gun, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gun n.¹

1. the vagina [the gun’s hollow barrel].

1646		Parliament of Women B: Every musket must have a scouring sticke, and every Gun must have a rammer, and every pen must be dipped in inke.
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 6 5 July 46: One of her Neighbours [...] opens against her thus: Goe, goe yee Whore, goe to Tower-hill, and get your GUN scowr’d ye Whore, before ye shal charge with my husbands Gunstick.
1655		Gossips Braule 6: Go go, to Tower-Hill, and get your Gun scour’d ye Jade; I never was the Hang-mans Whore yet, nor had the Brewer come home with me to tip my Gigg five times in a day.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk IV 272: A bawdy bachelor, talking with an old trout was saying, Remember, rusty gun. I will not fail, said she, scourer.
1934		in V. Randolph Pissing in the Snow (1988) 88: The youngest sister was a-mumbling. ‘My gun ain’t loaded,’ she says, ‘my gun ain’t loaded.’ So pretty soon the doctor crawled over there and topped her.

2. the penis; thus shoot one’s gun, get one’s gun, to ejaculate, to masturbate [the gun as ‘weapon’].

c.1663		‘On the Ladies of the Court’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 5: ’Twas Carlisle’s gun / That made her so disloyal.
1676		W.P. Wit’s Academy II 98: A lusty stout Captain laid siege to my Ford [...] And he had a Gun gave such a report: That I could not at all complain.
1691		‘Ladys Complaint to Venus’ in Lansdowne 852.85 n.p.: Poor Whores may be Nunns Since Men turn their Gunns And vent on each other their Passion.
1700		‘Riddle’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 72: ’Tis a Fryer with a Bald-Head, [...] It is a Gun that shoots point-blank; / It hits betwixt a Woman’s Flank.
1703		Burnaby Love Betray’d I i: [A maiden is] A Country unus’d to War, and easily surpriz’d; but a Widow’s a fortify’d Town, that has had Enemies before it, and will never be taken ... without you bring down the great Guns upon it.
a.1708		Dutchess of C[leveland]’s Memorial in Williams (1993) II 632: Seven times his Guns he fir’d.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 72: It is a Gun that shoots point-blank, / It hits betwixt a Woman’s Flank.
1798		‘Botany Bay’ in Hilaria 18: Then a breeze spring up, down the red sraits he ran, / And, o’erjoy’d with his voyage, he fir’d off a great gun .
1836		‘The Ramrod and the Balls’ in Gentleman’s Private Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 381: Very soon his gun was loaded / For he like her was by passion goaded.
1837		Comic Almanack Apr. 88: On his arrival, the wooden guns at Jack Straw’s Castle will be fired, and the town illuminated with moonshine.
1842		‘Queer Old Gentlemen’ in Nobby Songster 19: These worn out sportsmen cock their gun, / When mischief is the plan, / But let ’em do their very best, / ’Tis a mere flash in the pan.
1848		Boston Blade 10 June n.p.: The Dotor he groaned, and I think took a pill, / Re-loaded his gun, and the mounted the H— .
c.1860		‘Brighton Grand Volunteer Rev.’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 155: If the volunteers should want a rest, / The girls will hold his gun, sir.
1888		Stag Party n.p.: So I quickened my motions and got off my gun, / Which so long had been ready for firing.
c.1900		A. Cairene Sixfold Sensuality 66: Ethel wanted to be shot again so catching hold of his gun she began rubbing it.
1902		D. St John Memoirs of Madge Buford 55: ‘I feel the sperm drops burn me as they hit my belly! I’m riddled with hot shots! Give me every charge in your gun!’.
a.1908		‘Bucking Bronco’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) xx: My love had a gun that was sturdy and long, / But he wore it to visit the lady gone wrong, / Though once it was strong and it shot straight and true / Now it wobbles and it buckles and it’s red, white, and blue.
1938		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 201: She reached down her hand an’ she tickled my balls, / Till my gun went off in my overhalls.
1947		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 68: It was really quite fun / To probe with one’s gun, / For her quimmy might be anywhere.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 57: This is my rifle / This is my gun / This is for fighting / This is for fun.
a.1969		‘Keyhole in the Door’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 255: But, as I am not like Samson, / Like any other boar, / I’ll simply squirt my gun off, / Through the keyhole in the door.
1979		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Short Timers (1985) 12: This is my rifle, this is my gun; one is for fighting and one is for fun.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 308: You come through the door, you take off your coat, you look down. She’s got your gun in her gob.
1993		(con. 1969) N.L. Russell Suicide Charlie 30: With one hand holding his rifle, the other his dick, the unfortunate fellow was forced to repeat after our commander, ‘This is my rifle, this is my gun. One is for fighting, the other for fun.’.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 109: Fosse called his speed gun powder. He called his cock his gun.

