balloon n.
1. (US) in monetary uses.
(a) a security certificate issued by the Confederation (the original 13 colonies that seceded from Britain).
 | Indep. Gazetteer 24 Feb. 3/1: Continental certificates (or what some terms ‘balloons’) [...] are not those adopted by any particular state [DAE]. | |
| [ | ![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Both Sides of the Gutter part II 11: Five balloon swarthies to de boy takes de heels from under de lad of wax on t’ther side of the Green]. |
(b) $1.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | After Hours 190: Just to get a haircut would cost me fifty balloons. |
(c) (gambling) $100.
| Up From Never 190: I got anudder balloon in the bank [...] That’ll give us a hundred and twen’y-eight bucks, right? |
2. (Scot./Ulster) a bully, a garrulous person, i.e. ‘full of hot air’.
| Cabbages & Kings 201: ‘’Twas a braggart and a conceited little gabbler it was, though he considered himself a hero. [...] Not a word did the little balloon have to say about the other misbehavin’ idiots’. | |
| Racket Act I: Wait’ll I tell it to you, you big balloon! You’ll burst. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Cut and Run (1963) 58: It’s only an aul’ man like me ye could fight, ya balloon. | |
| Official and Doubtful 371: I’ve had enough of the millenarian keech from that balloon Foy. |
3. (Aus.) the face, the head.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘Barracking’ in Benno and Some of the Push 144: Fair in the balloon, good enough for him! That’s the way to tease ’em, the blighters! |
4. (US) a bedroll [the supposed resemblance].
| ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 441: Carry a balloon, To carry bedding roll and cooking utensils. | |
| ‘Vocab. of Bums’ in AS IV:5 338: Balloon—Canvas pack or bed-roll. | |
| ‘The Great Amer. Bum’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 72: But my troubles pale when I hit the trail / A-packing my old balloon! | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 47: Carrying the Balloon.–Travelling about with one’s bedding, and often the cooking utensils and clothing. | |
| Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 582: In [hobo language] a bed-roll is a bindle or balloon, and the man who carries one is a bindle-stiff. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| (con. 1920s–40s) in Rebel Voices. |
5. in pl., conspicuously large female breasts.
| Dear ‘Herm’ 134: A real looker with gorgeous balloons. | |
| Dict. of Obscenity etc. | |
| ‘Rev. of Busty Beauties’ at FlickSmart.com 🌐 The dual balloons that lurk beneath sweaters, blouses and bras stir a primal lust. |
6. a condom.
| in Limerick (1953) 66: The woman who lives on the moon / Is still cherishing the balloon / Of an earthling who’d come / And given her some, / But had dribbled away all too soon. | |
| Pinktoes (1989) 204: Did you not know, my dear, that balloons were first made from fish bladders? | |
| Essential Lenny Bruce 202: I couldn’t wear a balloon. | |
| 5x5x5x5x5 1v: In the bog, he writes [...] on a machine that sells / contraceptives, quips: ‘These balloons dont work’. |
7. (drugs) a condom or actual balloon that is used to carry heroin, cocaine or any other powdered narcotic drug.
| ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 9: Balloon, n. A balloon containing heroin. Most are $10 and $20 bags, containing about one-half gram and one gram respectively. | |
| No Beast So Fierce 56: On the way to the nalline center the parolee had reached into his pocket and surrendered a ten-dollar balloon of heroin. | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 41: He rammed a balloon of blow into my shirt pocket. | |
| Lowspeak 19: Balloon – a small quantity of drugs wrapped in paper. | |
| Mr Blue 236: Eventually they sold grams in balloons. | |
| You Got Nothing Coming 68: Kansas has just returned from the visiting room with a balloon of speed, aka crank, nestled somewhere in his digestive tract. | |
| ‘Tying Off’ on Inter-zone.org 🌐 Balloons were nostalgic for him, as they were standard issue back in the day. In the late 60’s early 70’s their appeal lay in their swallowability, street dealers could carry them in their mouths, a quick swallow might keep you out of jail, or failing that say in the case of having warrants, having come down sufficiently to take a dump, caca would yield treasure. | |
| Happy Mutant Baby Pills 16: MacArthur Park, where twelve-year-old 18th Street bangers kept the stuff [i.e. heroin] in balloons in their mouths. | |
| Straight Dope [ebook] A handful of sad eight-dollar balloons. |
8. (drugs) a heroin supplier.
| ONDCP Street Terms 2: Balloon — Heroin supplier. |
In compounds
see separate entry.
In phrases
(US) to pack up one’s bedroll and set off travelling.
| Woods Words. |
a male homosexual.
| ‘Words for Gay Men’ on Buggery.org 🌐 balloon-knot bandit. | |
| in Vice 10 June 🌐 Balloon knot, bunghole, starfish, back door—we like to use metaphor when we talk about our assholes. |
(US tramp) to travel around looking for work.
