye on Master Hickey and at the first opportunity [...] he’d be sent down the road so fast he’d wonder what hit him [DNZE].
2018		M. Mesko Confessions of a Caddie 65: At most other clubs, a caddie would be down the road, permanently, for such behavior. He got lucky the Riv [Riviera Country Club] only suspended him.

2. (US Und.) to send to prison.

2001

(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 151: Thought it would be better just to send ya down the road for a bit, rather than end your days.

(UK black) to challenge.

2015

www.reddit.com/r/hiphopheads Grime Terminology Guide 🌐 To send for someone - To call out someone on a track, start beef.

1. (Aus./N.Z.) a general appeal to the gods for rain.

1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Nov. 16/3: Up in Queensland shearers invoke Providence for rain, when it is a fair thing for a holiday, thus: ‘Send it down, Hughie.’ Thought it was purely local until I happened on Manly Beach the other day, when a storm-cloud banked up and a sun-browning nude arose and remarked to the sky, ‘What’s the game, Hughie?’ Does any Abo-liar know the origin of the term? I believe the Queensland black’s word for cloud is ‘ugon,’ and the shearers and surf-bathers may have misapplied it to the man behind the gun. If that is not the explanation, what in fury is?
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 417: ‘Send it down David!’ greeted every shower of rain.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: send her down steve. Let it rain on.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 72: David (or Davy), Send It Down: A soldiers’ greeting to a shower of rain likely to postpone a parade.
1928		(con. 1918) L. Nason Sergeant Eadie 321: Hurray! Send her down, Davie, no drill today!
1946		K.S. Prichard Roaring Nineties 30: Miners and prospectors would turn out and yell to a dull, dirty sky clouded with red dust: ‘Send her down! Send her down, Hughie!’.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 147: Wife says send her down hughie but I says cut it out. Can’t rain for the footie.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 54: Wot’s the use? Send ’er down, Hughie. A man might just as well be drowned where he stands as wait for this rotten old tub to sink.
1972		G.W. Turner Eng. Lang. in Aus. and N.Z. 114: In indigenous slang the nearest to a religious concept is the use of Hughie in Send her down, Hughie said to be the source of rain.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 59/2: Hughie God, matily addressed in phr. send her down, Hughie a request for rain.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2006		B. Reed ‘Blind Freddie at the end of the cord’ in Passing Strange (2015) 37: ‘So send her down, Hughie!’.

2. used as a toast.

2001

(con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 244: Every so often one of them would make an idle remark when he took a drink – ‘Send ’em down, Hughie!’ or ‘here’s cheers!’.

1. (US) to place a bet.

1914

T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 13 May [synd. cartoon] I’m no piker. I send in each time.

2. (Aus.) to imprison.

1930

Age (Melbourne) 18 Dec. 13/7: [headline] A ‘COCKATOO’ GAOLED. Armed Thieves' Lookout Sent in for Two Years.

see under check n.¹

1. to push in, to drive something home.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. (US gambling) to make big bets.

1961

J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling.

(Aus.) to steal.

1950		‘No. 35’ Argot in G. Simes DAUS (1993).
1966		Baker Aus. Lang. (2nd edn).

(US black) to send on a wild goose chase, a fool’s errand.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 253: send on a hombug (humbug)/merry-go-round/trip Send someone on a wild goose chase.

1. (US Und.) to imprison.

1854

F. St. Clair Six Days in the Metropolis 77: The magistrate [...] had sent her ‘over’ once for a similar offence.

2. (US Und.) to betray to the authorities.

1929		D. Hammett Red Harvest (1965) 48: ‘And I put my last thirty-five bucks in the world on that rat on his say-so. Me, that could send him over for — ’ .
1930		D. Hammett Maltese Falcon (1965) 436: ‘I’m going to send you over. The chances are you’ll get off with life. That means you’ll be out again in twenty years’.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 287: You got the money [...] when you sent him over to the cops for that bank job he pulled.

3. see send up

(US) to get rid of a person; to terminate a relationship.

