Historical Dictionary of American Slang

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71 Results 1910

• beat it
  
  ( v ) To leave. When the cops drove up, we had to beat it.
  1910s
• bimbo
  
  ( n ) A tough guy. Max is just another bimbo who goes around trying to pick fights in bars.
  1910s
• Boy!
  
  ( int ) An emphatic interjection. Boy, was he surprised when I showed him my new erector set!
  1910s
• break
  
  ( n ) Opportunity. A lucky break helped him get the job.
  1910s
• bug
  
  ( v ) To equip with a burglar alarm. The coppers caught him when he entered a bugged house.
  1910s
• bull
  
  ( n ) Nonsense. Everything you've said is just a load of bull and you know it.
  1910s
• cootie
  
  ( n ) A body louse. I wouldn't go out with him; they say he has cooties.
  1910s
• creep
  
  ( n ) A sneak thief. He was making a marginal living as a creep until the cops caught him at his trade.
  1910s
• cushy
  
  ( adj ) Easy, simple. He has a really cushy job with a septic tank cleaner.
  1910s
• date
  
  ( n ) A stupid or foolish person. He is such a soppy date, he should do well in politics.
  1910s
• ding-bat
  
  ( n ) A stupid or foolish person. Archie Bunker always called his wife a ding-bat.
  1910s
• drag
  
  ( n ) A draw (on cigarette, cigar, pipe, etc.). Hey, man, give me a drag on that pipe so I can see if that tobacco is any good.
  1910s
• duck soup
  
  ( np ) Something easy. All her courses are duck soup.
  1910s
• earful
  
  ( n ) A lot of gossip. My grandmother gave me an earful about the neighborhood.
  1910s
• eat one's heart out
  
  ( vp ) To gnaw at, disturb, vex. It is best to talk about your problems than let them eat your heart out.
  1910s
• fed
  
  ( n ) FBI investigator. His dad made moonshine until the feds caught up with him.
  1910s
• gander
  
  ( n ) A look. Take a gander at that beefcake over there.
  1910s
• gas
  
  ( n ) A joke. They played some kind of gas on her and made her mad.
  1910s
• get on your nerves
  
  ( n ) To annoy, bother. Go play in another room; you are getting on my nerves.
  1910s
• goldbrick
  
  ( n ) Someone who does not do his or her share of the work. That goldbrick sits in his office all day and doesn't do a lick of work.
  1910s
• goof
  
  ( n ) Someone stupid or foolish. I am really a goof at times.
  1910s
• grift
  
  ( v ) To run a con. I don't have any cash so we'll have to grift tonight.
  1910s
• grifter
  
  ( n ) A con artist. John is such a grifter he runs cons on his mother.
  1910s
• heel
  
  ( n ) A loser, a jerk. What a heel! He left is wife and kids for the circus.
  1910s
• hoosegow
  
  ( n ) Jail or prison. You had better be careful that you don't end up in the hoosegow.
  1910s
• jake
  
  ( adj ) Alright, OK. Who made all that noise? Is everything
  1910s
• jazz
  
  ( adj ) To excite, enthuse. This is going to be a great reunion. I'm really
  1910s
• jinx
  
  ( n ) Something or someone that brings bad luck. For a long time sailors thought that a woman on board ship was a jinx.
  1910s
• joint
  
  ( n ) A questionable establishment. He took her to a joint he wouldn't want his mother to even know about.
  1910s
• keen
  
  ( adj ) Attractive or appealing. She was a keen girl, with nice gams and figure.
  1910s
• lay off
  
  ( v ) To fire (temporarily). The company laid off 100 people this week.
  1910s
• mush
  
  ( n ) Sentimentality. The movie was full of romantic mush.
  1910s
• nickel-and-dime
  
  ( v ) To niggle away, eat a way bit by bit. These telephone bills are nickel-and-diming me something awful.
  1910s
• noodle
  
  ( n ) The head. Ow! I just bumped my noodle on that pipe up there.
  1910s
• Nuts!
  
  ( int ) An interjection of disappointment. Nuts! I dropped my glasses down the sewer drain.
  1910s
• pokey
  
  ( n ) Jail or prison. When his brother got out of the pokey, he went right back to making book.
  1910s
• punch-drunk
  
  ( adj ) Brain-damaged from boxing. He had to quit the ring when he became to punch-drunk to focus his eyes.
  1910s
• Reach for the ceiling!
  
