Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) the owner, the master.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 13/2: The ‘bloke’ of the ‘drum’ was in the habit of staying out until 10 or 11 o’clock, smoking his pipe over his glass, in a favorite resort of his.

2. (UK Und., also bloak) constr. with the, a judge; similarly for a prisoner governor or a ship’s Captain.

1841		County Chron., Surrey Herald 26 Oct. 3/4: The ‘old bloke’ had seen him before at this Court, but had forgotten him.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Feb. 1/4: That ere Bloke was nigh Bellusing us.
1849		Sussex Advertiser 17 July 3/3: ‘Mind what you’re about, and don’t come here again,’ said the portly governor of a prison which a juvenile delinquent was leaving. [...] ‘Hold you tongue, old bloak!’ cried the young rascal.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 104: All the fun consisted in Caseley calling the judge ‘old bloak’ and the counsel ‘rummy codgers’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 9: Bloke [...] ‘the bloke with the jasey’; a judge.
1923		‘Bartimeus’ ‘In the Dog-Watches’ in Seaways 17: Did you spin all this yarn to the Bloke when you come up at Defaulters?
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 20: Then half the vanload [...] became involved in a discussion on the best methods of handling the judge. ‘Look the bloke straight between ’is eyeballs,’ exclaimed a quick-mannered sharper.

3. (also bloak, bloque) a man; thus blokeish adj.; also nouns blokette (Aus.), blokess (N.Z.), a woman who fits in with the blokes.

c.1830		‘A Sporting Surgeon’ Waterfordiana 6: A nightly resort for all the coves who are in the habit of ranging about town after the ‘witching hour of night,’ bloaks of all sorts, sizes, and description.
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 10 Feb. 115: There niver vos such a old devil after the gals, as that old bloak is.
1841		‘Bet Farrell’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 40: Bet called him a hard hearted fellow, / Which made the bloke for to laugh.
1843		Leicester Chron. 17 June 4/6: Here’s a chance; here’s a bloak with plenty of ‘oaker’.
1849		[Alexander Harris Emigrant Family 47: [Y]ou can write I wish you'd write us a bit of a scrawl to the [o]ld bloke, to tell him he's what I call a trump.
1851		Hants. Chron. 22 Nov. 4/5: She had an old ‘bloke’ in tow all day.
1856		H. Mayhew Great World of London I 5: I wanted to ask a codger to come and have a glass of rum with me, and smoke a pipe of baccer over a game of cards with some blokes.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 253: Billy Fortune [...] wished he had ‘that old bloak’s tin’.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 77: bloak or bloke, a man.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 21 Sept. n.p.: I also, having a lady in tow, could not put the ‘blokey’ on to the ‘right track’.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 202: If the bloke is in town he could easily be squared.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 222: The Spaniards would always ’elp a bloke if he was once over the lines.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 9/2: Kino, the macing cove, kidded on a dollymop where the bloak’s got a swag of sheen. Kino’s cocum, and he’s stagging to crack the crib. Kino, the housebreaker, enticed a servant-girl (to keep his company) where the master has a quantity of plate. Kino’s wary, and he is watching to break into the house.
1882		‘Blooming Aesthetic’ in Rag 30 Sept. n.p.: Make-a-bloke-a-choke young girl, / Love-a-gin-soak young girl.
1885		Ledger (Nobelesville, IN) 14 Aug. 6/2: ‘A “bloak” has lost his “yellow super”’.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 37: He [...] did not know much about beating a sucker out of his money. I had to teach him how to handle the blokes.
1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 5: Ah, we blokies kin luck deh hull damn Row.
1893		Times (Phila., PA) 13 Aug. 23/1: If you know a bloke wot can swim an’ ain’t swell-headed, bring him along.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 18 Mar. 2/6: All the ladies, or ‘donnas’, were seated on forms on one side of the room, and all the gentlemen — ‘blokes‘ [...] — remained at the other.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 64: Even if he does sandbag a few o’ them rich blokies what’s the diff?
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 9: The uvver boys didn’t want asking more’n once to do a poor bloke a good turn.
1902		‘Billy Burgundy’ Toothsome Tales Told in Sl. 121: A bloke with bum duds.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 30: An’ what does them blokies talk about when they’re havin’ their chuck?
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Jan. 1/1: But, mid the blokeys, William stands, / A man.
1917		Wodehouse ‘The Mixer’ in Man with Two Left Feet 61: It isn’t like as if these blokes was ordinary blokes.
1918		S. Bourke & Mornington Jrnl (Richmond, Vic.) 11 July 2/8: A bloque comes into a game of chance, which sounds rite for darnce.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 88: The famous Wall Street Blokie, Jimmy Hooper, dressed up like a Horse.
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 87: The bloke’s sitting up in ’is bed swearing awful.
1920		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Feb. 26/3: Can any bloque on the job tell me why strychnine hydrochloride is of no use for fox poison whilst the alkaloid is effective?
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 209: He watched a big bloke at the rail spitting into a spittoon.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 7 Mar. [synd. cartoon strip] The first bloke to climb down a tree without first having to climb up it!
1938		D. Runyon ‘Baseball Hattie’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 647: I am in love with this big bloke.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 6Oct. [synd. cartoon strip] Stop!! We’ve skittled a bloke!
1942		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ [synd. col.] 17 Jan. Joe McW’s bodyguard, a bloke name Sheridan, was arrested.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 103: Give that there hokey pokey blokey a nice French kiss for me, will you?
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 46: A youngish bloke in a well-cut dinner jacket.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 45: One of the Second N jokers was telling me how he was showing a Ninth Divvy bloke how to prime a grenade.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 283: What kind of a bloke do you think I’d be.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene i: ’Ow many blokes yer ’ad this week?
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 60: Let me be a bloke and wear trousers stuffed.
1978		(ref. to 1960s) D. Hebdige Subculture 51: Trad depended on a beery ‘blokeish’ ambience.
1984		Smiley Culture ‘Cockney Translation’ 🎵 Cockney say blokes. We say guys.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 10: ‘[H]e just wants me to look after some young pommy bloke’.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 54: The time she had brought a black bloke to Cromwell Street.
2000		Guardian G2 10 Jan. 14: He’s a plump bloke, quietly spoken.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 27: Blokey finishes speakin with an apologetic cough.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 25: blokess A female bloke or acceptable mixer among ordinary working folk Mid C20.
2003		Bug (Aus.) July 🌐 Manly FC, the initials not only telling you what sort of sport they like but the general calibre of the blokes and odd blokette who run things down Manly way.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 225: ‘There’s a bloke shooting people’.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 91: ‘You even mentioned that one bloke who carried a torch for her?’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 295: He might be super-suave but he was blokeish too.

