Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sling v.

[SE sling, to throw]

1. in senses of giving, passing.

(a) to throw, cast, hurl, fling; also fig. [SE to late 19C].

[Early South Eng. Legendary I 355: Þat bodi [...] into ane diche man it drov?, and þare-inne man it slong].
[US]Gallipolis Jrnl (OH) 12 Aug. 1/7: She took a saucer and fired it at his head, and ended by slinging a dish of strawberries on his shirt bosom.
[US]B. Harte Gabriel Conroy I 152: I kinder slung in a little more poetry.
[UK]Western Dly Press 20 Aug. 3/7: I can juggle, grimace and sling muck.
[US]W.T. Call Josh Hayseed in N.Y. 34: He strutted up for all the world like a bantam rooster, slingin’ dignity round permiscus, and plenty of it.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 19 July 26/3: Among the remarks which the writer heard from the sex that boasts a gentle spirit and a murdered fowl in its hat were, ‘Lay them out!’ ‘Stiffen the brute!’ ‘Sling him, Ruddy; sling him!’.
[Aus]E. Dyson ‘Out of Khaki’ in ‘Hello, Soldier!’ 98: I slung me khaki suit to-day / Civilian now front heel to chin.
[UK]Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 6: He would jolly well sling it back if it wasn’t just right.
[US]J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 60: Boy, could I sling it!
[NZ]I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 124: [He] would never take lying down the sort of things they try and sling at you in jail.
[UK]A. Sillitoe ‘Noah’s Ark’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 99: He slung me off after speeding it up, the rotten sod.
[Aus]D. Ireland Burn 16: The only good thing was they’d sling me a quid after.
[UK] in D. Campbell That Was Business, This Is Personal 20: We had a white Transit van, so we slung the bags in and dived in after it.

(b) to give.

[UK]G. Parker Life’s Painter 136: I say, how are you? slang us your mauly; what lock do you cut now?
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 8/2: The ‘office’ was ‘slung’ to the front ‘stalls’ that the ‘poke’ was of, and to let him ‘slide’.
[US]L.A. Dly Herald 8 June 3/3: Sling me them spuds, and chuck them beans this way.
[UK]Cornishman 14 June 7/3: [...] getting his dyspeptical neighbours to ‘sling’ him surplus ‘eighters’ with ‘puddings’ on a Thursday [...] He could devour as many surplus ‘tokes’ as Jumbo could stale buns.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Jan. 10/2: [W]hen the bushy had licked the soup off his thumb, and, turning to his culchawed partner, observed, ‘Sling us over them greens there, will ye?’ all the blue blood in the Aramac lady’s veins began to boil […].
[UK]A. Day Mysterious Beggar 272: Slingin’ bread, soup, soap, gospel an’ clothes, as I do, how can I be a book-keeper an’ everything else too!
[UK]F.W. Hume Hagar of the Pawn-Shop 155: Sling us the blunt, then!
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 13 July 24/2: The Maorilanders [...] refused to fall in line with their Austral brothers and sling in their bit to the manager’s expenses, so the past participle came into play and they were ‘slung.’.
[Aus]Drew & Evans Grafter (1922) 4: [of a bookmaker tipping his clerk] ‘How does he sling?’ ‘Fair’.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘War’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 26: An’ then, orf-’anded–like, ’e arsts me: ‘Say, / Wot are they slingin’ soljers fer their pay?’.
Anadarko Trib. (OK) 29 Dec. 3/4: We may as well sling a tip to such contrubutors, of there be any.
[UK]P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 32: Places where they can sling a warm look at a cheap palooka who is singing in a club band.
[Aus]D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 152: I reckon in business that you have to sling a bit out to get it back.
[UK]K. Howard Small Time Crooks 73: Sling her a bit of bread and water in the morning.
[Aus]F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 104: They could always have a bet on the nod with Murphy and many a time he slung them a quid when things were crook.
[Aus]K. Tennant Tell Morning This 395: [of a prostitute paying a pimp] ‘If she’s slinging it to someone alreaedy, she’ll send you along to another girl who isn’t’.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 93: The old birds across the street [...] used to sling him a sponge cake now and again.
[Aus]S. Geason Shaved Fish 110: Les had been good to me when I was a kid, slinging me a few bob when he had a win on the nags or the dogs.
[Aus]J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 255: [H]e owed both Brucie The Rooster and Big Oscar for slings they’d slung him on one of the zillion occasions he looked like getting the heave-ho from his Darlo boarding house.
[Aus](con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 265: He took a wad of pound notes from his pocket [...] It was about half what I’d originally slung him.

