Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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Serpico choose

Quotation Text

[US] P. Maas Serpico 167: I’m on the balls of my ass, man.
at on the balls of one’s ass under ass, n.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 72: ‘You hit some bystander by mistake, then it’s your ass all the way’.
at someone’s ass, to be, v.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 165: next in the intricately structured racket is the pickup man, who brings the ‘work’—the betting slips—from various collectors to a controller. He in turn passes it on to a ‘banker,’ the money man.
at banker, n.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 311: Then Armstrong dropped something of a bombshell.
at bombshell, n.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 162: ‘Oh my God,’ Behan said. ‘What a bucket of worms.’.
at bucket of worms (n.) under bucket of..., n.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 76: [of a policeman taking on a case] The detective replied, ‘Gee, Blackjack’s catching that case, and he’s off for a couple of days’.
at catch, v.1
[US] (con. 1966) P. Maas Serpico 127: There’s more here than meets the eye. Somebody’s trying to break my chops, and I think I know why’.
at bust someone’s chops (v.) under chops, n.1
[US] P. Maas Serpico 58: His instructors [at the NYC Police Academy] had spoken of some precincts that were ‘country clubs’—in the quieter residential sections of the city [...]. ‘You’ll learn more in an action precinct in three months [...] than you will in three years in one of those country clubs.
at country club, n.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 201: After the prisoner had been booked, there was a tense confrontation with [Officer] Stanard. [...] ‘What the fuck are you doing? You want collars, we’ll give them to you, any kind you want, but lay off the cousins’.
at cousin, n.2
[US] P. Maas Serpico 108: The arrest of a ‘dicky-waver,’ a man who exposed himself, was a major law-enforcement event.
at dicky-waver (n.) under dicky, n.5
[US] P. Maas Serpico 280: When he discovered someone who was ‘dirty’ — who had heroin — he would signal it by removing his glasses. [Ibid.] 283: She was dirty. She had it on her.
at dirty, adj.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 114: ‘What the hell,’ the plainclothesman would say, ‘the judge’ll knock it [i.e. an arrest based on corrupt practise] down anyway’.
at knock down, v.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 169: Two plainclothes men [...] soon pinpointed one of his ‘drops’ — a collection place for betting slips and money.
at drop, n.1
[US] P. Maas Serpico 207: ‘What about the bosses? You going after them,or just some flunky cops?’.
at flunky, adj.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 173: Walsh’s investigators—or ‘shooflies’—caught countless cops in minor violations of the department’s rules.
at shoo-fly, n.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 167: Now, you fuck, you’re going.
at fuck, n.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 201: Get this fucking-well straight, Stanard. I’m not sticking my neck out for you.
at fucking well (adv.) under fucking, adv.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 167: Hassel [a policy gambling collector] was spotted in a tenement doorway. [Officer] Zumatto bolted out of the car and pushed him into the hall, and came up with a handful of policy slips. ‘Now, you fuck, you’re going’.
at go, v.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 114: [T]wo plainclothes candidates puffing a joint in front of him whispered, ‘Hey, this is real good shit’.
at good shit, n.1
[US] P. Maas Serpico 159: Ribustello reached into his pocket and took out a roll of bills. He peeled off a couple of tens and handed them to Stanard. He peeled off two more for Serpico. ‘Here,’ he said lazily, ‘get yourself a hat.’ A ‘hat’ was a code word for a bonus above regularly scheduled payoffs.
at hat, n.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 248: The man had a ‘hook’ — an influential contact in the department.
at hook, n.1
[US] P. Maas Serpico 63: [T]he fine art of ‘cooping,’ or sleeping on duty, a time-honored police practice that in other cities goes under such names as ‘huddling’.
at huddle, v.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 116: [H]e went into a long, sickening skid, a line of parked cars loomed up in front of him, and he thought this was going to be it.
at it, n.1
[US] P. Maas Serpico 146: He could see it in the inspector’s face: plainclothesmen took gambling and vice money, and it was a relatively minor step, the temptations indeed greater, to taking junk money.
at junk, adj.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 243: The counterman said, ‘You can’t keep me here.’ ‘Don’t pull Philadelphia lawyer on me,’ Serpico replied.
at Philadelphia lawyer, n.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 180: Once he had remarked that he had heard that things like this were going on, but never in this way, never directly from a cop laying it on the line as Serpico was.
at on the line, phr.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 222: The informant said that the person he had in mind was ‘heavy,’ an Italian who was ‘mobbed up.
at mobbed up (adj.) under mob, v.1
[US] P. Maas Serpico 179: He had been an addict when he was turned into an informant, and was supposedly off heroin now.
at off, prep.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 166: The [policy gambling] collector was puzzled. ‘What’s the matter?’ [...] Ain’t you from the [police] division? You know, we’re friends with the division. We’re on.’ 199: When [the police] broke in [i.e. to a policy bank] they were confronted by [...] the banker himself, Manuel Ortega, and he was furious. ‘I’m on! I pay for the month!’ he screamed.
at on, prep.
[US] P. Maas Serpico 167: ‘He used to be one of the biggest operators around, but he got wiped out’.
at wiped out, adj.
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