Middle School.
Hot sun, sweltering classrooms. Lots of crunchy granola types in varying degrees of bourgeois rebellion.
Hummus had a sharp mind. Like me tries to stay away from the gossip mongers in the lunchroom. Hummus hates the lunchlady too.
Flat Bread runs one of the SDC rooms.
Now, I'm an accepting type. Let your freak flag fly, right?
I don't care what you shave or don't shave, as long as I keep it out of MY mouth, do as you wish. I'm cool with natural scent. I hate perfume and sympathize with the chemically sensitive sometimes.
But GOD DAMMIT!
Crusty Punks don't belong in the classroom. Or, rather, Crusty Hippies don't.
Flat Bread was so impressed with Hummus' retro thing that she adopted a bit more of the birkenstock thing. Skimpy summer dresses, no sleeves, no deodorant, oh no.
She's one of those teachers, likes to get down to the students level, "to communicate" on their level, as she says.
So one day I'm in Flat Breads classroom and she is leaning over a students shoulder, nipple resting on his collarbone. That was the first thing I noticed. When I'm closer it hits me. That smell. Like Maude after a roofing job in Tucson.
Fight the Power, Not the Shower!
Just cause the government stinks, doesn't mean you have to.
For her birthday Hummus got her one of those crystal stick deodorants. Wonder if she ever used it.
Poor fucking kids.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Fuck Homework!
That's all he would say.
"Fuck Homework".
He was rockin his ing-bing.
He didn't know at first that I agreed with him, later it was a given.
I was responsible for the after school homework program at the multiservice center for families in crisis. This was at a city you have never visited, inhabited by folks you'll never meet. The names have been changed because I respect confidentiality. I shall modify the slang colloquilisms to avoid any obvious regional dialects. (See the Glossary Below for assistance)
"C'mon lefteye, you have this stack of paper to finish. Get to work."
"No, fuck homework."
He was smart enough to tackle the material he was tasked with. Lefteye was the smart one in a terrible twosome with Biscuit. They roamed the hallways of the building after curfew. Nobody ever said a thing to 'em. Biscuit was touched. Liked to scoff, almost all he would talk about. Some murmured that Biscuit was Lefteye's Angelina. I knew better.
Lefteye wielded his charisma like a weapon. When he was in a good mood he would naturally light up a room with little effort.
Bis was rockin the Lenny angle. He tasted it and it tasted bad, five more licks and he decided OK, time to stop. Followed by five more licks. He was charming though, in his crazy wisdom. Reminded me of Mullah Nasruddin.
Fuck Homework.
It took a while to get it out of him. He didn't want to relinquish the power of having an adult ask repeatedly.
At school, in the two & a half hours he was there he got into it with his science teacher. To him we are all straight bums on the plush.
She called him an asshole under her breath and he heard it. She was one of the very few teachers he ever tried to please. He didn't care too much about that, it was easier to hate her, less work.
The social studies teacher liked the science teacher. The kids knew it. They talked, teachers and students alike. After the run in with her, the SS teacher loaded up the assignments on Lefteye. Shit other students didn't have to do. Shit was coming to a head for Lefteye.
I asked and he finally answered.
" I'ma clout". I know his mom is a snowbird blister. You would know too. Passin her in a bag of stampers, she stood out. He was facing sleep in the clubhouse. I think somebody at his school had the ear of the town clowns. He thought more drama and they were gonna beef on him. It'd be his cherry.
Someone was fomenting his bull horrors. "Mr. Block", my super, could arrange for kids to sleep a spell in the crowbar hotel. Never saw him do so though.
Moms didn't give a fuck, at least in front of others. Behind closed door's, who knows? June fucking Cleaver for all I know.
He told me his drama, and I kept trying to give hime advice. None of it caught his attention, he just kept bitching in a full and floridly descriptive manner probably not appropriate for the other three people in the room. All of whom younger than the two of us.
It kept coming, nonstop. Til Supertight walked by, a looker-a real number. No crotch crickets there. The mostly empty vending machines are just beyond our classroom on the third floor. Just bored fat rent-a-pigs and giggling children feeding their sugar highs pass our door.
Supertight.
He was gone in a flash. Came back only after realizing he needed me to supply the pass. He could leave at will, go to another floor, go home (the studio they live in here at the center), just couldn't hang on this floor without a pass. This is ostensibly to prevent playing in the halls, distracting the "good" kids who were there to do their work. Yet the only vending machines that worked, kind of, were outside our door. Everyone came there and nobody ever had to show a pass but the poor bastards in the homework program I was supposed to supervise. Fucking useless house dick. Only seemed to muck with the kids tryin.
Nothing I ever said changed a fucking thing. Supervised?
Supertight. I saw her too. I understood his need for a break. She was alone and thirsty, who'd wanna jaw with me.
Supertight!
I lie. I didn't understand. I was pissed he wasn't taking my advice. Writing down every priceless word I uttered for his benefit.
Everyone else was charging thru their homework like champs. Glad for the break.
He returned, licking his wounds but satisfied with the attempt. She plays, he said. She knows he is the one with access to the alki. Leftover henny bottles, stolen from the crib. He could produce quick-like a jorum of skee for the honeybee. Juju's were nothin special, everyones holdin here, everyone.
Fuck homework, he said with a smirk.
He had to be there cause his neighbor would play him a patsy. SHe looked out for his mom. No one else for him. His uncle Ant was a loogan. 86'd from the building. He's building stacks with his bottom bitch. No time for Lefteye.
I gave him the lay. Homework. He's makin this harder than need be. I start my peaching bout others he knew not cutting it. He needn't be in the same category. I keep bleating.
Fuck homework.
Ten more minutes of this and I start to ramp up the rhetoric. Why couldn't he pipe to what I was spilling. I thought to put the screws on.
Then Biscuit and Braids. Braids was a sick little dancer. This kid owned the stoop. I wish I had a fraction of his ease. Moved like a master.
B-Boy reborn.
Folks kept their shit tight around him. He could copperfield a key before you finished saying hi.
Lefteye had to go. He couldn't without my approval, I could fuck with him if I wanted and he knew it. I wasn't done inspiring this little bastard, why can't he see that.
Somehow, I let him go. I'm trying to get him to reinvent himself, look at himself, see what's important, accept my valuable guidance, turn his life around avail himself of my resources.
He was gone.
I was happy to get back to my reading.
I ranked him upon his return. I could smell the muggles. He wasn't out on the roof, just a little buzzed. No rummy stiff, this one. I was blowed in the glass to him, or so he said.
Something changed. A few minutes hustlin, a break with benefits. He had his primary reinforcers.
Suddenly homework was no big deal, life goes on. None of his drama was gonna matter in a few days.
He stared at the stack of papers. Five minutes before he touched his pencil.
One hour later he was done. An hour left before I go home.
He did this. On his own.
Alright.
I got no kick.
"Fuck Homework".
He was rockin his ing-bing.
He didn't know at first that I agreed with him, later it was a given.
I was responsible for the after school homework program at the multiservice center for families in crisis. This was at a city you have never visited, inhabited by folks you'll never meet. The names have been changed because I respect confidentiality. I shall modify the slang colloquilisms to avoid any obvious regional dialects. (See the Glossary Below for assistance)
"C'mon lefteye, you have this stack of paper to finish. Get to work."
"No, fuck homework."
He was smart enough to tackle the material he was tasked with. Lefteye was the smart one in a terrible twosome with Biscuit. They roamed the hallways of the building after curfew. Nobody ever said a thing to 'em. Biscuit was touched. Liked to scoff, almost all he would talk about. Some murmured that Biscuit was Lefteye's Angelina. I knew better.
Lefteye wielded his charisma like a weapon. When he was in a good mood he would naturally light up a room with little effort.
Bis was rockin the Lenny angle. He tasted it and it tasted bad, five more licks and he decided OK, time to stop. Followed by five more licks. He was charming though, in his crazy wisdom. Reminded me of Mullah Nasruddin.
Fuck Homework.
It took a while to get it out of him. He didn't want to relinquish the power of having an adult ask repeatedly.
At school, in the two & a half hours he was there he got into it with his science teacher. To him we are all straight bums on the plush.
She called him an asshole under her breath and he heard it. She was one of the very few teachers he ever tried to please. He didn't care too much about that, it was easier to hate her, less work.
The social studies teacher liked the science teacher. The kids knew it. They talked, teachers and students alike. After the run in with her, the SS teacher loaded up the assignments on Lefteye. Shit other students didn't have to do. Shit was coming to a head for Lefteye.
I asked and he finally answered.
" I'ma clout". I know his mom is a snowbird blister. You would know too. Passin her in a bag of stampers, she stood out. He was facing sleep in the clubhouse. I think somebody at his school had the ear of the town clowns. He thought more drama and they were gonna beef on him. It'd be his cherry.
Someone was fomenting his bull horrors. "Mr. Block", my super, could arrange for kids to sleep a spell in the crowbar hotel. Never saw him do so though.
Moms didn't give a fuck, at least in front of others. Behind closed door's, who knows? June fucking Cleaver for all I know.
He told me his drama, and I kept trying to give hime advice. None of it caught his attention, he just kept bitching in a full and floridly descriptive manner probably not appropriate for the other three people in the room. All of whom younger than the two of us.
It kept coming, nonstop. Til Supertight walked by, a looker-a real number. No crotch crickets there. The mostly empty vending machines are just beyond our classroom on the third floor. Just bored fat rent-a-pigs and giggling children feeding their sugar highs pass our door.
Supertight.
He was gone in a flash. Came back only after realizing he needed me to supply the pass. He could leave at will, go to another floor, go home (the studio they live in here at the center), just couldn't hang on this floor without a pass. This is ostensibly to prevent playing in the halls, distracting the "good" kids who were there to do their work. Yet the only vending machines that worked, kind of, were outside our door. Everyone came there and nobody ever had to show a pass but the poor bastards in the homework program I was supposed to supervise. Fucking useless house dick. Only seemed to muck with the kids tryin.
Nothing I ever said changed a fucking thing. Supervised?
Supertight. I saw her too. I understood his need for a break. She was alone and thirsty, who'd wanna jaw with me.
Supertight!
I lie. I didn't understand. I was pissed he wasn't taking my advice. Writing down every priceless word I uttered for his benefit.
Everyone else was charging thru their homework like champs. Glad for the break.
He returned, licking his wounds but satisfied with the attempt. She plays, he said. She knows he is the one with access to the alki. Leftover henny bottles, stolen from the crib. He could produce quick-like a jorum of skee for the honeybee. Juju's were nothin special, everyones holdin here, everyone.
Fuck homework, he said with a smirk.
He had to be there cause his neighbor would play him a patsy. SHe looked out for his mom. No one else for him. His uncle Ant was a loogan. 86'd from the building. He's building stacks with his bottom bitch. No time for Lefteye.
I gave him the lay. Homework. He's makin this harder than need be. I start my peaching bout others he knew not cutting it. He needn't be in the same category. I keep bleating.
Fuck homework.
Ten more minutes of this and I start to ramp up the rhetoric. Why couldn't he pipe to what I was spilling. I thought to put the screws on.
Then Biscuit and Braids. Braids was a sick little dancer. This kid owned the stoop. I wish I had a fraction of his ease. Moved like a master.
B-Boy reborn.
Folks kept their shit tight around him. He could copperfield a key before you finished saying hi.
Lefteye had to go. He couldn't without my approval, I could fuck with him if I wanted and he knew it. I wasn't done inspiring this little bastard, why can't he see that.
Somehow, I let him go. I'm trying to get him to reinvent himself, look at himself, see what's important, accept my valuable guidance, turn his life around avail himself of my resources.
He was gone.
I was happy to get back to my reading.
I ranked him upon his return. I could smell the muggles. He wasn't out on the roof, just a little buzzed. No rummy stiff, this one. I was blowed in the glass to him, or so he said.
Something changed. A few minutes hustlin, a break with benefits. He had his primary reinforcers.
Suddenly homework was no big deal, life goes on. None of his drama was gonna matter in a few days.
He stared at the stack of papers. Five minutes before he touched his pencil.
One hour later he was done. An hour left before I go home.
He did this. On his own.
Alright.
I got no kick.
Sunday, May 1, 2005
General Blog Glossary of Terms
A Dictionary of Old Hobo Slang
Stephen P. Alpert - March 31, 2004
Compiled from many books on hoboes, and also some original material supplied to the author.
