The Ultimate Mafia Glossary — Every Mob Term & Slang Explained

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A

Administration	The top-level management of an organised crime Family — the Boss, Underboss and Consigliere. All major decisions pass through the Administration.
Associate	Someone who works with the mob but has not been formally inducted. Associates are not fully protected by mob rules and can be killed without Commission approval.
Action	A percentage of gambling proceeds. When a bookie or numbers runner gives someone “a piece of the action,” they are sharing their gambling profits.

B

Beef	A complaint or dispute between mob members. Beefs are typically settled at a sit-down before a senior figure. Unresolved beefs can turn deadly.
The Books	A phrase indicating membership availability in the Family. When there is room for new members, the books are open. When the family has enough made men, the books are closed.
Boss	The head of the Family. He decides who gets made, who gets killed, and takes a cut of all Family business. Also known as Don or Chairman.
Burn	To murder. Also: whack, clip, hit, ice, pop.
Button	A made man — a fully inducted member of the Family. Comes from the days when mob members would signal each other by touching a button on their lapel.

C

Canary	An informant who sings to the authorities. The most famous canary in mob history was Abe Reles — “the canary who could sing but couldn’t fly” — who fell from a hotel window while under police protection.
Capo	Short for Caporegime. The Family member who commands a crew of soldiers. A capo passes orders down from the Administration and tribute up from his crew.
Clip	To murder. Also: whack, hit, burn, ice, pop.
Code of Silence	The unwritten rule that mob members never cooperate with law enforcement. Increasingly ignored in the modern era as prosecutors have used RICO to offer compelling plea deals. See also: Omertà, Rat.
The Commission	The ruling body of the American Mafia, established by Lucky Luciano in 1931. Made up of the bosses of the major crime families, it arbitrates disputes and approves the killing of made men. Murdering a made man without Commission approval is one of the most serious violations of mob law.
Connected Guy	An associate — someone with ties to the mob but not formally inducted. Being connected offers some protection but not the full backing of the Family.
Consigliere	The Family advisor. Third in the Administration behind the Boss and Underboss. The Consigliere is typically the most trusted and politically skilled member of the Family, consulted on all major decisions.
Contract	An order to kill someone. When a boss puts out a contract on someone, he is authorising and often paying for their murder. The person carrying out the contract is the contractor — the hitman.
Cosa Nostra	Italian for “This Thing of Ours.” The American Mafia’s preferred name for itself. The term was brought to public attention by informant Joe Valachi in his 1963 Senate testimony.
Crew	The group of soldiers and associates under a capo’s command. A typical crew might have 10-20 members and is responsible for generating income for the Family.
Cugine	A young, ambitious soldier eager to prove himself and be made. Often reckless and dangerous precisely because of that ambition.

D

Don	The head of a crime Family. Used as a term of respect. Comes from the Italian/Spanish honorific. The most famous fictional Don is Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
Drop	A location where illegal payments or messages are left without direct contact between parties. Used to avoid surveillance.

E

Eat Alone	To be greedy — to keep earnings for yourself without sharing tribute with your superiors. One of the quickest ways to get killed in the mob.
Envelope	A cash payment — typically a bribe to a politician, police officer or judge. Delivering the envelope was a regular ritual in mob operations. Also refers to tribute payments passed up through the chain of command.

F

Family	An organised crime clan — the Gambinos, the Genoveses, the Chicago Outfit. The Five Families of New York are the most famous: Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Bonanno and Colombo.
Fence	Someone who buys and sells stolen goods. Mob crews regularly used fences to move merchandise stolen in hijackings and burglaries.
Forget About It	One of the most versatile phrases in mob vocabulary — it can mean agreement, dismissal, admiration or a warning depending entirely on the tone. “Forget about it” is both “I agree completely” and “Don’t even think about it.”
Front	A legitimate business used to launder money or provide cover for criminal activity. Classic mob fronts included garbage companies, restaurants, construction firms and social clubs.

G

G	A grand — one thousand dollars. Also: large.
Garbage Business	Mob euphemism for organised crime. Also refers literally to the waste management industry, which was heavily mob-controlled in New York for decades.
Golden Age	The era before RICO — roughly the 1920s through to the 1970s — when the mob operated with relative impunity. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 changed everything.
Goomah	A mob mistress — a kept woman maintained separately from the mobster’s wife and family. Also: comare. Most senior mob figures had both a wife and a goomah.
Grease	A bribe. To grease someone is to pay them off — typically a corrupt official, police officer or union representative.

H

Heavy	Armed — carrying a weapon. “Are you heavy?” means “Are you carrying a gun?”
Hit	A murder — either the act itself or the order to carry it out. A sanctioned mob killing. Also used as a verb: to hit someone.
Hijack	To steal a truck and its cargo. Hijacking was a major source of mob income throughout the 20th century, particularly at airports and docks. The Lufthansa heist at JFK in 1978 — immortalised in Goodfellas — was one of the largest hijackings in US history.

I

Ice	To murder. Also: diamonds or jewellery. Also: a bribe paid regularly — “icing” a corrupt official.

J

Juice	The interest charged on a loan shark’s loans. Also known as vig or shy. Weekly juice payments were often ruinously high — 2-5% per week was common.
Joint	Prison. “Doing time in the joint.” A mobster who handles prison well — keeping quiet and not cooperating — earns significant respect on his release.

K

Kickback

A payment made in return for a favour — typically a percentage of a contract paid back to the mob figure who secured it. Kickbacks from construction contracts and union deals were a cornerstone of mob income.

