Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) an automobile.

1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 160: I was just side-steppin’ to make room for some upholstered old battle-ax that I supposed owned the rig.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 177/2: Rig. An automobile.
1962		‘Yulesville’ in Bench Racer at r.webring.com 🌐 He laid the jazz on me and peeled from the gig, / Wailing, ‘Have a cool Yule, Man!’ and clutched off in his rig.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 90: He ran his hand down the fender of the pickup, a Dodge Ram 2500 [...] You got a nice rig here.
2012		P.J. Lambe ‘The Name Between the Talons’ in ThugLit Oct. [ebook] [Y]’ou’ll be using my rig.

(b) a truck.

1949		A.I. Bezzerides Thieves’ Market 101: ‘This your rig?’ the tanker said.
1954		(con. 1943) C. Chessman Cell 2455 236: A big rig, motor running, was parked at the side of the station.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 18: A great big tough truckdriver [...] who just slammed and kicked at everything and got his rig underway.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 284: I used to push a rig through here, stop for gas and eats.
1983		A-Team Storybook 40: B.A. drove to where they had parked the rig.
1993		J. Mowry Six Out Seven (1994) 59: About a dozen rigs stood neatly aligned while their drivers ate or showered or relaxed.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 92: ‘Used ta run a rig up and down the coast’.
2000		Observer Mag. 27 Feb. 23: They’d all get in his father’s big rig [...] and head off to the beach.

(a) the male genitals.

1968		Realist Nov. 15/1: Rig. It’s cockney slang for dick.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1980		‘Dan Kavanagh’ Duffy 146: His grip on the garrotte slackened a little. The wires round Duffy’s rig relaxed a bit.

(b) (drugs) the equipment needed to inject narcotics.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Rig, an improvised hypodermic needle usually made from electric light bulb wire to jab into flesh to cause opening on arm or leg for entrance of eye dropper to inject morphine.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 212: rig, n. – narcotics paraphernalia.
1980		Jackson & Christian Death Row 195: I’ve shot with every kind of rig that’s ever been.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 30: He starts putting his rig rogether, tearing a strip off a dollar bill and wrapping the end of an eyedropper with it, to make it seal. He twists a 26-gauge Yale needle onto the end.
c.2003		D. Vrij ‘Tying Off’ on Inter-zone.org 🌐 The California attitude, from Govenor Ronald Raygun down through to his piggy minions was ‘Fuck You Junkie, you can’t buy no stinking rigs and we’ll throw your ass in jail just for having one.’ Shit, they were known to bust people just for fucking tracks.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 12: Lurleen [...] would boot her vag-needle [...] the rig sticking out between her legs.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 3: The rigs [...] are all blood-used and crooked, like instruments of torture.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] Lupita draws up the shot [...] She flicks the syringe, gets rid of the air, holds up the rig, and admires her handiwork.

(c) (US) a holster (usu. plus the gun it contains).

1980		E. Leonard City Primeval 151: He brought out [. . .] a shoulder holster that held a 9-mm blue-steel Colt automatic with a hickory grip, slipped the rig on, adjusted it snugly beneath his left arm and put on his sportcoat again, now a perfect fit.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 280: He pushed the magazine into the butt of the gun and slipped the .45 into its leather holster. He dropped the rig on the bed.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 99: The uniforms had drawn their service revolvers, but Vaughan’s rig remained snapped.

(d) (Aus.) the female breasts.

2015

N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] [She] had all the credentials necessary for the job – beautiful big . . . eyes, plump and ripe . . . cheeks, a perfect perky . . . smile and a good rig to boot.