crap n.1
1. (also crapp) money.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Dict. Canting Crew. | |
| Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers 16: He was a good Customer to me, by spending much of his Crop at my House. | |
| Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 204: Crap, money. Nim the crap, to steal the money. Wheedle for crap, to coax money out of anybody. | |
| New Canting Dict. n.p.: crap Money. [Ibid.] n.p.: Crop is also a common Cant Word for Money. | |
| Delightful Adventures of Honest John Cole 19: In the Mornings we’re all Fortune-hunters, / Then spend half our Crop, / And go to the Hop, / And the Night we all spend with the Bunters. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: crop Money. |
| New General Eng. Dict. (5th edn). | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: crap, or crop money. |
| Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: crapp money. | |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | |
| Sl. Dict. |
2. excrement.
 | ‘Seniority’ in Poems II 130: The Sub, who was, now, a most terrible plight, in; / And, not quite aware of... priority s—ing, / Squeez'd awhile...; 'Well!' says he, 'then, the best friends must part;' / Crap! Crap! 'twas a moist one! a right Brewer's ****! | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 68: Vhy, thunder me groggy! if any trav’ler gets rest there – why it is a reglar bug trap [...] and stinks of crap and cag like a dunniken. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Anecdota Americana I 103: An Irishman and an Italian were working on a sewer full of crap. | |
| ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 330: crap — [...] excrement. | |
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks n.p.: Crap: Human excrement. | |
| Man with the Golden Arm 23: I was the guy had to pick fly crap out of the pepper with boxing gloves. | |
| Catcher in the Rye (1958) 124: There didn’t look like there was anything in the park except dog crap and globs of spit. | |
| Burn, Killer, Burn! 52: Tell Brown [...] to wipe the crap from his nose after he sticks it up the most reverend bishop’s fanny! | |
| Villain’s Tale 31: Right down to the structure of the crap they had that morning. | |
| Golden Orange (1991) 113: Now I know who to call about all the dog crap. | |
| Guardian G2 29 Mar. 17: It is men who are especially useless at dealing with their crap. |
3. dirt, mess.
| Paddiana I 96: Sure I can’t spare her till we’ve got in the praties. What could I do wid all the crap on my hands? | |
| Manhattan Transfer 20: You don’t want to shovel crap in a stinking ship’s galley all your life. | |
| Catcher in the Rye (1958) 31: It was always rusty as hell and full of lather and hairs and crap. He never cleaned it. | |
| Down These Mean Streets (1970) 189: Signing on this time as a coal fireman on a black gang. Damm-sam, I never knew what a slave was until I began to shovel that black crap. | |
| Stand (1990) 40: She [...] spat the mouthful of crap she had brought up down the drain. | |
| In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 33: You just stay back there Mr. Tillman. No reason for you to get your shoes dirty stepping in all this crap. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Big Ask 258: Red was [...] spraying Farrell’s phone with window cleaner and rubbing it furiously with a tissue [...] ‘I’ve cleaned off all the crap,’ he said brightly. |
4. nonsense.
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 26: Crap [...] Treachery. See ‘bunk,’ ‘bull,’ ‘con’. | |
| Look Homeward, Angel (1930) 190: I guess Little Maudie will fill up the column to-morrow with some of her crap [...] ‘The Younger Set,’ she calls it. | |
| (con. 1920s) Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 224: Most things are just plain crap to me. | |
| Generation of Vipers 133: The statements and figures upon which Hitler bases his monstrous accusations are simply crap. | |
| From Here to Eternity (1998) 7: Now he’s going to start that crap about the thirty year men. [Ibid.] 161: He was needling you with all that crap about being yellow. | |
| diary 17 Apr. in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 100: Forget the fancy toe painting or Madame Butterfly crap. | |
| ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ in Whitsun Weddings 31: Get stewed: / Books are a load of crap. | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 57: ‘I don’t ever want to hear any crap about how you saved me from something’. | |
| 1985 (1980) 134: We don’t listen to the crap they call sociology. | |
| (con. 1917–18) Make the Kaiser Dance 54: ‘Oh come on, Jim,’ I answered, ‘can that crap, you know it’s bad luck.’. | |
| Aussie Bull ix: Yanks talk ‘crap’ all the time. | |
| Skin Tight 151: What would I want with all this crap? | |
| Stormy Weather 274: Which was crap, an unnecessary lie. | |
| Black Tide (2012) [ebook] These two Poms run it, trained by Vidal Sassoon, all that crap. | |
| Get Your Cock Out 8: All that facking goth crap as well, man! | |
| Observer Mag. 27 Nov. 10: I don’t believe in a lot of the religious crap that’s spoke. | |
| Disassembled Man [ebook] Please, Frankie. Save your crap for the outhouse. | |
| Thrill City [ebook] [He] threatened to arrest me or take away my PI licence if I got involved in any more crap. | |
| Last Kind Words 132: ‘[T]his thing is bending you all out of shape. Visiting Collie. Listening to whatever crap he’s pouring in your ear’. | |
| Crongton Knights 107: God! I missed Mum. She would have sorted this crap out’. | |
| Opal Country 271: ‘What did he say?’ ‘All this crap’. |
5. (US) insolence, cheek; rudeness.
