Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) silver.

1823

Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

(UK/US Und.) a place where stolen silver is melted down.

1840

N.Y. Daily Express 21 Feb. 2/5: Officer Smith has informed us that the shoe shop [...] was a genuine ‘white broth ken,’ (for so among thieves the places where silver is melted is termed) and fitted up with crucible furnaces in the rear, which were kept constantly heated, so as to be ready for action on a minute’s notice.

(UK Und.) a pickpocket, esp. one who steals silver, white handerchiefs.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1849		Leamington Spa Courier 4 Aug. 4/5: Mind the White Buzmen and keep clear of [...] the pretended Tokels.

(und.) a silver watch.

1873		Sl. Dict. 120: Clock a watch. Watches are also distinguished by the terms ‘red clock,’ a gold watch, and ‘white clock,’ a silver watch. Generally modified into ‘red’un’ and ‘white’un.’.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: White clock, a silver watch.

a silver dollar.

1886

(con. 1850s) B. Perley Poore Reminscences II 45: [They] picked up many quarters and halves, and not a few ‘white fish,’ representing one dollar each.

(UK Und.) a (silver) half-crown piece (2/6d = 12½p).

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

(UK und.) silver goods.

1914

Gloucs. Echo 25 Feb. 6/5: In thieves’ backslang [sic] ‘white horse ’ means silver goods, ‘red lot’ gold goods, ‘elephants’ diamonds [...] and ‘groney’ ring .

(UK und.) a silver watch.

1904

Sun (NY) 10 July 29/4: Here is a genuine letter written in thieves’ slang, recently found by the English police [...] I know a lavender cove and a swag chovey bloke that will toke [sic] some of the white jacks.

a watch made of foreign silver.

1889–90

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

a silver watch (and chain).

1901		W.S. Walker In the Blood 158: I went round a few rooms while the people were asleep. ‘Thimble and slang,’ ‘red lot’ and ‘white lot’ were my reward.
1924		Townsville Daily Bulletin (Aus.) 14 June 13: A gold chain is termed a ‘red lot’ whilst a silver one goes by the name of a ‘white lot’.
1937		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 12: White lot: Silver watch.

1. silver coins.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 42: He plucked oute viii. shyllinges in whyte money.
1592		Greene Disputation Betweene a Hee and a Shee Conny-Catcher in Grosart (1881–3) X 160: There was seuen pound in Golde, beside thirty shillings and odde white money in the purse.
1598		(ref. to 1421) Stow Survey of London (2005) 67: This year [i.e. 1421] was such a scarcity of white money.
1604		Middleton Phoenix I vi: He had so much grace before he died to turn his white money into gold, a great ease to his executor.
1618		J. Taylor ‘Taylors Penniless Pilgrimage’ in Works (1869) I 130: Two bullets of gold, each being in value worth eleven shillings white money.
1622		Massinger Virgin-Martyr II iii: How! A piece of silver! If thou wert an angel of gold, I would not put thee into white money.
1635		Long Meg of Westminster 47: Here is ten angels in gold, and fourteen shillings in white money.
1652		Laughing Mercury 20-27 Oct. 226: Gypsies [...] that study but the black Art to [...] cheat and cozen us out of our white Coyne.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 556: Wert thou not a wise doctor to fling away a whole purse of gold on those mangy scoudrels? Ha? [...] Had it not been enough to have thrown the hell-hounds a few cropt pieces of white cash?
1812		J. Bell Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 7: He sits in his huddock [i.e. cabin], and claws his bare buttocks, / And brings the white money to me.
1849		J.P. Townsend Rambles in New South Wales 89: He required a rig-out [...] that he might appear a ‘cabon swell,’ and some ‘white money’ (silver) that he might be able ‘to take his grog like a gentleman.’.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes I 41: Begging a copper, or ‘white money,’ from the passengers.
1853		W.G. Simms Sword and the Distaff 275: It feels so mean! [...] to git back to white money, after ye’ve had sich a pleasant feel of the yallow.
1908		J. Guinan Soggarth Aroon 195: He wanted ‘white money,’ It struck me that he meant silver instead of copper; and I gave him a sixpence.
1914		Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/4: No longer do ‘yeggs’ come to New York to spend ‘white’ money obtained from country ‘P.Os’ and ‘jugs’ as postoffices and banks are called in unregenerate circles.
c.1943		‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Silver coin [...] White Money.
1952		B. MacMahon Children of the Rainbow 110: The white money began to fall in a shower [...] One of our collectors came forward and picked up the silver.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 ‘Brass and White Money’ — In the early 20th century, it was common to pay workers a dollar in brass tokens (which could only be spent on the show) and ‘a dollar in white’ which was usually a silver dollar.

2. (US) an illegal political contribution [it is seen as ‘invisible’, unlike green dollars].

1986

Chapman NDAS.

3. large banknotes [the old large ‘white’ £5 note].

1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 94: They play for fantastic sums and often pay in ‘white money’ – large banknotes which you can’t hand over the counter without being asked awkward questions.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 62: They all had a wad of white money (I mean fivers and such).

1. (UK Und.) a silver coin; spec. a shilling.

1869		Man about Town 18 Sept. 12/2: He [i.e. a Yorkshire racing fan] may have a ‘coople’ of white ones on the result.
1869		Man about Town 20 Nov. 84/2: [Y]ou can sit there [i.e. an art gallery] all day for a shilling [...] and if that be not change for a white one l am no true man.
1895		‘G.G.’ Sporting Sketches in Sportsman (Melbourne) (18/10/1898) 5/8: ‘So he began payin’ out in white ’uns in the small ring’.

2. (US Und.) a diamond.

1920

F. Packard White Moll 72: I’ve got to be on deck where they can slip me the ‘white ones.’.

3. (US Und.) a silver watch [sense 1].

