Green’s Dictionary of Slang

biscuit n.1

1. a young woman, who is fig. ‘sweet’ and/or ‘good enough to eat’; thus cold biscuit n., an unappealing woman; show biscuit n., a very attractive woman; also of a man [Williams (1994) offers examples of biscuit as a sexual organ, citing the appearance of biscuits as 17C ‘brothel-fare’].

[US]J. Brougham Basket of Chips 327: The biscuit [...] though had a Hitalian kiverin’ was only a Boston cracker.
[Aus]E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 1: She’s ther show biscuit, take it from ther man in ther business.
[UK] (ref. to 1894) J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 17/2: Banbury (London, 1894). One of the more recent shapes of ‘jam’, ‘biscuit’, ‘cake’, ‘confectionery’, ‘tart’ — a loose woman.
[US]Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 1 May 9/1: Flapper Dictionary biscuit – A pettable Barlow or Beasel, a game Flapper.
[US]H.C. Witwer Yes Man’s Land 103: Jack, you’re sure one educated biscuit.
[US] cited in Wentworth & Flexner DAS (1975) 114/2: He couldn’t rate a blind date with a cold biscuit.
[US]D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 142: The chief gets a call today from a biscuit by the name of Barbecue.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 54: cold biscuit An unresponsive woman.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 28/1: Biscuit. [...] 3. A woman.
[US]P. Oliver Blues Fell this Morning 124: A desirable young girl is called a ‘biscuit,’ whilst the good lover is a ‘biscuit roller’.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 1: biscuit – extremely attractive person. Usually said of females.
[US]hipslang.com 🌐 biscuit: (n.) a honey that looks fine as fuck from a distance but when you get up close she looks like shit.

2. the circular shape.

(a) (US, also biscuit turnip) a watch.

[US]J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 70: biscuit, n. A watch. ‘My biscuit is too slow’.
[US]H.E. Rollins ‘A West Texas Word List’ in DN IV:iii 224: biscuit turnip, n. A watch.
[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.

(b) (US black) a pillow.

[[UK](con. 1925) ‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 175: The mattresses are three little square brown canvas cushions, rammed solid with coir. Biscuits they call them].
[US] ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

(c) the face, the head.

[US]Weseen Dict. Amer. Sl. 230: [boxing and prizefighting] Biscuit – the face.
[US] ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
[US]R. Starnes Another Mug for the Bier 87: ‘Hit you a good lick, didn’t he?’ ‘I’ve been socked on the biscuit before,’ I said.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
N.Y. Press 27 Sept. 1: Handjob strolling up Broadway, cellphone to his biscuit [HDAS].

(d) (orig. US black) usu. in pl., the buttocks; thus biscuit-bandit, an active male homosexual; biscuit butt, rounded buttocks.

[US]Bo Carter ‘Your Biscuits Are Big Enough for Me’ 🎵 Baby don’t put no more baking powder in your bread you see / Cause your biscuits is plenty tall enough for me / Baby I don’t want no more sugar in your jelly roll you see / Cause your jelly roll is plenty sweet enough for me.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 28/1: Biscuit. 1. The rump; the buttocks.
[US](con. 1930s–50s) D. Wells Night People 117: Biscuit butt. A rounded bottom.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 17: man who fucks in anal intercourse [...] biscuit bandit. [Ibid.] 23: the posterior [...] biscuit(s).
[US]R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐.
[US]L. Stavsky et al. A2Z 7/2: biscuits – butt-cheeks: She kicked him right in the biscuits.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 128/2: biscuit n. the face.
[US]‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 64: Biscuits. A word for an essential bit of soul food became a word for a woman’s ass, an essential part of Black womanliness.
[Aus]N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] Head over biscuit I went.

(e) a dollar.

[US]E. Hoagland Cat Man 116: ‘I want the thousand biscuits’.

(f) a record.

[US]W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 51: Hot biscuits are dirty ditties [...] That phony Elvis Presley up there records them [and] sells the platters to the working stiffs.
[US] Big Audio Dynamite ‘C’mon Every Beatbox’ 🎵 Sit tight and listen keenly while I play for you a brand-new musical biscuit.
[US]Hip-Hop Connection Jan. 69: The Aboriginals have funk biscuits like ‘Try These’ and ‘The Essence’, both ready made classic jazz rubs.

(g) (drugs) a tablet of methadone.

[US]D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 326: Methadone. Also dollies, biscuits, medicine.

(h) (drugs) see disco biscuit under disco n.

3. (US) a woman’s hairstyle in which the hair is done up in a small knot, usu. favoured by elderly women with thinning hair [a pun on SE biscuit, a small bun].

