Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a lover of money.

1613		Rowlands Knave of Spades & Diamonds 103: To Mr. Mony-Bag the Userer .
1818		Keats Isabella in Complete Poems (1982) 188: How could these money-bags see east and west?
1868		Sportsman 11 Feb. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [Y]our jiiter (female) led to the altar by paralytic and hideously uglv Moneybags.
1880		Cornishman 12 Aug. 8/3: Marquis Money-bags! This notable member of Upper Tendom enforces payment from Sunday scholars.
1908		D. Stewart Wild Tribes of London in Illus. Police News 22 Feb. 12/3: ‘Well, old money-bags [...] you cursed old thief’.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 372: My father’s vision will be bearing the fruit of life when the money-bags kind of success is suppressed as out-of-date barbarism.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 20 Feb. 5: Moneybags: both Paula Yates [...] and Elizabeth Taylor [...] had expensive partners.

2. (also money-bagger) a wealthy person; often as Mr Moneybags.

1795		R. Cumberland Wheel of Fortune IV ii: I’ll marry that money-bag, and enrich you with the pillage of it.
1846		Cork Examiner 15 June 4/4: Letter XI. from The rev. Gabriel Storkes, Rector of Moneybags-cum-Hassocks, To Sir Finkin Clump.
1868		N. Devon Jrnl 17 Dec. n.p.: Two Electioneering requirements — wnd-bags and money-bags.
1884		M.V. Fuller Mrs Rasher’s Curtain Lectures 56: The only comfort I’ve had to-night was when I was resting on the sofa beside Mrs. Moneybags, talking over our new dresses — there!
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 22/4: Had he written three figures, he would have been taken for a ‘mere colonial money-bags,’ who gave to the titled delegates of fashionable pauperism in the same ostentatious way as the old-fashioned Yank used to throw his dollars at the Langham hotel waiter.
1889		Whitstable Times 7 Sept. 3/3: Miss Moneybags: ‘Malcolm, a suspicion lurks within me that you don’t love me, but want to marry me for my money’.
1892		H. Lawson ‘More Echoes from the Old Museum’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 182: And the People’s Bill was squashed, and ‘Moneybags’ exulted.
1898		W. Besant Orange Girl I 48: What? You have deserted the money-bags?
1903		Eve. Standard 23 Sept. 3/3: King Moneybags [...] The Rule of the Millionaire.
1908		J. Guinan Soggarth Aroon 200: The post of scullery maid [...] in the service, perhaps, of some upstart ‘moneybags’.
1908		S. Ford Side-stepping with Shorty 9: I’ve been up against the money bags so close I expect you can find eagle prints all over me.
1910		Derby Dly Teleg. 28 May 2/7: ld Moneybags is afraid that [the] Prince he bought for his daughter is a bogus one.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Dec. 13/4: Besides, when the clever son of the poor man has the same chance of superior education as a Moneybag’s offspring, the latter is likely to have to earn his crust with a pick and shovel a good deal oftener than he does at present.
1916		O.O. McIntyre New York Day By Day 5 Jan. [synd. col.] Al Salven [...] tells of a Fifth Avenue moneybags who blew into his home the other morning [etc].
1924		Aberdeen Jrnl 4 June n.p.: Mr Mosley said Socialism had captured the world already. It would not be deterred by a few moneybags.
1931		D. Runyon ‘A Nice Price’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 192: Who is my papa but an old moneybags.
1938		S. Beckett Murphy (1963) 55: For what was all working for a living but a procuring and a pimping for the money-bags, one’s lecherous tyrants the money-bags.
1943		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 24 Apr. 20/1: A big money-bag is trying to get him for the star spot in a new club proposed for the Stem.
1946		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 8 July 2/2: Said the prety crooneer to her wealthy admirer: ‘You’re such a darling, Mr Moneybags. Please don’t think I love you because you’re worth a million’.
1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 379: I’ll see how much dough I c’n raise up when I uncork my mouth an’ tell my grubstake troubles ta my old, rich, money-bagger Aunt.
1953		W.P. McGivern Big Heat 40: Me, the fat-tailed moneybags, so they say.
1966		P. Boyle At Night All Cats Are Grey 226: Uncle Moneybag’s photograph seemed to promise the certainty of honourable mention in his last will and testaments.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 183: Tell moneybags here to pay for it.
1980		W.C. Anderson Bat-21 135: What say, moneybags?
1995		M. Simpson ‘Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool’ Catching Up with Hist. 12: Christ our merchant prince, old money-bags in frockcoat, toffee-nosed, and well-to-do.
1998		R.G. Barrett Goodoo Goodoo 69: ‘Let me shout this time.’ ‘All right moneybags. If you insist’.
2008		Sun. Times (S.Afr.) 6 Jan. 1: Mr Moneybags: Schabir Shaik forked out for all Zuma’s needs.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 31: She said, ‘What’s up, money bags?’ I said what’s up but just looked at her like you got the wrong person with the money bags name.

wealthy.

