• actor: show-off
• agitate the gravel: to leave (hot-rodders)
• ain't that a bite?: that’s too bad
• ankle-biter: a child
• anti-frantic: poised
• apple butter: smooth talk or flattery
• are you writing a book?: you're asking too many questions

• baby: cute girl
• back seat bingo: kissing while in a car
• bad news: depressing person
• bake biscuits; to make records
• ballad: a love letter
• barbecue: a hot-looking lady
• bash: great party
• bash ears: to talk
• bent eight: a V-8 engine (hot-rodders)
• Big Daddy: an older person
• big tickle: really funny
• binoculars: glasses
• bit: an act
• blanket: sandwich
• blast: a good time
• blow off: to defeat in a race (hot-rodders)
• bobbed: shortened
• boil my cabbage: blues slang for sex
• boss: great
• bread: money
• bug: “you bug me” - to bother
• bull: a big and strong athlete
• bundie: a boy in need of a haircut
• burn rubber: to accelerate hard and fast (hot-rodders)
• bucket of blood: spit-and-sawdust bar
• bunk habit: lounging around while others smoke (opium) and inhaling the fumes
• butter-and-egg: out-of-town sucker, free with their money

• cast an eyeball: to look
• cat: a hip person
• chariot: car
• Chicago overcoat: coffin
• Chicago lightning: gunfire
• Chicago typewriter: machine gun
• chill your chat: shut up
• chili: a good deal
• chrome-plated: dressed up (hot-rodders, originally)
• circled: married
• clanked: rejected
• classy chassis: great body
• closet case: someone to be ashamed of
• cloud 9: really happy
• clutched: rejected
• Clyde: term of address, usually for a normal person
• cold meat party: funeral
• come on snake, let’s rattle!: may I have the next dance?
• committed: engaged to be married
• community joy ride: a drug party
• cook, cookin': doing it well
• cool: indefinable quality that makes something or someone extraordinary
• cool it: relax, settle down
• cooties: imaginary infestations of the truly un-cool
• cop a breeze: to leave
• corral: a school yard
• cranked: excited
• crazy: “like crazy, man” Implies an especially good thing
• cream: originally, to dent a car. Later, to badly damage (hot-rodders, originally)
• cruisin' for a bruisin': looking for trouble
• cube: a normal person
• cut out: leave
• cut the gas: be quiet!

• Daddy-O: Term of address
• D.D.T.: initials for “Drop Dead Twice”. The response: What, and look like you?
• dead soldiers: empty beer bottles
• deuce: a 1932 Ford (hot-rodders)
• dibs: a claim - as in “got dibs” on that seat
• dig: to understand; to approve
• dime dropper: an informer (from someone who drops a dime into a payphone to call the police)
• Dolly: cute girl
• don't have a cow: don't get so excited
• drag: (hot-rodders) a short car race; A bore
• drowning: baffled
• Duck Butt or D.A.: hairstyle of greasers where hair in back is combed to the middle, then with end of comb, makes a middle

part.

• due backs: a pack of cigarettes

• earthbound: reliable
• earth pads: shoes
• epistle: a letter to someone
• eyeball: look around

• face: a clock
• face like a Russian flag: embarrassed; red-faced
• fade out: to disappear; someone who broke a promise
• fake out: bad date
• far out: ahead of the times
• Fat City: a great thing or place; Happy; a good situation
• fire up: start your engine (hot-rodders)
• flat out: fast as you can
• flat-top: men's hairstyle. A crewcut that is flat across the top
• flick: a movie
• flip: to get very excited
• flip-top: a convertible car
• Florida honeymoon: dirty weekend
• floor it: push the accelerator to the floor (hot-rodders)
• flutter bum: a good-looking boy
• fracture: to amuse
• frail: broke, without money
• fream: someone who doesn't fit in
• free to run for President: unemployed; out of work
• frosted: angry
• fuzzy duck: a girl with short hair

