Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also streak (on) it, make streaks) to run [SE streak].

1833		C.A. Davis Letters of Major J. Downing (1835) 81: I shall git my dander up [...] and if I do so, some on ’em better streak it, I tell you.
1843		R. Carlton New Purchase I 268: The more I hollers, the more he legs it [...] Mr. Carltin, if he didn’t make a brush crack and streak off like a herd of buffalo.
1843		Gleaner (Manchester, NH) 15 July n.p.: It was really amusing to see neighbor Bunton ‘streaking on’t’ through the streets.
1845		W.T. Porter Big Bear of Arkansas (1847) 165: He’d stop and look [...] then streak it off agin.
1854		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1924) 85: We must not follow him, but ‘streak it’ across the country a bit, as Brother Jonathan would say.
1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature 115: As soon as I touched land, I streaked off for home, as hard as I could lay legs to the ground.
1868		H.L. Williams Black-Eyed Beauty 31: Bill gave a howl and ‘streaked’ it, not knowing whither he sped.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 638: Americans prefer generally the fuller phrase, to make streaks, which means the same as to make tracks, while English slang is content with the simple term, to streak.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 405: I spects how massa Bugsby tinks yuse killed somebody, an’ es streakin’ it.
1889		B. Mitford Fire Trumpet II 133: Lord, how they streaked it off!
1897		O. Wister Lin McLean 129: ‘I’ll be goshed,’ he thought, ‘if I’d caught on to half that when I was streakin’ around in short pants!’.
1905		H. Lawson ‘Joseph’s Dreams and Reuben’s Brethren’ in Roderick (1967–9) II 105: Joe should have streaked for Suez straight, / And tried his luck in flight.
1912		Day Book (Chicago) 23 May 30/2: She streaked it for Babinsky’s.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 361: I’d rather be streaking along here behind a pair of fast-steppers.
1923		O. Onions Peace in Our Time 54: ‘Want to buy a car?’ ‘Rather have an American-X—crumbs, they do streak it!’.
1928		V. Palmer Passage 32: We’ll have another dip and then streak out to dress.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 63: Flatty [...] grabs his slippin’ pants, an’ streaks for the bunkhouse.
1946		T. Heggen Mister Roberts 85: Billings streaked for the room.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 108: Pop in, pinch the necklace and streak off with it.
1974		P. Adam-Smith Barcoo Salute 159: Cate streaked off to the museum.

2. (also streak it) to go, to walk [SE streak].

1900

Bulletin (Sydney) 23 June 14/2: Oh, I’ll just ‘streak’ it down to the big hut, and roll up at supper-time to sample his mutton.

3. to strip in public and run naked in front of a crowd; thus streaking n., performing this exhibition [streaker n.].

1973		Time 10 Dec. 14: A Van Nuys housewife last week shed all of her clothes, slipped out of her house, and began running through the San Fernando Valley streets [...] another statistic in a growing Los Angeles-area fad: streaking.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 293: She dared him to streak through the park.
1989		Kirk & Madsen After The Ball 178: Many, in decades past, were initially scandalised by [...] premarital sex, and ‘streaking’.