Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

(Amelia) #1

grandstandin. to make oneself conspicu-
ous. Stop grandstanding, Sally. Every-
one can see you. Don’t you just hate the
way that Pat grandstands all the time?


grandstand playn. something done ex-
ceedingly well to impress an audience or
a group of spectators. The grandstand
play caught the attention of the crowd just
as they were leaving. He tried one final
grandstand play, but the audience contin-
ued to give him the raspberry.


grape(s)n. champagne; wine. (See also
berries.) These grapes are great! No
more of the grapes for me. It tickles my
nose.


grape shot mod. alcohol intoxicated;
drunk on wine. After the reception,
Hank found himself a little grape shot. 
Man, is that guy ever grape shot! How can
he hold enough to get that way?


grapes of wrathn. wine. Fred had taken
a little too much of the grapes of wrath.
How about another dose of the grapes of
wrath?


grapevinen. an informal communications
network. I heard on the grapevine that
Sam is moving to the east. The grape-
vine was right. He’s already left.


grass 1. n. marijuana. (Drugs and now
widely known.) These kids manage to
find this grass somewhere. Almost
everybody knows that grass means mari-
juana. 2. n. lettuce; salad greens. (See
also rabbit food.) I could use a little
more grass in my diet. Do you want
some dressing on your grass?


grasserGo to grasshead.


grasshead and grasser; grasshoppern.
a marijuana smoker. (Drugs.) The
grassheads are taking over this neighbor-
hood. Imagine, a seven-year-old grasser!


grasshopperGo to grasshead.


grass partyn. a marijuana-smoking party.
(Drugs.) The goon squad raided Pete’s
grass party without any warning. Sally
tried to have a grass party, but didn’t have
any grass.


grassroots 1. n. the common people, es-
pecially rural people. We really haven’t
heard anything from the grassroots yet. 
The grassroots isn’t organized on most is-
sues. 2. mod. having to do with or origi-
nating with the common people. A
grassroots movement pushed Senator Del
Monte toward the nomination. Politi-
cians love to create grassroots movements.
grave-dancern. someone who profits over
someone else’s misfortune. (From dance
on someone’s grave.) I don’t want to
seem like a grave-dancer, but his defeat
places me in line for a promotion. The
guy’s a grave-dancer. Anything to get
ahead.

gravel-poundern. an infantry soldier.
(Military.) Do you really want to join
the Army and be a gravel-pounder? The
life of a gravel-pounder is not for me.
graveyard shiftn. the night shift of work
in a factory, usually starting at about
midnight. (See also swing shift.) I’d
prefer not to work the graveyard shift. 
The pay is pretty good on the graveyard
shift.

gravity checkn. a fall as from a surfboard,
bike, etc. She rounded the turn and had
a sudden gravity check, resulting in a
scraped elbow.
gravyn. extra or easy money; easy profit.
Virtually every cent that came in was
pure gravy—no expenses and no materi-
als costs at all. After I pay expenses, the
rest is pure gravy.

gravy trainn. a job that brings in a steady
supply of easy money or gravy. This
kind of job is a real gravy train. The
gravy train is just not for me.
Graybar Hotel and Graystone Collegen.
a jail; a prison. The two cops had to
spend two years in Graybar Hotel with
some of the inmates they had caught over
the past few years. Bart has graduated
from Graystone College three times in the
last ten years.

grayhoundin. [for a black] to date whites.
Somebody said you were grayhounding.
Is that so? I am not grayhounding.

grandstand

Free download pdf