front v.2
1. (US Und.) to act as a decoy for a fellow criminal.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Vocab. Criminal Sl. 36: front [...] To hide; to conceal a principal in open criminal action. [...] Example: ‘Front me out of this joint and don’t lose my left wing.’. |
2. (orig. US) to maintain a respectable image for what is in fact a criminal organization, e.g. a restaurant, a nightclub; often as front for
| It’s a Racket! 225: front—(1) To protect or act as a screen for anyone in illegal practices or criminal activities; to make a display as a disguise of respectability; to use political influence for someone. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Und. Nights 16: Monty Rose, his fence, an ingenious old party who fronted as a wholesale fishmonger. | |
| (con. 1940s) Autobiog. (1968) 212: Like most bars in Harlem, Negroes fronted, and a Jew really owned the place. | |
| Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 96: The club was fronted by Herman Stark [...] personable, softspoken, handsome. | |
| Vatican Bloodbath 53: Now with their bastard Jew fronted fortress state they had re-established a foothold there. | |
| Charlie Opera 38: Allen Fein had been fronting mob business in Las Vegas for more than three years. He was a certified public accountant as well as a licensed attorney. | |
| Rough Riders 137: Some white boy investment bankers frontin’ for the Vegas mob. | |
| (con. 1963) November Road 4: The guy owns the building, the bar downstairs, he’ll front for peanuts. |
3. (US Und.) to take blame.
| ‘Und. “Lingo” Brought Up-to-Date’ L.A. Times 8 Nov. K3: FRONT: To lead the way; to assume blame. |
4. (US black) to deceive.
| ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] I can’t afford to front no cops right now. | |
| Down These Mean Streets (1970) 110: I’m digging maybe you’re fronting now, cool Piri, making like you’re a down stud. Now I ain’t signifying, but I never dug you for a punk. | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 72: Bobby, darling, I can’t front you like that. | |
| ‘Personal’ 🎵 You keep frontin’ / Kickin’ conversation, ain’t talkin’ ’bout nothin’. | |
| ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ 🎵 They say I gotta learn / But nobody’s here to teach me / If they can’t understand it, how can they reach me? / I guess they can’t / I guess they won’t, I guess they front. | |
| Random Family 399: But the quiet wasn’t calm: it was as though the whole neighborhood was fronting. | |
| This Is How You Lose Her 30: [She] fronted like she’d come from her own place. | |
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 20: Some nigga trick they already know, bein a nigga theyself. Try to caqtch you out when you ain’t even frontin. |
5. (orig. US black) to show off, to pose.
| Third Ear n.p.: front v. to put on airs; e.g. He was fronting like that because he knew she was listening. n. the technique used by a person in ‘whipping the game on’ someone. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 70: Ain’ nothin’ happ’nin’ ’cept a whole lotta frontin’ and gamin’. | |
| ‘Trill Ass Nigga’ 🎵 You fronted big man and then went out like a ho. | |
| Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 171: Many of them were frontin’, playing crazy-nigger roles to keep the pressure off themselves. | |
| in Vice Mag. at Hyperdub.com 🌐 There’s lot of people who front, who chat shit. | |
| Londonstani (2007) 156: Tell him to ease up with all his frontin around in his pimped up pad. | |
| City of Nightmares pt 2 iv: Fronting for the girls like you’re playing in the Ruckers. | |
| (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. 2011 5: FRONT — put up a façade or pretense: ‘Don’t be fronting—walking in here like you own the place.’ . | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Decent Ride 345: He drinks the fear in Kelvin’s eyes. He is fronting it, but knows that Kelvin is too much of a shitebag to discern the difference. | |
| Border [ebook] ‘Behind all the fronting, you know that without me you’re lying on the ground bleeding out’. | |
| What They Was 104: These man ain’t got heart like you [...] but they try fronting about dat life . | |
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 56: ‘You tryna pull some shit on me, honey? Fronting like you don’t know who I am?’. |
6. (US campus) to act foolishly.
| Da Bomb 🌐 11: Front: 1. Act stupid. |
7. (US black) to back down.
| et al. A2Z. |
In phrases
1. to work as a decoy or a falsely respectable con-man; also used of a place, building or similar.
| ‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 506: My pal said, ‘Front me (cover me) and I will do him for it [i.e. a stick-pin].’. | |
| Pal Joey 82: I was more less fronting for him. | |
| Harder They Fall (1971) 233: I’ve still got Vince and Danny fronting for me. | |
| Imabelle 29: A grimy tobacco store which fronted for a numbers drop and reefer shop. | |
| Beat Generation 130: She was fronting for the cops. | |
| Rage in Harlem (1969) 30: [as 1957] . | |
| Mollen Report 31: [A]n East New York bodega that fronted for a drug sale location. |
2. (orig. US) to maintain a respectable image for a criminal organization.
| Gangs of Chicago (2002) 324: Torrio and his gangsters ‘fronted’ for them — that is, assumed ownership and accepted responsibility in the event of trouble. | |
| Little Men, Big World 224: The ex-D.A.’s man was fronting for the Big City corporation that was trying to take over the gambling. | |
| Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 74: All he knew was his old man fronted for four numbers houses. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 70: You’ve never had a pot to piss in, except maybe while you were fronting for the real owner of the Utopia. | |
| Wizard of La-La Land (1999) 1: He proved to be better at fronting for bimbos [...] than at making a living with cards. |
3. to act as the public face of anyone, criminal or otherwise, who prefers to retain their privacy; to represent.
| ‘Prison Lingo’ in AS II:6 281: To front for—To recommend or speak in favor of. | |
| Big Sleep 170: Why should I front for that twist? | |
| ‘Killer’s Cure’ Hollywood Detective Mar. 🌐 Naturally you’d front for Brett since he’s paying your fee. | |
| Carlito’s Way 84: How about fronting for me? | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Traveller’s Tool 19: It’s a big responsibility fronting for Australia, particularly at international junkets. | |
 | Africa is in A Mess 15: The Western business interests he fronts for have grown rich at the expense of the people. |
4. (US Und.) to provide an alibi.
| ‘Alibi Bye’ in Popular Detective June 🌐 I’m with a swell doll all that time. Then I hear he’s been murdered and the cops are lookin’ for me. I asks the doll to front for me. She says nerts. | |
| ‘Half-Size Homicide’ in Speed Detective Nov. 🌐 Why should I front for a killer? |
5. to represent, e.g. as a lawyer.
| Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 161: He didn’t have a white lawyer to front for him. |
1. to pose as something one is not.
| Inside the Und. 49: Others [...] try to ‘front’ it out. | |
| Ghetto Sketches 113: Awwwwww . . . so that’s the way you gon’ act, huh? Gon’ try to front us off, huh? | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines xviii: Them siditty niggers they be frontin’ off all d’ time. | |
| R.H. Amose Presents 142: Just as she predicted, Joycina and Gene appeared to her to be ‘fronting-off,’ or faking. |
2. to trick or deceive with glib verbosity for some gain, usu. monetary or sexual.
| ‘Yet Princes Follow’ in Black! (1996) 194: ‘Look at the way he’s lookin at happy-O,’ Papa John said. ‘Sorrow, men, sorrow! And the happy-O not knowin he’s bein fronted off.’. | |
| (con. 1960s) Black Gangster (1991) 34: I don’t like the idea of frontin’ our people off. | |
| Hand Dance 163: How many years in stir for fronting off truth as fiction. | |
| Hideous Dream 450: It was an NCO behaving pretty much as any NCO does when privates try to front them off. | |
| Dirty South 101: You secretly wanna rinse man’s bottom but you wanted to front it out with me to try and prove you’re straight! |
3. to show off.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 88: To front off means to show off what you are or what you have. | |
| On the Stroll 55: Alma in love was eager to front off her young Prince. | |
| Central Sl. |
4. to talk nonsense, to be ‘all talk, no action’.
| Live Without Caution, Die Without Warning 52: He had spent all of this time trying to talk to her and trying to get to know her, only to have her front him off. |
5. to treat without respect.
| Ebony May 166/1: Whatever you care to call it — dissin’, putting in check, low-rating, fronting off, downing — all the names stand for the same thing, disrespect. |