Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to give up completely, to abandon all hope.

1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 253: You could hear the loud sloppy smacking of lips as everybody bent over to kiss their assholes goodbye.
1983		(con. 1970) S. Wright Meditations in Green (1985) 197: ‘Sorry. I only wanted to see what time it is.’ ‘Time? Time to kiss your ass goodbye.’.
1986		S. King It (1987) 387: It shows where the emergency exits are [...] how to assume the crash-landing position. ‘The Kiss-your-ass-goodbye folder,’ he says.
1987		(con. 1967) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 6: Leave this crap for the kids. Or kiss your sweet Irish ass good-bye.
2000		F. Kellerman Stalker (2001) 206: The patter, the speech, the spiel, the pitch. You don’t have that, you can kiss your business ass good-bye.
2006		C. Carr Our Town 94: ‘Anybody kills a Klansman,’ he spit, ‘they better bend over, kiss their ass good-bye, because the Klan comes in this town, this town is gonna be fuckin’ leveled.’.
2013		D.A. Summers ‘Nothing to Lose’ in ThugLit Nov.-Dec. [ebook] ‘I ever find out there’s anything going on, you can kiss your ass goodbye’.

1. (US) to give up hope, to surrender.

1909

Van Loan ‘The Bush League Demon’ Big League (2004) 47: You’ve been gettin’ way with a lot of stuff to-day [...] but here’s where you can kiss yourself good-by! [sic].

2. to commit suicide.

1986

William Gibson ‘The Winter Market’ 🌐 She’d gone out that night, I knew, to kiss herself goodbye. To find someone drunk enough to do it for her.

see separate entry .

see suck someone’s dick under dick n.¹

to fawn, to act the sycophant, to toady.

[1817		M. Edgeworth Love and Law IIi i: I must warn and apprize you – that I am most remarkably clear-sighted; consequently there can be no thumb kissing with me, gentlemen].
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 29/2: They want a thing who’ll cadge them jobs, / From Beersheba to Dan; / They want a fraud who’ll creep for votes / And kiss the voter’s toe, / Who’ll meekly slobber every friend, / And fawn on every foe.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 224: The producers [were] fed up with bandleaders on the make who were willing if necessary to kiss their rings.
1983		C. Heath A-Team 2 (1984) 141: I’m not in your club, remember? I don’t have to kiss your ring.
1991		N. George ‘Michael Bivins’ Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 64: This was seen as a joke by a lot of folks now kissing their ring.
2021		‘Aidan Truhen’ Seven Demons 221: I told the head of Lindo-Michaelsen to kiss my ring if he thought I was buying his crappy fauxlombian [coffee].

see kiss someone’s arse v.

(orig. US) to take a drink.

c.1875		in Aswell Humor 341: ‘Kiss baby, gents,’ said the man from Buffalo Wallow....Then all was silence except for a brief community gurgling [HDAS].
1883		Sportsman (Melbourne) 3 Oct. 2/6: [A] fellow who had been ‘Kissing the baby’ too freely on Saturday night was looking through the window [...] saw three yellow hansom cabs in succession pass by.
1956		C. Neider Authentic Death of Hendry Jones 89: He lifted a whisky bottle to his mouth, drank, said ‘Kiss me baby’ and passed he bottle around.

(US Und.) to face a certain term of imprisonment.

1992

Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 28: Kiss the Baby A guaranteed prison sentence. ‘He robbed the bank, now he can kiss the baby.’.

to be confined in either of these prisons.

1588		John Udall State of the Church of England, etc. (Arber) 22: If I catche thee in London, I will make thee kiss the clinke for this geare [F&H].
1620		Rowlands Night Raven 11: You kisse the Counter sirra that is flat, Ile teach you know my place deserues a hat.
1641		Harper in Bentley’s Misc. (1837) Feb. 180: They will follow you close, and never leave you till you draw your purse, or they for you, though they kisse Newgate for it.

(Aus.) to be knocked out.

