Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a chronic idler.

1942		Honolulu Star Bull. (HI) 28 Nov. 6/1: A fellow known as a ‘sack artist’ is one who generally can be found in his bunk when not standing watch’.
1946		US Naval Institute Proceedings 72:1 407/1: Still others ensconced themselves in their bunks, hot as they were, and earned the title of ‘sack artist.’ Their siestas were interrupted, of course, for all meals.
1957		L. Giovanetti Prisoners of Combine D 70: ‘You’re the sack artist around here.’ ‘Look who's talking. You almost slept through roll call this morning.’ ‘Yeah, because of your goddamn snoring. It kept me awake all last night’.
1995		W. Deverell Kill All Lawyers 13: Come on, sack artist, time to get up and go to work.

2. (orig. US) a sexual adept (usu. male).

1964		S. Bellow Herzog 17: Then he realized suddenly that Ramona had made herself into a sort of sexual professional (or priestess). He was used to dealing with vile amateurs lately. I didn’t know that I could make out with a true sack artist.
1973		R.B. Wright In the Middle of a Life 104: Yes— she was a sack artist all right, but burdened by terrific guilt too. Fornication is a mortal sin.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 191: A performing artist, a bullshit artist, something of a piss artist, and a considerable sack artist.
1993		New Yorker 69 95/1: Victoria of the bruised-fruit lips (Is she a sack artist? he wonders).
2003		T. Parks Judge Savage 288: Probably quite a sack artist, I would have said. I'm sorry? Sack artist, Max, good in bed.

(US black) a woman (but not a prostitute) who pursues a man, bartering her sexual favours for his financial status.

1992–2003		P. Atoon Rap Dict. 🌐 sack chaser (n) Woman using a man for money.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] She was well connected through the sack chasers.

a pickpocket.

1781

G. Parker View of Society II 178: Sack-Diver. [...] The best performer in this way, in this or any other country, is the celebrated Miss W---, who has been two hundred times before a Magistrate.

(orig. US milit.) sleep, time spent in bed.

1951		W.V. Anderson Ships & Sea I 59: Other tedium killers include the ship's library [...] parties, an occasional amateur show and the ever-popular ‘sack drill’.
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 101: Me and my bunkie got us a good place fer some sack drill.
1970		Galaxy Mag. 31 175: I’ll drag a corking mat back near the helm and catch some sack drill till we get close in.

(orig. US milit.) sleep, time spent in bed.

1943		letter in J.E. Cope USS Holt (2008) 223: He spent his time drinking coffee [...] reading and doing ‘sack duty’ .
1996		D.A. Stewart ‘Adventures of Captain Don’ on CaribSeek 🌐 I still had to get through the dive, then lunch and be back in time to check out departures, greet new arrivals, get dinner started, and then, maybe, get some sack duty.

(US) a male homosexual.

2013

J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 50: You saying I’m a faggot? [...] That’s why your fucking pig daughter thinks I’m a sack-lapper.

cunnilingus.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 158: Expressions [...] that are graphic (to eat a fur burger, to have a sack lunch).

(N.Z.) a rash from vigorous sexual activity.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 178: sack rash 1. Scarring from vigorous activity in bed. 2. Ugly person.

(US) a chronic idler.

1947		D.W. Hamilton ‘Pacific War Lang.’ in AS XXII:1 Feb. 55: sack rat. One who spends his spare time sleeping.
1952		(con. 1944) Wilder & Blum Stalag 17 [film script] 14: hoffy Come on, sack rats.
1959		L.P. Boone ‘Gator Sl.’ AS XXXIV:2 154: Eccentric students are labeled birds; lazy ones, muck sacks, sack rats, or sack hounds.
1961		Asheville Citizen-Times (NC) 15 June 30/7: [advert] The original GI Bill of Delights [...] Sad Sacks, Sack Rats, Shack Rats.
1971		H. Wouk Winds of War 627: ‘Is he a good officer?’ ‘Well, unfortunately he’s a sack rat and goof-off’.
1992		Mobility Forum (Jrnl Air Mobility Command) 1 4/1: Pete was a sack rat, and prided himself on sleeping a minimum of 12 hours a day while TDY.
1999		H. Kanter So Far So Funny 54: I began a late show called Sack Rat Serenade. A sack rat was a man who spent a lot of time in his bunk.
2001		(ref. to WWII) H.F. Wynn Laundry List 34: Alan was a sack-rat, and these early assignments didn’t match well with his body clock.

(orig. US milit.) time spent in bed, time to go to bed.