~ A ~
accommodation - a local freight train
ace spot - one dollar
airdale - an extreme loner
alkee stiff - a tramp that consumed alcohol
alki - a) an alcoholic b) alcohol
alligator bait - fried or stewed liver
All Tramps Sent Free - Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe RR
anchor - a pick
angel - a person who gives more than you expect
angel food - a mission sermon
Angelina - a punk or road kid acting as a hobo's companion
Auntie - Angelina grown older
antique - an old-timer on the road
apple knocker - an apple picker
Apple Butter Route - Norfolk and Western RR (southern Ohio)
axle grease - butter
axle swinging - riding under a railroad car
~ B ~
badorder - a boxcar on its way to the repair yard
bad road - a railroad or division where trainmen are especially hard on hoboes
bakehead - a fool or idiot
baldy - an old man
bale of straw - a blonde woman
balling the Jack - speeding
ball lump - sandwiches or cake wrapped up and handed to a tramp
balloon - a pack or bedroll, carried over the back or shoulder
banjo - a short-handed shovel
baraby - a genteel, quiet, respectful tramp
barber - to talk, usually too much
barnacle - a fellow who sticks to one job a year or more
barrel house - a cheap, filthy lodging house
batter - to beg
batting - to wander aimlessly
battleship - a high-sided steel coal car usually with a hopper or dump bottom
bazoo - mouth
beagles - hot dogs
bedroom of stars - a city park
to beef on - to inform
beefer - a) one who whines b) an informer
belly of a drag - the underside of a slow freight train
belly robber - a boarding boss who tries to save money on food
ben - a vest
benny - an overcoat
biddies - hen's eggs
the Big Burg - New York City
big four - a duck egg omelet
Big "G" - Great Northern RR
big hook - a big steam crane
big house - the state penitentiary
big O - a train conductor
Big Ole - a fellow who tries to show the boss how strong he is
big school - the state penitentiary
the Big Smoke - Pittsburgh
Big Rock Candy Mountain - the hobo's paradise
the Big Town - a) New York City b) Chicago
bindle - a bundle, bag, bedroll, or backpack carried by a hobo
bindle stick - a stick used to carry a bindle over the shoulder
bindle stiff - a) a hobo who carries his gear in a sack or bundle b) a hobo who carries his bedding
biscuit - a silver dollar
biscuit shooter - camp waiter or hash slinger
bit - a term in prison
bitch - an improvised candle
Bitter Biscuit Line - Piedmont divisions of the Southern RR
black bottle - poison allegedly given to hoboes in hospitals
black strap - coffee
blanket stiff - a hobo who carries his bedding
blind - the space between the engine and the mail or baggage car
blind baggage - hoboes who ride the blind
blinky - a train rider who lost one or both eyes
blip - a nickel
blister - an old woman
blisters - beggars who put chemicals on their limbs to simulate ugly sores
Mr. Block - one who believes police mean well and sharks are good fellows
block scrapings - meat begged from a butcher
blowed in the glass - trustworthy
blowed-in-the-glass stiff - a) an upper-class tramp b) a true and trusted pal
blowing smoke - boasting
B.N. - Burlington Northern
bob tail - a short local freight train
bo-ette - a female hobo
Bohunk - A Polish or other Slavic laborer
boil up - to wash clothes and kill any vermin therein
bone orchard - a graveyard
bone polisher - a wicked dog
boodle - cheap grafting done by yeggs
boodle jail - a jail providing a good winter's lodging
boomer - a) a transient railroad worker b) a seasonal or migratory worker
booming - going from one job to another
booster - a chronic drunk
booze hoister - a heavy drinker
bossy in a bowl - beef stew
boston - a pool game
Boston bum - a highbrow poser
bottle wagon - an iron coal car
Bowery barometer - curbstone philosopher from the New York main stem
boxcar tramp - one who regularly rides boxcars
boxcar Willies - hoboes and tramps
bracers - legs
braky - a brakeman
Bread and Milk Route - Boston & Maine RR
breezer - a hobo
bridal chamber - a) a flop house where guests lie on the floor b) a miner's workplace
Bridgeport - any hick town
bridge snake - a structural iron worker
bridger - a train rider who has ridden both steam and diesel trains
Broken & Maimed - Boston & Maine RR
Browning Sisters - the Angelina sorority
Buck - a Catholic priest good for a dollar
budge - an upper front pocket
bug - a lamp in a hobo jungle
bull - railroad policeman
bull artist - a hobo with a gift of gab
bull cook - a) a camp flunky; b) a cook's helper
bullets - beans, when poorly cooked and hard
bull horrors - obsessive fear of the police
bull local - a freight which travels between divisions, often stopping at local yards
bum - a skid row alcoholic, infrequently found on freight trains, does not work
bumpers - couplings between freight cars where hoboes sometime ride
bums on the plush - the idle rich
The Bum's Own - Baltimore & Ohio RR
bundle tosser - a hobo harvest hand who pitches bundles
buttermilker - a hobo from Pittsburgh, PA
buzz - to beg
~ C ~
C. and A. pockets - huge pockets on the inside of a coat for carrying food
cackleberries - eggs
cacklers - white collar workers
cages - cubicle rooms in the cheap lodging houses
Cali - California
California blanket - newspapers, used to sleep under
call - a hobo dish of mashed potatoes, butter liverwurst and onions
calling in - a ) using another's campfire to cook b) visiting
cally or callie - a police station (from calaboose)
camp eye - the hobo who looks after jungle while the others are away
candle eater - a Russian
candy job - a pleasant or "sweet" job
canned heater - one who drank a deadly potion of cheap alcohol and water
Canned Meat & Stale Punk - Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul RR
cannonball - a ) a fast freight train b) the mythical hobo's train which is fast and goes everywhere
Captain - a head man or big shot
card man - a union man or hobo with a red I.W.W. card
car knocker - a yard man who works assembling trains
The Carry All - Chicago & Alton RR
carry the banner - to walk the streets all night, not having a place to sleep
case dough - the last of your bankroll
Casey - Kansas City, MO
cat - a young tramp or hobo, new to the roads
cat wagon - a brothel on wheels
catch - to board a train
catch back - to ride the way you have come on a freight
catch him on the run - to board a train while it is moving
catting in - using another's campfire to cook
cattle stiff - a cowboy
chaw - an Irishman
checkerboard crew - mixed crew of white and black workers
cheesy - to be filthy with dirt
chicken in the clay - a fowl rolled in mud and then roasted
chuck-a-dummy - to fake a fainting fit in order to get sympathy
chronicker - a hobo who carried his cooking utensils
Cincie - Cincinnati, OH
cinder dick - a railway policeman who rode the trains
cinder sifter - tramping along the railroad tracks
the City - New York City
clam - one dollar
clay on the shuck - ears of corn rolled in clay and put to roast
clover kicker - farmer
coal passer - fireman
coffee bag - the coat pocket (where the coffee is carried)
Cold, Hungry & Damp - Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton RR
collar and shoulder style - everything is put on the table and the hobo guest helps himself
combination stew - a jungle dish of vegetables and meat
combination train - a mixed passenger and freight local train
comet - a) hobo new to the road b) a high-class hobo or tramp who only rides fast trains
con (or connie) - a) conductor b) a tubercular person
convention - any impromptu gathering of hoboes
coop - jail
Cough and Snort - Colorado and Southern RR
Cousin Jack - a Englishman
cover with the moon - to sleep in the open
cozzy - a men's public lavatory
crimps - rheumatism
croaker or crocus - a doctor, especially a quack
crotch crickets - crabs (lice)
crowbar hotels - local police stations
crumb boss - a janitor or porter for western construction-camp bunkhouses
crumbs - lice
crummy - a) the caboose b) to be lousy
crum roll - a bed roll
crums - lice
culls - hash, inferior
cushions - a passenger train or car
cut out - to drop off one or more freight cars on a siding or in a freight yard
~ D ~
dace - a two-cent piece
daddy - a Cadillac auto
dago red - a cheap wine
Damn Rotten Grub - Denver, Rio Grande RR
damper - cash register
de - the
deadhead - an empty car in back of the engine tender
dead one - a) a retired hobo b) a drunken hobo c) a hobo who just spent all his money
dead picker - a yegg who robs a drunk
dead soldier - an empty whiskey bottle lying beside the road
death wood - plank above the coupling of boxcars
deck address - a secret address
deck 'em - to ride the top of a passenger train
deck hand - a domestic, who does ordinary work around the house
decorate the mahogany - to buy the drinks
deece - a dime
deep-sea chef - a dishwasher
dehorn - denatured alcohol
derail - denatured alcohol
deuce - two dollars
dicer or dice train - a fast freight train
dicer - a hat
dimmer - a dime
ding bat - a dreg of vagrantdom; mooches off other hoboes
dingoes - hoboes who refuse to work even though they claim to be looking for a job
ding shop - a mission or transient camp
dingy - a colored vagabond
dino - one who sponged food off fellow hoboes
dip - a pickpocket
discard artist - one who wears picked up clothes
ditch - to put off a train
division - main freight yards, usually 500 miles apart
doc - someone who supplies alcohol
Doctor Bates - a tough hobo
dog house - caboose
dog robber - a boarding house keeper
The Dope - Baltimore & Ohio RR
double-ender - a train with two engines and two cabooses
doughhead - a baker
doughnut philosopher - a hobo who is satisfied with coffee and feed
drag - a) a slow freight train b) the main street of a town c) a homosexual party
drag, on the - on the road or on the street of a town
drag line - track onto which a train is pulled when being passed on the main line
Dr. Hall - alcohol, liquor
drill - a) to walk or hike b) a switch engine
dry combo - a meal that needed no cooking
ducket - a ticket or card good for a feed or a flop
duffer - bread and coffee
duke player - a person who cheats at cards or checkers
dukie - anything to eat
dummy - a tramp that pretends to be deaf and dumb
dump - a meeting place, a rendezvous
dynamiter - one who sponged food off fellow hoboes
dyno - a) a tramp who follows the highway instead of the railroad b) a tramp who begs off other tramps c) a rock man who handles dynamite
~ E ~
eagle eye - locomotive engineer
eat snowballs - to stay north on the road in the winter
empty - an empty boxcar, without a load of freight
Espee - Southern Pacific RR
exhibition meal - a meal eaten at the doorstep (so neighbors can witness madam's generosity)
extra gang - a crew that works on the railroad track
eye opener - an early morning drink
~ F ~
faded bogey - a Negro acting as an informer
fag - a) a cigarette butt b) a road kid with homosexual tendencies
fakir - a bum or tramp pretending to be a hobo
faith man - a mission stiff
fanner - being hit on the soles while sleeping on a park bench
fielder - a brakeman
fin - five dollars
fingy or fingers - a train rider who lost one or more fingers
fish - jail term for new prisoners
fisheries - missions along the main stem
First of May - an new, inexperienced hobo
five-hundred milers - through freights that stop only at divisions
flannel mouth - an Irishman
flat - a flat car
flat-wheeler - a bad-riding car
fleabag - a bedroll or sleeping bag
flicker - to faint or simulate fainting
flim-joint - a bank
flip - to hop a moving train
flop - to sleep, or a place to sleep
flopper - a tramp that squats on the sidewalk in business thoroughfares; may fake being crippled
flying light - a) hungry b) traveling without a bindle
fly-away - a military deserter
flyer - an express train
fly light - to miss a meal
fly mugs - private police
forty-fives - navy beans
Foul Water & Dirty Cars - Fort Worth & Denver City RR
freezer - a refrigerator car
Frenchy - a French-Canadian hobo
fresno - a roadbed scraper drawn by horses
frisk a drag - to search a freight for a suitable riding place
frog (or frog eater) - a Frenchman
fusee - a warning device to place on the track
fuzzy tail - a) a dreg of vagrantdom b) a tramp in bad humor
~ G ~
galway - a priest
gandy dancer - a) a railroad worker b) a hobo shovel stiff
gandy stiff - one who occasionally labored, a day or two at the most
gas - wood alcohol or doped cider or ether
gat - a gun
gate - a railway switch
gay cat - a) a tenderfoot hobo b) someone employed as a scout by criminal tramps
George - a) one who is shrewd, alert, and well informed b) everything is fine
get a fanner - to be moved on by the police
ghosts - beggars who simulate pallor, haggardness, or disease
ghost story - plausible tale told to the housewife
giggle - a gumbo made by gandy dancers
Gila-monster route - part of the Southern Pacific running through Arizona
gink - a poor unfortunate
gink stiff - same as gandy stiff
gin mill - a) a speakeasy b) a leather wallet
Give Tie Passes - Grand Trunk Pacific RR
glauming - gathering or stealing
glims - spectacles
glomming the grapevine - stealing clothes from a clothesline
G.N. - Great Northern
goat - a yard locomotive
going by hand - walking
going on the farm - a train going on a side track
go junking - to scavenge for scrap metal or other material to sell for salvage
gondola (or gonnie) - a shallow, uncovered car
gonsil - a youth not yet adopted by a jocker
gooseberrying - stealing clothes off a clothesline
gooseberry ranch - a brothel
goozlum - thick and gummy in substance (mud, food, etc.)
go with the birds - to go south for the winter
grab and armful of boxcars - catch a freight train
grabbing scenery - an inexperienced hobo easily spotted as he watches the scenery
grab iron - a bar welded onto a boxcar and held onto when jumping over the couplings
grainer - a freight car for carrying heavy loads that need protection from the elements
graveyard - hash
graveyard stew - hot milk and toast (for those of few or no teeth)
grease ball - a dreg of vagrantdom
grease ranch - restaurant
grease the track - suicide by leaping in front of a train
grinder - teeth
groundhog - brakeman
growler - a can of beer
gummy - a hobo who goes along with the crowd but never contributes
gumbo - an old can used by a tramp or hobo
gump - chicken
gun boat - a) a steel coal car b) an empty tin can for cooking or washing clothes
gun moll - a dangerous woman tramp
gunnels (or gunnells) - the rods of a train where hoboes ride
gunsel (or guntzel) - a green youth
gut plunge - a trip to the butcher to beg for meat for the Mulligan
guts - meat, usually sausage
gyppo - a sub-contractor with poor equipment
~ H ~
half a yard - fifty dollars
halfy - train rider who lost both legs above the knees
ham - to walk about the country
hand the match - giving an intruder a match to make his own fire, indicating he is not welcome
hard oil - butter
hard tails - old mules
harness bulls - uniformed policemen
harvest buzzard - a hobo who works in the harvest
hasher - a female cookhouse helper
hay bag - a female hobo or stew bum
head end - the front section of a train (locomotive and water tender)
headlights - eggs
heifer - any young woman
helpers - extra engines attached to a train to pull it over an upgrade
hidden hands - beggars who hide or bind their hands
hieser - tramp
highball - a ) to go full speed b) two whistle toots signaling that a train is about to move
highball whistle - one short and one long whistle signaling a train is about to leave
high diver - a yegg who picks pockets
high fence - a man's white neck collar
high heels - a woman hobo, or women hoboes collectively
high iron - the main line of the railroad
high jacket - a yegg who robs hoboes
High Line - the old Great Northern route through the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Washington
high-roller - a hustling tramp
High Yaller Line - Savannah & Atlanta RR
hiker - town Marshall
the Hill - the Sierra Nevadas
His Nibs - police court judge
hit a lick - make a score
hit the ball - to speed up on the job
hitting grounders - picking up cigarette butts
hitting a New Yorker - finding a long cigarette butt
hitting the grit - a) walking along tracks b) being forces off a fast moving train
hobo belt - the citrus belt of California (a favorite wintering place)
Hobohemia - the universe of the hobo
hobo nighthawk - a railroad policeman disguised as a hobo
hobo shortline - suicide by flinging oneself in front of a train
hobo special - a freight train of empty cars
hog - a locomotive
hogger (or hog mauler or hoghead) - engineer
hogleg - a long-barreled gun
holding the lady (or her) down - riding the rods under a train car
home guard - a native, non-migrating worker
honey dipping - working as a shovel stiff in a sewer, or any unpleasant shovel work
hoop chisler - a peddler of worthless rings and watches
hoosier - the natives, generally simple fellows (rubes, hicks, yaps)
hooty - angry
Hoover blankets - see California blankets
hoppins - ingredients
the Horn - the triangular extension of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy RR
Horned Toad - the Albuquerque-Deming stem of the Santa Fe
horstile - a town unfriendly to hoboes
hot - a) illegal and dangerous b) fast c) wanted by the law
hot boxes - old-style lubrication on boxcar axles that created a rough ride
hot shot (or hotshot) - a freight train that goes cross country without breaking up
hot stuff - stolen goods
hot yard - a freight yard where hoboes are arrested for riding
house dog - someone who cleans windows, beats carpets, does other housework
how strong are you? - how much money do you have
hump - a) a small hill in a freight yard over which uncoupled cars are pushed b) the continental divide
hundred on a plate - a can of beans
hunger lane - a railroad that passes through country hostile to hoboes
hunt a wampus - a wild goose chase
hustle buggy - police vehicle
~ I ~
ice palace - a high class saloon or brothel (with many mirrors)
ink - cheap red wine
Irish turkey - corned beef and cabbage
iron man - a silver dollar
irons - rails
~ J ~
Jack - a generic term for any hobo or man
jack - money
jack-roller - one who robs a drunken person
Jake - everything is fine
jake leg - a chronic drunk
Jane - any woman or girl
java - coffee
jawbone - credit in the company store
The Jawbone - the Montana RR
J.B. - a Stetson hat
jerk town or jerkwater town - a small village or town
jerries - section hands
jerry gang - a railroad construction crew
Jesus guy - a mission stiff
jiggers - pretending affection to elicit sympathy while begging
jitney or jit - a nickel
jocker - a) an experienced hobo who taught minors that way of life b) the relationship was often sexual
Joe - coffee
John Brown Division - Harper's Ferry division of the B & O RR
John Family - farmers, police, or yeggs
John Hollow Legs - a hungry stiff
Johnny O'Brien - a boxcar
John O'Brien - a freight train
Johnson Family - the yegg community
join out - to hire out in order to gain transportation
jolt - a jail sentence
jolt wagon - a rough riding farm wagon
juble joo - yegg term for riding on top of a train
jug - a jail or prison
jug heister - a chronic drunk
jump the blind - ride on the platform of a baggage car
jungle - a) a hobo camp b) a social group that occupies a camp c) to camp together
jungle buzzard - a dreg of vagrantdom; one who begs around hobo jungles
jungle up - to rest, wash, and eat in a jungle
junk - drugs
junker (or junky) - a) fellow who uses drugs; b) a local work train
~ K ~
kale - money
The Katy - Missouri Kansas & Texas RR
Kay See - Kansas City, MO
keister - suitcase
kelly - a hat
kelly stick - a device to aid in washing clothes and boiling up
key men - skilled workers
kick - a pocket in trousers
kicks - shoes
kip - a) to sleep b) a bed
kip house - a tramps or vagrants lodging house
kip jack or dough - money for a bed or lodging
knobhead - a mule
knob-knocker - safe-cracker
knowledge box - schoolhouse where hoboes sometimes sleep
ky wah - a hobo pitchman selling jewelry, pens, novelties
~ L ~
lace curtains - whiskers
the Lake - Salt Lake City
lakers - hoboes who work on the Great Lakes and go south for the winter
lamb - a boy tramp or road kid
lambing - to heard sheep
Land of Manna - State of Utah
Land of Milk and Honey - State of Utah
leather poke - wallet
lee of a reefer - icebox on a refrigerator car, a potential place to ride
lefty - a train rider who lost left arm and leg
Less Sleep and More Speed - Lake Shore and Michigan Southern RR
library birds - unemployed men who lounge in libraries for shelter
lid - a cap or hat
lighthouse - a) one who can recognize plainclothes detectives b) a stingy person
light pieces - small gifts of money
limpy - a cripple
line - the underworld
little red wagon - a dump wagon
little school - reform school or house of correction
lizzie moocher - a tramp who panhandles food and gas in a car
load of culls - a plate of hash
Long Island peek - a sly glance from the corner of the eye
louse cage - a hat
Lousy Anna - Louisiana
lump - a handout (a sack or package of food)
lump oil - coal
~ M ~
Ma and Pa RR - Maryland & Pennsylvania RR
made - the assembling of a train
main line - the track in the yard on which the through trains run
main stem - main street of a city or neighborhood
make a hole in the water - suicide by drowning
making a riffle - begging money
makins - tobacco; cigarette tobacco and papers
manifest - a fast train
mark - a hobo sign relaying information to other hoboes
meg - a penny
mess moll - a woman cook
Mickeyville - Mechanicsville, NY
milestone inspector - a professional; tramp
mill - a locomotive
Milk and Honey route - railroads through Mormon territory
minister's face - pig's head server in cheap restaurants
mission squawker - an evangelist
mission stiff - a tramp who lives in a mission
mitts - a train rider who lost one or both hands
mix me a hike - Pay me off! Give it to me!