4. (orig. Aus.) a person in authority or of superior status.

1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Feb. 1/4: I tips half Bull to the Bloke [i.e. market inspector] on Saturday. It's a new Bloke at the Market now, so you must tip up.
1871		Gentleman’s Jrnl 322: Tom Todger, the foreman, and named by them emphatically and briefly as ‘The Bloke’.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 1: Bloak - Gentleman. Fancy Bloak - Fancy man.
1897		Worker (Brisbane) 4 Sept. 8/3: His boss he gives some funny names, when he can’t hear the joke. / He calls him ‘joint’ and ‘finger,’ and he sometimes calls him ‘bloke’.
1899		Sketch (London) 22 Feb. 18: ‘We pay a bob (shilling) a week fer bein’ members [of a thieves’ club], an’ the “bloke” gives us the tip when there’s any oof ter be made on a job’.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Oct. 35/2: Nowadays the first question a new man on a job asks is not ‘What sort of bloke is ‘the bloke’?’ but ‘What sort of poisoner have you got?’ [...] It may be remarked here that ‘the bloke’ is generic for ‘boss’.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 162: I’m slingin’ it, blokey. Goin’ back ter ther trade.
1910		L. Esson Woman Tamer in Ballades of Old Bohemia (1980) 74: You’re the bloke, Bongo!
1914		R. Tressell Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 15: He was generally regarded as a sneak who carried tales to the foreman and the ‘Bloke’.
1916		‘New Church’ Times 29 May (2006) 89/1: 1.5 a.m. – People rush in to remind me that I am orderly ‘bloke’.
1917		B. Adams Nothing of Importance (1988) 198: We were each, by the way, ‘my bloke’ to our respective retainers.

5. as a term of address.

1854		Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser 22 Feb. 4/1: [H]e had lain ten minutes on the bank when prisoner came up and said, ‘Oh you are here, old bloke,’ and prisoner put his hand in his pockets, and took out his money.
1892		‘John Miller’ Workingman’s Paradise 43: Hello, you blokes!
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Nov. 31/1: ‘Out of quod, blokey!’ / ‘Yes, Josser! Lend us a few bob.’.
1902		H. Lawson ‘Will Yer Write It Down For Me?’ in Roderick (1967–9) II 26: That’s the truth, bloke! Sling it at ’em! O Gorbli’me, that was grand!
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 59: Don’t be sudden, blokie.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 59: Stand up, blokey, an’ let Slim look youse over!
1922		E. Dyson Missing Link 🌐 Ch. i: You’re in fer it all right, blokie.
1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 26 Apr. 9/7: Solid, now, bloke; forget your ‘coke’. Put out that ‘roach’ and dig me.
1976		Jenkins & Shrake Limo 275: Hank handled all of the surprises we were confronted with in his usual professional manner. ‘It’s just experience, old bloke,’ he said.

