gate, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gate n.

[note Shakespearian use of gate, the vulva]

1. (orig. Aus./N.Z. milit.) the mouth.

1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 224: ‘If anything’s said [...] I know nothing about it’ [...] ‘Too right, Sir. We’ll keep our gate closed.’.
1927		Ellesmere Guardian 27 May 4/3: ‘Close your gate,’ Shut your mouth.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 219: Keep yo’ gate shut.
1938		Press (Canterbury) 2 Apr. 18: A ‘moosh’ or ‘gate’ is mouth.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 59: No good prodding me. My gate’s shut.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 214: ‘Shut yer face’ – ‘fizzog’ – ‘flycatcher’ – or, ‘gate’ (‘gate’ is surprisingly common).
1988		(ref. to WWI) McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 48/1: gate mouth.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 84: ‘Shut yer gate, mate.’ From about 1910.

2. (US Und./prison) release from prison, freedom; usu. in combs. below.

1926

Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 15/2: The Gate – Crook’s term for freedom.

3. (US black, also gates) a person, a man, esp. as a term of address [jazz jargon gate, a swing musician, ult. the ‘swinging’ of a gate + abbr. gatemouth n.; the term, at its peak 1935–43, was popularized by the comedian Jerry Colonna, who used it widely on Bob Hope’s radio show].

1931		Don Redmond ‘Shakin’ the African’ 🎵 You know, a gate that goes loco, man, / Doin’ the African.
1939		Detroit Free Press (MI) 17 Sept. 8/1: ‘Dear Gate’(That’s swing slang for a real hot ride, man).
1940		Louis Jordan ‘June Tenth Jamboree’ 🎵 A hep cat started some jive, / He said, ‘Come on, gates, and jump with me / At the Juneteenth Jamboree’.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 176: Georgie! [...] Where you been, gate?
1958		Southern & Hoffenberg Candy (1970) 84: Greetings, Gates! [...] We’ve come to cheer up our sick little boy!
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1975		Hardy & Cull Drug Lang. and Lore.
1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 182: Mash me a fin, gate, so I can cop me a fry.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 66: ‘Take a look in the mirror, gate [...] you’re ratbag number one. You’re silly as a two-bob watch’.

4. (Aus.) a key (to a cell door).

1946

Singleton Argus (NSW) 4/2: Other fancy underworld terms for the same thing are ‘the twirl,’ and ‘the gate,’ and ‘the twist’.

5. (US drugs) the vein into which one injects a narcotic.

1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo.
1975		Hardy & Cull Drug Lang. and Lore.

6. one’s appearance, looks.

1999

Indep. Rev. 15 June 4: So they could all ‘check their gate’ before going on camera, [...] organisers provided 5-ft mirrors.

In derivatives

gatey (adj.) [the opening of the prison gate]

(UK prison) suffering from the nervousness that precedes the end of one’s sentence.

1959

F. Norman in Encounter n.d. in Norman’s London (1969) 62: But I don’t care because I can do this standing on my head (easily), I’ve only got another moon (month) and then I’ll be laughing, in fact to tell you the truth I am feeling a bit gatey (jumpy) already.

In compounds

gate fever (n.)

1. (UK prison) the nervous feeling that overtakes many prisoners as their sentence draws to its close.

1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 175: Three weeks two day to do [...] The gate feaver is realy setting in now.
1959		L.A. Times 11 Nov. 45/7: I suppose opening time, as in [UK] prison parlance, will be known as ‘gate-fever’ time.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 185: Gate fever The unsettled feeling convicted men have towards the end of their prison sentences, and thus used to describe any show of impatience before an event.
1986		J. Campbell Gate Fever 171: It’s called ‘gate fever’ and there isn’t a prisoner approaching release who has not felt its grip.
1998		J. Hoskison Inside 197: I was on course for a bout of ‘gate fever’, an unfortunate ailment that causes time to stand still.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 29: gate fever n. Pre-release tension.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 76/2: gate fever n. 1 pre-release tension.
2003		Observer Crime 27 Apr. 28: Gate fever. The emotion shown by a prisoner nearing the end of his sentence.

2. (N.Z. prison) the desire to escape.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 76/2: gate fever n. 2 the desire to escape from prison.

gate money (n.)

(US prison) money given to a prisoner on release.

1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 332/1: gate money, subs. The ten dollars given a convict upon release.
1937		B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago.
1967		in J.P. Spradley You Owe Yourself a Drunk (1988) 15: Most state pens pay a little and give a man ‘gate money’.

In phrases

clamp one’s gate (v.)

(US) to be quiet.


2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 26: ‘Clamp your fucking gate’.

gate out (v.)

(US prison) to leave prison.

