Slang of the 30s
Abercrombie / A know-it-all
Abyssinia / I'll be seeing you
Aces, snazzy, hot, nobby, smooth, sweet, swell, keen, cool / Very good
All the way / Chocolate cake or fudge with ice cream
All wet / No good
Ameche, horn, blower / Telephone
Apple / Any big town or city
Babe, broad, dame, doll, frail, twist, muffin, kitten / Woman
Baby / Glass of milk
Bean shooter, gat, rod, roscoe, heater, convincer / Gun
Beat / Broke
Behind the grind / Behind in one's studies
Big house, hoosegow / Prison
Bleed / to extort or blackmail
Blinkers, lamps, pies, shutters, peepers / Eyes
Blow your wig / Become very excited
Booze, hooch, giggle juice, mule / Whiskey
Brodie / A mistake
Brunos, goons, hatchetmen, torpedoes, trigger men / Hired gunmen and other tough guys
Bulge / Having the advantage
Bumping gums, booshwash / Talk about nothing useful
Butter and egg fly, hot mama, sweet mama, sweet patootie, dish, looker, tomato / An attractive woman
Butter and egg man / The money man, the man with the bankroll
Buzzer / Police badge
Cabbage, lettuce, kale, folding green, long green. / color of money
Cadillac / One ounce packet of cocaine or heroin
Canary / A female vocalist
Cats or alligators / Fans of swing music
Cave / One's house or apartment
Check or checker / A dollar
Chicago overcoat / Coffin
Chicago typewriter, chopper, gat / "Tommy Gun", Thompson Submachine Gun
Chisel / Swindle, cheat, work an angle
Cinder dick / Railroad detective
City juice, dog soup / Glass of water
Clam-bake / Wild swing
Clip joint / Night club or gambling joint where patrons get flimflammed
Copper / Policeman
Crumb / A fink, a loser by social standards
Crust / To insult
Curve / Disappointment
Cute as a bug's ear / Very cute
Dead hoofer or cement mixer / Bad dancer
Dick, shamus, gumshoe, flatfoot / Detective
Dig / Think hard or understand
Dil-ya-ble / A phone call
Dingy / Silly
Dizzy with a dame / Very much in love with a woman, sometimes at great risk to themselves, especially if she's someone else's moll
Dog house / String bass
Doggy / Well dressed but in a self conscious way
Dollface / Name for a woman when a man is pleading his case or apologizing
Doss / Sleep
Drilling, plugging, throwing lead, filling someone with daylight, giving someone lead poisoning / Shooting a gun (at someone)
Drumsticks, pins, pillars, stems, uprights, get away sticks, gams / Legs
Dukes, paws, grabbers, meat hooks / hands
Egg / A crude person
Egg harbor / Free dance
Eggs in coffee / Run smoothly
Evil / In a bad mood
Face / A Caucasian
Fem, filly, flame, flirt, fuss / Constant girl companion to a boy
Five spot, a Lincoln / $5 bill
Genius / An extremely, unbelievably, dumb persons
Gin mill / Place that serves liquor, sometimes illegally
G-man / Federal agent, term coined by Machine Gun Kelly
Gobble-pipe / Saxophone
Golddigger / Attractive young woman actively hunting for a rich man
Greaseball, half portion, wet smack, wet sock, jelly bean / Unpopular person
Grifter / A con man or woman
Gumming the works / To cause something to run less smoothly
Gunsel / Gunman with a hint toward being a reckless loose cannon or young homosexual (insult)
Hard boiled / Tough
Hocks, plates / Feet
Honey cooler / A kiss
Hop, rag, jolly up, romp, wingding / Dance or party
Hotsquat / Electric chair
House dick, house peeper / House detective
Joe / A average guy
Joed / Tired
Juicy / Enjoyable
K balling / Salvaging parts from junked rail cars to rebuild others
Keen / Very Good
Kibosh / Squelch
Kippy / Neat
Low down / All the information
Lunger / Someone with tuberculosis
Make tracks, dangle / Leave in a hurry, leave aburptly
Meat wagon / Ambulance
Micky, Micky Finn / Drink spiked with a knock out drugs
Mitt me kid! / Congratulate me
Moll / A gangster's girlfriend
Murder! / Wow!
Nuts! / Telling someone they are full of nonsense
Okie / Migrant worker from Oklahoma
Off the cob / Corny
Packing heat, wearing iron / Carrying a gun
Pally / Friend, chum, sometimes used sarcasticly
Patsy / Innocent man framed for a criminal charge
Pill / Disagreeable person
Pip / Attractive person
Pitching woo, making whoopee / Making love
Platter / A record
Plenty rugged / Big and strong
Pachuco / Young Mexican living in the US
Ring-a-ding-ding / A good time at a party
Rot gut, bathtub gin / Prohibition alcohol usually made in back rooms and of low quality
Sawbuck / $10 bill
Scat singer / A vocalist who improvises lyrics, substituting nonsense syllables for words
Scrub / Poor student
Shake a leg / Hurry up
Skin tickler / A drummer
Slugburger / Adding day-old bread to ground beef.
Slip me five / Shake my hand
Smooth / Well dressed without qualification
Snipe / Cigarette
Sourdough / Conterfeit money
Speakeasy / Bar disguised as something else or hidden behind an unmarked door
Squat / Nothing
Stool pigeon, snitch / Someone who informs to the police
Suds, salad, dough, moolah, rhino, bacon (as in bring home the bacon), bread / Money
Take a powder, blow, split, scram, drift / Leave
Taking the rap, taking the fall / Taking responsibility for someone else's crime or crimes
The high hat / A response in which one excludes another with irreverence and intent to offend
The kiss off / The final goodbye as in exile or death
Tin / Small change
Tin can, flivver / A car
Tin ear, Ickie / Someone who did not like popular music
Togged to the bricks / Dressed up
Trip for biscuits / A task that yields nothing
Twit / Fool or Idiot
Whacky / Crazy
What's your story, morning glory? / What do you mean by that?
Wheat / Person unused to city ways
Yo! / Yes
You and me both / I agree
"You shred it, wheat" / You said it