tank v.1
1. to abandon deliberately, to give up, poss. for illicit monetary gain, esp. in boxing.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Complete Guide to Gambling 692: Tanked or Tank job – crooked, as in prize fight. ‘The bookies say the fight is tanked.’. | |
| You Gotta Play Hurt 63: [T]hese disappointments had something to do with our boys tanking their last game to Nigeria, which had never played hockey before. | |
| Money-Whipped Steer-Job 213: I could throw off, tank the deal, miss the cut, and be off the reservation by Friday night . | |
 | (con. 1919) Betrayal 2: [R]umors they had heard around Chicago that summer about the Cubs taking money to tank the 1918 World Series. |
2. to fail.
| ‘Whitman College Sl.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 154/2: tank. To fail. | |
| Campus Sl. Mar. | |
| Da Bomb 🌐 28: Tank: To not perform well when the pressure is on. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Sopranos 196: It was obvious she was going to tank it. | |
| I, Fatty 266: As the economy tanked, he saw his deals go down the toilet. | |
| Hilliker Curse 13: She won a beauty contest, tanked a screen test and returned to Chicago. | |
| Border [ebook] They didn’t want to see his grades tanking, the letter on his ‘attitude’ going from ‘E’ to ‘U’—Excellent to Unsatisfactory. | |
| Watergate 321: Felt believed he stood a good chance of taking over the bureau if Gray’s nomination tanked . | |
| Byline Times Sept. 4/1: The Prime Minister may be tanking in the national polls, but he seems to have given up on winning the public over ages ago. |
3. to cause to fail.
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 139: Fail-safes should Cleo tank the studio [...] Monroe’s antics tanked Got to Give. |
In derivatives
in a state of poverty.
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 28: I needed the work. I’d been tanksville for months. |
In compounds
a contest in which one fighter has been bribed to lose.
| DAS. |
a corrupt sporting contest with a pre-arranged result, thus wider use, see cites 1951, 2023.
| ‘The Big Umbrella’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 557: She can spot a tank job as far as anybody. [Ibid.] 558: The dough is rolling in on Spider and Jonas just with tank acts. | |
| Complete Guide to Gambling 692: Tanked or Tank job – crooked, as in prize fight. ‘The bookies say the fight is tanked.’. | |
| ‘Hundred Dollar Eyes’ in Algren Lonesome Monsters (1963) 48: Why didn’t you tell me it was going to be a tank job? | |
| Thicker ’n Thieves 228: [U]pon occasion the district attorney merely ‘punches the bag’ for public edification, having no intention of convicting the criminal before the bar of justice. [...] in the parlance of questionable legal maneuvering it is known as a ‘tank job,’ or a ‘boat ride’ . | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 224: It was a tank job [...] Soime shit guys shot infrared of me and the Gwen chick going at it. |