team, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

team n.

1. a gang of criminals; a youth gang.

1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 34: He had a blag lined up but did not fancy the team he had put it up to.
1959		F. Norman Fings II i: And a little team ter follow me – all wanted up the yard.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 60: The Law was sent for [...] their eyes lit up at the sight of our little team.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 37: Amongst the firms, amongst the teams who work on a large scale and plan everything down to the last detail [...] it [i.e. loyalty and silence] does [matter].
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 252: You either get the big teams and the real baddies [...] or the people who are a little bit ill, who need treatment.
1994		I. Welsh ‘The Shooter’ in Acid House 6: Smash the cunt up and he’d possibly get a team together for revenge.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 15: A lot of the old team I’d palled about with [...] were either away doing time, way down in Goa or away with the fairies.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 73: He goes off on his rounds, out to meet his team up and down the coast.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 4: We spray-painted it wae our mentions, the Young Team symbol.

2. a squad of police.

1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 48: Then the screws won’t be able to put anything else on to your team, who have been so decent to us.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 204: Team [...] a posse of police.

3. (Aus./US prison) a (powerful) group of inmates.

1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Team. Group of inmates who keep company.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 239: [T]hen you got the ‘team,’ the top five in the dorm. So you see who’s running the dorm.

4. (N.Z. prison) constr. with the, two very good friends.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 187/2: team, the n. = husband and wife, the.

In compounds

team-handed (adv.)

(UK Und.) working in a group.

1958

(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 172: And no team-handed.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

team cream (n.) [SE team + cream v. (1a)]

(orig. gay) an orgy.

1970		J.P. Stanley ‘Homosexual Sl.’ in AS XLV:1/2 58: team cream n Orgy.
1996		K. Lette Mad Cows 119: You’re parallel parking [...] A team cream. You’re having a bloody affair!

team player (n.)

(S.Afr. gay) a homosexual male; he in turn is on the team.

2003

K. Cage Gayle.

In phrases

double-team (v.) [farming jargon double-team, to employ two teams of animals to haul heavy weights through difficult terrain; subseq. adopted in football use] (US)

1. (also double teen) to gang up on, to use extra force against.

1860		Congressional Globe 12 Jan. 423: The Senator [...] has no right to say there is any disposition to ‘double teams’ on him.
1866		C.H. Smith Bill Arp 152: By double teamin on us they licked us, and we gin it up.
1904		T.E. Watson Bethany 197: On the next day we double-teamed on one section of his army [DA].
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 26: Maybe it’d be better to double-team the Kid downtown.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 157: Who y’all tryin tuh double teen?
1957		El Paso Herald (TX) 3 Oct. 17/5: A few examples of [...] ‘calo’ [...] ‘Runners,’ attempting to cross the Rio Grande [...] are often double-teamed (surrounded) by chilli chasers (border patrolmen).
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 69: double team To have two individuals jump-on and beat up another lone individual.

2. to work as a pair.

1884

(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 162: I reckon we might double-team it together; what do you think?

on the team (adj.)

(Polari) part of the homosexual world.

2019

P. Baker Fabulosa 295/2: on the team gay.

whole team (and a/the dog under the wagon) (also full team)

(US) a phr. used to indicate one’s own or another’s importance, energy etc; usu. as ain’t I/he/she/they the whole team.

1832		Political Examiner 17 Nov. 4/2: ‘Whoop!’ Aint I a horse?’ ‘A whole team, I should think,’ said Rainsford [DA].
1856		G.D. Brewerton War in Kansas 270: Avow yourself ready to declare that Mistress B—— and her fair companion are trumps; and a clear-grit Yankee woman quite equal, upon an emergency, to what, in vulgar parlance, is quaintly styled ‘a whole team, and a dog under the wagon’ to boot [DA].
1861		Harper’s Mag. Apr. 711/1: The accused sought the advice and counsel of your ‘humble servant,’ who at that time was considered a full team in the way of managing a criminal case [DA].
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 221: ‘I like the judge,’ said a man from St. Louis to Mr. Prescott [...] ‘He is none of your one-horse lawyers; he is a whole team:’ and the New York Herald, not long ago, declared: ‘[President] Grant is a whole team, a horse extra, and a dog under the wagon.’.
1878		N.Y. Mercury 2 Mar. in Ware (1909) 266/1: It is an Americanism. We cannot tell who invented it, but it means that a man is in possession of uncommon powers of mind. That he is a whole team when he is smart; when he is very smart he is a whole team and a horse to spare, and when the smartest, a whole team and a horse to spare and a pair of coach dogs under the waggon.
1891		H. Smart Plunger 12: [O]ne certainly don't come across many young men with the go and unflagging spirits of Bob. [...] he’s ‘a whole team and a dog under the waggon’.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 388: whole team an(d) a little dog under the waggin, n. phr. Used facetiously to indicate one’s self-importance, energy, etc.
1911		J.C. Lincoln Cap’n Warren’s Wards 170: Mother’s the whole team and the dog under the wagon! [DA].