Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) money in general.

1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry I iv: It’s everything now o’days to be able to flash the screens – sport the rhino – show the needful – post the pony – nap the rent – stump the pewter.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 63: The pleasing sounds to them are ‘Post the poney — down with the dust — P.P.’.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 119: Poney, money.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 7 Feb. 4/1: A galloway race was to have been run on Tuesday, but the challenging party declined to post the poney’ .
1882		Dly Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 1 Nov. 3/3: [Villains] have lots of names for money, such as [...] ‘pony’.

(b) £25, orig. 25 guineas.

1797		M. Robinson Walsingham II 97: I want nothing from her but her rouleaus: and she is so d----d cunning, There is no touching her, even for a poney*. (*Half a rouleau or twenty-five guineas).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1826		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II 242: In my former pal’s stakes I stood only a pony.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 298: ‘I will bet you, Sam, 10l. on the fight!’ The friends of Sam and Spring agreed to make it a Poney.
1840		Lytton Money III iii: Flat, a pony on the odd twick. That’s wight.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 11 Feb. 1/1: Surely a wealthy Councillor cannot feel the loss of a pony.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 180: A pony means twenty-five pound, old feller.
1861		T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 29: Well, you’ve saved your master a pony this fine morning.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 134: [of a UK racecourse] A thousand throats are stretched to their utmost, crying out their slang betting phrases of ‘monkies,’ ‘ponies,’ ‘tenners,’ ‘fivers,’ ‘one to three,’ ‘four to six,’ etc.
1879		Clarence & Richmond Examiner (Grafton, NSW) 18 Jan. 4/6: It is grand ‘form’, however, to call [...] £25 a ‘pony’.
1882		‘Paris Inside Out’ in Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 30 6/2: ‘I have dropped a couple of ponies’.
1884		Sporting Times 6 Sept. 2/5: Queer language, this of ours, no doubt. In England ‘a pony’ is five-and-twenty pounds, in America a glass of beer and in the dictionary a small horse.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 339: Did he pay up? Of course he did. A ‘pony’ to wit, and on the nail.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 149: I think I can put a pony or fifty pounds in your pocket. [Ibid.] 343: I bet a level pony (£25).
1894		Truth (Sydney) 11 Mar. 4/5: I’m game to bet a level ‘pony’.
1894		E.W. Rogers [perf. Vesta Tilley] My Friend the Major 🎵 Know the Major's always stony, / Always up to sundry pranks. / Meets you and demands a pony, / Borrows it and gives no thanks.
1896		M. Williams Round London 202: He plays whist at his club for pony [twenty-five pounds] points.
1902		Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 3: A ‘level thousand up’ for fifty sovereigns was the game; / Old Chor. put down his ‘pony’ and the Kernel did the same.
1910		Sporting Times 1 Jan. 1/5: A bookie to whom I owe five ponies has made a miraculous recovery from double pneumonia!
1919		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 7 June 9/6: Slang of Money [...] Specific sums are variously named. £500 is a ‘monkey’; £25 a: ‘pony’; £10, a ‘double finnup’; £5, a ‘single finnup’ (word probably a Yiddish form of the Geman ‘funf’) .
1925		N. Lucas Autobiog. of a Thief 158: I had a ‘pony’ in cash when I left London.
1930		L. Lower Here’s Luck 57: ‘Put a pony on for me’.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 8: Pony or poney: £25.
1938		(con. 1910s) J.B. Booth Sporting Times 258: Peeling off five fivers, he thrust them into Rufus’s right fist with, ‘There’s a pony, if it’s any good to you’.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 40: I might need to bite you for a pony.
1950		S.J. Baker in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/3: The underworld has an extensive vocabulary of financial terms. Among those recorded by Detective Doyle are: [...] ‘pony,’ £25; ‘spot’ or ‘century,’ £100; ‘monkey,’ £500; ‘grand,’ £1,000.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 39: Here’s a pony for any inconvenience you may have been caused. Now flip off.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 39: I’m about to stuff my pony in my kick.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 90: What’s the maximum fine anyway — a score? a pony?
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 107: Give us a quid or two dad / or a tenner / or a pony maybe.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 305: Fivers and tenners, eh. Lady Godivas and bricks we used to call them [...] Twenty-five quid was a pony. And fifty quid was a monkey.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 135: Pony all round. Here i’ comes.
2005		H. Mantel Beyond Black 164: I could tell you about bills, Aitkenside owes me a pony.

(c) a double-headed coin.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 908/1: C.19–20.

(d) (N.Z.) one pound sterling; occas. £5.

