paste, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

paste v.

[var. on SE baste, to beat, to thrash]

to hit hard.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 58: They pasted his nibs, and scarpered rumbo.
1877		Dodge City Times 11 Aug. in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 293: The fact still remained that defendant had ‘pasted’ her one on the nose.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 6: Paste - To beat, to thrash vigorously in a fight.
1887		W.E. Henley ‘Villon’s Good-Night’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 175: Paste ’em, and larrup ’em, and lamm! / Give Kennedy, and make ’em crawl!
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 12 Oct. 7/3: I’m goin’ to paste the gol-blasted duffer’s nose all over his face inside of six rounds.
1894		A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 93: You pasted ’im fine when you did ‘it.
1897		Melbourne Punch 25 Feb. 4/4: He’s the natural born, destroyer of the Chinky, an’ the job / What he likes the best is pastin’ ’em with brick.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 115: In de second round, when Chim began pastin Charley all over de ring.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 120: Leggo her before I paste you one in the eye!
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Dec. 15/2: He had been credited with pasting the missus with a shingle, too, and he was sudden and quick in quarrel, and prompt to do evil.
1914		T. Hampson diary 26 Nov. 🌐 There is an uninterrupted view over open country, and we watched our gunners pasting the German trenches.
1915		T. McNamara Us Boys 9 Apr. [synd. cartoon strip] You can paste me in the eye and I’ll paste you if you wanna make things even.
1922		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘The Diamond as Big as the Ritz’ in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald (1963) V 61: Paste him one for me, will you?
1930		D. Ahearn How to Commit a Murder 223: He used to paste me in the eye, bust me on the chin once in a while.
1940		V. Hodgson Diaries (1999) 30 Dec. 101: I do hope they are not pasting Brum the same.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 9 Apr. [synd. col.] Trade in your old tooth-paste tubes and help paste Hitler in the teeth.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 95: He’s bound to have all his guns and mortars stacked up in them to paste us.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 70: I’ll paste their bloody heads, I can tell you.
1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 6: If you sassy tads interrupt me one more time I’m gonna paste one o’ yuz right in the mouth!
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 116: Sardu asks these two leather bunnies to paste him across the backside with a bullwhip.