Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. Aus., also bill) to prepare, of food, drink, a marijuana cigarette etc.

1893		H. Lawson ‘The Darling River’ in Roderick (1972) 90: I reckon you can build me your national drink.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 382: He [...] had built flapjacks for a mining outfit.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 177: I misses my swell outfit, the one Benny had built for me to wear at his weddin’.
1914		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 66: Yes the chef at the Grunewald in New Orleans showed me how to build this and it’s some powder.
1955		in Nina Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 217: If I had my dilly-bag now I’d build you a damper.
1960		J. Havoc Early Havoc 11: I watched the hot dog being built. First the roll was taken out of a large tin pot, mustard was splashed across it [...] then came the frankfurter.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 250: The tender, who’s nothing more than a pimp who builds drinks on the side.
2004		A. Mansbach ‘Crown Heist’ in Brooklyn Noir 124: Enough for him to [...] commence to building one [i.e. a cannabis cigarette].
2012		C. Black ‘Topless Vampire Bitches’ in C. Rhatigan and N. Bird (eds) Pulp Ink 2 [ebook] Turning back to the spliff I was building.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] Andrews [...] building a White Ox rollie, a regulation prison racehorse, thin and tight out of habit.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 10: Janey’d built a joint with the grass he’d brought, good stuff.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 32: One of the olders told him to go shop and get some chip [...] to bill a zoot.

2. (US Und.) to create confidence or apparent friendship, for the sake of enticing a victim; thus built up adj.

1931		‘Und. “Lingo” Brought Up-to-Date’ L.A. Times 8 Nov. K3: BUILD: TO work up a confidence, or a pretended friendship.
1958		F.J. Hardy Four-Legged Lottery 60: Jim said [...] expressing less confidence than he felt: ‘We’d better not get too built up. We’re not the only pebble on the beach.’.