Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, also washed, wash up) useless, exhausted, failed; note use as n. in cit. 1947.

1918		Hall & Niles One Man’s War (1929) 312: Poor old Binner is all washed up. ‘Washed up’ is the latest. It is used in place of ‘washed out’.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 82: ‘Washed up’ means to be through.
1932		J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 328: all washed up — ended in failure.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 290: The racket’s all washed up, anyhows.
1936		C. Sandburg People, Yes 257: I’m just a palooka ... all washed up.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 67: Benkowski’s washed up.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 20: The battered ones, the humiliated, the washed-up, the TKO victims.
1953		J. Thompson Alcoholics (1993) 17: If El Healtho was washed up [...] why had he argued so bitterly with Judson?
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 45: He looked far from happy. ‘Man, I’m finished — really finished — washed up and kaput!’.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 74: All you wash-up cocksuckas think that age and experience means so damn much.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 42: Red’s washed up [...] He can’t even buy pussy no more.
1983		A-Team Storybook 42: They were washed up in the eighties.
1999		Indep. Rev. 14 June 1: Wolfe in return called the two most distinguished men of letters in America ‘washed-up windbags.’.
2010		Indep. 27 Dec. 13/2: An alcoholic, washed-up [...] lawyer.
2012		T.P. McCauley ‘Lady Madeline’s Dive’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] ‘For a washed-up pug, you’ve got some imagination’.
2016		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2016 11: WASHED — exhausted: ‘I feel so washed from work’.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 55: [O]ne of these young guys walking around who already looks washed-up.

2. of a relationship, ended; usu. of people but note cit. 1951.

1925		G. Lee ‘Trouper Talk’ in AS I:1 36: How cheery it would be, when family ties begin to irk, to use their honest, ‘I’m washed up with you,’ to indicate that you hope the breach is permanent.
1935		E. Anderson Hungry Men 204: She and I are washed up. I got a letter from her yesterday.
1946		J. Maclaren-Ross ‘Welsh Rabbit of Soap’ in Nine Men of Soho 33: There’s no sense in telling a man you’re all washed up with him if every five seconds you’ve got to run over for another little chat.
1951		W. Burroughs letter 5 May in Harris (1993) 87: Like I say me and the junk are washed up.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 101: We’re washed up, aren’t we?
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 171: I’ll get another black man when we’re washed up.

3. of a person, finished doing something, retired; of an event, concluded.

1930		A. Feldman ‘The Squeal Widow’ in Gun Molls Oct. 🌐 ‘Nothing to it,’ said Stilo on the fifth day. ‘It’s all washed up.’.
1933		B. Ross Tragedy of Z 123: I’m washed up here anyway.
1943		W.R. Burnett Nobody Lives for Ever 18: ‘No use, Doc.’ ‘Why?’ ‘He’s quit. All washed up [...] He made a big take and quit’.
1957		‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 189: ‘You people are all washed up here [...] get the hell offa this ship’.

4. upset, depressed.

1933		‘Paul Cain’ ‘One, Two, Three’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 15: We were all pretty washed up with La Belle Healey.
1946		I. Bolton Do I Wake or Sleep in N.Y. Mosaic (1999) 121: Shaken and washed up by the whole experience.

5. in one’s death throes.

1951

R. Starnes Grant’s Tomb 77: ‘He died fast. He was pretty well washed up when I got back inside to call an ambulance’.