word, the, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

word, the n.

(advance) information.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 59: This ere Brighton’s a slashing walk of trade. Right as a jemmy! – mizzle’s the word.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 168: The Word went around that the imported Pug was too Fat and had bad Wind.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 80: The ‘word’ was sent round. True, every man jack of us, who wore a police badge, knew the bill was a ‘strike,’ and devised to bleed us.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 172: Everything is off for a few days? That’s the word I got a little while ago.
1948		D. Dodge Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 25: He was waiting for the other guy to give him the word.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 235: Somebody ’ad dropped the word, anyway, that there was a dynamite outrage being planned on the premises.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 23: I got the word out to a pal on the outside.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 42: ‘The word is he also punches out whores.’ ‘Half that word is bullshit and the other half blue smoke most of the time.’.
1994		M. Montague Dread Culture 160: Word is somebody high up [...] wants to put it to the new superintendent and stir up some shit while he’s at it.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 17: Pete got the word. They did biz with Fidel.

give the word to (v.)

1. to insult, to malign.

1999

J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] No fucker gave the words to Noreen.

2. to warn.

1999

J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] ‘So bleedin’ obvious you been trying to give Diana and me the big word in our ear ever since’.

put the word out on (v.)

1. (US Und.) to have marked for arrest or murder; thus the word is out for/on...

1927		(con. 1918) J.W. Thomason Red Pants 168: The word’s been out for you since last night. The Old Man wants to talk to you.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 171: I think the word’s out on you, and I think you know it.
1976		J. Durden-Smith Who Killed George Jackson 163: When you go back to jail, we’re going to put the word out on you.

2. (US) to malign in public.

1985		B. Hanson Life with Heroin 117: Mr. Ben from Philadelphia said that disagreements between users can cause trouble, and angry heroin users can: ‘get mad, and put the word out on you.’.
1994		J. Brown Second Story Theatre 165: Instead of reporting him to the cops, the executive producer on the show put the word out on him around the studios.
2005		J. Walls Glass Castle 32: Dad said one of the dealers had figured out that he had a system and had put the word out on him. He told us it was time to do the skedaddle.