Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entries.

see fleabag n. (3)

a cheap hotel or lodging house.

1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 75: Flea Box.–A cheap lodging-house or hotel, establishments in which vermin are certain to be abundant.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

a tailor.

1821

Egan Life in London (1869) n.p.: He vas at play with Sam Stripe the tailor: so the flea-catcher he jumps in between ’em.

(Aus.) a cheap, tawdry, run-down cinema.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1952		Horsham Times (Vic.) 15 Feb.3/6: [cartoon caption] Flea Circus.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 80: flea circus A cheap cinema, variation of ‘flea-pit’. ANZ from c1925.

(US black) a very short distance.

2005

B. Coleman Rakim Told Me 16: [J]ust a flea-flicker away from Fayetteville, over in Wilmington, North Carolina.

see fleapit n. (3)

see fleapit n. (1)

(Aus. campus) a girl who moves rapidly from one male partner to another.

1947

Argus (Melbourne) 15 Nov. 7/1: Last week [...] I ventured forth in search of the slang of contemporary students. As you might expect, there is a strong American influence, shown in such slick and well turned phrases as ‘jersey-high-ball’ (a glass of milk), ‘Flea male’ (a girl who jumps from one male to another), and ‘Steeplechaser’ (one who goes for tall people) .

see fleabag n. (1)

see separate entry.

(drugs) second-rate or poor quality drugs.

1955		H. Braddy ‘Narcotic Argot Along the Mexican Border’ in AS XXX:2 87: FLEA POWDER, n. A reduced, cut-down, or weakened ration of a drug.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 95: flea powder Inferior, highly diluted heroin.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 9: Flea powder — Low purity heroin.

(drugs) a low-level narcotics addiction or an addiction to weak heroin.

1956

N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 252: A man would be a fool not to trade off one little flea-powder habit for a real burning-down one, wouldn’t he?

(N.Z.) a sheepdog pup.

1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

(N.Z.) the parting in one’s hair.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

1. (US) a bed.

1936

R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 37: His bed was called [...] ‘crumb incubator,’ or ‘flea-trap’.

2. a cheap and dirty hotel.

1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1946		J. Evans Halo in Blood (1988) 39: It seemed that about thirty days earlier some floater had been sapped to death in a room at the Laycroft Hotel, a flea-trap on West Madison Street.
1963		A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 152: And move out of this flea trap to my place.
2002		at Epinions.com 16 Oct. 🌐 The one minimal compensation for all this misery is the fact that this is still a Starwood property, and my stays at this fleatrap give me credits that I can use to visit real hotels.

(Aus.) of the face, stomach, etc., hard, distended, bloated.

1902		Punch (Melbourne) 15 May 5/2: ‘I’m full up to the neck. Why, I’ve had such an all-right blow-out that you could crack a flea on my stummick!’.
1907		B. Baynton Human Toll in Portable Australian Authors (1980) 197: ‘You could crack a flea on ’er face, fer she’s jus’ a-breakin’, an’ a-bustin’, an’ a-bulgin’wi nourishment’.
1926		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 10 Apr. 6/2: ‘Master Barden,’ quoth he, ‘to boast of the mighty good condition of Pilliewinkie, and,’ said he, ‘could crack a flea upon the ribs of the horse, he being in such good hard racing condition.’ [...] I told him of Pilliewinkie, how he being so hard in condition that ‘tis said fleas may be cracked upon his belly.
1947		Chronicle (Adelaide) 22 May 25/2: I arose from the table with the feeling that I could have cracked a flea on my stomach, I was so full.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 65: Norton had a fat so hard you could have cracked fleas on it.
1989		in H. Daniel (ed.) Expressway 22: He would take his boys into his office and compare their erections ‘By Jupiter, that’s a good one’ and ‘You could crack a flea on that one’.
2004		J. Lambert Macquarie Aust. Sl. Dict. 51/1: could crack a flea on it: said of your stomach after having gorged on epicurean delights.

(Aus.) of land, barren, devoid of vegetation.

1849		Argus (Melbourne) 5 June 4/3: [L]and where one might flog a flea for miles and not lose sight of him once?
1867		Dalby Herald & W. Qld Advertiser (Melbourne) 26 Jan. 4/3: Down the Barwin one might as the stockmen expressively say flog a flea.
1896		Eve. News (Sydney) 14 Jan. 7/2: ‘[O]thers [...] overstocked their paddocks, so that before the drought had fairly commenced, you could have flogged a flea through them’.
1899		Nth Qld Register (Townsville) 16 Dec. 22/1: In dry weather there ain’t a blade of .
1902		Nth Qld Register (Townsville) 11 Aug. 37/1: You could have ‘flogged a flea across’ this and most of the Toorak country.
1922		Lachlander and Condobolin [...] Recorder (NSW) 18 Jan. 3/2: [Y]ou could flog a flea over these reserves, whilst grass was going to waste in the adjoining paddocks.
1940		Richmond River Herald (NSW) 1 Mar. 3/2: At Bogan Gate it’s dry: / And one could flog a flea, they say / From Forbes to Boggabri.
1954		T. Ronan Vision Splendid (1981) 61: He told of roads so bare ‘you could flog a flea along them with a greenhide whip’.
1976		B. Wannan Come In Spinner 79: ‘[Y]ou could flog a flea across the paddocks, go home to dinner, and come back and still find him’.

(Aus.) entirely lacking; characterised by insufficiency.

1910		Punch (Melbourne) 2 June 14/4: ‘I’m jist plucked; I ain’t got a cent left t’ crack a flea on ’n’ I’m right down upset at the idea of a free-born Amurkan citizen goin’ plumb into heaven without a dime in his pocket’.
1912		Observer (Adelaide) 6 Apr. 7/3: ‘Take away your harbour, and you’re gone a million. Not enough left to crack a flea on’.
1924		Dly Standard (Brisbane) 23 Aug. 10/1: The ‘defendant’ was solemnly charged with ‘disruptive tactics’ in his own electorate! Not evidence enough to crack a flea was offered by those political jingoes.

see tight as a crab’s arse (at sixty fathoms) under tight adj.