Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) to work as an assistant or underling; thus stooged adj., having assistants or underlings.

1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 110: We’re glad to stooge for a shamus of his standing.
1947		H.E. Helseth Chair for Martin Rome 197: I’m sick and tired of this place and all these goofs stooging around, playing copper.
1953		P. Larkin ‘He Hears that his Beloved has become Engaged’ Coll. Poems (1988) 66: We thought you stooging for the management.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 105: You can’t really play image unless you’re well surrounded at all times, stooged and bodyguarded.

2. to idle, to wait around.

1931		Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 19 Sept. 1/5: He saw him in a stooging position at the side of the road.
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 234: A hot sunny afternoon when we were stooging about waiting for the convoy to sort themselves out.

3. to inform against someone.

1968

N. Heard Howard Street 134: You ain’t plannin’ to stooge, is you?

4. (Aus./US, also stooge it out on) to fool, to deceive.

1958		H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 74: Greaseball [...] would not tolerate these kids stooging it out on him.
1967		R. Conot Rivers of Blood 155: Ralph Reese saw the telecast in company with some of the youths he had been trying to convince to cool it. ‘Man,’ said a boy, ‘how come you come here stooging us like that?’.
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 34: She could make between $200 and $500 a week, depending on how many mugs she could stooge.
2003		Mad mag. June 23: Good one, Dylan, You full-on stooged him.