Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to cause trouble or a disturbance.

1897		O. Wister Lin McLean 60: A man was liable to go sporting and helling around till he waked up.
1913		H. Kephart Our Southern Highlanders (1922) 209: Jake came to town [...] and proceeded to make merry after the fashion that our lumberjacks call ‘hellin’ around’.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 195: It’s too bad Arrowsmith goes drinking and helling around and neglecting his family and his patients.
1939		E. O’Brien One Way Ticket 75: Supposin’ I get sent to Asiatics. What then? [...] No cat houses, no drinkin’ and hellin’ around the way I used to.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 162: You go tomcattin’ to town, and jus’ hellin’ around.
1952		‘Josephine Tey’ Singing Sands 140: ‘What did you do in Paris during your long wait for Bill to turn up?’ ‘Oh, I helled around some’.
1960		G. Marx letter 9 Jan. Groucho Letters (1967) 118: That oppressed and downtrodden share-cropper, Massa Nunnally Johnson, is hellin’ around with Ava Gardner, making a picture.
1974		(con. 1945) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 386: He never got drunk when he went ashore alone, never helled around.
1983		J. Ciardi A Second Browser’s Dict. 131: Hell around. To roam around in search of riotous fun or violence.