Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US black, also bail back) to enjoy oneself.

1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1008: Bailing: having fun.
1942		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 11 Apr. 20/1: Young Minto Cato is in town after a lengthy stay in Canada bailin’ back.

2. (US campus, also bail off, bale) to leave; thus bail on v.

1970		Current Sl. V:1 1: Bail off, v. To alight from a moving car or engine.
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 25: gettin ready to bale Getting ready to leave a location.
1989		J. Doyle College Sl. Dict. 🌐 bail [UCSB] leave somewhere or skip a class.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 11: Them big dudes with their full-auto Uzis, an go bailin warp-seven cause Gordy go the balls to shoot back with this!
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 194: Maybe Chub had bailed.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 273: You try to bail — huh-uh — a crackhead like Tony’s gonna get paranoid.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 107: Target vehicle crashed, driver and passenger bailed [...].
2010		C. Hiaasen Star Island (2011) 48: What would they do if you said fuck it and then bailed?
2013		T. Black ‘Killing Time in Las Vegas’ in Killing Time in Las Vegas [ebook] I was getting ready to bail when he finally turned to me.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] He was more red than a tradie’s porn collection and bailed down the stairs .
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 37: She [...] loved him until the day he bailed.
2021		‘Aidan Truhen’ Seven Demons 264: Oscar well he bailed after you guys got into it a little.

3. to play truant; also in non-school/college context.

1989		J. Doyle College Sl. Dict. 🌐 bail [UCSB] leave somewhere or skip a class.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 160: He felt slightly guilty about bailing on Chatlak’s funeral.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘I was worried you’d be so pissed off, you’d bail on me for lunch’.

4. to terminate a relationship, to break up; to abandon in a non-sexual sense.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U. 26: I bailed my girlfriend last night because she was being totally lame.

5. to run.

1991		L. Bing Do or Die (1992) 8: You wonder how many kids have bailed from this bench, and how far they got up that road before they got caught.
1993		K. Scott Monster (1994) 19: Y’all bail, we just busted on some Families!
2013		N. Knight ‘Not Even a Mouse’ in ThugLit Nov.-Dec. [ebook] Should just bail, forget the whole shebang.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 42: ‘Jump up that close n phone Big Kenzie [...] then bail, hen!’.

6. (US black) to strut, to walk in an aggressive manner.

1995

L. Stavsky et al. A2Z 5: bailing – walking in an aggressive fashion; wearing your colors while strolling through rival turf: The brotha be bailing through the hood.

7. to throw away.

1992

J. Mowry Way Past Cool 215: Ajay! Brett! Tunk! Bail them blades! Nice an far. now!

8. to back down, to abandon a promised act.

2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 247: I appreciate your efforts [...] I really do, but I’ve bailed. My best bet was to get out while the going was good.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 bail v. to ‘give up’ on something ‘I was supposed to dive off the five metre board but I bailed when I saw how high it really was!’.
2024		D. Rucker Life’s Too Short 188: You know what? I just decided. I’m not doing this fundraiser. [...] Book some other band. I’m bailing.