Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entries.

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

1940		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.
1979		(con. late 19C) J.T. Edson Gentle Giant 9: This’s all I need today of all god-blasted days.
2003		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.

(US) a euph. for god-damned adj.

1981

(con. 1966) P. Conroy Lords of Discipline 473: It’s lonely in the god-blessed woods.

(W.I.) flashy footwear.

1956

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

see separate entries.

see damme-boy under damme! excl.

see goddammit adj.

see god-damn n.¹

see gorblimey! excl.

see under O’Reilly n.

see separate entries.

an excl. used to express astonishment or annoyance.

c.1550		R. Wever Lusty Juventus Diii: Yea, by Gods foote that I wyll be busy.
c.1557		Interlude of Youth line 269: God’s foot thou diddest enough there For to be made knight of the collar.
1598		Jonson Every Man In his Humour II i: God’s foot, I have lost my purse.
1599		H. Porter Two Angry Women of Abington E: Gods foote, I cry God hartley mercy.
1657		Marlowe Lascivious Queen II iv: Gods foot come help.

an excl. of surprise.

1569–70

T. Preston Cambyses D4: Gods hat, neighbour, come away.

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

1598		Jonson Every Man In his Humour I i: Whoreson, base fellow, by God’s lid.
1604		Marston Malcontent induction: By God’s lid, if you had, I would have given you but sixpence for your stool.
1610		Jonson Alchemist II vi: God’s lid, Nab, send her to the Doctor, hither.
1612		N. Field Woman is a Weathercock (1888) V ii: Why, then, by God’s-lid, thou art a base rogue.

an excl. used to express astonishment or annoyance.

1927		(con. 1917–18) J.M. Saunders Wings (1928) 123: God’s teeth! What the ’ell are you doing in ’ere!
1937		C. Odets Golden Boy I iv: God’s teeth! Who says you have to be one thing?
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 70: God’s teeth, let me for Christ’s sake eat my dinner.
1965		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Confessions 147: God’s teeth [...] could that fellow not go away?
1975		J. Ryan Remembering How We Stood 63: ‘God’s teeth!’ I cried.
1991		P. Highsmith Ripley Under Water (1992) 80: ‘Mother of God and God’s teeth!’ Tom said with profound exasperation.

a general excl.

1917		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?
1918		E. O’Neill Bound East for Cardiff (1923) 9: God stiffen you, ye square-head scut!
1923		E. O’Neill Hairy Ape Act I: Drunk as a lord, God stiffen you!
1941		Howard ‘Heat’ in Mann Coast to Coast 121: ‘God stiffen you,’ said Joe, good-humouredly.

(Aus.) a mild oath.

1900		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.’.
1936		A.J. Querle ‘Allah il Allah!’ ix: ‘God’s trousers! But if that ain’t a good Amurrican accent, I’ll eat my own!’.

see separate entry.

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

1956

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

see separate entries.

1. a church.

1935		E. Raymond We the Accused in DSUE (1984).
1942		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.
1945		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.
1956		W. Kratz American Labor & the Intellectual 17: The boys at Princeton knock Christ and call their campus cathedral a two-million-dollar God-box.
1963		(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.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 480/2: since ca. 1880.
2004		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.

1937		H.B. Webb ‘The Sl. of Jazz’ in AS XXI:3 181: godbox. Organ.
1946		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.
1957		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.
1959		A. Sinclair My Friend Judas (1963) 14: It was all there. The godbox in the human pinch.
1983		(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.
1996		D. Oliphant Texan Jazz 227: This keyboard instrument that Fats Waller referred to as ‘the God box’.

see separate entry.

(US) an evangelist or very religious person.

1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1953		E. Hemingway letter 20 Feb. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 807: Never trust a God-hopper.

a stage-coach.

1785, 1788, 1796		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.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

the British national anthem.

1901		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.
1912		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.’.
1916		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.

(US) the Earth.

1885		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.
1972		(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.

see separate entry.

(drugs) opium, morphine, heroin.

1930		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.
1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 121/2: god’s medicine. Morphine.
1949		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.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 70: God’s medicine – Morphine.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970).
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 288: Heroin [...] That’s God’s medicine.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 20: [of heroin] The evil flowers worked their magic, flowing through his body like God’s own medicine.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 10: God’s medicine — Opium.
2005		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.

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.

1968		Current Sl. III:1 7: God squad, n. A religious organization on campus.
1973		Csonka & Kiick Always on the Run 168: Several guys on our team are religious. ‘God Squadders,’ we call them.
1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 54: God Squad ‘Campus Crusade for Christ’.
1983		A. Payne ‘Willesden Suite’ Minder [TV script] 69: One of the God Squad, the young one.
1987		M. McAlary Buddy Boys 225: A lot of the guys who are in Internal Affairs are God-squad types—born-again Christians.
1994		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.
1999		Indep. Mag. 3 July 25: A fully-fledged member of the God Squad.
2000		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.

1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 190: God squad: the prison officers in charge of security; also known as Security, or the Gestapo.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 God squad. The prison officers in charge of security.
2001		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].

1991		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].
1992		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].
1998		D. Faber Struggle for Ecological Democracy 194: The God Squad’s membership, as set out in the Endangered Species Act, includes [etc.].

see bible-thumper under bible n.

a chaplain, a clergyman.

1984

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

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

1854		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’!
1864, 1867, 1870		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.
1873		Sl. Dict.