The Most Dangerous Dame

Cement shoes: cement blocks poured around an unlucky sap’s feet. Once the cement cures, the sap is tossed in the river to drown.

Chew: eat

Chin music, skull music: the sounds made when someone is punched in the face or head

Chin up: check out, investigate. Also means to talk.

Chisel/flimflam/rib up: frame, set up

Choppers, pearls: teeth

Chopper squad/trouble boys: hired guns

Climb your thumb: go to hell

Clip/plug/rub out/smoke/zotz: kill

Clip joint: high-class nightclub

Coot/codger: old man

Crab: cash out

Crooner: male singer

Crop: everything, all there is

Daisy: effeminate man

Dame/moll/dish/looker: nicknames for a woman, usually an attractive one

Darb: good, excellent, high quality

Datacom: a tiny earpiece synched to the holoband and used to make phone calls

Down on the ups: when life sucks

Dormy/laying dormy: laying low, hiding out

Dibcard: a preloaded card for transferring dibs from one account to another

Dibs: currency

Dive/can house: low class restaurant or nightclub

Drop a dime/sing/squeal: Snitch to the cops

Duck soup/lead pipe cinch: easy

Egg/noodle: head

Evaporator: machine that instantly dries clothing, usually installed in doorways

Elbows checked: arrested

Feed the fishes/swim with the fishes: drowned or tossed in the river after death

Fils de pute: bastard, son of a bitch

Floater: flying automobile

Flogger: trench coat

Floozy/hussy/skater: a dame who likes to spread it around.

Flophouse: hideout

Focosa: hot-blooded, passionate.

Frail: old woman

Fuggetaboutit: an expression that covers a lot of different meanings.

Gasper/smoke: cigarette

Gems/peepers: eyes

Giggle juice, hard juice: alcohol

Glad rags: expensive clothing

Gonzo/jingle-brained: crazy

Goon/dropper/hardhead: hired thug

Grift: con

Grifter: con artist

Grill/tighten the screws: interrogate

Haven: city-sized constructs built to preserve life during the Cataclysm

Hophead: drug addict

Hosers/sky hosers: fire floaters deployed to extinguish flames

Heap/can: vehicle, usually a wheeler

Heat: pressure, usually from the brass.

Heater/bean shooter/cannon: firearm

Healed: packing a gun

Heel-toe/dust out/breeze/rotate heels: leave, exit

High pillow/high hat: high society, top dog, filthy rich

Holoband: computerized instrument worn around the wrist, uniquely synched to the individual and powered the body’s energy. All personal information is stored in its databanks. Erases nearly all info upon the individual’s death.

Hunter-killer/HK: flying drone deployed to lock on a target and destroy it

Jaw/bump gums/gab/: talk

Jamook: worthless, idiot, screw-up

Labcoat: scientist

Large: a thousand dibs, someone who’s loaded with cash

Lead/slugs/heat: bullets

Lead poisoning: to get shot

Mandroid: humanoid robot

Meat locker/slammer/cooler: jail

Medimech: mechanical doctoring unit. Capable of dealing with most injuries that don’t require specialized surgery.

Mech gun: mechanized firearm that fires specialized rounds

Mug: man, or a man’s face

Nance: effeminate man

New Haven Blues: death

New Haven trench coat: coffin

Nimrod/triggerman: bounty hunter and assassin rolled into one

Nix: cancel, quit

No kick: no problem — I got no kick with that

Omerta: Mafia code of silence/in-house management of problems

On the square: dependable, trustworthy

Oobatz: insane, wild

Oyster fruit: pearls

Perp: perpetrator, criminal

Picjector: holographic entertainment system

Pipe that: do you understand?

Plug/clip/throw lead/clap/spit lead/fog/haze/hose/spray/squeeze off: shoot a gun

Pro skirt/chippy/skater: prostitute, although ‘skater’ can also refer to a dame who gives it up easy

Puttana: whore

Rags: clothes, outfit

Rube/mark/sap: sucker or patsy, someone easily rolled up on, although ‘mark’ can also mean a clue

Scattergun: mech-powered shotgun

Score: loot, payoff, important info

Secret Service/SS: clandestine agency of the United Havens. Notorious for their ruthlessness and highly skilled agents.