Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 22 Sept. 7/3: Eve Paddington electrified the touts with sensational swallow-catching gallops, and is reputed to have run half a mile in 49sec.
at swallow-catcher, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 22 June 5/5: ‘Half your luck!’ This wistful, expression is one of the commonest, and voices a very human aspiration.
at half your luck! (excl.) under luck, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: No denizen of the underworld has any other name for the purse or wallet but ‘pogue,’ just as he would term relieving a citizen of his watch and chain ‘hoisting a block and tackle’.
at block and tackle, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: ‘Joe was buckled last night. He was all keyed up with angie and tried to take a twist out of a demon, he dug his heels in and it took three of them to lumber him.’ [...] Joe was under the influence of cocaine. He used insulting language to a detective, and resisted so violently when placed under arrest that it took the detective and two other officers to remove him to the watch house.
at angie, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: A confirmed cocaine addict is known as ‘a fence for the coke,’ and when he is under the influence of the drug he is referred, to as being ‘angied-up’ .
at angied-up (adj.) under angie, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: Cocaine peddlers are termed ‘angie-droppers’ amongst the elect, or less frequently ‘coke-droppers’ .
at angie-dropper (n.) under angie, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: ‘So-and-so strapped me for a shwe to-day. He was in a yike up north and copped a blue. Had to do a tommy-off and he is down here in smoke.’ Translated, someone had borrowed a florin from the speaker. He had got into trouble in the north and with a warrant issued for his arrest had escaped by boat and had gone into hiding.
at blue, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: The respectable citizen might hear somebody arguing belligerently with a companion for his ‘corner,’ i.e., his share of the proceeds, and complaining bitterly that the other was trying to ‘put him on the blue,’ in other words, give him nothing.
at put someone on the blue (v.) under blue, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: ‘Joe was buckled last night. He was all keyed up with angie and tried to take a twist out of a demon, he dug his heels in and it took three of them to lumber him.’ [...] Joe was under the influence of cocaine. He used insulting language to a detective, and resisted so violently when placed under arrest that it took the detective and two other officers to remove him to the watch house.
at buckle, v.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: The watch house is the ‘can;’ detectives are ‘demons’ and plain-clothesmen are ‘bulls’.
at bull, n.5
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: The name given by the underworld to the robber of drunks is that of ‘buzzer’ or ‘roller.’ These are the jackals who prey on the intoxicated they find in doorways and dark lanes for a few paltry shillings [...] Robbing a drunk is ‘buzzing a hoy’ to the initiated.
at buzzer, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: The watch house is the ‘can;’ detectives are ‘demons’ and plain-clothesmen are ‘bulls’.
at can, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: Cocaine peddlers are termed ‘angie-droppers’ amongst the elect, or less frequently ‘coke-droppers’ .
at coke-dropper (n.) under coke, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: The men who worry the police most are the ‘whizz’ or ‘con.’ men.
at con-man, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: The respectable citizen might hear somebody arguing belligerently with a companion for his ‘corner,’ i.e., his share of the proceeds, and complaining bitterly that the other was trying to ‘put him on the blue,’ in other words, give him nothing.
at corner, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: The pick-pocket is more commonly known as a ‘Dip’ or ‘Hook’ and stands at the head of the petty thieving class.
at dip, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: After him comes the ‘snow-dropper’ This picturesque term is used to connote the gentleman who raids clothes lines.
at snow-dropper, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: A confirmed cocaine addict is known as ‘a fence for the ’coke,’ and when he is under the influence of the drug he is referred, to as being ‘angied-up’ .
at fence for the coke (n.) under fence, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: On the lofty heights to which every ambitious criminal hopes one day to attain, stands the ‘gunman,’ King of the underworld, and at the other the ‘Top-off’ or ‘Shelf,’ the unofficial police pimp, held in contempt by all .
at gunman (n.) under gun, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 2/8: No denizen of the underworld has any other name for the purse or wallet but ‘pogue,’ just as he would term relieving a citizen of his watch and chain ‘hoisting a block and tackle’.
at hoist, v.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 2/7: Few of these occupiers of the lowlier ranks in the underworld social scale run any great risk in their operations. But the ‘Hoist’ shows more daring. [...] [T]hese gentlemen, who confine their activities principally to lifting suit lengths from tailors’ shops, are in a class by themselves.
at hoist, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: The pick-pocket is more commonly known as a ‘Dip’ or ‘Hook’ and stands at the head of the petty thieving class.
at hook, n.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: ‘Hoons’ is the technical term for hoodlums; a ‘pitch’ is what the ‘whizz-men’ call a trick .
at hoon, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: Still moving up the scale, we have the hotel ‘Barber’ [...] the gentleman who ransacks hotel rooms while the guests are absent, often getting surprisingly large hauls of jewellery and money [...] ‘Barbers’ are frequently themselves guests [...] getting the general lay-out of the rooms fixed in their minds before commencing operations.
at hotel barber (n.) under hotel, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: ‘Joe was buckled last night. He was all keyed up with angie and tried to take a twist out of a demon, he dug his heels in and it took three of them to lumber him.’ [...] Joe was under the influence of cocaine. He used insulting language to a detective, and resisted so violently when placed under arrest that it took the detective and two other officers to remove him to the watch house.
at keyed up (adj.) under key, v.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: Some ‘crook’ wandering casually in might say, ‘Piped anything in the kites?’ The underworldly are diligent readers of the newspapers, and no activity in their environs is allowed to escape their notice.
at kite, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: Then there is the ‘Kite-flyer,’ the humbler confidence man, between whom and the higher members of this particular branch of crime stretches a long list of tricksters exploiting a host of ingenious schemes.
at kite-flyer (n.) under kite, n.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: The stealer of motor cars is professionally known as a ‘Knocker-off’.
at knock off, v.
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: ‘Joe was buckled last night. He was all keyed up with angie and tried to take a twist out of a demon, he dug his heels in and it took three of them to lumber him.’ [...] Joe was under the influence of cocaine. He used insulting language to a detective, and resisted so violently when placed under arrest that it took the detective and two other officers to remove him to the watch house.
at lumber, v.1
[Aus] Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 18 Dec. 8/2: ‘Now, Sandy,’ said the Englishman,‘will you be mother and pour out?’, ‘Ay, mon,’ [...] Sandy lifted the teapot.
at be mother (v.) under mother, n.
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