lay down v.
1. in senses of giving up [boxing imagery].
(a) (US, also lay to, lie down) to volunteer for defeat; thus lay-down artist, a defeatist.
Scribner’s Mag. XXIII 453/2: I swear I hate to lay down to such a nincompoop [DA]. | ||
Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 8 Sept. 11/4: In which [fight] he ‘laid down’ [...] for $75. | ||
Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 56: ‘[W]e’ll stall the Wise Cracker that you’re goin’ to lay down to him’. | ||
TAD Lex. (1993) 53: I know for a fact he was going to ‘lay’ to Nelson at Goldfield but was scared out of it. | in Zwilling||
Valley of the Moon (1914) 80: For God’s sake finish me, Bill [...] put her over an’ I’ll fall for it, but I can’t lay down. | ||
Coll. Short Stories (1941) 419: It wasn’t like no frame that was ever pulled before [...] where one guy was paid to lay down. | ‘A Frame-Up’ in||
Insolence of Office 18: [Prosecutor] Weston testified that he had been bribed to ‘lay down’ on the prosecution, so that the case would be dismissed. | ||
Semi-Tough 231: Personally, I’ve never known a ball player to lay down unless he was tired. | ||
Life Its Ownself (1985) 140: There was always one lay-down artist. [Ibid.] 289: So you think the players are laying down. | ||
(con. 1979–80) Brixton Rock (2004) 4: Fuck you, man, I ain’t lying down for nobody. |
(b) to collapse.
Queed 87: You body’s got to carry your mind around, and if it lays down on you, what—. | ||
Score by Innings (2004) 361: I worked in forty games and they best me five times; but the team laid down behind me. | ‘The Bone Doctor’ in||
Luther Nichols 157: The engine had laid down, he didn’t know what was the matter [DA]. | ||
(con. 1949) Big Blowdown (1999) 166: Neither of those guys is gonna lay down [...] We’re not talking about some frightened immigrants here. |
(c) to accept, to acquiesce.
Seabury Report 64: Everybody before twelve had to sign a waiver so that Broderick could get in [...] Everybody laid down. | ||
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 1542: lay down [...] to give up. | ||
Runnin’ Down Some Lines 244: lay down Acquiesce. | ||
Hot House 262: ‘I think [they] expected me to quit or crawl into the woodwork and simply lay down’. |
2. (US und.) to distribute counterfeit notes.
Courts, Criminals & the Camorra 136: The next step was to find the forger. Of course, no man who does the actual ‘scratching’ attempts to ‘lay down’ the paper. |
3. (drugs, also lay, lie down) to smoke opium [the smoker’s recumbent position].
🎵 See ’em laying ’em down, / Boys, they goin’ to town. | ‘Strictly Culled Affair’||
Really the Blues 243: One night he [i.e. an opium seller] invited me to lay down with him. | ||
Lady Sings the Blues (1975) 102: Jimmy started letting me lie down with him [...] it was during this time I got hooked. | ||
Drugs from A to Z (1970) 139: lay To smoke opium. [Ibid.] 140: lay down [...] To smoke opium in a reclining position, a practice which may decrease nausea and other undesirable side effects of the drug. | ||
Underground Dict. (1972). | ||
(con. 1930s) Addicts Who Survived 87: You make arrangements. Like, I’d say, ‘I’m going to lay down for two days, Tuesday till Thursday’. |
4. (US prison) to place an inmate in the punishment cells [punishment cells were so cramped there was barely enough room to stand upright].
Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 266: More unfamiliar are the expressions to bank off or to lay down to describe a prisoner being placed in a punishment cell. |
5. (US, also lay off) to explain, to outline, to present a theory.
N.Y. Amsterdam News 15 Feb. 13: Latch onto this hard mess [...] and you’ll dig what I’m laying down. | ||
Somewhere There’s Music 47: Gene must have really laid down some shuck to Barton about your playing. | ||
Hiparama of the Classics 10: When he laid it down wham! It stayed there! | ||
Underground Dict. (1972). | ||
Hoops 118: ‘You guys ain’t men enough to play with me,’ he said. He laid it down like he meant it, too. | ||
Slam! 30: I had let it ride, laying off some lame excuse. | ||
Street Talk 2 50: Let me lay it down for you. | ||
You Got Nothing Coming 32: Skell, lay it down for these fish. |
6. (Aus. Und.) to retract a confession or witness statement.
Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/2: Then there’s [...] ‘lie down,’ to retract a previous confession or statement in court. | in
In compounds
(US drugs) a place to smoke opium.
Opium Addiction in Chicago. | ||
Lang. Und. (1981) 105/1: lay-down joint. A hop-joint or opium den, especially one which supplies the drug and all necessary equipment. | ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in||
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | ||
Narcotics Lingo and Lore. | ||
(con. 1930s) Addicts Who Survived 167: I got married in 1939. I used to go to a lay-down joint – that’s where I met my first husband. |
In phrases
(US) to abandon someone, to fail in a duty.
Checkers 47: I thought after all we had done for him, he could n’t hardly lay down on his nephew. | ||
Big League (2004) 52: You s’pose that stiff was laying down on us? | ‘The Cast-Off’ in||
Shorty McCabe on the Job 101: He couldn’t believe that Pyramid had laid down on him. | ||
Nightmare Town (2001) 142: I’m laying down on ’em, right enough, but I ain’t feeding ’em to you. | ‘Assistant Murderer’ in||
You Can’t Win (2000) 158: An ambitious fighting young lawyer who never ‘laid down’ on a client. | ||
Man’s Grim Justice 267: He said that ‘Joey’ was ‘laying down on him.’. | ||
Prison Days and Nights 39: These guys that are always beefing about their friends laying down on them. | ||
Who Live In Shadow (1960) 104: I will give you two kilos of pure because you didn’t lay down cold on me. | ||
Union Dues (1978) 57: He’s not laying down on you? |
SE in slang uses
In phrases
to die.
, , | Sl. Dict. | |
Sl. Dict. | ||
All the Year Round 9 June 543: To ‘hop the twig’, to ‘peg out’, to ‘lay down one’s knife and fork’, and the like [phrases for dying], are more flippant than humorous [F&H]. | ||
Aus. Sl. Dict. 44: Lay Down the Knife and Fork, to die. | ||
Gal’s Gossip 39: I am greatly afraid she is going to ‘chuck in her knife and fork,’ as Charlie says. | ||
Sporting Times 10 Feb. 3/5: We read that an old man in Battersea [...] has just chucked in his knife and fork at the age of ninety-six. |
to act lazily; to do a job badly.
Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 178: Our late printer’s devil [...] known as Man-Who-Lays-Down-on-his-Job-and-Refuses-to-Get-up-Again. | ‘The Phantom League’ in||
letter 3 Apr. in Paige (1971) 134: At any rate, it is the best that can be done. Hope Kahn won’t think I’m lying down on the job. | ||
Dict. Amer. Sl. 30: lie down. To give up, shirk, soldier on the job. | ||
Gun Molls Oct. 🌐 We don’t lay down, Stanton, and we certainly don’t lay down on any cop-killer. | ‘The Squeal Widow’ in||
Scholarly Mouse and other Tales 66: He was a real grafter and he dug holes about three times as fast as we did, though we weren’t the ones to lie down on the job. |
see under cow n.1
1. (US) to die [one ‘lays down’ one’s body].
Cowboy Lore 21: His favorite songs are always melancholy — about home and mother or the cowboy who laid ’em down far away from his friend [HDAS]. |
2. (US) to drive very fast [the pressing down of the accelerator].
Amer. Thes. Sl. | ||
CB Baby 21: I turned northbound [in a vehicle]...and began to really lay ’em down [HDAS]. |
(US black) a sexually complaisant woman.
N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 29 Mar. 13: Sleeping in it all night with a solid pound of some fine lay-me-down. |
(US black) to kill, to shoot dead.
🎵 I done laid old Albert down / He was my man and he done me wrong. | ‘Frankie’