Green’s Dictionary of Slang

God n.1

also God’s

used in a number of oaths expressing astonishment or annoyance, which, when coined, had a good deal more resonance, given their blasphemous context; e.g. God’s bones!; God’s precious (body/heart!); God’s foot! ; God’s lid! ; God’s teeth!

[UK]Chaucer Reeve’s Tale (1979) line 219: Oure hors is lorn, Alayn, for Goddes banes.
[UK]Chaucer Pardoner’s Tale line 651: By goddes precious herte, and by his nayles [...] Seven is my chaunce, and thyn is cink and treye; By goddes armes, if thou falsly pleye, This dagger shal thurgh-out thyn herte go – This fruyt cometh of the bicched bones two, Forswering, ire, falsnesse, homicyde.
[UK]Hickscorner Civ: Goddes woundes who gaue the[e] that counsell [...] By Goddes sides, I had liever be hanged on high.
[Scot]A. Barclay Eglogues Bii: That they for almes (I sweare by goddes cokes) in euery towne wold make me scoure the stockes.
[UK]J. Rastell Gentleness and Nobility line 175: Now here is bybbyll babbyll, clytter clatter! I hard never of so folysh matter But by Goddys body, to speke the troth, I am better than other of you both.
[UK]R. Wever Lusty Juventus Dii: I loue him the better by gods precious bones. [Ibid.] Diii: [....] By gods precious wounds it was som horson villain.
[UK]Marriage of Wit and Science V i: Gods fish hookkes and knowe you not mee.
[UK]New Custom II iii: Redresse? nowe by goddes guttes I will never straye, Tyll I finde meanes to ridde the beast out of the waye.
[UK]Misogonus in Farmer (1906) II ii: God’s s[t]ockings! hold your hands, stay, i’ th’ queen’s name! [...] God’s fish! lets begone. [Ibid.] IV ii: God’s precious body! this counterfeit skipthrift is come already.
[UK]Jonson Every Man In his Humour V i: God’s bread, tell not me of my money. [Ibid.] V i: Oh, God’s precious, is this the soldier here?
[UK]N. Field Woman is a Weathercock (1888) I ii: God’s precious! Save you Mistresse Wagtail.
[UK]Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) II 55: But by God’s grease he did not purvail.
[US](con. 1914–18) L. Nason Three Lights from a Match 161: ‘God’s grease!’ muttered Wally.
[UK]B. MacMahon Children of the Rainbow 14: Still size-blind! God’s knockers, that reminds me!

In compounds

God-awful

see separate entries.

God-blasted (adj.)

a general oath; a euph. for god-damned adj.

[Can]R. Service ‘The Ballad of Hank the Finn’ in Bar Room Ballads (1978) 618: It’s all you’ll see in this god-blasted land.
[UK](con. late 19C) J.T. Edson Gentle Giant 9: This’s all I need today of all god-blasted days.
Vera ‘Offstage With Miss Vera’ Journal 18 Apr. on Thum.org 🌐 In an attempt to beat the rush-hour traffic, I leave at 300pm. However, some godblasted, redneck twit of a moron had gotten into an accident with a school bus.

In phrases

God-blind-me (n.) [the ironic excl. by one who sees them]

(W.I.) flashy footwear.

[WI]cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).
Goddam/goddam/goddamit/god-damn/-damned

see separate entries.

In exclamations

God-damn!/god-damn it!

see separate entries.

God’s lid! (also by God’s lid!)

a general semi-blasphemous excl.; lit. ‘God’s eyelid!’.

[UK]Jonson Every Man In his Humour I i: Whoreson, base fellow, by God’s lid.
[UK]Marston Malcontent induction: By God’s lid, if you had, I would have given you but sixpence for your stool.
[UK]Jonson Alchemist II vi: God’s lid, Nab, send her to the Doctor, hither.
[UK]N. Field Woman is a Weathercock (1888) V ii: Why, then, by God’s-lid, thou art a base rogue.
God’s teeth!

an excl. used to express astonishment or annoyance.

[UK](con. 1917–18) J.M. Saunders Wings (1928) 123: God’s teeth! What the ’ell are you doing in ’ere!
[US]C. Odets Golden Boy I iv: God’s teeth! Who says you have to be one thing?
[US]J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 70: God’s teeth, let me for Christ’s sake eat my dinner.
[Ire](con. 1940s) B. Behan Confessions 147: God’s teeth [...] could that fellow not go away?
[Ire]J. Ryan Remembering How We Stood 63: ‘God’s teeth!’ I cried.
[US]P. Highsmith Ripley Under Water (1992) 80: ‘Mother of God and God’s teeth!’ Tom said with profound exasperation.
God stiffen us! (also God stiffen you!) [lit. ‘let us grow dead and stiff’]

a general excl.

