Afro-American Slang

Afro-American Slang Dictionary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Y Z

Ace-deuce: three
A-head: a heavy user of amphetamines
Alligator: a term used to refer to white jazz musicians, jive people, or jitterbugs
Ankle: to walk
Anywhere: to possess drugs, example, "Are you anywhere?"
Apollo Play: the planet earth
Are your boots laced?: inquiry as to whether or not one understands the matter in question
Armstrong: a very high note
Ass peddler: one who sells him or herself sexually
Attic: the human head
Avenue-tank: a bus
Axle grease: stiff pomade for the hair

Back-door man: a married woman's lover
Bagpipe: vacuum cleaner
Balling the Jack: a dance accompanied by lusty handclapping; to work swiftly
Balloon room: the place where marijuana is smoked
Ballroom without a parachute: marijuana den where no marijuana is available
Banana: an attractive light skinned Afro-American female
Bank: toilet
Banter play built on a coke frame: an attractive young woman
Barbecue, Bar-B-Q: an attractive female as an object for oral sex
Barge: to jump
Bark: human skin
Barkers: shoes
Basket: the penis and groin
Beam: to look
Bean: the sun
Beard: intellectual or far-out person
Beast: the white people
Beat (one's) chops: to talk
Beater: money
Beat for the yolk: short of cash
Beat (one's) skin: to clap
Beat the rocks: walk on the sidewalk
Beat to the socks: weariness
Bebop glasses: fashionable sunglasses
Bee: an idea
Belly fiddler: guitar
Bend one's ear: to tell someone something
Bender: human arm
Benny: an overcoat
Biddie: an attractive little girl or small old woman
Bigger Thomas: character in Native Son, a bad nigger
Birdwood: marijuana
Biscuit: human skull or bed pillow
Black gunion: a strong, gummy grade of marijuana
Blast: to smoke marijuana
Blind: to be uncircumcised
Blip: anything strange
Blow a gut: explode with laughter
Blow change: to think, talk, write, or play music along the lines of revolutionary principles.
Blow gage: smoke pot
Blow out the afterglow: to turn off the lights
Blow (one's) soul: to do creative work with passion and honesty
Blue broadway: heaven
Bogus beef: groundless complaint or chatter
Bomber: thick reefer
Boo: a derivitive of "jabooby," marijuana, so called because it sometimes induces anxiety or fear
Boo koos: a large quantity of anything
Boolhipper: black leather coat
Boot: to explain
Booted on: to be hip
Boot-snitch: information
Bottle up and go: to leave
Boxed: overcome by narcotics or liquor
Brace of horned corns: aching feet
Breaking luck: the first trick of the evening for a prostitute
Breeze up: the utmost
Broom: to walk or run
Broom to the slammer that fronts the drape crib: to go to the clothes closet
Bubble dancing: washing dishes
Bucket: a car
Bull's wool: stolen clothes
Bunch of fives: the fists
Bust (one's) conk: to work hard

Cack: to go to sleep
Call off all bets: to die
Catting: to search for available women
Cattle train: a Cadillac
Chamber of commerce: toilet
Charlie Nebs: policeman
Cheaters: dark sunglasses
Check the war: command to stop arguing
Check your nerves: command to keep cool
Chewers: teeth
Chimer: timepiece; the human heart
Chimney: the human head
Choker: a neck tie
Circus Love: an orgy
Citizen: a square or white person
Classy Chassis: an attractive woman's body
Clip side of big moist: on the other side of the ocean
Clyde: a square
Cold meat party: a funeral
Collar a broom: to leave
Collar a duster up the ladder: to climb stairs
Collar a hot: to eat lunch or summer
Collar the jive: to grasp what is happening
Come on like gang busters: to do something very fast
Conk: pomade for the hair; the human head
Conk-buster: anything mentally difficult
Cookie: the female genitalia
Cook with gas: to be informed about the popular fad
Cool papa: a nonchalant male
Coo-yon: anyone who is crazy
Cop a broom: to leave hurridly
Cop a drill: to leave walking
Cop a squat: to sit down
Corn: money
Cotton: the hair of a woman's pudendum
Crack wise: an obvous square who uses a profusion of hip terms in an effort to be accepted on the scene
Crazy rim: a handsome hat
Creaker: an old person
Cut a rug: to dance

