Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to snatch, to steal, to round up.

1907		Carr & Chase ‘Word-List From Eastern Maine’ in DN III:iii 244: gaffle on to, v. phr. Possess oneself of hastily, or without formality. ‘I gaffled on to that in a hurry.’.
1940		C.B. Kelland Scattergood Baines Pulls the Strings 163: Naow, about Marjie’s money. How’d ye manage to gaffle onto that?
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 93: gaffle on to To seize; to steal.
1991		Eble Campus Sl. Fall.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 gaffle Definition: to rob or assault someone Example: Example I was out on the Avenue when these homies came up and gaffled me fo my shit.

2. (US Und.) to arrest.

1953		T. Runyon In For Life 96: Someone would arrive who had hung a great deal of paper before getting gaffled.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 49: Far as she was concerned, the feds who gaffled him up were angels of mercy.
1993		(con. 1988) K. Scott Monster (1994) 365: He [...] was gaffled for two hot ones.

3. (US prison) to lock up in solitary confinement.

1967

M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 282: Jesus, am I glad to see you. I heard they had you gaffled.

4. (US) to hoax, to deceive.

1991		Eble Campus Sl. Fall.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.
2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 256: The assholes that ripped me off and gaffled me and jacked me up.

5. (US teen) to ruin someone’s plans.

1991

Eble Campus Sl. Fall.

6. to have sexual intercourse.

1991

Eble Campus Sl. Fall.

7. (US drugs) to sell fake crack cocaine.

1997

McShane & Williams Drug Use and Policy 411: We don’t allow no dope feens trying to gaffle our customers.

8. (US gang) to ambush.

2001

(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 162: ‘His boy was like, “Yeah, that’s the punk ass nigger that tried to gaffle me”’.

9. (US prison) to place in handcuffs.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Gaffle: To handcuff a prisoner.