Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) to shield a pickpocket, confidence trickster or thief; also to jostle or distract the victim.

1592		Greene Disputation Betweene a Hee and a Shee Conny-Catcher (1923) 15: I either nip or foyst, or els staule an other while hee hath stroken, dispatcht, and gone.
1612		Dekker ‘Bing Out Bien Morts’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 11: So she and I, did stall and cloy / whatever we could catch.
a.1674		‘Canting Song’ Head Canting Academy (1674) 22: So she and I did stall and cloy / Whatever we could catch.
1777		J. Fielding Thieving Detected 19: There is generally two goes together, one is the Knuckle, and the other the Gammon, (the person who Stalls for him).
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 6 Jan. 76: A rare tippit here, Bill – a guinea to a shilling – pipe the tile – twig the mug — stall you beggar, stall.
1839		H. Brandon Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 165/2: Stall – to screen a robbery while it is being perpetrated.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 60: Nummy Ned goes on tout to the gardens, pipes a swell, stalls round him, fam’s him, touches the rumbo [...] Five cooters and a screan ten, and medza croon in white.
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 38: I buzzed a bloak and a shakester of a reader and a skin. My jomer stalled.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 30/1: I ‘stalled’ the ‘wire’ in the rear, carrying his and my own travelling bag, one in each hand, ready to push between the ‘moll’ and the ‘wire,’ in case of a tumble.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 28 Sept. n.p.: Jimmy Munday, the notorious pickpocket and pimp, has been placed in statu quo [...] for ‘dipping’ and ‘stalling’.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 9/2: I pinched a swell of a fawney and fenced it for a double finnip and a cooter. My jomer stalled. I robbed a gentleman of a ring and sold it for a ten-pound note and a sovereign. My girl watched.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 414: I used to go wirin’ in the main-thoroughfares with the Brennans to stall back and front.
1901		C.R. Wooldridge Hands Up! 198: Jim, you stall. Mike, you swipe the goods.
1904		Sun (NY) 10 July 29/4: Here is a genuine letter written in thieves’ slang, recently found by the English police [...] I gave a skister’s red thimble and slang and a cat to my mollisker stalling while we cracked the fakir’s chovey.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 86: I ain’t got no use fur a dame what can’t even stall while a guy gits off a kettle.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 210: If it wasn’t for me, [you’d] be ‘stalling’ on the ‘shorts’ for a lousy gun mob.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 263: Coppers located ‘work’ for burglars and stalled for them while they worked.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 335/2: stall, vi. To feign, to malinger, to detract attention from.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 207/2: Stall, v. [...] 2. To serve as a pickpocket’s aide by jostling, distracting, or pinning a victim; to render similar assistance to any kind of robbery.

2. (UK Und.) to steal, to pick a pocket.

1612		Dekker ‘Bing Out Bien Morts’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 12: You Mawnders all, stow what you stall, / to Rome coves watch so quire.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 196: You Maunders all, stow what you stall, / to Rumcoves that’s so quire, / And wapping Dell, that niggles well, / and takes lour for her Hire [You maunding Rogues, beware how you / do Steal, for Search is made; / And let each jade look to it too, / who will not do till paid].

3. (US) to loiter or linger around.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 37: I stall at the Jegger to nap the Slangs from the Cull or Moll; that is take [...] I stop at the Door to take the Things from the Man or Woman. [...] He stalls in the Stoop he stands in the Pillory.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving [as cit. 1753].
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: stall to make a stand, to croud together.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 58: I stalled into a gospel crib last night, and pinched the rum cull of a cotton vipe and medra croon.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1881		Newcastle Courant 9 Sept. 6/5: Now Dandy, you stoll [sic] up to the nux, I suppose.
1909		H. Green Mr. Jackson 167: They’s three bulls stallin’ around out front!
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 82: You might ‘stall’ around a little bit and ask me not to play.
1912		H. Green Vaudevillians in Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 19 Dec. 9/5: Many thanks all it [i.e. marriage] is is stall ’round the flat and phone for a cab .
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 207/2: Stall, v. [...] 4. To hesitate; show reluctance; stand; wait.
1975		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 45: Ratty Jack is stallin’ close by waitin’ to entertain the mugs with his fit bit. I was gonna take.
2001		I. Welsh Glue 58: Stall ya cunt, eh goes. — Meant tae be daein a fuckin joab.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 6: Instead of stalling for the lift, Johnnie darts up the stairway.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 389: Ricky Monaghan has a connection. Ah’m gaunny stall here and see if he shows.

4. (UK Und.) to use something to shield one’s face.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 19/2: Joe ‘stalled’ his hat, thinking to escape her; but that cock wouldn’t fight.

5. (UK Und.) in fig. use, to save someone from.

1846

Swell’s Night Guide 76: The chanting cadger had tumbled to her situation [...] and as soon as he saw the grog’ums in the steppers, her legs trembled; he was on to her before Owen and had his stretchers round her tripe-box, and copped her rumbo, and stalled her from a downey.

6. to play for time, to make excuses, to delay; thus stalling n., delaying; thus (US) phr. quit stalling, stop wasting time, stop making excuses.

1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 57: ‘[D]er was no chance t’ stall out of it [i.e. making an impromptu speech], so I gets up’.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 52: What’s a fellow going to do? You can never tell whether a girl is really sore or whether she is stalling.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 62: The secretary of the commish will stall against it, and keep the transfer from bein’ ordered.
1917		F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I vi: Youse been stallin’ on me fer a year every time it came to a divvy.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 127: No stallin’, kid; get there by the mornin’ o’ the Twenty-fifth an’ be darn sure yuh do!
1931		P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘Quit stalling [...] and come on’.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 82: The Sailor [...] stalled and said not as a rule.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 117: I guess they just stalled long enough to watch us a little.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 838: Quit stalling. Whats the deal?
1952		H. McCoy Corruption City 47: Stop stalling. Kinney’s told us the whole story.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 177: I told him I’d have to get myself together [...] like I was stallin.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 92: He would stall for months, jam up courtrooms, and cost money.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 57: ‘But how you’ll let me stay with you?’ she asked, stalling or fishing, he wasn’t sure which.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 73: Trying to stall. Now what’s percentage in that?
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 22: Let’s stall — let’s postpone Wendell D.
2012		T.P. McCauley ‘Lady Madeline’s Dive’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] ‘Quit stalling’.
2024		D. Swierczynski California Bear 41: He just had to stall the inevitable until tomorrow.

7. to make someone wait.

1940		D. Maurer Big Con 203: Johnny stalled the undertaker.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 37: He should’ve stalled the guy to wait until his manager got back.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 62: That’s how you keep ’em from stallin’ you around an hour or so [...] while they wait for the cops to come.

8. (Aus. Und.) to abandon an attempt, to give up.

1975

Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 45: In the end all the mugs start earwiggin’ and the store jacks fall . . . shit, man, it was the best go you ever saw and we had to stall.