broads n.
1. playing cards .
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Discoveries (1774) 9: We went into the North of England [...] on the sharping Lay, and won between thirty and forty Pounds at Cards, alias Broads. | |
| View of Society II 168: Levanters. These are of the order and number of Black-Legs, who live by the Broads and the Turf. | |
| Life’s Painter 151: Sharpers [...] are continually looking out for flats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is, cards. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Highland Reel 46: I’m ready to give you your revenge at the broads. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 19: Cards, broads. | |
| ‘Tom the Drover’ No. 30 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: At the broads I can palm with the queerest. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Vocab. of the Flash Lang. | |
| Real Life in London I 296: If you take the broads in hand in their company, you are sure to be work’d, either by glazing, that is, putting you in the front of a looking-glass, by which means your hand is discovered by your antagonist, or by private signals from the pal. | |
| (con. 1737–9) Rookwood (1857) 260: Écarté, whist, I never missed, / A nick the broads while ruffling. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | |
| Great World of London I 5: Splodger, will you [...] blow your yard of tripe of nosey-me-knacker, while we have a touch of the broads with some other heaps of coke at my drum. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor I 418/1: [as cit. 1856]. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 62/2: Here we found ‘guns’ from each quarter of London, some ‘boozing,’ some smoking [...] and others at different games with the ‘broads’. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 262: One of a gang who practised with the ‘Broads’ card-sharping and the ‘confidence trick’. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Broads - Cards. | |
| Tag, Rag & Co. 81: He foreswore the ‘infernal broads’. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 12: Broads, playing cards. | |
| Sporting Times 5 Apr. 2/1: [They] are inveterate lovers of a little game with a deck of broads. | |
| Houndsditch Day by Day 118: I reckon as old Sol couldn’t ha’ lived without a pack of broads. | |
| Pitcher in Paradise 183: Bob starts chuckin’ the broads out o’ the box. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Jan. 4/7: ‘Vere’s dis goot mug you told me about?’ demanded the man with the broads. | |
| Sporting Times 20 May 1/5: One night the ordinary pack of red ‘broads’ with the portraits of Salmon-and-Gluckstein on the backs, were voted a bit thumbworn. | |
| Watch Yourself Go By 393: The boss [...] swore he would not allow a cheap poker player to do him. ‘Fix the olly! I gave him broads to the show! He’s right as a guinea! Fix him! Have this cheap Greene County bilk pinched. I’ll land him in the quay.’ All of this, interpreted, meant that the boss wanted the winner of the capital prize arrested and thrown into jail [...] The constable searched all night. | |
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 19: broad [...] a playing card. | |
| Digger Dialects 13: broads — Playing-cards. | |
| (con. WWI) Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: broads. Playing cards. | |
| Enter the Saint 21: It was his deal, but I shuffled the broads for him. | |
 | ‘Gorilla Grogan’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 40/4: Three-Broad Fred, a chap I used to knock about with in Sydney. Once I’d been able to do him a turn concernin’ a little matter about a three-card game. | |
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 2: Broads: Playing cards. | |
| Sucker’s Progress 205: Three Card Monte throwers, also called ‘Broad pitchers’ because a playing card was known as a ‘Broad,’ began to appear. | |
| Big Con 291: broad. 1. A railroad ticket. 2. A playing card. | |
| in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/4: Among American borrowings recorded in Detective Doyle's list are: [...] ‘broads,’ playing cards; ‘gat,’ a gun; ‘gimmick,’ a house breaking instrument [etc]. | |
| Crust on its Uppers 28: Bent poker games with Marchmare and me lamping each other’s broads. | |
| Signs of Crime 175: Broads A pack of playing cards (a little archaic). | |
| Lowspeak 31: Broad [...] 2. a playing card. |
2. the three-card trick; also attrib. in sing.
| Child of the Jago (1982) 95: Those of the High Mob were the flourishing practitioners in burglary, the mag, the mace, and the broads, with an outer fringe of such dippers — such pickpockets — as could dress well, welshers and snidesmen. | |
| Hands Up! 95: These gangs, also known as ‘broad’ gangs, were allied with certain politicians. [Ibid.] 96: The stranger was then conducted to the ‘broad’ joint, usually an office located in the levee district. | |
| Confessions of a Con Man 120: ‘The broads,’ which is the grafter’s name for three-card monte. | |
| ‘English Und. Sl.’ in Variety 8 Apr. n.p.: At the broads—Three card trick or three—card sharpers. | |
| Big Con 291: The broads. Three-card monte. | |
| Hey, Sucker 90: ‘Tossing the broads’ applies to [...] playing three-card Monty. | |
| (con. 1900–30) in Samuel East End Und. 281: Broads – The three-card trick. |
In compounds
a card-sharp.
