Chapter C: R. Hellyer (1)

City Detective Dept., Portland, Ore.
and LOUIS E. JACKSON,

Portland, Oregon, October 3rd, 1914.

* * * * * * * *

Should you find any terms missing from the following vocabulary which in your opinion should be included in it you will confer a favor by communicating same to the publisher.

W. H. THORNTON,
872 Brooklyn St., Portland, Ore.

A Vocabulary of Criminal Slang
Alphabetically Arranged
with Practical Examples
of Common Usages

ADMAN, Noun

Current amongst literary confidence men. A fake advertising solicitor. See “HUNDRED PER CENT.”

ANGEL, Noun

General usage. A financial backer. Derived from “good thing.”

ARM MAN, Noun

Current amongst “heavyweights.” A strong arm man; a holdup; a highway robber. See “PUT-EM-UP.”

ARTILLERY, Noun

In general currency. Firearms of any description. See “ROD,” “ROSCOE,” “SMOKE WAGON.”

B. A., Noun

Current amongst literary confidence men. A book agent who commonly employs confidence methods for obtaining subscriptions or orders.

BADGE, Noun

Current amongst “hustlers” and the demi-monde. A badger; a blackmailer; an extortioner. See “SHAKE DOWN.”

BALLY HOO, Noun

Current amongst exhibition and “flat-joint” grafters. A free entertainment used for a decoy to attract customers. See “READER.”

BANNER, Noun

General currency. Used in the colloquialism “carrying the banner,” meaning to walk the streets all night or otherwise endure the hardship of loss of sleep.

BATCH, Noun

General currency. A number; a quantity; a lot; a great many.

BELCH, Noun

In general usage with all grafters. A protest; a complaint. See “SQUAWK,” “ROAR,” “HOLLER.” Example: “When he blowed his dough he put up an awful belch.”

BELCH, Verb

Idem Supra. Example: “He cannot stand the gaff without belching.” Also used to denote the giving of information. See “COME THROUGH.”

BEN, Noun

General usage. An overcoat; derived from Benjamin, in reference to the biblical coat of many colors.

BENNY, Noun

General usage. A sack coat; derived from Benjamin, some say the biblical character, while others say the New York manufacturer of men’s garments.

BENT, Adjective

General usage. Crooked; larcenous. See “TWISTED.” Example: “His kisser shows that he’s bent.”

BIG TOP, Noun

Current amongst circus grafters and “open-air men.” The large tent used by circuses; now evolved to include the meeting of the maximum exhibit possible in any given case. Example: “I’m flopping at the big top,” i. e., “I am rooming at the biggest hotel in town.”

BIT, Noun

General usage. A portion; a division; a share or a part of anything, as profits or proceeds of a transaction. Example: “You’re supposed to be in on anything that comes off, so you’re entitled to your bit.”

BIT, Noun

General usage, particularly amongst grafters who operate on the outside of the law. A prison sentence. Example: “He did a bit in Joliet.” Also a share. See “END.” Example: “If you don’t take a chance you’re entitled to no bit.”

BLOCK, Noun

General usage. A watch. See “SUPER[1],” “TURNIP.” Example: “The wire rung six blocks in the breaks,” i. e., “The tool (pickpocket) detached six watches from their rings in the crowded exit.” As a noun it has another meaning, i. e., a head. See “NOODLE.” Example: “He got his block sapped,” i. e., struck.

[1] There is no entry for “SUPER” in the text.

BLOOMER, Noun

Current with genteel grafters. An error; a failure. Example: “We framed wrong and scored a bloomer.”

BLOW, Verb

General usage. To cease; to get away; to lose; to miss something absent. Examples: “Blow! here comes a bull.” “We blowed some kale that night” (spent it). “Just as the touch was scored the boob blowed his poke.” “A shilliber’s work is to cop and blow,” i. e., to take and give in a gambling, ostensibly winning and losing in good faith from and to a confederate.

BLOW CARD, Noun

Current amongst gamblers and genteel grafters. Any useless thing or condition; financial embarrassment; the last card; the final play or thing in any series. Examples: “Don’t connect with this wop, he is on the blow card,” i. e., broke. “Pull this one off and call it the blow card.”

BOOB, Noun

In general usage amongst all sophisticated classes. An inferior in any specific sense; a victim; an uninitiated person when used by a “gonif.” Derived from booby.

