Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also full of oats) enthusiastic, excited, cheerful.

1838		Satirist 15 Apr. 118/3: ‘Hello, old boy, how d’ye get on —full of beans, eh?’ ‘Full of beans?’ said I, ‘what the devil’s that.’ [...] ‘Last new thing, bran spank new, heard it at Mother Emerson’s last night. How do mother, said I. ‘I’m, full of beans,’ said she, haw, haw, haw.
1845		R.S. Surtees Hillingdon Hall II 82: ‘That’s ooman’s mad — full o’ beans,’ observed Mr. Jorrocks with a shake of the head.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes I 152: One or two fat constables full of beans and with nothing to do.
1889		Sporting Times 29 June n.p.: The game began. ‘Ich dien,’ shouted Jack, as full of beans as the Prince of Wales’ plume [F&H].
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 22: The great, powerful animals, so full of beans.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 268: Talbot was in the happy condition of life [...] known as being ‘full of beans’.
1919		J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 719: It was clear frosty weather which makes the cheeks tingle, and I felt so full of beans that it was hard to remember my game leg.
1927		W.R. Morse ‘Stanford Expressions’ in AS II:6 276: full of hops (or beans)—crazy.
1928		Gloucester Citizen 26 Oct. 10/3: They don’t pension us at 60. They expect us to be full of beans at that age.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 135: She had been a happy, smiling English girl of the best type, full of beans and buck.
1939		Franklin & Cusack Pioneers on Parade 99: I had a snooze, and now I’m full of oats.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 176: I could have grabbed him round the waist and chucked him in the air, I was that full of beans.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 164: I had just done my first stretch at the Scrubs and was feeling full of beans. If that was bird I could do it on my ear.
1961		‘Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter at Butlins 172: Bob, as usual, was full of beans.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 147: Now he is full of beans and vinegar and with a whole new outlook on Life.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 428: Lizzyboo is full of beans.
1999		Guardian G2 3 Dec. 18: We liked her. She was full of beans.
2005		Sami Un Nisa Asim Small Town Woman 1: Andrew was young, handsome and full of beans then.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 136: Roddie was full of beans, astonishingly chipper.

2. arrogant, esp. through the sudden or recent acquiring of wealth.

1873

Sl. Dict. 171: Full of beans, arrogant, purseproud. A person whom sudden prosperity has made offensive and conceited, is said to be too ‘full of beans’. Originally stable slang.

3. (US) nonsensical, rubbishy.

1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

(US) to be well aware, to be knowledgeable; often in negative.

c.1849		‘One of the Boys’ in G.S. Jackson Early Songs of Uncle Sam (1933) 58: When dancing I know beans, and I widgin ping the greens.
1885		Observer and Freelance (Wellington) 29 Aug. 9/3: Bob knows how many beans make five.
1886		Sporting Times 6 Feb. 1/3: Her character to draw I will not strive, / Save that she knew how many beans made five.
1888		Chicago Herald n.p.: One has to know beans to be successful in the latest Washington novelty for entertainment at luncheons [JSF].
1894		Courier (Lincoln, NE) 10 Nov. 12/1: It is said also that there are people [...] who don’t ‘know beans’.
1898		Blackburn Wkly Standard 3 Dec. 10/2: Plaintiff: I said I knew ’ow many beans made 5 — (laughter)— and if I wor cabbage-looking I woren’t green. (Roars of laughter.).
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 85: know beans when the bag’s opened, v. phr. Negatively, to know little, to be stupid. ‘He doesn’t know beans when the bag’s opened’.
1907		Carr & Chase ‘Word-List From Eastern Maine’ in DN III:iii 246: know beans when the bag’s untied, v. phr. To be sophisticated. ‘I guess I know beans when the bag’s untied’.
1911		Day Book (Chicago) 13 Nov. 19/1: Those fellows ‘know beans’ all right.
1912		Day Book (Chicago) 18 Mar. 21/1: Remarks conveying the idea that somebody doesn’t know beans about cards.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 581: know beans when the bag’s open, v. phr. Used in negative expressions to indicate ignorance or mental sluggishness. ‘He doesn’t know beans when the bag’s open, does he?’.
1921		Eve. Star (Washington, DC) 11 Sept. 64/1: [photo caption] The man who advice is sought on a subject he doesn’t know beans about.
2008		Scalia & Garner Making Your Case 8: Have you ever tried buying equipment from a salesperson who didn’t know beans about it? You might understandably have fled the store.

to be alert, to be aware of facts or information.

