Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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.
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).