Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a woman, esp. a wife (who ‘cools one’s passions’) as opposed to a mistress or lover (who ‘heats them up’).

1626		J. Shirley Maid’s Revenge II ii: Cupid hath thrown a dart at me, like a blind buzzard as he is, and there’s no recovery without a cooler.
1635		R. Brome Sparagus Garden II ii: It [Asparagus] is so provocative, and so quicke in the hot operation, that none dare eate it, but those that carry their coolers with ’em.
1655		Mercurios Fumigosus 59 4-11 July 1: A young Citizen Ramphant, [...] and so hot in the Codpiece, that wanting a Cooler, he must needs imploy a Pedagoge neer St. Gylses to learn the horn-book Lesson of getting a Wife.
1660–2		‘New Courtier’ in Pepys Ballads (1987) II 212: When Love doth for a cooler call, My fancy drives, at maids & wives, Have at al.
1674		H.N. Payne Siege of Constantinople Act III: There’s Whores in Hell ... Let me have one ... They’re Coolers Lionello! Excellent Coolers. And I’m exceeding Hot.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. n.p.: I took you for a brewer because you travel with your cooler by your side [F&H].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1749		Hist. of the Human Heart 154: You may find a Cooler before you get to your Lodgings.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1790		Dying Groans of Sir John Barleycorn 5: But of them all, [wives] Gills was chief instructor, what to drink, and how to raise the coin for the other cooler.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

2. the (female) buttocks; thus phr. kiss my cooler.

1811

Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Cooler. The backside. Kiss my cooler. Kiss my a-se. It is principally used to signify a woman’s posteriors.

3. a glass of porter, taken as a balance to one of spirits.

1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 267: [note] Most persons who are in the habit of [...] drinking a number of drams in the course of a day [...] frequently take a glass of porter, which is termed a cooler, a damper, &c; and too many individuals, hard drinkers, flatter themselves that, from such sort of care, they are keeping the nails out of their coffins.
1827		Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 201: The ‘lads of the town’ [...] suck down a few coolers.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1864		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.

4. a ‘finisher’, a ‘clincher’, e.g. a knockout punch, a crushing statement.

1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 25: My attention was soon attracted by the voices of the players. [...] ‘Don’t claw off, Bill’ — ‘That’s a cooler’ — ‘Don’t crow yet’.
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 251: He has this day got a cooler, sure, might last him out and out for a twelvemonth.
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 4: Vell, I’m blowed if that [i.e. a fine] ain’t a cooler!
1960, 1975		(ref. to 1900) Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

5. a glass of beer taken after drinking spirits and water.

1833		‘A Shove In The Mouth’ in Regular Thing, And No Mistake 62: I slabb’d not for a week, nor a cooler e’en grabb’d.
1881		Western Times 20 Sept. 3/4: The multiform nomenclature under which refreshments seem to be presented. A ‘livener,’ a ‘cooler,’ a ‘nerver’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 19: Cooler, a drink in the morning after a spree.

6. (orig. US) a prison or prison cell; police cells [the prisoner ‘cools their heels’].

[1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 204: Cooler [...] twelve months at the treadmill for a leg].
1875		Wichita Beacon 15 Dec. in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 150: Policeman Erp found a stranger lying near the bridge in a drunken stupor. He took him to the ‘cooler’.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Dec. 7/1: They walked down to the ‘cooler’ (frame station house) where the prisoner had been incarcerated.
1890		Sporting Times 4 Jan. 6: Here I am in the ‘cooler’.
1893		Tombstone Epitaph (AZ) 1 Feb. 2/3: They have a fellow of peculiarly michievous tendencies in the county cooler. he relives the monotony of his prison life [...] by shaking the doors of his cell.
1905		Duke Tritton’s Letter n.p.: It is hard to believe that two years ago I was [...] fighting and brawling, stouching John Hops, getting run in and spending a few days in the cooler.
1909		N.Z. Truth 9 Jan. 7/3: The copman safely deposited Frederick in the cooler where he kicked up hell’s delight.
1913–14		E. O’Neill The Web in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 57: Git dat kid out of here or I’ll put yuh in the cooler as sure as hell.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 17: cooler — Prison or guard-room.
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 43: The corrupt police had the nerve to capture these poor friends of the common people and had them in the cooler.
1922		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 Dec. 18/3: ‘Struth,’ wailed ‘Brum’ on the way to the 'cooler.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 59: Captain Brown [...] had not seen me since our meeting in the cooler.
1930		L. Lower Here’s Luck 115: ‘Where?’ ‘Clink,’ said Stanley succinctly. George looked at me interrogatively. ‘He means the cooler,’ I explained. ‘Quod?’ ‘Yes’ .
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 218: The nigger they call Fatfolks is down in the cooler.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 53: The slightest speck, and you was run into the cooler faster than your legs could carry you.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 6: He weren’t so hot about sitting in the cooler overnight.
1950		‘Neville Shute’ Town Like Alice 146: They had him in the cooler for the night.
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 73: I could [...] make him vomit up enough evidence to give him a year in the cooler.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 64: Your mate can start by gettin’ him out of the cooler — pronto!
1968		J. Barlow Burden of Proof 67: These kids wouldn’t show withdrawal symptoms if they were stuck in the cooler.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 172: Come on, Vince, you’re going to the cooler.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 49: For over .05 in Dimboola / A hoofer was clapped in the coola.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 189: cooler: prison, or a prison cell.
1989		Beano Comic Library No. 182 13: You’ll do time for that in the cooler.
1998		Observer Rev. 9 Aug. 5: Reggie is news just by kicking his heels in the cooler.