1911		Truth (Wellington) 11 Feb. 7: Before leaving Wellington this youthful nobleman ‘tapped’ a Minister of the Crown for a pony [DNZE].
1916		H. Church Tonks 148: Done for a pony [...] Make it a fiver [DNZE].

(e) (Aus.) A$25; A$50.

1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxviii 10/2: pony: £25 or $25. Rhyming for macaroni.
1996		Ozwords Oct. 🌐 A pony is $50 (formerly £25).
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 67: ‘$25’ was, and is, known as a ‘pony’, as was 25 pound.

(a) (also automobile) a literal translation of a classical text, a ‘crib’ [‘So called, it may be, from the fleetness and ease with which a skilful rider is enabled to pass over places which to a common plodder present many obstacles’ (Hall, College Words and Customs, 1856)].

1827		Harvard Register Sept. 194: I’ll tell you what I mean to do. Leave off my lazy habits [...] and stick to the law, Tom, without a Poney.
1832		Tour through College 30: Their lexicons, ponies, and text-books were strewed round their lamps on the table [F&H].
1849		Gallinipper Dec. n.p.: The ‘board’ requests that all who present themselves will bring along the ponies they have used since their first entrance into College.
1854		Yale Literary Mag. xx 76: I am a college pony, Coming from a junior’s room; / I bore him safe through Horace and saved him from a flunkey’s doom.
1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 46: Pony, a translation of a classic text.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 11: pony n. Same as ‘horse’ n. 1, q.v. An expression known to have been in use at this University as early as 1869.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 50: pony, n. A literal translation used unfairly in the preparation of lessons.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 586: pony, n. A literal translation. Also called a horse. An interlinear translation is frequently called an automobile. College slang.
1923		R. McAlmon Village 137: Her quickness at discovering pupils who used ponies to help them translate their Latin.
1934		H. Sebastian ‘Negro Sl. in Lincoln University’ in AS IX:4 290: ride To use a pony (horse or trot) in an examination, as in I rode all the way in that exam.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 52: One who used cribs was said to ride hobbies, that is, apparently , to use an artificial means of reaching his destmation. A similar metaphor is implied in pony.
1949		J.B. Herrick Memories 25: I didn’t play poker or use a pony in Latin or Greek [DA].
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 48: cheat sheet – A pony.
1977		Sounds 9 July 22/2: After leaving college his vaguely literary ambitions found him earning a living by turning out ‘ponies’, the Stateside word for those little revision booklets English (or US, in this case) Lit. students buy when they haven’t read, say, ‘Bleak House’ and there’s an exam tomorrow morning [OED].
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 16: A striking example from college slang is the apparent loss of the most pervasive set of college slang items of the nineteenth century, words conveying the image of traveling the easy way — that is, being carried by a horse or pony — to refer to using a translation for Latin class. In the days when Latin was a required subject in British and American schools, pony, horse, and trot were widely known slang terms for ‘a literal translation’.

(b) one who offers illicit help with an examination.

1869		A.W. Tourgée Toinette (1881) 290: It became one of my tasks to learn and repeat her lessons to her until she partly understood them. She used to boast of me among her companions as her ‘pony’ [DA].
1959		L.P. Boone ‘Gator Sl.’ AS XXXIV:2 156: A cribber must find a pony to ride (someone to give information on the test), or secure a cheat sheet (key).

(a) (orig. US) a small glass of beer or other liquor; thus pony-glass, a small glass, with a capacity of approx. 6ml (2fl oz).

