highball, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

highball v.

(US)

1. pertaining to speed.

(a) to leave at high speed.

1912		in RR Man’s Mag. 17 493/2: She whistled twice and high-balled out, / They were off [DARE].
1927		Nichols & Tully Twenty Below Act III: I’m highballin’ out o’ here.
1934		R. Chandler ‘Finger Man’ in Pearls Are a Nuisance (1964) 110: Maybe they thought you’d highball.
1946		W.L. Gresham Nightmare Alley (1947) 257: The rattler high-balled along.
1955		‘Ed Lacy’ Best that Ever Did It (1957) 162: Like a guy highballing along the highway, weaving in and out of the stream of cars.
1960		C. Himes Big Gold Dream 85: They saw the girl come from the alleyway [...] and start highballing in the direction of 114th Street.
1963		A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 154: I didn’t highball it out of town the next morning.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 257: This women, she come high-ballin acrost the field towards us.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 211: I’m taking my police pension and highballing it to Cabo San Lucas [...] Before the Russians find out.
1991		O.D. Brooks Legs 27: When I heard the train start to highball, I nearly crapped.

(b) to call (urgently).

1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 284: Eddie ‘high balled’ me. ‘Lay off that cooking stuff, kid.’.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 53: Often they highball the cops and you get raided.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 187: Big Sweet was high balling me to come over to the skin game.

1927		C. Samolar ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 389: A fast-moving train is said to be high-balling or rambling.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 98: High Ball. – To travel swiftly.
1941		Popular Science Monthly May 76: Its smooth power [...] is fully available, whether the giant is pulling away from a dead stop or highballing along at its maximum governed speed [DA].
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 141: The engineer was highballing the Big Jack over the dusky landscape.
1963		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 175: Lulu went to Boston, and there she met a trucker, / She high-balled to the bedroom cryin’, ‘Double-clutch me, motherfucker.’.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 257: An occasional car was overtaken and left falling behind. They raced a freight through the night – highballin.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 75: He was travelling at slow motion speed and thought he was highballing it.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 160: They highballed north to the [...] Reception Center at Vacaville.
2004		E. Wald Escaping the Delta 163: Johnson [...] he loved to travel, and he fills this performance with the exhilaration of [...] the wind whipping over the roof of a highballing freight train.

2. to make a gesture with one’s hand.

1930		G. Milburn ‘Gila Monster Route’ in Hobo’s Hornbook The 158: The con highballed, and the manifest freight / Pulled out on the stem behind the mail.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 142: Big Sweet was high balling me to come over to the skin game.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 95/2: Highball, v. To signal; to give the okay; to summon; to greet.

3. to witness.

1965

B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 85: I didn’t know that old squarejohn highballed the trick and I continued on the play.

4. (US) in bargaining, to make a higher-than-reasonable offer.

1992

W. Barrett Trump 110: Trump would not highball them, she declared, into a compromise that left them with a 10,000-unit.