Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (mainly US black) the main street, esp. when used as a social centre.

1832		in Egan Bk of Sports 146: My moll oft’ tips the knowing dive / When sea-crabs gang the stroll.
1936		D. Burley in Chicago Defender 29 Feb. 11: You’re one of the best sports along the stroll [...] you’re o.k.
1938		P. Grey ‘’Twixt Night ’n’ Dawn’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 5 Nov. 11/3: Harrison Owens, popular m.c., is back on the Stroll again [...] at the new schloss club.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 206: You couldn’t see for looking, there were so many things to dig on The Stroll between 131st and 132nd.
1957		R.S. Gold ‘Vernacular of the Jazz World’ in AS XXXII:4 277: stroll. Street, avenue.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 40: Outside [...] flash acts on roller skates, and undercover cops in lavender net shirts were already on the stroll.
1993		(con. 1920s) I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 42: In older black street vernacular, the stroll alluded to the social use of the main street as a promenade. [Ibid.] 74: Harlem nightlife was concentrated on and near Seventh Avenue in the 130s and 140s and, to a lesser extent, on Lenox. Seventh Avenue was Harlem’s promenade—The Stroll.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 34: And the little bit I do do outside in the street, it’s no cops, since it’s not a main stroll.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 149: Negro nite owls on the stroll.

2. (US pimp) those streets or blocks on which prostitutes ply their trade; thus a prostitute; thus as v., to work as a street prostitute.

1845		J.L. Hilpert Englisch-Deutsches und Deutsch-Englisches Wörterbuch 1 570/1: Strünzen v. intr. [rather low] to go a petticoat-hunting, to prowl about for a piece; it. [speaking of bad women] to walk the streets, to look out for a flat [i.e. a sucker], to be out on the stroll .
1929		T. Delaney ‘Down on Pennsylvania Avenue’ 🎵 The broads that stroll it just won’t wait / You’ll find them every night on Pennsylvania Avenue [...] Now if you want good loving and you want it cheap / Just drop around ‘bout the middle of the week.
[1938		M. Rand ‘Clip-Joint Chisellers’ in Ten Story Gang Aug. 🌐 The girls plastered their mugs with make-up ready for their strolls on the stem].
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: ’Cause my little sister Lily has a stroll on Piccadilly.
1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 19: Pimps and hos are supposed to have no contact with one another [...] anywhere that a ho is ‘on the walk’ or ‘stroll’ (working).
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 3: The hookers who work it [i.e. 42nd Street, NYC] call it the stroll.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 366: A well-known prostie stroll.
1997		A. Highcrest At Home on the Stroll 21: Before 1972 I hadn’t heard of male prostitutes, male strolls or male escort services.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 101: I’m lookin’ for where they [i.e. whores] stroll.
2014		S.A. Cosby ‘The Rat & the Cobra’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] ‘My mama was on the stroll and your daddy’s mama took me in for a while’.

3. (US) anything requiring only minimal effort, an easy task.

1912		C. Mathewson Pitching in a Pinch 236: The first day that Ames pitched in Boston he won, and won in a stroll.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 268: ‘Just a stroll in the country, bunch. That’s all it is. Just pickin’ up flowers’.
2000		M. Amis Experience 343: He [...] usually beats me at a stroll.

4. (US black) a place where drugs are sold.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 stroll Definition: place where drugs are sold. Example: Man, I been on the stroll all day.