moll-buzzers - women who pickpockets or begs from other women
mongee - money
moniker - a nickname
monitor - a long cigar butt
monkey chasers - West Indians or other Negroes from the tropics
mooch - to beg, usually at back doors
moocher - a professional beggar
Mop - Missouri Pacific RR
Mop Mary - a scrubwoman
moper - a bum who is even lower than a moocher
Mop Mary - a scrub woman
mop stick - barfly in a cheap saloon
muck stick - a long-handled shovel
mud - a) coffee b) strong coffee mixed with weak milk
mule - corn alcohol
The Mullet Line - Atlantic & East Carolina RR
Mulligan stew - hobo stew
mumbly pegs - a woman's legs
munies - municipal lodging houses
mushfaker - an umbrella mender or other repairman
mush rigger - an umbrella mender
mush talk - flattery
~ N ~
nail a rattler - catch a train
Nat Wills - an old suit
navy - a long cigar butt
Never Come, Never Go - Nevada County Narrow Gauge RR (Calif.)
nickel flop - an all-night movie house
nickel note - a five dollar bill
noch - a Hebrew shelter for homeless men
nose bag - lunch handed out in a paper sack
nose diver - a tramp who lives in a mission
N.P. - Northern Pacific
nuttery - hospital for the insane
~ O ~
obie - post office
Octopus - the Southern Pacific Railroad
odd fellows - three doughnuts and coffee
oil of joy - any strong drink
O'Leary - to walk
Oliver - the moon
One-Eyed Connolly - a gate crasher
one of the burlap sisters - a prostitute
one thousand miles - a dark or black shirt
on the hog - having no money
on the hummer - being on the bum but not down and out
on the plush - well off financially
on the uppers - being on the bum and nearly down and out
O.P.C - other people's cigarettes, recycled
open road - a railroad or division easy to travel (opposite of bad road)
Original Ham and Egg Route - Oberlin, Hampton and Eastern RR
outfit - a number of hoboes traveling in company (term later adopted by military in WWI)
outside 'bo - a hobo who winters outside
outside ride - riding a freight car exposed to the elements
~ P ~
P.A. - Pennsylvania
pack of butts - a package of cigarettes
padding the hoof - going by foot
pale Vienna - coffee made with cream instead of water
palooka - a riving fighter who lives in the past
papa - a Lincoln automobile
park ape - a tramp who suns himself in city parks
Paul Bunyan - a chronic but interesting liar
pay station - a social welfare agency that gives out money
pay streak - a job that pays well
pearl diver - a dishwasher
peanut farm - workhouse where the inmates crack stones
pea soup - a French Canadian, often a lumberjack
peatman (or peterman) - a safe-blower
peddler - a local or slow freight
peg - a train rider who lost a foot
the Peg - Winnipeg, Canada
pennies - money, cash
pennsy - a coal car
Pennsy - Pennsylvania RR
Pennsylvania feathers - soft coal or coke
Pennsylvania salve - apple butter
Peoria - thin soup, generally potato water with salt
pershin - see prushun
pete man - a safe cracker or burglar
phony crip - self-mutilated or simulating a deformity
phony stiff (or phony man) - one who sells fraudulent or cheap jewelry
pickets - teeth
pie card - one who hangs around someone with money
pig - a box car or other train car
piggyback - a flat car on which a truck-trailer is bolted
pig's vest with buttons - sow belly, or any fat bacon
pile driver - good strong coffee
pill roller (or pill peddler) - a doctor
Pitsy - Pittsburgh, PA
Peoria (or Peory water) - a thin soup, usually potato water with salt
pickets - teeth
pig - a locomotive
pig iron dump - a hardware store
pig's vest with buttons - sow belly, fat bacon
pile driver - good strong coffee
pill peddler - a physician
pimp's turban - a bowler hat
pin grease - butter
pipe - to mooch or beg
piping the stem - begging on the streets
P.K. - the principal keeper of the little school
plainer - a hobo walking or riding through the Great Plains
plaster - butter
pling - to beg
plinger - a tramp that solicits alms at stores, offices, and residences
plinging - walking fast
plough jockey - a farmer
pogey (or pogie) - an almshouse or workhouse or poorhouse
poke - a wallet
pokeout - handout
pokey stiff - one who subsists on handouts solely
polish the mug - wash one's face and hands
poodle - town Marshal
possesh - a road kid
possish - one's position in the tramp's social scale
possum belly - riding atop or the deck under a passenger coach
postman - a hobo who goes fast and far
pot gang - a cluster of hoboes around a pot in a hobo jungle
pot walloper - a dish and pot washer
pound the ear - to sleep
power - engines
preshun - punk
privates - private dwellings
profesh - an experienced hobo, sometimes a criminal
prone the body - to lie down and rest
proper stiff - a tramp who considered manual toil the acme of disgrace
prushun or prushin - a) a young boy on the road b) a boy held in bondage by a jocker
pull a pin (or pull the pin) - to quit
punk - a) a boy discarded by a jocker b) a young hobo c) bread
punk and gut - bread and sausage
punk and plaster - bread and butter
punk and plaster route - traveling among the Pennsylvania Dutch
push - a road gang
pusher - the person in charge of the job
~ Q ~
Q or The Que - Chicago, Burlington & Quincy RR
~ R ~
Rabbi - a frequent moniker of a Jewish hobo
raghead - an oriental, from the turban some wear
rag(s) - a) a book or paper b) clothing c) paper money
railroad bull - a railroad policeman
railroad dick - a railroad policeman
rambler - a high class hobo who rides only fast passenger trains for long distances
rank cats - the lowest form of bum
rattler - a fast train
razor back - a circus roustabout
read your shirt - examine your clothes for lice
ready-mades - store-bought cigarettes
redball - a) a through freight train b) a fast fruit train
red eye - whiskey
red lead - catsup
reefer - refrigerator car
relievers - good shoes
remittance man - a hobo paid by his family to stay away from home
reuben - a small town inhabitant
ride the cushions - a) to live in luxury b) to pay for and ride in the passenger coach
ride the velvet - see ride the cushions
riding bulls - railroad police who ride the trains to arrest or chase off hoboes aboard
righty - a train rider who lost right arm and leg
rip-rapping - reinforcing the sides of a railroad cutting with stones
road hog - a hobo or tramp who is always on the move
road kid - a) a young hobo b) a boy held in bondage by a jocker
road sister - a female hobo
robbing the mail - snatching food and milk delivered at doorsteps early in the morning
Rodney - a tramp or hobo (from rod of a RR car?)
rods - bars beneath a freight car
roll - to rob a sleeping drunk
roundhead - a Swede
rubberglue - a plainclothes cop
rubber tramp - a tramp who lives and travels in an old automobile
rubbydub - denatured alcohol
ruff - a quarter (coin)
rummy stiff - a tramp with deranged intellect from habitual use of raw rum
~ S ~
saddle blankets - hot cakes
sack of weeds - bag of tobacco
Sacred Tract Road - Boston & Albany RR
sagebrush philosopher - a gabby fellow from the west
sales lady - a prostitute
Sally, Sally Ann - Salvation Army
salve - a bribe given to a trainman for a ride
salve eater - a snuff chewing Swede
sand - sugar
sand hog - where sand is kept dry, for use on icy track
Santa Fe Town - San Bernardino, CA
sap - a policeman's club
sawbuck - ten dollars
scatter - a speakeasy
scenery bum - a young tramp on the move for the pleasure of it
scissorbill - a) one who doesn't want to join a labor union b) an ignorant person c) a farmer
scoffing - eating
scrape a mug - shave one's face
scrape the pavement - shave one's face
scrapers school - a barber school where hoboes could get a free haircut and shave
scratch - money or other assets
scratches - trousers
screw your nut - get wise to yourself
seam squirrels - body lice
sea food - a sailor
sea stiff - a sailor tramp
seed - a dollar
set down (or sit down) - having a full meal inside someone's house
set off - leave part of the train behind
sewer hog - a ditch digger
shack - a brakeman
shackle-up - to cook one's stew, especially in a jungle
shack fever - a) tired, sleepy, dopey feeling b) desire to hit the road and travel
shanny - shanty
shanty queen - any woman around a camp
shark - employment agent who sells jobs to hoboes
shatting on the uppers - to be broke
shavetails - a) young mules b) a young army officer of low rank
sheets - newspapers for a bed
shicer or sheister - swindler, shyster
shill through - to get in for free or bluff one's way
shine - a colored vagabond
shiner - a dime
shirt rabbits - lice
shiv (or shive) - a razor
shoo fly - a) a detour track built around a temporary obstacle b) avoid passing though a hobo-hostile town
shoot snipes - to collect discarded cigar and cigarette butts
short staker - a hobo who stays on the job long enough to amass traveling money
shroud - a suit of clothes
shuffler - a jobless worker
Shy - Chicago
side-door pullman - a boxcar
single O -- working alone by preference
sinker - a) a dollar b) a donut
sit down - see set down
sizzler - a) a cook b) a stove
skating on the uppers - dead broke
skee - whiskey
skin - a shirt or blouse
skin hustling - selling fake furs
skinner - a mule driver
skipper - the conductor
skoff - to eat
skuds - lots, plenty
sky blue - vegetable soup with little ingredients
sky piece - a hat
sky pilot - a mission-house or highbrow preacher
slamming a gate - to go to a private house and beg
slave market - employment agency
sleep - a short prison term
slides - shoes
slob sister - a moocher who weeps to his clients
sloughed - to be arrested (pronounced "slowed")
Slow Town - Detroit, MI
slum-gullion - stew, usually uninviting
slum hustling - selling fake jewelry
sly hay bag - a woman hobo who crafted items for sale
smacker - a dollar
smoke - strong liquor
smoke wagon - a pistol
snail - cinnamon roll
snake - switchman
Snakey Route - Oregon & California RR
snapper rig - second-hand suit of clothes
sneaky Pete - cheap wine
snipe - section hand
snipes - gathered-up cigarette or cigar butts
sniping - stealing
Sonora Town - a section of Los Angeles where hoboes wintered
snowball - morphine
snowbird - a person who uses drugs
snow-flier - a tramp that gets himself into jail for winter lodging and shelter
soft shoe - a railroad detective
son of Adam - a tramp willing to work for a snack or a meal
soogan (or sugan) - a blanket or comforter carried by a hobo
sop - gravy
Sow Belly Hack Line - a railroad division in central Tennessee
S.P. - Southern Pacific
spear - a success in mooching or begging
spear biscuits - to retrieve food from garbage cans
speck bum - a stew bum
speed balls - wine
spider - a) a small frying pan with a long handle b) a Ford car
spike pitcher - a harvest field worker
splinter belly - a) a carpenter b) a man who works on bridges and trestles
Spud Route - Bangor & Aroostook RR in Maine
square - a good meal
stable dog - a man who looks after the camp stables
stampers - tramps and hoboes in general
stack of bones - a cheap hash house dish, mostly boiled spare ribs
stake - money in pocket after leaving a job
star routes - country roads where food could be obtained
steam hog - a coal-burning engine
stem - street
stemming - panhandling in cities
sterno - wax soaked with alcohol
stew builder - a hobo camp cook
stew bum - a) a dreg of vagrantdom b) an old hobo wasted by alcohol
Stew Junction - Puyallup, WA
stickers - a) disguised begging by selling court plaster b) postage stamps
sticks - a train rider who lost a leg
stiff - any kind of hobo worker
stiffy - a tramp that simulates being paralyzed
straight crip - one actually crippled or otherwise afflicted
streamlined - traveling with little gear
Studebaker Town - South Bend, IN
student - a youngster on the road
stye bum - a tramp or bum who winters in jail
submarines - doughnuts
substantials - meat and potatoes, and bread and butter
sugan - see soogan
summer birds - tramps and hoboes who go south for the winter
swamper - fellow who cleans out the bar room
sweat board - concrete mixing by hand
sweet back - someone only sampling hobo life
~ T ~
tail end - the end of a train
tailor's helper - a vicious dog
tailor's measure - a $50 bill
tails - tram stops
Take Patience and Walk - Toledo Peoria & Western RR
take the westbound - to die
Take Your Parcels and Walk - Texas Pacific & Western RR
taking the whiskers off - harvesting
talk west - to speak the hobo lingo
tallowpot - the fireman on a train
tally! - I understand, keep me in on it
tank town - a small town where trains stop to take on water
tap city - broke
tar pit - a derby hat
teapot - a locomotive
tear baby - one who bums women or men with women
thick - rich
thick one - a nickel
thin ones - small coins (pennies, nickels, dimes)
thin piece - a dime
third rail - whiskey
thousand-mile paper - thick brown paper used in freight cars for packing
thousand miler - a hobo's dark shirt that doesn't show dirt
through freight - a freight that goes from division to division without breaking up
throw - spend freely
throw my feet - to walk
throw the feet - to beg
throw the guts - to talk freely or too much; to squeal
ticket - a piece of wood placed over the rods for hoboes to sit on
tie pass - a fictitious permit from a RR president to walk along the track
timbers - disguised begging by selling pencils
timber beast - woodsman, logger
timber stiff - itinerant lumberjack
time freight - same as a through freight
tin roof - a free drink (it's "on the house")
tip the office - to warn a fellow hobo with some signal
toby - an English hobo
To Hell and Back - Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo RR
tomato can - can carried by hoboes for heating food, boiling water, etc., often tied to the waist
tooting ringers - ringing house doorbells
toppings - a) dessert at a meal; b) pastry
tossouts - beggars who distort and throw their joints out of order
tourist - general term for all hoboes, tramps, bums and vagrants
town clowns - town police
tramping - traveling on foot
trapeze artist - a rider of the rods
trombenick - a Jewish hobo
trombo - a hobo boxer, or one who hopes to be
turkey - a) a canvas bag for carrying possessions b) a half dollar
Tweetsy - East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR
twist - a woman or girl
twist a dream - roll a cigarette
~ U ~
units - engines
U.P. - Union Pacific
up on top ride - riding on top of a boxcar
upper deck - the top of a train
~ V ~
vag - a) a vagabond b) to arrest for vagrancy
varnish - passenger train
~ W ~
wagon tramps - families who travel in covered wagons
walking dandruff - head lice
wallie - a town bum who never loses sight of the town's walls
wally - a small town sport or gambler
wandering Willy's - hoboes and tramps
wangy - disguised begging by selling shoestrings
warthogs - a trainmaster
way freight - local freight train
Weary Willies - hoboes in general
weave hustling - selling spurious cloth
weeds - hobo jungle
weigh in - to meet
West Bound - what a hobo catches when he passes away
whale belly - a steel coal car
wheel - a leg
Whiskey Railroad - Frankfort & Cincinnati RR
whistle stop - a stop in a division to change crews
white line stiff - a tramp that consumed alcohol
white mule - uncolored moonshine whiskey
white one - a silver watch
Willy or the Willies - Goodwill Industries
windcheater - a burlap bag, feed sack, etc., worn for protection against the elements
wind pudding - air (having nothing to eat is living on wind pudding)
wingy - a train rider who lost one or both arms
wires - a tramp that peddles articles made of stolen telegraph wire
wobs - Wobblies, members of the I.W.W.
wolf - an older hobo who preys on young hoboes
wood butcher - a carpenter
woodhead - a lumberjack
woolies - sheep
working for Jesus - being a mission stiff
working stiff - a tramp or hobo who regularly works
wye - a railroad junction for trains
~ X ~
~ Y ~
yank - to arrest
yap - a) a hick, farmer b) a tenderfoot hobo
yard - $100
yard bull - railroad police who stay in the yards
yard donkey - yard engine used to push segments of trains from one track to another
yard goat - same at yard donkey
yard master - railroad employee who supervises the yard activity
yegg - a roving criminal
yellow one - a gold watch
York - New York City
~ Z ~
zoo - a brothel
zook - a worn out old prostitute
Stolen from Miskatonic University Press:
A
Alderman: A man's pot belly.