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 47: Carrying the Balloon. – In search of employment; applied principally to migratory workers travelling from one section of the country to another in pursuit of some definite kind of work, such as harvesting. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US) an obese person.
| Gas-House McGinty 188: Balloon-belly, sneered Mulroy. |
(US) a fool, a simpleton.
| Big Wheel [film script] Where’s that balloonbrain? That’s what I want to know [HDAS]. | |
| Hogan’s Goat I ii: Corner-boy Boyle and Bessie the balloon brain See trouble in store. | |
| posting 1 Dec. 🌐 You’re soooooooo...balloon brain-like. I don’t wear no makeup at all, cept for eyeshadow, liner, blush, lipstick, gloss, liner, mascara, foundation. | |
| ‘Japan Diary’ 10 Mar. 🌐 We got in contact with Maki [...] She’s a bit of a balloon brain, it took awhile to arrange a meeting. |
(US) a fool, a simpleton; thus balloon-headed adj.
| Gas-House McGinty 316: You balloon-head, you got yours comin’! | |
| I Can Get It For You Wholesale 46: Listen, you balloon-headed schmuck. | |
| Honest Rainmaker (1991) 55: What balloon-head figured this bill out? | |
| Stump 56: Look at Lenny Reece, fuckin balloonhead [...] off his fuckin tree. |
1. as a drink, usu. fizzy [? gaseous nature of soda-water].
(a) soda-water; thus balloon juice lowerer/merchant, a teetotaller, who only drinks or ‘lowers’ soda-water.
| Pink ’Un and Pelican 186: Putting balloon-juice, carelessly rectified aquafortis, and other foreign brands of brassfounders’ applejack in the ‘Scotch’. | |
| Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xvi: You, of course [...] naturally look upon those people who were brought up on such stuff as balloon juice merchants. | |
| (ref. to 1880s) Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 17/1: Balloon-juice (Public-house, 1883). Soda-water; presumably suggested by its gassy nature. [...] Balloon-juice Lowerer. A total abstainer. ‘To be a booze fencer now, is to be a mark for every balloon-juice lowerer who can’t take a drop of beer or spirits without making a beast of himself.’. |
(b) (W.I., Bdos/Guyn.) any form of sweet, colourful fizzy drink.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
(c) (US) any form of alcohol.
| True Northerner (Paw Paw, MI) 8 Sept. 1/3: Myers was in the cooler. Too much balloon juice. | |
| Sedalia Wkly Bazoo (MO) 9 Sept. 8/6: George Henderson got full of ‘balloon juice’ and was assessed $5. He liquidated. | |
| Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum XI n.p.: Can you not see that Murphy’s handy spiel is cheap balloon juice of a Blarney brew. | |
| I’m from Missouri 41: The Committee [...] watched eagerly for the appearance of a tray with the balloon juice thereon. | |
| Eve. Star (FL) 3 July 2/1: The town should not waste any more of its money on brewers of cheap balloon juice. |
(d) ginger beer.
| Sporting Times 3 Mar. 2/3: In the Field Force Canteen there was a cask of ginger-beer on tap, and there was a run on it. ‘’Ere [...] give us a pot of balloon-juice, will yer?’. |
2. (US) nonsense, rubbish, empty chatter; also attrib. [play on SE, i.e. hot air n.].
| Gurhrie Dly Leader (OK) 1 Feb. 1/1: He had been detained by lending ear to one of ex-Governor Seay’s balloon-juice stories. | |
| Marietta Dly Leader (OH) 7 May 4/2: Most of the slang is such flatulence as ‘balloon juice’, the Yale man’s way of saying ‘empty talk’. | |
| ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 22: balloon-juice, n. Empty, noisy talk. | |
| Sorrows of a Show Girl 12: I didn’t pay any attention to his chatter, thinking it nothing but balloon juice. | |
| Albuquerque Morn. Jrnl (NM) 25 July 5/1: The English of Atlanta is hot air or balloon juice. | |
| Sun & N.Y. Herald 24 June n.p.: The possibility of a frameup being made [...] is balloon juice. | |
| Wise-crack Dict. 5/2: Balloon juice – Hot air. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 21: Balloon Juice.—Idle talk; exaggerated metaphor; that sort of conversation once called ‘gas’ in ordinary slang. | |
| World’s Toughest Prison 790: balloon juice – Idle talk. |
(US) nonsense, empty chatter.
| ‘University of Missouri Sl.’ in AS VI:3 203: balloon soup: term for an endeavor to fool some one. |
In phrases
(US) ruined, destroyed, in a mess.
| Memoirs US Secret Service Ch. viii: Up in a Balloon – gone hopelessly into thin air! A fiasco. | |
| Professional Thieves and Detectives 159: Damnation! I’m up in a balloon this time! It’s all over. The damned thing’s gone [HDAS]. |
(orig. milit.) the start of proceedings, esp. when there is a potential for controversy or argument.
| (con. WW1) Patrol 231: Can’t be much longer now . . . An’ then the balloon goes up’. | |
| (con. 1914–18) Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier. | |
| Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 43: I reckon the whole gang was [...] listening to this Jamieson guy explain his stuff maybe, when the balloon went up. | |
| letter 13 Sept. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 68: On Wednesday ‘the balloon goes up, ole boy’ and I go to Bletchley. | |
| Mating Season 125: One’s probably [...] telling you that the balloon’s gone up. | |
| Ghost Squad 169: Policemen are not fond of crooks who try to murder other policemen, and the balloon went up with a vengeance. | |
| Jeeves in the Offing 137: When the moment came for the balloon to go up I didn’t want to be hampered by an audience. | |
| Reinhart in Love (1963) 128: There you are! [...] The balloon is going up. | |
| All Bull 196: When the balloon goes up — and, mark my words, it’s going to go up pretty soon now. | |
| Happy Like Murderers 112: The balloon really did go up then. | |
| At End of Day (2001) 121: This thing in Boston is a year or eighteen months away [...] when the big balloon goes up. |