GANGSTER SLANG: "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." — Ameche: Telephone — Babe: Woman — Baby: A person, can be said to either a man or a woman — Bangtails: Racehorses — Barbering: Talking — Be on the nut, to: To be broke — Bean-shooter: Gun — Beezer: Nose — Bent cars: Stolen cars — Berries: Dollars — Big house: Jail — Big one, the: Death — Big sleep, the: Death — Bim: Woman — Bindle: 1. of heroin: Little folded-up piece of paper. 2. The bundle in which a hobo carries all his worldy posessions. — Bindle punk: A hobo or derelict hired to do rough or unpleasant work. (Could perhaps refer to a small time drug dealer as well.) — Bindle stiff: One who steals a hobo's bindle — Bing: Crazy ?? — Bird: Guy — Blip off: To kill — Blow: Leave — Blow one down: Kill someone — Blower: Telephone — 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. Also breeze off - get lost — Broad: Woman — Bucket: Car — Bulge, as in "The kid had the bulge there": The advantage — Bulls: Cops (perhaps plainclothes detectives) — Bump: Kill — Bump off: Kill; also, bump-off - a killing — Buncoing some (people): Defrauding some people — Bunk: 1. As in "That's the bunk" - that's false, untrue. 2. As in "to bunk" - to sleep — Bunny, as in "Don't be a bunny": Don't be stupid. — Burn powder: Fire a gun — Bus: Big car — Butter and egg man: The money man, the man with the bankroll, a yokel who comes to town to blow a big wad in nightclubs. — Button: Face, as in "a poke in the button" — Buttons: Police — Butts: Cigarettes — Buy a drink: To pour a drink — 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 — Buzzer: Policeman's badge — C, or C-note: $100, also a pair of C's = $200 — Cabbage: Money — Caboose: Jail — Call copper: Inform the police — Can: Jail — Can-opener: Safecracker who forces open cheap safes — Case dough: "Nest egg ... the theoretically untouchable reserve for emergencies" — Cat: Guy — Century: $100 — Chew: Eat — Chicago overcoat: A coffin — Chick: Woman — Chilled off: Killed — Chin: A conversation; also chinning = talking — Chin music: A punch on the jaw — Chinese angle, as in "You're not trying to find a Chinese angle on it, are you?": a strange twist (not that Chinese people are actually involved) — Chippy: Woman of easy virtue — Chisel: To swindle or cheat — Chiv, chive: Knife, or other stabbing or cutting weapon — Chopper squad: Guys with machine guns — Clammed: Close-mouthed, as in clammed up — Clean sneak: An escape with no clues left behind — Clip joint: In some cases, a night-club where the prices are high and the patrons are fleeced. Also, a casino where the tables are fixed — Clipped: Shot — Close your head: Shut up — Clubhouse: Police station — Coffee-and-doughnut, as in "These coffee-and-doughnut guns are ...": Could come from "coffee and cakes," which refers to something cheap or of little value. — Conk: Head — Cool, as in "He cooled me": To knock out — Cooler, the: Jail — Cop: 1. Detective, even a private one. 2. To win, as in a bet — Copped: Grabbed by the cops — Copper: 1. Policeman. 2. As in "All time served except his copper" — Corn: Bourbon (as in corn liquor) — Crab: Figure out — Crate: Car — Creep joint: ?? Can mean a whorehouse where the girls are pickpockets, but that doesn't fit here — Croak: To kill — Croaker: Doctor — Crushed out: Escaped (from jail) — Cush: Money (a cushion, something to fall back on) — Cut down: Killed (esp shot?) — Daisy: None-too-masculine — Dame: Woman — Dangle: Leave, get lost — Darb: Something remarkable or superior — Deck, as in "deck of Luckies": Pack of cigarettes — Diapers, as in "Pin your diapers on": Clothes, get dressed — Dib: Share (of the proceeds) — Dick: Detective (usually qualified with "private" if not a policeman) — Dingus: Thing — Dip: Pickpocket — Dip the bill: have a drink — Dive: A low-down, cheap sort of place — Dizzy with a dame, to be: To be deeply iin love with a woman — Do the dance: To be hanged — Dogs: Feet — Doll: Woman — Dope: 1. Drugs, of any sort. 2. Information. 