Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see fall guy n. (2)

(US Und.) money set aside by a criminal for bribing policemen or obtaining bail if he is arrested.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 32: fall dough [...] A fund kept in reserve for protection, to be expended in procuring legal representation, bail, or bribery of officers or court functionaries. Example: ‘No one can join out unless he puts up five centuries for fall dough.’.
1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 76: He got a ‘rumble,’ too. Came near to being ‘ditched.’ But the ‘fall dough’ saved him.
1931		G. Milburn ‘Convicts’ Jargon’ in AS VI:6 438: fall-dough, n. Money used for lawyers, bail and fixers.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 30: It is the boss’s privilege at any time to hand the member the fall-dough he has put up and discharge him.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 83: Many mobs have a central fund, a sort of community chest, called ‘fall dough.’.

see fall guy n. (2)

see separate entry.

(US Und.) bail and legal fees, just in case one is arrested.

1891		Emporia Dly Repub. (KS) 28 Apr. 3/2: What is deposited for use in case arrest follows a crime is called ‘fall money’.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 62: The ‘fall money’ of two pals, left in his keeping.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 129: Course I let Mother know and she had a mouthpiece there with the fall money.
1929		A.J. Barr Let Tomorrow Come 153: Greasy even put up ’is own fall-money.
1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 23: Get a pinch when you haven’t got fall money [...] and where do you get off?
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 239: Many con men [...] deposit a large sum of money with some legitimate person whom they can trust [...] This is known as ‘fall money’.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 162: Fall money was the stake we always tried to carry – generally $5,000 or so – to buy our way out of jams we might get in.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 213: I’ve got five ‘G’s’ in fall money.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

(US Und.) one of two or more people who are arrested or sentenced to prison at the same time for the same crime; also one of a pair of thieves working together.

1951		J. Blake letter 25 Feb. in Joint (1972) 13: My fall partner was a Southerner.
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 171: Mitchell and Ivan Sullivan [...] were fall partners when they came here with thirty-year sentences.
1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 72: When I finally got to Palacios, there’s all my narcotics and the tools and all this stuff just sitting there. And there’s my fall partner.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 203: fall partner, n. – an accomplice arrested with another.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 40: also Fall Partner When two or more people are involved in the same crime.

(US Und.) money that is held ready for use as bail, e.g. by a pimp for one of his whores.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 62: Whatta you think I got this ass pocket full of ‘fall’ scratch for?

(US Und.) respectable/smart clothing worn for a court appearance.

1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 445: Fall togs, Good clothes to be worn when on trial so as to create a favorable impression.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 71: Fall Togs. – Clothing especially selected by a criminal or by his lawyer to give him a good appearance on trial and so possibly influence the jury or judges in his favour.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 798: fall togs – Clothing especially selected by a criminal or his lawyer to give him a good appearance on trial and thus possibly influence the jury or judge in his favor.

of a man, to lie a woman down prior to sexual intercourse.

1748–49

Cleland Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 113: He led her to the couch, ‘nothing loth,’ on which he gave her the fall; and extended her at length.

to have a piece of good or bad luck.

1902

H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

1. (US Und., also get a fall, take a drop) to be arrested, to be imprisoned.

1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 404: Take a fall – to get jailed.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 8: Nobody’ll ever take a fall for this jam.
1938		D. Runyon ‘The Three Wise Guys’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 399: In all this time he never gets a fall.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 267: All the punk’s done, since he took that bad fall by Gold’s, is steer guys into Schwiefka’s.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 32: Jack had taken a fall on a safe job and was in the Bronx county jail.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 220: Beeker called to say that Ace has taken a fall.
1961		M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 34: Now they had taken their first bad fall, hundreds of miles from home.
1972		(con. 1930s) N. Algren ‘The Last Carousel’ in Texas Stories (1995) 140: When hit with the swag when the hooks were out, they could take a drop without hollering cop.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 71: I’ve heard that your father took a fall fencing.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Detroit Redhead’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 111: I took a fall for possession of a five-dollar bag of heroin.
1988		Ice-T ‘Soul on Ice’ 🎵 ’Member when your boys took that fall, and I posted the bail.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 269: How that niggah gonna take a fall, come back, and get a better gig.
2003		G. Pelecanos Soul Circus 312: [He] told me he was protected. Which is why he goes about his business down here and doesn’t take the long fall.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 64: ‘I’ve only taken one fall and that was because of a fucking snitch’.

2. (US) to tumble, to slip over.

1930

E. Caldwell Poor Fool 27: If you don’t lay off that wench of yours you’ll take a fall next Friday night.

3. (US) to find oneself in difficulties, to come to grief.

1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 78: Any number of people would like to see Terry Sneed take a fall, including some news reporters.
1982		O. Marshall ‘The Master of Big Jingles’ in Ace of Diamonds Gang (1993) 14: He resented Creamy’s ability [...] he’d like to see Creamy take a fall.
1999		J. Ridley Everybody Smokes in Hell 225: It was time, high time, for Daymond to take a fall.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 534: I take falls . . . race horses . . . many headaches.
2007		UGK ‘Chrome Plated Woman’ 🎵 With a bitch this bad, how could a nigga take a fall?
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 290: He was doing it again, defending the woman who had tried to set him up to take a fall from the mob.

1. to get the better of someone.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 May 8/3: But I do [forget him] now that I have heard James Bain’s parody on the ditty and seen his Hop-like caricature of the singer. How the house ‘tumbles to it’ when Bain takes a fall out of ‘Pie, pie, pie!’.
1904		Galveston Dly News (TX) 23 Aug. 9/1: [as nickname] Marsene’s bunch appeared at the Auditorium Park [...] ready to take a fall out of the Tamale Eaters.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 July 10/4: poet and pug. / ‘So that’s Burns, is it? Blime, I think I could take a fall out of ’im meself!’.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 20: This Janissary, seems by way of being influential, don’t you think? Jupiter Olympus! I’m not terribly keen on taking a fall out of him.

2. (also get a fall out of) to involve oneself with something.

1889		A. Daly Great Unknown 29: You just see me take a fall out of my ‘Universal History’ [DA].
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 325: I’ll get a fall outa whatever it is.

3. to reprimand someone.

1895

E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 77: De Duchess looked like she’d take a fall outter me de first chanst she’d get.

1. to volunteer oneself as a victim, usu. as the alleged perpetrator of a crime, in the place of the real villain.

1927		C. Coe Me – Gangster 77: I kept my mouth shut and took the fall for the whole gang, and now Slug was putting the rap on me with the old man!
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 140: They arrested my housekeeper, Skinner, and she took the fall.
1930		E. Caldwell Poor Fool 28: Ah’s a little scared of taking a fall for another guy. They might doublecross you.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 23: He only takes the fall for others.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 233: I took the fall for you, Tom. But he’s the one made me do it.
1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 155: I am prepared to take the fall for this one.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 87: One time Clark Gable killed a guy drunk driving. So Louis Mayer just points at some guy, some duty bug at MGM and says ‘You’re taking the fall.’.
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] ‘You reckon I want to take the fall for some fuckin’ MP dickbrain?’.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 67/1: fall n. ? take the fall= take the rap.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 65: He had taken the whole fall. Reggie wasn’t built for doing time.

2. to be accused (and condemned) unfairly of a crime.

1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 29: Who d’you pick to take the fall?
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 147: I thought he took the fall on that [...] last month or something.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 100: Chloe’s been killed and you’re afraid you’ll take the fall.

see under dead adj.