Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US tramp) death.

1990		(con. 1930s) M. Graham Tales of the Iron Road 3: Waiting for that time when they would hear the call of the ‘Westbound,’ the hobo’s lingo for death.
2004		N.Y. Times 25 Jan. n.p.: Rambling Rudy Phillips, who [...] lived to become one of America’s last and best-known Depression-era hobos, died on Jan. 9 in Harrisburg, Ill. He was 92 when he caught ‘the westbound to heaven,’ in the time-honored hobo saying.

(US) hash, stew.

1866

Night Side of N.Y. 79: I doubt if there are many aware that Hash is known to all the rounders as ‘boned turkey,’ ‘corduroy’ and ‘West Broadway.’.

see Bumfuck, Egypt n.

a water closet.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(drugs) amphetamines; MDMA.

1971		Illinois Legislative Investigating Committee Drug Crisis in Spears (1986).
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: West Coast turnarounds — Amphetamine; methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).

see thespian n.

(US) anywhere considered as far away, unpleasant and culturally alien.

1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 142: Well take de ace and go to wee-shoppy-tony and dat means East Hell. [Ibid.] 144: You’d pass slap thru hell proper. Jus’ a bouncin’ and a jumpin’ and go clear to Ginny Gall, and dat’s four miles south of West Hell.
1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1010: West Hell: another suburb of Hell, worse than the original.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 215: Here you goddamn people ’bout to send us somewhere south of west-hell.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 149: We could build a paint-contracting business out to west hell.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 359: Kitty woke up with a hangover out of West Hell.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 39: That’s when he knew he could smoke like West Hell.

to die, to end, to collapse; thus gone west, dead; of objects, worn out; send west, to kill.

1915		‘The Buccaneers’ in Seven Seas (Sept.) in Lomax & Lomax (1934) 512: Dead and bedamned and their souls gone whist, / Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
1917		F. Dunham diary 29 May Long Carry (1970) 44: It was realized that some of us present would certainly ‘go west’ (to be vulgar) very shortly.
1918		A.N. Depew Gunner Depew 81: A shell landed among them [...] and sent almost a whole squad West .
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘West’ in Chisholm (1951) 96: I thought uv death, an’ all the rest, / An’ uv me mates, good mates gone West.
1918		L.N. Smith Lingo of No Man’s Land 40: GONE WEST An expression for death; likewise, the slang ‘kicked-in.’ These terms together with the phrase, ‘Pushing up the daisies’ are the soldiers’ common terms for the fate that overtakes comrades and may momentarily overtake themselves.
1923		S. Stewart ‘The Contract of Corporal Twing’ in O’Brien & Cournos Best Short Stories 327: There’s only me an’ you an’ poor ole Perkins ’ere, waitin’ till some sniper sends us West.
1925		S. O’Casey Juno and the Paycock Act II: Poor Mrs. Tancred’s only child gone west with his body made a collandher of.
1930		‘Spotter’ Bird Up 221: Not gone west? Sure not gone — for good?
1936		‘George Orwell’ Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1962) 41: He always slept naked. His last suit of pyjamas had gone west more than a year ago.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 1 Aug. [synd. cartoon strip] Tie [the watch] to a piece of string — whirl it round your head and let go the string!! And the watch is a moral to go west!!
1948		H. Brush 28 Apr. diary in Garfield Our Hidden Lives (2004) 506: Sometimes I feel that I am growing old [...] A violent exertion makes me queer / And rouses thoughts that I am going West.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 183: A lot of good boys gone west for sweet fanny adams.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 193: A lot of marriages went West [...] because ladies didn’t know that guys were different.
1976		(con. 1940) J. Wolveridge Ain’t it Grand 68: I felt I’d been hit on the head, and my ear drums had gone west.
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 151: There’s another packet of fags gone west.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 18: The painting went west and Peregrine went south.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 58: Soliders had plenty of euphemisms for death and the devices that brought it. These included go west (also claimed as an Americanism of World War I, though definitely used before the entry of the USA into that conflict).