3. As a verb, as in "I had him doped as" - to have figured for — Dope fiend: Drug addict — Dope peddler: Drug dealer — Dormy: Dormant, quiet, as in "Why didn't you lie dormy in the place you climbed to?" — Dough: Money — Drift: Go, leave — Drill: Shoot — Drink out of the same bottle, as in "We used to drink out of the same bottle.": We were close friends — Droppers: Hired killers — Drum: Speakeasy — Dry-gulch: Knock out, hit on head after ambushing — Ducat: Ticket — Duck soup: Easy, a piece of cake — Dummerer: Somebody who pretends to be (deaf and?) dumb in order to appear a more deserving beggar — Dump, as in "We did the dumps": Roadhouse, club; or, more generally, any place — Dust: 1. Nothing, as in "Tinhorns are dust to me". 2. Leave, depart, as in "Let's dust" . 3. A look, as in "Let's give it the dust" — Dust out: Leave, depart — Dutch: 1. As in "in dutch" - trouble. 2. As in "A girl pulled the Dutch act" - committed suicide. 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 — Egg: Fellow — Eggs in the coffee: Easy, a piece of cake, okay, all right — Elbows, as in "And there's no elbows tagging along": Police — Electric cure: Electrocution — Fade: Get lost — Fakeloo artist: Con man — Fin: $5 bill — Finder: Finger man — Finger, as in put the finger on: Identify — Flat: 1. Broke 2. As in "That's flat" - that's for sure — Flattie: Flatfoot, cop — Flimflamm: Swindle (Op, 23, 251) — Flippers: Hands? (Lake, 139) — Flivver: A Ford automobile — Flogger: Overcoat — Flop: 1. Go to bed. 2. As in "The racket's flopped" - fallen through, not worked out — Fog: To shoot — Frail: Woman — Frau: Wife — From nothing, as in "I know from nothing": I don't know anything — Gashouse, as in "getting gashouse": Rough — Gasper: Cigarette — Gat: Gun — Gate, as in "Give her the gate": The door, as in leave — Gaycat: "A young punk who runs with an older tramp and there is always a connotation of homosexuality" — Gee: Guy — Geetus: Money — Giggle juice: Liquor — Gin mill: Bar (speakeasy?) — Gink: Guy — Girlie: Woman — Give a third: Interrogate (third degree) — Glad rags: Fancy clothes — Glaum: Steal — Glomming: Stealing — Go climb up your thumb: Go fly a kite, go stick your thumb up your ass — Go over the edge with the rams: To get far too drunk — Go to read and write: Rhyming slang for take flight — Gonif: Thief (Yiddish) — Goofy: Crazy — Goon: Thug — Goose: Guy — Gooseberry lay: Stealing clothes from a clothesline — Gowed-up: On dope, high — Grab (a little) air: Put your hands up — Graft, the: 1. Con jobs 2. Cut of the take — Grand: $1000 — Grift, as in "What's the grift?": What are you trying to pull? — Grifter: Con man — Grilled: Questioned — Gum, as in "Don't ... gum every play I make": Gum up, interfere with — Gum-shoe: Detective, also gumshoeing = detective work — Gun for: Look for, be after — Guns: Hoodlums — Gunsel: 1. Gunman (Hammett invented this use). 2. Boy homosexual. 3a. (p) A male oral sodomist, or passive pederast. b. A brat. c. (By extension) An informer; a weasel; an unscrupulous person." 4. (Note) Yiddish "ganzl" = gosling — Hack: Taxi — Half, a: 50 cents — Hammer and saws: Police (rhyming slang for laws) — Hard: Tough — Harlem sunset: Some sort fatal injury caused by knife — Hash house: A cheap restaurant — Hatchetmen: Killers, gunmen — Have the bees: To be rich — Have the curse on someone: Wanting to see someone killed — Head doctors: Psychiatrists — Heap: Car — Heat: A gun, also heater — High pillow: Person at the top, in charge — Highbinders: 1. Corrupt politician or functionary. 2. Professional killer operating in the Chinese quarter of a city. — Hittin' the pipe: Smoking opium — Hitting on all eight: As in cylinders, in good shape, going well — Hock shop: Pawnshop — Hogs: Engines — Hombre: Man, fellow — Hooch: Liquor — Hood: Criminal — Hooker, as in "It took a stiff hooker of whiskey": A drink of strong liquor — Hoosegow: Jail — Hop: 1. Drugs, mostly morphine or derivatives like heroin. 