Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. in a bad humour.

1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 132: crossways, adv. In an ill humor. ‘He’s all crossways’.
1965		W.C. Anderson Adam M-1 82: You got all crosswise with the press when you sent out the telegrams soliciting brain donors.

2. disagreeing with.

1947–53

W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 319: Don’t git crossways with Little Devul.

see cross-man

(Aus./US) a criminal.

1846		N.Y. Daily Trib. 18 Nov. 1/2: Pickpockets are perfectly horrified at the idea of being thus exposed, and when threatened with it, beg most piteously to be let off. A month’s imprisonment is nothing, in their estimation, when compared with this newly established mode of ‘spotting’ cross boys.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 61: Hook it, you gonniff, cross kid – hook it, scarper, speel!
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Miner’s Right 62: He believed all the ‘cross boys’ of all the colonies were congregated here.

1. (US) a disreputable person.

1825

J. Neal Brother Jonathan II 19: She’s swear how’t mister – you know who I mean – that air plaguy cross chap’t runned away.

2. (UK Und./costermonger) a thief.

1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 72: Take my advice, lad — the advice of a man who has seen more trouble, perhaps, than any cross-chap in London.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 24/1: Cross chap ... A thief.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1902		H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

a robber, anyone who lives by dishonesty or crime.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 60: A ‘cross-cove’ is applied to a swindler of every degree.
1836		‘The Bastard’s Christening’ in Comic Songster and Gentleman’s Private Cabinet 12: All the cross coves in Vestminster.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 74: A motly group of costermongers, chummies, cross coves.
1852		Kendal Mercury 3 Apr. 6/1: A cross cove (thief,) who is conversant with villainy [...] from fogell-hunting and cly faiking [sic] on the smalls (stealing cotton pocket handerchiefs [sic] and the picking the pockets of mechanics etc) to crib-cracking.
1852		Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: My cuss on the beaks and the pigsmen and all / Vat hinders a cross cove from making a haul.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 22: cross cove A thief; any person that lives in a dishonest way is said to be ‘on the cross,’ from the fact that highwaymen were in the habit of waiting for their victims on the cross-roads.
c.1863		gloss. in Occurence Book of York River Lockup in Seal (1999) 37: A cross cove who had his regulars lowr, a fly grabbed him. I am afraid he will blow it.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 6/2: This house is the resort of ‘cross-coves’ of all kinds during the races.
1879		Pall Mall Gaz. 2 Dec. 9/1: A French journalist has published a description of the thirty-six methods of appropriation practised in [...] the world of the ‘cross-cove’.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 144: The man that straps a cross cove’s horse don’t go short of his half-crown.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 405: If you’re not above working with a cross-cove, I can spot the very man to suit you.

a man and woman who work in tandem as thieves.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: Cross Cove and Mollisher - A man and woman who live by thieving.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. [as 1882].

a public house frequented by thieves.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 234: cross-crib a house inhabited, or kept by family people.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 54/2: As we’ll have an hour or two to spare [...] supposing I show you a few of the ‘cross-cribs’ in this part of town.
1869		Australiasian (Melbourne) 17 July 8/5: [A] cross-crib is a thieves’ house.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Sept. 6/5: They occupied a secret room in a ‘cross crib’ or thieves’ den.
1895		Belfast News-Letter 26 Dec. 7/2: That’s the ‘Governess.’ She kept a cross-crib in the Dials, and used to train little girls to ‘buz’ (pick pockets).
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 21: Crosscrib, a house frequented by thieves.

(UK Und.) a villain.

1811

Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Cross Dishonest. A cross cove; any person who lives by stealing or in a dishonest manner.

(UK/US Und.) a thieves’ tavern.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum 22: cross-drum. A drinking-place where thieves resort.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 6/2: On entering the parlor of the ‘cross-drum,’ faces well-known at other times are hardly recognizable, owing to the clouded state of the room.
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 98: An’ I made for the ‘cross-drum’ lively, you can bet.

(UK Und.) a fixed fight.

1835

G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.

criminal behaviour or activity.

1874		Manchester Eve. News 3 Nov. 4/2: [He] had thrown up ‘cross-work’ for the more lucrative profession of betting.
1881		Newcastle Courant 9 Sept. 6/5: The ‘crow,’ which they knew would be stationed somewhere near it if there was any ‘cross game’.

a prostitute who specializes in propositioning sailors, taking their money and then vanishing.

1861

H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV.

(costermonger) a thief.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 272/2: C.19–20.

(UK Und.) a professional thief.

1880		court report in Ware (1909) 99/2: Sir H. James – What do you mean by men of your class ? Witness – Men of the world – (laughter) – men like myself. I did not tell him that I had seen gentlemen’s servants there – I am certain of that. I did not use the term that the room was the resort of cross-life men (thieves).
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 99/2: Cross-life men (Thieves’, 1878). Men who get their living by felony.

