Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. atmosphere; thus good vibes, bad vibes.

1967		New Yorker 43:6 56/3: There’s no sense in going around looking like that, giving off bad vibes. They just do it deliberately, because they know it gets us up-tight.
1967		Crawdaddy 10-23 32: The MONTEREY POP FESTIVAL, contrary to some expectations, has produced nothing but good vibes.
1968		N. von Hoffman We are the People Our Parents Warned Us Against 108: Bad vibes were coming out of Filmore and there was no pot.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 225: The girl said nothing, and would hardly meet my eyes. The vibes were bad.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 23: [L]atching on to all the vibes that go with the big town.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 163: There was some bad vibes in the air.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 101: Once inside the vibe was even better.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 71: [H]e’d never - before or after - felt the impact of so many heavy ‘downer vibes’ on a racecourse.
1998		Source Oct. 218: The happy and peppy vibes of [...] ‘Good Times.’.
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] [S]he could tell a lying copper just off his vibes.
2000		P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 40: She’s [...] unhappy with the vibes going back and forth between me and her.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] ‘That Knox cat must’ve been toting some heavy vibes’.
2008		T. Piccirilli Fever Kill 58: The house gave off the same vibe as a lot of the others in town.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] ‘There’s a weird vibe about’.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 61: They never seem to bother Kelvin, though; it is Terry who cops most of the hostile vibes.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 217: It’s [i.e. a diner] not as flashy, but it’s got the same vibe.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1999

Guardian Rev. 22 Oct. 23: Reiner’s beaming, fatuous good-vibes smile.

3. feelings, intuitions.

1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 77: You don’t read these things in no book, you just got to develop the vibes.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 51: The paddy gives me wild stinging vibes.
1985		G. Tate Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 37: When it came time for that Dog tour, everyone had the vibe, and they played with a vengeance.
1986		R. Hewitt White Talk Black Talk 109: Fe I-man never do not’n, na check wi’ dem fibes der, ya know, na deal inna dem sing tings der.’.
1994		M. Montague Dread Culture 159: Is jus vibes mi have. Maybe it’s nutten, but mi is a man dat like fi move off mi vibes.
2000		Indep. Rev. 24 May 7: It’s just as scary as blowing my missus out, or my mum and dad out. That sort of vibe.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] Billy Chevelle had a fight with a trannie [...] at Tamara’s funeral. I get a bad vibe about him.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [W]e revelled in the vibes that came with being able to help out a bloke and his family.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 333: ‘I’m not funny or nothin like that.’ ‘I didn’t get that vibe.’.
2013		T. Dorsey Riptide Ultra-Glide 104: I just have this vibe that something big is about to go down.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 7: I’m no getting the vibe that I’m being set up.

4. of a person, personality, style.

1972		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 6: vibrations, vibes – [...] inaudible signals (waves, vibrations) that people and places emit.
1985		G. Tate Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 37: We had a vibe [...] this time we said, ‘Let’s do it articulate and let’s give ’em the vibe.’.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 79: [H]is vibes must have been bad or [...] maybe he just looked uncool.
1995		A. Heckerling Clueless [film script] Hey, man. The protective vibe, I dig.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 19: Grin from him. Half a handshake. Handyman vibes.
2001		C. McPherson Port Authority 7: His name was Declan. Into that whole suede jacket, jeans and boots vibe.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 296: All pretty interesting, I’m sure, if that’s your basic vibe.