2. Bell-hop (Lake, 73) — Hop-head: Drug addict, esp. heroin — Horn: Telephone — Hot: Stolen — House dick: House detective — House peeper: House detective — Ice: Diamonds — In stir: In jail — Ing-bing, as in to throw an: A fit — Iron: A car — Jack: Money — Jake: Okay — Jakeloo: Okay — Jam: Trouble, as in "in a jam" — Jasper: A man (of a certain type?) — Java: Coffee — Jaw: Talk — Jerking a nod: Nodding — Jingle-brained: Addled — Jobbie: Guy — Joe: Coffee, as in "a cup of joe" — Johns: Police — Joint: Place, as in "my joint" — Jorum of skee: Shot of liquor — Joss house: Temple or house of worship for a Chinese religion — Juice: Interest on a loanshark's loan — Jujus: Marijuana cigarettes — Jump, the: A hanging — Kale: Money — Keister: Suitcase, also spelt keyster (Also means buttocks or safe/strongbox) — Kick, as in "I got no kick": I have nothing to complain about — Kick off: Die — Kisser: Mouth — Knock off: Kill — Knockover: Heist, theft — Lammed off: Ran away, escaped — Large: $1,000, as in "twenty large" — Law, the: The police — Lay: 1. Job, as in Marlowe saying he's on "a confidential lay" ; or more generally, what someone does, as in "The hotel-sneak used to be my lay" 2. As in "I gave him the lay" - I told him where things stood (as in lay of the of land) — Lettuce: Folding money — Lit, to be: To be drunk — Loogan: Marlowe defines this as "a guy with a gun" — Look-out: Outside man — Lousy with: To have lots of — Lug: 1. Dumb Guy. 2. Bullet 3. Ear. — Made: Recognized — Map: Face — Marbles: Pearls — Mazuma: Money — Meat, as in "He's your meat": There's your man, in this case, there's the guy you'll follow — Meat wagon: Ambulance — Mesca: Marijuana — Mickey Finn, take a: 1. Take off, leave. 2. A drink drugged with knock-out drops. — Mill: Typewriter — Mitt: Hand — Mob: Gang (not Mafia) — Moll: Girlfriend — Monicker: Name — Mouthpiece: Lawyer — Mud-pipe: Opium pipe — Mug: Face — Mugs: Guys (esp. dumb) — Mush: Face — Nailed: Caught by the police — Nance: An effeminate man — Nevada gas: Cyanide — Newshawk: Reporter — Newsie: Newspaper vendor — Nibble one: To have a drink — Nicked: Stole — Nippers: Handcuffs — Nix on (something): No to (something) — Noodle: Head — Nose-candy: Cocaine, Heroin in some cases — Number: 1.A person, can be either a man or a woman. 2. To work someone over, as in "you really did a number on that guy." — Off the track, as in "He was too far off the track. Strictly section eight": Said about a man who becomes insanely violent — Op: Detective (esp. private), from "operative" — Orphan paper: Bad cheques — Out on the roof, to be: To drink a lot — Oyster fruit: Pearls — Pack: To carry, esp. a gun — Palooka: Guy, probably a little stupid — Pan: Face — Paste: Punch — Paw: Hand — Peaching: Informing — Peeper: Detective — Pen: Jail, penitentiary — Peterman: Safecracker who uses nitroglycerin — Pigeon: see Stool-pigeon — Pill: 1. Bullet. 2. Cigarette — Pinch: An arrest, capture — Pipe: See or notice — Pipe that: Get that, listen to that — Pipes: Throat — Pistol pockets: ?? heels? — Pitching woo: Making love — Plant: Someone on the scene but in hiding — Plugs: People — Pooped: Killed — Pop: Kill — Pro skirt: Prostitute — Puffing: Mugging — Pug: Boxer — Pump: Heart — Pump metal: Shoot bullets — Punk: Hood, thug — Puss: Face — Put down: Drink — Put the screws on: Question, get tough with — Queer: 1. Counterfeit. 2. Sexually abnormal — Rags: Clothes — Ranked: Observed, watched, given the once-over. — Rap: 1. Criminal charge. 2. Information, as in "He gave us the rap". 3. Hit — Rappers, as in "There were a couple solved for the record, but they were just rappers": Fakes, set-ups — Rat: Inform — Rate: To be good, to count for something — Rats and mice: Dice, i.e. craps — Rattler: Train — Redhot: Some sort of criminal — Reefers: Marijuana cigarettes — Rhino: Money — 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"? — Right: Adjective indicating quality — Right gee: A good fellow — Right guy: A good fellow — Ringers: Fakes — Rod: Gun — Roscoe: Gun — Rub-out: A death — Rube: Bumpkin, easy mark — Rumble, the: The news — Run-out, as in to take the: Leave, escape — Sap: 1. A dumb guy. 2. A blackjack — Sap poison: Getting hit with a sap — Savvy?: Get me? understand? — Sawbuck: $10 — Scatter, as in "And don't bother to call your house peeper and send him up to the scatter": 1. Saloon or speakeasy. 