Green’s Dictionary of Slang

$10,000.

1983		A. Alvarez Biggest Game in Town 12: In gambling parlance, a nickel is $500, a dime is $1000, a big dime is $10000. ‘It makes it simpler,’ I was told. It also makes it more unreal.
2007		A. Holden Big Deal 14: The greenhorn who sits down here and calls a ‘big dime’ can find himself in the pot to the tune of ten grand.

1. (US) an unspecified large sum of money .

1929–31		Partridge DU (1949) 37/1: big nickel a large sum of money.
1950		R. Starnes Another Mug for the Bier 67: Anne sighed and said O.K. lover boy. It was a big nickel’s worth.

2. the sum of $500 or $5000.

1961		J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling 115: A ‘big nickel’ is $500 [...] Other bookies may use these codes differently [...] a ‘big nickel’ could mean $5,000.
1981		D.E. Miller Jargon 292: Big nickel [...] $500.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 122: Just did a big nickel in traveler’s checks, and that was pretty easy.

(W.I.) massive, frighteningly huge.

1916

J.G. Cruickshank Black Talk 23: A big-able man, a big-able house, a big-able dinner.

see separate entries.

see also separate entries.

see big-ass adj.

(US, mainly Western) an important person, a boss; also attrib., aggressive, influential.

[1850		Western Star (Pulaski, TX) 3 Jan. 2/1: You must do business in that line [i.e. horse-stealing] with a big auger].
1872		Austin American-Statesman 16 May 2/2: He intends to take all of our licences from us — a right smart job, but then you know he bores with a big auger] .
1880		Wisconsin State Register (Portage, WI) 7 Aug. 3/4: [Y]ou comply, of course. he has got around you in such a big-auger style.
[1880		Boston Wkly Globe (MA) 19 May 5/2: Billy [...] has been boring with a big auger [...] He has doubled or trebled the fortune left to him].
[1890		Big Stone Gap Post (VA) 3 Oct. 1/4: It was believed that Scott Newman [...] would scorn to ‘touch the city for so small a sum [...] he bores with a big auger’].
1903		A. Adams Log Of A Cowboy 125: I can’t quite make out this other duck, but I reckon he’s some big auger – a senator or governor, maybe.
1905		A. Adams Outlet Ch. v: By ten o’ clock I had got them to the first divide, when who should ride up but the owner, the old cowman himself — the sure enough big auger.
1932		W.M. Raine Under Northern Stars 199: ‘I’ll show ’em who is the big auger around here.’ The broken teeth of Flannigan showed in an evil grin.
1944		R.F. Adams Western Words (1968) 19/1: big auger A cowboy’s name for the big boss.
1946		New Buffalo Bill Weekly [story title] The Big Auger of Bar.
1967		T. Gries Will Penny [film script] Well, that’s the story he gave the big auger.
1989		G.D. Shirreffs Proud Gun 11: You were the big auger around here. Five years ago you ran Sundown.

see big ballocks under ballocks n.

1. a superior person or one who claims to be so; also attrib.

1968		A. Salkey Late Emancipation of Jerry Stover (1982) 168: But a name like Percy Dixon make you sound as if you belong to them big banana people over yonder, man.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 51: Wendy wore the big banana’s trousers in the public affairs department at Telecom.

2. the most important thing, the crux of a matter.

1980		T. Lorenz Guys Like Us 229: You’re playing for the big banana.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 11: He’s a hardshell Baptist an thinks this ride is the big banana.

see bean n.¹ (7)

see bertha n.

see bird n.² (1)

death.

1983

Goldman & Fuller Charlie Company 331: ‘I thought, “This is it, the Big Blink”,’ he said. ‘I ran out. But he was just pimpin’ us.’.

(Aus./US) a hurricane.

1992		(con. 1928) St Petersburg (FL) Times 12 July n.p.: The big blow was coming. One of the biggest blows of all time was on its way.
2001		Orlando Business Journal 1 June [headline] Make plans now for the next ‘Big Blow’.

the New York Stock Exchange.

1901		N.Y. Times 3 May 31: As much clerical work in the Exchange’s Clearing House as in the ‘big board.’.
1929		Times 30 Oct. 14/1: Just before the close of the market on the ‘big board’ .

see boat n.¹ (1c)

an aristocrat, a notable person.

1883

‘’Arry at the Royal Evening Fête’ in Punch 28 July 38/1: They’ve their slang, I suppose, these Big Bobs.

(US gay) the penis.

1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 34: Penis [...] big brother.
1972		R.A. Wilson Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words.

see big boy n. (7)

(US) syphilis.

1968

(con. late 19C) S. Longstreet Wilder Shore 216: It was also called the Old Rale, Big Charlie.

1. an important or the most important man.

1912		Day Book (Chicago) 2 Aug. 11/1: Johnson, alias ‘Big Chief’ [...] is the best pitching proposition in the league.
1917		L.A. Times 22 Apr. III 22: A lieutenant just out of West Point is a ‘shave-tail,’ [...] A general is a ‘big chief.’ A colonel is an ‘eagle,’ because of his insignia.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 28: He was a Joke until the Music started, but after that he was a Big Chief.
1936		‘Josephine Tey’ Shilling for Candles 107: ‘Thinks a lot of you, Erica. Not impressionable as a rule. But you are the big chief, it seems’.
1940		E. O’Neill Iceman Cometh Act I: Look at de Big Chief in dem days [...] Folks in de know tells me, see de man at de top, den you never has trouble.
1977		F. Dike First South African 10: Are you the son of nkosi, the big chief here at the office?

2. (drugs) mescaline.

1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 45: big chief, the mescaline.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).

3. see big boss, the n.

(US black) a self-important person.

c.1929

Z.N. Hurston Bone of Contention (1995) 970: Come on! Youse a big seegar, but Ah kin smoke yuh!

an important or self-important person.

2003

GazetteNet.com 14 Jun. 🌐 Big E’s and Mike Superson are very wonderful to the community, and kind of unusual themselves. They’re a big cog in what makes this city run.

a nuclear bomb.

1963

A. Baron Lowlife (2001) 5: If they drop that big cookie I can always go down to the beach and swim out into the warm sea.

(US Und.) a bomb.

1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 219: big cough—Bomb containing a heavy charge of explosive.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 139: Sometimes we’d plant a pineapple to throw a scare into some storekeeper. And sometimes we had to let off a ‘big cough’ and wreck his joint.

see big daddy n.

(US prison) visiting day.

1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 580: In virtually all American prisons [...] visiting day is the big day, a prison visitor is a hoosier.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 26/2: Big day. (P) (West) Visiting day. ‘My old partner’s coming in big day and plant (place conveniently) a couple of briars (hacksaw blades) for me.’.

(US teen) the Second World War.

1982–2004		G. Sculatti Catalog of Cool 🌐 (The) Big Deuce [...] World War II.
1999		River Reporter (N.Y.) 11 Nov. n.p.: After the end of World War II, the ‘big Deuce,’ it was decided that it would be impractical to start commemorating an additional two days of wars’ ends.
2008		D. Jenkins Franchise Babe 33: He was a marine in the Big Deuce. He hit the beach at Okinawa.

