toad n.
1. (also toadfish, toadstool) an unpleasant or unattractive person.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Honest Whore Pt 1 V ii : Whip me? out you toad. | |
| ‘A Shee-Devill Made Tame by a Smith’ Knave of Clubs 35: Out, filthy beast, I loath thy lookes, / And hate thee like a toad . | |
| Birth of Merlin (1662) III i: Peace you pernicious Rat [...] Away, suffer a gilded rascal, a low-bred despicable creeper, and insulting Toad, to spit poison’d venom in my face! | |
| Noble Souldier IV i: You Salsa-Perilla Rascall, Toad-guts, you whorson pockey French Spawne of a bursten-bellyed Spyder. | |
| Bury Fair II i: Ounds, this Count will make my damn’d affected Toad so proud, the Devil would not live with her. | |
| Refusal 44: Ah! it’s a wheedling Toad! | |
| Sarah-Ad 24: But now see how the saucy Toad / Requited me for all this Good. | |
| High Life Below Stairs I iii: Out, you black Toad. | |
| Spiritual Quixote I Bk iv 231: If it is not one of these Methodists [...] A pack of canting toads! | |
| Diary and Letters (1904) I 71: Oh, she’s a toad! | |
| Raising the Wind I ii: The old toad’s got some money I reckon. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Scots Mag. 1 Nov. 100/2: Such a wicked, perverse, mischeivous toad was never heard of in that or any other country. | |
| Lost in London I i: It be that little toad Blinker, as be allays a-worrittin’ an’ a-courtin’ o’ me! | |
| Dene Hollow II 114: Do you suppose I shall ask your leave whether I call her names or not? She is a toad. There! | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | John March, Southerner 128: ‘Thats the Governor next to him.’ ‘That old toad? Why, he’s a moral hulk; look at his nose!’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Euroa Advertiser (Vic.) 27 May 3s/2: ‘Confound the ugly toad,’ muttered Reggie as he watched the Jew’s ungainly form waddling down the road. | |
| Making of an Englishman III 229: The ugly, leering men were ‘toads.’. | |
| Pleasant Jim 111: You love him, don’t you? you bull-faced toad! | |
| German Prisoner 8: He had been known as [...] a pimp — a shit-house — a toad — a sucker — a blasted sod. | |
| Stevedore II iii: De nigger wench she know de difference between a man and a puffed-up toad when she sees one. | |
| Rhubarb 103: Hit the road, toad! | |
| Seraph on the Suwanee (1995) 892: I wouldn’t quit my business to go hunt up that toadfish. | |
| Cannibals 159: He’s a toadstool. I don’t like him, and don’t trust him. | |
| ‘A Boy & his Dog’ Beast that Shouted Love (1976) 179: Hey, you! Motherfuckin’ toad, move my stuff over the other side. | |
 | Dly News-Jrnl (Murfreesboro, TN) 13 Sept. 14/6: She has a homoexual son and a toad of a teenage daughter. | |
| Campus Sl. Mar. 10: toad – boring, dull, monotonous: Our drama teacher is a real toad. | |
| Godson 58: ‘[T]his other toad with a head like a soccer ball and a face like a bent smiley button’. | |
| Another Day in Paradise 98: Now this fucking toad is fucking with me. |
2. attrib. use of sense 1.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Geek Love 203: You keep your toad yap shut about it. |
3. the penis [pun on SE toad in the hole/hole n.1 (1b)].
| ‘Toasts & Sentiments’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 48: May a distressed lady never be in want of a toad in the hole. |
4. (US) an habitual drug user.
| Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/4: We passed half-a-dozen barnacles [...] standing backs to a wall and swaying gently. ‘Toads,’ said Mooney, ‘Hopped up’. |
5. (US) a black person.
| [ | | ‘Gallery of 140 Comicalities’ Bell’s Life in London 24 June 1/2: ‘Scrub away Jenny! I’ll warrant we get the dirty toad white!’ ‘O, Misse your water so dam hot, you scald poor Sambo!’ ‘Drot your black carcase!’]. |
| Fields of Fire (1980) 369: I’da liked to kill them toads. | |
| Homicide (1993) 261: He could not [...] respect and care for a black detective, then go dropping words like nigger and toad. | |
| (con. 1975–6) Steel Toes 24: Cut your hearts out, ya chickenshit watermelon-eating toads. |
6. (US gay) an unattractive middle-aged gay man.
| Gay (S)language. |
7. see toadskin
In compounds
see sense 1 above.
