Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a roll of money; by ext, a quantity of money, a payment.

1814		Niles’ Register VII 205/2: He then rammed both hands into his trowsers’ pockets, and drew out handfuls of notes ruffled into wads [DA].
1865		V.C. Giles Rags and Hope in Lasswell (1961) 159: He was invited over, with the modest request from Bill and Dick to ‘bring his wad with him.’.
1889		Wahpeton Times (Dakota, ND) 29 June 2/5: His eye lighted on Mr Williams’ wad [...] In an instant he had the wad out and slipped off the rubber band.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 35: He shoved a wad in my fist.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 212: In the old days, when a man had a good sized wad, he carried it about, flashing it pridefully.
1905		Sporting Times 11 Feb. 3/1: And the rates go up, up, up / And our wads go down, down, down.
1915		Drew & Evans Grifter 85: ‘I am the owner of several fair-sized wads of notes’.
1919		Perrysburg Jrnl (Wood Co., OH) 22 May 2/2: This is no needle monologue, but the goods, and I have the Wad to back it.
1919		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 7 June 9/6: Slang of Money [...] It has been called ‘the actual, the blunt, hard, dirt, evil, flimsy, gilt, iron, John Davis, lurries, moss, oil of angels, pieces, rowdy, spondulicks, tin, wad’ .
1920		R. Lardner Big Town 76: I made four straight passes with the whole roll riding each time and with all that wad parked on the two thousand dollar rug, I shot a five and a three.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 102: I was wise to the fact that he had a large wad on him.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 87: I just wish you had got this bank here ’fore it [...] took my wad.
1937		Sydney Morn. Herald 15 Mar. 4/2: It was a bonser box [...] worth wads of dough.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 88: Bill fingered the wad and peeled off seven one-pound notes.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 172: Everyone knowing the kind of wad Louie had carried.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 52: Martin’s small wad couldn’t pay a month’s rent for this place.
1956		‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 121: I had a bank balance now [...] and a wad tucked away in the pad that would have made a screwsman’s eyes gleam.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 67: We could really score if we had a nice wad with us.
1968		(con. 1900s) S. Longstreet Wilder Shore 112: An alley was a good place [...] to conch (blackjack) a man flashing a wad.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 174: Tommy [...] tucked the wad in his robe pocket.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 178: Stacks Edwards sees my wad and starts doing his ‘black dude’ number. ‘How come I’m fucking broke and all you whities from the May-fia got the money?’.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 167: I delight in ostentatiously flashing my wad around.
1999		Guardian Travel 9 Oct. 2: I peel off a couple of one dollar bills from my modest wad.
2000		Indep. Rev. 21 Feb. 4: John gave him a wad.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 96: When it came to peeling off the dosh, which he had done from a wad of readies on the bedside table, Brendan had been too pissed [...] to count properly.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] The first wad her old man had laid on me I gave mostly to her.
2012		R. Brunet ‘Lucky for Me’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] ‘I just lost a wad on a lousy baseball game’.

2. money in general; thus wadded, possessing a good deal of money.

1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 296: Money itself has in the United States, as in England, probably more designations than any other object – liquor alone excepted [...] tow, wad (both of them evidently tailors’ slang).
1894		‘O. Henry’ ‘Chanson de Bohême’ in Rolling Stones (1913) 243: I’d rather distribute a coat of red / On the town with a wad of dough.
1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 21: Think of all the wads he raked in!
1909		Star (Sydney) 29 Dec. 4/4: ‘Don’t he shoot in his wad every month on booze and gambling? Yes. Did he over save a cent, in his life?
1917		A. Conan Doyle His Last Bow in Baring-Gould (1968) II 799: It’s cost me two hundred pounds from first to last, so it isn’t likely I’d give it up without gettin’ my wad.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 758: A swell apartment [...] and a nice wad stocked away.
1947		W. Motley Knock on Any Door 205: Nick had a wad he had won in a crap game.
1954		J. Thompson Swell-Looking Babe 139: You’re the sole heir to a nice juicy wad.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 3: Confidence men who lay in wait for veterans wadded with mustering-out money.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 259: [W]hite people [...] pay nice wad for pipe and bounce .

