sassy adj.
1. (orig. US) cheeky, spirited, back-talking.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Major Downing (1834) 128: Them are sassy chaps in Portland would laugh at me. | |
| Sam Slick in England II 99: He’ll get sassy, you may depend. | |
| Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 22: I [...] was afeard they’d say something sassy tew us. | |
| Autobiog. of a Female Slave 287: A sassy, impudent onruly gal. | |
| Artemus Ward, His Book 132: She jerked her hed back and took a larfin survey of the aujience, sendin a broadside of sassy smiles in among em. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | De Trouble Begins at Nine in Darkey Drama 1 I: Don’t be sassy, boy! | |
| Magic Penny in Darkey Drama 5 Act I: Oh, you sassy nigger. | |
| Peck’s Sunshine 295: We were mad, and sassy, and full of fight. | |
| ‘Signs Of The Times’ in Lyrics of Lowly Life 183: Nebbah min’, you sassy rascal. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Negro Humour 11: Hi, but you is real sassy. | |
| Shorty McCabe 53: She says something kind of low and sassy, pokes her face up, and begins to pucker. | |
| You Know Me Al (1984) 66: I asked him what he was waiting for and he said Oh nothing, kind of sassy. | |
| ‘The Old Hen Cackled’ in Negro Folk Rhymes 50: De ole hen she cackled, / An’ stayed down in de bo’n. / She git fat an’ sassy, / A-eatin’ up de co’n. | |
| Mulatto in Three Negro Plays (1969) Act I: Says he’s mo’ sassy and impudent now than any nigger he ever seed. | |
| in Limerick (1953) 344: There was a young fellow named Spratt / Who was terribly sassy and fat. | |
| Brother Man (1966) 60: ‘Never seen a young gal so sassy.’ ‘You don’ see sassy yet.’. | |
| Gaily, Gaily 172: The arrogant bosses who bilked the workers and called for the state militia to shoot the bohunks down when they became too sassy. | |
| Dopefiend (1991) 152: If I’d had me a sassy little piece like that. | |
| Life and Times of Little Richard 124: My voice was the most exciting voice in the world. It was a sassy voice, and I gave a message and it was sassy. | |
| Rivethead (1992) 79: She was this sassy, glam-babe blonde [...] providing herself as groin-swell for the hungry droves who wove through the slop lines. | |
| Random Family 168: She became sassier – almost rowdy. | |
| in Oxford American 2 Mar. 🌐 ‘Word on base was that if you got a ticket and got sassy with a cop, he would handcuff you and beat you’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Good Girl Stripped Bare 272: Idealism [...] I envisage her as a sassy broad with a big ‘I’ on her chest. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Braywatch 382: What she lacks in beauty, she more than makes up for in being a sassy cow. |
2. smart, fashionable; also as fig. term of approval (see cite 1944).
| Breckenridge News (Cloveport, KY) 23 Aug. 3/3: One day I met a ‘rainbow’ that was ‘sassy’ and called him a ‘soldier’. | |
| Louisiana Democrat 14 Feb. 1/6: ‘By the way, Rosalind, get on to this hat, will you.’ ‘Oh you sassy divil, it’s English’. | |
| Artie (1963) 87: I’m goin’ to be the sassiest club boy in the whole push. [...] I’ll come hot-footin’ in here with my knee-pants and a dinky coat. | |
| Tales of the Ex-Tanks 392: He looked all to the good, fat, sassy and dressed-up. | |
| ‘Life on Broadway’ in McClure’s Mag. Mar. 39/2: Where’d you git the sassy wardrobe, kiddo? | |
| Arrowsmith 455: After all the compliments he’s been getting from the sassiest dames. | |
| 7 Apr. [synd. col.] Gerrude Niesen, the lassie with the sassy chassis. | |
| Tourist Season (1987) 220: Kara Lynn came downstairs wearing a sassy lemon-yellow tennis skirt. | |
| Campus Sl. Apr. 8: sassy – stylish, admirable: ‘That hat is sassy – I like it’. | |
| Stalker (2001) 112: Her red Beemer convertible [...] It was a sassy, smart bitch, but the problem was it was so low down to the ground and hard to find. |
In compounds
(US black) used as a derog. intensifier.
| (con. 1920s–30s) Youngblood (1956) 338: The goddamn sassy ass niggers. | |
| One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 70: Course, Francine, she ain nothing but a sassy-ass has-been. |
1. (US) a saucy person.
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
2. the vagina [box n.1 (1a)].
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
(US) champagne.
| Eve. Statesman (Walla Walla, WA) 5 Mar. 3/3: When we enterain fittingly we [...] ‘lick up the wealthy water,’ or the ‘sassy suds’. |
In phrases
(US black) to show sudden contempt or cheekiness.
 | in ‘Negro Eng.’ in Modern Lang. Notes Feb. in Major (1994). |