Prison Slanguage

Return to Activities When Clinton Duffy was Warden he published a small pocket dictionary of Prison Slanguage, defining words used by prisoners to identify people and things. Some of the words evidently originated in prison, but many are those used on the outside. Some may even have found their way into modern dictionaries. We will list a few of them, perhaps the most common and enduring. One that I remember as perhaps of real San Quentin origin is Bonaru - Good, excellent. Some others are: Blow your top - Lose your head, or your cool Beef - Complaint Bum Beef - Illegally convicted Big House - The stony lonesome, a prison Bull - Policeman or guard Caper - A crime Caught in a snow storm - Drugged with Cocaine Crate - An automobile Coppers - Prison credits for good behavior Creep joint - An illegal gambling establishment that is floating, or moving to a new location nightly. Croaker - A doctor - A cuckoo doctor is a prison psychiatrist. Doctors are also called a Quack or Saw bones, and a shrink or psychiatrist is sometimes called Nuts and bolts Dip - A pickpocket Doing it all - Serving a life sentence Dummy up - To remain silent - shut up Eye - A detective Fence - Buyer of stolen goods Finger - An informer, who is also a Fink or a Rat Fish - A new arrival in prison Flatfoot - An officer of the law - also called The Fuzz or Gum Heel Fruiter - A homosexualist Grease - Protection money - Bribe Heater - A revolver - also called Rod - Smoke wagon, Little brother Heist-hi jacker - To hold up or rob Hood - A hoodlum Hype - A narcotic addict Job - A robbery or crime Jocker - A degenerate or Homo Junk - Dope - also jewelry Jury - Two six shooters Kite - A letter Kosher - Hot guilty - Clean Lam - To leave Louse - A low person Main line - Ordinary prison fare or grub Nephew - A youth used for immoral purposes, also called a Sister or Queen Paper Hanger - A counterfeiter, also called a Penman Persuader - Policeman's night stick or gun Pete - A safe Piano - A loom in San Quentin's Jute Hill Pogey - A prison hospital Punk - A homo's partner, also called a Queen Pussy bandit - A rapist Put on the cross - To mark for death Screw - A prison guard Shive - A knife Skipper - The captain of the prison yard Skins - Paper money, also called Toad hides Sniff the eggs - To be executed by lethal gas Soup jockey - A waiter Stir - A prison Stir simple or Stir crazy - One who, being too long in prison has become mentally unbalanced Sweetheart - A successful robbery Tall weed in the grass - A warning that a stool pigeon is listening Spring - To release from prison Tommy - A machine gun, also called a Typewriter Trigger man - A body guard delegated to do the shooting Twist - A female Boiling up - Brooding over serving time Doin' time hard - Counting the years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes yet to serve. There are many other words that are the vocabulary of the underworld and of prisoners, but the above samples may be of interest. Author: William J. Duffy, Jr.  Return to Activities Last Revision March 2001