Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. UK Und.) the potential and actual victim of a con-man, a gullible person; thus make a mark, to ensnare a victim.

1733		Laugh and Be Fat 151: Whores painted, Marks tainted, / In Tally Man’s Furbelow Cloaths.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 136/2: It was determined to ‘fence the wedge’ and bullion in the shape it was then in to a ‘mark’ whom Tom would bring to the ‘crib’ in the morning.
1885		W.H. Stead ‘Confessions of a Brothel-Keeper’ in Pall Mall Gazette in Metropolitan Poor III 11: The girl, a likely mark, was a simple country lass.
1891		Birmingham Dly Post 31 Mar. 3/5: Many a poor tramp felt a pane' of regret when ‘Squire Lucas’ died a few years since, for he was a sure ‘mark’ in time of need. Any cadger could count on 2d. [...] and in certain cases the tip went as high as 4d.
1895		S.F. Chron. 6 June 11/5: De lampers stood ’round till dey got wise to de joint, an’ dey didn’t do a t’ing but queer me marks.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 159: They fort they’d been made a mark of.
1900		Sporting Times 23 June 2/2: He’s a spoony, and a loony, and a proper bookies’ mark.
1902		‘Billy Burgundy’ Toothsome Tales Told in Sl. 43: MORAL: A Mark and His Mazuma Soon Seperateth.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 225: His watery blue eyes [...] told him in an instant whether the owner was a likely mark that he could touch for a drink.
1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 14: The stamina isnt there [...] He’s lost it, and now he’s a mark for a second-rater.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 253: They got you soused so’s you either can’t show up to fight Kid Christopher, or you’ll be a mark for him if you do.
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 13: He goes up to a ‘mark,’ or likely looking guy, and through his line of talk, gets the mark to buy the ring.
1949		‘I’ll Gyp You Every Time’ in C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 177: A ‘mark’ — a carnival term for anyone who plays the gambling games.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 48: Roy walked over to our mark and pulled a wallet out of his pocket.
a.1963		‘The Fall’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 81: She played stuff like an ace, never lost a case, / And put many a mark in debt.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 147: Slater - a bully and a notorious ‘stand-over man’ since youth - thought he was an easy mark.
1970		E. Tidyman Shaft 155: The freaks got out on the sidewalk, mingling with the marks.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 3: Pimps call it [i.e. 42nd St, NYC] the fast track. Just down the street the Live Sex Acts are pulling in the marks.
1993		Dr Dre ‘Fuck Wit Dre Day’ 🎵 Musta thought I was sleazy or thought I was a mark cause I used to hang with Eazy.
1993		G. Disher Deathdeal [ebook] The typical mark [...] exaggerated his status in the world.
1999		Guardian Rev. 3 July 10: The ‘mark’ is the victim, the target, the patsy, that poor trusting fool who is willing to hand over his life savings to someone he knows to be dishonest in the hope of making an easy buck.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 156: Nadine was to play the ingenue. It would be her job to lure the marks to the game.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 113/2: mark n. 1 (also easy mark) a person who is easily conned.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 48: Any of the woods out there takes one look at your bare, skinny-ass arms, he fuckin’ knows from jump street that you’re a fish, a fuckin’ mark, dawg.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] He let Shameeq think he was getting over. If the mark thinks he’s a con, then he ends up conning himself.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 84: ‘Deedee Grenier’s working a mark inside [the club]’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 496: ‘I weren’t thieving. It’s tradition... the bilking of the mark’.

2. (UK Und.) an item to be stolen, a place to be robbed.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 7: He shewed us all one particular Pack, and said, that’s your Mark, and your best place is beyond the Village, to take him into one of the Fields.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 14/2: Thinking all must be quiet at the ‘drum,’ we moved towards there. We met none on the road [...] and we slid quietly to the ‘mark’.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 165: Jervise Willson [...] and his ‘mob’ had a ‘mark’—in their case, an easy bank to rob—in one of the Northern States.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 46: A mark [...] means a safe that can be knocked off pretty easy.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 334/1: mark, n. [...] 3. A safe which may be opened with an explosive.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 144: If the mark is a bank, it will be well cased before the robbery.
1958		H. Ellison ‘With a Knife in her Hand’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 122: He don’t feature us knockin’ over marks in his block.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 6: This promised to be a healthy bundle, since this was no ordinary ice mark.