Damper: a savings bank
Dap: dapper
Dead president: paper money
Deb: a girl member of a gang
Deece: a dime
Demon: a dime
Derby: the reference is to the human head as it relates to oral copulation
Desk piano: typewriter
Deuce o'dims and darks on the cutback: forty-eight hours ago
Deuce of benders: knees
Deuce of haircuts: two weeks
Deuce of nods on the backbeat: two nights ago
Deuce of peekers: two eyes
Deuce of ticks: two minutes
Dig the dip: take a bath
Dims and brights: days and nights
Dip: a hat
Dipping: picking pockets
Dirty bird: nickname for Old Crow Whisky
Dirty Dozens: a game played by insulting the relatives of the other players
Doing a hundred: very fine shape
Dream box: human head
Dribble: to stutter
Dried barkers: furs
Drilling: walking
Drink: a large body of water
Drumsticks: human legs
Dry long so: dullness or fate
Ducks: tickets to a social event
Dust-bin: grave
Dusty butt: short person who's rear end almost touches the ground

Early beam: in the morning
Early black: in the evening
Early bright: dawn
Ears: to listen, example, "I got ears for what you're saying"
Earth pads: shoes
Eight ball: a square
Eighty-eight: a piano
Enamel: human skin
Every tub on its own black bottom: to improvise
Expense: a new born baby

Face: a stranger
Faded: a black that fades into a white way of life
Fat city: a fine state of affairs
Fat lip: obnoxious talk
Feel a draft: to sense racism
Feelers: fingers
Fews and twos: a small sum of money
Few tickers: a few minutes
Fiddle-cases: shoes
Fifty-'leven: an uncountable quantity
Fish: a woman
Flaps: ears
Flippers: ears
Floating: intoxicated
Flyer with the roof slightly higher: a modified version of a ten gallon Stetson hat
Fold (one's) ears: to advise
Forks: fingers
Frail eel: a good looking woman
Frame: the body; suit of clothes
Frantic: anything exciting
Fresh water trout: good-looking women
Frolic Pad: a nightclub or dance hall
From out front: from the beginning
Fruiting: being promiscuous
Fry: to straighten nappy hair

Gage: marijuana
Gam: to brag or show off
Gang-shags: lively parties
Gang: a large amount of anything
Gasper: a cigarette
Gate: a jazz musician or other hip person
Gatemouth: gossiper
Gazer: a window
Geets: power or money or both
Get go: the beginning
Get previous: to act in a very forward manner
Get (one's) rug beat: to get a haircut
Get some kick: to obtain money
Gims: the eyes
Gin: a street fight
Goat hair: bootleg liquor
Gobble: to talk
Golden leaf: good marijuana
Gold fish: sliced peaches
Gonest: the best
Gorilla pimp: a stupid, crude, tactless hustler
Got (one's) boots on: to be wise, hip
Grabbers: the hands
Grape-cat: one who drinks a great deal of wine
Grapes of wrath: wine
Gravy: money or the power it generates
Grease: to eat
Grease (one's) chops: to eat
Greyhound: to run fast
Ground apple: a brick or rock or stone
Ground rations: sexual intercourse
Gum-beating: talking
Gun: to look
Gungeon: poetent marijuana
Gunpowder: gin