[US]E. O’Neill In the Zone in Mayorga (1919) 200: God stiffen us, are we never goin’ to turn in fur a wink av sleep?
[US]E. O’Neill Bound East for Cardiff (1923) 9: God stiffen you, ye square-head scut!
[US]E. O’Neill Hairy Ape Act I: Drunk as a lord, God stiffen you!
[Aus]Howard ‘Heat’ in Mann Coast to Coast 121: ‘God stiffen you,’ said Joe, good-humouredly.
God’s trousers!

(Aus.) a mild oath.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Feb. 14/2: The up-to-date larrikin doesn’t really curse now, but he has invented curious out-of-the-way expressions that are satisfying, yet not actually ‘language.’ The strangest I have heard is ‘God’s trousers!’ [...] ‘God’s trousers!’ serves as verb, adjective and noun. It also does duty as curse and interjection. By-and-by it will come in likewise as a pronoun. It expresses incredulity as much as anything else, or surprise with a dash of incredulity. ‘God’s trousers!’ isn’t by any means insulting; it rather suggests a desire to argue the point in a friendly way. If said decisively it means ‘impossible.’.
[UK]A.J. Querle ‘Allah il Allah!’ ix: ‘God’s trousers! But if that ain’t a good Amurrican accent, I’ll eat my own!’.
god struth!

see separate entry.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

God-bird (n.) [dial. god-bird, the youngest bird in a nestful]

(W.I.) the much-loved and petted ‘baby’ of the family.

[WI]cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).
God-botherer/-bothering

see separate entries.

God-box (n.)

1. a church.

[UK]E. Raymond We the Accused in DSUE (1984).
[US]Time Mag. 39 80: A complete job on U.S. slang is beyond human compass. ‘God-box’ is given for Church but not for organ.
W. Peck There is a Fortress 107: ‘Well, it's a long time since I had such a dose of a God-box,’ said Louis.
W. Kratz American Labor & the Intellectual 17: The boys at Princeton knock Christ and call their campus cathedral a two-million-dollar God-box.
(ref. 1942) S.B. Griffith Battle for Guadalcanal (2000) 5: They [...] drank hair tonic in preference to post exchange beer (‘horse piss’), [...] and never went to chapel (‘the God-box’) unless forced to.
[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 480/2: since ca. 1880.
M.J. Chiat Chicago and Illinois: A Guide to Sacred Sites 116: The chapel, known on campus as the God Box, is the only religious building designed by Mies.

2. an organ.

[US]H.B. Webb ‘The Sl. of Jazz’ in AS XXI:3 181: godbox. Organ.
[US]M. Berger ‘Some Excesses of Sl. Compilers’ in AS XXI:3 198: The invention of such terms as Godbox for organ, skin beater for drummer.
[US]S. Terkel Giants of Jazz 76: He and Dupre took turns in playing ‘the God box,’ as he called it. Waller touched the keyboard, placed his feet upon the pedals, and shut his eyes.
[UK]A. Sinclair My Friend Judas (1963) 14: It was all there. The godbox in the human pinch.
(ref. to 1931) W. Balliett Jelly Roll, Jabbo, and Fats 86: Waller first heard Art Tatum in 1931 [...] and took off for Paris, where he played the ‘God-box’ in Notre Dame.
D. Oliphant Texan Jazz 227: This keyboard instrument that Fats Waller referred to as ‘the God box’.
godfather (n.)

see separate entry.

God permit (n.) [such coaches were advertised as starting ‘if God permit’]

a stage-coach.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: God permit, a stage coach, from that affectation of piety, frequently to be met with advertisements of stage coaches or waggons, where most of their undertakings are promised with if God permit, or God willing.
[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
[UK]Flash Dict.
[UK]G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
God save (n.) (also Gawsave) [it starts ‘God save our gracious king/queen’]

the British national anthem.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Dec. 13/3: Twelve hundred school-girls provided the one true touch of Australian nature, not by their sweet young warble of ‘God Save’ and ‘Rule Britannia,’ but by their free-and-easy bearing as they marched to the organ gallery.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Oct. 18/1: The teachers admired her rev’rently / And urged all the scholars to rise and wave / When somebody pounded a loyal ‘God Save.’.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘The Call of Stoush’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 30: ’E wus no patriot / That sits an’ brays advice in days uv strife; / ’E never flapped no flags nor sich like rot; / ’E never sung ‘Gawsave’ in all ’is life.
God’s green apple (n.) (also God’s green gooseberry patch)

(US) the Earth.

