Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US Und.) to strike hard.

1891		Morning Advertiser 3 Apr. n.p.: The prisoner Tounsel took an empty lemonade bottle from his pocket and said, ‘Look out, or I’ll measure you out’ [F&H].
1904		‘Number 1500’ Life In Sing Sing 251: Measured. Struck.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 59: ‘Well, the fates is right, then,’ says MacDuff, pushin’ him off and measurin’ him with his right.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 137/2: Measure. To knock down or out, with or without a weapon.