GangsterTerms+Definit(405).txt

babe - woman
baby - a person
bangtails - racehorses
barbering - talking
be on the nut, to - to be broke
bean-shooter - gun
bent cars - stolen cars
berries - dollars
big house - jail
big one, the - death
big sleep, the - death
bim - woman
bindles (of heroin) - little folded-up pieces of paper (with heroin inside)
bing - crazy
bird - guy
blip off - to kill
blow - leave
blow one down - kill someone
bo - pal, buster, fellow, as in "Hey, bo"
boiler - car
boob - dumb guy
boozehound - drunkard
bop - to kill
box job - a safecracking
brace (somebody) - grab, shake up
bracelets - handcuffs
break it up - stop that, quit the nonsense
breeze - to leave, go
broad - woman
bulge, as in "The kid had the bulge there" - the advantage
bulls - cops
bump - kill (Night, 35)
bump off - kill (Pick-Up, 32); also, bump-off - a killing (Sleep, 161)
buncoing some (people) - defrauding some people (Knockover, 205)
bunk - 1) as in "That's the bunk" - that's false, untrue (Op, 98); 2) as
in "to bunk" - to sleep (Knockover, 395)
bunny, as in "Don't be a bunny" - don't be stupid (Pick-Up, 32)
burn powder - fire a gun (Knockover, 425)
bus - big car (Pick-Up, 72)
butter and egg man - ?? (Playback, 55)
button - face, as in "a poke in the button" (Farewell, 217)
buttons - police (Pick-Up, 29; Sleep, 66)
butts - cigarettes (Vengeance, 25)
buy a drink - to pour a drink (Art, 139)
buzz, as in "I'm in the dump an hour and the house copper gives me the
buzz" - looks me up, comes to my door (Art, 90)
buzzer - policeman's badge (Playback, 103)
C - $100, also a pair of C's = $200 (Vengeance, 27; Sleep, 157)
cabbage - money (Shoot, 14)
caboose - jail (Farewell, 8)
call copper - inform the police (Pick-Up, 156)
can - jail (Knockover, 203; Op, 268)
can-opener - safecracker who forces open cheap safes (Speaking, 89)
case dough - "nest egg ... the theoretically untouchable reserve for
emergencies" (Speaking, 88)
cat - guy (Shoot, 16)
century - $100 (Pick-Up, 32; Sleep, 162)
chew - eat (Op, 186)
Chicago overcoat - death, in some form (Sleep, 163)
chick - woman (Vengeance, 33)
chilled off - killed (Sleep, 78)
chin - a conversation (Art, 190); also chinning = talking (Sleep, 85)
Chinese angle, as in "You're not trying to find a Chinese angle on it,
are you?" - seems to mean a strange twist, not that Chinese people
are actually involved (Thin, 125)
chippy - woman of easy virtue (Lake, 48)
chisel - to swindle or cheat (Pick-Up, 157)
chiv, chive - knife, "a stabbing or cutting weapon" (Speaking, 87;
Dain, 188)
chopper squad - guys with big guns, maybe machine guns (Pick-Up, 88)
clammed - close-mouthed (as in clammed up) (Pick-Up, 188)
clean sneak - an escape with no clues left behind (Knockover, 436)
clip joint - in some cases, a night-club where the prices are high and
the patrons are fleeced (Partridge's), but here, a casino where the
tables are fixed (Pick-Up, 174)
clipped - shot (Pick-Up, 81)
close your head - shut up (Shoot, 16)
clubhouse - police station (Lake, 24)
coffee-and-doughnut, as in "These coffee-and-doughnut guns are ..."