| ‘Blackmailers Don’t Shoot’ in Red Wind (1946) 92: A little less of your crap, copper. | |
| Teen-Age Mafia 96: They didn’t fling any crap his way, but they didn’t warm to him either. | |
| Rubdown [ebook] I waitresssed [...] for fifteen years, getting paid nothing, customers giving me crap all day. | |
| Independent on Sun. Sport 13 Mar. 22/5: If he would have made par after that drive we would probably have given him a bit of crap about it. |
6. rubbish, anything useless or unpleasant.
| letter 3 Dec. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 171: Very favourable but enough to turn your stomach to have to read that sort of crap. | |
| Tropic of Cancer (1963) 114: Her big trunks and her hatboxes and all that crap. | |
| (con. 1944) Gallery (1948) 92: They’re ZI-ing me. It’s one way to get out of all this crap. He told me about the new truth drug they gave him. | |
| Camino Real Block Twelve: This filing system is screwed up [...] File this crap under crap! | |
| How to Talk Dirty 19: Hey, throw this crap outta here! | |
| Gonif 15: I heard the voice of the screw, ‘Let’s get this crap going’. | |
| Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 314: There’ll be no crap lying around when you get back. | |
| Crosskill [ebook] ‘[O]ut of the car rackets, out of Mickey Mouse crap’. | |
| Therapy (1996) 22: They may be producing crap, acting in crap, writing crap, but they try and make it perfect crap. | |
| Fortress of Solitude 430: His cards for Raf were head and shoulders above the usual crap. | |
| Life 5: I cannot understand why I bothered to carry all that crap around. | |
| Gutshot Straight [ebook] This place [...] peddled overpriced, dime-a-dozen crap to dilettantes, rich tourists, and local Botox-swollen trophy wives. |
7. an act of defecation.
| Criminalese. | |
| (con. WWI) Flesh in Armour 344: [He] imagined that a small sudden shell had got poor Frank when he had gone off for a crap. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | (con. 1940s) Borstal Boy 68: God of war, did I want a crap. | |
| Commitments 78: BLACK BIRD ON – TREE TOP – HAS HAD ITS FIRST CRAP. | |
| Guardian G2 29 Mar. 17: Dying for a crap. |
8. a non-specific descriptor, ‘stuff’, ‘things’.
| Dead End Act I: He trew dat crap on me! | |
| Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 144: [footnote] I met Jelly in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1912 [...] I told him to cut out the funny crap and stick to the piano crap and he’d do all right. | |
| Catcher in the Rye (1958) 39: I was putting on my galoshes and crap. | |
| Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 37: It tells you all this crap about [...] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. | |
| (con. WWII) Deathmakers 45: This ain’t softball, you know what I mean? That crap’s for the birds. | |
| Garden of Sand (1981) 412: Would you look at all that crap! Boy, I take my hat off to you. | |
| 8 Ball Chicks (1998) xiii: I’m always very sneaky and I get away with a lot more crap. | |
| Robbers (2001) 238: Says both boys were trouble, mostly B and E, auto theft, crap like that. |
9. (US gang) fighting.
| Duke 91: Bugger yells: ‘The crap’s on!’ We started shooting then. |
10. (US) nothing at all.
| Harder They Fall (1971) 14: Eddie Lewis, spent almost two years at Princeton, got crap. | |
| Jailbait Street (1963) 55: I thought you were with me [...] You didn’t do crap. | |
| Body Shop 15: You guys don’t know crap about prison. |
11. of people, a general derog. term.
