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.
2018		W. Kramer Hard Stuff 145: Eve couldn’t pay the rent [...] We began floating to various friends’ places.

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’.