- ?? (Knockover, 400)
conk - head (Postman, 33)
cool, as in "He cooled me" - to knock out ?? (Playback, 140)
cooler, the - jail (Op, 55)
cop - 1) detective, even a private one (Vengeance, 140); 2) to win, as
in a bet (Key, 23)
copped - grabbed by the cops (Op, 57)
copper - 1) policeman (Op, 190; Key, 65); 2) as in "All time served
except his copper" - ?? (Farewell, 29)
corn - bourbon (as in corn liquor) (Pick-Up, 186)
crab - figure out (Sleep, 161)
crate - car (Art, 39)
creel, as in "And now you're in the creel and it's going to be frying
time" - ?? (Shoot, 120)
creep joint - ?? can mean a whorehouse where the girls are pickpockets,
but that doesn't fit here (Pick-Up, 8)
croak - to kill (Key, 84; Pick-Up, 86)
croaker - doctor (Knockover, 69)
crushed out - escaped (from jail) (Knockover, 372; Op, 54)
cush - money (misspelling of cash?) (Knockover, 410)
cut down - killed (esp shot?) (Knockover, 210)
daisy - none-too-masculine (Art, 201)
dame - woman (passim)
dangle - leave, get lost (Pick-Up, 3)
darb, as in "You're a darb" - ?? (Dain, 181)
dark meat - black person (Dain, 37)
deck, as in "deck of Luckies" - pack of cigarettes (Vengeance, 36; Op, 203)
diapers, as in "Pin your diapers on" - clothes, get dressed (Key, 74)
dib - share (of the proceeds) (Knockover, 400)
dick - detective (usually qualified with "private" if not a
policeman) (passim)
dingus - thing (Falcon, 147; Op, 11)
dip - pickpocket (Knockover, 377)
dip the bill - have a drink (Sleep, 163; Art, 212)
dive - a low-down, cheap sort of place (Knockover, 199)
dizzy with a dame, to be - to be crazy for a woman (Art, 217)
do the dance - to be hanged (Knockover, 446)
dogs - feet (Pick-Up, 17)
doll - woman (Pick-Up, 11), also dolly (Op, 224)
dope - 1) drugs, of any sort (Farewell, 82, 143); 2) information
(Dain, 30; Op, 146; Sleep, 161); 3) as a verb, as in "I had him
doped as" - to have figured for (Op, 233)
dope fiend - drug addict (Dain, 119)
dope peddler - drug dealer (Op, 52)
dormy - dormant, quiet, as in "Why didn't you lie dormy in the place
you climbed to?" (Lake, 184)
dough - money (passim)
drift - go, leave (Pick-Up, 53; Sleep, 69)
drill - shoot (Knockover, 410)
drink out of the same bottle, as in "We used to d.o.o.t.s.b." - we were
close friends (Dain, 15)
drum - speakeasy (Knockover, 357)
dry-gulch - knock out, hit on head (Farewell, 63)
ducat - ticket (Key, 73)
duck soup - easy, a piece of cake (Knockover, 44)
dummerer - somebody who pretends to be (deaf and?) dumb in order to
appear a more deserving beggar (Knockover, 198)
dump, as in "We did the dumps" - roadhouse, club (Knockover, 431);
or, more generally, any place (Art, 90)
dust - 1) nothing, as in "Tinhorns are dust to me" (Pick-Up, 3);
2) leave, depart, as in "Let's dust" (Pick-Up, 13) (also Art, 52;
Sleep, 64); 3) a look, as in "Let's give it the dust" (Pick-Up, 28)
dust out - leave, depart (Op, 81)
Dutch - 1) as in "in dutch" - trouble (Postman, 56); 2) as in "A girl
pulled the Dutch act" - committed suicide (Vengeance, 122);
3) as in "They don't make me happy neither.  I get a bump once'n
a while.  Mostly a Dutch." - ?? relates to the police (Art, 119)
egg - fellow (Knockover, 395)
eggs in the coffee - easy, a piece of cake, okay, all right
(Knockover, 44; Dain, 192)
elbows, as in "And there's no elbows tagging along" - police?
