Green’s Dictionary of Slang

part v.

to give up, to hand over, to restore (usu. of money), to pay.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 196: part to pay, restore, or give up; ‘he’s a right un, he is; I know’d he’d part,’ i.e., he is a liberal (or punctual) person, and pays his debts, or bestows gratuities. The term is in general use in Sporting circles, and is very commonly employed when speaking of the settlement of bets after a race or ‘mill’.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Sept. n.p.: She called on Rooney, the ‘rum bluffer’ of the ‘lush drum’ [...] to ‘part the cole,’ which he did.
1877		‘’Arry on His ’Oliday’ in Punch 13 Oct. 161/1: I have parted with close on four quid.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/1: A bludger and his mot ’ticed a cully into the ‘Deadhouse,’ and while he was parting for the booze buzzed him of three caser and a deaner. A man who robs in company with a prostitute and his woman enticed a victim into the ‘Dead-house’ [...] and while he was paying for the drinks picked his pocket of three crowns and a sixpence.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 7 June 44: [caption] He, of course, parted like a man.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 6 May. 1/6: Wen the bill cum in [...] he had to part.
1899		A. Binstead Gal’s Gossip 148: Of course I backed the second, / Oh, crumbs! My losses! / [...] / Perhaps you think I parted? / Not me.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Of Good Address’ Sporting Times 20 Jan. 1/4: He, to save himself annoyance from unconscionable duns, / Went on Mary Ann’s exchequer pretty strong. / And she parted, for she trusted in a man who ran a flat / At some hundred rent per annum.
1901		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 22 Sept. 1/1: Rather than ‘buy a woodener’ the disgusted customers part up in peace.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 214: Acourse I parted me arf jim — couldn’t have ther brick face t’ do less under ther circs.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘Hopeful Hawkins’ in Backblock Ballads 30: So we did a bit o’ dealin’, an’ it almost seemed like stealing / When he parted, for five hundred lovely quid.
1936		C. Drew ‘The Squib’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Sept. 36/2: I parted with a fiver to a bookie and everything was set.
1959		J. Gosling Ghost Squad 124: The story was put across as only Cooper could do it, and at the end of two hours the American parted with the necessary.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 31: Mrs Marengo was in no mood to part.

In derivatives

partable (n.)

(N.Z.) of money, spare, disposable.

1916

‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 19: Faro and Crown and Anchor were the favourite card games; you could lose your partable cash fairly slickly at either.

In phrases

part up (v.)

(Aus.) to pay money.

1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 28 Sept. 2/2: Mr Graham had to part up a ‘monkey’.
1891		N. Gould Double Event 29: If I’d asked some of our home bookies to part up a sov. they’d have told me to go to the devil, probably.
1897		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 19 Dec. 7/1: Jim [was] ‘tired of parting up any more for a duffer’.
1892		‘Fanny Flukem’s Ball’ in Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) in J. Murray Larrikins (1973) 39: For Little Ginger kept the door, / And swore ‘Lor; strike him fat,’ / If they didn’t part their deners up / he’d lay ’em cold and flat.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Mar. 8/2: It must have been gall to the notoriously mean little man to have to part up.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Sept. 10/3: The people who were anxious to see him and the color of his cash presume that he had left the State and was staying away to avoid unpleasantness of parting up.
1933		E. O’Ferrall Stories by ‘Kodak’ 54: You part up that munney! Go on!
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 153: He parted up like a lamb.
1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 39: I guess Rene might part up to know who her Mum was [...] I’ll try it on.
1971		F.J. Hardy Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 55: Then a batch of building workers, true ragged-trouser philanthropists, as it transpired, when asked to part up for the Garbos [...].

SE in slang uses

In phrases

part one’s head with a towel (v.)

(US) to be bald.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

part someone’s hair (v.) (US)

to hit someone on the head.

1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict.
1952		(con. 1920s) G. Fowler Schnozzola 49: The callers were nasty-tempered fellows, expert in the use of ‘Tammany mittens,’ as the boys say when speaking of brass knuckles, and they very much wanted to part Mr. Nolan’s hair.