Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US Und.) a crime partner; sometimes a close friend in prion.

1953		Amer. Jrnl Correction 12/2: In the [prison] kitchen, too, there are dozens of places where an ingenious trusty can be hiding something for himself or his rap buddy.
1960		Fed. Probation Newsletter 75/1: I copped a plea to a lesser charge [...] My rap buddy didn’t and served 12 years and 8 months.
1977		L.H. Bowker Prisoner Subcultures 83: The other social types discovered by Giallombardo included the ‘jive bitch,’ ‘rap buddy,’ ‘honey,’ ‘femme," "stud broad,’ ‘cherry,’ and ’punk’ .
1987		C.D. Garvin Contemporary Group Work 267: His ‘rap-buddy’ snitched on him and he was arrested. The buddy was not sentenced but Ted was given ‘seven to fourteen."’.
1991		Haas & Alpert Dilemma of Corrections 117: The ‘jive bitch’ is a troublemaker, whose deviance is a deliberate, calculated strategy [...] The ‘jive bitch’ stands in contrast to the ‘rap buddy,’ one with whom an inmate finds herself compatible because personal communications can be considered confidential.

2. (US black) a close friend.

1966		R. Giallombardo Gloss. in Study of a Women’s Prison 118: Any two people who find one another compatible in this way may become ‘rap buddies’ to one another.
1991		D. Simon Homicide (1993) 394: Stony. He’s my rap buddy.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 72: When you [...] hear your rap buddy just fell dead after slamming some Red Tops.

(US black) a close friend, a fellow gang member.

2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Mufuckas sayin’ you dropped a dime on my rap-dog, yo.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] He stopped in front of Peanut and told Dion, ‘And, yo, this my lil’ rap. He tell me you so much as looked at him wrong, I’ma leave you stinkin’ somewhere.

(US Und.) someone who is on the same charge sheet as oneself; someone who is jailed for the same crime.

1952		‘Dutch’ My Life in Crime 176: When I was returned to the parole office, they picked up my original rap partner.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 814: rap partner – An accomplice; associate in a crime.
1972		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Whoreson 289: This same woman who went to prison with you as your rap partner.
1977		B. Jackson Killing Time 230: I got two rap partners and both of ’em is in the hole now for tryin’ to use the law library.

(US) a criminal record.

1923		Denver Law Jrnl 50 130: Several mentioned instances of getting the client's permission to tell them of a prior conviction [...] but this was just to expedite the disposition of a minor offense before the ‘rap sheet’ arrived.
1940		West’s Pacific Digest 10:1 319: Exhibit which county attorney orally described as a machine copy of Federal Bureau of Investigation ‘rap sheet’ and state Bureau of Investigation ‘rap sheet,’ in and of itself, constitutes hearsay evidence and as such would be inadmissible.
1956		J. Blake Ex Post Facto in Joint (1972) 81: He agreed to extract the folder (‘rap sheet’) of Sandy’s cell partner from the master file.
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 16: Yeah, that rap sheet’s all bullshit [...] Most of those charges are phoney.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 60: His fourteen page rap sheet included fifty-four arrests.
1987		C. Hiaasen Double Whammy (1990) 38: ‘With your portfolio you could have done anything [...]’ ‘Not with a rap sheet,’ Decker said.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 103: Bobby was a notorious fruitfly with a rap sheet full of homo-pandering beefs.
1999		Guardian Guide 14–20 Aug. 21: At the police station you’ll find a series of mug shots and rap sheets.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 151/2: rap sheet a criminal charge sheet.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 8: A rap sheet and no degree makes it much tougher to get much better [i.e. as a job].
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 38: The rap sheet description included known a.k.a.’s.
2016		Vanity Fair 16 Mar. 🌐 His rap sheet, stretching back to 1961, included convictions for robbery, burglary, handling stolen goods, and conspiracy to defraud.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 99: ‘I’m the Lizard of Love. Check my rap sheet’.

1. (US) a serious criminal charge.