(Knockover, 180)
electric cure - electrocution (Key, 153)
fade - get lost (Shoot, 103)
fakeloo artist - con man (Farewell, 87)
fin - $5 bill (Playback, 11; Vengeance, 40)
finder - finger man (Speaking, 87)
finger, as in put the finger on - identify (Knockover, 380)
flat - 1) broke (Knockover, 413); 2) as in "That's flat" - that's for
sure (Op, 99)
flattie - flatfoot, cop (Art, 58)
flimflamm - swindle (Op, 23, 251)
flippers - hands? (Lake, 139)
flivver - a Ford automobile (Speaking, 87; Knockover, 436)
flogger - overcoat (Op, 219)
flop - 1) go to bed (Speaking, 87); 2) as in "The racket's flopped" -
fallen through, not worked out (Op, 268)
flophouse - "a cheap transient hotel where a lot of men sleep in large
rooms" (Speaking, 87)
fog - to shoot (Falcon, 212)
frail - woman (Sleep, 127)
frau - wife (Pick-Up, 195)
from nothing, as in "I know from nothing" - I don't know anything
(Shoot, 65)
gashouse, as in "getting gashouse" - rough (Pick-Up, 17)
gat - gun (passim)
gate, as in "Give her the gate" - the door, as in leave (Dain, 195)
gaycat - "a young punk who runs with an older tramp and there is
always a connotation of homosexuality" (Speaking, 87)
gee - guy (Art, 105)
gink - guy (Knockover, 433)
girlie - woman (Vengeance, 34)
give a third - as in degree, interrogate (Pick-Up, 70)
glad rags - fancy clothes (Knockover, 366)
glaum - steal (Knockover, 46; Dain, 17)
glomming - stealing (Art, 217)
go climb up your thumb - leave (Lake, 17)
go over the edge with the rams - to get far too drunk (Night, 25)
go to read and write - rhyming slang for take flight (Op, 80)
gonif - ?? (Knockover, 364)
goofy - crazy (Knockover, 112)
goon - thug (Vengeance, 49)
goose - guy (Knockover, 366)
gowed-up - on dope, high (Farewell, 81)
grab (a little) air - put your hands up (Sleep, 72; Pick-Up, 178)
graft, the - 1) con jobs (Op, 170); 2) cut of the take (Lake, 76)
grand - $1000 (Pick-Up, 33)
greasers - ?? (Pick-Up, 171)
grift, as in "What's the grift?" - What are you trying to pull? (Art, 39)
grifter - con man (Knockover, 354)
grilled - questioned (Op, 36)
gum, as in "Don't ... gum every play I make" - gum up, interfere with
(Op, 224)
gum-shoe - detective (Op, 36), also gumshoeing = detective work
(Knockover, 197)
gun for - look for, be after (Op, 98)
guns - hoodlums (Knockover, 400)
hack - taxi (Farewell, 35; Vengeance, 35)
half, a - 50 cents (Shoot, 28)
hammer and saws - police (rhyming slang for laws) (Knockover, 70)
hard - tough (Art, 119)
Harlem sunset - some sort fatal injury caused by knife (Farewell, 14)
hash house - a cheap restaurant (Shoot, 9)
hatchetmen - killers, gunmen (Knockover, 202)
have the bees - to be rich (Knockover, 62)
head doctors - psychiatrists (Night, 193)
heap - car (Knockover, 400; Dain, 194)
heat - a gun (Sleep, 73), also heater (Knockover, 160)
high pillow - person at the top, in charge (Farewell, 165)
highbinders - ?? (Knockover, 242)
hittin' the pipe - smoking opium (Op, 62)
hitting on all eight - as in cylinders, in good shape, going well
(Dain, 182)
hock shop - pawnshop (Dain, 63)
hogs - engines (Art, 175)
hombre - man, fellow (Sleep, 209; Knockover, 413)
hooch - liquor (Art, 206; Knockover, 383)
hood - criminal (Pick-Up, 141)
hooker, as in "It took a stiff hooker of whiskey" (Knockover, 408) -
a drink of strong liquor (Partridge's)
hoosegow - jail (Knockover, 354)
hop - 1) drugs, mostly heroin or derivatives like morphine (Farewell,
143); 2) bell-hop (Lake, 73)
hop-head - drug addict, esp. heroin (Op, 52)
hot - stolen (Knockover, 70)
house dick - house detective (Vengeance, 25)
house peeper - house detective (Playback, 118)
ice - diamonds (Dain, 17)
in stir - in jail (Knockover, 380)
ing-bing, as in to throw an - a fit (Key, 8)
iron - a car (Key, 115)
jack - money (Op, 265; Sleep, 114; Art, 104)
jake - okay (Pick-Up, 29; Sleep, 108)
jakeloo - okay (Sleep, 163)
jam - trouble, as in "in a jam" (Shoot, 8)
jasper - a man (of a certain type?) (Lake, 77)
jaw - talk (Op, 99)
jingle-brained - addled (Knockover, 365)
