Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an illicit affair, also attrib.

[1914		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 28 July 5/3: There are several rather amusing bits of saide action, the love affair of the Knight’s son and [...] the Marchioness].
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 19: Any chance of some side action with the girls?
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 93: I began to pick up side action – a Danish blonde, a redhead from Ireland.
2004		St Cloud Times (MN) 12 Nov. 27/1: You no longer care about the intimate details of your neighbor’s side action affair.

a woman who is an alternative to a man’s wife or regular girlfriend.

1928		J. Peterkin Scarlet Sister Mary 122: ‘I want a charm for July, Daddy Cudjoe. July’s got a side-gal.’ Daddy looked grave. [...] ‘Who is de side-gal, daughter?’ ‘Cinder.’.
1998		Source Nov. 83: Side chick/broad – the second runner up. The ‘go to’ woman when wifey is ‘acting out’.
2014		Sth. Florida Sun Sentinel (Ft Lauderdale, FL) 20 Feb. D7/3: ‘ don’t want to be anyone’s side chick’.
2017		Chicago Trib. Sect. 4 28 Nov. 2/5: I met up with one guy last year. he has a gierl friend, but he’s using me as a side chick.
2023		Twitter 20 Mar. 🌐 His side chick has been manipulated so much already.

see side-dish under dish n.¹

any form of employment other than one’s primary one; the gains from that second job.

1996		Dly Times (Salisbury, MD) 17 Dec. 3/5: If somebody is making a side hustle [...] you need to know.
1998		Star Trib. (Minneapolis, MN) 12 Feb. 22/1: Most people, especially those at university, seemed to have a side hustle.
2001		Black Enterprise 31: 6-11142: West was a newly hired financial analyst [...] with a side hustle in music .
2004		J. Lowe Da Flip Side 68: He had a side hustle going on that nobody else in the Crew knew about.
2007		Drum (East Africa) July 54: If you eight to five job is not your dream career [...] It is time to consider a side hustle.
2017		C. Guillebeau [bk title] Side Hustle: Build a Side Business and Make Extra Money.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 59: [A]s a side hustle [he] made fighting knives for families to send off with their boys to war.

(US) money earned in addition to one’s regular job; also attrib.

1905		Detroit Free Press (MI) 18 Feb. 6/2: Here is a good opportunity for a young man employed who is anxious to make a litle side money.
1913		Dly Mail (Hagerstown, MD) 23 Sept. 12/1: Nixon has admitted that he took the side money, which was in addition to his salary.
1913		S.F. Call 22 June 42/3: There can be found many living examples of the [...] ‘side-money’ endeavors.
1928		Sat. Eve. Post 10 Mar. 185/3: I thought I could make a little ‘side money’ during my vacation [DA].
1947		Sports Afield Feb. 19/1: With the subtlety of a bull moose, this rental agent was working up some ‘side money’ [DA].
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 34: He made nice side-money chauffering the boosting girls around.

(US) an accomplice, an assistant.

1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 54: One of his ‘side-partners’ is a man who was let loose from Sing Sing not long ago.
1906		A. Train Prisoner at the Bar 199: [T]wo of the perpetrators of a brutal robbery [...] received seven years apiece, while their ‘side-partner’ [...] was given five years by another judge.

(US) an associate, a partner.

1930		G. Milburn ‘The Dealer Gets It All’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 152: Then I sprung a rosy lay-out on my side-pen Alton Red.
2014		Akron Beacon Jrnl (OH) 14 Sept. C005/4: ‘I started to settle in [...] my side pens have been good’.

(US milit.) cream (or milk) and sugar; salt and pepper.

1939		Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI) 25 Mar. 33/1: I asked for java and side arms (milk and sugar).
1941		S.F. Chronicle 15 June 5/4: Cream and sugar or salt and pepper are ‘sidearms.’ Salt, alone, is ‘sea-dust.’.
1943		Long Beach Indep. (CA) 18 Apr. 20/3: We called loudly for ‘side arms’.

in horseracing, a heavy blow with the whip.

1865

Sporting Gaz. (London) 1 Apr. 5/1: Sidebinder — a heavy cut with the whip to get the horse to make another effort.

