Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. any woman.

1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 132: Poor mother-in-law! She was such a gay old broiler.
1915		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 11 June [synd. cartoon] There’s gonna be an awful smear if that broiler drops. Hold her, men, hold her.
1941		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 8 Mar. 13: When you hear the boys talking about ‘fine fryers, mellow broilers, fine young hens, roasters, and stewers’ they’re [...] describing the womenfolk [...] a broiler is 23 to 24.

2. (US) a small chorus-girl.

1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 288: The Market Man would have called her a good sizable Broiler.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 46: This fairy might have seen seventeen summers [...] but she was no antique. [...] She was a regular Casino broiler.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Rathskeller and the Rose’ in Voice of the City (1915) 179: She had ascended by the legitimate and delectable steps of ‘broiler,’ member of the famous ‘Dickey-bird’ octette, [...] to the part of the maid ‘Toinette’.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 172: He started flitting from Bud to Debutante to Ingénue to Fawn to Broiler to Kiddykadee back in 1880.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 11: chicken. A broiler, flapper, young girl.
1951		(con. 1913) Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 34: When Gertrude Hoffman’s new shop opened [...] her ad as replete with the new slang of the day, referring to the girls in the show as ‘chickens,’ ‘squabs’ and ‘broilers’.

3. (N.Z., also broiler fowl) an unattractive, usu. older, woman.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 34: broiler/broiler fowl A scrawny and usually older woman.