(c) (US) to get married [the couple are ‘thrown together’].

Boston Blade (Boston, MA) 10 June n.p.: I do love Mosey [...] and me and him is bound to get slung [...] just as soon as he gets dosh enough to buy a stall.

(d) to pass from one person to another.

[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 13/1: The usual style of ‘grafting’ this place is to have four or five stalls along with the ‘wire,’ and as a ‘bag comes off’ to ‘sling’ it to one of the stalls, who carries it out of the building.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[UK]M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 196: The rumour went around that Mulligan was ‘slinging toke’ (giving his bread) to the ‘general.’.

(e) (Aus.) to bribe, to pass over a bribe; thus slinging n.

[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 142/1: By great persuasion and promises of ‘slinging,’ we induced him to bring or order a ‘shant’.
Buffalo Morn. Exp. (NY) 1 Mar. 2/1: We know that he is under the moral care of such men as sling $100,000 bribes.
Tennessean (Nashville, TX) 18 Feb. 7/1: The programme of all was the same — to sling money broadcast — to bribe, to buy.
J. Bradshaw 20 Years Experience Prison Life 45: I saw him myself in Sydney on the 28th of December, 1869, going to deposit some hundreds of pounds in the Union Bank. He slung me twenty-five bob [DAUS].
[Aus]X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 365: You can sling us a few quid when you get set.
[Aus]L. Glassop We Were the Rats 117: ‘So I says ter him,’ said Eddie, ‘What makes ya think I’d know where ya could find a chromo?’ An’ he says, ‘Come on, come on. Doan muck around the fountain. You taxi-drivers know everythin.... ’ ‘Maybe we does,’ I says, ‘but what’s it worth? Do ya sling? Ya might be a demon.’ ‘Demon be –,’ he says.
[Aus]E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves (1952) 279: ‘Then there’s the coppers, always hanging around for a cut.’ ‘Do you always have to sling to the coppers?’ asked Peter. ‘Course you’ve gotta sling!’ ‘What if they won’t take a sling?’ ‘Every copper has his price,’ replied Tony serenely.
[Aus]Parramatta Jail Gloss. 4: sling, pay police for services rendered [DAUS].
[NZ]G. Newbold Big Huey 253: sling (v) Pay off, bribe.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett White Shoes 21: High-rises [...] built by someone [...] who’d slung either the council or some politician to get it all together.

(f) (US) to work as a waiter or waitress; to serve; esp. as sling hash v., to wait at tables; sling beer v., to work as a bartender.

Newton Kansan 28 Nov. 3/3: The way he’ll sling the flowing bowl [DA].
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Sept. 9/4: Miss Flood, who is to marry General Grant’s son, used to ‘sling’ beer in a saloon.
[UK]H. O’Reilly Fifty Years on the Trail 7: I shipped as a junior waiter, in which capacity I could sling dishes around with the best of them.
[US]Larry Chittenden ‘A Stockman’s Adventures in New York’ in Ranch Verses 159: So we mozied up the Bowery inter one uv them saloons / Whar the gals wiz slingin’ whiskey an’ a band wuz slingin’ chunes.
[US]Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 29 Jan. 10/5: TRhere was no cooking, ‘hash slinging’ or dish washing for hi to do.
[US]‘O. Henry’ ‘An Adjustment of Nature’ in Four Million (1915) 108: She won’t want to sling hash any more when she sees the pile of dust I’ve got.
[US]A. Berkman Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 188: Sent ’em to the scab mills [...] to sling hash for the blacklegs and keep ’im posted on the goings on, see?
[US]C. McKay Home to Harlem 274: If I had your edjucation I wouldn’t be slinging no hash on the white man’s chu-chu.
[US]W.N. Burns One-Way Ride 81: While still in his teens he became a waiter in McGovern’s saloon [...] Here for a time he slung beer.
[US]J. Spenser Limey 219: Hicky blew in one day and saw the kid slinging hash.
[US]J.M. Cain Mildred Pierce (1985) 409: The last I heard, you were slinging hash.
[US]Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 41: The humble sister who slings hash.
[Aus]T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 116: I’m damned if I can see why a man with your qualifications should be slinging hash in a joint like Riverslake!
[UK]L. Hadow Full Cycle 180: It wouldn’t hurt if Whiner learned how to sling a pot like Harold.
[US]P. Hamill Flesh and Blood (1978) 53: She slung hash.
[US]Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 302: DeAndre didn’t mind the idea of slinging fast food.
[US]J. Stahl I, Fatty 45: Slinging hash to hacks and insomniacs.
[US]NY Rev. Books 17 Mar. 🌐 Palin [...] cuts up bloody fish and even briefly slings hash in a diner.
‘Chelsea G. Summers’ in Vice 28 Apr. 🌐 I was 19, slinging pizzas at a horrid little solo-waitress restaurant, still a careless slut.