• germ: a pest
• get bent!: disparaging remark as in “drop dead”
• get with it: understand
• gig: work, job
• give me a bell: call me on the telephone
• give me five: let’s shake hands
• go ape: to explode or be really mad; to get very excited
• go for pinks: a drag race where the stakes are the car's pink slip (hot-rodders)
• goof: someone who makes mistakes; to make a mistake
• goopy: messy
• goose it: accelerate the car fully (hot-rodders)
• grab a flop: have a sit down
• greaser: a guy with tons of grease in his hair.
• gringles: worries
• grody: sloppy, messy or dirty
• grundy: neither good nor bad

• handle: your name
• hang: as in “hang out” which means to do very little; to loaf or idle
• Harlem sunset: knife wounds
• have one on the city: drink some water
• heart: a good teacher
• heat: police
• hemophilia of the larynx: blabbermouth
• hep: with it, cool. Someone who knows the situation.
• hey bean!: hello!
• hip: someone who is cool, in the know; very good; up to date and informed
• hipster: same as above (hip)
• hit the bottle: to bleach one’s hair blonde
• hitting the hop: doing drugs
• hopped up: a car modified for speed (hot-rodders)
• horn: telephone
• hot squat: the electric chair
• hottie: a very fast car (hot-rodders)
• hound: the bus
• hub cap: a boy who tries to be a big wheel but fails

• I’ll clue you: I’ll tell you about it
• ice it: tell someone to forget something
• illuminations: good ideas, thoughts
• in orbit: in the know
• Ivy Leaguer: pants style. Also any person who attended an Ivy League college

• Jacked Up: car with raised rear end. (hot-rodders)
• jack rabbit blood: habitual prison escaper
• jacketed: going steady
• Jelly Roll: men's hair combed up and forward on both sides, brought together in the middle of the forehead.
• jets: smarts, brains
• Joe Doe: a boy involved in a blind date
• juice jolt: the electric chair

• keeper: parent
• kick: a fun or good thing; Also, a fad
• kill: to really impress
• know your groceries: be hip, aware, alert to the situation
• knuckle sandwich: a fist in the face
• kookie: nuts, in the nicest possible way

• large charge: something that is exciting
• later, also later, gator: goodbye. See ya later, alligator. Response: after while crocodile.
• lay a patch: to accelerate so rapidly that you leave a patch of rubber on the road.
• lay dead: wait a minute
• lay on: to give
• lid: a hat
• lighter: a crew cut
• lighting up the tilt sign: not telling the truth
• like crazy; like wow: really good, better than cool
• little monsters: younger siblings
• longhairs: non-hipsters, squares, lovers of straight music
• low: depressed
• lumpy: mediocre

• machine: car (hot-rodders)
• made in the shade: success guaranteed
• Madison Avenue: sharp, cunning
• make out: a kissing session
• make the scene: to attend an event or activity
• mark: one’s signature
• mattress route: sleeping your way to the top
• meanwhile, back at the ranch: from TV Westerns. Usually used to get a storyteller back on track.
• Mickey Mouse: dumb
• mirror warmer: a piece of pastel fabric (often cashmere) tied around the rear view mirror. A 50s version of the Medieval wearing your lady's colors.
• moldy: a bad teacher
• moose-eyes: a leering dude
• most: as in “the most” - high praise usually of the opposite sex
• mush: homework

• negative perspiration: easy
• nerd: same as now. Bill Gates without the money.
• nest: a hair-do
• nickel rats: cheap crooks
• nighthawk: late-night person
• night shift: a slumber party
• nod: drift off to sleep
• noggin: brain
• nosebleed: as in “hey, nosebleed” - hey, stupid. Not a compliment!
• no sweat: no problem
• nowhere: opposite of cool.
• Nowheresville: a boring, bad place to be.
• nuggets: loose change