1843		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 4 Feb. n.p.: [He] has affixed his signature to the pledge of total abstinence and no more ‘nippers’ or ‘ponies’.
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 81: A choice swig at the ‘poney’ – (all at the expense of the benevolent landlord!).
1878		Riverine Grazier (Hay, NSW) 21 Aug. 2/4: But of she’d change her ‘must and shall’ into you ought or should, / I’d go right home as (hic) sober as a deacon (hic) from here; / But she’ von’t - so make dot pony a schooner glass of beer.
1879		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 29 Nov. 15/1: They drink absinthe, ponies of cognac, and smoke cigarettes.
1887		Hamilton Spectator (Vic) 3 Sept. 3/8: ‘Have you no recollection of what occurred yesterday?’ ‘Let’s see! I was all right until I met a man. He was an old friend. I think we each had a pony of beer.’ ‘Only a pony!’ ‘Only a pony’.
1884		C.F. Lummis letter 23 Oct. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 42: Beer for 15 cents a ‘pony’.
1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 25: Say, what deh hell? Bring deh lady a big glass! What deh hell use is dat pony?
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 60: Pony, a small glass of beer.
1902		Imperial Press & Farmer (San Diego, CA) 1 Feb. 7/2: Oh, sound the ringing hewgag and lift high the brimming ‘pony!’.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘Hostages to Momus’ in Gentle Grafter (1915) 213: I brought him a pony of brandy and his black coffee.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 392: Oh! some drink rain and some champagne / Or brandy by the pony.
1914		Dly Teleg. (Sydney) 16 Dec. 8/6: What is to be charged for the ‘long,’ the ‘medium,’ the ‘pony,’ the ‘lady’s waist’ of lager, and so on? Barmen were asked these questions yesterday, and for answer many of them could only scratch their heads, look puzzled, and say they were blowed if they knew .
1922		Joyce Ulysses 287: Yes, says Alf. Hanging? Wait till I show you. Here, Terry, give us a pony.
1929		E. Caldwell Bastard (1963) 13: Plunging into the bar, he poured five ponies of gin down his throat.
1932		New Call (Perth) 10 Nov. 5/4: Do you like your beer in a tankard, schooner, mug, or are you one of those dainty persons who prefers a ‘lady’s waist,’ a goblet, a ‘pony’ or a lip tumbler.
1939		W. Attaway Let Me Breathe Thunder (1940) 12: ‘A pony and two glasses,’ ordered Step, slapping the bar with the fat of his hand.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 28 Mar. [synd. cartoon strip] Two ponies of draught!!
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 36: He filled the two pony glasses again.
1953		[C.A. Wright] Caddie: A Sydney Barmaid (1966) 84: I had noticed he never drank anything else, and the pony was the smallest beer sold.
1961		K. Cook Wake in Fright [ebook] He ordered a pony of beer — the smallest amount sold.
1963		A. Baron Lowlife (2001) 188: I boosted myself with a pony of Scotch.
1965		N. Lindsay Bohemians at the Bulletin 72: At the first pub we came to he started drinking again, refusing to leave it till he had several rums to my pony beers.
1972		J. O’Grady It’s Your Shout, Mate! 15: We got ponies, glasses, middies, an’ pots, see [...] Now a pony’s four ounces—.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 86/2: pony smallest glass of beer served in pubs in imperial measure times, usually 5 ounce here and Sydney, 4 ounce other places in Australia; originally American for small glass of liquor.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 5: Throwing back another shot of Cutty and chasing it with a pony of beer.
2001		(ref. to 1950s) C. Lee Eight Bells & Top Masts 139: These were the 1950s. [...] [Australians] drank themselves silly on ponies, midis, but usually schooners.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] Danny Yates filled Swann’s pony glass, and one for himself.

(b) (US) a (small) dancer or chorus girl.

1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. x: I went into the pony ballet of a La Salle Theatre show—can you see me as a pony?
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 62: Hey, ponies — how about easing up on the crap game and shaking a mean hip?
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 224: Slim [...] promptly fell in love with Patsy, the pony who led the front row.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 11: The whole Ziegfeld chorus, from the ponies to the showgirls, would be hired to fan us.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 85: She was a neat little piece, about pony size, with big black eyes. [Ibid.] 192: She was only a pony—about five foot two.
1953		F. Brown Madball (2019) 59: [S]he’d first got into show business [as] a pony in a burlesque road show .
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 155: A tan broad as flashy as a Cotton Club pony.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 35: Four women beyond midle age, three of them looking like Norman Rockwell grandmothers, the fourth like an aging chorus pony.

(c) (US drugs) a weak measure of heroin [play on horse n. (7)].

1952

(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 274: Little caps of Horse cut to a Pony. A Pony pop couldn’t hook so much beef.

(a) (also pony girl) a prostitute or promiscuous woman.

1936		R. Johnson ‘I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom’ 🎵 I don’t want no woman wants every downtown man she meet / She’s a no-good pony, they shouldn’t allow her on the street.
1956		J. Stearn Sisters of the Night 43: If Peggy had been prettier [...] she might have been a call or a pony girl. [...] A pony is a cross between a B-girl and a call-girl.
a.1964		‘Honky-Tonk Bud’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 57: The ponies didn’t peep, the dispatchers were alseep, / And everyone was at peace.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 53: The stable pony eyes staring blankly into mine.
1999		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 9: pony – slut [...] ‘I decided she was a pony when she went home with a guy she didn’t even know.’.

(b) (US black) a young woman, a lover.

1940

Johnny Temple ‘My Pony’ 🎵 Babe, I ain’t had no ridin’ since my pony been gone.