ticket n.1
1. a blow, a punch.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 28: If my own daylights could come over the spalpeens [...] I wouldn’t be after sarving them a ticket or two in the bread-basket. |
2. in lit. senses.
(a) (UK Und.) a ticket of leave, parole; thus ticketer n., a person on parole.
| Morn. Post 18 Dec. 3/3: Terrors of the jug have ceased / [...] / And on tickets we’re released [...] Here’s to Jebb and his leave-tickets / That when a cove a rest has ta’en / [...] / Sets ’em on the loose again. | |
| ‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Dec. 80: All healthy and sound prisoners of my age, who had received the same sentence, were about due for their ‘ticket’. | |
| Dick Temple I 220: Out on a ticket – leave ticket – conwict – five year. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 18 Oct. 4/3: [of a soldier on leave] ’E won’t get a dib bar deferred, Bill — / Jest ’is ticket — an’ Blighty. | |
| Boy in Bush 249: An’ a lag is a ticketer: one who is out on lease. |
(b) (US) a playing card, as used in three-card monte.
 | Westward by Rail 187: The card-dealer calls upon him to return the ‘ticket’ [DA]. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Forty Years a Gambler 184: He got out his three tickets and began to throw them on the seat. | |
| ‘Penny Ante’ in Wash. Times 27 Jan. 17: [cartoon] Well, I guess I’ll take two tickets. I’m staying just for the percentage. | |
| Sucker’s Progress 54: The operator of the game [i.e. three-card monte] [...] took three playing cards, known in the vernacular as ‘the tickets.’. | |
| Another Mug for the Bier 9: I dealt six tickets to all hands. [...] ‘The trump suit will be puppy-dog feet’. |
(c) (N.Z. prison/UK milit.) a disciplinary charge.
| Regiment 22 Aug. 314/3: But when for uselessness he got his ‘ticket’ just to-day, / He jumped about, and skipped about, and trilled this different lay— [etc] . | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 189/2: give (someone) a ticket v. (of an officer) to catch an inmate engaging in an illegal activity and to put him on a charge. |
(d) a prescription.
| Sporting Times 18 Mar. 1/5: Why the Mister Funny-cuts that made my ticket out tumbled somehow that I was on in the ballet at the Lane, an’ he goes an’ puts it down that I’m suffering from ‘pantomime poisonin,’ that’s all. |
(e) (UK Und.) probation.
| City Of The World 258: It was after I had done my bit, and was out on the ticket. |
(f) (US, a betting slip; thus Aus.) the bet.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘Confidential Jockey’ in Bulletin Reciter n.p.: He’s say: ‘She’s worth a ticket,’ / With a leery kinder grin, / And I’d know ’is stuff was on ’er, / And I’d got to try and win. | |
| Kid Scanlon 307: Dan looked like a guy with a ticket on a hundred to one shot, watchin’ it breeze into the stretch leadin’ by a city block. | |
| Never Come Morning (1988) 212: Where [...] yesterday’s horse tickets and yesterday’s relief stamps lay. |
(g) (US Und.) a prison sentence.
| in ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 189: Ticket.– A prison sentence. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Gutshot Straight [ebook] It wasn’t smart to start a beef with sixty-eight hours left on your ticket. |
(h) a track record, a history.
| Capricornia (1939) 364: You oughter get even more as a fitter, with your ticket. |
(i) (US prison) a disciplinary record.
| Put on the Spot 35: You get a ticket, but you don’t pay for it. | |
| You’re in the Racket, Too 206: I bin on to the C.R.O. again and I got his ticket all ready for you. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 223/1: Ticket. 1. (P) A formal report for rule violation; a warning to comply with a rule or be formally reported. | |
| Hustler 182: So [the captain] saw us sittin’ down and he told the officer down in the hole to write us a ticket. [...] Next day we went to bat, and got four days [solitary confinement] apiece. | |
| Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 266: The prisoner seeks to avoid a ticket, a disciplinary report. | |
| Sweet La-La Land (1999) 168: What a good prisoner he’s been [...] Never got any tickets — maybe only a few tickets — for infractions. | |
| Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Ticket: A transfer order; disciplinary report. |
(j) a certificate of demobilization from the armed forces [note WWI Aus. milit. ticket, a discharge from the Army].
