brief n.1
1. (also breef) often in pl., a pack of doctored playing cards; orig. those in which the edges have been carefully trimmed to indicate, to the cheat, which cards are high, but latterly for all doctored cards [Ger. Briefe, a playing card (itself f. Lat.)].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Liber Vagatorum (Luther, 1860) 47: Item – beware of the joners (gamblers), who practice beseflery with the brief (cheating at cards), who deal falsely and cut one for the other, cheat with böglein and spies, pick one brief from the ground, and another from a cupboard, etc. | |
 | in Singer Hist. Cards 339: The breef [...] Take a pack of cards and open them; then take out all the honours [...] then take the rest and cut a little from the edges of them all alike, by which means the honours will be broader than the rest, so that when your adversary cuts to you, you are certain of an honour; when you cut to your adversary cut at the ends. | |
| Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 181: The cleanest rooking way is by the Breef; that is, take a pack of cards, and open them, then take out all the honours, that is to say, the four Aces, Kings, Queens and Knaves, then take the rest, and cut a little from the edges of them all alike, by which means the honours will be broader than the rest. | |
| Sporting Mag. Feb. VII 256/1: The flip, the bridge, the brief, &c. he was also expert at. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 85: Briefs cards constructed on a cheating principle. [...] From the German, briefe, which Baron Heinecken says was the name given to the cards manufactured at Ulm. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Sharping London 34: briefs, cards made for cheating purposes. | |
| Jersey Indep. 14 Jan. 7/4: Breef cards are those which are made slightly larger’. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Tamworth Herald 5 Aug. 3/5: Brief has many meanings [...] a faked pack of cards. |
2. as a ticket.
(a) a raffle ticket.
| Sl. Dict. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Jan. 4/6: We wonder if there is anybody who [...] ever got a prize ont of one of Joe Charles’ tea sweeps [...] Two misguided ticket-holders brought us their briefs five days later, and stated emphatically that they couldn't even find out what numbers had won prizes. |
(b) a pawnbroker’s ticket.
| Vulgar Tongue 4: Brief n. Duplicate. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 85: Brief a pawnbroker’s duplicate. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| press cutting in Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 48/2: Ah, Sam, how are yer? ’ere, will you buy the brief of a good red ’un, in for a fifth its value? | |
| City Of The World 274: I’ve known gonophs taken in by an Abyssinian gold watch-chain that was fastened on to a pawnbroker’s brief ’fore now. | |
| Tamworth Herald 5 Aug. 3/5: Brief has many meanings [...] a pawnbroker’s ticket. |
(c) a ticket in general (bus, tube etc); thus brief-puncher, ticket collector; brief jigger, ticket office.
| ‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. XL 501: I guyed to the rattler and took a brief (ticket) to London Bridge. | |
| ‘A Plank Bed Ballad’ in Referee 12 Feb. n.p.: By the rattler I ride when I’ve taken my brief, / And I sling on my back an old kipsey. | |
| Sporting Times 3 May 2/3: ‘What’s up,’ inquired the Brief-Puncher. | |
| Autobiog. of a Gipsey 412: Did you stag the milingtary-lookin’ swell [...] as run his rule over you in the push by the brief-jigger? | |
| A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 211: What ho! — Surbiton — they sight the briefs ’ere, don’ t they? | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 18 Sept. 2/3: I determined on a brief / Which would take me in the paddock. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Sept. 4/7: Wun nite the bloke wot sold the briefs at the gallery dore done the old man for a deener. | |
| Grafter (1922) 25: ‘Got your brief?’ The Mug dived into his pocket a produced a [betting] ticket. | |
| Northern Whig 12 Sept. 8/6: I’d blanked it on the cly-faking lay at Kempton [races] so got a brief and took the rattler to Richmond. | |
| Lucky Palmer 37: Where’s your brief, sport? You can’t get in without a ticket. | |
| No Hiding Place! 189/2: Crooked Brief. Forged ticket . | |
| ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxii 7/1: brief: [...] ticket to anything. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | (con. 1930s–50s) Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 22: Two free briefs for a dance in the Castle Ballroom. |
3. as a document.
(a) any form of false document, typically a reference or recommendation.
| Morning Advertiser 25 Feb. in (1909) 48/2: I have given the Jew boy another brief. I hope he’ll pay me this time. |
(b) a betting slip.
| A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 232: The whole ring was strewn with torn ‘briefs’ and bits of paper. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 11 May 1/1: I pushed my brief in for payment. | |
| Cockney At Home 279: ‘Can’t draw my money,’ he said. ‘Lost my brief!’. | |
| N&Q 12 Ser. IX 379: Brief. Bookmakers’ slang – a betting ticket. | |
| More You Bet 24: ‘Betting tickets’ (or ‘briefs’, as they [...] are also known). |
(c) (UK Und.) a note or letter.
