Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to hang.

c.1649		Black Dog of Newgate in Griffiths (1884) 79: There is a mischief done, and he fears someone will smoke for it.
1818		A.N. Royall Letters from Alabama 19 Feb. 183: It’s as fair cheatin says I, as ever I seed in my life; and you can make him smoke for it. Yes, says Marchant, but catching’s before hanging – the villain’s cleared out.

2. to beat, to kill; in fig. use to punish.

1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) II 101: O warriors! cries this head of cod, / I’ll smoke great hector’s hide, by G-d.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 288: [as cit. 1762].
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 187: He’ll smoke those scoundrels for their sins.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 9 34/1: I should pride myself in being able to smoke the lubber for his d—d impudence.

3. to have sexual intercourse.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

4. (Aus./N.Z., also smoke it, smoke one’s dot) to make a hasty departure [SE late 17C–19C].

1893		Sydney Morning Herald 26 June 8/8: He said to the larrikins, ‘You have done for him now; you have killed him.’ ‘What!’ said one of them, ‘do not say we were here. Let us smoke.’ ‘Smoke’ it may be explained, is the slang for the ‘push’ to get away as fast as possible.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 133: SMOKE: slang to run away, make yourself scarce, do a get, mizzle. Sometimes ‘smoke your dot’.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Oct. 19/2: As soon as one of the team got down his drink, he smoked away, but each one remained near the door to see the finish of Bill’s idea. After draining his third glass, that irrigation genius strolled towards the door.
[1912		J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 102: My feet’s on terry-fermy now an’ I’m sure goin’ to make smoke].
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 44: As soon as Ziegler left I smoked off down there and demanded to see the manager.
1958		D. Stivens Scholarly Mouse and other Tales 65: He turned in from the road and smoked up the track at a hell of a bat.
1976		D. Hall Dock Ellis 133: I realized I had to get out of there. [...] I got on the first thing smoking out of there.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Smoke - disappear.

5. (Aus.) vtr., to hide someone away.

1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 3 Aug. 7/1: It is said that [...] M’Garrigal is smoked away on one of the rivers well inside the borders of N.S.W. and that he is not alone .
1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 12 Dec. 1/1: Our suggest [...] will probably be tested, unless his police pals ‘smoke’ him out of the way.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Apr. 1/1: All demoiselles newly arriving are smoked away in his joint till suspicion subsides.
1910		Truth (Perth) 16 Apr. 6/3: They took alarm / And they smoked the kiddies elsewhere. / Faraway out of all harm.
1923		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/2: The missus’ stuff Is usually smoked in the soiled-linen bag.
1934		C. Drew ‘Shakespeare Harry’s Runner’ in Bulletin 27 June 49/1: Nearly everyone had a runner or two in them days. They used to keep ’em smoked away in trainin’-camps [...] and give ’em secret trials.
1936		C. Drew ‘The Hoodoo Tour’ in Bulletin 18 Nov. 38/4: When the referee had duly counted Thumper out I smoked him away to the dressin’-room.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 41: I realised that the scraggy one had been ‘smoked’ away to some meeting somewhere, but the question was where?’.

6. to throw very fast, usu. of a ball; thus smoke ball n., a ball thrown very fast.

1912		Van Loan ‘A Rain Check’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 307: What do you know about that speed. Talk about a smoke ball!
1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 66: Gibson really smokes the ball.

7. (also smoke off) to kill, to murder, to shoot at (with a firearm); thus smoking n., a murder or shooting [the image of smoke coming from the gun].

1924		C.E. Mulford Hopalong Cassidy Returns 22: I want smokin’, an’ I’m goin’ to get it.
1924		Chicago Trib. 28 Feb. 2/1: ‘It was a dirty trick to do what that rat did [...] A man that’d do a thing like that ought to get smoked off’ .
1933		C.G. Booth ‘Stag Party’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 97: You birds cover those exits. Smoke him, if you have to.
1949		‘Hal Ellson’ Duke 168: Trig fired four shots and smoked them. One of their boys got it in the leg.
1952		W.D. Overholser Fabulous Gunman 53: It wouldn’t have happened if I had smoked him down.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 818: smoke – To shoot.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 23: You want the killer smoked, is that it?
1993		Dr Dre ‘Fuck Wit Dre Day’ 🎵 And watch your back cause you might get smoked, loc.
1997		G. Sikes 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 11: Don’t fuck with me because I will smoke your ass.
2005		G. Pelecanos Drama City 103: He’d never smoked anyone/ He’d never [...] handled a gun.
2008		Simon & Burns ‘Cradle of Civilization’ Generation Kill ep. 2 [TV script] If we went through that town, we’d get smoked.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 83: You want to smoke the judge who sent you here?
2015		67 ‘Today’ 🎵 Smoke man normal.
2016		F. Stuart ‘Dispatches from the Rap Wars’ in chicagomag.com 🌐 He thinks that this stuff is for play. He doesn’t realize that if he was in Chicago, we would have smoked his ass by now.
2016		67 ‘Every Year’ 🎵 Jump out like, ‘yo what’s up?’ (Whats good?) / Then I go smoke a 3.5 to the lung.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 199: Couple man went to smoke one yout, they blatantly peppered the brer, let off a full clip.

8. (US campus) to perform well, to behave impressively.

1974		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 4: smokin’ – to do well [...] When he scored so many points he was really smokin’.
1980		Eble Campus Sl. Spring 5: smoke – to make an A.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 194: I’ll be back. Give me a few weeks and we’ll be smokin’. They’ll never shut us down.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 45: To smoke a test means ‘to do well’ and a test that is itself smokin,’ or is a smoker, is ‘a difficult one’.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 39: That’s when he knew he could smoke like West Hell.

9. to beat comprehensively (esp. at sport).

1972		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 6: get smoked – get beaten.
1974		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 4: smokin’ – to do well or to be victorious.
1981		W.D. Myers Hoops 143: I knew he was going out [of a game] because I smoked him.
1987		C. Hiaasen Double Whammy (1990) 48: I smoked him at the Atlanta Classic.
1991		Eble Campus Sl. Fall.
2003		Michael Lewis Money Ball 5–6: Not quite understanding why they are being asked to do it, the boys walk back to the starting line, and run their race all over again. Nothing important changes. ‘Billy just flat-out smoked ’em all,’ says Paul Weaver.
2016		Huffington Post 16 Mar. 🌐 [headline] Rubio Gets Smoked By Trump In His own State Of Florida.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] The game finally came round and we got smoked like tofu at a vegan pride parade.

10. as sense 9 but in non-sport contexts, to surpass.

1981		W.D. Myers Hoops 70: ‘There’s a lot of singers out here who can smoke anything you see on television’.
2005		R. Cea No Lights, No Sirens 45: [T]his thousand-square-foot hole-in-the-wall [...] was the shit, it smoked every other club and bar in the city.
2012		E. Wald Dozens 193: Hodges smoked a youth named V.I.P. in three rounds by demonstrating the imaginative range of a mature street corner master.

11. to beat up.

1991		P. Blauner Slow Motion Riot 258: ‘He smoked their shoes,’ one says to the other excitedly. ‘Fuck the police!’ says his little friend.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 19: Maybe you can’t take no name cause the Crew come and smoke your butts?

12. (US) to subject to harsh discipline.

2017		J.R. Lawrence My Camp 81: [W]e were all tired, but you could never say that, or you would get smoked.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 67: We did a half-left face. Which was bad news. It meant the fucker was going to smoke us.