Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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American Mercury choose

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[US] Amer. Mercury Feb. 130/1: I wish I was black like you [...] No you don’t. Dey’d call you Crow, den—or Chocolate—or Smoke [DA].
at chocolate, n.1
[US] Amer. Mercury Feb. 130/1: I wish I was black like you [...] No you don’t. Dey’d call you Crow, den — or Chocolate — or Smoke [DA].
at crow, n.2
[US] Amer. Mercury II 365/1: He merely undertakes to do his darndest to scare the hell out of a given community for the time being.
at scare (the) hell out of (v.) under hell, n.
[US] J.A. Reed in Amer. Mercury n.p.: The distiller now makes pure alcohol. The Prohibition Unit transforms 60,000,000 gallons of it into coffin varnish each year, knowing that 6,000,000 gallons will reach the stomachs of human beings.
at coffin varnish (n.) under coffin, n.1
[US] Amer. Mercury 18: If the El Cabbagio Cigar runs off a 10,000-line advertising programme and a month after it terminates a cigar survey comes along [etc.] .
at cabbagio perfumo, n.
[US] Amer. Mercury Jan. 65/2: I got canned for selling wob papers [DA].
at can, v.
[US] Amer. Mercury Apr. xxx: Dehorn means bootleg booze [W&F].
at dehorn, n.
[US] Amer. Mercury Jan. 63/1: Dating from the famous Homestead strike of 1892 is the odious fink. [It] according to one version was originally Pink, a contraction of Pinkerton, and referred to the army of strikebreakers recruited by the detective agency.
at fink, n.
[US] Amer. Mercury Jan. 63: The close in on a gondola or box-car full of scissorbills and by threats of violence hijack them into paying initiatory fees.
at hijack, v.
[US] Amer. Mercury Jan. 64/2: The word hoosier is applied to anyone who is incompetent [DA].
at hoosier, n.
[US] Amer. Mercury Dec. 464/2: In referring to money wagered by persons with good tips or information, the term used is smart money .
at smart money (n.) under money, n.
[US] Amer. Mercury Dec. 464/2: One of the paper’s [i.e. Variety’s] coinages should be officially embraced by the dictionary and bred into the language. It refers to a flattering, enthusiastic review by a sycophantic critic as a rave.
at rave, n.
[US] Amer. Mercury Feb. 236/2: College presidents are in the habit of defending the late usurpation of the scholastic curriculum by the [...] athletic field with the old Latin whangdoodle about a healthy mind in a healthy body. The two actually seldom go together.
at whangdoodle, n.1
[US] H.L. Mencken Amer. Mercury XII 194/2: It must present ‘Naked Truth’ shows, and it must go all the way down the line to the grind joint.
at grind joint, n.1
[US] in E. Booth ‘Lang. of the Und.’ Amer. Mercury May.
at thick and dense, n.
[US] E. Booth ‘Language of the Und.’ Amer. Mercury May.
at babbler, n.
[US] Amer. Mercury Mar. n.p.: ‘I’m ditched for fifteen flat – an’ on a bum beef.’ A bum beef, in the patois of the profession, means that the gentleman was innocent.
at bum beef (n.) under beef, n.2
[US] Amer. Mercury May 80: He came out of K.C. hot from the P.O. blast [W&F].
at blast, n.1
[US] Amer. Mercury July 295: There must be 5,000 booters on Manhattan Island alone [W&F].
at booter, n.2
[US] Amer. Mercury May 78/1: Rowdy-dowdy [...] was borrowed from the more aristocratic night-men, who use it in this manner: ‘Charge on a town, make as many clouts on the kiester (safe) as necessary, and then battle the irate citizens in a rowdy-dowdy get-a-way.’ .
at rowdy-dowdy, adj.
[US] Amer. Mercury Oct. 182/1: To the true Roller every word in his theological vocabulary [...] and every moral experience, no matter how trivial, is a symbol of forces whose presence inspires him to delirium [DA].
at Holy Roller, n.
[US] Amer. Mercury May 78/1: Rowdy-dowdy...was borrowed from the more aristocratic night-men, who use it in this manner: ‘Charge on a town, make as many clouts on the kiester (safe) as necessary, and then battle the irate citizens in a rowdy-dowdy get-a-way.’ .
at nightman (n.) under night, n.
[US] J. Tully in Amer. Mercury Apr. 427/2: The best paper pusher in the West. His racket had been to steal post-office money-order blanks and stamps, and then make his own money-orders.
at paper pusher (n.) under paper, n.
[US] Amer. Mercury 13 178: It was Adam Kapechik who found Round Heels lying by the roadside in her shoes, stockings and knickers and with her torn dress.
at roundheels, n.
[US] Amer. Mercury XXI. 454/2: Bend, v.: To steal. ‘We bend a boat to hist the hooch’ .
at bend, v.2
[US] Amer. Mercury Dec. 454: He slips me a bouncer [W&F].
at bouncer, n.2
[US] Amer. Mercury Dec. 420: The whole hundred thousand coconuts [W&F].
at coconut, n.1
[US] Amer. Mercury 21 455: Copper-hearted, adj.: To be by nature a police informer. ‘Is that broad copper-hearted? And how!’.
at copper-hearted (adj.) under copper, n.
[US] in Amer. Mercury Dec. 457: We rib the sap that it’s McCoy and he goes for it [HDAS].
at go for, v.1
[US] in Amer. Mercury Oct. 161: A guy don’ wanna wuyk, so he tuyns into a glom. Well, de idea is tuh teach de guy tuh be a useful citizen .
at glom, n.1
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