When someone mentions “the ‘20s” you probably think of flappers, speakeasies, and The Great Gatsby. And that’s all totally valid…but also, it’s the ‘20s again right now. As we go roaring into this decade, let’s take a look back at how people spoke 100 years ago. Here are 422 swell 1920s slang words and phrases (and their meanings) that are the cat’s pajamas and the bee’s knees.
- Alderman: A man’s pot-belly.
- Ameche: Telephone
- Ankle: (n) Woman; (v) To walk
- Babe: Woman
- Baby: A person, can be said to either a man or a woman
- Be on the nut: To be broke
- Bean-shooter: Gun
- Beef: Problem
- Bee’s Knees: An extraordinary person, thing or idea.
- Beezer: Nose
- Behind the eight ball: In a difficult position, in a tight spot
- Bent Cars: Stolen cars
- Big Cheese, Big Shot – The boss: Someone of importance and influence
- Big House: Jail
- Big One: Death
- Big Sleep: Death
- Bim: Woman
- Bing: Jailhouse talk for solitary confinement
- Bit: Prison sentence
- Blip off: To kill
- Blow: Leave
- Blow one down: Kill someone
- Blower: Telephone
- Bluenose: A prude.
- Bo: Pal, buster, fellow.
- Boiler: Car
- Bop: To kill
- Box: A safe or a bar
- Box job: A safecracking
- Brace (somebody): Grab, shake up
- Bracelets: Handcuffs
- Breeze: To leave, breeze off: get lost
- Broad: Woman
- Bruno: Tough guy, enforcer
- Bucket: Car
- Bulge, The: 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
- 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
- Button: Face, nose, end of jaw
- Buttons: Police
- Butts: Cigarettes
- Buzz: Looks person up, comes to persons door
- Buzzer: Policeman’s badge
- C: $100, a pair of Cs = $200
- Cabbage: Money
- Caboose: Jail
- Call copper: Inform the police
- Can: Jail, Car
- Can house: Bordello
- Can-opener: Safecracker who opens cheap safes
- Canary: Woman singer
- Carry a Torch: Suffering from an unrequited love.
- Case dough: Nest egg
- Cat: Man
- Cat’s Meow: Something splendid or stylish
- Cat’s Pajamas: term of endearment as in “I think you are really really cool”.
- 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
- Chippy: Woman of easy virtue
- Chisel: To swindle or cheat
- Chiv: Knife, “a stabbing or cutting weapon”
- Chopper squad: Men with machine guns
- Chump: person marked for a con or a gullible person.
- Clammed: Close-mouthed (clammed up)
- Clean sneak: An escape with no clues left behind
- Clip joint: In some cases, a nightclub where the prices are high and the patrons are fleeced
- Clipped: Shot
- Close your head: Shut up
- Clout: Shoplifter
- Clubhouse: Police station
- Con: Confidence game, swindle
- Conk: Head
- Cool: To knock out
- Cooler: Jail
- Copped, to be: Grabbed by the cops
- Copper: Policeman
- Corn: Bourbon (“corn liquor”)
- Crab: Figure out
- Crate: Car
- Croak: To kill
- Croaker: Doctor
- Crush: An infatuation.
- Crushed out: Escaped (from jail)
- Cut down: Killed
- Daisy: None too masculine
- Dame: Woman
- Dance: To be hanged
- Dangle: Leave, get lost
- Daylight, as in “fill him with daylight”: Put a hole in, by shooting or stabbing
- Deck, as in “deck of Luckies”: Pack of cigarettes
- Derrick: Shoplifter
- Dib: Share (of the proceeds)
- Dick: Detective (usually qualified with “private” if not a policeman)
- 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 in love with a woman
- Do the dance: To be hanged
- Dogs: Feet
- Dope fiend: Drug addict
- Dope peddler: Drug dealer
- Dough: Money
- Drift: Go, leave
- Drill: Shoot
- 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
- Duck soup: Easy, a piece of cake
- Dummerer: Someone who pretends to be deaf and/or dumb to appear a more deserving beggar
- Dump: Roadhouse, club; or, more generally, any place
- Dust out: Leave, depart
- Egg: Man
- Electric cure: Electrocution
- Elephant ears: Police
- Fade: Go away, get lost
- Fakeloo artist: Con man
- Fella: a man
- Fin: $5 bill
- Finder: Finger man
- Finger, Put the finger on: Identify
- Flaming Youth: Male counterpart to a flapper.
