Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US Und.) a female confederate.

1914

Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 19: broad [...] Current amongst genteel grafters chiefly. A female confederate [...] Broad is derived from the far-fetched metaphor for ‘meal ticket,’ signifying a female provider for a pimp, from the fanciful correspondence of a meal ticket to a railroad or other ticket, which latter originally was exclusively used by ‘gonifs’ to indicate ‘broad’ or a conductor’s hat check.

2. (mainly US) a prostitute.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 19: broad [...] a woman of loose morals.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 94: Now we go up Bowery Street look at broads. Me pay.
1931		Eve. News (Rockhampton, Qld) 27 May 3/1: A revolver is called a ‘gat’ in many circles; and the Americanisms, ‘spade’ (a negro) and ‘broad’ (a woman) are commonly used in Sydney.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 157: You’re giving my jack to those other broads of yours.
1943		H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 115: I read that book. Had one of those unhappy endings to it. Only had one dame in it and she was a broad.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 169: Cocktail lounges and strip-joints, all equipped with B-girls and other hussies, and yet the sea-dogs seldom come. The lonesome broads sit by themselves.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 83: The place was dimly lit and the air reeked of rot-gut whisky, male sweat, and cheap perfume, which ineffectually hid the female perspiration of Coloured ‘broads’ playing White, and of ‘White’ girls playing Native for the night.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 49: Some dumb spic broad hustling a guy who’s probably too stupid to know she’s on junk.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 75: That night I’m not interested in no broads.
1984		(con. 1964–73) W. Terry Bloods (1985) 26: A little Coke girl would show up with Coca-Cola. And also some broads would show.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 272: I was just wonderin’, was it you who chilled them broads?
2000		Guardian Guide 13–19 May 52: ‘Skells’ and ‘broads’ proliferate.

3. (orig. US) a woman; the implication is of promiscuity.

1913		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 20: I caught Harry using my phone yesterday and took the message myself—she was some broad too.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 79: Of course he stepped out with other broads occasionally.
1933		J. Spenser Limey 35: Lay off the broads (keep away from the girls), Limey, or you’ll sure be in lots o’ trouble.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 9: Here on Eighth Avenue [...] a gentleman is a fellow who calls a woman a broad instead of something else.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 33: If all that broad has got in her trunk is clothes, she has teamed up with that slim stud.
1959		J. Osborne World of Paul Slickey Act II: Listen and tremble all you swinging chicks and broads.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 34: [as 1957].
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 48: I’ve forgotten what broads look like.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 26: You sent that broad? I thought she just showed up.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 160: ‘I lurve any kind of broads [...] ’specially if they blonde’.
1999		Guardian Weekend 28 Aug. 3: That society broad who turns down a suitor with the words, ‘No, darling, I only sleep with the first 11’.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 40: Wit his horn in his hand and on his arm a sealskin-brown broad.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 30: Don’t blow it all on one broad, the money.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 12: ‘He’s got a nice-looking broad on his arm’.

4. (US Und.) in cards, the queen.

1926

Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 6/1: Broad – [...] queen in a card skin game.

5. (US prison, also broadski) an effeminate male homosexual, often a prostitute; thus broad squad, a ‘team’ of homosexuals.

1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1954		J. Blake Ex Post Facto in Joint (1972) 45: If you wasn’t a broad I’d stomp yuh!
1965		H. Huncke in Huncke’s Journal (1998) 14: When any new young boys or fags or broads appear on the scene, Cuba is the first to know.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 253: ‘I hear you latched on to a broadski.’ ‘I got one stuck in my cell if that’s what you mean.’.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 199: broad squad, n. – homosexuals that work together.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 50: Is that kid Ron a broad?
1990		(con. 1930s–60s) H. Huncke Guilty of Everything (1998) 244: He had me pegged for a broad [...] He says to me, ‘C’mon, give me a blowjob’.

6. (US campus, also brodie) an attractive woman.

1947		M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl. n.p.: Broad ... Girl.
1958		W. Motley Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) 303: He was going with his broad, Maria [...] She’s good-looking for a change, not a tramp.
1966		Current Sl. I:3 1/2: Brodie, n. A girl.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS.

7. (US gay) the buttocks.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 23: posterior [...] broad (since this part of male anatomy most resembles a woman’s curves).
1989–2003		R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐.

8. (Aus.) a tough, independent outspoken woman.

2017

T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 272: Idealism [...] I envisage her as a sassy broad with a big ‘I’ on her chest.