1943		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. (2nd edn).
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 235/1: kiss the cross – to be knocked out.

(US Und.) of a pickpocket, to steal from a person while face-to-face.

1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 117/2: Kiss the dog. (Pickpocket jargon) To face a victim while in the act of picking his pocket.

(orig. US) to die.

1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 28: kiss the dust. Be overthrown.
1936		L. Pound ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 198: Kissed the dust.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] VITAL AUSSIE VERNACULAR Dead: 1. Carked it 2. Kissed the concrete 3. Lights out 4. Wheels up 5. Bit the dust 6. Cashed in her chips 7. Curled up the toes 8. Pulled the pin.

to be executed on a primitive form of the guillotine.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Kissing the Maid, an Engine in Scotland, and at Halifax in England.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].

to be lucky in the choosing of or betting on horses.

1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: He that would have luck in horse-flesh, must kiss a parson’s wife.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].

to fellate.

1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 26: kiss the worm (v.): The children’s term to practice fellation in games involving the penis (worm), wherein a boy’s penis is urinated on, or spit on, daubed with paint, etc.; or even the ‘kissing’ of the penis which is the forfeit a boy must pay for losing in a game.

see go fuck a duck! under fuck v.

(orig. US) a general excl. of derision or dismissal.

1984		LaBarge & Holt Sweetwater Gunslinger 201 (1990) 53: Well, kiss a fat lady in the ass! [...] The damn probe isn’t coming out.
1987		Cool C ‘Juice Crew Dis’ 🎵 Kiss me where the sun don’t shine.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 48: You can kiss me where the sun don’t shine — and where it rains every day — as far as I’m concerned.
1999		R. Malone Violet of a Deeper Blue 43: Big Red can kiss it where the sun don’t shine, as hard as I been working today.
2004		J. Billups ’Skegee Bound 48: ‘Kiss it where the sun don’t shine. Jim!’ Our argument could be heard over the clamor of the dishwasher.

(W.I. Rasta) a common excl. of surprise.

1966

(con. 1940s) L. Bennett ‘Candy Seller’ in Jamaica Labrish 28: Kiss me neck! One no mo’ farden bump she buy.

see separate entry.

(US/Aus.) a general statement of contempt or dismissal; thus phr. not so much as a kiss-me-foot, without even the most minimal attention or interest.

1835		A.B. Longstreet Georgia Scenes (1848) 204: ‘Kiss my foot!’ said Mealy.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 32: We gotta come to public hospitals because we’re poor, and so we can be pushed around without so much as a kiss-me-foot.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 87: Not so much as a kiss-me-foot.
1965		C. Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 18: Well, kiss my foot if it isn’t Jones.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 123: The words would have to go somewhere near: uncut ribbons frayed at the ends; not a kiss-me-foot.

a general statement of contempt or dismissal.

1575		‘Mr. S’ Gammer Gurton’s Needle in Whitworth (1997) III iii: Thou wert as good kiss my tail!
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) V 116: They sack and pillage Neptunes Altars / [...] / Fate kiss their tails.

(US teen) an all-purpose excl. of rejection.

2002

‘Valley Girls’ on Paranoiafanzine 🌐 OK....you’re like, a total jel. I mean, you’re hopeless. So, uh, kiss my tuna, okay.

(orig. boxing ) the mouth.