[c.1941		in Campbell & Campbell War Paint 48: [aircraft nose art] Sack Time Shirley].
1945		N.Y. World-Telegram 12 Mar. 2: Sack time [...] lying on a cot doing nothing.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 73: If you behave, you’ll have plenty of sack time.
1965		(con. 1944) E.M. Nathanson Dirty Dozen (2002) 321: That’s all for tonight, gentlemen [...] Sack time.
1969		D. Pendleton Executioner (1973) 99: Let’s get some sacktime.
1974		Boy’s Life Mar. 16: What matters most is that everybody must get his proper amount of sack-time. What happens to a person who fails to get enough rest? [etc.].
1981		R.M. Dorson Land of Millrats 48: A college lad hired in the coke plant [...] who, after working for two hours, decided it was sack time and climbed on a pile to go to bed.
1997		D. Peterson Nearby Faraway 44: The fire was stirred and fed wood enough to last another hour or so, and quiet conversation ensued until sack time.
2013		R. Beal Time & Time Again 292: I been working all night, got to grab a couple hours sack time.

to pick a pocket.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Dive into his Sack, c. to Pick his Pocket.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) II [as cit. c.1698].
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue .
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

1. (also get the bag, ...zack) to be dismissed from a job; thus get someone the sack, to get someone dismissed.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 154: ‘Got the sack’ ? a discharge from a regiment or employment.
1825		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 178: You munna split on me, or I shall get the zack for telling on ye.
1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 260: I wonder what old Fogg ’ud say, if he knew it. I should get the sack, I s’pose.
1841		Punch 24 July 21: Lord Johnny from Stroud thought it best to retreat, / Being certain of getting the sack.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 23 Apr. n.p.: the whip wants to know [...] What he got the sack for about seven months ago.
1841		Sydney Herald 28 Jan. 3/3: ‘GETTING THE SACK.’-This is one of those phrases generally employed by the venders of colonial slang among the working classes to denote that a servant has been discharged by his employer.
1854		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 13 May n.p.: Your little girl [...] might fins you out, and [...] you would get the sack.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 110: He is no longer an officer of this gaol; he has got the sack and orders to quit.
1863		Story of a Lancashire Thief 12: He was too good a chip [sic] ever to get the sack.
1863		Sth Aus. Register (Adelaide, SA) 11 Feb. 3/3: The assistant in either branch [...] gets or gives ' the sack' — such being the slang terms used for giving up or being discharged from a situation, at any moment, without reason asked or given.
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 27: Sack – getting the Sack or Bag. To be dismissed, or to be in little repute.
1880		D.W. Barrett Life and Work among Navvies 141: Of course you get the sack sometimes.
1883		Queenslander (Brisbane) 13 Jan. 52/1: D— John Dunny, he get the sack!
1888		R. Barnett Police Sergeant C 21 58: It’s thanks to you I didn’t get the bag.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Oct. 6/1: I suppose it is part of my duty to give my readers my idea as to what will win the Caulfield Cup. If I don’t I will have an even-money chance of getting the ‘sack’ and being thrown on a cold and uncharitable world.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 58: The girl that got the sack for tea-leafin’.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 227: I’ll clear it, right enough, if I’m not rushed, and if I don’t get the sack off the station.
1904		Marvel 29 Oct. 31: Do it, and if you do you’ll get the sack as safe as houses.
1914		‘Ian Hay’ Lighter Side of School Life 115: We might get him the sack for assault — even quod!
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Three Elephant Power’ Three Elephant Power 3: He nearly got the sack for dodgin’ about up a steep ’ill in front of one o’ them big twenty-four Darracqs.
1927		C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words & Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 363: Several of the men got the sack last pay day.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 168: ‘She’ll get the sack!’ thought Vi.
1949		K. Williams Diaries 21 Mar. 40: Letter from Peter Ashby-Bailey — he’s got the sack from Chesterfield Rep.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Fishing-Boat Picture’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 82: I got the sack for telling the forewoman where to get off.
1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 89: I wonder what the old boss-lady would say if she found out? I bet Myra would get the sack.
1963		N. Dunn Up the Junction 88: I used to drive the Big Dipper, but I got the sack.
1973		Sun. Times Mag. 30 Sept. 30: I had a steady job but I got the sack two weeks ago.
1985		G. Norman in Norman (1921) 133: I certainly couldn’t tell her I had got the sack from the R.A.F.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 114: Why d’y’get the sack then?
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 146: How will you pay the rent if you get the sack?
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] ‘Don’t worry about it [...] won’t get you the sack’.

2. to be rejected by one’s lover or sweetheart.

1833		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Sept. 21 n.p.: This accomplice person, having got the sack from his angel, do you take .
1993		(con. 1969) N.L. Russell Suicide Charlie 127: Dave was not the only guy to get the sack. Basically, everyone with a girlfriend, fiancée, or wife eventually got one of those notes that started, ‘Dear. . . ., This is very hard to say but . . .’.

1. to dismiss from a job.