(g) (orig. Aus., also sling over, sling up) to abandon, to give up, to get rid of; to end a relationship.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 11 July 18/4: This was bigamy – but, her troubles! The second husband got a divorce, and of course the third marriage was invalid. With a light heart, and confident in her own resources, she ‘slung’ her third husband in his turn, and married a fourth time.
[UK]Paddy Melon ‘Jack and Jim’ Sporting Times 4 Jan. 3: Them’s my sentiments; let’s sling the bloomin’ game.
[Aus]Coburg Leader (Vic.) 11 May 4/5: That Paddy W. Down East is a heavy plunger at Uchre. Sling that game and chop wood, Paddy.
[Aus]Coburg Leader (Vic.) 1 June 4/4: ‘Lord Bob’ never hesitates to sling up the push for the ‘clinah’.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘His Brother’s Keeper’ in Roderick (1972) 519: There’s nothing in boozing [...] Just you sling it for a year and then look back: you wont want to touch it again.
[Aus]W.S. Walker In the Blood 44: We’re goin’ to sling paper-sellin’ to-night [...] Made it up wiv two pals to take on our lot.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Sept. 17/1: Ned: ‘Hello! So Sis ez give yer the chuck, eh?’ / Denny: ‘Well, yer can’t blame ’er fer slingin’ the likes o’ me.’.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 18 June 1/1: A bewchus bagman is suffering the stings of the slung-over.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘Uncle Jim’ in Chisholm (1951) 30: Like that I took the plunge, an’ slung the game.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘The Knight’s Return’ in Rose of Spadgers 100: But later on I wished ’e’d sling ’is mag.
[UK]J. Curtis Gilt Kid 176: Sure. They’re O.K. Sling them. I’m going to keep the old glim though.
[UK]L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 84: I was just about to sling the English class.
[UK]J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 230: Sling the fuckin coke and all, it’s starting to weird you out.
[Scot](con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 146: You’ll need to sling that chib in case the polis come roond.

(h) (US) to fight with the fists.

[Aus]S. Gore Holy Smoke 46: ‘Go on!’ he yelps. ‘Sling ’em in – flash clobber and all!’.
[US]E. Little Another Day in Paradise 256: ‘You and me gonna sling ’em [i.e. fists] now?’.
[US](con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 10: Shit, I’ll sling with Monkey one on one.

(i) (drugs) to sell drugs; usu. modified by a drug name.

[US]King Tee & Mixmaster Spade ‘Ya Better Bring a Gun’ 🎵 They live on the street and they hustle for fame / Some kill for a livin, some sling cocaine.
[US](con. 1980s) N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 267: He openly flaunted his success at ‘slinging dope’.
Austin American-Statesman (TX) 14 Oct. 9/4: Texas Prison Gangs Slang [...] Slinging rocks: Sellijg crack cocaine.
[US]J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 167: Slinking down in the seat to sample some of the rock they’d just bought from a fourteen-year-old who’d been slinging on a corner.
Dalton Vrij ‘Tying Off’ on Inter-zone.org 🌐 Some became the Candy Man slinging weed and acid, others a little older perhaps and better set up got store fronts.
[UK]Observer Rev. 26 Apr. 21/4: All across the inner city [...] slinging drugs is the rite of passage.
[US]F. Bill ‘Crimes in Southern Indiana’ in Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] He helped sling methamphetamines.
[UK]Sun. Times (London) 16 Oct. 🌐 Liston’s main sources of income were petty heroin dealing and debt collection [...] He slung $50 bags of dope in nightclubs.
[US]D. Winslow Border [ebook] He didn’t know how to do anything but sling dope and shoot people.