1968

‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 34: send you south – To end; to dissolve, or sever a friendship; to cut off a love affair.

to administer a flogging.

1822

R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 79: birching-Lane. To send a person to Birching-Lane, a proverbial phrase for ordering him to be whipped, or otherwise punished.

1. (orig. boxing) to knock down, thus to kill [boxing orig. took place on grass].

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 22 Jan. n.p.: Although Crawley one-twoed his man, he caught toco for his pains [...] and was sent to grass.
1859		Bell’s Life in Tasmania 13 Sept. 3/6: A [illegible] on the bread basket, which sent the Polisher to grass.
1868		Sportsman 5 Nov. 2/1: Notes on News [...] One of O’Baldwin’s henchmen [...] was also sent to grass. or to the cobble-stones of Houston-street.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 237: The stranger did ‘let go his left’ [...] Elias was sent to grass to rise no more off it.
1887		Abilene Reflector (KS) 19 May 7/3: If he knocks his opponent down he will say [...] that he ‘sent him to grass’.
1891		H.A. Stuart in Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 7 Mar. 6/3: It’s true the old Pi-ute was sent to grass, and blood let out — a perfect flood.
1896		Mirror of Life 4 Jan. 3/1: [A] clean, swift hit on the point of the jaw sent Master Sambo to grass.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Mar. 13/3: [H]is intended victim instantly propped him viciously on the point of the jaw, and, sending him to grass, scampered yelling ‘To hell with the Pope!’.

2. see send a-grazing

(US/L.A. drugs) to flush drugs down the lavatory before or during a drugs raid.

1968

‘Sl. of Watts’ Current Sl. III:2.

to dispose of, to bring to an end.

1795

Sporting Mag. Sept. VI 333/1: But a skilful young dentist her torture dispell’d, / And so soon sent her anguish to pot.

to bring down in the world.

1872		Chelmsford Chron. (Essex) 10 May 7/4: The NY Herald says [...] Mr Greenley, as president, would send the country to the dogs.
1882		Morpeth Herald (Northumberland) 18 Feb. 6/4: I know who the lady is. The fellow who lives in that house is awfully spooney on her, and if he don’t look out she’ll soon send him to the dogs.
1938		C. Himes ‘Pork Chop Paradise’ Coll. Stories (1990) 265: Then he met a high-yellah gal, a three-quarter keltz, from down Harlem way, and she sent him to the dogs.

(US) to kill, to murder.

2021

S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 128: They had turned their backs on him. Inside that was a sign of disrespect so egregious it might get you sent to the farm.

(Aus./N.Z.) to discard, to dismiss.

1915		C.J. Dennis Songs of a Sentimental Bloke gloss. 🌐 Pack, to send to the – To relegate to obscurity.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘The Also-Ran’ Rose of Spadgers 105: ’Urts like one thing. To git sent to the pack.

1. (US Und.) to imprison [abbr. SE send up for punishment, or SE send up the river under river n.].