1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 98: The present client is the black sheep, the foul ball, of the moneybags clan who own [etc.].
1970		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 37: Mick Jagger gets immediate pie-ority as a fake moneybags revolutionary.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 12: He [...] saw so many of the things he’d never liked reflected in these tony, awestruck, money-bag types.
1999		Guardian Rev. 6 Nov. 8: Her moneybags father had been found dead in the library.
2018		Eve. Standard (Lonmdon) 20 Aug. 43/1: What does Jezza think of moneybags Brinks?

the vagina.

1896

Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 45: Boursavit, f. The female pudendum; ‘the money-bag’ [Ibid.] 101: Écu, m. The female pudendum; ‘the money-box’.

(US) a millionaire.

1898		People 20 Mar. in Ware (1909) 177/1: It is estimated, I see, that the Vanderbilt family of millionaires [...] afford employment for three millions of human beings. The happiness or the misery of three millions of people wholly dependent on the whims and caprices of, say, half a dozen ‘money bugs’.
1904		‘O. Henry’ Cabbages and Kings 337: The chief had got together the same old crowd of moneybugs with pink faces and white vests to see us march in.
1904		Seattle Repub. (WA) 22 July 3/1: The money bugs are supporting Parker almost to a man.

(W.I.) a foolish spendthrift.

1894

T. Banbury Jamaica Superstitions 43: Money Cuffie:– A fellow who can afford it, and rather makes a boast of his means.

see sense 4

see gold-dropper n.

1. see sense 4

2. see sense 5

(US) the vagina.

1961		T.I. Rubin In the Life 41: Well, hole, snatch. You know, my money machine, that’s what I thought of. The cash register.
1971		Rader Government Inspected 13: That’s a money machine down there....I ain’t no charity worker, dummy [HDAS].

1. the vagina.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1934		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana II 21: Liza [...] saw the reflection of her pussy in one of the puddles. She playfully pointed her finger at the reflection and said, ‘There you is, you little ol’ moneymaker.’.
[1942		Z.N. Hurston Dust Tracks On a Road (1995) 693: You kiss my black, independent, money-making ass!].
1961		Elmore James ‘Shake Your Moneymaker’ 🎵 She won’t shake her moneymaker, won’t shake her moneymaker, She wanna roll her activator.
1977		J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 88: Her [i.e. a whore’s] sexual equipment may be a moneymaker or a money ’cumulator.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
1999		Dr Dre ‘Housewife’ 🎵 I mostly sold dick while I packed a gold clip / Worked my money-maker, she got paper, she bout to trip.

2. (US) the female buttocks; also used of gay men.

1944		E. Wilson 17 Mar. [synd. col.] Miss Ayres almost backed into the path of an auto [...] ‘Gee,’ she said, ‘I almost got hit on my moneymaker’.
1958		Shakey Jake Harris ‘Roll Your Money Maker’ 🎵 Roll your money maker / Baby don't you hesitate / Roll your money pretty baby / Oh baby don't you hesitate .
1961		E. James ‘Shake Your Moneymaker’ 🎵 You gotta shake your moneymaker / shake your moneymaker.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 100: ‘Shake that moneymakuh, honey! —’ (this to a spadequeen swishing by).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 107: hit somebody in the cocksucker and knock him on his moneymaker to hit somebody in the face so hard that the blow knocks him on his ass.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 100: She did a slow walk down the hallway, hips swaying, heels clicking. She could still shake that money maker.
1989–2003		R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐.
2003		R. Kelly ‘Snake’ 🎵 Let your moneymaker jump now.
2013		Baffler 23 🌐 Or there’s the sassy secretary who shakes her moneymaker all the way to the corner office (Working Girl).