| letter 15 Aug. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 89: A month or so ago I had a letter from some crap I dimly knew at Oxford saying he was preparing an anthology. | |
| (con. 1943–5) To Hell and Back (1950) 234: You crawling, creeping crap from Texas. | |
| letter 10 May in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 227: Life is lean here, full of horrible craps like Arthur. | |
| ‘Vers de Société’ in High Windows 35: My wife and I have asked a crowd of craps / To come and waste their time and ours: perhaps. | |
| Breaking Out 67: I have inside me [...] an inbuilt shit-detector, which activates the moment it gets a whiff of foul-mouthed crap like you! | |
| Spike Island (1981) 81: Of course they treated the divisional CID like crap. | |
| Yes We Have No 116: We’re tired of being treated like crap. | |
| Stoning 189: ‘[T]reated like crap in your own country’. |
12. (drugs, also crop) low-quality heroin.
| Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘[H]e comes bangin’ on my door, tearin’ his hair and claimin’ it was crap’. | |
| Amer. Thes. Sl. | |
| Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 19: Are you holding that crap from Sully? | |
| Dog Soldiers (1976) 12: I hope you’re not doing this crap. | |
| ‘Gloss. of Drug Terms’ National Instit. Drug Abuse. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 7: Crap — Low quality heroin; Crop — Low quality heroin. |
13. a damn n.; esp. in phr. (not) give a crap.
| Visions of Cody (1973) 64: Nobody made a move to notice or even gave much of a crap. | |
| Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 107: He doesn’t give a crap what happens to Sullivan. | |
| Portnoy’s Compaint 10: Don’t they give a single crap for the loved ones they leave behind? |
14. (drugs) marijuana.
| Real Bohemia xiii: blast crap, to to smoke marijuana. |
In derivatives
(US) absolute rubbish, nonsense.
| Walk Hard – Talk Loud 313: Bachelo winked at Andy and said, ‘The ole craperoo! Come on, forget that you lost.’ . | |
| Harder They Fall (1971) 12: Ladling out the old craperoo about [...] old Joe Roundheels. | |
| Swell-Looking Babe 126: Maybe it sounds like the old craperoo. | |
| Fun House 191: She talks about wanting to get away from all this, and such lofty crapperoo. | |
| Thief 116: Not because [...] of the Bible or anything of that crappadooley. [Ibid.] 122: Nine times out of ten, the tip you get from the squarejohn is pure crapperoo. | |
| Golden Apple 188: Which was all pure crapperoo. | |
| in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls 199: I just want you to tell a straight story from beginning to end, with no craperoo. |
(US) terrified.
| If Man Be Mad 380: You ain’t mad, you’re scared crapless. Every time you think about it you get scared. | |
| Sironia, Texas II 1576: Honest to God, I’m scared crapless when I think how I was back there just a minute ago. | |
| Open Space Plays 36: After you do a job, like I’m gonna on somebody, they're scared crapless . . . glad to give ya both sides o’ the street. | |
| Madame Cleo’s Girls 68: I’ll bet her phone is jumping off the hook with clients who are scared crapless with this news. | |
| Wkly World News 18 Apr. 4/3: I’m sure she was scared crapless too. Just imagine Bigfoot running around with your sweet princess daughter in his arms. |
inferiority, mediocrity.
| Sopranos 259: Fuck Our Lady’s [Convent] an its crapness. | |
| Guardian Rev. 26 Feb. 8: The show was about the crapness of the come-back, blowing one’s own myth. |
(US) nonsense, rubbish.
| ‘Good Luck is No Good’ in Federal Agent Nov. 🌐 Aw, I don’t believe in that crapolo anymore! | |
| What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 122: Don’t pull that Jewish crapola on me. | |
| (con. 1945) Goodbye to Some (1963) 115: Segrave shattered what he considered her flimsy convictions with a well-planted ‘crapola!’ here and there. | |
| Dear ‘Herm’ 192: All that Casablanca crapola is a red herring. | |
| Paco’s Story (1987) 135: I tell the guy I don’t want no chickenshit Marine Corps crapola. | |
| theStranger.com 9:23 24 Feb.–1 Mar. 🌐 But be warned: Dolls who’ve been repeatedly dumped by guys struggling with clichéd, fear-of-commitment crapola eventually adopt new stratagems. | |
| Mad mag. June 20: Dudes he ‘takes for a ride’ who never shut up with the ‘Are we there yet?!?!’ crapola. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | All the Colours 9: It was Rix’s shtick, motivational crapola. | |
| Shore Leave 24: [C]overing the splashback with pieces of the same crapola [i.e. food detritus]. | |
| Boyo-wulf at https://boyowulf.home.blog 24 Sept. 🌐 He murdered Heatholaf the Wylfing dead, and sure then for the fear of some more crapiola [sic], the Weder bais couldn’t be harbouring him. |
(US campus) very crap adj.
