Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a bullet, thus take the lead pill, to committ suicide by shooting oneself.

1823		Morn. Chron. (London) 6 Feb. 2/5: The Receipe of the State Physicians for All the Disorders of the Body Politic [...] The Steel Extract of the Loyal Manchester Volunteer Cavalry [...] The Common Irish Lead Pill.
1828		Blackwood’s Edin. Mag. Apr. 441/2: Level low, and send him to bed with a lead pill in his stomach.
1832		Sydney Herald 30 Jan. 3/2: [T]he dragoons drew their pistols from the holsters, and ordered him to follow, upon penalty of receiving a leaden pill.
1835		J.B. Fraser Highland Smugglers I 116: Come quietly down, unless you'd rather taste a lead pill to cool your courage.
1840		N.Y. Mirror 6 June 396/2: I no more nor raised me head [...] when phiz ! came a lead pill so close to me ear, that me head went under wather.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Sept. 2/6: We understand these portable engines of war are intended to administer leaden pills to the New Zealanders.
c.1858		J.H. Green Reformed Gambler 110: ‘Well, then, if you must know,’ said he, surlily, ‘I went on board on purpose to give Sumpter a lead pill,’ (meaning a bullet.).
1893		K. Mackay Out Back 189: I’ll put a lead pill between the teeth of the first man who dares to open his mouth.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 152: Here [...] is where I either become the depository for sundry and divers leaden capsules or acquire a stake.
1908		G. Seagram Bushman All 297: A lead pill in ’is bloomin’ cobra ’ill stop ’is blessed yabba.
1915		letter in J. Macfie Letters Home (1990) 29: [...] if they don’t give me a lead pill.
1935		H.L. Court ‘Live Bait’ in Spicy Detective Stories Nov. 🌐 When he sees her address [...] he’ll go there all primed to feed her a lead pill.
1937		W.M. Raine Cool Customer 256: When Clem reached for the gun close to him this bird let him have it between the eyes with a lead pill.
1944		R.L. Bellem ‘Million Buck Snatch!’ Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective Jan. 🌐 He came here ahead of us and fed her a lead pill!
1965		H. Williamson Hustler 207: I figured all I had to do was to put my gun in a guy’s stomach and he’d pass me his money. Instead I got lead pills!
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘I read in the paper that he took the lead pill’.

1. (US teen) an unpopular individual.

1943

Chicago Trib. Graphic Section 26 Dec. 7/1: Jive Talk [...] Drips. Sad Sam (or Sal). Cold potatoes. Junior jerk. Junior mess. Jerk of all trades. Dracula’s daughter. Sad specimen. Zombie. Black widow. Lead pipe. Light operator.

2. (US prison) prison-cooked spaghetti.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 123/1: Lead pipe. (N. Y. Catholic Protectory) Spaghetti.

(US) a bullet.

1922		P.A. Rollins Cowboy 77: A ‘lead plum’ was a bullet.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 168: A bullet was slangily referred to as a ‘lead plum’.

(orig. US) shotgun shells, revolver bullets, esp. when lodged in a victim’s body.

1883		Daily News 27 Mar. in Ware (1909) 166/1: Very recently a gentleman who was at once editor of a local newspaper and town constable found it necessary to relinquish the latter post in consequence of a disease which he euphemistically termed ‘lead-poisoning’, the result of being shot through part of the lungs by a desperado of the township under his care.
1888		Indep. Dly Reporter (KS) 24 Feb. 2/7: ‘I am passionately fond of music, but my passion sometimes crystallizes in the form of a shotgun, especially after midnight, So if you will just move around the corner [...] you will [...] possibly escape an epidemic of lead poisoning’.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 44: Lead Poisoning, shot dead.
1901		Argus (Melbourne) 20 Sept. 6/4: If he carry lead poison, or blue plums, the affair is more serious, for the possession of a revolver implies a readiness to use it .
1902		J.H.M. Abbott Tommy Cornstalk 97: There is also, of course, considerable danger of what a certain member of the much-quoted Canadians termed ’darned lead-poisoning’ – meaning thereby, the chance of going under to a bullet.
1915		‘Ian Hay’ First Hundred Thousand (1918) 267: Not many of the boys has gotten a dose of lead-poisoning yet.
1922		E. Dyson Missing Link 🌐 Ch. xi: The first of you, man, woman or child, that stirs a finger or utters a yelp gets lead poisonin’.
1930		R. Whitfield Green Ice (1988) 16: ‘Lead poisoning,’ he explained. ‘Too bad, eh?’.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 171: A person who was shot had a case of ‘lead poisoning’.
1936		R.L. Bellem ‘Falling Star’ in Spicy Detective Sept. 🌐 Listen, snoop. This cannon ain’t stuffed with feathers, see? Make just one wrong move and I’ll feed you a lead supper.
1942		G.T. Fleming-Roberts ‘One More Murder’ Five Novels Monthly Mar. 🌐 I heard you were sick with lead poison, Barney.
1944		C.B. Davis Rebellion of Leo McGuire (1953) 87: Maybe someday [...] they’ll pass a national Sullivan law so a guy isn’t running the risk of lead poisoning on the job.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 143: lead cocktail Gunfire [...] bullet [...] lead medicine Bullets [...] lead poisoning A bullet wound.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 3: Sugarfoot was croaked from lead poisoning.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 131: In the end they found that keeping bad company can give you lead poisoning.
2011		Orlando Sentinel (FL) 15 Oct. A15/4: He made caasual references to a ‘.45 calibre lead cocktail’.

