Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, also push) a situation that presents no difficulties or problems.

1895		Dly Public Ledger (Maysville, KY) 27 July 1/3: They get funny and supercilious when they’re billed to go against a jay club. They think it’s a pushover.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘The Betrayal’ in Sandburrs 84: They regarded the business, so they said, as ‘a pushover’.
1917		Sun (NY) 11 Feb. 11/8: I predicted that the classes for women would be not only a success but a pushover.
1925		D. Hammett ‘Tom, Dick, or Harry’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 247: He knew enough about the place to make a push-over out of the stick-up.
1933		Hecht & Fowler Great Magoo 29: Sure. Broadway’s a push-over.
1937		R.B. Nye ‘A Musician’s Word List’ in AS XII:1 48: push. An easy engagement to play. ‘That was a push job.’.
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 136: He told me about a payroll that’s a pushover.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 13: Are you sure it’s a pushover?
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 27: He’d make the charge blind. Against a known and convicted common prostitute? It’s a pushover!
1967		K. Tennant Tell Morning This 202: ‘This job’s a pushover’.
1973		M. Walker in Heller In This Corner (1974) 78: I [...] think I’m, going to have a soft fight [...] I thought it was going to be a pushover.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 155: If the game looked like a pushover, I’d risk a buck or two.
2004		Mad mag. Oct. 45: Was it the legal prostitution or the permitted narcotics use? It was a push.

2. (orig. US) someone or something who is easily overcome, convinced or imposed upon; also attrib. see cite 1942.

1905		Deseret Eve. News (Salt Lake City) 25 Oct. 9/4: Hart looks like a pushover to me.
1906		Sun (NY) 9 Sept. 1/3: I didn’t stumble alongside anything that looked like a pushover to-day.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘For the Pictures’ in Taking the Count 318: Swift Summers is no soft proposition, and no push-over.
1916		Day Book (Chicago) 17 Nov. 25/2: They figured Thompson would be a pushover.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 79: The fans has quite cheerin’ my noble victory and is now yellin’ for a extry bout, on the peculiar grounds that they paid to see violence and bloodshed, and not no pushover like 28-Round Murphy turned out to be.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 86: Man, you’d be a pushover.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 11 Nov. [synd. col.] Every week the cinema offers a Nipponese Nasty for slugging purposes. That makes him a pushover heavy.
1949		Herbert Wilson ‘I Was King of the Safecrackers’ in Hamilton Men of the Und. 140: All the marks wouldn’t be pushovers.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 215: What a pushover he’ll be.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 22: The Yanks and the French being such pushovers.
1967		K. Tennant Tell Morning This 202: He could fight pretty good in his young days and he’s no pushover now .
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 16: Don’t get me wrong! [...] I’m no pushover.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 91: Eric takes me for a pushover, a softy.
1997		M. Walters Echo 312: Means she’s scored, doesn’t it? Means she ain’t no pushover.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 334: I had to show that I was with it, that I wasn’t a pushover. I was always thumping people.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 119: Marpesa was no disciplinarian, but she wasn’t a pushover either.
2015		G. Disher Heat [ebook] ‘He may not give up the painting without a fight.’ ‘Trask’s no pushover’.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 3: [of an automobile] Look at its stripped-down exterior and assume it was a pushover.

3. one, esp. a woman, who is easily seduced.

1928		M. West Pleasure Man (1997) II ii: I just laid him out stinkin’, the shopworn mess. I can’t see what a girl can see in a pushover like that.
1934		R.L. Bellem ‘Sleeping Dogs’ in Spicy Detective Sept. 🌐 I’m no push-over for you or anyone else!
1936		(con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 1020: ‘Christ, I was afraid you wouldn’t come.’ [...] ‘Me? Why, I’m only a pushover.’.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 241: I’m not this much of a pushover. I don’t go for hall bedroom romance.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 157: Eunice was no pushover, but a clever, teasing little girl, always holding out a promise, never fulfilling it—till maybe next time.
1963		B. Blechman War of Camp Omongo 58: I got to admit, Sylvia’s no pushover.
1970		San Diego Sailor 3: [...] the assumption that a uniform was a pushover for anyone who played it right.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 65: She was no pushover. Her heels weren’t round.

4. (US) a trick, a hoax.

1934

R. Sale ‘A Nose for News’ in Goulart (1967) 208: It’s a fake [...] A fake, a pushover, sandy. It’s a frame. The kid did it on purpose.