quarter n.
1. as a sum of money.
(a) five shillings (25p), $5.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Dict. of Love n.p.: Quarter Quarter is sometimes the debt of a superannuated lady to some petty-coat pensioner Adonis, upon whom she has no beauty to operate, but that of her strong-box. | |
 | Atlantic Mag. I, 343: Every man [...] vociferously swore that he had ponied up his quarter [F&H]. | |
| Courier (Hobart, Tas.) 27 Oct. 3/1: [advert, from UK source] [S]lap-up full dress Togs. 2 couters, 3 quarters and a peg. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 64: As independent as a wood-sawyer on a rainy day with a ‘quarter’ in his pocket. | |
| advert in Vulgar Tongue (1857) 45: Slap up Velveteen Togs, lined with the same, 1 pound, 1 quarter and a peg. | |
| Bang To Rights 121: I was well pleased with this as I had only got a quarter on in the first place. |
(b) (US) $25.
| Underground Dict. (1972). | |
| Heroin in Perspective. |
2. in drug and tobacco uses.
(a) (UK prison) a quarter inch of tobacco.
| Wilds of London (1881) 52: I have likewise seen as much as a precious ‘quarter’ (a quarter of an inch) of tobacco paid by a swell for the privilege of exchanging his trousers or another convict’s. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 30 Aug. 32/2: The brother [...] sent word asking 23 to send him a ‘chew.’ No. 23 [...] dexterously avoided the eye of Warder Lanigan, and slipped ‘a quarter’ under the gate, knowing that the tobacco-hungry consumptive would be waiting on the other side. |
(b) a quarter ounce (7g) of a narcotic drug.
| ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2. | |
| Target Blue 452: A deck, enough for a single shot in the arm, cost from $2 to $8, and each deck was sold in a thin glassine envelope such as gauze bandages sometimes came in. A bundle was 25 to 30 decks. A spoon amounted to about 35 decks of heroin. A quarter was 50 to 55 decks. | |
| (con. early 1940s) Addicts Who Survived 134: Then a fellow here in Harlem started selling quarters – he broke an ounce into quarters, and he would sell it for five dollars a quarter. | |
| ‘Ghetto Horror Show’ 🎵 Keys, O-Z’s and quarters. | |
| You Got Nothing Coming 203: Quarters, teeners, eight balls, whatever the customer wants. | |
| ‘Tying Off’ on Inter-zone.org 🌐 By day, and into the evening, herion [sic.] and powder cocaine were cheap and abundant, the $15 smack quarters, were fatter than the downtown 20s, all night long the flailers, could pick up on whacks of speed. | |
| ‘Shut Up’ 🎵 Dem man still go halves on a quarter. |
(c) $25 worth of a given drug.
| Bk of Jargon 343: quarter: Twenty-five dollars’ worth of drugs, as a quarter bag of heroin. | |
| (con. 1986) Sweet Forever 82: Wesley had a few dimes and quarters of the same stuff [i.e. cocaine] in one pocket of his sweatpants. | |
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 shitting dimes and quarters Definition: What one does after he’s swallowed his weed to hide it from the police Example: Man, I swallowed a half a key, now I’ll be shittin dimes and quarters for a week! | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 17: Quarter — 1/4 ounce or $25 worth of drugs. |
3. as a jail sentence.
(a) (UK Und.) a three-month’s prison sentence.
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 204/1: Quarter stretch (Thieves’). Three months’ imprisonment. ‘Saucy Sall’s got a quarter with hard.’. |
(b) (US Und.) a 25-year prison sentence.
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 87: I’m gonna see if you can’t shake this quarter off your goddamn ass. | |
| ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 212: quarter, n. – a twenty- five- year sentence. | |
| Prison Sl. 22: Quarter A 25-year prison sentence. (Archaic: twenty-five boffos). | |
| Lush Life 442: We could stick him in for the full quarter, but [...] I’ll let his lawyer plea out for twenty . |
In compounds
(drugs) $25 worth of a given drug.
| Drugs from A to Z (1970) 218: quarter bag About 1 ounce of marijuana, worth $25. | |
| Current Sl. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 170: Dude told us he don’t sell no more ten-cent bags [...] It’s quarter [$25] bags nowadays or fifty cents [$50]. | |
| Prison Sl. 75: Quarter Bag also Quarter Sack A bag or sack of drugs costing $25. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 17: Quarter bag — $25 worth of drugs. |
(US drugs) a place where drug users can obtain quarter-ounces of narcotics.
| Jones Men 38: He supplied [...] wholesale pads, quarter houses and shooting galleries. |
(US drugs) a quarter-ounce (7g) of drugs (cf. half-piece under half n.).
| ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981). | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. | |
| Pimp 96: I’ll send you a quarter ‘piece’. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 17: Quarter piece — 1/4 ounce. |
In phrases
(US drugs) one-eighth of an ounce (5g) of cannabis.
| Marijuana Gloss. 🌐 half-quarter [ca] – 1/8 of an ounce of weed. |
SE in slang uses
In phrases
see red cent n.
(US campus) a sarcastic admonition to mind one’s own business.
| Campus Sl. Sept. |