| College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Crappappella (adj.) Shitty; very bad. |
In compounds
(US) a liar, an exaggerator, a deceiver.
| in Guillotine Party and Other Stories 269: I want to tell you what a goddamn crap artist you are! | |
| et al. DAUL 51/2: Crap merchant. A liar; a persuasive talker who lies for profit. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 162: Grossman was a crap-artist. | |
| Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 59: Yuh’re a crap artist, Ed. Yuh’d better shape up before yuh time runs out. | |
| Plainclothes Naked (2002) 80: He said it was gonna get him millions and he lost it all on account of me. Tony’s a crap artist. |
(Scot.) a coward.
| (con. mid-1960s) Glasgow Gang Observed 231: Crap-bags – cowards. |
a general term of abuse, based on the alleged stupidity of the recipient.
| ‘Telethon to Aid Bitter Old Fart’ on ‘Heavily Papered’ at Puppetland.com 🌐 Okay, detractors will say that Mushnick is a clueless crap-brain who probably lives in a one-room firetrap with too many cats. |
(US) the lavatory.
| Tropic of Cancer (1963) 80: When he goes to the crap-can he shouts, ‘Endree, bring me a pitcher of water’. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
(US) a troublesome, threatening situation.
| Battle Cry (1964) 150: I’ll be up crap creek without a paddle. | |
| oral testimony in HDAS I 511: If I don’t come up with three bucks, I’m up crap creek. |
(US) despicable.
| Brave Cowboy (1958) 54: Cowards, rotten crapeatin’ cabrones. |
(US) foolishly happy.
| One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 63: Then he give me this crap-happy smile. [Ibid.] 64: You crap-happy fay mothahfuggin son-a-bitch! |
(orig. US) a fool, an unpleasant person.
| Battle Cry (1964) 36: You’re boots! Crapheads! The lowest [...] form of animal life. | |
| Whistle in the Dark Act III: That’s a very handy one always when any of us, the thick lads, says anything about the big nobs – crap faces. | |
| lettter in I’m Glad You Didn’t Take it Personally 154: Confucious [sic] say: He who takes off all his clothes is like horny old Kraphead Bouton!!! | |
| Poke On Line 27 Dec. 🌐 Spotty teenager S... C... has been nicknamed Craphead Slaphead becauuse his acne spells out the word A-R-S-E. | |
| Chicago Trib. 18 Aug. TAB-25/1: Not to mention phrases like ‘L-7 weenie’ and ‘pee-drinking crap-face’. |
(Aus.) a filthy, disgusting place .
| Pushed from the Wings (1989) 131: In fact, when I close down the crap-heap I think I will [have someone transferred]. |
a filthy, disgusting place.
| in First-Person America (1980) 55: Reminds me of Wilson’s. Boy, what a craphole! | |
| Face of War 166: Jesus, what a craphole this is! | |
| Medal of Honor 36: If there were any more Idas been long gone from this craphole. | |
| Guardian G2 28 May 7: Back to the ‘craphole’ he thought he’d left behind forever. | |
| Stoning 92: ‘[T]hose religious nutters at the tourist park have a point’. |
see separate entry.
|
see shitload n.
see crap-artist
a general term of abuse, lit. a ‘heap of shit’.
| Diaries 3 July 116: That bogus old crapmound Norman Shelby was in it. Terribly funny really. |
(US) lavatory paper.
| (con. 1920s) Hoods (1953) 141: Would I like to be there when they turn the crank and this crap paper comes flowing out. |
(Aus.) an outside lavatory.
| With Hooves of Brass 21: [T]he day he had lost his pay as he squatted over the crap-pit dug in the far end of the sawdust heap. |
a general derisory epithet.
| Scene (1996) 139: You could have my crap-pushing job and I wouldn’t care. |
terrible, of very poor quality .
| Mad mag. Sept. 4: Are we using the word ‘crap-sack’ correctly when describing your letters? |
terrified.
