Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to throw out, to get rid of; as n., an unwanted item.

1946		De Vries & Bushkin ‘Boogie Woogie Blue Plate’ 🎵 You can hear her calling orders like this [...] ‘One a tuna wheat with a side of fries / 86 on the cherry pies’.
1948		Wash. Post 1 Feb. M1: The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board eighty-sixed two Ninth st. [sic] grog centers yesterday – cut off their taps.
1954		J. Steinbeck Sweet Thursday (1955) 211: Cheeseburger coming up. Sorry, eighty-six on the tuna fish sandwiches.
1959		A. Anderson ‘Think’ in Lover Man 118: If she gets salty then I’ll be eighty-sixed too.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 176: I’ll have you eight-sixed out of this bar so fast.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 48: One Saturday night [...] he eighty-sixed some punk.
1982		L. Block Eight Million Ways to Die 87: Of course they might have forgotten by now that Jimmy had eighty-sixed me, but maybe they hadn't, and I felt myself burning already at the thought of walking in there and being refused service.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 10: A Mineral Springs wino named Beavertail Bigelow was 86’d from a gin mill for picking a fight.
1987		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 9: 86 – a piece of clothing that nobody wants.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 188: Getting eightysixed from the methadone program was every client’s nightmare.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 166: Eighty-six Delmont and Rappe or the party’s over.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 86'ed — Banned from the lot. The term is in general use in many businesses meaning ‘we have no more [something]’ or ‘to get rid of [something]’.
2017		T. Pluck on Twitter 24 Mar. 🌐 Adam and Eve on a raft, over hard. One steak, burn it. 86 the creditors.

2. (US) to kill, murder; to execute judicially.

1978		in L.A. Times 15 Mar. I 26: At least it suggests that the police haven’t 86ed (murdered) him [HDAS].
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 156: You did a nice job on that chicken hawk up in the Bronx. [...] Eighty-sixed the fucker?
2002		J. Ellroy ‘The D.A.’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 147: Miller 86’d Donald Keith Bashor. Miller was a self-described gas.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 257: ‘She offered him some snout [...] and it all got tangled up, and poor Janey got 86’d’.

3. (US campus) to be finished, to be ready to leave.

1999

Eble Campus Sl. Nov.