  ( phr ) Raise your hands. Drop that gun and reach for the ceiling!
  1910s
• Reach for the roof!
  
  ( phr ) Raise your hands. Drop that gun and reach for the roof!
  1910s
• boner
  
  ( n ) A mistake, an error I must have pulled a real boner on the test; I flunked it.
  1910s
• rinky-dink
  
  ( adj ) Run-down, old, old fashioned. The circus was really rinky-dink.
  1910s
• scratch
  
  ( n ) Money. I need a burger; does anyone have any scratch?
  1910s
• short
  
  ( n ) A street car. He used to ride the shorts to work.
  1910s
• snookums
  
  ( n ) Female term of endearment. Hello, snookums, how did your day go?
  1910s
• steam up
  
  ( v ) To excite, agitate. They tried without success to steam up his courage.
  1910s
• straight
  
  ( adj ) Without ice. He was surprised to see her drink her whiskey straight.
  1910s
• vigorish
  
  ( n ) High interest on a loan. He got the money from a loan shark who charged him 10% a day in vigorish.
  1910s
• welcher
  
  ( n ) Someone who doesn't pay what is owed. You loaned him $10? The welcher will never pay you back.
  1910s
• whacked
  
  ( adj ) Tired, exhausted. I'm whacked; I can't go anywhere tonight.
  1910s
• wino
  
  ( n ) A homeless alcoholic. He always gives change to the winos downtown.
  1910s
• yessir
  
  ( adv ) Yes, a positive answer. Yessir, that lady is my wife.
  1910s
• blues
  
  ( n ) Depression, melancholy. Her boyfriend left her singing the blues
  1910s
• loony bin
  
  ( np ) Insane asylum. Loan you $5? You should be locked up in a loony bin!
  1910s
• curtains
  
  ( n ) The end. If we don't win this game, it's curtains for the coach.
  1910s
• spruce off
  
  ( v ) To avoid a duty by deception. Mike Hunt will tell you he is going to do something then spruce off just when you need it done.
  1910s
• crackpot
  
  ( n ) A crazy person with unworkable ideas. Thor Pearson has some crackpot idea about making powdered water.
  1910s
• fall for
  
  ( v ) Fall in love with. The moment Moine saw Phillippe she fell for him like a ton of bricks.
  1910s
• posh
  
  ( adj ) Luxurious. Larry, Harry, Barry, and Mary stayed in the poshest hotel in Paris.
  1910s
• on the make
  
  ( pp ) Flirting, making advances on people of the opposite sex. Clara Belle was down at the bar last night on the make.
  1910s
• floozy
  
  ( n ) A woman of loose morals Juan Carlos came to the party with some floozy he picked up at a bar.
  1910s
• floozie
  
  ( n ) A woman of loose morals Juan Carlos came to the party with some floozie he picked up at a bar.
  1910s
• gussy
  
  ( v ) To dress up. Well, look at Maud Lynn Dresser! Isn't she all gussied up?
  1910s
• crumb
  
  ( n ) A mean, despicable person. The dirty crumb walked out and stuck me with the tab.
  1910s
• simp
  
  ( n ) A stupid or foolish person. That simp doesn't know how to tie his shoes!
  1910s
• beat
  
  ( v ) Stump, be incomprehensible. It beats me how Snerdley pays for the gas for that car of his.
  1910s
• do-hickey
  
  ( n ) An object for which a name is unavailable. Gert, do you know what this do-hickey on my tricycle is for?
  1910s
• doohickey
  
  ( n ) An object for which a name is unavailable. There is something wrong with some little doohickey on my car engine.
  1910s
• dilly
  
  ( n ) Something excellent, outstanding. Lester Workwithe just bought a dilly of a car from
  1910s
• pug-ugly
  
  ( adj ) Very ugly. Luella and her pug-ugly friend came to the party late.
  1910s
• roscoe
  
  ( n ) A handgun. Gimme yer roscoe, Roscoe; I can't crack this walnut with my teeth."
  1910s
• meathook
  
  ( n ) A hand. Get your meathooks off me!
  1910s