1. a confidence trickster; a thief.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 60: Cross-men — those who rob persons are so called.
1836		‘The Crossman’s Wife’ in Cockchafer 9: Fat Betty was a crossman’s vife, / A rare flash cove vas he.
1842		Bell’s Penny Dispatch 17 Apr. 4/2: ‘Pals be d—d [...] he’s only dropt in with crossmen a little more wide’o than himself’.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 33: For many a year it has been known to the ‘crossmen’ and ‘knucks’ of the town as ‘Jack Circle’s watering place’ and ‘fence’.
1851		G. Thompson Jack Harold 29: None but tip-top crossmen visited the Golden Balls – vulgar thieves were [...] carefully excluded.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 93/1: Old Bob [...] was then doing a large business among the ‘crossmen’ of that place.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 12 Oct. n.p.: Patrolman Davis [...] has a very good knowledge of the ‘crossmen’ and ‘crosswomen’ of the city.
1874		Manchester Eve. News 16 Oct. 4/1: The London Tavern [...] the great place of resort of ‘cross-men’ [...] and there the ’cutest of the fraternity most did congregate.
1876		St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: The thieves’ ‘fly cops,’ ‘pulled his leather,’ ‘got his boodle,’ ‘lifted his spark,’ ‘shoving the queer,’ ‘crossmen,’ ‘give him the flip,’ ‘wring his super,’ ‘collar his wipe,’ etc.
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Sept. 6/5: [He] had executed such bold and skilfully arranged robberies that he was regarded [as] an ‘anointed scoundrel’ by all the ‘cross blokes’.
1882		A. Trumble Crooked Life in Nat. Police Gaz. 13 May 3/2: [T]his companionship is never a close and generous one such as bind the higher order of ‘cross-men’ together.
1884		Leicester Chron. 14 June 12/2: What is he? a big county swell? Then you’re not a regular cross-bloke?
1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 16: In this part also the sharpest of the ‘crossmen’ (thieves) congregate.

2. (US black) anyone who manipulates others for his own advantage.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

a woman who works as a thief or lives in any way dishonestly.

1812

Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.

(UK Und.) a coach whose coachman aids criminals by taking their booty away from a scene of crime.

1822

Egan Life and Adventures of Samuel Hayward 161: He [...] proposed to go all the way to Charles-street, Covent Garden, for a cross-rattler* to take them away. [*A hackney coach, the driver of which, under the appearance of taking up a fare, assists robbers in carrying off their stolen articles].

see cross game

(N.Z.) angry with, arguing with.

1902

W. Satchell Land of Lost 69: Me an’ your mate [...] had a bit of a barney some days ago. I thought I’d just step round and bury the hatchet. [...] Yes, t’ain’t the square thing to be on the cross cut at Xmas time.

see separate entries.

(US) a doctor.

1933

C. Himes ‘Prison Mass’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 158: ‘The doctor said she had consumption.’ [...] ‘I wouldn’t believe one of those hick cross-bones if he said the sun was shining and I had on sun-glasses to keep out the glare.’.

describing a person who moves or stands in an awkward manner.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 61: Cross-built — awkwardness, shown in the gait. ‘A cross-built covey’ is one whose hips and heels work by inversion, as regards his shoulders and knees, like the joints of a pendulum.

an unexpected rebuff.

1811		J. Poole Hamlet Travestie III vi: I care not if you go — to h-ll. — That last cross-buttock dish’d me — Oh!
1815		T. Moore ‘Epistle from Tom Cribb to Big Ben’ in Morn. Chron. 31 Aug. 3: A cross-buttock from me would do some of them good!
1833		M. Scott Tom Cringle’s Log (1862) 263: He gave me a regular cross-buttock, and then between them they diddle me outright.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).

judicial hanging.

1593

‘Philip Foulface’ Bacchus’ Bountie in Harleian Misc. II (1809) 305: Don Tyburne will invite thee to a liveles feast, and teach thee the crosse caper in a halfepennie halter.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

a tailor.

1844		T. Hood ‘Masonic Secret’ Works (1862) VII 19: ‘Sew it up, like a ferret’s,’ squeaks a Cross-Legged Knight, – in common parlance a Tailor.
1902		H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

see separate entries.

(drugs) amphetamines.

1971		Illinois Legislative Investigating Committee Drug Crisis in Spears (1986).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 156: He offers to suck cock or proffers an upturned fanny in exchange for [...] cross-tops or splits (‘bennies’).
1980		‘Gloss. of Drug Terms’ National Instit. Drug Abuse.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 7: Cross tops — Amphetamine.

(US prison) to make an escape.

1929

C.G. Givens ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 132: do a cross-country, v.phr. Flee.

(US tramp) to betray; to double-cross.

1895		J. London ‘’Frisco Kid’s Story’ in High School Aegis X 15 Feb. 2–3: Say! If I tells yer all I know about’m, yer won’t give me de cross hop, will yer?
1915		J. London Star Rover (1963) 13: My God! [...] Standing has given me the cross. He’s lifted the plant and stowed it somewhere else.