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Twists, Slugs and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboil
Twists, Slugs and Roscoes:
A Glossary of Hardboiled Slang
Compiled by William Denton
© 1993
Originally published by Miskatonic University Press 1993.
Permission is granted to freely reproduce this glossary as long as this
header is attached.
Suggestions, additions, corrections and comments should be directed to
William Denton ([email protected]).
--------------
If you've ever read a hardboiled detective story, you may have come across a
sentence like,
"I jammed the roscoe in his button and said, 'Close your yap,
bo, or I squirt metal.'"
Something like this isn't too hard to decipher. But what if you encounter,
"The flim-flammer jumped in the flivver and faded."
"You dumb mug, get your mitts off the marbles before I stuff
that mud-pipe down your mush - and tell your moll to hand over
the mazuma."
"The sucker with the schnozzle poured a slug but before he
could scram out two shamuses showed him the shiv and said
they could send him over."
You may need to translate this into normal English just to be able to follow
the plot.
Or maybe you want to seem tougher. Why get in a car when you can hop in a
boiler? Why tell someone to shut up when you can tell them to close their
head? Why threaten to discharge a firearm when you can say, "Dust, pal, or I
pump lead!"
This is the language spoken by Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Mike Hammer and the
Continental Op. When Cagney, Bogart, Robinson and Raft got in a turf war,
this is how they talked.
Now, with the help of this glossary, you too can speak it like a native!
babe - woman (Vengeance, 37)
baby - a person, can be said to either a man or a woman (Art, 52)
bangtails - racehorses (Op, 74; Partridge's)
barbering - talking (Knockover, 70)
be on the nut, to - to be broke (Pick-Up, 3)
bean-shooter - gun (Art, 156)
bent cars - stolen cars (Sleep, 154)
berries - dollars (Knockover, 402; Thin, 148)
big house - jail (Knockover, 354; Op, 59)
big one, the - death (Falcon, 44)
big sleep, the - death (a term coined by Chandler) (Speaking, 88)
bim - woman (Lake, 191)
bindle punk - ?? a bindle is a bedroll, but it's not clear if that is
relevant here (Pick-Up, 116)
bindles (of heroin) - little folded-up pieces of paper (with heroin inside)
(Art, 54)
bing - crazy ?? (Thin, 148)
bird - guy (Op, 52)
blip off - to kill (Knockover, 366)
blow - leave (Knockover, 49; Playback, 39; Key, 164)
blow one down - kill someone (Sleep, 123)
bo - pal, buster, fellow, as in "Hey, bo" (Sleep, 172; Farewell, 8)
boiler - car (Knockover, 69)
boob - dumb guy (Lake, 154)
boozehound - drunkard (Night, 3)
bop - to kill (Sleep, 76)
box job - a safecracking (Art, 180)
brace (somebody) - grab, shake up (Art, 182)
bracelets - handcuffs (Op, 80)
break it up - stop that, quit the nonsense (Art, 133)
breeze - to leave, go (Pick-Up, 26), also breeze off - get lost (Playback, 35)
broad - woman (passim)
bulge, as in "The kid had the bulge there" - the advantage (Op, 220)
bulls - cops (Knockover, 380)
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)
Bibliography
Key:
Abbreviation = Full title (year of first publication) by Author (Publisher and
year of publication for the copy I used)
Probably no-one will care about exact page references, but they were included
for the sake of completeness.
(* = not as yet analyzed for slang, ss = short stories collected years after
first publication)
Art = The Simple Art of Murder (ss) by Raymond Chandler (Ballantine, 1972)
Dain = The Dain Curse (1929) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1972)
Falcon = The Maltese Falcon (1930) by Dashiell Hammet (Vintage, 1984)
Farewell = Farewell, My Lovely (1940) by Raymond Chandler (Vintage, 1976)
Goodbye = The Long Goodbye (1953) by Raymond Chandler *
Harvest = Red Harvest (1929) by Dashiell Hammett *
Key = The Glass Key (1931) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1972)
Killer = Killer in the Rain (ss) by Raymond Chandler *
Knockover = The Big Knockover (ss) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1972)
Lake = The Lady in the Lake (1943) by Raymond Chandler (Vintage, 1976)
Night = Night Squad (1961) by David Goodis (Vintage, 1992)
Op = The Continental Op (ss) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1975)
Partridge's = Partridge's Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional
English edited by Partridge and Beal (Collier Macmillan, 1989?)
Pick-Up = Pick-Up on Noon Street (ss) by Raymond Chandler (Pocket Books, 1952)
Playback = Playback (1958) by Raymond Chandler (Ballantine, 1977)
Postman = The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) by James M. Cain
(Vintage, 1978)
Shoot = Shoot the Piano Player (1956) by David Goodis (Vintage, 1990)
Sister = The Little Sister (1949) by Raymond Chandler *
Sleep = The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler (Ballantine, 1971)
Speaking = Raymond Chandler Speaking edited by Gardiner and Walker
(Allison & Busby, 1984)
Thin = The Thin Man (1934) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1972)
Vengeance = Vengeance is Mine (1950) by Mickey Spillane (Signet, 1951)
Window = The High Window (1942) by Raymond Chandler *
I intend to go through the remaining works of Chandler and Hammett looking for
more slang terms, and then move on to other hardboiled authors.
Interestingly, some of the toughest of the hardboiled writers (like Mickey
Spillane) don't use that much slang, but occasionally words do crop up that
aren't used by anyone else.
Sources (* = not as yet used, ss = short stories collected years after first pu
blication)
Art = The Simple Art of Murder (ss) by Raymond Chandler (Ballantine, 1972)
Dain = The Dain Curse (1929) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1972)
Falcon = The Maltese Falcon (1930) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1984)
Farewell = Farewell, My Lovely (1940) by Raymond Chandler (Vintage, 1976)
Goodbye = The Long Goodbye (1953) by Raymond Chandler *
Harvest = Red Harvest (1929) by Dashiell Hammett *
Key = The Glass Key (1931) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1972)
Killer = Killer in the Rain (ss) by Raymond Chandler *
Knockover = The Big Knockover (ss) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1972)
Lake = The Lady in the Lake (1943) by Raymond Chandler (Vintage, 1976)
Night = Night Squad (1961) by David Goodis (Vintage, 1992)
Op = The Continental Op (ss) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1975)
Partridge?s = Partridge?s Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional Englis
h, eds. Partridge and Beale (Collier Macmillan, 1989?)
Pick-Up = Pick-Up on Noon Street (ss) by Raymond Chandler (Pocket Books, 1952)
Playback = Playback (1958) by Raymond Chandler (Ballantine, 1977)
Postman = The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) by James M. Cain (Vintage, 1978
)
Shoot = Shoot the Piano Player (1956) by David Goodis (Vintage, 1990)
Sister = The Little Sister (1949) by Raymond Chandler *
Sleep = The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler (Ballantine, 1971)
Speaking = Raymond Chandler Speaking, eds. Gardiner and Walker (Allison & Busby
, 1984)
Thin = The Thin Man (1934) by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage, 1972)
Vengeance = Vengeance is Mine (1950) by Mickey Spillane (Signet, 1951)
Window = The High Window (1942) by Raymond Chandler *
.
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