Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an illicit pawnbroker’s.

1868		‘She Danced Like a Fairy’ in Rootle-Tum Songster 45: He father sold goods on a second-hand plan [...] he now has a ‘hand-me-down’ shop.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 7/2: Ammedown Shop (Poor). Corruption of Hand-me-down Shop A good example of a phrase getting bastardized into one meaningless word. [Ibid.] 149/2: Hand-me-down shop (Poor). Illegal pawnbroker’s.
1914		Joyce ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’ Dubliners (1956) 121: I suppose he forgets the time his little old father kept the hand-me-down shop in Mary’s Lane [...] And the men used to go in on Sunday morning before the houses were open to buy a waiscoat or a trousers – moya!

see under check n.¹

see under chip n.²

1. to die.

1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 63: Evenlyn Godolphin Prospect [...] passed in his dinner pail.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 52: One day this guy peters out. He gives a big howl and hands in his dinner pail.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 189: It was about due to hand in it’s dinner pail.
1985		P. Mayhew One Family’s War 125: So if, by any subsequent mail, / You hear that he’s passed in his dinner-pail, / And wonder how bravely he met the foe, / You may bet your boots that it wasn’t so.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 6: ‘He’s fallen off his perch [...] He’s handed in his dinner plate.’ Still she didn’t get it. ‘He’s dead, damn it!’.
2003		H.W. Howard San Diego’s Hysterical Hist. 135: The man who knew where the hill is located handed in his dinner pail 101 years ago.

2. to resign from one’s job; to stop what one is doing.

1939

P. Cheyney Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 75: This is where I hand in my dinner pail [...] I sorta feel you boys are goin’ to be rough with me.

(US) to harm, to kill.

1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 73: A pig for punishment and a spendthrift at handin’ it out.
1931		P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘Stein got his last night.’ ‘That baby was riding for a flop. How’d they hand it to him?’.
1939		P. Cheyney Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 51: I reckon I have been a bit of a mug sleepin’ in this place [...] with an empty gun. Anybody coulda handed it out to me pronto if they’d wanted to.
1940		G. Meek ‘London’ in Station Days in Maoriland (1952) 100: A funny sort o’ quiver seems to grip you in its spell, / As you read how they can take it – and hand it out as well.

1. to tell off, to reprimand, to tease.

1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 9: She’ll hand it to him before he goes to the show-shop.
1912		Van Loan ‘Loosening Up of Hogan’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 134: You handed it to him just right, Harry.

2. (orig. US black) to shoot at someone; to attack.

1912		A.H. Lewis Apaches of N.Y. 23: ‘What was that shooting?’ ‘Oh, a couple of geeks started to hand it to each other.’.
1917		B.E.F. Times 10 Apr. (2006) 196/1: Write me down for a two-cent boob if I don’t hand it to Willie.
1942		R. Chandler High Window 465: I hand it to her. I’d like to hand it to her with an elephant gun, but my polite breeding restrains me.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 90/1: Hand it to one. To assault; to shoot.

(Irish/Cork) a tall person.

2015

L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 90: ‘A right hand-me-down-the-moon. You couldn’t miss him’.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

see give someone one under one n.¹

(US) to beat up.

2022

Reedus & Bill Ravaged 124: ‘I walked in on him abusing his hound dog. So I handed him some knuckles and boot leather’.

to reject, to dismiss.

1911		S. Ford Torchy 198: He was figurin’ on handin’ me my hat as I was shot out.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 200: Get his money – all you can – and then hand him his hat.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 21: The fuse has blown out and the girl has handed him his hat.
1936		(con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 774: Henry Ford handed the banker his hat, and went about raising the money in his own way.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 36: She would hand him his hat and make me happy.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: hand you your hat urge you to leave.

to offer a rejection, to fail to pay a debt.

1905

A. Binstead Mop Fair 146: It galls me like sin to have to hand you the ice-bowl once again.

(US) to beat up (severely); thus ass-handling, a beating.

2022		Reedus & Bill Ravaged 13: ‘What the shit you doing back already?’ ‘Handed Ox his ass for mistreating Ruby [i.e. a dog]’.
2022		Reedus & Bill Ravaged 56: ‘Sounds like the fuckhead deserved a good ass-handing’.

(UK tramp) to refuse someone something.

1932

M. Marshall Travels of Tramp-Royal 96: That slop’ll pinch me for keeps if you hand me the kick-along. [Ibid.] 320: hand me the kick-along, refuse me.