1804		T.G. Fessenden ‘Canto II’ Poems 33: The girls would have none of his fumbling, / But gave him the bag, with a slap.
1842		R.H. Barham Ingoldsby Legends 288: Nor fancy, because a man nous seems to lack, That, whenever you please, you can ‘give him the sack!’.
1844		New Sprees of London 26: [A] conductor, who, being jealous of every professional of nouse, gives them the bag.
1849		Paul Pry 23 Apr. 3/1: Paul Advises [...] J. S—s, of Vine street, Piccadilly, to [...] abstain from borrowing money from his equals, and more so from his inferiors—otherwise the colonel and the lawyer might, on hearing of it, give him the black sack without permission of resignation.
1854		Proc. Philological Soc. 90: Hence 'donner son sac et ses quilles,' or in E. to give him the sack (equivalent to the G. sein bundel schniiren), is to hand a servant his baggage, to send him about his business, to discharge a workman.
1871		E. Eggleston Hoosier School-Master (1892) 254: After that distressful Tuesday evening on which Miss Martha had given him ‘the sack’.
1886		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 16 Jan. 7/1: ‘I [...] give ’er the sack in the department’ .
1893		H. Lawson ‘Mitchell Doesn’t Believe in the Sack’ in Roderick (1972) 135: Didn’t I give you the sack on Saturday?
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 8 June 12/3: ‘He — gave me the sack last quarter’.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 125: I only hope I don’t get to look much older, or they may give me the sack.
1937		J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 197: If the whole story came out old Krebs would give him the sack.
1940		F. Sargeson ‘A Pair of Socks’ A Man And His Wife (1944) 65: It wasn’t two weeks after that Bill gave me and Fred the sack.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 199: I’d just given Martha the sack and I had to find a new woman to look after young Jimmy.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 54: Mick had found himelf unable to give him the sack quietly.
1970		in T. Parker Frying-Pan 14: The Supervisor told me to get my hair cut: I wouldn’t, so that was it, they gave me the sack.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 458: My defence [...] suddenly starts talking about ‘not giving this officer the sack.’.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 68: Charlie Forte [...] gave me the sack.
1998		C. Carr Angel of Darkness 6: ‘Don’t take on airs,’ I answers. ‘The Times’s given you the sack twice that I know of, exactly because you didn’t know how to approach your public.’.

2. to abandon, to leave behind.

1823

[C.M. Westmacott] Mammon in London 1 69: [They] had tipped their creditors the bag, and absconded.

3. to reject (as a former lover, sweetheart or friend).

1837		‘Now!’ in Rum Ti Tum! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 169: And if as how you’ll only say you’ll tip the sweep the sack, / I’ll buy a cats meat barrow.
1837		‘My Pretty Sal’ in Rum Ti Tum! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 176: On my knees I pray don’t give / To your true lover the sack.
1837		‘Jack Muggins’ in Rum Ti Tum! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 172: Now jack he had at the baily / A narrow escape from a scragg, / So he said, and he swore he would really, / Give all bad companions the bag.
1841		‘Jack Sheppard & the Carpenter’s Daughter’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 11: And when she had scarcely a smock to her back, / I thought of the time that she gave me the sack.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 14 May n.p.: the whip wants to know If it is true that Miss R gave the corn dealer the sack.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 156: to give him the mitten. This phrase is used of a girl who discards her sweetheart. She gave him the mitten means that she gave her lover his dismissal or discarded him. In England the phrase to give him the sack or give him the bag, denotes the same thing.
1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 422: I feels convinced that Miss Clara’s guv you the sack, and gone and taken up with another young man.
1863		Criminal Life (NY) 19 Dec. n.p.: The old gal he used to run after has given him the sack.
1877		‘Fashionable Coaley’ in Laughing Songster 101: For when the coal is given you, / Give all old pals the sack, sirs.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 27 Mar. 3/5: The next time your old tart Spargo gives you the sack [etc] .
1930s		‘Sweet Sixteen’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 200: They’ll laugh and talk about the boys all behind their back / If they had a chance, they’d give ’em all the sack.

4. in a general context, to throw out of a place.

1840		Fraser’s Mag. Aug. 226/1: The short way would have been, when the young painter’s intentions were manifest [...] to have requested him immediately to quit the house; or, as Mr. Gann said, ‘to give him the sack at once’.
1843		J. Hewlett College Life 10: If he does not give a satisfactory account of himself, I shall have to adopt another bit of your university slang; ‘give him the sack’.

1. (also hit it, hit one’s sack) to go to sleep.