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant. | |
| see sense 4. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | (con. 1910–20s) Hell’s Kitchen 118: Brief ... a letter. | |
| Lowspeak. |
(d) a licence.
| Round London 62: All a man has to do is to go to the police station, pay five shillings, give his name, and ask for a hawker’s ‘brief’. | |
| Beggars 207: The man that owns a pedlar’s certificate – which is known as ‘a brief’ – is [...] the most successful. | |
| Adventures of Johnny Walker 163: He produces his ‘brief’. | |
| No Hiding Place! 189/2: Brief. Convict’s licence. | |
| Lowspeak 31: Brief [...] 2. a driving license. |
(e) (UK und.) a criminal record.
| Illus. Police News 31 Dec. 11/3: I expect I shall get more [jail time] with my ‘brief’ (record) but I don’t care. |
(f) (US) a short press article.
| Amer. Thes. Sl. | |
| Show Business Nobody Knows 10: We printed a brief about it anyway—the first news of the courtship of Rainier and Grace. |
(g) (Aus.) a union card; a letter on official paper.
| ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxii 7/1: brief: Union card showing financial membership so as to be able to obtain a job in a particular industry. |
(h) (UK police) a warrant to arrest or search.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks n.p.: Blister: Warrant or summons. | |
| ‘Metropolitan Police Sl.’ in Scotland Yard (1972) 321: brief, a: a warrant or warrant-card. | |
| You Flash Bastard 70: We’ve got the brief for that drugs raid. The skipper thought you might like to take a looksee. | |
| Lowspeak. |
4. monetary.
(a) (Anglo-Irish) a banknote.
| DSUE (8th edn) 134/1: C.20. |
(b) a (stolen) cheque.
| Phenomena in Crime 251: Kite, brief, frail. A stolen cheque. | |
| Lowspeak. |
5. (UK Und.) a revoked parole.
| Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 23: Three and five and a brief [...] meaning he had a sentence of three years’ penal servitude, five years’ preventive detention [...] and a revoked ticket o’ leave of his previous prison. |
6. a barrister, whose legal commissions are their briefs.
| Inside the Und. 161: Ferdie [...] asks questions like some briefs. | |
| Spike Island (1981) 248: The [CID] seems to regard the ‘briefs’ as their major opposition. | |
| Doing Time 187: brief: solicitor or barrister. | |
| Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 98: I’ve been talkin’ to Ally’s brief. | |
| in That Was Business, This Is Personal 13: All the briefs looked like a row of bedraggled crows. | |
| Layer Cake 24: His brief was taking the whole fuckin thing very serious. | |
| Raiders 295: He hired one of the best up-and-coming briefs to handle his case. | |
| Viva La Madness 292: No good lookin at hime [...] Is he your brief? |
In compounds
(Aus.) a ticket seller.
| W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 28 July 1/1: The ticket-scalper ia strongly in evidence in the metropolis just now [...] the cronk brief-merchant mostly trades in close proximity to the railway booking office. |
a pickpocket who specializes in stealing winning tickets from members of a racecourse crowd; thus brief-snatching n.; also duket-snatching (cf. ducat n. (3)).
| Sporting Times 1 Mar. 1/3: George Rock, a ‘brief-snatcher,’ threatened to knife Harry Traherne, who is no friend of the brigade. | |
| Punch 22 Oct. 192/2: Was he a brief-snatcher too? What is a bnef-snatcher? [...] A brief-snatcher is a man who steals or snatches betting tickets. | |
| Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough Aug. 18 3/2: His usual line of business was ‘brief-snatching,’ i.e., hovering about the crowd that surrounds a small bookmaker, and snatching from the hands of the unwary the credential they with rash eagerness exhibit, and which they desire to exchange with the man they have bet with for their winnings . | |
| Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough Aug. 18 3/2: He went into town [...] found a ruined gamester who wished to dispose of his fast mare and fashionable dog-cart [...] the affluent ‘brief-snatcher’ bought it there and then . | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues [Ibid.] 66: Duket-snatching see Brief-snatching. | |
| W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 5 May 1/1: The welsher and brief-snatcher now acknowledge ‘No-Race’ Cockram as facile princeps. | |
| Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 27: Brief snatchers are racecourse thieves who snatch betting tickets from the grasp of successful betters [sic] and collect their winnings. They are often in league with rascally bookmakers. |