Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also zoom around, zoom away, zoom off) to rush, to move fast.

1889		Pasacagoula Democratic Star (MS) 17 May 1/6: The bees collected and went zooming away towards the piney woods.
1918		R.D. Paine Fighting Fleets 288: He crashed [...] taking off, – tried to zoom, engine konked, – side-slip, – nose-dive.
1918		Eve. World (NY) 14 June 16/6: I ‘zoomed’ up out of the fight to be free for a moment [...] at the moment I ‘zoomed’ they dived and flew away.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 130: All of them [...] displayed celluloid buttons the size of dollars and lettered ‘We zoom for Zenith.’.
1930		Nottingham Eve. Post 2 Oct. 4/3: Hurricanes [...] zoom around in the South Seas.
1931		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 20 Aug. 8/1: We see the great air liners zoom off.
1936		G. Greene Gun for Sale (1973) 174: A troop of planes zoomed overhead.
1940		Aberdeen Jrnl 27 Dec. 1/3: I saw our torpedo bombers zoom away towards the enemy.
1945		(con. 1941) R. Westerby Mad in Pursuit 236: The guns rumbled and the planes zoomed.
1957		P. Larkin letter 28 May in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 276: But in the main this institution totters along [...] doomed to remain a small cottage-university [...] while the rest of the world zooms into the Age of Technology.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 187: Zooming along down the middle of the road at about seventy miles an hour.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 83: A car loaded with blacks would zoom by.
1989		Dandy Comic Library No. 142 56: The rocket takes off – and zooms away.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 6 June 3: Some blond garcon who zooms around the race tracks.
2000		Guardian G2 13 Jan. 22: President Clinton [...] zoomed off in a limousine.
2010		K. Richards Life 176: Life was getting really exciting. I’m zooming all over the place.

2. to drag someone off quickly.

1938

C. Himes ‘Pork Chop Paradise’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 256: De sinnah guina be zoomed ’way in smoke.

3. (US black) to get something without paying for it, e.g. a ticket to a show [i.e. one ‘zooms off’ with it/‘zooms’ it away].

1944

‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

4. (drugs) to start to feel a drug working; to exhibit (drug-fuelled) energy.

1972		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 6: zoom – to exhibit much energy, usually with the help of drugs.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 231: The bennies kicked in – Jack zoomed back up.
2002		T. Dorsey Triggerfish Twist (2002) 87: ‘How do you feel?’ asked Bernie. Coleman looked slowly around the room. ‘[...] rushing, tripping, zooming, zonked ...’.