tits up in a ditch

Deceased; dead. Typically used to connote a potentially bad outcome. (Army slang)

"If you go AWOL, wwe're going to find you tits up in a ditch after Top hunts you down."

by Twathenge April 11, 2006

Jewish Navy

The U.S. Coast Guard.

Etymology: World War II era military slang

If your hair is wavy,
Come and join the Jewish Navy,
Fight fight fight
For Palestine!

-- World War II-era U.S. Navy ditty

by Twathenge April 15, 2006

'Cock-a-doodle-do! Any cock will do!'

Phrase attributed to 1930s movie star Carole Lombard after being exposed as having an adulterous affair with Clark Gable.

"At a hastily called press conference, the exasperated Lombard allegedly shouted, 'Cock-a-doodle-do! Any cock will do!' out of frustration.

"Needless to say, due to the times, none of those present printed her words, but bad blood continued between Lombard and an outraged Louella Parsons until Lombard's death."

-- Jim Bacon, "Gable & Lombard: A Romance Made in Hollywood" (Parade Magazine, November 25, 1963)

by Twathenge April 10, 2006

Abbess

Female brothel keeper. A Madame.

Etymology: Victorian underworld slang. An abbess (Latin abbatissa, fem. form of abbas, abbot) is the female superior, or Mother Superior, of an abbey or convent of nuns. Since the Elizabethan era, nun has been slang for a prostitute (ref. William Faulkner, "Requiem for a Nun"), and a nunnery referred to a brothel.

"Polly Adler, in her memoir 'A House is Not a Home,' tells of her time as the abbess of the Big Town's poshest nunnery."

Walter Winchell, 1953

by Twathenge April 10, 2006

Curb crawler

A woman who walks the streets peddling herself for sex; a prostitute.

After Jim-Dandy kicked Buffy's ass out of the crib, she turned into a righteous curb crawler, peddling her skinny white ass on the street to get a fin for another rock of crack. She wound up sleeping in a Port-a-Potty downtown until some anonymous john slit her thoat.

by Twathenge April 10, 2006

Family, The

The criminal underworld, also Family People.

Family, The: The term "Family" for a Mafia organization, such as the "Five Families" of New York, is rooted in the Victorian term "The Family" (or "Family People"), slang for the underworld.

by Twathenge April 11, 2006