1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 386: Such expressions as [...] a ‘white one’ for a silver watch.
1927		in ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

4. (US black) a white shirt .

1944

D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 53: Then you knock yourself a white one with the high hard yard.

(UK und.) a silversmith’s shop.

1935

Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 12: White place: Silversmiths premises.

a diamond stickpin.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 10: White Prop - A diamond pin.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. [as 1882].

(US Und.) a silver watch chain.

1914		Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/4: A watch [...] may be called a ‘block’ or a ‘turnip’ or a ‘kettle,’ while the chain is either a ‘white slang’ or a ‘red slang.’.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 12: White slang: Silver chain.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(UK Und.) silver that has been melted down from the original, stolen plate.

1795		Sporting Mag. Nov. VII 81/1: The tankard and spoons were made into a white soup [...] two hours before day-lite.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II i: aby: Here. covey: Of the Rag Fair Fencibles [...] what would you say to a parcel of swag in the shape of a few chests of plate – do you think you couldn’t make a nice white soup and brown gravy of them?
1854		G.J. Whyte-Melville General Bounce (1891) 319: That all-absorbing fluid which is called ‘white soup,’ and sold by the ounce.
1876		Yorks. Post 14 Sept. 3/3: ‘And the mess plate, Twoshoes?’ ‘Made into white soup hours ago.’ ‘Melted down, that is,’ remarked Tightlockl.
1887		Daily News 5 May in Ware (1909) 264/2: One or two colleges at Oxford have a crozier or so of the fourteenth century, or a platter of the time of Edward IV. But most of the college plate made ‘white soup’ at the time of the Civil War, and went unavailingly to buy horses and feed men for the King.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 30 Aug. 22/4: [This] enabled the happy (and artful) convict to receive from ‘his pe’ple’ (a London ‘fence’) so much the sooner ‘some white soup’ the proceeds of some melted, stolen plate.

see separate entry.

1. (UK Und.) a large quantity of silver.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.

2. see also SE compounds below.

a silver watch.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

a silver watch.

1873		Sl. Dict.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 95: White ‘Un, a silver watch.

1. (UK Und.) the silver pieces that are left with the victim of a substitution fraud.

1608

Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 11: This Art or slight of changing Gold into Siluer, is called Trimming. [...] The siluer which they pick up by this wandring, is White-Woll.

2. silver in general.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: White-wool c. Silver.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 558–9: The Yelper† did his duty well, and finger’d the white wool* in good style. [* White wool — Silver].
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 129: White wood [sic], silver.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 95: White wool, silver.
1901		Argus (Melbourne) 20 Sept. 6/4: The red ’un is a gold watch, the white ’un only silver, while a gold chain is a red jerry, and the seals danglers or onions.
1901		Argus (Melbourne) 20 Sept. 6/4: Silver money is generally classed as white wool.

1. see also under relevant n.

2. see also separate entries.

1. (Aus.) a can of Carlton Draught or Swan Light beer.

1990		A. Hamilton in Social Analysis XXVII 19: In the Northern Territory, for example, beer types are identified according to the colour of the can: Green Can for VB, White Can for Carlton, Blue Can for Fosters.
2004		J. Lambert Macquarie Dict. Aus. Sl. 215/1: white can 1. a can of Carlton Draught beer. 2. a can of Swan Light Beer.
2016		politicalstew.com 10 Oct. 🌐 Once upon a time in NT, you ordered blue cans, green cans or white cans (Carlton draught).
2017		Beer Drinkers Guide in Aus. 5 Dec. 🌐 When in NT, you can simply order a beer by the colour of the can: […] White Can: Can of Swan Light / Yellow Can: Can of XXXX.

2. (Aus.) in Papua New Guinea, a can of South Pacific Export beer.

2008

Masalai blog n.d. 🌐 Three of us once paid $90 for a six pack of white cans at a PNG community function here a few years ago.

(US Und.) bootleg whisky.

1927

in ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V.

cheap, rough whisky; thus white-eyeism, a whisky-induced hangover ; but note cit. 1827.

1827		Western Monthly Rev. I 320: They found by experience that it [whisky] made them [...] more frisky than ‘white eye,’ as they call New England rum [DA].
1834		N. Ames ‘Morton’ An Old Sailor’s Yarns 277: If you’ve got any white-eye in that black betty [...] I don’t much care if a take a drop.
1846		Durivage & Burnham Stray Subjects (1848) 102: Zenas [...] had squandered full half-dollar on himself, in white-eye and sweetening.
1858		W. Pratt Ten Nights in a Bar-Room IV i: I say – that’s rare old white-eye, ain’t it?
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 98: He was well aware that New England ‘white-eye,’ like ‘good wine, will loosen the tongue’ wonderfully.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 12 Oct. 3/6: [H]e is suffering from a bad attack of white-eyeism, and even the everyday word ‘damn’ makes his eyebrows bristle, while the rude, rough, rudely Australian b—y produces a cold sweat all over his body.
1907		Carr & Chase ‘Word-List From Eastern Maine’ in DN III:iii 251: white-eye, n. A beverage consisting of alcohol and water.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

1. (US) pure alcohol, diluted for drinking; also attrib.

1900		Sporting Times 24 Mar. 2/1: The teapot-sucker, the suppressor of every form of amusement, the anti-everythinger, the Pharisee who strains at the White Horse brandy, and swallows alcoholic ginger-ale [...].
1931		A. Hardin ‘Volstead English’ in AS VII:2 87: Terms used for intoxicating liquor: White horse.

2. see also drug compounds below.

1. (Aus.) methylated spirits, both pure or in a variety of combinations.