3. a tobacco pipe [the gun’s shape and hollow barrel].

1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 GUN—Tobacco pipe.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 513/1: from ca. 1705; ob.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dictionary’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxv 6/1: gun: Smoking pipe.

4. an influential or important person.

1839		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 2 Mar. 72/1: Why does the aforesaid Jonny fancy himself a gun, when we know he is at a discount?
1851		Era 10 Aug. 4/2: A late and hot-haste-propelled express [...] bringing down a select party of metropolitan ‘great guns’.
1860		Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 26: Neptune Place, where the great guns of the world [...] congregate.
1902		C. Sandburg letter 26 Dec. in Mitgang (1968) 7: He [...] invited me to the Pleiades Club Sun. eve. – a gathering of literary ‘guns’.
1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 3 Oct. 1/1: When you spot some wealthy ‘gun’ [...] take him on under Haymarket rules and have a willing lash.
1903		O. Kildare My Mamie Rose 141: Every man, who has lived all his life on the Bowery, as I have, knows that ‘gun’ means an important personage. A millionaire is a ‘gun,’ so is a prominent lawyer, or a politician, or a famous crook; in short, any body who is foremost in his profession or calling, be he statesmen or thief, is a ‘gun.’.
1911		E. Dyson ‘At the Opera’ in Benno and Some of the Push 86: A brother, known as ‘Flash’, who was recognised as one of the best-dressed ‘guns’ in the metropolis.
1914		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Dec. 8/8: He goes with two twin-barrelled guns / Jim Quiglet and Hughie the Baker.
1919		‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 65: I’m fed up to the back teeth with this gun from the Home office!
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 53/2: gun excellent person or thing [...] originally a fast shearer.
1996		P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] Got a job as a brickie, didn’t know a brick from a banjo [...] Next thing, Joe’s the gun brickie.
1999		Guardian G2 29 Oct. 8: The new campaign has cheeky young guns in Top Man kit.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 111: A thrusting young gun who was going to be their personal agent.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 112: ‘You want your blokes, your main guns, doing the real news stories’.

5. (Aus./N.Z.) the fastest shearer in a shed (usu. 200+ sheep a day); also as adj.

1892		Sthn Cross (Adelaide) 2 Dec. 9/3: He is [...] a good bushman, a ‘gun’ shearer, a miner, fencer, horse-breaker — everything.
1897		Worker (Brisbane) 4 Sept. 8/4: To shear a thou. or more a week, which is but seldom done, / Will gain a shearer high respect and title of ‘gun.’.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 July 16/2: It would take columns to enumerate big tallies shorn by ‘guns’ on ‘Waterloo’ days with good sheep.
1910		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 15 Aug. 4/6: It will not be long before the words ‘ringer’ and ‘gun’ as applied to crack shearers in the west will be obsolete. A new term is already being used [...] ‘Dreadnought’.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Nov. 13/2: If the rousey and the cook’s offsider and a few others are bumped in the process – well, it’s their own fault for not being ‘gun’ shearers, too.
1929		Brisbane Courier 10 Aug. 22/8: The officers declared that he revealed a technique that would stamp him a ‘gun shearer’ in any shed.
1933		(ref. to 1890–1910) L.G.D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs (1951) 380: Gun, big gun – A really fast shearer, one who could ring most sheds. E.g., ‘So-and-so’s a g. shearer’.
1933		Townsville Daily Bull. (Qld) 3 Aug. 5/3: He who shears 200 is a ‘big gun’ or deuce artist.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 63: Gun, an expert shearer.
1952		G. Meek ‘Wool, Wether And Wine’ Station Days in Maoriland 74: He set the shearers a sizzling pace, where only the ‘guns’ could stay.
1965		L. Haylen Big Red 20: He went shearing but he wasn’t a ‘gun’ any more.
1984		T. Egan ‘Jacky Howe’ in Shearer’s Songbook 38: You ask any shearer / Who was best under the sun? / And he’ll say: ‘bloke from Queensland / Jacky Howe, the Warwick Gun.’.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 44: Ringer: The fastest shearer in the shed. Also known as the gun or gun shearer.
1990		R.G. Barratt ‘Keystone Cops’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] [A]ll I had to do was [...] act the laconic Australian shearer in an ABC telemovie Gunshearer.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] Roy was a gun shearer who did seasonal shearing work around the local area.

6. a general pej. term, e.g. a ‘rascal’, a ‘terror’; thus great gun, a cheery scamp.

