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| Hardboiled Lingocompiled by John Knoerle The argot of the underworld has a poetry all its own. Consider the following.
To translate, see below: ankle - walk, leave the scene arm-breaker - hired muscle bangtail - racehorse, also a prostitute basted, boiled, oiled, out on the roof, roofed, tanked - drunk beezer - nose belly gun - short-barreled pistol berries, cabbage, plasters, snaps - cash money, dollar bills bindlestiff - hobo, migrant worker bitch kitty – an obnoxious woman or girl blower - telephone boiler - car bollixed - fouled up bones - dice bow wow, box job - safe cracking bughouse - insane asylum bull bitch – a masculine woman bulls - railroad police, prison guards burleycue – burlesque show busted flush - a bad deal, a failure butter and egg man - the man with the money buttons, elbows, goms, buzzer, potsy, tin - a policeman’s badge C, C-note - hundred dollar bill caboose, icehouse, jug, sneezer - jail cackle-broad - a society woman cake eater - a dandy, a ladies’ man to can - incarcerate to chill, clip, grease, ice, push, set over, spot, top, top off - kill Chinese angle - unusual twist to chump - fool, put one over on to clank - panic clean sneak - a successful getaway coffin nail, gasper, pill - cigarette coffin varnish, panther piss, phlegm cutter, tarantula soup - cheap liquor corn, creep joint - a gambling parlor that migrates to avoid detection croaker - doctor the crop - all of it dangle, drift, dust, dust out - go, leave darb - a beautiful woman, anything of high quality deek - detective dib - share of the loot dinch - cigarette butt ding donger - aggressive person dinge joint, shinebox - a black only bar or club dipsy doodle - chicanery dog wagon - cheap restaurant eel juice - liquor eightball - a loser have your elbows checked - get arrested fin - five dollars that’s flat - that’s for certain frail, frogskin - a dollar bill to gaff - shortchange gams, pins, stems - a woman’s legs gat, heater, iron, piece, rod, roscoe, tickler -a handgun get a can on, tie a bag on - get drunk gink - a stupid man to glim, to hinge - see, take a look to glom - seize, steal goozle - throat gow, hop - heroin, any narcotic gunsel - an armed criminal, also a young homosexual head full of bees - crazy heaters, peepers - eyes heeled - carrying a gun highbinder - a corrupt politician high pillow - the boss hotcha - desirable, especially a woman hype - a junkie ing in jigtime - quickly jingle brained - addled to jug - to incarcerate juice dealer - a loan shark kick - complaint the lay - the setup, the arrangement to lay paper - to pass counterfeit cash or bad checks left handed - dubious, unlucky loogan - a hoodlum, especially Irish lox jockey - a Jew lunch hooks - hands map - face meat wagon - ambulance Mexican breakfast - a glass of water and a cigarette the mop - the final word, the summation of events mush, yap - the mouth nance - an effeminate man to nick - take money from nippers - handcuffs on the nut, on my uppers - broke on the pad - on the take orphan paper - a bad check oyster fruit - pearls palm oil, salve - a bribe to peach, to squeal, to turn up - inform pissing on ice - living well plaster - a tail, also a banknote poke - wallet, bankroll pro skirt - a prostitute rats and mice - dice, craps rib joint - a brothel rub joint - a hall with taxi dancers rug joint - a fancy nightclub What’s the rumble?- what’s going on? sawbuck - ten dollars scatter - a room or hideout, also a speakeasy or club second-story man - burglar to send over - betray to shag – tail, chase on the shake, to shake - blackmail shamus - private eye, also a police informer sheever – a traitor, police informer slapman - an undercover cop slewfoot - a cop smoke - a black person, also to kill with a gun table grade - said of an attractive woman tag - an arrest warrant taped - under control, cinched throw a bop into - have sex wit tip your mitt - show your cards torpedo - an armed thug, a hit man under glass - in jail woo bait - attractive female wrong gee, wrong number - an untrustworthy person in a yank - in a rush yard - $100, sometimes $1000 yegg - thief, safecracker zazoo - a man, a sharp dresser Phrasesall aces, all silk so far - everything’s okay all wool and a yard wide - first rate beat down to the ankles - worn out cut me a huzz - tell me what’s happening dogshit and razorblades - junk, worthless information from hell to breakfast - thoroughly, all the way grab a cloud - raise your hands like shit through a tin horn - quickly the squeeze ain’t worth the juice - not worth the effort What’s the wire on this guy? - What’s the background, the story? World War II Slangappleknocker - a hick Admiral of the Swiss Navy - a self-important person armored cow - canned milk beached - broke bimbo dust - face powder a dirty blim - a nasty look blivit - anything superfluous or annoying boodle bag - a kit or Haversack brass pounder, dit da artist - a radiotelegraph operator bunk lizard, sack rat - a lazy soldier buzzard - a member of the Army Air Corps cloud wagon - an airplane condition black - most severe of color-coded danger warnings dead battery - a pessimist feather merchants - snide term for civilians fuselage - a woman’s body gas house - a saloon gazoonie - an ignoramus gig, to gig - a demerit, to cite for a rule violation grass cutter - a fragmentation bomb gun bunnies, muzzle monkeys - artillery gunners hash burner - a cook Heinie - a German hit the silk - to parachute in everyone’s mess and nobody’s watch - said of a freeloader Jerry - a German soldier latrine lawyer - an argumentative soldier, a complainer moo oil - lies, exaggeration pie tickets, rubber flag, tent stretcher - imaginary items used to test a recruit’s gullibility pogled - dazed, confused prang - to bomb heavily ruptured duck - the Screaming Eagle button given to all WWII vets scrag - a cigarette section eight - a crazy person the snake’s whiskers - the very best tarfu - ‘things are really fucked up’ Uncle Sugar - the wing heavy - drun zero-zero - point blank range, also visibility zero, ceiling zero
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