Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(S.Afr.) the township of Alexandra, near Johannesburg.

1955		in Drum (Johannesburg) 40: A velvet pall [...] hung over Alexandra township [...] In this evening frock, the ‘Dark City,’ as it is called, could compete for loveliness with any other town [DSAE].
1958		A. Sampson Treason Cage 207: The people of the ‘Dark City’ of Alexandra, an unusually stubborn and independent suburb of a hundred thousand Africans lying just outside the municipality .
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 109: The township known as ‘Dark City’, is notorious as a crimogenic area.
1979		P. Juma Portrait of Apartheid 245: One of them is called ‘Alexandra’. There are no street lights in Alexandra; so it has been nicknamed ‘the dark city’.
1980		P. Dreyer Martyrs and Fanatics 163: Because there was electricity on only a very few streets, Alexandra was called ‘Dark City,’ and crime was rife.
2002		City Press 1 Sept. on Alexandra.co.za 🌐 ‘Hope begins to glow in the Dark City’ After a prolonged pause in meaningful development, relief is in sight for 350 000-plus residents of Alexandra.

(usu. Aus./US) a derog. term for a black person, a Native Australian.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Apr. 24/4: That evening the colored folk of P.M. saw stars, blood and hair. One dark cloud stopped a bottle with its ear, another was seen dressed in its boots only. After dark none were seen at all.
1914		B.T. Harvey ‘Addenda – The Northwest’ in DN IV:ii 163: dark cloud, n. A negro.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 231: I spotted a dark cloud (he meant a negro).
1950		J.T. Farrell ‘The Fastest Runner’ in Amer. Dream Girl (1950) 24: Suddenly, Tony shouted: ‘Dark clouds’.
1960, 1975		(ref. to c.1900) Wentworth &Flexner DAS.
1983		I.L. Allen Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 46: Color Allusions, Other than ‘Black’ and ‘Negro’: [...] dark-brethern, dark-cloud [1900. Also used for any gathering of blacks].

(Aus.) a derog. term for an Aborigine.

1974

D. Ireland Burn 66: Keep outa this, blackface [...] You heard, dark man. Shut your trap.

see separate entry.

night time.

2018

J.-P. Jordan Joys of War 62: The next patrol was out at dark o’clock again. [...] By the time we reached our objective it would be first light in an hour.

(N.Z. prison) a holding area for newly arrived prisoners.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 52/2: darkroom n. the waiting room where a new inmate is placed when he first enters the prison, before he is escorted to his wing and cell.

(W.I.) a person of mixed race, with one-quarter white to three-quarters black.

1806		‘Commissioners of the Almshouse v. Whistelo’ in Criminal Law Cases (NY) III (1825) 200: My father was white; he was a Scotchman, a servant ; and my mother was a dark sambo.
1861		Trans. of Ethnological Soc. new ser. I 4: the aboriginal native was nearly black — a very dark Sambo (to use the West Indian term) but not a Negro.
1951, 1958		cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).
1954		Police Jrnl: a Review for the Police Forces of the Empire 1 Jan. 209: She was dark sambo (very dark brown) in colour.
2003		R. Jamieson Centre of the Labyrinth 8: You is a pretty one. A class of a dark sambo girl!

(US) a black person, usu. a woman, in a sexual context.

1975		J. Roe Same Old Grind 152: Her face an ebony mask, Zehya did the royal high-step down the lounge aisle [...] ‘Hey, dark stuff, bring it over here,’ called a customer.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 241: ‘Suppose I want dark stuff?’ ‘You call Al at the chambermaids’ union. It’s good trim, if you don’t mind schtupping in a mop closet.

(UK / US prison) a prison punishment cell.

1831		Reports from Committees on Secondary Punishments 25 Mar. 6: What is the longest period that any person has been put in solitary confinement in the dark cell ?
1870		Reports from Commissioners 26 July 305: You were reported for not picking oakum [...] and for noise, and [...] you were then placed in the dark cell.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 56/1: Dark-cell (p) In some prisons, a small, ill-ventilated, lightless cell used for punishment and psychopathic observation. ‘Fritz broke up (wrecked his cell) last night. They got him In the dark-cell waiting for the bug doctor (psychiatrist) to gander (look) him over. If he ain’t nuts, that joint will shove him over the line (drive him Insane).’.

(UK Und.) one who keeps a mistress and only dares visit her surreptitiously at night.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: dark Cully a marry’d Man, who keeps a Mistress, and creeps to her in the Night, for fear of Discovery.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.

a villain.

1699

N. Ward London Spy I 11: I have had most of these Dark Engineers you saw my patients; for they are seldom free from Clap.

(UK Und.) a dark lanthorn.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 43: A dark glim; a dark Lanthorn.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving.
1799		Sporting Mag. Feb. 258/2: A dark glim — A fark lantern.

1. the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (US prison) a punishment cell.

1891		Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) 23 Feb. 5/4: The captain [...] decided that I should be triced up by the thumbs for six hours each day for three days and that i should be put in irons and kept in the dark hole for thirteen weeks.
1914		Sun (NY) 25 Jan. 3/1: The Horrors of the dark Hole, Atlanta’s Star Torture Chamber [...] No mattress or bed — just floor [...] Men were kept there weeks at a timew [...] chained standing for intolerable periods.