| Life in London (1869) 352: The swell broad coves who had lost their money in the Pit with tom and jerry were determined [...] to get it soon back again. |
(UK Und.) a card-player, usu. a cheat.
| Argot & Sl. 53/2: Brémeur, m. (thieves’) card player, ‘broad faker’. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
1. card-playing, esp. with a tinge of illegality/cheating.
| Sl. Dict. 98: Broad-Faking playing at cards. Generally used to denote ‘work’ of the three-card and kindred descriptions. | |
| Sharping London 34: broad-faking, card-sharping. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Broad-Faking - Playing at Cards - ‘work’ of the three-card description. | |
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon & Cant. | |
| Express & Teleg. (Adelaide) 18 Oct. 2/4: He is a many-sided villain, to whom broad-faking, bond-stealing, and the manufacture of explosive clockwork come by nature. |
2. the three-card trick.
| see sense 1. | |
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
(UK Und.) a peddler of lists of racing tips (known as ‘correct cards’) at horseraces.
| New and Improved Flash Dict. | |
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 12: Broad Fencer, a seller of race cards. |
(UK und.) a card player.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 2: Broad man. |
a gang of card-sharpers.
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Apr. 13/7: When the annual carnival [...] came along, he would send for a broad mob and a couple of dlps and glve them an open go. | |
| Sunshine Advocate (Vic.) 11 Sept. 6/3: A card sharper belongs to the ‘broad mob,’ and their cards are called ‘dracs’. | |
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 2: Broad mob: Card sharpers. | |
| et al. DAUL 34/2: Broad-mob. A gang of swindlers working the three-card monte swindle. | |
| Complete Guide to Gambling 522: Anyone you saw win [...] was a member of the broad mob (monte mob). | |
| (con. 1900–30) in Samuel East End Und. 281: Broad mob – The three-card mob. | |
| (con. 1930s) Colonel [ebook] He [...] and two grifting confederates — known in the trade as the ‘broad mob’ — would setup the unsuspecting mark for crooked game operations, staging the three card monte. |
(UK Und.) a street criminal who works the three-card trick.
| Out of the Ring 28: The Welshers’ Vocabulary [...] Broad pitcher A man playing three cards. | |
| Sucker’s Progress 205: Three Card Monte throwers, also called ‘Broad pitchers’ because a playing card was known as a ‘Broad,’ began to appear. |
(US Und.) the ‘three-card trick’.
| Vocabulum 14: broad pitching The game of three-card monte. | |
| Sporting Life (London) 16 June 2/5: From ‘broad pitching’ Ascot is perhaps as free as any other course in the kingdom. |
1. an expert card-player.
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. BROADS: cards; a person expert at which is said to be a good broad-player. |
2. a card-sharp.
| Lone Hand (Sydney) Nov. 57/1: The ‘broad player’ of the racecourse, assisted by sundry ‘G’s’ (i.e., accomplices), works the game on lines that pan out all his favour. | |
| (con. c.1900s) in Samuel East End Und. 114: His uncle was a broad-player. |
a skilful and/or cheating card player.
| Era 28 Mar. 10/1: Billy [...] was as innocent as a baby, being nothing of a ‘broad sharp’. | |
| Sporting Times 8 Sept. 1/2: An American millionaire fell among broad sharps. They got the Yankee drunk and cleaned him out. |
a card-sharp.
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn). | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| ‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 502: The following people used to go in there [i.e. an underworld public house] — toy-getters (watch-stealers), magsmen (confidence-trick men), men at the mace (sham loan offices), broadsmen (card-sharpers), peter-claimers (box-stealers), busters and screwsmen (burglars), snide-pitchers (utterers of false coin), men at the duff (passing false jewellery), welshers (turf-swindlers), and skittle sharps. | |
| Autobiog. of a Gipsey 322: Here were the broadsmen and the ‘bonnets’: the thimble-engro [...] the one-legged sailor, and the rest of the canting crew. | |
| City Of The World 264: ‘What does it mean?’ I asked him. ‘Broadsmen,’ was the cryptic answer. ‘And what are broadsmen?’ ‘Card-sharpers.’. | |
| in Advertiser (Adelaide) 12 Apr. 24/8: ‘Broadsman’ means card-sharper. | |
| Brooklyn Dly Eagle 10 June 6/6: ‘Broadsman’ [is a] card-sharper. | |
| Sharpe of the Flying Squad 199: I met a young boy of the labouring class who told me a sorry tale of the way he had been treated by Broadsmen. | |
| Indiscreet Guide to Soho 121: Around the bars are to be found ‘broadsmen’ (exponents of the three-card trick). | |
| Inside the C.I.D. 199: Broadsman Cardsharper. | |
| Venetian Blonde (2006) 140: Skelly, the broadsman with instant fingers and the finest bottom deal around. [Ibid.] 155: I began to suspect that there was another educated broadsman at work. | |
| Anatomy of Crime 193: Broadsman: Card-sharper. | |
| Lowspeak. |
(US Und.) the conductor of a three-card monte n. game.
| [ | | Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 3 Jan. 2/8: Hurry Scurry, half a mile, was won by Broad Spieler, beating seven others]. |
| (con. 1880s) Confessions of a Con Man 38: He was the best ‘broad-spieler’ on the road. [Ibid.] 124: I was the ‘broad spieler,’ which means that I did the actual work of manipulation. | |
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 19: A ‘three-card monte man’ is a ‘broad spieler’. |
(Aus./US) a card-sharp; a three-card monte n. dealer.
