Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entry.

a disappointment.

1925

L. P. Smith Words and Idioms in DSUE (1984).

a waiter.

1914

‘Hugh McHugh’ You Should Worry Ch. 5: Stevie rubbered acrobatically with the result that he upset a glass of ice water down the waiter’s neck [...] It cost me a dollar to bring the dish-dragger back to earth.

see pie-faced adj.

(Aus.) a dog, i.e. a greyhound.

1992		Canberra Times (ACT) 6 Aug. 20/2: [headline] Where the desperates bet on moth-eaten dishlickers.
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 50: Tony agreed to keep training the dishlicker while I am inside.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 11: He would follow his ‘pan-lickers’ or ‘dish-lickers’ from dog-track to dog-track.
2021		Betoota-isms 119: Dishlickers [...] 1. Greyhound racing.

a person (often female) who is exploited, treated poorly; note mis-defined as a v. in cit. 1967–8.

1934		S. Walker City Editor 250: [T]he women range from the sleazy, conniving little ignoramus to the straightforward, capable woman of education and character [...] There are dishrags and queens.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 117: She could manage this frayed, old dish-rag of a woman, she had no doubts of that.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 106: Dishrag Be excessively submissive to your girl friend.
1993		L. Rodríguez Always Running (1996) 61: I went home in a wheelchair [...] Pancho [...] called me a ‘dish rag’.
1999		Observer Rev. 14 Nov. 5: I was a dish rag.
2016		Guardian G2 2 Apr. 16/5: He thought the movie ‘misoginistic’ for presenting Wendy Torrance ‘as a screaming dishrag’.

(Aus.) a prospector.

1900		Kalgoorlie Sun (WA) 14 Oct. 4/4: A prospector from up North was staying at a Hannan-street hotel [...] One night the landlord, after hearing an unusually loud wallop, rushed up and discovered the inebriated dish- twister stretched out on the floor.
1914		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 May 17/4: [T]he said dish-twister and rock-knapper kept aloof from those three encroachments of civilisation, policemen, pianos and parsons.
1927		Aus. Worker (Sydney) 22 June 13/3: They asked Jerger to permit our most expert ‘dish-twister’ to try the tailings.
1930		Sun. Times (Perth) 4 May 14/4: [A] score or so of one-time battlers, prospectors, and dish-twisters being gathered together.
1938		Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Aug. 21/3: ‘Well, I paid for it,’ [i.e. a bath] said the dusty dish-twister, ‘so I drank it!’.

(Aus.) a dishwasher in a restaurant.

1900

Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Mar. 24/1: Besides, suave specialists are luxuries beyond the purses of improvident dish-wallopers.

(Aus.) dish-washing.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Jan. 13/2: This splendid legend […] probably evolved by a lately emancipated boiler baronet, who got a passage home by ‘dish-walloping.’.

(US) a woman, or man, with ash-blonde hair.

1931		C. Martinez ‘Gats in the Hat’ in Gun Molls Sept. 🌐 ‘It was that dish-water blonde!’ cried Carmen suddenly.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 39: She was a dishwater blonde, with these cow eyes, but a sexy mouth.
1958		W. Motley Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) 304: He was quite a big guy, tall, a dishwater blond.
2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] He pointed with an ink pen to a dishwater blonde on the floor.
2012		A. Nette ‘Chasing Atlantis’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] A dishwater blonde in her forties, tonight she wore black cotton pants.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 72: [A] dishwater blonde in khaki camouflage pants and a blue T-shirt.

a restaurant dish-washer; thus wrestle dishes v., to wash dishes.

1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 56: Was that lousy dish-wrestler still arguing the toss?
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 74: Not even the crummy kind [of job] like wrestling dishes in a greasy spoon.

a talk, a conversation.

1815		Morn. Chron. 14 Aug. 4/1: That would afford him a much greater gratification than even a dish of chat with the Ex-Emperor.
1833		Kentish Gaz. 1 Feb. 3/3: Mrs Surmise [...] dearly loves a little dish of chat.
1834		W.A. Caruthers Kentuckian in N.Y. I 97: I thought I would take a dish of chat, for that was the most I expected to get.
1840		Jeffersonian Republican (PA) 29 Feb. 4/1: Vot vill them ladies do, Jim, / Vot like their dish of chat.
1841		Morn. Chron. 10 Nov. 1/7: I might as well finish my letter by giving you a dish of chit-chat of the day.
1856		Berks. Chron. 14 June 6/5: Every guest who entered [...] to partake of a cup of tea, or dish of chat became [...] a member of the family.
1865		N. Devon Jrnl 26 Jan. 7/3: By way of dessert, we treated ourselves to a ‘disgh of chat’ with ‘mine host’.
1879		Pulaski Citizen (TN) 3 Apr. 3/8: They think no more of asking a young Miss to indulge ina dish of chat than an old maid would.
1884		Newberry herald (SC) 22 May 2/4: As the saying is ‘Maurice does not kill a cow every day,’ so we are not able to give you a readable dish of chat every week.
1897		Breckenridge News (Cloverport, KY) 20 Jan. 1/3: I met him in the road; had er nice dish er chat with him, too.
1908		L.A. Herald 19 Feb. 3/2: The women dropping in [...] for a dish of chat and a cup of tea.
1911		Lexington Gaz. (VA) 26 July 1/6: Aside from furnishing gossip [...] and who does not like his dish of chat — the country paper [etc.] .

a scolding from a wife to her husband.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.

verbal abuse.

1827

Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 184: She tipped the party such a dish of ‘red rag’ as almost to create a riot in the street.

(US) a mistress.

1922		Broadway Brevities Aug. 36/2: He’d take his side-dish Tillie Zinc, living on the same street, and walk her right past his wife, emitting cat-calls, laughing loudly and occasionally flipping a roll of bills right across his wife's nose!
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

to scold or tease someone about their actions.

c.1786

Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: To throw a thing in ones Dish. To Reproach or twit one with any particular matter.