Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US black) a fight, a beating.

1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 48: Beat Down A fight amongst inmates.
1995		(con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 36: They should never have attempted that shit because they got the beat-down of their lives.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 315: Charlene Mack will have run off with June Bey’s ground stash, prompting a beat-down from Dred’s people.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 173: ‘They’re too weak to take a beat down’.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 247: Collecting debts [...] required threats and the occasional beat-down.
2005		Mad mag. Mar. 52: [They] engage in a beatdown that’s magically malicious.
2008		Simon & Pelecanos ‘Late Editions’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 9 [TV script] I took a beat-down from all of them boys.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 156: I heard it was a six on one beat down.
2012		C. Ashley ‘This Town Is My Town’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] What started as a shoving match ended with a beat-down.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 2: Him and his gran got a beat-down for his trouble.
2017		S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] ‘Man say follow you. Give tune-up is all. Easy money’ [...] ‘Who told you to out a beatdown on me?’.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 117: ‘We need to put the Breed beatdown on this fucker’.

2. as sense 1, but using emotional pressure.

2013

T. Piccirilli Last Whisper in the Dark 261: ‘I don’t know why she gave you the beat-down you got’ [...] But my mother was right. I hadn’t thought things through.

3. in attrib. use of sense 1.

2009

J. Stahl Pain Killers 86: La eMe [...] had just made doing meth a beat-down offense.