3. (UK Und.) a pickpocket’s target.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 68/2: I [...] followed my ‘mark’ in below the bell, and managed to get seated alongside of her.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 113: Dere dey stood wid dere mouts open, dere coats open, and dere jackets open; dead marks for crooks t’ touch.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 260: The tool picked his mark and the stalls crushed him against the tail of the rattler.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 334/1: mark, n. [...] 2. An intended victim.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 135/2: Mark, n. [...] 2. Anyone selected to be victimized by pickpockets or confidence men.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 808: mark – An easy mark; a pickpocket’s victim.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] Nico might have been the best cell-phone booster Calle 18 ever had [...] The marks didn’t see him coming and they couldn’t catch him going.

4. (Aus./US) a person, usu. in the context of their financial probity, specified as a good mark or bad mark.

1845		R. Howitt Australian 233: I wondered often what was the meaning of [...] ‘Is the man a good mark?’ I heard it casually from the lips of apparently respectable settlers, as they rode on the highway, ‘Such and such a one is a good mark,’ – simply a person who pays his men their wages, without delays or drawbacks; a man to whom you may sell anything safely.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘The Rat’ in Sandburrs 109: D’ Rat being well dressed [...] gives d’ impression he’s some rich old mark.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 46: Mark, good (or bad), a general term of approval (or disapproval) for a person.
1963		J. Blake letter 2 Aug. in Joint (1972) 213: The mark hears it and is also annoyed.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 28: If this guy really wanted to hang around for a few weeks, Bobby was thinking, he could be a real good mark.

5. (UK tramp) a good place to beg.

1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 161: I asked one of the tramps at the camp whether he knew of any ‘mark’ (a house where something is always given to beggars) in the town.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 303: Mark—a place ‘good’ for food or clothes or money.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 210: Mark – A mark is a person or place good for food, clothes or money.

6. (UK tramp) a generous giver.

1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 395: MARK: a person or house ‘good’ for food, clothes or money.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 210: Mark – A mark is a person or place good for food, clothes or money.

7. (US black) a victim, usu. the target of a gang assassination, mugging, robbery etc.

1900		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 1 Sept. 11/1: [used of a boxer] Being at a physical disadvantage [he] became a ‘mark’ for the latter at distance range fighting.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 26: Sooner or later he would be approached by one of the many marks that lingered at this particular spot in the park.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 8: Whitey had said that tonight he’d find a mark, pull a heavy score.
1969		P. Chevigny Police Power 92: [T]he arresting officer told him, ‘If I let you get away with it, other people might think I’m an easy mark and jump me’.
1974		D. Goines Daddy Cool (1997) 78: Daddy Cool made up his mind that today would be the day. He had his mark down pat.
1997		G. Sikes 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 202: The mark had to be someone naïve or too drunk or high to realize what was going on.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 113/2: mark n. 2 a person targeted for a (contract) killing or assault.
2006		F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 12: Bigger and tougher boys knew a mark when they saw one.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 133: Hepburn shouted his name and the mark stopped [...] The first bullet caught the guy’s arm.

8. a newcomer to the world of prostitution.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

9. (drugs) in pl., the signs of narcotic injections.

1930		G. Milburn ‘The Tropics’ Curse’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 202: Those marks were left by fingers deft / Of my girl friend – Miss Morphine.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 23: Those needle scratches didn’t go. The heat busted you for marks.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 246: marks Needle marks left on the body from repeated use of a hypodermic syringe.
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 280: I got pinched last week for marks.

10. (US black/teen, also marko) as a term of address.

a.1949		N. Algren Little Lester’ in Entrapment (2009) 94: Look, you two marks — put down that Salvation Army deal ’n do like me — all I do is play solitaire ’n smoke sigerettes now — How’d you marks like a deal like that, marks?
1956		H. Gold Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 102: Don’t give me no lip, marko.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 298: Hey, you marks, pass me a bottle of that joy juice.

11. a drug dealer’s customer.

1961

H. Ellison ‘At the Mountain of Blindness’ in Gentleman Junkie 62: Porky was a pusher. He was waiting for his mark to come and make the connection.

12. (US Und.) a prostitute’s customer.

1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] The marks started showing a little after seven-thirty. The first one [...] eyed the girls wetly and settled ona petite brunette.
1967		M. Spillane Delta Factor 31: Cute little hooker [...] She never brought her marks here with her [HDAS].
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 79: He lived for those moments when some hurrying mark left Blondie prepared to beg him for relief.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 282: ‘The girl says she’s afraid of the mark. He’s gone kinky on her’.