Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see brass balls n.

see separate entry.

1. an alcoholic cocktail that mixes gin and wine.

1952

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

2. a drink of white rum with a beer chaser.

c.1970

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

(Aus./N.Z.) an airplane.

2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] As we boarded the steel chicken I got an email from the tour organiser saying ‘Do Not Board This Flight’.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 177/2: take the steel budgie n. to be transferred by aeroplane between prisons.

(US teen) one who wears orthodontic braces.

1969

Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 19 July 3/4: All the boys do is call me tinsel teeth and steel jaw.

(Aus.) one who rides a train without paying.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1953		World’s News (Sydney) 14 Nov. 31/3: Still another band [i.e. of swagmen], despised by those who tramped along the highways, were the Steel Jockeys, who ‘jumped the rattler’ whenever they got the opportunity.

a form of strong drink.

1654

R. Whitlock Zootomia 459: They can tell you whose Pudding hath Sewet in it, and whose not; who drinks Rot-gut, and who Steele-nose [OED].

(US) a ‘swallow-tail’ or tail-coat, worn for formal evening wear.

1870		Perrysburg Jrnl (OH) 6 May 4/1: None of these [names for a dress coat] is as expressive [...] as the name given by the West Point cadets of ‘steel-pen’ .
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see iron cure under iron adj.