Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. full of a rich or strong quality, highly interesting, attractive or suggestive.

1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 37: fruity, adj. Desirable.
1900		Sporting Times 2 June 2/1: Language of the fruitiest to take down which in short hand would soon tire even the most angelic of recorders.
1910		Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 100: At that time Comrade Bickersdyke was as fruity a Socialist as Comrade Waller is now.
c.1915		Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Good Old Iron 🎵 I'm good old iron, never been known to rust / [...] / Little bit fruity on the crust.
1922		‘Sapper’ Black Gang 408: And there is one singularly touching, not to say fruity, bit.
1930		E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 64: Flapper: [Blind dates] are apt to be very fruity.
1933		‘The Dirge of the Dole’ in M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 228: ’Twas all so fruity at first; / And money-for-dirt consoled us.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 36: Some of our champions would be surprised to hear his fruity comments on their capacity.
1950		J. Weidman Price Is Right 347: Wouldn’t you rather be titillated with some fruity behind-the-scenes gossip about this, your nation’s capital?
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 81: ‘How’s everything?’ ‘Pretty fruity.’.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 208: Some of the details he gave me were certainly pretty fruity.
1999		Guardian Rev. 12 Nov. 7: Chico had come on board already with the fruity Italian dialect he had allegedly purloined from his barber.
2000		Indep. Rev. 22 Jan. 20: Fruity passages from the Book of Revelation.
2016		Times 19 Aug. 🌐 What is the most sexual chocolate? Many would presume it to be a Flake, given its history of fruity adverts.
2020		W. Boyd Trio 30: [T]he [film unit] drivers were all intensely curious eavesdroppers and compulsive gossips. They sat around all day exchanging bits of fruity information, she knew.

2. sexually aroused.

1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 86: Studs felt goofy and fruity about having it [...] and he hadn’t better let anyone know he had thoughts like that.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 320: Keith, he did love her to wear her frillies. Said it made him feel dead fruity.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 100: Ingersoll [...] was now beginning to get a bit fruity herself from all the Dom.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] ‘You’re out somewhere, you’re a bit pissy and a bit fruity. You see some bloke you fancy, so you go up to him and say, “G’day handsome. I feel like taking you home and fucking you”’.
1999		Indep. Mag. 29 May 45: I went to a couple of wife-swapping parties [...] everybody got a bit fruity towards the end.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 205: Then Natasha got fruity. She had these long, lithe legs and they were all over Sparky like a rash.
2012		Private Eye 27 July-9 Aug. 22/3: We’ve got fruity girls [...] and volleyball lovelies.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 125: ‘Down boy. You really are such a fruity old perv’.

3. painful.

1934

Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 135: A hockey centre-forward at a girls’ school who, in addition to getting a fruity one on the shin, has just been penalised for ‘sticks’.

4. (US black) emotionally and/or physically unfaithful.

1940

‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 7 Dec. 10/5: A woman’s faithless, fruitty [sic] too.

5. (N.Z. prison) of a woman, attractive, sexy.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 75/1: fruity adj. good, admirable, awesome: ‘Hey, bro, you've got a fruity as missus.

6. see fruit adj.¹