Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also buzzard-head) a weak foolish person, a gullible dupe; thus buzzardly adj.; buzzardism n.

c.1367–86		Langland Piers Plowman (B) X line 272: I rede ech a blynd bosard do boote to hymselue.
1560		W. Birch ‘Parson of Wollaton’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 146: And then lyke a Bussarde from thense [i.e. a cheating gambling house] he gose / Unto Ralphe Bamforde’s.
1566		G. Gascoigne (trans.) Supposes I iii: She be given by her father to this old doting doctor, this buzzard, this bribing villain, that by so many means seeketh to obtain her at her father’s hands.
1590		Three Lords and Three Ladies of London D 3: I think this blindfold buzzardly hedge-wench spoke to ye.
1608		Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 5: But he fearing they would make a Hawke or a Buzzard of him too, and report they had ridden him like an Asse, as they had done others, out of dores he flung with a vengeance.
1617		J. Taylor ‘Iacke a Lent’ in Works (1869) I 116: It is Lents intent, that the innocent Lambe and the Essex calfe, should suruiue to weare the crest of their Ancestors: that the Goose, the Buzzard, the Widgeon, and the Woodcocke, may walke fearlesse in any market Towne.
c.1626		Dick of Devonshire in Bullen II (1883) III iv: Pox on the Buzzard! how he startled my bloud!
1639		J. Taylor Juniper Lecture 96: I am no Goose to be Crow-trodden by such a Buzzardly Gull as thou art.
1659		Greene & Lodge Lady Alimony V ii: My wish shall be for all that Puny-pen feather’d Ayry of Buzardisme and Stanielry: That such as They who love to stay to suck their Mammies teat, May live at home, but ne’er finde one to give them Cloathes or Meat.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1714		G. Hunter ‘Androboros’ in Meserve & Reardon Satiric Comedies (1969) 33: Unsear your Ears, ye Old Buzzard, I can speak, but you it seems, can’t hear.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1731		C. Coffey Devil to Pay I ii: Ye Fry of the bottomless Pit! Who are you thus muffled, you Buzzard?
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Buzzard [...] some derive it from Bouze All, i.e. drink all.
1807		Irving & Paulding Salmagundi (1860 215: The buzzards of the party scamper from poll to poll, on foot or on horseback; and they worry from committee to committee, and buzz, and fume, and talk big, and do nothing.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1909		W.M. Raine Brand Blotters (1912) 140: Think I’m a buzzard head?

2. an old and unattractive person; often as old buzzard.

1668		‘P.R.’ Whores Dialogue 11: The next degree is Buzzard Bawd, which is the highest preferment she is capable off [sic], soon after which she departs away like the snuff of a candle .
1796		G. Colman Yngr Iron Chest I ii: Age has so overdone this old dry-bones [...] An old buzzard!
1827		W.T. Moncrieff Bashful Man II iv: Under the very nose of our old buzzard of a porter.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 19 Mar. n.p.: The market is still thronged with buzzards and night-hawks, and the streets are full of filthy females.
1863		Criminal Life (NY) 19 Dec. n.p.: Dover Mary and Clipper Hawkes are ‘rum ’uns’. Business is so bad that both of these buzzards are thinking of emigrating.
1878–9		A. Garcia Tough Trip Through Paradise (1977) 66: That old cockeyed buzzard had forgotten that he just missed death by a few inches.
1893		Fort Worth Gaz. (TX) 28 May 6/4: The grand old buzzards of the Democratic party.
1919		H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 186: At first it made me sore the same as it prob’ly has a old bar buzzard like you.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 210: Is that – that buzzard trying to pinch our cook?
1929		E. Caldwell Bastard (1963) 33: I don’t mind decent men, but I can’t stand to have those dirty buzzards roosting on me like that.
1934		A. Halper Foundry 99: Don’t mind what that old buzzard says to you, he’s got the gripes lately.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 161: This Regan was a cockeyed sort of buzzard.
1943		J. Mitchell McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (2001) 78: The boozy, bedaddled old buzzards.
1953		J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 57: You had to hand it to the decadent old buzzard.
1960		D. Miles Inside Out 28: So the Colonel was a lying old buzzard.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 120: I keep forgetting you’re an old buzzard.
1985		A. Payne ‘Minder on the Orient Express’ Minder [TV script] 124: You might as well come out, you old buzzard, I’ll only kick the door down.
1998		D. Hecht Skull Session 291: The kind of tough old rich buzzard who knew how to make trouble for you.

3. (US) a native of the state of Georgia.

