Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(W.I.) to get nothing from a deal, to remain as poor as one already was.

1927		J.A. Burdon Brief Sketch of British Honduras (1952) 76: No change black dog for monkey. (Don’t change a bad dog for a monkey: don’t change the devil for a witch).
1956		Log of ‘Bugsy’s Boomer 15 Apr. in Spectre Mariner’s Misc. 110: He came back grinning from ear to ear, carrying a paper sack. ‘Traded Snowy a black dog for a white monkey,’ he said, and pulled ourt a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
1974		G. McKesey Ms. of the Belizean Lingo 103: (Do not change black dog for monkey) Meaning: Keep what you have or strive to get something better, not worse.
1980		M. Thelwell Harder They Come 269: Is black dog an’ monkey [...] Both a dem wicked.

1. (US) to change the subject of conversation, or one’s line of thought.

1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 48: change the channel – Cut the topic of conversation.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 248: The image was too much and I changed channels.

2. to find a new relationship.

1978

R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 42: One of the reasons I didn’t change channels was because everything else felt like a rerun.

(US) to drink alcohol.

1882		Hull Packet 17 Feb. 6/1: [He] was asked what he was doing in a certain saloon at a certain time. He explained that he had gone there to ‘change his breath.’ The explanation was accepted.
1888		Leeds Times 4 Feb. 7/1: At both of the [...] establishments [...] l invited a man in authority to change his breath at my expense. Each refused, on the ground that he could not stand the stuff sold at the bar.
1908		Sporting Times 15 Feb. 2/5: ’Erbert, a gentleman of the coster persuasion, and Em., his donah, have just been into the big pub to change their breaths.
[1918		Aberdeen Press 28 Nov. A harropwing tale of one man getting a bottle [of whisky] a week because was a regular customer, and of another man who could not apparently get as much as would change his breath].

to alter one’s opinions or statements, esp. to go back on what one has previously said.

1610		Jonson Alchemist V v: What, doe you change your coppy now?
1631		T. Heywood Faire Maid of the West Pt I IV i: Shall I be a welcome suiter now? That I have chang’d my Copie?

see under luck n.

to alter one’s opinions or statements, esp. to go back on what one has previously said.

1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 236: I hold a Groat, / That we shall hear you change thy Note. This Pride will have a Fall, no doubt.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 529: I will make him change his note presently.
1737		H. Carey Dragon of Wantley Ii i: D’ye laugh, you Minx! I’ll make you change your Note.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Note. He changed his note; he told another sort of a story.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.:
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1788].
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Dec. 24/1: Uninitiated folks who believe [...] that pugs. are brutes, would perhaps have changed their note had they seen Willis and ‘The Poet’ fight t’other night.

see under song n.

see break someone’s face v.

to change one’s sexuality, usu. from heterosexual to homosexual.

1999

Eve. Standard 28 May 35: The problems of wanting to ‘change teams’.