Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) to shadow, to follow surreptitiously.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Oct. 7/1: ‘Ghosting’ any one is a peculiar form of punishment, none the less troublesome because it involves no danger to life or limb.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 140: ‘An this time you gots permission to be shortcuttin Friends’ ground.’ [...] ‘Oh! So’s you ghosted me, huh?’.
2012		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. 2011.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] Could have followed Chenko down. Nah, he was too smart to be ghosted without knowing it.

2. (US) to write a book or article for someone else who takes the credit; thus ghosting n.; thus also of singing (see cit. 1999).

1922		Glasgow Herald 11 Oct. 3: ‘A certain general’ for whom he did some ‘ghosting’ .
1939		O. Ferguson ‘Speaking of Jazz’ in New Republic 2 Aug. 363/1: Louis Armstrong, who had become so world famous as to be known even to the reading public: some publisher had a book ghosted for him.
1945		E. Wilson I Am Gazing Into My 8-Ball 35: ‘As one writer to another, did you write about that or did somebody ghost it? There’s a rumor around that it was ghosted’.
1963		F. Kohner Affairs of Gidget 62: You’d think he won’t notice that someone was ghosting the paper for you?
1984		J. Ellroy Because the Night 243: Herzog [...] ghosted my first published stories, then edited the ones I actually did write.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 342: I was told he was hawking a ghosted book about Jeremy.
1999		Guardian Weekend 21 Aug. 53: She ‘ghost’ sang on an album for Europop band Bacon Popper.
2000		Indep. 6 Mar. 18: I ghosted her autobiography.

3. (US prison) to escape from jail.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 259: Their skulls won’t let ’em believe a Nigger was clever enough to ghost outta here.

4. (US/UK prison, also ghost out) to move a prisoner from one prison to another during the night, both departure and arrival taking place when the other prisoners are locked in their cells; thus ghosting n., the late-night/early-hours transfer of prisoners from one prison to another with the intention of avoiding riots, frustrating external investigations etc. [such prisoners are ‘spirited away’].

1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 48: He’s been ghosted, swagged off in the night [...] to some other prison.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 194: ghosting out when the prison authorities suddenly move a prisoner from one gaol to another, often because they suspect that he/she is up to some chicanery or planning to escape.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 10: Ghosting is a procedure for removing prisoners from one prison and transporting them to another prison in the middle of the night.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 10: Suddenly ghosted out one day, pack your roll and you’re back up the pigsty.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] ‘When these cunts are ghosted down here, it means some of our lads are gonna to be moved up to the fucking Joy’.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 154: Vinnie’s been ghosted down to the Moor.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 71: Ted was ghosted up to Durham, the other end of the country [i.e. from Parkhurst Jail].
2019		LRB 41:9 9 May 34: It is difficult therefore to see Holloway’s closure [...] as involving a move away from incarceration. It looks more like a large-scale ‘ghosting’, the term used by prisoners to describe their abrupt transfer from one prison to another .

5. (US black, also ghost out, pull a ghost) to leave, to go somewhere.

1983		N. Proffitt Gardens of Stone (1985) 257: Where’s Wildman? If that sad sack is ghosting again, I’ll have his butt on a biscuit for breakfast.
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 42: pull a ghost To disappear [...] ‘Nigger said he was goin’ to work and pulled a ghost.’.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 10: We need to be out, son. Rollers going to show up any minute now [...] Let’s ghost.
2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 510: Better fade, Loreena [...] Just ghost out.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 79: After the toasts [...] we ghosted away quiet.
2011		J. Cornish Attack the Block [film script] 6: Oi! she’s duckin’! [...] Fam, she’s ghostin’!
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 18: His cousin [...] robbed some top brers [...] and ghosted .
2024		D. Swierczynski California Bear 347: ‘I was supposed to meet a friend, but he ghosted on me — a meeting ran late or something’.

6. to share lodgings or a hotel room with someone unbeknown to the proprietor.

1980

in A. Pearl Dict. Popular Sl. 59: Ghost, v. to share lodging with another without the knowledge of the proprietor of the hotel, motel, etc., and without paying any additional charge [HDAS].

7. (US black) to murder.

1995		AZ ‘Mo Money, Mo Murder, Mo Homicide’ 🎵 Now my wolves is out to ghost ya.
2001		Big Pun ‘Classic Verses’ 🎵 Ghost you and pound your corpse with a force that’ll open the ground.

8. (US) to terminate a relationship by abandoning all forms of communication, spec. eletronic/digital; thus of one sex to another, to ignore.

2015		jezebel.com 20 June 🌐 According to the rumor mill Charlize Theron broke her engagement with Sean Penn by ghosting (aka, the act of never returning calls, text messages, or e-mails). ‘Charlize wasn’t responding to his calls and texts,’ a presumable person told Us Weekly. ‘She just cut it off’.
2016		languagejones.com 15 June 🌐 Ghost (verb) How the white mainstream uses it: to break up with someone or otherwise end a relationship by refusing to answer phone calls, and blocking the other person on social media. A freeze out.
2018		Unknown T ‘Homerton B’ 🎵 Ghost-ghost move then come back / ’Cah her tits went out, when she saw my stack.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 71: [N]ow he’s ghosting me and his trial’s in two weeks.