- Flapper: A stylish, brash young woman with short skirts and shorter hair.
- Flat Tire: A dull-witted or disappointing date.
- Flattie: Flatfoot, cop
- Flimflam: Swindle
- Flippers: Hands
- Flivver: A Ford automobile
- Flogger: Overcoat
- Flop: Go to bed or fallen through, not worked out
- Flophouse: A cheap transient hotel where a lot of men sleep in large rooms
- Fog: To shoot
- Frail: Woman
- Frau: Wife
- Fry: To be electrocuted
- Fuzz: police
- Gal: Woman
- Gams: A Woman’s Legs
- Gasper: Cigarette
- Gat: Gun
- Get Sore: Get mad
- Getaway sticks: Legs
- Giggle juice: Liquor
- Giggle Water: Liquor
- Gin mill: Bar
- Glad rags: Fancy clothes
- Glaum: Steal
- Goofy: Crazy
- Goog: Black eye
- Goon: Thug
- Gooseberry lay: Stealing clothes from a clothesline
- Gowed-up: On dope, high
- Grab (a little) air: Put your hands up
- Graft: Con jobs or cut of the take
- Grand: $1000
- Grift: Confidence game, swindle
- Grifter: Con man
- Grilled: Questioned
- Gumshoe: Detective
- Gumshoeing: Detective work
- Gun for: Look for, be after
- Guns: Pickpockets, Hoodlums
- Guy: a man
- Hack: Taxi
- Half, a: 50 cents
- Hard: Tough
- Harlem Sunset: Some sort fatal injury caused by knife
- Hash House: A cheap restaurant
- Hatchet men: Killers, gunmen
- Have the Bees: To be rich
- Head doctors: Psychiatrists
- Heap: Car
- Heat: Police
- Heater: gun
- Heebie-Jeebies: The jitters.
- Heeled: Carrying a gun
- High-Hat: To snub.
- High Pillow: Person at the top, in charge
- Highbinders: Corrupt politician or functionary
- Hinky: Suspicious
- Hitting the pipe: Smoking opium
- Hitting on all eight: In good shape, going well
- Hock shop: Pawnshop
- Hogs: Engines
- Hombre: Man, fellow
- Hooch: Liquor
- Hood: Criminal
- Hoofer: Dancer.
- Hoosegow: Jail
- Horn: Telephone
- Hot: Stolen
- Hotsy-Totsy: Pleasing.
- House dick: House/hotel detective
- House peeper: House/hotel detective
- Hype: Shortchange artist
- Ice : Diamonds
- Ing-bing, as in to throw an: A fit
- Iron: A car
- Jack: Money
- Jalopy: An old car.
- Jam: Trouble, a tight spot
- Jane: A woman
- 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”
- Juice: Interest on a loanshark’s loan
- Jug: Jail
- Jump, The: A hanging
- Kale: Money
- Keen: Attractive or appealing.
- Kick off: Die
- Kiss: To punch
- Kisser: Mouth
- Kitten: Woman
- Knock off: Kill
- Lammed off: Ran away, escaped
- Large: $1,000; twenty large would be $20,000
- Law, the: The police
- Lead: “fill ya full of lead”: the term used for bullets
- Lead poisoning: To be shot
- Lettuce: Folding money
- Lid: Hat
- Line: Insincere flattery.
- Lip: (Criminal) lawyer
- Looker: Pretty woman
- Look-out: Outside man
- Lousy with: To have lots of
- Mac: a man
- Made: Recognized
- Map: Face
- Marbles: Pearls
- Mark: Sucker, victim of swindle or fixed game
- Maroon: person marked for a con or a gullible person.