BOOSTER, Noun

Used by confidential grafters. One who endorses a person, thing or action of immoral nature either by complementary action or by moral support; a helper; a confederate.

BOOSTER, Noun

In general currency amongst “gonifs.” A shoplifter; a thief who operates in merchandise stores in daytime. A “Boost” is an assistance; “The Boost” is the shoplifting profession.

BREAKS, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets. Any place of exit where throngs of people pour through en stream, as from a theatre, from a convention or other popular gathering, or from a street or railroad car or from a boat, all of which afford facilities for the pickpocket to operate under cover and in the press of unusual excitement. Example: “The guns are rooting into the swell mob at the Grand Opera breaks.”

BREAK UP, Noun

Current amongst thieves who specialize in plunder or loot. Melted silver or gold. See “MELT.”

BREEZE, Noun

General usage. Loquacity; guile; “hot air;” “bull con.”

BREEZE, Verb

General usage. To deceive; to beguile; to occupy one’s attention; to descant loquaciously. Example: “She breezed everybody on the line.” Also to move on, to leave, to come in or go out. See “BLOW.”

BREECH (britch), Noun

Current amongst pickpockets chiefly. The rear pants pockets, designated right and left breech, in contradistinction to the front pants pockets, for which see “KICK.” Example: “Fan his right breech for a leather,” i. e., “Feel of his right hip pocket for a pocketbook.”

BROAD, Noun

Current amongst genteel grafters chiefly. A female confederate; a female companion; a woman of loose morals. See “DONY,” “FLUZIE,” “MUFF[2].” Broad is derived from the far-fetched metaphor of “meal ticket,” signifying a female provider for a pimp, from the fanciful correspondence of a meal ticket to a railroad or other ticket, which latter originally was exclusively used by “gonifs” to indicate “broad,” or a conductor’s hat check. Also a playing card from the deck of fifty-two. A “three-card monte man” is a “BROAD SPIELER”; “Tipping the broads” is riding on a purchased transportation ticket; “Beating the broads” is corrupting the conductor or other collecting functionaire of a transportation line.

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

BUCK, Noun

Current generally. A dollar. Example: “They tax you one buck for a room without a bath at the cheapest hotel in the burg.”

BUFFALO, Noun

General usage in the northern states. A negro. See “DINGE.”

BUFFALO, Verb

General usage. To bluff; to intimidate; to frighten. Example: “The dick buffaloed him into tipping his plant.”

BUG, Noun

Used by alms beggars. A fearful looking sore artificially produced to simulate a burn or scald by the use of Spanish blister.

BULL, Noun

General usage. Misrepresentation; a lie; deception. Probably derived from the financial term bull, which in polite and legal circles signifies inflation, optimism. See “BREEZE.” Also used to indicate an officer of the law whose function is to apprehend or arrest, whether a constable, marshal, sheriff, detective or policeman.

BULL CON, Noun

Supra idem.

BUMP, BUMP OFF, Verb

Current amongst heavyweights and desperate characters chiefly, though understood by grafters generally. To kill; reflectively it signifies suicide. Examples: “He bumped himself off when he saw that the game was up.” “He copped a cuter and got bumped making a get-away.”

BUNCO, Noun

General currency. Deceit. Derived from “BUNCOMBE.”

BUNK, Noun

In general currency. Deceit; ostentation. Derived by corruption of form while retaining the meaning of “Bunco,” a contraction of buncombe. Example: “If you fall for this bunk you’re a simp.”

BUNK, Verb

General usage. To employ misrepresentation; to defraud; to cheat; to establish confidential relations with intent to abuse the influence so acquired. Example: “The frame-up in the play was to bunk the sucker with protection and scare team work.”

BURNEYS, Noun

Current amongst “hop-heads,” dope fiends. A catarrh powder containing an illicit proportion of cocaine, used as a snuff, administered with a combination detachable rubber and glass blowing tube.

BUZZARD, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets. A timid or amateur or low life “gun” who operates on “molls,” women. Example: “The moll buzzards tore into the jam at the market house on Saturday night and glommed a batch of pokes.”

BUZZER, Noun

Current mainly in western circles. An officer’s badge or star, the insignia of authority. Example: “Who are you? says he. For reply I flashed my buzzer.” Derived, doubtless, from the metal disc toy with starlike points which revolves by pulling crossed strings which pass through it.

