Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a gamble, a bet.

1886		Sporting Times 22 May 3/3: One of four extraordinarily greasy Jews remarking, ‘We’re off — naow fur a shpiel!’.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 6: All they wanted was to buy a drink at club prices, or have a speil [sic] with an even break.

2. (US) a drinking spree.

1899–1900

C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 19: I made a finish of a Chicago spiel no further away than in Dayton, O. I don’t remember getting to Dayton.

3. (US tramp) the commodity that a pedlar is selling.

1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 397: SPIEL: something to peddle. Hoboes often carry needles, pins, court-plaster, and the like. On meeting one another, they ask: ‘What’s your spiel?’ (‘What are you hawking?’).
1927		in ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V.

4. (US) a dance, as found in New York dance-halls.

1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Mulberry Mary’ in Sandburrs 9: He gets his lamps on Mary at Connorses spiel.
1910		Committee of Fourteen Social Evil in N.Y. City 54: One of the favorite dances in halls of this type is the spiel, which requires much twirling and twisting, and is an objectionable dance.
1924		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 31 May [synd. col.] Chinatown’s annual ball reveals the gloss of the underworld [...] Every fellow must have his ‘podner’ for the ‘spiel.’.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 178: SPIEL.– [...] a fast, boisterous dance.
1993		(con. c.1900) I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 67: The dance itself was called the spiel and to do the dance was to spiel, whence the gerund spieling and the agentive form spieler.

5. patter, speech, esp. of a salesman or market stall-holder, fairground stall-holder or confidence trickster; cite 1905 refers to a printed text.

1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 119: The whole beauty of this spiel consisted in the fact that it was true.
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 14: [R]ight there at the top o’ the page is a spiel, printed in letters that Blind Tom could read [etc].
1909		W. Irwin Confessions of a Con Man 113: This is the strength of my spiel. I have begun as a doubter, and I have come to believe.
1914		M. Glass Potash and Perlmutter 246: Dat’s a pretty said spiel day guy is tearin’ off.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 19: He [i.e. a beggar] rips off his spiel in such exact and precise language that he gets your dime.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 595: And, say, was I ready to stand up and give three cheers when that long-nose ended his spiel?
1949		F. Brown Dead Ringer 31: When I got to the freak show, Harry Stultz, the talker, was starting a spiel.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 166: He had the whole cookpot spiel worked out.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 68: He gave me a long spiel with instructions all about the noble art of making a girl.
1965		H.S. Thompson letter 29 Jan. in Proud Highway (1997) 483: Her eyes light up, and she rambles into the spiel; her job is saved, she can sell.
1971		J. McNeill Chocolate Frog (1973) 23: Shirker: I seem ter remember hearin’ that spiel...a long time ago.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 97: I got noble, and didn’t put down no spiel.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 111: I lowered my voice and went into a style of sales shpiel favoured by used-car dealers.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 17: Rather than stand around watching dreary retakes of Cal’s spiel.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 17: Joe sliced off his spiel in midbreath.
1996		P. Beatty White Boy Shuffle 89: The salesman, smelling commission, closed the deal with a spiel about French cowhide hand-sewn [...] by French seamsters.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 252: I’m regretting [...] my stupid spiel even before I’ve blown my muck inside her.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 45: HRH gave them the usual spiel...blah blah blah...working together as equals (hah!)...fraternity of nations...all democratic now...Christ alone knew why they kept up this charade!
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] Les gave her the same spiel about his family.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 114: [He] gave me his spiel, the potted briefing he’d prepared.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 302: She’d worked out an entire spiel for politely saying hello to an ex-con and moving on.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 32: A typical bookmaker’s [...] spiel might have gone something like the following [...] ‘Come on punters, who knows ’em? Come on punters, push in!’.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 156: By the time the pediatrician finished her spiel [...] I feel like I may be raising a tree stump.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 29: [A] salesman spun his spiel about its timing and accuracy.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 370: ‘It’s not a spiel. Just what was going through my head when I was writing the lyrics’.

