front, v.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

front v.²

1. (US Und.) to act as a decoy for a fellow criminal.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer 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.’.
1957		W.R. Burnett Underdog 21: ‘He told me the same thing but I didn’t believe him.’ ‘Why not?’ asked Dan. ‘You think he’d front for Whitey?’.

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

1929		Hostetter & Beesley 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.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 16: Monty Rose, his fence, an ingenious old party who fronted as a wholesale fishmonger.
1965		(con. 1940s) Malcolm X Autobiog. (1968) 212: Like most bars in Harlem, Negroes fronted, and a Jew really owned the place.
1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 96: The club was fronted by Herman Stark [...] personable, softspoken, handsome.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 53: Now with their bastard Jew fronted fortress state they had re-established a foothold there.
2003		C. Stella 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.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 137: Some white boy investment bankers frontin’ for the Vegas mob.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 4: The guy owns the building, the bar downstairs, he’ll front for peanuts.

3. (US Und.) to take blame.

1929		Illinois Association for Criminal Justice et al. Illinois Crime Survey 914: It seems that pre-Volstead brewers, who remained in the business, had called these gangsters in to do their convoying and to ‘front’ [fn.1: Take the brunt of the law if discovered] for them in case of a ‘fall’.
1931		‘Und. “Lingo” Brought Up-to-Date’ L.A. Times 8 Nov. K3: FRONT: To lead the way; to assume blame.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 29: front up v. Come clean, own up.

4. (US black) to deceive.

1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] I can’t afford to front no cops right now.
1967		P. Thomas 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.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 72: Bobby, darling, I can’t front you like that.
1988		Ice-T ‘Personal’ 🎵 You keep frontin’ / Kickin’ conversation, ain’t talkin’ ’bout nothin’.
1995		Coolio ‘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.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 399: But the quiet wasn’t calm: it was as though the whole neighborhood was fronting.
2012		J. Díaz This Is How You Lose Her 30: [She] fronted like she’d come from her own place.
2022		J. Hannaham 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.

1971		H.E. Roberts 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.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 70: Ain’ nothin’ happ’nin’ ’cept a whole lotta frontin’ and gamin’.
1992		UGK ‘Trill Ass Nigga’ 🎵 You fronted big man and then went out like a ho.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 171: Many of them were frontin’, playing crazy-nigger roles to keep the pressure off themselves.
2003		Dizzee Rascal in Vice Mag. at Hyperdub.com 🌐 There’s lot of people who front, who chat shit.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 156: Tell him to ease up with all his frontin around in his pimped up pad.
2011		W. Henderson City of Nightmares pt 2 iv: Fronting for the girls like you’re playing in the Ruckers.
2012		C. Eble (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.’ .
2015		I. Welsh 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.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] ‘Behind all the fronting, you know that without me you’re lying on the ground bleeding out’.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 104: These man ain’t got heart like you [...] but they try fronting about dat life .
2022		J. Hannaham 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.

1997–2000

Da Bomb 🌐 11: Front: 1. Act stupid.

7. (US black) to back down.

1995

L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.

In phrases

front for (v.)

1. to work as a decoy or a falsely respectable con-man; also used of a place, building or similar.

1879		‘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].’.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 82: I was more less fronting for him.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 233: I’ve still got Vince and Danny fronting for me.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 29: A grimy tobacco store which fronted for a numbers drop and reefer shop.
1959		A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 130: She was fronting for the cops.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 30: [as 1957] .
1994		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.

1940		H. Asbury Gangs of Chicago (2002) 324: Torrio and his gangsters ‘fronted’ for them — that is, assumed ownership and accepted responsibility in the event of trouble.
1952		W.R. Burnett 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.
1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 74: All he knew was his old man fronted for four numbers houses.
1981		J. Ellroy 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.
1995		R. Campbell 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.

1927		H. Yenne ‘Prison Lingo’ in AS II:6 281: To front for—To recommend or speak in favor of.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 170: Why should I front for that twist?
1944		R.L. Bellem ‘Killer’s Cure’ Hollywood Detective Mar. 🌐 Naturally you’d front for Brett since he’s paying your fee.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 84: How about fronting for me?
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 19: It’s a big responsibility fronting for Australia, particularly at international junkets.
2004		G. Mwakikagile 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.

1941		J. Archibald ‘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.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Half-Size Homicide’ in Speed Detective Nov. 🌐 Why should I front for a killer?

5. to represent, e.g. as a lawyer.

1969

C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 161: He didn’t have a white lawyer to front for him.

front off (v.) (also front out)(orig. US black)

1. to pose as something one is not.

1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 49: Others [...] try to ‘front’ it out.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 113: Awwwwww . . . so that’s the way you gon’ act, huh? Gon’ try to front us off, huh?
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines xviii: Them siditty niggers they be frontin’ off all d’ time.
2010		R.H. Ahmose 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.

1963		C. Cooper Jr ‘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.’.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 34: I don’t like the idea of frontin’ our people off.
1993		W. Coleman Hand Dance 163: How many years in stir for fronting off truth as fiction.
2000		S. Goff Hideous Dream 450: It was an NCO behaving pretty much as any NCO does when privates try to front them off.
2008		A. Wheatle 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.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 88: To front off means to show off what you are or what you have.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 55: Alma in love was eager to front off her young Prince.
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl.

4. to talk nonsense, to be ‘all talk, no action’.

2003

A.P. Ferguson 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.

1998

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.

front v.2

In phrases

front v.²