Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a ticket tout.

1883		N.Y. Mercury in Ware (1909) 245/2: Innocent people regard the high rates announced by the managers as final, and only discover at the entrance that the advertised price for seats is a ruse to lure them to the merciful treatment of middle men, called ticket-skinners, who, having temporary possession of nearly all the tickets, exact just what they please for a seat.
1910		Dial 47 104: We are not quite so sure about ‘Ticket-skinner,’' said to hail from New York; it may be as expressive as ‘Ticket scalper,’ but we have never heard it used on this side of the ocean.

1. (also get one’s ticket) to die.

1897		Adcock ‘At the Dock Gates’ in Keating Working Class Stories of the 1890s (1971) 125: He’s got his ticket [...] an’ he ain’t had long to wait for it. Jolly little chap, though, he was.
1997		J. Lansdale Bad Chili 201: I didn’t even know he knew you two until, after Horse bought his ticket.

2. (also take a ticket) to trust, to tolerate, to accept someone’s statements.

1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 68: He wasn’t buying no tickets off’n me. He looked at me like I was the devil himself.
1996		W.D. Myers Slam! 76: I took the ticket about the car being his friend’s but I didn’t go for the show. People don’t just lend you a Benz.

3. to call someone’s bluff.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 3: I’m gonna buy his ticket, for sure!

to murder, to assassinate.

1970		J. Wambaugh New Centurions 11: ‘If he uses a knife you use a gun and cancel his ticket then and there’.
1989		A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 95: Anytime we wanted, Max would cancel the undertaker’s ticket.
1992		G. Disher Paydirt [ebook] ‘But if I hear you’ve been sounding your mouth off about me or the job, I’ll cancel your ticket’.
2002		HuskerFan posting 3 Apr. at Packing.org 🌐 [referring to Joseph Wambaugh] The ex LAPD detective turned writer (The Blue Knight, New Centurions, Choir Boys) created a character Bumper Morgan. He was a training officer and told his rookie ‘If he (BG) uses his fist use your stick, if he uses a knife use your gun – cancel his ticket right there and then.’.

(Aus.) to gain admission to a sporting event or other entertainment without paying.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1947		T. Boydell My Luck was In 15: A friend and I climbed the foundation pillars from the sands and got in with a sparrow’s ticket.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 239/2: sparrow’s ticket – no ticket. get in on a sparrow’s ticket – crawl through a hole in the fence or sneak in.

to have good luck, to be successful.

1910

Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 138: You have drawn a good ticket, Comrade Gregory.

(Aus.) to suffer a dose of syphilis.

c.1943		S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 9: get a ticket: To contract syphilis. A suggested origin is because Life’s an harlottery, but this is a little too clever to sound authentic.

1. to enjoy oneself, usu. in a sexual context.

1897		Cotes & Scott [perf. Marie Lloyd] What did she know about railways 🎵 But when she got to the wicket there / Someone wanted to punch her ticket / The guards and porters came round by the score / And she told them all she’d never had her ticket punched before.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 330: Too busy thinking about flash clobber, wet pussy and getting his ticket punched down the Monarch [Club].

2. (US, also ...dance card punched) to get credit for a particular job or achievement.

1991		B. McCarthy Vice Cop 37: ‘If you want to get a preferred assignment later on, as part of your career path, you can accelerate the movement if you have had your dance card punched at an ‘A’ house’.
1991		B. McCarthy Vice Cop 52: McCarthy’s preference then was Narcotics, where plenty of smart cops were looking to get their career tickets punched.

to die.

1928

J. Harvey French Foreign Legion in Syria (1995) 206: I lay gripping my rifle. At any rate, I would finish off a few more of the enemies of France before I handed in my ticket .

(Aus.) to be very fond of someone; thus have tickets on oneself, to be vain, to be conceited; thus put tickets on, to trust, to depend on.

