trip out

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

trip out (third-person singular simple present trips out, present participle tripping out, simple past and past participle tripped out)

1. (slang) To hallucinate or otherwise alter one's consciousness as a result of drugs.

   They started to trip out after five minutes of eating the mushrooms.

2. (slang) To have a fit, to become enraged or upset; to flip out.
   • 2014, Kristen Ashley, The Promise, →ISBN:

     “Miranda told me he's totally tripped out about Tenrix,” she declared, and my eyes shot back to her, another chill going down my spine...."...Lloyd blew a gasket when Heath told him but Heath told him when it was over..."

   • 2014, Colby Buzzell, My War: Killing Time in Iraq, →ISBN, page 115:

     I noticed that the Iraqis, especially the female Iraqis, were completely tripping out at the sight of a female in uniform, like they would point and act all shocked when they saw them.

   • 2015, Maurice Moya, The Torreon Cabin Murders: A False Confession and False Statement, →ISBN:

     And I just, when he put the he put the gun to my head I just tripped out most.

3. (slang) To enthuse, to respond with strong positive emotion; to get high (on)
   • 2012, Paul Krassner, Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut, →ISBN:

     The students just ate those pages up, getting high on Deuteronomy, tripping out on Exodus.

   • 2012, Starr Ambrose, Gold Fire, →ISBN:

     The current zoning board is high on growth, and the plan for a golf course has them practically tripping out.

   • 2015, Gabrielle Prendergast, The Frail Days, →ISBN, page 115:

     And Jacob is tripping out on a riff he pulled in his solo that made my eyes fill with tears.

4. (idiomatic) To have as an image in one's mind.
   • 1982, Gus Frias, Barrio Warriors: Homeboys of Peace, page 23:

     We enjoyed joking, blaspheming and tripping out on teachers, administrators and on some of the weird-looking students on campus.

   • 2007, Yvette R. Harris, James A. Graham, The African American Child: Development and Challenges, →ISBN, page 125:

     In the beginning of the story, Mae was tripping out on being princess with a. dyeing her hair b. long golden hair c. a long dress d. an Afro

   • 2015, Calvin Slater, Hold Me Down, →ISBN:

     The drama with the bikers had given him insomnia. So he'd made it through the night lying in bed on his back with the bedroom lights out and staring into the darkness. Xavier had been tripping out, thinking about a lifetime of mistakes he'd managed to make over a couple years.

5. (engineering) To pull the drill stem and bit out of the hole of an oil well drill, in order to access the borehole.
   • 1998, Steve Devereux, Practical Well Planning and Drilling Manual, →ISBN, page 15:

     Work carefully through high overpulls when tripping out, it may add a couple of hours to the trip, but you should not get into trouble.

   • 2011, Philippe Theys, Gerald Brace, Quest for Quality Data, →ISBN, page 213:

     It is more common, for instance, for a drill string to become stuck when tripping out with the bit off bottom and the critical information pertinent to such a stuck pipe event will not be present in the traditional on-bottom depth-referenced data.

6. (electronics) To break a circuit in response to an overload.
   • 1911, The Electrical Journal - Volume 67, page 82:

     Hitherto the switches with so-called instantaneous overload release have had the objectionable feature of tripping out on temporary overloads

   • 1929, United States National Bureau of Standards, Protection of electrical circuits and equipment against lightning:

     At any rate the power arc requires the tripping out of the circuit to extinguish the arc, causing an interruption in the continuity of service, the maintenance of which is constantly becoming of increased importance.

   • 2013, John Robertson, Dare to Dream, →ISBN, page 382:

     The purifier tripped out due to the vibrations caused by the bang.

7. To be released in spite of constraints; to spill out.
   • 2010, Milly Johnson, A Summer Fling, →ISBN:

     'No, not this weekend,' was all she said, although much more could have come tripping out so effortlessly in this comfortable corner with these women ready to listen.

   • 2012, Agustín Laó-Montes, Arlene Dávila, Mambo Montage: The Latinization of New York City, →ISBN, page 390:

     And it started little by little tripping out, then the big . . . multinationals, the big corporations . . . I don't wanna say another word because then they'll think I'm too much to the left.

   • 2012, Evan Bates, Great German Short Stories, →ISBN:

     One afternoon, for instance, during coffee, in a sort of brown study like this, in the special season of corporeal and spiritual digestion, the place where a lost Act was lying occurred to me, as if by inspiration ; and last night, no farther gone, there came a glorious large Latin paper tripping out before my open eyes, in the very same way.”

   • 2014, Ruchi Vasudeva, You Can't Fight A Royal Attraction, →ISBN:

     The question tripped out, the desire to know too strong to be denied.

8. To go out with light steps.
   • 2009, Jonathan Lerner, Alex Underground, →ISBN, page 11:

     Unlike Alex, Doug functioned very well in the debates, as willing as the next deep thinker to go tripping out onto lofty constructions of ideology and rhetoric.

   • 2009, George A. Carlin, He Who Gets Slapped, →ISBN, page 138:

     He did not betray a flicker of interest until the act was over and she and Bezano came tripping out hand in hand to take their bows.

   • 2010, Elizabeth Aston, Writing Jane Austen: A Novel, →ISBN, page 86:

     What had it felt like to go tripping out in those delicate half-boots, muslined from neck to ankle, a parasol in your hand, hair dressed and bonneted, and stays pressing your ribs every time you breathed?

   • 2012, Ann Lethbridge, Lady Of Shame, →ISBN:

     Her fur-lined cloak would serve as a carriage blanket as well as keep her warm when tripping out to the necessary or when they put up for the night.