1. (US gambling, also big dick from Dixie, big Tom, Richard the Great) the point of 10 in craps dice; usu. ext. as big Dick from Boston.

1890		J.P. Quinn Fools of Fortune 540: The quaint expressions of [...] ‘little Joe,’ ‘big Dick from Boston,’ and the like.
1898		‘The Game of Craps’ in Current Lit. XIII:6 558/2: Nearly every point on the dice is named. [...] ten sometimes is ‘Big Dick,’ and at others ‘Big Tom.’.
1902		Bisbee Dly Rev. (AZ) 13 Aug. 5/1: ‘C-c-even. Come eleven!’ ‘ Big Dick from Boston!’ .
1908		Stell & Null Convict Verse 18: Eighty days an-ah great Big Dick!
1919		Crowe & Chase Pat Crowe, Aviator 87: You probably recall the thrilling adventures of Snake Eyes, Little Joe, Phoebe Snow, Ada from Decatur, Richard the Great, and Box Cars.
1919		A. Baer Two and Three 18 Feb. [synd. col.] The dukes and kings will trot out the royal dice and let Little Joe or Big Richard do the talking.
1919		C.E. Piesbergen Overseas with an Aero Squadron 56: ‘Whatta ’y’ shoot?’ [...] ‘Big Dick’.
1920		C. Sandburg ‘Crapshooters’ in Smoke and Steel 34: The myths are Phoebe, Little Joe, Big Dick. / Hope runs high with a: Huh, seven—huh, come seven.
1922		(con. 1917–18) S.V. Benét Beginning of Wisdom 221: ‘Big Dick!’ he moaned to the bones that clattered like spilt teeth.
1933		Hecht & Fowler Great Magoo 77: weber: Ten, eh? nicky: Big dick. Come on.
1937		Wash. Post 3 Oct. B8/6: A ten is ‘Big Dick from Dixie,’ and a twelve is ‘Boxcars,’ but three is just plain ‘Craps.’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1958		Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 202: 10 – Big Dick.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 6: Joe, of course, is the lowest point on the dice. Above it are [...] , Eighter-Decatur (three [i.e. combinations]), Quinine (a bitter two), Big Dick (two) and the fielders, Heaven-eleven and Boxcars, which have no bearing after the initial roll.
2004		‘Animated Dominoes, Dice’ at Old and Sold 🌐 Some of the best-known nicknames in dice are: [...] Big Dick, Big Dick from Boston: total of ten.

2. an important person or thing; also attrib.

1953-8		Clovers ‘Rotten Cocksuckers’ Ball’ 🎵 Come on you poor-ass singers and you big-dick slingers / We goin’ downtown to the Cocksuckers’ Ball.
1965		(con. WWII) E. Lambert Long White Night 134: ‘Being a big-hearted sort of a bastard—’ ‘What sort of a bastard?’ ‘You ’eard, sport, Big-heart, that’s me.’ ‘Big dick.’ ‘Keep sex out of this,’ Bocker told him.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 79: Big dick A sexually expert male.
1998		(con. 1960s) G. Washington Blood Brothers 178: ‘Move over, girls, and let a real man sit, with his big dick self,’ Johnny said to me, motioning the other guys to move back.
2000		Indep. Rev. 12 Jan. 4: I want all the white people to move to the back and let my big dick niggers come to the front.
2008		Simon & Price ‘Took’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 7 [TV script] Fuck your big-dick redball.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] Monty uses his big-dick gold-shield swag to convince this rookie to take Monty’s ID and run the test for him.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 246: ‘I’m the big dick in this dealand [...] you do exactly what I tell you’.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] I peeled off three C-notes like having a big dick wad of dough was my natural state.

3. (US prison) a ten-year jail sentence.

1932

‘Spindrift’ n.p.: A sentence of imprisonment is a rap, one year is known as a calendar; five years a handful; ten years big dick, or deuce [DU].

(Aus.) a big win; thus go for the big dish, to place a large bet, to gamble heavily.

1949

L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 29: Never seem to get the right trot, max. Whenever I go for the big dish the horse I back gets beaten a skull.

1. (also the Big) the Erie Canal.

1822		‘XYZ’ Knickerbocker Tour of N.Y. State (1968) 54: It must be confessed that the ‘Big Ditch’ does not present a great appearance when in an incipient state.
1825		C.D. Colden cited in AS (1946) XXI:4 305/1: What was called by its friends ‘the great Canal’ and by its opponents the ‘big ditch’.
1835		H.C. Todd Notes 64: The Erie canal [...] was at first attempted to be laughed down under the cognomen of ‘The Big, and Clinton’s Dutch’ [DA].
1872		Harper’s mag. May 841/1: Tammany used the ‘big ditch’ scheme as one of the most effective weapons against him [DA].

2. the Atlantic Ocean.

1909		R.A. Wason Happy Hawkins 11: I’m the biggest fool this side o’ the big ditch.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

3. the Panama Canal.

1886		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 1 Dec. 1/5: A Big Ditch. The Atlantic and Mexican Gulf Canal Company.
[1895		Kansas Agitator (Garnett, KS) 21 July 3/3: To dig a ditch through Panama, A hundred millions given.
1901		Marshall Republican (Saline Co., MO) 6 Dec. 1/2: The work already done on the Panama ditch is valued at $40,000,000.
1915		E. Poole Harbor 163: For within a few years the Big Ditch would open across Panama.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 206: It is believed that Mr. Gilbert [...] was a worker in the Panama Canal Zone [...] one of the white men who ‘worked on the Big Ditch’.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

see under big doing.

see double dome under dome n.

see double-domed under dome n.

(W.I.) a large and good-humoured man.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

see under elbow n.¹

(US drugs) 125 grams of cocaine.

2016

Barer et al. Betrayal in Blue 143: A ‘Big Eight’ is 125 grams.

(US) an important person.

1973		White House Tapes 27 Mar. n.p.: Haldeman: ‘He [i.e. Attorney-Gen. John N. Mitchell] is as high up as they’ve got.’ Ehrlichman: ‘He’s the big enchilada.’.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 207: Oh you love him now, now when you’re the Big Enchilada and he needs you every hour of the day.
1985		(con. 1968) D.A. Dye Citadel (1989) 173: Get at the Big Enchilada and get it over with.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 183: Rudy Graveline was the big enchilada.
1999		Guardian Travel 2 Oct. 13: Here they have the blood of Christ! Which in Catholic relic terms is very much the big enchilada.
2000		Observer Rev. 20 Feb. 2: The big enchilada – the Presidency of the United States – is still out there.
2005		N.Y. Times 30 Oct. 🌐 But wittingly or unwittingly, both of these supposedly thorough inquiries actually protected the White House by avoiding, in Watergate lingo, ‘the big enchilada.’.
2022		Twitter 14 Oct. 🌐 Her Svengali strategist [...who styles himself ‘the Grand Enchilada’.

