Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, also greens, welcome green) money, dollar bills.

1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 36: Dere was fifty plunks. Dat’s right. Fifty good long greens.
1904		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 60: Others are there with the wise noodles and will cop the green.
1905		Bluefield Daily Tel. (WV) 11 Mar. 4/2: A guest at a recent banquet [..] counted twelve different words used [...] in place of ‘money.’ They were: tin, cush, gelt, rock, sand, candy, dough, sugar, mazuma, spondulix, glad weather, the welcome green.
1907		Sun (NY) 18 Oct. 11/2: Somebody that nobody’s hep to mooched in this year and packed thirty millions in greens away.
1917		A. Baer Putting ’Em Over 13 Mar. [synd. col.] Baseball magnates aren’t worrying about the green material in the training camps. The green material they are thinking of is in the fans’ pockets.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 401: Counterfeiter [...] Bum-paper artist, making the green.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 99: There were all denominations of bills, mostly in Irish greens from five to fifty pounds each.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1946		J. Evans Halo in Blood (1988) 144: I want to see some green in front of my eyes.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 216: I’ll be on the scene wearin’ the green.
c.1953		Babs Gonzales ‘Manhattan Fable’ 🎵 He figured that he’d cool until his greens was long enough for him to sound her.
1958		R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 28: He riffled a mass of bills and pulled out a thin sheaf of green.
1962		L. Deighton Ipcress File (1964) 47: At five shillings a dose [i.e. of heroin] that’s a lot of green.
1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 25: It was forbidden to have American green on your person.
1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 249: Fuck Black power and White power; I believe in green power.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 88: You stayed outside and made as much money as you could so that you had the green to pay your way out.
1992		B. Gifford Night People 145: ‘You holdin’ any green?’ ‘About ninety dollars.’.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 245: Met this bitch named Janine / Age 19 / Had her own green.
2010		Big Boi ‘Tambourine’ 🎵 I pulled out a stack of green, shake it like a tambourine.
2013		K. Koke ‘Lay Down Your Weapons’ 🎵 Where I'm from we do wrong for the right green.
2013		F. Bill Donnybrook [ebook] ‘[S]ee you fight for a lot of crumpled green, boy’.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 46: ‘The only color that matters is green’.

2. a $1 bill; thus often in pl.

1904		‘Hugh McHugh’ I’m from Missouri 94: It cost our Candidate a smart bundle of greens.
1922		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 4 May 9/4: Flapper Dictionary greens – Buffos, kale, dough, money.
1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 65: ‘Still working for him?’ ‘I sure am, just picking up some extra greens here.’.
1963		A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 147: We got a big spender [...] Seven greens in the pot.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 24: It’s not my money and I need the greens from percentage.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 11: Greens/green stuff — Paper currency.

3. (US drugs, also green grass, Miss Green) marijuana, sometimes seen as low in resin and thus a weak strain.

1952		Kerouac letter 27 May in Charters I (1995) 358: I am of course indulging in a perfect orgy of Miss Green & can hardly see straight right at this minute, whoo! 3 bombs a day.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 41: We were lucky to score at all. But it’s green grass.
1961		L. Block Diet of Treacle (2008) 50: Mexican brown [...] seemed a little stronger. The joint [...] half regular green and half Mexican brown.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 152: Jimmy came across with some transplanted, home-grown, Gainesville Green from his tomato garden.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 172: So you’re up here doing your best [...] Moving a bit of green, I would imagine.
1996		UGK ‘3 in the Mornin’’ 🎵 Done flagged me down for some more of that brown / To go with that green, now they sittin’ on lean.
1997		C. Newland Scholar 53: We can say Claire jus’ smoked too much green, innit?
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 277: Ray stood up [...] dizzy from the gin and the green.
2000		Hip-Hop Connection Jan./Feb. 26: The mounds of the green – and we don’t mean cash – set before them.
2008		A. Wheatle Dirty South 22: I have some light green to shoot.
2011		Random Axe ‘Karate Kid’ 🎵 They make you sell crack, bust gats, and blaze green.
2015		150 ‘4 Door Truck’ 🎵 My young guys they move green like frog.
2016		Times 20 Aug. 34/3: America’s legal marijuana industry is triggering a ‘green rush’.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 124: The eld hash [...] wis much better quality [...] Mostly it’s shite noo n cunts only want green.

4. (Aus.) a can or bottle of Victoria Bitter beer.

1988		M. Cameron A Look at the Bright Side n.p.: The basic requirements of a good ‘happening’ were: an ample supply of ‘Blue’ or ‘Green’ (Vic. or Foster’s beer), the sappers, and someone fool enough to let it happen in his tent.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 133: Fosters is A BLUEY; A GREEN is a Victoria Bitter, A WHITEY is Carlton Draft.
2003		Aus. Word Map 🌐 In Sydney a fella sinking a few cans of VB may make the excuse that he’s getting a few greens in his diet.

5. phencyclidine.

1993		G.P. Pelecanos Nick’s Trip 231: ‘[T]hat boy was hard on the Boat. Had enough green in him to knock down a horse’.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 11: Eddie used to smoke a little green, lay back and listen to Meddle or some other old Floyd.

6. (Aus.) Victoria bitter beer.

1999

G. Seal Lingo 133: Different brands of beer have their own Lingo names: [...] a green is a Victoria Bitter.

7. (N.Z. prison) a 200mg morphine sulphate tablet [the tablet is green].

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 81/2: green n. a 200mg morphine sulphate tablet.

8. see green money under green adj.¹