fry, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fry v.

[fig. uses of SE]

1. (US) to punish or be punished.

1842		Nichols’ Wkly Arena (NY) 4 June n.p.: The subjoined course of Lectures [...] W.C. Tr—r on Cooking, in which he will describe eloquently and feelingly the agonies of being Fryed.
1920		V. Lindsay Golden Whales of Calif. 16: Phillips Brooks for heresy was fried.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 88: When I finish my roundup on earth and start my bit in hell / I hope to see ’em fry each and every guy that’s ever let that word yell.
1978		T. O’Brien Going After Cacciato (1980) 75: Next time he fries.
1990		T. Pluto Loose Balls 331: They put the story on page A-1 and they fried me.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 34: Most people are simply fucked fried and lied to.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] They were so close they could taste it. They would fry the Drama Squad.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 284: ‘Onions was worried about [...] a mutiny, bad press, and his arse bein’ fried’.

2. (Aus./UK black/gang) to kill, to murder.

1903		‘Dads Wayback’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 8 Feb. 4/1: An' yet he fried a policeman an' another bloke, which is hardly prize medal cookery.
2018		Loski ‘Cool Kid’ 🎵 Karma when we fry at man.

3. (US Und.) to electrocute or be electrocuted in the electric chair.

1928		E. Ferber ‘Hey! Taxi!’ in One Basket (1957) 331: Blonde or no blonde, I bet she fries.
1932		E.S. Gardner ‘Bird in the Hand’ in Goulart (1967) 272: We’ll just hang the whole works on Leith, frame him for the murder, and fry him.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 57: I’m beginning to think that this Henrietta bumped Granworth all right, an’ if she did, well she’ll have to fry for it.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 267: Waitin’ in your cell to find out if you’re goin’ to fry or not.
1959		J. Thompson Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 58: They got enough on me to fry me six times.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 101: ’Cause tomorrow I die and my fat must fry / in that chair in yonder’s room.
1975		B. Greer Slammer (1977) 94: Nineteen fifty-seven [...] Three flapjacks fried in the chair. You ever seen a fry?
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 206: Guys who threw bomb will fry.
1997		G. Sikes 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 12: If they [i.e. murder case defendents] were black you wouldn’t be seeing this on TV. If they were black, they’d be fried by now.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 240: After they fried a guy, they’d wheel the body down and my buddy’s brother’s job was to unload him.
2008		Guardian G2 29 Dec. 11/1: One of the [US] prosecuting team even remarked that he would like to ‘see him fry’.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 38: ‘[I]f they catch you for this, them ol’ boys in Moundsville [i.e. the Moundsville Penitentiary, W. VA] will fry you like bacon’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 176: The magazine’s perpetual fry-the-fucker [i.e. murderer Caryl Chessman] stance.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 30: ‘They. Shuld. [sic] Fry’.

4. (US) to ruin someone, or something, esp. to impair the mind.

1972		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 1: brain is fried – showing incoherent behavior thought to be typical of someone with brain damage.
1988		M. Atwood Cat’s Eye (1989) 374: People [...] who fry their brains with drugs, who slip off the rails.
1995		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 4: fry – make inoperable, dysfunctional: ‘That CD-Rom fried my hard drive’.
2004		T. Winton ‘Big World’ in Turning (2005) 5: Biggie’s results were even worse than mine – he really fried.

5. (US) to infuriate.

1961		D. Boyd Lighter Than Air 10: What fries me is how worried you are that you might fly an hour or two a month more than somebody else.
1985		J. Briskin Too Much Too Soon (1986) 438: That’s what really fries you, isn’t it?

6. to be electrocuted, to get an electric shock.

1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 94: I dropped the screwdriver and shook my hand. [...] I could have fried.
1991		F. Mac Anna Last of the High Kings 108: It was pure luck that nobody had been fried.

7. (US drugs) to experience the effects of taking LSD.

1983		‘Heat Moon’ Blue Highways 287: He fried out on acid. Then he found Jesus.
a.1990		E. Currie Dope and Trouble 102: I was frying for four days one time...Took twenty-six hits of LSD [HDAS].

8. (UK black/gang) to shoot (at).


2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Fry - shoot (at).

In phrases

fry ass (v.)

(US) to be executed in the electric chair.

1960

C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 64: I’m not gonna fry-ass by myself.

fry one’s brains (v.)

to indulge in an excess of drugs.

1964		L. Hairston ‘The Winds of Change’ in Clarke Harlem, USA (1971) 317: You slick-headed ditty-bop, if you spent half as much time tryin’ to put something inside that worthless hat-rack as you did havin’ your brains fried—.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 238: For your own good stay away from speed – it’ll fry your brains and ruin your liver.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 120: The glory of being needed greater, for the moment, than my urge to fry my brains.
2004		E. Yukic A Legacy of Deceit ii: She knew she’d probably fried her brains. But once she’d learned she was pregnant, she’d quit cold turkey.

fry (one’s hair) (v.) [the treatment with Congolene, a liquid that burns the scalp, that is part of straightening black hair, thus hair-fryer]

(US black) to straighten the hair.

1944		Cab Calloway New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 255: fry (v.): to go to get hair straightened.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 115: Bessie kept kidding me about the kinky waves in my hair [...] ‘You ain’t had your hair fried, is you, boy?’.
1957		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 24 Aug. 13: Three card monte experts, jackleg reverends [...] hair fryers and ex-convicts.
1965		(con. 1940s) Malcolm X Autobiog. (1968) 161: Beauty shops smoky inside from Negro women’s hair getting fried.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 141: It was still not uncommon to hear teenagers talking about getting their hair conked, fried, pressed, or gassed.
1980		J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 17: Let ’em learn a little napfrying [...] so they can help themselves when times get tight as dick’s hatband again.
1993		C. Hunter-Gault In My Place 133: We led her off to one of our rooms, sat her down, and fried her hair until it was straight.
1999		R. Mae Brown Six of One 40: Juts couldn’t believe her sister wanted to fry her hair.

fry someone’s ass (v.)

(US) to have completely at one’s mercy; to punish comprehensively, to infuriate.

1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 227: We’ve really got the thing to fry your ass — photographs.
1987		(con. 1968) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 293: What really fries my ass [...] is this whole thing is full of shit.
2003		R. Banish Focus on Living: Portraits of Americans with HIV and AIDS 27: It really fries my ass that I can’t pass out condoms in public schools.
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 283: This drug angle . . . they’ll fry his ass for that.

fry someone’s ears (v.)

(US) to terrify, to appal.

1955

E. Hoagland Cat Man 230: ‘I’ll tell you fellas somethin’! I’ll tell you what’ll fry your ears!’ Fiddler went for the voice. ‘You fellas think you’re scary because there’s a bunch o’ you. But you’re not scary. And you think you’re mad. But you don’t know what it’s like to be mad. I’m gonna show ya what it’s like. You’ll hav’ta change your drawers!’.

SE in slang uses

In exclamations

go and fry your face! (also go and fry your boots!)

a general excl. of dismissal or contempt.

1890		Sporting Times 25 Jan. 1/4: As I was going to interview a perpetual series of writters, intoxicated peers, irate landlords, and bookmakers, to whom I owe as much as you do. Go and fry your boots. [Ibid.] 8 Feb. 3/5: The first person they spoke to replied in pure English: ‘Go and fry your face and play with the gravy’.
1965		J.P. Carstairs Concrete Kimono 129: ‘Shut your trap!’ Uncle Steve commanded. ‘In fact,’ he added, ‘fry your face!’.