Glossary of Words and Phrases
Used in Dead End the Musical
Bare ass - Naked
Bathtub gin - Gin literally made at home in a bathtuib
Can - Slang term for prison
Case a joint - Inspect a building for potential criminal act
Chickee - Period slang for “heads up” “watch out”
Choir boys - Period term for well-dressed criminal type
Cockalize - A ritual in which young boys chase another boy down, pull down his pants, and spit, rub dirt, and urinate on the boy’s genitals.
Codger - Slang term for elderly, eccentric, or old-fashioned person
Dame - Slang for woman
Do Time - Slang for serve time in prison
Dough - Slang for money
Fats Waller - Jazz great of the 30’s and 40’s.
Finger on me - Slang for apprehend
Flat foots - police
Freebies - Something that doesn’t cost anything
Full of it - Not telling the truth. Making information up.
Guinea - Pejorative term for person of Italian descent
Hands buttoned up - Slang for not making trouble
Hoi polloi - The common people
Hooch - Alcoholic drink
Hubbub - Random activity
Ikey - Pejorative term for person of Jewish descent
Jackknife dive - A dive that looks like a jackknife, a knife that has blades protruding at different angles
Jeebies - Something that makes one nervous or scared
Joint - Slang for home
John Dillinger - Nortorious gangster during the 1930’s
Mash on ya - Likes or loves you
Mobilize - Kid slang for hurt them
New Deal - Economic program started by Franklin Delanor Roosevelt to help people during the Depression
No pot to piss in - slang for having no money
On da ball - Slang for smart
Prohibition - Period of time in America when the drinking of alcohol was illegal.
Pitch pennies - A game that used to be played by kids, tossing pennies against an outdoor stairway or wall.
Queens - A borough in NYC across the river from Manhattan where Dead End takes place.
Rackets - Illegal ways to make money
Rockofellahs - Referring to the Rockefeller family, known for their wealth in America
Sap - Slang for unintelligent person
Sardies - Restaurant where NY elite dine in theater district
Sharpies - Period term for well-dressed criminal type
Snitch - Steal
Squealuh - A person who tells on another person, a “rat”
Status quo - The norm, the way things are
Stunod - Italian slang for a stupid person
Suits - Another period term for well-dressed criminal type
Swanky - Slang for luxurious and rich
Tallulah’s - Influential stage actress in the 1930’s
TB - Abbreviation for tuberculosis
Up the River - Prison, Sing-Sing, the state prison was an hour north on the Hudson River