Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. any woman, usu. old but not necessarily so; often as the old girl.

1640		The Wandering Jew 15: I have a rich London Widdow in chase [...] Tell me therefore now (worthy Jew) whether it be my Fortune to have this golden old girle or no.
1794		Sporting Mag. Oct. V 23/2: While his sister lay on her death-bed, being importuned to call in medical assistance, he sternly replied, [...] ‘If the old girl’s time has come, the nostrums of all the quacks in Christendom cannot save her.’.
1826		T. Creevey letter 22 Aug. in Gore Creevey Papers (1948) 266: The old girl has a jointure of £5,000 a year.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair I 373: The old girl has always acted like a trump to me.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 229: Begad, Tom [...] I shall have to get you to buck up to the old girl, and carry her off.
1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 27: The old girl was artful, deceitful and dishonest.
1870		L. Oliphant Piccadilly 90: ‘What does the – ’ I am afraid I mentally said ‘old girl’ – ‘want, I wonder?’.
1880		E.J. Milliken ‘Cad’s Calendar’ Punch Almanack n.p.: APRIL! All Fools’ Day’s a proper time, / Cop old gurls and guy old buffers prime.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 33: Last night for a partner I drew an old girl who was a Colonial Dame because her ancestors on both sides had worked on the Old Colony Railroad.
1900		G.R. Sims In London’s Heart 85: The old gal’s jewellery’s always in the house when she’s in town.
1910		H.G. Wells Hist. of Mr Polly (1946) 119: We’ll get the stuff into the house before the old gal comes along.
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 183: As for the old girl’s jewels, they don’t seem to fit at all.
1937		Jennings & Madge May the Twelfth: Mass-Observation Day-Surveys 2:99: Look at the old girl, she looks as if she’s got toothache.
1945		G. Fairlie Capt. Bulldog Drummond 82: In one breath [...] you refer to her as a fairy, thus raising me hopes, and in the next you call her an old girl, thus dashing them to the ground.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 145: Victor had said the old girl went to bed early.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 17: [S]ome old girl [...] reached near me.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 77: I know the old girl who lives here.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Christmas Crackers’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] I promised them to the old girl down stairs for her cat!
1990		(con. 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 337: A granny type watering the lawn. [...] The old girl saw him and rabbited.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 9: The old girl behind the counter said, ‘What’s on, Billy?’.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 4: He had two old girls with him.

2. a general term of address to a woman or a female dog or horse.

1837		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 2 Dec. 36: ‘I ain’t got it, old girl,’ said the shabby man.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Sept. 2/6: He took hold of the hand of a girl, with whom the defendant was conversing, saying, ‘how do you do, old girl?’.
1849		Sam Sly 28 Apr. 3/1: [I]t is high time you either reformed or hooked it. More anon, old girl.
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 40: Now, old girl, get some supper out before he comes home.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple I 114: [She] is right as a trivet now, ain’t you, old gal.
1889		Birmingham Dly Post 22 July 8/2: This man [...] came up to me, and said, ‘Halloa, old girl; how are you?’ I said, ‘All right, old chap’.
1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 61: Brace up, old girl.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Dec. 32/1: Why, you can ’ear the money go chink, chink, in ’is pocket, an’ ’e says: ’Ere’s a ’alf-sov., old girl, go and buy yourself somethink’ -- that ain’t like father.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 116: I’ll keep my promise to you, too, old girl.
1937		E. Garnett Family from One End Street 162: ‘Come on, Rosie, old girl!’ cried Uncle Charlie.
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 293: Cheer up, old girl.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 163: ‘My old girl,’ Ocker cried. ‘You look good enough to eat tonight.’.
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 95: Same thing as you’ve been up to, ole girl.

3. one’s wife or regular female companion; also as a term of address.