(US black) high-denomination dollar bills (which bear larger than hitherto presidential portraits).

2016

Jeezy ‘All There’ 🎵 Nine hundred in my pocket, big faces all there.

(US) an arrogant, self-important person; thus adj. big-feeling, arrogant.

1893		Kansas Agitator (Garnett, KS) 16 Mar. 3/1: [He] is as pompous and big feeling [...] as a fussy old turkey gobbler.
1902		Valentine Democrat (NE) 27 Feb. 4/1: There is always someone trying to pound you down [...] one of those envious (big feeling and wonders why people don’t take to ’em) sort of fellows.
1913		Charlevoix Co. Herald (East Jordan, MI) 30 Aug. 5/1: J. Weisman, who owns and operates a department staore [...] is a big feeler.
1922		Chariton Courier (Keytesville, MO) 20 Jan. 5/1: The Big-Feeling Gink is lawying down the Law again. Every remark is a Statement; every Step is a Strut.
1967–9, 1976		in DARE.

(US black) characteristic of a black rustic, newly arrived in a U.S. city from the rural South.

1969

U. Hannerz Soulside 145: The ghetto dialect may be referred to as ‘big feet talk’—poor people down south got big feet because they could not afford shoes.

see big boy n. (4)

see big man

see big boss, the n.

(US) the Atlantic Ocean.

1855

J. Brougham Basket of Chips 301: A fellow as has made hisself somebody on the other side of the big ferry.

(US) large scale; thus go the big figure, to do something on a large scale.

1837		A. Greene Glance at N.Y. I v: A foo-foo, or outsider, is a chap wot can’t come de big figure.
1840		Burlington free Press (VT) 24 Jan. 1/5: Things is sadly haltered since the times when the snow used to go the big figure.
1843		W.T. Thompson Major Jones’s Courtship (1872) 83: Well, I glory in her spunk, but it’s monstrous expensive to go things on the big figer that she’s on now.
1851		Indiana State Sentinel (IN) 19 June 1/4: Thinking he could go the big figure, he went at a dashing pace.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 14: Old Billy Clyde’s salary is up there in big figures now.

(US) the senior figure, esp. as a prison warden; thus second finger, deputy warden.

1918		Van Loan Fore! 59: Who’s the boss here? Who’s the Big Finger?
1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 116: Big finger—warden; second finger—P. K. or deputy; screws—the big finger’s dogs. [Ibid.] 117: They have invited the warden and the second finger [...] and 8 or 9 screws.

to act in a superior manner.

2014

T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] We don’t want them coming down here and big-footing the lot of us. Be just like them to steal the show.

(US black) tough, élite (often physically large) detectives, dealing with organized crime and similar areas; such police officers match their wide powers with indiscriminate physical violence and the general belief (in modern use) that all members of the black community are de facto criminals.

1929		J.B. Booth London Town 240: So it has come about that the purely ridiculous spectacle of a posse of Big Fours, or Gigantic Fives, or Colossal Forties [...] holding up a roomful of respectable citizens supping and dancing, while names are taken and contents of glasses sampled, excites little or no comment.
[1961		J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 134: It seemed as if all Scotland Yard was there [...] I was able to spot the Big Four — there was Superintendant Greeno — Superintendant Beveridge — the Lot!].
1970		A. Young Snakes (1971) 76: I’d be laid down to sleep nights [...] fast by my pillow, listening to the Big Four (a notorious quartet of brutal policemen who prowled the steets and alleys in sedans looking and asking for nothing but trouble) beating the shit out of someone.

(UK Und.) a prison.

1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 75/2: late 19C-20.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

1. (US) a self-important person.

1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 2: Big George: Easy victim.
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.

2. 25 cents.

1954

‘Bop Dict.’ Mad mag. July 20: quarter – big george.

1. a weakling, an ineffectual person; usu. found as a direct statement, You big girl’s blouse!

1969		J. Stevenson Nearest and Dearest Series 2, episode 1 (camera script) 13: eli: Go round talking like that, you’ll be hearing from our solicitor. nellie: He is our solicitor, you big girl’s blouse [OED].
1978		W. Donaldson Balloons in the Black Bag 41: The big girl’s blouse was sat seated on the bench, eyes closed, a look of foolish rapture on his face.
1987		Curtis & Elton in Blackadder (1998) 261/2: Oh, Mr Byron. Don’t be such a big girl’s blouse!
1994		I. Welsh ‘A Smart Cunt’ in Acid House 235: Hobo was a namby-pamby blouse.
1998		Guardian Sport 31 July 16: Notice how Athers was able to get right up Donald’s pipe [...] generally provoking Mr 98 mph into behaving like a big girl’s blouse.
1998		Indep. on Sun. Culture 11 Oct. 9: Only a right pair of girl’s blouses could be shocked.
2002		Indep. 12 Nov. 18: He was the Boss in a world of girl’s blouses, he was the biggest.
2022		D. Andrew Aussie Sl. 16: Girl’s Blouse Timid, uncommitted male .
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 501: Can you imagine a Greek [prison]? Oooooh! Rampant! Not the sojourn of choice for a big girl’s blouse.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1999		Observer 7 Nov. 28: All cissy, big girl’s blouse stuff, fit for strange men in corduroys.
2000		Guardian Travel 8 Jan. 4: Big girl’s blouse events like softball and golf.

1. anyone important, or considered as such, e.g. a gang boss.

1901		Wichita Dly Eagle (KS) 24 Apr. 4/3: ‘Gimme it, den,’ says de big guy [...] ‘If I was a big guy like you, ’ says 342, ‘I’d git wise to myself an’ try to stay on de square’.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 258: These big guys have all got funny looking relations.
1917		B.E.F. Times 20 Jan. (2006) 163/2: ‘Nix on me,’ said the big guy.
1924		‘Digit’ Confessions of a Twentieth Century Hobo 90: We want to hit up the big guys. There are plenty of them around who would jump at the chance if we could only find them.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 27: big guy.— [...] any leading criminal or official in charge.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 33: He makes himself out to be the big guy.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1955		R. Graziano Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 264: This big guy from the Capone mob, that wheel from the Milwaukee mob.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 207: The big guy’ll be pissed off at us for not cutting this Nolan down.
1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 9: Big-guy – the top hoodlum; leader of a mob.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 68: The big guys run the show and the ones that run it most are the ones [...] way back in the Rear.

2. a friend; also a joc. form of address.

1982		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 1: big guy – good friend: Hi, big guy.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself 36: ‘Got one for you, big guy,’ he said. [...] ‘Eyelashes on the clit. Says he can blink her off in no time’ .
1988		W.D. Myers Fallen Angels 208: The medic [...] started wiping my face. The corners of my mouth. ‘How you doing, big guy?’.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 60: You’re lookin’ good, big guy.

3. (also big guy in the sky) see big boss, the n.

1. an important person.

