Ned, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Ned n.

[generic uses of proper name]

1. the Devil (cf. old Ned under old adj.).

1675		Wycherley Country-Wife Epilogue: Pox on her, Ned, she can’t be found!
1730		J. Miller Humours of Oxford V i: O Ned! such a Misfortune!
1802		M. & R. Lovell Edgeworth Essays on Irish Bulls 206: Just then Ned came ****, he lifted up his hands.
1853		‘Philip Paxton’ Stray Yankee in Texas 227: ‘By Ned,’ says he, ‘if it aint that owdacious critter of Miss Mash’s.
1864		Crisis 17 Feb. 31/2: Let Shoddyites, contractors all, Fall down and worship Uncle Ned [DA].
1926		in J.F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning 92: By Ned.

2. (Aus.) a fool.

1860

Melbourne Punch 9 Aug. 7/1: ‘Slangiana’ [...] ‘O, deem me not a stupid Ned’.

3. (Aus.) a term of address to a stranger.

1911

E. Dyson ‘At a Boxing Bout’ in Benno and Some of the Push 116: ‘Get yer ear out, Ned, ’r he’ll bite it,’ said Benno sourly to the stranger.

In phrases

raise Ned (v.) (also ...merry Ned, ...old Ned, ...promiscuous Ned, ...(old) Harry, ...Old Nick)

to cause a disturbance, to make trouble.

[1778		Caledonian Mercury 18 Nov. 3/2: And merry Ned — who ‘set us in a Rear!’].
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 4 June n.p.: Susan Shanon thinks she is raising Old Nick when she goes on horseback trhough a Church.
1848		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers (1880) 60: Your fact’ry gals [...] ’ll go to work raisin’ promiscuous Ned.
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 29 Jan. n.p.: ’Tis there I raise old Harry / And on peaniuts have a spree.
1859		N.Y. Weekly Trib. 10 Sept. 7/4: The accounts in The Tribune raise Old Ned [DA].
1862		in R.G. Carter Four Brothers in Blue (1978) 18 Dec. 208: We bivouacked all day Monday on the wharves, eating flap-jacks and raising the ‘Old Nick’.
1869		in Shields Dly Gaz. 3/1: We are real smart girls [...] and can raise ned and keep folks A laughing .
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Nov. 11/1: [headline] in a scrape again Another Victim of Edward Arnott, the Actor Turns up and Raises the Old Harry.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 259: Young Bill was mad because his father had secured a young step-mother for him, and was just raising ‘Ned’ about it.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 97: When you’re Het Up you’re just as like as not to Raise Ned.
1906		H. Quick Double Trouble 223: You’ve been raising merry Ned, Florian, in your Brassfield capacity .
1911		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 Days 210: He’s shore raising Ned to-night, the li’l monkey.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 308: You have a perfectly well-developed case of repression of sex instinct, and it raises the old Ned with your body.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 114: Yuh, I bet you simply raised the old Ned.
1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 43: Seventh graders [...] weren’t crazy about airing their bare buttocks on january mornings at 5.45 a.m., and raised old harry when a monitor [...] came along, shooed off the blanket.
1936		J.T. Farrell World I Never Made 87: I get a pair of shoes that raises all holy Harry with my tender dogs.
1939		N.Y. Herald Trib. 28 Nov. 15/5: The ‘vampire baby’ was a wicked young woman who wore short skirts, though ankle-length hems were proper at the time, flirted with married men, and, in general, ‘raised Ned,’ as observers commented at the time.
1942		F. Warnick Dialect of Garrett County, Maryland 12: Raise old Ned, v.phr., to make a row (Slang) [DA].
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 97: A small boy in southwest Missouri was severely punished because he used the expression ‘to raise Ned’.
1964		M.L. Rafferty What They are Doing to Your Children 131: When he found himself incarcerated in the classroom for reasons beyond his control, he would raise Ned.