Green’s Dictionary of Slang

second adj.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

second banana (n.) [show business use second banana, a supporting comedian to the star, a ‘straight man’]

the second most important person, the second-in-command.

[US]N.Y. Herald Trib. 28 Dec. 16/2: The average burlesque company carries three comedians who are always known as First, Second and Third Bananas.
[US]N.Y. Times 24 May XII: Mr. Carnay has played second banana to many star comedy performers.
[US]K. Brasselle Cannibals 262: We got [...] a fine script, great leading man, good solid actor for second banana.
[US]J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 37: He was told to drive his white Mercedes on a circuitous route that made no sense whatever to the Palm Springs police who were playing second banana to the feds.
[US](con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 317: Second banana to hero chump Ed Exley.
[UK]Guardian Guide 6–12 Nov. 5: He played second banana to a truculent dog.
[US]T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘I’m second banana with the union’.
second base (n.) [baseball imagery]

(US black/teen) sexual exploration above the waist (cf. first base n. (1); third base under third adj.; home run n. (2)).

Urban Dict. 🌐 Second Base One step up of First Base, heavy petting and feeling up while making out, up the shirt or shirtless for both partners. ‘I thought I went to Second Base with him on our first month anni, but it was actually third because I gave him a handjob as well’.
K. Anderson Turn of the Century 85: As he first cupped Jodie Eliason’s breast—the first time he got to second base with any girl—she whispered, unimaginably, ‘Pinch it, George.’.
D.A. Shapiro Every Boy 134: He got to second base once on the golf course, up the cut-off sweatshirt of an eighth grader who kept her bra on.
[US]M. Lacher On the Bro’d 47: Riggins was getting to second base [...] with one of the waitress chicks.
second closet (n.) [closet n. (2)]

(gay) the hiding of one’s specific sexual preferences and practices, even if the basic fact of homosexuality can be admitted; also used of domestic violence within same-sex relationships.

L. Vickers in E Law – Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law 3:4 Dec. [title] The Second Closet: Domestic Violence in Lesbian and Gay Relationships.
C.M. West ref. in ‘Domestic Violence factsheet’ National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center 🌐 [footnote] Leaving a Second Closet: Outing Partner Violence in Same-Sex Couples.
second-hand sue (n.) [SE second-hand + assonant use of proper name Sue] (Aus.)

1. a worn-out prostitute.

[Aus]‘No. 35’ Argot in G. Simes DAUS (1993).

2. an ageing passive homosexual.

[Aus]‘No. 35’ Argot in G. Simes DAUS (1993).
second line (v.)

(US) to follow a leader or someone first-rate, with the hope of advancement or promotion.

(con. c.1915) L. Armstrong Satchmo When I was ‘second lining’ – that is, following the brass bands in parades.
second man (n.)

(N.Z. prison) a lookout.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 161/1: second man n. (in a criminal job) the lookout.
second-timer (n.)

(Aus. prison) one who is serving their second term in prison.

[Aus]C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 71: Second Timer, a second sentence.

In phrases

second hole from the back of the neck (n.)

the vagina.

[[US]‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 119: My mother made me promise never to let a fellow put his hand under my skirts. But if you’ll put your hand down my back, it’s the second hole you come to!].
posting at www.visordown.com 2 May 🌐 Second hole from the back of the neck ! or if you miss you hit the chocolate star fish.
posting at Toymods Car Club (Aus.) 26 Sept. 🌐 Hope ya have a good one when you go out tonight and pop ya cherry. Just remember that its the second hole from the back of the neck.
second-storey job (n.) (also second-storey trade, ...work, second-story...) [job n.2 (1a)]

(US) a break-in, spec. one that involves climbing above ground level; also attrib.

[US]A.H. Lewis ‘The Garrote’ Sandburrs 134: I never gets a tip of any big second-story woik d’ Face does.
[US]O. Kildare Good of the Wicked 17: ‘Second-story’ Connors and ‘Flim-flam’ Myers, two gentlemen depending on their wits for support.
[US]H. Hapgood Types from City Streets 315: Done any second-story work lately?
[US]J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 31: He [...] got himself a room in a three-story house, on the second story. If he couldn’t do second-story work he could at least be on familiar ground. [Ibid.] 42: They said he could shinny up a porch post to jimmy a door for a second-storey ‘job’ better than Oliver Twist.
[US]E. Booth Stealing Through Life 76: Second-story work and active climbing about ledges was the scene that I held.
[US]‘Armitage Traill’ Scarface Ch. 4: He made it plain to Klondike [...] that he would not take a hand in second-story jobs.
[US]T.T. Flynn ‘The Deadly Orchid’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 109/2: There had been no second story work.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 202: second story work An upstairs burglary.
[US](con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 197: You want to learn the second-storey trade, Max?
[US]Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 15: This does not mean every holdup, heisting or second-story job is acted and voted on by a select committee.
second-storey man (n.) (also second-storey mug, ...sneak, ...thief, ...worker, second-story..., sixth-storey man) [mug n.1 (5a)/worker n.1 (1)]

(US) a thief who climbs into buildings above the ground floor.