Ameche: Telephone
Ankle:
(n) Woman
(v) To walk
B
Babe: Woman
Baby: A person, can be said to either a man or a woman
Bangtails: Racehorses
Barber: Talk
Baumes rush: Senator Caleb H. Baumes sponsored a New York law (the Baumes Law) which called for automatic life imprisonment of any criminal convicted more than three times. Some criminals would move to a state that didn't have this law in order to avoid its penalty should they be caught again, and this was known as a "Baumes rush," because of the similarity to "bum's rush."
Be on the nut, To: To be broke
Bean-shooter: Gun
Beezer: Nose
Behind the eight-ball: In a difficult position, in a tight spot
Bent cars: Stolen cars
Berries: Dollars
Big house: Jail
Big one, The: Death
Big sleep, The: Death (coined by Chandler)
Bim: Woman
Bindle
of heroin: Little folded-up piece of paper (with heroin inside)
the bundle (or "brindle") in which a hobo carries all his worldy possessions
Bindle punk, bindle stiff: Chronic wanderers; itinerant misfits, criminals, migratory harvest workers, and lumber jacks. Called so because they carried a "bindle." George and Lenny in Of Mice and Men are bindle stiffs.
Bing: Jailhouse talk for solitary confinement, hence "crazy"
Bird: Man
Bit: Prison sentence
Blip off: To kill
Blow: Leave
Blow one down: Kill someone
Blower: Telephone
Bo: Pal, buster, fellow, as in "Hey, bo"
Boiler: Car
Boob: Dumb guy
Boozehound: Drunkard
Bop: To kill
Box:
A safe
A bar
Box job: A safecracking
Brace (somebody): Grab, shake up
Bracelets: Handcuffs
Break it up: Stop that, quit the nonsense
Breeze: To leave, go; also breeze off: get lost
Broad: Woman
Broderick, The: A thorough beating
Bruno: Tough guy, enforcer
Bucket: Car
Bulge, as in "The kid had the bulge there": The advantage
Bulls: Plainclothes railroad cops; uniformed police; prison guards
Bum's rush, To get the: To be kicked out
Bump: Kill
Bump gums: To talk about nothing worthwhile
Bump off: Kill; also, bump-off: a killing
Buncoing some (people): Defrauding people
Bunk:
"Take a bunk" - leave, disappear
"That's the bunk" - that's false, untrue
"to bunk" - to sleep
Bunny, as in "Don't be a bunny": Don't be stupid
Burn powder: Fire a gun
Bus: Big car
Butter and egg man: The money man, the man with the bankroll, a yokel who comes to town to blow a big wad in nightclubs (see reference)
Button: Face, nose, end of jaw
Button man: Professional killer
Buttons: Police
Butts: Cigarettes
Buy a drink: To pour a drink
Buzz, as in "I'm in the dump an hour and the house copper gives me the buzz": Looks me up, comes to my door
Buzzer: Policeman's badge
C
C: $100, a pair of Cs = $200
Cabbage: Money
Caboose: Jail (from "calaboose," which derives from calabozo, the Spanish word for "jail")
Call copper: Inform the police
Can:
Jail
Car
Can house: Bordello
Can-opener: Safecracker who opens cheap safes
Canary: Woman singer
Case dough: "Nest egg ... the theoretically untouchable reserve for emergencies" (Speaking)
Cat: Man
Century: $100
Cheaters: Sunglasses
Cheese it: Put things away, hide
Chew: Eat
Chicago lightning: gunfire
Chicago overcoat: Coffin
Chick: Woman
Chilled off: Killed
Chin: Conversation; chinning: talking
Chin music: Punch on the jaw
Chinese angle, as in "You're not trying to find a Chinese angle on it, are you?": A strange or unusual twist or aspect to something
Chinese squeeze: Grafting by skimming profits off the top
Chippy: Woman of easy virtue
Chisel: To swindle or cheat
Chiv, chive: Knife, "a stabbing or cutting weapon" (Speaking)
Chopper squad: Men with machine guns
Clammed: Close-mouthed (clammed up)
Clean sneak: An escape with no clues left behind
Clip joint: In some cases, a night-club where the prices are high and the patrons are fleeced (Partridge's), but in Pick-Up a casino where the tables are fixed
Clipped: Shot
Close your head: Shut up
Clout: Shoplifter
Clubhouse: Police station
Coffee-and-doughnut, as in "These coffee-and-doughnut guns are ...": Could come from "coffee and cakes," which refers to something cheap or of little value.
Con: Confidence game, swindle
Conk: Head
Cool: To knock out
Cooler: Jail
Cop
Detective, even a private one
To win, as in a bet
Copped, To be: Grabbed by the cops
Copper
Policeman
Time off for good behaviour
Corn: Bourbon ("corn liquor")
Crab: Figure out
Crate: Car
Creep joint: ?? Can mean a whorehouse where the girls are pickpockets, but that doesn't fit in Pick-Up
Croak: To kill
Croaker: Doctor
Crushed out: Escaped (from jail)
Cush: Money (a cushion, something to fall back on)
Cut down: Killed (esp. shot?)
D
Daisy: None too masculine
Dame: Woman
Dance: To be hanged
Dangle: Leave, get lost
Darb: Something remarkable or superior
Dark meat: Black person
Daylight, as in "let the daylight in" or "fill him with daylight": Put a hole in, by shooting or stabbing
Deck, as in "deck of Luckies": Pack of cigarettes
Derrick: Shoplifter
Diapers, as in "Pin your diapers on": Clothes, get dressed
Dib: Share (of the proceeds)
Dick: Detective (usually qualified with "private" if not a policeman)
Dinge: Black person
Dingus: Thing
Dip: Pickpocket
Dip the bill: Have a drink
Dish: Pretty woman
Dive: A low-down, cheap sort of place
Dizzy with a dame, To be: To be deeply iin love with a woman
Do the dance: To be hanged
Dogs: Feet
Doll, dolly: Woman
Dope
Drugs, of any sort
Information
As a verb, as in "I had him doped as" - to have figured for
Dope fiend: Drug addict
Dope peddler: Drug dealer
Dormy: Dormant, quiet, as in "Why didn't you lie dormy in the place you climbed to?"
Dough: Money
Drift: Go, leave
Drill: Shoot
Drink out of the same bottle, as in "We used to drink out of the same bottle": We were close friends
Drop a dime: Make a phone call, sometimes meaning to the police to inform on someone
Droppers: Hired killers
Drum: Speakeasy
Dry-gulch: Knock out, hit on head after ambushing
Ducat
Ticket
For hobos, a union card or card asking for alms
Duck soup: Easy, a piece of cake
Dummerer: Somebody who pretends to be (deaf and?) dumb in order to appear a more deserving beggar
Dump: Roadhouse, club; or, more generally, any place
Dust
Nothing, as in "Tinhorns are dust to me"
Leave, depart, as in "Let's dust"
A look, as in "Let's give it the dust"
Dust out: Leave, depart
Dutch
As in "in dutch" - trouble
As in "A girl pulled the Dutch act" - committed suicide
As in "They don't make me happy neither. I get a bump once'n a while. Mostly a Dutch." - ?? relates to the police (Art)
E
Eel juice: liquor
Egg: Man
Eggs in the coffee: Easy, a piece of cake, okay, all right
Elbow:
Policeman
A collar or an arrest. Someone being arrested will "have their elbows checked."
Electric cure: Electrocution
Elephant ears: Police
F
Fade: Go away, get lost
Fakeloo artist: Con man
Fin: $5 bill
Finder: Finger man
Finger, Put the finger on: Identify
Flat
Broke
As in "That's flat" - that's for sure, undoubtedly
Flattie: Flatfoot, cop
Flimflam(m): Swindle
Flippers: Hands
Flivver: A Ford automobile
Flogger: Overcoat
Flop:
Go to bed
As in "The racket's flopped" - fallen through, not worked out
Flophouse: "A cheap transient hotel where a lot of men sleep in large rooms" (Speaking)
Fog: To shoot
Frail: Woman
Frau: Wife
Fry: To be electrocuted
From nothing, as in "I know from nothing": I don't know anything
G
Gams: Legs (especially a woman's)
Gashouse, as in "getting gashouse": Rough
Gasper: Cigarette
Gat: Gun
Gate, as in "Give her the gate": The door, as in leave
Gaycat: "A young punk who runs with an older tramp and there is always a connotation of homosexuality" (Speaking)
Gee: Man
Geetus: Money
Getaway sticks: Legs (especially a woman's)
Giggle juice: Liquor
Gin mill: Bar
Gink: Man
Girlie: Woman
Give a/the third: Interrogate (third degree)
Glad rags: Fancy clothes
Glom
To steal
To see, to take a look
Glaum: Steal
Go climb up your thumb: Go away, get lost
Go over the edge with the rams: To get far too drunk
Go to read and write: Rhyming slang for take flight
Gonif: Thief (Yiddish)
Goofy: Crazy
Goog: Black eye
Goon: Thug
Goose: Man
Gooseberry lay: Stealing clothes from a clothesline (see reference)
Gowed-up: On dope, high
Grab (a little) air: Put your hands up
Graft:
Con jobs
Cut of the take
Grand: $1000
Greasers:
Mexicans or Italians.
A hoodlum, thief or punk.
Grift:
As in "What's the grift?": What are you trying to pull?
Confidence game, swindle
Grifter: Con man
Grilled: Questioned
Gum:
As in "Don't ... gum every play I make": Gum up, interfere with
Opium
Gum-shoe: Detective; also gumshoeing = detective work
Gun for: Look for, be after
Guns:
Pickpockets
Hoodlums
Gunsel:
Gunman (Hammett is responsible for this use; see note)
Catamite.
"1. (p) A male oral sodomist, or passive pederast. 2. A brat. 3. (By extension) An informer; a weasel; an unscrupulous person." (Underworld)
Note Yiddish "ganzl" = gosling
H
Hack: Taxi
Half, A:50 cents
Hammer and saws: Police (rhyming slang for laws)
Hard: Tough
Harlem sunset: Some sort fatal injury caused by knife (Farewell, 14)
Hash house: A cheap restaurant
Hatchetmen: Killers, gunmen
Have the bees: To be rich
Have the curse on someone: Wanting to see someone killed
Head doctors: Psychiatrists
Heap: Car
Heat: A gun, also heater
Heeled: Carrying a gun
High pillow: Person at the top, in charge
Highbinders
Corrupt politician or functionary
Professional killer operating in the Chinese quarter of a city
Hinky: Suspicious
Hitting the pipe: Smoking opium
Hitting on all eight: In good shape, going well (refers to eight cylinders in an engine)
Hock shop: Pawnshop
Hogs: Engines
Hombre: Man, fellow
Hooch: Liquor
Hood: Criminal
Hooker, as in "a stiff hooker of whiskey": A drink of strong liquor
Hoosegow: Jail
Hop:
Drugs, mostly morphine or derivatives like heroin
Bell-hop
Hop-head: Drug addict, esp. heroin
Horn: Telephone
Hot: Stolen
House dick: House/hotel detective
House peeper: House/hotel detective
Hype: Shortchange artist
I
Ice : Diamonds
In stir: In jail
Ing-bing, as in to throw an: A fit
Iron: A car
J
Jack: Money
Jake, Jakeloo: Okay
Jam: Trouble, as in "in a jam"
Jane: A woman
Jasper: A man (perhaps a hick)
Java: Coffee
Jaw: Talk
Jerking a nod: Nodding
Jingle-brained: Addled
Jobbie: Man
Joe: Coffee, as in "a cup of joe"
Johns: Police
Johnson brother: Criminal
Joint: Place, as in "my joint"
Jorum of skee: Shot of liquor
Joss house: Temple or house of worship for a Chinese religion
Juice: Interest on a loanshark's loan
Jug: Jail
Jujus: Marijuana cigarettes
Jump, The: A hanging
Junkie: Drug addict
K
Kale: Money
Keister, keyster:
Suitcase
Safe, strongbox
Buttocks
Kick, as in "I got no kick": I have nothing to complain about
Kick off: Die
Kicking the gong around: Taking opium
Kiss: To punch
Kisser: Mouth
Kitten: Woman
Knock off: Kill
Knockover: Heist, theft
L
Lammed off: Ran away, escaped
Large: $1,000; twenty large would be $20,000
Law, the: The police
Lay
Job, as in Marlowe saying he's on "a confidential lay;" or more generally, what someone does, as in "The hotel-sneak used to be my lay"
As in "I gave him the lay" - I told him where things stood (as in lay of the of land)
Lead poisoning: To be shot
Lettuce: Folding money
Lid: Hat
Lip: (Criminal) lawyer
Lit, To be: To be drunk
Loogan: Marlowe defines this as "a guy with a gun"
Looker: Pretty woman
Look-out: Outside man
Lousy with: To have lots of
Lug
Bullet
Ear
Man ("You big lug!")
Lunger: Someone with tuberculosis
M
Made: Recognized
Map: Face
Marbles: Pearls
Mark: Sucker, victim of swindle or fixed game
Mazuma: Money
Meat, as in "He's your meat": He's the subject of interest, there's your man
Meat wagon: Ambulance
Mesca: Marijuana
Mickey Finn
(n) A drink drugged with knock-out drops
(v) Take a Mickey Finn: Take off, leave
Mill: Typewriter
Mitt: Hand
Mob: Gang (not necessarily Mafia)
Moll: Girlfriend
Monicker: Name
Mouthpiece: Lawyer
Mud-pipe: Opium pipe
Mug: Face
Muggles: Marijuana
Mugs: Men (esp. dumb ones)
Mush: Face
N
Nailed: Caught by the police
Nance: An effeminate man
Nevada gas: Cyanide
Newshawk: Reporter
Newsie: Newspaper vendor
Nibble one: To have a drink
Nicked: Stole
Nippers: Handcuffs
Nix on (something): No to (something)
Noodle: Head
Nose-candy: Heroin, in some cases
Number: A person, can be either a man or a woman
O
Off the track, as in "He was too far off the track. Strictly section eight": Said about a man who becomes insanely violent
Op: Detective (esp. private), from "operative"
Orphan paper: Bad cheques
Out on the roof, To be: To drink a lot, to be drunk
Oyster fruit: Pearls
P
Pack: To carry, esp. a gun
Palooka: Man, probably a little stupid
Pan: Face
Paste: Punch
Patsy: Person who is set up; fool, chump
Paw: Hand
Peaching: Informing
Pearl diver: dish-washer
Peeper: Detective
Pen: Penitentiary, jail
Peterman: Safecracker who uses nitroglycerin
Pigeon: Stool-pigeon
Pill
Bullet
Cigarette
Pinch: An arrest, capture
Pins: Legs (especially a woman's)
Pipe: See or notice
Pipe that: Get that, listen to that
Pipes: Throat
Pistol pockets: ?? heels?