1935		K. Tennant Tiburon 19: Two old men in the corner lying stupefied over a mixture of ‘white lady’ boiled methylated spirit with a dash of boot polish and iodine.
1946		Longreach Leader (Qld) 14 June 14/5: Methylated spirits and ammonia. This is called White Lady.
1957		J.M. Hosking ‘White Lady’ Aus. First and Last 69: The Chinese have their poppy; in Brazil there’s mescal too [...] We consult the Lady in white when nothing else will do. [...] (Ever take metho on?).
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xliii 11/2: white lady: Methylated spirits.
1975		K. Willey Ghosts of the Big Country 135: They preferred to sit around the camps, playing cards, drinking ‘plonk’ or ‘white lady’ (a cocktail of methylayted spirits and powdered milk).
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 White lady. Methylated spirits.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 230: white lady Methylated spirits, which turns white in water and turns drinkers not white in the head. ANZ c1920.

2. see also drug compounds below.

1. (US) illicit home-brewed whisky or poteen.

1916		Hunter-Trader-Trapper 32 93/2: I able to warm the inner man with a drink of home-grown, homemade white lightning.
1921		Double Dealer July 20/1: The men lean or sit on the counter and talk politics, hard times [...] and more enthusiastically, the devastating and withering qualities of the current ‘white lightning,’ ‘white mule,’ or just plain ‘corn,’ as the local moonshine whiskey is called [DA].
1929		L. Axley ‘‘Drunk’ Again’ in AS IV:6 440: Some names for intoxicants of various grades and potencies are: white lightning.
1931		A. Hardin ‘Volstead English’ in AS VII:2 87: Terms used for intoxicating liquor: White lightning.
1941		A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 154: [footnote] Freddie would drink all day. He’d go to the local union when it open at one o’clock and start off with a pint of white lightning.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 15: Sometimes when his Uncle John had swilled enough white lightning he would sing the song about the ‘monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga.’.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 59: Her big distinction was that she made the best white lightnin’ in town, but it was so powerful that it had been renamed ‘stomp.’.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 41: All ah know about is some white lightnin’.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 143: I’d offer you some white lightnin’, but I don’t know you good enough.
1995		R. Polito Savage Art 120: Home-brewed white lightning, the infamous corn whisky distillate, stunned, stupefied and occasionally blinded its serious consumers.
2000		B. Bilger Noodling for Flatheads (2001) 99: Joyce reaches under his desk and pulls out a half-gallon mason jar filled with white lightning.
2009		T. Black Gutted 108: A couple of yobs emerged, spraffin’ away together and passing a bottle of Woodpecker between them. ‘Thought they’d be on the White Lightning,’ I said.

2. see also drug compounds below.

1. (US tramp) alcohol that has been diluted.

1895		J. London ‘’Frisco Kid’s Story’ in High School Aegis X (15 Feb.) 2–3: Leary Joe got to sloppin’ up on white line, an wuz orioide.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 466: white line, Alcohol and water.

2. a drinker.

1909		‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/1: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] An alcohol drinker is a [...] white line.
1910		J. Sullivan ‘Criminal Sl.’ in Amer. Law Rev. LII (1918) 892: ‘White line’ is an alcohol drinker.

3. (also white lime) alcohol; also attrib.

1909		F.H. Tillotson How I Became a Detective 96: White line – Alcohol.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 88: white line, white lime [...] Current amongst yeggs and hoboes. Alcohol. Example: ‘You’ll have to go to the croker and get a stiff for the white line.’.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 101: [From A No. 1, The Famous Tramp] 27. Alkee Stiff & 28. White Line Stiff. Confirmed consumers of alcohol.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 63: ‘A four-bit mickey, a fifty-cent bottle of alcohol — Dr. Hall, white line,’ he translated.
1929		A.J. Barr Let Tomorrow Come 41: I don’t know yet whether I blasted on purpose or if I was just rummier from that whiteline than I thought I was.
1930		G. Milburn ‘Flipping a Freight’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 246: Denver Mike! He’s got a bottle – / Knocked out stiff on old white line.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 236/2: White line. Alcohol. ‘Lam (get out of town). Whiskers (Federal Agents) is kicking in (raiding) all the white line plants in the county.’.

a habitual drinker of alcohol; one who deals in illicit alcohol.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 236/2: White-liner. One who deals or traffics in illicit alcohol; an habitual drinker of same.

(US) homemade whisky made from grain alcohol.

1893		McClure’s Mag. 1 342/1: I can light in [...] any town you want to name, and in five minutes I’ll buy a bottle of white mule. Sure — right over the counter. Don’t have to sneak down a back alley nor nothin’.
1904		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN II:vi 422: white mule, n. New whiskey, illicitly distilled. ‘Now white mule is new moonshine whiskey.’.
1907		Guthrie Dly Leader (OK) 8 Aug. 6/6: A deputy United States marshal confiscated a cargo of ‘white mule’ whisky.
1919		Central Record (Lancaster, KY) 11 Dec. 6/3: It was even whispered that they had a pretty good article of ‘white mule’ in the neighborhood some place.
1928		Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/2: One man we ‘knocked off’ had twenty-six half pints of ‘white mule’ concealed in special pockets in his clothing.
1929		J.F. Matheus Black Damp in Hatch & Hamalian Lost Plays of Harlem Renaissance (1996) Scene i: You darkies drink too much red eye an’ white mule at them dances.
1934		J. Kofoed ‘Another Little Drink’ in All-America Sports Mag. Feb. 🌐 One of the newspapermen had bought a gallon of white mule.
1940		(con. 1914) S.J. Simonsen Soldier Bill 31: ‘Say, Jim, I can’t get a kick out of this stuff.’ Jim replied, ‘Well, Mike then we better get the “white mule” out, I think that will give us a kick.’.
1949		F. Brown Dead Ringer 99: Better lay off that white mule, or I’ll have to carry you home.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 280: America is accustomed to thinking of illegally distilled drinks as ‘moonshine’ or ‘white mule.’.
1961		G.L. Coon Meanwhile, Back at the Front (1962) 162: You got any of that white mule left?

