Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also three be two) a Jew.

1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 346: Four-by-Two. [...] Used also to express a ‘Jew’.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 69: ‘I had to order a sandwich for you.’ [...] ‘That’s all right so long as it’s not ham. [...] I’m a four-be two, you see.’.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 10: Harry was a Jew. In his own phrase: a ‘tin-lid.’ Otherwise, a ‘four-by-two,’ a ‘Kangaroo,’ or a ‘five-to-two’.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 265: Don’t take long to wipe up a couple of Three Be Twos, do it?
1959		J. Gosling Ghost Squad 24: Thieves’ argot, spoken properly, is a foreign language which needs to be learned [...] Among the words and phrases derived from rhyming slang are: [...] Sarah Soo, Four-by-two or Kangar (Kangaroo) means a Jew.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 78: Lew Silver, a well known artistic four by two.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 128: Joe was munching industriously at a huge piece of pork. ‘I’d have hated to have been born a four-by-two and missed out on this’.
1979		R. Barker Fletcher’s Book of Rhy. Sl. 27: A rich four-by-twoish merchant.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 53: Jews are [...] four-by-twos.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 28: Fourbies (4 x 2) [...] Jew.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 22: ‘He’d be of the Jewish faith? [...] your four-by-two tends to be skilled at this sort of thing’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 842: ‘Yids. Four by twos. Oven dodgers. Four wheel -’.

2. (Aus.) lavatory paper [= loo (paper)].

1962

J. Wynnum Tar Dust 39: ‘Only privilege about ’em now is the fourby’ ‘The fourby?’ Jimmy O’Toole failed to comprehend the jargon. ‘Yeah,’ nodded Sloppy. ‘The Bumph. Pussers’ issue is four inches square.

3. (usu. Aus./N.Z.) a prison warder [= screw n.¹ (2c)].

1979		R. Barker Fletcher’s Book of Rhy. Sl. 24: Who are you calling a four-by-two?
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 248: four-by-two (n) Prison officer.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 28: Fourbies (4 x 2) Screw (warder).
1988		‘Siriusly’ Speaking in Just Us (H.M. Prison, Beechworth, Vic.) Dec. 26/1: four by twon. Eight; screw [Rhyming slang].
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Four by two. A prisoner officer. Rhyming slang for screw [...] Sometimes just fourbees.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] The four-by-twos do their best but they can’t watch everyone twenty-four hours a day.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 29: four-by-two n. Prison guard - rhyming slang for screw.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] : four-by-two (also fourby) n. a prison officer.