1933		‘Paul Cain’ Fast One (1936) 14: Stood a bad rap on some forged Liberty Bonds about a year ago and went broke beating it.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 249: You carry a gun — you shoot a policeman. A bad rap. Hard to beat.

2. the state of being criticized unfairly.

1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 258: I hope he don’t give me a bad rap with Norris.
2000		Guardian Rev. 20 May 6: It distressed him that snakes had such a bad rap.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 99: Satan [...] if you ask me always got a bad rap.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘I know you bikies get a bad rap about the drug dealing and the gang banging and bombing each other’s clubhouses’.
2023		S. Ayad When Kids Say They’re Trans IX: Recently, parents have been getting a remarkably bad rap, especially when it comes to hot-button cultural issues such as gender.

3. an unfair criminal charge or sentence.

1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 197: bad rap, n. – unfair treatment: ‘He got a bad rap’.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 53: Him and wops really gave me a bad rap on that conspiracy pop.

1. to be found not guilty in a court.

1929		Illinois Association for Criminal Justice et al. Illinois Crime Survey 1038: He [i.e. ‘Big Tim’ Murphy] had ‘beaten raps’ at memorable trials, typical for the spectacular failure of the law.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: ‘They found a large quantity of dope [...] We’re going to have a devil of a time beating the rap on that charge’.
1945		A.J. Liebling ‘Quest for Mollie’ in Just Enough Liebling (2004) 165: They moved us [...] before they could try him [...] so he beat that rap, too.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 197: You can’t beat this rap by clamming up.
1965		H. Huncke ‘Frisky’ in Huncke’s Journal (1998) 35: He began telling us of himself and how he had just beaten a federal rap.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 111: He went to bat for wasting three of ’em, but he beat those raps.
2000		Guardian Editor 7 Jan. 13: The Chin, who’s in his seventies, tried to beat the rap on grounds of frailty.

2. (US) in non-judicial context, to extricate oneself from difficult circumstances.

1944

C. Himes ‘Let Me at the Enemy’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 46: I gotta beat this rap, more way to skin a cat than grabbing to his tail.

1. (US) to be found innocent of a charge in court.

1912		Industrial World 46:2 72/2: I think I could beat the rap. It's for you to decide if I must give myself up as a murderer.
1927		Clark & Eubank Lockstep and Corridor 173: Beat the rap—escape conviction.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 162: They would often boast to the police of cases in which they had managed to beat the rap (escape from justice) through the aid of a good mouthpiece.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 226: Give yourself up somewhere and you’ll beat the rap.
a.1948		(con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 21: [chapter heading] Beating The Rap.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 77: He was [...] expected to beat the rap on the grounds of illegal seizure.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 243: Jimmy was trying to beat the rap by pulling a flip act.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 204: His lawyer had beaten his drug rap on the technicality of ‘illegal search and seizure’.
2002		S. Maloney Something Fishy (2006) 47: Although he had been charged with dozens of offences, he had a knack for beating the rap.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1959

H. Salisbury Shook-Up Generation (1961) 25: These youngsters seek to create the image of a ‘cool, cultured, ‘beat-the-rap’ type.

to be scolded, to be told off, to be blamed.

1865		Atlantic Monthly Mar. 297/2: He who has the bad taste to meddle with the caprices of believers [...] gets the rap and the orders of dismissal [DA].
2003		‘Goldenrod’ on Great Plains Nature Center 🌐 People suffering from allergies in September look for a flower to blame and goldenrod gets the rap because it is so visible and abundant.

1. to murder, to kill.

1936

L. Pound ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 199: Give the rap.

2. to blame.

1935

(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 801: He was too smart to let them give him the rap for these hard times.

(US Und.) of police or other authorities, to charge a criminal (fairly or otherwise).

1926		D. Hammett ‘Assistant Murderer’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 140: So long as Goodbody’s hanging the rap on me — somebody I can sue for a million when it flops.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 10: Coppers are not a bit particular whom they hang a rap on, so long as they get credit for the case.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 290: The F.B.I. couldn’t hang a Federal rap on you, so here you are loosed.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 113: We don’t think you shot that old man. We think he did. But if you don’t say so [...] there’s nothin’ for us to do but hang the rap on you.
1959		S. Bellow Henderson The Rain King 133: If they wanted to hang a rap of sacrilege on me, I was guilty all right.
1975		N. De Mille Smack Man (1991) 137: Even if you do catch him [...] it’s going to be hard to hang a rap on him.

