Part 2

General usage. To give up, to deliver, to surrender any secret information or any material goods demanded. Example: “After I showed him the situation was in our hands he came through with the dope.” In pickpocket parlance “to come through” describes a function of one of the “wire’s” “stalls,” consisting of a frontal attack or sudden onslaught upon an intended victim with the purpose of bewildering the latter in order that the “wire” may operate upon the victim from the rear; or, the relative positions may be reversed, when the “stall” should “come through” from the rear. Example: “Precede this mark through the car door, wheel and come through just as he descends the steps.”

CON, Noun

General usage. A convict; a lie; a misrepresentation. See “BUNK.”

CON, Verb

General usage. To ingratiate; to establish confidential relations. See “BUNK.”

COP, Noun

General currency. A policeman.

COP, Verb

General usage. See “CLOUT.” Cop is an old Cockney flash-word and signifies capture; conquer. Example: “Booze and the blowers (women) cops the lot.”

COPPER, Noun

Current amongst prison habitues. The commutation or good time allowed prisoners for good behavior. Example: “You grab one month copper off the first year.”

COSE, Noun

General usage. A five-centpiece. “Cosan” is a ten-centpiece.

CRACK, Verb

General usage. To talk. For example see “EYE FULL.”

CRAB, Noun

General usage. A grouchy, stingy person; of inferior quality in intellectuality or habits. See “PIKER[3].”

[3] There is no entry for “PIKER” in the text.

CRAB, Verb

General usage. To spoil or ruin or render impossible any plan of action. Example: “This fink crabbed the play and we went on the nut for a double sawbuck.”

CRAP, Noun

General usage. Treachery. See “BUNK,” “BULL,” “CON.”

CREEP, Verb

Current amongst prowlers and panel-joint workers. To use stealth; to crawl.

CREEP, Noun

Current amongst crooked pimps. A creeper, a crawler who searches the clothes of a victim while the latter is abed with the creep’s paramour.

CROKE, Verb

General usage. Passively it means to die; actively it is used as an elegant expression for murder. Examples: “He croked himself with bichloride.” “The copper got croked in the jackpot.”

CRIMPY, Adjective

Used by yeggs principally. Cold, applied to the weather.

CROKER, Noun

General usage. A physician.

CROSSLOTS, Adverb

In use amongst yeggs, hobos and the meandering unemployed. Cross-country; away from frequented routes of traffic; by star route. Example: “In the get-away they hammed twenty miles cross lots.”

CROW, Adjective

Current amongst shoplifters and pennyweighters. Poor; mean; trivial; insignificant; worthless. Example: “There’s a bale of slum in the joint, but it’s all crow.”

CROWNS, Noun

Used by drug fiends. Same as “BURNEYS.”

CRUSH, Noun

General usage. A forcible entry or exit. Also as verb.

CUT TO THE BREAKS, Verb

Current amongst gamblers and ready-money grafters. Reducing action to its lowest terms; displaying only the essential. Example: “The mark stalled to the can, gunned his soft and cut to the breaks,” i. e., “The victim retired to the lavatory, inspected his bank-roll and separated the amount required to finance the intended operation.”

CUTER, Noun

Used by gamblers and western criminals. A surprise; a fool; a josh; “a boob.” For example of first-cited value see “BUMP.”

DAMPER, Noun

Used by prowlers and daylight “heels.” A combination cash drawer or register. See “CHIP.”

DANGLER, Noun

Current amongst jewelry thieves and those who commit larceny from the person. A watch fob; an earring; a pendant; any article of jewelry which swings free at one end.

DEAD ONE, Noun

General usage. One who is useless in any specific case; out of funds.

DERRICK, Noun

Current amongst shoplifters chiefly. A “hoister”; a “lifter”; a “booster”; an “elevator.” Example: “The boosters are making a plunge with a derrick ben.” In this sense it is used as an adjective, but can be transposed for “boosters.”

DICK, Noun

General usage. A detective. See “RICHARD.”

DINGE, Noun

General usage. A negro. See “BUFFALO.”

DIP, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets. See “CLAW”; “WIRE”; “JERVE”; “TOOL”; “GUN”; “CANNON”; “GONIF.” A common term for a pickpocket of any degree.