Hack: anger or annoyance; a white person;
Hacked: irritated
Haircut: to be robbed or cheated; to be abused in some way by a woman
Ham fat: a mediocre person or thing
Ham kick: a social game designed to give men a peek at the underpants and thighs of girls; the girl who could kick a ham that was hung high up
won the meat.
Hammer: beautiful woman
Hams: human legs
Handcuffs: an engagement ring or wedding ring
Handsome ransom: a large quantity of money
Hang: a job, especially one taken or held grudgingly
Haps: happenings, refers to any significant incident
Hardleg: any man or an ugly woman
Hard skull-fry: a heavily greased and shiny conked hair-do
Hard spiel: jive talk
Hat: any female
Hay-eater: any white person
Headcheese: various cheap grades of pork meat
Heavy wet: rain storm
Hinges: one's elbow
Hobo cocktail: a glass of water
Hocks: the feet
Holding: possession of illegal drugs
Hooch: liquor
Hummer: a small error; also getting something free
Hustle: to survive by any means possible
Hype: a deception

Iced: imprisoned
Idea-pot: the mind
Igg: ignore
Index: the human face
In front of: to have control of a situation
Ink: cheap wine

Jasper: lesbian
Jelly: without charge
Jelly-roll: one's lover; a term for the vagina
Jersey side of snatch play: to be over forty
Jessie: a red-head "vixen"
Jib: bouth
Jick head: a drunk
Juice back: to drink liquor
Jump salty: to suddenly become angry

Kack: used like "fellow" or "dude"
Keep on keeping on: pereverance
Keister: buttocks
Kemels: shoes
Keyholding a round tripper: to be witness to an extraordinary event
Kicks: shoes
Knobs: knees
Knock a nod: to go to sleep
Knocking her dead one on the nose each and every double trey: to get a paycheck every sixth day
Knowlege box: the head
Kopasetic: excellent

Lamps: one's eyes
Last debt: death
Last out: death
Lay across the drink: the continent of Europe
Let (one) down for (one's) chimer: steal someone's watch
Lid: the sky; one's mind; a hat
Lightly and politely: to effect smoothly, as though without effort
Like cheese: any strong odor
Like Jack the Bear just ain't nowhere: an expression of disappointment, worthlessness
Little Eva: a loud-mouth white girl
Lobo: an ugly girl
Lobstertails: usually refers to a case of crabs

Make the scene: to go to where one's friends gather
Man who rides the screaming gasser: policeman in a patrol car
Man with headache stick: policeman
Man with the book of many years: judge in a courtroom
Marble town: a cemetary
Melted out: to be without money
Moldy: out of style
Moldy fig: one who refects the new jazz
Moo: money
Moss: one's hair
Mouse: one's pocket
Mow the lawn: to comb the hair
Mugged behind five: speaking with the hand shielding the lips
Muscle: bluff; false

Nab: policeman
Nasties: sexual desire
Natch: variant of "naturally"
Nickel note: five dollar bill
Nix out: to throw away
Noodle: the human head
Nookie: vagina
Noose is hanging: state of readiness
Nose wide open: to be in love
Nowhere: applied to a dull person
Nut roll: one who plays stupid

Off the cob: out of style or backwards
Off-time jive: a weak excuse
Oil: pay-off to authorities
Onion act: anything or situation conidered extremely wrong
Orchestration: an overcoat
Other man: the white man

Paddles: the hands
Pad of galloping snap-shots: amotion picture theater
Pad of stiffs: a funeral parlor
Pad of stitches: a hospital
Pail: the stomach
Panatella: the finest grade of marijuana
Pants: any male person
Peeling a fine green banana: making love to a very pretty light-skinned girl
Pez: hair on the head or face
Phiz: the face
Pies: the eyes
Pig meat: an older woman
Pile of bricks: any building in a city
Pillars: human legs
Pimp steak: a hot dog
Pistols: zoot trousers
Pitch a bitch: to complin
Platters: the feet
Playing the dozens with one's uncle's cousin: having the wrong approach to everything
Plenty: good
Pluck: cheap wine
Plug the mug: to stop talking
Prayer bones: the knees
Press the flesh: shake hands
Props: legs
Puffed air: having no food
Pulleys: suspenders
Pumpkin: the moon, or the sun
Pump the stump: to shake hands
Put (one) on a crosstown bus: to deliberately conuse someone
Put the issue on someone: to train them military

