trash, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

trash n.

1. money [the identification of money and dirt].

1594		Greene James IV III i: Therefore must I bid him provide trash, for my Maister is no friend without mony.
1599		Shakespeare Julius Caesar IV iii: I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash By any indirection.
1633		Rowley Match at Midnight I i: I tell ’em I haue given over Brokering, moyling for mucke and trash.
1696		J. Dunton Night-Walker Oct. 6: How to save that Trash which they had not the heart to spend.
1730		J. Miller Humours of Oxford I i: Hang Fortune, I say – Trash – mere Dirt.
1764		K. O’Hara Midas I iv: mid.: Nysa, you say, refus’d the guineas British [...] dam.: Out, pimp, said she – take back to him who sent it, That trash.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 51: Money! said he, with a look of surprize; you have a poor opinion of Spanish charity, if you think people of my stamp have any occasion for such trash upon their travels [...] We carry no cash with us on the road.
1864		A.F. Hill Our Boys 235: In six months your government at Washington will go smash, and your green trash won’t be worth a snap.
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 364: The sellers of the trash [...] never pretended to him that these notes were genuine.
1879		Cincinnati Enquirer 7 Sept. 10/7: Wealth, [...] Filthy Lucre, Trash, Shiners, Shinnies--are the synonyms of money.

2. (US black) loose talk, banter, teasing; usu. as talk trash [note Joyce, Ulysses (1922): ‘He was going about with some of them Sinner Fein lately or whatever they call themselves talking his usual trash and nonsense’].

[1863		Belfast News Letter 12 Sept. n.p.: Mr D’Eyncourt said it was foolish for a grown-up woman [...] to believe in such trash].
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 2: On the late bright after you have put down your easy slave you drape yourself in shape and tamp on the cuts where the cats are putting down much trash and everything is much solid.
1966		C. Stead Cotters’ England (1980) 163: Teasing a poor woman who doesn’t want to hear your trifling trash.
1975		J. Roe The Same Old Grind 62: ‘[Y]ou can’t talk that trash to save your soul’.
1976		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 5: trash – malicious statements, gossip.

3. (US drugs) heroin [i.e. dirt n. (10b)].

1985

T.R. Houser Central Sl.

4. sexually independent young women, thus judged as ‘fast’, ‘bad’ or promiscuous.

1986

D. Barker (con. 1925) Life in Jazz 109: ‘Them fast, wild young women are jumping from man to man. They's just wild [...] they're fast and foolish. They're common. They're trash, garbage’.

5. see trailer trash under trailer n.³

6. see white trash n.

In compounds

trashmouth (n.)

(US campus) one who regularly uses profanity or obscenity; slandererous talk; the speech that is delivered; also attrib; in v. use, to talk with the intention of breaking somone’s concentration.

1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 68: trashmouth n One who regularly uses obscenity and profanity.
1976		P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 117: Who puttin’ that kind of trash mouth on me?
1986		S. King It (1987) 230: He was not known as Trashmouth for nothing.
1991		News-Press (Fort Myers, FL) 10 Oct. 45/1: I don’t understand the desirability of a trashmouth [...] This is the lowest common denominator stuff.
1997		Dly News (Lebanon, PA) 25 Jan. 9/1: Tired of thugs, trouble makers, trashmouths [etc].
1992		Detroit Free Press (MI) 19 Aug. 150/6: [A] tight-lipped trash-mouth campaign political director.
1994		M. Ribowsky Don’t Look Back 217: In pitching to him now, Satch sought the edge, to get inside Josh’s head by trashmouthing him as he came to the plate.
2000		Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX) 27 July 5/1: He intends to avoid [...] what he calls ‘trash-mouth politics’.
2019		Dly Review (Morgan City, LA) 30 Aug. 4/3: Trashmouth Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

trash talk

see separate entries.

In phrases

let’s talk trash

(US) a phr. of greeting.

1951

Phila. Eve. Bulletin 11 Nov. n.p.: Remember way back then you used to say ‘whatcha know, Joe?’ ’Tain’t like that no more, kid. Now you say ‘Let’s talk trash’ or else ask ‘What’s shakin’?’ The answer is: ‘Nothin’ but the bacon.’.

low trash (n.)

a socially inferior individual, a member of the underclass.

1865		Wash. Morn. Chron. quoted in Safire Pol. Dict. (2008) 644/1: Whenever a white man appears to vote [in Alabama] every one of these infuriated devils ... set up a yell calling him ‘white negro,’ ‘low trash,’ ‘Scalawag’.
1880		Milan Exchange (Gibson Co., TN) 6 May 6/5: As he slept, a low-trash nigger came upon the scene.
1922		R.S. Clymer Divine Law of Mastership 202: There are those among the seemingly cultured of the white race who express contempt for their less fortunate brothers by designating them as ‘low trash’.

talk trash (v.)

(US black) to talk insincerely, to boast, to lie, esp. when pursuing sex.

[1852		C.A. Bristed Upper Ten Thousand 114: A Frenchman will rather talk trash, knowing he is talking trash, than remain silent].
1946		Fleecie Moore and Sam Theard ‘Let the Good Times Roll’ 🎵 Don’t sit there mumblin’ / And talkin’ trash / If you want to have a ball / You got to go out and spend some cash.
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 6: Here’s a cat that lays a group of ivory talking trash and strictly putting down a gang of jive. The situation is much mellow, it’s many fine and understand gates it will tighten your wig.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 112: She started talking trash through her hair.
1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 43: An important part of ‘hitting on’ a woman is a particular style of verbal encounter called talking shit, talking that talk, or talking trash. This manner of publicly accosting a woman and attempting to interest her with a fast-talking line of patter is by no means restricted to pimps, but is a common mode of ghetto encounter.
1977		A. Hoffman Property Of (1978) 22: You talk trash about the Property and we’ll punch your heart out.
1987		Ice-T ‘Six in the Morning’ 🎵 Human lives has to pass just for talking much trash / We didn’t know who they were – No one had the time to ask.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 17: He was talking rhetoric. Talking trash. Throwing hype.
1999		T. Dorsey Florida Roadkill 123: They still wanted to talk trash.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 583: He’s talking trash. He’s saying our work’s dead.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 112: Manny could hear them from across the boulevard, talking trash.
2006		C.W. Ford Deuce’s Wild 53: You really are some stupid ass motherfucker, comin’ in here and talkin’ trash.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 47: ‘[H]e damn near killed a man with his fists last fall for talking trash about his wife’.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 133: [H]ave to tough out the rest a my sentence plus extra time in [...] one them super-skanky-ass joints that even folks in Ithaca be talking trash about.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

trashcan (n.)

1. (US) a rickety old truck.

1977

S. Stallone Paradise Alley (1978) 24: I’m sick of rockin’ around in this trashcan.

2. (US drugs) a small lidded plastic container used top contain powdered drugs, notably fentanyl.

2021

www.dea.gov 13 Aug. 🌐 [T]hese capsules of varying colors and sizes are called ‘trash cans.’ Sold as many different drugs, they are often haphazardly packed with fentanyl [...] DEA Washington and its partners have found them in Baltimore, D.C., New Jersey, and Philadelphia [since 2019].

In phrases

empty one’s trash (v.)

(US black) to have sexual intercourse; usu. to ejaculate.

1973

Muddy Waters ‘Garbage Man’ 🎵 I need this good-lookin’ woman so she can empty my can [...] I need you to come back to me, honey, because my garbage can is overflowin’ [...] I don’t need the money, honey, I just need you to empty my trash.