Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. Aus.) temporary rented accommodation, thus any living place.

1893		Stage 11 May 16/2: ‘Being in the know’ regarding the best ‘digs’ can only be attained by experience [OED].
1897		T.J. Henry Claude Garton 11: ‘I'll also help you to find "digs"—short for “diggings” you know’.
1902		A.N. Lyons Hookey 26: You live in a bedroom and call it your ‘digs’.
1908		Queenslander 22 Feb. 44/5: As we were now coining money, I would change my ‘digs’ and try some swagger [...] pension in Bayswater.
1917		Rising Sun 8 Jan. 1/1: Look where we sleep — this little shanty ’ere [...] we can proudly point to this, ‘Our digs’.
c.1921		T. Norman Penny Showman 26: I [...] took him to the digs.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 404: Digs up near the Mater.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 239: Yes? What do you want? Looking for digs?
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 269: Where I’m going, I’ll be nearer the office. And I’ll have the chance of getting digs with a chap.
1946		S. Jackson An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 55: The aura of provincial ‘digs’ clings to them.
1951		S. Lewis World So Wide 226: See you to your bachelor digs, Rox?
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 71: Where’s your digs, mate? Where do yer live?
1963		‘Geoffrey Tolhurst’ Flat 4 King’s Cross (1966) 101: ‘I moved out of my digs last night, and my things are in the cloakroom at Central Station’.
1968		(con. 1950s) J. Healy Death of an Irish Town 53: He will merely go home to a drab digs in Camden Town.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 141: A week in digs it’ll be for me on my own.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 665: It was very cool to say ‘I dig your digs’.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 145: ‘Not bad digs you got here,’ said Norton. The suite was about three times as big as Les’s.
1988		S. Selvon Eldorado West One 107: Your new digs! What a change from that dingy basement room, eh!
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 179: Who could forget digs like mine? It’s 941 Roscomere.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 53: She had a quick glance round the new digs, was not greatly impressed.
1999		Indep. Rev. 28 June 1: I was taken to London to find digs in the Finchley Road.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 62: I can’t argue with rent-free digs.
2010		L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] ‘Fancy digs [...] Overhead must butt-fuck you to death’.
2011		D.D. Brazill ‘Lady and the Gimp’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] You’re [sic] Welsh friend left his digs last week without paying his rent.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 234: ‘Where’ll we find these empty digs though?’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 143: Jack and Bobby partied at the Lawford digs.