gas n.1
1. pertaining to verbosity, i.e. ‘hot air’.
(a) (also gas work) idle or boastful talk, bombast, humbug.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | in Sparks Life of G. Morris II 355: The immense amount raised by political gas could not bring down with it the supporting balloons [DAE]. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 43: [...] to enjoy the sweet and bracing air of the country, instead of inhaling quantities of Gas every step of midnight. | |
| Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 21 Jan. n.p.: If he would keep his mouth shut and not blow off so much ‘gass’ [sic] . | |
| Quarter Race in Kentucky and Other Sketches 120: The boys said that was all gas, to scare them off; but ’twouldn’t work! | |
| in Tarheel Talk (1956) 273: Dr Ashe is speaking strongly of going to Alabama [...] but I am in hopes it is all gas work. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Argus (Melbourne) 8 June 5/7: The term ‘gas’ is frequently used to denote that peculiar kind of enthusiasm which wastes itself in mere words, without reference to the effect they may produce. | |
| Eng. Traits 129: Lord Shaftesbury calls the poor thieves together, and reads sermons to them, and they call it ‘gas’. | |
| N. Australian (Brisbane) 16 June 7/3: And there was a lot of gas. / And halso a lot of bloe. / And halso a lot of langwidge / witch It seem’d oncommon low. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Chambers’s Journal 15 Feb. 110: I don’t, an’ never could splice ends with them as blow off gas about gold-digging – saying it’s plunder easy come an’ easy gone, seeking the root of evil, an’ other granny talk which hasn’t no meaning [F&H]. | |
| Appleton’s Journal (N.Y.) 16 Apr. 434/2: One pungent criticism we remember — on a pious and somewhat sentimental Sunday-school brother, who [...] had been pouring forth vague and declamatory religious exhortation — in the words ‘Gas! gas!’ whispered with infinite contempt from one hard faced young disciple to another. | |
| Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 7 Jan. 1/7: [A]ll opinions not agreeing with their own are likely to be ‘cram,’ ‘gas,’ ‘rot’ or ‘rubbish’. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Mar. 4/1: Australians may be given to ‘blowing,’ but ‘gas’ does not always carry the day, as was exemplified in a recent case of ‘trying it on,’ by our Sydney Gaslight Company. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Tuapeka Times (Otago) 16 Sept. 4: He doesn’t care about other people’s business, and afterwards being obliged to swallow a lot of ‘gas’. | |
| Globe (London) 31 Oct. 4/4: It went on to state that the petitioner’s talk about divorce was all gas, and made a further appointment [F&H]. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 21 Dec. 10/2: Frank [...] as [...] is heavily charged with natural gas, so much so that if you strike a match and hold It up while he is talking you will see the flames shoot out of his mouth. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Aug. 17/2: The hard-headed ‘Pendragon’ [...] says [...] it is pleasant to set Stanbury’s act in contrast to ‘the blowing and the gas which in Australia go, as a rule, hand-in-hand with – not incompetency and dufferism, as with us, but with real right-down, first-chop talent, courage and ability.’. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 26 Oct. 1/4: With Metre I’ll turn off my ‘gas,’ my mournful tale I’ve told, Sir. | |
 | ‘Twiggy Voo?’ in http://monologues.co.uk/musichall 🌐 Now a lover and his lass / Were exchanging spoony gas. | |
| Marvel XV:385 Mar. 11: Now stop your gas and let us have some food! | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 26 May 4/8: When you’ve yarded and yapped to the nippers, / When you’ve bawled jingoistical gas. | |
| Magnet 10 Sept. 3: I thought that was only gas, of course. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 19 Feb. 5/7: ‘He’s all wind and gas’. | |
| ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 199: gas, empty talk. | |
| Truth (Brisbane) 22 Nov. 1/1: ‘Gas Balloons.’ Just slang for ‘Parliamentarians’. | |
| Reporter 134: For cry sake, quit that gas. You newspaper guys. | |
| Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 566: There are, indeed, slang terms that have survived for centuries, never dropping quite out of use and yet never attaining to good usage. [...] Among nouns, gas for empty talk has been traced to 1847. | |
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 104: Home, this is a little light gas I’m blowing. | |
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 6: ‘Gators,’ it’s a natural gas you can’t zig a zag, everywhere you go cats will whisper, ‘drag,’ wake up Jackson don’t fall in my hole. | |
| Two Timing Tart n.p.: Afraid of you? That’s a gas. He could stamp you out like an ant. | |
| Mad mag. Apr. 45: To think that I should, like, live to hear that kind of gas in my own pad! | |
| Carlito’s Way 130: I’d jump up and object regularly. [...] ‘ I object to all this gas about Canada’. | |
| Reach 140: Outside [...] I spot Kirsty’s boyfriend doing gas with a wasted-looking tramp. | |
| Good Girl Stripped Bare 244: Most commercial radio hosts have egos the size of Jupiter, emitting an equivalent amount of hot air. This is why it’s called the ‘gas giant’. |
(b) one who is verbose, affectedly talkative.