3. (US black) in fig. use, of an individual, idea or other form of possession: that which creates a profit .

1964		E. Wilson Earl Wilson’s New York 20: Their [i.e. ‘streetwalkers’] slickly prosperous-looking pimps wheel sporty-looking cars to the curbs and joke with each other as they wait for their money-makers.
1978		R.D. Pharr Giveadamn Brown (1997) 186: Well, he had started out as a pimp, and now maybe he had a who here who possessed a four-million-dollar money-maker.
2012		D. Spivey ‘If You Were Only White’ 5: Some of the favorite fishing spots down by the Bay were always good for a few discarded moneymakers.

(US black) the vagina.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 money pocket Definition: [...] 2. the vaginal region of a female prostitute Example: Yo, bitch you ain’t makin no money, work dat money pocket and get me some cash, now!!! You slut like a retarded midget.

(US) an automatic teller machine.

1993		W. Safire in N.Y. Times Mag. 23 May 14: Moneypuker; a vivid word picture for ‘automatic teller machine’.
1999		Englischlehrer.de 🌐 money puker: an automatic teller machine/cashpoint (Geldautomat).

1. in pornographic still or moving pictures, a close-up of the genitalia, male or female at the moment of ejaculation (which for purposes of ‘verisimilitude’ always takes place outside the body); also used in non pornographic contexts (see cite 2010).

1999		Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 20: money shot n. The scene in a pornographic film where the leading man makes a small deposit from Kojak’s moneybox (qv), usually over the leading lady’s stomach. A pop-shot.
2000		Guardian 10 May 19: The end credit for Ali G features a cartoon of an erect penis ejaculating: in the language of porn this is the ‘money shot’.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 203: Tell her how much the guy’s old lady was gonna pay for the money shot!
2010		W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 73: Contemporary terms like street oyster (a used condom), money shot (ejaculation), Narnia (an extremely closeted client), and Whale Rider (a worker who specialises in very fat men).
2014		Spectator 4 Oct. 13/1: So here they all are [...] the money shots, the porno pics, the female genitalia.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 387: ‘Vinegar Strokes? What’s that when it’s at home?’ ‘Oh... whoops haha hrrm I thought... you know - I thought you knew. But Christ it’s better than if they called you Moneyshot’.

2. also fig. use, the big climax.

2000		Observer Screen 13 Feb. 2: The People’s Princess speech became his political ‘money shot’ – the one that led to those ludicrous and unsustainable 93 per cent popularity ratings.
2001		Source Aug. 118: The 12-story historical building is the money shot.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] [of a striptease act] In the last thirty seconds of the song I got down on my fluffy white rug for what some girls delicately referred to as floor work, but I liked to call the money shot.
2013		J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 166: People love seeing other people die. Blood spatter is the new money shot.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] If he’s still the only one there when Martin and Mandy emerge together he’ll be more jovial still: the money shot will be his and his alone.

(US black) a very rich person.

1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ Novels and Stories (1995) 1007: I got money’s mammy and Grandma change.
2008		W.D. Myers Game 177: They [i.e. a school] must have had money’s mama, because they came in really fine blue-and-gray buses.

the vagina.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 182: Other references to function occur in money spinner.

(US) money that one cannot afford to lose.

1972

(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 100: It would gradually accelerate until most of the players were wagering the don’t-go money.

(US) a sure thing; something for which one need make no effort.

1919		Power 49:12 9: That’s the language hectorspeaks when he faces [...] eight miles of scale-clogged boiler tubes [and]he walks into the scale like it was money from home!
1933		T.W. Haynes Our Daily Bread 135: ‘He was too clever this time. He would insist that it was “money from home” as he called it. I drew up the contract’.
1934		G. Burgess Two O’Clock Courage 236: Hillyers, why he grabbed [the hunch] an’ et it up alive like it was money from home.
1938		D. Forbes My Life in S. Africa 97: The King saw these fifty [cal;ves], amnd some not too bad, [...] money from home, as you may say.
1943		W.R. Burnett Nobody Lives for Ever 36: The set-up was perfect for him. A push. He couldn’t miss. Money from home.

see under Maxwell Pond n.

a dismissive phr. aimed at a person.