(US) a gun.

1900		Dly Notes (Canonsburg, PA) 11 June 2/3: ‘Don’t endeavor to be frivolous with a man that’s ot the edge on you with a 45 calibre lead-spitter’.
1911		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 Days 16: If this man will [...] drop that lead-sprayer long enough to take our good money, we’ll wear ’em.
1914		L.A. Times 11 Dec. 25/2: ‘I jes’ gets that ole lead spitter of mine in action’.
1922		P.A. Rollins Cowboy 148: The affronted citizen [...] ‘dug for’ his own ‘lead pusher’.
1922		Chicago Trib. 22 July 4/3: [of a machine gun] Rat-at-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t as the Fokker sweeps the ground with a lead spitter.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 453: Lead-spitter; A revolver.
1931		Phila. Inquirier (PA) 1 Nov. Mag. 9/1: Buck had the drop. he had his big-bore lead-spitter under Jim’s nose.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 166: The cowboy’s names for his gun were legion [...] ‘lead-pusher,’ ‘lead-chucker.’.
1942		Sheboygan Press (WI) 28 May 2/5: This 20-year-old private shoots such a deadly gun that [...] he was ordered to [...] teach the others how to handle the lead spitters.
1942		Advocate-Messeneger (Danville, KY) 12 Mar. 2/4: The main types of [...] lead sprayers in one of America’s ‘blitz’ divisions.
1976		(con. 1896) S. Hayden Voyage (1977) 533: Bring that lead spitter aft an’ point it the other way.

(US) a bullet.

1978

S. King Stand (1990) 149: Have a lead sandwich, ya lousy copper.

a pistol.

1812		‘George Barnwell Travestie’ in H. Smith Rejected Addresses 120: Make Nunky surrender his dibs, / Rub his pate with a pair of lead towels.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.

(US) to be shot.

1952		W.R. Burnett Vanity Row 105: ‘A picture of the girl was in the glove-compartment. It was autographed to: Frank, my darling daddy.’ ‘“Darling daddy,”’ Roy mused. ‘It’s a funny thing how many darling daddies catch lead’.
1953		S. Frazee ‘Graveyard Shift’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] Why should men like Corky Gunselman and Sam Kurowski risk catching lead to protect money in a joint like the Wampum?
1961		W.R. Burnett Conant 8: Bill was gone now—having caught lead one snowy afternoon in November of last year.

a bullet.

1809		T.G. Fessenden Pills, Political, Poetical and Philosophical 32: Our spouting democrats [...] / When they can’t reason with a Fed, / In logick substitute cold lead [DA].
1858		G. Thompson Gay Girls of N.Y. 29: The first person who attempts to molest us in any way, shall breakfast on cold lead.
1883		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa (1893) 296: They had to hide about a week, for fear that Ma’s father would fill Pa so full of cold lead that he would sink if he fell in the water.
1890		M.E. Ryan Told in Hills 332: [The message] belongs to the command, and I may get a dose of cold lead before I could deliver it [DA].
1916		H.L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap 89: Some of these days Little Sure Shot’ll put a dose of cold lead through that Chink’s heart.
1933		C. Himes ‘His Last Day’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 299: A few minutes later he had taken hot lead in the guts from a Tommy gun wielded by a squad of coppers.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 515: That was the kind of guy Studs Lonigan wanted to be, really hard and tough [...] giving cold lead as his answer to every rat who stepped in his way.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 73: dose of hot lead Shooting.
1954		Mad mag. Apr. 5: Now you eat hot lead!
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 261: The hot lead of two shiny .38 Magnums.

