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.

J. Taylor Part Summers Travels 41: It is too well known what a wicked number of followers he hath had.
[US]F.H. Hart Sazerac Lying Club 144: Those pistols look wicked, and make me nervous.
[SA]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.
[Aus]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.
[US]A. Bierce letter 11 Aug. in Pope Letters of Ambrose Bierce (1922) 125: The weather here is wicked! I don’t even canoe.
[US]Van Loan ‘Mister Conley’ Score by Innings (2004) 432: Buzz Gaffney [...] whistled a wicked one right at Conley’s head.
[UK]J.B. Priestley Good Companions 255: Got a wicked stomach – oh, downright wicked! – won’t look at a thing.
[UK]G. Kersh Night and the City 113: The lines on his forehead are something wicked.
[UK] 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.
[UK]A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 26: Time for white-overalled women to wheel in tea urns and pour out their wicked mash.
[UK]R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 87: The nosh is a wicked price on purpose to keep the slag out.
[WI]E. Lovelace Dragon Can’t Dance (1998) 121: Ash Wednesday morning is the wickedest day of the year on the Hill.
[UK]A. Payne ‘Get Daley!’ Minder [TV script] 26: You had the chalfonts seen to? Wicked, that is.
[US](con. 1968) D.A. Dye Citadel (1989) 211: Wicked-looking triangular bayonet pointed directly at my throat.
[US]D. Burke Street Talk 2 32: This work is wicked!

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

[Ire]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.
[US]Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 31 May 2/1: That was quite a game of ball [...] both teams [...] made a wicked fight.
[Ire]L. Doyle Ballygullion 163: He mixed a bowl av very wicked punch.
[US]O.O. McIntyre Bits of New York Life 31 Jan. [synd. col.] In odd moments he ‘shakes a wicked foot.’.
[UK]Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 202: A most amazing Johnnie who dishes a wicked ragout.
[US]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.
D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 2 Aug. 13: The slick-headed gents who drive those long, low [...] wicked Cadillacs.
[US](con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 15: Hey! hey! – was he wicked with his weapon that’s all I want to know!
[US]J.D. Macdonald Slam the Big Door (1961) 72: Gosnell makes a wicked martini.
[UK]L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 55: She had a pair of wicked blue eyes.
[UK]F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 1: She plied for hire, on wicked pencil-thin high-heels, on a short stretch of pavement.
[US]G. Tate ‘King Sunny Adé’ Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 57: You know me meet the man Sunny Adé today and him wicked star.
[US](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.
[US]Hip-Hop Connection Jan. 68: He’s got some wicked techniques with the upfaders.
[UK]M. Amis Experience 215: In the sense meant by my son, Louis, when he tells me (for instance) that he is ‘wicked at Latin.’.
[UK]G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 4: Nelly released a track bout what wikid trainers they were.
[UK]Observer 1 Feb. 42: Watch the drug-addled, respect-averse cyber generation have their ‘wicked’ way.
[US]P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 135: Wicked party.
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.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 9: wicked – very; intensifier of an adjective: ‘That jacket is wicked awesome.’.
[US]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.

[US]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.

In phrases

SE in slang uses

In compounds