1. (orig. US) to persuade.

1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 96: He laid his rap to her.
1987		Lang. Qly 21-25 138: A male looking for sction would use the expression ‘lay a rap on a chick’, ‘rap to a chick’, or ‘rap on a chick’. Whatever the expression, the intent was the same — employ abusive, sexually aggressive language in order to seduce a female.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 15: Lay a Rap To persuade. (Archaic: duke in).

2. (US) to explain.

1979

J. Stumphauzer Therapy with Delinquents 375: An example of such a dialogue might be: ‘There are Boom-Boom and Loco from East Side Loma, and it's too late for me to do something to avoid them. Let me lay a rap on them about what's happening with their clique’.

to impute a crime (to a criminal) (whether or not they are actually implicated).

1935		Liberty mag. 12:4 46: The thief, when he sat down to pin the rap on the girl, didn't realize he was typing in red.
1946		Billboard 25 May 58/1: He tries to poison the little lady during an audition and actually does knock off a poor old gardener, while trying to pin the rap on him.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 157/2: Pin a rap on. To make an accusation against, and secure the conviction of, an alleged criminal on a specific charge; to put the blame on, with or without justification.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 65: I’m not trying to pin that rap on you.
1965		H. Williamson Hustler 142: They tried to put the rap on this guy who had run ’cross the street.
1974		N.Y. Mag. 17 June 81: And before long, with the local sheriff ready to pin the rap on a peculiar janitor, with blackmail in the air, and [...] local hoodlums on the rampage and more corpses on hand [etc].
1988		J. Stanley Revenge of the Creature Feature 330/1: Unusually grim Larry Cohen film in which a film director murders an actress and tries to pin the rap on her husband.
1997		G. Goshgarian Stone Circle 49: Now he was trying to pin the rap on Flanagan because he couldn't ’fess up to the message on the kitchen floor.
2003		Col. D. Hackworth WorldNetDaily 16 Sept. 🌐 Connecting the dots where there aren’t any in order to pin the rap on Saddam is about as bent as ignoring Saudi Arabia’s very real involvement in 9-11.
2011		T. Nicholson 15 Months in SOG 60: Even the investigators from CID (Criminal Investigation Division) couldn’t pin the rap on anyone.

to inform against.

1909

H. Green Mr. Jackson 92: You wouldn’t put in a rap agin a guy who never done nawtin’ to you, would you?

(Aus. Und.) to escape or be found not guilty of a criminal charge.

1932

Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: If he gets out of the charge he is said to have ‘slipped the rap’.

to have a criminal charge dropped.

1936		F.F. Laune Predicting Criminality 117: Did you ever square a ‘rap’ by ‘conning’ a copper? [...] Did you ever talk your way out of a pinch in prison?
1940		S. Longstreet Decade 146: Needs two torpedos with willing heaters, a hideout and maybe some china to square a rap.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 205/2: Square a rap. 1. To cause a criminal charge or complaint to be dropped with the consent of the complainant and the authorities.
1975		L. Durocher Nice Guys Finish last 400: A low-grade hoodlum who would say anything they wanted him to say, either to get a favor or square a rap.

(US Und.) to take the blame, sometimes on behalf of another; to face criminal charges.

1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 39: I’d just as leave stand the rap [...] I’d be safer in jail.
1930		R. Whitfield Green Ice (1988) 16: It was generally known that I’d stood her rap.
1964		Popular Boating Dec. 31/3: If you have an incredibly loyal, discreet and understanding wife she may stand the rap for you.

1. to take the blame when one is not the guilty party.

