Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US black) fashionable, chic, ‘with it’.

1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 2: chill – all right.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 26: ‘The owner,’ Jake says, ‘tell us not to snort at the bar, but we do it anyway [...] He say the bathroom be chill for that – he don’t want us to get caught in his place, so we be chill’. [Ibid.] 97: It must be a secret place to keep the squares out and let the hip, fresh and chill crowds in.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z 19/2: Those jeans are chill.
1999		Observer Rev. 7 Nov. 1: To listen to his Radio 1 shows [...] is to be met with a lexicon of ‘fresh’ and ‘chill’.
2012		NY Times 17 Jan. 🌐 ‘Yeah dude that’s chill’ [...] means that something is cool.

2. (US black) correct, the real thing.

1989

(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 119: But the big kid with the cap on said he wanted to make sure the package was chill, otherwise he wouldn’t put his money in.

3. (orig. US black) calm, untroubled, relaxed.

1983		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 2: chill – relaxed, in control: Try to be chill when the cops ask you why you ran the red light doing 75mph.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 78: If you were white, you either didn’t come to school much or kept real chill.
1994		R.P. McNamara Times Square Hustler 48: Every once in a while, I’ll see a girl I want and it’s chill.
2005		A. Swartz ‘Sweet, Tight and Hella Stupid’ in S.F. University High School Update Mar.–Apr. 2: chill – (adjective) cool, in a relaxed way.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 10: He’s been pretty chill from the moment we dropped him.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 477: ‘The Seer was chill, had his act together’.

4. (US black) safe.

1995

(con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 35: Yo Pops [waving Primo over], listen to this, [turning to me] Felipe thinks the block is chill.

5. (US black) emotionless, withdrawn, detached.

1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 59: He pulled away from that dancer when she was trying to get him to go with her. Not just that time, but many times with the females he’s been real chill and shit.
1995		J. Lansdale Two-Bear Mambo (1996) 8: You homos, man, y’all are chill motherfuckers.