moody, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

moody n.

1. gentle persuasion, ‘blarney’.

1934		P. Allingham Cheapjack 71: They’re hot on the moody, too. They’ll talk their way in anywhere.
2002		Observer Mag. 15 Sept. 8: ‘Giving them a moody,’ is what the showmen call it – buttering them up.

2. complaints, ill temper, depression.

1959		F. Norman Fings I i: It’s no use you giving me the old moody, Fred, ’cause I’m skint.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 63: All you’ll get from me, about Germany anyway, is moody.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 315: It would be a general buildup of several things, or his inner moody.

3. deceit, lies, verbal trickery [rhy. sl.; Moody & Sankey = hankypanky n. (1); ult. the US evangelists Dwight Lyman Moody (1837–99) and Ivo David Sankey (1840–1908)].

1959		F. Norman Fings II i: Don’t give me any of the old moody.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 9: I had to sling him a load of old moody about how I had been out of the country.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 123: The jolly band of conspirators was [...] and not giving a monkey’s for laws, taxes, morals or any of the rest of that old government moody.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 89: Cut the moody, Ed [...] Get on with it, I want times, names and places.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Big Brother’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] No, I knew it was just a moody Rodney. I told Grandad it was just one of Rodney’s little games.

4. a fit of ‘the sulks’; usu. as throw a moody

1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 168: What happened to you? [...] they said you was in a moody.
1989		in G. Tremlett Little Legs 153: We’d agreed backstage that I should do a moody.

In phrases

old moody (n.)

a cunning trick, a fraud; thus pull the old moody.

1977

D. Powis Signs of Crime 193: Moody or old moody Lies, deceit and, in another sense, something that goes wrong. ‘What he said was just a load of old moody’. means it was deceitful and false.

throw a moody (v.)

to become sulky, truculent, ill-tempered.

1962		F. Norman Guntz 217: They throw a moody and lock themselves in a darkened room.
1982		A. Bleasdale ‘Shop thy Neighbour’ in Boys from the Blackstuff (1985) [TV script] 125: You threw a moody and went out there.
2003		Guardian 22 Aug. 🌐 When I brought him back into the team, my assistant Mick Brown was concerned a couple of minutes before kick-off, saying Ally didn’t look like he wanted to be part of it. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said, ‘let him throw a moody.’.