6. a verbose, ‘wordy’ explanation.

1895		J. London ‘And ’Frisco Kid Came Back’ in High School Aegis X (4 Nov.) 2–4: W’y didn’t I hol’ it down? Wor are you givin’ us? Wait till I give yer me spiel.
1896		Ade Artie 100: There was a long spiel by the high guy in the pulpit.
1938		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 30 July 11/1: I am really brought to my deuce of benders that so many brights have cut [illeg.] since I laste mitted you a scribe, but i am hep that you will kick me a pardon when you dig this spiel.
1944		R.L. Bellem ‘Murder’s Mouthpiece’ Hollywood Detective Aug. 🌐 ‘Do something—get me to the hospital for a transfusion!’ ‘Not until I finish my spiel, bub’.
1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 43: The doctors went into a big speil about it.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 45: They really laid it on thick with spiels about me fighting them before stopping me.
1984		P. Barker Blow Your House Down 74: She’d just go on, doing her spiel.
1990		M. McAlary Crack War (1991) 98: Then he went into a long-winded spiel about the responsibility of the Federal government.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 80: I launched into a ‘nothing of the sort’ spiel.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I did my spiel: the grovelling apology followed by approximately five minutes of half truths.

7. a conversation, a chat.

1896		Ade Artie (1963) 13: Then him and Kennedy had a long spiel to themselves.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 79: This fellow’s spiel got the horse bug to buzzing beneath the hat again.
1941		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘Pat Hobby’s College Days’ in Pat Hobby Stories (1967) 163: What I thought was maybe I could have a spiel with you.
1959		A. Sinclair Breaking of Bumbo (1961) 72: Jock’s spiel babbled on to Babylon, a house near The Vale.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 188: Was I givin’ you two a lot of fantasy spiel by any chance?

8. an idea, a plan.

1914

‘Hugh McHugh’ You Should Worry cap. 1: ‘We’ll take about two lessons from a good instructor [and] make the hit of our lives teaching them all to Tango.’ [...] ‘It sounds like a good spiel’.

9. (US campus) an eloquent passage in an essay or oration.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 62: spiel, n. An eloquent speech or passage in an oration or essay.

10. a situation.

1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 169: I’ve been shut up a number of years, it’s true, but I didn’t mind them as much as you would; I took them as part of the spiel.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 111: ‘Weird spiel, isn’t it?’ ‘Weird! Child, I’m telling you — it’s eerie!’.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 105: So here’s the spiel.

11. (US campus) a failure at recitation.

1902

Boston Globe Sun. Mag. 21 Dec. 7–8: A ‘spiel’ or a ‘drule’ is a flat failure in this line [i.e. recitation], and a fellow who has not been successful is a ‘cheese.’.

12. lies, deceit.

1930

C.L. Edholm ‘Gorilla Girl’ in Gun Molls Oct. 🌐 ‘The sap fell for your spiel, Skeeters.’ [...] ‘Like they always do.’.

13. (orig. Aus.) formal advice, a set of instructions.

1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 21: [The judge] gives this farmhand a spiel about how this kind of stuff has got to be stopped.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 277: Toro fixed his eyes on his opponent’s feet, nodding sullenly as the referee went through his spiel.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 46: They give you all the spiel about ‘You can say what you like on a meeting’.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 74: Like every new arrival, I got the standard orientation spiel.

14. a letter.

1948

K. Amis letter 12 Jan. in Leader (2000) 156: Sling me a spiel when you can get around to it – I’m in the same stable (55) until I get hitched.

15. (US) the entirety.

1969

L. Schecter Jocks 64: Sporting people have surrounded themselves with all the accouterments of importance—flacks, off-the-record press conferences, the whole spiel.

16. a drinking club.

1999

K. Sampson Powder 459: We should go to the spiel, down Lisle Street.