[US]Wilson Collection n.p.: Biscuit [...] hair done up in a small knot. Usually said of some elderly woman who has very little hair.
[US] in DARE.
Broaddus Collection n.p.: Biscuit—a small bun or roll of hair. When a woman wears two or more buns, they are called ‘biscuits.’.

4. (US black) a type of shoe worn for comfort rather than style and favoured by older people.

[US]T.R. Houser Central Sl. 10: biscuits [...] Brown shoes given to a prison-released inmate by the parole board. ‘When the dude split, he was wearing a blue jean jacket and biscuits.’.
[US]K. Scott Monster (1994) 45: Biscuits (old-men comfort shoes, the first shoe officially dubbed a ‘Crip shoe.’).
Hollywood Suit Outlet 🌐 No matter what type of suit you already have or have just bought, we have the shoes that will look great. We carry styles such as Wing Tip, Cap Toe, Split Toe, Loafer, Biscuits, Hush Puppies, Lace-ups, Slip-ons, Boots, Pointed Tip, Round Tip, Square Tip, Sandals, all in several different colors.

5. (Aus.) money.

[Aus]T. Peacock More You Bet 67: ‘Money’ [...] might also be referred to as ‘cash’, or ‘coin’, or ‘oscar’, or ‘moolah’, or ‘notes’, or ‘bills’, or ‘chips’ or ‘brass’, or ‘dosh’, or ‘dough’, or ‘bread’, or ‘biscuits’, or ‘bullets’, or ‘ammunition’.

In compounds

biscuit roller (n.)

(US black) a (usu. female) lover.

R. Wilkins ‘Rolling Stone’ 🎵 Man, don’t your house feel lonesome when your biscuit roller gone.
[US]Robert Johnson ‘If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day’ 🎵 I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long / Boy, I woke up this mornin’, my biscuit roller gone.
[US]Vera Hall ‘Black Woman’ 🎵 Don’t your house feel lonesome when your biscuit roller gone?
[US]P. Oliver Blues Fell this Morning 124: A desirable young girl is called a ‘biscuit,’ whilst the good lover is a ‘biscuit roller’.
[US]Alvin Youngblood Hart ‘Big Mama’s Door’ 🎵 What you gonna do when you find your biscuit roller gone? / What you gonna do when you find your biscuit roller gone? (Man, what about it?) / Get in that kitchen, man, and roll ’em till she come home.
[US]D. Lypchuk ‘A dirty little story’ in eye mag. 8 July 🌐 Then one day she met her first biscuit roller. She noticed that he had really beautiful lamb fries.
biscuit turnip (n.)

see sense 2a above.

In phrases

bake the biscuits (v.)

(US black) to have sexual intercourse.

Smokey Babe [song title] Biscuit bakin’ Woman.
hot in the biscuit (adj.)

1. (US) very angry, furious [hot adj. (5a)].

[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 103/1: Hot in the biscuit. (P) Greatly excited; angry; sexually stimulated; horny.
[US]H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 227: Youre the one who was all hot in the fuckin biscuit to get off again last night.

2. sexually aroused.

H. Kane Don’t Call Me Madame (2012) n.p.: So. As I was saying. Sorry for myself and hot in the biscuit and my fiancé doesn’t return to the fold till Friday.
Moon Mullins ‘Kayo Fucks Mamie’ in Tijuana Bible Revival Vol.I: Hot Nuts 35: ‘Oh, Oh, Mamie wants to fuck tonite, and I’m all pooped. Hope I can get it up.’ ‘Hurry up, Willie, I’m hot in the biscuit tonite.’.
reel in the biscuit (v.) [note Pelecanos, Big Blowdown (1996): ‘I liked her. But I tried to reel it in too quick’]

(US campus) to seduce a woman successfully.

[US]L. Birnbach Official Preppie Hbk 222: Reel in the biscuit, v. Lure a girl to bed.
Sex-Lexis 🌐.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

biscuit-arsed (adj.) (also biscuit-ersed)

1. (Scot.) of an indvidual, self-pitying.

[Scot]I. Welsh Trainspotting 12: Well, she nivir sais nowt tae me, ah whinge, biscuit-ersed.
[Scot]I. Rankin Falls 9: Never really understood the phrase ‘biscuit-ersed’ before, but that’s what those lot were: biscuit-ersed to a man!
[Scot](con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 123: There we are, he coos, makin me feel aw baba biscuit-erse.

2. of an object, physically weak.

[Scot]I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 5: He’s on the other side ay this biscuit-ersed door.
biscuit barrel (n.)

(Aus.) the stomach.

[Aus]E. Dyson ‘At a Boxing Bout’ in Benno and Some of the Push 120: He’ll just pelt ’em inter Rocker’s biscuit barrel, ’n’ slide out every time the ’eavyweight offers t’ pass ’im one.
biscuit beggar (n.) [? their poverty]

(US) a Native American.