1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 31 Aug. 1/4: Those two Blyth-street guns [...] who call other boys sketches and other such howrid expressions.
1906		A. Train Prisoner at the Bar 148: The real ‘gun’ is apt to have his life pretty well mapped out. He anticipates serving about so much time ‘in stir’ and figures on beating about every other case.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 July 2nd sect. 11/5: Even some of the hardest ‘guns’ and tale-tellers shuddered As they watched the performance, .
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘Jim’ in Chisholm (1951) 108: At last dad sez — oh, ’e’s a tough ole gun! — / ‘Well, are yeh sorry now for wot yeh done?’.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 58: Who the hell’s the other guy here? [...] The new gun — what’s he doing here?
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘A Holy War’ in Chisholm (1951) 78: ‘’Old on,’ I sez. ‘Just let me think for one / Brief ’arf-a-mo. I’d love a crack or two / At this flash gun.’.

7. (US drugs) a hypodermic syringe; thus gun-toter, one who uses such a syringe.

1895		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 10 Mar. 10/1: [headline] How to Tell the Poor Victims of the ‘Gun’. [...] — The Sensations Produced by the Use of Morphine and Cocaine — ‘Dutch George,’ the Best Known of the Hypo Fiends.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Humming Bird’ in Sandburrs 26: If it wasn’t for d’ hop I shoots into him wit’ a dandy little hypodermic gun [...] he’d be in the booby house.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 272: He went into a near-by drug store. She watched him in the rear of the shop jab the ‘gun’ into his flesh.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 39: Morphine and cocaine are ammunition; ‘guns’ – that is, ‘hypos’, hypodermic syringes – arms.
1919		(con. 1900) Journal Amer. Instit. of Criminal Law and Criminology X Jan. 62–70: I bought a gun and began to use two quarter-grain tablets three times a day.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 102: One type of dope fiend is the Junkie. He uses a ‘gun’ or needle to inject morphine or heroin.
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 8/2: Gun-toter – User of a hypodermic needle.
1928		Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/4: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ‘gun,’ a hypodermic narcotic outfit.
1933		D. Maurer ‘Junker Lingo’ in AS VIII:2 27: The hypodermic needle and its accessories used for the injection of narcotics are called the gun or artillery.
1938		F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 227: The drug used was in a liquid form and one of the gang possessed a ‘gun’ loaded with it [...] The ‘gun’ looked like an ordinary umbrella, but the stick actually was hollow like a shooting-stick, and the dope was discharged through it by pressing a trigger.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 309: gun. A hypodermic needle.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 278: I rammed my gun into it. I drew up her reckoning.
1972		in Smith & Gay Heroin in Perspective.
1989		(con. 1950s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 170: The girlfriend would fix her up a package with a needle, a hypodermic – you know, a gun – and stuff.
1993		E. Richards Cocaine True 64: Syringes, toys, gizmos, guns, works, call ’em what you want.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 11: Gun — [...] needle; hypodermic needle.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 82/1: gun n. 1 a hypodermic syringe and needle.

8. (US) throttle power; thus give her the (full) gun, to accelerate; cut the gun, to turn off the motor.

1918		G. Bowerman diary 6 Mar. in Carnes Compensations of War (1983) 70: They told us that some gas shells had just fallen in the road ahead so we put our masks on and gave Lizzie the gun.
1930		P.R. Beath ‘Aviation lingo’ in AS V:4 290: Cut the gun, v.phr. To shut off the motor. Give her the gun, v.phr. Accelerate the motor .

9. (US) by metonymy, a gunman, a gangster; esp. in phr. hired gun, a professional gunman who kills, wounds or merely intimidates as required by his employer.

1910		Spokane Press (WA) 22 Sept. 7/3: The gun tumbled out of her dump and glommed the rocks after using a screw on the lock.
1927		D. Hammett ‘The Big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 310: These coffee-and-doughnut guns are going to rub Red out.
1931		(con. 1920s) C.W. Willemse Behind The Green Lights 320: Hey, cap, there’s a ‘gun’ outside. Wants to see you.
1936		R. Chandler ‘Guns At Cyrano’s’ in Red Wind (1946) 220: Torchy Plant. A gun for hire.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1961		‘M.B. Longman’ Power of Black (1962) 138: ‘You’re crazy goin’ up before a gun like Colonel Jones! He’s fast as greased titties.’ ‘Fast sure, but facing a man with a gun isn’t like shooting glass balls. And I’ve had a lot of gunplay in my time.’.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 6: Krueger drove the car and was the gun.
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 260: I returned to [...] work as one of Chico Red’s guns.

10. (Aus./US prison) usu. in pl., the fists.

1937		C. Drew ‘Growler’ in Bulletin 30 June 6/3: Like a flash Riley unlimbered his starboard gun and walloped him on the chin .
1981		Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 266: A prisoner calls his fists guns and when he guns up, he puts up his fists or arms himself with a weapon.