Pitching woo: Making love (Turner)
Plant
(n) Someone on the scene but in hiding
(v) Bury
Plug: Shoot
Plugs: People
Poke
Bankroll, stake
Punch (as in "take a poke at")
Pooped: Killed
Pop: Kill
Pro skirt: Prostitute
Puffing: Mugging
Pug: Pugilist, boxer
Pump: Heart
Pump metal: Shoot bullets
Punk
Hood, thug
"A jailhouse sissy who is on the receiving end." (Also as a verb, as in "to get punked.")
Puss: Face
Put down: Drink
Put the screws on: Question, get tough with
Q
Queer
(n) Counterfeit
(n) Sexually abnormal
(v) To ruin something or put it wrong ("queer this racket")
R
Rags: Clothes
Ranked: Observed, watched, given the once-over
Rap
Criminal charge
Information, as in "He gave us the rap"
Hit
Rappers: Fakes, set-ups
Rat: Inform
Rate: To be good, to count for something
Rats and mice: Dice, i.e. craps
Rattler: Train
Red-light: To eject from a car or train
Redhot: Some sort of criminal
Reefers: Marijuana cigarettes
Rhino: Money
Ribbed up, as in "I got a Chink ribbed up to get the dope": Set up, arranged for? "I have arranged for a Chinese person to get the information"? (Knockover, 203)
Right: Adjective indicating quality
Right gee, Right guy: A good fellow
Ringers: Fakes
Rod: Gun
Roscoe: Gun
Roundheels
A fighter with a glass jaw
A woman of easy virtue
Rub-out: A killing
Rube: Bumpkin, easy mark
Rumble, the: The news
Run-out, To take the : Leave, escape
S
Sap
A dumb guy
A blackjack
Sap poison: Getting hit with a sap
Savvy?: Get me? Understand?
Sawbuck: $10 bill (a double sawbuck is a $20 bill)
Scatter, as in "And don't bother to call your house peeper and send him up to the scatter"
Saloon or speakeasy.
A hideout, a room or lodging
Schnozzle: Nose
Scram out: Leave
Scratch: Money
Scratcher: Forger
Screw
Leave, as in "Let's screw before anybody pops in"
Prison guard
Send over: Send to jail
Shamus: (Private) detective
Sharper: A swindler or sneaky person
Shells: Bullets
Shine
Black person
Moonshine, bootleg liquor
Shine Indian: ?? (Knockover, 89)
Shiv: Knife
Shylock: Loanshark
Shyster: Lawyer
Silk, as in "all silk so far": All okay so far
Sing: Confess, admit secrets
Sister: Woman
Skate around, as in "She skates around plenty": To be of easy virtue
Skid rogue: A bum who can't be trusted
Skipout: Leave a hotel without paying, or a person who does so
Skirt: Woman
Slant, Get a: Take a look
Sleuth: Detective
Slug
As a noun, bullet
As a verb, to knock unconscious
Smell from the barrel, Have a: Have a drink
Smoke: A black person
Smoked: Drunk
Snap a cap: Shout
Snatch: Kidnap
Sneak
Leave, get lost, as in "If you're not a waiter, sneak"
Type of burglary, as in as in "The hotel-sneak used to be my lay"
Sneeze: Take
Snitch: An informer, or, as a verb, to inform
Snooper: Detective
Snort (as in of gin): A drink
Snow-bird: (Cocaine) addict
Snowed: To be on drugs (heroin? cocaine?); also "snowed up"
Soak: To pawn
Sock: Punch
Soup: Nitroglycerine
Soup job: To crack a safe using nitroglycerine
Spill: Talk, inform; spill it = tell me
Spinach: Money
Spitting: Talking
Spondulix: Money
Square: Honest; on the square: telling the truth
Squirt metal: Shoot bullets
Step off: To be hanged
Sticks of tea: Marijuana cigarettes
Stiff: A corpse
Sting: Culmination of a con game
Stool-pigeon: Informer
Stoolie: Stool-pigeon
Stringin': As in along, feeding someone a story
Sucker: Someone ripe for a grifter's scam
Sugar: Money
Swift, To have plenty of: To be fast (on the draw)
Swing: Hang
T
Tail: Shadow, follow
Take a powder: Leave
Take it on the heel and toe: Leave
Take on: Eat
Take the air: Leave
Take the bounce: To get kicked out (here, of a hotel)
Take the fall for: Accept punishment for
Tea: Marijuana
That's the crop: That's all of it
Three-spot: Three-year term in jail
Throw a joe: Pass out ?? (Key, 86)
Throw lead: Shoot bullets
Ticket: P.I. license
Tiger milk: Some sort of liquor
Tighten the screws: Put pressure on somebody
Tin: Badge
Tip a few: To have a few drinks
Tip your mitt: Show your hand, reveal something
Tomato: Pretty woman
Tooting the wrong ringer: Asking the wrong person
Torcher: Torch singer
Torpedoes: Gunmen
Trap: Mouth
Trigger man: Man whose job is to use a gun
Trip for biscuits, as in "You get there fast and you get there alone - or you got a trip for biscuits": Make the trip for no purpose, achieve no results
Trouble boys: Gangsters
Turn up: To turn in (to the police)
Twist: Woman
Two bits: $25, or 25 cents.
U
Under glass: In jail
Up-and-down, as in "to give something the up-and-down": A look
Uppers, as in "I've been shatting on my uppers for a couple of months now" or "I'm down on my uppers": To be broke
V
Vag, as in vag charge, vag law: Vagrancy
Vig, Vigorish
Excessive interest on a loanshark's loan
Advantage in odds created by a bookie or gambler to increase profit
W
Weak sister: A push-over
Wear iron: Carry a gun
Wheats, as in "a stack of wheats": Pancakes
White
Good, okay, as in "white dick"
Gin ("a gallon of white")
Wikiup: Home
Wire, as in "What's the wire on them?": News, "What information do you have about them?"
Wise, To be To be knowledgeable of; put us wise: tell us
Wise head: A smart person
Wooden kimono: A coffin
Worker, as in "She sizes up as a worker": A woman who takes a guy for his money
Wrong gee: Not a good fellow
Wrong number: Not a good fellow
Y
Yap: Mouth
Yard: $100
Yegg: Safecracker who can only open cheap and easy safes
Z
Zotzed: Killed
Stephen P. Alpert - March 31, 2004
Compiled from many books on hoboes, and also some original material supplied to the author.
~ A ~
accommodation - a local freight train
ace spot - one dollar
airdale - an extreme loner
alkee stiff - a tramp that consumed alcohol
alki - a) an alcoholic b) alcohol
alligator bait - fried or stewed liver
All Tramps Sent Free - Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe RR
anchor - a pick
angel - a person who gives more than you expect
angel food - a mission sermon
Angelina - a punk or road kid acting as a hobo's companion
Auntie - Angelina grown older
antique - an old-timer on the road
apple knocker - an apple picker
Apple Butter Route - Norfolk and Western RR (southern Ohio)
axle grease - butter
axle swinging - riding under a railroad car
~ B ~
badorder - a boxcar on its way to the repair yard
bad road - a railroad or division where trainmen are especially hard on hoboes
bakehead - a fool or idiot
baldy - an old man
bale of straw - a blonde woman
balling the Jack - speeding
ball lump - sandwiches or cake wrapped up and handed to a tramp
balloon - a pack or bedroll, carried over the back or shoulder
banjo - a short-handed shovel
baraby - a genteel, quiet, respectful tramp
barber - to talk, usually too much
barnacle - a fellow who sticks to one job a year or more
barrel house - a cheap, filthy lodging house
batter - to beg
batting - to wander aimlessly
battleship - a high-sided steel coal car usually with a hopper or dump bottom
bazoo - mouth
beagles - hot dogs
bedroom of stars - a city park
to beef on - to inform
beefer - a) one who whines b) an informer
belly of a drag - the underside of a slow freight train
belly robber - a boarding boss who tries to save money on food
ben - a vest
benny - an overcoat
biddies - hen's eggs
the Big Burg - New York City
big four - a duck egg omelet
Big "G" - Great Northern RR
big hook - a big steam crane
big house - the state penitentiary
big O - a train conductor
Big Ole - a fellow who tries to show the boss how strong he is
big school - the state penitentiary
the Big Smoke - Pittsburgh
Big Rock Candy Mountain - the hobo's paradise
the Big Town - a) New York City b) Chicago
bindle - a bundle, bag, bedroll, or backpack carried by a hobo
bindle stick - a stick used to carry a bindle over the shoulder
bindle stiff - a) a hobo who carries his gear in a sack or bundle b) a hobo who carries his bedding
biscuit - a silver dollar
biscuit shooter - camp waiter or hash slinger
bit - a term in prison
bitch - an improvised candle
Bitter Biscuit Line - Piedmont divisions of the Southern RR
black bottle - poison allegedly given to hoboes in hospitals
black strap - coffee
blanket stiff - a hobo who carries his bedding
blind - the space between the engine and the mail or baggage car
blind baggage - hoboes who ride the blind
blinky - a train rider who lost one or both eyes
blip - a nickel
blister - an old woman
blisters - beggars who put chemicals on their limbs to simulate ugly sores
Mr. Block - one who believes police mean well and sharks are good fellows
block scrapings - meat begged from a butcher
blowed in the glass - trustworthy
blowed-in-the-glass stiff - a) an upper-class tramp b) a true and trusted pal
blowing smoke - boasting
B.N. - Burlington Northern
bob tail - a short local freight train
bo-ette - a female hobo
Bohunk - A Polish or other Slavic laborer
boil up - to wash clothes and kill any vermin therein
bone orchard - a graveyard
bone polisher - a wicked dog
boodle - cheap grafting done by yeggs
boodle jail - a jail providing a good winter's lodging
boomer - a) a transient railroad worker b) a seasonal or migratory worker
booming - going from one job to another
booster - a chronic drunk
booze hoister - a heavy drinker
bossy in a bowl - beef stew
boston - a pool game
Boston bum - a highbrow poser
bottle wagon - an iron coal car
Bowery barometer - curbstone philosopher from the New York main stem
boxcar tramp - one who regularly rides boxcars
boxcar Willies - hoboes and tramps
bracers - legs
braky - a brakeman
Bread and Milk Route - Boston & Maine RR
breezer - a hobo
bridal chamber - a) a flop house where guests lie on the floor b) a miner's workplace
Bridgeport - any hick town
bridge snake - a structural iron worker
bridger - a train rider who has ridden both steam and diesel trains
Broken & Maimed - Boston & Maine RR
Browning Sisters - the Angelina sorority
Buck - a Catholic priest good for a dollar
budge - an upper front pocket
bug - a lamp in a hobo jungle
bull - railroad policeman
bull artist - a hobo with a gift of gab
bull cook - a) a camp flunky; b) a cook's helper
bullets - beans, when poorly cooked and hard
bull horrors - obsessive fear of the police
bull local - a freight which travels between divisions, often stopping at local yards
bum - a skid row alcoholic, infrequently found on freight trains, does not work
bumpers - couplings between freight cars where hoboes sometime ride
bums on the plush - the idle rich
The Bum's Own - Baltimore & Ohio RR
bundle tosser - a hobo harvest hand who pitches bundles
buttermilker - a hobo from Pittsburgh, PA
buzz - to beg
~ C ~
C. and A. pockets - huge pockets on the inside of a coat for carrying food
cackleberries - eggs
cacklers - white collar workers
cages - cubicle rooms in the cheap lodging houses
Cali - California
California blanket - newspapers, used to sleep under
call - a hobo dish of mashed potatoes, butter liverwurst and onions
calling in - a ) using another's campfire to cook b) visiting
cally or callie - a police station (from calaboose)
camp eye - the hobo who looks after jungle while the others are away
candle eater - a Russian
candy job - a pleasant or "sweet" job
canned heater - one who drank a deadly potion of cheap alcohol and water
Canned Meat & Stale Punk - Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul RR
cannonball - a ) a fast freight train b) the mythical hobo's train which is fast and goes everywhere
Captain - a head man or big shot
card man - a union man or hobo with a red I.W.W. card
car knocker - a yard man who works assembling trains
The Carry All - Chicago & Alton RR
carry the banner - to walk the streets all night, not having a place to sleep
case dough - the last of your bankroll
Casey - Kansas City, MO
cat - a young tramp or hobo, new to the roads
cat wagon - a brothel on wheels
catch - to board a train
catch back - to ride the way you have come on a freight
catch him on the run - to board a train while it is moving
catting in - using another's campfire to cook
cattle stiff - a cowboy
chaw - an Irishman
checkerboard crew - mixed crew of white and black workers
cheesy - to be filthy with dirt
chicken in the clay - a fowl rolled in mud and then roasted
chuck-a-dummy - to fake a fainting fit in order to get sympathy
chronicker - a hobo who carried his cooking utensils
Cincie - Cincinnati, OH
cinder dick - a railway policeman who rode the trains
cinder sifter - tramping along the railroad tracks
the City - New York City
clam - one dollar
clay on the shuck - ears of corn rolled in clay and put to roast
clover kicker - farmer
coal passer - fireman
coffee bag - the coat pocket (where the coffee is carried)
Cold, Hungry & Damp - Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton RR
collar and shoulder style - everything is put on the table and the hobo guest helps himself
combination stew - a jungle dish of vegetables and meat
combination train - a mixed passenger and freight local train
comet - a) hobo new to the road b) a high-class hobo or tramp who only rides fast trains
con (or connie) - a) conductor b) a tubercular person
convention - any impromptu gathering of hoboes
coop - jail
Cough and Snort - Colorado and Southern RR
Cousin Jack - a Englishman
cover with the moon - to sleep in the open
cozzy - a men's public lavatory
crimps - rheumatism
croaker or crocus - a doctor, especially a quack
crotch crickets - crabs (lice)
crowbar hotels - local police stations
crumb boss - a janitor or porter for western construction-camp bunkhouses
crumbs - lice
crummy - a) the caboose b) to be lousy
crum roll - a bed roll
crums - lice
culls - hash, inferior
cushions - a passenger train or car
cut out - to drop off one or more freight cars on a siding or in a freight yard
~ D ~
dace - a two-cent piece
daddy - a Cadillac auto
dago red - a cheap wine
Damn Rotten Grub - Denver, Rio Grande RR
damper - cash register
de - the
deadhead - an empty car in back of the engine tender
dead one - a) a retired hobo b) a drunken hobo c) a hobo who just spent all his money
dead picker - a yegg who robs a drunk
dead soldier - an empty whiskey bottle lying beside the road
death wood - plank above the coupling of boxcars
deck address - a secret address
deck 'em - to ride the top of a passenger train
deck hand - a domestic, who does ordinary work around the house
decorate the mahogany - to buy the drinks
deece - a dime
deep-sea chef - a dishwasher
dehorn - denatured alcohol
derail - denatured alcohol
deuce - two dollars
dicer or dice train - a fast freight train
dicer - a hat
dimmer - a dime
ding bat - a dreg of vagrantdom; mooches off other hoboes
dingoes - hoboes who refuse to work even though they claim to be looking for a job
ding shop - a mission or transient camp
dingy - a colored vagabond
dino - one who sponged food off fellow hoboes
dip - a pickpocket
discard artist - one who wears picked up clothes
ditch - to put off a train
division - main freight yards, usually 500 miles apart
doc - someone who supplies alcohol
Doctor Bates - a tough hobo
dog house - caboose
dog robber - a boarding house keeper
The Dope - Baltimore & Ohio RR
double-ender - a train with two engines and two cabooses
doughhead - a baker
doughnut philosopher - a hobo who is satisfied with coffee and feed
drag - a) a slow freight train b) the main street of a town c) a homosexual party
drag, on the - on the road or on the street of a town
drag line - track onto which a train is pulled when being passed on the main line
Dr. Hall - alcohol, liquor
drill - a) to walk or hike b) a switch engine
dry combo - a meal that needed no cooking
ducket - a ticket or card good for a feed or a flop
duffer - bread and coffee
duke player - a person who cheats at cards or checkers
dukie - anything to eat
dummy - a tramp that pretends to be deaf and dumb
dump - a meeting place, a rendezvous
dynamiter - one who sponged food off fellow hoboes
dyno - a) a tramp who follows the highway instead of the railroad b) a tramp who begs off other tramps c) a rock man who handles dynamite
~ E ~
eagle eye - locomotive engineer
eat snowballs - to stay north on the road in the winter
empty - an empty boxcar, without a load of freight
Espee - Southern Pacific RR
exhibition meal - a meal eaten at the doorstep (so neighbors can witness madam's generosity)
extra gang - a crew that works on the railroad track
eye opener - an early morning drink
~ F ~
faded bogey - a Negro acting as an informer
fag - a) a cigarette butt b) a road kid with homosexual tendencies
fakir - a bum or tramp pretending to be a hobo
faith man - a mission stiff
fanner - being hit on the soles while sleeping on a park bench
fielder - a brakeman
fin - five dollars
fingy or fingers - a train rider who lost one or more fingers
fish - jail term for new prisoners
fisheries - missions along the main stem
First of May - an new, inexperienced hobo
five-hundred milers - through freights that stop only at divisions
flannel mouth - an Irishman
flat - a flat car
flat-wheeler - a bad-riding car
fleabag - a bedroll or sleeping bag
flicker - to faint or simulate fainting
flim-joint - a bank
flip - to hop a moving train
flop - to sleep, or a place to sleep
flopper - a tramp that squats on the sidewalk in business thoroughfares; may fake being crippled
flying light - a) hungry b) traveling without a bindle
fly-away - a military deserter
flyer - an express train
fly light - to miss a meal
fly mugs - private police
forty-fives - navy beans
Foul Water & Dirty Cars - Fort Worth & Denver City RR
freezer - a refrigerator car
Frenchy - a French-Canadian hobo
fresno - a roadbed scraper drawn by horses
frisk a drag - to search a freight for a suitable riding place
frog (or frog eater) - a Frenchman
fusee - a warning device to place on the track
fuzzy tail - a) a dreg of vagrantdom b) a tramp in bad humor
~ G ~
galway - a priest
gandy dancer - a) a railroad worker b) a hobo shovel stiff
gandy stiff - one who occasionally labored, a day or two at the most
gas - wood alcohol or doped cider or ether
gat - a gun
gate - a railway switch
gay cat - a) a tenderfoot hobo b) someone employed as a scout by criminal tramps
George - a) one who is shrewd, alert, and well informed b) everything is fine
get a fanner - to be moved on by the police
ghosts - beggars who simulate pallor, haggardness, or disease
ghost story - plausible tale told to the housewife
giggle - a gumbo made by gandy dancers
Gila-monster route - part of the Southern Pacific running through Arizona
gink - a poor unfortunate
gink stiff - same as gandy stiff
gin mill - a) a speakeasy b) a leather wallet
Give Tie Passes - Grand Trunk Pacific RR
glauming - gathering or stealing
glims - spectacles
glomming the grapevine - stealing clothes from a clothesline
G.N. - Great Northern
goat - a yard locomotive
going by hand - walking
going on the farm - a train going on a side track
go junking - to scavenge for scrap metal or other material to sell for salvage
gondola (or gonnie) - a shallow, uncovered car
gonsil - a youth not yet adopted by a jocker
gooseberrying - stealing clothes off a clothesline
gooseberry ranch - a brothel
goozlum - thick and gummy in substance (mud, food, etc.)
