Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. excellent, wonderful, first-rate.

1966

1970198019902000

2005

1966		Current Sl. I:1 3/1: Kickin’ hard Doing well at something.
1969		R.L. Keiser Vice Lords 58: By the time I got back, that’s when things really got going. The Lords were getting strong then. That’s when the Lords was kicking!
1983		G. Tate ‘King Sunny Adé’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 59: The shows aren’t half as kicking as D.C.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 114: You oughta be kickin on games, man, fast as you was with your blade.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 3: Nevertheless, he’s a kicking kinda guy, / and he’ll always be a friend in our thieving fucking eyes.

2. (US campus) difficult, unpleasant.

1972

19801990

2000

1972		A. Theroux Three Wogs 42: ‘Safety?’ asked Mrs. Proby. ‘It’s a kicking shame, that word.’.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 kickin Definition: can be used to descibe an object of good nature or bad Example: [...] my breath is kickin like Bruce Lee.