7. (orig. US) a punishment or solitary confinement cell.

1879		Wheeling Dly Intelligencer (VA) 1 Aug. 4/2: There are twenty-five inmates at the City Prison [...] One solitary drunk in the ‘cooler’.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 388: Got the cooler [dark cell] ev’ry time I did en’thin.
1904		‘Number 1500’ Life In Sing Sing 224: The one least to blame [...] is sent back to the shop and the other goes into the ‘cooler’ for a few days.
1915		Eve. World (NY) 6 July 14/5: The only cure for them is the prison cooler, where they may have time for relfection.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 100: The cooler or dark cell was the same as the other cells, except that there was nothing in it and the door was solid, admitting no light. The floor and walls were of thin steel and very cold.
1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 125: He comes out after several days of bread and water in the ‘cooler’.
1947		R.O. Boyer Dark Ship 227: When I got back I found all the guys were in the cooler.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 112: Patsy hadn’t been in the cooler for twenty-four hours before he began to demand his rights.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 19: Straighten out that goddam line or I’ll run you both into the goddam cooler.
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 238: Every institution that confines people has a ‘hole.’ It may be called [...] Isolation, Segregation, Meditation, The Cooler, The Shelf.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 11: Whenever an inmate is found guilty of violating prison rules, a customary punishment is isolation. Each prison has cellhouses or areas designated for this punishment. These areas are referred to as lockup units or lockup. (Archaic: icebox, ironhouse, cooler, dark cell).
1997		Irish Times 18 Feb. n.p.: [At Spike Island prison] [...] there is what staff call a ‘cooler’ and prisoners the ‘choker’ [BS].

8. (US) a short man’s jacket [? euph. for bum freezer under bum n.¹ ].

1882

Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 July 3/2: [A] dapper, smirking little fellow in yellow trowsers and [...] blue coat of the extreme abbreviated ‘cooler’ cut.

9. (US campus) an expert, an outstanding individual.

1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 17: cooler n. One who excels in some line of work; a brilliant student. ‘Our half-backs are coolers!’ ‘He’s a cooler in Latin!’ Used also in compounds, as ‘honey-cooler,’ ‘coffee-cooler’.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 29: cooler, n. A smart person.

10. (Aus.) a chilly glance, a snub, a rejection.

1900		‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 29: Cooler, n. 3. A sharp retort [...] 5. Treatment purposely rude.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 5 June 2nd sect. 9/1: They Say [...] That a visiting actor received a severe cooler from a Starling at the rink [...] That seeing the actor-r-r wink knowingly at a stage hand, the girlie melted into atmosphere.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 232/1: cooler – a cold look.

11. (Aus.) a drink of beer.

1908

Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Aug. 40/1: There’s the Old Man drinkin’ ‘coolers’ – Lord! how you could do a beer! / But yer thoughts are rudely shattered by the sour Scotch engineer.

12. (US campus) an attractive young woman.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 29: cooler, n. A pretty girl.

13. a deck of doctored cards.

1928

J. O’Connor Broadway Racketeers 112: A ‘cooler’ is a deck in which a set of different hands have been placed [...] The introduction of the cooler is made immediately after the regular cards in play have been cut.

14. (US tramp) a silencer.

1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 54: COOLER. – [...] a silencer for pistol, rifle or small machine gun.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 795: cooler – A silencer for a pistol, rifle, or a small machine gun.

15. (US black) a funeral home.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

16. (US gay) as the homosexual reverse of sense 1, a lover.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 128: lover [...] cooler.

17. (drugs) a cigarette laced with a drug, usu. crack cocaine.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 6: Cooler — Cigarette laced with a drug.