Green’s Dictionary of Slang

stripes n.1

(US)

1. a prison uniform; occas. in sing.; thus wear the stripes v., to serve a prison sentence.

Show quotations
[US]H.L. Williams Black-Eyed Beauty 57: He got his set to swear ‘over the iron’ that they would follow their leader, even if the end should be punishment-jacket and stripes.
[US]Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) 29 Jan. 3/2: He changes his stripes for a suit of citizens’ clothes [DA].
[US]Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 194: He enlisted with the persistent criminal class and came back to Sing Sing to wear the stripes.
[US]C. Chesnutt Colonel’s Dream 76: They are not conscious of any disgrace attending stripes or the ball and chain.
[US]E.C.L. Adams ‘A Prison’ in Nigger to Nigger 40: I is know: / Ten year in stripe.
[UK] (ref. to 1920s) L. Duncan Over the Wall 274: A heavy ball and chain was added to the discomfiture of the ‘Stripes Gang’. [Ibid.] 294: The Warden requested permission of the Governor to dress all convicts within the walls in stripes.
[US]Big Maceo Merriweather ‘County Jail Blues’ 🎵 So take these stripes from around me, chains from around my neck.

2. (Aus.) a uniformed police sergeant.

Show quotations
[Aus]‘A “Push” Story’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Sept. 17/1: ‘“Gotter good man ’ere,” Prodder chatted to th’ sargint. [...] “‘M’ yes,’ snaps ’is Stripes; “’e looks big enough t’ supply assault’n’battery”’ .

3. a referee.

Show quotations
[US]Da Bomb 🌐 27: Stripes: Referee.

In phrases

take stripes (v.) [the old striped uniforms]

(US) to be sent to prison.

Show quotations
[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 240/2: Taken stripes (U.S.A.). Equivalent to our ‘wears the broad arrow’: Evasion in reference to an U.S.A. state prisoner.
[US]J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 44: ‘It’s kill you or a long stretch for me, Mr. Kelly,’ said the burglar. ‘I’ll take the stripes.’.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

In compounds

who gave you stripes?

(N.Z. prison) derisive comment betw. inmates: what makes you an authority? [the stripes being those of an officer’s rank].

Show quotations
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 180/2: who gave you stripes? n. ‘Who made you a screw? How do you suddenly know all there is to know about how the rules work?’.