peanut n.
1. (also pretzel) in pl., anything (occas. anyone) insignificant, petty, esp. money, wages.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | New Eng. Farmer (Boston, MA) 22 Aug. 4/1: ‘I wouldn’t give a peanut for Glenham, if it wasn’t for the hops and drives, and the moonlight strolls’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘Barracking’ in Benno and Some of the Push 149: I wouldn’t give peanuts for a play iv footy without him as leadin’ comedian. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 5 Sept. 8: Keep your meat-pies on that peanut, I think he’s on fer crackin’ up ther crib. | |
| Sun (NY) 1 July 11/4: Harry Stevens, accused of having run a peanut into a million dolalrs. | |
| Gangster Girl 4: They let the [...] trimmers muscle for them, put over the tall orders, slaughter one another and get peanuts for their pay. | |
| Brain Guy (1937) 249: He’s only peanuts. | |
| Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 179: He could get Timmons for peanuts. | |
| Savage Night (1991) 123: I’d worked for those people for peanuts. | |
| Complete Guide to Gambling 687: Peanuts or Pretzels – small money. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Lowlife (2001) 104: For peanuts, for a hundred, I could make this house basically habitable. | |
| Just Between Ourselves I i: Peanuts for a car like this. It’s hardly run in. | |
| ‘Get Daley!’ Minder [TV script] 74: Nothing, peanuts, hardly covered my expenses. | |
| G’DAY 38: FOREMAN: Oo’s this peanut? Not another blow-in? | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 66: Two bits may seem like peanuts to you. | |
| Black Tide (2012) [ebook] They shut down the local jacks [...] just peanuts for them peanuts for monkeys. | |
| ‘Defender’ in Turning (2005) 300: Couldn’t shoot for peanuts. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 11: Peanuts, I know [...] We need that new angle. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | IOL News (Western Cape) 9 Feb. 🌐 Oh my word, who should we trust with our hard earned peanuts? | |
| Killing Pool 95: I would love to [...] humiliate him with a body search in front of his peanuts-paying bosses. | |
| (con. 1963) November Road 4: The guy owns the building, the bar downstairs, he’ll front for peanuts. |
2. of a person.
(a) (US) a young person, a child.
| Sport (Adelaide) 27 Mar. 3/5: Can’t you score a peanut more your own size? [...] the Johns are on the look out for all kidnappers . | |
| Tattoo the Wicked Cross (1981) 31: ‘How old are you?’ he asked [...] ‘Fifteen,’ Aaron answered, bracing himself for the familiar insult. ‘Why you’re just a peanut,’ the doctor said. | |
 | Chocolate Frog (1973) 43: tosser: ‘[N]o good yer tryin’ ter tell this peanut anythin’’. |
(b) (Aus.) a slightly foolish person.
| Sport (Adelaide) 7 Aug. 5/7: Emmie B. should not look so shy when she is not. The peanuts all know you’re not, Emmie . | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Dec. 2s/3: The peanut who was pot-walloping for the Con.-Ponins. | |
| Sixty Seconds 235: The system is not to bother the rough babies but make a big show of taking up for the girls by going after the boobs and the silly-looking peanuts. When a sap tries to manhandle a girl, then they rush him out on his ear. | |
| Storms of Summer 159: Charlie introduces us to this Ricco peanut. | |
| Holy Smoke 8: Big as the side of a house, this peanut, d’y’ see? [Ibid.] 62: This young peanut’s the old bloke’s heir. | |
| Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] ‘You hoity-toity peanut,’ cut in Norton. | |
| Good Girl Stripped Bare 30: [She] yells ‘you peanut!’ across the classroom if you can’t grasp the complexities of cos and sine. |
(c) (US black) a white man [abbr. Mr Peanut under Mr n.].
| Really the Blues 109: It always hit me to see that keyed up peanut crawl behind the drums. |
(d) (US campus) a casual acquaintance.
| (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 11: PEANUT — person known casually and with whom one interacts only for a specific purpose: ‘It’s no big deal if she gets angry. She’s only one of my peanuts’. |
3. (US) the card-game pinochle.
| Day Book (Chicago) 28 May 32/1: Won $2 playing ‘peanut’ (pinocle) [sic]. |
4. (drugs) a barbiturate [the shape of the pill].
| Narcotics and Hallucinogens. | |
| Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, OH) 16 Mar. 2/6: The barbiturates are identified as ‘red devils,’ ‘pinks,’ ‘goof balls,’ ‘barbs,’ ‘downers,’ ‘candy,’ ‘peanuts,’ ‘yello [sic] jackets’ and ‘blue dragons.’. | |
| ‘Gloss. of Drug Terms’ National Instit. Drug Abuse. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 16: Peanut — Depressants. |
5. (UK juv.) one who has an oval, peanut-shaped head; one who has recently received a haircut.
