dollar n.1
1. five shillings (25p), a five-shilling coin (see cite 1910); obs. outside films, books etc. of a pre-metric era; thus half a dollar, 2s 6d [under the 1817–1931 gold standard £1 sterling was worth US$4].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 20: They’ll bring them a dollar though, ay, or six shillings. | |
| ‘Tear Duff Billy’ Ri-tum Ti-tum Songster 16: My eyes, varn’t I in luck, / For I picked up a dollar. | |
| Handley Cross (1854) 195: ‘There’s five shillings for you,’ giving him a dollar. | |
| ‘Sunday Trading Bill’ in Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 115: Or else a dollar he will have to pay. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor IV 249/2: [A madame] bought a house [...] with her five-shilling pieces which she had the questionable taste to call ‘Dollar House’. | |
| Wild Boys of London I 44/1: I knows you’re hard up, and if a dollar’s any good to you, you shall have it. | |
| Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 43: I’ll take half-a-sovereign for the lot. Well, then, say a dollar. No? | |
| ‘Fallen by the Way’ Ballads of Babylon 3: I’m done this time, for a dollar — I can hardly get my breath. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Apr. 3/3: A man recently said, ‘Lend me a dollar. My wife has left me and I want to advertise that I am not responsiblke for hger debts’. | |
| ‘’Arriet on Labour’ in Punch 26 Aug. 89/1: She sat snivellin’ o’er that dollar. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 27 Sept. 2/1: So he raised a dollar from a pal, and went on four days’ leave. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 11 Sept. 1/1: They both nightly do in a dollar. | |
| ‘A Tongue Tax’ Sporting Times 6 June 1/3: I’m entitled to some neighbourly comment; / And I must class such a person as a frivolous old cat, / If the fine should be a dollar on my rent! | |
| Devil of Dartmoor in Illus. Police News 17 Sept. 12/3: ‘Two couters (sovereigns) and a couple of dollars; what a treat’. | |
| (?) ‘Reformation of Johnson’ in Roderick (1972) 851: The last time I met Johnson he was dirty, in rags [...] and fearfully shaky. He wanted a dollar, for God’s sake! | |
| (con. WWI) ‘A Little Drop o’ Leaf’ Little Ship 226: ’Oo is it ’oo borrowed ’arf-a-dollar orf me last payday. | |
 | ‘Ginger’ in Bulletin 24 July 50/3: I’d rose the price of admission to a dollar a head. | |
| Gilt Kid 46: ‘Take this oncer,’ he said. ‘You can get into one of those bed and breakfast joints for a dollar. And keep the change.’. | |
| Indiscreet Guide to Soho 62: His pictures were hired from an agency at ‘a dollar a week’. | |
| Otterbury Incident 112: A simple, ordinary coin of the realm, vulgarly known as half a crack or a demi-dollar. | |
| Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 175: Five shillings is a ‘dollar’. | |
| Crust on its Uppers 64: A dollar to the door-holding morrie. | |
| East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 61: Years ago things were good, you got value out of your money, a dollar was five bob. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Salesman 26: Is it a dollar a week? Are you jokin’ me, man? [...] (A dollar was Seánie’s word for five shillings). |
2. (S.Afr.) 1s 6d.
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Fire Trumpet I 100: Give you a dollar* to five bob he’s twenty minutes from now. Is that on? (*Rix dollar, 1s.6d.). |
3. money; usu. in pl.
| Dead Bird (Sydney) 25 Jan. 3/2: The Cyclorama and the aquaria are raking in the dollars fast. | |
| ‘To Mr Rudyard Kipling’ in Punch 14 Feb. 83: How you must laugh to rake the dollars in, / The publishers — how badly you must bleed them. | |
| Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 147: I recommended the keepers and beaters to put their dollars on me. | |
| Deadmeat 19: They’d [...] get their dollars, buy some plug or crack, get high. | |
| Layer Cake 109: They just want the same as your very good self: lotta dollar, peace and quiet. | |
| (con. 1981) East of Acre Lane 162: Pay me some dollars, dread. | |
| Hooky Gear 20: Trouble bein you cant steal a tit job. You have to commit the dollars. | |
| Dirty South 43: I’ve still been on road making dollars. | |
| Crongton Knights 75: ‘Make sure he says his vision is all messed up. He’ll get nuff dollars for that’ . |
4. (US black/Und.) $100; $100 worth of drugs.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Mona (2004) 174: I [...] gave him [i.e. a drug dealer] one hundred and ten dollars – a dollar and a dime in his language. | |
| Drugs from A to Z (1970). | |
| Westsiders 118: I pull out my wallet and look for four quarters. ‘No,’ he says, ostentatiously flicking a new $100 note in front of my face. ‘A dollar.’. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 8: Dollar — $100 worth of drugs. |
5. in NYC street numbers, a variable of one hundred.
