Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to kill.

1612		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ O per se O O2: Ben bowse thou shalt Bowse thy fill, And crash a grunting cheat that’s young.
1637		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ in Eng. Villainies (8th edn) [as cit. 1612].
1648		Dekker ‘Canters Dict.’ Eng. Villainies (9th edn).
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 48: Crash, To kill.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Crash c. to Kill. Crash, the Cull, c. Kill the Fellow.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1828		Lytton Pelham III 333: Crash the cull – down with him – down with him, before he dubs the jigger.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 150: The gineral didn't think Washington deserv’d glory, ’cause he had so many chances tu crash all his inemies, which he mist for fear the inemy wou’d crash ail his men.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.

2. to eat.

1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Crash, eat.
1707		‘Maunder’s Praise of His Strowling Mort’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 34: Rum booze thou shalt booze thy fill, / And crash a grunting cheat that’s young.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict.

3. (UK Und.) to steal.

1684		W. Nevison in Newgate Calendar I (1926) 291: ‘Now,’ saith he, ‘that thou art entered into our fraternity, thou must not scruple to act any villainies which thou shalt be able to perform, whether it be to nip a bung, bite the Peter Cloy, the lurries crash, either a bleating cheat, cackling cheat, grunting cheat, quacking cheat, Tib-oth-buttery, Margery Prater.’.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 105: [as cit. 1684].

4. (orig. US, also crash in) to appear uninvited at a given place, party or other function.

1919		implied in crash the gate
1922		Ogden Standard Examiner 12 Apr. 6/5: There was one wally I was goofy about, but while I was necking with him, Harry caught a tomato, so he says, ‘Let’s blouse’ and we left and crashed in at the Plaza.
1922		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 2 May 9/4: Flapper Dictionary crash in – To go to a party uninvited.
1935		M. Fulcher ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 23 May 12/4: These gossips try to crash the Harlem after yawning spots.
1936		A.E. Duckett ‘Truckin ’round Brooklyn’ in N.Y. Age 5 Dec. 7/1: Thomas B. and Buddy Broyard [...] busy crashing chippy girls club meetings.
c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 245: The last time I tried to crash a show was in the old Electric there in Mart street.
1949		Dan Burley ‘Back Door Stuff’ 16 Apr. [synd. col.] He had crashed his way in on the coattails of some latecomers.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 81: The Harps talked of a party in another neighborhood; a mob intended to crash it.
1965		H.S. Thompson letter 26 Mar. in Proud Highway (1997) 499: Twice in the past week I was inside situations that they tried to crash and got turned away from.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 32: They were having a party when some drunk guys came round and tried to crash.
1979		G. Wolff Duke of Deception (1990) 180: I was invited to some of these [dances]; most I crashed.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 265: They had two ways to go: they could crash the place or sneak one in.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 111: Only crashed a few clubs or Centrepoint occasional.
2000		Eminem ‘Drug Ballad’ 🎵 You’ve got a lot of drugs to do / Girls to screw / Parties to crash.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Crash - raid, invade.

5. (US Und.) of a burglar, to break a shop window in order to plunder the contents.

1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice in Hamilton Men of the Und. 277: I crashed into a store and stole a swag of crackers.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 307: Quite often they [i.e. burglars] break into a bootleg joint [...] in order to steal liquor. Often they ‘crash’ (break into a store window).
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

6. (US Und.) to break into; lit. and fig.

1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 20: If no one answers the bell [...] if he gets no response he ‘crashes the joint’ as the burglar terms breaking in.
c.1935		‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 92: Aah – sweet one! Trying to crash the studios, eh?
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Phoney Shakedown’ Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective Feb. 🌐 Nadine [...] hit Hollywood three months ago. She wanted to crash the pictures.
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 141: Hoover’s men crashed Doc’s apartment and took him alive.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 52/1: Crash. 1. To enter premises fraudulently or by force; to break into premises. 2. To enter uninvited, especially to rob or make plans for robbery.
1953		E. Reid Shame of N.Y. 65: Despite the Lucheses’ lavish entertaining [...] they have not yet been able to ‘crash’ the Lido Beach social set [ibid.] 84: Often they doubled as warrant-servers for the Porno Squad [...] crashing peep shows, live sex emporiums, and adult bookstores.
1967		W. Murray Sweet Ride 92: She had come west to crash the studios [...] hadn’t had any luck, though she was sure her break would come.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 162: We goin’ crash a joint this morning.

7. (Aus./US) to hit someone hard.

1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 63: If you deliberately crash him, K.O., I’ll see ’at you git the same!
1925		Black Mask Aug. III 38: ‘Oh – him,’ I said easily. ‘I crashed him before I came in.’.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 193: You hop out of it, fore I crash you one.
1972		R. Kahn Boys of Summer 267: Robinson hits a triple and bowls me over. [...] He really crashed me.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 136: crash strike a person.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 38: The Cowboy stepped in and crashed the gent with a left hook to the point of the jaw.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z 24/1: If you don’t lay off my girl, I’ma crash you.

8. (US Und.) to be killed.

1930

R. Whitfield Green Ice (1988) 46: Went over to the boardinghouse where Donner crashed.

9. (US Und.) of a gun, to go off.

1930

R. Whitfield Green Ice (1988) 49: Donelly’s gun crashed. Once – then once again.

10. (US prison, also crash out) to escape.

1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 37: They all take the oath, and are ready to shoot you or me if they see us trying to crash the wall.
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 115: He had just crashed out of Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 74: He was a fugitive, too. He’d crashed out of the penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska, a short time before.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 47: Howinhell are you going to crash this place?
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 107: Crash and Crash Out Escape.

11. (US) to run a red light.

1957

W.R. Burnett Underdog 224: No use crashing a red light and getting chased by a traffic cop.

12. (UK juv.) to share out, to distribute.

2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 crash n. Request from another person to distribute something within your possession. e.g. ‘crash me some boffs’ = give me some sweets. Also ‘crash the ash’ – distribute cigarettes.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 281: Nelly shrugs n lights a fag, without fuckin crashin thum, which is bad fuckin manners.

13. (US black) to ruin, to make a mess of.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 crash Definition: screw up. Example: You crashed the fuckin party, nigga.

14. (N.Z. drugs/prison) to crush a tablet containing codeine or morphine sulpahte as part of the morphine manufacturing process.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 47/2: <b>crash</b> <i>v</i>. 1 to crudely cook up a tablet, i.e. to break down a tablet containing codeine or morphine sulphate by using chemicals and heat, in order to extract morphine.

15. (UK Black) to fire a gun, thus crasher, a shooter.

2017		1011 ‘No Hook’ 🎵 My bro’s them been crashing corn / I don't know for these so called crashers / Got hands on whappers.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Crash - shoot [Ibid] Crashing corn - firing your gun.

16. see crash (out) v.