CAN, Noun

General usage. A place of confinement; a prison; a cell. A practical metaphor for a receptacle designed to confine or bottle humans. Also a lavatory, toilet, urinal. Example: “He rumbled and made the can.” See “CANISTER.”

CAN, Verb

General usage. To discharge; to eliminate. Derived from the prankish cruelty of tieing a tin can to a dog’s tail, whose effectual purpose is to get rid of a useless or undesirable object. Example: “He made so many bad breaks we had to can him.”

CANISTER, Noun

Current chiefly amongst prison habitues. A prison. Also in use amongst crooks who resort to the use of weapons, denoting a firearm. Example: “He’ll stick his hands up if you flash the canister.”

CANNON, Noun

General currency. A revolver. In pickpocket parlance it signifies a pickpocket of indefinite order. See “GUN,” “GONIF.”

CASES, Noun

General usage. Observation; scrutiny; survey. Example: “Keep cases on his actions and you will learn his motive.” Also an ultimate, a finality, the last of a series of things or actions. Example: “He hasn’t turned a trick for so long that he is down to cases.” The term is derived from gambler’s parlance; in faro bank the recording of cards turned out of the dealer’s box is denominated “keeping cases,” whilst the last card to remain in the box is called the “case card.” “Down to cases” is used to signify that the cards are all dealt and played; the money or resources at an end.

CASE, Verb

General usage. To watch; to observe; to scrutinise.

CAT HOP, Noun

Current amongst gamblers. See “KITTY HOP.”

CENTURY, Noun

General usage. A hundred; a hundred dollar bill.

CHIP, Noun

Current amongst burglars and store prowlers. A cash-box; a till; a cash drawer without belling device. A cash receptacle with belling device is called a “combination chip,” or a “damper,” or a “dinger.” Example: “He copped a heel on the chip and glommed a century.”

CHIV, Noun

In general use amongst yeggs and rough-neck criminals. A knife; a sharp-edged tool or weapon. Derived from the French word “chef,” by reason of a cook’s use of a carving knife, though the French term for knife is “canif.”

CHIV, Verb

Supra idem. To cut; to slash; used only in regard to an attack upon a human. Example: “Beware of that geezer that he does not chiv you.”

CHOP, Verb

General usage. To quit; to cease.

CHUMP, Noun

General usage. An unsophisticated individual; a victim; an inferior; an “angel”; a “captain.” See “JOHN.”

CLATTER, Noun

General usage. A patrol wagon.

CLAW, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets. The “tool”; the “jerve”; the “wire”; or the expert operator in a “gun mob” who lifts the money and valuable collateral from the victim’s person. Example: “Our mob is working under one of the speediest claws in the country.”

CLAW, Verb

General usage. To snatch; to appropriate; to annex.

CLEAN, Adjective

General usage. A state of financial embarrassment; exhausted supply of a given property. Example: “He wasn’t very dirty when he got in town, but he is thoroughly clean now.”

CLEAN, Verb

General usage. To take all one possesses of a given commodity; to deplete one’s assets. Example: “He headed in wrong with that bunch and got cleaned.” Also used by exponents of the art of self-defense to indicate the infliction of defeat upon an opponent. Example: “He made a pass at me and I cleaned him in one, two, three.”

CLOUT, Verb

In currency amongst the plunderbund. To purloin any kind of valuables in any manner.

COME-ON, Noun

General usage. A prospective victim; a “steered” prospect.

COME THROUGH, Verb

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

General usage. To jump or travel about from place to place.

HOOP, Noun

General currency, though used most frequently by “short-odds” grafters who practice merchandising by unlicensed solicitation. A finger ring. A “phony hoop” is a gold-plated ring. Grafters of mediocre intellectuality seek protection from apprehension for vagrancy by carrying a stock of “hoops,” “glims” and “supers,” or “blocks” (watches). Not to be confounded with the jovial exclamation, “Whoops! my dear,” of fairies and theatrical characters.

HOP MERCHANT, Noun

Current amongst drug habitues. A dispenser of opium and opiates. Usually applied to drug peddlers who have no established headquarters, but are itinerant.