3. a drink of alcohol.

1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 20 Dec. 1/2: ‘Let’s have a wad,’ said the empty shell to the charged cartridge.?’ ‘Oh, Lord! no! I'm loaded to the neck now’.
1926		M. Forrest Hibiscus Heart 160: ‘He doesn’t drink, does he?’ ‘No: not more than any of us! Has a wad occasionally . . . Sometimes a double-header . . . but I’ve never seem him helpless.’.
1934		T. Wood Cobbers 210: I’ve had as many wads as he has; but by Jes’ I can carryemberrer!

4. (Aus./US) a large quantity of a commodity.

1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 178: This actin’ bloke’s a-going to git it in the neck if I sinks me wad!
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 18: I had wasted a wad of cries that would float the Maine.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 156: She and the Children would come in for a whole Wad of Money.
1914		Joyce ‘Grace’ Dubliners (1956) 159: He takes up a wad of cabbage on the spoon and pegs it across the room.
1914		A. Jennings Beating Back in Hamilton (1952) 93: The bigs wads of money [...] generally go under the seats.
1916		Sun. Times (Perth) 19 Nov. 5s/4: I’ve made my wad of boodle and I’ve had my whack of graft.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 101: Wads of stuff about the dresses. I didn’t know Jeeves was such an authority.
1929		M. Prenner ‘Sl. Terms for Money’ in AS IV:5 357: If you wish to boast of having a great deal of money, you may speak of having gobs, oodles, piles, scads, or wads of it, or a wad of lettuce, meaning a big roll of bills or, inelegantly, of being filthy or lousy with money.
1945		J. Hoyt Cummings Fatal Pay-off 56: He wouldn’t be riding around with strangers — especially if he was carrying a wad of numbers pool money.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 59: I don’t mean anything crude like a wad of dough.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 87: They paid up in wads of marks and fat chinking coins.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 25: He [...] took out a wad of five-pound notes the thickness of a sandwich.
1999		Guardian Editor 3 Sept. 18: The best and biggest wads of spit they could produce.
1999		Indep. Rev. 26 Aug. 2: My wallet, with its wad of Fringe tickets, is still in my back pocket.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 49: She’s ironin out huge wads of loot every day.
2000		Indep. Rev. 7 Mar. 7: Rachel produces a balled up wad of loo paper.
2013		Esquire 1 Sept. 🌐 He was on a sales call about to land a cushty deal and nail a wad of commish.

5. (orig. milit.) food, esp. a bun, cake or sandwich. In all cases its filling qualities are more important than taste etc; thus char and wads, tea and buns .

1894		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 18 Oct. 4/3: A man as don’t lower the porter. / Scorfs ’is pice over doorsteps an wads.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 346: Cup and Wad. Cup of tea and a bun in the canteen.
1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 61: We drank tea and ate wads, awaiting dinner.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 88: Slipping out for a tea ’n’ a wad when on fatigue, for instance. Skiving.
1959		A. Sinclair Breaking of Bumbo (1961) 128: Char and wad in the square at five o’clock.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 240: Nine lumps and a wad, mate.
1975		D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 18: ‘Cup of char and a wad,’ he said. ‘Come again’ said the proprietor. ‘Another cup of tea and a slice of that cake.’.
1978		A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 135: We give them the odd wad like we’re doing to you.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 302: You could have treated me to ‘a wad and char.’.
2003		Brummagem Dict. 🌐 wad n. a slice of cake.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 655: ‘What you needs is a nice strong cup of cha and a wad’.

6. (drugs) a bag of tobacco or marijuana.

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 wad n. [...] (3) a bag of tobacco or marijuana.