11. (US black) in pl., the female breasts.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 142: Did you see the guns on her, man?
2018		NYRB 24 May 🌐 I heard as many, if not more, passing remarks about the first lady’s ‘guns’ as I did about the work she was doing to draw attention to the health and well-being of children.

12. (US campus) in pl., the biceps.

1989		P. Munro Sl. U.
1997–2002		Hope College ‘Dict. of New Terms’ 🌐 guns n. Front upper arm muscles, particularly biceps.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 65: Tutt [...] went to the curl bar to work on his guns.
2005		G. Pelecanos Drama City 83: [...] big boy, with lineman guns coming out his T-shirt.

13. (US prison) any form of edged weapon.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Gun: Razor, shank, or other weapon. (NY).

14. (N.Z. prison, also gun of pain) a prison-made tattoo gun.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 82/1: gun n. 2 a tattoo machine [...] gun of pain a tattoo machine.

In compounds

gunmaker (n.)

(US Und.) a veteran thief who teaches his juniors.

1910

Spokane Press (WA) 22 Sept. 7/3: If you’re gling to be a crook [...] you know must know [the] lingo [...] Gunmaker — Instructor of young thieves.

gunman (n.)

(Aus. Und.) a gang boss, a senior figure in the underworld.

1932

Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: On the lofty heights to which every ambitious criminal hopes one day to attain, stands the ‘gunman,’ King of the underworld, and at the other the ‘Top-off’ or ‘Shelf,’ the unofficial police pimp, held in contempt by all .

gunstick (n.)

a penis.

1654

Mercurius Fumigosus 6 5 July 46: One of her Neighbours [...] opens against her thus: Goe, goe yee Whore, goe to Tower-hill, and get your GUN scowr’d ye Whore, before ye shal charge with my husbands Gunstick.

In phrases

big gun (n.) (also great gun)

1. an important person.

1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 27 Mar. 69/2: The Great Gun was dressed in a new black jacket [...] breeches, and with no handkerchief about his neck.
1834		Knickerbocker (NY) June 439: Undoubtedly, the point to which all eyes are turned [...] is the city of Washington. The big guns of the nation are there .
1843		T. Haliburton Attaché I. xv. 265: The great guns, and big bugs.
1851		in R. Glisan Journal Army Life (1874) 377: I [...] had the pleasure of seeing all the elite of the town, and the ‘big guns’ of the Oregon Legislature.
1854		Preston Chron. 8 Apr. 5/2: Our friend having expressed an anxious desire to be introduced to the great Mr Cowell, a substitute was found for the ‘great gun’.
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 11: A boy who said ‘Don’t care’ would have some go in him [...] instead of being eaten by a lion he would be feasted like one, as a great gun in society.
1867		Sportsman 3 Jan. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [He] is a great gun at vestry meetings.
1867		Dickens letter 29 Mar. in Letters (1879) 333: The colleges mustered in full force from the biggest guns to the smallest.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 399: Neow, Major, when a feller talks on ticklish subjects with yer big guns, he’s got ter keep his jaw closed about it.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 18/4: They take the shine out of cheap suburban allotments, because they are not dependent for their worth on whether a railway’s coming that way, or whether some Big Gun (official of course) is going to put up a shanty there, and run a siding up to his back garden gate.
1888		Texas Siftings 13 Oct. n.p.: ‘Who’s the big gun?’ You don’t consider that insignificant ink-slinger across the way a big gun, do you? [F&H].
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 19 Apr. 7/2: There were some big guns at the Trocadero, on Wednesday evening. Amongst others [...] several officers of the Guards.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 19 Aug. 6/2: The funeral of Tom Corrigan was an imposing one [...] Which of our political bug guns could command such an honor?
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Feb. 4/2: I propose not to spare any sewer-mouthed ruffian, whether he be a ‘big gun’ or a ‘gun’ pure and simple.
1905		Sporting Times 18 Feb. 1/1: The close time for the small guns of sport begins about the same time as the season for the big guns of politics.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 110: The old snoozer [...] is the crack financial expert of England, and a big gun generally.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 316: His manner was very respectful, as tho he thought I was a big gun.
1913		Truth (Sydney) 23 Mar. 11/6: Niggers of the ‘buck’ description / And the Oriental ones, / Mister Norton, with the females / All are reckoned of great guns!
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 140: He was neither sponging, nor acting the Big Gun.
1925		D. Hammett ‘Dead Yellow Women’ Story Omnibus (1966) 159: ‘Better not fool with Chang Li Chang.’ [...] ‘A big gun, huh?’ I probed.
1934		C. Drew ‘Zarzoff’ in Bulletin 18 July 49/1: All the big guns in the wrestlin’ game will be there.
1937		A. Christie Murder in the Mews (1954) 42: What brings such a big gun as a chief inspector to see me. Anything to do with my car?
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 19: The big guns in Congress are thinking about moving all the darkies to Africa.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 116: I know Lover. He’s one of the big guns in the Eagles.
1952		W.D. Overholser Fabulous Gunman 53: Looked for a while like he might be the big gun on this range till one day he got himself dry-gulched.
1955		‘Hal Ellson’ ‘The Big Five’ in Tell Them Nothing (1956) 65: I’m the big gun of the Big Four.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 7: You’re doing well, pleasing, uptight and you are put together. You’re the big gun.
1982		E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 112: Each party sent its big guns.
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 168: We got thirty-three more bucks this week [...] If we get a full hundred it’ll be enough to bring in the big legal guns.
1999		Guardian Guide 4–10 Sept. 29: Homeland’s outdoor event has got more of the big guns like the Chemical Brothers.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 195: The Big Gun arrives. Colonel of the battalion. Absolute and utter pure hairy Rockspider to the core.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 45: It’s the major players I’m interested in [...] I want to bring down the big guns.
2013		T. Piccirilli Last Whisper in the Dark 84: He was playing high-stakes poker [...] with Danny Thompson and the other big gun operators.