HUCKS, Noun

Current amongst “sure-thing” grafters. The walnut shells used in the three shell game. See “HICKS”; “NUTS.” Example: “We’ll make the ball game on Sunday and play the hucks.”

HUMP, Noun

Current amongst prison habitues. The middle of a term; the half-way point in a prison sentence. Example: “How long have you got yet on your bit? I’m just over the hump.”

HUNCH, Noun

General usage. An inspiration; an intuition; an “office.”

HUNDRED PER CENT, Noun

Used by sure-thing admen, by confidence grafters who maintain the plausible appearance of giving value for moneys received, but who in reality give nothing. Fake advertising is the principal hundred per cent graft.

HUNKIE, Noun

Current in localities where North European laborers abound. A corruption of Hungarian, but employed to signify a Continental European who is unwashed and unnaturalized.

HUSTLER, Noun

General currency. A grafter; a pimp who steals betimes. The genteel thief is designated a “hustler.”

HYPER, Noun

Current amongst money-changers. A flim-flammer; a layer of currency, that is, one who makes a purchase and tenders a bank note and after receiving proper change pretends to discover the exact amount of change required to pay for the goods purchased and thereupon declares his preference for the bank note rather than for the change. In the exchange he strives to confuse the obliging changemaker for the purpose of obtaining an excess of his proper due. Or, the “hyper” requests a bank note for subsidiary coin and upon being accommodated ostentatiously seals the bank note in an addressed envelope. The merchant discovers that the subsidiary coin is less than the stated amount and demands his bank note, whereupon a substitute envelope is tendered by the “hyper” with a request that he hold it until the “hyper” returns to his home and secures the additional small change. There are other systems of the “hyper” in vogue, but the principle is the same in all.

IN DUTCH, Adverb

General usage. Mistaken; in trouble. See “JACKPOT.”

JAB, Noun

Current amongst morphine and cocaine fiends. A hypodermic injection.

JACKPOT, Noun

General currency. A dilemma; a difficult strait; a retribution; trouble; an arrest. See “JINX”; “IN DUTCH.” Example: “Where’s Joe? He pulled a raw-jaw stunt and made a jackpot.”

JAKE, Noun

General currency amongst cosmopolitan crooks. The state of knowing; familiarity with a secret or a scheme or meaning. See “HEP”; “JOE.” Example: “You’re making a boob out of yourself; he’s Jake to the whole works.” As an adjective “jake” means good; satisfactory; acceptable; all-right.

JAMB, Noun

Current chiefly amongst yeggs and prowlers. The state of being closed, as a store or house; locked up; inaccessible. See “Sloughed,” not in the sense of “sluffed” as the same word is sometimes used, though with the latter pronunciation while retaining the former spelling. Example: “The front’s in the jamb; try the rear.” Also used to signify trouble in the sense of “JACK POT.”

JANE, Noun

General currency. A woman, though not in any opprobrious sense; the sexual complement of the term “JOHN,” a man.

JERVE, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets. A vest pocket; the “tool”; the “wire”; the “claw” in a gun mob. Examples: “Go after the left jerve for a bundle of scratch.” “The jerve was nailed bang to rights coming through the tip.”

JESSIE, Noun

General currency. A bluff; a threat. Example: “He rang in a jessie and got away with it.”

JIG, Noun

General currency. An affair; a misfortune; a mistake. Example: “He used bad judgment and got into a jig.”

JIGGER, Noun

Current amongst yeggs and tramps. A fake wound, burn, scald, or other crippled condition. See “BUG”; “P. P.” Example: “They’re all jigger bums.”

JIGGER, Verb

Supra idem. An exclamation of warning; an injunction to cease; to mar; to spoil; to deface or derange. Examples: “Jigger! The bull’s coming.” “You’ve jiggered the lock.”

JIM, Noun

General currency. A cheap, inferior or worthless thing. Contraction of “JIM CROW.” See “CROW.”

JIM, Verb

General currency. A synonym for “JIGGER.” Example: “Lay off! You’ll jim the whole works.”

JIMMY, Noun

Used mainly by yeggs and prowlers. A burglar’s tool. A short, powerful chisel or lever used by thieves for prying doors and windows open.

JIMMY, Verb

Supra idem. To pry or wrench loose with any instrument.

JINKS, JINX, Noun

General usage. In difficult straits. See “IN DUTCH.”