1845		St Louis (MO) Reveille 14 May 2/4: The inhabitants of [...] Georgia [are called ] Buzzards [DA].
1866		Montana Post (Virginia City, MT) 28 Apr. 4/1: The inhabitants of [...] Georgia [are called] Buzzards.
1873		Jasper Wkly Courier (IN) 28 Nov. 8/1: Delaware Musk rats; Florida, Fly-up-the-Creeks; Goergia, Buzzards; [...] Maine, Foxes.
1885		Whitman ‘Sl. in America’ in North Amer. Rev. Nov. 433: Those from Maine were call’d Foxes; New Hampshire, Granite Boys; [...] Georgia, Buzzards.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1913		H.W. Ruoff Dict. Facts 372: Names given to the inhabitants of the different States by popular use: [...] Georgia, buzzards [DA].

4. an unpleasant person.

1853		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 8 Oct. n.p.: He was on his last legs and [...] associated himself with two buzzards of the most wretched kind.
1909		‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/1: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] A Chief of Police is termed a buzzard, which also means a mean person.
1929		B. De Beck Barney Google [comic strip] The buzzards. I ought to report them to the American consul.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 224: Think what those buzzards would do to us if they were free.

5. (US) a silver dollar [the eagle inscribed on it].

1878		Bolivar Bulletin (Hardeman Co., TN) 28 Nov. 2/1: Gold for the bondholder and the depreciated buzzard silver dollar for the masses.
1881		Dly Astorian (OR) 9 Jan. 3/2: They contain more silver than the buzzard dollar and are bankable.
1887		Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 23 Oct. 4/1: Silver dollars are [...] buzzards.
1896		Sun (NY) 2 Mar. 6/3: Babe Bailey of Texas [...] wears a white necktie [and] a large silver buzzard dollar for a collar button.
[1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: buzzard . . . eagle insignia on sleeve].

6. (US, also turkey buzzard) a filthy child.

1906

J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 145: little (turkey) buzzard, n. A filthy child.

7. (US milit.) an honourable discharge.

1907

C. M’Govern By Bolo and Krag 20: Yours very sincerely lost no time in attaching himself to the cool end of a brewery the minute he got his buzzard.

8. (US) a worthless horse.

1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 118: Good Lord! [...] he ain’t celebratin’ gettin’ that bunch of buzzards, is he?
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 43: It is no use trying to tell Itchky that Em is nothing but an old buzzard, because he keeps thinking of her as a stake horse.

9. (US Und.) a police officer.

1909		‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/1: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] A Chief of Police is termed a buzzard.
1910		J. Sullivan ‘Criminal Sl.’ in Amer. Law Rev. LII (1918) 891: A Chief of Police is a ‘buzzard’ or mean person.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 414: Police. [...] buzzard.

10. (US tramp) a second-rate thief; one who preys on women.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 21: buzzard [...] A timid or amateur or low life ‘gun’ who operates on ‘molls,’ women. Example: ‘The moll buzzards tore into the jam [...] and glommed a batch of pokes.’.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 44: buzzard.–An amateur thief, or one preying upon women.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 38/2: Buzzard. A petty crook.

11. (US Und.) a beggar, the lowest form of tramp.

1923		N. Anderson Hobo 20: Jungle crimes include [...] ‘buzzing,’ or making the jungle a permanent hangout for jungle ‘buzzards’ who subsist on the leavings of meals.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 98: Out in the jungles the moper is known as a ‘buzzard’.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 331/1: buzzard, n. [...] 2. An unattached old bum who appears uninvited in the jungles.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 38/2: Buzzard. [...] a leech who lives off gratuities doled out by successful thieves and racketeers.

12. (US) an aviator.

1936		‘Tarmac Talk’ in Sky Fighters in T. Goodstone Pulps (1970) 55/1: Greetings – buzzards, kiwis, peelots, ack emmas and cloudbusters [...] it’s here now! The Age of Aviation!
1937		(con. WW1) E.C. Parsons Great Adventure 213: There was no British airdrome on the Western Front where a buzzard couldn’t land and be offered a cheering cup almost before he had time to switch off his motor.

13. (US army/campus) chicken.

1938		Abilene Reporter-News (TX) 27 Dec. 5/1: Buzzard means chicken.
1944		H.B. Hersey G.I. Laughs 171: Buzzard, chicken.

14. an animal, a creature.

1956		R. Ellison ‘A Coupla Scalped Indians’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 270: [to a dog] Eat it, you buzzard.
1964		P. Terson Night to Make the Angels Weep (1967) I iii: Let me do it. Come out you buzzards.

15. an unattractive woman.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 231: buzzard See bear [i.e. an unatttractive woman].