| ‘The Amazing Hat Mystery’ in Young Men in Spats 99: ‘Nelson is built more on the lines of a minor jockey and has a head like a peanut’. | |
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 25 Dec. 6/3: He also had a controlling interest in the Paradox Theatres, a small peanut head, and a big opinion of himself. | |
| OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 peanut n. (1) A person with an oval, peanut shaped head. (2) A person who has recently received a haircut. |
In phrases
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(Aus./US) the front row of the stalls in a cinema.
| Dly Examiner (Grafton, NSW) 22 Feb. 5/3: That part of a theatre, which has become popularly known [...] as ‘Peanut Alley,’ was, in this instance, under flood water, but the dress circle was high and dry. | |
| Lithgow Mercury (NSW) 5 Apr. 2/2: Those hard old ‘peanut alley’ seats [...] do not squeak and creak in tune when, people are singing or talking. | |
| Lithgow Mercury (NSW) 15 Aug. 2/4: Bob Cutler had to content himself on Saturday afternoons watching adventure pictures from ‘peanut alley’ at the Trades Hall. | |
| Aus. Speaks. |
a male homosexual.
| on Urban Dict. 🌐 Peanut Buffer A hom who uses his cock to buff the peanuts contained within another hom’s terd (i.e fucking him up the arse). Julian Clary is a peanut buffer. |
(Aus.) a psychiatric institution.
| Lily on the Dustbin 51: A psychiatric hospital is a ‘shrink klink’, ‘giggle bin’, ‘nut factory’ or ‘peanut factory’. |
(US tramp) a workhouse where the inmates are made to break stones.
| Milk and Honey Route 211: Peanut farm – Workhouse where the inmates crack stones. |
(UK Und.) a criminal who will take on any job, however small.
| (con. 1950s–60s) in Little Legs 127: He was what we call a peanut-flier and would do anything for a £. |
1. the top gallery, the ‘gods’ in a theatre .
| [ | | Knickerbocker 38 602: Above all was the gallery thronged with our ‘colored brethren’ of all shades [...] silent, save the gentle crackling of peanut-shells]. |
| Times-Picayune (New Orleans) 16 Jan. 2/1: It is useless for us to repeat our raise of Johnny Thompson, Billy Reeves, and others of the company as negro delineators; they ‘out Herod Herod’ and put the darkies in the ‘peanut gallery’ to the blush. | |
| News-Jrnl (Wilmington, DE) 24 May 5/2: He went by way of the old Bowery Theatre [and] thought he would buy a ticket admitting him to the peanut gallery. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dundee Eve. Teleg. 9 Dec. 4/2: A fellow threw a loaf of bread at her from the peanut gallery. | |
| Lippincott’s Monthly Mag. (Phila., PA) XLII. 734: Go to the lowest theatre in any of our large cities, or [...] mark what is called the ‘Family Circle’ by theatre proprietors and to the general world is more felicitously known as the ‘Peanut Gallery’ . | |
| Harvard Stories 108: I believe on the strength of my promise he bought a seat in the peanut gallery. | |
| Goodwin’s Wkly (Salt Lake City, UT) 5 Dec. 7/2: Citizens of the peanut gallery [...] failed to note the ringing of the curfew. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 14 Apr. 22/2: We went to the theater and sat up in what they call the ‘peanut gallery’. | |
| Wash. Times (DC) 2 Sept. 13/2: Peanut gallery habitues of the National Theatre. | |
| Main Stem 5: The next evening we went to the theater together [...] We sat in the peanut gallery. | |
| Mullumbimby Star (NSW) 16 Oct. 4/1: Brandon found himself facing a huge balcony filled with rows of dilapidated wooden seats that dropped steeply to a great crescent shaped railing, [...] He sniffed deeply, a strange light in his eyes. ‘The peanut gallery!’ he exclaimed. | |
| Yorks. Eve. Post 19 Apr. 3/7: We sat in the peanut gallery. | |
| ‘’Twixt Night ’n’ Dawn’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 5 Nov. 11/4: If you go in for peanut gallery seats, and one must in order to see the legit shows [etc]. | |
| New Yorker 5 May 15/1: We were sitting in the peanut gallery of the Opera House [DA]. | |
| Canberra Times (ACT) 13 June 13/4: Poston said he had been forced to report the trial ‘from the peanut gallery’ in the upper level of the court room. | |
| Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1972) I 71: The disembodied ‘voice from the peanut gallery’ or ‘someone in the crowd’. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 284: peanut gallery (the cheapest seats, in the upper balcony). | |
| Twitter/X 29 Sept. 🌐 Thank-you for sharing this incredibly personal moment with us in peanut gallery. |
2. ignorant, vociferous spectators.