1903		Wanganui Herald (NZ) 4 Dec. 4: On the other hand, it is impossible to find a more suitable Minister among the North Island representatives. Therefore, to use a colloquialism, I have ‘tickets’ on the member for Masterton.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 May 4/7: Of battles we’ve read quite enough, / On war on this sphere we’ve no tickets.
1908		Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 2 Aug. 1/1: They Say [...] That an Arrow magpie has tickets on a local lolly-legged ganger.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 31 May 12/3: Why does old Joe G. call the missus at the boarding house, Annie? He must have a ticket on her.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Dec. 14/1: Go slow on the other chaps, Kiddie, / Just wait till I get my V.C. / But I swear from the last night you kissed me / One girl has got tickets on me!
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 1 May 4/2: Put all your tickets on him, girls. He’s the one with the lolly legs.
1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 206: ‘Never had tickets on Red Burke,’ Bob Connolly confided.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 20: ‘Arr,’ the busker said disgustedly, ‘you’ve got tickets all over yourself.’.
1950		(con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 368: But I’ve had tickets on Rosy Ann since she was a barmaid at the Reward in the early days.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 38: If people have got any tickets on themselves, Blue don’t get nowhere with them.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 83: That sheila is acting as though she’s got tickets on you.
1972		A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 26: Big Noter. Thje big note the Big Noter sounds is on his own glorfication [...] In basic Australian, he’s got tickets on himself.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 113/1: tickets on oneself, have to be conceited.
1990		T. Winton Human Torpedo 79: What’s the difference between believing in yourself and having tickets on yourself.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 108: Many of the Italian gangsters around town have big tickets on themselves.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 23: Like all good-looking blokes he had tickets.
2003		www.thepantsman.com 🌐 It’s hard to describe without sounding like I’ve got tickets on myself, you just had to be there.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] ‘She probably won‘t even know you’ve gone.’ Maybe I had tickets on myself, but I doubted that.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘I had serious tickets on myself when I bought that thing’ [i.e. a flashy car].

perfect, ideal, exactly as desired and required [see also that’s the ticket! below].

1835		Wilson's Tales of the Borders 21 Feb. 125/1: ‘Capital!’cried two or three of the conclave; ‘that’s just the ticket, Ned!’ ‘Nonsense!’ interrupted Harry, ‘it’s nae such thing’.
1838		‘Uncle Sam’s Peculiarities’ in Bentley’s Misc. IV 41: Yes, two to one is just the ticket for us.
1844		J.W. Kaye Peregrine Pultuney I 238: ‘No, Drawlincourt, that’s not the ticket — upon my soul, that’s not the ticket’.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 8: To a young beman, you know, it’s well to have ’em [i.e. horses for sale] smart, and the ticket.
1854		F. St. Clair Six Days in the Metropolis 73: That’ll do. It’s just the ticket.
c.1864		‘The Water-Spout’ in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 74: A country bumpkin, Bob by name, / Seemed just the very ticket.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 22 June 12/1: ‘Tanner a head [...] to hear the converted cracksman preach [...] That’s the ticket’.
1908		‘Old Sleuth’ Dock Rats of N.Y. (2006) 54: ‘If you want to take a rake in with us you’re welcome.’ ‘That’s just the ticket for me!’ answered Spencer Vance.
1916		Illus. Sporting & Dramaatic News 22 Jan. 9/1: [pic. caption] New ‘Rail Ways’ Just the Ticket.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 99: ‘Well, boss, how do you like being an invader?’ ‘She’s just the job, Shorty.’.
1955		K. Amis letter 23 Jan. in Leader (2000) 420: His earlier stuff struck me as a bit dried-up, but more recently I’ve seen a couple of things that seem just the job.
1955		Picture Post (ad for Pepsodent) 23 July 27: A busy travel agent’s day is fully booked. He can’t brush his teeth after lunch – so Pepsodent is just the ticket.
1968		P. Barnes Ruling Class I vi: Is that tea? Just the job, Tucker.
1973		C. Himes ‘Headwaiter’ in Black on Black 152: ‘This will be just the ticket for you,’ he purred smoothly.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Yesterday Never Comes’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] I think that sounds just the ticket Miranda.
1987		Beano Comic Library No. 121 65: Well done, Gnasher! Just the job!
1996		T. Wolff ‘The Life of the Body’ in The Night in Question 39: Wiley looked in encouragingly. ‘That’s the ticket,’ Wiley said.
1998		(con. 1940s) P. Cumper One Bright Child 152: It took me about five minutes to decide that you were just the ticket.
1999		Indep. Mag. 11 Sept. 48: A hot cup of cocoa could be just the ticket.
2009		Green bay Press-Gaz. (WI) 29 June 21/5: As you might imagine, ‘that’s the ticket’ and ‘just the ticket’ are favorite puns of political writers.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 415: But further down the pile he found Reynolds News, Tribune, the Daily Worker [...] Hah, just the ticket, he said to himself.

physically or more usu. mentally ‘below par’.

1854		Thackeray Newcomes I 66: She’s very handsome and she’s very finely dressed, only somehow she’s not – she’s not the ticket.
1876		‘My Wife She Wasn’t The Ticket ’ Jolly Old Boys Comic Song Book 335: [song title].
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1229: [...] C.20.

(US Und.) a life sentence.

1939

Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.

(US) a private detective.

1986

R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 141: I’m a private ticket from L.A. looking into a killing that might have started here.

to kill, to murder.

