Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a suspected person.

1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 281: Yes, there was a bit of a coring match when they claimed me. Picked me up as a sus and then hung a screwing rap on me.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 89: There was sufficient evidence [...] to warrant pulling him in as a ‘suss’ (suspected person).
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 37: They can only do you for what we call ‘suss’ [...] being a suspected person loitering with intent to commit a felony.
1962		R. Hauser Homosexual Society 91: Wherever you go you’re a ‘sus’ (suspected person)—just because you trusted some smooth geezer.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 203: Sus Suspected generally, or specifically a person arrested for ‘being a suspected person loitering’.
2023		Sydney Morn. Herald 18 Nov. 🌐 Sus, which was used in the video game Among Us to denote someone suspected of being an impostor, refers to something or someone questionable.

2. a suspicion.

1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 248: What you nick me for? Sus?
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 9: The bogies were about to search him on some very hot sus.
1968		J. Barlow Burden of Proof 3: He had killed people [...] but had never been arrested except for SUS.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 74: Chance nickings in the street, from anything on sus, to indecent exposure.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 108: I’ve a sneaking sus where dey come from if dey’re not the Peveril tom.
1980		L. Kwesi Johnson ‘Sonny’s Lettah’ in Inglan Is A Bitch 7: (Anti-Sus Poem) dem charge Jim fi sus, / dem charge me fi murdah [...] Sus, short for ‘suspicion’: the Vagrancy Act.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 135: Sus – the old charge under the Vagrancy Act of being a ‘known and reputed thief’.
1990		J. Healy Streets Above Us (1991) 23: Stop in any posh area for more than a minute and the police would have pulled him in so fast on sus his feet wouldn’t touch.
1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 146: The radication are all over the damn place stopping everybody on the suss.

3. an inkling [SE suspect/suspicion].

1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 192/1: sus. Intuition or idea.
1958		F. Norman in Sun. Graphic 23 Nov. in Norman’s London (1969) 38: She didn’t have the first sus about the game, she was giving everyone dirty great doubles all the time.