2. (US Und.) a leading thief.

1909

I.L. Nascher Wretches of Povertyville 203: They are not confronted by the serious problems which the ‘big guns’ or thieves are compelled to solve.

3. (Aus./N.Z.) the fastest sheep shearer; also attrib.

1960		(con. 1925) L. Masters Back-Country Tales 257: Arthur Sykes [...] was known of course as the Big Gun (very fast shearer).
1964		H.P. Tritton Time Means Tucker 93: Dutchy broke the ‘century’, and after tea the rep. [...] made a speech praising Dutchy and welcoming him to the ranks of the big-gun shearers.

4. one’s supreme achievement, a pièce de resistance.

1994

T. Wolff In Pharoah’s Army 56: ‘The Best Is Yet to Come.’ That was our big gun. I laid down the melody while Hugh did crazy riffs around it.

5. used attrib.

2012

T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 36: ‘You mean he beat the bank at one of your private big-gun card games’.

get one’s gun off (v.) (US)

1. (also get one’s gun) of a man, to ejaculate, to reach orgasm.

a.1920		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 602: The whorehouse bells were ringing / While this pair’s upstairs in bed, / Trying to get their guns off first / Into each other’s heads.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 163: Except on Payday when they’re all so crowded that if you don’t get your gun off in three minutes you have to take a raincheck.
1965		D. Pearce Cool Hand Luke (1967) 72: When an elephant’s makin’ love it takes him two days and two nights to git his gun off.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1980		S. Ross Windy City 179: For that kind of money I could have got [...] an all-night, three-way broad from the society pages [...] Hey, Bang-Bang, you wanna get your gun off?
2005		‘Marcus Van Heller’ Hard Guys [ebook] ‘Get your gun off.’ Crider nodded and began to fuck it in faster.
2013		‘Marcus Van Heller’ Gang Way [ebook] ‘Get your gun off, kid,’ he said hoarsely. He masturbated Dom with one hand, sucking hard and fast.

2. in fig. use, to excite, to invigorate, to stimulate, to satisfy.

1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 32: I got a little project for you that will really get your gun off.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 187: He would get his gun off disillusioning Joel McCrea.

get someone in the gun (v.)

to get someone into trouble.

1955		D. Niland Shiralee 47: Get him in the gun and they’d take it out on her.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 56: Even if you’ve still got me in the gun over Ninevah, Lord.

get someone’s gun (off) (v.)

1. to delight someone.

1947

B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 31: I got a litle project for you that will really get your gun off.

2. (US black) to give someone an orgasm.

1961

R. Gover One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 20: He so gee-gee jittery an all, she guess she gonna git his gun wiffout hardly no work.

get the gun (v.)

(Aus.) to be dismissed from one’s job.

1955

N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 233/1: get the run (get the spear, the harpoon, the gun) – get fired.

give it the gun (v.)

(orig. US) to accelerate, to drive a car or other vehicle fast.

1929		(con. WW1) Hall & Niles One Man’s War 97: All I did was to give my motor the gun and zoom up as far out of the way as possible.
1933		C. Himes ‘Prison Mass’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 166: So he had decided to get back into the car and give it the gun.
1937		(con. WW1) E.C. Parsons Great Adventure 277: Much annoyed at having missed the rendezvous, Jimmy gave her [i.e. an airplane] the gun and drove ahead to catch up.
1954		W.G. Smith South Street 8: ‘He was driving a Caddy,’ said the man, ‘and I didn’t have nothin’ but this souped-up Ford. But when we got on the straightaway I gave it the gun’.

gun it (v.)

(Aus./US drugs) to inject a large amount of a drug; to maintain a heroin addiction.