| San Diego Sailor 70: The giddy old gas was simpering like a female impersonator. |
2. (US) energy; thus out of gas, tired out.
| Bell’s Life in Tasmania 2 Aug. 2/3: Cooke, Mr. Lord's trainer and rider, got a nasty kick in the ribs [...] from Quickstep [...] He says that he is glad to find her so playful, and that it will take a great deal more to ‘knock the gas out of him’ . | |
| Chicago Sun. Trib. 24 Mar. n.p.: Maddigan [...] was runnin’ her out o’ gas tryin’ to get her to pay some attention to him [HDAS]. | |
| Showgirl 118: They’re running my poor Jimmy out of gas. | |
| I Can Get It For You Wholesale 65: They must’ve run out of gas by then, anyway, so they began to quiet down a little. | |
| Native Tongue 71: He’s still got some gas. |
3. (orig. Irish) as a positive descriptor.
(a) (also gass) a very enjoyable, pleasant situation or experience.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Dubliners (1956) 20: He told me he had brought it to have some gas with the birds. | |
| Ulysses 494: The gas we had on the Toft’s hobbyhorses. I’m giddy still. | |
| At Swim-Two-Birds 261: I never had such gas since I was a chiseller. | |
| Tarry Flynn (1965) 105: I’m as well have a bit of gas while I can. | |
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 6: Kitties pick up on this riff by C. It’s a gas, righteous beats and upstate muggin makes this cool Jim all the way uptown, let’s dig. | |
| Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 37: I hadn’t stopped reading The Other Side, because it’s a gass, it really is. | |
| All Night Stand 121: Mix these [drugs] together and it’s a gas. | |
| Inner City Hoodlum 149: It’s gonna be a gas to knock over these old hags. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 141: You’re the first American I’ve seen since I’ve been down here. That’s a gas. My Spanish is lousy. | |
| Snapper 94: It was a fuckin’ gas. | |
| Some Hope 342: She had started ‘using’, [...] taking drugs, in the sixties, because it was ‘a gas’. | |
| Hip-Hop Connection Jan. 84: It’s a gas. | |
| Unfaithful Music 645: Everyone played and sang what was needed. [...] It was an immediate gas. | |
| Empty Wigs (t/s) 318: Junior school tortures where the other kids got out of control. They picked on me. They put bags over my head. [...] I didn’t let on what a gas it was. |
(b) someone who is very pleasing, exciting, impressive.
| letter 7 June in Charters II (1999) 41: Florence is a gas. | |
| Hell’s Angels (1967) 190: Yeah, good old Tiny [...] He’s a real gas, ain’t he? | |
| Life (1981) Act II: Well at least Lar is a bit of a gas. | |
| Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 29: In Jamaica I found them just ace / a gas / great sense of humour. | |
| Donkey’s Years 32: ‘Gas’ (’a gas article’) meant a merry grig, an amusing person. | |
| Vengeance Is Mine! 22: She’s a gas, that Karen. |
4. (US tramp) any form of very strong, if poss. poisonous, drink.
| ‘Vocab. of Bums’ in AS IV:5 340: Gas—Wood alcohol; doped cider; ether, etc. | |
| ‘Volstead English’ in AS VII:2 86: Terms used for intoxicating liquor: Gas. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 84: Gas.- [...] Impure liquor, such as doped cider or wine, ‘needle beer,’ ‘smoke’ and the like. | |
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 52: I dined on reefers and grubbed on dope / I inhaled gas like it was smoke. |
5. (N.Z. prison, also go-gas) liquid largactil.
