Green’s Dictionary of Slang

one who issues or receives free passes to a theatre or other entertainment.

1885		Referee 14 June in Ware (1909) 192/2: Results showed that the ‘paperer’ understood his business.
1895		‘’Arry and the New Woman’ in Punch 18 May 230/1: I took Lil [...] to the play, with some tickets I’d got. / Well, paperers musn’t be choosers.

(US) a dollar bill.

1934

B. Appel Brain Guy (2005) 84: I know when they got the paperbacks.

1. (drugs) a heroin peddler.

1970		R. Gilmore Drug Education Hbk.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 16: Paper boy — Heroin peddler.

2. see also SE compounds below.

(US black) one who is looking for money, usu. a drug dealer.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 paper chaser Definition: person who is on the hunt for money, usually a reference to drug dealers. Example: That paper chaser be going around the block in his big bout-it Benz just looking for honeys and the sad part is why would any dumb ass nigga wanna find money in East St. Louis.

(drugs) one who sucks the amphetamine-impregnated strips from an amphetamine inhaler.

1967

Maurer & Vogel Narcotics and Narcotic Addiction (3rd edn).

see separate entry.

see paper hanger n.

(Aus.) a convict holding a ticket of leave.

1848		Guardian (Hobart) 25 Mar. 6: Peter Allen, free, charged with having been drunk, was fined 5s. James Pearson, t.l., ditto, but not ditto as to punishment, (being a ‘paper man,’) he was ordered 3 months road-making.
1851		Guardian (Hobart) 26 Apr. 2: The holder of a ticket-of-leave was fined £10 by the Longford Bench; he had the audacity to appeal [...] The moment the magistrate ascertained what was intended, he had proceedings taken, and recommended the unlucky wight of a ‘paper’ man, to have his indulgence revoked; and revoked it was—meanwhile the appeal was heard and quashed.

a society wedding.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(US) a small, unstable bank.

1830

Morning Courier and N.-Y. Enquirer 2 Mar. 2/1: [Small denomination bank-notes are issued by] paper mills in other states, and whenever these mills blow up either by roguery or misfortune, the loss generally fell upon the poor [because the well-to-do don’t keep such money].

1. (US Und.) one who passes counterfeit notes.

1928		J. Tully in Amer. Mercury Apr. 427/2: The best paper pusher in the West. His racket had been to steal post-office money-order blanks and stamps, and then make his own money-orders.
1941		D. Maurer in AS XVI 248/2: Paperhanger, a professional who passes forged checks. Also kid-glove worker, passer, paper-pusher, pusher, shover, the last three terms being reserved for men who pass counterfeit money.
1948		Mencken Amer. Lang. Supplement II 669: The colleague who works off counterfeit money is a paper-pusher.
1982		R. De Sola Crime Dict. 111/1: Paper pusher, person passing counterfeit money.

2. see also SE compounds below.

(US) a fool.

1834

‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 73: These paper-skulls will hoora! and if they onct be made tu think we are on their side .

money.

1997

N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 151: Where’s ma fuckin’ paperwork?

(US black) a great deal of money.

1994

G. Smitherman Black Talk 94: big paper A lot of money. Also tall paper.

(US Und.) to pass counterfeit cheques, money orders or other financial instruments.

2001

(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 148: You wanna fuck around with Susan do it on your own time. Not burning paper we set ya up with.

(US Und.) to pass counterfeit cheques or similar financial documents.

1933		C. Himes ‘Prison Mass’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 163: If things didn’t break right he could always ‘hang some paper.’ He’d always been pretty good at tracing signatures.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 76: The term ‘hanging paper’ is nonprofessional, used by pulp writers and policemen. No thief would ever use the term.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 96: Someone would arrive who had hung a great deal of paper before getting gaffled.
1965		D. Pearce Cool Hand Luke (1967) 68: A young college man from Boston who had been sent up [...] for hanging five thousand dollars woth of paper in a half-dozen night clubs.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 206: hang paper, v. – to pass bad checks.
1976		C. Keane Hunter 17: Billy Joe had ‘hung paper’ in Los Angeles for over $6,000 and got caught trying to pass one.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 268: Ronnie had lots of money from hanging bad paper.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 84/1: hang paper v. to pass false cheques.

(US black) to be legally married.

1972		E. Folb Urban Black Argot 136: You Don’t Have Papers on Me ‘you don’t own me;’ ‘you’re not married to me’.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 136: Wait a minute, hold it! You don’t have papers on me, so you cain’t tell me what to do. [Ibid.] 241: have papers Be married.
1999		Dr Dre ‘Housewife’ 🎵 I mostly sold dick while I packed a gold clip / Worked my money-maker, she got paper, she bout to trip.

to stand as a creditor to someone.

1926		Commerce Car Journal XXXII 42: The finance companies of the state holding paper on such vehicles are very much alarmed over the situation.
1964		testimony to Alaska Earthquake hearings US Congress 121: As a lender holding paper on homes in Alaska, we would make this tentative suggestion.
1999		D. Lehane Gone Baby, Gone 53: I know someone holding paper on your ass.
2008		P. Bulone Joey Rags 8: He was holding paper on him. Fazio owed fifteen big ones.

(US Und.) any form of fraudulent document, esp. of a financial nature, e.g. a fake cheque.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 124: hot papers Stolen bonds.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 154: Benton wrote his first ‘hot paper’.
1990		D. Heilbroner Rough Justice 212: Was Steven Peel a low-level dealer in hot paper or part of a burgeoning ring of high-class thieves with inside connections at American Express?

(US Und.) to pass counterfeit money or stolen cheques.