go with the birds - to go south for the winter
grab and armful of boxcars - catch a freight train
grabbing scenery - an inexperienced hobo easily spotted as he watches the scenery
grab iron - a bar welded onto a boxcar and held onto when jumping over the couplings
grainer - a freight car for carrying heavy loads that need protection from the elements
graveyard - hash
graveyard stew - hot milk and toast (for those of few or no teeth)
grease ball - a dreg of vagrantdom
grease ranch - restaurant
grease the track - suicide by leaping in front of a train
grinder - teeth
groundhog - brakeman
growler - a can of beer
gummy - a hobo who goes along with the crowd but never contributes
gumbo - an old can used by a tramp or hobo
gump - chicken
gun boat - a) a steel coal car b) an empty tin can for cooking or washing clothes
gun moll - a dangerous woman tramp
gunnels (or gunnells) - the rods of a train where hoboes ride
gunsel (or guntzel) - a green youth
gut plunge - a trip to the butcher to beg for meat for the Mulligan
guts - meat, usually sausage
gyppo - a sub-contractor with poor equipment
~ H ~
half a yard - fifty dollars
halfy - train rider who lost both legs above the knees
ham - to walk about the country
hand the match - giving an intruder a match to make his own fire, indicating he is not welcome
hard oil - butter
hard tails - old mules
harness bulls - uniformed policemen
harvest buzzard - a hobo who works in the harvest
hasher - a female cookhouse helper
hay bag - a female hobo or stew bum
head end - the front section of a train (locomotive and water tender)
headlights - eggs
heifer - any young woman
helpers - extra engines attached to a train to pull it over an upgrade
hidden hands - beggars who hide or bind their hands
hieser - tramp
highball - a ) to go full speed b) two whistle toots signaling that a train is about to move
highball whistle - one short and one long whistle signaling a train is about to leave
high diver - a yegg who picks pockets
high fence - a man's white neck collar
high heels - a woman hobo, or women hoboes collectively
high iron - the main line of the railroad
high jacket - a yegg who robs hoboes
High Line - the old Great Northern route through the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Washington
high-roller - a hustling tramp
High Yaller Line - Savannah & Atlanta RR
hiker - town Marshall
the Hill - the Sierra Nevadas
His Nibs - police court judge
hit a lick - make a score
hit the ball - to speed up on the job
hitting grounders - picking up cigarette butts
hitting a New Yorker - finding a long cigarette butt
hitting the grit - a) walking along tracks b) being forces off a fast moving train
hobo belt - the citrus belt of California (a favorite wintering place)
Hobohemia - the universe of the hobo
hobo nighthawk - a railroad policeman disguised as a hobo
hobo shortline - suicide by flinging oneself in front of a train
hobo special - a freight train of empty cars
hog - a locomotive
hogger (or hog mauler or hoghead) - engineer
hogleg - a long-barreled gun
holding the lady (or her) down - riding the rods under a train car
home guard - a native, non-migrating worker
honey dipping - working as a shovel stiff in a sewer, or any unpleasant shovel work
hoop chisler - a peddler of worthless rings and watches
hoosier - the natives, generally simple fellows (rubes, hicks, yaps)
hooty - angry
Hoover blankets - see California blankets
hoppins - ingredients
the Horn - the triangular extension of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy RR
Horned Toad - the Albuquerque-Deming stem of the Santa Fe
horstile - a town unfriendly to hoboes
hot - a) illegal and dangerous b) fast c) wanted by the law
hot boxes - old-style lubrication on boxcar axles that created a rough ride
hot shot (or hotshot) - a freight train that goes cross country without breaking up
hot stuff - stolen goods
hot yard - a freight yard where hoboes are arrested for riding
house dog - someone who cleans windows, beats carpets, does other housework
how strong are you? - how much money do you have
hump - a) a small hill in a freight yard over which uncoupled cars are pushed b) the continental divide
hundred on a plate - a can of beans
hunger lane - a railroad that passes through country hostile to hoboes
hunt a wampus - a wild goose chase
hustle buggy - police vehicle
~ I ~
ice palace - a high class saloon or brothel (with many mirrors)
ink - cheap red wine
Irish turkey - corned beef and cabbage
iron man - a silver dollar
irons - rails
~ J ~
Jack - a generic term for any hobo or man
jack - money
jack-roller - one who robs a drunken person
Jake - everything is fine
jake leg - a chronic drunk
Jane - any woman or girl
java - coffee
jawbone - credit in the company store
The Jawbone - the Montana RR
J.B. - a Stetson hat
jerk town or jerkwater town - a small village or town
jerries - section hands
jerry gang - a railroad construction crew
Jesus guy - a mission stiff
jiggers - pretending affection to elicit sympathy while begging
jitney or jit - a nickel
jocker - a) an experienced hobo who taught minors that way of life b) the relationship was often sexual
Joe - coffee
John Brown Division - Harper's Ferry division of the B & O RR
John Family - farmers, police, or yeggs
John Hollow Legs - a hungry stiff
Johnny O'Brien - a boxcar
John O'Brien - a freight train
Johnson Family - the yegg community
join out - to hire out in order to gain transportation
jolt - a jail sentence
jolt wagon - a rough riding farm wagon
juble joo - yegg term for riding on top of a train
jug - a jail or prison
jug heister - a chronic drunk
jump the blind - ride on the platform of a baggage car
jungle - a) a hobo camp b) a social group that occupies a camp c) to camp together
jungle buzzard - a dreg of vagrantdom; one who begs around hobo jungles
jungle up - to rest, wash, and eat in a jungle
junk - drugs
junker (or junky) - a) fellow who uses drugs; b) a local work train
~ K ~
kale - money
The Katy - Missouri Kansas & Texas RR
Kay See - Kansas City, MO
keister - suitcase
kelly - a hat
kelly stick - a device to aid in washing clothes and boiling up
key men - skilled workers
kick - a pocket in trousers
kicks - shoes
kip - a) to sleep b) a bed
kip house - a tramps or vagrants lodging house
kip jack or dough - money for a bed or lodging
knobhead - a mule
knob-knocker - safe-cracker
knowledge box - schoolhouse where hoboes sometimes sleep
ky wah - a hobo pitchman selling jewelry, pens, novelties
~ L ~
lace curtains - whiskers
the Lake - Salt Lake City
lakers - hoboes who work on the Great Lakes and go south for the winter
lamb - a boy tramp or road kid
lambing - to heard sheep
Land of Manna - State of Utah
Land of Milk and Honey - State of Utah
leather poke - wallet
lee of a reefer - icebox on a refrigerator car, a potential place to ride
lefty - a train rider who lost left arm and leg
Less Sleep and More Speed - Lake Shore and Michigan Southern RR
library birds - unemployed men who lounge in libraries for shelter
lid - a cap or hat
lighthouse - a) one who can recognize plainclothes detectives b) a stingy person
light pieces - small gifts of money
limpy - a cripple
line - the underworld
little red wagon - a dump wagon
little school - reform school or house of correction
lizzie moocher - a tramp who panhandles food and gas in a car
load of culls - a plate of hash
Long Island peek - a sly glance from the corner of the eye
louse cage - a hat
Lousy Anna - Louisiana
lump - a handout (a sack or package of food)
lump oil - coal
~ M ~
Ma and Pa RR - Maryland & Pennsylvania RR
made - the assembling of a train
main line - the track in the yard on which the through trains run
main stem - main street of a city or neighborhood
make a hole in the water - suicide by drowning
making a riffle - begging money
makins - tobacco; cigarette tobacco and papers
manifest - a fast train
mark - a hobo sign relaying information to other hoboes
meg - a penny
mess moll - a woman cook
Mickeyville - Mechanicsville, NY
milestone inspector - a professional; tramp
mill - a locomotive
Milk and Honey route - railroads through Mormon territory
minister's face - pig's head server in cheap restaurants
mission squawker - an evangelist
mission stiff - a tramp who lives in a mission
mitts - a train rider who lost one or both hands
mix me a hike - Pay me off! Give it to me!
moll-buzzers - women who pickpockets or begs from other women
mongee - money
moniker - a nickname
monitor - a long cigar butt
monkey chasers - West Indians or other Negroes from the tropics
mooch - to beg, usually at back doors
moocher - a professional beggar
Mop - Missouri Pacific RR
Mop Mary - a scrubwoman
moper - a bum who is even lower than a moocher
Mop Mary - a scrub woman
mop stick - barfly in a cheap saloon
muck stick - a long-handled shovel
mud - a) coffee b) strong coffee mixed with weak milk
mule - corn alcohol
The Mullet Line - Atlantic & East Carolina RR
Mulligan stew - hobo stew
mumbly pegs - a woman's legs
munies - municipal lodging houses
mushfaker - an umbrella mender or other repairman
mush rigger - an umbrella mender
mush talk - flattery
~ N ~
nail a rattler - catch a train
Nat Wills - an old suit
navy - a long cigar butt
Never Come, Never Go - Nevada County Narrow Gauge RR (Calif.)
nickel flop - an all-night movie house
nickel note - a five dollar bill
noch - a Hebrew shelter for homeless men
nose bag - lunch handed out in a paper sack
nose diver - a tramp who lives in a mission
N.P. - Northern Pacific
nuttery - hospital for the insane
~ O ~
obie - post office
Octopus - the Southern Pacific Railroad
odd fellows - three doughnuts and coffee
oil of joy - any strong drink
O'Leary - to walk
Oliver - the moon
One-Eyed Connolly - a gate crasher
one of the burlap sisters - a prostitute
one thousand miles - a dark or black shirt
on the hog - having no money
on the hummer - being on the bum but not down and out
on the plush - well off financially
on the uppers - being on the bum and nearly down and out
O.P.C - other people's cigarettes, recycled
open road - a railroad or division easy to travel (opposite of bad road)
Original Ham and Egg Route - Oberlin, Hampton and Eastern RR
outfit - a number of hoboes traveling in company (term later adopted by military in WWI)
outside 'bo - a hobo who winters outside
outside ride - riding a freight car exposed to the elements
~ P ~
P.A. - Pennsylvania
pack of butts - a package of cigarettes
padding the hoof - going by foot
pale Vienna - coffee made with cream instead of water
palooka - a riving fighter who lives in the past
papa - a Lincoln automobile
park ape - a tramp who suns himself in city parks
Paul Bunyan - a chronic but interesting liar
pay station - a social welfare agency that gives out money
pay streak - a job that pays well
pearl diver - a dishwasher
peanut farm - workhouse where the inmates crack stones
pea soup - a French Canadian, often a lumberjack
peatman (or peterman) - a safe-blower
peddler - a local or slow freight
peg - a train rider who lost a foot
the Peg - Winnipeg, Canada
pennies - money, cash
pennsy - a coal car
Pennsy - Pennsylvania RR
Pennsylvania feathers - soft coal or coke
Pennsylvania salve - apple butter
Peoria - thin soup, generally potato water with salt
pershin - see prushun
pete man - a safe cracker or burglar
phony crip - self-mutilated or simulating a deformity
phony stiff (or phony man) - one who sells fraudulent or cheap jewelry
pickets - teeth
pie card - one who hangs around someone with money
pig - a box car or other train car
piggyback - a flat car on which a truck-trailer is bolted
pig's vest with buttons - sow belly, or any fat bacon
pile driver - good strong coffee
pill roller (or pill peddler) - a doctor
Pitsy - Pittsburgh, PA
Peoria (or Peory water) - a thin soup, usually potato water with salt
pickets - teeth
pig - a locomotive
pig iron dump - a hardware store
pig's vest with buttons - sow belly, fat bacon
pile driver - good strong coffee
pill peddler - a physician
pimp's turban - a bowler hat
pin grease - butter
pipe - to mooch or beg
piping the stem - begging on the streets
P.K. - the principal keeper of the little school
plainer - a hobo walking or riding through the Great Plains
plaster - butter
pling - to beg
plinger - a tramp that solicits alms at stores, offices, and residences
plinging - walking fast
plough jockey - a farmer
pogey (or pogie) - an almshouse or workhouse or poorhouse
poke - a wallet
pokeout - handout
pokey stiff - one who subsists on handouts solely
polish the mug - wash one's face and hands
poodle - town Marshal
possesh - a road kid
possish - one's position in the tramp's social scale
possum belly - riding atop or the deck under a passenger coach
postman - a hobo who goes fast and far
pot gang - a cluster of hoboes around a pot in a hobo jungle
pot walloper - a dish and pot washer
pound the ear - to sleep
power - engines
preshun - punk
privates - private dwellings
profesh - an experienced hobo, sometimes a criminal
prone the body - to lie down and rest
proper stiff - a tramp who considered manual toil the acme of disgrace
prushun or prushin - a) a young boy on the road b) a boy held in bondage by a jocker
pull a pin (or pull the pin) - to quit
punk - a) a boy discarded by a jocker b) a young hobo c) bread
punk and gut - bread and sausage
punk and plaster - bread and butter
punk and plaster route - traveling among the Pennsylvania Dutch
push - a road gang
pusher - the person in charge of the job
~ Q ~
Q or The Que - Chicago, Burlington & Quincy RR
~ R ~
Rabbi - a frequent moniker of a Jewish hobo
raghead - an oriental, from the turban some wear
rag(s) - a) a book or paper b) clothing c) paper money
railroad bull - a railroad policeman
railroad dick - a railroad policeman
rambler - a high class hobo who rides only fast passenger trains for long distances
rank cats - the lowest form of bum
rattler - a fast train
razor back - a circus roustabout
read your shirt - examine your clothes for lice
ready-mades - store-bought cigarettes
redball - a) a through freight train b) a fast fruit train
red eye - whiskey
red lead - catsup
reefer - refrigerator car
relievers - good shoes
remittance man - a hobo paid by his family to stay away from home
reuben - a small town inhabitant
ride the cushions - a) to live in luxury b) to pay for and ride in the passenger coach
ride the velvet - see ride the cushions
riding bulls - railroad police who ride the trains to arrest or chase off hoboes aboard
righty - a train rider who lost right arm and leg
rip-rapping - reinforcing the sides of a railroad cutting with stones
road hog - a hobo or tramp who is always on the move
road kid - a) a young hobo b) a boy held in bondage by a jocker
road sister - a female hobo
robbing the mail - snatching food and milk delivered at doorsteps early in the morning
Rodney - a tramp or hobo (from rod of a RR car?)