1830		Morn. Chron. 16 June 4/5: The latter had the bark taken from his kissing-trap and the claret exhibited Jem’s happy knack of ‘drawing a cork’.
1842		Bell’s Life in London 17 July n.p.: Jones [...] succeeded [...] in delivering two heavy smashers with his left on the Greek’s kissing trap.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 Oct. 1/3: Hayes fought quickly [...] twice or thrice taking liberties with his kissing trap.
1853		N.Y. Clipper 20 Aug. 1/5: Both got pinked, Brown retorting on Donnelly’s kissing organ.
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 118: He told Verdant, that his claret had been repeatedly tapped, [...] his kissing-trap countered, his ribs roasted, his nut spanked, and his whole person put in chancery, stung, bruised, fibbed, propped, fiddled, slogged, and otherwise ill-treated.
1855		(con. 1845) Fights for the Championship 189: Bendy again nailed Caunt [...] on his damaged kissing-trap.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 6 June 3/6: Bambrook showing unmistakable evidence of a mouse under the left squinter; his kissing trap considerably altered in shape; and a profuse supply of the rosy issuing from the snout.
1860		Cheshire Obs. 18 Aug. 8/3: Panfish smacking Grasshopper’s kissing trap, which nearly made Grassey go to grass.
1870		in G.D. Atkin House Scraps (1887) 54: The ‘offside’ of his ‘kissing-trap’ / Displays an ugly mark!
1921		(ref. to mid-19C) Essex Newsman 10 Sept. 1/3: I was [...] amused by the quaint language used by my predecessors in the Ring [...] ‘The Nobbler dashed in his left mawley and landed on the British Oak’s kissing-trap [...] knocking out two of his front rails’.

see passion wagon under passion n.

to reject, to do without, ‘say goodbye’ to.

1906		in Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 5 May 3: ‘I’ll kiss mine goodbye,’ said Nell as she dropped her pasteboards in the discard .
1914		M. Glass Abe and Mawruss 174: When a feller puts three thousand dollars into a fiddle, y’understand, he could kiss himself good-bye with his business.
1922		T. Thursday ‘Ten Dollars – No Sense’ Top-Notch 15 Dec. 🌐 ‘Kiss that ten good-by!’ I said.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 1: Well I’m kissin’ the old dump goodbye.
1949		A.I. Bezzerides Thieves’ Market 197: Kiss the two hundred bucks we’re out on Tex goodbye.
1958		R. Marsten ‘Carrera’s Women’ in Margulies Back Alley Jungle (1963) 67: I’d sweated in the Tampico oilfields [...] socking it away a little at a time, letting it pile up for the day I could kiss Mexico goodbye.
1960		C. Himes Big Gold Dream 139: I figgered she was giving him the money to keep, so I kissed it goodby.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 132: Kiss the car goodbye.
1985		A. Payne ‘Minder on the Orient Express’ Minder [TV script] 6: Kiss goodbye to kitchen misery, Bozz.
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 233: Any answer other than the one I want, then kiss the world goodbye.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 21: The tie and the wallet you can probably kiss good-bye.

to smoke marijuana.

1968

‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.

(orig. W.I. Rasta) to make a hissing noise of disapproval, dislike, vexation or disappointment; also as n.

1922		A. Gonzales Black Border 329: Suck me teet’, a contemptuous, gesture, frequently indulged in by the fair sex.
1947		‘Uncle Newton’ Ups and Downs of Newsy Wapps Bk 3 14: The Lopez group exchanged many cuteyes and suck-teeths with the Stephensons.
1983		T. White Catch a Fire 195: But Roslyn rudely kissed her teeth and broke the thoughtful stillness with a scoff.
1997		C. Newland Scholar 1: His cousin kissed his teeth.
1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 84: Finnley kissed his teeth and continued to build his spliff.
2002		L. Kwesi Johnson ‘Liesense fi Kill’ Mi Revalueshanary Fren 98: Kristeen kiss her teet / an shi cut me wid her yeye.
2007		D.S. Mitchell Killer Tune (2008) 58: She kissed her teeth at him. Stared Bernie down.
2016		Skepta ‘Text Me Back’ 🎵 Man, I hate this phone / Kiss my teeth when I hear the ringtone.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 64: She looks at me again, kisses her teeth and goes upstairs.

see smack (the) calfskin under smack v.

(US campus) goodbye.

1991		Eble Campus Sl. Fall.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 101: You’re so tan I hate you, bye pokes fun at sorority stereotypes and kiss, kiss at the superficial social custom of kissing good-bye.