keister

See also: Keister

English

Alternative forms

• keester, keyster, kiester

Etymology

Uncertain. Originally attested as a criminal cant word for "burglar's tool-box" in 1881. In the 20th century a clutch of criminal slang meanings are mentioned, including "safe, strongbox". "Tripe and keister" had been the phrase for a conman's or a pitchman's display case on a tripod. A likely origin is the word Kiste, which means a box or case, in both German and Yiddish.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːstə(ɹ)

Noun

keister (plural keisters)

1. (slang) The anus or buttocks.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:anus, Thesaurus:buttocks

2. (slang, dated) A safe, a strongbox.
   • 1953, Richard S. Prather, Too many crooks, page 100:

     ― " […] The four hundred's yours to take a keister for me. Any cash you find in the box is yours."
     ― "Four hundred, huh? Don't seem like much. Think there'd be anything in the keister?"

3. (slang) A suitcase or satchel.
   • 1942 August 29, Billboard, page 63:

     Tripods, keister and loud talk don't make a pitchman any more than do fine feathers make fine birds.

   • 1963, Grace Snyder, Nellie Irene Snyder Yost, No Time on My Hands, page 37:

     Sometimes Mama was too busy to make the daily rounds of the draws and pockets, in which case she gave us the keister — an old leather satchel used, in its better days to carry the baby's "didies" in — and sent us to bring in the eggs.

Derived terms

• pain in the keister

Translations

the buttocks

• Finnish: peba (fi)
• French: derrière (fr) m
• Russian: я́годицы (ru) (jágodicy)

Verb

keister (third-person singular simple present keisters, present participle keistering, simple past and past participle keistered)

1. (slang) To conceal something in one's rectum

   Quick, keister this pot before the cops get here.

Anagrams

• kerites, kiester, strikee