Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see under placebo n.

(UK/US Und.) to say nothing (esp. under interrogation).

1829		N.-Y. Eve. Post 17 July 2/4: There is only one man that can injure me, and he is out of doors — & if you can persuade him to sing dumb there is not the least doubt but that you and myself will take a glass of good old Champain together on Saturday next.
1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 317/1: Sing Dummy, say nothing; make no answer.
1859		White Cloud Kansas Chief (KS) 27 Jan. 2/5: We advise the Nebraska papers to sing dumb.
1864		Newry Teleg. 28 Apr. 1/1: These successes have for the time caused the Attorney-General to sing dumb.
1878		Greenock Teleg. 25 Dec. 2/3: When such a calamity as the fall of Jellalabad is announced, they take to their heels and sing dumb.
1881		Greenock Teleg. 1 June 2/2: ‘If I speak you will not believe m,e and for that I will sing dumb’.
1890		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 25 Jan. 1/1: Its enemies are beginning to think ‘they had better sing dumb, ring dumb’.
1907		Dundalk Examiner 23 Mar. 8/1: When the prisoner was charged he sang dumb.
1915		Belfast News Letter 22 July 3/5: The Pig gave a disgruntled grunt, but otherwise ‘sang dumb’.
1922		News Herald (Franklin, PA) 11 Sept. 4/3: Let us all sing dumb about pending further massacres by the Turks.
1931		Scotsman 26 May 11/3: A true patriot he declared, was the man who sang dumb, but paid his taxes with a cheerful spirit.
1942		Dly Record (Lanarks) 24 Mar. 8/1: Mussolini [...] sang dumb on the 23rd anniversary of the Fascist party.
1952		Derry Jrnl 16 June 4/6: The trustees of the halls were priests, but they sang dumb when the question was put to them.
1969		Illus. London News 4 Jan. 8/1: Front-benchers sang dumb in the Chamber.
1984		Nanaimo Dly News (BC) 3 Mar. 4/1: Dick Winkleman sang dumb.

(UK Und.) to make a full confession to the police.

1931		W.N. Burns One-Way Ride 43: A stool pigeon’s been squawking. That bird’s been singing like a canary lately.
1969		Palm Beach Post (FL) 13 Oct. 11/1: A top-level source, having sung like a canary, left Paris.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 177: Canary, sing like a Give information under pressure.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 147: He’s a raving nut-case anyway, but he’s singing like a canary.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 195: Cuthbert had come out of his coma at last, and was singing like a canary.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 41: An inmate informant who tells prison authorities of illegal activities is referred to as singin’ like a bird.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 111: Then he got the chaplain witness they promised no charges. So he trilled like a canary.
1998		P. McCabe Breakfast on Pluto 83: It was only a matter of time before he started singing like a canary.
1998		J. O’Connor Salesman 148: ‘Well, sir, y’jus sit the sumbitches down and ask ’em if they did it,’ he grinned, ‘and they sing like the goddamm birds. Pardon mah French.’.
2000		J. Hawes Dead Long Enough 253: The minute you smell anything like real danger [...] you run to the Guards and sing like fucking nightingales.
2001		P. McCabe Emerald Germs of Ireland 373: ‘Yes, Sergeant,’ he agreed, adding, ‘I’ll sing like a lark.’.
2008		Arizona Republican (Phoenix, AZ) 1 Aug. 2/6: ‘I was questioned by the feds, and i sung like a canary’.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] Y‘ou [...] sing like a canary to bloke what you’ve never met before’.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 198: ‘Sang like a canary. Don’t think he did it, though’.
2022		A. Parks May God Forgive 284: ‘For all they know, he’s singing away like a canary, naming Smart’.

see under whore n.

see sense 4 above.

1. of a villain, on being arrested, to betray their accomplices.

1815

(con. 18C) Sir W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 149: She’ll sing out one of these odd-come-shortlies.

2. see sense 1 above.

3. see sense 2 above.

see under hot beef! excl.

var. on see stars under see v.

1807

J.R. Shaw Life and Travels 37: Giving me at the same time such a blow to the eye as made my head sing psalms.

to modify one’s speech, esp. when it had previously been arrogant and boastful.

1753		Richardson Sir Charles Grandison (1812) I 30: I must myself sing small in her company!
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: sing small to be humbled, confounded, or abashed, to have little or nothing to say for one’s-self.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1815		D. Humphreys Yankey in England 34: You needn’t stick your brussels up so high nuther, to make me sing small.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 24: Poor GEORGY was done up in no time at all, / And his spunkiest backers were forc’d to sing small.
1824		R.B. Peake Americans Abroad I i: Don’t you stick your bristles up high to make me sing small.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. n.p.: To sing small to draw the horns in, be humbled.
1840		R. Barham ‘Row in an Omnibus’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 216: So, after all / This terrible squall, / Fiddle-de-dee / ’s at the top of a tree, / And Doldrum, and Fal-de-ral-tit sing small.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
1857		H.S. Brown Manliness 17: When he is humiliated, he is [...] ‘made to sing small’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1878		H.B. Stowe Poganuc People 24: You’d think [...] that he’d sing small at fust; but he don’t. Lordy massy, no! He comes right out with it that Parson Cushing ain’t no minister.
1884		Dundee Courier 13 June 7/5: ’You’d better sit down and sing small,’ said Fred.
1889		B. Mitford Fire Trumpet II 225: If he’s wise he’ll shut up fighting and come and sing small, and acknowledge he’s made an ass of himself.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Aug. 31/2: In such a mixed crowd it is not like being with your own lot, and you must accordingly sing small.
1911		Gem 21 Oct. 19: It will make them sing small for once, anyhow.
1926		Boys’ Realm 16 Jan. 266: He would have to sing small to the magistrate.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 48: sing small. To lower one’s demand; eat humble pie.
1927		‘Max Brand’ Pleasant Jim 55: You’ll sing small before you get out of this.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 99: What the hell could he do? How was he to make this finger sing small and stop looking at him like a lump of dirt?

see under blues n.¹

don’t exaggerate.

1889–90

Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.

to defecate.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: sing sweet violets euph. Airy alternative to building a log cabin (qv); to take a dump.

to pretend to satisfaction when one wants, in fact, to complain but dare not.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: O be joyfull, I’ll make you sing O be joyful, with or on the other side of your mouth, a threat, implying the party threatened will be made to cry.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

(W.I.) to gossip about.

1976

cited in Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage (1996).

usu. of children, to weep.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

to serve time in one of the London prison named a counter or compter.

1641

Brothers of the Blade 4: [of the Poultry counter] These 18 dayes have I lamentably sung the Counter tenour, and am in farre worse case now I am out, then when I first came in.

(US prison) to be released from prison; to die in prison.

1992

Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 107: When an inmate is released from prison, he is referred to as singing the hallelujah chorus. Also can be used to mean an inmate who dies while in prison.

see give (someone) the office under office n.