jobbie - guy (Knockover, 439)
johns - police (Sleep, 69)
joint - place, as in "my joint" (Knockover, 199)
joss house - temple or house of worship for a Chinese religion
(Knockover, 207)
jujus - marijuana cigarettes (Farewell, 62)
jump, the - a hanging (Dain, 203)
kale - money (Art, 180)
keister - suitcase (Pick-Up, 11), also spelt keyster (Key, 72)
kick, as in "I got no kick" - I have nothing to complain about (Thin, 103)
kick off - die (Knockover, 69)
kisser - mouth (Sleep, 173; Playback, 38)
knock off - kill (Knockover, 197)
knockover - heist, theft (Knockover, 399)
lammed off - ran away, escaped (Lake, 37)
law, the - the police (Shoot, 121; Pick-Up, 29)
lay - 1) job, as in Marlowe saying he's on "a confidential lay"
(Farewell, 17); or more generally, what someone does, as in "The
hotel-sneak used to be my lay" (Op, 86); 2) as in "I gave him the
lay" - I told him where things stood (as in lay of the of land)
(Op, 70)
lit, to be - to be drunk (Art, 149)
loogan - Marlowe defines this as "a guy with a gun" (Sleep, 138)
look-out - outside man (Speaking, 87)
lousy with - to have lots of (Knockover, 363)
lug - 1) bullet (Lake, 193); 2) ear (Thin, 107)
made - recognized (Knockover, 99)
map - face (Art, 175)
marbles - pearls (Art, 176)
mazuma - money (Art, 206)
meat, as in "He's your meat" - there's your man, in this case,
there's the guy you'll follow (Knockover, 368)
meat wagon - ambulance (Lake, 94)
mesca - marijuana (Playback, 126)
Mickey Finn, take a - take off, leave (Op, 229)
mill - typewriter (Vengeance, 81)
mitt - hand (Art, 182; Farewell, 5)
mob - gang (not Mafia) (Op, 118)
moll - girlfriend (Knockover, 382; Playback, 55)
monicker - name (Knockover, 356; Vengeance, 75)
mouthpiece - lawyer (Pick-Up, 183)
mud-pipe - opium pipe (Op, 62)
mug - face (Op, 98)
mugs - guys (esp. dumb) (Knockover, 401; Key, 87; Art, 92)
mush - face (Art, 191)
nailed - caught by the police (Thin, 109)
nance - an effeminate man (Pick-Up, 188)
Nevada gas - cyanide (Pick-Up, 172)
newshawk - reporter (Pick-Up, 17)
newsie - newspaper vendor (Knockover, 357)
nibble one - to have a drink (Farewell, 6)
nicked - stole (Knockover, 205)
nippers - handcuffs (Pick-Up, 18)
nix on (something) - no to (something) (Pick-Up, 30)
noodle - head (Op, 23; Playback, 14)
nose-candy - heroin in some cases (Knockover, 199)
number - a person, can be either a man or a woman (Art, 33, 84)
off the track, as in "He was too far off the track.  Strictly
section eight" - said about a man who becomes insanely violent
(Shoot, 117)
op - detective (esp private) (Playback, 109)
orphan paper - bad cheques (Dain, 109)
out on the roof, to be - to drink a lot (Lake, 30)
oyster fruit - pearls (Art, 180)
pack - to carry, esp. a gun (Knockover, 60; Op, 228)
palooka - guy, probably a little stupid (Knockover, 392)
pan - face (Art, 201)
paste - punch (Knockover, 66, 392)
paw - hand (Knockover, 246; Op, 82)
peaching - informing (Op, 85)
peeper - detective (Playback, 96; Sleep, 161)
pen - jail, penitentiary (Farewell, 29)
peterman - safecracker who uses nitroglycerin (Speaking, 89)
pigeon - stool-pigeon (Pick-Up, 156)
pill - 1) bullet (Falcon, 13); 2) cigarette (Knockover, 398; Playback, 38)
pinch - an arrest, capture (Art, 118)
pipe - see or notice (Speaking, 87)
pipe that - get that, listen to that (Shoot, 55)
pipes - the throat (Thin, 110)
plant - someone on the scene but in hiding (Lake, 183)
plugs - people (Op, 222)
poke - 1) bankroll, stake (Pick-Up, 32); 2) punch (Farewell, 217)
pooped - killed (Key, 147)
pop - kill (Op, 42)
pro skirt - prostitute (Night, 12)
puffing - mugging (Knockover, 46)
pug - boxer (Vengeance, 83)
pump - heart (Falcon, 13)
pump metal - shoot bullets (Op, 230)
punk - hood, thug (Vengeance, 28)
puss - face (Art, 27; Pick-Up, 37)
put down - drink (Postman, 56)
put the screws on - question, get tough with (Dain, 34)
queer - 1) counterfeit (Speaking, 88); 2) sexually abnormal (Speaking, 88)
rags - clothes (Knockover, 429)
ranked, as in "Being ranked again by a watchman there" - recognized?
