wicked, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

wicked adj.

[although the modern bad = good model properly dates f. 1970s US black vocab. the OED’s first cited use is in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise (1920): ‘Phoebe and I are going to shake a wicked calf’]

1. unpleasant, terrible, awful.

1639		J. Taylor Part Summers Travels 41: It is too well known what a wicked number of followers he hath had.
1852		A. Doten Journals 1849-1903 (1973) I 29 Sept. 127: [A] most sinful trail up over the wickedest kind of mountains, in many places being so steep that we had to get off and walk so as not to strain our horses.
1878		F.H. Hart Sazerac Lying Club 144: Those pistols look wicked, and make me nervous.
1895		J.G. Millais Breath from Veldt (1899) 133: Their sister said it was a wicked country for fever where we were going, and even if they did not die there, all the oxen would.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Apr. 24/2: Cribb caught a very wicked one on the mouth once and his head went back as if knocked off his shoulders.
1906		A. Bierce letter 11 Aug. in Pope Letters of Ambrose Bierce (1922) 125: The weather here is wicked! I don’t even canoe.
1919		Van Loan ‘Mister Conley’ Score by Innings (2004) 432: Buzz Gaffney [...] whistled a wicked one right at Conley’s head.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 255: Got a wicked stomach – oh, downright wicked! – won’t look at a thing.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 113: The lines on his forehead are something wicked.
1943		in T. Harrisson Mass-Observation War Factory: Report 2: The girls laugh ‘It’s a job getting up these mornings, isn’t it?’ says one of them ‘Wicked. Ought to be stopped!’ says the foreman.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 26: Time for white-overalled women to wheel in tea urns and pour out their wicked mash.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 87: The nosh is a wicked price on purpose to keep the slag out.
1979		E. Lovelace Dragon Can’t Dance (1998) 121: Ash Wednesday morning is the wickedest day of the year on the Hill.
1983		A. Payne ‘Get Daley!’ Minder [TV script] 26: You had the chalfonts seen to? Wicked, that is.
1985		(con. 1968) D.A. Dye Citadel (1989) 211: Wicked-looking triangular bayonet pointed directly at my throat.
1992		D. Burke Street Talk 2 32: This work is wicked!

2. (orig. US, also wikid) excellent, wonderful.

1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 40: Reilly the butcher has two or three capital dogs, and there’s a wicked mastiff below stairs, and I’ll send for my ‘buffer,’ and we’ll have some spanking sport.
1893		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 31 May 2/1: That was quite a game of ball [...] both teams [...] made a wicked fight.
1908		L. Doyle Ballygullion 163: He mixed a bowl av very wicked punch.
1921		O.O. McIntyre Bits of New York Life 31 Jan. [synd. col.] In odd moments he ‘shakes a wicked foot.’.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 202: A most amazing Johnnie who dishes a wicked ragout.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 13 Apr. [synd. col.] Just because we can swing a wicked crochet needle, [...] doesn’t mean we can’t swing to Benny Goodman.
1941		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 2 Aug. 13: The slick-headed gents who drive those long, low [...] wicked Cadillacs.
1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 15: Hey! hey! – was he wicked with his weapon that’s all I want to know!
1960		J.D. Macdonald Slam the Big Door (1961) 72: Gosnell makes a wicked martini.
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 55: She had a pair of wicked blue eyes.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 1: She plied for hire, on wicked pencil-thin high-heels, on a short stretch of pavement.
1983		G. Tate ‘King Sunny Adé’ Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 57: You know me meet the man Sunny Adé today and him wicked star.
1995		(con. 1950) B. Helgeland L.A. Confidential [film script] A club photographer pops snapshots, but the real action is on the floor where Mickey Cohen does a wicked ‘Lindy Hop’ with three different girls at once.
2000		Hip-Hop Connection Jan. 68: He’s got some wicked techniques with the upfaders.
2000		M. Amis Experience 215: In the sense meant by my son, Louis, when he tells me (for instance) that he is ‘wicked at Latin.’.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 4: Nelly released a track bout what wikid trainers they were.
2009		Observer 1 Feb. 42: Watch the drug-addled, respect-averse cyber generation have their ‘wicked’ way.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 135: Wicked party.
2017		theculturetrip.com ‘Guide to London Slang 10 Jan. 🌐 Wicked – cool, amazing.

In compounds

wicked awesome (adj.) [awesome adj. (2)]

(US teen) used of anything especially excellent.

1997		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 9: wicked – very; intensifier of an adjective: ‘That jacket is wicked awesome.’.
2003		Chicago Trib. 18 Dec. 🌐 If Nomar Garciaparra comes to the White Sox, everyone has to learn how to properly pronounce ‘wicked awesome.’.

wicked pisser (n.) [pisser n. (2a)]

(US, mainly northeast) something very good or very bad. When used without an article, e.g. This food is wicked pisser, it is taken to mean very good; when used with an article, e.g. This job is a wicked pisser, it is taken to mean something very bad.

1997–2002

Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 wicked pisser (noun) used in New England pronounced ‘wicked pissah’. Describing something very good or very bad. Usage: when used without an article as in ‘This food is wicked pisser’ it is taken to mean very good. when used with an article as in ‘Your job is a wicked pisser’ its taken to mean something very bad.

wicked thing (n.)

(US black) an extraordinary event or situation.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

In phrases

wicked, wassy and wild (adj.)

(W.I.) extraordinary.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 55: Wicked-wassy ’n’ wild extraordinary, super ‘bad.’.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

wicked loser (n.) [loser n. (1)]

(US campus) a failure, esp. one who could equally well have succeeded had they so decided.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U.