1993		E. Richards Cocaine True 65: I’m being careful putting it in little by little. It’s called booting. [...] Gunning it, pushing it all in in one shot – people are dying because of it. Gunning it one day I had a stroke.
1997		L. Davies Candy 20: I’d been gunning it now for a few years so the plan for me was to go detox.

polish someone’s gun (v.)

(Aus.) to fellate.

1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 170: I often wonder whether she polished his gun.
1996		W. Gibson Idoru (1997) 274: Someone to polish his gun, pick up his socks, have a baby or two.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

gun artist (n.) [artist n. (1)] (US)

1. a Western gun-fighter.

1920		R. Kendall Luck of the Mounted (2009) 99: Ye bloody murdherin' dog! Ye dhirty back-av-th’-head gun-artist!
1929		Haycox Chaffee 87: That gent...looks like a gun artist [HDAS].
1938		E. McGivern Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting 432: They knew every gun artist of any importance.

2. a gun expert.

1943

Bayler & Carnes Last Man Off Wake Island 66: The enemy might try [...] landing machine-gun units and tommy-gun artists to knock us off in a Japanese jiffy.

gun baggage (n.)

underage gangsters who carry weapons for adults.

1995

G. Small Ruthless 196: They have a thing called ‘gun baggage’, [...] ‘Gun baggage’ refers to the youth the rudies offload their weapons on to when the security forces are around, the police being less likely to search a minor for a firearm.

gunboat (n.)

see separate entries.

gun boss (n.)

(US) the leader of a gang of Western gunmen.

1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 72: The gun boss was in no shape to make trouble. He was lying flat on his back, out cold.
1948		N. Nye Breed of the Chaparral (1949) 20: This man was a gun boss and both of them knew it.

gun bull (n.) [bull n.⁵ (3)]

(US prison) an armed guard who surveys the prison yard from a guntower.

1928		R.J. Tasker Grimhaven 42: Besides the gun-bulls in the sentry-boxes on the wall, there’s a living chain of coppers around the whole place.
1933		J. Spenser Limey 261: One of the ‘gun bulls’ (guards who patrol the walls themselves) let his gun sink comfortably into the crook of his arm and began a conversation with a ‘ground bull’.
1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 23: The gun bull [...] leans out of the window and looks down at the new man.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 3: High on the north block wall he glimpsed a gun bull.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 203: Gun bulls no longer shot you at will [...] while you pulled vegetables from the earth.

gun covers (n.)

(US) female underwear, drawers.

1855

Broadway Belle (NY) 12 Mar. n.p.: The ladies at the seat of war [i.e. the Crimea] have lately added a new terms to their unmentionables, viz., gun covers We suppose they keep the priming dry, and never hang fire.

gun dog (n.)

(US) a Western gun-fighter.

1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 92: The two others were strangers, more gun-dogs Abernethy had brought in.
1948		N. Nye Breed of the Chaparral (1949) 100: The outfit these gun dogs were pledged to smash.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 126: I’ve been [...] a nice, faithful, well-behaved gun dog all day long.

gun-fighter (n.) (US)

a wild, undisciplined fighter.

1916		Z. Grey Border Legion Ch. 2 🌐 That’s Jack Kells, the California road-agent. He’s a gun-fighter—a hell-bent rattlesnake.
1948		N. Nye Breed of the Chaparral (1949) 120: The sudden remembrance of the cackling Cibecue, the unguessed placement of the gun fighter’s whereabouts.

gun-flint (n.) [trad. nickname]

(US) a native of Rhode Island.

1845		St Louis (MO) Reveille 14 May 2/4: The inhabitants of [...] Rhode Island [are called] Gun Flints [DA].
1866		Montana Post (Virginia City, MT) 28 Apr. 4/1: The inhabitants of [...] Rhode Island [are called] Gun Flints.
1871		Semi-Wkly Louisianan 31 Aug. 1/3: The Nicknames of the States [...] Rhode Island, gun flints; South Carolina, weasels; Tennessee, whelps; Texas, beefheads; Vermont, green mountain boys; Wisconsin, badgers.
1885		North Amer. Rev. Nov. 433: Among the rank and file, both armies, it was very general to speak of the different States they came from by their slang names. Those from Maine were called Foxes; [...] Rhode Island, Gun Flints; Connecticut, Wooden Nutmegs [etc.].
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1949		Mencken ‘Some Opprobrious Nicknames’ in AS XXIV:1 27: To this list may be added [...] Gunflint for a Rhode Islander.
1952		D. Shulman ‘Nicknames of States and Their Inhabitants’ in AS XXVII:3 185: Gun Flints for Rhode Islanders.

gun-foot (n.) [the narrow, tubular trousers are reminiscent of a shotgun barrel]

(W.I.) long trousers, esp. narrow ones.