rods - bars beneath a freight car
roll - to rob a sleeping drunk
roundhead - a Swede
rubberglue - a plainclothes cop
rubber tramp - a tramp who lives and travels in an old automobile
rubbydub - denatured alcohol
ruff - a quarter (coin)
rummy stiff - a tramp with deranged intellect from habitual use of raw rum
~ S ~
saddle blankets - hot cakes
sack of weeds - bag of tobacco
Sacred Tract Road - Boston & Albany RR
sagebrush philosopher - a gabby fellow from the west
sales lady - a prostitute
Sally, Sally Ann - Salvation Army
salve - a bribe given to a trainman for a ride
salve eater - a snuff chewing Swede
sand - sugar
sand hog - where sand is kept dry, for use on icy track
Santa Fe Town - San Bernardino, CA
sap - a policeman's club
sawbuck - ten dollars
scatter - a speakeasy
scenery bum - a young tramp on the move for the pleasure of it
scissorbill - a) one who doesn't want to join a labor union b) an ignorant person c) a farmer
scoffing - eating
scrape a mug - shave one's face
scrape the pavement - shave one's face
scrapers school - a barber school where hoboes could get a free haircut and shave
scratch - money or other assets
scratches - trousers
screw your nut - get wise to yourself
seam squirrels - body lice
sea food - a sailor
sea stiff - a sailor tramp
seed - a dollar
set down (or sit down) - having a full meal inside someone's house
set off - leave part of the train behind
sewer hog - a ditch digger
shack - a brakeman
shackle-up - to cook one's stew, especially in a jungle
shack fever - a) tired, sleepy, dopey feeling b) desire to hit the road and travel
shanny - shanty
shanty queen - any woman around a camp
shark - employment agent who sells jobs to hoboes
shatting on the uppers - to be broke
shavetails - a) young mules b) a young army officer of low rank
sheets - newspapers for a bed
shicer or sheister - swindler, shyster
shill through - to get in for free or bluff one's way
shine - a colored vagabond
shiner - a dime
shirt rabbits - lice
shiv (or shive) - a razor
shoo fly - a) a detour track built around a temporary obstacle b) avoid passing though a hobo-hostile town
shoot snipes - to collect discarded cigar and cigarette butts
short staker - a hobo who stays on the job long enough to amass traveling money
shroud - a suit of clothes
shuffler - a jobless worker
Shy - Chicago
side-door pullman - a boxcar
single O -- working alone by preference
sinker - a) a dollar b) a donut
sit down - see set down
sizzler - a) a cook b) a stove
skating on the uppers - dead broke
skee - whiskey
skin - a shirt or blouse
skin hustling - selling fake furs
skinner - a mule driver
skipper - the conductor
skoff - to eat
skuds - lots, plenty
sky blue - vegetable soup with little ingredients
sky piece - a hat
sky pilot - a mission-house or highbrow preacher
slamming a gate - to go to a private house and beg
slave market - employment agency
sleep - a short prison term
slides - shoes
slob sister - a moocher who weeps to his clients
sloughed - to be arrested (pronounced "slowed")
Slow Town - Detroit, MI
slum-gullion - stew, usually uninviting
slum hustling - selling fake jewelry
sly hay bag - a woman hobo who crafted items for sale
smacker - a dollar
smoke - strong liquor
smoke wagon - a pistol
snail - cinnamon roll
snake - switchman
Snakey Route - Oregon & California RR
snapper rig - second-hand suit of clothes
sneaky Pete - cheap wine
snipe - section hand
snipes - gathered-up cigarette or cigar butts
sniping - stealing
Sonora Town - a section of Los Angeles where hoboes wintered
snowball - morphine
snowbird - a person who uses drugs
snow-flier - a tramp that gets himself into jail for winter lodging and shelter
soft shoe - a railroad detective
son of Adam - a tramp willing to work for a snack or a meal
soogan (or sugan) - a blanket or comforter carried by a hobo
sop - gravy
Sow Belly Hack Line - a railroad division in central Tennessee
S.P. - Southern Pacific
spear - a success in mooching or begging
spear biscuits - to retrieve food from garbage cans
speck bum - a stew bum
speed balls - wine
spider - a) a small frying pan with a long handle b) a Ford car
spike pitcher - a harvest field worker
splinter belly - a) a carpenter b) a man who works on bridges and trestles
Spud Route - Bangor & Aroostook RR in Maine
square - a good meal
stable dog - a man who looks after the camp stables
stampers - tramps and hoboes in general
stack of bones - a cheap hash house dish, mostly boiled spare ribs
stake - money in pocket after leaving a job
star routes - country roads where food could be obtained
steam hog - a coal-burning engine
stem - street
stemming - panhandling in cities
sterno - wax soaked with alcohol
stew builder - a hobo camp cook
stew bum - a) a dreg of vagrantdom b) an old hobo wasted by alcohol
Stew Junction - Puyallup, WA
stickers - a) disguised begging by selling court plaster b) postage stamps
sticks - a train rider who lost a leg
stiff - any kind of hobo worker
stiffy - a tramp that simulates being paralyzed
straight crip - one actually crippled or otherwise afflicted
streamlined - traveling with little gear
Studebaker Town - South Bend, IN
student - a youngster on the road
stye bum - a tramp or bum who winters in jail
submarines - doughnuts
substantials - meat and potatoes, and bread and butter
sugan - see soogan
summer birds - tramps and hoboes who go south for the winter
swamper - fellow who cleans out the bar room
sweat board - concrete mixing by hand
sweet back - someone only sampling hobo life
~ T ~
tail end - the end of a train
tailor's helper - a vicious dog
tailor's measure - a $50 bill
tails - tram stops
Take Patience and Walk - Toledo Peoria & Western RR
take the westbound - to die
Take Your Parcels and Walk - Texas Pacific & Western RR
taking the whiskers off - harvesting
talk west - to speak the hobo lingo
tallowpot - the fireman on a train
tally! - I understand, keep me in on it
tank town - a small town where trains stop to take on water
tap city - broke
tar pit - a derby hat
teapot - a locomotive
tear baby - one who bums women or men with women
thick - rich
thick one - a nickel
thin ones - small coins (pennies, nickels, dimes)
thin piece - a dime
third rail - whiskey
thousand-mile paper - thick brown paper used in freight cars for packing
thousand miler - a hobo's dark shirt that doesn't show dirt
through freight - a freight that goes from division to division without breaking up
throw - spend freely
throw my feet - to walk
throw the feet - to beg
throw the guts - to talk freely or too much; to squeal
ticket - a piece of wood placed over the rods for hoboes to sit on
tie pass - a fictitious permit from a RR president to walk along the track
timbers - disguised begging by selling pencils
timber beast - woodsman, logger
timber stiff - itinerant lumberjack
time freight - same as a through freight
tin roof - a free drink (it's "on the house")
tip the office - to warn a fellow hobo with some signal
toby - an English hobo
To Hell and Back - Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo RR
tomato can - can carried by hoboes for heating food, boiling water, etc., often tied to the waist
tooting ringers - ringing house doorbells
toppings - a) dessert at a meal; b) pastry
tossouts - beggars who distort and throw their joints out of order
tourist - general term for all hoboes, tramps, bums and vagrants
town clowns - town police
tramping - traveling on foot
trapeze artist - a rider of the rods
trombenick - a Jewish hobo
trombo - a hobo boxer, or one who hopes to be
turkey - a) a canvas bag for carrying possessions b) a half dollar
Tweetsy - East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR
twist - a woman or girl
twist a dream - roll a cigarette
~ U ~
units - engines
U.P. - Union Pacific
up on top ride - riding on top of a boxcar
upper deck - the top of a train
~ V ~
vag - a) a vagabond b) to arrest for vagrancy
varnish - passenger train
~ W ~
wagon tramps - families who travel in covered wagons
walking dandruff - head lice
wallie - a town bum who never loses sight of the town's walls
wally - a small town sport or gambler
wandering Willy's - hoboes and tramps
wangy - disguised begging by selling shoestrings
warthogs - a trainmaster
way freight - local freight train
Weary Willies - hoboes in general
weave hustling - selling spurious cloth
weeds - hobo jungle
weigh in - to meet
West Bound - what a hobo catches when he passes away
whale belly - a steel coal car
wheel - a leg
Whiskey Railroad - Frankfort & Cincinnati RR
whistle stop - a stop in a division to change crews
white line stiff - a tramp that consumed alcohol
white mule - uncolored moonshine whiskey
white one - a silver watch
Willy or the Willies - Goodwill Industries
windcheater - a burlap bag, feed sack, etc., worn for protection against the elements
wind pudding - air (having nothing to eat is living on wind pudding)
wingy - a train rider who lost one or both arms
wires - a tramp that peddles articles made of stolen telegraph wire
wobs - Wobblies, members of the I.W.W.
wolf - an older hobo who preys on young hoboes
wood butcher - a carpenter
woodhead - a lumberjack
woolies - sheep
working for Jesus - being a mission stiff
working stiff - a tramp or hobo who regularly works
wye - a railroad junction for trains
~ X ~
~ Y ~
yank - to arrest
yap - a) a hick, farmer b) a tenderfoot hobo
yard - $100
yard bull - railroad police who stay in the yards
yard donkey - yard engine used to push segments of trains from one track to another
yard goat - same at yard donkey
yard master - railroad employee who supervises the yard activity
yegg - a roving criminal
yellow one - a gold watch
York - New York City
~ Z ~
zoo - a brothel
zook - a worn out old prostitute
Stolen from Miskatonic University Press:
A
Alderman: A man's pot belly.
Ameche: Telephone
Ankle:
(n) Woman
(v) To walk
B
Babe: Woman
Baby: A person, can be said to either a man or a woman
Bangtails: Racehorses
Barber: Talk
Baumes rush: Senator Caleb H. Baumes sponsored a New York law (the Baumes Law) which called for automatic life imprisonment of any criminal convicted more than three times. Some criminals would move to a state that didn't have this law in order to avoid its penalty should they be caught again, and this was known as a "Baumes rush," because of the similarity to "bum's rush."
Be on the nut, To: To be broke
Bean-shooter: Gun
Beezer: Nose
Behind the eight-ball: In a difficult position, in a tight spot
Bent cars: Stolen cars
Berries: Dollars
Big house: Jail
Big one, The: Death
Big sleep, The: Death (coined by Chandler)
Bim: Woman
Bindle
of heroin: Little folded-up piece of paper (with heroin inside)
the bundle (or "brindle") in which a hobo carries all his worldy possessions
Bindle punk, bindle stiff: Chronic wanderers; itinerant misfits, criminals, migratory harvest workers, and lumber jacks. Called so because they carried a "bindle." George and Lenny in Of Mice and Men are bindle stiffs.
Bing: Jailhouse talk for solitary confinement, hence "crazy"
Bird: Man
Bit: Prison sentence
Blip off: To kill
Blow: Leave
Blow one down: Kill someone
Blower: Telephone
Bo: Pal, buster, fellow, as in "Hey, bo"
Boiler: Car
Boob: Dumb guy
Boozehound: Drunkard
Bop: To kill
Box:
A safe
A bar
Box job: A safecracking
Brace (somebody): Grab, shake up
Bracelets: Handcuffs
Break it up: Stop that, quit the nonsense
Breeze: To leave, go; also breeze off: get lost
Broad: Woman
Broderick, The: A thorough beating
Bruno: Tough guy, enforcer
Bucket: Car
Bulge, as in "The kid had the bulge there": The advantage
Bulls: Plainclothes railroad cops; uniformed police; prison guards
Bum's rush, To get the: To be kicked out
Bump: Kill
Bump gums: To talk about nothing worthwhile
Bump off: Kill; also, bump-off: a killing
Buncoing some (people): Defrauding people
Bunk:
"Take a bunk" - leave, disappear
"That's the bunk" - that's false, untrue
"to bunk" - to sleep
Bunny, as in "Don't be a bunny": Don't be stupid
Burn powder: Fire a gun
Bus: Big car
Butter and egg man: The money man, the man with the bankroll, a yokel who comes to town to blow a big wad in nightclubs (see reference)
Button: Face, nose, end of jaw
Button man: Professional killer
Buttons: Police
Butts: Cigarettes
Buy a drink: To pour a drink
Buzz, as in "I'm in the dump an hour and the house copper gives me the buzz": Looks me up, comes to my door
Buzzer: Policeman's badge
C
C: $100, a pair of Cs = $200
Cabbage: Money
Caboose: Jail (from "calaboose," which derives from calabozo, the Spanish word for "jail")
Call copper: Inform the police
Can:
Jail
Car
Can house: Bordello
Can-opener: Safecracker who opens cheap safes
Canary: Woman singer
Case dough: "Nest egg ... the theoretically untouchable reserve for emergencies" (Speaking)
Cat: Man
Century: $100
Cheaters: Sunglasses
Cheese it: Put things away, hide
Chew: Eat
Chicago lightning: gunfire
Chicago overcoat: Coffin
Chick: Woman
Chilled off: Killed
Chin: Conversation; chinning: talking
Chin music: Punch on the jaw
Chinese angle, as in "You're not trying to find a Chinese angle on it, are you?": A strange or unusual twist or aspect to something
Chinese squeeze: Grafting by skimming profits off the top
Chippy: Woman of easy virtue
Chisel: To swindle or cheat
Chiv, chive: Knife, "a stabbing or cutting weapon" (Speaking)
Chopper squad: Men with machine guns
Clammed: Close-mouthed (clammed up)
Clean sneak: An escape with no clues left behind
Clip joint: In some cases, a night-club where the prices are high and the patrons are fleeced (Partridge's), but in Pick-Up a casino where the tables are fixed
Clipped: Shot
Close your head: Shut up
Clout: Shoplifter
Clubhouse: Police station
Coffee-and-doughnut, as in "These coffee-and-doughnut guns are ...": Could come from "coffee and cakes," which refers to something cheap or of little value.
Con: Confidence game, swindle
Conk: Head
Cool: To knock out
Cooler: Jail
Cop
Detective, even a private one
To win, as in a bet
Copped, To be: Grabbed by the cops
Copper
Policeman
Time off for good behaviour
Corn: Bourbon ("corn liquor")
Crab: Figure out
Crate: Car
Creep joint: ?? Can mean a whorehouse where the girls are pickpockets, but that doesn't fit in Pick-Up
Croak: To kill
Croaker: Doctor
Crushed out: Escaped (from jail)
Cush: Money (a cushion, something to fall back on)
Cut down: Killed (esp. shot?)
