New? Or should I have read HDAS more closely?

[Wilson Gray]

I don't know how they do it, but, even in a crowd, winos always seem to
be able to tell that I'm the one on the give. [Sigh! Sad, but true!]

He was a taste short of the bus fare, but he got on, anyway. On public
transpo, you can usually find somebody on the give who'll let you hold
a piece of change.

Don't even come aksin' me for no money, 'cause I ain't on the give for
nothing but a hard time.

=Wilson

On Jul 12, 2005, at 9:03 AM, Grant Barrett wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG>
> Subject:      Re: New? Or should I have read HDAS more closely?
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Good stuff, as Jon says. Can you give a couple of illustrative
> sentences for "be on the give"?
>
> Grant Barrett
> gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>
> On Jul 12, 2005, at 02:41, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> "Do a gummy" :  rub cocaine across the gums in order to get high or
>> rub
>> an unknown substance across the gums to see whether it's cocaine
>>
>> "Be on the give" :  willing to make a small emergency "loan" - two
>> quarters to make a phone call or two dimes to make up the $.95 for bus
>> fare, etc. - to a stranger, knowing that the money will never be
>> repaid
>>
>> "Outfit (vb.) for a dirt nap" :  dress a corpse for burial
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>>
>