Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entries.

(US Und.) San Quentin prison, California.

1933

J. Spenser Limey 260: He’s the king of Wall City (San Quentin) and he knows it.

1. of any work badly done.

1847–81

Halliwell Dict. Archaic and Provincial Words II 914/2: Any work irregularly or ill done is called a wall-eyed job.

2. of any odd or irregular action.

1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Rathskeller and the Rose’ in Voice of the City (1915) 183: The wall-eyed thing!
1930		M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 26: Sherlock Holmes has made people expect weird, wall-eyed stunts of the real coppers.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 240: She bawls an’ squawls an’ throws wall-eyed fits.
c.1968		‘Old Zebra Dun’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 81: Old Dunny bucked and bawled, he had those wall-eyed fits, / His hind feet perpendicular, his forefeet in the bits.

3. (US) drunk.

1918		Hall & Niles One Man’s War (1929) 294: Another American bozo came up and asked the Yale graduate who the Ninniesniffer was – meaning me, of course. So I said: ‘Why you wall-eyed dragon strangler, I’ll swing you a good sock on the jaw and you’ll know who I am.’.
1927		‘Sl. Expressions for Drunk’ in New Republic 9 Mar. in AS XVI:1 (1941) 70: [...] wall-eyed.
1935		L. Hughes Mulatto in Three Negro Plays (1969) Act I: Said his name was Norwood – not Lewis, like the rest of his family [...] and all that kind of stuff, boasting to the wall-eyed coons listening to him.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 825: He would lay off the liquor – at least to the point of getting wall-eyed.
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 217: Yer useless bloody wall-eyed old bastard.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS.
1981		A. Weller Day of the Dog 90: That little wall-eyed prick.
2000		M. Amis Experience 88: Freeman was the wall-eyed DJ on Thank Your Lucky Stars.

4. under the influence of marijuana.

2000

Guardian Rev. 12 May 6: His hellish descent into a world of perverts, sex-criminals and wall-eyed tea-heads.

(Irish) exhausted, tired out.

1979

M. O’Beirne Mister, A Dublin Childhood 130: Now we’ll all have a nice cup of tea, I’m only wall-fallin’ .

see separate entries.

sex, whether kissing or intercourse, against a wall.

1834		‘Wall Fruit’ in Randy Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) I 213: No more I’ll require, keep my nose from the fire, / And never go seeking for wall fruit!
1835		‘The Rakish Gentleman’ in Knowing Chaunter 45: And it costs me a mint of money, sure – / Just only for wall-fruit.
1837–8		‘Lamentation Of The Bawds Of London’ in Cuckold’s Nest 17: He pays the young mot, who is not at all mute, / Then they go up a gateway, and there they have wall fruit.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1855		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 14 Apr. n.p.: Wonder what she and C—y S—e were doing up against the laboratory fence [...] Does wall fruit agree with her?

crazed, esp. through intake of drink or drugs.

2002

T. Dorsey Triggerfish Twist (2002) 87: ‘How do you feel?’ asked Bernie. Coleman looked slowly around the room. ‘[...] knee-walking, wall-hugging, [...].’.

(US gay) anal entry done in a standing position.

1972

(ref. to 1950s) B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 90: stand up job (’50s) anal entry done in a standing position. Syn: wall job.

1. a man who leans against a wall while he has sex.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

2. (N.Z. gay) a man who stands in a public lavatory in the hope of meeting someone who has written an advertisement on the wall.

2010

W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 65: He might be called a wall queen if he was known to wait for hours in anticipation of meeting someone who had written an advertisement in a stall.

3. a gay man who enjoys reading the inscriptions on public lavatory walls.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

1. to go to prison.

1917

W. Muir Observations of Orderly 228: If his guilt were established, he would be observed ‘going over the wall’ or ‘going to stir.’.

2. (orig. US) to escape from prison.

1918		H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 27/1: GO OVER THE WALL. Escape.
1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 581: In virtually all American prisons [...] To escape is to crash, to blow, to cop a mope, or to go over the wall.
1949		J. Archibald ‘Dying to See Willie’ in Popular Detective Mar. 🌐 Melvin had worked out a rap back in Joliet and had once gone over the wall out in Kansas.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 23: The other prisoners was always talking about ways to get out. Quite a few did. They would go over the wall and take shelter in Spain, which was neutral.
1966		F. Elli Riot (1967) 16: I ain’t nuts enough to go over the wall at nine in the morning.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 21: I asked him why he didn’t try to go over the wall.
1974		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 59: You really think Mancini would’ve tried to go over the wall?
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 71: ‘You’ve gone over the wall?’ said Neville dramatically.
1989		A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 154: When I was in prison, I never thought of going over the wall.
1994		J.L. Coleman Crimes and Punishments 163: He sought help from the prison guards; they ignored his pleas. [...] As you or I would have done under the circumstances, Green went over the wall.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 200/2: go over the wall v. to escape from prison.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 21: It was [...] the biggest escape in Victorian history [...] That’s if you don’t count a few hundred Nips going over the wall at Corowa.
2007		R. DeArment Deadly Dozen II 258: After entering the prison, Ed Scarborough went over the wall with two other convicts.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] ‘Blakey was a week shy of being transferred out of juvie into Freo Prison. Went over the wall a few nights ago. Nobody’s heard from ’im since’.