1927		Collier’s 80 6: He’ll take the rap for me. That’s what I pay hm for .
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 80: Uncle Tom would see a hundred Milady’s Boudoirs go phut rather than take the rap.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 116: They’re taking a rap because of us.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 117: He’ll talk a country boy like you into some fool operation and you’ll be the one to take the rap, mark my word.
1960		C. Himes Big Gold Dream 46: I don’t want to see you take the rap for a no-good man who runs away leaving you holding the bag.
1967		K. Tennant Tell Morning This 219: ‘Terry took the rap and let you out’.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 197: If those guys think I’m taking the rap for it [...] they’re nuts!
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 25: Peggie and I would always have to take the rap for Richard.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 194: rap: to suffer punishment for a crime whether guilt or not; for example, ‘he took the rap’.
1995		S. Armitage ‘C.V.’ in Dead Sea Poems 8: Shredded trash, dug out top brass [...] took rap for P.M.’s body odour.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] ‘No way I’m taking the rap for you’.
1999		Observer 4 July 25: One of the commendable characteristics of this Home Secretary is that he takes the rap.
2000		Guardian 13 Jan. 10: Donkeys take rap for beach dirt.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 151/2: take the rap to take the blame for another, or to accept sole responsibility in a group offence.
2011		Guardian 26 Mar. 3: [headline] Health Minister Takes the Rap.

2. to take a punishment, often a prison sentence, that is actually due to someone else.

1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 250: Avery escaped by hiding in the trunk and I took the rap on Blackwell’s Island.
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 10: I’d take de whole rap for dis business if I could.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 199: He could not even tell the names of those who’d taken the rap for him.
1959		E. De Roo Young Wolves 129: Ya see, he’s takin’ the rap for—.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 39: I took a bootlegging rap for a pal.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 256: He stays put and lets guys like Weech take the rap.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 210: He was a doorman. There was a bit of a ruckus between rival club-owners and they went in with shotguns. He didn’t kill anyone — he took the rap for it.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 370: I took the rap for two other dudes.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 35: That one [i.e. a car crash] I was prepared to take the rap for.

(US black) extended, emotional, aggressive talk.

1993

Too $hort ‘Get In Where You Fit In’ 🎵 on Get In Where You Fit In [album] He’ll tell a lie almost every other minute / I’m like Bennett, I ain’t in it / Go on with your reject rap attack / You’ll get more from a prize in a Cracker Jack.

(US) an ostensible club that supposedly provides conversation but actually doubles as a brothel.

1986

Chapman NDAS 353/2: rap club (or parlor or studio) [...] A place that offers sexual services in the guise of conversation and companionship.

(US black) the ability to talk persuasively in pursuit of sexual conquest.

1994

N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 27: They had strong rap games, the studied ability to talk smooth and persuasive to get their way with the ladies.

(US) a discussion or encounter group.

1971

N.Y. Times 12 June 28: The New York chapter of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War instituted weekly ‘rap groups’ where men meet and talk about their experiences and feelings.

(US) a euph. for a massage parlour, itself a cover for a store-front organization behind which, while legitimate massage may be available, men pay for a variety of sexual services from ‘relief’ or ‘executive’ massage (masturbation) to full intercourse.

2003

Princeton Union-Eagle Jan. 🌐 Adult use/principal is defined as the ‘offering of goods and/or services which are classified as adult uses as a primary or sole activity of a business or establishment’ and include, but are not limited to, the following: adult use body painting studio, adult use bookstore, adult use cabaret, adult use companionship establishment, adult use conversation and/or rap parlor, adult use health/sport club, adult use hotel/motel, adult use massage parlor/health club.

1. (US) a police interrogation.

1975

Sepe & Telano Cop Team 140: Sepe and Telano hauled their prisoner off to the station house for a ‘rap’ session.

2. an intense conversation; by ext., in new therapy use, an encounter group.

1970		New Yorker 28 Nov. 130: A church rap session at which a few hundred women came to talk about their abortions.
1983		R. Price Breaks 166: He had the asbolute balls to show up for this rap session in a black T-shirt, dungarees [...] and a gold Cartier wristwatch.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 248: We [...] held impassioned rap sessions about the impact of current events.