Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (W.I.) sloppiness, incompetence.

1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 11: Moses, he never in this sort of slackness.
1973		A. Salkey ‘I into history, now’ Jamaica (1983) 10: An’ guess who teach them / an’ you / an’ me / all that slackness.
1986		R. Hewitt White Talk Black Talk 191: You know, dem is slackness, them things dere.

2. vulgarity; overt sexiness.

1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 134: Five [...] fanning with his jacket, and jumping up like if is a real carnival slackness.
1991		Shabba Ranks [song title] Where Does Slackness Come From.
1994		M. Montague Dread Culture 174: Slackness and badness soft to culture right now. Rankin chat too much slackness. Mu nuh like him at all.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 48: Slackness vulgarity.

3. (W.I.) lewd, vulgar lyrics used in popular songs.

1987		D. Hebdige Cut ’n’ Mix 125: It wasn’t long before ‘slackness’ was all the rage.
1994		C. Cooper Female Sexuality in Lyrics of Bob Marley and Shabba Ranks 1: Conventional wisdom in Jamaica [...] defines Bob Marley’s reggae lyrics as the peak of ‘culture’ and Shabba Ranks’s lyrics as the veritable bottom of ‘slackness’.
1999		Indep. Rev. 2 July 15: I and I no love slackness, that a pagan desire.
2001		L.A. Times (CA) 19 June 53/2: The hard-core dancehall lyrics known as ‘slackness’.

cheek or impudence; thus slack-jawed adj.

1826		Westmorland Gaz. 7 Jan. 1/5: ‘Avast there brother; none of your slack jaw, my hearty, or mayhap I may scuttle your nob’.
1845		W.T. Porter Big Bear of Arkansas (1847) 72: Shet your mouth, you imperdent, slack-jaw’d dog.
1848		Worcs. Chron. 14 June 8/4: Nothing but a little of what is vulgarly called slack-jaw occurred to disturb the harmony of the evening.
1857		Worcs. Chron. 21 Jan. 2/7: Cookee seemed to have done her duty; there was only one irregularity and some slack-jaw complained of.
1862		Westmorland Gaz. 8 Feb. 8/6: And British rights are called ‘slack-jaw,’ / Aboard o’ the Tuscarora.
1871		Western Times 24 Oct. 5/2: We must have the names of this slack-jaw, mischievous quartette party.
1883		Century mag. (NY) XXXVII 407: I mought do it fur you, bein’ as how ye got so much slack-jaw.
1884		C.E. Craddock In the Tennessee Mountains 33: ’Vander’s lawyer never summonsed but a few of the slack-jawed boys from the Settlemint ter prove his good character.
1893		Sunderland Dly Echo 14 Oct. n.p.: ‘Gis the men a rest!’ says the slack-jawed man.
1903		D.S. Crumb ‘Dialect of Southeastern Missouri’ in DN II:v 330: slack-jaw, n. Impudent language. ‘Don’t give me any of your slack-jaw!’.
1909		Hastings & St Leonard’s Obs. (Sussex) 4 Dec. 9/6: Look here, I’m just about chock-full; / This slack-jaw ain’t no go.
1910		P.W. Joyce Eng. As We Speak It In Ireland.
1915		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Sept. 52/2: If Mollie possessed her father’s irascibility, perhaps it would be just as well to leave her with the motor-man. At the same time, he wasn’t going to take too much slack jaw from Paddy, anyhow.
1921		Birmingham Dly Gaz. 18 Jan. 3/4: Defendant used a lot of ‘slack jaw’ to the police.

see sense 3 above.

1. to ease the pressure upon, to permit the subject to relax.

1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 242: You don’t have no way to take up slack, do you?
1969		H. Rap Brown Die Nigger Die! 29: If the brother couldn’t come back behind that, I usually cut him some slack.
1971		Army Reporter Feb. in Maledicta VI:1+2 251: Cut me some slack, Sir Charles. There’s only ti-ti chow in this pack, some motherfuckers and beans, couple warm bamebas, bottle of Saigon tea, that’s all.
1977		H. Crews A Feast of Snakes 34: He couldn’t seem to cut any slack anywhere. He’d earned it. Goddammit, he knew he’d earned it.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 187: Mrs Madrigal is bound to give you some slack on the rent until you can find a job.
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 52: take up the slack [...] to help or assist someone. ‘I was beat down and left-off; cuzz took-up the slack.’.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 59: Shade decided to cut the sensitive noses of the world some slack, and went home to take a shower.
1989		(con. 1968) W.E. Merritt Where the Rivers Ran Backward 113: Cut us some slack, Jack.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 12: Cleaver [...] is cutting himself a big piece of slack up in his luxurious bunker.
1992		P. Earley Hot House 253: ‘Hey, don’t cut Tom any room because of me. Tom catches what he catches’.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 83: You could cut me some slack.
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 230: He gonna give you some slack.
1998		Source Oct. 213: Following two classics [...] we can cut the fellas some slack.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 83: All because of a fellow cop who wouldn’t cut him any slack.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 115: He showed us how to use our discretion to kick ass when we needed to and to cut slack when it made sense.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 46: Cut the brother some slack.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘You look like you’s gettin’ old, ma brotha. Thought I’d cut you some slack’.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 158: Donna would like to cut her some slack [...] but she can’t.

2. to hand over money.

1972

D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 62: cut me some slack v. 1. give me some money.

to be lazy, to skulk around.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.

(US) to idle, to be lazy.

1973

E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 79: I can’t do nothing but steal, talk shit and pull some slack.