inside adj.
1. (also on the inside) in prison.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 282: Several persons who have been sent to this College [i.e. King’s Bench prison], destitute of the smallest coin [...] have, in a short time, procured a decent living inside, who would have been totally at a loss to have obtained half a maintenance outside Banco Regis. | |
| Referee 14 Oct. in (1909) 157/2: Beaufort’s duke trots by, and then dashes past a once member of the dangerous classes, who has been ‘inside’ many a time and oft, but who, having run into a bit of ready, will now go straight while straightness pays. | |
| Criminal Life 198: I will send you inside here. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 34: Oatmeal says that had he not been canned from office Mutt would be on the inside now. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 27 Nov. 2/2: He asserts the defense is trying to get an ‘inside’ line on his case. | |
| Gay-cat 61: They only held me on the inside for six months. | |
| Marsh 125: ‘Stretcher’ they called him; perhaps because he had done a ‘stretch or two inside’. | |
| Indiscreet Guide to Soho 116: He had been ‘inside’ twice. | |
| Crazy Kill 36: While he was inside his ma ran off with another man. | |
| Guntz 20: I thought you was inside. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | (con. 1930s) ‘Keep Moving’ 14: No lip from yous either, or you’ll be inside on a vag. charge. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 157: Henry had gone to jail and she had hustled to keep him on dope while he was inside. | |
| Homeboy 151: I hope I make it inside. | |
| Inside 75: I had now spent two weeks ‘inside’. | |
| Fortress of Solitude 427: Just a bullshit Five Percenter out on the street, the dude had actually taken to study of Islam when he got inside. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Gutted 30: You know Rab’s inside [...] Facing a ten-stretch for counterfeiting. | |
| ‘In Savage Freedom’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] He made sure I went inside, for the five stretch. | |
| Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘Why do you think I palled up with you inside?’. | |
| Razorblade Tears 134: ‘If we was inside and he did that he’d end up staring up at the lights bleeding like a stuck pig’. |
2. of information, privileged, intimate.
 | Bradstreet’s 19 Nov. 8/1: Some people who claim to have the ‘inside cut’ of the iron trade, prophesy a decline in prices [DA]. | |
| Daily Inter-Ocean (Chicago) n.p.: A secret service officer [...] claims to have inside information as to the facts in the case [F&H]. | |
| Artie (1963) 88: I’ve had five or six chances to get inside prices. | |
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 23: He was well under way on the briny drink when a piece of ‘inside info’ came his way. | |
| Chillicothe (MO) Constitution 14 Nov. 1/7: The book purporting to give what is known in American slang as ‘inside stuff’ is certain to cause a sensation. | |
| Autobiog. of a Thief 23: My friend the groom put this money ‘on a horse’ about which he had ‘inside information.’. | |
| Big Sleep 159: All inside stuff, straight from the cook-house. | |
| Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 86: Here is an organized mob with inside information on jewels and the movements of the women who wear them. | |
| Show Biz from Vaude to Video 569: Inside stuff – the real lowdown. | |
| Und. Nights 16: This particular job was an example of the big country-house jewel robbery, which always depends on inside information. | |
| Dead Butler Caper 55: A born tealeaf ain’t gonna turn up ’is hooter at inside information like that is ’e? | |
| (con. 1950) L.A. Confidential [film script] The essence of sleaze, Sid is the publisher-photographer-writer of Hush-Hush magazine and keeper of inside dirt supreme. | |
| Night Gardener 111: Addicts, testers, cutters, and prostitutes were inside to the extreme. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 180: I’ll give you a little inside info. |
3. in a psychiatric hospital.
| Caught (2001) 122: She’s inside, in one o’ them places, right out of ’er mind. |
In compounds
privileged or intimate information.
