Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US Und.) to steal, to hold up; thus heisting, burglary.

1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 48: I was [...] figuring when to pull out my hog-leg and heist ’em up.
1932		‘Paul Cain’ ‘Black’ in Omnibus (2006) 219: He’s been with Ben on the truck heistings.
1934		T. Minehan Boy and Girl Tramps of America (1976) 190: I just heists it off the Wop’s stand and tucks it under my coat.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Princess O’Hara’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 441: This is one of the very first cases of histing a truckload of legal beer that comes off.
1939		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ 7 Oct. [synd. col.] Two gat-men who had just ‘hysted’ the Hotel Berkeley.
1943		P. Cheyney You Can Always Duck (1959) 170: If you think I’m gonna be heisted by a cheap thug like you, you made a mistake.
1951		(con. 1920s) S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 300: I was bossin’ a brick crew by the time most of you punks was histin’ dough outa your ole man for college capers.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 15: This does not mean every holdup, heisting or second-story job is acted and voted on by a select committee.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 15: Five gunmen [...] heisted the mail car for a half-million dollars.
1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 130: St. Louis is such a good whore town, and Chicago is good for heisting and things like that.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 99: Junior was heisting hustlers.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 182: He knew two banks ripe for heisting.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 183: Blake and two of his buddies heisted a bank in Waco.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 38: He didn’t care about Eddie heisting a pillowcase out of some drug car.
2002		Perkins et al. Bolivia Hbk 224: Later that year the outlaws returned to Argentina where they heisted US$ 700.000 from a bank in Villa Mercedes.
2011		J. MacArthur ‘Jack Rabbit Slim’s Cellar’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] I’ve ben heisting jewels for years.

2. to increase, e.g. of a sum of money.

1940

W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 401: ‘This ain’t no half a million.’ ‘That’s what the papers said, but of course they always heist it.’.