3. to leave a religious order; also as jump over the wall, leap over the wall; in army context, go over the wire; also in fig. use, to gain sexual experience.

1961		F. Kohner Gidget Goes Hawaiian 110: Girls of my age just don’t stay all pure as a rose. Most of them go over the wall, if you know what I mean.
1986		M. Petit Peacekeepers 89: You all know there’s a whorehouse just outside the compound [...] Two boys from Alpha Company got caught going over the wire last night.

4. to go mad.

(US) to make the utmost effort.

1977		Ben-Veniste & Frampton Stonewall 193: [Special Prosecutor Leon] Jaworski gone to the wall for the integrity of our investigations, he had won.
1990		T. Pluto Loose Balls 144: I went to the wall for those two guys, telling Mike Storen to give them time and they’d be all right.

1. to lose one’s temper.

1951		S. Kaye-Smith Mrs. Gailey 160: You’ll only be speaking the truth [...] if you tell him your mother’s running up the wall because he came to dinner .
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 117: By this time the young copper is ready to go up the wall.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 232: Fred went up the wall and gave her hell for a week.
2001		J. + Shooting in the Dark (2002) 95: If I’d told her about it, she’d’ve gone up the wall.

2. to be terrified.

1959

W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: Scared stiff. He’s going up the wall.

to punish severely.

1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L 1/2 60: hang one to the wall v phr Punish severely.
1968		W.R. Burnett Cool Man 29: Al warned Johnny never to strip a sucker. Never drive him to the wall. [...] . Just bleed him slowly and as painlessly as possible.
1976		J.W. Dean III Blind Ambition 264: Maybe the President would thank me for what I had done. Maybe he was plotting to screw me to the wall.

1. (US prison) to make an escape.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 98/1: Hit the wall. See Hit the hump.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 108: Goin’ Over the Wall […] escape […] (Archaic: hit the wall, hit the hump).

2. (Aus. prison) to make an unsuccessful escape.

1990

Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Hit the wall. An unsuccessful escape attempt.

see behind the walls under behind prep.

see separate entries.

(US) confined in a hospital for the criminally insane.

1989

J. Morton Lowspeak.

1. escaped from prison.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Over the wall, escaped from prison.
1958		F.J. Hardy Four-Legged Lottery 86: A prisoner known as ‘Over-the-wall’ because he was twice escaped, was standing in the centre.
1973		T. Lewis Billy Rags [ebook] [I]t was all the grief of not being over the wall twisting him up inside.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

2. stolen.

1956

‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 90: A lorry load of Scotch which was supposed to be over the wall.

3. in prison.

1974

G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 188: The grass had been weighed off with two years over the wall; in other circumstances with his previous it would have been a result.

see go up the wall

(US) crazy, eccentric or over-excited, anxious.

1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 200: I’m soppy about you [...] Straight up. I can’t see nobody else. I’m up the wall.
1948		J. O’Connor Come Day – Go Day (1984) 28: Shemie, you better go home with your Uncle Tommy. Your mother will be up the walls .
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 39: As if to send Rosamund straight up the wall, Valerie was dressed for Longchamps rather than for Wayton Ducis.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 130: They never caught him. Fair sent them up the wall, it did. Be an annoying thing that.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 182: Cincinnati was doing a hard forty, and it drove him up a wall at least twice a week.
1996		(con. 1970) G. Moxley Danti-Dan in McGuinness Dazzling Dark (1996) I ix: I’m up the fecking wall girls. I swear I’ll give every bob I have to Concern if I get my friend.
2019		A. Parks February’s Son 334: ‘Mind you, we were half up the bloody wall with you. Nobody knew what was up with you’.

to chalk up a debt on the wall of a public house.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: wall to be scored up at a public house.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 135/2: Wall it, chalking a reckoning up at a public house.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

1. everywhere, all over.

1974		E. Wilson Show Business Laid Bare 165: [T]hey were met by a surge of people. It was wall-to-wall bodies.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 109: ‘Wall-to-wall nigger in 77th Street,’ Crotty said.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 27: Like you fall by dis little ol’ party and dey be wall-to-walI-niggas-gettin’ down to the ground!
1987		H. Ward q. in Firestone Swing, Swing, Swing 197: ‘Out on the Coast there were wall-to-wall people, and nobody could dance. They just stood there and yelled and hollered and screamed’.
1999		Guardian Guide 10–16 July 10: This guarantees wall-to-wall coverage on a rolling campaign.
2008		‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 24: ‘Nearly every kid my age was running with a gang [...] They were wall-to-wall hardrocks, lookin’like black and Puerto Rican Hell’s Angels’.

2. inaccessible.

1989

M. Amis London Fields 35: His life, he found, was sewn-up, was wall-to-wall. It was closed.