three-sheet, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

three-sheet v.

[carnival/theatre use, a three-sheet poster is larger than usual; note Philipp Vaudeville (FWP ms. 1939): ‘When an egotistic performer loitered about the lobby, or the sidewalk in front of the theatre, – perhaps to “date up a town gal” or merely to let the natives know he was an actor, – this was called “three-sheeting.” (A three-sheet is a poster measuring 44 by 84 inches.) Managers generally frowned upon this practise, for to permit the public to view the performers in their private characters was supposed to detract from the mystery and glamour of the stage. And so the managers regarded with disfavor certain actors who were addicted to the debunking proclivities known as “three-sheeting in front of the theatre.”’]

(US) to advertise, thus to boast, to brag; thus three-sheet, adj., gaudy, ostentatious; three-sheeter, something, usu. a poster, boastful or exaggerated.

1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Nov. 3/3: She now conducts the evangelizing racket [...] announcing the revival sbow with flash posters [...] and red-hot three-sheet cuts.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘Out of His Class’ in Taking the Count 176: I never heard of O’Malley before you blew in and began three-sheeting him all over the place.
1924		H.L. Wilson Professor How Could You! 274: That big quince three-sheeting himself all over the place!
1925		G. Lee ‘Trouper Talk’ in AS I:1 37: The grand old practice, once so dear to every ham actor, of standing in the lobby while the audience is leaving the theater is known as ‘three sheeting.’.
1932		Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL) 20 Mar. 12/4: It seems that the Sassafrassers read the three-sheeters telling of mighty conflict scheduled for that afternoon.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Neat Strip’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 609: She is his star and he is three-sheeting her as if she is Katherine Cornell.
1948		Star Press (Muncie, IN) 29 Aug. 13/2: ‘Sunbeams’ was one of those photographs which excite from afar. But [...] it is what our good friends of the astage call a ‘three sheeter’. In other words it is a show-off.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 222/1: Three-sheet, v. [...] To boast.