Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a fool.

1818		‘Thomas Brown’ Fudge Family in Paris Letter VIII 90: What a Guy!
1825		Bell’s Life in London 10 Apr. 2/3: There vas a precious crowd [...] and some of ’em looked such guys, and know’d no more about riding than a pig.
1837		R. Barham Ingoldsby Legends I (1889) 26: You’d lift up your hands in amazement, and cry, – ‘Well! – I never did see such a regular Guy!’.
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 24 Feb. 131: ‘There’s a pair of guys,’ said a lad in a shiny hat and corduroy coat.
1844		T. Hood ‘Masonic Secret’ Works (1862) VII 26: I’m quite as fit for a public procession as that regular Guy, old Griffis, with his red nose, and pot-belly, and spindle-shanks.
1859		G.H. Miles Mary’s Birthday I i: Dry up, you hold Guy.
1867		‘Under the Earth’ in Dick’s Standard Plays (1871) I i: What a guy you look!
1875		Edinburgh Eve. News 5 Apr. 4/5: The Chinese [are] regarded in Paris as a legitimate laughing-stock, as [...] the word pékin — a synonym in Parisian slang for what the English call a ‘guy’.
1876		St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: A member of the thrown-out ‘brigade’ [...] entreats the newcomer not to ‘give it away,’ which causes that party to inquire if they take him for a ‘gillie,’ a ‘guy’ or a ‘flat,’ and if they are not afraid they will ’get the collar’?
1880		Trollope Duke’s Children (1954) 530: I should so hate to fig myself out and look like a guy.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 Jan. 12/1: How Greenhorns Are Fleeced [...] A new racket of the ‘guys’ has come to light in this city.
1887		E.V. Page ‘It’s Enough to Make a Parson Swear’ 🎵 My bags are ‘baggy’ and I feel such a guy, / It’s enough to make a parson swear!
1890		Bird o’ Freedom 1 Jan. 2/2: [She] attracted the attention of the stage-manager by the fact that she knew how to dress and make up without making a guy of herself.
1902		Times (Shreveport, LA) 12 May 3/5: The word ‘geezer’ is a term of contempt, the same as [...] ‘guy’.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 77: A ‘softy’ and a ‘guy’ are the worst things on earth.
1911		Truth (Brisbane) 15 Jan. 9/5: When the women have succeeded in swindling some GULLIBLE GUY these wretched wasters [i.e. pimps] swoop down to share the spoil.
1912		A. Brazil Fourth Form Friendship 179: ‘[S]he’ll be going about the school looking such a guy! She’ll wonder why everybody is smiling’.
1920		Marvel 3 July 5: Ah, dat’s my misfortune, old guy!
1925		M. Arlen May Fair (1947) 31: I didn’t tell you about this, sir, so that you should make a guy of me.
1981		(con. 1920s) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 160: Oh they dressed me up in armour, / And they made me look a guy.

2. a dark lantern; thus stow the guy, cover or douse the lantern.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Guy. A dark lanthorn: an allusion to Guy Faux, the principal actor in the gunpowder plot. Stow the guy: conceal the lanthorn.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 34: Guy, a dark lantern.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

3. an ugly or badly dressed person.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 92: Guy, a — an ugly mug, or queerly-togged old one, like the effigies of Guy Fawkes on the fifth of November.
1857		Morn. Post 25 Dec. 3/5: if the Londoners were to see him they would at once say, ‘what a guy’.
1860		R.S. Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 43: It is a hard thing for a young lady to find herself a ‘guy’ in the midst of splendour.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 17 May 2/3: ‘You look positively charming to-night.’ (She thought, ‘What a foarful guy!’).

4. (US) a trick or hoax, a joke.

1824		Observer (London) 29 Nov. 4/2: We did not notice any one quite so celebrious as Guy Earl of Warwick himself [...] There were ‘Guys’ enough to astonish the natives and to puzzle the vulgar.
1887		Congressional Record 1022/1: He was a democrat, as he says, for a ‘guy’ [DA].
1894		A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 136: The orator did not take kindly to the proposal at first, strongly suspecting something in the nature of ‘guy’ or ‘kid’.
1895		Atlanta Constitution 3 Oct. 7/6 : The average fakir is selling all sorts of invaluable goods [...] ‘Now say,’ said one when notified that he must get a license by morning or stop business, ‘yer ain’t t’rowin’ de merry giggle at us, is yer? Now, on de level, I ain’t got no rubber in me neck; don’t try yer guys on me; try me nex’ door neighbor and yer gets a dead proper take-out ef yer runs him out er de biz.’.
1911		J.C. Lincoln Cap’n Warren’s Wards iii 37: I was only joking [...]. It’s a standing guy, you know [DA].

5. a crimp, one who tricks men into joining the navy.

1835

Tait’s Mag. II. 451: These crimps are Jews; there are a few Christians who profess the same commercial faith, and they are called guys. These crimps and guys prey like sharks on the unfortunate sailors .

6. (US) a comical fellow, a smart aleck n.

1895		J. London ‘“Frisco Kid’s” Story’ Complete Short Stories (1993) 6: Do I know w’ere dey is? Yer jest bet I do [...] wot der yer tink I am? A cheap guy?
1903		T.W.H. Crosland ‘The Volunteer’ in Five Notions 41: The neighbours said, ‘My eye! / Now ain’t he just a guy?’.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 349: Max and Lily hated Gina to make a guy of herself.

7. an act of running off, of leaving surreptitiously; usu. in phrs. below.

1910

‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Bella’s “Best Girl”’ Sporting Times 23 Apr. 1/3: He soon edged off, and Bella, wond’ring at his sudden ‘guy’.