Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to saunter about, esp. in poor or ‘red–light’ areas, poss. with an eye on ‘immoral pursuits’, also as do the slums; thus slumming.

1842		Nichols’ Wkly Arena (NY) 4 June n.p.: The poor nymphs are ‘sluming’ [sic] up and down for cusomers, dressed in all the finery and flummery their means will allow!
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict 236: slum to saunter about, with a suspicion, perhaps, or immoral pursuits. ? Cambridge University Slang.
1870		Cythera’s Hymnal 4: Three students went slumming out into the High / [...] / Determined to slum till their taps ran dry.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 8: Slumming - Suspicious idling.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 37: I gives her a great song and dance bout how de gents was only wantin’ t’ do de slums.
1898		L.J. Beck N.Y.’s Chinatown 163: The ward man just enters with a slumming party. Four well-dressed men and one woman.
1902		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden and Mr Paul 107: If you ’ll take me along slumming wit you [...] it will brace me drooping spirits.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 71: Beany’s goat slightly illuminated from taking ships’ mascots on a slumming trip.
1914		Amer. Mag. 77 June 31–5: I had taken scores of friends to opium dens on slumming parties, but had never touched a pipe nor been tempted to do so.
1927		H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 188: A writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer, who went slumming, or as it was then called, elephant hunting, among the dives of New York in the early eighties.
1931		(con. 1890s) C.W. Willemse Behind The Green Lights 13: We would see [...] ‘slumming’ parties from uptown bound for restaurants where it was safe to go.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 60: He said to join him as they are going slumming.
1942		R. Chandler High Window 23: ‘You here on business,’ I asked him, ‘or just slumming?’.
1947		F. Brown Fabulous Clipjoint (1949) 174: Let’s take the day off and go slumming down in the Loop.
1959		A. Sinclair Breaking of Bumbo (1961) 71: We like sex, slumming, and cool jazz too.
1962		R. Hauser Homosexual Society 30: There was some discussion on the advantage of a relationship with one young person ‘whom you take round and give a good time to’ as opposed to ‘going around slumming and just finding a casual companion whom one would never see again’.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 122: Everyone of ’em is just slumming, out with the girls.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 108: I dint mind im slummin it for a while. But I dint think e’ d end up marryin the little tart.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 237: I played hookey there, slumming around in search of some genuine diversion.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 154: Six nights slumming. Six nights lounging low.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 87: [G]etting falling-down drunk slumming in an after-hours club.

2. to visit impoverished areas, looking for ‘atmosphere’ and ‘characters’, but secure in the knowledge that one’s real life is elsewhere, either as a tourist, or for personal reasons, e.g. political support or ‘good works’; thus slumming.

1884		Daily Tel. Aug. in Ware (1909) 226/2: The results of a little experiment, which has been tried with the kindly consent of the Benchers of the Inner Temple, are well worth the attention of people who interest themselves in what is cynically called ‘slumming’.
1885		N.Y. Dispatch 18 Jan. 1: This is the latest and dizziest racket I know of. They call it ‘slumming,’ because it is visiting the slums [...] The proper way to go ‘slumming’ is to make up a party, go to dinner and the theatre, then meet a detective by previous arrangement, make the rounds, and go to bed when all the other places are locked up.
1895		E.W. Townsend A Daughter of the Tenements 99: But where in the world are we going – slumming?
1901		D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 100: Dolly. Aunt Charlotte told me you’d gone in for ‘slumming’ [...] Sebastian. I hope to make it the serious business of my life.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 194: Seeing New York! Your Maw and I saw more out home in K.C. when we went slumming.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Dec. 39/2: An’ av course ahl this concalement an’ mystery atthracted th’ silly fools an’ they loiked slummin’ harder than iver. […].
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 163: You’ll find him slumming it for months beforehand – the carping old milksniffer! I’ve half a mind to stand against him myself.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 206: Mrs. Wiggamore thought she was slumming when she first descended upon the Cinemas.
1924		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 20 Feb. [synd. col.] All New York went slumming at Lavelle’s. Swells from the avenue. College boys and girls. Married men with the yoke off for the night.
1933		‘George Orwell’ Down and Out in Complete Works I (1986) 182: Once, the lodging-house was invaded by a slumming-party.
1939		R. Chandler ‘Trouble Is My Business’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 177: You came slumming down our street just the same.
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 83: ‘I just felt I ought to understand your part of town better.’ ‘We don’t like gangs of people slumming.’.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 211: What ya doing, slumming?
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 4: Society thought they were going slumming when they rolled from Curzon Street to Gerrard Street in their [...] Rolls Royces.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 98: The deathwatch guard unlocked the cell door. A tang of perfume freshened the air and Swan came in, like a debutante gone slumming.
1971		M. Novotny Kings Road 98: Did you hear that, Jim, she goes slumming north of the park!!!
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 108: A guy and his wife, slumming.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 37: Another wealthy couple out slumming.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We have No 33: Slumming white trendies [...] adored the place.
1999		Indep. Mag. 16 Oct. 40: A long tradition of middle-class Londoners touring round the hellholes of the East End [...] This is the origin of the expression ‘slumming it’.
2000		Indep. Rev. 12 May 10: Sullivan goes slumming incognito through Depression America.
2010		K. Richards Life 202: Suddenly we were being courted by half the aristocracy [...] I’ve never known if they were slumming or we were snobbing.
2017		S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] ‘So you’re back now? For good or just slumming?’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 201: ‘Freddy’s slumming. That means he wants something’.

3. in fig. use of sense 2, to do something ostensibly demeaning, while telling oneself that one is really above it; thus slumming.

1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 137: Where did you go? Atlantic City Joe’s. We felt like slumming it.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 241: Why don’t you admit it, instead of acting as if you were too good for it, as if you were just slumming.
1979		J. Rechy Rushes (1981) 112: Maybe some day you’ll be slumming Lyndy, and someone will mistake you for ...
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.
1990		T. Winton Human Torpedo 109: Was that why she took him skiing, to show him off, to show them she was slumming around with a swamp rat?
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 173: I’m just not good enough for you. You’d be slumming it with me.
1999		J. Poller Reach 36: While everyone else was [...] slumming it at Cindy’s, I was soberly reading in my room.
2004		T. Winton ‘Boner McPharlin’s Moll’ in Turning (2005) 262: I was a cardigan-wearing interloper, a slumming dilettante.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] Ten months he’d slummed it with the proles now, and all it had earned him was [...] a dubious suspension for bending the rules.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 27: Large-draw comics slum here. Lenny Bruce, Don Rickles [...] They’re sanctioned to work raw.