Racket-jacket: a zoot suit
Rag out: to put on one's finest clothes
Raise sand: to fight
Reckless eyeballing: looking with desire at "forbidden" persons
Red gravy: blood
Rent party: a party given in one's home to make money to pay the rent
Rind: one's skin
Rock candy: diamonds
Roll: a wad of paper money; to have sex
Rubies: one's lips
Ruff: a quarter
Rugcutter: one who dances a lot
Rusty dusty: the buttocks

Safety: one's bed
Sails: the ears
Scoffing fishheads and scrambling for the gills: having a very difficult time
Scratch: money
Scribe: a letter
Semolia: a fool
Send: to arouse emotionally
Sender: one who arouses emotionally
Sew: to perform autoerotism
Shafts: one's legs
Shooting gravy: when an addict reinjects his own cooked blood
Six: grave
Sizzle: to be dangerously subject to arrest, usually for the possession of illegal drugs
Skull-drag: any performance or task that taxes the mind heavily
Sky: refers to the blue uniform of a law-enforcement agent
Slab: bread
Slay (one): a request to be told stunning news
Sliceing (one's) chops: talking
Slide (one's) jib: to talk
Slides: shoes
Sniff a powder: to run away and leave
Some pig: talk
Sounding: flirting
Spasm band: musicians who get together with homemade instruments and form a marching band
Spilling: talking
Spinning at the track on fool's dim: to go dancing with a girl
Spotters: one's eyes
Squatter: a chair
Stagger Lee: a character in African-American folklore. He accuses someone called Billy of cheating at dice, goes home and returns with his gun. At gun-point, Billy begs for his life to no avail; not only is Billy shot but the bullet passes through his bo dy and breaks the bartenders glass.
In other words, Stagger Lee is an angry nigger
Stealers: the fingers
Stems: the legs
Step-off: a street curb
Stewie: a drunk
Stiffing the stroll: act of standing on the corner
Stilts: the legs
Stompers: one's shoes or feet
Stooling: informing on someone
Streevus mone on the reevus cone: a jitterbug expression that has no specific meaning
Striders: trousers
Struggle buggy: an old rundown car
Sugar: a kiss
Swoop: to leave quickly

Tab action: to borrow
Tabs: one's ears
Tagged the play with the slammer issue: the act of putting a troublesome person in jail
Tattler: an alarm clock
Tears: pearls
Tick: a minute
Tip out: to have sex with soeone other than one's spouse
Tog: to dress fashionably
Togged to the bricks: dressed extrememly well
Togs: clothing
Tooth booth: a dentist's office
Tooting stomps: low-quarter shoes
Tower of Pisa: leaning
Tree-suit: coffin
Trig (one's) wig: to think fast
Trey of sous and a double ruff: forty cents
Trickeration: to show off
Trump the hump: climb the hill
Turn out: to initiate a beginner to the scene
Tushroon: money
Two camels: ten minutes

Vacuum cleaner: one's lungs
V-8: an unfriendly female
Vic: a victim
Ville: popular suffix often attached to any word as an intensifier
Vine: a suit of clothing
Viper: drug dealer

Waders: boots
Waterworks: tears
Wear a smile: to be naked
What's your song King Kong: How do you feel?
White lilies: bed sheets
Wiggy: pleasing
Worm: to study

X'd out: something formerly important that is no longer significant

Yam: to eat
Yeasting: to exaggerate
Yellow eye: an egg

Zanzy: excellent
Zap: to move quickle
Zazzle: sexual desire
Ziggerboo: a crazy person
Zoom: to obtain something without paying for it; to sneak in
Zoot: a fashionable and flashy style in clothing

Aus:
Major, Clarence. Dictionary of Afro-American Slang. New York, 1978.
Ausgewählt von Matthew Lerner.

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