DISE, Noun

Current amongst store burglars, shoplifters, and box-car thieves or “RAT WORKERS” mainly. A contraction of merchandise. Loot; plunder; effects that can readily be disposed of in the market as new goods. Example: “There’s a mob riding the rattlers between here and the junction who have a dise plant stashed (cached) in the jungles.”

DONY, Noun

Current amongst pimps and free lovers chiefly. A female member of the demi-monde. See “HOOKER”; “JANE”; “FILLY”; “MUFF[4].” Derived from the Hebrew “yoni,” the female sex organ.

[4] There is no entry for “MUFF” in the text.

DOSS, Noun

General currency. A place to sleep; a bed. See “KIP”; “FLOP.” Example: “Stake me to two-bits to get a doss.” Apparently from the French “je dors,” I sleep.

DOUBLE, Noun

General usage. A conspiracy to deceive or defraud a victim; the “double-cross.” Example: “He got the double.”

DUCAT, Noun

Current amongst genteel grafters. A ticket of admission or transportation. See “BROAD.” Example: “The ducat box was crushed last night,” i. e., “The ticket office was burglarized.”

DUCK, Verb

General currency. To retire; to leave; to flee; to disappear.

DUKE, Noun

Used by gamblers and genteel grafters. A fist; a hand; glad hand; a hand in a card game. “Reading the duke” is “fortune-telling by palmistry”; “tipping your duke” is “betraying your intention”; “cropping his duke” is reading an opponent’s hand by trickery in a card game.

DUKIE, Noun

Used by yeggmen and hobos. A hand-out, or donation of cold victuals to a beggar. See “LUMP.”

DUMMY, Noun

Current amongst yeggmen, hobos and prison habitues. Bread. See “PUNK.”

DUMP, Noun

General usage. A rendezvous; an establishment of any kind; a hangout; a joint; a meeting place.

DRAG, Noun

General currency. An influence with one in authority; a “pull”; a main thoroughfare in any community; the main street. See “STEM.” Examples: “The boys are pivoting on the main drag,” i. e., begging on the street; “The muffs are cruising on the drag tonight,” i. e., soliciting on the street. Amongst female impersonators on the stage and men of dual sex instincts “drag” denotes female attire donned by a male. Example: “All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight.” Also an inhalation of smoke, tobacco or opium.

DROP, Noun

General currency. An apprehension in criminal action. See “FALL”; “SNEEZE”; “RUMBLE”; “TUMBLE.” Also used as a verb to express the action corresponding to a similar state. Example of the latter: “The tribe dropped a man in the day’s work,” i. e., lost one by arrest. “We had to drop a stall for missing too many meets,” i. e., discharged him. Command or control by reason of advantage in an exigency when shooting may be expected.

EIGHT DIE CASE, Noun

Current amongst open-air or “sure-thing” grafters. See “FLAT JOINT.” A glass showcase containing numbered prizes, as jewelry or gewgaws, for which eight dice are thrown by players, the totality of spots on the eight dice corresponding with the numbers on the prizes. The secret of this graft consists in the dealer’s fraudulent counting of the spots arbitrarily and disarranging them before the victim can finish the count.

ELBOW, Noun

General usage in cosmopolitan centers. A detective. See “RICHARD”; “DICK.”

ELEVATOR, Noun

In shoplifter’s and holdup men’s parlance. A lifter; a booster; a hoister; a “stick-up” man. See “PUT-EM-UP.”

END, Noun

General currency. A share; a portion; a division. See “BIT.”

EYE (The), Noun

General currency amongst long-odds criminals. The Pinkerton Detective Agency; an operative of the Pinkerton Agency. Example: “Blow this joint; it’s protected by the Eye.”

EYE FULL, Noun

General usage. The object of scrutiny or of attentive observation. See “STRETCHING.” Example: “Nix Crackin’! The mark on your left is getting an eye full.”

FALL, Noun

General currency. An arrest. See “RUMBLE”; “DROP.” Example: “He was soused when he attempted to pull off the stunt and got a fall.” Used as a verb, “to fall for” is to be deceived by; to be taken in; to be influenced.

