Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a boy who drives cattle from the market to the slaughterer.

1. (orig. US, also ankle, knee-biter) a small child [its crawling around at ankle height].

1840		K. Meadows Heads of the People 262: And how are you, John? – and how’s Molly, and all the little ankle-biters?
1882		Breckenridge News (Cloveport, KY) 23 Aug. 3/3: I’m a ‘ankle,’ and my mother a ‘ace of spades’.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. Schoolchildren 169: A chap who has got duck’s disease is most often labelled ‘Tich’ in a friendly manner, or ‘squirt’ or ‘little squirt’ in a less friendly manner. Alternatively: ankle biter, dolly mixture [etc.].
1963		W.C. Anderson Penelope 65: I once had a patient [...] who had given birth to fourteen little ankle-biters.
1975		L. Dills CB Slanguage 3: Anklebiter: very young child. [Ibid.] 61: Knee Biters: children.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 273: He was left to keep an eye on the two anklebiters. But they weren’t bad little kids.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 125: She thought thit he wis ancient, the wey ankle-biters do.
1994		Canberra Times (ACT) 4 Jan. 10/6: [O]nly to find reflection impossible in a noisy, crowded, ankle-biter-infested Hall.
2006		R. Hughes Things I Didn’t Know (2007) 174: Neither of us could imagine being surrounded by ankle-biters (Australian for small children) .
2013		‘Australia Day’ ad for MacDonalds cited crikey.com.au 10 Jan. 🌐 Here’s Gazza the ambo who’s pulled an all-nighter, / Nan and mum with the ankle-biter.
2018		R. O’Neill ‘Ocker’ in The Drover’s Wives (2019) 180: Her four ankle-biters mucking around out in the vegie patch.

2. (Aus.) a young person, a teenager.

1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 13: Maloney originally lobbed in The Cross [...] when he was till hardly more than an anklebiter.
2015		‘Elvis Costello’ Unfaithful Music 17: I was obliged to wear a stupid-looking prefect’s gown and police the younger boys running recklessly up and down the stairs, some of them nasty little ankle biters.

3. one who solicits loans or hand-outs.

1904		Daehan Dly News (Seoul) n.d. 569/4: It is rather rough on the bald-headed Crimean Orphan that he should be treated as an ‘ankle-biter’ and a ‘get-a-bit’ when be endeavours to tronser a trifle on account from the funds of this carefully administered charity.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 102: The night before a meeting he’d sling a local anklebiter a couple of quid.

4. in pl., tight trousers, as worn by hussars.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

5. in attrib. use of sense 1, youthful, juvenile.

1996

J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 120: Phar Lap was a real ugly duckling in his anklebiter days. In fact he was a gangly yearling with an oversize konk atop a broomstick neck and great knobbly knees.

(US) transportation by foot, walking; used as nickname in cite 1909.

1895		Louisiana Populist (Natchitoches, LA) 10 May 3/2: Before 9 o’clock the good people [...] began to assemble, some on horse back [...] some in buggies, and some by the ankle express.
1904		Ocala Eve. Star (FL) 27 Oct. 4/2: He came in on the ankle express.
1909		Williams News (AZ) 11 Dec. 3/4: ‘Ankle Express’ was in Williams. Paul Lange, the ‘ankle express’ artist [...] is a pedestrian of the marathon variety.
1914		Dly Telegram (Clarksburg, WV) 10 Aug. 2/2: Mr Hamburger attempted to ford a stream on his motorcycle, but found the water so deep that he had to come out on the ankle express dragging his cycle behind him.
1920		A. Baer Two & Three 16 Jan. [synd. col.] Knock off an ankle excursion up Fifth Avenue [...] and every blond, brunette and henna you lamp is a high-heeled mummy soaked to the ears in fur bandages.
1920–23		in J.M. Hunter Trail Drivers of Texas (1963) I 208: I took the ‘ankle express’ for my home in Llano County, seventy-five miles away.
1922		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 28 Apr. 17/4: Flapper Dictionary ankle excursion – When a flapper has to walk home.
1948		News (Adelaide) 1 June 2/3: I cantered through the peaceful Adelaide Hills, per ankle express, on Saturday morning, in a mist of fog and profanity.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 173: He and the old man walked out of town [...] they couldn’t afford anything but the ankle express.
1971		in DARE.
1983		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 1: ankle express – to walk: How are you getting uptown? Good old ankle express.
1992		D. Mauldin Journal 🌐 My first glimpse of the Appalachian Trail came when I was 9 years old. My aunt, Dorothy Mauldin (‘Ankle Express’), asked me to accompany her on a week-end hiking trip in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
2002		Bermuda Shorts (Bermuda) 🌐 You can [...] tour the island by moped, pedal cycle, bus, taxi or ferry. Those that prefer to travel by ‘ankle express,’ can walk along the many scenic railway trails and experience Bermuda close up.

trousers that do not reach the top of the shoes and so expose the ankles.

2011

S. Kelman Pigeon English 47: They were hooting me for wearing ankle-freezers (that’s when the legs of your trousers are too short).

(US campus) a homosexual.

1987

Eble Campus Sl. Fall 1: ankle grabber – homosexual: I didn’t dare reach for the soap. The place was full of ankle-grabbers.

a kind of buckled shoe; thus by meton. one who wears them .

1833		Sth Eastern Gaz. 12 Nov. 3: He had on a short fustian gaberdine, blue trousers, ankle-jack shoes, and a black hat.
1837		Morn. Advertiser (London) 30 June 4/2: A lilac-striped waistcoat, with buttons of real silver, light drab smallclothes, and anklejacks.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 64: He flash’d a birdseye fogle: kiddy tied, / And, Ankle Jack’s – slap buckled on each side. [Ibid.] 108/1: Ankle-jacks, vulgar term for shoes of a peculiar fashion, also of a man or woman who dresses flash.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 Sept. 2/7: Having exchanged a pair of dilapidated Bluchers [...] for a bran new pair of ankle-Jacks.
1860		Catholic Teleg. (Dublin) 25 Aug. 6/3: We are not enabled even guess whether they are Wellingtons or anklejacks with elastic side-springs.
1861		Whitehaven News 10 Jan. 1/3: [advert] the STOCK of USEFUL GOODS, consisting [of] Wellingtons, Short Boots, Anklejacks, Bluchers, Lace Shoes. Front Lace Boots. &c.
1871		Newry Teleg. 7 Jan. 4/2: Our unexpected visitor [...] did not sport ‘aggrawater’ curls, and his dress did not consist of a velveteen shooting-jacket, cord breeches, and heavy ankle-jacks.
1879		Aus. Town & Country Jrnl (Sydney) 6 Dec. 15/4: Do not wear tight boots, and avoid elastic sides [...] strong, easy ankle jack shoes are preferable.
1883		Fifeshire Advertiser 27 Jan. 4/2: Burglars aro given to wearing ankle-jacks, so are navvies, so are dustmen, so are coalheavers.
1899		Burnley Gaz. 22 Nov. 3/5: Dressed in a check shirt, a brown coat, fustian trousers, and ankle-jacks.

(Anglo-Irish) the stocks.

c.1790		‘Lord Altham’s Bull’ in Walsh Ireland Ninety Years Ago (1885) 87: Oh! Boys, if de mosey was keeper of de ancle-spring warehouse, you cud not help pitying him.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 21/1: ca. 1780–1830.

(US teen) to leave.

1947

Baltimore Sun 22 June Magazine 6/4: Crack the ankles . . . beat it.

see over shoes, over boots phr.