Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also duket) a ticket; thus fig. in phr. that’s the ducket.

1871		J.H. Banka State Prison Life 493: Railroad Ticket [...] Ducket.
1873		Sl. Dict. 152: Ducket a ticket of any kind. Generally applied to pawnbroker’s duplicates and raffle cards. Probably from docket.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 47: Alright, give me due beonck quatro soldi per run and I’ll bring you the duckets.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 66: DUKETS: Aust. thieves, – tickets.
1902		Wash. Times (DC) 14 Sept. 10/3: Ducket — A ticket.
1912		D. Runyon ‘The Fight Fan’ 15 Feb. [synd. col.] I bought me a ringside ducket, an’ sat in the ringside tier.
1926		N. Klein ‘Hobo Lingo’ in AS I:12 651: Ducket — ticket.
1929		A.J. Barr Let Tomorrow Come 148: ‘What’s the payoff from this dump?’ ‘A fin, a bull-wool suit, a pair of kicks every dick in the country can tell a mile away an’ a ducket back to wherever you come up from.’.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 204: Ducket – A ticket, or a card good for a feed or a flop.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Hold ’Em, Yale!’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 145: He has quite a few nice duckets for the large football game.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 132: Augie and I have a pair of duckets it would be a shame to waste altogether.
1964		(con. 1920s–40s) in J.L. Kornbluh Rebel Voices.

2. (also duckett) a hawker’s licence.

1886

W. Newton Secrets of Tramp Life Revealed 9: Stiff or Duckett ... Hawker’s License.

3. (US tramp) a begging letter letter carried by a vagrant who is in some way physically handicapped, e.g. maimed, blind, deaf and dumb.

1903		N.-Y. Trib. 10 May B1: Most of these [i.e. beggars] are armed with a supply of ‘duckets,’ or ‘dockets’ – that is, cards on which are printed in rambling doggerel an appeal for alms.
1907		N.Y. Times 27 Jan. Sun. Mag. 4: Then there are [...] the old, feeble, or diseased with printed appeals, or ‘dockets.’.
1915		Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 13 June 19/1: Ducket — a begging card; sometimes has a poem on the back of it.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V x 445: Ducket, (2) A begging letter carried about by a cripple.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 67: Ducket. – A begging letter carried by a cripple or a deaf and dumb person, by means of which it is sometimes possible to avoid arrest as a common beggar, since the letter usually purports to be from a minister or charity worker vouching for the bona fides of the beggar.

4. (Aus.) a bill , e.g. in a restaurant.

1904

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 14 Dec. 1/2: [A]fter he had stoked away a one-and-sixpenny feed, and received his ‘ducket,’ he attracted the attention of a next door neighbor.

5. (US) a union card.

1929		V.W. Saul ‘Vocab. of Bums’ in AS IV:5 339: Ducket — A ticket; a union card.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 67: Ducket. – [...] A Union card.

6. (US Und.) a pardon.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

7. (US black/teen, also duckettes) in pl., money, cash.

1992		UGK ‘Pocket Full of Stones’ 🎵 Gotta a detail shop to cover up them duckets that I make.
1995		A. Heckerling Clueless [film script] Here’s the four-one-one on Mr. Hall. He’s single, he’s 47, and he earns minor duckets for a thankless job.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 154: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Funds. Lucci. Cheddar. Duckets. Benjamins. Dead Presidents.
2004		Urban Dict. 🌐 duckettes Money In cash forum [sic] not change.