1932

‘Ex-Légionnaire 1384 Hell Hounds of France 15: He went cafard. He had wrenched out his bayonet and had put paid to the corporal’s ticket before any of us had time to realise what was happening.

(US prison) a rules violation notice for inappropriate behaviour in the visiting room.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Speeding Ticket: A rules violation notice for inappropriate behavior in the visiting room, such as kissing or touching.

anything, lit. or fig., that will gain its holder an entrée; a letter of introduction.

1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 249: These [i.e. smart phrases], and sich as these, are your tickets for soup.
1846		Censor (London) 25 Jan. 5/2: Ambition's Delilah eut off my love locks, / And gave me my ticket for soup.
1898		(con. 1860s) E.S. Mott Mingled Yarn 82: I had been furnished with letters of introduction (then known as 'tickets for soup') to heads of departments and others.

a holiday.

1886

Daily News 27 Oct. in Ware (1909) 245/2: The expression, ‘ Ticket o’ leave’, is probably the invention of the criminal intellect, which, as everybody knows, delights in giving utterance to its own ideas in its own peculiar way.

(US prison) a minor disciplinary offence.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Traffic Ticket: Minor disciplinary offense.

(US tramp) a notched board cut to fit on the iron bars that support a passenger coach and which can thus be used to support a tramp.

1887

M. Roberts Western Avernus (1924) 185: The ‘universal ticket,’ a board with notches in it to fit on the iron stays under the passenger coaches.

1. (US) a notice of dismissal.

1827		‘Nobody’ Nothing 70: If you play the fool any more, blow me, if I don’t give you a walking ticket, as we used to say at college.
1829		in N.E. Eliason Tarheel Talk (1956) 124: I heard . . . she had given Henry a walking ticket.
1835		D. Crockett Col. Crockett’s Tour to North and Down East 30: In a few hours he got his walking ticket that his services were no longer wanted.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 73: These asses of travellers will get a walkin’ ticket, and men of sense will take their place.
c.1850		F.M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 30: He’s got his walkin’ ticket now – I hope he’ll lemme alone in futur.
1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature I 220: He must tell unpleasant truths, and then he gets his walkin’ ticket.
1904		‘G.B. Lancaster’ Sons O’ Men 80: Reckon that fancy cutter ’ll git ’is walkin’-ticket over it.
1959		(con. 1940s) ‘David Forrest’ Last Blue Sea 163: I got meself a walking ticket.
1971		F.J. Hardy Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 68: This strike isn’t over me and Tich here getting our walking tickets.

2. (Aus./US prison) an official notice to inform a prisoner that they have finished their sentence.

1957

D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 253: I don’t know what I’ll turn out like when they give me my walking ticket.

see where did you get your licence? under licence n.

to malinger, to escape onerous duties by shamming illness or similar unsuitability.

1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. & Its Analogues.
1914		P.B. Bull God & Our Soldiers 33: When a man is ‘fed up’ with ‘soldiering’ he sometimes decides to ‘work his ticket,’ get his discharge. Perhaps he tries the hospital first. If you eat a certain quantity of Sunlight soap it sets up disorderly action of the heart.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 24: ’E’s due for ’is pension, and ’e’s tryin’ to work ’is ticket.
1930		(con. 1914–18) Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 62: Blokes workin’ their tickets summin’ shameless, an’ the ole Sky-Artist a-fallin’ fer it every time.
1954		J. Phelan Tramp at Anchor 155: To work a ticket south, to reach the Isle of Wight, was almost impossible.
1965		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Confessions 105: ’Twas the only thing that I could do | To work me ticket home to you | And leave the British Army.
1984		(con. WW2) T. Jones Heart of Oak [ebook] He [...] had gone barmy. ‘Either that or he was working his ticket,’ as Slinger Woods put it. ‘Anyway, they carted him off to the funny farm’.

to be able to stipulate one’s own conditions, to be in an advantageous position.

1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 223: You could write your own ticket on the rest.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Dec. 25/3: Next day was a snorter. ’Bout 112 in the shade an’ write yer own ticket in the sun.
1925		D. Hammett ‘Ruffian’s Wife’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 67: I’ll let him write his own ticket. If he wants to see me, he knows the way. It’s up to him.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 31: You don’t want a menu — write your ticket.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 263: If we went over, we could maybe write our own ticket about the personnel.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 21: A colored girl who plays her cards right and isn’t too bad-looking can practically write her own tickets with them [i.e. white men].
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 52: Avaunt started at 5/4 and Eudromius at 6/4, with ‘write your own ticket’ about all the other runners.
1977		N.C. Heard When Shadows Fall 134: ‘When Booker’s mayor, you’ll be able to write your own ticket—captain, inspector, who knows?’.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We have No 278: Anyone that [...] has a bit of nerve, they can write their own ticket.

just what is wanted, the ideal thing; occas. as that’s the ticket for soup.