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 76/2: gas, the =. go-gas; petrol. |
6. (US drugs) potent marijuana.
| Cherry 255: I said, ‘You want to look at this QP?’ [...] I handed him the bag and he opened it up. He said, ‘So this is that gas, huh?’. |
In compounds
see separate entries.
1. (US) a verbose talker.
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 23 Aug. n.p.: That gas-house, Joe M—r, has made threats to whip the one that put him in the Life. |
2. US milt. a saloon or beer garden.
| ‘Soldiers’ Talk’ in Tampa Trib. (FL) 21 July 5/4: gas house, beer garden. | |
| Gloss. of Good Old Army Slang [pamphlet] Gas house Saloon. |
1. (US tramp) a drinker of wood alcohol, ether, and similar intoxicating, if poss. poisonous, stimulants.
| Amer. Parade II 172/1: He wouldn’t sneak around and take the shoes from the feet of a gas-hound who had passed out. Some of those lousy bums even stripped the pants off their victims! | |
| Und. Speaks. | |
| Dark Ship 153: A drunk is always a ‘gas hound’. |
2. an automobile.
| Wayside Tales 21 134/1: Nothing worth while had happened except that Bobby had bought himself an eight cylinder gas hound. |
3. an enthusiastic driver.
| Long Is. RR Info. Bulletin 4:4 58: George Menching, another ‘gas hound,’ [...] had his sweet mama out for a spin; on being held up by traffic control, he had time to observe the pedestrians. | |
| Jrnl Social Hygiene 9 68: A ride with a ‘gas-hound’ or ‘chicken-hawk’ [...] without very definite sex temptation which often ends in the choice between an assault or being put out of the car, miles from town. |
see gasbag n.
see separate entry.
(US) a bar, a tavern.
| Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 7/3: Bill W—e, you had better quit blowing about taking Ziletta to the ‘gas tank,’ or the young lady’s father will [...] come after you with a cowhide. |
see sense 1a above.
In phrases
1. satisfactory, as desired.
| Nicholas Nickleby (1982) 648: She is come at last—at last—and all is gas and gaiters! | |
| Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 11 Mar. 2/2: The Tub was heard privately to express his opinion that all was gas and gaiters. | |
| Luton Times 25 Sept. 4/4: Music, light, and colour, lend their enchantment [...] all is ‘gas and gaiters’. | |
| New Chum in the Queensland Bush 72: However I was come, and ‘all was gas and gaiters’ for the rest of the day. | |
| How I was Buried Alive 162: And then came a rush of dancing dervishes, and all was gas and gaiters. | |
| Responsibilities of the Novelist 93: Once land him in New York and all would be gas and gaiters. | |
| Trent’s Last Case (1929) 241: Mabel and I are betrothed, and all is gas and gaiters. | |
| Secret of Chimneys xiii: I’ve only got to get hold of dear old Stylptitch’s Reminiscences and all will be gas and gaiters. | |
| Room at the Top (1959) 88: Do what Uncle Charles advises, and all will be gas and gaiters. | |
| Ice in the Bedroom 21: She cries ‘Oh, Freddie darling!’ and flings herself into his arms, and all is gas and gaiters again. | |
| Snare of the Hunter 219: All was gas and gaiters in the front half of the room. |
2. nonsense, rubbish, pomposity, bombast.
| Trefoil 26: My father was profoundly irritated by him, and said something [...] about ‘gas and gaiters’ which seemed to us a harsh description of so pretty a man [OED]. | |
| Adventures Black Girl 67: Its [i.e. the Bible’s] one great love poem is the only one that can satisfy a man who is really in love. Shelley’s Epipsychidion is, in comparison, literary gas and gaiters. | |
| BBC TV [sitcom title] All Gas and Gaiters. | |
| (con. WW2) Heart of Oak [ebook] Those bloody little blokes are always the worst when they got a bit of power over you; all bleeding gate and gaiters, they are, see? | |
| Br. Journal Radiology 70 865: [heading] Not All Gas and Gaiters? |
(US) to take pleasure in.
