1920's to 30's Slang Glossary
All in: Physically exhausted
All wet: Foolish or gravely mistaken
Alley apple: Half a paving brick. Carried in the coat pocket as a weapon. Came into use during the big union strikes during the 30's.
Altar: Toilet, toilet bowl
Artist: A skilled criminal
Baby/Baby Vamp: A popular and/or attractive girl
Baked Wind: Idle talk
Balloon: bedding, especially if carried in a roll; applied to transients
Ballon Juice: Idle or exaggerated talk
Bat: Prostitute
Bell Polisher: A boy who lingers in the lobby after dropping off a date
Bent: Criminal
Berries: Anything very good
Big Guy: God or an important official or criminal
Big Man: The Pinkerton Detective Agency or one of its men
Bird: An aviator or a popular girl
Biscuit: A flapper willing to engage in "petting"
Black Bottle: Poison
Blow Out: A big meal
Blurb: The advertising matter on a book jacket
Board Stiff: A sandwich board man
Bonehead: A fool
Boob: An Idiot
Brace (as in to brace): Ask someone for money
Break one's guts: Breaking the spirit of a prisoner by flogging
Breeze: Trivial or useless talk or information
Breezer: A convertible automobile
Broker: A drug dealer
Brush Ape: A country youth
Buck: A Catholic priest
Bull: A policeman, a cop
Bull (as in to bull): Lie or talk big
Bull Buster: One who assaults a cop
Bull Simple: Fearful of cops
Bull Wool: Cheap
Bundle (as in to Bundle): To steal
Bunk: Synthetic liquor or false goods
Bunk (as in to bunk): To conceal or fool
Burn up (as in to burn up): To defraud
Buzzer: A policeman's badge
Cackler: Perjorative name for a clerk
Cake Eater: A ladies' man
Candy Leg: A rich and popular young man
Cannon: A gun
Can Opener A cheap car
Carry a flag: To travel incognito, under an assumed name
Carry the banner: To wander the streets all night
Cellar smeller: A a person who enjoys drink, a drunkard
Charge: A narcotic injection
Chair warmer: A wallflower or a man who does not pay his own way
Cheaters: Spectacles, eyeglasses
Cheese it!: Look out! Run!
Chew the fat: To talk
Choice bit of Calico: A lovely or popular girl
Choker: Cheese
Chopper: A machine gun or the shooter of
Chronic (as in to chronic): To investigate
Cinder Bull: A railroad detective
Circus Bees: Body lice
Claw (as in to claw): To arrest
Clean (as in to clean): To rob
Clem: A fight or a riot
Clothesline: A person who collects and spreads gossip about his or her neighbors or the gossip itself
Clown: A country man
Copacetic: Good or pleasant, trouble free
Crack down: Work hard
Crap: Anything foolish or worthless
Crasher: One who attends parties uninvited
Crawler: A legless beggar
Crumb: An unpopular girl
Crush (as in to crush): To escape from prison
Curtains: Death
Curve: A beautiful woman
Cushions: Luxury
Dame: A woman
Damp bourbon poultice: A drink
Damsel: A girl
Dewdropper: A malingerer
Dim Box: A taxicab
Dirt: Money or gossip
Doll: A girl
Drive: A drug induced thrill
Dude: An undergraduate
Dummy Up: To become silent
Dyna: Liquor
Earwigging: Eavesdropping
Eats: Food
Egg: A guy who lets a girl pay for his dance hall ticket
Fake Aloo: A hard luck story
Fall Guy: A scapegoat
Feds: Federal law enforcement officers
Fifty cards in the deck: Insane
Fin: A five dollar bill. A five year sentence
Finger (as in to finger): To identify to the police
Fire alarm: A divorcee
Fire Bugs: Electric lights
Fireworks: Gunplay
Flat: Broke or penniless
Flat tire: A deflated scheme
Flesh and Blood Angel: A popular girl
Flickers: Motion pictures
Flirt/Floosey: A girl