[US]E. Crapsey Nether Side of NY 18: Second-story sneaks [. . .] owe their name to a recently-devised expedient for reaching the coveted valuables of honesty. [...] While the inmates of the house are all down-stairs at dinner, the sneak boldly scales one of the pillars of the stoop, and thus reaches a second-floor window, which he opens with an admirable little apparatus specially prepared for the purpose. Once within the house, he has usually an easy task before him.
[US]A. Trumble Crooked Life in Nat. Police Gaz. 10 June 6/2: [Sneak thieves]s rarely, however, develop into ‘second story window operators’.
[US]T. Byrnes Professional Criminals of America 🌐 ‘Second-story’ thieves, after locating a house that they intend to rob in the early evening, watch until the tenants in a private residence are down stairs at dinner.
[US]C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 251: People who all looked upon me as a second-storey worker trying to get the lay of the houses.
[US]S. Ford Shorty McCabe 50: We could see ’em sneakin’ around the walls, like a bunch of second-story men new to their job.
[US]G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 147: Say a ‘house man’ or a ‘sneak’ or a ‘second-story’ man or a ‘peteman’ — anything but ‘cracksman’.
[US]F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I ix: The Weasel was a dangerous man, one of the slickest second-story workers in the country.
Blue Mountains Echo (NSW) 27 Apr. 3/6: ‘Cracksman’ is long out of date, - in the best circles of roguery they speak of a ‘yegg,’ a ‘second-storey man,’ or a ‘screwsman’ .
[US]H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 243: He says another publisher has sent a second-story man around to his hotel to try and steal the first verse.
[US]C.J. Daly ‘Lurking Shadows’ Triple-X Mag. May 🌐 Stick-up men, gunmen, dope peddlers, second-story workers— [etc.].
[US](con. 1904) H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 287: ‘Monk was a soft, easy-going fellow,’ said Kelly. ‘He had a gang of cowards behind him, second story men, yeggs, flat robbers and moll-buzzers.’.
[US]J. Dixon Free To Love 199: We might send a second-story man out to burglarize women’s desks and bring in their diaries.
[US]Ersine Und. and Prison Sl. 65: second-story man, second-story worker. A house burglar, often, one who works while the family is downstairs at dinner.
[US]T.T. Flynn ‘The Deadly Orchid’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 104: You were snooping in my packages like a second story mug.
[US]C.B. Davis Rebellion of Leo McGuire (1953) 40: Not a very good burglar, but just a run-of-the-mill second-storey worker.
[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 17 Jan. 21: The gun men, the lye throwers and the muggers and the second and sixth story [sic] men.
[US]Kerouac letter 8 Dec. in Charters I (1995) 175: Vicki living with second-story man in Queens.
[US]C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 324: Second-story worker, A burglar who robs the second-story of a house, usually while the family is at dinner.
[US]F.O. Beck Hobohemia 80: We are radicals, pickpockets, second-story men and thinkers.
[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 1 Mar. 11: Hustling women, dope peddlers, hoodlums and second-story workers.
[Aus] ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxix 4/4: second storey man: A cat burglar.
[US]R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 236: The creepers, and second-storey men who work the hotels.
[Ire]J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 141: ‘A cat burglar.’ A second-storey man!
[US]M. Baker Bad Guys 26: I naively expected to dig up people who called themselves [...] second-story men.
[US]T. Piccirilli Fever Kill 93: A good second-story man could get up on the roof, and the screens could easily be popped out of the window frames.
[US]Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 75: Shoplifters, second-story men, Dumpster divers.
second-team (adj.)

(US) inferior, second-rate.

[US]‘James Updyke’ [W.R. Burnett] It’s Always Four O’Clock 17: Both these guys were in a rut: Walt with his gypsy brunettes, and Frank with his second-team Marilyns.