handle, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

handle v.

[euph.]

1. to masturbate.

1904		Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 29: She could not keep her eyes off the beauty before her however and she soon began to handle it.
1947		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 273: There was a young girl named Miss Randall / Who thought it was beneath her to handle / A young fellow’s pole.

2. to have sexual intercourse.

1970

Current Sl. V:2.

3. (US) to manhandle.

1912		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 108: Yer honor this man was assaulted while tryin’ to collect a bill [...] Yes yer honor they handled me.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 79: You’ll bring him where we can handle him—sure an’ safe.
1942		Z.N. Hurston Dust Tracks On a Road (1995) 627: She demanded that Papa ‘handle’ some of the sisters of the church who kept cracking her about it.

4. (UK und.) to obtain payment.

1935

Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 5: Handle: Obtain payment.

5. (US black) to be subjected to a legal charge.

1971

R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 129: ‘I’m not dropping any charrges. I want you to be handled’.

6. (S.Afr.) to believe, to find credible.

1982

P. Slabolepszy Sat. Night at the Palace (1985) 13: Can you handle it? Coach telling a player to hit the ref!

In phrases

handle the jandal (v.) [the casualness of the N.Z. jandal, a flip-flop; i.e. Japanese + sandal]

(N.Z. prison) to deal confidently with one’s sentence.

1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 32: handle the jandal v. ‘Handle the lag’ - to cope with one's sentence.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 84/1: handle the jandal v. (also handle like a jandal) = handle the lag.

handle up (v.)

(US teen) lit. or fig., to get on with a task.

2015

in Palm Beach Post (W. Palm Beach, FL) 13 Sept. A018/1: You ain’t got talk crazy on Facebook just go handle up cause only thing you doing is dry snitching on yourself.