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 Dec. 18/1: All sorts and conditions- of crooks take part in the great trek— ‘whizz’ men, ‘broad-tossers,’ ‘shell’ wroughters, ‘Jack’ spinners; all are there. | |
| Wise-crack Dict. 6/1: Broad-tosser — Three-card skin game artist. | |
| Headless Lady (1987) 34: I want you to meet the dean of the broad tossers, the best three-card-monte man in the business. | |
| et al. DAUL 34/2: Broad-tosser. A dealer in three-card monte swindle. | |
| Complete Guide to Gambling. | |
| Why You Can’t Win 10: First, there is the Grifter – better known as three-card man or monte worker. Three-card man we call him, but to the mob he is known as a broad tosser. | |
| in Sparechange mag. 7 Sept. 🌐 So anyway, I met a fella named Onie Malloy. He was what was called a broad tosser. Meaning he worked the three card monte. | |
| ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Broad Tosser — Operator of a three card monte game, rarely seen in carnivals today because it is so widely known to authorities and public alike as an unwinnable swindle. |
(UK Und.) a card-sharp, thus v. work the broads.
| El Paso Herald (TX) 18 July 13/6: The circus grafters are the shell and wheel men, flat-joint and broad workers, stalls and dips. | |
| Phenomena in Crime 74: Broad-worker [...] The best card player in the world. | |
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 12: Working the broads: Card sharping. |
In phrases
(UK und.) working the ‘three-card trick’.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks n.p.: At the broads: Playing the three-card trick. | |
| No Hiding Place! 189/1: At the Broads. Playing cards. |
(UK gambling) to cut coards for money.
| History of Gaming Houses & Gamesters 4: [T]he low blackguard who ‘cuts the broads’ or ‘goes upon the chucking rig’ for half-pence. |
to cheat at cards, to perform the three-card trick.
| Eng. Spy II 248: He must concert certain signals with confederates for working the broads (i.e. cards). | |
| Illus. Sporting & Dramatic News 8 June 270/1: Mayhap they ‘worked the broads’ for thee, and thou wast taken in. | |
| ‘Villon’s Straight Tip’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 176: Suppose you screeve, or go cheap-jack? / Or fake the broads? or fig a nag? | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
(UK und.) to inform (on) [play on mark someone’s card under mark v.].
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 6: Mark his broad: Inform. |
1. (Aus. Und.) a marked card used in the ‘three-card trick’.
| Lone Hand (Aus.) 1 Nov. 58/1: A ‘smoked broad’ is another style of marking the card with a pencil by the ‘G,’ the player using a piece of lead under the finger-nail to duplicate the mark. |
2. (Aus. Und.) a horse whose form has been kept hidden in order to increase the odds in a race, or a horse whose odds are shorter than its known form would justify.
| Richmond Guardian (Vic.) 16 Nov. 3/1: Big trainers like Scobie, in charge of the horses of the Lords of the Land, pushing up a Smoked Broad. | |
| Sydney Sportsman 4 Nov. 9/3: CHINA CLIPPER: Has yet to be produced in a race. Went well in a couple of the trials and is supposed to be a real ‘smoked broad’. | |
| Sydney Sportsman 17 Nov. 3/5: Tommy Smith's ‘smoked-broad’ ORIANE has worked well enough this week to command plenty of attention from backers when she turns out in Saturday's Maltine Stakes. | |
| Sydney Sportsman 16 Dec. 16/3: Non-appearance of a ‘smoked broad’ at Hawkesbury yesterday tricked the betting fraternity prior to the running of the first event, the First Maiden Handicap. |
to play cards, esp. to cheat or to play a swindling game such as find the lady; one fans out the cards across the table for the punters to make their choice.
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 17 Aug. 1/4: There were the skilful practioners in the art of ‘under seven or over seven’ and ‘the little pea and thimble’ spreading their ‘broads’' and their eloquence to induce hazardous people to try their luck. | |
| Secrets of Tramp Life Revealed 11: This game is called ‘spreading the broads,’ or the three card trick. | |
| Signs of Crime 202: Spreading broads Playing or cheating at cards. Manipulating the three-card trick. |