FALL DOUGH, Noun

Current amongst criminals who operate under clique or fraternal organization. A fund kept in reserve for protection, to be expended in procuring legal representation, bail, or bribery of officers or court functionaries. Example: “No one can join out unless he puts up five centuries for fall dough.”

FALL GUY, Noun

General currency. A scapegoat; a victim. See “FALL.”

FAN, Verb

In pickpocket parlance. To surreptitiously feel a victim’s pockets, or inadvertently brush the person for the purpose of locating an object sought, as pocketbook, watch or weapon. Example: “Fan the pratt for a poke.”

FIEND, Noun

Used by narcotic habitues chiefly. One addicted to the use of drugs, as a “hop fiend,” a “dope fiend.”

FILL, Verb

General currency amongst gang criminals. To join a mob, as of guns, or of confidence men, and thus fill a vacancy in the organization. Example: “If you know a good man who can make a fill steer him in.”

FILLY, Noun

General usage. A young woman of questionable morals, not necessarily criminal by choice but potentially so. See “SKIRT”; “JANE”; “MUFF[5].”

[5] There is no entry for “MUFF” in the text.

FINGER, Noun

Current amongst criminals who localize more or less extensively. See “STOOL[6].” An informer; an investigator for officers. Example: “He got the push sneezed by mixing with a finger.”

[6] There is no entry for “STOOL” in the text.

FINGER PRINT, Noun

Current amongst confidence crooks who specialize in paper securities or signed orders for merchandise or service. A signature; an endorsement. Example: “Put your finger print on this line.” See “JOHN HANCOCK.”

FINK, Noun

Current chiefly in eastern criminal circles. An unreliable confederate or incompetent sympathizer. See “CRAB”; “LOB.” Example: “We staked him to a day’s work for a try-out, but he proved to be a fink.”

FISH EYE, Noun

General currency. A diamond. See “PROP.”

FIX, Noun

Used in general criminal parlance. A condition of security where grafters may operate with impunity. Example: “Don’t pay any attention to the bulls; it’s a fix.”

FIXER, Noun

General currency. One who acts as go-between for thieves and bribe takers. Example: “If you get a rumble, send for Jones, the mouthpiece; he’s a sure-shot fixer and can square anything short of murder.”

FLAGGINGS, Noun

Used by yeggs and hobos. Meat of any description, usually applied to cold victuals. Example: “If you are not a vegetarian, stay away from that man’s burg, for flaggings is scarce.”

FLAP, Noun

Current amongst pimps and criminals who are contemptuous of female values. An opprobrious epithet for loose women. Also employed to designate the female sex organ.

FLASH, Verb

General currency. To show; to exhibit; to submit an object for inspection.

FLAT JOINT, Noun

Current amongst open-air sure-thing men who operate at circus gatherings, fairs, carnivals, any gaming establishment where fortune is presumed to wait upon skill combined with risk. The “TIVOLI”; the “SWINGING BALL”; the “SPINDLE”; the “PINCH WHEEL”; the “PADDLES”; the “SHELLS”; “THREE CARD MONTE”; the “EIGHT DIE CASE”; the “FISH POND”; the “DISCS” are all grafting flat joints. The term is derived from the essentiality in all of these crooked devices of a counter or other flat area across or upon which the swindle may be conducted.

FLIM, Noun

Current in polite criminal circles. A swindle; a fraud. See “BUNK”; “TWISTED.” Derived from “flim-flam.”

FLIM, Verb

Supra idem. To swindle; to defraud. Used especially by short-change experts. See “LAYING”; “FLOPPER.”

FLOATER, Noun

General currency in police circles. A suspended sentence; a mandatory order to quit a community or locality. Example: “The rap wasn’t strong enough, so they took a floater.”

FLOP, Noun

Current amongst yeggs, dope fiends, prison habitues and to some extent in general use by initiates in the mysteries of informal annexation. A bed; a place to sit, recline or lie down. Also used by short changers as a synonym of “flim.”

FLOP, Verb

Same as above. To sit or lie down. Example: “Let’s flop here on the grass and pound our ear.” Also used by money changers to signify fraud by confusion. Example: “There’s a muff in that candy store that can be flopped because she can’t count change.”