(UK Und.) gin.

1756		W. Toldervy Hist. of the Two Orphans III 112: Taking a dirty paper out of her bosom, in which was written the following words: Tape, glim, rushlight, white port, rasher of bacon, gunpowder, slug, wild-fire, knock-me-down, and strip-me-naked.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

whiskey and milk.

1886

Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 July 7/1: I never knew a drink that caught on so quick or got so popular as ‘white plush’ has. All the swells drink it. It makes a very good booze, too—palatable, and is a first-class all-round drink.

gin.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: White Ribbin. Gin.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1811].

1. gin, esp. as a euph. used by women.

1853		Dickens ‘Slang’ in Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: For one article of drink, gin, we have [...] cream of the valley, white satin, old Tom.
1870		D. Kirwan Palace & Hovel 58: ‘Give me back my gin!’ she screamed [...] ‘That’ll do, ole lady,’ says he, ‘I’d rather you drink that White Satan [sic] nor me’.
1875		Bradford Obs. (Yorks) 22 May 8/2: The defendant asked if they would like some ‘white satin’ (gin).
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/1: Where’s all the talent, Betsy? Where’s our jokers? I haven’t had a drop of lush since they went out with Tiger Liz, and I must have some white satin, though I haven’t a posh about me. Tip us a peg.
1888		Leeds Times 4 Feb. 7/1: I do not like gin when I can get whisky [...] but went for white satin because I must drink something.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 95: White Satin, gin.
1897		Edinburgh Eve. News 30 Apr. 2/5: ‘White Satin’ is not so favourite a drink in London [...] as it was a few years ago.
1903		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Mar. 1/1: Having taken too much ‘white satin’.
1906		Marvel 10 Mar. 170: Half a go of white satin, please [...] I’m taking my favourite white satin again. Gin’s the finest thing in the world to buck you up.

2. see also general compounds below.

gin or genever.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: tape Red or White; Geneva, Aniseed, Clove-Water, &c. so called by Canters and Villains, and the Renters of the Tap, &c. in Newgate, and other Prisons.
1728		T. Walker The Quaker’s Opera I i: qu.: What hast thou got? poor: Sir, you may have what you please, Wind or right Nantz or South-Sea, or Cock-my-Cap, or Kill-Grief, or Comfort, or White-Tape.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: White tape, Geneva. [Ibid.] White wool, Geneva.
1798		‘St Giles’s Greek’ in Sporting Mag. Dec. XIII 164/1: The cull [...] remained at the bowsing ken, cocking his organ, and tempering his fogus with a few flagges of crank and white-tape.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 183: Bring us a noggin of white tape.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 116: White tape gin, ? term used principally by females.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 95: White Tape, gin.

(UK Und.) gin.

1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 98: Ho! there, my rum-bluffer; send me a nipperkin of white velvet.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 25 Dec. 7/1: [T]he lush was gin, of course, which she called ‘white velvet’.

gin.

1819		Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 70: [note] The squeamish Fair One who takes it on the sly merely to cure the vapours, politely names it to her friends as ‘White Wine’.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 393: The Lady of refined sentiments and delicate nerves, feels the necessity of a little cordial refreshment, to brighten the one and enliven the other, and therefore takes it [gin] on the sly, under the polite appellation of white wine.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 70: [note] The squeamish Fair One who takes it on the sly merely to cure the vapours, politely names it to her friends as ‘White Wine.’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 95: White Wise [sic], a fashionable term for gin.

(US black/drugs) high-quality heroin.

1974

V.E. Smith Jones Men 12: I only want the white-bag stuff [...] I want some good shit.

(drugs) cocaine (in bulk).

2001

Source Aug. 98: He graduated from nickel-and-dime-sized crumbs to moving white bricks.

(drugs) crack cocaine smoke.

1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 110: The cop just shrugged his shoulder. So, in a few minutes they all went back in search of the white cloud.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: White cloud — Smoke that collects in bottom of crack pipe; crack smoke.

1. cocaine.

1922		W.H. Wells DN V 181: Terms for Cocaine [...] White Cross — As differentiated from Red Cross, or morphine, below.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 194: White Cross.– Cocaine.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 822: white cross – Cocaine.

2. morphine; heroin.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

3. amphetamine pills with a white cross cut into one surface.

1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 68: white cross n Small white amphetamine.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 84: Redwood [...] dug in his pocket for the white crosses the little drug addict was hooked on.
1998		M. Baker Bad Guys 34: A dime was a lot easier to get than white crosses and Crystal Meth.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: White Cross — Amphetamine; methamphetamine.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 121: Max had some kind of dream speed that would blow his hillbilly white-crosses out of the water.

(US drugs) heroin.

1958

H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 152: Someone had come across with a pretty decent packet of white-cut.

(UK black) crack cocaine.

2004

Sincere ‘Hopeless’ 🎵 Growing up around smokers of the white devil.

(drugs) heroin.

2021

T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] He was like a dad to me, a dad who sold strong white dope and drank Dr. Pepper in the can.

1. phencyclidine.

1981

cited in Spears Sl. and Jargon of Drugs and Drink (1986).

2. LSD.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 22: White dust — LSD.

(drugs) heroin.

2002		Commonwealth of Australia ‘Drug Name Index’ on REDI 🌐 White dynamite: Heroin.
2006		C. James North Face of Soho 81: The mere thought of heroin made me remember what had happened to Frank Sinatra in The Man With The Golden Arm [...] the people I knew who were burying their heads in heaps of white dynamite seemed to attain no higher state.

(drugs) crack cocaine.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 22: White ghost — Crack Cocaine.

