polish, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

polish v.

1. to hoodwink, to exploit.

1868

‘Beautiful for Ever’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 142: And of the old woman I made a fool, / To polish old ladies shall be my rule.

2. to beat, to thrash.

1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 29 May 141/1: Peter [...] also wanted shewy advantages of haying been taught to walk [...] giving his frame a graceful polish; but Peter’s forte lies, in polishing another way.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 191: When he had got Dobell, as the pugilistic phrase goes, he polished him off hand.
1933		C.W. Willemse Cop Remembers 310: Thus [...] a great many criminals are driven out of town, for they can’t stand the continuous frisking and polishing.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

polish a bone (v.)

see under bone n.¹

polishing powder (n.)

(Aus.) in prize-fighting, physical strength.

1857

Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 7 Feb. 4/1: For the first five rounds Fergy was best man, giving the black a good taste of his polishing powder.

polish it up (v.) [‘it’ is the proverbial ‘apple for teacher’]

(US campus) to toady, to act sycophantically.

1967–8

Baker et al. CUSS.

polish off (v.)

see separate entry.

polish one’s arse on the top sheet (v.)

see under arse n.

polish the apple (v.) (also polish apples) [apple-polisher n.]

to curry favour, to act the sycophant.

1927		W.R. Morse ‘Stanford Expressions’ in AS II:6 277: polish apples—curry favor in conversation.
c.1943		‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Polishing Up the Apple: Currying for favor with one’s superiors.
1950		P. Tempest Lag’s Lex. 161: polish, to. ‘To polish the apple’ = to curry favour with the authorities by sycophancy. To put on a show of being busy. (From the costermonger’s habit of rubbing the best apple on his sleeve but selling inferior ones.).
1959		Mad mag. Apr. 16: I polished up the apple at such a clip / That now I am a flatfoot in a comic strip.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 339: Tell him he doesn’t have to polish the apple with me.

polish the king’s/queen’s iron with one’s eybrows (v.)

to look through one’s prison bars; thus (Aus.) polisher n., a gaolbird.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: To polish the king’s iron with one’s eyebrows; to look out of grated or prison windows, or, as the Irishman expresses them, the iron glass windows.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 315/2: iron [...] To polish the Queen’s iron with one’s eyebrows, [...] regarder à travers les barreaux d’une fenêtre de prison.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 59: Polisher, one who is in prison.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 56: polisher A gaolbird.