SE in slang uses
In compounds
a term of derision.
| Trapper’s Last Shot (1974) 150: That pusselgutted, sweaty, toad fucker you got glommed onto me when my back was turned was a Goddamned hotshot, God Damn it! |
(US campus) a man who treats women badly.
| Campus Sl. Fall. |
1. (US) a $50 bill.
| Six Days in the Metropolis 16: Here’s twenty-five. I got the toad-skin changed at a broker’s. |
2. (US) a five-cent stamp.
| Little Brother n.p.: ‘Don’t you know what a toadskin is?’ said Billy, drawing a dingy five-cent stamp from his pocket. ‘Here’s one.’ [F&H]. |
3. a miser, a greedy individual [pvb his purse is made of toadskin, he is a mean, grasping individual] .
| Moleskin Joe 176: Do you like that toad-skin, Tom the Moocher? |
4. (US/Aus., also toad) a banknote.
| ‘Mollie Matches’ Sandburrs 47: An’ d’ toad skin’s a fiver at that! | |
| Bluefield Daily Tel. (WV) 11 Mar. 4/2: In addition [...] the following [names for money] are given: [...] Toadskin. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Nov. 44/1: I looks close, an’ it ain’t no Bank of Eluphants or Victorian S. and B. Bank, but a fair dinkum, jist outer the box, Comminwealth Bank ov Orsetrailiar toad-skin. Fifty quid! I nearly did in me Block. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 421: Toadskin. Paper money. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 189: Toadskins.– Paper money. | |
| Never Come Morning (1988) 207: Could’ve stayed on, pickin’ up eight ’r ten toads a day, just layin’ around smokin’ her cigarettes. | |
| et al. DAUL 224/1: Toad-skin. A one-dollar bill. |
(US) a large pocketknife or jackknife.
| ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 450: toad-stabber, toad-sticker, n. Pocket knife; jack-knife. | |
| Western Dly Press 26 May 3/4: More harvesting! Have you ever tedded a swath with a ‘toad stabber?’. | |
| F.O.B. Detroit 48: ‘There you are,’ said Russ, snapping the blade open. ‘A regular toad-stabber of a thing.’. | |
| (con. 1944) Big War 288: He [...] picked up the sword. ‘Hey, this is yours, Newcombe. Man, what a toad-stabber.’. | |
| Big Rumble 48: You got a good toad stabber? | |
| Because the Night 237: [A] razor-sharp Arkansas toad stabber. |
1. a sword.
| Calif. Spirit of Times 7 Aug. 1/8: The Judge put his toad sticker atween his teeth, tuk a pistol in won hand, and a slung shot in the other, an sez thru his nose, ‘cum on’ [DA]. | |
| ‘Camp Phrases’ in Chicago Trib. 11 Nov. 2: A tent is jocularly termed ‘the canvas,’ a sword is a ‘toad sticker,’ and any of the altered patterns of muskets are known as ‘howitzers.’. | |
| Dict. Americanisms (4th edn) 708: Toad-Sticker, a term for a sword, almost universal among our soldiers during the late war. | |
| Leeds Mercury 1 Nov. 6/2: Yes, that’s where a Spanish devil of a count ran me through with a small sword. Every time I catch a cold it settles in my lungs where the damned garlic-eater’s toad-sticker went through. | |
| ‘The Alphabet Poem’ (US Army poem) n.p.: T is the Toad Sticker on an officer’s hip. |
2. a large knife; a bayonet.
| Criminal Life (NY) 19 Dec. n.p.: The niggah lover was nigh unto being stabbed with a weapon known as [...] ‘Toad Sticker’. | |
| Arizona Nights II 223: You can have this old toad-sticker if you want it. | |
| ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 450: toad-stabber, toad-sticker, n. Pocket knife; jack-knife. | |
| Hist. of Rome Hanks 293: I must have picked up this old toadsticker. | |
| Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: Bayonet [...] toadsticker. | |
| et al. DAUL 224/1: Toad-sticker. A knife, especially a long-bladed weapon. | |
| Big Rumble 151: Then he took out the toadsticker he carried. | |
| Neverwhere (2000) 97: Mister Vandemar might have a little accident with his old toad-sticker. |
In phrases
(US) a leader, a chief, the most important person in a situation.
| Dict. Americanisms 42: Biggest toad in the puddle. A Western expression for a head-man; a leader of a political party, or of a crowd. Not an elegant expression, though sometimes well-applied. | |
| Amer. Gloss. |