(drugs) cocaine, heroin.

1971		Illinois Legislative Investigating Committee Drug Crisis in Spears (1986).
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 339: white, white girl: Cocaine.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 whyte gyrl Definition a white substance that stimulants the central nervous system Example: Person 1: Yo, you heard about ya nigga goin’ crazy last nite and shootin’ up dat club? what da fuck it wrong with him? Person 2: Yea nigga, I heard, he on dat whyte gyrl.
2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 175: The purest white girl, so delicious in the crack pipe.

(US Und.) narcotics; also attrib.

1929

D.H. Clarke In the Reign of Rothstein 109: One of the biggest bootleggers in New York [...] was asked to lend money to further a ‘white goods’ shipment, as narcotic drugs are called in the underworld. The bootlegger knocked the ‘white goods’ merchant down, and his followers beat the ‘white goods’ merchant up.

1. heroin.

1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 117: She’d taken to hitting the main line [...] riding the big white horse.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 105: Gimme the spike [...] let me ride this white horse.
1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 18: [of heroin] He was a cheap hood from the east side [...] who lived off the white Horse he peddled around the neighborhood.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 154: Curtis and Leroy — they baaad. They be pushin’ white horse.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 203/1: white horse n. heroin .
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘I hear you ain’t the only white horse she ride, your Miss Claudette.’ He taps the back of his hand on his forearm.

2. (drugs) cocaine.

1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 395: I’d be on a mainline flight and Pierce, he’d be on safe old white horse up the nose.
1993		South Park Mexican ‘Mary-Go-Round’ 🎵 I kick doors for white horse, but my wife Mary Jane.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: White horse — Cocaine.
2004		Talib Kweli ‘Broken Glass’ 🎵 She bought a ticket to ride the white horse.
2010		Hell Razah ‘A Brooklyn Tale’ 🎵 One ride on its white horse, it’s in the syringe.

3. see also alcohol compounds above.

1. cocaine.

1932		Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: Amongst other names cocaine is rather picturesquely termed ‘The White Lady’.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970).
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 29: We sat down and snorted white lady until two a.m.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: White lady — Cocaine; heroin.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] Baby Jesus watched his boys load the white lady, the dama blanca that had arrived on Monday. Very good product, the finest, from Peru. Or Bolivia.

2. heroin; thus white queen n., good quality heroin .

1968		N. Heard Howard Street 179: Only woman I need is the White Lady rides through my veins.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 208: The hostess with the mostes’ arrived — the white lady. Heroin.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 266: Hey, man, you’re talkin’ about the purest, whitest dope [...] The White Queen, man, that’s what them old junkies down on 114th Street have been callin’ it. The White motherfuckin’ Queen.
1994		M. Montague Dread Culture 174: Mi know tings hard wid yuh. Di herbs business mash up. Nuh like first time. Di White Lady tek over di place.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: White lady — Cocaine; heroin.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 203/1: white lady n. = white horse.

3. see also alcohol compounds above.

1. (drugs, also white light) LSD.

1971		J. Simon Sign of Fool 53: He told me it was ‘white lightnin’,’ which was Owsley’s finest acid. Pure LSD-25, cut with a little speed.
1979		Lette & Carey Puberty Blues 113: ‘Cheryl’s trippin’.’ ‘Wot on?’ ‘White Light [...] She dropped it on the bus this mornin’.’.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 339: white lightning: LSD.
1999		Guardian Rev. 16 Oct. 5: What never came out in the trial was that everyone in the house was relaxing after a day on a hallucinogenic called White Lightning.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: White lightning — LSD.

2. see also alcohol compounds above.

(US drugs) cocaine.

1983		Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel ‘White Lines (Don’t Do It)’ 🎵 My white lines go a long way either up your nose or through your vein.
1994		Nas ‘Memory Lane’ 🎵 It’s real, grew up in trife life, did times or white lines.
2004		Earthquake Institute ‘Molotov Cocktail Waitress’ 🎵 We got the kush and white lines to leave you shook up.

1. the obsessive use of cocaine.

2002

‘Lemmy: White Line Fever’ on BBC.co.uk Nov. 🌐 But really the clue is in the title ‘White Line Fever’ – it’s a blurry, drug induced trip that moves along a pace of a Wurzel riff, but is never really that engaging a read.

2. see also general compounds below.

(Aus.) heroin.

1996

(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 145: ‘The white man knocked me flat on my arsemaaaan’’.

cocaine or any powdered drug.

1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 17: Bitten by white mosquitoes – Bearing the burden of cocaine addiction.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: White mosquito — Cocaine.

(drugs) isobutyl nitrite [its effect on the brain].

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 22: Whiteout — Inhalants; isobutyl nitrite.

(US drugs) a momentary loss of consciousness while taking cocaine.

2005		J. Stahl ‘Twilight of the Stooges’ in Love Without (2007) 149: you don’t know you’re having a white-out until you come out of it.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 106: A waxy, naked thirty-something schoolboy who — did you just have a white-out? — is talking right in your face.

(US black/drugs) a cigar denuded of tobacco and filled with marijuana .

1992		Gang Starr ‘Take Two and Pass’ 🎵 We got at least five head, so I rolled a White Owl.
2005		Cuban Link ‘Letter to Pun’ 🎵 Getting high with Freaky Tah, lightin up White Owls.
2013		Raekwon ‘Lead Season’ 🎵 Take me over there, get me three White Owls, nigga.

see Owsley acid n.

(S.Afr.) a mixture of marijuana, tobacco and a crushed tablet of Mandrax (the brandname of methaqualone).

