Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to complain about one’s problems, esp. financial.

1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 36: For God’s sake stop that bawling, Peggy.
1947		N. Algren ‘Depend on Aunt Elly’ in Texas Stories (1995) 102: Look at the beatin’s I take ’n I ain’t bawlin’.
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 127: I really bawling. Lend me two and six.
1961		V.S. Naipaul A House For Mr Biswas 164: She bawling again. She want more trust.

2. to exclaim from shock, disbelief or surprise.

1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 91: The coppers bawl out about the thieves, no one holds up his testimony, the judge delivers an oration, and all of them get credit for stopping a crime wave.
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 99: Evening people in the tube station must be bawl to black man so familiar with white girl.

3. to confess.

1933

C. Himes ‘Prison Mass’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 171: The physical pain had been [...] so intense that he hadn’t been able to speak — and the lousy dicks thinking he had just been too stubborn to bawl.