accosted? (Knockover, 70)
rap - 1) criminal charge (Knockover, 47); 2) information, as in "He gave
us the rap" (Op, 51); 2) hit (Postman, 33)
rappers, as in "There were a couple solved for the record, but they were
just rappers" - fakes, set-ups (Farewell, 165)
rat - inform (Key, 78; Night, 5)
rate - to be good, to count for something (Art, 55)
rats and mice - dice, i.e. craps (Dain, 29)
rattler - train (Dain, 158; Op, 51)
redhot - some sort of criminal (Pick-Up, 114)
reefers - marijuana cigarettes (Farewell, 172)
rhino - money (Knockover, 401)
ribbed up, as in "I got a Chink ribbed up to get the dope" - set up,
arranged for?  "I have arranged for a Chinese person to get the
information"? (Knockover, 203)
right - adjective indicating quality (Pick-Up, 21)
right gee - a good fellow (Sleep, 157)
right guy - a good fellow (Knockover, 111)
ringers - fakes (Art, 176)
rod - gun (Op, 80, 219, 242; Vengeance, 11)
roscoe - gun (Key, 182)
rub-out - a death (Knockover, 416)
rube - bumpkin, easy mark (Pick-Up, 127)
rumble, the - the news (Knockover, 372)
run-out, as in to take the - leave, escape (Falcon, 164; Key, 18)
sap - 1) a dumb guy (passim); 2) a blackjack (passim)
sap poison - getting hit with a sap (Art, 188)
savvy? - get me? understand? (Farewell, 120)
sawbuck - $10 (Night, 33)
scatter - as in "And don't bother to call your house peeper and send
him up to the scatter" - ?? (Lake, 188)
schnozzle - nose (Art, 190)
scram out - leave (Lake, 76)
scratch - money (Art, 56)
scratcher - ?? (Op, 49)
screw - leave, as in "Let's screw before anybody pops in" (Op, 183)
send over - send to jail (Knockover, 353; Dain, 124)
shamus - (private) detective (Playback, 41; Lake, 37; Sleep, 68)
sharper - a kind of person (Op, 75)
shatting on your uppers - to be broke (Sleep, 161)
shells - bullets (Pick-Up, 3)
shine box - bar for blacks (Farewell, 5)
shine Indian - ?? (Knockover, 89)
shiv - knife (Speaking, 87)
shyster - lawyer (Farewell, 111)
silk, as in "all silk so far" - all okay so far (Knockover, 393)
sister - woman (Knockover, 44)
skate around, as in "She skates around plenty" - to be of easy virtue
(Sleep, 83)
skipout - leave a hotel without paying, or a person who does so
(Playback, 108)
slant, get a - take a look (Key, 31)
sleuth - detective (Sleep, 65)
slug - 1) as a noun, bullet (passim); 2) as a verb, to knock unconscious
(Lake, 191)
smell from the barrel, have a - have a drink (Art, 205)
smoke - a black person (Farewell, 14; Pick-Up, 111)
smoked - drunk (Key, 182)
snap a cap - shout (Op, 84)
snatch - kidnap (Pick-Up, 156)
sneak - 1) leave, get lost, as in "If you're not a waiter, sneak"
(Op, 73); 2) type of burglary, as in as in "The hotel-sneak used to
be my lay" (Op, 86)
sneeze - take (Pick-Up, 102)
snooper - detective (Lake, 18)
snort (as in of gin) - a drink (Art, 56)
snow-bird - (cocaine) addict (Pick-Up, 78; Knockover, 202)
snowed - to be on drugs (heroin? cocaine?) (Pick-Up, 97); also snowed
up (Op, 149)
soak - to pawn (Knockover, 92)
sock - punch (Knockover, 66; Sleep, 173; Art, 153)