1834		Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 8: Give me a kiss, old girl.
1842		‘The Bill Sticker’ Nobby Songster 7: So what I doesn’t use myself, the old gal light the fire with.
1853		Dickens Bleak House (1991) 385: The old girl [...] is a thoroughly fine woman.
1864		letter 24 Nov. in O.J. Hopkins Under The Flag (1961) 216: Take care, old girl!
1879		G.R. Sims Dagonet Ballads 80: I set there as proud as a peacock, a-holdin’ the reins like a toff, / And a-puffin’ a great big Maniller, as set my old gal on the cough.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Jan. 8/3: He wedded – yet he did not prove / A champion baby-husher. To ‘blue’ the ‘sugar’ he did love, / And give the ‘old girl’ ‘brusher.’.
1896		M. Williams Round London 107: The old gal thinks with me that you’re all right and on the square.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Harbinger’ Voice of the City (1915) 56: I hadn’d any idea the old girl was soft any more under the foolish rib.
1911		H. Champion ‘The Girl with Golden Hair’ [monologue] I’m glad the old girl wasn’t there.
1918		‘Sapper’ Human Touch 10: That’s all right, old gal.
1928		T.W.H. Crosland ‘Carlton’ Last Poems 16: By the ‘old girl’ to take your stand, / With the old brolly in your hand.
1937		A. Christie Dumb Witness (1949) 89: What’s it all about, old girl?
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 45: Somebody’s old girl chasing up a titbit for the old china.
1964		P. Terson Night to Make the Angels Weep (1967) I iv: My old gal could use a rabbit.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 192: She’s a good old girl. Loopers who get hitched up have a knack for picking loyal women.
1997–2000		Da Bomb 🌐 20: Ole’ girl: Girlfriend.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 123: Listen up – kak! old girl!

4. one’s mother; also as a term of address.

1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 May 3/4: Dad in New York, the old gal at the sewing society.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 17/2: Don’t pipe your eye, old girl, I’ll be all right; / I’m ready now to make a bloomin wager […] In less than three months I’ll be made a major.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 108: Who, the old girl?
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘When Woman’s Tongue Wags’ Sporting Times 25 July 1/4: I suppose the old girl will be waltzing along, / And as usual making things hum?
1913		H. Lawson ‘Benno and his Old ’Uns’ in Roderick (1972) 804: Benno calls her simply ‘Mother’; but she is referred to me [...] as ‘the Old Gal’.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 121: Her mother picked on Sadie the whole time. It was this thing and the other. The old girl didn’t like the hat she was wearing and there was something wrong with the dress, too.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene ii: Thass about one thing your ol’ girl don’t do.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 29: I knew he was going to start talking either science-fiction or his mother. [...] ‘The old girl has finally reached her zenith.’.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 205: The auld girl tries tae look coy.
2001		I. Welsh Glue 36: Ah git the gen oan her auld man n auld girl offay Billy.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 110: Y’all talk to my mother [...] I don’t want the old girl to worry.

5. (US) used of a non-human object.

1912		Van Loan ‘Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 27: I guess the old girl [i.e. an arm] will stand three innings.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 457: Old girl, An affectionate nickname for a railway locomotive.
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 10: Casey Jones [...] understood his ‘old girl’ [i.e. locomotive] as a cowboy knows is horse.
1952		T.A.G. Hungerford Ridge and River (1966) 44: Lovingly they called it [i.e. a gun] ‘Betsy’ or ‘she’ or ‘the old girl’.
1968		D. O’Grady Bottle of Sandwiches 27: [a truck] We wandered back to the old girl.
2004		M. Wall John Peel 151: After putting in more than half a million miles on the clock, he had finally agreed to the now decrepit old girl [i.e. a Mercedes 190] being carted off .

6. a mother-in-law.

1949

L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 42: I’ve got mother-in-law trouble [...] She’s a nasty piece of work, the old girl.

7. (US black campus) a college or pre-college boarding school boy’s roommate.

1947		M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl.
1959		A. Anderson ‘School Days in North Carolina’ in Lover Man 82: ‘You going to be my old gal?’ ‘Your who?’ ‘My old gal. Down here we don’t say room-mate, we say “old gal” or “old lady”. Come on in’.

8. (gay) a term of address to a homosexual friend.

1988

A. Hollinghurst Swimming-Pool Library (1998) 213: ‘Don’t worry, old girl, I’ll wait for you.’ I patted him on the shoulder.