A selection of slang from The Wire, please feel free to leave comments.
- Corner / The corners – The streets where dealers hang out or sell
- Hi Risers / Towers – Tower blocks / High rise flats
- Hamsterdam – Is the name given to area that police allowed the drug dealers to deal in
- Po Po / 50 – Police
- Muscle – Having people to carry out handy work / tough guys
- The Pit – A grassy area with houses around the edges?
- Step off – Telling someone to move away / fuck off basically
- Burner – Pay as you go mobile that is thrown away after a couple of days
- Re-up or Package – Shipment of drug / Someone who has AIDS “they’ve got the package”
- hopper – Drug dealer at the bottom of the food chain
- Shorty – Female or a kid
- To have suction – To have pull with your higher-ups at the Police Department or in City Hall.
- The hall - The mayor’s office / City Hall.
- A redball – A high-profile case.
- A Corner boy - A young kid on the street who’s aware of the street (but not necessarily a dealer). A corner boy is one on a corner, working a package with a crew. A yo or yo boy is a derogative term for such, popularized by Baltimore cops. A corner boy would never refer to himself as a yo or yo boy.
- Police - Police officers are simply police, as in “he a police.” Emphasis on first syllable: “POH-leece.” Homicide detectives are murder police.
- Good Police - A police officer who cares more about work than the chain of command.
- Stand Tall - Not let the enemy have his way with you, maintain dignity. Common usage.
- Carrying Weight - Doing jail time (and not cooperating with the police).
- To Shove off - To get high.
- Testers - Free vials from a new street-ready package that go out to addicts to get them hooked/let them know there’s a new package….They are simply advertising the quality of a new package. Testers can be heroin, which is sold under brand names: Death Row, Tec-Nine, WMD, etc., and usually come in Ziploc bags, or inside capsules, or in glassine envelopes; or cocaine, which is usually in vials of the kind used for perfume samples, with different colored tops. Red-tops, blue-tops, yellow-tops, etc.
- Slinging - Selling drugs. Or twirling. Or clocking. Or working a package.
- The Jects - The projects.
- Cheese - Money but also a character
- Fiend - Addict.
- A humble – A cheap, misdemeanor charge. Either an unwarranted charge in some definitions, or a charge required in order to humble an arrogant corner boy.
- Crew up – To form a team and sling drugs on a corner.
- Walk-around money - Petty briberies and monetary grease on Election Day.
- G-Pack – One hundred vials of coke, prepackaged for sale.
http://ask.metafilter.com/91636/Help-me-understand-jargon-in-The-Wire
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119888101122256433.html?mod=loomia&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r1:c0.542822