Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a transistor radio.

1965		Canberra Times (ACT) 1 Dec. 2/3: We had spent most of a 45-mile journey in the corridor of a Gosford train in order to avoid the ‘decibel-induced madness’ of sitting in a carriage where a young woman insisted on playing her ‘tranny’ at full blast.
1975		Punch 26 Mar. 523: You do better by sticking in London and keeping your ear glued to the tranny. These news programmes they have on all the time are a right godsend.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 30: Three men in jeans were watching a fourth dig a hole in the pavement to the strains of a tranny.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 96: ‘We had our trannies in our bags and were listening to the race’.
2000		M. Amis Experience 295: Tellies and trannies, cats and lodgers.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 7: Racecallers’ voices issuing from the wireless, the radio and the transistor (or the ‘trannie’).

2. an automobile transmission.

1969		Current Sl. III:3.
1983		S. King Christine 475: The he put the tranny into drive.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 16: The Skylark parked out back with the busted tranny.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 64: We got us a problem bigger’n tranny in a Peterbilt.

3. a Ford Transit van.

1995

J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 19: Loved a bit of bother the Filth, first there was thirty seconds, six more inside two minutes, stripes, trannies, meat-wagons.

4. a transvestite; also attrib.

1983		Mag. Apr. 23/3: Guys needn’t worry [...] unless they look as if they’re cruising or mistake a ‘trannie’, most of whom are a lot more glamorous than the real girls [OED].
1992		D. Jarman letter 15 May Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 127: Manchester has a great red light district with bars [...] run by tranny barmen.
1999		Indep. Rev. 8 June 4: ‘Darling I’m wearing your blouse/bra/shoes’ ... he’s a tranny, isn’t he?
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 28: The little tranny arse bandit was the only son of Sparkling Anus Records MD Frankie Auschwitz.
2009		Observer Rev. 1 Jan. 17: Smith slaps on the slap like a tranny gone feral.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 135: The three of us went buzzing out to watch the square-johns come to test their eyes on us [...] ‘Look Ma, a tranny!’.

5. a trans-sexual; also attrib.

1995		in Cockington & Marlin Sex Inc 15: This is tranny country. And in the hierachy of the transexual prostitute, La Toya [...] is the equivalent of the supermodel.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 396: He made Michael Caine’s psycho-tranny in Dressed to Kill sound cuddly.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 229: You are well and truly fucked and plugged with a used 10-inch strap-on dildo purchased on the Internet off a trannie crackwhore based in Harlem.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] I noticed a tall woman in a silver lame dress [...] I saw it was Lulu the trannie from the Good Times Club.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 165: Trannies have problems too.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 139: The cops, the lawyers, the typing lady, the tranny hookers.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 43: ‘You fucked a tranny, which makes you more queer than me’.