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 48: Same old inside dope. | |
| Smile A Minute 32: He wanted some inside dope for his paper. | |
| ‘Thirty Days on the Island’ in Argosy 3 Jan. 🌐 At least four thousand people had called to get the inside dope on Thorndyke. | |
| Eve. Teleg (Dundee) 14 Nov. 8/4: Sounds good to me [...] But give me the inside dope. | |
| This Is New York 31 May [synd.col.] Jack would be diggin’ up more inside dope on this Lewis chap. | |
| Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (2000) 159: Miss Pettigrew would grow so enthralled at hearing this inside dope on ‘How the other half lives’ she would be momentarily sidetracked. | |
| ‘Killer’s Cure’ Hollywood Detective Mar. 🌐 What’s the inside dope? [...] Who gets pinched and why? | |
| Boss of Britain’s Underworld 155: Crime columnists [...] had no ‘inside dope’ to stick into their columns. | |
| Free-Lance Pallbearers 15: Fannie Mae knew the inside dope on everybody in Soulsville. | |
| (con. 1940s) Hold Tight (1990) 116: I guess you people already have all kinds of [...] inside dope you can use to find this guy. | |
| Guardian Guide 12–18 June 81: The inside dope on the inside returns for a new series, showcasing [...] top security prison HMP Whitemoor. | |
| All the Colours 11: Whispering grasses. People with the inside dope, the horse’s mouth, on various ministers. |
a crime that has been committed with the aid or cognizance of an employee of the company or servant of the house in question.
| Recollections of NY Chief of Police 121: Some of the able detectives engaged on the case insisted that it was what is known as an ‘inside job’. | |
| Recollections 262: It was an ‘inside’ job from the start, and was managed chiefly by ‘Shang’ Draper and Leslie. In thieves’ slang it was a ‘pudding’. | |
| ‘The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew’ in From First to Last (1954) 67: One reason I took to inside work was to keep from having to kill anyone. | |
| Shadows of Men 77: It was considered an ‘inside job.’ An employee was arrested. | |
| High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 373: It was an inside job. They’d pinch Louis and he’d sing. | |
| Go, Man, Go! 125: They got in there last night. Cleaned us out of Vonoline. Took about twenty-five gallons of Flash-140. [...] Boss thinks it’s an inside job. | |
| You Flash Bastard 30: If there’s a robbery going off, it’s got to be an inside job; so we’ve got to be very discreet if we’re going to capture anyone. | |
| Wiseguy (2001) 186: McDonald knew from the start that Lufthansa had been an inside job. | |
| Deathdeal [ebook] ‘An inside job [...] Just like the last one’. | |
| Outlaws (ms.) 8: Most of them are inside jobs from the top down. | |
| Whiplash River [ebook] The only thing he could think was that maybe she was putting together the pieces for an inside score. |
one who has privileged information or knowledge .
| (con. 1920s) Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 504: You’re one of the original inside kids. |
(Aus.) a meal.
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 38: Inside Lining, dinner. |
1. (UK Und.) a police spy.
| Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 53: I compared notes with the ‘inside man.’ [...] He had got on very familiar terms with the inmates, who were under the impression that he worked on the railway. |
2. (orig. UK Und., also inside, insider) anyone involved in a crime, usu. a large-scale robbery of a firm or private house, who is employed on site and helps the robbers with information etc.
| ‘The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew’ in From First to Last (1954) 68: Honey Grove laid a plan for a big spring — a get-away [...] but just as they were about ready, Soupbone got cold feet and gave up his insides. | |
| Little Caesar (1932) 14: As an inside man you couldn’t beat him. | |
| et al. DAUL 107/1: Inside man. 1. An accomplice who is in the confidence of a victim or victims whom he betrays, usually a trusted employee. | |
| Godfather 130: Sonny has an inside man, that Detective Phillips who tried to protect you. He gave us the scoop. | |
| Wiseguy (2001) 187: The amateur inside man would eventually lead to Burke and the men who actually carried out the robbery. | |
| Shame the Devil 288: Hope he takes it better than that other inside man T.W. had. | |
| Eddie’s World 11: I still don’t see why she’d give you this kind of a score [...] Especially when she’s the insider. |
3. (US carnival) a sideshow worker who ensures that an audience, e.g. for a ‘model show’ looks but does not attempt to touch.
| Madball (2019) 54: [An] inside man [...] in there to watch that none of the marks got out of line and tried to [cross] the rope that held them back [...] from the stage on which the girls posed. |
4. (US Und.) in any confidence trick, that member of the team who takes the lead role in tricking the victim; the roper or outside man brings the victim to the inside man.