JITNEY, Noun

General currency. A nickel; a dime; a small coin; a picayune. Used variously to signify an extremity in finance. Example: “Break away; he hasn’t got a jitney.”

JOE, Noun

General currency in polite criminal circles. Wise; sophisticated. See “Hep,” of which “JOE” and “JAKE” are subdivisions or contractions or substitutions.

JOHN, Noun

General currency amongst the demi-monde. A “captain”; a “sucker”; an amorous fool with money and free love proclivities. Also a man in a contemptuous sense. Examples: “She’s got a John keeping her.” “Ask this John what time the train starts.”

JOHN HANCOCK, Noun

Current amongst confidence men and paper grafters generally. A signature. Derived from the common observation that John Hancock, of Revolutionary fame, wrote a massive, extremely legible hand. See “FINGER PRINT.”

JOINT, Noun

General currency. A business establishment; a hangout. Sometimes used as a synonym of “DUMP,” though it does not necessarily imply meanness or disrepute. Example: “Let’s drop in this joint and buy a suit of clothes.”

JOLT, Noun

General usage. A prison sentence; a penalization; a blow; a physical or moral jar. Example: “He did a jolt once before in Joliet.”

JOHN O’BRIEN, Noun

Current generally. A freight train, used in contradistinction to a “RATTLER,” a passenger train. Example: “You can see by his clothes that he has been riding John O’s.” Amongst “yeggs” it signifies also a moneyless safe.

JUG, Noun

General currency. A prison; a bank; a secret receptacle for money or compact valuables. Example: “Tail this mark to the jug and case what he draws,” i. e., “observe what money he draws.”

JUNGLE, Noun

Current amongst yeggs. A loafing place or hang out beyond a city’s limits, whether in the woods or not. An isolated or little frequented spot.

JUNK, Noun

General currency. Inferior goods; any property of relative worthlessness. Example: “Everything in his keister is junk.”

KALE, Noun

General currency. Bank notes; money of any kind. Evolved from the term “GREEN GOODS,” the latter metaphor for money being derived from the greenish aspect of currency. Example: “He’s got a bundle of kale that would choke a cow.”

KEISTER, Noun

General currency. A satchel; a handbag; a small grip. Example: “What’s his grift? He prowls the depots for keisters.”

KICK, Noun

Some general currency, but employed most effectively by pickpockets. In common usage it signifies a pocket, any pocket; amongst “guns” it is used exclusively to signify a front pants pocket. Also a protest, a “squawk.”

KINK, Noun

General circulation. A crook; a larcenous criminal. See “HOOK”; “HUSTLER.” Example: “Are there any kinks in the joint?” Also used by yeggs to designate a non-criminal tramp, or one who is not initiated into the particular craft of the speaker. In this latter sense the term is derived from the epithet “gay-cat,” meaning a “working plug.” Example: “Cut him out; he’s got forty-seven kinks in his tail.”

KIP, Noun

General usage. A bed; a place to sleep. See “PAD”; “DOSS”; “FLOP.” Used also as a verb, to sleep, to go to bed, etc.

KISSER, Noun

General circulation. The countenance. See “MOOSH”; “MUG[9].” Example: “You’ll recognize him by his hatchet kisser.”

[9] There is no entry for “MUG” in the text.

KITTY HOP, Noun

Current chiefly amongst gamblers. A heads-I-win-tails-you-lose situation or proposition; a “double-cross”; a “frame-up,” in which “both ends may be played against the middle.” Also used to indicate a practical joke. Example: “We got the skirt to frame a kitty hop for him and he fell for it.”

LACE, Verb

General currency. To slam; to punch; to beat unmercifully. Example: “The three dicks laced him like a football and then squared it by throwing an order of ham and eggs under his belt.”

LAG, Noun

Current amongst statutory criminals. A prison sentence of one year; sometimes used to signify an indefinite term of years in prison. The “STRETCH” better expresses the latter sentence of penal servitude. Example: “He’s doing a lag in the little can.” Also used as a verb as the equivalent of “RAILROADING” a criminal to prison.

LAM, Noun

General currency. A hasty get-away; a running escape. Example: “He heeled to the door and made a lam.”

LAM, Verb

General usage. To run; to flee. Most frequently employed in the imperative mood.

