Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

(Amelia) #1
done. The old one who’s shaking—he’s
probably seeing snakes.

seeing pink spidersGo to seeing pink
elephants.


seeing snakesGo to seeing pink ele-
phants.


seen better daystv. showing signs of wear
or exhaustion. (Always a past participle.)
This coat has seen better days. The
pitcher has seen better days. He’s about
through on this team, I think.


see no further than the end of one’s
nose and cannot see (any) further
than the end of one’s nosein. to be
narrow-minded; to lack understanding
and perception. She is so selfish she can
see no further than the end of her nose. 
You don’t care about anyone but yourself.
You can’t see any further than the end of
your nose.


see redtv. to be angry. When she hung
up the phone, I saw red. I’ve never been
so angry in my life. As he continued to
talk, she began to see red.


see starstv. to be (knocked) unconscious.
If you talk to me like that again, you’ll
be seeing stars. I saw stars for a few sec-
onds, and then someone threw cold water
in my face.


See ya.Go to See you.


seeyabye[“sij@”baI] interj. bye. (Califor-
nia.) Oh, that’s, like, so, like, rad. Okay,
seeyabye. Gotta go now. Seeyabye.


See you. and See ya.interj. Good-bye. 
Good game, Tom. See ya. See you, old
chum. Give me a ring.


See you later.interj. Good-bye. (Common
colloquial. Also said to people one knows
one will never see again.) Nice talking
to you. See you later. Have a great trip,
Mary. See you later.


See you later, alligator.interj. Good-bye.
(From the 1930s. Answered with After a
while, crocodile.) TOM: Bye. BILL: See
you later, alligator. BILL: See you later,
alligator. TOM: After a while, crocodile.


self-propelled sandbagn. a U.S. Marine.
(Persian Gulf War.) Once those self-


propelled sandbags hit the bars, you army
guys had better just go home. Those guys
are just self-propelled sandbags. They are
fearless.
sell a wolf ticket and sell wolf tickets
tv. to boast, bluff, or lie. (Originally
black. Compare this with buy someone’s
wolf ticket.) Freddie is out selling wolf
tickets again. Are you trying to sell me
a wolf ticket?
sell buickstv. to vomit. I hear somebody
in the john selling buicks.
sellout 1. n. the event of selling all of
something. (Advertising.) Come to our
gigantic sellout of all name-brand mer-
chandise! This is the sellout of the cen-
tury. Everything must go. 2. n. a betrayal.
(See also sell someone out.) Any one
of you could have stood up for me. What
a sellout! How can you pull such a sell-
out?
sell someone outtv. to betray someone.
How could you sell me out like that? T
She would sell out her mother.
sell wolf ticketsGo to sell a wolf ticket.
send someone from pillar to posttv. to
send someone from place to place; to give
someone the runaround. Red tape
everywhere I went. They sent me from pil-
lar to post until closing time. Nobody is
in charge there. They send you from pil-
lar to post, and you don’t complain for fear
they’ll start you all over again.
send someone or something uptv. to
perform a parody of someone or some-
thing. (See also send-up.) Last week,
he sent the president up. TIn his act, he
sends up famous people.
send someone to glory 1. tv. to kill some-
one. One shot sent him to glory. Yo u
want me to send you to glory or something?


  1. tv. to officiate at the burial services for
    someone. The preacher sent him to
    glory amidst the sobs of six or seven former
    fans. The preacher probably gets fifty
    bucks for every stiff he sends to glory.
    send someone up the rivertv. to send
    someone to prison. (Underworld. As
    done by a judge or indirectly by the po-


send someone up the river
Free download pdf