dust v.1
1. to thrash, to beat up, to hit hard; note baseball j. to throw deliberately at the batter’s head.
 | Passenger of Benvenuto n.p.: Blows have a wonderful prerogative in the feminine sex [...] if (which is a rare chance) she be good, to dust her often hath in it a singular, unknowne, and as it were, an inscrutable vertue to make her much better, and to reduce her, if possible, to perfection [N]. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Love and a Bottle V ii: Tell me presently, where your Master is, Sirrah, or I’ll dust the secret out of your jacket. | |
| Homer Travestie (1764) II 128: You’ve dusted many a Trojan’s buff. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 3/4: Deserving of the Lash [...] Sentence — his coat to be dusted by ten stingers. | |
| Three Black Smiths in Darkey Drama 4 30: I’ll dust your thick wool! | |
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn (2001) 333: So she took and dusted us both with the hickry. | |
| Sporting Times 4 Jan. 6: They cared not a ‘cuss’ for what England said / To their ‘dusting’ Slavin, poor fellow, / To their ‘bashing’ and kicking a stranger’s head. | |
| Hooligan Nights 109: The ’ole lot [...] dusts ’im over proper. | |
| Long Trick 23: One of Fritz’s shore batteries got our range [...] Dusted us down properly. | |
| ‘The Background of Mark Twain’s Vocabulary’ in AS XXII:2 90: dust, v. To whip; to thrash. | |
| Time 30 Jan. 14: [Miners] dusted one of [the district leader’s] lieutenants with an old shoe for trying to talk them back to work [W&F]. | |
| Big Bounce 144: [of baseball] Early Wynn used to dust batters and once even knocked his own kid down when the kid hit a long ball off him in batting practice. | |
| Third Ear n.p.: dust v. to beat up; to completely defeat. | |
| Life Its Ownself (1985) 300: Ying wouldn’t give me the Del Mar number even though I threatened to [...] dust his chop suey ass. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Official Dancehall Dict. 17: Dus’ to attack, even kill someone: u. to dus’ de bwoy dem. | |
| ‘Collateral Damage’ Wire ser. 2 ep. 1 [TV script] That boy we dusted down over in that school lot. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | (con. 1943) Irish Fandango [ebook] ‘The coach told us to dust ya up a bit’. |
2. (US) to defeat.
| About Three Bricks Shy of a Load 73: Ron Bell, the rookie, he’s supposed to be an intellectual, I dusted him [i.e. at chess] six times in a row. | |
| Campus Sl. Apr. | |
| Portable Promised Land (ms.) 242: He and his crew dusted a squad from Harlem. |
3. to kill, to murder.
| ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 203: dust, v. – to kill. | |
| No Beast So Fierce 271: I might have to dust somebody, some jiving motherfucker. | |
| Yardie 61: Dem try fe dus’ me outside Shortie’s. | |
| ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 332: I’m on LAPD, and I just dusted an A-rab. |
4. (US campus) to humiliate, to insult.
| Sl. U. |
In phrases
1. to finish off.
| Sucker’s Progress 385: A considerable part of the fortune that remained to Morrissey after he had been dusted off by Vanderbilt was expended in vain efforts. | |
| Prison Sl. 71: Dusted To have consumed and finished an amount of any drug. | |
| Diary of a Legionnaire 45: [I]t was only silly pride that stopped you from dusting off a perfectly edible piece of bread from the bin . |
2. (US, also dust someone’s ass off) to beat up.
| Prison Nurse (1964) 111: You should have let me dust him off, boss. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 64/2: Dust off, v. 1. To administer a dust-off [i.e. a beating] to. | |
| (con. early 1950s) Valhalla 23: Goddam you Dallas! You say that one more time I’ll dust you off. | |
| He Who Shoots Last 219: ‘[D]ey saw Jack dustin orf da Harold mob’. | |
| Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 55: I’m gonna dust that niggah off when I catch him. | |
| Them (2008) 27: I dusted im off, good. Gave im a country stompin. | |
| Riker’s 171: So if somebody was giving the officer a hard time [...] I go dust his ass off real quick. |
3. to kill.
