Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to renege on one’s debts or bills.

1879

Cincinnati Enquirer 7 Sept. 10/7: Mace, Bilk, Give, Roast, Skin—Are all synonymous to the verb ‘to beat,’ and are terms that have been felt by many hotel-keepers, saloonists, boarding houses, &c., as they are about the only terms they could ever get out of some of the graceless scamps of the profession, who ‘flew’ without liquidating the claims against them.