benny

See also: Benny

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

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• Rhymes: -ɛni

Etymology 1

Abbreviated from Benzedrine

Noun

benny (plural bennies)

1. (slang) An amphetamine tablet.
2. (UK, slang) A tantrum; a fit of furious or erratic behaviour.
   • 2001, "Neil Davey", Sacked Referees (on newsgroup alt.games.champ-man)

     BTW, you might like to see what happens to CM00-01 when one of your sticks of memory decides to have a benny:

   • 2010, Ian Sansom, The Bad Book Affair:

     'Like I told the police, I think she's just having a benny.'

   • 2011, Kate Morgan, Wicked Games, page 34:

     "Stop having a benny, Liam." Gwen was getting agitated. Liam was failing miserably at his attempts to get Casey to back down.

Verb

benny (third-person singular simple present bennies, present participle bennying, simple past and past participle bennied)

1. (slang, usually with "up") To take amphetamines.
   • 1963, Joe Grosscup, Fourth and One: By Lee Grosscup, page 268:

     Bulldog's habit of "bennying up" for the ball games had become a humorous item among the players.

   • 1980, Commercial motor carrier safety: hearing before the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation:

     He had been on the road that long and so bennied up.

   • 2003, Jack Cady, Ghosts of Yesterday, →ISBN, page 104:

     "If you guys got any brains," the tired and bennied driver said, "you'll keep your sweet fannies t'hell out of it.

Etymology 2

Abbreviation of benefit

Alternative forms

• bennie

Noun

benny (plural bennies)

1. (informal) A benefit.

Etymology 3

Unknown or disputed. Attested from the late 19th century. Possibly from benjamin, slang from the early 19th century for a type of greatcoat. Possibly in reference to Uncle Benny or Uncle Ben (“a pawnbroker”), who might accept coats during the warm summer months, though the latter slang term does not appear to be attested before 1920.

Noun

benny (plural bennies)

1. (slang, dated) An overcoat.
   • 1902, Clarence Louis Cullen, More Ex-Tank Tales (page 32)

     […] and figuring on where the engraved papers were going to come from that 'ud enable me to yank one of the bennies out of the eaves. Nobody ever saw me without an overcoat, and the right kind of an overcoat, […]

   • 1931, The Tomahawk of Alpha Sigma Phi (volume 28, issue 1, page 12)

     Horse-hide coats are common, but real "honest t' God" fur bennies are very, very scarce.

2. (US, slang, obsolete) A straw hat. [early 20th century]
   • 1923, Owen Seaman, editor, Punch, volume 165, page 514:

     If lil ole Souttland is goin’ to keep her dome up in the golf department, an’ I tip my benny to her right now, she must put the kibosh on gin-hoisting an’ lay a stymie to every saloon.

Etymology 4

Clipping of eggs Benedict.

Noun

benny (plural bennies)

1. (informal) Synonym of eggs Benedict