Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US black) an unsophisticated person or a fool.

1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 10 May 9/5: Alfred [...] Duckett is his name. Just another lame.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 193: She was young [...] but a long ways from being a lame.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 16: You musta thought I was a real lame, pullin’ some cold shit like this.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 18: ‘White motherfuckin’ lame! he hissed.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 103: At the bottom of Jump-Offs social ladder are the teens and others who make money through legitimate work – variously described as ‘lames,’ ‘squares’ and ‘punks’.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Lame: Someone who doesn’t fit in with a certain click. Also, lop, rudipoop, or rumkin.
2007		UGK ‘Int’l Player’s Anthem’ 🎵 Don’t be a lame, you know the game and how it goes.

2. (US prison) a weakling.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1961		J. Blake letter 15 May in Joint (1972) 173: So this big bad operator does what every lame in the joint does, he writes a fink letter to the mailing official.
1977		J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 14: He is a ‘square,’ a ‘lame,’ or even a ‘sissy’ — depending upon the degree of deviation from his peers.
1981		Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 265: The average inmate, if such a person exists, looks down upon a lame, duck or lemon because he is simple-minded and vapid.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 36: Lame also Duck Similar to a lop, only to a lesser degree.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 18: The name of the game is pimp the lame.

3. (US drugs) a tobacco cigarette.

1967

K. Kolb Getting Straight 88: ‘Want a lame?’ asked Jake. ‘No thanks. I don’t smoke.’.

4. (US Und.) a non-criminal and so a possible victim, a ‘sucker’.

1968		N. Heard Howard St 176: She was a whore [...] in love with a lame.
1973		N.Y. Post 24 Apr. 33: We spotted the ‘lame’ (prison word for victim) and decided to take him off....Almost all my ‘lames’ were white men — that’s where all the money was [HDAS].
1985		Schwendinger & Schwendinger Adolescent Subcultures 171: They are called Lames because they cannot defend themselves against violence [HDAS].

5. (US drugs) one who does not take drugs.

1973

M. Agar Ripping and Running 161: Lame – Non-drug user.

6. (US black gangs) one who poses as a member of a gang.

2016

F. Stuart ‘Dispatches from the Rap Wars’ in chicagomag.com 🌐 goofy or lame Someone who pretends to be a violent gang member, often online, but is not.