balling the jack
No sooner were we out of town than Eddie started to ball that jack ninety miles an hour out of sheer exuberance.
--Jack Kerouac, On The Road, 1957
Balling the jack is a US slang term meaning to go fast or recklessly. The phrase comes from the name of a lively ragtime dance tune that appears in 1913. Figurative use of the phrase dates to the 1920s and likely stems from the fast pace of the song.
The phrase has been commonly used among railroadmen and it is often claimed to have its origins in railroad jargon. But there is no evidence to indicate that the origin is in railroading. Rather the dance inspired the phrase and railroadmen picked it up and made it their own.
(Sources: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition; Historical Dictionary of American Slang)
Copyright 1997-2007, by David Wilton
