Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (mainly Aus./N.Z., also d-man, dee) a detective; thus the Dees, the police in general.

1873		Sl. Dict. 141: DEE (properly D), a detective policeman. ‘The DEES are about, so look out.’.
1874		Manchester Eve. News 16 Oct. 4/1: He remembered what could be done in spite of all the ‘d’s’.
1880		Illus. Police News 3 July 4/2: Addressing the officer, Ward said, ‘How many d’s Are there in the alphabet?’ ‘d’ meaning a detective.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: Dee (D.) - A detective policeman. ‘The D’s are about, so look out!’.
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Sept. 6/5: The dee came on full steam and was reaching out his hand to nab him.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Jul. 18/3: The D’s of the great metropolis can pick out scores of handsome, well-dressed young men, clean-skinned and clear-headed, who make it their proud boast that not a drop of the ‘blanked poison has ever passed their lips.’.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 July 13/1: The ’awk-eyed detective had run a young fellow to earth on a charge of larceny, and the trial conclusively proved that, as not unfrequently happens outside novels, the downy D. had secured the wrong party altogether, the real culprit having laid him on the wrong trail.
1895		Mirror of Life 27 July 14/2: The flat stood forth as Sneak the D, / Who, clobbered like a Jay, / Had lured the boys to hang him up, / And give themselves away .
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 231: But look out for the Robert and the Dee [the policeman and the detective].
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Apr. 3/2: He slipped the peelers diligent, / He laughed the ‘D’s’ to scorn, / He dusted off the continent / And left the bank to mourn.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 12 Oct. 3/5: A couple of case-hungry D-men get hold of a well known ‘small crook’ and square him to arrange a robbery .
1910		L. Esson Woman Tamer in Ballades of Old Bohemia (1980) 65: We were blowing down to Sorrento t’other day on one of them Bay boats. [...] Soon’s we had a cook at the engines, gorblime, we were pinched, five of us – two of them smart Ds picked us for being suspicious looking characters.
1914		E. Wittmann ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 127: dee, a detective.
1920		(?) H. Lawson ‘Previous and S’Samuel’ in Roderick (1972) 890: Something the same as what the D’s used ter do when they wanted to ketch us.
1930		(con. 1910s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 84: The crooks used to wonder how the ‘D’s’ (detectives) got their information.
1930		L. Lower Here’s Luck 96: ‘Ds!’ shouted Woggo. ‘Ho! Simp!’ ‘Har, I loves detectives,’ pealed Simpson, shedding his coat.
1934		G.T. Fleming-Roberts ‘Blue Heat’ Phantom Detective May 🌐 Nize job for da dumb dee.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks n.p.: Dick or ‘D’ or Dee: Detective.
1940		H. Drake-Brockman Hot Gold III i: Listen, the Ds ’ll be here any moment.
1941		Howard ‘Heat’ in Mann Coast to Coast 124: Can’t you see that’s just what the d’s are playing for?
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 164: That’s why I’m on the street. That and not letting that bloody dee bulldoze me.
1950		(con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 63: Look-out men stood at strategic points to warn players of the approach of the dees.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 107: Provincial criminals have smelt the boom in London, and have come helter-skelter to cash in before the D’s get cracking.
1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 257: Whenever the Ds want to check up on some Maori brush, around they come to see you.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 210: I saw the police-sign up on the front of the Ford. ‘They’re Dees, too.’.
1974		Adamson & Hanford Zimmer’s Essay 41: The dees looked at the book.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 34: Grasses were often compulsive, they even grassed themselves, telling the D for whom they worked, what they were having off and so strengthening his hold.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 17: D: A detective as in, ‘The bloody Ds are poking round again.’.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 46: Don’t tell me they’ve made you a D?
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Ds. Plainclothes police.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 29: D n. Detective.
2000		F. Kellerman Stalker (2001) 120: It was preferred that the Dees used standard cop cars.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 52/1: D (also dee) abbr. 1 a detective 2 a nosey, over-inquisitive inmate.
2002		50 Cent ‘Wanksta’ 🎵 The D’s ran up in my crib / You know who dropping dimes.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 60: dee Detective, in shortened form, or possibly from ‘demon’, by which name, among others, a colonial detective was known. Commonly The Dees. ANZ from mid C19.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] A female detective with bobbed auburn hair stuck her head out a door. ‘Chloe?’ She followed the D.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 41: Who else you call? [...] Chief of Ds?
2010		W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 69: Terms for the police found both in boobslang and on the street include Ds, Dees, D-Man, Demon, headlice (po-LICE), pig and filth.
2012		G. Johnstone ‘No Through Road’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] They’re sending in some rookie fucken D to pop his cherry on this thing.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] [T]he chief of patrol and chief of D’s are watching and taking names.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 117: ‘You didn’t give this to Cassidy, any of the other Ds?’.

2. (US Und.) detention.

1963

in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 2: She’s over in the house of D.

3. (N.Z. prison) an overly inquisitive inmate, displaying the characteristics of a detective.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 52/1: D (also dee) abbr. 2 a nosey, over-inquisitive inmate.

4. (N.Z. prison) an unmarked police car.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 53/1: D car n. an unmarked police car.