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 53: I swoop by the Losers Club and gas on Mr Cornuto. He’s belting show tunes. |
(US/UK teen) a phr. indicating that everything is fine, ‘it’s all wonderful’.
| ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ 🎵 I was born in a cross-fire hurricane / And I howled at my ma in the driving rain, / But it’s all right now, in fact, it’s a gas! / But it’s all right. I’m Jumpin’ Jack Flash, / It’s a Gas! Gas! Gas! | |
| Guardian 17 May 🌐 You can’t see who you’re talking to, have little idea what you’re eating and not a lot of it ends up in your mouth. Pleasingly, however, everyone bypasses vous and slips into the familiar tu form of address. After a while, it’s a gas. |
1. (US) unsuccessful, past one’s prime.
| Harder They Fall (1971) 19: When you’re out of gas, that’s all, brother. |
2. see sense 2 above.
SE in slang uses
Pertaining to SAmE gas, gasoline, i.e. petrol
In compounds
see buggy n.2 (1)
(Aus.) one who works late, i.e. when the gaslight has been lit.
| ‘A “Push” Story’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Sept. 17/1: ‘Wuz y’r toilin’ behind th’ count-out, Chewsdee night, Squezzer?’ questioned the diner [...] ‘Dicken t’ th’ decision. I’m no bloomin’ gas-groper’ . |
the trad. enormous US automobile, profligate of petrol and dwarfing its European rivals; symbolic of the 1950s, out of favour in the energy-conscious 1970s, it staged a renaissance in the 1990s; 2000s saw the term applied to the controversial SUVs.
| Life 22 Oct. 30: Why buy a ‘Gas Guzzler’? Rambler travels miles on mere sips of gas ... with scarcely a flicker of the fuel gauge. | |
| Life 15 Nov. 122: All fed up with emptying your pockets to fill up a gas guzzler? The sparkling all-new Rambler American delivers its spirited performance together with gas mileage that has topped every economy run officially entered. | |
| Newsweek 6 Oct. 74: RATING THE ’76 CARS: TURNING GUZZLERS INTO SIPPERS. | |
| Seven Sisters 320: The reign of the Big Car seemed to have abruptly ended; in Detroit in the height of the crisis, there was a pervasive gloom about the prospects for the ‘gas-guzzlers’. | |
| ‘Senior Citizen Caine’ Minder [TV script] 68: Oh that. Bleeding gas guzzler. | |
| Guardian 14 July 11: The grand prix, he said, was the biggest meeting of gas guzzlers in the country. | |
| N.Y. Rev. July 16: The taxpayer can use his rebate to fill his gas-guzzler if he likes. | |
| ‘Not Even a Mouse’ in ThugLit Nov.-Dec. [ebook] ‘[T]rading in the Honda for a busted ass guzzler’. | |
| Braywatch 196: ‘[H]her dad is driving around in a big, gas-guzzling German cor’. | |
| Twitter 27 May 🌐 Tired of leasing a gas-guzzler? Get a better deal! |
(US) a gas/petrol station attendant.
| Jet 3 Feb. 18: Donning a gas jockey’s uniform to aid the 1955 March of Dimes drive, Congressman Charles C. Diggs of Detroit fills up the tank. | |
| Pop. Science Sept. 49: As the gas jockey refueled us, he asked, ‘You mix your oil and gas in this thing, like in an outboard?’. | |
| ‘Neither Your Jenny nor Mine’ in Love Ain’t Nothing but Sex Misspelled 67: ‘You save Blue Chip stamps?’ the gas jockey asked. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 212: Wanda Windshield (kwn SF, ’70, gas jockey). | |
| Western Folklore XXXVI 176: Ranch hand, flunky, ice house worker, and gas jockey. | |
| National Lampoon Aug. 16: A fellow...tricked a...gas jockey into admitting he had destroyed motorists’ battery terminals [HDAS]. | |
| Big M 96: The gas-jockey was a good sport. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Winnipeg Sun 18 July 🌐 [headline] Gas jockey foils thief. Won’t give cash, sends him packin’ pantsless. |
(US gay) a man who picks up male prostitutes from his car.
