Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. bizarre.

1955		J. Blake letter 8 Aug. in Joint (1972) 67: His big-city ways had become too way-out for my peasant simplicity.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 72: She has got pretty way-out tastes when it comes to literature.
1964		‘Charles Barrett’ Address: Kings Cross 17: I joined the teenagers who pretended they were really Way Out; wore Way Out fashions; discovered that jazz really sent me.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 40: The entire scene was strange and way out to me.
1971		M. Novotny Kings Road 77: Coke for the more way-out freaks.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 71: We decided that my image should be crazy and way-out so that adults would think I was harmless.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 323: What a way-out bastard.
2023		M. Grossman Lost in Trans Nation 18: What is happening all of a sudden? [...] How did these way-out ideas reach my kid?

2. fantastic, exceptional.

a.1954		‘Mexicana Rose’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 40: ‘Damn,’ said Rose, ‘I thought I was a way-out bitch.’.
1958		Mad mag. Jan.–Feb. 16: We’re a cool school out here, Dad, and way out on that tempo.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 290: My wife is a way-out chick.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 30: Those cats were so down and cool that just walking made a way-out sound.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 163: I passed three way-out bedrooms.
1970		A. Young Snakes (1971) 17: I guess he was pretty way-out all right.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 55: Me and Ty scored for some way out dynamite shit.