Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a foot.

c.1629

ballad in Arber Eng. Garner VII 13: Her cheeks were like a cherry Her waist exceeding small. The fives did fit her shoe [F&H].

2. the hand, usu. when clenched in a fist; thus the fives, prizefighting; man of fives, a professional fighter.

1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry I iv: This what do you call it? – this cover-me-decently, was all very well at Hawthorn Hall, I daresay; but here, among the pinks in Rotten-row, the lady-birds in the Saloon, the angelics at Almack’s [...] even among the millers at the Fives, it would be taken for nothing less than the index of a complete flat.
1826		N.Y. American 25 Apr. 2/3: This new performer was a tight-built sprig, and such as from the manner of using his fives, is sometimes known amongst the American fancy as a weaver.
1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 25: Smart chap that cabman — handled his fives well.
1842		Egan ‘Jack Flashman’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 141: Jack long was on the town, a teazer; / A spicy blade for wedge or sneezer; / Could turn his fives to anything / Nap a reader, or filch a ring.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 30 July n.p.: The ‘Professors of Fives’ [...] have backed a pupil of Bell’s against Ben Bryan.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Sept. 4/1: His fives were clinch’d, his brow was knit, his physiog was wan.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 7 Feb. 4/1: [T]he science of the ‘fives’.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 191: Jack tapped with his fives on the little ’un’s lid.
1871		C. Money Knocking About in N.Z. 11: He [...] invited ‘the man of fives’ to a speedy adjustment of their differences.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Feb. 11/1: The smallest ‘snob’ in Ultimo / Of you could make a holy show! / If, like a cat, you had nine lives, / Not once would you put up your ‘fives.’.
1916		P. MacGill The Great Push 114: ’E works ’ard when ’e’s workin’, ’e can use ’is fives wiv anyone, ’e can take a drink or leave it, but ’e prefers takin’ it.
1929		A.J. Barr Let Tomorrow Come 79: He seems reluctant to leave, sorry he did not hand The Rebel the fives for his last remark.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

3. a street fight.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 398/1: from ca. 1850.

4. (drugs) 5mg Benzedrine or amphetamine tablets.

1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 222: It turned out that they were not even ‘fives’, but more like ‘ones’.
1977		L. Young et al. Recreational Drugs.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 341: fives: A five-milligram tablet of Benzedrine or other amphetamines.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 9: Fives — Amphetamine.

5. masturbation.

1999

Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 13: fives n. A traditional Etonian game played with four fingers, a thumb and a cock.