Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: The hard and heavy labor allotted to all prisoners can only be lightened a little by their getting what they call a ‘slant,’ in one of the numberless ‘billets’ on the ground: servants’ places, for instance, wardsmen, cooks, barbers, lamplighters, &c.
at billet, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 10 Oct. 5/6: Mr Taylor said ‘burked’ was a slang term. He should like to know what meaning Dr Thomson at tached to it?
at burke, v.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: John Price sticks to his ‘old hands’ above all others [and] a new chum, if he dared open his mouth, would be met by a scowl or a threat.
at new chum, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: Thomas H. Lewis (with half-a-dozen aliases) was about as bad a man as any within the whole Penal Establishment. An old lag from the otherside [he] found himself suddenly at Pentridge.
at do, v.1
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: Mr. John Price, who, to use his own pet language, ‘gigs,’ - (Anglice, laughs and grins,) - and avails himself of the occasion to put a dozen or two of men in heavy irons.
at gig, v.7
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: [A]n old hand, pretending eagerness to escape, will incite a lot of others, - frequently new and young men to join him.
at old hand, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: An old lag from the otherside, where he had done a long sentence from home.
at old lag, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: [H]e may have committed manslaughter in Van Diemen’s Land, and have done a ‘lagging’ for that.
at lagging, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: John Price [...] amuses himself by ‘pitching’ to them (i.e. having long yarns with them about old times and scenes).
at pitch, v.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: these attempts at escape, or as they are termed in the flash language, ‘rushes’.
at rush, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: An old lag from the otherside, where he had done a long sentence from home, he graduated regularly to Victoria, via Sydney.
at tother side, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: The hard and heavy labor allotted to all prisoners can only be lightened a little by their getting what they call a ‘slant,’ in one of the numberless ‘billets’ on the ground.
at slant, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: [H]e has a ‘down’ on them to be ‘squared’.
at square, v.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 11 Nov. 7/1: Mount Moliagul [...] does not contain a large population at present, but from the number of persons to be seen ‘swagging’ it in that direction, it is probable that there is some point of attraction somewhere there abouts.
at swag it (v.) under swag, v.
[Aus] letter in Age (Melbourne) 4 June 5/1: On more occasions than one [...] I have been rudely told to '‘dry up.’ Am I a puddle, an ink stain, a wet blanket perhaps they think me so— that I should be requested to become dry ?
at dry up, v.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 15 Sept. 5/3: It is to be regretted that a belligerent individual should be unable to devise some more humane method of taking the life of his victim, than by ‘jumping his guts out,’ as the slang vernacular has it .
at jump someone’s guts out (v.) under gut, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 14 Nov. 5/4: A witness named Yates was amusingly innocent of the existence of an island called Tasmania, but knew it under the less respectable name of Van Diemen’s Land. He had lived at ‘t’other side’.
at tother side, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 24 June 4/4: [T]he very jealousy breathed throughout the letters stamps them as emanating from a disappointed, and a not over-sighted ‘’tother-sider’.
at t’other sider, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 22 June 5/1: The debate on the ‘beer resolutions’ [was] instructive, edifying, and amusing [...] Who could have expected [...] to hear ‘stringy-bark’ or ‘she-oak’ lauded by the lips of legislators.
at sheoak (n.) under she, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 1 Oct. 5/2: A magistrate, Mr Smith added, was obliged to be conversant with slang. It was only the other day that he had to put a policeman right, when he said ‘on the square,’ and meant ‘on the cross’ .
at on the cross under cross, n.1
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 11 Feb. 6/6: [T]he priests pointed out to a pert little ‘sprug’ perched on the shoulder of one of the chief josses, for one of the foreigners to have a shot at it.
at sprug, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 1 Oct. 5/2: A magistrate, Mr Smith added, was obliged to be conversant with slang. It was only the other day that he had to put a policeman right, when he said ‘on the square,’ and meant ‘on the cross’ .
at on the square under square, adj.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 17 May 7/7: [from Manchester Examiner, UK] ‘You know I’m not a burglar,’ one of them said to Inspector Buckley, ‘you know my trade — I’m a stick,' the slang title of those who aid women to rob men.
at stick, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 1 Oct. 5/1: [N]othing but the term ‘tiddley winking’ could express the idea the woman's behaviour created.
at tiddleywink, v.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/4: [letter] I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A CLEAN POTATO.
at clean potato (n.) under clean, adj.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 4 July 5/3: [T]he female prisoner [...] told the detectives jauntily that she did not rob men herself, but received the spoil from her ‘molls’.
at moll, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 28 June 7/5: Detectives [...] having found a variety of housebreaking tools [...] at his residence. These consisted of picklocks, skeleton keys, files, rasp, vice, and what in slang is termed a ‘masterpiece,’ a piece of wire so formed as to penetrate through the keyhole of a door, and turn the key left in the lock inside.
at masterpiece, n.
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 5 Apr. 7/4: Assault and Robbery [...] He pulled her away again, and she and the other cabman called out to the prisoner some slang expression which he thought was, ‘top him, Jack’.
at top, v.3
[Aus] Age (Melbourne) 31 Dec. 5/6: The hundred yards backward race was won by Tarpot, beating Barrass, the only white competitor who could go with him.
at tarpot, n.
[Aus] letter in Age (Melbourne) 14 June 3/8: Many a time my own endeavours to obtain an entrance to the rendezvous of some of the magsmen and burglars [but]even if I did gain admission the objects of my duty would have disappeared [...] at the well-known slang word ‘cheese’.
at cheese, v.1
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