Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. gay) an air steward.

1992		D. Jarman diary 6 Nov. Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 248: David, the nurse who calls himself ‘the trolley dolly’, wheels in the breakfast saying ‘Wines, spirits, [...] duty free.’.
1999		Age (Melbourne) 18 Apr. 26/4: The upwardly aspirant Quantas trolley dolly who ran off with his best man.
2003		Guardian G2 31 July 9: I was told by an embarrassed ‘trolley dolly’ that I had exposed myself. I had Peter Bucked it.
2004		Sun. Indep. (Dublin) Living 26 Sept. 8/1: My friend Mike, a pretty 23-year-old trolley dolly [...] has just got himself a new boyfriend.

2. an air hostess; also used for railway staff (see cite 2018).

1998		Guardian 20 Jan. 30/1: A harshly lit [...] photograph of Karen Kridel who has flown with American Airlines for 33 years, alongside gratuitous pics of trolley dollies.
2002		Nat. Post (Toronto) 12 Dec. 151/3: A smalltown girl [...] fulfills her dream of becoming a flight attendant [...] Candicwith e Bergen as a retired trolley dolly.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2016		Boston Globe (MA) 16 Oct. G4/2: Passengers no longer think of us as just a waitress in the sky, trolley dolleys, or, sky goddesses.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 162: [A]h dinnae think any bilingual Deutsch chick wid be wastin her talents trolley-dollyin oan Britain’s railways.

to knock down.

1906

E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 151: Jist lined er John with er half-Brunswick, ’n’ got four moon. Knocked him fair off his trolly.

1. crazy, eccentric.

1896		Ade Artie (1963) 53: Any one that’s got his head full o’ the girl proposition ’s liable to go off his trolley at the first curve.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 89: Her privit opinion was that His Whiskers had gone stark off his trolly.
1911		Out West Oct. 241: For ‘ditch,’ ‘side track,’ ‘off his trolley,’ et cetera, we are indebted to the railroad calling.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 415: There’s some folks [...] claim that those of us that have the big vision are off our trolleys.
c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 94: It also taught me to be wary of a whacky dangerous guest, for Frenchy told me there were signs to recognize a john who was off his trolley.
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 92: I guessed that when you went off your trolley, you didn’t care much whether your insignia was a bar or a stripe.
1956		A. Childress Like One of the Family 199: No girl, I’m not off my trolley.
1968		A. Buckeridge Jennings in Particular (1988) 7: Darbishire! You must be off your trolley!
1970		‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 143: As beautiful and brainy as she was, I was still convinced she was a mote off her trolley.
1973		A. Buckeridge Speaking of Jennings (1989) 45: They’re off their trolleys! I wouldn’t have touched the mouldy old toadstools with a drain-rod.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 290: It might well be that Mother had toppled off her trolley long ago.
1999		Eve. Standard 28 May 30: John said, ‘That woman must be off her trolley.’.
2008		in Times (L) 29 Oct. 19: A writer [...] quoted a ‘senior’ McCain adviser calling Mrs Palin a ‘whack job’, which roughly translates as worryingly off her trolley.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] The doc was off his trolley on the stuff [i.e. ether].

2. physically unbalanced .

1908

N.Y. Eve. Journal 25 Apr. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 53: Being off his trolley, he pitched face forward.

3. drunk.

1906		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 30 Mar. 4/5: He is [...] off his trolley.
1916		Sun (NY) 9 Apr. 10/7: [List provided by a doctor in the alcoholic ward at Bellevue — terms from ambulance drivers] [...] ginny, google-eyed, lushy, off one’s trolley, slushed.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 4: 23:59:12 Residents’ Bor, Berkeley Court, Off My Focking Trolley.

4. under the effect of a (hallucinogenic) drug.

2002

R.G. Barrett Mystery Bay Blues 155: Sunday night at the Blues Festival, off our trolleys.

to lose emotional control, to go mad.

1894		Star-Gaz. (Elmira, NY) 15 May 4/3: Yale College Slang [...] I must make a cold rush in that course or I’ll slip my trolley sure.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 15: slip one’s trolley To become unbalanced mentally; to make a foolish mistake.
1945		C.H. Hogan ‘Texas Speech’ AS XX:2 83: When a person does slip his trolley in Texas, they fall back on euphemism.
1956		I. Shulman Good Deeds Must Be Punished 78: ‘Are you slipping your gears?’ [...] ‘Cut it!’.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

(US) an inhabitant of Brooklyn, NY; also used of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball club and in other sporting contests to refer to the Brooklyn-based contestant; post WW2 used is historical.

1894		Times Union (Brooklyn, NY) 12 Feb. 2/5: The Brooklynites had an opportunity to edify the natives by showing them their prowess as trolley dodgers, and it was with ease and grace that they avoided the cable and rolley cars that whizzed by .
1895		Times (Philadelphia, PA) 4 May 8/3: The ‘Rainmakers’ and the ‘Trolley Dodgers’ are the latest terms used by base ball writers to designate the Phillies and the Brooklyns.
1900		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 12 May 7/1: [headline] In the Main Between New York and Brooklyn / [...] / The Gotham Birds Outclassed by the Trolley Dodgers.
1900		Star Press (Muncie, IN) 8 Jan. 2/6: [of a boxer] Everyone sems to be after McGovern for a fight now. The latest one whom the trolley dodger has agreed to meet is Charley Kelly.
1905		Record (Hackensack, NJ) 4 Jan. 4/3: Now Brooklyn wants a subway. Most anything would be an improvement over existing transportation [...] in the trolley dodgers’ borough.
1910		Passaic Dly News (NJ) 13 Jan. 3/1: [of basketball] The Brooklyites were bigger and much heavier [...] Superior strength [...] gave the trolley dodgers a victory.
1915		Daytona Dly News (FL) 3 Apr. 1/5: The Washington series is the one that trolley dodgers want the most.
1924		Anaconda Stadnard (MT) 1 Jan. 8/2: Brooklyn became one of the first big trolley car centers in the country and the name Trolley Dodgers, later shortened to Dodgers, was adopted.
1935		Chattanooga News (TN) 21 Mar. 13/5: [headline] Trolley Dodger Pilot Not Kidding Self About Where His Club Will Finish.

(US teen) going steady.

1945

Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 20 Feb. 11/4: A couple going stead is said to be ‘fenced in’ or ‘trolley riding’.