switch n.1
1. an exchange, esp. when it involves criminal deception.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Boss 115: I’ll throw a switch on you yet that ’ll send you to th’ scrapheap. | |
| Hand-made Fables 27: A switch had to be made. | |
| et al. DAUL 216/2: Switch, the. Any of the various swindles in which imitations are substituted for genuine articles purchased by a victim. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Boss of Britain’s Underworld 32: He was a Pole who used to work the switch [...] at the right moment [he] switched his bag full of rubbish for the bag full of money. | |
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 174: Now the Monkey played the one, two, and three and ditched the queen, / he made a switch with the deck that the world never seen. | |
| Workin’ It 242: Shit. I can’t give you no money back. Maybe somebody switched them on him. |
2. (US Und.) substituting one thing, e.g. a deck of cards or pair of dice, for another to facilitate cheating.
| Und. and Prison Sl. 74: switch, n. The replacing of a deck of cards in its original order after a cut. | |
| Big Con 309: The switch. The sleight of hand by which one object is substituted for another, used in the wipe, the poke, and other short-con games. |
3. (US Und.) in a confidence trick, the transfer of the victim’s trust from the man who first befriended him to the principal trickster, to whom he has been introduced.
| Big Con 73: Although Mr. Fink has no inkling of it, the ‘switch’ is now complete. |
4. in sexual contexts.
(a) (US Und.) one who enjoys non-standard sexual activity, e.g. flagellation; thus switching adj.
| (con. 1940s) Admiral (1968) 227: All the disgusting and nauseating scuttlebutt about cheating wives and switching couples, the terribly private and obscene and dirty little stories. | |
| Thief’s Primer 188: You take a guy who thinks anything of his gal, he’s not going to let her go off into one of those switches. In the first place, they usually whip them so bad that they can’t work for a couple of months. |
(b) (US gay) one who varies their sexual preferences, i.e. masculine to feminine, sadist to masochist.
| Rebecca’s Dict. of Queer Sl. 🌐 switch — 1) one who is both a top and a bottom in the leather sense, and switches back and forth 2) one who is butch sometimes and femme sometimes, and andro sometimes. |
(c) (W.I.) a heterosexual who has become homosexual; usu. as make the switch v.
| (con. 1968) Where the Rivers Ran Backward 177: Shit, chicks here look so much like boys you could make the big switch just from humping one. Then go home and start hanging out at the wrong bars. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Official Dancehall Dict. 50: Switch usually someone who was supposedly a heterosexual who’s now thought to be a homosexual: u. de bwoy switch. |
5. (US) a change.
| Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 199: Well, that’s a switch. |
In compounds
(US Und.) any criminal who uses substitution, i.e. of cards, dice, etc. as a means of cheating.
| Me – Gangster 238: Mebbe he’s a switch artist. | |
| Rough Stuff 136: I have known some of the best dice-men in America and the two I was working with were the best ‘switchmen’ that I have known. |
1. (orig. US) a bisexual; thus switch-hitting n.
| Lavender Lex. n.p.: switch-hitter:–AC-DC, A bisexual or ambisexual. A person who engages in sexual relations with either sex, either as an insertor or receptor. | |
 | letter in Davis (ed) Land of the Permanent Wave 1 Aug. 198: [...] narrated by a switch-hitting interior decorator . | |
| Tales of the City (1984) 58: If I bring any switch hitters home with me, it’s hands off. | |
| Gay (S)language. | |
| Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: switch hitter US n. Bisexual; AC/DC; one who bends both ways. Deriv. baseball – the ability to bat with both hands. | |
| Chicken (2003) 81: We talk about switch-hitting. Baseball, not sex. | |
| slate.com 3 July 🌐 Gays are cool. Live and let live. I just love women. Can’t see the attraction of switch hitting. | |
| Widespread Panic 132: Commie, lezbo, sweltering switch-hitter. |
2. one who changes their religion.
| Midnight Clear 101: Maybe Munday will be a religious switch-hitter. |
In phrases
1. (US) to change sides.
| Corruption City 67: When it comes to a showdown, he’ll pull a switch. |
2. to act deceitfully, usu. by substituting one thing or statement for another.
| Teen-Age Gangs 154: Sure, Paro got in too deep and then tried to pull a fast switch. | |
| Tip on a Dead Crab 182: For reasons of his own, Buckingham is pulling a switch here. [...] We can wonder about whether your trainer’s pulling a switch or not later [...] I cannot accept that he is cheating me or hope that the horse will pay a large price. |
SE in slang uses
In phrases
(US) confused, undecided.
| Man with the Golden Arm 108: Frankie’s in the switches [...] it’s like he wants to run somewheres ’n can’t make up his mind which way to head. | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 260: He was beginning to ride Terry for letting himself get caught in the switches. |