FLOPPER, Noun

In general use by money changers, switchers (substituters); flim-flammers. See “LAYING.” Example: “He calls himself a star flopper, but he’s crabbing a string of good lays by hyping with a deuce where a saw buck could be changed just as readily.” See “HYPER.”

FRAME, Noun

General currency. A prearranged plan of action; a secret implying sinister intention; a “frame-up.” The contraction is used for greater secretiveness, as is the case with all terms which have become the common property of both criminals and their enemies. Example: “What’s the frame for putting this one over? The lemon.”

FRISK, Noun

General usage. A search; a “shake-down”; an examination of the contents of one’s pockets, of a room, of receptacles or of a community. Example: “Give him a frisk and see if he has a rod.”

FRISK, Verb

Supra idem. Example: “Frisk everybody that enters the hall.”

FRONT, Noun

Some general currency, but used mainly by crooks whose operations require a shield or distraction. An auxiliary defense; a “stall”; a secondary who interposes his person or contributes overtly to a surreptitious action. Example: “Give me a front here till I nick this leather.”

FRONT, Verb

See above. To hide; to conceal a principal in open criminal action. See “STALL.” Example: “Front me out of this joint and don’t lose my left wing.”

FLUZIE, Noun

Current in the cosmopolitan demi-monde. A woman; a questionable female character. See “DONY”; “HOOKER.”

GAFF, Noun

In general currency. An offensive action, thing or condition, of vague, complex or undetermined meaning. It is variously employed or construed to mean defeat, punishment, failure, or the instruments of these. Example: “There’ll be no hop-heads joining out with this mob, for they can’t stand the gaff.”

GANDER, Noun

General currency. An inquisitorial glance; a searching look; an impertinent gazing or staring. Also the simple act of looking or seeing. See “RUBBER[7]”; “EYE FULL.” Example: “Take a gander at this dump as we pass, and don’t get the eye of the guinea inside.”

[7] There is no entry for “RUBBER” in the text.

GAP, Noun

Supra idem. General currency. Used also as a verb.

GASH, Noun

General currency. An invidious term for woman; synonymous with flap, which see.

GAT, Noun

General usage. A gun; a pistol; a firearm. See “ROD”; “ROSCOE.” Derived from “Gatling.”

GAZABO, Noun

In general use, but originating in the East. A man; any man without regard to qualities.

GAZUNY, Noun

Supra idem. Current in ultra slangy circles. A man.

GEEZER, Noun

General circulation. A drink of liquor; a man (contemptuously).

GINK, Noun

General currency. Synonymous with “gazabo,” “gazuny,” “gink[8].”

[8] “Gink” cannot be a synonym for itself. The author probably intended “geezer.”

GLIM, Noun

General usage. A light; a lamp; a match. Also used as a verb, signifying illuminated. Example: “Go and take a pike (peek) at the dump and see if it’s glimmed.”

GLIMS, Noun

General currency. A pair of spectacles or nose glasses. See “SCENERIES”; “RINGERS.”

GLOM, Verb

General currency. To grab; to snatch; to take; implying violence. Example: “Glom this short and drop off two blocks below.”

GOBBLED, Verb, Past Part.

General currency. Arrested. See “NAILED.”

GONGER, Noun

Current amongst opium smokers and drug fiends. An opium pipe. Also used in the diminutive form of “GONGERINE.”

GONIF, Noun

General currency. A thief of any class; a pickpocket. The term is taken intact from the Hebrew and is used mostly by pickpockets. See “GUN”; “CANNON”; “BUZZARD.” Also a verb, to rob.

GOOSEBERRY, Noun

Current amongst yeggs, hobos and meanderers. A clothesline; laundry hung up to dry. Example: “He prowled a gooseberry for a skin.”

GOPHER, Noun

Current amongst yeggs chiefly. A safe; a strong box. See “PETE.”

GRAB, Verb

General currency. Passively it signifies arrested; actively it signifies the imperfect past action of arresting or seizing. Example: “Steer clear of the tip: It’s made and you are liable to get grabbed.” See “GLOMMED”; “SNEEZED.”