3. (S.Afr. gay) the anus.

2003

K. Cage Gayle.

1. a room used to confine the insane.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 291/2: ca. 1600-1850.

2. a tavern offering bedrooms for the night.

1664		W. Killigrew Pandora Act I: The dayly terror of getting such diseases as inhabit your dark houses, has frightened me into better purposes.
1699		N. Ward London Spy III 48: [heading] A Chamber in the Dark-House at Billingsgate, and, its Furniture Described.

a thief’s candle or light, made so as to shut out the light when not needed.

1718		C. Hitchin Regulator 19: A Glim-stick, alias Dark Lanthern.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 36: I’m agoin’ to open it with a jimmy and a dark lantern, to be sure!

1. a servant or agent who takes and transmits a bribe offered to his master.

1672		Wycherley Love in a Wood I i: joyner.: You are the Picklock and dark-Lanthorn of Policy.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: A Dark-Lanthorn, the Servant or Agent that Receives the Bribe (at Court).
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1832		Satirist (London) 6 May 147/2: ‘Come, strike up Dark-lanthern!’ says I, / Ven the old ’un beginned for to scrub.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

2. (US) an African-American.

1856

Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 23 Aug. n.p.: Not far from No. 4 there is a nest where a woman ties up [...] It is said to be a resort of both colors, though dark lanterns predominate.

(US black) the night.

1936

A.E. Duckett ‘Truckin ’round Brooklyn’ in N.Y. Age 11 July 7/1: Hilda Byrd sits on her stoop every darktime [...] waiting for Frank Simpkins.

(US) for an African-American clientele.

1942

W. Winchell On Broadway 18 June [synd. col.] It’s a new dark-and-tan Harlem spot.

(Aus.) very dark.

1963–74

B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 96: The shop’s as dark as an abo’s arsehole.

very dark.

1841		D.P. Thompson May Martin 26: I’d go for you and take a bear out of a trap, if ’twas as dark as a nigger’s pocket, for I always knows bow to fight .
1859		B.F. Presbury Mustee 426: It was dark as a nigger’s pocket afore we fetched her.
1866		H. Castlemon Frank in the Woods 121: After a few minits’ lookin’ — or, I should say, feelin’ — for the cave war as dark as a nigger’s pocket — I found the young painters.
1905		(ref. to 1863) J.M. Polk Memories of the Lost Cause n.p.: It was as dark as a nigger’s pocket. I was sleepy, hungry and tired. I could feel the gray-backs moving around.
1914		J.M. Polk Nth and Sth American Railway Rev. 29: It was as dark as a nigger’s pocket. I was sleepy, hungry and tired.
1915		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Oct. 48/1: For a while the sorely-tried convoys stumbled up that twisted gully, as dark as a nigger’s pocket, every night, cursing all the way up to the spring and down again.
1956		V. Rowans Loving Couple 91: ‘Dark as a nigger’s pocket in here,’ Fran said, sweeping her mink coat around her.

see black as Newgate under black as... adj.

(Can./US) very dark.

1869		B. Auerbach Black Forest Village Stories (trans.) 235: The moon retired behind a large cloud; so that [...] it was almost ‘as dark as the inside of a cow’.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Roughing It 37: We fastened down the coach curtains [...] and made the place as ‘dark as the inside of a cow.’ as the conductor phrased it.
1884		Leicester Chron. 21 June 6/1: I assure you the streets roundabout were, as Mark Twain puts it, dark as the inside of a cow.
1889		Dly Morn. Astorian (OR) 20 Dec. 3/1: Till ten yesterday morning it was as dark as the inside of a cow.
1899		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 30 July n.p.: There I was ion the middle of a black threacherous bog in a night as [...] dark as the inside of a cow.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 315: The night’s as dark as the inside of a cow.
1910		Eve. Bull. (Honolulu) 21 June 7/1: Old Peter Jackson, who was as dark as the inside of a cow on a dark night, was adored by a tremendous following.
1919		A. Baer Two and Three 3 Mar. [synd. col.] This dinge had a complexion that darker than the inside of an old boot.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 129: It is darker than a yard down a bear’s throat except when it lightnings.

to say nothing; esp. as imper. dark it! be quiet! keep quiet!

1847		Era (London) 14 Mar. 3: ‘Keep it dark,’ says he.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1891		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 7 Feb. 3/3: ‘Why don’t you keep it dark’.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 23 Jan. 3/6: ‘Cabbie, ’ sez he, ‘keep it dark; / It don’t do for folks to know as / How I do this bloomin’ lark’.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 36: ‘Keep it dark, Sonny’ [...] ‘Who are you, tellin me to keep quiet?’.

(UK black) to kill.

1997

‘Q’ Deadmeat 261: If [...] the shit did go off, I was ready to dark them out.

to feign ignorance or incompetence.

1868

Pall Mall Gaz. 15 May 12/1: A race of budding swindlers [...] classed with Mr Charlton who plays ‘dark’ at billiards in the hope of getting some money ‘on’ before contending for the cue.