| Maledicta IX 145: In Los Angeles […] the boulevard boys on Selma, Hollywood, and Sunset boulevards try to […] connect with paying customers who cruise by in cars (gas queens). |
1. (US) a car.
| Automobile Topics 4 375: The new l6-hp. gas wagon being built by the International Motor Car Company. | |
| Wyoming (1908) 43: I ain’t used to them gas wagons. | |
| Alaska Citizen 28 July 8/4: She never gets closer to [a lady] than [...] when some swell dame buzzes past in her gas-wagon. | |
| Ogden Standard-Examiner (UT) 5 Feb. 12/2: ‘The buzz buggy,’ ‘the gas wagon,’ ‘the bus,’ ‘the litle ol’ boat,’ ‘the road louse,’ ‘the buckboard’ — a wealth of pet names. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 28 June 13: Their long, sleek gas wagons [...] parkd up on the Speedway. |
2. in fig. use, a band-wagon, i.e. the prevailing trend.
| Living Rough 227: Who can blame them if they fall over themselves to get in the social credit gas-wagon? |
In phrases
(US) to move fast, to accelerate.
| B&O Mag. 8 51/1: The boys on the engine sure did give her the gas and we just had a dandy ride. | |
| Don. K. Haughty [comic strip] Give ’er the gas, ‘Pennyante’!! | |
| Pacific Reporter XXXIV 578: Get into a lower gear and give it the gas. | |
| We Took to Woods (1948) 66: I remember shoving for dear life while Ralph gave her the gas [DA]. | |
| Where the Sidewalk Ends [film script] A detective jumps in my cab and says ‘Follow that black sedan, it’s full of thieves.’ So I give her the gas. | |
| ‘End of the Road’ 🎵 You can jump in my Ford and give her the gas, / Pull out the throttle, don’t take no sass. | |
| Exit 3 and Other Stories 94: ‘Give her the gas, boys!’ he shouted, tossing back his head and breaking into a run. | |
| Airpower 259: Give us the nod. and we’ll give it the gas. | |
| High Cotton (1993) 115: He fished out five dollars and gave the MG the gas. | |
| Couldn’t Keep It to Myself 296: ‘Okay, now, give it the gas and ease off the clutch gently.’ ‘How am I ever going to shift, let up on the clutch, and give it gas all at the same time.’. |
(US) to accelerate an automobile; to drive fast.
| No Beast So Fierce 269: Just before we came to a halt it [i.e. a traffic light] turned green and he punched the gas. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 11: Somehow I knew it was coming, so I ducked and punched the gas. | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 66: Dewey punched the gas, going south on 14th. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 155: The cops punched the gas. They laid tread and pursued. |
(US) to commit suicide by inhaling gas.
| Mutt & Jeff 5 Feb. [synd. cartoon] Gee, I’m blue [...] I’ve got a mind to take the gas route. | |
| Bodies are Dust [ebook] ‘We found him [...] Boarding-house on Landis Street. He took the pipe’. | |
| None But the Lonely Heart 176: Poor bitch’s been and give herself a gas supper. | |
| One Lonely Night 153: Part of the gang who are going to be dying in the very near future unless they get smart and take the gas pipe. | |
| In Fact 42: Look through your town for the man most likely to put his head into the oven: she married him, prodded him into having six kids before he did take the gas-pipe. | |
| Underground Dict. (1972) 181: take the pipe v. 1. Commit suicide. 2. Kill oneself via an overdose of a drug. |
General uses
In compounds
(US teen) a contorted face, either with pleasure or disgust.
| ‘The Gas Face’ 🎵 Cactus Album [album] A Gas Face, can either be a smile or a smirk / When appears, a monkey wrench to work one’s clockwork. | |
| ‘No master plan, no master race’ 🎵 Derelicts of Dialect [album] The same people that got the gasface last year. | |
| Midnight Lightning 31: Hendrix figures too prominently [...] for us to allow this sorryass state of affairs to go by without getting the gas face. |
see separate entry.
