Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) a bully; esp. one who demands money with menaces.

1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 174: He didn’t deserve to be a ‘standover man’ if he couldn’t move quicker.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 66: ‘Give him a go,’ said somebody, and somebody else said ‘Yeah. Don’t be a standover merchant.’.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 50: Gets it easy. Stand-over man. Comes from down the line.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 43: A new bookie called Big Charlie moved into the territory [...] He was tough. He had six standover men working for him.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 54: He tells them [...] what sort of a standover merchant his God could turn out when a bloke tries to dingo on him.
1972		A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 43: Standover Merchant. Extortionist, bully, or just a Boss.
1975		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 44: Among them were [...] the heavies (standover men) and the bludgers who neither worked nor stole but were simply professional parasites.
1978		G. Newbold ‘Social Organization of Prisons’ in dissertation U. Auckland 340: But Z was no standover merchant, nor was he particularly concerned with financial aggrandizement.
1979		(con. 1940s) G. Stewart Leveller 142: You’re a cunt, a stand-over man and one of the most selfish bastards I have met.
1984		P. Corris ‘Marriages Are Made in Heaven’ in Heroin Annie [e-book] All bad. Stand-over man. Did some banks.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 53: Toecutter: A standover man who literally chops people’s feet off to indicate, in a jovial fashion, that they have rather stepped out of line.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Stand over merchant. A bully or extortionist.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 85: Even standover men and torturers now stand over people connected with the drug world.
1992		A. Duff One Night Out Stealing 9: ‘Givin that standover merchant five bucks like that; whyn’t you leave it to me?’.
1996		W. Gibson Idoru (1997) 150: The standover man is a loner, a predator who preys on other, more prosperous criminals, often extremely dangerous ones.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 146: Sutch was a notorious standover man. He’d given us a few headaches [...] extorting money from our members.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 176/2: standover cunt (also standover dude) = standover merchant. standover merchant an inmate who uses standover tactics on a regular basis.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] Jimmy was doing the lot with Ron Pilley for the underworld murder of Sydney stand-over merchant Daryl Hooker.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 39: Brian and Les were standover men who made a major part of their living frightening other criminals.