2. in senses of communication.

(a) (also sling out) to speak.

[US]T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 156: I ordered a pint o’ the best, and so we slinged. Arter discussin’ it out, we parted.
[US]B. Harte ‘Cicely’ in Poems 74: Jest sling her a rhyme ’bout a baby that was born in a curious way.
[US] in M. Lewis Mining Frontier (1967) 128: Bill is goin’ to stand in an’ sling gospel.
[Aus]‘Price Warung’ Tales of the Early Days 283: I’ll tell yer [...] ven th’ lecturer ’as slung ’is patter.
[US]Lafayette Gaz. (LA) 26 June 2/3: I must say men have got their nerves / To sling slang as they do.
[US]‘Old Sleuth’ Dock Rats of N.Y. (2006) 115: ‘I want you to answer my question.’ ‘You are not Vance.’ ‘I’ll play Vance for you, so sling out your game, Johnny.’.
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Gifted’ in Sporting Times 9 July 1/4: Any mug can sling cuss words about.
E.B. Morris Junior 22: Monroe. Good boy, Merwyn. he can certainly sling the English language.
[UK]J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 14: He slung out at me a lot of stuff about imaginary pals.
[US]S. Lewis Arrowsmith 228: He certainly can sling the Queen’s English.
[US]J. Conroy World to Win 59: He knows how t’ sling crap to the rubes.
[UK]K. Amis letter 12 Jan. in Leader (2000) 156: Sling me a spiel when you can get around to it – I’m in the same stable (55) until I get hitched.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 197/2: Sling. To talk, especially in the persuasive manner of a confidence swindler; to speak braggingly; to use slang.
[US]P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 54: The next day I was back on the stoop, slinging sound with my boys, yakking about everything we knew about and also what we didn’t.
[US]E. Weiner Howard the Duck 143: Doing what he did best: slinging baloney.
[US]P. Beatty White Boy Shuffle 48: Lounging on one elbow at the dinner table slinging my introductory slang.

(b) (also sling out) to write, to perform etc.

[US] ‘English Sl.’ in Eve. Telegram (NY) 9 Dec. 1/5: Let us present a few specimens:– [...] ‘He slings a nasty pen.’.
[US](con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 162: Teach singing-geography school for a change; sling a lecture sometimes — oh, I do lots of things.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US]S. Ford Shorty McCabe 7: Every time I sees one of your pieces in the magazines I reads it. And say, some of ’em’s kind of punk. But then, you’ve got to sling out somethin’ or other, I expect.
[Aus]E.G. Murphy ‘When Baley’s Day comes Round’ in Jarrahland Jingles 11: I’m slinging a screed from the callous coast [...] The telegraph key must speak for me, The messages now I send.
[US]O.O. McIntyre Bits of New York Life 10 Dec. [synd. col.] ‘He [i.e. G.B. Shaw] slings a nasty pen,’ says Cohan.

(c) to recount, to tell; thus slinger n.

[US]Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 5 Sept. 11/6: Sling it at ’em just as you’ve got it and I won’t kick.
B. Harte Poetical Works 183: I kin not sling a fairy tale of Jinnys fierce and wild [DA].
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘Will Yer Write It Down For Me?’ in Roderick (1967–9) II 26: That’s the truth, bloke! Sling it at ’em! O Gorbli’me, that was grand!
[UK]Sporting Times 8 Apr. 2/4: You can get to work at slinging the yap out on your own.
[UK]C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 106: I ran up against a queer sort of lie-slinger making a living out of telling folks’ futures.
[US]A.C. Inman 15 Aug. diary in Aaron (1985) 160: The welsher wrote her a letter slingin’ her a line about his conscience.
[UK]Boys’ Realm 16 Jan. 267: There’s a certain type of fellow who delights in slinging dirt.
[US]J. Ridley Everybody Smokes in Hell 25: Forget all the tough-guy, big-man talk he’d been slinging.

