Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to act foolishly, to act in an uncoordinated manner – either mentally or physically; also as vtr.

1957		Hammond (IN) Times 6 Nov. B2/6: Jewelers, furriers, and furniture dealers go through similar merchandising tortures whenever Wall Street spazzes.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 202: Spaz out Tense at the last minute. Do poorly on something.
1981		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 6: spaz out – to be clumsy.
1984		N. Stephenson Big U (2001) 231: Dex spazzed out to the max.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 238: We spin, we spaz, we jump and gyrate. [Ibid.] 250: Praying that I wouldn’t spaz out and tip the spoon I reached over [etc.].
1999		Guardian Rev. 5 Nov. 22: Most of the obvious complaints and moral arguments about a film featuring a group ’spassing’ for its own obscure motives are in the film (‘they’re searching for their inner idiot’ is one explanation).
2000		Indep. on Sun. Culture 16 Jan. 2: The cast of the Dogme film, The Idiots – who [...] get their kicks from ‘spazzing’ around Copenhagen.
2002		‘Valley Girls’ on Paranoiafanzine 🌐 Anyway, my friends will totally spaz out if I tell you this, but really, if you wanna be mondo cool like us, it’s easier than it looks.
2008		Simon & Burns ‘Cradle of Civilization’ Generation Kill ep. 2 [TV script] I am so sick of Captain America spazzing out on our comms.
2012		Chief Keef ‘Citgo’ 🎵 Sosa baby / Said Tadoe off the molly he spazzing out in the party man.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] ‘Don’t drink, don’t do drugs. Can’t handle that shit. Spazzes me out’.
2022		Twitter 2 Aug. 🌐 In the U.S., ‘spaz’ is popular slang meaning ‘go crazy,’—but the word is an ableist insult in the U.K. and other countries.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 16: Made the poor thing spaz and knock her coffee all over her papers.

2. to make twitch.

1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 18: The effort to constrain his laughter spazzed the corners of his mouth, making him tremble.
2009		T. Black Gutted 214: She spazzed her mouth at me, said, ‘You’re fuckin’ radge’.

3. to undergo a physical spasm.

2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 27: Her pussy began to spazz up and down my shaft.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 35: I flashed my Marlon Brando snapshot [...] He spazzed and spritzed me with a mouthful of martini.

4. to surprise, and thus render the third party momentarily unable to respond.

1956

J. Fineman journal cited 25/06/05 on ADS-L 🌐 SPAZ, [...] To surprise a person in a way that causes him to take some time to react. v. [Regional].

5. (US black) to make a fuss.

2012

‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] The dude wanted to spaz, but Shameeq walked up, so he kept it moving.