1. a stand-up collar.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 30: Side-Boards n. Shirt-collar. ‘Are you in mourning, Bill?’ ‘No; why?’ ‘Because you have got your side-boards up,’ alluding to shops having their shutters put up. L. life.
1864, 1867, 1870		(ref. to 1850s) Hotten Sl. Dict. 230: Side-boards, or stick-ups shirt collars. Name applied ten or fifteen years ago, before the ‘all-rounders’ and ‘turn-downs’ came into fashion.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1880		Wkly Irish Times 27 Mar. 1/8: Having fished his side-board collar from the depths of an old black stock.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1939		Lancaster Guardian 10 Nov. 12/3: In his sideboards winged collar and cravat he storms at his cringing wife.

2. side-whiskers.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1887		World (N.Y.) 17 July 6/4: The Governor wore a suit of dark gray [...] His moustache and ‘side-boards’ were neatly trimmed.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Oct. 5/2: A revival of whiskers is imminent in London. Specimens were displayed at a recent fashionable wedding, and young bloods are airing ‘side-boards,’ ‘goatees’ and ‘imperials’ in high places.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 228: Grindle, set off by a pair of flaming ‘sideboards’, himself ushered Mahoney into the sanctum.
1958		Dly Herald 17 Apr. 8/7: [advert] The Super Trim [i.e. razor] tidies your sideboards.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 109: I know your type, a lady-killer in your pointed shoes and stove-pipe trousers and sideboards.
1993		(con. 1945) S. McAughtry Touch and Go 78: He had long sideboards.

3. (Aus.) children of a second marriage.

1895

C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 73: Side-boards, children of a second marriage.

(US) a style of side whiskers.

1907

N.-Y. Eve. Journal 7 Feb. n.p.: They switched to the ‘nanny goat’ style then and after that went to the side boys, more commonly called ‘fire scapes’.

(US) a girlfriend for whom the male partner has no respect or genuine affection.

2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 241: ‘I’m just another in a long line of stupid-ass sidechicks!’.
2022		Twitter 10 Sept. 🌐 To all the side chicks. Just believe.

(US campus) a negative appraisal.

2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 Fall 6: SIDE EYE — negative assessment or judgment: ‘I saw you giving your ex-boyfriend the side eye at the party last weekend’.
2014		T.I. ‘Oh Yeah’ 🎵 When they see you, they might judge you / Give you side eyes, they don't trust you.
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles : She gives him side-eye.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 34: People in the grocery store alternately gave him a wide berth and the side-eye.

see separate entries.

sideburns, side-whiskers.

1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 21 Dec. 8/4: And now to look just like his gills, / The clerks, and dudes, and mashers, / Are shaving of their side levers.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 12 May 5/4: The feller with the side-levers is Larry Foley.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 72: His long side-levers gave him a villainous look.
1958		D. Stivens Scholarly Mouse and other Tales 66: Down each cheek he wore long side-levers but he might have had something wrong with his skin.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1068/1: author first heard it in 1963.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] A beefy, florid face and long black sidelevers.

half a pig’s head.

1838

‘Paul Pry’ Oddities of London Life II 226: [A]pork- butcher's shop, where a half pig’s face, commonly called a ‘side look,’ stood ogling the public in a very inviting kind of way.

(US black) a bonus, beyond one’s regular wages.

1936

Archie Seale Man About Harlem 11 July [synd. col.] Did you ever hear of side money? Well, that is his [i.e. a theatre usher’s] on the side and also on the quiet.

(US) a girlfriend.

1973		C. Himes ‘Baby Sister’ [screenplay] in Black on Black 12: What more can a second-rate pimp want? His little side piece has got everyone's attention and he’s the envy of the block.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 117: ‘I’m going to assume [...] you have not found the girl,’ the voice on the other end said. [...] ‘No, we ain’t found your side piece yet’.

see separate entry.

(W.I.) an albino.

1958

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

a fool, a simpleton.

1612

Passenger of Benvenuto n.p.: Reach me that platter there, you side simme.

(middle class) short sideburns, fashionable 1879–8.

1909

(ref. to 1879–82) J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 223/2: Side-scrapers (Middle-class London, 1879–82). This was the name given to the square inch or two of whisker parallel with the ear which came in about this time.

(US Und.) to arrest.

1927		C. Samolar ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 391: To be arrested is to be side-tracked.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

(Aus. und.) a poseur, depending on context.

