Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a contemptible person.

1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1952		W. Winchell On Broadway 14 Aug. [synd. col.] Dis’t A’tty Hogan will find some interesting info on his desk about this cast of jerms.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 102: Nothing to do but stare at all the germs come in here.
1968		J. Alard He Who Shoots Last 28: ‘Didn’t think no one ’ed rat on a kid. Wot a rotten germ’.
1971		F.J. Hardy Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 77: Give ’em a fair go, you pot-bellied old germ.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 248: germ (n) Contemptible person, ingrate.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 50: This little germ never had more than a couple twenty-dollar rocks in his life.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘This germ isn’t worth dying for’.

2. (US black) constr. with the, AIDS.

1998

Big L ‘Ebonics’ 🎵 If you got aids, you got the germ.

3. (US prison) a cigarette.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Germs: Cigarettes.