• odd ball: someone a bit off the norm
• off: to steal
• off the line: start of a drag race (hot-rodders)
• old enough to vote: vintage liquor or wine
• on pills: dieting
• on the hook: in love
• on the stick: pulled together. Bright, prepared…

• pad: home; an apartment
• pale one: a dull person
• panic and a half: a very funny joke
• paper shaker: cheerleader or Pom-Pom girl
• party pooper: no fun at all; a killjoy
• passion pit: drive-in movie theatre
• peel your ears: listen up
• peepers: glasses
• pile up Z's: get some sleep
• Pinky’s out of jail: your slip is showing
• play dead: to keep quiet
• pooper: no fun at all
• pop the Clutch: Release the clutch pedal quickly so as to get a fast start
• pound: beat up
• preparing bait: putting on makeup
• proof: identification showing that one is old enough to buy liquor
• pulling the Dutch act: committing suicide
• punch it: step on the gas (hot-rodders)
• punk: a weak, useless person
• put an egg in your shoe and beat it!: leave!
• put down: to say bad things about someone

• queen: a popular girl
• quote: to repeat oneself

• radioactive: very popular
• rag top: a convertible car
• rap: to tattle on someone
• rattle your cage: get upset
• raunchy: messy or gross in some other way
• razz my berries: excite or impress me
• real gone: very much in love. Also a little unstable.
• reds: the Communists; an angry state of mind
• refuel: to eat
• riding academy: brothel
• righto: okay
• rock: a diamond
• rocket: a car (hot-rodders)
• rod: a car (hot-rodders)
• round up time: the end of summer vacation
• roundheels: party girl (deriving from a supposed natural ability to regularly fall over backwards)
• roust: under arrest
• running lights: eyes

• salty: angry
• scooch: a friend
• scorch: popular
• scramble egg treatment: a sex show
• scream: go fast
• screamer: a hot rod
• screwed, blued, and tattooed: a wild night out
• set of wheels: a car
• sewer: someone who is incapable of keeping a secret
• shoot low, they're riding Shetlands: be careful
• shot down: failed
• shuck, shuckster: a deceiver, liar or cheat
• sides: vinyl records
• sing: to tattle or inform on someone
• sinhound: a priest
• skinny: broke, without money
• slip me: give me
• slodge: a friend
• sluff: to cut classes
• slurg: a milkshake
• smog in the noggin: lost memory; forgot something
• sniffing Arizona perfume: going to the gas chamber
• snowed: infatuated
• Sophie: one’s girlfriend
• sounds: music
• souped up: a car modified to go fast
• spaz: someone who is uncoordinated. A klutz.
• split: leave
• square: a regular, normal person. A conformist.
• stable the horses: park the car
• stack up: to wreck a car (hot rodder)
• storming machine: a car that will go fast
• straight: reliable, honest
• straight from the fridge: cool
• subterranean: a hipster

• taken off the payroll: assassinated/killed
• tank: a large sedan (usually driven by parents)
• that's close: something wrong or not true
• that vibrates me: I'm impressed, I really like that
• the man: police
• thin one: a dime
• think Fast: usually said right before someone threw something at you
• threads: clothes
• throw that dirt in your face: being buried
• tight: good friends
• total: to completely destroy, most often in reference to a car
• torso tosser: a stripper
• touch home: to make sense
• tube steak: a hot dog
• tune out: to go away

• unborn: extremely naive
• unreal: exceptional

• vacant: uncertain
• vomit on the table: speak up

• wail: go fast (as in a car); or to perform superbly
• warden: a teacher
• way out: innovative
• weed: a cigarette
• week at the knees: unsuccessful courtship
• wet rag: someone who's just no fun; unpopular
• what's buzzin, cuzzin: what's new?
• what's your tale, nightingale: what's the story?
• wheelie: lift the car's front wheels off the ground by rapid acceleration
• wig chop: a haircut
• word from the bird: the truth

• yoot: a youngster
• you make the king’s jive: your English is good
• your roof is leaking: you're a bit crazy

• zorros: the jitters