Glossary for The Catcher in the Rye

"kills me" Holden uses this term whenever something makes him feel pangs of love or similar
emotion.
Ace top-quality, of the highest order
Backasswards completely wrong or out of order, so backwards that the rear or "ass" is at the fore
Benedict Arnold perhaps the most famous traitor in American history, a man who fled from the
American side during the Revolutionary War in order to give information to the British
Bourgeois pertaining to the phony, middle-class or better lifestyle
Brown Betty an American dessert of baked pudding that dates back to colonial times
Caddy person who accompanies a golfer on the course and carries his bag of clubs, sometimes
giving advice about a shot
Canasta a card game
Chiffonier similar to a sideboard, a type of furniture with drawers that serves as a receptacle for
odds and ends
Cockneyed shifted to one side
Dough money (slang)
Earlap the flap on a hunter's hat that covers one's ear to protect it from the weather
Falsies artificial breast enhancers worn inside one's dress
Flitty appearing homosexual
Flys Up a playground variation of baseball where whoever catches a fly ball gets the next turn at
bat
Furlough a break in action or temporary leave of absence, usually in the military
get wise with to make sexual advances
give her the time to have intercourse with a female
Gladstone type of luggage
Grippe influenza; the flu
Halitosis a condition of having bad-smelling breath
Highball an alcoholic drink usually involving whisky in a tall glass
Louse a contemptible person
Neck to kiss or make out
Pacifist a person who is against war and believes in peace as a matter of principle
Peter Lorre a famous character actor
Phony anyone who is inauthentic; one who lives on the surface or subscribes to artifice
(Holden believes that most adults are phonies)
Prince a "good guy"; someone who is valorous and noble
Ratty tattered, dilapidated
Rubbernecks people who turn their heads to watch something out of curiosity, especially when it is
none of their business
Rye grass grown as a food crop, closely related to wheat and barley
shadow punching boxing against an imaginary opponent
Snowing fooling; pulling the wool over someone's eyes
Strong box a safe for storing valuables
Tattersall a cloth pattern
The Lunts famous stage actors who drew large crowds
West Point famous military academy in the United States
Wooden press a kind of case for a wooden tennis racket, which kept it from warping (prior to modern
tennis rackets made of other materials)
Slangs and Idiolect in The Catcher in the Rye
Ass 1. to give someone a pain in the ass= to annoy someone
2. He doesn't know his ass from his elbow= He doesn't know a thing.
Bang get a bang from doing something=enjoy doing something
Be for birds be worth nothing
Buddy(roo) friend
Chew the fat shoot the bull = chew the rag = to chat
Corny old, dull
Crap senseless, stupid talk
Crumby lousy
Dizzy senseless, funny
Dopey a stupid person
Dough money
Faggy stupid
Flitty homosexual
For crying out loud hell, damn
Get to the first base to make progress (in a relationship)
Are you getting wise with me? Are you making fun of me?
To give time to someone to have sexual intercourse with someone
To have guts to do something to have the courage to do something
Holy Joe a priest, a people working for the church
To feel horny to be in a mood for sexual activity
Horse around to fool around
Hot at something good at something
Hot-shot an important person
You are a mess You are hopeless.
Mushy oversweet
Oiled drunken
Oodles of something lots of something
Nosy curious
Screw up to do something wrong: I screwed up the whole thing.
Shoot the breeze to chat with someone
Show-off a posh person, who wants to draw attention to himself
Slob a distasteful person
Snow heroin
To sock someone to hit someone
Stink up to do something completely wrong
Swanky elegant, posh
Tail t'night a sexual relationship of one night
Take a leak to urinate
Tiffed drunken
Yellow a coward
. . . and all
I didnt . . . hardly
If you want to know the truth