1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 309: It’s Yankee big hats and not Yankees he hates.
1967		A. Baraka Tales (1969) 79: The late show at the National was turning out, and all the big hats there jumped right in our line.

2. a police officer or state trooper [the headgear worn as part of many US police uniforms].

1967–70		in DARE.
1969		J.F. Runcie ‘Truck Drivers’ Jargon’ AS XLIV:3 202: Big hat — State trooper, state patrolman, state policeman, especially one whose uniform includes a large hat.
1979		National Lampoon Sept. 47: Wait ’til you see yer reflection in the big hat’s mirrored shades.
[1998		D. Simpson ‘Goin’ Home’ at www.policepoems.com 🌐 With your gun belt in the locker / your big hat sitting high / your tour of duty is over now / it’s time we say goodbye].
2001		www.trucksims.com Trucker Talk 🌐 Big hat – state trooper.

3. (US) a Mexican [the clichéd large Mexican hat].

1970

in DARE.

(N.Z. prison) a life sentence or Preventive Detention.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 17/1: big haul (also long haul) n. 1 a life sentence. 2 Preventive Detention.

(US black) a coward, a weakling.

1935

Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 29: Aw, shut up, Gene, you ain’t no big hen’s biddy if you do lay gobbler eggs. You tryin’ to talk like big wood when you ain’t nothin’ but brush.

(N.Z. prison) a knock-out blow.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 17/1: big hit n. a knockout punch.

see big man

(Aus.) a large, vigorous man, usu. in a sporting context.

2021

Betoota-isms 138: Big Hooah [...] 1. A stocky rugby playing male, built to play prop forward 2. A big rig with plump calves and a meaty neck of considerable girth.

(N.Z. prison) a long sentence.

1982

G. Newbold Big Huey 7: When a longtermer arrives [at Paremoremo prison] inmates often comment, ‘This boy’s doing a long one; he’s doing the big Huey Long.’.

(US) a love object, a desirable individual.

1930

E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 73: Flapper: He was batty about her — but she found him a back number — after Billy became the big idea.

(US) an important person.

1870		Punchinello (NY) 1:17 23 July 267/2: One day the wise men of Gotham sed one to another: ‘Let us bild us a tower which H. G. can’t flood, if he dams from now till dooms-day.’ A big injun took the contract.
1874		Jeffersonian (Stroudburg, PA) 12 Nov. 2/2: he was shouting [...] and playing ‘Big Ingin‘ generally.
1890		‘Cad McBallastir’ Society as I Have Foundered It 59: This Prince was considered a Big Injun.
1907		J.W. Carr ‘Word-List from Hampstead, N.H.’ in DN III iii 181: Big Injun, n. Nickname for a coarse, boastful man. ‘Big Injun says he has seen the world.’.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 108: I’m some big Indian myself, an’ I’ll be everlastingly jiggerooed if I put up for a wigwam I can’t be boss of.
1922		A. Brown Old Crow 326: You [...] tell us how bold and brave you are and how generally go-as-you-please we’ve got to be if we’re going to play big Injun, and then you tell me it’s indecent to sit here with Rookie.

(US gay) simultaneously fellating and sodomizing one’s partner.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 31: big J simultaneously fucking and sucking the sex partner; a shrimp job.

(orig. US juv.) excreta; occas. in sing.; thus do big jobs, to defecate.

1975		D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 56: I did biggies in my panties.
1977		(con. 1940–50s) Nicholson & Smith Spend, Spend, Spend (1978) 21: I used to be able to do big jobs without that!
1988		J. McDonald Dict. of Obscenity etc.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 July 4: One of the Tartens disgraced himself at Cruft’s by doing ‘big jobs’ in the ring.
1999		Indep. on Sun. 25 July 21: Resolving to do the big job henceforth in the toilet.

see big store n.

(US) death; usu. in phr. put someone over the big jump.

1916		H.L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap 353: Everybody was kind of glad he’d got off and kind of satisfied that he’d put this bad Injin, with his skull-duggery, over the big jump.
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.

(US und.) a prison.

2005

W.D. Myers Autobiog. of My Dead Brother 60: ‘You see this place? This ain’t about what you seen on TV. This is the Big Keep’.

(N.Z. prison) a life sentence.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 17/2: big L, the n. a life sentence.

(US black) sexy.

1948		Good Diggin’ 31/2: I bought this one with the knowledge that the ‘Big Leg Woman’ side is a duplication of the same side on Decca 7547 in my collection and therefore have no complaint with respect theret.
		1964Muddy Waters ‘Same Thing’ 🎵 Why do all these men want to run a big-leg woman down?
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 80: We can [...] check out some of them big leg girls.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 170: Whatever happened to that big-leg gal who lived in Freedom Court.
2007		N. McCall Them (2008) 61: Maybe he would go to Beaufort one day and find that big-leg Geechie gal.

a big spender.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 149: The original argot of prostitution includes some words and phrases which have gained wider currency and some which have not […] big legs (a big spender).

(US gambling) the point of ten in craps.

1921

Truth (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 9/4: In the language of the [craps] players [...] ten is ‘Big Lizzie’.

(UK prison) a long sentence.

2003

Guardian G2 13 Jan. 16: The last prison I was in [...] had a reputation as one of the better places to serve your time if you were doing a ‘big lump’ (a long sentence).

(US) an important, influential person.

2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 17/2: big O, the n. a person who is clever, commendable, brave, ‘the man’ [i.e. ‘the one’].
2003		G. Pelecanos Soul Circus 208: He’s the big Magilla in his corner of the world.

1. (also big fellow, big honcho) any form of superior person, esp. in a criminal context; a prison governor [honcho n. (1)].

1873		Spirit of Age (Woodstock, VT) 15 May 1/4: Great men are scrace, but Big men are as thick as Job’s biles.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Mar. 4/1: At Mudgee you can often see a ‘big man’ drive with indecent haste past a funeral cortege, while working men stand with uncovered heads.
1886		Lantern (N.O.) 3 Nov. 3: [One] who is supposed to be a big man in the boot and shoe trade.
1916		Wipers Times 12 Feb. (2006) 3/1: Things We want Know [...] Why the dug-out of a certain Big Man is so much affected by subalterns of tender years.
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 43: Then they think they pay me back by voting for me and telling me I’m the ‘big man’ of St. Regis’s.
1933		(con. 1900s) C. McKay Banana Bottom 304: What big-big mens, doctahs an’ lawyahs an’ teachahs an’ preachahs b’en mout’waterin’ fer [...] an’ nebber could a get.
1934		L. Berg Prison Nurse (1964) 30: The doc swings some weight with the ‘Big Fellow’; that’s how he got this job.
1936		(ref. to 1920s) L. Duncan Over the Wall 85: Hey, you [...] line up with this fellow. I’m taking you all in to the big fellow.
1943		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Faustus Kelly in ‘Flann O’Brien’ Stories & Plays (1973) 123: Is de Big Man not here?
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 23: He [...] was only accepted by the big men in the neighbourhood because he had the good fortune to be the brother of Charley the Gent.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 12: You [...] did something the big man didn’t like.
1970		D. Ponicsan Last Detail 51: ‘The Big Honcho,’ says Mule. ‘If he tells you to shit, you ask, “How much and what color, sir?”’.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 51: Is the big man in yet?
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 207: The Big Man is everywhere.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 142: You’re a big man now Nicky Burkett, everyone gets to know.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1919		L. Esson Drovers (1977) 11: Oh you poor fellow Briglow, me big-fellow sorry alonga you [...] Then all blackfellow alonga camp make-im big fellow corroboree alonga you.
1931		A. Bontemps God Sends Sun. 81: That’s big-man talk, son.

