Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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

1928		R. Wilkins ‘Rolling Stone’ 🎵 Man, don’t your house feel lonesome when your biscuit roller gone.
1936		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.
c.1940		Vera Hall ‘Black Woman’ 🎵 Don’t your house feel lonesome when your biscuit roller gone?
1960		P. Oliver Blues Fell this Morning 124: A desirable young girl is called a ‘biscuit,’ whilst the good lover is a ‘biscuit roller’.
1995		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.
1999		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.

see sense 2a above.

(US black) to have sexual intercourse.

1960

Smokey Babe [song title] Biscuit bakin’ Woman.

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

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 103/1: Hot in the biscuit. (P) Greatly excited; angry; sexually stimulated; horny.
1978		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.

1969		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.
1977		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.’.

(US campus) to seduce a woman successfully.

1980		L. Birnbach Official Preppie Hbk 222: Reel in the biscuit, v. Lure a girl to bed.
2000		Sex-Lexis 🌐.

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

1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 12: Well, she nivir sais nowt tae me, ah whinge, biscuit-ersed.
2001		I. Rankin Falls 9: Never really understood the phrase ‘biscuit-ersed’ before, but that’s what those lot were: biscuit-ersed to a man!
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 123: There we are, he coos, makin me feel aw baba biscuit-erse.

2. of an object, physically weak.

2018

I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 5: He’s on the other side ay this biscuit-ersed door.

(Aus.) the stomach.

1911

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.

(US) a Native American.

1959		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.
1966		in DARE.
1972		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.
1980		(con. 1879) M. Sprague Massacre 328: Quite a few ranch wives expressed regret that the old biscuit-beggar would frighten them no more.

(US black) a lover.

1959

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

see separate entry.

(N.Z.) economy class on no-frills internal airlines where no refreshments are offered other than biscuits.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

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

1923		M. Garahan Stiffs 61: I’ll knock seven bells out of the bushy-whiskered, mouldy-headed, biscuit-eating old stiff.
1924		W. James Drifting Cowboy (1931) 146: That old biscuit eater had used horse hunting as an excuse to keep me around.
1981		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.
2014		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.

1939		‘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.
1940		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.
1972		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’.
2007		K. Ashley Waterholes in the Wilderness 139: Son, that dog is nothing but an old biscuit-eater. He’ll never amount to anything.

see biscuit-arsed

Reading gaol.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 82/2: early C.20.

(US) foolish.

1845		J.J. Hooper in Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor 326: D—n you for a biscuit-headed nullifier!
1862		Hereford Times 3 May 6/3: [from Amer. Humour] A secessionist is called a biscuit-headed nullifier.

(US) the hands.

1913		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.
1932		J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 329: biscuit hooks—hands.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1962		P. Tabori Bk of Hand 33: The ‘backhand’ and ‘forehand’ of tennis are no longer slang; "biscuit hooks" for hands is all but forgotten.
1977		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.

a young person.

1834		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.
1849		Leeds intelligencer 18 Aug. 3/4: ‘Pull away, lads, pull away!’ vociferated the biscuit nibbler.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 7 Sept. 12/2: ‘And now for this young biskit nibbler’.

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

1873		Rutland Dly Globe (VT) 8 Sept. 3/1: The latest name for table waiters is — ‘biscuit shooters’.
1877		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.
1879		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.
1886		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.
1893		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.
1900		Era (London) 29 Sept. 17/3: In America [...] actresses are paid good salaries because they can act. Those that cannot [...] become biscuit-shooters.
1902		O. Wister Virginian 5: That corn-fed biscuit-shooter.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 59: Olaf Sweetbreads, biscuit shooter in Coffe [sic] John’s cafe.
1912		C. Lockhart Lady Doc 322: Essie Tisdale, the biscuit-shooter of the Terriberry House.
1920		‘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.
1927		(con. 1917) J. Stevens Mattock 132: She got herself a job as a biscuit-shooter in a Main Street chophouse.
1934		G. & S. Lorimer Stag Line 165: Couple-a-easy-looking biscuit shooters over there.
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 326: ‘Say,’ cried the biscuit shooter.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 791: biscuit shooter – A waitress or short order cook.
1971		C. Adams [bk title] Biscuit Shooter.

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

1906

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

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

1911

‘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.

1912		Bruner & Francis ‘A Short Word-List From Wyoming’ in DN III:7 550: biscuit shooter, cook, at camps, ranches, etc.
1920–23		in J.M. Hunter Trail Drivers of Texas (1963) I 331: The cook [...] ‘dough roller,’ ‘dinero,’ ‘coocy’ and ‘biscuit shooter’.
1926		N. Klein ‘Hobo Lingo’ in AS I:12 650: Biscuit shooter—short order cook.
1933		Buckner ‘Ranch Diction of the Texas Panhandle’ in AS VIII:1 26: biscuit shooter. A cook.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 150: The cook also had his slang titles, such as ‘biscuit-roller’, ‘biscuit-shooter.’.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 791: biscuit shooter – A waitress or short order cook.

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

1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 4: Pin the ground keeper at short, his biscuit snatchers are larger than a number two scoop.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 13: Biscuit snatchers fingers, hands.

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.

1909

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.’.

(US cowboy) to prepare a meal when travelling.

1977

(con. 1908) J. Monaghan Schoolboy, Cowboy, Mexican Spy 6: He and Charlie would ‘build the biscuits’ (a range expression for ‘get dinner’).

to vomit.

1973		D. Ponicsan Cinderella Liberty 15: Lying there about to chuck your cookies.
1989		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.
1997		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’.
2008		www.puff.com 29 Sept. 🌐 I tried my first JDN Antano [a cigar], and I nearly chucked my biscuits.

see take the biscuit v.

see take the biscuit v.

see separate entry.

see take the biscuit v.