SB, noun

Forms:
Also S.B.
Origin:
Initial letters of Special Branch.
1. colloquial. Special Branch. Also attributive.
1965 A. Fugard Notebks (1983) 123She..has seldom kept a job for longer than a month because of the recurrent delusion that any new appointment in the office where she is working is a S.B. spy placed to keep an eye on her and Piet.
1969 M. Benson At Still Point 70Terror — yes, terror — not the ultimate as with Hitler and Stalin, though of course the S.B. are now adept at torture — I mean continual, massive, administrative terrorizing.
1969 Post 15 June 19Her husband was arrested by S.B. cops for questioning.
[1977 Daily Dispatch 2 Feb.Neither the Ciskei nor the Transkei Essbees tailed me (to my knowledge).]
1978 A.P. Brink Rumours of Rain 181‘You must help me to hide for a while. They’re on my heels.’ ‘I don’t understand.’ ‘The SB infiltrated one of their men into our organisation.’
1982 M. Mzamane Children of Soweto 117There are two guys in there, with dark glasses on, who must be SBs. They’ve been watching every movement in this street.
1984 E. Prov. Herald 6 Apr. 6Chris G— is a great SB type putting the Bezuidenhout family through a third degree interrogation.
1986 S. Sepamla Third Generation 86Sue brought the shocking news about Potlako escaping to Botswana because the SB were on his trail.
1993 [see NIS].
2. Prison slang. [A play on sense 1 and the initial letters of shit bucket.] A latrine bucket, as used in prison.
1977 J. Sikakane Window on Soweto 68We could spend a week inside without any exercise, just the door opening three times a day to bring in the food and take out the shit bucket. We used to call these buckets SB’s — the same name as we gave the Special Branch.
Special Branch. Also attributive.
A latrine bucket, as used in prison.
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