1780		T. Pasley Private Sea Journals 5 May (1931) 86: His Nephew, a very genteel young Man – seems to know how many blue Beans make five, if I may be allowed the vulgar adage.
1803		J. Wetherell Adventures of John Wetherell (1954) 9–10 Oct. 69: You are all always pretending you know how many beans make five and after all know nothing at all.
1825		Age (London) 10 July 6/1: Lord Valletort’s been rather puzzled / To know ‘how many beans make up five’.
1830		J. Galt Lawrie Todd I Pt II 90: I had met with few men in America who better knew how many beans it takes to make five.
c.1830		‘Birmingham Boy in London’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 59: I’ll let them know now many beans make five.
1870		Sportsman (London) 14 Dec. 2/1: The Malton merchant knows how many beans make five.
1871		Nashville Union & American (TN) 30 Apr. 3/2: Two widows, both of whom know how many beans make five, if ever women did.
1877		‘Poor Little Joe’ Laughing Songster 30: I’ve gotten my eyes about me, and I knows how many beans make five.
1879		Gippsland Times (Vic.) 20 June 3/6: He said he knew how many beans made five without any instructions from interlopers.
1886		‘Zoological Comparisons’ [broadside ballad] Then just as we begin to know ‘how many beans makes five,’ The ladies call us puppies when we at that age arrive [F&H].
1894		G.F. Northall Folk-Phrases of Four Counties 16: To say of a man that ‘He knows how many beans makes five’ is to speak highly of his shrewdness.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 July 4/8: Now Combo Jim was not a lout / [...] / He knew how many beans make five, with any man in town.
1909		Wodehouse Mike & Psmith [ebook] ‘[I]t ’ud do a lot more good if they'd teach you how many beans make five; it ’ud do a lot more good if they’d teach you to come in when it rained’.
1912		Sport (Adelaide) 27 July 14/1: They Say [...] That Newspaper Joe knows how many beans make five.
1916		W. Pett Ridge Madame Prince 246: If anyone was aware how many blue beans made five it was Jim.
1923		Taunton Courier 19 Sept. 10/2: They not only know how many beans make fice but also [...] how many ‘taters’ make six.
1930		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 17 July 9/7: Solicitor at Shoreditch: Can you count? Debtor: I know how many beans make five.
1939		Hull Dly Mail 22 Feb. 7/6: A schoolmaster has to know ‘how many beans make five’.
1950		Western Dly Press 9 Mar. 4/8: We suspect that most of them know ‘how many beans make five’ ands are practical if nothing else.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 88: Explanations of how things work or have come out are usually capped with [...] ‘Now you know how many beans make five’.
2000		M. Amis Experience 344: Bernard knows how many beans make five.

energetically, very fast.

1843		Comic Almanack Sept. 376: [illus.] There isn’t a young Jack Ass in the whole University but what can cut over the New Bridge like ‘Beans’!!
1854		F. Smedley Harry Coverdale’s Courtship 104: After imbibing the ‘rosy,’ I went ahead like beans.
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America I 133: Five minute; we go dere as fast as beans.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 21: ‘I can ride; I used to jump the old nag often unknown to my governor, and could go like beans’.
1884		C.F. Lummis letter 4 Oct. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 17: His heels caught on the rail, and down he went like beans in Boston.
1898		Kipling ‘In Ambush’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 42: Listen a shake. Foxy’s up wind comin’ down hill like beans.
1899		Kipling ‘A Little Prep’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 191: I swear, I’m goin’ to play up like beans.

merrily, gaily, enthusiastically.

1852

‘The Cadger’s Ball’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 148: The crib comes down to-morrow, / So, go it, like beans and bricks.

to be ignorant.

1962

Mad mag. Oct. 7: I don’t know beans about surgery.

(US) impressive, of some account.

1853

J.B. Finley Autobiog. 328: By golly! You’re some beans in a bar-fight. I’d rather set to with an old ‘he’ bar.