| Truth About the Legion 204: I was getting my Discharge. [...] we were formed up into a sort of cripple parade; and a bored sergeant awaiting his own ‘ticket’ tried to march us down to Litherland Station . | |
| ‘Y List’ in Memoirs of the Forties (1984) 250: He’d been recommended for discharge [...] ‘How’ll you like getting your ticket?’ I asked him. | |
| Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: got my ticket . . . discharge. |
(k) (US prison) a certificate of release.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
(l) (UK Und.) an arrest warrant.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 223/1: Ticket. [...] 3. A warrant for one’s arrest. | |
| Signs of Crime 204: Ticket Warrant to arrest or search. |
(m) (US) a licence.
| One Lonely Night 76: There’s a ticket for that rod in my wallet. | |
| (con. 1917) Paper Tiger 61: I couldn’t get an able seaman’s ticket, let alone a deck officer’s license. | |
| In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 143: ‘I’m private.’ ‘Let me see your ticket.’. |
(n) a pass or passport, whether valid or counterfeit.
| Snatch! 23: A small but select stock of tickets – Ziggy sold only the best, no London-issued Lithuanians for him [OED]. | |
| (con. 1850s) Flashman at the Charge 164: Russia – where everyone has to show his damned ticket every few miles. |
(o) a union card.
| Bourbon Street Black 80: This young jazzman is about to become a member of [...] The American Federation of Musicians [...] and his ticket (card) will be good everywhere in the United States. |
(p) in fig use, death [from buy a ticket ].
| Legionnaire 162: The unfortunate Arab had given Hirschfeld both barrels in the back but both cartridges had failed him [...] Nobody had ever come closer to his ticket than Hirschfeld . |
(q) (US black) a lottery ticket, usu. in pl.
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 tickets Definition: slang for the Lottery Example: As soon as I pick the right tickets yo, I’m buying me every copy of the Jerry Springer Show. |
(r) (US) a bill, an account.
| Money-Whipped Steer-Job 51: J. Rodney insisted I join them for dinner three straight nights in the Lodge, his tickets. | |
| Last Kind Words 32: When I turned fourteen, Big Dan had invited me in and shown me the delights of that back room, all on his ticket. |
3. in fig. use, as an ideal [? SE winning ticket or Fr. etiquette (suggested by Hotten, 1867) ].
(a) the right, proper, best or fashionable thing to do; esp. as that’s the ticket!
| implied in that’s the ticket! | |
| Natural History of the Gent 17: The Gents usually speak of their get-up as the ticket. | |
| Young Tom Hall (1926) 82: Tom, having taken a good front view, side view and back view of himself in the glass, receiving the assurance of Corns that he was quite ‘the ticket’. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 19 Nov. 2/2: Having condescended to inform us that it was ‘the ticket and no mistake’. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Apr. 3/2: Mr Pugh politely stating that cash was the ‘ticket’. | |
| Won in a Canter I 155: ‘[T]his is more the ticket, is it not, Filcher? — that infernal old ball gave me the shivers’. | |
| Cumberland Mercury (NSW) 14 May 5/2: [T]he return to cash tram fares is the right ‘ticket’. | |
| (con. 1920s) Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 516: She was his, laying only for him, and oh, Goddamn it, this was the real ticket. | |
| (con. 1923) Mad in Pursuit 78: You come up here at night like a fox, because you like to – because it’s furtive and quiet – and that’s your ticket. That’s you. | |
| Carlito’s Way 108: I figured this was the ticket. | |
| Campus Sl. Mar. 9: ticket – something very desirable [...] ‘My family is flying to Europe over Spring Break.’ ‘Ticket!’. | |
| I, Fatty 202: You want to get zombified, jailhouse hooch is your ticket. | |
| Empty Wigs (t/s) 561: De Foucauld was also not quite the ticket as a messiah: he did not lead them, he did not read their future in patterns of pebbles. |
(b) the task in hand, the relevant procedure.
