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