R.L. Perkin 1st Hundred Years 289: It also cost the now sovereign state of Colorado $80,314.72 [...] to turn back an old biscuit-beggar and his band of reservation-jumpers.
[US] in DARE.
Colorado Springs Gaz.-Teleg. (CO) 23 Mar. 4-AA/5: ‘Old Colorow’, subchief of the Ute Indians [...] became known as ‘the biscuit beggar’ because of his fondness for the white man’s delicacy.
(con. 1879) M. Sprague Massacre 328: Quite a few ranch wives expressed regret that the old biscuit-beggar would frighten them no more.
biscuit brown (n.)

(US black) a lover.

L. Nash ‘Please Give me Black and Brown’ 🎵 Don’t your kitchen feel lonely when your biscuit brown is not around.
biscuit city (n.)

see separate entry.

biscuit-eater (n.) [such a dog will eat biscuits provided by its owner but will not forage for its own food] (US)

1. a worthless person; thus biscuit-eating adj., worthless (cf. son of a biscuit eater under son of a... n.).

[Aus]M. Garahan Stiffs 61: I’ll knock seven bells out of the bushy-whiskered, mouldy-headed, biscuit-eating old stiff.
[US]W. James Drifting Cowboy (1931) 146: That old biscuit eater had used horse hunting as an excuse to keep me around.
M.E. Mebane Mary 117: He inquired as to the cause of the fight, and one told him that the other one had called him the son of a biscuit eater.
J.A. Walker Full Throttle 161: I’m trying to imagine what a blue-balled biscuit eater looks like. Maybe a guy holding his nads in one hand and a Pillsbury buttermilk biscuit dripping with grape jelly in the other?

2. a worthless dog.

[US]‘The Biscuit Eater’ in Sat. Eve. Post n.p.: ‘He’s a suck-egg biscuit eater,’ Harve had told the Negro. A biscuit eater was an ornery dog. Everybody knew that. A biscuit eater wouldn’t hunt anything except his biscuits and wasn’t worth the salt in his feed.
Medford Mail Trib. (OR) 5 July 9/3: A dog who has been branded with the disgraceful tag of ‘biscuit eater,’ a name given to worthless dogs in the south.
Springfield Leader (MO) 11 June B7/4: [pic. caption] [They] play buddies who try to train the misfit Moreover, who is tagged by neighborhood dog breeders as a ‘biscuit eater’.
K. Ashley Waterholes in the Wilderness 139: Son, that dog is nothing but an old biscuit-eater. He’ll never amount to anything.
biscuit factory (n.) [it was sited next to the Huntley & Palmer’s biscuit factory]

Reading gaol.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (1984) 82/2: early C.20.
biscuit-headed (adj.)

(US) foolish.

J.J. Hooper in Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor 326: D—n you for a biscuit-headed nullifier!
[UK]Hereford Times 3 May 6/3: [from Amer. Humour] A secessionist is called a biscuit-headed nullifier.
biscuit hooks (n.)

(US) the hands.

Cornellian (Cornell U.) 512: [He] hovered around the initial sack like a stag at a dance punchbowl, and never filtered a hot one through his biscuit hooks.
[US]J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 329: biscuit hooks—hands.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
P. Tabori Bk of Hand 33: The ‘backhand’ and ‘forehand’ of tennis are no longer slang; "biscuit hooks" for hands is all but forgotten.
R. Sale White Buffalo 94: There weren’t any pockets in his buckskins and poor Cody plainly did not know what to do with his biscuit hooks.
biscuit nibbler (n.)

a young person.

[UK]Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 62: I do declare I likes to see a puddle in a storm – only look at the little biscuit-nibbler showing fight! Come, my lovey, you belongs to me.
[UK]Leeds intelligencer 18 Aug. 3/4: ‘Pull away, lads, pull away!’ vociferated the biscuit nibbler.
[UK]D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 7 Sept. 12/2: ‘And now for this young biskit nibbler’.
biscuit shooter (n.) (also biscuit-tosser) [SE shoot, to throw violently]

1. a waiter or waitress; thus biscuit-shooting adj.