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor II 375/2: That’s just the ticket of it. | |
| ‘A Disciple of Roosevelt’ Sporting Times 11 June 1/4: In this ‘home sweet’ I am pulling all the strings, / And the ticket is, ‘I rule, and you — get out!’. | |
| Stand (1990) 1347: Slow and easy does it [...] That’s the ticket. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 166: You wanna fly high in d’ sky? O.C. got d’ ticket for you. |
4. the facts, the truth [? Fr. etiquette (suggested by Hotten, 1867) or SE ticket, a bill or invoice].
| Sam Slick’s Wise Saws I 119: Oh, that’s the ticket, is it? | |
| Hookey 87: Ain’t that the ticket – pretty near it? Eh? |
5. a person (as used derog. esp. by a mod n.2 (1) in the early 1960s).
| Shipbuilders (1954) 26: ‘Ye dirty wee ticket!’ she snarled at the infant. | |
| ‘I’m the Face’ 🎵 I’m the face if you want it, dear, / All the others are third class tickets by me baby, is that clear. | |
| ‘Sea and Sand’ 🎵 on Quadrophrenia [album] So how come the other tickets look much better? / Without a penny to spend they dress to the letter. | |
| Man-Eating Typewriter 229: ‘I thought you was a bit of a ticket [...] Riding on the back of the Mod craze’ [ibid.] 345: ‘You’re a ticket, you’re plastic. A mogue Mod’. |
6. (UK und.) parole.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 8: On ticket: Convict on license. |
7. (Aus. drugs) a single dose of LSD, dripped onto a small piece of absorbent paper; also attrib. [resemblance to a SE ticket or sense 3, i.e. its positive effects; note Beatles title ‘Ticket To Ride’].
| Drugs from A to Z (1970). | |
| Underground Dict. (1972). | |
| Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Ticket lolly. Lysergic acid available in tabs of blotting paper. |
8. (US) the ideal person [? SE winning ticket].
| Corner (1998) 123: A corner warrior come in from the cold, House seemed the ticket. |
9. (Irish) an amusing person, an eccentric [abbr. hard ticket under hard adj.].
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Butcher Boy (1993) 15: Dear dear aren’t you a ticket Francie? they said. |
10. (US black / drugs) $1,000,000, thus half a ticket, $500,000.
| Urban Dict. 31 Mar. 🌐 o man I just spent a ticket on this house. | |
| ‘What You Say’ 🎵 One time I re’d up with a half a ticket / Nigga fucked my order up, bout a half a chicken. |
In compounds
(US) a ticket tout.
| N.Y. Mercury in (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. | |
| 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. |
In phrases
1. (also get one’s ticket) to die.
| ‘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. | |
| Bad Chili 201: I didn’t even know he knew you two until, after Horse bought his ticket. |
2. (also take a tiicket) to trust, to tolerate, to accept someone’s statements.
| Carlito’s Way 68: He wasn’t buying no tickets off’n me. He looked at me like I was the devil himself. | |
| 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.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 3: I’m gonna buy his ticket, for sure! |
to murder, to assassinate.
| New Centurions 11: ‘If he uses a knife you use a gun and cancel his ticket then and there’. | |
| Hard Candy (1990) 95: Anytime we wanted, Max would cancel the undertaker’s ticket. | |
| Paydirt [ebook] ‘But if I hear you’ve been sounding your mouth off about me or the job, I’ll cancel your ticket’. | |
| 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.
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. | |
| My Luck was In 15: A friend and I climbed the foundation pillars from the sands and got in with a sparrow’s ticket. | |
| 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.
| Psmith in the City (1993) 138: You have drawn a good ticket, Comrade Gregory. |
1. to enjoy oneself, usu. in a sexual context.
| [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. | |
| 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.
| 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’. | |
| Vice Cop 52: McCarthy’s preference then was Narcotics, where plenty of smart cops were looking to get their career tickets punched. |
to die.
| 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.
| 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. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 14 May 4/7: Of battles we’ve read quite enough, / On war on this sphere we’ve no tickets. | |
| Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 2 Aug. 1/1: They Say [...] That an Arrow magpie has tickets on a local lolly-legged ganger. | |
| 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. | |
| 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! | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 1 May 4/2: Put all your tickets on him, girls. He’s the one with the lolly legs. | |
| Working Bullocks 206: ‘Never had tickets on Red Burke,’ Bob Connolly confided. | |
| Battlers 20: ‘Arr,’ the busker said disgustedly, ‘you’ve got tickets all over yourself.’. | |
| (con. 1936–46) Winged Seeds (1984) 368: But I’ve had tickets on Rosy Ann since she was a barmaid at the Reward in the early days. | |
| Come in Spinner (1960) 38: If people have got any tickets on themselves, Blue don’t get nowhere with them. | |
| I’m a Jack, All Right 83: That sheila is acting as though she’s got tickets on you. | |
| 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. | |
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 113/1: tickets on oneself, have to be conceited. | |
| Human Torpedo 79: What’s the difference between believing in yourself and having tickets on yourself. | |
| Chopper From The Inside 108: Many of the Italian gangsters around town have big tickets on themselves. | |
| Llama Parlour 23: Like all good-looking blokes he had tickets. | |
| www.thepantsman.com 🌐 It’s hard to describe without sounding like I’ve got tickets on myself, you just had to be there. | |
| Thrill City [ebook] ‘She probably won‘t even know you’ve gone.’ Maybe I had tickets on myself, but I doubted that. | |
| 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].
