Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to leave; also used passively of objects: do a float v.

1894		S. Crane in Truth (N.Y.) 21 Apr. in Stallman (1966) 33: ‘Well, let’s float, then!’ ‘Float it is, Chauncey!’.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘One of the Lucky Ones’ Sporting Times 20 Oct. 1/4: Ada found that her purse had done a float.
1935		G. Ingram Cockney Cavalcade 105: Come, on, let’s ‘float’.
1955		P. Rabe Benny Muscles In (2004) 250: Let’s float, baby.

2. (orig. US) to wander around; to travel.

1870		F. Kilvert Diary (1944) 2 Dec. 94: Canon Wood floated down College Green from the cloisters to his own house next to Miss Kilvert’s.
1872		S. Hale letter 9 Nov. in Atkinson Letters of Susan Hale (1919) 91: If I were alone, I should float on till a week from Tuesday and then skedaddle (I think you have this word, do you not?).
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 19: If a guy’d floated in there with one of them Clarence outfits they’d ’a’ hung him across a chandelier.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 64: I don’t want any neater graft than floatin’ ’round them junctions.
c.1906		‘Sleepy’ Burke Prison Gates Ajar 9: I went to the ‘timber’ (country) and ‘floated’ to Chicago.
1929		‘Josphine Tey’ (as ‘Gordon Daviot’) Man in the Queue 64: Buses came and went, taxis floated by.
1933		C. Drew ‘Gorilla Grogan’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 40/1: We’d lob into a town [...] pull off the affray as soon as possible and float on to the next town.
1937		J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 240: He’d float along to the Corona.
1955		‘Ed Lacy’ Best that Ever Did It (1957) 10: Near eleven. Guess I’ll float on home.
1978		R. Charles Brother Ray 91: I had a good time floating around Seattle.
1991		B. McCarthy Vice Cop 12: McCarthy would float as one of the extra bodies, dividing his time between the 3-2 in Harlem and the 7-3 or 7-9 in Brooklyn.
2002		R. Sullivan LAbyrinth 30: A lot of RHD detectives [...] seemed to feel they needed to be available only for major mobilizations and were free to float the rest of the time.

3. (Aus.) to die.

1915		C.J. Dennis ‘Uncle Jim’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 95: First orf, one night poor Mar gits suddin fits, / An’ floats wivout the time to wave ‘good-byes’ / Doreen is orl broke up the day she flits.
1963		R. McGregor-Hastie Compleat Migrant 106: Float, to: to die.

4. to eject, to send away.

1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 267: Ask me what I’m doing out after midnight, and whether I live in the town, and when I say no they float me along here.
1954		J. Steinbeck Sweet Thursday (1955) 131: I may just call Joe Blaikey and get you floated out of town.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 159: He’d [...] float me out of the county.

5. to be drunk.

1931		D. Runyon ‘Lillian’ in Guys and Dolls (1956) 239: Who walks in but Wilbur Willard, and anybody can see he is just naturally floating [...] I never see Wilbur Willard mulled up more.
1958		R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 42: You’re plastered. I’m floating a little myself.

6. (drugs) to experience the ‘other-worldliness’ that can accompany the use of certain drugs, typically cannabis and the hallucinogens.

1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 22: He could ‘lay the hip’ every afternoon and float on the wings of the poppy.
1940		‘Jargon of Marihuana Addicts’ in AS XV:3 Oct. 337/1: to be high or floating. To be contented from the drug.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 143: Scar fed his habit and floated.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 102: Whenever they became low-spirited [...] they endeavoured to jerk themselves out of it by ‘getting high’ or by ‘getting blue’, or by ‘floating’.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 95: floating high or intoxicated on a drug.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 145: I was floating so high on weed.
1992		S.L. Hills Tragic Magic 3: I always tried to find that level where I could float.
2002		T. Dorsey Triggerfish Twist (2002) 87: ‘How do you feel?’ asked Bernie. Coleman looked slowly around the room. [...] ‘floating, flying, peaking, sailing’.