2. A hideout, a room or lodging. — Schnozzle: Nose — Scram out: Leave — Scratch: Money — Scratcher: Forger — Screw: 1. Leave, as in "Let's screw before anybody pops in" 2. Prison guard. — Send over: Send to jail — Shamus: (Private) detective — Sharper: A swindler or sneaky person — Shatting on your uppers: To be broke — Shells: Bullets — Shine: 2. Bootleg whiskey. — Shiv: Knife — Shylock: Loanshark — Shyster: Lawyer — Silk, as in "all silk so far": All okay so far — Sister: Woman — Skate around, as in "She skates around plenty": To be of easy virtue — Skipout: Leave a hotel without paying, or a person who does so — Skirt: Woman — Slant, get a: Take a look — Sleuth: Detective — Slug: 1. As a noun, bullet 2. As a verb, to knock unconscious. — Smell from the barrel, have a: Have a drink — Smoked: Drunk — Snap a cap: Shout — Snatch: Kidnap — Sneak: 1. Leave, get lost, as in "If you're not a waiter, sneak" 2. Type of burglary, as in as in "The hotel-sneak used to be my lay" — Sneeze: Take — Snooper: Detective — Snort (as in of gin): A drink — Snow-bird: (Cocaine) addict — Snowed: To be on drugs (heroin? cocaine?); also snowed up — Soak: To pawn — Sock: Punch — Soup job: To crack a safe using nitroglycerine — Souping the kidneys: ?? driving fast? — Spill: Talk, inform. spill it = tell me — Spinach: Money — Spitting: Talking — Square: Honest, "on the square" = telling the truth — Squirt metal: Shoot bullets — Step off: To be hanged — Sticks of tea: Marijuana cigarettes — Stiff: A corpse — Stool-pigeon or Stoolie: Informer — Stringin': As in along, feeding someone a story — Sucker: Someone ripe for a grifter's scam — Sugar: Money — Swift, to have plenty of: To be fast (on the draw) — Tail: Shadow, follow — Take a powder: Leave — Take it on the heel and toe: Leave — Take on: Eat — Take the air: Leave — Take the bounce: To get kicked out (here, of a hotel) — Take the fall for: Accept punishment for — Tea: Marijuana — That's the crop: That's all of it — Three-spot: Three-year term in jail — Throw a joe: Pass out ?? — Throw lead: Shoot bullets — Ticket: P.I. license — Tiger milk: Some sort of liquor — Tighten the screws: Put pressure on somebody — Tip a few: To have a few drinks — Tip your mitt: Show your hand, reveal something — Tooting the wrong ringer: Asking the wrong person — Torcher: Torch singer — Torpedoes: Gunmen — Trap: Mouth — Trigger man: Guy who does the shooting on a job — Trip for biscuits, as in "You get there fast and you get there alone - or you got a trip for biscuits": Make the trip for no purpose, achieve no results — Trouble boys: Gangsters — Turn up: To turn in (to the police) — Twist: Woman — Two bits: $25, or 25 cents. — Up-and-down, as in "to give something the up-and-down": A look — Uppers, as in "I've been shatting on my uppers for a couple of months now": Broke — Vag, as in vag charge, vag law: Vagrancy — Vig, Vigorish: Interest on a loanshark's loan — Weak sister: A push-over — Wear iron: Carry a gun — Wheats, as in "a stack of wheats": Pancakes — White: 1. Good, okay, as in "white dick". 2. As in a gallon of - gin — Wikiup: Home — Wire, as in "What's the wire on them?": News, "What information do you have about them?" — Wise, to be: To be knowledgeable of, "put us wise" - tell us — Wise head: A smart person — Wooden kimono: A coffin — Worker, as in "She sizes up as a worker": A woman who takes a guy for his money — Wrong gee: Not a good fellow — Wrong number: Not a good fellow — Yank: ?? tough situation? — Yap: Mouth — Yard: $100 — Yegg: Safecracker, "who can only open a rather cheap and vulnerable safe" — Zotzed: Killed Copyright © 1998-99 by Razvod Ltd. All rights reserved. Authors: Andrei Pavlov, Sergei Nossoff.