1981		Rand Daily Mail 21 May 1: Five men [...] were making a ‘white pipe’ out of Mandrax and dagga [DSAE].
1992		R.P. Maiden Employee Assistance 68: The smoking of the ‘white pipe’ enhances the effect of dagga and gives the user a brief ‘rush’ before depressing the central nervous system.
1998		Indep. on Sun. 12 Oct. 13 : Buttons [...] often crushed into a cannabis joint called a white pipe.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 164: The way to smoke a white pipe is to just hit it once as hard as possible and hold it. And hold it. And rush off your tits.
2008		J.T. Cass Quaaludes 43: In South Africa, methaqualone tablets are crushed and smoked with a mix of marijuana and tobacco in the neck of a broken-off glass bottle. This combination is known as white pipe.

cocaine.

2000

www.deftonesworld.com 🌐 Knife Party is obviously about a cocaine dealer: ‘white pony’ is infact [sic] a highgrade cocaine.

any form of narcotic or other drug that comes in the form of white powder.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1958		H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 162: The H. The white powder that had invaded the club.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 70: There’s a lot of money in that white powder.
1978		Daily News 23 Feb. 5: Angel dust goes by dozens of street names [...] Peace pills, white powder, superjoint, busy bee, hog elephant tranquilizer, crystal, and green tea are some of the more popular names.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 159: When the man laid the white powder on the table, they sniffed and found instant euphoria.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 291: The black dog in the white powder consumes the whole soul.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Culture 9 Apr. 2: He kept hinting that this must all be a bit boring for me, since there was no ‘white powder’ around.

(US black) a cigarette.

1941

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 15 Nov. 14: He was getting his kicks off one of those hard Philip Morris white rolls.

heroin.

1999

E. Bunker Mr Blue 363: When someone wanted to know who had heroin, they asked: ‘Who’s God today?’ Such was the power of the white serpent.

(N.Z. prison) a narcotic drug, i.e. cocaine or heroin.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 203/1: white snow n. 1 cocaine 2 heroin.

1. heroin.

1974		G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 11: So I try the horse. [...] So I get some of that nice white shit.
1980		R. Hewison Salt Pan 187: Yer a damn fool to start messin’ with skag. Yer killin’ yerself with that white shit, you know that, doncha?
2003		ars0n29 posting 7 Oct. at Bluelight.nu 🌐 Where we live you can’t get white shit, so we need to know how to prepare the black shit.

2. cocaine.

1992

NOFX ‘Straight Edge’ 🎵 on White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean [album] I’m a person just like you / But I’ve got better things to do / Than sit around and fuck my head / Hang out with the living dead / Snort white shit up my nose.

(US drugs) morphine crystals.

1929–31		cited in Partridge DU (1949).
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 316: white silk. Morphine in crystal form.

see white stuff n. (5)

1. cocaine.

1962

B. Sorkin Steel Shivs 29: He told a lot of guys to stay away from goof butts, reefers, and that white sugar stuff that sent fellows spinning to the moon and then let them drop straight down into hell.

2. (drugs) crack cocaine.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 22: White sugar — Crack Cocaine.

(drugs) a form of marijuana (i.e. super-compacted skunk n. (4a)) that is so dense as to exude white crystals.

2003		MJ Exports Ltd Mary Jane’s Garden 🌐 At Mary Jane’s Garden we sell Marijuana Seeds/Cannabis Seeds. We have free delivery on the best marijuana seeds available. White Widow, Northern Lights, and BlueBerry all with the same excellent prices.
2004		Observer Mag. 13 June 51: ‘Black Domina’, ‘White Widow’,’ ‘Fuckin Incredible,’ ‘AK47.’.
2014		Young M.A. ‘Brooklyn Chiraq Freestyle’ 🎵 Got shishkaberry, got cookie kush / Got white widow, a whole pound of that.

(US) an opportunity, one’s ‘best shot’.

1897		Overland Monthly (CA) Nov. 444: So I went on, dodging between two opinions, and trying to give Burkit a show for his white alley, in my own mind, for the sake of his gentleness with the consumptive.
1933		(con. 1920) C.W. Willemse Cop Remembers 215: I don’t think Monk [i.e. Eastman] had a gun on him when he was killed and whether he ever had a chance for his white alley, I don’t know.

1. a general term of abuse.

1922		Joyce Ulysses 560: God fuck old Bennett! He’s a whitearsed old bugger.
1971		B. Malamud Tenants (1972) 67: How can you be so whiteass sure of what you sayin if my book turns out to be two different things than you thought?
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 June 8: You come near me and I’ll cut you up, you white-ass motherfuck.

2. (US black/campus) a derog. ref. to third-rate white American culture; used by both whites and blacks.

1995

Eble Campus Sl. Dec. 7: white-assed – bland, characteristic of white Americans: ‘Barry Manilow sang some white-assed songs.’.

a pickpocket.

1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 9: While Nicky V-NS-T, not caring to roam, / Got among the white-bag-men, and felt quite at home.
1821		Flash Dict.

(N.Z.) a thin person.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

(W.I.) a hypocrite.

1927		Anderson & Cundall Jam. Negro Proverbs 100: White-belly-ratta him bite and blow.
1954		cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).
2006		D. Katz People Funny Boy 252: Bunny Lee is supposed to be the white belly rat. He and Scratch always have a feud.

(N.Z. prison) some form of prison-made stabbing weapon.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 202/2: whiteboard marker n. a knife, a stabbing weapon, a shank.

(N.Z. prison) some form of (small) room.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 202/2: white box n. 1 a telephone 2 an observation cell.

(US) a member of a racist group on the model of the KKK, similarly devoted to intimidating the black population and also uniformed with white masks.

1894		Mirror of Life 1 Dec. 15/3: [A] mob of 200 whitecappers [...] overpowered the guards, and hanged both men .
1905		N.Y. Age 5 Jan. 2/3: Negro laborers have been persecuted by murderous bands of ‘white-cappers,’ whose methods and acts were like those of the Ku Klux conspirators.

see whitey cockroach n.