[US]C.F. Lummis letter 10 Jan. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 252: No dog on God’s big green gooseberry patch has any more business with a wildcat than I would have to buck a locomotive off the track bareheaded.
[US](con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 177: First time I ever soloed – in a Jenny [...] I knew what I was put on God’s green apple for.
Godsown (n.)

see separate entry.

God’s (own) medicine (n.)

(drugs) opium, morphine, heroin.

Burlington Dly Times (NC) 19 Dec. 1/8: ‘There is enough morphine there to kill several normal healthy men’ [...] G.O.M. (God’s Own Medicine) is sometimes the devil’s broth.
[US]D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 121/2: god’s medicine. Morphine.
[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 24: [of morphine] They had the will power [...] to use God’s medicine once or twice a month and forget it the rest of the time.
[US]J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 70: God’s medicine – Morphine.
[US]R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970).
[US]E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 288: Heroin [...] That’s God’s medicine.
[UK]M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 20: [of heroin] The evil flowers worked their magic, flowing through his body like God’s own medicine.
[US]ONDCP Street Terms 10: God’s medicine — Opium.
[US]J. Stahl I, Fatty 131: I thought about Wally [...] whenever the pain came back, when I got tempted to go back on God’s Own Medicine.
God squad (n.)

1. (also squatters) any form of proselytizing religious group (often evangelical), esp. as found within a university or similar institution; the god squadder, a member of such a group.

[US]Current Sl. III:1 7: God squad, n. A religious organization on campus.
Csonka & Kiick Always on the Run 168: Several guys on our team are religious. ‘God Squadders,’ we call them.
[US]G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 54: God Squad ‘Campus Crusade for Christ’.
[UK]A. Payne ‘Willesden Suite’ Minder [TV script] 69: One of the God Squad, the young one.
[US]M. McAlary Buddy Boys 225: A lot of the guys who are in Internal Affairs are God-squad types—born-again Christians.
[US]R.P. McNamara Times Square Hustler 29: ‘God squatters’ often gather just behind [...] against the parking lot fence. This group is made up of a variety of individuals, usually all from the same Christian congregation, who obtain a permit to carry a religious message to the people of 42nd Street.
[UK]Indep. Mag. 3 July 25: A fully-fledged member of the God Squad.
[UK]Sun. Times News Rev. 12 Mar. 2: How did the others respond to the God squad?

2. (Aus./N.Z. prison) prison officers responsible for internal security; the riot squad.

[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 God squad. The prison officers in charge of security.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 79/2: god squad n. the Riot Squad, the C and R crew, the goon squad.

3. (US) the Endangered Species Committee [they are accused of ‘playing God’ with nature].

[US]Time 9 Dec. 72: Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. announced he would convene the so-called God Squad, a Cabinet-level committee that can override the Endangered Species Act in the regional or national interest [HDAS].
[US]Nation 30 Mar. 417: This allows the President to convene a panel, dubbed the ‘god squad,’ to exempt protected species from coverage of the act [HDAS].
D. Faber Struggle for Ecological Democracy 194: The God Squad’s membership, as set out in the Endangered Species Act, includes [etc.].
God-walloper (n.)

a chaplain, a clergyman.

[UK](con. WW2) T. Jones Heart of Oak [ebook] The God-walloper had just wrapped up prayers.

In phrases

God bless the Duke of Argyle [ult. a row of iron posts that were erected in Glasgow by the contemporary duke. The story goes that grateful lice-ridden citizens were able to use them as scratching-posts. Another version suggests that the posts were erected around the duke’s various estates; primarily for the benefit of sheep, they were adopted by verminous shepherds]

a remark made on observing one’s companion shrug their shoulders; the insinuation is that they have lice.

[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 10 June 2/7: The very sight of them rubbing their backs against the wall, reminded one most unpleasantly ot tlie old Scotch saying of ‘God bless the Duke of Argyle’!
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict. 144: ‘God bless the Duke of Argyle!’ a Scottish insinuation made when one shrugs his shoulders, of its being caused by parasites or cutaneous affections [...] It is said to have been originally the thankful exclamation of the Glasgow folks, at finding a certain row of iron posts, erected by his grace in that city to mark the division of his property, very convenient to rub against.
[UK]Sl. Dict.