| Big Con 125: An insideman is like your mother. Mother knows best. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Complete Guide to Gambling. | |
| Anatomy of Crime 193: Inside Man: The member of the gang to whom the trickster’s victim is bought. | |
| Mr Blue 111: The conversation that ensued was essentially a scripted dialogue between the inside and outside man, with an occasional nudge or whisper to the mooch by the inside man. | |
| ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Inside Man — The agent operating a game that depends on an ‘outside man’ to build up business. |
5. (orig. UK Und.) a tipster who locates prospects for robbers or safe-blowers.
| (con. 1982) A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 269: The inside-man who put the job up in the first place had to make do with £2,500 as his whack. |
in carnival use, all money gained other than that from ticket sales [i.e. from patrons who are inside the show].
| ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Inside Money — The cash the sideshow operator gets from dings, blowoffs, pitches, sales, everything but the ticket price which is ‘outside money’. |
(Aus.) an advantageous position, privileged or intimate knowledge.
| [ | | Bell’s Life in Sydney 27 June 2/4: [T]he two horses went away together, Splinter shortly afterwards taking the lead and the inside running. |
| Aus. Advertiser (NSW) 24 June 3/3: It's only seven years ago since they made the first promise to send one [i.e. a dredger] up, but the Clarence River people got the inside running. | |
| Launceston Examiner (Tas.) 30 June 3/2: I am informed by a little bird which manages to see a good deal of the inside running in things municipal that there was a pretty stormy discussion in committee. | |
| Sthn Cross (Adelaide) 10 Aug. 7/1: it is difficult to say which is most likely to obtain the coveted seat [...] although, perhaps, Mr. Kingston's long association with Mr. Barton [...] will give him the inside running. | |
| Truth (Brisbane) 25 July 3/4: ‘I didn’t come all this way to scratch gravel [i.e. to march] and dodge lead for you to get the inside runnin’’. | |
| Nat. Advocate (Bathurst, NSW) 24 May 2/2: He knows a big sight more about the inside running of it [i.e. the war in Flanders] than anybody else. The people will get a very intelligent and fascinating story lrom him. | |
| Gippsland Times (Vic.) 17 May 4/5: There was some talk of committee men having the inside running being able to get an early notification in a limited dog stake. |
exclusive information; an advantageous position.
| Richmond (VA) W. Whig 5 Sept. 2/1: In a word, ‘Gizzard-Foot’ has the inside track for the Senatorship, and means to keep it [DA]. | |
| Four Years at Yale 48: To have a soft thing on, or the dead wood on, any object, is to hold the ‘inside track,’ the best opportunity for gaining it. | |
| Dock Rats of N.Y. (2006) 113: ‘Why are you so anxious to deal with Vance?’ ‘I’ve been told he has got the inside track with the Government, and that he is a square man.’. | |
| Perch of Devil ii 361: When a woman knows where she stands, and has the inside track, [...] the man has no show whatever [DA]. | |
| Three Soldiers 271: It ain’t the same with an’ edicated guy like Andrews or Sergeant Coffin or them. They can suck around after ‘Y’ men, an’ officers an’ get on the inside track. | |
| ‘Overcoat Bennie’ in Mss. from the Federal Writers’ Project 🌐 Bennie frequently planned robberies for the boys. He knew who was who in the city and he knew what they owned in the line of jewels. There was a rumor abroad that he had an inside track with several crooked insurance company dicks. | |
| Steamboat Pilot 19 July 2/3: There is a general feeling that labor has had the inside track for the past five or six years [DA]. | |
| Teen-Age Mafia 74: The guy was [...] sure that he had the inside track to some hot stuff. |
privileged, ‘inside’ information, esp. in the context of a crime [wire n.1 (3)].
| ‘See Him Die’ in Jungle Kids (1967) 99: Aiello [...] starts making like a man with an inside wire. | |
| Syndicate (1998) 20: How they got the plans, no one knows, but it had to be on the inside wire. |
see inside job