(N.Z. prison) an embezzler, a fraduster or confidence trickster.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 202/2: white collar n. a fraudster, an embezzler; a white collar criminal.

1. a vanilla milkshake.

1936

H.W. Bentley ‘Linguistic Concoctions of the Soda Jerker’ in AS XI:1 45: WHITE COW. Vanilla milk shake.

2. a vanilla ice-cream soda.

1960, 1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

(UK Und.) a young and beautiful female member of a criminal gang.

1612		Dekker O per se O N2: Euery one of them hath a peculiar Nick-name [...] some of them are called The white Ewe, the Lambe, &c.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Ewe, or the White Ewe, a Top-woman among the Canting Crew, very Beautiful.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: ewe, or the white ewe a Top-woman very beautiful.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Ewe, a white ewe, a beautiful woman.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

1. (Native American) white people.

1978

Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 172: White-eyes The usual Native American term for whites, used by militants.

2. (S.Afr./US black) a white person.

1970		H. Kuper Witch in my Heart I iii: Next time when White-eyes calls us to a meeting I will say that I don’t hear in my ears.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 60: The single most descriptive attribute young blacks focus on in their labeling of whites is color – or the lack of it – such as [...] white eyes, chalk, lily, pale face, rabbit, and red neck.

see white man n. (1)

see paddy fever under Paddy n.

(N.Z. prison) sugar.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 203/1: white gold n. sugar.

see yellow gutted under yellow adj.

see white man n. (1)

1. a hero, a ‘good’ character (as opposed to a ‘bad’ one) in any fictional medium.

[1872		‘Farmer Greeley’ in Farmer of Chappaqua Songster 9: Oh, White-Hat Greeley is his name!].
1969		J. Crumley One to Count Cadence (1987) 170: There are no bad guys, no black or white hats, just misguided gray ones.
1975		Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 28 Feb. 5/2: Laver’s the last of the white hats (the good guys who wear the white hats in cowboy movies) .
1999		Guardian 13 July 🌐 The launch of the BO2K bug is the latest skirmish in a long-running, intensifying online war between ‘black hats’ (hackers) and ‘white hats’ (computer security experts who design anti-virus programmes).
2001		Guardian 10 Sept. 🌐 The cavalry are coming. The white hats pour in on the jets from Brussels. Yet muffled hesitation is the order of the day as decision approaches.

2. (US campus) a wealthy, smug, white male.

1996

Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 9: white hat – rich, obnoxious, arrogant, white adolescent or young adult male: ‘Look at the car full of white hats.’.

(N.Z.) middle-class children aping the lifestyle of working-class children.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 230: white homie Teenage slang for middle class Pakeha kids wanting to live the life of streetkids.

(US black) the world of white society.

1994

C. Major Juba to Jive.

a female swindler or cheating gambler, a play on blackleg n.¹ (2)

1833		Satirist (London) 14 Apr. 543/1: The Whitelegism of Lady Essex, Lady Salisbury, or the Misses Blackwell, may be fairly put in juxtaposition with the Blacklegism of Lords Hertford or Alvanley.
1833		Satirist (London) 21 Apr. 551/1: For several precedent weeks we have directed public notice to the ‘Card Parties’ of certain fashionable white legs, who are as expert in all the arts of play as the most experienced gamesters of the other sex.

(N.Z. prison) a knockout blow.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 203/1: white lighter n. a knockout punch [from the ‘white light’ the victim sees when he is hit.].

(US black) bed linen.

1942		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 22 Aug. 7/7: White lilies — sheets.
1947		M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl.

1. (US) an obsessive driver.

2003		Yankton Daily Press (SD) 26 Nov. 🌐 However, highway hypnosis — also known as white line fever, fascination phenomena and the moth effect — is debated by pyschology and highway safety experts across the country.
2010		K. Richards Life 9: It’s called white line fever. If you’re awake you stare at the white lines down the middle of the road.

2. see also drug compounds above.

(US) a tramp who follows the harvest but who occasionally turns to criminality.

1902		Daily Jrnl (Salem, OR) 26 July 1/3: All the floating population which invades the grain fields [...] during harvest time may be divided into [...] whiteliners, yegs, dingbats and [...] ‘dynos’. The Weary Willies, Dusty Rohoades [...] of comic book fame represent approximately the class of whiteliners [...] the whiteliner will not converse with the dingbat.
1909		Up-To-The-Times Mag. 4 2316: The past master of hobodom is the ‘whiteliner’, a combination of the ‘dingbat’ and the ‘yeggman’.

see separate entry.

1. a network of unoffical information; rumour and gossip.

1883

J. Keane On Blue Water 202: It has always appeared quite wonderful to me how the ‘telegraph,’ ‘white mouse,’ or ‘little bird’ gets about such ships, but it is a fact that everything that is said and done among the men is known aft nearly as soon as it is forward.

2. an informer; a gossip.

1887

G. Davis Recoll. Sea-Wanderer 32: The man that plays the ‘white mouse’ on him will have to square yards with Bill Nye.

3. (Aus.) a gullible person.

1900–10

Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.].

to fellate; thus as n., fellation; thus white-mouthing n. [the white semen].

2002		My Wife’s Wimp 🌐 Sam and Jake have a number of gay black friends who are particularly partial to white mouth. You will be required to provide blow jobs for them whenever they wish, as well as any other services they may want.
c.2003		Steve ‘Gloss. of Perversion’ at GetOffended.com 🌐 White-Mouthing – Like ‘Brown Nosing’, but blow jobs are given to increase how much someone likes you or to increase marks in school.

see wigga n.

(US black) a white shirt.

1943

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 18 Sept. 22: Then you knock yourself a white one with the high hard yard.