2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] ‘I have a business proposition for you [...] when you gate out’.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 180: [I]t was Boone that Terry called to pick him up when he gated out.

hit the gate (v.)

(US Und./prison) to leave prison, to be released.

1990

S. Morgan Homeboy 151: If you’re lucky enough to hit the gate, dont look back.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

gatemouth (n.)

see separate entry.

gate swinger (n.)

(US gay) a bisexual.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

In phrases

from the gate (adv.) [racecourse jargon]

from the outset, from the beginning.

1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 11: I start stalin’ from the gate.
1986		J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 69: ‘Liberals should be adept at trading up, seeing as how they're handicapped from the gate’.
1998		Source Nov. 38: If you don’t like this album, you weren’t a real E-40 fan from the gate.
2007		W.J. Cobb To the Break of Dawn 17: From the gate, the ancestral b-boys created a new musical history.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 106: [C]ompared to you and me, we’ve been shacked up from the gate’.

gate is open

see the barn door is open under barn n.²

get the gate (v.)

(US) to be ejected, to be dismissed.

1908		N.Y. Eve. Mail 28 Sept. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 265: She gets the gate, because too late to beat an aeroplane.
1915		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 9 June [synd. cartoon] Indoor Sports. Sympathizing with the guy who just got the gate at the office.
1917		A. Baer Fashions for Men 9 Jan. [synd. col.] Other data harpooned [...] was that freak styles in gentlemen’s frocks would get the gate.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 98: If any of us were to indulge in it here, he’d get the gate so fast it would make his head swim.
c.1935		‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 92: The few who do crash [the movies] finally wind up getting the gate.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 252: Account of him I got the gate by Schwiefka.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 16: Harry was one of the many who had got the gate.
1966		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 82: To even the score, they gave the rat four, / when he should have got the gate.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 258: Gay Getchellaphobics stormed the hospital. Danny the G. got the gate.

give someone the gate (v.)

(US) to dismiss, to reject, to get rid of; to terminate a relationship.

1901		A.H. Lewis Croker 60: A mug don’t go to a theater any more to learn things; he goes to be entertained. That’s where Shakspeare gets the gate, see!
1910		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 39: Bonehead Barry with a set of false whiskers tried to make the club last night — but we got jerry and gave him the gate.
1912		A.H. Lewis Apaches of N.Y. 111: Youse’ve got to wear ’em at these swell feeds [...] They’d give youse the gate if you don’t.
1917		Van Loan ‘A Morning Workout’ in Old Man Curry 204: I’m in favour of giving him the gate.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 26: Not until he began cutting all Recitations did the Authorities make a sign to give him the Gate.
1924		L. O’Neil ‘These Degenerate Days’ in Dinkum Aussie and Other Poems 136: It’s fallen on a wowser world! It’s plain as copperplate! / For using sinful language now they give the cook the gate!
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 273: I guess his girl has given him the gate.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 300: To dismiss with finality. To ‘give one the gate’.
1930		C.R. Shaw Jack-Roller 93: I was ‘given the gate’ at the end of the week.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 425: You know I wouldn’t, Studs. [...] If I did, she’d probably give me the gate.
1938		M. Rand ‘Clip-Joint Chisellers’ in Ten Story Gang Aug. 🌐 I guess I oughta give him the gate on account of ‘Shiv’ but I just ain’t been able to do it yet.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 40: They sent him to me to give him the gate, but I didn’t have the heart to fire him.
1945		A. Kober Parm Me 180: If I din take care of the books like I should, you know what would be my consequences? My firm would gimme the gate!
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 30: What do you mean – has she given you the gate already?
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 97: I wondered whether there wasn’t some safe way of getting Fay to give her the gate .
1962		W.R. Burnett Widow Barony 14: ‘Worked for one outfit for thirty years as a clerk—and they didn’t even give him a gold watch. They gave him the gate’.
1981		O’Day & Eells High Times Hard Times 38: He’d been chippying aroud and had caught a venereal disease, so I gave him the gate.
2004		E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 49: Give this daffy frail the gate and hire some sharp lad.

not see one’s own gate an inch from one’s nose (v.)

(US) to be ‘blind’ drunk.

1853

Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 8 Oct. n.p.: A certain gent [...] found her in the street, tight as a brick. Sally, you could not see your own gate an inch from your nose.

out of the gate (adv.) [horseracing imagery]

1. from the very beginning.

1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 75: Right out of the gate, dope facilitated a gig so hopelessly twisted, a saner scribe would have [...] walked away.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 155: ‘Don’t get soft out of the gate’.

2. (Irish) completely, comprehensively.

2005

P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 50: We should really have beaten them out of the gate.

swing the gate (v.)

see under swing v.