Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to cheat, to swindle, to defraud; thus slanging n., cheating, swindling.

1741		Ordinary of Newgate Account of the Malefactors executed at Tyburn 18th March 1740 part II 7: The next exploit Jenny went upon was, Slanging the Gentry Mort rumly with a sham Kinchin (that is, Cutting well the Woman big with Child).
1764		Ordinary of Newgate Account 22 Feb. 🌐 I will not slang you out of them [i.e. stolen stockings]; I had ten pair.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving 8: [...] the Capper cries, Lay farmer, and take up the forty: the money being down, the Capper cries, Is the nobb slang’d, sailor? who says, it is flown, which signifies one end is dropt, that puts out the flat.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 265: slang to defraud a person of any part of his due, is called slanging him; also to cheat by false weights or measures, or other unfair means.
1850		Man of Pleasure’s Illus. Pocket-book n.p.: That’s rumbo. You faked the grand dodgement—I slangs the little slum.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 474/2: And when one on ’em’s fined, why he calculates how much he’s into pocket, between what he’s made by slanging, and what he’s been fined.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 14 Apr. 4/6: They touch us and go with the shekels, and when they are gone slang us for all the ‘gonce’ they can get.

2. (also slang out) to abuse, to banter with; thus slanger n.; slanging n.

a.1749		Robertson of Struan ‘Letter from St--n to Lord James Murray’ in Poems (1752) 285: Whereat he storm’d, he star’d, he stamp’d, / He farted and he slang, Sir.
1828		Lytton Pelham II 106: We rowed, swore, slanged with a Christian meekness and forbearance.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London III i: You patter, Fitz. – you are a top-slanger.
1831		Navy at Home I 40: [He] had indeed out slanged and out blackguarded him in a regular set-to.
1833		‘A Chaunt by Slapped-up Kate and Dubber Daff’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 46: There’s fifty rum coveys have tipt me soft patter / And slang’d me ‘the tuliping she’.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair II 137: He could out-slang the boldest bargeman.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 197: I used to slang him awful for having let me cut chapel.
1855		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Feb. 17/1: He never fails to slang a Serjeant as he would a green should he prove cheeky.
1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 267: A very determined young man, and one of the best rough slangers out.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 350/1: I’ve left them to breakfast at some queer place, or to slang with the fishwives.
1864		Bombay Gaz. 14 Nov. 4/4: Officers and non-commissioned officers are slanged before the privates, that not in choice language.
1871		C.G. Leland ‘Breitmann Takes the Town of Nancy’ in Hans Breitmann as an Uhlan 34: De vay dey’ll bang and slang you / If dere’s no champagne to trink.
1879		Sporting Gaz. (London) 13 Sept. 917/1: After having been abused for years for my many sins of commission in athletic literature it is really quite refreshing to receive a little slanging for not having written anything.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Mar. 4/4: Presently a ‘fat old party’ with vinous breath [...] began to ‘slang him,’ remarking that as he wore a ‘fantail banger,’ a big watch chain, and a bell-topper, and no doubt considered himself a fine gentleman, he ought to be proud to make room for a lady.
1887		W.S. Gilbert ‘The Two Majors’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 248: We would rather be slanged by a warrior brave, / Than praised by a wretched poltroon!
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Aug. 14/4: No doubt Mrs. Northcote is nightly / Suffusing with blushes your face, / And slanging that barmaid until O! / ’Neath blankets you bury your head.
1895		E.E. Rogers [perf. Vesta Tilley] Don’t it do your eyesight good! 🎵 And she’s slanging at a policeman as she’s hanging out the clothes.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 43: Not wivout giving ’em somefink thick in the way of slanging.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 17 Nov. 100: She flew out at me in fine style, and slanged me right and left.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 May 4/8: If perchance you’ve a down on a fellow, / And you slang him behind of his back.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 59: I was just takin’ a punch at a Dago, who’d been slangin’ me, when along comes them Central Office bulls, an’ collars me.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 144: Whom were you slanging on the pavement?
1919		Murray Pioneer (Renmark, SA) 14 Feb. 2/1: The Dried Fruits Association has secured the co-operation of agents and merchants, and the apple pool owed a good deal of its success last year to a similar arrangement. The pool was ‘slanged’ for this by the wholehogger co-operator, Mr. Sidney O’Flaherty, M.P., who is [...] somewhat of an authority on the management of co-operative concerns.
1920		Marvel 21 Aug. 9: They merely slanged each other now.
1932		E. Hemingway letter 27 July in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 364: It does no good to slang the compositors – they aren’t responsible.
1936		Hotspur 11 Jan. 45: The wrathful pair stopped slanging each other abruptly.
1946		J. Maclaren-Ross ‘Welsh Rabbit of Soap’ in Nine Men of Soho 8: It seems silly to spend all one’s time slanging the army.
1956		Northern Whig 24 July 4/4: [headline] Policeman Says Boys Slanged Him [...] They started shouting across obscene language [...] they jeered and cat-called him.
1965		L. Haylen Big Red 117: Normally he would have been slanging the ‘boss’ in a semi-humorous, semi-serious way.
1977		A. Bleasdale Who’s Been Sleeping in my Bed 45: Comin’ t’the point which had made me wait for her an’ walk with her an’ let her slang me out f’the last fifty yards.

3. to exhibit at a fair.

1789

G. Parker Life’s Painter 152: To exhibit anything in a fair or market, such as a tall man, or a cow with two heads, that’s called slanging.

4. (also slang it) to use slang (to someone); thus slanging n.

1825		in Universal Songster I 39/2: [song title] All England Now Are Slanging It.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II i: We chaunt so rummy, / And slang so plummy.
1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 130: She got her steam up, and began slanging me till all was blue.
1869		W. Bradwood O.V.H. III 89: ‘Pig-headed booby!’ quoth Jemmy [...] ‘Don’t slang the poor brute.’.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 31: Stringy spoke fairly grammatical when he was not slanging or swearing.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 226/1: Slanging (Music Hall, 1880). This is a term for singing, and is due to the quantity of spoken slang between the verses.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 6 June 2/4: Yet put it to the lawyer ‘bloke’ wot slanged up in yer Court.
1921		Sun. Times (Perth) 4 Sept. 8/7: Someone worded him that she had accepted an invitation to last week’s Movie Ball, and he posted her, instead of a full costume, a pair of gloves only. ‘Yes,’ she slanged to a girl pal. ‘He promised me a lovely costume and a pair of shoes. Instead of that he ‘put the boots in’ and sent me gloves!’.
1999		Dr Dre ‘Light Speed’ 🎵 I hang among hustlers, I slang and hoo-bang Bronson / when bustaz roll through, can’t fuck with my bold crew.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 41: All the ‘slangin’’ he heard from so many of the young boys didn’t impress him.

5. (US black) to pose, to assume a role that one cannot sustain.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 slangin Definition: a brotha who thinks he’s got everything going for him, but his niggas know he aint got shit. Example: Daam, look at Gary Coleman, that fool is straight slangin these days.