1942

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

gun gang (n.) [they work ‘under the gun’]

(US Und.) the chain gang or any gang of workers who are taken outside the prison and are thus supervised by armed guards.

1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 12: Gun Gang also Chain Gang Prisoner work details that go outside the prison to clean along the highway.
1994		(con. 1970s) N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 175: I was assigned to the ‘gun gang’; each morning we were taken by truck to pick peas and other vegetables.

gun hand (n.) [on model of SE farm hand]

(US) a gun-fighter.

1956		W.D. Overholser Desperate 19: Runyan’s got a couple of gun hands with him [HDAS].
1971		G. Wilson Lawman [film script] Choctaw’s a gun-hand. He’s fast and likes his work [HDAS].
1988		L. L’Amour Showdown at Yellow Butte 26: Knowing him for a gunhand, they would more willingly accept orders from him.
1995		L. L’Amour Utah Blaine 151: A tough gunhand who had come drifting into the town.

gunhawk (n.)

(US) an expert gun-fighter.

1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 36: Now mebbe you can tell me why you’ve been paying fighting wages to gunhawks like Harriman’s crew.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 65: Now this wasn’t no talk to a deadly gunhawk, / but Comanche himself wasn’t no slouch.
1995		G. Small Ruthless 239: ‘To me,’ the veteran gun ‘hawk’ says, ‘dem Third World youth deh dem crazy. Most a dem a just badness dem a deal wid ... For you have some crazy youth inna my area right now – every day and night dem a fire gun, y’know?’.

gun moll (n.)

see separate entry.

gun-mouth (pants) (n.)

(W.I.) a (young) man’s trousers that are too short and narrow.

1970		F. Collymore Notes for Gloss. of Barbadian Dial. 58: Those who preferred to continue wearing the tight-fitting, narrow-hemmed trousers were frequently subjected to ridicule; the trousers were said to resemble gun-barrels or gunmout(h)s, and street urchins would exclaim ‘buddung’ or ‘biddim’ derisively.
1977		Torchlight (Bdos) 7 Mar. 3: [...] who only minutes before had been teasing him about the old fashioned ‘gun mouth pants’ he wore.
1985		L. Elliott Other Voices 79: Hair matted, Long, Never seen a comb in years, Khaki shirts, Matching pants, tight at the ankles, Gun-mouth they call them.
2000		E.L. Harris Got to Be Real 358: You would have on your construction boots and your straight-leg gun-mouth pants.
2005		(con. early 1960s) K. Walker Dubwise 121: Young men, dressed in immaculately pressed short-sleeved cotton shirts and dark-coloured gun-mouth pants that narrowed as each pant leg approached the ankles.

gun opera (n.)

see horse opera under horse n.

gunpoke (n.) (also gunpoker) [on model of SE cowpoke]

(US) a gun-fighter.

1905		in Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 9 Dec. 7: That law murderin’ gunpoker .
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 220: He lets you win a lot of money and sends a gunpoke around to take it back for him.

gunpowder (n.)

see separate entry.

gun-sharp (n.) [on model of SE cardsharp/shark n.]

1. an artillery expert.

1904

Kipling ‘The Bonds of Discipline’ in Traffics and Discoveries 6: You are not a gun-sharp?

2. (US, also gun-shark) an expert gun-fighter.

1920		W.M. Raine Big-town Round-up 196: I’m no gun-sharp.
1934		E. Cunningham Triggernometry (1957) 204: They claim that they knew many a gun-sharp the equal of Wild Bill Hickok.
a.1944		R.F. Adams Western Words (1968) n.p.: Gun shark. One expert in the use of a gun.
1980		Hogan Lawman’s Choice 7: Looks more like a gun-shark to me [HDAS].

gunshot (n.)

1. (Irish, also gunshot whisky) a strong rough whisky.

1929

J. Tully Shanty Irish 205: Two bottles of ‘gunshot’ whisky were near his pillow.

2. reversing a cannabis cigarette, placing the lit end between one’s lips, then exhaling the smoke into another person’s mouth.

2001

Da Smokehouse Marijuana Gloss. 🌐 gunshot [de] inhaling on the hot end of a joint inside your mouth, then exhaling thru the joint into another’s lungs.

gun-slammer (n.)

see gun-slinger n.

gunslick (n.) [slick adj. (1)]

(US) an expert gun-fighter; also adj.

1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 5: We don’t have to drink with no rag-tailed bunch of gunslick varmints.
1948		N. Nye Breed of the Chaparral (1949) 140: This ranch can’t afford to hire drifting gunslicks.
1955		E. Hunter Blackboard Jungle 93: For he was, in actuality, the renowned gunslick entering a strange town.
1987		L. Cameron Stringer 179: The gun-slick tossed his gun out, [...] then his legs buckled and he was down, too.
1992		L. L’Amour Rustlers of West Fork 75: I ain’t no gun slick an’ ain’t huntin’ no trouble.

gun-slinger (n.)

see separate entry.

gun-thrower (n.)

