Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to speak abruptly, gruffly, to ‘bark’ at [the trad. representation of the canine bark].

1920		R.J. Brown ‘Thirty Days on the Island’ in Argosy 🌐 3 Jan. I went into the hall [and] woofed at the mob a couple of times.
1946		(con. 1914) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 163: A watery-eyed moron with a high collar [...] had woofed out at the annual meeting, ‘A Headmaster must remember ...’.
1960		(con. 1940s) G. Morrill Dark Sea Running 173: I began to regret the way I’d woofed at Rydjeski about the whale.

2. (mainly US, also whoof, wolf) to speak in a variety of ways, the meaning differs as to context: flirtatious, aggressive, meaningless, threatening, bullying, bluffing, joking [US black pron. of SE wolf].

1934		N. Cunard Negro in Hurston Folkore, Memoirs & Others Writings (1995) 837: John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford was woofing at each other. Rockefeller told Henry Ford he could build a solid gold road round the world. Henry Ford told him if he would he would look at it and see if he liked it, and if he did he would buy it and put one of his tin lizzies on it.
1935		M. Fulcher ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 16 Feb. 12/4: Your favorite New York correspondent, Mrs Fulcher’s woofing little boy, Malcolm.
1941		‘Soldiers’ Talk’ in Tampa Trib. (FL) 21 July 5/5: whoofin, to tell an improbable story.
1943		‘Whitman College Sl.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 155/1: you ain’t woofing; you can say that again; you’re on the beam. Terms denoting satisfaction and agreement.
1945		C.H. Hogan ‘A Yankee ... on Texas Speech’ in AS XX:2 Apr. 82: ‘A-woofin’’ is [...] widely used and is more or less synonymous with ‘lying’ or ‘kidding.’ ‘I figgered she was a-woofin’ me so I hauled off and knocked her bowlegged’ [...] The expression also denotes hearty agreement with someone’s remarks, as in ‘Brother, you ain’t a-woofin.’.
1963		Sacramento Bee (CA) 11 Aug. 26/3: This here meatball [...] was woofing and beating his gums about this fem he had for me.
1969		H. Rap Brown Die Nigger Die! 58: He just stood there and woofed at the police, talking about their mamas and shit like that.
1969		C. Brown Mr Jive-Ass Nigger 61: He was nothin’ but a skinny, puny little-bitty felllow, but if you listen to him wolf about himself you’d think he was really bad. He was nothin’ but a bullshit artist, see.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 132: Why don’t you fools stop woofin’ at each other and git on out there.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 43: Like you just woofin’ ’bout someone, jus’ [...] shootin’ jokes on them.
1984		I. Doig Eng. Creek 298: Mister, you weren’t just woofing. You can cook.
1993		Dr Dre ‘High Powered’ 🎵 ’Cos you know it’s a lot of niggas out there woofin all that bullshit talkin ’bout they got this and got that.
2015		67 ‘Skengs’ 🎵 They're woofin’ on Twitter when I see them on road they be running like bo’.