seed, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

seed n.

1. in monetary senses.

(a) (US) a dollar; money.

1836		N.Y. Herald 11 Mar. 4/4: When we saw [the plaintiff’s] want of seed tortured into a proof of cold-blooded conspiracy, we really realized the sententious force of the couplet ‘O, the curse of being in debt, / Without the means of paying it’.
1910		‘Mack’ pastiche of Mutt & Jeff 6 Sept. [synd. strip] If you keep the flies off my bean to-day I’ll give you two whole seeds.
1920		E. Hemingway letter 8 Aug. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 36: I had only six seeds to my name.
1922		L.A. Times 4 May Section II 4: Herewith another installment of snappy younger generation slang just broadcast from eastern points, where it has its origin: [...] Boffos: Dollars, likewise known as rocks, seeds, berries, chips or jack.
1923		J. Melone ‘The Ice Fields of Gray Goose Lake’ Nature: Human and Real in Stiff Milk and Honey Route (1930) 182: Burns asked why he couldn’t wait a while, / And rake in a few more ‘seeds’.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 329: If he could get a girl for less than five seeds he’d take one on.
1943		W. Brandon ‘Its so Peaceful in the Country’ in Ruhm Hard-Boiled Detective (1977) 324: Two hundred seeds a day now, seven days a week. It is a marvelous job.

(b) a poker chip.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ DN II:i 58: seed, n. A poker chip.

2. (US campus) a person, esp. when unpopular or notably rowdy.

1849		Yale Tomahawk Nov. in Hall (1856) 407: But we are ‘seeds,’ whose rowdy deeds / Make up the drunken tale.
1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 407: seed [...] this word is used to designate what is understood by the common cant terms ‘a youth’; ‘case’; ‘bird’; ‘b’hoy’; ‘one of ’em’.
1871		L. Bagg Four Years at Yale 47: Seed, is used with about the same meaning [as scrub n.¹ (1)], though more nearly equivalent to pill.
1900		E. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 58: seed, n. 1. A fellow of small ability or promise. [...] 3. A girl one does not wish to take into society.
a.1946		‘The Open Bk’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 115: Of all nature’s blunders, he’s one of the wonders—The sorriest seed ever sown.
1954		(con. 1940s) T. Hungerford Sowers of the Wind 150: He’s a bit of a seed.
a.1985		‘The Open Bk’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 112: An ornery critter and a famous bullshitter, / about the sorriest seed ever sown.

3. (US) a country person [abbr. hayseed n. (1)].

1900		E. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 58: seed, n. 2. A student from the country.
1964		(con. 1917) S. Woodward Paper Tiger 58: [of Gov. Calvin Coolidge] I found my father sitting on a bench under a maple tree smoking a cigarette. ‘What an old seed!’ said my father.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 34: seed – Square, jive farmer, a country hick.

4. in drug uses.

5. (US black) a child.

2012

‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] I got a seed on the way, and Ima be there for him no matter what!

(a) marijuana; usu. in pl.

1969		Geller & Boas Drug Beat [Spears].
1971		E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 19: Seeds — Marijuana.

(b) the butt end of a marijuana cigarette.

1969

R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 226: seed The butt of a marijuana cigarette.

6. (US black) a child, children [SE seed of one’s loins].

1972		D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 78: seed n. [...] 2. offspring; son or daughter.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Seed (noun) A child, offspring.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 154: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Boo. Babymuva. Wifey. Seeds.

seedbags (n.)

(UK black) the testicles.

1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 158: My bone has shrunk underneath my seedbags.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 284: Your fader will chop off my seedbag.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 236: I felt another kick [...] All I could do was cover my seed-bags.

seed beast (n.)

(N.Z.) a compulsive male masturbator.

2003

seed catalogue (n.)

(US) a derisive description of a stodgy newspaper.

1952

W.R. Burnett Vanity Row 183: ‘A newsbeat. A real one. And the first one that seed catalogue’s had in twenty years’.

seed corn (n.)