D
Daisy: None too masculine
Dame: Woman
Dance: To be hanged
Dangle: Leave, get lost
Darb: Something remarkable or superior
Dark meat: Black person
Daylight, as in "let the daylight in" or "fill him with daylight": Put a hole in, by shooting or stabbing
Deck, as in "deck of Luckies": Pack of cigarettes
Derrick: Shoplifter
Diapers, as in "Pin your diapers on": Clothes, get dressed
Dib: Share (of the proceeds)
Dick: Detective (usually qualified with "private" if not a policeman)
Dinge: Black person
Dingus: Thing
Dip: Pickpocket
Dip the bill: Have a drink
Dish: Pretty woman
Dive: A low-down, cheap sort of place
Dizzy with a dame, To be: To be deeply iin love with a woman
Do the dance: To be hanged
Dogs: Feet
Doll, dolly: Woman
Dope
Drugs, of any sort
Information
As a verb, as in "I had him doped as" - to have figured for
Dope fiend: Drug addict
Dope peddler: Drug dealer
Dormy: Dormant, quiet, as in "Why didn't you lie dormy in the place you climbed to?"
Dough: Money
Drift: Go, leave
Drill: Shoot
Drink out of the same bottle, as in "We used to drink out of the same bottle": We were close friends
Drop a dime: Make a phone call, sometimes meaning to the police to inform on someone
Droppers: Hired killers
Drum: Speakeasy
Dry-gulch: Knock out, hit on head after ambushing
Ducat
Ticket
For hobos, a union card or card asking for alms
Duck soup: Easy, a piece of cake
Dummerer: Somebody who pretends to be (deaf and?) dumb in order to appear a more deserving beggar
Dump: Roadhouse, club; or, more generally, any place
Dust
Nothing, as in "Tinhorns are dust to me"
Leave, depart, as in "Let's dust"
A look, as in "Let's give it the dust"
Dust out: Leave, depart
Dutch
As in "in dutch" - trouble
As in "A girl pulled the Dutch act" - committed suicide
As in "They don't make me happy neither. I get a bump once'n a while. Mostly a Dutch." - ?? relates to the police (Art)
E
Eel juice: liquor
Egg: Man
Eggs in the coffee: Easy, a piece of cake, okay, all right
Elbow:
Policeman
A collar or an arrest. Someone being arrested will "have their elbows checked."
Electric cure: Electrocution
Elephant ears: Police
F
Fade: Go away, get lost
Fakeloo artist: Con man
Fin: $5 bill
Finder: Finger man
Finger, Put the finger on: Identify
Flat
Broke
As in "That's flat" - that's for sure, undoubtedly
Flattie: Flatfoot, cop
Flimflam(m): Swindle
Flippers: Hands
Flivver: A Ford automobile
Flogger: Overcoat
Flop:
Go to bed
As in "The racket's flopped" - fallen through, not worked out
Flophouse: "A cheap transient hotel where a lot of men sleep in large rooms" (Speaking)
Fog: To shoot
Frail: Woman
Frau: Wife
Fry: To be electrocuted
From nothing, as in "I know from nothing": I don't know anything
G
Gams: Legs (especially a woman's)
Gashouse, as in "getting gashouse": Rough
Gasper: Cigarette
Gat: Gun
Gate, as in "Give her the gate": The door, as in leave
Gaycat: "A young punk who runs with an older tramp and there is always a connotation of homosexuality" (Speaking)
Gee: Man
Geetus: Money
Getaway sticks: Legs (especially a woman's)
Giggle juice: Liquor
Gin mill: Bar
Gink: Man
Girlie: Woman
Give a/the third: Interrogate (third degree)
Glad rags: Fancy clothes
Glom
To steal
To see, to take a look
Glaum: Steal
Go climb up your thumb: Go away, get lost
Go over the edge with the rams: To get far too drunk
Go to read and write: Rhyming slang for take flight
Gonif: Thief (Yiddish)
Goofy: Crazy
Goog: Black eye
Goon: Thug
Goose: Man
Gooseberry lay: Stealing clothes from a clothesline (see reference)
Gowed-up: On dope, high
Grab (a little) air: Put your hands up
Graft:
Con jobs
Cut of the take
Grand: $1000
Greasers:
Mexicans or Italians.
A hoodlum, thief or punk.
Grift:
As in "What's the grift?": What are you trying to pull?
Confidence game, swindle
Grifter: Con man
Grilled: Questioned
Gum:
As in "Don't ... gum every play I make": Gum up, interfere with
Opium
Gum-shoe: Detective; also gumshoeing = detective work
Gun for: Look for, be after
Guns:
Pickpockets
Hoodlums
Gunsel:
Gunman (Hammett is responsible for this use; see note)
Catamite.
"1. (p) A male oral sodomist, or passive pederast. 2. A brat. 3. (By extension) An informer; a weasel; an unscrupulous person." (Underworld)
Note Yiddish "ganzl" = gosling
H
Hack: Taxi
Half, A:50 cents
Hammer and saws: Police (rhyming slang for laws)
Hard: Tough
Harlem sunset: Some sort fatal injury caused by knife (Farewell, 14)
Hash house: A cheap restaurant
Hatchetmen: Killers, gunmen
Have the bees: To be rich
Have the curse on someone: Wanting to see someone killed
Head doctors: Psychiatrists
Heap: Car
Heat: A gun, also heater
Heeled: Carrying a gun
High pillow: Person at the top, in charge
Highbinders
Corrupt politician or functionary
Professional killer operating in the Chinese quarter of a city
Hinky: Suspicious
Hitting the pipe: Smoking opium
Hitting on all eight: In good shape, going well (refers to eight cylinders in an engine)
Hock shop: Pawnshop
Hogs: Engines
Hombre: Man, fellow
Hooch: Liquor
Hood: Criminal
Hooker, as in "a stiff hooker of whiskey": A drink of strong liquor
Hoosegow: Jail
Hop:
Drugs, mostly morphine or derivatives like heroin
Bell-hop
Hop-head: Drug addict, esp. heroin
Horn: Telephone
Hot: Stolen
House dick: House/hotel detective
House peeper: House/hotel detective
Hype: Shortchange artist
I
Ice : Diamonds
In stir: In jail
Ing-bing, as in to throw an: A fit
Iron: A car
J
Jack: Money
Jake, Jakeloo: Okay
Jam: Trouble, as in "in a jam"
Jane: A woman
Jasper: A man (perhaps a hick)
Java: Coffee
Jaw: Talk
Jerking a nod: Nodding
Jingle-brained: Addled
Jobbie: Man
Joe: Coffee, as in "a cup of joe"
Johns: Police
Johnson brother: Criminal
Joint: Place, as in "my joint"
Jorum of skee: Shot of liquor
Joss house: Temple or house of worship for a Chinese religion
Juice: Interest on a loanshark's loan
Jug: Jail
Jujus: Marijuana cigarettes
Jump, The: A hanging
Junkie: Drug addict
K
Kale: Money
Keister, keyster:
Suitcase
Safe, strongbox
Buttocks
Kick, as in "I got no kick": I have nothing to complain about
Kick off: Die
Kicking the gong around: Taking opium
Kiss: To punch
Kisser: Mouth
Kitten: Woman
Knock off: Kill
Knockover: Heist, theft
L
Lammed off: Ran away, escaped
Large: $1,000; twenty large would be $20,000
Law, the: The police
Lay
Job, as in Marlowe saying he's on "a confidential lay;" or more generally, what someone does, as in "The hotel-sneak used to be my lay"
As in "I gave him the lay" - I told him where things stood (as in lay of the of land)
Lead poisoning: To be shot
Lettuce: Folding money
Lid: Hat
Lip: (Criminal) lawyer
Lit, To be: To be drunk
Loogan: Marlowe defines this as "a guy with a gun"
Looker: Pretty woman
Look-out: Outside man
Lousy with: To have lots of
Lug
Bullet
Ear
Man ("You big lug!")
Lunger: Someone with tuberculosis
M
Made: Recognized
Map: Face
Marbles: Pearls
Mark: Sucker, victim of swindle or fixed game
Mazuma: Money
Meat, as in "He's your meat": He's the subject of interest, there's your man
Meat wagon: Ambulance
Mesca: Marijuana
Mickey Finn
(n) A drink drugged with knock-out drops
(v) Take a Mickey Finn: Take off, leave
Mill: Typewriter
Mitt: Hand
Mob: Gang (not necessarily Mafia)
Moll: Girlfriend
Monicker: Name
Mouthpiece: Lawyer
Mud-pipe: Opium pipe
Mug: Face
Muggles: Marijuana
Mugs: Men (esp. dumb ones)
Mush: Face
N
Nailed: Caught by the police
Nance: An effeminate man
Nevada gas: Cyanide
Newshawk: Reporter
Newsie: Newspaper vendor
Nibble one: To have a drink
Nicked: Stole
Nippers: Handcuffs
Nix on (something): No to (something)
Noodle: Head
Nose-candy: Heroin, in some cases
Number: A person, can be either a man or a woman
O
Off the track, as in "He was too far off the track. Strictly section eight": Said about a man who becomes insanely violent
Op: Detective (esp. private), from "operative"
Orphan paper: Bad cheques
Out on the roof, To be: To drink a lot, to be drunk
Oyster fruit: Pearls
P
Pack: To carry, esp. a gun
Palooka: Man, probably a little stupid
Pan: Face
Paste: Punch
Patsy: Person who is set up; fool, chump
Paw: Hand
Peaching: Informing
Pearl diver: dish-washer
Peeper: Detective
Pen: Penitentiary, jail
Peterman: Safecracker who uses nitroglycerin
Pigeon: Stool-pigeon
Pill
Bullet
Cigarette
Pinch: An arrest, capture
Pins: Legs (especially a woman's)
Pipe: See or notice
Pipe that: Get that, listen to that
Pipes: Throat
Pistol pockets: ?? heels?
Pitching woo: Making love (Turner)
Plant
(n) Someone on the scene but in hiding
(v) Bury
Plug: Shoot
Plugs: People
Poke
Bankroll, stake
Punch (as in "take a poke at")
Pooped: Killed
Pop: Kill
Pro skirt: Prostitute
Puffing: Mugging
Pug: Pugilist, boxer
Pump: Heart
Pump metal: Shoot bullets
Punk
Hood, thug
"A jailhouse sissy who is on the receiving end." (Also as a verb, as in "to get punked.")
Puss: Face
Put down: Drink
Put the screws on: Question, get tough with
Q
Queer
(n) Counterfeit
(n) Sexually abnormal
(v) To ruin something or put it wrong ("queer this racket")
R
Rags: Clothes
Ranked: Observed, watched, given the once-over
Rap
Criminal charge
Information, as in "He gave us the rap"
Hit
Rappers: Fakes, set-ups
Rat: Inform
Rate: To be good, to count for something
Rats and mice: Dice, i.e. craps
Rattler: Train
Red-light: To eject from a car or train
Redhot: Some sort of criminal
Reefers: Marijuana cigarettes
Rhino: Money
Ribbed up, as in "I got a Chink ribbed up to get the dope": Set up, arranged for? "I have arranged for a Chinese person to get the information"? (Knockover, 203)
Right: Adjective indicating quality
Right gee, Right guy: A good fellow
Ringers: Fakes
Rod: Gun
Roscoe: Gun
Roundheels
A fighter with a glass jaw
A woman of easy virtue
Rub-out: A killing
Rube: Bumpkin, easy mark
Rumble, the: The news
Run-out, To take the : Leave, escape
S
Sap
A dumb guy
A blackjack
Sap poison: Getting hit with a sap
Savvy?: Get me? Understand?
Sawbuck: $10 bill (a double sawbuck is a $20 bill)
Scatter, as in "And don't bother to call your house peeper and send him up to the scatter"
Saloon or speakeasy.
A hideout, a room or lodging
Schnozzle: Nose
Scram out: Leave
Scratch: Money
Scratcher: Forger
Screw
Leave, as in "Let's screw before anybody pops in"
Prison guard
Send over: Send to jail
Shamus: (Private) detective
Sharper: A swindler or sneaky person
Shells: Bullets
Shine
Black person
Moonshine, bootleg liquor
Shine Indian: ?? (Knockover, 89)
Shiv: Knife
Shylock: Loanshark
Shyster: Lawyer
Silk, as in "all silk so far": All okay so far
Sing: Confess, admit secrets
Sister: Woman
Skate around, as in "She skates around plenty": To be of easy virtue
Skid rogue: A bum who can't be trusted
Skipout: Leave a hotel without paying, or a person who does so
Skirt: Woman
Slant, Get a: Take a look
Sleuth: Detective
Slug
As a noun, bullet
As a verb, to knock unconscious
Smell from the barrel, Have a: Have a drink
Smoke: A black person
Smoked: Drunk
Snap a cap: Shout
Snatch: Kidnap
Sneak
Leave, get lost, as in "If you're not a waiter, sneak"
Type of burglary, as in as in "The hotel-sneak used to be my lay"
Sneeze: Take
Snitch: An informer, or, as a verb, to inform
Snooper: Detective
Snort (as in of gin): A drink
Snow-bird: (Cocaine) addict
Snowed: To be on drugs (heroin? cocaine?); also "snowed up"
Soak: To pawn
Sock: Punch
Soup: Nitroglycerine
Soup job: To crack a safe using nitroglycerine
Spill: Talk, inform; spill it = tell me
Spinach: Money
Spitting: Talking
Spondulix: Money
Square: Honest; on the square: telling the truth
Squirt metal: Shoot bullets
Step off: To be hanged
Sticks of tea: Marijuana cigarettes
Stiff: A corpse
Sting: Culmination of a con game
Stool-pigeon: Informer
Stoolie: Stool-pigeon
Stringin': As in along, feeding someone a story
Sucker: Someone ripe for a grifter's scam
Sugar: Money
Swift, To have plenty of: To be fast (on the draw)
Swing: Hang
T
Tail: Shadow, follow
Take a powder: Leave
Take it on the heel and toe: Leave
Take on: Eat
Take the air: Leave
Take the bounce: To get kicked out (here, of a hotel)
Take the fall for: Accept punishment for
Tea: Marijuana
That's the crop: That's all of it
Three-spot: Three-year term in jail
Throw a joe: Pass out ?? (Key, 86)
Throw lead: Shoot bullets
Ticket: P.I. license
Tiger milk: Some sort of liquor
Tighten the screws: Put pressure on somebody
Tin: Badge
Tip a few: To have a few drinks
Tip your mitt: Show your hand, reveal something
Tomato: Pretty woman
Tooting the wrong ringer: Asking the wrong person
Torcher: Torch singer
Torpedoes: Gunmen
Trap: Mouth
Trigger man: Man whose job is to use a gun
Trip for biscuits, as in "You get there fast and you get there alone - or you got a trip for biscuits": Make the trip for no purpose, achieve no results
Trouble boys: Gangsters
Turn up: To turn in (to the police)
Twist: Woman
Two bits: $25, or 25 cents.
U
Under glass: In jail
Up-and-down, as in "to give something the up-and-down": A look
Uppers, as in "I've been shatting on my uppers for a couple of months now" or "I'm down on my uppers": To be broke
V
Vag, as in vag charge, vag law: Vagrancy
Vig, Vigorish
Excessive interest on a loanshark's loan
Advantage in odds created by a bookie or gambler to increase profit
W
Weak sister: A push-over
Wear iron: Carry a gun
Wheats, as in "a stack of wheats": Pancakes
White
Good, okay, as in "white dick"
Gin ("a gallon of white")
Wikiup: Home
Wire, as in "What's the wire on them?": News, "What information do you have about them?"
Wise, To be To be knowledgeable of; put us wise: tell us
Wise head: A smart person
Wooden kimono: A coffin
Worker, as in "She sizes up as a worker": A woman who takes a guy for his money
Wrong gee: Not a good fellow
Wrong number: Not a good fellow
Y
Yap: Mouth
Yard: $100
Yegg: Safecracker who can only open cheap and easy safes
Z
Zotzed: Killed
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