- Meat wagon: Ambulance
- Mickey Finn: A drink drugged with knock-out drops
- Mill: Typewriter
- Mitt: Hand
- Mob: Gang (not necessarily Mafia)
- Mohaska: Gun
- Moll: Girlfriend
- Monicker: Name
- Mouthpiece: Lawyer
- Mugs: Men (especially refers to dumb ones)
- Nailed: Caught by the police
- Nevada gas: Cyanide
- Newshawk: Reporter
- Newsie: Newspaper vendor
- Nibble one: To have a drink
- Nicked: Stole
- Nippers: Handcuffs
- Noodle: Head
- Number: A person
- Off the track, said about a person who becomes insanely violent
- Op: Detective
- Orphan paper: Bad checks
- Out on the roof: To drink a lot, to be drunk
- Oyster fruit: Pearls
- Packing Heat: carrying a gun
- Pal: a man
- Palooka: Man, probably not very smart
- Pan: Face
- Paste: Punch
- Patsy: Person who is set up; fool, chump
- Paw: Hand
- Peaching: Informing
- Peeper: Detective
- Peepers: Eyes
- Pen: Penitentiary, jail
- Peterman: Safecracker who uses nitroglycerin
- Piece: Gun
- Pigeon: Stool-pigeon
- Pinch: An arrest, capture
- Pins: Legs
- Pipe: See or notice
- Pipes: Throat
- Plant: Someone on the scene but in hiding, Bury
- Plug: Shoot
- Plugs: People
- Poke: Bankroll, stake
- Pooped: Killed
- Pop: Kill
- Pro skirt: Prostitute
- Puffing: Mugging
- Pug: Pugilist, boxer
- Pump: Heart
- Pump metal: Shoot bullets
- Punk: Hood, thug
- Pushover: A person easily convinced of something.
- Puss: Face
- Put down: Drink
- Put the screws on: Question, get tough with
- Rags: Clothes
- Ranked: Observed, watched, given the once-over
- Rap: Criminal charge
- 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
- Right: Adjective indicating quality
- Ringers: Fakes
- Ritzy: Elegant
- Rod: Gun
- Roscoe: Gun
- Rub-out: A killing
- Rube: Bumpkin, easy mark
- Rumble, the: The news
- Sap: A dumb guy
- Sap poison: Getting hit with a sap
- Savvy: Get me? Understand?
- Sawbuck: $10 bill (a double sawbuck is a $20 bill)
- Schnozzle: Nose
- Scram out: Leave
- Scratch: Money
- Scratcher: Forger
- Send over: Send to jail
- Shamus: (Private) detective
- Sharper: A swindler or sneaky person
- Sheba: A woman with sex appeal
- Sheik: A man with sex appeal
- Shells: Bullets
- Shiv: Knife
- Shylock: Loanshark
- Shyster: Lawyer
- Sing: Make a confession
- Sister: Woman
- Skate around: To be of easy virtue
- Skid rogue: A bum who can’t be trusted
- Skirt: Woman
- Slant, Get a: Take a look
- Sleuth: Detective
- Slug: a bullet or to knock unconscious
- Smoked: Drunk
- Snap a cap: Shout
- Snatch: Kidnap
- Sneeze: Take
- Snitch: An informer, or to inform
- Snooper: Detective
- Speakeasy: An illicit bar selling bootleg liquor.
- Spiffy: Looking elegant
- Soak: To pawn
- Sock: Punch
- Soup: Nitroglycerine
- Soup job: To crack a safe using nitroglycerine
- Spill: Talk, inform
- Spinach: Money
- Spitting: Talking
- Square: Honest
- Squeeze: a female companion or girlfriend.
- Squirt metal: Shoot bullets
- Step off: To be hanged
- Stiff: A corpse
- Sting: Culmination of a con game
- Stool-pigeon: Informer
- Stoolie: Stool-pigeon
- Stuck On: Having a crush on
- Sucker: Someone ripe for a grifter’s scam
- Sugar: Money
- Swanky: Ritzy
- Swell: Wonderful
- Tail: Shadow or follow
- Take a powder: Leave
- Take on: Eat
- Take for a Ride: Drive off with someone in order to bump them off
- Take the air: Leave
- Take the bounce: To get kicked out
- Take the fall for: Accept punishment for
- That’s the crop: That’s all of it
- Three-spot: Three-year jail term
- 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
- Tomato: Pretty woman
- Tooting the wrong ringer: Asking the wrong person
- Torpedoes: Gunmen
- Trap: Mouth
- Trigger man: Man whose job is to use a gun
- Trouble boys: Gangsters
- Twist: Woman
- Two bits: $25, or 25 cents
- Under glass: In jail
- Weak sister: A push-over
- Wear iron: Carry a gun
- 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
- Ya Follow: do you understand?
- Yap: Mouth
- Yard: $100
- Yegg: Safecracker who can only open cheap and easy safes
- Zotzed: Killed
The post 400+ 1920s Slang Words And Phrases That Are The Cat’s Pajamas appeared first on Scary Mommy.
