Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to play jazz or (latterly) rock music.

1937		H. Webb ‘Sl. of Jazz’ AS XII:3 182: Picks Men Who Can Lay on Sugar or Groove It.
1945		Dizzy Gillespie [instrumental title] Groovin’ High.
1999		Guardian Guide 4–10 Sept. 3: Yo La Tengo have songs, but they’re not afraid to groove.

2. to enjoy oneself, e.g. at a party; thus grooved, happy; grooviness, pleasure, enjoyment.

1950		in Neurotica Autumn 46: Man we came to [...] groove a little.
1959		Mad mag. Sept. 41: Digging whether that group or any group so grooved and hip can keep on swinging.
1970		Atlantic Monthly Mar. 67: Movin’ and groovin’ with big Daddy Madman Matthews on soooooo-oulful WXKW.
1985		O. Hawkins Chili 21: [...] excited by our ease with each other, the grooviness we felt.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 24: ‘And that’s just what I’m doing, baby. Movin’ and groovin’’.
1993		Snoop Doggy Dogg ‘Doggy Dogg World’ 🎵 As you groove to the gangster shit.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 7: If he felt upbeat and wanted to groove he pushed button number one.

3. to praise.

1958

Mad mag. Jan.–Feb. 48: I come to put down Caesar not to groove him.

4. to give pleasure, to amuse someone.

1960		H.S. Thompson letter 11 Sept. Proud Highway (1997) 229: Man, if you only knew how I dig facts! [...] they groove me in the craziest kind of way.
1984		Run DMC ‘Rock Box’ 🎵 We rock from the floor up the ceilin / We groove it (you move it) it has been proven.

5. (also groove with) to accommodate oneself to, to get along with.

1958		Mad mag. Jan.–Feb. 16: Maybe you’ll groove it next session.
1960		G. Swarthout Where the Boys Are 21: What the company is most interested in is how well a guy will groove, how well he’ll adjust to the job and the togetherness.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 131: I was very relaxed, very high, I grooved with it. I liked it. I didn’t get sick. Most people get violently sick to their stomachs the first time.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 47: In short, grooving with the proverbial tax write-offs, and keeping the gargantuan archaic machine in motion.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 241: groove v. Get involved with.
1990		H. Kureishi Buddha of Suburbia 9: Groove it up slowly.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 27: The rest of the band had no such worries, they were quite happy to groove along on the atomic gonad rollercoaster.

6. to travel along, to move.

1967		Oz 1 17: Franco grooved over to Portobello Road.
1993		Dr Dre ‘Bitches Ain’t Shit’ 🎵 Move up the block as we groove down the block.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 groove v [...] 2. to leave, to do something. (‘Are you guys ready to groove?’).

7. to have sexual intercourse.

1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 37: Here was a man who could do her a lot of good, who had the bread to support her bee [...] all for a little grooving.
1971		M. Novotny Kings Road 149: Did you groove?
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Groovin’ (verb) Getting sexual.

8. to dance; to enjoy music.

1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 15: finger-poppin’ – Snapping your fingers ’cause you are grooving to a sound.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: groovin(g) v. dancing to the music of phonograph records.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 groove v 1. to dance. (‘We can’t leave yet. I’m not done grooving.’).
2008		‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 22: It was called ‘I Know You Got Soul,’ and when I threw it on, something magical happened—people stopped milling about the food table, got up from their chairs, moved out of the corners of the gym, and started to groove .

9. to find interesting.

2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 15: Wilshire was dotted with cocktail caves [...] I grooved the Broken Drum, the Fox and Hounds. and the ivanhoe.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 175: He’d groove them as sicko sisters under the skin.