Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to crash a vehicle so badly as to render it beyond repair.

1968		J. Hersey Algiers Motel Incident 171: He had driven his ’60 De Soto, all the way in low gear – for it had been ‘totaled’ [...] when ‘a guy came through a red light.’.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 10: I’d total a Caddie against a highway pillar.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 153: Red was driving fast and erratically [...] she was distraught, self-destructive, and in imminent danger of totalling her car.
1992		R. Park Fence Around the Cuckoo 94: That blasted morepork drove the tip-truck over a cutting at the Three Mile! The lorry was totalled.
2004		Mad mag. Aug. 24: I still don’t understand why I have to pay for your car hitting that tree, when you’re the one who totaled it.
2013		T. Dorsey Riptide Ultra-Glide 97: He bought a second Porsche. He needed the second because he totaled the first.
2018		G. Gilmore Class Act [ebook] ‘[He]was so pissed when he totalled it, the next day he didn’t even remember doing it’.

2. to destroy, kill or maim anything or anyone.

1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 56: How about when he totaled that half-wit Kenny Sherry.
1962		J. Blake letter 18 Dec. in Joint (1972) 194: I had just finished a year with a Sicilian from Milwaukee (who totaled a Chinaman).
1974		C. Loken Come Monday Morning 14: One’a those big Grand Union semis came roarin’ down over the hill an’ totaled her –?
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 60: The car was totaled and so was Marty. [Ibid.] 94: He gave me some pills. They total you.
1990		Crow Dog & Erdoes Lakota Woman 120: All these Indians and they can’t total one lousy pig car!
2000		F. Kellerman Stalker (2001) 173: The shots could have been kids getting a kick out of totaling a Rolls.
2003		Herald (Glasgow) 7 Apr. n.p.: In a frequently brutal world, no-one ever mentions the word ‘Kill.’ The vogue term for termination by gunfire, bayonet or grenade is ‘slotting.’ Snipers ‘ping’ their targets, an expression with roots dating back to the trench warfare of the first world war. Enemies can be ‘wasted’, ‘totalled’ or ‘blown away’, but never killed.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 86: ‘I’m going to find out who totalled Lauren’s cor’.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 192: The shed has been totalled, its windows smashed.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 811: ‘You got to bring an assault charge’ [...] ‘No way! That’d total The Plan!’.