Books: FROM ABE’S CABE TO ZOOLY A Slang Sampler

Abe’s cabe (jive)—a $5 bill

bean gun (World War II)—mobile kitchen

bullskate (Negro)—to brag

carry the difference (underworld)—to carry a gun

chalk player—horseplayer who bets favorites

crawk (radio)—animal imitator

dace—2¢

dicty (Negro)—high-class, stylish

eight-rock (Negro)—a very black Negro

finif (Yiddish)— $5

flogger (underworld; archaic)—overcoat

fly—alert, knowing

frisgig—silly girl

fuzz (underworld)—police

gate (swing)—good musician

geets—money

ginch—woman

grandma (truckers’ talk)—low gear

hair bag—oldtimer who endlessly reminisces

hell-west-and-crooked—much askew

high hig—uppity girl

hinkty (Negro)—snobbish

house larry (clothing-store cant)—a customer who is not buying, just looking

hub cap (hot-rod jargon)—conceited type

kafooster—confusing talk

labonza—posterior

lay chickie (teen-age-gang talk)—to act as lookout

left-foot—a Protestant

long underwear (Jazz)—Sweet and corny music

luck out—to get killed

lug in—to run a horse closer and closer to the rail

make—to recognize

mayvin (Yiddish clothing-store cant)—a know-it-all customer

moke (Negro)—a Negro

moldy fig (jive)—a pedant

moll buzzer (underworld)—thief who preys on women

mop (Negro)—the final result

mulligrubs—the blues

nerf (hot-rod jargon)—to push with another car

nervous pudding—gelatin dessert

niff-naw (Scotch-Irish dialect)—argument

oontz (gambler’s gab)—the game of craps; to crowd, push or force

pinochle season (garment-district slang)—the slack season

press the bricks (lumberjack language)—to loaf

quetch (from Yiddish)—to nag

ramstuginous—severe, wild, vicious

ready for Freddie (from comic strip Li’l Abner)—ready for anything

red-light (carnival)—to murder by throwing off a moving train

schmendrick (Yiddish)—a clumsy jerk

schlub, schloomp (Yiddish)—second-rate

scouse—beef stew without the beef

shovel, to be put to bed with a—to be so drunk one must be assisted home

skaty-eight—forty-‘leven

skygodlin—slantwise

sneeze (underworld)—kidnap

snug (underworld)—small concealed gun

Spanish athlete—a bull thrower

strictly union (swing)—corny jazz

tapped out—broke

tinge—salesman of shoddy goods

tzuris (Yiddish)—chronic misfortune

viggerish—profit from an illegal deal

whinnick—to renege

yentz (from Yiddish)—to cheat

zagger (jewelry-store jargon)—cheap watch

zooly (rock ‘n’ roll)—excellent, satisfying