6. a public house or tavern landlord.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 27/1: It was during one of those trips that the ‘bloke’ came in and found his ‘drum’ in the hands of a company of London ‘gonnoffs’.
1910		H.G. Wells Hist. of Mr Polly (1946) 197: You the noo bloke at the Potwell Inn?

7. a lover, a boyfriend.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 89/1: It was often observed that while other ‘picking-up molls’ and their ‘blokes’ got occasionally ‘run in,’ neither Shad nor his ‘moll’ got ‘shown up’.
1882		Daily News in Ware (1909) 35/1: Master Edward Graham, aged eight, and Miss Sarah King, aged nine, appeared at Bow Street as inseparable and incorrigible beggars [...] ‘Sally and her bloke’ is said to be the unpoetical designation of the pair.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 16 Nov. 2/2: A business man [...] tried to frighten his servant girl by playing burglars. He got through her window, but her ‘bloke’ was near and spanked him.
1895		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Feb. n.p.: Oh she’s a good iron, is my little clinah; / She’s my cobber an’ I’m ’er bloke.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 27 Jan. 3/4: The poor wretches must have a ‘bloke,’ even a vile brute like this one's, or else they're ‘no ‘class,' and earn the contempt of every other moll in the lane.
1961		R.A. Norton Through Beatnik Eyeballs 28: Got you no bloke [...] Poor you, nothing to do in the evenings.

8. (US, also bloak) a fool, thus the victim of crime; an unlikeable person.

1867		Memphis Dly Appeal (TN) 12 Mar. 3/3: A victim is styled a ‘bloke’ [...] ‘the bloke cried beef’ signifies [...] ‘the victim cried police’.
1879		Cincinnati Enquirer 7 Sept. 10/7: Bloke – A person not liked by the speaker.
1882		‘The Jargon of Thieves’ in Derry Jrnl 8 Sept. 6/5: The victim of a confidence operation is [...] a ‘bloke’ .
1887		Lantern (N.O.) 29 Oct. 3: Louis Sass, the bloke, thought he was flip.
1912		Day Book (Chicago) 6 Apr. 10/2: Is ‘guy’ a slang word? you ask me. Why sure [...] It means the same as ‘geke’ or ‘bloke’. Or ‘dub’ or ‘gink’.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 198: bloak, bloke, [...] a simpleton.
1932		J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 329: bloke—a stupid or disagreeable person.
1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 12: Bloke – a yokel.

9. (US Und.) a detective, a police-officer, or a minor judge.

1872

G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 89: Bill was convicted, though he boasted his ability to beat the Chief ‘bloke’ of the Secret Service.

10. (UK juv.) a hard worker.

1888

Times 1 Feb. 12/2: Remember the many epithets applied to those who, not content with doing their work, commit the heinous offence of being absorbed in it. Every school, every college has had its choice nickname for this unfortunate class... such as a ‘sap’, a ‘smug’, a ‘swot’, a ‘bloke’, a mugster .

11. (US) a streetcar conductor.

1893

Semi-Wkly Citizen (Asheville, NC) 13 July 3/5: I was t’rowed off a street car by a bloke [...] Dey calls ’em conductors but dey is blokes and won’t give a kid a show.

12. (Aus. Und.) a pimp.

1900

Bulletin (Sydney) 26 May 10/4: She was the only one who pleaded guilty to being a ‘professional’ and indignantly repudiated the insinuation that she had a ‘bloke,’ boastfully showing me her earnings for the evening.

13. constr. with a, oneself, e.g. a bloke ought to get drunk once in a while.

1916

Rising Sun 25 Dec. 8/1: The jawin’ of the sergeant nearly drives a bloke insane / It’s pick this up, and bury that, and shift yer bloomin’ pins.

14. (Aus.) a choice, a preference.

1927

C. Drew ‘Grafter and Goose’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Aug. n.p.: ‘See them two horses racin’ together, third?’ asked the Grafter [...] The Goose nodded. ‘Well, the outside horse is my bloke. Sand Storm’.