(d) to criticize, to abuse.

[UK]C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 119: I hope he’ll behave decently, that’s all, and not get slinging the judges.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘Nocturne’ in Rose of Spadgers 54: Well, ’oo are me an’ you to sling ’em blame?

3. to do easily.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

4. see sling one’s hook v.

In phrases

sling (a daddle) (v.) [daddle n.]

to shake hands.

[US]D. Crockett in Meine Crockett Almanacks (1955) 139: ‘Let’s have a horn, captain, and shake hands.’ The skipper growled a little, but relented, and they all went to the bar together, slinged, and were friends.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues VI 250/1: to sling a daddle = to shake hands.
sling a deaf ’un (v.) (also swing a deaf ’un)

(UK Und.) to pretend not to hear (cf. cop a deaf ’un under cop a... v.).

[US](con. 1910–20s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 120: Slinging a deaf ’un ... affecting not to hear.
[UK] ‘English Und. Sl.’ in Variety 8 Apr. n.p.: Sling a deaf ’un—Don’t listen.
[UK]Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Sling a deaf one: Don’t say anything [...] Slinging or swinging a deaf ’un: Taking no notice.
sling a seven (v.)

(UK und.) to die [craps imagery].

[UK]Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Sling a seven: Die.
sling a tray (v.)

(US black) to work as a waiter or waitress.

[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 22 July 16: [They] can be found ‘shaking sheets’ [or] ‘slinging a tray’.
sling a whitie (v.)

(Aus.) to tell a (white) lie.

[Aus]J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 62: ‘Mick the Muso shouldn’t have told that whitey about you’.
[Aus]J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 231: In fact it would not be slinging a whitie to say that Brucie The Rooster had also never been on better terms with his dear old cheese, Maureen.
sling colonial (v.)

(Aus.) to talk idiomatic/vernacular Australian (rather than ‘English’) English.

[Aus]H. Lawson ‘Possum’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 82: An’ learnt to sling kerlonial and like the bushman’s way / An’ it did us good ter see ’im smoke ’is ‘nigger’ in a clay.
sling dishes (v.)

(US) to work as a waiter or waitress.

[US]Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 8 Mar. 8/3: The ex-council man responded, ‘I sling dishes’.
[US]Memphis Appeal (TN) 22 Mar. 5/3: Kate [...] had to ‘sling dishes’ for a living.
Las Vegas Optic (NM) 4 June 1/2: One week ago [he] was slinging dishes in a Bowery hashery.
[US]Richmond Dispatch (VA) 6 Aug. 8/4: Alice Scott had just been paid off for a week of scouring and slinging dishes.
Wash. Bee (DC) 4 Apr. 5/2: Is it not hard and humiliating to the parents [...] to see [...] their sons slinging dishes in some hotel.
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 128: ‘How much you get?’ [...] ‘A good enough piece of change. Enough so’s I don’t have to sling dishes anymore’.
sling it (v.)

1. as imper.: ‘forget it!’.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Jul. 16/4: ‘Yah! sling it, mister. Take a shorter cut, / We shan’t get out afore the pubs are shut!’.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘Stone the Crows’ in Rose of Spadgers 123: ‘Sling it!’ I sez. ‘Don’t be a also-ran.’.

2. (Aus., also sling it in) to abandon or give up something.

[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 75: Sling It, discontinue the work.
[Aus]E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 162: I’m slingin’ it, blokey. Goin’ back ter ther trade.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Mar. 2nd sect. 11/1: Tom Dunn's last fight was with Bob Williams, of Sandstone, and Dunn won through the other cove ‘slinging it’ as the result of cyanide poisoning — or cold feet!
[UK]J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 261: You was just getting ahead nicely in the fight game and you go on as if you was wanting to sling it all in.
[UK]F. Anthony ‘Efficiency’ in Me And Gus (1977) 58: I had to sling in the mitt in the finish.