LAMISTER, Noun

Supra idem. A corruption of “LAM.” Also a fugitive from justice. Example: “He’s a lamister out of Chicago.”

LAMOS, Adjective

General currency. Gold-plated; flimsy; unsubstantial. Derived from the name of a firm of Chicago jewelers who supplied the cheap jewelry trade with “PHONIES,” or fake jewelry. Example: “You can’t hock it for two-bits; it’s lamos.” Also used to signify inferior personal qualities.

LAYING OUT, Verb, Present Part.

Current amongst prowlers and sneak thieves. To watch from ambush; to spy upon a person or establishment. Example: “To get this dump right we’ll have to lay out on it every night for a week and make the doings.”

LAYING (NOTES), Verb, Present Part.

Current amongst flim-flammers. To make fraudulent change; to cheat by the ruse of substitution. The latter craft is denominated “LAYING THE ENVELOPE.”

LEATHER, Noun

Some general currency, but used chiefly by pickpockets. A pocketbook; a wallet; a billbook. See “POKE.” Example: “He has an inside leather.”

LEARY, Adjective

General usage. Afraid; anxious; anticipatory.

LEMON, Noun

Current chiefly amongst bunco men. A confidence game in which skill at pool is the bait, though its successful negotiation is based upon the dishonesty or avarice of the victim. See “WIRE”; “SPUD.” A lemon joint is a crooked pool and billiard room. Lately evolved to comprehend the general meaning of a disappointment, a commercial illusion. In this regard “lemon” is used In the deprecating sense conveyed by the term “gold mine.” Example: “Lemons are selling in the open market for thirty cents a dozen, but this one cost me a hundred iron men.”

LIVE ONE, Noun

General currency. An informed individual; a prospectively profitable victim; an ambitious or keenly alert person. Example: “If we put this live one through the sprouts we throw our feet under the mahogany at the big top all the rest of the winter.”

LOB, Noun

General currency amongst better informed crooks. An awkward craftsman; a delinquent; an opprobrious character amongst thieves. Contracted from “LOBSTER,” which in turn is a metaphor derived by suggestion from “CRAB,” the latter symbolizing backward action or the propensity for reluctant participation. “LOBBY GOW” is another form of the same term, used principally by confidence and “flat-joint” grafters to signify a minor confederate, or “booster.”

LOADING, Verb, Present Part.

Current amongst pickpockets. The act of following, escorting or forcibly jamming passengers aboard a street or passenger car or up any flight of steps, as the entrance to an elevated railroad station; the purpose of “LOADING” is to take advantage of unsuspecting eagerness on the part of passengers so that violent extraction of valuables from pockets shall scarcely be heeded. Example: “We were loading ’em on for two hours steady in the Sunday excursion pushes.”

LOCO, Adverb

Current chiefly in western circles, though not used exclusively by criminals. Slightly erratic in mental processes. The Spanish value of the term is “crazy,” but by American criminal adoption it has been modified to comprehend just less than that. See “NUTS.”

LOSER, Noun

Current amongst prison habitues. An ex-convict. See “Con.” Examples: “Three time losers cop life in some states.”

LUMP, Noun

Current chiefly amongst yeggs, hobos and the indigent. A donation of victuals intended for consumption outside the house. But alas! lumps are sometimes impaled on the fence pickets by fastidious beggars who become offended at the failure of well meaning but non-intuitive philanthropists to invite them in to eat at the table. This latter operation is gratefully termed a “sit-down.”

MAC, Noun

General currency. A pimp; a lover of a lewd woman. A man who lives upon the earnings of a prostitute. Derived from the French term “Macquereau.”

MAIN STEM, Noun

General currency. The main thoroughfare of a community. See “DRAG.”

MAKE, Verb

General currency. To recognize; to discern; to solve; to acquire in an intellectual sense. See “RAP.” Example: “You had better ring up (disguise) so he won’t make you.”

MARK, Noun

General circulation. A man; a prospective victim.

MATCH, Noun

Current amongst confidence men. A bunco game similar in nature to the “LEMON,” but in which coins are matched; the fraud consisting in treachery on the part of the confidence man who steers the victim with the professed intention of betraying his de facto confederate.

MEAL TICKET, Noun

General currency. A female of the open market who supports a lover; any gratuitous source of subsistence. Example: “The stiff won’t put up his back so long as he’s got a meal ticket.”