L

Lam	To go into hiding — to lay low after a crime or when law enforcement heat is high. “On the lam” means actively hiding from police.
Large	A thousand dollars. Also: G, grand.
Loanshark	A mob moneylender who charges extortionate interest rates. Borrowers who can’t repay face increasingly severe consequences. Loansharking — also called shylocking — was one of the mob’s most reliable income streams.

M

Made Man	A fully inducted member of the Mafia. To become made — or to get your button — a candidate must be of Italian heritage, must have committed a murder for the Family, and must be vouched for by existing members. A made man cannot be killed without Commission approval.
Message Job	A murder carried out in a way that sends a specific message. A bullet through the eye means “We were watching you.” A bullet through the mouth means “You were a rat.” Stuffing canary birds in a victim’s mouth delivers an unmistakable warning.
The Mob	A single organised crime family, or all organised crime families collectively. Used interchangeably in common speech.
Mobbed Up	Connected to the mob. A business, union or politician described as mobbed up has deep ties to organised crime.
Mock Execution	A staged killing used to terrify someone into compliance — the victim is made to believe they are about to die before being released. A powerful intimidation tool.

N

Numbers

An illegal lottery — one of the mob’s most profitable and longstanding rackets. Players bet small amounts on a three-digit number drawn daily. The numbers ran in virtually every major American city throughout the 20th century.

O

Omertà	The Mafia’s sacred code of silence. Members swear never to cooperate with law enforcement, under penalty of death. The word derives from the Sicilian for “humility” or “manliness.” The unravelling of omertà — as more and more members became government witnesses — was the defining development in mob history from the 1980s onwards.
Outfit	A mob clan or Family. The Chicago Outfit is the specific name for the Chicago crime family — one of the most powerful organised crime groups in American history.

P

Paying Tribute	Giving the boss a cut of your earnings. Every level of the hierarchy passes money upward — soldiers to capos, capos to bosses. Failing to pay tribute is a serious offence.
Pinched	Arrested. Getting pinched is the moment of truth — the test of whether a mob member will keep his mouth shut or become a rat.
Points	A percentage of income or profit. The boss gets points from every Family operation — a cut of everything that earns.
The Program	The Witness Protection Program — WITSEC. The federal government’s scheme for protecting mob informants and their families by relocating them under new identities. Henry Hill is its most famous alumnus.

R

Racket	Any ongoing criminal scheme that generates regular income — loansharking, gambling, extortion, labour racketeering. The word gave rise to the term “racketeering” and ultimately the RICO Act.
Rat	An informant — someone who cooperates with law enforcement. Becoming a rat is the ultimate betrayal of mob code and historically a death sentence. Famous rats include Henry Hill, Sammy Gravano and Joe Valachi.
RICO	The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, passed in 1970. RICO allowed prosecutors to charge entire criminal organisations rather than just individuals, and to use evidence of a “pattern of racketeering.” It devastated the American Mafia from the 1980s onwards.

S

Shakedown	Extortion — demanding money under threat of violence or harm. A classic mob shakedown involved demanding “protection money” from local businesses.
Shy / Shylock	A loanshark. Shylocking — charging illegal interest on loans — was a cornerstone of mob income. The interest charged is known as the shy or the vig.
Sit-Down	A formal meeting between mob members to resolve a dispute or beef. Sit-downs are presided over by a senior figure — a capo, underboss or boss — and their ruling is final. Refusing a sit-down or ignoring its ruling is a serious offence.
Skipper	A capo — the captain of a crew.
Soldier	The lowest-ranking made member of a crime Family — the foot soldiers who carry out the day-to-day work of the crew. A soldier reports to a capo and has associates working beneath him.
Spring Cleaning	Disposing of evidence — bodies, weapons, records. After a murder the crew responsible for spring cleaning ensures nothing links the killing back to the Family.
Street Boss	A senior figure who runs day-to-day Family operations while the official boss is in prison or lying low. John Gotti used Frank Locascio as street boss during legal difficulties.

T

Tax	To take a percentage of someone’s earnings — typically applied to businesses operating in mob territory who must pay for “protection” whether they want it or not.
This Thing of Ours	See Cosa Nostra. The mob’s preferred name for itself — intimate, possessive, and deliberately vague to outsiders.
Through The Eye	A message job — shooting a victim through the eye to signal “We were watching you.”
Through The Mouth	A message job — shooting a victim through the mouth to indicate they were a rat who talked too much.

U

Underboss

Second in command to the Boss. The Underboss manages day-to-day operations and typically takes over if the Boss is incapacitated or imprisoned. Famous underbosses include Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, who famously turned on John Gotti.

V

Vendetta	A blood feud — a prolonged campaign of revenge between individuals or factions. The Castellammarese War of 1930-31 and the Philadelphia mob wars of the 1980s are classic examples of vendettas that reshaped the entire landscape of organised crime.
Vig	Short for vigorish — the interest charged on a loan shark’s loans. Also the cut taken by a bookmaker on bets. Weekly vig payments were typically 2-5% of the outstanding principal.

W

Waste Management Business	Mob euphemism for organised crime — a nod to the fact that the actual waste management industry was mob-controlled for decades in New York. Used ironically to describe criminal activity.
Whack	To murder. The most commonly used mob term for killing. Also: clip, hit, burn, ice, pop, put a contract out.
Wiseguy	A made man — a fully inducted member of the Family. Henry Hill’s memoir and the film Goodfellas both take their names from this term. Being a wiseguy was the ultimate aspiration for young men in mob-affiliated communities.

The Ultimate Mafia Glossary — Every Mob Term & Slang Explained

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Further Reading