grape n.1
1. (also grapes, the grape, the grapes) wine, thus cut into the grape, to drink wine.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Letters n.p.: [Y]e will neuer be so gredy vppon any swete wyne / be the grape neuer so plesaūt / that ye wyll desyre to taste it. | |
| ‘To Detraction’ Satyres I A3: My spirit is not huft vp with fatte fume / Of slimie Ale, nor Bacchus heating grape. | |
| Miseries of an Enforced Marriage Act III: Here’s the pure and neat grape, gentlemen. | |
| Old Law (1656) IV i: The Sages never drunk better Grape. | |
| ‘Upon a Surfeit Caught by Drinking Bad Sack’ in (1969) 150: Our poet-ape, that do so much impute / unto the grape’s inspirement. | |
| ‘On a Campaign Miss’ in Pills to Purge Melancholy II 209: She’s Young while she drinks, / ’tis the Grape makes her gay. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 203: [as prev.] She’s young while she Drinks, / ’tis the Grape makes her gay. | |
| Harlot’s Progress 54: A grave pious Man of Crape, / After Refreshment from the Grape, / Stood up. | |
| Hist of Pompey Little I 113: The generous God of the Grape had cast such a Mist over their Understanding, that they were insensible. | |
| New London Spy 111: We [...] had taken an enlightening drop of the grape. | |
| Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 27: Though fond of the grape [she] does not chose to drink more than procures the wished for effect. | |
| Satirist (London) 22 Jan. 31/3: My tight little frigate, I cannot go on board of you to night. I have been firing grape with a Frenchman, until I am half-seas over. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Billy Baxter’s Letters 17: Ordinarily I call the booze clerk by his first name, but when you are cutting into the grape at four dollars per, you always want to say Mr. Bartender. | |
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 65: Attorneys Hash and Shortribs, flirting with a bottle of the grape. | |
| Mutt & Jeff 15 Jan. [synd. cartoon] I bought about $900 worth of grape. | |
| ‘Sporting Doctor’ Taking the Count 60: You’ve got to cut into the grape to show you’re a good fellow. | |
| New York Day by Day 19 June [synd. col.] Two sporting men were seated at a table, nearby. They were cutting into the grape. | |
| Hand-made Fables 319: The Male Guests throwing Solid Formation against the Grape. | |
| ‘Madame La Gimp’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 251: Mr. Conde gets a couple of jolts of the old grape. | |
| (con. 1944) Gallery (1948) 81: No rough edges in your relations with others to be lubricated with the grape. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Riverslake 71: ‘The grape!’ Murdoch exulted close against Randolph’s ear. | |
| Where the Boys Are 93: I clue you, nobody can be more fungous than middle-agers on the grape. | |
| Venetian Blonde (2006) 215: He’s on the grape [...] he’s been a wino since he was fourteen. | |
| Vulture (1996) 43: Nissy was a wino, man dedicated to the pursuit of the grape. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 187: There are many vernacular terms for wine — the grapes, the berries, the vine [...] smash. | |
 | ‘Drop the Dough’ 🎵 on Life After Death [album] Pop corks of the best grapes / Make the best CDs and the best tapes. |
2. any form of liquor.
| (con. 1926) Schnozzola 100: The grape flowed. | |
| Among Cinders 76: [of brandy] Great stuff. Nothing to beat the pure grape. | |
| Sydney Morn. Herald 7 June 35/5: It doesn’t matter if he’s in the grip of the grape and full as a fairy’s phonebook. |
3. (Aus./US black) in pl., haemorrhoids.
| et al. DAUL 86/1: Grapes. Hemorrhoids. | |
| Aus. Lang. (2nd edn). | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 99: grapes any unsightly conglomeration stuck to the anal hairs or found adhering to the anal tissue itself: dingle-berries, venereal warts and hemorrhoids are all classified as grapes. |
4. (US prison) an alcoholic.
| Animal Factory 14: The wino was snoring lustily, spittle drooling from his toothless mouth. In jail vernacular he was a ‘grape’. | |
| Mr Blue 317: An old wino shaking from age and booze who was having a hard time maintaining his balance while stripping down. [...] ‘Fucking old grape,’ the youth said to the trembling old man. |
5. in pl., the female breasts.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 141: There are a number of vernacular terms that refer to a woman’s breasts as big, tasty, touchable, and formidable – grapes, apples. |
6. in pl., the testicles.
| Walking With Ghosts (2000) 291: I tried to kick him in the grapes. | |
| ‘Duck and Cover’ Wire ser. 2 ep. 8 [TV script] ‘What d’you know? A pussy that’s got some grapes on him.’ ‘Banana too’. |
7. (N.Z. prison) a 30mg morphine sulphate tablet [the tablet is purple].
