A hardboiled glossary

by John Knoerle

The argot of the underworld has a poetry all its own. Consider the following.

"The buttons don’t like it when a slewfoot gets topped. Especially with his own gat by a gowed-up twist in a rib joint."

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, plasters, snaps - cash money, dollar bills

boiler - car

bollixed - fouled up

bones - dice

box job - safe cracking

bughouse - insane asylum

busted flush - a bad deal, 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 - a casket

Chicago typewriter - a machine gun

to chill, clip, grease, ice, push, set over, spot, top, top off - to kill

Chinese angle - unusual twist

to chump - to fool, put one over on

to clank - to panic

clean sneak - a 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 - to 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, jane, twist, wren - a woman

frogskin - a dollar bill

to gaff - to 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 - to get drunk

gink - a 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 - a fatality with a knife

head full of bees - crazy

heaters, peepers - eyes

heeled - carrying a gun

highbinder - a corrupt politician

hotcha - desirable, especially a woman

ing bing - a fit, an outburst

in jigtime - quickly

jingle brained - addled

to jug - to incarcerate

juice dealer - a loan shark

kelly, lid, skimmer - a man’s hat

kick - complaint

the lay - the setup, the arrangement

lay paper - to pass counterfeit cash

left handed - dubious, unlucky

loogan - a hoodlum, especially Irish

lox jockey - a Jew

lunch hooks - hands

map - face

the mop - the final word, the summation of events

mush, yap - the mouth

to nick - to 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

pissing on ice - living well

a plaster - a tail, also a banknote

pro skirt - a prostitute

rats and mice - dice, craps

rib joint - a brothel

rub joint - a dance 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

send over - to betray

on the shake, to shake - practicing blackmail

shamus - private eye, also a police informer

slapman - an undercover cop

slewfoot - a cop

table grade - said of an attractive woman

tag - an arrest warrant

taped - under control, cinched

throw a bop into - have sex with

tip your mitt - show your hand

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

 

PHRASES

all 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 SLANG

appleknocker - 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

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

 

 Copyright© 2004 John Knoerle

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Read an extract from John Knoerle's Two Jacks

JOHN KNOERLE was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1949. His family migrated to California in the early ‘60’s. John has an eclectic writing history. He started out as a stand up comic in LA, opening for the likes of Jay Leno and Robin Williams. He went on to write several screenplays, including Quiet Fire, which starred Karen Black and Lawrence Hilton Jacobs. He also wrote the stage play The He-Man Woman Hater’s Club, an LA Time’s Critic’s Choice. John also worked as a staff writer for Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion and as fiction editor of Mystery magazine. He moved to Chicago in 1996 with his wife Judie and began his quest to write the great American novel. His first book, “Crystal Meth Cowboys”, was published in 2003 by Blue Steel Press. His novel “The Violin Player” won the 2003 Mayhaven Publishing Fiction Contest and will be published in early 2004. He is currently at work on “Two Jacks”, a crime novel set in Cleveland in 1945.
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