Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) fake, counterfeit; thus phoney as a three-dollar bill/ nine-dollar bill.

1894		Decatur (IL) Daily Revue 17 Nov. 2/3: The only occasion on which we redeemed a ticket was when one of our responsible patrons was given a phony ticket by a tout.
1896		H. Blossom Checkers 224: The ‘phoney’ ticket, the ‘jockey’s cousin’.
1897		J. London ‘The Road’ in Hendricks & Shepherd Jack London Reports (1970) 311–21: Their argot is peculiar study. [...] faune, false.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 263: I b’lieve your own dice was phoney.
1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 9: All [...] had most greedily snapped up the tempting bait of the phoney advertisement.
1924		D. Hammett ‘Zigzags of Treachery’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 121: I offered to get the phony diploma for the young doc.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 68: Her once brown hair was phoney red.
1936		G. Greene Gun for Sale (1973) 201: He paid me two hundred phoney pounds.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 78: He looked like a jeweler squinting at a diamond to find out whether it’s phony or not.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 115: I could see myself coming on like plain folks in a phoney Southern accent.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 57: Take the phony money [...] a little hand wear and the bill would be as good as Uncle Sammy’s.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 53: They got a few phony rocks.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 154: I know the whole damn setup is as phony as a nine-dollar bill.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 53: [as 1953].
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 131: We have nine phoney cops that work for Pinkerton.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 44: If a bust went down with phony money.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 257: The phoniest-looking dye job.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 75: The use of a phony bank card would send the bully lawmen on a frantic futile search.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 82: The fucken whole fucken shooting fucken match was a fucken phoney fucken put-up job.

2. (orig. US) insincere, false.

1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 154: Overlook all the Phoney Acting by the Little Lady, Bud.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Poet and the Peasant’ in Strictly Business (1915) 77: You want to get light tan shoes and a black suit [...] and drink sherry for breakfast in order to work off phony stuff like that.
1915		D. Lowrie My Life out of Prison 229: If you want to keep thinking I’m phony, I can’t help it, but you’re wrong.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 338: This joint looks phony to me.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 52: Through the eight months of the ‘phoney’ war my determination not to enlist did not waver.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 230: Dozens of longshoremen had [...] joined in the phony walk-outs.
1958		J. Osborne Epitaph for George Dillon Act II: You’re being phoney, George, aren’t you?
1964		M. Braun Love Me Do 14: ‘No message from any of those phoney politicians is coming through to me’.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 29: At least we’ll get a good table from lovable old Ugo, as much as me and Shake have hit that phony fuckin’ wop in the palm.
1988		P. Califia Macho Sluts 38: We gave each other big smiles that were only twenty per cent phony.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 77: It’ll be like the Big Tease. It’ll backfire. Come across as phoney.
2000		Guardian Mag. 20 May 35: This self-deprecation is not phoney.