1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 196: I used to walk around side-valving, swinging my shoulders low and pretending to be a good fighter.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Side valve. To act the gangster.
2010		A. Shand King of Thieves [ebook] [T]he ‘side-valvers’ the Raven knew, the knockabouts and thieves who spoke from the corner of their mouths on racetracks and in pubs to shield their conversations.

see separate entry.

see separate entries.

(US, orig. baseball jargon) a left-handed person.

1897		Siler & Houseman Fight of the Century 43: The ‘side-wheeler’ who dragged in Julian and Ernest Roeber.
1912		Van Loan ‘Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 3: There have been enough peculiar left-handers to justify the belief that side-wheelers and loose screws go together.

1. a powerful blow.

1824		Emerald (N.Y.) 16 Oct. 109/1–2: Round 12. – Kensett received a few side-winders, and returned upon Hammond’s carroited [sic] artery.
1840		Daily Pennant (St. Louis) 14 May n.p.: Tim gives him a sockdologer and two side-winders, and leaves him for dead on the spot.
1846		J. Codman Sailor’s Life and Sailor’s Yarns 31: ‘Take that then, for want of a shillaleh!’ said the lumper, giving him a side-winder with his fist .
1860		O.W. Holmes Professor at the Breakfast Table 30: The boys of my time used to call a hit like this a ‘side-winder’ .
1883		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa (1887) 159: He gave him a sidewinder in both eyes.
1924		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Aug. 17/6: ‘Jigger’ got home with a ‘sidewinder’.

2. a thug, esp. a gangster’s bodyguard.

1939		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 11 Aug. 11/4: ‘That scaly sidewinder’s got an accident all ready to happen to you, an’ he don’t want no witnesses’.
1942		R. Chandler High Window 207: Being followed around by a tall guy with a funny eye. That was Eddie Prue, Morny’s side-winder.
1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 52: I dunno [...] why God gave crawling things like you sidewinders two legs, and let you look like humans.
1954		Oh Boy! No. 19 8: These sidewinders were masked.
1959		N. Nye Long Run (1983) 114: How do you figure these boys’ll feel havin’ a sidewinder sharin’ their blankets that just got done murderin’ one of their buddies?
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 174: Harry Bright’d see some good in a sidewinder if it had him by the nuts.
1989		G. Tate ‘The GOP Throws a Mammy-Jammy’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 104: Bo Diddley, whose dance movements alone mark him as an original [...] made you think of a sidewinder proficient with a hula hoop.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 63: His usual congenial good manners replaced by the rattle of a sidewinder.

3. in fig. use, something powerful.

1940		E. Curry Hysterical Hist. of Aus. 41: Yo’re a ding whanged sidewinder.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 202: I think we’re in for a real old-fashioned, gut-bustin’ sidewinder tomorrow! This is going to be some kind of football game!

sideburns, side-whiskers.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 1068/1: late C.19–early 20.

(US tramp) a freight car; thus knight of the sided-door pullman, a tramp.

1887		M. Roberts Western Avernus (1924) 183: [The] ‘side-door Pullman’ as the ‘tramps’ and ‘dead-beats’ facetiously call it [i.e. a freight car].
1895		Columbus Dispatch 23 Oct. 7/7: ‘Hobo’ [...] was first applied to the knight of the ‘side-door Pullmans’ by brakemen [DA].
1896		Dly Ardmoreite (OK) 7 Aug. n.p.: A couple of disreputable characters struck our [...] city last week, having been shipped over the ‘side door sleeper route’.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 322: My thinks was this: ‘To get back to Chicago without a ticket, without walking, and without recourse to the side-door Pullmans.’.
1907		J. London Road 74: I rode into Niagara Falls in a ‘side-door Pullman,’ or, in common parlance, a box-car.
1915		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 17 Apr. [synd. col.] 10,000 knights of the side-door pullman, who have been wintering in New York, will begin the grand trek west [...] A carefree lot, these winter hoboes.
1918		W.M. Barr letter at www.sheilascorner.com/war/dads.html 🌐 Left Brest on Oct. 22 at 4 a.m. in our side door pullman bound for somewhere and say it was some trip.
1918		R. Lardner Treat ’Em Rough 10: And if they didn’t have all the luck in the world they would be rideing around the country in a side door Pullman with all their baggage on.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 462: Side door pullman, A box car.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(US) bacon.

1958

McCulloch Woods Words 16: Side hill salmon [...] bacon.