Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. in fig. use, a halt.

1834

‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 126: A stash had bin put tu their hopes, and the holy lambs, who were lookin for Beauty and Booty, were happily disappinted.

2. any form of cache.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 80: Stash [...] used as a noun in the sense of something cached.
1946		C. Himes ‘The Something in a Colored Man’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 403: Slipping away in the dead of night with his stash of hard-saved layers.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 208/2: Stash, n. [...] 2. Anything hidden away, as the paraphernalia of the drug addict, pistols, burglar’s tools, stolen goods, etc.
1961		Mad mag. Sept. 17: Felix gives you instant cash for your stash.
1970		E. Tidyman Shaft 147: Unless she got to his stash in the freezer, there wasn’t anything worth the trouble of stealing.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 97: He rummaged for Jelly Drop’s cash stash.
1992		S.L. Hills Tragic Magic 142: If you need something in prison, there are certain guys you can go to like the stashman. He had the stash. He held and traded everything from money to cigarettes.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 154: (of money) The stash I’m tryina get into my sock.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] We knew he didn’t have a cash stash anywhere, not enough put away to hide out.
2000		Guardian Rev. 22 Jan. 4: I was beginning to fear my stash of old laughs wouldn’t last a month.
2004		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 3 4: She took me straight to the stash, and what a stash it was. There was cash, jewellery and drugs.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 43: Men [...] bragged of stashes of stripped auto parts.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I took a blonde wig from my stash of disguises.
2013		IOL News (Western Cape) 9 Feb. 🌐 Zim man goes to court over stolen stash.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 76: ‘I won’t say no to some Ivan’s Lubyanka stash’.
2022		J. Sweeney ‘Bad Days in Bakhmut’ in JohnSweeneyRoars 7 Sept.🌐 I’ve brought a bottle of Italian red and a half-bottle of Jameson’s Irish whiskey but I don’t open my stash.

3. attrib. use of sense 1.

1992		R. Price Clockers 5: Running in and out of the stash apartment for every ten-dollar sale.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 14: He pulls out a card with his details on it, slips it into the stash box, and hands it to me.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 18: I checked some of my stash spots and found my old burglary tools and a couple wedges of cash.

4. (US) money.

1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 7 June 9/3: With that power of jive and ‘stash,’ he’s captivated the heart of Hermine Nash.
a.1955		‘Kitty Barrett’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 52: I’m a stone dope fiend and a turned-out whore, / And I’ll beat a trick’s stash while he’s putting the key in the door.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 24: Let’s have some stash, Tommy.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 277: [He] paid his way through school with Dick’s stash.
1990		J. Ellroy ‘Gravy Train’ in Pronzini & Adrian Hard-Boiled (1995) 500: The safe [...] where I knew he kept his dope and bribery stash.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 71: All of them millionaires in here. Every John got a stash outside.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 29: This badge [...] He’s dirty so there’s a hefty stash somewhere we don’t know.
2010		W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 73: A stash describes money from a night’s earnings [...] streeties often hide takings in a place nobody knows about.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 50: I had no stash and nothing to show for it [i.e. criminality]. All of the things I did was for nothing.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] [T]he rental premises she’d bought with what remained of Benny’s stash.

5. (orig. US, also stach) a hiding place.

1927		C. Samolar ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 390: A stash is a hiding-place.
1931		‘Und. “Lingo” Brought Up-to-Date’ L.A. Times 8 Nov. K16: STASH: A hiding place for loot.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: The stash, hide-out or rendezvous of criminals.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 223: stach [...] stash A hiding place.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 152: He had as many stashes as a squirrel in October.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 224: He wasn’t home or in his stash.
1972		(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 251: If I knew Tony he’d make a beeline for his money stash.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 177/1: stash n. 1 a secret hoard of contraband, e.g. a parcel of drugs, alcohol, chocolates, cigarettes, pornographic magazines, or other negotiable material.
2010		Guardian 18 Dec. 1/1: If Bashir’s stash of money were disclosed [...] it would change Sudanese public opinion .
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 8: She finked [...] and spilled one of their two girl-stash locations.

6. (drugs, also sach, stasch) a hiding place for drugs.

1937		B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in AS XIII:3 191/2: stasch. Var. of sach. Probably a hybrid word resulting from a combination of sach or satch (from saturate) with cache. A concealed plant of narcotics, usually one which an addict keeps as a last resort in case of arrest.
1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 440: Nobody suppose to know my stash, nobody.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 11: I got another pair of works in the stash at home.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 95: You can still always go back to the stash and get what’s left after you get out of jail.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 171: Shaky Jim would invariably run to his stash and flush it all – maybe $500 worth of grass.
1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 151: stash location of one’s drug supply.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 222: Ah’m wishing thit she wid fuck off so ah kin git tae ma stash, cook up a shot and git a hit.
2000		Indep. Rev. 12 May 5: Secret stashes and the theft of a doctor’s prescription pad.
2003		Simon & Burns ‘Ebb Tide’ Wire ser. 2 ep. 1 [TV script] I checked the stash. We way low.
2009		D. Lehr Fence 94: Inside [a bag] was Smut’s stash—sixteen pieces of crack cocaine individually wrapped and ready for sale.

7. (drugs) a cache of any drug, esp. cannabis.

1960		‘Lord Buckley’ Hiparama of the Classics 14: But the Cat right next to him, he’s a Benny Franklin Cat, he digs watchin’ his cash and coolin’ his stash.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 148: He’s heard about all this good dope [...] and he’s looking to get a stash to take back home.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 100: The difference between a one-ounce stash and a three kilo stash is the difference between some serious heat and some life imprisonment.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 184: Some dude [...] take you money and you stash!
1981		Newsweek 14 Dec. 60/2: The smokers ripping up the barracks floorboards to get at their stashes of el-primo no seed, no stem marijuana laid in at $50 the six-pound sandbag full.
1993		G. Disher Deathdeal [ebook] The silly cow had kept enough [heroin] for her own stash.
1999		J. Baker Walking With Ghosts (2000) 181: He [...] accepted a couple of tokes from J.D.’s magic stash.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 stash Definition: 1. the drugs one has.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 42: I just now bought my stash.
2010		K. Richards Life 388: She was convinced that someone had left a stash [...] She’d take the whole place apart looking for it.
2013		T. Dorsey Riptide Ultra-Glide 139: Make sure your stash is stashed. Nothing on your person except the jay in your hand.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 74: This apartment, climate-controlled for the benefit of the stash, was as clean and as cold as the cavity in his chest.
2017		V. McDermid Insidious Intent (2018) 48: ‘Maybe we’ll get lucky and find a stash of illegal drugs’.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 82: Where he hid his first stash of weed.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 7: A stash of drugs went missing.

8. (also stache) a place (to stay).

1940		R.L. Bellem ‘Death’s Passport’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 112/1: He barged into my stash [...] helped himself to a jorum of skee.
1942		‘Marienne’ ‘Solid Meddlin’ in People’s Voice (NY) 7 Mar. 33/1: [W]ondah what’s cookin’ at that 66th street stache???
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 4: The stash begins to rock, the band starts hopping, the real gone hits the floor and starts bopping.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 124: I found a real fancy stash where we can dig in as long as we like.
1963		L. Deighton Horse Under Water (1976) 77: Just a little stash on East 12th at first.
1971		N. Smith Gumshoe (1998) 126: A dead man in my modest stash.