| 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’. | |
| ‘Uncle Sam’s Peculiarities’ in Bentley’s Misc. IV 41: Yes, two to one is just the ticket for us. | |
| Peregrine Pultuney I 238: ‘No, Drawlincourt, that’s not the ticket — upon my soul, that’s not the ticket’. | |
| 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. | |
| Six Days in the Metropolis 73: That’ll do. It’s just the ticket. | |
| ‘The Water-Spout’ in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 74: A country bumpkin, Bob by name, / Seemed just the very ticket. | |
| 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’. | |
| 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. | |
| Illus. Sporting & Dramaatic News 22 Jan. 9/1: [pic. caption] New ‘Rail Ways’ Just the Ticket. | |
| For the Rest of Our Lives 99: ‘Well, boss, how do you like being an invader?’ ‘She’s just the job, Shorty.’. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| Ruling Class I vi: Is that tea? Just the job, Tucker. | |
| ‘Headwaiter’ in Black on Black 152: ‘This will be just the ticket for you,’ he purred smoothly. | |
| ‘Yesterday Never Comes’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] I think that sounds just the ticket Miranda. | |
| Beano Comic Library No. 121 65: Well done, Gnasher! Just the job! | |
| ‘The Life of the Body’ in The Night in Question 39: Wiley looked in encouragingly. ‘That’s the ticket,’ Wiley said. | |
| (con. 1940s) One Bright Child 152: It took me about five minutes to decide that you were just the ticket. | |
| Indep. Mag. 11 Sept. 48: A hot cup of cocoa could be just the ticket. | |
| 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. | |
| 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’.
| Newcomes I 66: She’s very handsome and she’s very finely dressed, only somehow she’s not – she’s not the ticket. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | ‘My Wife She Wasn’t The Ticket ’ Jolly Old Boys Comic Song Book 335: [song title]. | |
| DSUE (8th edn) 1229: [...] C.20. |
(US Und.) a life sentence.
| Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. |
(US) a private detective.
| 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.
| 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.
| 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.
| Handley Cross (1854) 249: These [i.e. smart phrases], and sich as these, are your tickets for soup. | |
| Censor (London) 25 Jan. 5/2: Ambition's Delilah eut off my love locks, / And gave me my ticket for soup. | |
| (con. 1860s) 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.
| Daily News 27 Oct. in (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.
| 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.
| 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.
| 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. | |
| in Tarheel Talk (1956) 124: I heard . . . she had given Henry a walking ticket. | |
| 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. | |
| Clockmaker III 73: These asses of travellers will get a walkin’ ticket, and men of sense will take their place. | |
| Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 30: He’s got his walkin’ ticket now – I hope he’ll lemme alone in futur. | |
| Nature and Human Nature I 220: He must tell unpleasant truths, and then he gets his walkin’ ticket. | |
| Sons O’ Men 80: Reckon that fancy cutter ’ll git ’is walkin’-ticket over it. | |
| (con. 1940s) Last Blue Sea 163: I got meself a walking ticket. | |
| 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.
| 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. |
to malinger, to escape onerous duties by shamming illness or similar unsuitability.
| Sl. & Its Analogues. | |
| 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. | |
| (con. 1916) Her Privates We (1986) 24: ’E’s due for ’is pension, and ’e’s tryin’ to work ’is ticket. | |
| (con. 1914–18) Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier. | |
| Reported Safe Arrival 62: Blokes workin’ their tickets summin’ shameless, an’ the ole Sky-Artist a-fallin’ fer it every time. | |
| Tramp at Anchor 155: To work a ticket south, to reach the Isle of Wight, was almost impossible. | |
| (con. 1940s) Confessions 105: ’Twas the only thing that I could do | To work me ticket home to you | And leave the British Army. | |
| (con. WW2) 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.