3. (US Und.) the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 47: The Big Man’s* protectin’ most o’ them [*The Pinkerton Detective Agency].
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 438: Big man, The Pinkerton Detective Agency.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 27: big man.—The Pinkerton Detective Agency, or one of its operatives.

4. (drugs) a dealer, esp. a major dealer, selling bulk quantities of drugs; also attrib.

1919		‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 228: They are covering the big man – Kazmah. Once he and Mrs. Irvin are out of the way, we can prove nothing against Mareno and Sin Sin Wa!
1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 118/2: big man. The brains behind a dope ring; the one who seldom takes the rap. Most narcotic rings are controlled by gangsters of a vicious type, often with sound local political connections. The big man wholesales dope to peddlers and may racketeer peddlers for protection and the privilege of selling.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 115: Give us the big man next to the big man who’s dealing directly with The Man.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970).
1977		B. Davidson Collura (1978) 75: It was easy to spot the dealer himself, the ‘big man’.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 339: big man: A narcotics dealer on the next level up from the street pusher; any large-scale narcotics dealer.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 136: Up here coffee was half the price only from what I clocked on the road still big man prices.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 3: Big man — Drug supplier.

5. (US black) a gallon of wine.

1970

E. Bullins Electronic Nigger 163: Let’s go on up to the store and get us a big man [...] a whole gallon.

6. when capitalized as Big Man, the US government.

1981

W.D. Myers Hoops 86: He got to be messing with the Big Man’s boxes [i.e. mailboxes], and if the Big Man catch you, you know you gonna catch some calendar space .

7. see big boss, the n.

(US) an important or influential person or thing; by ext. also dangerous.

1878–9		A. Garcia Tough Trip Through Paradise (1977) 66: She was on to him and knew he was easy meat and that he was the big Medicine.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 July 18/2: The natives [of New Zealand] meet here once a week and chant the Decalogue and the Lord’s Prayer, under the idea that in some mysterious way they are ‘big medicine.’.
1899		Kipling ‘An Unsavoury Interlude’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 82: Big medicine — heap big medicine! Phew! Oh, Lord, I wish I could stop laughin’.
1911		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 Days 143: ‘I carry “big medicine” agin hoss-thieves,’ he replied, tapping his holster.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘A Word List From Montana’ in DN IV:iii 243: big medicine, n. Danger. ‘The Indians thought the white men were big medicine.’.
1979		G. Wolff Duke of Deception (1990) 72: He [...] emptied a clip of big medicine into four dark and deserted corners of the cellar.

see mitt n. (3)

(Irish/US) the person with whom one is infatuated.

1929		Helen Kane ‘Ain’tcha?’ 🎵 I’m confessing / That I’m crazy over you! / Oh, I admit that you’re my big moment.
c.1935		‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 96: Lotta can be depended on to give her new big moment a ride he’ll never forget.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 623: She can be my big moment any time she wants.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1987		(con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 269: I was daft about her and she about me. In the ‘slanguage’ of the ’twenties, she was my ‘big moment’ and I was hers!

see high muck-a-muck n.

(US prison) prison gravy.

1960

(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 9: Big-muddy – prison gravy.

(US black) a powerful, influential black man.

1941

Warner, Junker & al. Color & Human Nature 175: He is active in politics and would like to join a fraternal order that includes, he says, ’a lot of big niggers who could do a lot to help me’.

1. (US) trouble, disturbance.

1863		J.S. McKee Throb of Drums in Tennessee (1973) 93: There may be a big noise here before long.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 50: I expect to make a big noise in the papers out of this. Get lots of business. Private eye goes to jail rather than split on a pal.

2. (orig. US) an important, powerful person.

1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 255: Who’s your friend, the big noise?
1910		B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 17 Jan. [synd. cartoon] Oh yaas! We are the big noises in art in America.
1918		‘Sapper’ Human Touch 5: Were you one of the big noises at your school?
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 257: I happen to know what a big noise Senny Doane is.
1927		Nichols & Tully Twenty Below Act II: I’m the Big Noise here.
1929		C.G. Givens ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 131: big noise, n. The warden.
1933		J. Spenser Limey 12: I learned that Brussi was the big noise in his own small territory – of Long Island City in Queen’s.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 200: You wanna be a big noise. All right, I got a proposition.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 5: He was a real big noise, eh?
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 107: Pat was a big noise in the Labour Party now.
1967		N. Dunn Poor Cow 49: All these men are very important people, very moneyed people – they’re all big noises down here.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 170: She thinks I’m a big noise in the car game in Essex.
1979		Bette Midler ‘Big Noise from Winnetka’ 🎵 This is the story of a young girl who was the Einstein of the dance. / They called her Big Noise from Winnetka, against her no one stood a chance.
1992		R. Park Fence Around the Cuckoo 128: ‘Can I take Flash Jack?’ ‘Not to a sheep station. Not that little gangster of a dog. The Big Noise would have a fit.’.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 18: The wog probably had a rich daddy who plays golf with some big noise down in London.
1999		Guardian 15 Oct. 4: Rumpus over town’s big noises.

a derog. name for a Jew; also as adj.

1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 131: ‘No you don’t, bignose!’ said Red.
1986		S. King It (1987) 54: Someone just told someone else that I’m Jewish, that I’m nothing but a bignose mockie kike.

(N.Z. prison) an admirable individual.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 17/2: big O, the n. a person who is clever, commendable, brave, ‘the man’.

(orig. US) used of landmark birthdays, e.g. those that mark another decade, the big three-o, the big four-o etc.

1979		J. Macleod Zingher and Me 53: So it’s 39, is it, and the big four-oh not far away?
1986		A.H. Malcolm Final Harvest 5: Rudy, who had already passed what they called ‘The Big Four Oh,’ gave Susan a card that read ‘Perhaps you’re over the hill.’.
1987		B. Cosby Time Flies 29: Fifty is called The Big Five-O, but Forty is The Big Four-O and Thirty is The Big Three-O.
1994		A. Binder Pumping Iron after Fifty 7: CHAPTER 2 Reaching the BIG FIVE-O My first fifty years were spent trying to achieve what I should be, could be, almost was, or would have been.
1998		Ryerson U. Campus News 🌐 Average alumni nearing big four-oh. The average age of Ryerson alumni is 37.9 years, according to a demographic report on graduates prepared by the Office of University Advancement.
2006		blurb at amazon.com 🌐 The Dreaded Three-Oh. So, you’re in your late 20s and see the dreaded THREE OH staring you in the face.
2006		L.A. Lyons From the Heart 86: The big three O / Wow, Wow, Wow, Woah, / The big three O; / The year you realize — / ‘I’m getting old you know!’.