1. (US black) a white Cadillac with white interior finish and white upholstery; also as adj.; thus white-on-white-in-white, a black person who seeks the supposed status of association with white people, esp. through a white girlfriend and a white Cadillac.

1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 51: White-on-White-in-White, adj. Extremely white. Pertaining to the older generation of Negroes who sought to acquire white status symbols, for example a white-on-white-in-white cadillac [sic].
1973		D. Goines Street Players 18: The white on white Cadillac fitted him to perfection.

2. a white shirt.

a.1955		‘Good-Doing Wheeler’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 74: His white-on-whites were made from lights / With a touch of helium gas.
a.1964		‘Honky-Tonk Bud’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 54: He was choked up tight in a white-on-white / And a cocoa front that was down.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 86: [as cit. a.1964].

(US) a temporary loss of consciousness [as opposed to a fullscale SE blackout].

2001

J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 91: After they’d slammed into the back of Dee-Dee walker [...] Zank had had one of his whiteouts.

1. (US) a chamberpot.

1909

L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 388: white-owl, n. A chamber pot.

2. a white penis.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 61: white owl n [R] White man’s penis; homosexual slang.

(Aus.) a highway patrolman.

a.2003

‘Sl. Dictionary’ on Virtual Aus. 🌐 White pointer highway patrol.

see pudding n. (2)

see red cent n.

(Aus. prison) an albino prisoner.

1990

Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 White rat. An albino inmate.

(gay) the oral exchange of semen.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 76: to transfer semen through passionate kissing after sixty-nining [...] white Russian.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 60: Russian, white n [R] Oral exchange of semen; homosexual slang.

1. (Aus.) a white woman, considered sexually.

1955

D. Niland Shiralee 121: The black velvet for Macauley; he can’t get the white satin, poor sod.

2. see also alcohol compounds above.

a wife who dominates her husband.

1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: white serjeant a man fetched from the tavern or alehouse by his wife, is said to be arrested by the white serjeant.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: A man fetched from the tavern or ale-house by his wife, is said to be arrested by the white serjeant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 270: White serjeant a man’s superior officer in the person of his better half.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 95: White Sergeant, a wife who controls her husband.

(UK/US) a senior police or prison officer, who (in UK) wears a white shirt rather than the blue of the junior ranks.

2000		New Yorker 3 Apr. 🌐 The white shirts (prison slang for the senior officers) think that at least one participant in the latest cutting exchange [...].
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 203/1: white-shirt n. a high-ranking member of the Department of Corrections, e.g. one of the management personnel.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 5: The white shirts are afraid of him [i.e. a police sergeant].
2006		Burns & Pelecanos ‘That’s Got His Own’ Wire ser. 4 ep. 12 [TV script] The white shirts are going to fuck it up.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 16: [of senior prison officers] Now the white shirts come down the hall to address us at roll call.
2014		Ruderman & Laker Busted 17: [T]he ‘white shirts,’ sergeants and captains who had earned enough stripes to hang up their uniform blues.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 258: So the captain came one day for whatever he had to do. That’s the white shirt.

see whitewall

(US gay) homosexual society.

1964

Lavender Lex. n.p.: white sneaker-set:– The term applied by the wearers of boots and such to the part of the homosexual society that is seen in less than lumberjack and bike rider apparel; A faggot.

the penis.

1748–49

Cleland Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 119: We could see between them [i.e. the thighs] part of his long white-staff foamingly in motion.

(US) a white (usu. female) sadomasochist.

1987

personal ad, restroom Murray & Murrell Lang. Sadomasochism (1989) 144: Looking for a little white sugar to experience real domination at the hands of a black man.

(US, mainly west coast) semen, usu. in the context of fellatio.

1997–2002

Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 white swallow (compound noun) semen.

1. pregnancy; a pregnant woman.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: white swelling a woman with child is said to have a white swelling.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict. n.p.: White-swelling pregnant woman.

2. a suet dumpling.

1874

H. Mayhew London Characters 345: The sharp and grinning young monkey of a street-Arab [...] loves to speak of suet-dumplings as ‘white-swellings.’.

3. see also silver compounds above.

(N.Z. prison) a white female prison officer.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 203/1: white toast n. a female, P?keh? prison officer.

(US campus) an old (white-haired) person; also as adj.

1997–2002		Hope College ‘Dict. of New Terms’ 🌐 white top adj. Elderly, senior citizen, retired person.
2005		(con. 1951) A. Wheatle Island Songs (2006) 84: It’s me ya talking to, not some old white-top lady inna church who is two fat moons away from de grave.

(orig. US milit.) a very severe ‘short back and sides’ haircut, orig. in the US Marines; also as adj.

1970		Current Sl. V:1 19: White (side) walls Shaved area around the ears characteristic of a military haircut.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 49: Colonel Sadler was as plain-looking as a piece of unfinished wood with a white sidewall haircut.
1998		M. Baker Bad Guys 32: My whitewall haircuts, wearing a tie to school, all that stuff was getting to be pretty bothersome.
2003		N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 232: Hair cut so short he could see the whitewalls with his naked eye from 10 floors up.

(US short order) eggs.

1899

Ft Wayne News (IN) 2 Feb. 7/1: Bowery Eating House Lingo [...] Perhaps the customer would desire two eggs friend plain [...] ‘T’row on de white wings an have de sunny side up’.

see under gills n.¹

(Aus.) to serve a jail sentence.

1885		Australasian Printers’ Keepsake 25: He caught a month, and had to ‘white it out’ / At diamond-cracking in Castieau’s Hotel [AND].
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land 393: White it out, serve a jail sentence [AND].

(UK police/und.) dealing in sugar on the black-market.

1950

P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 189/1: A White Paint Job. A black-market deal in sugar.