larry, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

larry n.¹

[? lairy adj.; leery adj.; note carnival jargon larry, a cheap or worthless trinket given as a prize at a gambling game]

(US)

1. deception.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1903		H. Hapgood Autobiog. of a Thief 180: To get him to talk I was forced to throw a few ‘Larrys’ into him, such as: ‘Well, old man, only for your few mistakes of the past, you might be leader of Tammany Hall’.

2. a failure.

1984		Eble Campus Sl. Sept. 5: larry – a loser, worse than a nerd.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 6: That night was turning out to be a real larry.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Larry — Describes something broken or damaged [...] or even a person who's a loser (however affable) - ‘He’s just a larry’.