Subscribe English
look up any word, like sapiosexual:
A ten-dollar bill.
Slap me a sawbuck and I'll get us some beers, fella.
by Mike January 19, 2003
447 216
Originally slang for a sawhorse, fashioned iin the 18th century by lashing together two pieces of wood into an "X" shape. With an X-shaped support at each of two ends, the contraption served to hold wood for cutting.

With the advent of the U.S. 10 dollar bill, which bears the Roman numeral X, "sawbuck" became slang for the bill, as people associated the shape with the sawhorse. The slang term "buck" originated in the mid-19th century in reference to the dollar.

In the mid-1900s "sawbuck" became street slang, apparently originating in Chicago, for a 10-dollar bag of marijuana. Since 1985 or so, the term has referred to a 10-dollar "bag" (actual bag or any kind of package) of any street drug (heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana, etc.).

Occasionally, addicts use the term sawbuck to refer to 10 dollars, particularly when they intend to use the money to purchase drugs (e.g., "Borrow me a sawbuck so i can get my sick off").

"Sawbuck" is also the name of a Chicago-based media production company that focuses on documentary films on the street-level drug world.
"Gimme a sawbuck blow" (blow means heroin in Chicago's street level drug market).

"Let me borrow a sawbuck so I can get my sick off."
by Earl Dukuo August 05, 2009
369 153
A word meaning $10. Comes from Chi-Town
"Hey bob i need to borrow a sawbuck"
by Notes November 28, 2005
317 200
1. a ten dollar bill.
2. Ten dollars worth of weed a.k.a. a dime bag
1.let me get that sawbuck you owe me.
2. I served him a sawbuck, the nigga was thirsty.
by msy December 01, 2004
167 109
A term that means 10 dollars
I don't want to dub, so cop me a saw buck.
by duse February 28, 2005
51 11
a 10$ bill (alludes to the shape of Roman numerals)
I thought I had a sawbuck, but I must have left it at home.
by The Return of Light Joker January 28, 2011
44 27
A noun. A word referring to either a the monetary value of ten dollars, or 10 dollars worth of weed (depending on the quality of weed). Was widely introduced into common slang originally in Chicago in the late 1970’s early 1980’s.
Big Dawg, "Hey zJoe let me hold onto a Sawbuck until I get back on my feet."

zJoe, "Nah, zJaw I can't do it, between the rock and the dice I be broke."
by The Muffin Man June 07, 2006
123 108