(orig. US) to be shot, usu. fatally.

1900		Harper’s Mag. 100 464: [pic. caption] You’ll eat them words or you’ll eat lead pudding.
1903		B. Sears Circle in the Square 15: You’ll either marry that girl or you’ll eat lead, if I swing for it.
1927		in H.T. Paxton Sport USA (1961) 120: Her pa having been knocked off by a low-down skunk [...] whom someday she hoped to make eat lead.
1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys 🌐 It seems he dropped completely out of sight for at least a week before he ate lead.
1969		C. Whiting St Vith 183: Now turn your platoon around or you’ll eat lead! [HDAS].
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 121: When I sight dem faces again, there’ll be yamming lead.

(US) to shoot, usu. to shoot dead.

1954

Oh Boy! No. 20 9: You’re lucky I don’t feed yuh lead, Pop. I want yuh to live to tell ’em I’m plenty tough. Yeah!

to be shot.

1925		Black Mask Aug. III 11: He wasn’t no gunman – not him. That was the how of his taking the lead so easily, not being a quick shooter.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 671/1: late C.19–early 20.

to hurry up, to stop dawdling; usu. as imper.

1905		Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen’s Mag. 38 288/1: Our lodge has been growing slowly, but we still have plenty of good material to work on, so get the lead out of your feet, boys.
1912		Insurance Press 171 53/2: Don’t get ‘cold feet’ and go around the corner to a loafing place and kill time, but — Right now, Mr. Agent, is the time to get the lead out of your shoes and get ‘on the job’.
1927		B. Cormack Racket Act I: You better tell the men out back to ditch their cards and get the lead out o’ their pants.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 617: All right, Cal, get the lead out of your tail.
1935		S. Kingsley Dead End Act I: Come on, git duh lead outa yuh pants!
1939		A. Bessie Men in Battle 110: Pick up your feet; get the lead outta your ass.
1944		C.B. Davis Rebellion of Leo McGuire (1953) 16: Come on, kids, lay it on. For God’s sake, get the lead out of your pants.
1949		I. Shulman Cry Tough! 95: ‘Karpel!’ he screamed at the head salesman, ‘get the lead outa your ass and come here!’.
1949		(con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 15: Son [...] get the lead out of your shoes.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 917: Go find Sgt Karelson and tell him I want to see him. And get the lead out of your ass!
1958		H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 80: Okay you guys, get the goddamn lead out!
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 169: C’mon now, lazybones, get the lead out!
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 13: You, soldier, you, get the lead out your ass.
1969		P. Theroux Murder in Mount Holly (1999) 57: This is the real thing, boy. Get the lead out of your pants.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 52: C’mon, get the lead out of your ass and get those buggies on the road!
1981		Graziano & Corsel Somebody Down Here Likes Me, Too 97: Get the fuckin’ lead outa your ass!
1987		(con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 60: Get the lead out a’ yer arse an’ start runnin’ or the school master ’ill kill yeh.
1991		O.D. Brooks Legs 21: Twelve-thirty if the goddamn hogger’ll get the lead out of his ass and we get this train made up on time.
2004		C. Jordan Cotton Patch Gospel 158: Get the lead out of your britches and stand yourself up before God.

see under pencil n.

(US black) to shoot.

1995

L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.

(US) to fire a gun.

1884		C.F. Lummis letter 25 Nov. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 110: I’ll pump enough lead into you to patch a mile of hell!
1897		O. Wister Lin McLean 69: Pumped lead into the red sons-of-guns.
1907		W.M. Raine Bucky O’Connor (1910) 240: See that they come to time or pump lead into them.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 281: Sam’ll pump dem full of lead.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 251: The man in the derby hat raised his arm and Rico rushed him, pumping lead.
1930		R. Whitfield Green Ice (1988) 131: A lot of guys had squeezed lead on the red-haired one [...] She was through.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 95: Whitey could pump lead quicker’n anyone I ever see.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Squeezing lead, to shoot.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 216: I got you now, you son of a bitch! Turn around and do it slow, or I’ll pump you full of lead.
1997		‘Danger Overhead Junkie’ [poem] at cgsng.com 🌐 His contacts for his drugs / ‘No warra meen?’ They can pump him full of lead / Bullets and/or injections.