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Cold Stone Jug (1981) II 125: I got crap-scared. I thought as the whole boob was going mad, and me also. |
(US) one who talks nonsense.
| ‘In My Father’s House’ in Amer. Songbag 483: There ain’t no liars there in my Father’s house [...] There ain’t no crapshooters there In my Father’s house. | |
| ‘Popeye’ Thimble Theatre series No. 1 n.p.: I’ll handle the money because you’re a crap-shooter at heart. | |
| Kingsblood Royal (2001) 91: Dis-here congoleum of crapshooters is powuhful lakly to perish in dat ole lake of fire. | |
| Straw Boss (1979) 270: Martin, meet Davey Wasserman, the greatest crapshooter the paratroopers ever put into the field. |
(US) the slums.
| in Sweet Daddy 134: Nice feeling [...] back to crap town in style. |
(US campus) an irritatingly stupid or deceitful person.
| Campus Sl. Apr. |
In phrases
see separate entry.
see take crap
(US) to lose one’s temper.
| Battle Cry (1964) 397: Don’t get your crap hot, Max. |
a phr. of dismissal, rejection.
| in Heller In This Corner (1974) 284: I told the guy to go take a crap for himself. |
(Aus.) to be astute, to not be ignorant.
| Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 112: Well, I know crap from clay, pal, and you’re not clay. |
a general intensifier, often of speed.
| ‘Blind Old Kate’ 🌐 He’d have to [...] ride like crap and get the fuck out of there. |
nonsensical talk, usu. intended to persuade.
| Front Page Act III: My God, I’m a sap! Falling for your line of crap ... ! | |
| Prison Days and Nights 25: The line of crap they hand out to the papers and the women’s clubs. | |
| et al. DAUL 126/2: Line of crap. A persuasive line of talk saturated with impressive lies. |
to talk nonsense.
| (con. 1944) Gallery (1948) 34: You’re going to find all the air corps joes shooting crap on the front terrace. | |
| (con. early 1930s) Harlem Glory (1990) 51: ‘Cooperate how?’ said irritated Buster. ‘You’re going to shoot that crap again?’. | |
| et al. DAUL 197/2: Sling the crap. To tell grossly exaggerated stories; to lie artfully; to boast. | |
| Catcher in the Rye (1958) 42: They weren’t just shooting the crap. They really meant it. | |
| Affairs of Gidget 72: You’re not shooting the crap? |
to defecate.
| Tropic of Cancer (1963) 123: Piss on the floor, if you like. I wish I could take a crap in the bureau drawer. | |
| in Limerick (1953) 239: When a chap took a crap / In the woods. | |
| in Limerick (1953) 140: An efficient young fellow named Cave / Said, ‘Think of the time that I save / By avoiding vacations / And sexy relations, / And taking a crap while I shave’. | |
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 175: I wish I was a diamond on pretty Lulu’s hand / And every time she’d take a crap I’d see the promised land. | |
| On the Yard (2002) 160: Every morning the heat knows [...] whether or not you took a crap and how many times you made it with your old lady. | |
| Ladies’ Man (1985) 15: Punching out a time card to take a crap. | |
| ‘Poofs on Parade’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] [M]en would still have to wear their Reg Grundys when taking a shower or having a crap. | |
| Golden Orange (1991) 266: I took a crap on the rug. | |
| Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 take a crap v 1. to defecate. (‘I’ve got to go take a crap’.). |
to accept bad behaviour, insulting speech etc; thus take no crap, to stand up for one’s rights.
| (con. 1920s) Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 167: I’ll stay home if it means eatin’ all that crap. | |
| Tommy Gallagher’s Crusade 37: I don’t see why I [...] have to be a flunky for Jews, open doors and elevators for ’em, say yes sir and yes ma’m to ’em, run their goddamn errands, take crap from sheenies. | |
| (con. 1944) Gallery (1948) 242: I have to take enough crap on the ward in the daytime. I didn’t come here to have the likes of you insult me. | |
| Lead With Your Left (1958) 40: When I start taking crap you can pull a headstone over me. | |
| in Sweet Daddy 48: Knows the score. Not going to take a lot of crap. | |
| Ball Four 223: Mike Marshall and I talked about [...] becoming roommates and he said [...] we’d probably have to take too much crap from the players and coaches. | |
| ‘Drama’ 🎵 Cruisin’ for a bruisin’, I’m takin’ no crap. | |
| Life’s Too Short 45: When he offers advice, he speaks with care and kindness. He also takes no crap and calls us out. |
(orig. US) to talk nonsense.
| Banjo 158: ‘Don’t talk crap about home cooking in them monkey islands,’ Banjo interrupted. | |
| Narrows 262: Don’t talk that crap to me. | |
| (con. 1985–90) In Search of Respect 47: Because we talk huge amounts of crap that don’t mean a goddamned thing – into the air. |
In exclamations
see separate entry.
a semi-euph. for no shit! excl.
| Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 307: ‘You’re a good dancer,’ I said. ‘No crap. You’re good.’. | |
| Gang Girl (2011) 19: ‘Guess what [...] I’m moving out next month.’ ‘No crap? How come?’. | |
| Out of the Burning (1961) 147: No crap. |