| (con. 1972) Circle of Six 75: ‘Two brothers I know from Park Avenue dollar two-three’ Park Avenue dollar two-three was Park Avenue at 123rd Street . |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US gay) a male prostitute who claims that his penis is so large that even charging by the inch he could still get rich.
| Queens’ Vernacular 18: a-dollar-an-inch man (hustler sl) one who claims he’s so large he could charge cocksuckers a dollar an inch and still come out ahead of what his rivals charge. | |
| Sex-Lexis 🌐. |
(N.Z. drugs/prison) a tablet of LSD.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] : 59/1dollars and cents n. pl. see zebra. |
(US Und.) a store that displayed valuable articles priced at one dollar in order to attract customers, who were then subjected to a variety of ‘short-con’ tricks.
| Nether Side of N.Y. 72: Gift jewelry, prize candy, ‘Milton gold,’ gift concerts, dollar stores [...] and circular swindles of every description, have been only a few of his devices for wheedling people of their money. | |
| Big Con 295: dollar store. An early form of the present-day big-store [...] The dollar store displayed valuable articles priced at one dollar in order to bring in marks, who were played for with short-con games. |
(US) a cheap prostitute.
| ‘So Help Me’ Texas Stories (1995) 16: A dollar-woman come by and give us the eye. | |
| Neon Wilderness (1986) 273: A dollar-woman come by and give us the eye. |
In phrases
(US) to be late; in fig. sense to be inadequate.
| [ | | Dly Oklahoman (Pklahoma City, OK) 22 Dec. 30/1: The court order calls for $7 a week — Samuel had only $5 when he showed up at the courthouse and this is not the first time he had come in a day late and a few dollars short]. |
| Wellington Leader (TX) 31 Aug. 3/1: Hudson went home for a few days vacation and came back a day late and a dollar short. | |
| Out Our Way 3 Mar. [synd. cartoon] You can’t beat progress — You’ll always be a day late an’ a dollar short . | |
| Out Our Way 30 Sept. [synd. cartoon] How can a guy like you be so positive [when the war will end]? Because I’, one o’ them ‘a day late an’ a dollar short’ guys! It’ll end exactly the day I’m old enough to get into it. | |
| Times (Shreveport, LA) 24 Aug. 20/1: Just as in all those other critical spots [the baseball team] have come up a day late and a dollar short. | |
| Burlington Free Press (VT) 6 Apr. 7/6: After [Arnold] Palmer rolled in his putt [...] he turned to a spectator and quipped: ‘Well, as they say, a day late and a dollar short’. | |
| Chula Vista Star-News (CA) 27 Jan. 17/1: It was a day late and a dollar short, but the Chula Vista High junior varsity basketball team has finally arrived. The Spartans [...] have swept to two consecutive league championships. | |
| Eight Million Ways to Die 234: My timing was terrible. I was always a day late and a dollar short. | |
| Baltimore Sun (MD) Today 13 Mar. 2E/5: Horoscope [...] If you choose to play follow the leader, you will be a day late and a dollar short. | |
| Razorblade Tears 88: ‘You coming here now is more than a day late and way more than a dollar short’. |
(US) a near-certain bet.
| cited in Dict. Anglo-Amer. Proverbs (2005) 222: It’s dollars to doughnuts we don’t even get started today. | |
| Leavenworth Dly Commercial 4/2: It is a dollar to a doughnut that her carrotty hair stands out like quills on a fretful porcupine. | |
| Sun (NY) 28 July 3/1: It was dollars to doughnuts that Luke would win the race. | |
| Evansville Jrnl (IN) 10 Jan. 3/4: It is dollars to doughnuts that she will not get away. | |
| S.F. Call 5 Jan. 4/2: It is dollars to doughnuts that there will be a new superintendant appointed. | |
| Paola Times (KS) 4 Oct. 4/2: Dollars to doughnuts that was a republican plan [...] I do not not know that I will note for or against [Governor Roosevelt] — but, dollars to donuts. | |
| Devil All the Time 126: ‘I’d bet a dollar to a doughnut the goddamn chick will look just like you’. | |
| (con. 1963) November Road 65: The guy said he didn’t know what was worse about Kennedy, that he was a Catholic or a liberal or loved the Negroes so much. Dollars to doughnuts, Kennedy probably had some Jew blood, too. |