Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US black, also ball out) to have a good time, to enjoy oneself.

1929		C. Patton ‘Hammer Blues’ 🎵 Ball on, baby, you can have have your way, / Sister, every dog must have his day.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 32: Joe Tuckman felt like balling that night [...] and he took us all for some sport.
1956		L. Hughes Simply Heavenly I iv: I told you, you should stop balling, and take care of yourself. [Ibid.] II iii: Ball, ball, let’s ball awhile!
1967		W. Manus Mott the Hoople 18: Come on, baby. Let’s lighten up [...] Let’s ball awhile.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 155: He’s got three main ambitions [...] one is to drink and look sharp; two is to fuck as much as he can; three is to have as much dope as he wants [...] In a word, his ambition is to ball.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 83: Ah been up all night and day ballin.
1993		Dr Dre ‘Bitches Ain’t Shit’ 🎵 And we was ballin’ on the muthafuckin’ Compton streets.
2001		Source Aug. 117: As he gets bigger, he starts balling. But he ends up going down.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 112: ‘They just ball like that and I’m gonna be up there one day eventually too’.
2007		UGK ‘Life Is 2009’ 🎵 If you choose to ball you pay your dues and fall.
2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 1: BALL OUT — spend large sums of money: ‘I’m gonna ball out at the mall this weekend’.

2. (US) to do something well; to attain success.

2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 1: BALL — do something well.
2020		G. Krauze Who They Was 7: Stunting about how they’re balling coz they’ve got black [Amex] cards .