spill - talk, inform (Pick-Up, 43; Sleep, 99), spill it = tell me (Shoot, 96)
spinach - money (Knockover, 385)
spitting - talking (Knockover, 70)
square - honest (Art, 130), "on the square" = telling the truth
(Knockover, 379)
squirt metal - shoot bullets (Knockover, 67)
step off - to be hanged (Knockover, 446)
sticks of tea - marijuana cigarettes (Farewell, 62)
stiff - a corpse (Pick-Up, 195; Sleep, 99)
stool-pigeon - informer (Op, 148; Knockover, 199)
stoolie - stool-pigeon (Art, 53)
stringin' - as in along (Knockover, 356)
sucker - simpleton (Knockover, 203)
sugar - money (Pick-Up, 50; Op, 71)
swift, to have plenty of - to be fast (on the draw) (Lake, 201)
swing - hang (Op, 42)
tail - shadow, follow (Pick-Up, 67)
take a powder - leave (Pick-Up, 29)
take it on the heel and toe - leave (Knockover, 70)
take on - eat (Op, 183)
take the air - leave (Sleep, 85)
take the bounce - to get kicked out (here, of a hotel) (Art, 102)
take the fall for - accept punishment for (Dain, 56)
tea - marijuana (Playback, 126)
that's the crop - that's all of it (Dain, 158)
three-spot - three-year term in jail (Art, 85)
throw a joe - pass out ?? (Key, 86)
throw lead - shoot bullets (Sleep, 139; Op, 216)
ticket - P.I. license (Vengeance, 15)
tiger milk - some sort of liquor (Thin, 110)
tighten the screws - put pressure on somebody (Knockover, 81)
tip a few - to have a few drinks (Pick-Up, 21)
tip your mitt - show your hand, reveal something (Knockover, 98)
tooting the wrong ringer - asking the wrong guy (Knockover, 68)
torcher - torch singer (Sleep, 116)
torpedoes - gunmen (Farewell, 215)
trap - mouth (Vengeance, 13)
trigger man - guy who does the shooting on a job (Sleep, 209)
trip for biscuits, as in "You get there fast and you get there alone -
or you got a trip for biscuits" - ?? (Art, 209)
trouble boys - gangsters (Art, 85)
turn up - to turn in (to the cops) (Falcon, 164)
twist - woman (Falcon, 164; Knockover, 46; Sleep, 163)
two bits - $25 (Key, 3)
up-and-down, as in "to give something the up-and-down" - a look
(Knockover, 97)
uppers, as in "I've been shatting on my uppers for a couple of months
now" - broke (Knockover, 54)
vag, as in vag charge, vag law - vagrancy (Op, 52)
weak sister - a push-over (Op, 42)
wear iron - carry a gun (Sleep, 67)
wheats, as in "a stack of wheats" - pancakes (Op, 183)
white - 1) good, okay, as in "white dick" (Knockover, 379); 2) as in
a gallon of - gin (Dain, 175)
wire, as in "What's the wire on them?" - news, "What information do
you have about them?" (Shoot, 24)
wise, to be - to be knowledgeable of (Pick-Up, 32), "put us wise"
- tell us (Lake, 81)
wise head - a smart person (Thin, 106)
worker, as in "She sizes up as a worker" - a woman who takes a guy
for his money (Op, 139)
wrong gee - not a good fellow (Sleep, 184)
wrong number - not a good fellow (Art, 84)
yap - mouth (Vengeance, 12)
yard - $100 (Pick-Up, 103; Art, 54)
yegg - safecracker, "who can only open a rather cheap and vulnerable
safe" (Op, 51, 146; Speaking, 89)