Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus.) swagger, ostentation [fig. use of SE frill, adornment].

1889-90

D. Sladen in Barrère & Leland Sl., Jargon and Cant I 285/2: Frill (Australian popular), swagger, conceit. When a slangy Australian sees a person very conceited, or swaggering very much, he says, ‘He has an awful lot of frill on,’‘He can’t walk for frill,’‘He’s stiff with frill.’.

2. a woman [meton. for her clothiing].

c.1899		[perf. Vesta Tilley] The Seaside Sultan 🎵 He’s always on the frivol with a frock or frill / He’s guaranteed to make the ladies hearts stand still.
1903		C. Sandburg letter 19 Jan. in Mitgang (1968) 9: I am dubious about Arthur D’s opinion of Nell T. as quoted by you – ‘there never was a girl.’ It might apply to many a frill-bound fool.
1911		E. Dyson ‘The Disposal of a Dog’ in Benno and Some of the Push 127: Important engagement. Got a date with a bunch iv frill.
1915		Hargreaves & Godfrey [perf. Ella Shields] ‘Oh, the baa-baa-baa lambs’ 🎵 Dressed up in his Sunday best and guaranteed to kill / Making goo-goo eyes at every passing frock and frill.
1922		Healesville & Yarra Glen Guardian (Vic.) 4/4: I hoist myself up on to me dutch pegs and offers my arm to the frills.
1927		K. Nicholson Barker I ii: Say, a good-lookin’ young fella like you could get any frill you wanted.
1934		R. Sale ‘A Nose for News’ in Goulart (1967) 209: I told that scatterbrained frill I wasn’t in on it.
1943		P. Cheyney You Can Always Duck (1959) 8: Half the guys in Hollywood was tryin’ to marry this frill.
1944		J. Archibald ‘Jail, Jail, the Gang’s All Here’ in 10 Detectives Aces Apr. 🌐 Snooty and the frill ignore me and start talking stamps.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 10: The kid who’d just come in the café was cute [...] a real fancy frill.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 799: frill – A girl or woman.