[US]Rutland Dly Globe (VT) 8 Sept. 3/1: The latest name for table waiters is — ‘biscuit shooters’.
[US]Dodge City Times 11 Aug. 8/1: The pan-handle strikers, alias biscuit-tossers alias kitchen mechanics [...] have as yet not succeeded in getting up successful strikes.
[US]Dly Globe (St Paul, MN) 1 Apr. 6/1: Adams was once upon a time a biscuit shooter or hash handler, at the Sherman house.
[US]N.Y. Times 2 Aug. 5: Armstrong, the fellow who attacked a dining-room girl at Miller’s Depot hotel, Norfolk, and got a couple of several cracks over the head with glass tumblers thrown by the muscular biscuit shooter, which fractures his skull, has since died.
[US]O. Wister ‘The Winning of the Biscuit Shooter’ in Harper’s mag. Dec. 52: She had performed the duties of what is commonly termed a biscuit-shooter. That is to say [...] it was her function to stand behind the chair of the transcontinental public and recite the bill of fare with a velocity that telescoped each item.
[UK]Era (London) 29 Sept. 17/3: In America [...] actresses are paid good salaries because they can act. Those that cannot [...] become biscuit-shooters.
[US]O. Wister Virginian 5: That corn-fed biscuit-shooter.
[US]B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 59: Olaf Sweetbreads, biscuit shooter in Coffe [sic] John’s cafe.
C. Lockhart Lady Doc 322: Essie Tisdale, the biscuit-shooter of the Terriberry House.
[US] ‘A Cowboy’s Love Song’ in J.A. Lomax Songs of the Cattle Trail 41: Biscuit-shootin’ Susie – [...] Sober men or woozy / Look on her with pride.
[US](con. 1917) J. Stevens Mattock 132: She got herself a job as a biscuit-shooter in a Main Street chophouse.
[US]G. & S. Lorimer Stag Line 165: Couple-a-easy-looking biscuit shooters over there.
[US]F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 326: ‘Say,’ cried the biscuit shooter.
[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 791: biscuit shooter – A waitress or short order cook.
[US]C. Adams [bk title] Biscuit Shooter.

2. (US milit.) a female servant working for an army officer.

[US]C. M’Govern ‘Soldier Sl.’ in Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds.

3. (US) in fig. sense, one who ‘cooks’ or ‘serves up’ a story.

[US]‘Sing Sing No. 57,700’ My View on Books in N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Apr. 5/5: H. Rider [Haggard] is in there when it comes to smooth biscuit-shooters.

4. (US) a cook.

[US]Bruner & Francis ‘A Short Word-List From Wyoming’ in DN III:7 550: biscuit shooter, cook, at camps, ranches, etc.
[US] in J.M. Hunter Trail Drivers of Texas (1963) I 331: The cook [...] ‘dough roller,’ ‘dinero,’ ‘coocy’ and ‘biscuit shooter’.
[US]N. Klein ‘Hobo Lingo’ in AS I:12 650: Biscuit shooter—short order cook.
[US]Buckner ‘Ranch Diction of the Texas Panhandle’ in AS VIII:1 26: biscuit shooter. A cook.
[US]R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 150: The cook also had his slang titles, such as ‘biscuit-roller’, ‘biscuit-shooter.’.
[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 791: biscuit shooter – A waitress or short order cook.
biscuit snatcher (n.)

(US black) a hand; in pl., the fingers.

[US]L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 4: Pin the ground keeper at short, his biscuit snatchers are larger than a number two scoop.
[US](con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 13: Biscuit snatchers fingers, hands.

In phrases

biscuit and beer (v.)

to swindle a gullible dupe by betting them a biscuit against a glass of beer; one will, of course, win; thus biscuit and beer bet.

[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 30/1: Biscuit and Beer Bet (Street, 19 cent.). A swindle – because the biscuit backer invariably loses, it being intended that he should lose – to the extent of glasses round, for instance. The bet is as follows : that one youth (the victim) shall not eat a penny biscuit before his antagonist has swallowed a glass of beer by the aid of a teaspoon without spilling any of the beer. The biscuit is so dry, and the anxious bettor so fills his mouth in the desire to win that he generally loses; e.g., ‘Yere’s a mug – let’s biscuit an’ beer ’un.’.
build the biscuits (v.)

(US cowboy) to prepare a meal when travelling.

[US](con. 1908) J. Monaghan Schoolboy, Cowboy, Mexican Spy 6: He and Charlie would ‘build the biscuits’ (a range expression for ‘get dinner’).
chuck one’s biscuits (v.) (also chuck Cheerios, chuck one’s cookies) [SE chuck / chuck v.2 (13)]

to vomit.

[US]D. Ponicsan Cinderella Liberty 15: Lying there about to chuck your cookies.
[UK]M. Belmonte Compter Science and Why (1993) 🌐 I was struck with [...] the plethora of words and phrases meaning ‘vomit’ and/or ‘to vomit’ [...] At most American colleges and universities, a weekend cannot pass without seeing multitudes [...] chuck Cheerios.
[UK]Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: biscuits n. The contents of the stomach after a heavy night’s drinking. As in ‘Get me a bucket, quick, I’m gonna chuck me biscuits’.
www.puff.com 29 Sept. 🌐 I tried my first JDN Antano [a cigar], and I nearly chucked my biscuits.
take the biscuit (v.)

see separate entry.