Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entry.

(US) to get into bad trouble, physical or otherwise; note inversion constr. with out in cits. 1990 and 2001 (cf. put someone’s ass in a sling ).

[1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 16 Nov. 4/2: If I’da carried on as that old party did at the love feast I’da expected to ’av my nose in a sling in lessen five minutes].
[1942		R.L. Bellem ‘Malibu Mess’ Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 The circumstantial evidence would put my adenoids in a terrific sling].
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 280: Remember that she had her own ass in a sling.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 142: Klemy loans everybody his truck [...] Someday he’ll get his ass in a sling.
1957		T.T. Chamales Never So Few (1958) 252: You mean we got our ass in a sling for stopping this?
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 129: You betta get this guy off the job or youll find your ass inna sling too.
1974		D. Goines Daddy Cool (1997) 104: Mack’s ass would be in a sling, whether or not he knew it.
1983		S. King Christine 532: He really had his butt in a sling there for a while.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 134: I have no intention of putting my girlish ass in a sling.
1990		E. Ruggero 38 North Yankee 215: Next time you want to go grandstanding, you can get your own ass out of a sling.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 471: Join hands and pray for God [...] to get our asses out of the sling they’re in.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] Now his own ass is in a sling.

1. to be depressed, crushed, defeated; thus put someone’s eye in a sling v., to depress someone; with one’s eye in a sling, depressed, crushed, defeated .

1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 12 Apr. 5/2: He stood in the dock with his eye in a sling.
1894		Sheffield Eve. Teleg. 8 Oct. 3/4: Bugby, pointing at him, said, ‘You will get your eye in a sling when you get to Sandbeck’.
1906		Tamworth Herald 29 Dec. 8/2: He was then told that if he did not shut up he would get his eye in a sling.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 125/2: Eye in a sling (Peoples’). Crushed, defeated. From the doleful appearance presented by a sufferer with a bandage over the suffering eye.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Nov. 44/1: He reaches over the bar, taps me in the eye, and I sits down in the sawdust. ‘Now,’ says he, ‘git after yer mate, if it’s yer turn to swig the lush nex’ time while he has a free feed. An’ I hope the Lord ’ll put his eye in a sling, same’s yours is.’.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘To the Boys Who Took the Count’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 101: So ’ere’s to the coot wiv ’is eye in a sling.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 273: To get one’s ‘eye in a sling’ is to get into trouble.

2. to assault physically.

1924

W. London Obs. 18 Jan. 7/1: I met some people who put my eye in a sling [...] though I never said a blind word to ’em, they smacked me in the mouth’.

(orig. US black) to be defeated or depressed.

1915		W. Thorin letter 29 Dec. in Weeks (ed.) Greater Love Hath No Man (1939) 101: We are going to the front the 14th next month and I guess before long I will have my head in a sling and if they don’t kill me altogether, I will sure come up to give you some more lies again.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 85: Head in a sling Troubled, weighed down with worry.

to have someone at one’s mercy, lit. or fig.

1998

I. Welsh Filth 15: Niddrie’s got my nuts in a sling.

(US) in difficulties.

a.1940

‘Wise Egg’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 114: I didn’t give a fuck about being in a sling.

(US) to cause trouble for.

1945		in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K (1978) 208: [...] If the colonel finds out about it, the old man’s gonna have his ass in a sling. [Ibid.] You fellows just keep your mouths shut about this. You’ll get my tail in a sling [...].
[1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia n.p.: You want your face in a sling. You want me to kick your — ].
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 110: Ain’t no Nigger pimp going to put my ass in a sling.
1969		J. Crumley One to Count Cadence (1987) 121: If there is any trouble out of this, soldier, I’m going to have your ass in a sling.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 357: You tell him if he grabs me, it’s your ass going to be in a sling.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 40: And he calls the cops, he’s gonna have her ass in a sling before dark.
1994		Rebennack & Rummel Under A Hoodoo Moon 30: He ignored segregation [...] If you came out publicly with this view in the fifties, you were putting your ass in a sling.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 26: ‘Boy, your Mama would have both our asses in a sling’.