Green’s Dictionary of Slang

walking or driving about the streets in search of a casual sexual partner; usu., but not invariably, of a male homosexual, also in a bar, club etc; also attrib.

c.1925		R. McAlmon Miss Knight (1963) 52: He used to follow me when I went cruising down State Street.
1927		A.J. Rosanoff Manual of Psychiatry in Katz Gay/Lesbian Almanac (1983) 440: Cruising, going out in search of a partner.
1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 153: By this time, Fay had become addicted to cruising [...] deliberately walking the streets for the purpose of flirtation, and the ultimate culmination of flirtation.
1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ Gaedicker’s Sodom-on-the-Hudson 1: New York’s [...] vast and far-flung assortment of outdoor cruising areas.
1953		T. Williams Camino Real Block Four : a.ratt: Cruising? the baron: No, just – walking!
1953		‘’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] I guess he was bar cruising all up and down Sixth Street.
1960		D. Lytton Goddam White Man 54: That’s the white johnnies’ game, cruising around at night in their cars for a bit of skirt. Kid’s stuff.
1963		J. Blake letter 17 Feb. in Joint (1972) 202: Usually it was cruising the subway shithouses.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 197: All this cruising is bugging me.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 9: cruising (n.): General term for this type of streetwalking or searching [i.e. for sex] is widely used. One who is involved in such is a cruiser.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 109: Play for cruising white tricks.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 56: cruising clothes skintight clothing accentuating the lower extremities and hopefully attracting others to these areas.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 87: Cruising, he had long ago decided, was a lot like hitchhiking. It was best to dress like the people you wanted to pick you up.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 242: I noticed the cruising again. Lots of posing, posturing.
1983		S. King Christine 370: Buddy and his friends had gotten pretty well squiffed [...] and gone out cruising.
1999		Guardian G2 24 June 2: Armistead successfully dared him to come cruising. ‘We started out at a disco and then went to a leather bar.’.
2000		Guardian Rev. 15 Jan. 2: I’m going to go cruising for a couple of hours.
2000		Guardian Editor 4 Feb. 12: It feels so much more ‘classy’ than cruising on Sunset.
2000		M.E. Dassad ‘Chickenhawk’ at www.cultdeadcow.com 🌐 I’d only od’d a kid once after Big James, the black pimp I knew from cruising Port Authority, put me onto the trick of doping up the kids to get them nice and docile.
2005		E. White My Lives 255: I began a frantic period of cruising online.