GRIFT, Noun

General usage. Graft; an opportunity for plying criminal talents. Example: “How’s grift on the shorts in the winter? Crow. Too many togs.”

GROUCH BAG, Noun

Current amongst yeggs and western thieves. A place, as a pocket or receptacle, for concealing money or valuables; a reserve fund held in secret to the exclusion of fraternists. Example: “He’s under cover with a grouch bag.”

GUFF, Noun

Current amongst yeggs, sailors, and old-timers. Palaver; conversation; a contumelious synonym for egotism. See “BREEZE.”

GUINEA, Noun

General usage. In the sense of a man it is synonymous with “gazabo,” “gink,” “mark”; it also means an Italian, as well as Europeans generally.

GUMP, Noun

Current amongst yeggs, hobos and peripatetics generally. A chicken; a fowl. Examples: “We’re going down in the jungles and have a gump stew.”

GUM SHOE, Noun

General currency. A detective; a silent trailer. See “PUSSY FOOT.”

GUN, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets chiefly, though enjoying familiar usage in general circles. A pickpocket. See “CANNON”; “GONIF.”

GUN, Verb

General usage. To watch; to scrutinize. See “GANDER”; “GAP.” Used both as verb and noun to express action or thing. Examples: “Nix! There’s a dick on the corner gunning us.” “He’s giving us a gun.”

GUN MAN, Noun

General currency. A gun fighter.

GUNNELS, Noun

Used by all classes of criminals who beat their way on trains. The curved trusses extending from end to end underneath both freight and passenger cars. Example: “The only way you can ride this rattler tonight is to make the gunnels or the rods.”

GUNSHEL, Noun

Current amongst yeggs chiefly, A boy; a youth; a neophyte of trampdom. Example: “The tribe’s got a gunshel pivoting on the stem with a bug,” i. e., “The gang of tramps have sent a boy up on the main street to beg under pretense of having a wounded or disabled arm or limb.” The term “bug” is derived from railroad parlance, denoting a signal attached to the front of the engine as an indication of the train’s nature, attracting attention.

GUTS, Noun

General currency. Nerve; “sand”; ability to withstand the most powerful emotions. A metaphor derived from the common experience of depressing sensation concomitant with an inrush of the violent emotions of fear, horror or other moral obstructions. To have “guts” is to be unencumbered with conscientious scruples relative to the object contemplated. Amongst yeggs and others familiar with clandestine railroading the “guts” signifies the various constructive parts underneath a car, or the hidden essentials of rolling stock. Example: “We’ll ride the guts tonight over this division,” i. e., the gunnels, rods, brake-beams, trucks.

GUY, Noun

Eastern currency mainly. A man. “TO GUY” is to ridicule.

GYP, Noun

Current in polite circles. The act of short-changing; a duplicity; a defrauding by substitution; an action that belies a professed sincerity. Example: “Look out for this guy, he’s a clever agent to slip you a gyp.” Derived from the popular experience with thieving Gypsies.

GYP, Verb

Some general currency, but especially significant amongst short changers. To flim-flam; to cheat by means of guile and manual dexterity. See “HYPE”; “FLOP”; “LAYING.” Example: “Gyp this boob with a deuce.” Also used by “flat-joint” grafters, comprehending the general meaning of face-to-face criminal transactions.

HABIT, Noun

Current amongst dope fiends. Necessity for opiates; a craving; the condition produced by habitual indulgence in drugs. See “YEN YEN.” Example: “I must drop into the hotel donegan (lavatory) and fire (take a hypodermic injection), for I feel my habit coming on.”

HACK, Noun

Current amongst yeggmen and prowlers, in general. A night watchman; a night policeman or marshal. Most usually it signifies the watchman of a building. Used as a verb in the past participle it describes the accomplished function of a night watchman. Example: “The joint’s hacked but not kipped,” i. e., watched but not occupied by a sleeper.

HAM, Verb

General usage. To walk. Example: “If we get a tumble, it’s a case of ham.”

HANDLES, Noun

Limited usage, chiefly by criminals who understand more or less about physiognomical description and disguises. Side-whiskers; “mutton chops.”