(orig. US) to make an effort, to ‘get a move on’, to stop being lazy.

1913		Scranton Truth (PA) 30 Dec. 1/3: [headline] Sunday is Going To Shake Lead Out Of Shoes Of Ministers.
1914		‘The Bold Aviator’ in C.H. Ward-Jackson Airman’s Song Book (1945) 3: Shake the lead from your feet and get busy.
1926		St Joseph Gaz. (MO) 7 Nov. 15: [advert] Don’t stop — shake the lead out of your shoes and come a-running. Don’t let your coat tails light.
1930		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 23 Mar. 6/3: It was quite a job for her to shake the lead out of his feet.
1932		Californian (Salinas, CA) 18 Oct. 7/5: That big line is about ready to get mad and shake the lead out of its shoes.
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 44: Now shake the lead out of your tail.
1940		E. O’Neill Iceman Cometh Act IV: Shake de lead outa your pants, Pimp! A little soivice!
1941		Swan Exp. (Midland Jnct, WA) 14 Aug. 3/4: Tim Brindle and. Harold Balinski managed to shake the lead out of their boots just Iong enough to throw the two goals for Midland.
1942		Post-Crescent (Appleton, WI) 28 Aug. 6/2: We will have to shake the lead out of our feet [...] if we expect to make the grade against Hitler.
1972		N. Conway Bloods 179: Get a move on. Shake the lead out of your boots.
1988		(con. 1930s) C.E. Lincoln The Avenue, Clayton City (1996) 89: Shake the lead out and get that milk on up there to Miz McCoy! [...] we ain’t got all day!
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 163: Shake the lead out of your shorts Get moving, hurry up.

(US) to fire a gun; to shoot.

1842		Wkly Arkansas Gaz. (Little Rock, AR) 1 June 2/4: Mr Callaway [...] had cautioned prisoner that ‘Gillespie carried first-rate pistols’ [...] ‘always carried the bull-dogs about him’ [...] if prisoner tried to stop him from selling goods, he would ‘sling lead at him — he would kill the damned rascal’.
1881		Petaluma Wkly Argus (CA) 29 July 3/3: Every few days a party of hunters [...] sling lead at a tremendous rate, but as yet no one has brought down the animal.
1896		Inter Ocean (IL) 9 Mar. 1/4: Members of O’Hooligan Combination Sling Lead with Fatal Effect [...] [B]oth revolvers were emptied, ten shots being fired in all. Lang was hit in four places, and is not expected to live.
1901		British Printer 14 291/2: No less than twenty have left the firm's employ to help to settle the question of ‘Briton or Boer?’ That the printers can ‘sling lead’ from a rifle as well as to a gun-metal stick is a demonstrated fact,.
1920		Boy’s Life Sept. 48: [advt.] And when you sling lead at him [i.e. a fox] with your old slow-as-molasses 30-30, he knows you're guessing.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 164: They slung some lead, didn’t they, Rico?
1944		R. Martin ‘Tea Party Frame-Up’ in Mammoth Detective May 🌐 He pulled a rod and started to sling lead at the cops.
1954		Oh Boy! No. 18 10: Slinging lead now, stead of rocks.

see under swap v.

see under swing v.

see get the lead

(US) to shoot a gun.

1870		Boys of England 1 Apr. 285/1: Bill rode on more cautiously now, for [...] he knew from experience that soldiers throw lead as if it cost nothing when they fancy Indians are about.
1879		Dodge City Times 10 May in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 392: Another one of the party told his chum to ‘throw lead,’ and endeavoured to resist the officer.
1887		Dly Yellowstone Jrnl (Miles City, MO) 18 Nov. 3/2: [...] not liking the idea of being at the mercy of any drinken outfit that may be disposed to throw lead about promiscuously.
1893		Eve. Star (DC) 27 Oct. 4/2: He waited [...] until the desperado commenced to throw lead in his direction.
1903		A. Adams Log of a Cowboy 37: They threw lead close around me.
1908		N.Y. Tribune 23 Aug. 5/3: Four were reckless enough to throw lead.
1915		Tacoma Times (WA) 24 May 4/4: If some of those red hombres don’t can this rough stuff I am going to throw lead some promiscuous.
1922		N. Platte Semi-Wkly Tribune (NE) 25 Aug. 2/1: I’m no gun sharp, but no man who can’t empty a revolver in a shade better than two seconds [...] wants to throw lead at me.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 145: Neither of them would have hesitated to throw lead at me.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 22: Them cowboys can throw lead.
1950		M. Storme Hot Dames on Cold Slabs n.p.: Maybe tomorrow, the day after, some other finger man’ll be up here throwin’ lead around.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 79: That’s when he fell to his knees throwin’ steel and lead, / they found thirty-two coppers on the roadside dead.
1987		(con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 43: The unfortunate gentleman from Rathgar [...] made a run for it as the cowboy threw lead, ‘bang ... bang’.
2007		T. Dorsey Hurricane Punch 20: You needed to lean on a twist, throw hopheads a yard, throw lead, no one snooped.

see eat lead

(US) a failure; usu. in phr. go over like a lead balloon.

