Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who greases, such as a worker who greases working parts in a machine.
- n. Slang A tough young man, especially one from a white working-class background who is much involved with motorcycles or cars.
- n. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a Latin American, especially a Mexican.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who or that which greases, as the person who oils or lubricates machinery, engines, etc.
- n. A native Mexican or native Spanish American: originally applied contemptuously by Americans in the south western United States to the Mexicans.
- n. The ruddy duck, Erismatura rubida.
Wiktionary
- n. Someone or something that greases (applies grease).
- n. slang A mechanic.
- n. slang A biker, a tough.
- n. US, offensive, ethnic slur A Latin American, especially a Mexican.
- n. US, offensive, ethnic slur An Italian.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who, or that which, greases; specifically, a person employed to lubricate the working parts of machinery, engines, carriages, etc.
- n. Low, U. S. A nickname sometimes applied in contempt to a Mexican or other Latin-American of the lowest type; -- derogatory and offensive.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Mexican descent
Etymologies
- grease + -er. Applied to mechanics because they frequently become greasy during the course of their work. Applied to toughs because they frequently greased their hair; applied, like "greaseball", to Italians for the same reason. Applied to Mexicans because, at the time the phrase originated, they commonly worked greasing the axles of carts. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“A few years later, when I was at a dance at a local YMCA and some guys started hassling me, one of the former committee members, a so-called greaser, intervened, telling the others to leave me alone because I was “okay.””
“I told him to bluff and threaten; Cardigan, I knew, would realize the grudge the Black Minorca has against him, and for that reason I figured the greaser was the only man who could bluff him.”
“The Denim Gang' in Sportswear International #227 is an editorial shot by Ryan Kelly and styled by John Tan that recalls the greaser culture of the 1950s.”
“With his early "greaser" style, Elvis fit the bill, and Phillips recorded him on his now-iconic Sun label.”
The Huffington Post: John W. Whitehead: Elvis Presley: Down Lonely Street at the Heartbreak Hotel
“I don't feel the need to only associate with other 'greaser', 'psycho', or 'punk rock' types, and there's a reason for that.”
“For that reason a number of their "greaser" assistants were taken to the car before noon and the hydrogen cask was loaded on the small wagon and carefully freighted to the corral.”
“Every little "greaser" on the ranch adored the Señorita, and she was godmother to half the babies born on the place.”
“Marcus would have killed him; had thrown his knife at him in the true, uncanny "greaser" style.”
“Chinese, "greaser," and half-breed population in the West, our Black”
“The population was of a heterogeneous type and varied character, running through all gradations, from the lowly 'greaser' to the refined and cultivated gentleman, with the intermediate interstices filled in with a motley crew of professional horse thieves, swaggering ruffians, and riff-raff generally, whose constant study seemed to be to bully their betters, as far as a discreet regard for their own precious carcasses would permit them to go; a class sui generis.”
Recollections and reflections : an auto of half a century and more,
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘greaser’.
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Fads
With bows of great respect to Connie Willis, author of "Bellwether" and other wonderful books.
Hula-Hoop, bungee-jumping, hair-bobbing, pogs, jitterbug, jogging, mesmerism, Ouija board, miniature golf, The Old Curiosity..., Harry Potter, line dancing and 271 more...
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EN - xenophobic terms
Alle Menschen werden Brüder - sooner or later? Derogatory terms for anybody different.
abe, anchor baby, ann, ape, apple, asian nigger, aunt jemima , aunt jane, aunt mary, aunt sally, banana, beaner and 315 more...
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In the Collieries
A collection of coal mining and colliery terms. Some British, some Scots, and some, Other. Many terms are quite to the point; others colorful and imaginative.
Also see Middlesmith's li...fire-damp, black-damp, choke-damp, skip, basket, gallery, Gregory lamp, pit, balance, balancer, tenter, coupler and 313 more...
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Fashionista
Clothing styles & subcultures...
dandy, boho, mod, goth, emo, punk, grunge, hipster, pimp, lolita, preppy, metal and 22 more...
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elvesoncrack's Words
lachrymose, blustering, fjord, chihuahua, chiffon, catalytic, stile, gefilte, prosh, thwart, ralph, ickle and 379 more...
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Name-Calling Humans
Terms of human exceptionalism, exclusivity, and 'types of'.
cablinasian, goyim, shiksa, gweilo, gaijin, banana, nigger, abc, fob, twinkie, oreo, ching chong and 48 more...
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Theorie: The Madwoman's Underclothes
'The Madwoman's Underclothes' book is a collection of writings by Germaine Greer from 1968 to 1985. The title refers to what she sees as being the media's obsession with her going bra-less. Warning...
homespun, shuck, flyte, animadversion, groover, tom jones, fucker, cocksman, sweety-sharp, goatman, ha-ha, corridor of power and 84 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for greaser.
chained_bear Thanks, WeirdNet. Mar 27, 2008
bilby "No one need be afraid of the Rolling Stones any more. They couldn't change a thing. They didn't want to change a thing. They arrived at the head of the pop wave, expressing the vague discontent of their generation. They were rewarded with money and initiated into the fancy vices of the upper class: drugs, buggery, cruelty and vicarious violence. Home videos of the Aberfan disaster with 'Yes sir, that's my baby' for a backing. Loving, gentle, co-operative, my arse. Still, it was genuine. The greasers, the rockers, the mods, the skinheads, the hippies, the yippies, all of your genuine working-class youth would have been corrupted in the same way. Only the bourgeois revolutionary can spurn the insidious rewards this society offers to successful subversion. Only the middle-class rebel yearns for the proletariat."
- 'Mozic And The Revolution', Germaine Greer in Oz, 1969. Mar 27, 2008