HANKY PANK, Noun

Current in polite slangy circles. Insincere or trifling small talk; flattery; garrulousness. See “BREEZE”; “BULL.”

HARDWARE, Noun

Current chiefly amongst merchandise thieves. Weapons; knives; razors; tools and paraphernalia used by safecrackers and forcible entry prowlers. Used by holdup men to signify a weapon. Example: “Fan him for hardware.”

HARNESS, Noun

General currency. A uniform; a shoplifter’s equipment for concealing merchandise. A “harness bull” is the commonest form of the term’s use, signifying a uniformed policeman in contradistinction to a plain clothes officer or detective.

HARP, Noun

General currency. An Irishman; used principally to designate the raw type.

HARPOON, Noun

General currency. A metaphor for lampoon; used as a verb it signifies to “give a person the worst of it.” See “GAFF.”

HATCH, Noun

General usage. A calaboose; a prison; police station; a jail. Derived from the nautical term “booby-hatch.” See “CAN”; “WICKY.” Example: “The only way he can be sprung is to crush the hatch.”

HEAVY WEIGHT, Noun

Current amongst long-odds crooks. A desperate thief; a husky capable of delivering a dangerous attack in the event of personal encounter; a yegg; a burglar; a “stick-up man.”

HEEL, Noun

General currency. An incompetent; an undesirable; an inefficient or pusillanimous pretender to sterling criminal qualifications. See “FINK”; “DEAD ONE”; “CRAB”; “LOB.” Used also in the sense of “sneak” as noun and verb, to stalk.

HEP, Noun

General circulation. Sapiency; understanding; “next”; “on.” Derived from the name of a fabulous detective who operated in Cincinnati, the legend has it, who knew so much about criminality and criminals that his patronymic became a byword for the last thing in wisdom of illicit possibilities. Example: “Chop the skirmish; he’s hep.”

HICKS, Noun

Current amongst “sure-thing” grafters. The walnut husks used in the three shell and pea game. Example: “This proposition is as sure as fate and as strong as the hicks.”

HIP, Noun

General currency. A burden; an attachment; a responsibility; an incubus. Examples: “I can’t see you tonight; I’ve got a Jane on my hip.” “What’s the use of taking more on your hip?” Also used to denote being shadowed or followed. Example: “Don’t round, we’ve got somebody on our hip.” Always used colloquially. Also current amongst opium smokers, designating the act of lying on the side to smoke the “pipe.”

HIRAM, Noun

Current chiefly amongst yeggmen. A metaphor taken from masonry to signify initiation into the secrets of the yegg profession. A synonym for yegg, adopted when the latter term acquired too much notoriety. Example: “By way of the Hiram!” An exclamatory challenge or password used for a “feeler” to probe the state of mind of the encountered one.

HOBO, Noun

General usage. A tramp, not necessarily of criminal tendencies.

HOIST, Noun

Current amongst shoplifters mainly. The profession of shoplifting. See “BOOSTER”; “DERRICK.” Example: “What’s his grift? He’s on the hoist.”

HOOKS, Noun

Current amongst shoplifters. A set of steel hooks shaped like the letter “U,” fastened through the cloth of a heavy “boosting ben” under the armpits; concealed from the outside view by a pad of cloth similar in pattern to the cloth of the coat and having the inner arm of the hook filed to a needle-like sharpness; upon the hook merchandise may be hung, or slung around the operator’s back and suspended from both hooks. When not in use the hooks’ sharp points are sheathed in cork to prevent injury to the person. They are instantaneously detachable and may be “sloughed” by an expert without detection. “Hooks” also signifies the worst of a bargain. “HOOK” means a thief; “HOOKY” is larcenous.

HOOKER, Noun

General currency. A prostitute. See “DONY”; “FLUZIE.”

HOLLER, Noun

General currency. A protest; a vehement refutation. See “BELCH”; “WOLF”; “SQUAWK.” Example: “Did the sucker make a holler? Sure he rumbled the touch before we blowed the joint and made a roar.”

HOMBRE, Noun

Western usage. A man. From the Spanish for man.

HOPSCOTCH, Verb