| ‘Bird Cagey’ in Popular Detective Jan. 🌐 He could have waylaid Drupe and dusted him off. | |
| Patriot Game (1985) 82: This guy Magro is a poor unfortunate kid that happened to get caught dusting off another poor hood. | |
| ‘Cop Killer’ 🎵 I’m ’bout to dust some cops off. |
4. (US Und.) to trick, to deceive.
| Headless Lady (1987) 34: There aren’t many beefs the way I duist ’em off. |
5. (US, also give someone the dust off) to reject, to snub.
| Amer. Thes. Sl. | |
| Gidget 97: [Parents] can be trying [...] I dusted mine off a long time ago. | |
| Rude Behavior 171: ‘You got dusted.’ ‘Probably, but it’s okay. She was a little bony for my taste’ . | |
| Slim & None 5: He’d wanted to do a book with me. [...] I’d dusted him off. |
to thrash, to beat someone up.
| Spy on Mother Midnight II 49: ‘Damn the B—h, rejoins he, she’s drunk! lie still, or I’ll dust your Jacket for you’ . | |
| Homer Travestie (1764) I 156: This rascal’s jacket I had dusted, / If Jupiter could have been trusted. | |
| Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 142: But i’fackins, Mr. Clinker wa’n’t long in his debt – with a good oaken sapling he dusted his doublet, for all his golden cheese toaster. | |
| Humphrey Clinker 26: Prankley, shaking his cane, bid him hold his tongue, otherwise he would dust his cassock for him. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Dead Alive (1783) 36: I’ll not dust the rascal’s jacket this bout. | |
| World in a Village (1794) 39: I’ll see if I can’t dust his jacket. | |
| Balance 18 Mar. 82: Col. Smith will never again way lay Chatham with a large club, to dust his jacket. | |
| Staunton (VA) Eagle 28 Aug. 4: Go in peace, or I will dust thy jacket with this horse-whip. | |
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 Sept. 269/1: [H]e’d warrant he’d dust the dustman’s jacket. | |
| Censor (London) 18 Jan. 3/1: [W]e would not have hesitated to dust his jacket with a double thong dog whip. | |
| Pic-nic Sketches 48: It’s no use sending me to school for the old man to cure his dyspepsy by dusting my jacket. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 28 June 3/2: Mr Obee [...] took the whip from his hand [and] dusted his jacket with two or three smart cuts. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Apr. 39/2: And if he hears I’ve spouted them [i.e. jewels], he'll dust my jacket well! | |
| Season Ticket 297: I do owe you a quiltin’ [...] if I don’t dust your drabs for you, if ever I come across you, then my name ain’t Peabody. | |
| Northampton Mercury 20 May 7/4: He would dust his jacket well, / For coming her to see. | |
| Fun Sept. n.p.: The difference is I dusts his [coat] off his back, and he dusts mine on my back [F&H]. | |
| London Standard 10 Mar. 6/2: The prisoner had been seen at a public-house [...] with a stick in his hand, and was heard to say, ‘If I happen to meet the miller to-night I will take the dust out of his jacket’. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Feb. 11/2: [S]he produced a mule whacker’s heavy whip and proceeded to dust his coat. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Fire Trumpet II 144: ‘Say, sonny,’ remarked the cabman [...] ‘The Kernel’s dustin’ your guv’nor’s jacket, ain’t he?’ For the row going on upstairs was in a measure audible in the street. | |
| Chelmsford Chron. 4 Dec. 2/6: The defendant [...] used bad language, and said he would take the dust out of his jacket. | |
| ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 134: dust one’s linen (or coat), v. phr. To punish one. | |
| ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in DN IV:ii 72: dust yer back, v. phr. Wrestle; throw a man. ‘Fer two cents I’ll dust yer back!’. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Lighter Side of School Life 190: He’s not a bad lad, as lads go, but he wants his jacket dusted now and then. | |
| , | | DAS 168/1: dust [one’s] jacket To beat a person up. |
to beat up thoroughly, to defeat comprehensively.
| Marvel III:53 5: Watch them cops dust the road wiv him fer his bloomn cheek! |