1939		J. Gassner (ed.) Best Plays of the Modern American Theatre 541/2: digger and kiwi come back from the washroom in their pajamas and prepare to go to bed) [...] yank Well, I’m going to hit the sack.
1944		H. Hunt East of Farewell 104: I’m going to hit my sack for a while.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 207: You got no call to be hittin’ the sack.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 90: Terry and I and Johnny went into a motel room and got ready to hit the sack.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 19: Quick scrubdown, twelve-thirty, hit the sack.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 346: I’m going to catch a nice whiff of the night air before we hit the sack.
1989		Hackworth & Sherman About Face (1991) 157: I [...] hit the sack early.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 20: Les hit the sack at eleven.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 48: Dave told me to hit the sack.
1999		Guardian Travel 31 July 10: We [...] drank a couple of vodka tonics and hit the sack.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] It was time to hit the sack.
2001		C. McPherson Port Authority 15: Poor Mary had to hit the sack around seven o’clock.
2005		D. Vandenberg Iron Circle 6: Another beer? ‘Nah, I’m hitting it.’ I trudged upstairs and fell into bed.
2011		Sun. Times News review 6 Feb. 2/1: Rather than hitting the sack at 3am, the 30-year-old is savouring married bliss.
2016		Skepta ‘Crime Riddim’ 🎵 We came back, should’ve gone home and hit the sack.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 121: ‘You’re green at the gills, Freddy. You should take a Bromo and hit the sack’.

2. (US/US gay) by ext., to have sexual intercourse.

1963		F. Kohner Affairs of Gidget 62: He’s living in fat city [...] accosted by all the hot tickets in college town to hit the sack with them.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 107: hit the sack [rack, springs] to make love.

1. in bed for the purpose of sex.

[1656		‘A Strange Story’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 114: The Cuckold her husband caper’d / When his head in the sack was in, / But grant that we may never fall / When we dance in the sack of Sin. / With a dildo, dildo, dildo].
1901		W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum XIII n.p.: My hope That I possessed a headpiece like a tack / To get my Mamie in my private sack / Ere she could flag some Handsome Hank and slope.
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 207: Oh, so you’re exhausted. From what? Being lumped up in the sack with that bitch all afternoon?
1959		Kerouac letter 6 Dec. in Charters II (1999) 226: Joanne needs a good man to put her in her place, in the sack.
1965		C.D. Bryan P.S. Wilkinson 57: Where else in the world do whores cut through barbed-wire fences to climb into the sack with the GIs?
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 43: We’d [...] jump in the sack and fuck like fiends.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 104: I’ve heard it said that you’re not all that hot in the sack.
1996		A. Close Official and Doubtful 353: Signing on and a weekly roll in the sack with Danny McLeod?
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 125: Was it what this weekend was all about? {...} To get your student in the sack?
2006		R. Antoni Carnival 19: She had me naked in the sack the first night.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 13: ‘He’s my ex-husband. [...] He was good in the sack’.

2. (US) in trouble.

1952		W.R. Burnett Vanity Row 212: ‘Let me tell you something, copper. You’re in the sack. You produce—and fast, or you’re out’.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 153: They were all in the sack together for the Stockow killing.

dismissal, rejection, ejection.

1864		E. Yates Broken to Harness II 112: If it rested with me, doctor, I’d give him unlimited leave; confer on him the order of the ‘sack’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 11 Mar. 1/8: [He] was thereupon promptly invested with the ancient order of the sack.
1896		Mining IV 64: Even though he may have more intelligence than the fireman, [...] he speedily gets the order of the sack.
1896		H. Tiochborne Nogu Talanoa 125: He retaliated by investing me with the ancient order of the sack.
1901		Hall & Osborne Sunshine and Surf 233: [Anyone] who dared to put on what we consider rather necessary garments in England would have to remove them at once or get the ‘order of the sack’.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 5 Nov. 1/4: Two workmen got the order of the sack from the Midland Workshops.
1909		Louisiana Planter XLII 301: The ancient order of the sack is frequently conferred with and without provocation.
1910		Meek & Wells George Meek, Bath Chair-Man 40: Anyway, I was gone too long on my errands and thus quickly earned the order of the sack.
1921		J. Mullin Story of a Toiler’s Life (2000) 38: ‘Big Jemmy’ invested me with his order of the sack.
1939		E. Vaile Pioneering the Pumice 25: How it was that the brute did not then receive the ‘order of the sack’ I cannot imagine, but finally he was dismissed for breaking a boy’s elbow.
1946		P. Gibbs Pageant of the Years 45: As a matter of fact I anticipated the Order of the Sack by handing in my resignation first.
1960		A.S. Hickman Men Who Made Rhodesia 121: I’ve received the Order of the Sack, Sister.
1976		R. Bedford Naught to Thirty-three 44: Pinnock & Price did not get the deeds that day, but the next day I got somethin — the order of the sack.

(US black) the scrotum.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 26: the scrotum [...] sack.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

see separate entries.

see tub of guts under tub n.¹

see separate entry.

see bag of wind under bag n.¹