note, n.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

note n.²

1. (orig. Aus.) a one-pound note, thus pl. notes, an unspecified sum of money.

1858		‘A. Pendragon’ Queen of the South 104: Hockey, old chap, lend us a note or two.
1864		J. Rogers New Rush Pt II 28: A note’s so very trifling, it’s no sooner chang’d than gone; For it is but twenty shillings.
1875		Wood & Lapham Waiting for Mail 39: And even at half fifty notes a week / You ought to have made a pile.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 23: It’s father — for a note.
1893		F. Adams Australians 181: He comes to a shed with two horses, stores, and ten ‘notes’.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 41: I’d give five notes, if I had it, to see these (fellows) yoked up and off.
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘White-when-he’s-wanted’ in Three Elephant Power 53: ‘An’ what’ll ye be wantin’ for him?’ asked MGregor. ‘Reckon he’s worth fifteen notes,’ said the drover.
1927		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 74: Early the next morning, the sailor he awoke / And reaching in his pocketbook, he handed me a note.
1934		C. Drew ‘The Unbeliever’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 13 June 50/2: ‘I’m down to my last five notes’.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 98: We’ve got about twenty quid [...] Fat lot of horses we can buy with twenty notes.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 81: I was down ten quid until the last race, when Firefly came home and saved the bacon, and I went home twelve notes up.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 178: They were fined fifty notes.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 51: [A] college-boy hair-do that must have cost him at least half a note.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 15: That’s nearly fifty notes where I come from.
1970		C. Brown Down All the Days 88: ‘And what’s the screw?’ ‘Seven notes a week.’.
1981		G. Johnston Fish Factory 33: I reckon you ought to be able to spare a couple of notes.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] So the driver, gicking himself like, handed over all his notes, no questions asked.
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] ‘Get your notes out you want to bet [...] get your paper out’.
1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 157: He said he’ll give me twenty notes when he picks up the goods.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 11: — Least we’re gettin paid tho. — Yeh, fifty fuckin notes.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 67: ‘Money’ [...] might also be referred to as ‘cash’, or ‘coin’, or ‘oscar’, or ‘moolah’, or ‘notes’, or ‘bills’, or ‘chips’ or ‘brass’, or ‘dosh’, or ‘dough’, or ‘bread’, or ‘biscuits’, or ‘bullets’, or ‘ammunition’.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 24: Jimmy handed Tony [...] notes enough to buy tiles and bleach.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 3: Gs spent their time [...] counting their notes from dragon hip sales.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 7: Ask fur suhin daft n you’ll end up wae few score notes in yir hand.

2. (US) usu. in pl., a cash payment.

1972

Hall & Adelman Gentleman of Leisure 20: I’d just bought a new Buick and it had notes of one hundred ninety dollars a month on it.

In compounds

note layer (n.)

a short-change swindler.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 164: note layer A shortchange swindler.

note shaver (n.) [shave a note v.]

(US) a promoter of bogus financial companies, a usurer.

1816		Mass. Spy 4 Sept. n.p.: We have too many note-shavers; too many gentlemen [DA].
1896		H. Frederic Damnation of Theron Ware 40: People tacitly inferred that he ‘shaved notes’.
1911		R.D. Saunders Colonel Todhunter of Missouri 113: Don’t you forget that old Eph Tucker was a note-shaver long before he was a politician [DA].
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.

note thing (n.)

(UK drugs) a portion of drugs, payable with a £10, £20 note, etc.

2015

67 ‘Hookahs’ 🎵 I break down cocaine rocks and I put up note things in cling.

In phrases

lay the note (v.) (US Und.)

1. to swindle, to short-change.

1928		J. O’Connor Broadway Racketeers 145: The good old racket is being worked daily right in New York [...] carrying a new title, ‘Laying the Note.’ But nevertheless it’s the same old short-change stunt with the sucker at the other end of the cash register.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 74: The hype is also known as ‘laying the note’ and ‘the stingaree’.
1953		W.L. Alderson ‘Carnie Talk’ in AS XXVIII:2 117: lay the note, v. phr. To shortchange.
1966		M. Braly It’s Cold Out There (2005) 196: ‘What’d they bust him for?’ ‘Bunco. He was trying to lay the note.’.
1973		M. Agar Ripping and Running 161: Lay the note – short change.

2. to pay a prostitute.

1939

D. Maurer ‘Prostitutes and Criminal Argots’ in Lang. Und. (1981) 116/2: To lay the note. To pay a prostitute.

note n.2

In compounds

In phrases

note n.²