freight, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

freight n.

1. (US) the body.

1914

T. McNamara Us Boys 2 Oct. [synd. cartoon strip] Duck ya freight before I knock ya outa ya clothes.

2. (US) payment, cost, e.g. rent or a subway fare; a bribe.

1926		M. West Sex (1997) I ii: I’m paying the freight on this joint, and what I say goes.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 74/1: Freight. A sum paid in bribery.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 261: ‘They will cherish the memory of being escorted to the Apollo by a college man and especially if they are allowed to pay the freight’.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 120: The 23rd Street subway platform was almost empty. Krush and Jimmy paid the freight to the lady in the cage.
2011		G. Phillips ‘Slicers’ Serenade of Steel’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] ‘Sal, stake me a twenty, won’t you?’ Surely he could raise the freight among these mooks.

3. (US teen) a bus.

1981

Detroit Free Press (MI) 6 July 17/1: freight (I had to wait for the freight) — bus.

4. (US drugs) a consignment of drugs.

2023

(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 83: Freight.’ ‘Freight’ as dope synonym.

pull (one’s) freight (v.) (also drag one’s freight)

1. (US) to rush off, to leave in a hurry.

1868		G.J. Whyte-Melville White Rose 229: Gerard, too pulled his freight back to Richmond.
1896		H. Blossom Checkers 42: After that he ‘pulled his freight’ and went to Baltimore.
1904		G.V. Hobart Jim Hickey 35: We can't pull our freights away from here and leave the little woman and the kid alone in that Rube hash foundry.
1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 121: He made a rush for his cabin, piled on his saddle and pack, and pulled freight in a cloud of dust.
1919		J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 527: Reckon some day I’ll pull my freight for a clean location and settle down there and make little poems.
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 7/2: Drag your freight – Hurry up.
1929		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 173: Father pulled his freight when I was 7 or 8 years old.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 46: Pull your freight, pronto, or I’ll use a whip on yu?
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 8: Steve wished Whitey would quit running off at the lip and pull his freight out of here.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 117: But when I got home, boy, I had five kids to own, / Now do you blame me for pullin’ my freight?