(US) a gun-fighter as found in the real/fictional ‘Wild West’.

1901		S.P. Greene Flood-tide 238: The gun -thrower sprang forward. ‘Ye can’t carry off that girl, I tell ye. She's dancin’ ’long o’ me’.
1912		Z. Grey Riders of the Purple Sage 9: Thieves an’ cut-throats an’ gun-throwers an’ all-round no-good men.
1932		Z. Grey Robbers’ Roost 22: He’s a gun-thrower himself [...] He’s done for I don’t know how many ambitious-to-be-killers. [Ibid.] 82: Both Slocum and Lincoln are sort of touchy about gun-throwing, aren’t they?
1948		N. Nye Breed of the Chaparral (1949) 136: The role of boot-licking gun-thrower didn’t fit Jess Crowly.
1952		S.N. Lake He Carried a Six-Shooter 191: I [...] recognized him as Dodge City’s worst gun-thrower of record.

gun-tosser (n.)

(US) a gun-fighter as found in the real/fictional ‘Wild West’.

1951

(con. 1860s) S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 111: Pontdue is bringing in bad hombres, gun tossers, and we’re having trouble getting men to work for us.

gun-toter (n.)

(US) a gun-fighter as found in the real/fictional ‘Wild West’.

1918		M.L. Baggs Colorado 155: A mining camp without its saloon, and its gambler, ‘gun-toter,’ [and] all around ‘bad man’.
1925		O.P. White Them Was The Days 120: This opened up the field for the renegade white man, the gambler, the gun-toter.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 160: I wil get a couple of constables, gun-toters.
a.1946		‘The Open Book’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 115: He’s a famous lie floater and boastful gun toter.
1969		Pop. Science July 92/2: A young gun toter could start throwing lead faster if he wore his weapon on this steel holster.

gun-wadding (n.)

(US, also gun-wadding bread) soft white bread.

1919		C.H. Darling Jargon Book 16: Gun wading [sic]—White bread.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 147: Light bread was ‘wasp-nests’ or ‘gun-waddin’ bread’.

In phrases

get the gun (v.)

see get the spear under spear n.

gunbuck (v.)

(UK black) to pistol-whip.

2020

G. Krauze What They Was 21: Couple men [...] rob you, gunbuck you, maybe even torture you a bit [ibid.] 179: Rex gunbucked the casher [...] and the brer dropped to the floor.

gun in her baggy (n.) [baggy n.]

(W.I.) a woman with venereal disease.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 23: Gun eena baggy a female suffering from a venereal infection, usually gonorrhea: u. de gal a carry gun eena ar baggy.

gun up (v.)

1. (US prison) to get oneself ready for a fight (irrespective of the weapon used).

1976		P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 409: You got to gun it up tonight, boy. Those guys are looking for a scorer.
1981		Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 266: A prisoner calls his fists guns and when he guns up, he puts up his fists or arms himself with a weapon.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘Could have been a Spade. they sure as shit gunning up’.

2. in fig. use, to prepare oneself, to ‘buck up’.

2000

W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 347: Gun up! said the Queen. Keep yourselves sharp now.

in the gun [one is ‘under fire’] (Aus.)

1. facing dismissal from one’s job.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 595/2: ca. 1910–30.

2. unpopular, of ill repute, in trouble, likely to attract criticism or punishment.

1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: in the gun. Under disfavour.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 201: I’m in the gun already with the brass-hat brigade.
1967		B. Crump Odd Spot of Bother 142: If this bloke’s having me on I’m going to be in the gun for the price of the drinks, as well as what he already owes me.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 94: If you are in the gun you are in line for something, usually punishment, from British phrase meaning drunk. ANZ.

under the gun [chaingangs who work supervised by gun-carrying guards]

(orig. US) under great pressure, stress; suffering a verbal scolding.

1941		L.A. Times 23 Mar. B14: When a soldier is thrown in for getting into trouble, he is known as a ‘foul ball’ or ‘under the gun.’.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 231/1: Under the gun. [...] 2. In a helpless or untenable situation, as a result of being outmaneuvered; under close surveillance.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 92: It had been that extra eight thousand that had put him under the gun.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] Tell Tony I’m still his mate. I know he’s under the gun [...] I’ll look after him.
2000		M. Collins Keepers of Truth 10: Pete, we’re under the gun here. I don’t have shit to print.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 33: The one who’d been under the gun was flushed from the berating he’d received.

gun n.1

In compounds

In phrases

SE in slang uses

In compounds

In phrases

gun n.¹