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 32: grape n. 30 milligram morphine sulphate tablets (barbiturate). | |
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 81/1: grape n. a 30mg morphine sulphate tablet. |
In compounds
(US black) an alcoholic who prefers wine to other drinks; thus the female version, grape-chick.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
an alcoholic, a wino.
| Grand Central Winter (1999) 28: ‘You can get clothes here?’ I asked the weathered grapehead teetering on his feet at the end of the line. |
drunk.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
In phrases
(US black) wine.
| Jive and Sl. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US) a sarcastic or negative comment.
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 8 May 14/3: Zack Phelps got oft the same grape gag that the Louisvilles will be stronger without big California Smith than they will with him. | |
| Secretary’s Report Harvard College Class of 1907 June 170: The old sour grape gag! But, I can honestly say that ‘I done my best’ — and served my country in the only way I was able. |
wine; also attrib.
| ‘Epistle to Two Friends’ in Chalmers Eng. Poets XI (1810) 511/2: When I left you, I found myself of the grape’s juice sick. | |
| Belle’s Stratagem 8: I was carried from her house at five this morning, [...] much overloaden [sic] with the juice of the grape. | |
| ‘Woman’s Dial’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 6: So with grape-juice contrived to make their dad drunk / Then each of them got him to open her trunk. | |
| Sporting Times 10 Mar. 1/4: [He] arrived at the wine merchant’s office, rushed in and slapped down the cheque, which the astonished grape-juice vendor promptly collared. | |
| Sporting Times 7 Mar. 1/5: He walked into the wine merchant’s office as bold as brass and asked if the purveyor of the juice of the grape could sell him a few cases of Imperial quarts of champagne. | |
| Darkey Dialect Discourses 31: Grape juice is as old as de Garden of Eden whar it was fust brewed. | |
| Man’s Grim Justice 140: I didn’t mind her tossing the ten-dollar-a-bottle grape juice into the cuspidor. | |
| in Lilliput June Norman’s London (1969) 83: Personally this [i.e. 10:00 am] is a bit early in the morning for me to start caning the the grape juice. | |
| Venetian Blonde (2006) 231: I opened the closet and began pouring his grapejuice down the drain. |
(US campus) one who identifies with the styles and concerns of the Sixties.
| Campus Sl. Spring. |
(drugs) LSD.
| Drug Abuse. | |
| in AS LVII:4 289: When LSD is mixed with other drugs [...] [s]uch mixtures are today called [...] grape parfait. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 11: Grape parfait — LSD. |
any person of Mediterranean origin, e.g. Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek.
| (con. early 1950s) Valhalla 27: Will you tell this superstitious grape squasher that no Mongolians in Korea was seven feet tall. | |
| Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 157: Grape-stomper Applied indiscriminately to those of European Latin extraction – French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, and Romanians. | |
| Maledicta VII 27: Italians, also recently, were dubbed grape stomper and earlier but rarely wino. |
see separate entry.
In phrases
1. a puritan, a ‘kill-joy’.
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. |
2. a bore, one who depresses or irritates the company by their presence.
| We Were the Rats 9: All the girls’ll be going with their boy friends and I don’t want to be a grape on the business. | |
| ‘You’re a Character’ in Tell Us About the Turkey, Jo 65: She is a grape on the business on account of having no bloke. | |
| Sleuth is Mightier than the Sword 156: Don’t be a grape on the business, Riley! No need to be a drag on cheery company. |
(US) to be sycophantic.
| Iron Orchard (1967) 39: You can win Mister Drum over by your charming personality, which means kissin’ his ass — grapin’ up, as they call it. |
(Aus.) to feel hostile towards someone or something.
| in These Are My People (1957) 142: I’ve always been a grape on crook meat. | |
| DSUE (8th edn) 495: [...] since ca. 1925. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. |