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Hardboiled Glossarycompiled by John Knoerle The argot of the underworld has a poetry all its own. Consider the following phrase.
To translate, see below: ankle - walk, leave the scene bangtail - racehorse, also a prostitute basted, oiled, out on the roof, roofed, tanked - drunk beezer - the nose belly gun - short-barreled pistol berries, snaps - cash money, dollars boiler - car bollixed - fouled up bones - dice box job - safe cracking bughouse - insane asylum busted flush - a failure butter and egg man - the man with the money buttons, elbows, goms, Johns, muzzlers - cops buzzer, potsy - a policeman’s badge caboose, icehouse, jug, sneezer - jail cackle-broad - a society woman cake eater - a fop, a lady’s man Chicago overcoat - casket Chicago typewriter - machine gun to chill, clip, grease, ice, push, set over, spot, top, top off - to kill Chinese angle - unusual twist chumped - fooled to clank - to panic clean sneak - successful getaway coffin nail, gasper, pill - cigarette creep joint - a gambling parlor that migrates to avoid detection the crop - all of it corn, cush, geetus, jack - money 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, a sad sack have your elbows checked - get arrested fin - five dollars that’s flat - that’s for certain frail, jane, twist, wren - woman frogskin - dollar bill to gaff - to shortchange gams, pins, stems - a woman’s legs gat, heater, iron, piece, rod, roscoe, tickler - handgun get a can on, tie a bag on - get drunk gink - stupid man to glim, to hinge - to take a look goozle - throat gow, hop - heroin, any narcotic gunsel - an armed criminal, also a young homosexual Harlem sunset - fatality with a knife head full of bees - crazy heaters, peepers - eyes heeled - carrying a gun highbinder - corrupt politician hotcha - desirable, especially a woman ing bing - a fit, an outburst in jigtime - quickly jingle brained - addled to jug - incarcerate juice dealer - loan shark kelly, lid, skimmer - man’s hat kick - complaint the lay - the setup, arrangement lay paper - to pass counterfeit cash left handed - dubious, unlucky loogan - hoodlum, especially Irish lox jockey - a Jew lunch hooks - hands map - face the mop - the final word, the summation of events mush, yap - mouth to nick - take money from on the pad - on the take oyster fruit - pearls palm oil, salve - a bribe to peach, to squeal, to turn up - to inform the authorities pissing on ice - living well a plaster - a tail, also a banknote pro skirt - prostitute rats and mice - dice, craps rib joint - brothel rub joint - dance hall with taxi dancers rug joint - fancy nightclub What’s the rumble?- what’s going on? sawbuck - ten dollars scatter - a room, a hideout send over - betray, send to jail on the shake, to shake - practicing blackmail shamus - private eye, also a police informer slapman - undercover cop slewfoot - a cop table grade - said of an attractive woman tag - arrest warrant taped - under control, cinched throw a bop into - have sex with tip your mitt - show your cards torpedo - armed thug, hit man under glass - in jail woo bait - attractive female wrong gee, wrong number - untrustworthy person in a yank - in a rush yard - usually $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 - it’s not worth the effort What’s the wire on this guy? - What’s the background, the story? World War II Slangappleknocker - hick Admiral of the Swiss Navy - 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 - lazy soldier buzzard - member of the Army Air Corps cloud wagon - airplane condition black - most severe of color-coded danger warnings dead battery - a pessimist feather merchants - snide term for civilians fuselage - woman’s body gas house - saloon gazoonie - an ignoramus gig, to gig - a demerit, to cite for a rule violation grass cutter - fragmentation bomb gun bunnies, muzzle monkeys - artillery gunners hash burner - cook Heinie, Kraut - a German hit the silk - to parachute in everyone’s mess and nobody’s watch - said of a freeloader 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 tarantula soup - whiskey tarfu - ‘things are really fucked up’ Uncle Sugar - the U.S. government wing heavy - drunk zero-zero - point blank range, also visibility zero, ceiling zero |
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