Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) an idler, irrespective of age, who whiles away the time hanging around on street corners.

1844		J.C. Neal Peter Ploddy and Other Oddities ‘Corner Loungers’ [title]. [Ibid.] 167: That disinterested body of men and boys who lounge at the corners of the way in a great metropolis prop up lamp-posts.
1855		D.C. Mitchell Fudge Doings II 47: Presently, the corner-boy, Jerry, comes in. He is a short-haired, half-Irish boy.
1866		H.L. Williams N.-Y. After Dark 13: In the district where the ill weeds grow thick: the ‘corner boys’. [Ibid.] 37: I’d rather they see me with the man-with-the-poker [...] than with such a gambling, mean, Sing Sing corner loafer as you.
1869		G. Ellington Women of N.Y. 320: The well-dressed corner loafers who hang about the avenues, in front of cigar and rum shops, and who make it their business to insult ladies as they pass along the street.
1881		‘Report of Arrest of Mr Dillon, M.P.’ in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era (1909) 93/1: Kilmainham was reached a few minutes before five o’clock. There were only a few corner boys present in the neighbourhood of the prison, and there was no demonstration of any kind.
1882		G.A. Sala America Revisited I 66: Every American who does not wish to be thought ‘small potatoes’ or a ‘ham-fatter’ or a ‘corner loafer’ is carefully ‘barbed’ .
1906		W. Boyle Eloquent Dempsy (1911) Act I: Oh, they’re all right, sir, only there’s a few corner-boys among them.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 726: My uncle John has a thing long I heard those cornerboys saying passing the corner of Marrowbone lane.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 170: I gave him a sherricking in front of all the corner chaps.
1939		‘Flann O’Brien’ At Swim-Two-Birds 82: Accused were described by Superintendant Clohessy as a gang of corner-boys whose horse-play in the streets was the curse of the Ringsend district.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 31: Their walk was the gait of corner boys.
1960		A. Burgess Doctor Is Sick (1972) 27: He began to push the corner-boy by the rump up the stairs.
1970		C. Brown Down All the Days 67: Out fornicating with that corner-boy! I’ll break her two legs when she does come in!
1986		J.B. Keane Bodhrán Makers 327: He was greeted with considerable amusement by the town’s layabouts and was followed to the empty house by several cornerboys.
1991		R. Doyle Van (1998) 524: I didn’t spend a fortune on your hair, said Jimmy Sr, – so yis could get picked up by snot-nosed little corner boys.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 40: They were corner boys, standing on the spot where they stood [...] when they were not in school.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1926		S. O’Casey Plough and the Stars Act I: I’ll make him stop his laughin’ an’ leerin’, jibin’ an’ jeerin’ an’ scarifyin’ people with his corner-boy insinuations!
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 138: When you’re among your corner-boy friends, you can act the jackeen as much as you like.
1973		H. Leonard Da (1981) Act I: Don’t ever again let me hear you saying the like of that. That’s a corner-boy expression.

3. in fig. use, one who shirks their work.

c.1940–5

‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 15: I could distinctly hear snatches of talk like ‘never sober,’ ‘literary corner-boy’ [...] ‘cool calculated cheek’: and so on.

4. (US drugs) one who works on a drug ‘corner’ as a salesman.

2008		R. Price Lush Life 30: Why don’t you just go to a couple corner boys [...] Say you collecting for Big Dap .
2014		Ruderman & Laker Busted 46: Above the corner boys were the holders, or guys who stashed the dope.

(orig. US) an idler who hangs around on street corners.

1861

(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 445/2: I mean by corner-coves them sort of men who is always standing at the corners of the streets chaffing respectable folks a passing by – we call them corner-coves about here.

(orig. US) a man, usu. young, given to standing around on street corners with his peers, gossiping, fooling around and ogling passing women.

1927		Decatur Herald (IL) 20 Feb. 29/1: Street corner sheiks, the boys [...] termed the ‘cowboys’ [...] got even with ‘wise cracks’ at passing girls.
1925		Star-Phoenix (Sakatoon, Saskatchewan) 20 Mar. 14/6: Horse-play [...] and loud wise-cracking are [...] particularly faored by drug-store cowboys and street-corner sheiks.
1942		Harrisburg Teleg. Feb. in Hlavacek Teen Topics 86/2: Are you the boy–who is a corner cowboy? Who congregates and jeers at girls, whistles after them and calls names?
1952		H. Boyle Associated Press 9 Aug. n.p.: The Saturday night sport [...] was the forerunner of the cake-eater, the drugstore cowboy, and the modern-day corner wolf [W&F].
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 34: The corner cowboys tapped their heads and laughed, meaning Terry was punchy.
1974		in Time 28 Jan. 🌐 He brings to rodeoing the deadpan dedication of the street-corner cowboy from Queens that he is.
1982		in Village Voice (N.Y.) 27 July 🌐 Taana Gardner chirps encouragement to her street corner cowboy: ‘. . . Put on something nice / just in case ya die / You’ll leave a pretty corpse behind . . .’.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 44: In this century corner boys who met on street corners, gossiped, and ogled women became known as corner cowboys and sometimes corner wolves.

the vagina.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 20: Aumoyre, m. The female pudendum; ‘the corner cupboard’.

1. an idler who hangs around on street corners.

1881		Entr’acte 8 June n.p.: The chief ‘corner’ man [...] is possessed of some humour.
1899		H. Lawson ‘The Songs They Used to Sing’ in Roderick (1972) 380: A peg for vulgar parodies and more vulgar ‘business’ for fourth-rate clowns and corner-men.
1900		Marvel XIV:344 June 3: The great showman, barn-stormer, strong-man, ‘corner-man’ – both corners – and middleman.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 421: Even the bones and cornerman at the Livermore christies.
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 187: The whole thing was taken silently by the audience [...] Archie got gloomy, and for long after he was content to play one of the corner men.

2. (US police) a police officer assigned to work at a particular intersection.

1922

Cleveland Foundation Survey of Criminal Justice in Cleveland III 43: [T]he traffic cornerman at the intersection of Superior Avenue, N.E. and the Public Square.

3. (UK Und.) a lookout.

1941

V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 137: The woman joined them as a [...] ‘corner man’ [...] but not only did she keep watch for them, but took a hand in the robberies herself.

(UK black) to spend time socializing.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 corners Definition: the act of hangin out and cruisin. Example: Shit nigga we were out doing corners with a coupla chicken heads.

to infuriate on purpose.

1812

Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.

1. to stay in one’s personal space, as opposed to invading someone else’s; to hold one’s own.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 24: (H)ol-yuh-corner to remain on one’s turf: u. man fi hol ’im corner/don’t invade my space.

2. (UK black) to wait.

2001

(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 147: ‘Oh well, we’ll ’ave to dust, innit. De place is closed.’ ‘Hol’ your corner [...] Blue wouldn’t sen’ us down ’ere for nutten.’.

(N.Z. prison) working as a prostitute.

1999

D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 34: on the corner adj. To be -; to be a prostitute.

see put someone on the block under block n.⁸