(UK Und.) a stunning blow.
| ‘Battle’ in Fancy I XVII 407: The combatants now got into a desperate rally, and Josh, receiving the most pepper, till he put in a Gaslighter in the middle of his opponents mug, that not only sent him staggering some yards, but produced the pink gushing out of both of his peepers. |
a petty thief.
| Only When I Laugh 216: ‘Cheap little gas-meter bandit.’ ‘How can you be sure?’ I asked Silas. ‘I can smell them’. | |
| What Are the Bugles Blowing For? 120: Supposed to be no guns in England — you know; every bloody airgun licensed by magistrates — whereas every little gas meter bandit has got one. | |
| Cage of Shadows 255: I went inside as a gas-meter-bandit; I came out fully educated in matters criminal. | |
| Christie File III186: The cells were all two and three to a cell, something not conducive to concentration or contemplation, especially if you were banged up with a fool, low-life gas-meter bandit. | |
| Close n.p.: He’s a standing joke, a by-word for liars and thieves. He's one leg up from a fucking gas-meter bandit. |
In phrases
to ‘pysch oneself up’ by means of verbal aggression.
| Hood Rat 111: Ribz leans on his fists, bragging about what he’s going to do to those motherfuckers, gassing himself up. |
see separate entry.
1. to beat.
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. Dict. |
2. (US, also stow gas) to scold, to verbally abuse or ridicule.
| N.Y. Morning Express 1 Jan. 2/4: Driscoll met him [Cornelius Cuddy] and said, ‘You son of a b--h, who are you giving gas to?’ and struck him. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Powers That Prey 119: You can stow that gas for all me: Net an’ me is goin’ to flit right now. | |
| Man with the Golden Arm 81: You never used to give me gas before. | |
| et al. CUSS 125: Give gas Tease or annoy someone. |
1. to trick verbally, to 'spin someone a yarn’.
| ‘Flare Up!’ in Rake’s Budget in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 65: She thought she’d put the gas on him /[...] / She thought as how the cove to chouse. |
2. to exert pressure on a person for a loan, a favour, sexual compliance etc.
| Bulletin n.p.: Note ‘to put the gas on’ – a variant of ‘to put the acid on’, – the latter familiar slang from the mine-assayer’s lexicon. | |
| ‘Interview with Jayne Simon’ in Lip Service 🌐 One of the keys to a company’s success is knowing when to put the gas on and when to put the brakes on, metaphorically speaking. |
1. (US) to be scolded and abused.
| Current Sl. I:3 7/2: Take gas, v. To take abuse. |
2. (orig. US campus) to do badly.
| Current Sl. III:1 13: Take gas, v. To do badly on anything. | |
| Current Sl. IV:1. | |
| Dogged Victims 298: ‘You've got it. They're all taking gas’. | |
| (con. 1964) Duke of Deception (1990) 235: Only a couple of friends took gas, were deep-sixed from Princeton prematurely and against their wishes. | |
| Way Home (2009) 193: I know we’ve had a little downturn in business [...] Hell, everybody’s taking gas in this economy. |
3. to kill oneself, by any method.
| Choirboys (1976) 44: If that whacko bitch wanted to take gas, fuck it, it ain’t our fault. |
1. to endure punishment, esp. in a boxing ring.
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 5: For 4 bits I’d take the gas route. I’m done. Never again! | |
| Campus Sl. Oct. 6: take the gas – to fail in an important situation. |
2. to commit suicide by inhaling gas.
| Green Book Mag. 14 766/1: If it wasn’t that I was working to make Hazel see the light [...] I’d prob’ly take the gas route. | |
| Munsey’s Mag. 77 553/2: At times it had seemed as if it would be best to give in — to take the gas route out of it all. |