Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to hurt, to stop another’s plans, to frustrate, to cheat.

1794		Gent.’s Mag. LXIV 118: All which arguments he took off, and completely dish’d at last.
1797		M. Robinson Walsingham IV 5: No man can [...] dish a deep one, queer an old woman [...] better than I can.
1803		‘A Pembrochian’ Gradus ad Cantabrigiam 55: to dish an argument; to confute it.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1811		J. Poole Hamlet Travestie III vi: That last cross-buttock dish’d me.
1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry I viii: No, I’m out of spirits because I have been dish’d and doodled out of forty pounds to-day.
1833		S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 53: In some eyes there was [...] a leering complacency, that seemed to say, ‘you’re dish’d at last’.
1835		‘The New Police-Man’ in Cove in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 233: For he managed to dish, on the sly, / All the hopes of the gay new Police-man.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 184: Capital! I shall dish them now!
1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 15 Jan. 3/1: [He] discovered that of he was not ‘booked’ he was —dished’ for none £1 notes [...] were abstracted from his waistcoat pocket.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1860		E. Eden Semi-Attached Couple (1979) 97: There is that unfortunate Stuart getting into no end of scrapes, for he has become reckless, and will be thoroughly dished.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 44: Would, unless some unfortunate accident dished it, / Be crowned with the thorough success.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Sept. 5/1: [T]housands of N.S.W. electors [...] went for state secularism only through sheer bigotry ‘to dish the Romans’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 19 Aug. 4/7: I’ll dish Hayes, Gormly, Crick [...] and the rest.
1899		Daily Tel. 20 May in Ware (1909) 110/1: The Whigs had been dished, to use the historic phrase of the great Lord Derby.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 255: The Legislature shut down on the runners [...] That dished me on two or three good things.
1907		Lone Hand (Sydney) June 183/2: His final plan was to oust the Government [...] and ‘dish’ the Third Party completely.
1910		Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 124: It is true [...] that in a measure, it would dish you at the election.
1919		V. Marshall World of Living Dead (1969) 102: He got the four years coomyerlative fer dishin’ a screw.
1922		Gippsland Times (Vic.) 2 Nov. 5/2: Yew talk ov dishin’ coots, yew fright!
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 159: I’ve dished myself there completely.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 47: Entrusting her happiness to a dumb brick who would probably dish the success of the honeymoon.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 157: The Scots have dished the Sassenachs again.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 22: Gorringe [...] was a loser, and that dished him.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 45: The many other terms for fighting give an idea of the importance of this activity in larrikin life. bump, comb down, dish [...] and quilt.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] Any time you could dish as well as you got and walk away [...] that could be filed away as a win.

2. to stop, to suppress, to do away with.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 389: If we had dished the feller that the traps would have hunted for a week but they would have found us.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Aug. 10/1: Now, some defendants did not wish / In court to still remain; The Kernel, dash him! they must ‘dish’ – / So Murphy’s drunk again.
1919		Wodehouse ‘Leave It to Jeeves’ in My Man Jeeves [ebook] Naturally the poor chap’s face dropped, for this [comment] seemed to dish the whole thing.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 32: This seemed to dish the whole thing.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘The Fishing-Boat Picture’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 79: I hadn’t kept it there for sentimental reasons, so perhaps I should have dished it.

3. (orig. US) to gossip maliciously, to tell tales; thus n. disher, a malicious gossip, n. dishing, malicious gossip.

1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 33: After they had dished many a Bright Prospect she had to rise up and have her Say.
1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 352: Come on in and dish with me [...] They entered arm in arm, firing questions at each other with the speed of machine guns – ‘Have you heard from dear old Aunty Beach-Bütsch? Where’s Miss Savoy?’.
1936		Archie Seale Man About Harlem 3 Oct. [synd. col.] [headline] Digging and Dishing.
1936		D. Burley in Chicago Defender 7 Mar. 11: His dishings appear inthe Philly Independent.
1936		D. Burley in Chicago Defender 20 June 10: What’s the point of spilling the beans on somebody all the time [...] Then along comes [...] the rest of the dishers and spil all of my good thoughts.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 222: She sat and dished with the girls for a few minutes and then asked Harry if he was going to take her to Stewarts.
1970		San Diego Sailor 67: We’d never done any mutual dishing on the subject.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 108: OK, if you don’t wanna dish, we won’t dish.
1988		(ref. to 1950s) in Walking After Midnight (1989) 80: I wasn’t going to school [...] and then started going downtown to the cruising park where all the young queens (as we referred to each other) met [...] and we’d sit there and dish and camp.
2005		E. White My Lives 191: With a sister one could ‘dish,’ that is, talk about real interests like dick size [...] or the latest Streisand record.
2017		Globe & Mail (Toronto) 4 Aug. 🌐 Things were very different just two decades before Ms. Eljazovic was dishing with her Caribbean friends.

4. (Aus. prison) to hit, assault.

1919

V.J. Marshall World of Living Dead (1969) 102: [H]e got four years coomyerlative for dishin’ a screw.

5. to speak, to say; the inference is to reveal information.

1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 62: ’Ow they ’as the brass ter dish all that bull ter the ole Sky-Artist beats me!
1959		J. Blake letter 14 May in Joint (1972) 135: So dish a little will you doll?
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 64: dish one 1. to relate the entire incident to someone.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 dish v 1. to say. (‘He dished that he was leaving home for a few months.’).
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 98: I could dish some semicoherent gobbledegook about ancient mystic Asian sex.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 150: He checked his files and dished good.

6. (Aus. Und.) to tamper with a coin used in the game of two-up (see cite 1998).

1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 101: They were standard two-up pennies [...] except they’d been ‘dished’ — that is tapped ever so slightly concave on the head side. Over time they would strongly favour a tails result.
2001		(con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 28: I took the pennies out of his hand [...] ‘This one’s dished.’ He nodded. ‘They’ll come up tails more often than not.’.

7. (US gay) to hurt verbally; thus dishing n. and adj.

1963		J. Rechy City of Night 50: Are you trying to dish me, Mary?
1972		E. Newton Mother Camp 81: To hold up in a ‘dishing’ contest is much admired.
1988		(ref. to 1950s) in Walking After Midnight (1989) 80: If you’re ‘dishing’ somebody, you’re talking about them in a malicious way.
1995		(con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 96: Don’t you ever disrespect me or dish me.
2005		K. Huff A Steady Rain I i: That girl lays her life on the line just to make it day-to-day out on the streets and you dish her off beyond redemption?

8. in basketball, to make a pass.

1996

W.D. Myers Slam!g 139: Ducky [...] he was supposed to dish the ball back over to Jose.