(US prison) a fellow-prisoner who will do your work details if paid.

1960

(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 9: Big-Ole – the jerk show-off who will do all your work, if salved.

see under order n.

(N.Z. prison) the high-security Paremoremo Prison, Auckland.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 17/2: big P, the n. Paremoremo Prison.

(US) the First World War.

1925		L. Stallings [film title] The Big Parade.
1935		B. Traven Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1963) 247: Didn’t I kill quite a number of Heinies in the big parade? Did I? Hell, how they jumped!
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl. 807: The Big Parade The World War.
1952		C. Himes Cast the First Stone 275: Goddamn, that looks like the Big Parade.

(US) a prison.

1968

R.F. Adams Western Words (2nd edn) 19/2: big pasture What the cowboy sometimes calls the penitentiary.

(Aus.) the beach.

1965

Aus. Women’s Wkly 3 Nov. 10/4: You never move your bag of fruit (suit) and meat pie (tie) to the big peach (beach).

important, influential people.

1858

Trollope Dr. Thorne 59: When one is absolutely in the dirt at their feet, perhaps these big people won’t wish one to stoop any further.

(US black teen) any influential black man, a power in his own community, aged 30 and over.

1994

Notorious B.I.G. ‘Big Poppa’ 🎵 Ready to Die [album] I love it when you call me big pop-pa / Throw your hands in the air, if youse a true player.

see puddle n.

(N.Z. prison) rape, or a sentence for committing it.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 17/2: big R, the n. 1 rape. 2 a prison sentence given for the crime of rape.

1. (US) an important person.

1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 219: big rod—The head of a ‘mob.’.
1972		(con. 1950s) Jacobs & Casey Grease II i: The big Rod of the Burder Palace Boys?

2. (US Und.) a machine gun.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

see high roller n. (1)

see under school n.

(US) World War I.

1943

Smith & Carnes American Guerrilla 33: [T]he scheme being to recruit and bring over adventurous young Americans who might want to get in the big scrap.

(US) an important person.

1912

A.H. Lewis Apaches of N.Y. 267: All this time Caesar is the big screech.

see big shot n.

1. (US) an important person.

1966–8

in DARE.

2. orig. baseball’s major leagues.

1912		Van Loan ‘The Comeback’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 203: He had all a big leaguer’s lofty disdain for those who have never been in ‘the big show’.
1920		W.C. Witwer No Base Like Home 15: You small time knockouts are all alike — world beaters with the high school boys and tramps when you get in the Big Show.
2013		B. Walton ‘Quiet Dell 1914’ in ThugLit Aug. [ebook] Sid Hartsell [...] was destined to skip the minor leagues and go on into the big show.

3. ext. non-baseball use of sense 1, ‘the main event’.

1906		C. Fowler letter 30 May in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 111: Have just returned from the Memorial Day exercises at the naval cemetery near Cavite [...] There was no occasion for any great display [...] and the ‘big show’ was to be pulled off at Manila .
1906		C. Fowler letter 25 Dec. in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 189: There won't be very much going on here today. The big show is coming off several days later on .

(US prison) the prison riot squad; thus big six talk n., empty, if aggressive talk.

1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 198: big-six talk, n. talk which is accompanied by little action.
1981		Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 264: When fighting breaks out in prison, the inmates seek to avoid the big six, an emergency riot squad of prison guards.

(orig. US) death; cit. 1970 refers to suicide.

1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 220: And in a little while he too, like Rusty Regan would be sleeping the big sleep.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 68: A babe like you is too cute to take the big sleep so soon.
1961		T.I. Rubin In the Life 85: When someone hits the big sleep.
1967		Jim Morrison ‘When the Music’s Over’ 🎵 Before I sink into the big sleep / I want to hear the scream of the butterfly.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 239: It’s about Angie . . . she did that famous Big Sleep routine. Know the one I mean. Made it, too.
1999		U. of Virginia News 🌐 5 Oct. There’s something about the ‘big sleep’ of death that makes the ‘little sleep’ of night strongly affect people.
2001		wizardworld.com 🌐 7 May DEATH OF SUPERMAN? Supes Faces the Big Sleep in Where Is Thy Sting?
2010		C. Hiaasen Star Island (2011) 37: The manored enclave [...] where Michael Jackson had taken the big sleep.

see big cheese n.

a fool, esp. as a bettor/gambler .

1955		L.F. Engler ‘Gloss. Air Force Sl.’ in AS XXX:2 117: CHARGER; BIG SPENDER FROM [home town]; FAR DARTER, n.; n. phr. Man who talks a good game and exudes self-confidence but always loses bets, card games, etc.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 77: In 1920s nightclub parlance a big spender was also known as a live one.

(N.Z. prison) a long sentence.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 17/2: big spewey, the n. a long sentence.

see big potato n.¹

an important person or someone who thinks they are so.

1910

Ade I Knew Him When 61: The Big Squash [...] sat in the Mahagony Office and pushed the Buttons.

(US) an important person.

1912		J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 26: He’s the editor and proprietor and all-around big squeeze of the Billow. What he says goes. He can make ghosts walk.
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1967–8		in DARE.

see under stick n.

see big house n. (4)

(US prison) at Angola prison, Lousiana, a prisoner whose sentence assumes that they will die behind bars.

2021

T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 83: He was a big stripe, one of the near five thousand inmates who had no expectation of leaving Angola alive or dead.

1. (orig. US) an important or self-important person.

1886		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Sept. 14/2: The great big stuff, Henry V. Lucas, has at last run to the end of his lope. He made a big bluff and while it lasted he was a great man, but [...] when the crash came he wen t down with a thud .
1933		(con. 1860s) R. Bradford Kingdom Coming 289: Penny is de big stuff down at de hoo-doo place.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 312: He got a job, for the summer, a croupier on a gambling boat [...] He was big stuff out there.
1956		‘Hal Ellson’ ‘Cool Cat’ in Tell Them Nothing (1956) 72: He thinks he’s big stuff, but I’m the brain.
1962		S. Paige Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever 277: It sure is funny. A man can be big stuff in baseball and his wife knows it, but because it’s something he’s doing every day it don’t seem like anything.

2. (US) a term of address, usu. slightly derog.

1889		World (N.Y.) 20 Oct. 6/2: ‘You are a big stuff, you can’t hit the ball,’ yelled a Brooklyn crank as Connor came to the plate.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 114: I’ll show you whether I’m afraid of you, you big bullies! You big stuff, you, come on!
1938		R. Chandler ‘The King in Yellow’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 51: Put that bazooka down, big-stuff.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 109: Sit down and rest your ankles, big stuff.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 234: Go ahead, bigstuff [...] I don’t believe you’re any better than I am.
1999		Dr Dre ‘Bitch Ass Niggaz’ 🎵 Who do you think you are? Mr. Big Stuff.