1836		N.Y. Transcript 15 Feb. 2/4: [Cornelia Latting, a young colored woman, sentenced to 2 years, 6 months; she tells the court] that she did not care a d—n if they had sent her up for forty-eleven years.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. III 56: No more yourn, than the last swag you lifted, and when the coppers were arter you, left at my door so’s to get me sent up.
1868		J.D. McCabe Secrets of the Great City 316: ‘It is a hard case, Mary, but stealing is stealing, and I shall have to send you up for twenty days.’ And so Mary is sent to the Penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island.
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 86: The result was the whole concern was nabbed, and two or three of the operators were ‘sent over’.
1879		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Oct. 3/4: Bill was taken care of — sent up for two years; but afterwards got caught again at some other job and was sent up for fourteen years.
1883		Bristol Magpie 18 Jan. 6/1: I’d be glad if you’d send me up for a month.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. 20/1: A peripatetic Nooze agent [...] had the misfortune to be tried at noon, just as the stipendiary’s stomach was beginning to ask what about that roast duck and chartereau, and as a natural result [...] was sent up for three months without the option.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 293: The fellow was sent up for three years.
1892		W. Norr Stories of Chinatown 41: They would have hung him or sent him up for life.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 28 Jan. 1/3: Colonel Brown, who is so constantly ‘sent up’ for passing valueless cheques .
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 14 Aug. 1/2: ‘The square chivvied cow will be sent up for his gory natural’.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 95: To leave an impression on these people, you must send a party up for what he hasn’t done.
1906		N.Z. Truth 4 Aug. 5/7: He [...] stoushed t’other chap and was run in for assault and sent up.
1913		Truth (Sydney) 15 June 2/5: [headline] SCURVY SKUNK SENT UP FOR A SIXER.
1914		Day Book (Chicago) 5 Mar. 8/1: Maria is a widder lady, whose husband died in jale after he had been sent up.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 146: These exhibits he thrust beneath the Quinnian nose when the party was seated in the prison omnibus, adding vindictive prophecies as to their ‘sending up’ powers.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 65: As soon as a bull gives him th’ third degree, a kid will toin stool an’ peach on us guns an’ the whole works an’ send us up.
1922		E. Dyson Missing Link 🌐 Ch. 16: You can’t send a bloke up on th’ say so of a Missin’ Link.
1927		D. Hammett ‘The Big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 275: This little fat guy will do anything for anybody, as long as he can send ’em over for life in the end.
1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 237: Clyde Stevens was sent over to Quentin in 1931.
1935		Ted Yates This Is New York 12 Apr. [synd. col.] Young being sent up to serve from 10 to 20 years.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 342: It just looks like old-man Larsney’s goin’ to send him up, when Con gets a brainwave.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 268: He was sent up to Sing-Sing for seven-and-a-half to fifteen years.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 137: He was a Criminal Courts Judge at one time. He sent a lot of guys up.
1964		H. Selby Jnr Last Exit to Brooklyn 26: He was sent up for his first real bit when he was 16.
1978		R.D. Pharr Giveadamn Brown (1997) 135: ‘I was sent up for dealing, not using’.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Ed Leary’ Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 127: Shortly before we had been sent over to the Island there had been a big drive against the junk pushers.
1991		L. Bing Do or Die (1992) 6: Once you got sent up the only way to get along was to do your own time.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 11: Frank got sent up for another eight.
2013		T.F. Dunham ‘Soul Collection’ in ThugLit July-Aug. [ebook] [T]he older generation got pinched and sent up for ten-to-twenty.
2024		D. Swierczynski California Bear 23: [A] guy who’d been sent up for a murder he didn’t commit.

2. (Aus.) to cheat, to defraud.

1917

‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Done for the Double’ Three Elephant Power 137: The poor lady regularly punts on his ponies, and just as regularly is ‘sent up’ — in other words, loses her money.

see go up Green River under Green River n.

(US Und.) to imprison.

1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 98: He was doin’ fence work in York, an’ I helped send ’im up the river for eight years.
1915		R.H. Davis Frame Up 🌐 ‘Sammy!’ she exclaimed. ‘He’s a lobbygow of mine. He’s worked for me for years. I could send him up the river if I liked.’.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 97: Then he causes the wife of the judge which sent him up the river to poison herself and her young infant baby.
1933		J. Spenser Limey 8: The convict is just ‘sent up the river to the Big House’.
1946		Chicago Daily News 5 Mar. 8/3: I done it. Send me up the river. Give me the hot seat [DA].
1952		(con. 1923) G. Fowler Schnozzola 129: He maintained he had been sent up the river on a bum rap.
1959		Mad mag. Oct. 42: Then you’re thee guy what send my brudder up de river.
1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 68: They sent him up the hill for six months.
1992		UGK ‘Pocket Full of Stones’ 🎵 The judge that sent me got capped by my nigga C / And now his ass is sent up the river next to me.
2008		T. Piccirilli Fever Kill 111: Somebody might [...] send him up the river for a nickel.

to kill, to murder.

2002

J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 172: Some Pakistan geezer reckons I going to waste him [...] told i was after sending him up the road.