MEIG, Noun

General currency amongst cosmopolitans. A nickel; a five-cent piece. See “JITNEY.” Sometimes used to indicate the minimum basis of exchange medium, the cent, as a hundred meigs, fifty meigs, etc. Example: “What’s the tax for the scoffin’s? Twenty-five meigs.”

MELT, Noun

Current amongst loothunters, but pennyweighters and other jewelry thieves particularly. Precious metals that may be melted in a crucible to make identity difficult or impossible. See “BREAK UP.” Example: “The swag netted a melt of a thousand dollars.”

M’GIMP, MEGIMP, Noun

Current in western circles. A pimp; a lover in the vicious meaning. See “MAC.”

MICHAEL, Noun

Current amongst bottle drinkers. A flask of liquor. Example: “Have you got a michael on your hip?”

MICHIGAN, Noun

General currency. A spectacular ruse; a deceptive appearance, as a fake bank roll; a hoax staged with sinister intent. Example: “They started a michigan scrap and trimmed the sucker in the mix-up.”

MICKY, Noun

Current amongst bottle drinkers. A corruption of “MICHAEL.”

MILL, Verb

General currency, but of western origin. To amble around aimlessly; to exercise by walking. Example: “We milled around town all day without turning a trick.”

MITT, Noun

Current chiefly amongst gamblers when the sense is a hand of cards. The “MITT” is a confidence game of the same nature as the “LEMON” or the “MATCH,” involving a double cross. Also a card hand in any square game. In general currency it means both the human hand and any scheme, system or personal character. See “DUKE.” Amongst prison habitues the “MITTS” signify handcuffs. Example: “If he spiels long enough he’ll tip his mitt.” “They framed a strong mitt for him and beat him for half a century.” A “MITT JOINT” is a gambling house where victims are “steered” for fleecing by means of deceptively “sure thing” hands.

MOB, Noun

General currency. Two or more confederates joined together for nefarious practices. Used most frequently to designate a gang of pickpockets, a “GUN MOB.”

MOCHA, Noun

Current amongst shoplifters. Cloth; a suit pattern. Example: “I know a derrick who’ll peddle a mocha for a finif.”

MOLL, Noun

General currency. A woman, regardless of character. See “JANE.”

MONACRE, MONACKER, Noun

Current amongst yeggs and registering itinerants. A nickname; a professional cognomen. A corruption of the term “monogram,” devised to meet the contingencies arising out of the oft requested information: “What’s your handle?” Example: “You’ll have to look in the cook book to find a fancy monacker, for all the ready ones are appropriated, judging by the register on this tank.”

MONKEY, Noun

General currency. A man, used in the mildly indifferent sense of a stranger. See “GEEZER,” “GAZABO,” etc. Sometimes used to signify a “BOOB.”

MOOCH, Noun

Current amongst beggars. A mendicant; an alms solicitor.

MOOCH, Verb

General currency. To stroll; to move about. See “MILL.” Example: “Mooch around the block and come back in ten minutes.” Also, to beg.

MOOSH, MOUSH, Noun

General circulation. The human face; the physiog. See “KISSER.” Also the mouth. Probably from French bouche (mouth). Probably derived from the French “mouchoir,” a handkerchief, suggested by its utilization as a face mop. Example: “He’s got a harp moosh,” i. e., Irish.

M, or MORPH, Noun

Used by morphine fiends. Sulphate of morphia.

MOPE, Verb

General currency. To walk away; to remove one’s presence to another locality or spot. See “BLOW,” “MOOCH,” “DUCK.”

MOUSER, Noun

Current in cosmopolitan circles. A “fairy;” a character obsessed by lewd passions.

MOUTHPIECE, Noun

General currency. A lawyer; an advocate; a spokesman; a representative. Example: “The fall dough is to be used exclusively for a mouthpiece and nothing else.”

MUD FENCE, Noun

Current amongst yeggs, safecrackers. A soap lip, a trench of soap or other plastic substance constructed to hold nitroglycerin in funnel formation until it seeps through a joint in a safe.

MUSH, Noun

General usage. An umbrella. Example: “When you can’t do anything else you can heel the hotels and depots for mushes and turkeys.”

NAILED, Verb, Past Part.

General currency. Apprehended. See “GRABBED,” “GLOMMED.”

NECKING, Noun