3. a strong, violent person.

1896

S. Crane George’s Mother (2001) 116: I’d ’a licked dat big stuff in ’bout a minute more.

4. (US) a major criminal.

1927		R.W. Hinds in Flynn’s Weekly 19 Feb. 9/2: ‘Bagler’s big stuff.’ I got his slang. Big stuff meant that Bagler was a crook who conducted extensive deals.
1952		H. McCoy Corruption City 39: Big Stuff. The Master Mind.

5. an important situation, esp. with criminal overtones.

1936		W.R. Burnett King Cole 69: ‘We’re all interested in Ohio. It’s big stuff. Cradle of Presidents, you know.’ [...] Big stuff! Cradle of Presidents!’.
c.1950		K. Howard Small Time Crooks 10: What’s all this about me bein’ in the big stuff now?
1953		S. Frazee ‘Graveyard Shift’ in Margulies Back Alley Jungle (1963) 93: ‘You been a dress model?’ Crestone asked. ‘Yeah! Big stuff! I got tired of parading in front of bitches and their men.’.
1969		H. Rap Brown Die Nigger Die! 40: It was supposed to be big stuff to come down to white folks’ games.

6. (US) a large amount of money.

1953		F. Flora ‘Collector Comes after Payday’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] It was still early, and the big stuff wasn’t moving yet. Just right for forty bucks.
1972		(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 190: Second, ignorant ass nigger, the girl got big stuff. I mean big stuff.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 120: He’d get a taste of the big stuff.

see big-time adv.

see big cheese n.

(US black) an outstanding person.

1953

L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 5: The party begins to jump steady again, the big toast shouts, ‘Play on in if you can’t cut a rug make like a bouquet.’.

see big dick

1. (US Und.) prison, esp. the main cellblock.

1929		C.G. Givens ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 131: big top, n. Prison.
1934		Weseen Dict. Amer. Sl.
1955		R. Graziano Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 145: I am on top of the heap in the big top. I was a man now and nobody could deny it.
1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 10: Big top - a cell-block.
1970		Gaddis & Long Panzram (2002) 128: Leavenworth was called the Big Top by the underworld.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 21: This killing was witnessed by twelve hundred cons during the noon meal at the Big Top’s messhall on Sunday, March 26, 1916.
1971		(con. 1920s) J. Brown Monkey Off My Back (1972) 37: An armored car, and a caboose, pulled out into the Santa Fe lines heading for ‘The Big Top’.
1980		Detroit Free Press (MI) 14 Dec. 4C/2: The last men in the Big Top on steak day don’t get steak, Their steaks are being hawked out in the yard.

2. (US prison) a bank.

1960

(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 10: Big-top - a bank.

3. (N.Z. prison) the high-security Paremoremo Prison, Auckland.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 17/2: big top, the n. Paremoremo Prison.

see under tote v.¹

(Aus.) a cause for celebration, a great success.

[1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 8/1: Big twist, special meal served on Christmas, New Year, Washington’s Birthday, 4th of July and Thanksgiving (prison).].
1944		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 20 Apr. 12/4: From what we saw him do the other day at Randwick, OLIVER should be ‘a big twist’ in the very near future.
1959		Baker Drum.

see fast track n.

see big one n.

(orig. US) an important person, an influential figure, the boss.

1977

(con. 1908) J. Monaghan Schoolboy, Cowboy, Mexican Spy 20: ‘The big vegetable in these parts’ he said, ‘is Tom Isles.’.

see water, the n. (2)

1. (orig. US) an important, influential person, esp. in business.

[1833		C.A. Davis Letters of Major J. Downing (1835) 68: I’m the big wheel, and you are the smasher].
1933		AS VIII:2 55/2: Wheels, substitute for big shots, leaders of a gang.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Wheels, heads of police department.
1941		A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 219: Jazz became a big business in the early thirties, and Jelly Roll, who had been a big wheel in 1923, was a small-time operator in 1933.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 117: Every one of us is a big wheel and [...] I’m one of the biggest.
1954		B. Appel Sweet Money Girl 130: A maharaja’s a big wheel who lives in India.
1955		R. Graziano Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 264: This big guy from the Capone mob, that wheel from the Milwaukee mob.
1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 10: Big-wheel – a bon-con who usually holds a plum job.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 34: He’s some kind of wheel among the Italian boys.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 104: I wanted to be the ‘Big Wheel’ of Johannesburg.
1964		‘Charles Barrett’ Address: Kings Cross 71: ‘So? Who is Sam Penny?’ I asked. ‘A big wheel. From Chicago, New York, Paris, Rome. Anywhere’.
1965		R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 118: Johnny Rossi [...] A big wheel in the Syndicate.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 35: The so-called wheels with their convoy of followers were easy to spot.
1978		R.D. Pharr Giveadamn Brown (1997) 99: ‘[He] got cured [of heroin addiction] in Attica, came out and started dealing. He’s a big wheel now.
1979		F. Kelly Annals of Ballykilferret 22: O’Lunacy was the ‘big wheel’ of the town at the time.
1988		Ice-T ‘I’m Your Pusher’ 🎵 For this drug deal I’m the big wheel.
1995		G. Small Ruthless 226: Bigga’s gang had become a big wheel in the drug trafficking business.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 Nov. 6: All are more or less in thrall to the ‘wise guys’, the syndicate wheels who call the shots.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 19: Makes you wonder how the government’s union cronies will react to attempts to slug their members. Not to mention the big wheels of the Transport Industry Association.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 4: She just loooooved his daddy. He flew with her oodles. She knew he was a Mormon wheel.
2006		C. Carr Our Town 215: Ferguson – he was the big wheel [i.e. in the Ku Klux Klan].
2018		G. Disher Kill Shot [ebook] ‘Keep your voice down. The guy’s a big wheel in here’.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 31: Sabu is guilty of[...] impersonating a big-wheel dealer from a seventies blaxploitation flick.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] ‘He’s a big-wheel accountant’.

(US) a senior business figure.

1892		Eve, Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA) 25 Aug. 2/4: He is one of the ‘main guys’, or in the vernacular of the curb, ‘a big wheeze’ in the Voters’ League.
1906		Spokane Press (WA) 3 Nov. 2/2: He [...] is invited to cut loose [...] with a humorous reference to the introductory remarks of the local big wheeze who presented him.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 260: He ain’t the final word in this shop, and there’s nobody gets next to the big wheeze oftener durin’ the day than yours truly.

(orig. US) an important or the most important man.