1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 104: That’s the ticket!
1833		‘Conger Nell & the Clerkenwell Porkman’ in Rummy Cove’s Delight in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 96: O, she got a ‘ticket for soup’, / For she got by him a baby .
1841		‘Catalani Joe’ Dublin Comic Songster 67: My wife she is a wonder quite; / I cannot love another; / That’s the ticket; take a sight.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 134/1: That’s the ticket just the thing.
1850		A.C. Mowatt Fashion II i: Enough said! That’s the ticket!
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 80: Genelum anladies (cheers) — I meangenelum (‘That’s about the ticket, old feller!’).
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 236: This phrase is sometimes extended into ‘that’s the ticket for soup,’ in allusion to the card given to beggars for immediate relief at soup kitchens.
1860		Inquirer (Perth, WA) 28 Nov. 3/6: Betting slang — we read Bell’s Life: / That’s the ticket for a wife.
1865		Scenes in the Studio in Darkey Drama 1 I: Now, dat’s de ticket!
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 200: That’s the ticket; that’s warm and comfortable.
1873		Sl. Dict. 322: Ticket ‘that’s the ticket,’ i.e., what was wanted, or what is best. Corruption of ‘that’s etiquette,’ or, perhaps, from ticket, a bill or invoice.
1878		New Ulm Wkly (MN) 25 Sept. 6/2: That’s the ticket [...] You’re a trump.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Mar. 4/1: The Inverell Times has an essay (original) on pawnbrokers. That’s the ticket.
1885		‘’Arry on Song and Sentiment’ in Punch 14 Nov. 229/1: That’s Life, and that’s Music ’All Song, mate, and that’s the true ticket for ’Arry.
1886		S. Watson Wops the Waif 3/1: That’s jist the very ticket, that’s jist what I’ll do.
1892		‘The Little Crossing-Sweeper’ in ‘F. Anstey’ Mr Punch’s Model Music Hall 83: ’Ere, you sit down on this gilded cheer – that’s the ticket.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 85: Ticket,‘that is the ticket’ just the thing required.
1896		‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer, Detective Ch. IV: He said that’s the ticket.
1900		Marvel XIV:357 13: You’re footpads, that’s the ticket! Ye sha’n’t pass!
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 280: Make ’em come in, that’s the ticket.
1910		D. Stewart Tragedy of the White House in Illus. Police News 13 Aug. 12/4: ‘I’m off, leg bail for me! That’s the ticket for soup this time’.
1913		A. Irvine My Lady of the Chimney Corner 24: That’s th’ ticket, now kape yez eye on him!
1923		E. O’Neill Hairy Ape Act I: Whiskey, that’s the ticket!
1930		E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 122: Flirt: And if you married Bruce, you would have to give up your hunt [...] Flapper: That’s about the ticket.
1939		‘Flann O’Brien’ At Swim-Two-Birds 121: That’s the ticket, said Lamont.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 58: A chorus of savage oaths, and cries of ‘That’s the ticket’.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 20: That’s the ticket! Make up my own songs. Sing ’em round picture-shows, got up in a cowboy suit.
1945		(con. 1928) R. Westerby Mad in Pursuit 103: Showed everybody. Champion of the lot. That’s the ticket.
1952		K. Vonnegut ‘Any Reasonable Offer’ in Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) 41: ‘I’m treating them just like Hellbrunners,’ she said craftily. ‘That’s the ticket.’.
1959		E. De Roo Young Wolves 25: Good boy! Manager! That’s the ticket, old toppie.
1962		H.S. Thompson letter 13 Mar. in Proud Highway (1997) 327: If you can’t buy them, squash them. That’s the ticket.
1962		A. Wesker Chips with Everything I vii: Data! That’s the ticket – the sum total of everything.
1977		A. Ayckbourn Ten Times Table II ii: donald: Like this? tim: That’s the ticket.
1983		(con. 1940s) D. Nobbs Second From Last in the Sack Race 40: Travelling light, eh? That’s the ticket.
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 8: that’s the ticket – expression of mock agreement.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 305: I think that’s the ticket.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 27: Good thinking, Bruce. That’s the ticket.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 69: I’ll lie down. That’s the ticket, all right.
2009		Green Bay Press-Gaz. (WI) 29 June 21/5: As you might imagine, ‘that’s the ticket’ and ‘just the ticket’ are favorite puns of political writers.