3. (Aus., also sling it in) to leave one’s job or one’s work.

[UK](con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 294: Poor broken-spirited beggars, they’ve had the pluck knocked out of them [...] No wonder they sling it in.
[Aus]K. Tennant Foveaux 172: I’m slinging it to him.
[NZ]McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 104/1: sling it in resign, abandon give up; eg ‘If the job’s getting you down, why not just sling it in?’.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

4. see sling one’s hook v.

sling off (at) (v.)

(orig. Aus./N.Z./S.Afr.) to mock, to tease, to cheek; to berate, to scold; thus n. sling-off, slinging off.

[Aus]Coburg Leader (Vic.) 11 Jan. 4/1: So, if you don’t let me live in peace / Or sling off at me any more / I will go straight away, and call in the police.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Jan. 14/1: There is one exception to its universal ‘slinging off,’ and that was the Suffield case.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 9 July 36/2: And what for? Fer to keep yer, an’ feed yer, and doll yer up in flash clobber; an’ now because I arsks yer for a paltry tray bit to get a drink y’ slings off at me an’ sez things that hupset me feelings.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 25 Dec. 1/1: The Busselton slops have temporarily suppressed their slugging once the ‘Times’ shed its glim [and] the pugilistic peelers now confine themselves to the sling-off that marks not.
[UK]Magnet 10 July 6: The chap dropped it while you were slinging him off.
[Aus]E. Dyson ‘An Amorous Boy’ in Benno and Some of the Push 180: Youter be shot, a pair iv buck larrikins slingin’ off at a bit iv a kid.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘The Intro’ Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 20: I didn’t seem to ’ave the nerve – wiv ’er / I felt as if I couldn’t go that fur, / An’ start to sling off chiack like I used.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 25 June 1s/2: Under this staggering valanche of sling-off the Hon. Jack waxed perceptibly uneasy.
[Aus]K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 97: ’Orey himself became quite used to it, and slung off after awhile about the Six Mile getting a new joke for itself.
[Aus]‘William Hatfield’ Sheepmates 173: You sling orf at ’im cos ’e talks English.
[NZ]N. Marsh Died in the Wool (1963) 166: Dad [...] used to sling of at me for it.
R. Park Harp in South 96: ‘‘Go on, you unnatural old sling-off, throwing mud at your own granddaughter’.
[SA]H.C. Bosman Cold Stone Jug (1981) II 57: He would sling off at the john who had pinched him.
[Aus](con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 37: They had grown up together more as if they were brother and sister, sparring and slinging-off at each other.
[NZ]I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 127: Slinging off over their chota pegs at the breechless.
[Aus]D. O’Grady Bottle of Sandwiches 7: Decent bloke, the old boss. You could sling off at him as much as you liked, and it never worried him.
[Aus]G.W. Turner Eng. Lang. in Aus. and N.Z. 107: The list of items valid in both countries is a long one and would include [...] chiack or sling off at ‘mock or tease’.
[Aus]D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 76: In the showers he used to sling off at my grey hairs.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 227: I wouldn’t be slinging off at people’s facial appearances if I were you.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Godson 40: Les hit him with a couple of barbed sling-offs [...] but the fat casino manager wouldn’t come in at all.
[NZ] McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
sling out (v.)

1. see sense 2a above.

2. see sense 2b above.

sling the smash (v.)

(UK prison) to hand over tobacco.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues VI 250/2: to sling the smash = to pass tobacco to a prisoner.
sling the tip (v.)

(Aus.) to opine.

[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 22 June 5/1: Competent judges have slung the tip that [...] a packed house will have the Joy of seeing one of the most willing punching matches seen locally for a Iong time.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

sling... (v.)

see also under relevant n.

sling about (v.) (also sling along)

to loiter, to hang around with particular intent.

[US]G.W. Harris ‘Sut Lovingood’s Hog Ride’ Nashville Daily Press and Times III Sept. in Inge (1967) 158: I [...] were slingin along a narrer lane name Union Street.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer I 77: All day they was very sulky and slinged along, and wouldn’t feed.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
sling for (v.)

(UK Und.) to pay for, to stand treat.