1916		N.Y. Tribune 21 Mar. 13/1: Big White Chief Reviews Dress Parade of Yankees. Commander Roberts is apparently satisfied with his army.
1918		Wash. Times (DC) 26 Nov. 20/4: A.L. Cheny [...] remainded there, becoming chairman of the board of education and general big white chief to the town.
1933		Sunderland Dly Echo 19 Oct. 3/5: There she was welcomed by the Mayor [...] and then shook hands with Sunderland’s ‘Big White Chief’.
1937		M. Allingham Dancers in Mourning 315: I see a chap who is a sort of great white chief in his own little world .
1953		Leamington Spa Courier 9 Oct. 7/7: [advert] The three Thrussel [...] wave a fond farewell [...] to their big white chief as he sets off round the world.
1975		J. McClure Snake 36: I bet you’ll never guess where the Big White Chief is tonight!
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 76/2/: since 1930s.
2000		P. Hope An Artist’s Diary 5 Dec. 🌐 Tusa, the big white chief of the Barbican had a roped off pen in the foyer where he was sloshing back Chardonnay and sarnies.

see under telephone n.

1. (W.I.) a prison.

1943

in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

2. (US prison) a prison recreation area.

1971–2

C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 198: big yard, n. -central recreation area in some penitentiaries.

(UK und.) an easy victim.

1935

Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 2: Big Yob: Easy victim.

(W.I., Gren.) fat and clumsy, and of low quality (used of people and things, e.g. vegetables).

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

(W.I.) of a person, important.

1984		Smiley Culture ‘Cockney Translation’ 🎵 Cockney say Guv’nor, We say Big Bout Ya.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 8: Big bout yah famous, influential.

1. (US gay) a loudmouth.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 31: big dick from Boston (pej, fr pros sl, ’30s) puritanical at home but everything goes outside or away from it; a loudmouth tourist.

2. see big dick

see big dick

(orig. US) the majority, the larger share (of loot); thus big end of a month, three weeks.

1894		Truth (Sydney) 30 Dec. 1/7: You’ll get the big end of my pile .
1909		J. London ‘A Piece of Steak’ Complete Short Stories (1993) II 1630: The winner took the big end of the purse.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 28/1: The ‘big end of a month’ is three weeks.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 175: The hunt was still on for the burglar with the big end of the money.
1944		T. Thursday ‘Twin Lose or Draw’ in Popular Sports Spring 🌐 We got the big end of the purse.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 27/1: Big end, the. A more than equal share of loot, frequently demanded by leaders of a gang. ‘Okay, Sapper, I’ll fill (join you) on this trick (robbery), but no big ends. I want a full cut (share).’.
1964-69		S. James in Calt I’d Rather Be the Devil (1994) 67: ‘[Plantation] landlords take the biggest end of the haul all the time’.
1977		in A. Banks First-Person America (1980) 149: When fall came he got the big end of the horn.

(US) of a bankroll, extremely big; note ad hoc var. in cit. 1935.

[1831		Navy at Home I vii: Others appeared not of a nature as we have said, to be swallowed by any effort of patience and enough to choke a horse].
1899		Orleans Co. Monitor (Barton, VT) 6 Feb. 6/4: John Chinaman [...] carries a bundle ‘big enough to choke a horse’ as the saying goes.
1900		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 June 11/4: [Greed] has enabled them to accumulate wads of various [...] dimensions. Ryan’s bunch particularly is big enough to choke an elephant.
1903		Eve. World (NY) 6 Feb. 10/6: He flashed a roll big enough to choke a horse.
1906		Commoner (Lindoln, NE) 2 Nov. 13/1: [The] tourist, after handing over to the customs officers a bunch of money big enough to choke a cow, walked out.
1907		Fergos Co. Democrat (Lewistown, MT) 30 Apr. 1/5: [He] pulled from his pocket a roll of bills that would choke an elephant.
1910		Univeristy Missourian (Columbia, MO) 28 Nov. 4/1: In her fist was a roll of money big enough to choke the traditional cow.
1912		Day Book (Chicago) 29 June 8/1: Those delegates who didn’t bring a roll big enough to choke a horse, haven’t the price of a drink left.
1915		Stories by Famous Men 120: ‘Got the money with you?’ ‘I suttinly has,’ answered the old man, and he produced a roll of bills big enough to choke a calf.
1919		Topeka State Jrnl (KS) 11 Dec. 8/7: A Roll of Money Big Enough to Choke a Cow will be blown in right here.
1919		Butte Dly Bulletin (MT) 5 Mar. 4/6: Cohen displayed a roll ‘big enough to choke a bull’.
1921		Shoe Repairer & Dealer (US) 14 52: [He] likes to pull out a roll of bills big enough to choke a cow when he pays a bill, just to show off.
1921		Ocala Eve. Star (FL) 5 Dec. 2/2: I found E.T. Helvenston counting up the result of his day’s sales. He had kale enough to choke an elephant.
1935		N. Algren ‘Thundermug’ in Texas Stories (1995) 74: There was a wad in the right [shoe] big enough to choke a string-haltered mare.
1939		T. Wolfe Web and the Rock 401: Taking from her purse a wad of thousand-dollar bills, ‘big enough,’ said Mrs. Jack, ‘to choke a horse’.
1953		‘Curt Cannon’ ‘The Death of Me’ in I Like ’Em Tough (1958) 97: He comes in with a roll that could choke a horse.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 11: I also happen to have a roll of greenbacks big enough to choke a horse.
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 3: Some ammo and a bankroll of cash that would choke a horse.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 73: enough to choke a bull A fat roll of money.
2013		F. Bill Donnybrook [ebook] ‘They’s a wad in here big enough to gag a horse’.

(Scots) for the senior of two rivals to surpass the junior.

2009

L. McIlvanney All the Colours 115: I only met him once – bigfooted him, in fact [...] When a story grows [...] a paper wants its own guy on the case [...] and the stringer gets bumped.

see big house n. (4)

(US) an important person.

1967–9		in DARE.
1972		D. Dalby ‘African Element in American English’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 178: Big eye—‘greedy.’ [Footnote:] Dr J.L. Dillard has informed me that this term was rationalized by white Texans as ‘big I’ (in the phrase ‘big I, little you’).

(W.I.) anything goes, irrespective of size or quality; usu. used of a country person who lacks the city dweller’s standards of choice.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

see head nigger in charge under head n.

enthusiastic about, usu. in negative.

1969		Transatlantic Rev. XXXIII–VIII 76: Sometimes, I am not very big on Stiles.
1980		Hamilton & Reid Hospice Hbk 61: The English are not very big on psychiatry, tending more toward reliance on common sense.
1992		C. Bram Almost Hist. 394: I’m not very big on music, period. I don’t know why. I guess I don’t have an ear for it.
2000		Indep. Mag. 22 Jan. 12: As for his chances with drugs, well he was never really big on buying it anyway.
2004		B. Toropov Complete Idiot’s Guide to World Religions 22: Finally, the priest told his companion, ‘I’m not very big on “why,” and I’m not very big on labels, either.’.
2016		V. McDermid Out of Bounds (2017) 342: They weren’t big on fun.

see big boss, the n.

(Irish) to self-aggrandize.

1939

(con. 1880–90s) S. O’Casey I Knock at the Door 174: Shapin’, jeered the boy, tryin’ to do the big. You’re sayin’ that because you’ve none.

(US) very small.