Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to lose one’s temper.

1988		N.Y. Times 7 Nov. 17: I get furious. I go ballistic. I really do and I bawl people out.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 117: Alex restrained his urge to go ballistic.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 272: She’d still be shouting and bawling. Yelling and laying into them and going ballistic.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] Fuck, mate. I just went ballistic.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 11: He went ballistic on me, kicking the door and spitting.
2009		N. Flexner Disassembled Man [ebook] Your boyfriend [...] found out. He went ballistic. Said he was going to kill your lover.
2009		P. Temple Truth 321: So he says, get the police and she knows about police, she goes ballistic, no, no, no.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] The freaked-out look guys got when a formerly compliant woman went ballistic.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 157: Knew Murray would go ballistic if he heard he was up.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 168: Alan Wilson went ballistic following his cousin’s murder.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 61: [H]e went ballistic. He threw a 10 minute fit, during which he’d broken two lamps, a coffee table, and then put a hole in a basement wall with a crystal ashtray.

2. to do very well.

1999

Eve. Standard 28 May 51: Something will have gone terribly wrong if it doesn’t go ballistic at the box office.

3. to go to extremes.

1991

D. Jenkins You Gotta Play Hurt 294: She was going ballistic in another area. No more scruffy jeans and sneakers and sweaters around the office. She had raided Bergdorf’s and bought four man-tailored suits [etc].

4. of a situation, to escalate out of control.

2000

S. Maloney Big Ask 102: On the dot of six o’clock a police car came screaming down the road [...] Shortly after, an ambulance did the same. Had the squished tomato incident gone ballistic, I wondered?

5. to become very enthusiastic.

2005		B. Coleman Rakim Told Me 22: [W]hen I woke up at one or two the next day I played it and was like ‘What the fuck is this??!!??’ But I played it for the crew and they went ballistic. It was instant.
2011		Big Issue (Cape Town) 10 Jan. 19/1: You talk about [...] moments. . . when you’re in front of a crowd and they’re going ballistic.