main stem n.
1. (US) a person of importance, the boss.
Fables in Sl. (1902) 24: I was just Thinking what chance have I got to grow up and be the Main Stem, like Mr. Jeffries. | ||
Guilelmensian (Williams Coll.) 289: Some one asked him if he had ever seen a baseball, to which he replied that he had been the Main Stem of the Prep. school team. | ||
Life In Sing Sing 256: Main Stem. Head person. | ||
‘An International Affair’ in Politeness of Princes [ebook] ‘[T]hey come to us. Correct, sir. We are the main stem’. | ||
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
2. (also big stem) the main street of a town.
Powers That Prey 250: One can complete investigations that have been begun in ‘the main stem’ of towns thousands of miles away. | ||
Road 160: The kids began ‘battering’ the ‘main-stem’ for ‘light pieces,’ or, in other words, begging for money on the main street. | ||
Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 181: It’s got me wingin’, too. I keep right on workin’—I lift a boob for $106.60 on a mainstem caboose yesterday. | ‘Canada Kid’ in||
Hobo 3: They call it ‘The Main Stem,’ a term borrowed from tramp jargon, and meaning the main street of the town. | ||
Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘Big Stem James,’ [...] a familiar figure on the ‘Big Street’. | ||
Ten Story Gang Aug. 🌐 As gold diggers they could chisel nicer and dig deeper than any two chippies on the big stem. | ‘Clip-Joint Chisellers’ in||
Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 60: It is twelve o’clock an’ a sweet night, an’ I am walking down the main stem ponderin’. | ||
Really the Blues 138: Tin Pan Alley was soon to be the main stem in the music world. | ||
Mad mag. June–July 27: A dingy two-by-four office on the main stem. | ||
Walk on the Wild Side 67: I go down the main stem and I’m on my way back to The Home by morning. | ||
World’s Toughest Prison 808: main stem – The main street or a town or city. | ||
Ghetto Sketches 24: Saturday night ... any Saturday ... the main stem sizzles and crackles with the flicker of neon lights. | ||
City in Sl. (1995) 41: The main drag or main stem originally was the main thoroughfare of hobohemias, such as the Bowery, rather than the principal and most central street of a town, such as Fifth Avenue or 42nd Street. But the terms in slang were generalized to the main street of a city, or to the main thoroughfare of some part of a large city. | ||
(con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad. |
3. (US black) attrib. use of sense 2, stylish, sophisticated.
Your Broadway & Mine 20 Nov. [synd. col.] The most interesting of the Main Stem topics at present is the Arnold Rothstein case. | ||
Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 29 Apr. 11/1: Mae Diggs [...] is being hired by a main stem nitery. | ||
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 384: He has on tight black pants, black shark toe slip-on shoes, a soft black sweater and open-neck shirt . . . dressed Main Stem hipster, in short. |
4. (US tramp) the most important street of a town in the context of tramp society and standards.
Main Stem 17: We are now on the ‘stem’ or ‘main stem’ or ‘main drag’ [...] The main stem is the principal street from the hobo’s point of view. It is not the main residential street; it is not the main business street; it is the hobo’s street [...] It is on this street that the homeless have put their stamp of approval. | ||
Milk and Honey Route 209: Main stem – The chief hobo street in town. |
5. Broadway, New York City.
Morn. Call (Allentown, PA) 8 Dec. 10/5: Broadway is known as ‘The Main Stem’. | ||
New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 252: apple (n.): the big town, the main stem, Harlem. | ||
City in Sl. (1995) 41: The main drag or main stem originally was the main thoroughfare of hobohemias, such as the Bowery, rather than the principal and most central street of a town, such as Fifth Avenue or 42nd Street. But the terms in slang were generalized to the main street of a city, or to the main thoroughfare of some part of a large city. The theater district along Broadway was once called The Main Stem. |
6. attrib. use of sense 5.
On Broadway 31 Jan. [synd. col.] Loudspeakers in front of Main Stem music shops pouring out romantic tunes. | ||
On Broadway 18 Aug. [synd. col.] His wham click at the Capri is Main Stem gab. |
In derivatives
a man or woman ‘about town’.
Your Broadway & Mine 3 Nov. [synd. col.] Mainstemmers are wagering that Alexander Woollcott rejoins The Sun. | ||
‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 3 Nov. 10/3: The new edition of ‘Shuffle Along’ [...] has the main stemmers with hardened mitts because of applause. |
In phrases
to beg along a town’s main street.
Gay-cat 301: Buzz, or mooch, or work the main drag or stem—to beg or bum along the main street. |
(US tramp) walking the main street of a town, begging for subsistence.
Hobo 54: These clothes are usually solicited from the public, and the men on the ‘stem’ believe that they are entitled to them. | ||
Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 236: One old floater had said to me, ‘Kid, you kin get yer three squares a day, booze, and lots o’ jack on the stem.’. | ||
Coll. Stories (1990) 247: Ted said he wasn’t on the stem and Tony looked relieved. | ‘Every Opportunity’ in||
Never Come Morning (1988) 207: She asked him for a quarter for luck, but he only looked dour and muttered something about being on the stem himself. | ||
DAUL 209/2: Stem, on the. 1. On the main street of a town or village; on the highway. 2. Engaged in, or by means of, panhandling. | et al.||
City in Sl. (1995) 41: The phrase on the stem is hobo jargon for walking the main street of a town, sometimes panhandling and begging. |