A * Alderman: A man's pot belly. * Ameche: Telephone * Ankle: o (n) Woman o (v) To walk B * Babe: Woman * Baby: A person, can be said to either a man or a woman * Be on the nut, To: To be broke * Bean-shooter: Gun * Beezer: Nose * Behind the eight-ball: In a difficult position, in a tight spot * Big house: Jail * Big one, The: Death * Big sleep, The: Death (coined by Chandler) * Bimbo: Woman * Blow: Leave * Boob: Dumb guy, Breast * Boozehound: Drunkard * Bop: Knock on the head * Brace (somebody): Grab, shake up * Break it up: Stop that, quit the nonsense * Broad: Woman * Bum's rush, To get the: To be kicked out * Bump off: Kill; also, bump-off: a killing * Buncoing some (people): Defrauding people * Bus: Big car * Butts: Cigarettes C * C: $100, a pair of Cs = $200 * Cabbage: Money * Cat house: Bordello * Cat: Man * Century: $100 * Cheaters: Sunglasses * Cheese it: Put things away, hide * Chew: Eat * Chick: Woman * Chisel: To swindle or cheat * Chiv, chive: Knife, "a stabbing or cutting weapon" (Speaking) * Clammed: Close-mouthed (clammed up) * Con: Confidence game, swindle * Conk: Blow to the head * Cooler: Jail * Cop * Corn: Bourbon ("corn liquor") * Cracker: A cyber vandal, a rural white person * Croak: To die D * Daisy: None too masculine * Dame: Woman * Dark meat: Black women * Dib: Share (of the proceeds) * Dinge: Black person * Dingus: Penus * Dip: Pickpocket * Dish: Pretty woman * Dive: A low-down, cheap sort of place * Dizzy with a dame, To be: To be deeply iin love with a woman * Doll, dolly: Woman * Dope (idiot) o Drugs, of any sort o Information o As a verb, as in "I had him doped as" - to have figured for * Dope fiend: Drug addict * Dope peddler: Drug dealer * Dough: Money * Drift: Go, leave, wander * Drink out of the same bottle, as in "We used to drink out of the same bottle": We were close friends * Drop a dime: Make a phone call, sometimes meaning to the police to inform on someone * Duck soup: Easy, a piece of cake * Dump: (Lousy dirty messed up place) * Dust (kill) * Dust out: Leave, depart * Dutch (Pay your own way) F * Fade: Go away, get lost * Fin: $5 bill * Finger, Put the finger on: Identify * Flat (Rental of one floor of a bldg) o Broke o As in "That's flat" - that's for sure, undoubtedly * Flimflam(m): Swindle * Flop: o Go to bed o As in "The racket's flopped" - fallen through, not worked out * Flophouse: "A cheap transient hotel where a lot of men sleep in large rooms" (Speaking) * Fry: To be electrocuted * From nothing, as in "I know from nothing": I don't know anything G * Gams: Legs (especially a woman's) * Gashouse, as in "getting gashouse": Rough * Gat: Gun * Gate, as in "Give her the gate": The door, as in leave * Gin mill: Bar * Girlie: Woman * Give a/the third: Interrogate (third degree) * Glad rags: Fancy clothes * Glom o To steal o To see, to take a look * Go climb up your thumb: Go away, get lost * Go over the edge with the rams: To get far too drunk * Ganeff: Thief (Yiddish) * Goofy: Crazy * Goon: Thug * Graft: o Con jobs o Cut of the take * Grand: $1000 * Greasers: o Mexicans or Italians. o A hoodlum, thief or punk. * Grift: o As in "What's the grift?": What are you trying to pull? o Confidence game, swindle * Grifter: Con man * Grilled: Questioned * Gum: o As in "Don't ... gum every play I make": Gum up, interfere with o Opium * Gum-shoe: Detective; also gumshoeing = detective work * Gun for: Look for, be after * Guns: o Pickpockets o Hoodlums H * Hack: Taxi, work on a computer * Hacker: Independant computer expert * Hard: Tough * Harlem sunset: Some sort fatal injury caused by knife (Farewell, 14) * Hash house: A cheap restaurant * Hatchetmen: Killers, gunmen * Head doctors: Psychiatrists * Heap: Car * He-she: A transvestite hooker * Heat: A gun, also heater * Hinky: Suspicious * Hock shop: Pawnshop * Hogs: Large motorcycles * Hombre: Man * Hooch: Liquor * Hood: Criminal * Hooker, Prostitute * Hoosegow: Jail * Horn: Telephone * Hot: Stolen * House dick: House/hotel detective * Hype: Overselling I * Ice : Diamonds (Meth amphetamine) * In stir: In jail J * Jam: Trouble, as in "in a jam" * Java: Coffee * Jaw jerk: Talk too much * Joe: Coffee, as in "a cup of joe" * Johns: Prostitutes customers * Joint: Place, as in "my joint" * Jug: Jail * Junkie: Drug addict K * Keister, keyster: (Buttocks) * Kisser: Mouth * Kitten: Woman * Knock off: Kill * Knockover: Heist, theft L * Large: $1,000; twenty large would be $20,000 * Law, the: The police * Lettuce: Folding money * Lid: Hat * Lip: (Criminal) lawyer * Looker: Pretty woman * Look-out: Outside man * Lousy with: To have lots of M * Made: Recognized * Mark: Sucker, victim of swindle or fixed game * Mazuma: Money * Meat wagon: Coroners ambulance * Mickey Finn: drink drugged with knock-out drops * Mitt: Hand * Mob: Gang (not necessarily Mafia) * Monicker: Name * Mouthpiece: Lawyer * Mug: Face * Mugs: Men (esp. dumb ones) * Mush: Face N * Nailed: Caught by the police * Nance: An effeminate man * Newshawk: Reporter * Newsie: Newspaper vendor * Nicked: Stole * Nix on (something): No to (something) * Noodle: Head * Nose-candy: Cocaine P * Pack: To carry, esp. a gun * Pan: Face * Patsy: Person who is set up; fool, chump * Paw: Hand * Pearl diver: dish-washer * Pen: Penitentiary, jail * Pigeon: Stool-pigeon * Pinch: An arrest, capture * Pins: Legs (especially a woman's) * Pipes: Throat * Pistol pockets: Side pockets * Plant: Bury * Plug: Shoot * Pooped: Exausted * Pop: Shoot * Pro skirt: Prostitute * Pug: Pugilist, boxer * Pump: Heart * Punk o Hood, thug o "A jailhouse sissy who is on the receiving end." (Also as a verb, as in "to get punked.") * Puss: Coward * Put the screws on: Question, get tough with Q * Queer o (n) Counterfeit o (n) Sexually abnormal, Homosexual R * Rags: Clothes * Ranked: Observed, watched, given the once-over * Rap o Criminal charge o Information, as in "He gave us the rap" o Hit o Rythmic rhyming ghetto talk * Rappers: People who rap * Rat: Inform * Rate: To be good, to count for something * Reefers: Marijuana cigarettes * Ringers: Fakes * Roundheels o A fighter with a glass jaw o A woman of easy virtue * Rub-out: A killing * Rube: Bumpkin, easy mark * Rumble: Gang fight * Run-out, To take the : Leave, escape S * Sap o A dumb guy o A blackjack * Sap poison: Getting hit with a sap * Savvy?: Get me? Understand? * Sawbuck: $10 bill (a double sawbuck is a $20 bill) * Schnozzle: Nose * Scram out: Leave * Scratch: Money * Screw: Have sex * Shine o Black person o Moonshine, bootleg liquor * Shiv: Knife * Shylock: Loanshark * Shyster: Lawyer * Sing: Confess, admit secrets * Sister: Woman * Skipout: To beat the check * Skirt: Woman * Slant, Asian * Sleuth: Detective * Slope: Asian * Slug o As a noun, bullet o As a verb, to knock unconscious * Snap a cap: Shoot * Snatch: Kidnap * Sneak o Leave, get lost, as in "If you're not a waiter, sneak" o Type of burglary, as in as in "The hotel-sneak used to be my lay" * Snitch: An informer, or, as a verb, to inform * Snort (as in of gin): A drink * Snow-bunny: White whore * Snowed: To be taken by a con * Sock: Punch * Spill: Talk, inform; spill it = tell me * Square: Honest; on the square: telling the truth * Stiff: A corpse * Sting: Culmination of a con game * Stool-pigeon: Informer * Stoolie: Stool-pigeon * Stringin': As in along, feeding someone a story * Sucker: Someone ripe for a grifter's scam * Swing: Hang T * Tail: Shadow, follow * Take a powder: Leave * Take the fall for: Accept punishment for * Tea: Marijuana * Tighten the screws: Put pressure on somebody * Trap: Mouth * Trigger man: Man whose job is to use a gun * Two bits: $25, or 25 cents. U * Uppers: Speed, Amphetimins W * Weak sister: A push-over * Wear iron: Carry a gun * Wheats, as in "a stack of wheats": Pancakes * White: Caucasian * Wise, To be To be knowledgeable of; put us wise: tell us * Wise guy: Gangster Y * Yap: Mouth