Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) to be under the influence of a drug, to experience a drug’s effects, usu. hallucinogenic, orig. only of LSD; usu. as adj. tripping; thus tripping n. (1)

1967		Time 7 Apr. 60: Youthful mind-benders have tripped (or thought they did) on everything from airplane glue to morning-glory seeds, from nutmeg to black tea.
1967		Oz 3 4: Tripping and skipping they ran merrily after the wonderful music.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 50: Tripping, v. To be under the influence of a drug.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 361: Somebody’s come and put some drugs into my mouth! I’m tripping.
1979		Lette & Carey Puberty Blues 113: ‘Cheryl’s trippin.’’ ‘Wot on?’ ‘White Light [...] She dropped it on the bus this mornin’.’.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 166: Say, white girl like you probably dig some nice acid [...] You be trippin’ for days!
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 53: trippin’ To be loaded on illegal drugs [...] ‘Dude took some of that water; he be trippin’.’.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 117: I’d go to some of my classes high, tripping off acid.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 128: Jimmy was really tripping on some good THC.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 2: Her drunk on cheapo vodka, him tripping his numbskull off.
2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014.

(b) (drugs) to take LSD.

1970		Manchester Guardian Weekly 2 May 16: They went to the seedy suburb of Haight Ashbury, the capital of the hippies, to smoke a little (pot), to love a little (sex), to trip a little (LSD).
1981		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 7: tripping – using LSD.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 168: He had tripped plenty of times as an undergraduate.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 307: ‘The snake’s tripping?’ ‘It’s, uh, not inconceivable’’.

(c) (drugs) to take any hallucinogenic drug.

1978		L. Kramer Faggots 339: ‘You never would trip with me.’ Dinky swallowed two Desnobarbs.
2000		Indep. Rev. 19 Feb. 8: McLagan [...] drank and spliffed and tripped.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 185: Auld-school medicine men would go n take aw sort ay poisons [...] They’d trip, then spew, n shite like squaddie, and come back purged.

(a) to play around, to ‘mess about’.

1960		Mad mag. June 48: Still the Raven went on tripping my old blues till I was flipping.
1968		L. Wolf Voices from the Love Generation 9: I was just tripping around – playing, and freaking out, and taking a lot of dope, and entertaining people.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton title page: A dive into living large, a work where characters trip, talk out the side of their neck and cuss like it was nothing.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 trip v [...] 5. to partake in friendly flirting, which may lead to a more serious relationship. (‘They used to trip but now they’re going out’).
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 61: I got to feed my kids, man [...] I ain’t tripping on that shit.

(b) to fantasize, to act in an irrational manner.

1982		(con. 1970) J.M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley (1983) 469: She accepts. I’m trippin.
1984		(con. 1964–73) W. Terry Bloods (1985) 2: They thought I was trippin’, this Marine acting crazy, just talking shit.
1993		K. Scott Monster (1994) 157: Man, y’all trippin’.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 79: I was tripping. [...] Santa Claus had slid down the chimney.
2002		(con. 1998–2000) J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 15: Y’all be tripping, muthafuckin’ white boys acting like dey going to a punk-ass par-tay! Only party y’all fittin’ to be at, be the par-tay up you white asses.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 210: Are you trippin? I tell them that an they’d whup my ass.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘You’re inviting me to the wedding?’ ‘That’s not all. I was wondering if you’d be a bridesmaid.’ Was she completely tripping?
2014		B. Koeler ‘Be My Alibi’ in ThugLit Sept. [ebook] Don’t trip. I’ll be there.

(c) to daydream.

1967

M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 177: ‘I thought you might have fallen asleep with your clothes on.’ ‘I’m just lying here tripping.’.

(d) to be delighted, to be ecstatic; often as trip for, trip over; thus trip off (of)

1975		J. Carr Bad (1995) 13: I sat [...] and watched the mother burn, smokin’ Lucky Stripes, trippin’ hard on what I had done – and grinning.
1984		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 7: trip, trip out – to become extremely excited: He was tripping out when Jordan slamdunked the ball at the buzzer.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 120: The baddest hotel in the West. You’ll trip when ya see it.
2021		(con. 2016) in J. Fenton We Own This City 149: He at this big-ass mansion with a pool in the back,’ Rayam said. ‘N—— [sic] be trippin,’ Gondo said.

(e) (US black, also trip off) to lose control, to go mad, to overreact, to get angry.

1985		Too $hort ‘From Here To New York’ 🎵 Rappers like me won’t even trip.
1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 196: trip to act inappropriately, react unexpectedly; to act crazy or weird.
1993		Snoop Doggy Dogg ‘Murder was the Case’ 🎵 My mind starts trippin, a tear drops my eye.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 241: I’m trippin’, man [...] ’Bout ready to bite down on my tongue. [Ibid.] 262: Why you trippin’, man? You know I didn’t mean nothin’ in there.
2001		Source Aug. 144: Loving it. That is, until some fools start trippin’. [Ibid.] 148: We know what we’re doing. We been doing this all our life. So we ain’t trippin’. They just want to see us stressing.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 164: ‘One of my homies get killed or something I’ll trip off it’.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 71: Don’t trip, dawg. Skell’s making the pickup right before count.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 27: ‘What?’ Little Dap starting to trip .
2008		in J. Miller Getting Played 102: ‘Calm down don’t trip off of him, you be steady, he a little boy’.
2013		J. Cole ‘Miss America’ 🎵 Don’t trip, nigga, they just words.
2016		Mother Jones July/Aug. 🌐 The inmate says guards turn a blind eye to it [i.e. synthetic marijuana]. They ‘ain’t trippin’ on that shit’.

(f) to be passionately interested or involved in; thus trip off

1998		Source Nov. 162: When we first came out we weren’t tripping on no solo albums.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 240: Here’s a fun fact. Did you know people relieve themselves when they die? Sometimes I trip on that.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 274: What I was tripping on were the fascinating facts I recalled from the Discovery Channel.

(g) (US black) to do something beyond the norm, in a positive way.

2000

F.X. Toole Rope Burns 204: Air Jordan be trippin!

(h) to worry.

1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 trip v [...] 3. to worry. (‘Don’t trip about it!’).
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 146: Tripping on the righteous indignation this football-player-built idiot is displaying.
2008		‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 123: The Gladiator takes three people to carry—but I'm trippin' it's not gonna be loud enough.

(i) to be surprised.

1997–2001

Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 trip v [...] 6. to be surprised. (‘Man, I tripped when I saw her walk in.’).

(j) to suffer.

2002

(con. 1998–2000) J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 65: Unless the sorry-ass dawg is dead already or maybe trippin’ real bad behind the pain [of being stabbed].