Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to hurry; esp. as boom along.

1791		J. Walker Pronouncing Dict. 59/1: To Boom, To rush with violence.
1838		J.C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (1865) 96: You’re right in the way; and if you don’t boom along, why Ben and me will have to play hysence, clearance, puddin’s out with you.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 70: We went booming along.
[1887		G. Davis Recoll. Sea-Wanderer 119: A large ship from one of the Northern European ports will come booming along under all sail].
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 197: Took in nearly forty dollars that night and was booming along toward the hundred mark.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 25 Nov. 4/8: A bloke who’ll boom and buzz about, / A bloke who’s bright and brisk.
1917		Van Loan ‘Sanguinary Jeremiah’ in Old Man Curry 145: Jeremiah came booming down the home stretch.

2. (US) to promote, to extol [SE since 1960s].

1873		‘Mark Twain’ & C. Warner Gilded Age 244: There’s 200,000 coming, and that will set things booming again.
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 17 Nov. 3/2: The Frohman clique are hard at work ‘booming’ Belasco, the impudent young plagiarist, who rewrites French and English plays and calls them ‘original dramas’.
1889		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 2 Mar. 43/1: Charley Davis [...] is celebrated in the States for his diamonds, and his press agent used to boom them as worth $100,000.
1890		Sporting Times 15 Mar. 1/3: We Foxes Boom the Census to the Tune of a Dozen or So, regularly every year!
1897		H.B. Norris [perf. Vesta Tilley] The Oofless Duke 🎵 Well tailored up and groomed, in newspapers I’m boomed.
1898		(con. 1875) F.T. Bullen Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 139: They do believe that the mythical sea-serpent is ‘boomed’ at certain periods, in the lack of other subjects.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 12/4: If anyone could undertake the task of booming and selling an unknown artist’s work, I do not think £60 too much for the trouble.
1904		A. Bierce letter 27 Aug. in Pope Letters of Ambrose Bierce (1922) 98: Your determination to ‘boom’ me almost frightens me.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Mar. 2nd sect. 10/3: The youngster had been boomed as a coming champion.
1913		E. Pound letter 3 June in Paige (1971) 20: I’ll try to get you a copy of Frost. I’m using mine at present to boom him and get his name stuck about.
1915		F. Garrett diary 8 Oct. 🌐 Bit about a well-known regiment who were boomed for a stirring charge at beginning.
1929		M. Levin Reporter 305: They swore to boom him for national commander.
1938		J.B. Booth Sporting Times 101: The companies [...] invariably brought with them a journalist whose business it was to ‘boom the show’.
1952		W. Winchell On Broadway 13 Aug. [synd. col.] They are booming Winthrop Aldrich [...] as Ike’s Sec’y of the Treasury.

3. (US) to live as a transient worker; thus booming n.

1897		O. Wister Lin McLean 20: ‘Been boomin’, said Lin.
1906		A. Adams ‘Bad Medicine’Cattle Brands 🌐 ‘I always was such a poor hand afoot that I passed up that country, and here I am a “boomer”.’ ‘Well, boom if you want,’ said Tom Roll.
1922		M.E. Smith Adventures of a Boomer Op. 59: This ‘Boomin’ around don’t pay, Hi [...] and your Unk Bill is going to cut it cold.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 13: Booming’s a tough racket, you’re working one day and on the bum the next.

4. (UK gang) to shoot.

2018-20

T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Boomed- shot.

5. (UK gang) to exhaust.

2018-20

T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Boomed [...] exhausted.

6. (US police) to break down doors.

1994		Mollen Report 25: They would [...] break in without warrants or probable cause and steal whatever drugs, moneys, guns, or other valuables they could find [...] this practice was known as ‘booming doors’.
2020		L. Lungaro The 3-0 97: [T]hey boomed three doors that day, but they couldn’t take any of the items [...] the captain watched continuously.

7. see boom-boom v. (2)