1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 256: Laying Paper. Passing worthless checks.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 410: Laying paper. Passing worthless checks.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 75: ‘Laying paper’ is the term used in a general sense by thieves to refer to the negotiation of checks, drafts, bills of lading, mortgages, etc. It does not include passing currency.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 323: Lay paper, To pass bad checks.
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 48: sling paper To pass bad cheques. ‘I ain’t been arrested for nothin’ but slingin’ paper.’.

(US prison) to be granted parole.

1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 101: Paper literally means parole or probation and is derived from the parole papers containing the rules and conditions of the parole the inmate must sign before being granted parole. ‘He made paper today.’.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Make Paper: Make parole.

(US prison) having completed one’s sentence, no longer on prison records.

2022

J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 287: Miss Thing done killed her motherfuckin number! She is off paper [...] here I am on the motherfuckin bus home again!

1. (UK/US Und.) on parole, on probation.

1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 101: Paper When an inmate is granted parole, he is referred to as being on paper.
2004		Simon & Burns ‘Time After Time’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 1 [TV script] What make you think I ain’t on paper or some shit?
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 106: You just mad cause you still on paper.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 On Papers - on parole or probation.

2. (N.Z. prison) known as an informer.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 133/2: on paper n. to have narked.

to use forged cheques, stolen credit cards.

1972

Milner & Milner Black Players 95: She is more upgraded, she knows how to pass paper [forged cheques, credit cards].

see big paper

1. a male who has had sex with a lot of people in his area; i.e. they have been around v. (1)

1997–2000

College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Paper boy (noun) A guy who has been around the neighborhood more than the paper boy; male hoe; someone extremely dirty.

2. see also sl. compounds above.

(N.Z. prison) .

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 134/1: paper doll n. a pornographic magazine.

a ballad (or other form of printed material) that is sold on the street.

1861

(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 224/2: Hardly a slum worth a crust [...] to us. A slum’s a paper fake — make a foot-note of that, sir.

1. a gatherer of rags and other saleable rubbish from the streets and gutters.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

2. a beggar who poses as an agent of a paper-mill and is thus given cast-off rags, which are then sold for profit.

1839		H. Brandon Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 168: The paper makers get the tats and never tip the motts a posh, but fence the milky ones with some swag chovey bloak.
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 9/2: The paper makers get the tats, and never tip the mots a posh, but fence the milky ones with some swag chovey bloak. The men who pretend they are from a paper mill obtain the rags, and never pay the women (of the houses they call at) anything, and then sell the white rags to some marine store dealer.

(US) one who uses sheet music.

1938

Eve. Sun (Baltimore, MD) 19 Dec. 21/4: Paperman: musician who plays from notes.

1. a bureaucrat or clerk of the lowliest rank, the implication being that they never write on, only push around, paper; thus push paper v.

1942		Infantry Journal (US) 25: In twenty minutes McCollum had [...] determined to his own satisfaction that Bert would never be any good as a lawyer or in fact as any kind of a paper-pusher.
1960		Encounter May 14: The ‘white-collar workers’ have out-numbered the ‘blue-collar workers’; there are now more paper-pushers than tool-pushers.
1966		B. Adler Vietnam Letters (2003) 21 Aug. 101: All the rest are [...] paper pushers, pill rollers and legal clerks.
1974		E.H. Hunt Undercover 184: [White House official David Young] I regarded as principally a paper pusher, whereas [Counsel to Nixon’s campaign committee, and burglar, G. Gordon] Liddy was demonstrably a man of action.
1980		A. Maupin More Tales of the City (1984) 145: If you plan to keep pushing paper, you might as well forget about the other agencies.
1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 89: Khe Sanh paperpushers scurrry out of my way.
1993		(con. 1969) N.L. Russell Suicide Charlie 132: That worked out to about 120,000 guys like me, swimming in the dust at Mole City II while the rest drove trucks, pushed paper, and did all the other things it takes to fight a war.
2000		Guardian G2 23 Feb. 6: The workers who were actually producing rather than the paper-pushers and memo-writers.
2006		D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 126: It’s typical of a tinpot Latin paper-pusher to make stupid quips.
2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 92: ‘Bet your paper-pushing ass I’ll be here’.

2. see also sl. compounds above.

a clerk.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see pencil-whip under pencil n.

a street-seller of broadsides.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 214/2: That portion of the ‘pattering’ body who are engaged in the street sale of literature – or the ‘paper-workers’ as they call themselves.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

(US) to go about one’s business.

1938		FWP NYC N.Y. Panorama 156: Go peddle your papers [...] may mean go away; be a good fellow and leave; go away before you get hurt; mind your own business, you lug . . ; or leave us alone, can’t you see we’re busy? [DARE].
1950		WELS n.p.: (Expressions used to tell somebody to keep to himself and mind his own business) 4 Infs, WI, Go (or just, run along and) peddle your papers [DARE].
1951		in J.S. Redding On Being Negro in America 108: Yah-yah nigger nigger, go peddle your papers, nigger!
1965–70		in DARE.
1983		M.W. Froehlich Hide Crawford Quick 37: She tore loose from Lizzie and Burniss and ran straight at the rooster, swinging her lunch box and crying, ‘You go peddle your papers!’.
1999		Mendele: Yiddish Lit. and Lang. 5 Jan. 🌐 Hobn in bod is the equivalent of being told to go fly a kite or to go peddle one’s papers.
2000		J.A. McDaniel Raudy Joe, the Kid in New Mexico 88: ‘Go peddle your papers, Kid. I’m not going.’ ‘What does peddle papers mean?’ ‘The same as when your dad tells you to chase a rabbit.’.

(US Und.) an honest, respectable person.

1940

D. Maurer Big Con 198: I’ve seen thousands of marks who claimed to be square paper, but had all the corners torn off.