Fly Ball: A detective
Frame: To falsely accuse or concoct evidence against an innocent man
Fresh Bull: An enthusiastically honest policeman
Fresh Cat: An inexperienced transient
Fresh Cow: A person with a recently acquired venereal disease
Frisk: To touch a person
Frolic: Lawless activity or entertainment
Fuzz: A detective, the police
Gall: Courage
Gee: A glass of liquor
Gee Whiz: All purpose, meaningless interjection
George (as in to George): To be aware
Get one's hooks on: To obtain or seize
Get the Gate: To be discharged
Gigglewater: Booze
Glom: To seize or snatch
Go over big: To succeed
Gold Brick: To defraud
Gold Mine: A young man who spends freely
Goof: A sweetheart or a boob
Gravy: Profit
Gun Mob : A gang of crooks
Habit: A drug habit
Hack: A nightwatchman or policeman
Half baked: Semi educated
Have the Impuck: To be mildly sick
Heat: Trouble
Heater: A revolver or any type of gun
Heifer Den: A brothel, whorehouse
Hep: Well informed
High Hat: False air of superiority. To "give someone the high hat" was to snub them
Hobo Short Line: Suicide in front of a train
Hot: Wanted by the police
Hot Tongue: Sexually aroused woman
Hurry Buggy: A police van
Jack: Money
Jack full of money: A wealthy man who spends freely
Jake: Good, fine, as hoped for
Jazz Hound: Dance fiend
Jolt: A potent drink
Kayoe: To achieve great success
Kick it apart: To elaborate or fully explain a plan
Kick the gong around: To indulge in illegal drug use
Kiss the Eye Teeth: To hit in the mouth
Knock over: To raid or arrest
Know your onions: To be hep, wise or sophisticated. To know what's what
Leary: Damaged goods
Legger: A bootlegger
Lemon: An undesireable person
Lifeboat: Reprieve
Long Rod: A rifle
Lying dead: In hiding or retirement
Mess: A dull person
Michael: Hip flask
Moll Buzzer: A pickpocket who targets women
Mooch: A beggar
Murk: Coffee
Nines: Absolute limit
Number (as in get one's): To understand one's motives
Offay: A person who is hep, with it, in the know (from the French: "Au Fait")
Off one's trolley: Badly mistaken, crazy
Old Ned: The Devil
Old Stuff: Out of date
On: Mentally sharp
Once over: A penetrating glance
On the spot: Marked for death
Out on parole: Divorced
Parlor Leech: A young man who doesn't take his date out
Pathfinder: Police spy
Percentage Bull: A policeman who accepts bribes to look the other way
Pipe: A simple task
Pistol Route: Death by gunshot
Plute: A wealthy man
Pork: A corpse
Puff: An explosive or explosion
Pussyfoot: A Prohibitionist
Put the skids under: To get rid of
Razz, Get the: To be made fun of
Reach (as in to reach): To bribe
Reader: An arrest warrant
Ripley, That's one for: In reference to "Believe It or Not" cartoonist Robert Ripley, could be said of anything strange or bizarre
Ritzy: Stylish
Roar (as in to roar): To complain
Rubber Sock: A delicate person
Sag (as in to sag): To beat, as with a club
Scram: To run away
Scratch: Money
Shackles: Soup
Shag: An organized pursuit
Shed: An enclosed automobile
Sheet and Scratch Man: A high class forger
Shellacked: Drunk
Shroud: Suit of clothes
Siberia: A harsh prison, originally said of Clinton Prison, New York
Simp Trap: Employer-owned store
Soft Heel: A detective
Sour: Anything unwanted or worthless
Spear (as in to spear): To arrest
Tamp up: To assault
Tip up: To inform the police
Torpedo: A thug
Vic: A convict
Wind Tormentors: Whiskers
Wipe the clock: To stop working quickly
Wire: A pickpocket
Woody: Insane
Works, The: An unpleasantly inflicted death
Yegg: A thief