1973		K. Burkhart Women in Prison 3: Money talks, bullshit walks. If you’re a Kennedy and you get busted for dope, you never do time.
1991		Cooper & Wright New Jack City [film script] Money talks. Bullshit runs the marathon.
1998		T. Wolfe A Man in Full 559: Money talks and bullshit walks.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 210: See there [...] Money talk and bullshit walk, like the man say.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 13: Money talks, bullshit walks . . . Pecunia sermo, somnium ambulo.

(US) to induce by the lure of money.

1991		D. Jenkins You Gotta Play Hurt 201: ‘You have to go for the money.’ ‘You wouldn’t.’ ‘I’d like to think I wouldn’t, but I’ve never been money-whipped that bad’ .
1998		D. Jenkins Rude Behavior 296: I showed her the stadium going up—guys working through the holidays, money-whipped by her daddy.

(orig. US) excellent, perfect, just right.

1947		B. Stiles Serenade to the Big Bird 36: I checked the oil pressure and tuned the RPM on the money.
1972		Sat. Rev. (US) 4 Nov. 28: [The article] on politcal double talk from a poet’s vantage point was right on the money.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 226: You’re right on the money, Brotha Wally.
1992		M. Leyner Et Tu, Babe (1993) 76: Was I absolutely, 100 percent on-the-money when I hired Desiree Buttcake or what?
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] The little hitman was always on the money.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 160: You were right on the money, Reverend Bob.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] I figure they’re looking for anything valuable ’cause they figure I got no money. Both parties were on the money.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘Excellent. Right on the money’.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 360: ‘[H]is assessment of the conditions looks to be on the money’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 162: H. G. Wells was very definitely on the money when it came to the future of the race.

(orig. US) fig., to back one’s boasting with suitable action; lit., to back one’s opinions with wagered money.

1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1003: ‘Put your money where your mouth is!’ he challenged, as he mock-struggled to haul out a huge roll. ‘Back your crap with your money.’.
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 42: Say did you put your money where your mouth is?
1968		(con. 1940s) J. Healy Death of an Irish Town 26: The ‘ignorant bosthoon of a spailpeen’ who told you ‘put your money where your mouth is’ in too many arguments.
1976		M. Braly False Starts 289: I either had to shit some real art or get off the pot, put my money where my mouth had always been.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 6: Put your money where your mouth is, Slopehead.

1. (US) spec. the way in which experienced gamblers bet.

[1869		Sportsman (London) 1 Dec.. 2/1: Notes on News [...] One of the harpies was [...] charged with having in his possession pair of soldier's boots, the property, course, of the nation. He was fined 12l. 11s. 6d.—considerable ‘smart money’ for such a small venture].
[1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 240: One or two paid ‘smart money’ [i.e. to get out of the army]].
1926		Amer. Mercury Dec. 464/2: In referring to money wagered by persons with good tips or information, the term used is smart money .
1930		W.R. Burnett Iron Man 5: All the smart money’s on the black boy.
1952		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ 6 Aug. [synd. col.] The Smart Money must be on the Dems.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 49: I’d figure you’re right about this Coolavin. Looks like all the smart money’s on.
1968		W.S. Hoffman Loser 45: A lot of smart money on him. The big boys know.
1968		W.S. Hoffman Loser 36: That [i.e. late heavy betting] usually means a horse is hot and the smart-buck boys have waited until right before the start to throw it in.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 183: All the smart money that day was on a long shot.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 9: I bet with the smart money this time.
1984		W.D. Myers Outside Shot 95: ‘[I]f we lose, he wins because we didn’t beat the spread. That’s smart money, man’.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

2. (US Und.) a clever and successful criminal.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 199/1: Smart money. A clever and successful racketeer; any shrewd person. ‘That ghee (fellow) is real smart money.’.
1984		W.D. Myers Outside Shot 95: ‘The Fat Man is smart money. Guys like that don’t lose’.

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1956

‘Vin Packer’ Young and Violent 36: Pushing caps for a smart money man Tea knows only by the name Ace.

4. in fig. use, good sense.

2000

S. Maloney Big Ask 1: The smart money was home in bed.

(Aus.) to be very mean.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1226: [...] since ca. 1950.

to spend an extravagant amount of money on something, esp. in the hope of remedying a problem.

1999		Guardian G2 11 Oct. 16: I don’t like its unreliability – I’ve thrown a lot of money at that car.
2000		Guardian G2 5 Jan. 5: We will do anything they tell us, throw any amount of money in their direction, just as long as they keep our computers working.