1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 314/2: Fig. a failure; a plan, joke, action or the like that elicits no favorable response; a flop; anything that lays an egg [...] Since c1950.
1999		Guardian 27 Sept. 🌐 ‘Bournemouth’s lead balloon’ ‘A glum, corrosively tedious exhibition of control-freakery’.

see separate entries.

(US) an idiot; also as adj.

1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 371: He’s a leadhead cat I used to know.
1990		Captain Planet [ABC-TV] Hey, leadhead! [HDAS].

1. a firm grip.

1891

J. Maitland Amer. Sl. Dict.

2. (also lead pipe, lead pipe trick, pipe, pipe cinch) an absolute certainty, an easy task; thus as adj., certain, easy.

1888		N.Y. Trib. 4 Oct. 4/1: In his third race, when intrusted by with thousands of dollars [...] and looked upon as a ‘lead-pipe cinch’ of the best manufacture [...] his dickey leg gives way.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 94: De game couldn’t suit de widdy better if it was a lead-pipe cinch.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 122: ‘[I]f I don’t get crazy an’ bet the works on the lead-pipe trick in the third’.
1896		H. Blossom Checkers 19: The owner himself is going to ‘put me next’ [...] it’ll be a ‘lead pipe.’.
1901		A. Binstead More Gal’s Gossip 45: It is not necessary for the married Jap who has got a ‘lead pipe cinch’ on his erring mate to appeal to any tribunal whatsoever.
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 15: I knew it was a lead pipe if I stayed up that day I was gone again.
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 37: ‘[Y]ou can peg it for a pipe that the old sayin’ about once a sucker, always a sucker, is the correct dope’.
1905		Wodehouse ‘An International Affair’ in Politeness of Princes [ebook] ‘It's a cinch,’ murmured Mr. Ring with a glad smile [...] ‘a lead-pipe cinch’.
1908		N.Y. Eve. Journal 25 Aug. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 183: After Doyle banged a safe hit [...] the game looked lead-pipe to a certainty.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘No Business’ in Taking the Count 158: The impression prevailed that Isidore could not lose – wouldn’t be allowed to lose. In short, a lead pipe.
1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 101: I’ve got a regular ‘lead pipe cinch’ on the grabbing of the onery scamps.
1921		O.R. Cohen Midnight 17: [This] isn’t any lead-pipe cinch, I’d say!
1933		R.V. Coghlan ‘Harlem Magic’ Broadway Follies Sept. 🌐 Ding Dang Dong! might have ‘made’ Teddy — but it was a lead-pipe cinch that Teddy had made Ding Dang Dong!
1949		J. Archibald ‘Dying to See Willie’ in Popular Detective Mar. 🌐 This is sure a lead-pipe cinch, Arky [...] we won’t need to leave it lookin’ like a punch job now.
1957		H. Ellison ‘Kid Killer’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 114: How easy it had been to shoot Snake. It had been a pipe cinch.
1958		R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 83: This Judy’s Dream looks like a lead-pipe cinch.
1967		Marion Star (OH) 12 jan. 6/2: It’s a lead pipe cinch that some of the decisions are going to be unpopular.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 203: It’s not going to be a lead-pipe cinch.
1985		Pensacola News-Jrnl (FL) 3 Feb. 10B/2: It’s almost a lead-pipe cinch that the plan will be accepted.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 286: It’s a lead-pipe cinch that Stefanos and the rest of them buried Bender. So now we’ve got to save face and bury the Greeks.
2005		F. Zimniuch Richie Ashburn Remembered 4: A Lead-Pipe Cinch: Ashburn’s love for the Phillies and his listeners was a certainty.
2017		Pacific Dly News (Agana, Guam) 11 June A13/2: A prosecutor should never seek to impeach a president absent a lead-pipe cinch of a case.

see under sled n.

see separate entries.