| Tales of the Ex-Tanks 223: You could write your own ticket on the rest. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Dec. 25/3: Next day was a snorter. ’Bout 112 in the shade an’ write yer own ticket in the sun. | |
| ‘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. | |
| Gangster Girl 31: You don’t want a menu — write your ticket. | |
| Really the Blues 263: If we went over, we could maybe write our own ticket about the personnel. | |
| 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]. | |
| Great Aust. Gamble 52: Avaunt started at 5/4 and Eudromius at 6/4, with ‘write your own ticket’ about all the other runners. | |
| When Shadows Fall 134: ‘When Booker’s mayor, you’ll be able to write your own ticket—captain, inspector, who knows?’. | |
| Yes We have No 278: Anyone that [...] has a bit of nerve, they can write their own ticket. |
In exclamations
just what is wanted, the ideal thing; occas. as that’s the ticket for soup.
| Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 104: That’s the ticket! | |
| ‘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 . | |
| ‘Catalani Joe’ Dublin Comic Songster 67: My wife she is a wonder quite; / I cannot love another; / That’s the ticket; take a sight. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 134/1: That’s the ticket just the thing. | |
| Fashion II i: Enough said! That’s the ticket! | |
| Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 80: Genelum anladies (cheers) — I meangenelum (‘That’s about the ticket, old feller!’). | |
| 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. | |
| Inquirer (Perth, WA) 28 Nov. 3/6: Betting slang — we read Bell’s Life: / That’s the ticket for a wife. | |
| Scenes in the Studio in Darkey Drama 1 I: Now, dat’s de ticket! | |
| Little Ragamuffin 200: That’s the ticket; that’s warm and comfortable. | |
| 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. | |
| New Ulm Wkly (MN) 25 Sept. 6/2: That’s the ticket [...] You’re a trump. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Mar. 4/1: The Inverell Times has an essay (original) on pawnbrokers. That’s the ticket. | |
| ‘’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. | |
| Wops the Waif 3/1: That’s jist the very ticket, that’s jist what I’ll do. | |
| ‘The Little Crossing-Sweeper’ in Mr Punch’s Model Music Hall 83: ’Ere, you sit down on this gilded cheer – that’s the ticket. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 85: Ticket,‘that is the ticket’ just the thing required. | |
| Tom Sawyer, Detective Ch. IV: He said that’s the ticket. | |
| Marvel XIV:357 13: You’re footpads, that’s the ticket! Ye sha’n’t pass! | |
| Maison De Shine 280: Make ’em come in, that’s the ticket. | |
| 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’. | |
| My Lady of the Chimney Corner 24: That’s th’ ticket, now kape yez eye on him! | |
| Hairy Ape Act I: Whiskey, that’s the ticket! | |
| Flirt and Flapper 122: Flirt: And if you married Bruce, you would have to give up your hunt [...] Flapper: That’s about the ticket. | |
| At Swim-Two-Birds 121: That’s the ticket, said Lamont. | |
| Sudden Takes the Trail 58: A chorus of savage oaths, and cries of ‘That’s the ticket’. | |
| Battlers 20: That’s the ticket! Make up my own songs. Sing ’em round picture-shows, got up in a cowboy suit. | |
| (con. 1928) Mad in Pursuit 103: Showed everybody. Champion of the lot. That’s the ticket. | |
| ‘Any Reasonable Offer’ in Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) 41: ‘I’m treating them just like Hellbrunners,’ she said craftily. ‘That’s the ticket.’. | |
| Young Wolves 25: Good boy! Manager! That’s the ticket, old toppie. | |
| letter 13 Mar. in Proud Highway (1997) 327: If you can’t buy them, squash them. That’s the ticket. | |
| Chips with Everything I vii: Data! That’s the ticket – the sum total of everything. | |
| Ten Times Table II ii: donald: Like this? tim: That’s the ticket. | |
| (con. 1940s) Second From Last in the Sack Race 40: Travelling light, eh? That’s the ticket. | |
| Campus Sl. Nov. 8: that’s the ticket – expression of mock agreement. | |
| Lucky You 305: I think that’s the ticket. | |
| Filth 27: Good thinking, Bruce. That’s the ticket. | |
| Dreamcatcher 69: I’ll lie down. That’s the ticket, all right. | |
| 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. |