| [ | | Dashes at City Life 72: [He] patronisingly winks at the pea-nut critics of the gallery and pit]. |
| Nat. Republican (Wash., DC) 17 July 4/1: Higher civilization [...] is an absolute necessity to a peanut gallery because there would be none [...] without the bootblacks and newsboys. | |
| in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 35: A.C., who was probably disappointed at not soliciting more razzberries from the peanut gallery. | |
| A Second Browser’s Dict. 213: Peanut gallery. A term of contempt for the loud, ignorant, and jingoistic mob that filled the cheap upper tiers of American theaters. | |
| Source Nov. 144: L was credited with [the album’s] success and the peanut gallery rallied for her to go solo. | |
| You Got Nothing Coming 24: ‘Hey, bro, you a lawyer or something?’ ‘Or something,’ I answer, which provokes the peanut gallery into action. | |
| Split Decision [ebook] The peanut gallery chuckled and one of the bigger guys put a finger gun to his head. | |
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 17: The peanut gallery whooped it up [...] all piercing whistles. |
3. (Aus./US) the front row of the stalls in a cinema.
| Mirror (Perth) 26 Mar. 18/4: [of a circus] The roar of laughter from the young bloods in the peanut gallery could have been heard streets away. | |
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. | |
| (con. 1930s) Canberra Times (ACT) 5 July 7/5: A lot of kids would often get down the front in the stalls [peanut gallery to us young brats]. |
4. a person who exhibits the characteristics of sense 2.
| Homeboy 247: Jules was enough trouble without his punchdrunk peanut gallery. |
(US) a fool; thus adj. peanut-headed, stupid.
| Princeton Union (MN) 31 Oct. 4/3: [heading] Those Peanut Heads. | |
| Eve. Bulletin (Honolulu) 26 Sept. 4/1: Thse peanut-headed politicians [...] should be removed. | |
| Side-stepping with Shorty 18: Say, you peanut head, can’t you see this is some relation? | |
| N.Y. Tribune 19 Dec. 27/3: he looks that peanut-headed snipe straight in the eye. | |
| Perrysburg Jrnl (Wood Co., OH) 29 July 1/2: If the graduate can’t see or speak to common people, it’s a sure sign of a peanut head or a ’missing link’. | |
| Tacoma Times (WA) 24 Jan. 4/1: Look at the simpering, wall-eyed, peanut-headed thing in trousers by that girl’s side. | |
| Monroe City Democrat (MO) 27 Sept. 1/2: What the average peanut head in the country newspaper office can understand is [etc.]. | |
| Wash. Times (DC) 15 Aug. 10/2: So I’m a cross-eyed monkey-faced peanut-headed potato, huh? |
(US) a small locomotive; an old or ramshackle automobile.
| Dly Chieftain (Vinita, OK) 13 Dec. 2/2: ‘The American Steam Riding Gallery’ [...] the shrill whistle of the peanut roaster [i.e. a railroad train] rose above the loud chatter. | |
| Bisbee Dly Rev. (AZ) 17 Mar. 3/2: It was a gay crowd that stepped from their chartered car on the peanut roaster route. | |
| Yachting Aug. 102: A humming sound, like the whistle on a peanut roaster. | |
| Albuquerque Morn. Jrnl (NM) 28 June 9/2: [cartoon caption] Peanut Roaster. Hey! Say, I [...] go round der whole village in two minutes in dis peanut roaster [i.e. an automobile]. | |
| Railroad Avenue 354: Peanut Roaster – Any small steam engine. | |
| (ref. to early 1940s) How to Become a Locomotive Engineer Pt 2 🌐 My next trial trip was to Arborg on a 400-class engine [...] It was a small engine, one of the smallest on the C.P.R. Slightly larger than a medium size peanut roaster, but you could boil water with it. | |
| USA By Rail 🌐 Early engines were given nicknames such as coffee-pot or peanut-roaster and their drivers were known as hog-jockeys, grunts or eagle-eyes. |
see peanut alley
(Aus. juv.) a girl or young woman who is not wearing a brassiere under her clothing.
| OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 peanut smuggler n. girl not wearing a bra, e.g. for swimming lessons (or wearing a sheer bra under a thin blouse) so her nipples can be seen pushing through her clothing. |
In phrases
(US black) a complimentary term for a black or Hispanic woman’s vagina, or legs, and thus the woman who possesses it.
| Great Santini (1977) 312: ‘Pamela had peanut butter legs all right,’ Art said [...] ‘smooth and easily spread.’. | |
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 peanut butter pussy Definition: a black or mexican ho’s pussy that’s smooth, brown, and easy to spread. Example: I went out with Shanita the other night, damn dat bitch gotta a peanut butta pussy! |