[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 43/1: Of course he ‘slung’ for what she ordered, and in doing so, ‘flashed’ for the ‘guns’ who were sitting there, where he took his ‘poke’ from.
sling in (v.)

to arrive.

[UK] ‘’Arry on Marriage’ in Punch 29 Sept. 156/1: Life goes on nutty and nice / And the ochre slings in pooty slick.
sling (it) to (v.)

(Aus./N.Z.) to pay a bribe or a commission, esp. on one’s winnings at gambling.

[Aus] L. L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 5: Clarrie, he ain’t gone off in six months. Must sling to the cops [...] Fred agreed that Clarrie must bribe the police.
[Aus]E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves (1952) 279: ‘Then there’s the coppers, always hanging around for a cut.’ ‘Do you always have to sling to the coppers?’ asked Peter. […].
[Aus]K. Tennant Tell Morning This (1967) 395: You’ve only to put it to a girl on the beat that you’re just out of stir and flat broke and she won’t see you left. If she’s slinging it to someone already, she’ll send you along to another girl who isn’t, and you’ll have a room and a few quid and a hell of a lot of kindness.
[Aus]J. Alard He who Shoots Last 219: He once told me dat da hoods dese days sling ta da coppers and shoot deir mates, but in da old days things wuz real rugged.
sling one’s — (v.)

to pay admission, qualified by a n. indicating the price paid.

[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 68/1: We ‘slung our deenir’ apiece, and in we went. [Ibid.] 68/2: Upon the appearance of the bell above water we each ‘slung our tanner’ and prepared to enter.
sling one’s daniel (v.) [ety. unknown; ? lost rhy. sl. referring to some form of pack; given occas. synon. sling one’s dannet ? link to dial. donnot/dannet, a good-for-nothing]

(US) to leave.

[UK]J. Greenwood In Strange Company 338: [He] swore in horrible terms that if we did not that instant ‘sling our Daniels’ [...] he would ‘shy’ at us every heavenly article of crockery his apartment contained.
sling oneself (v.)

(US campus) to show off.

[US]W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 22: sling one’s self To make a great show or ‘splurge’ to spend money in profusion.
sling one’s hook (v.)

see separate entry.

sling one’s teeth (v.)

(US) to eat.

[US]O. Wister diary 19 July in Wister Owen Wister Out West (1958) 36: I slung my teeth over the corned beef she gave me and I thought I was eating a hammock.
sling out (v.)

to eject, to throw out.

[UK]‘Sapper’ Black Gang 400: If you are prepared to run the risk of being slung out of the window if you bore me.
[UK]G. Kersh Night and the City 167: She could get you slung out.
[UK]J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 102: ‘Know it?’ He spat. ‘I’ll say. Got slung out last week.’.
[UK]C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 53: Every New Year’s Day [I] sling out everything except a very chosen few.
[UK]P. Willmott Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 156: So the old man went and got an attendant and we got slung out.
[UK]T. Parker Frying-Pan 44: I was supposed to tell them what to do, sling them out of the Naafi if they started making trouble.
[UK] N. N. Cohn Yes We have No 235: When Edward Heath tried to break [the unions] he got slung out on his ear.
sling someone in the eye (v.)

to punch someone in the eye.

[UK]R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 218: If I ever ketch yer messin’ abaht wi’ any o’ them, I’ll sling ’im one in the eye.
sling the whiddle (v.)

(Aus. und.) to pass on information (of a possible crime).

[Aus]Truth (Perth) 2 Jan. 4/8: He had got his mate at work; / And were out to sling the widdle / If he pipped a fancy lurk.
sling up (v.)

1. to throw roughly together .

T. Chaloner (trans.) Erasmus Praise of Folie (1509) 106: [T]hei sende than for some huntyng chapleine, who whiles thei are in makyng ready, or rather risyng out of theyr beddes, maie slynge them vp a post masse.

2. (UK Und.) to hang.

[UK]D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 17 Aug. 12/3: ‘If this ’ere “Tiger” aren’t slung up, he’ll get a lifer, I bet’.

3. (Aus.) to abandon a relationship.

[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 1 May 4/4: Has Tom S slung up K R .

4. (US campus) to have sexual intercourse.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 8: sling up – have sex.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr.

In exclamations