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].
1895		Mirror of Life 15 June 14/3: When he ‘stalls’ the casket, otherwise the crib, in which is enshrined her ladyship’s jewels, or a diamond merchant's stock, or value of any other description, the modern cracksman has only to put himself in communication with the moneyed man.

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.