take out v.
1. to knock out.
![]() | Tales of the Ex-Tanks 45: The gang was shouting all the time, ‘Take him out!’. | |
![]() | (con. 1949) True Confessions (1979) 185: He took me out in the fourth round one night at Legion Stadium. | |
![]() | Running the Books 33: For a moment I entertained the thought of jumping up and taking him out. |
2. (orig. US) to kill, to assault; to challenge to a fight.
![]() | Troddles in Trenches 120: ‘I’d love [to] take my chances to revenge that young fellow they’ve just taken out’. | |
![]() | Big Sleep 26: I’ll take him out...He’ll think a bridge fell on him . | |
![]() | Self Portrait of Murder (1951) 9: Suppose you show us how to take out that dummy. | |
![]() | Rap Sheet 157: I picked up some information that a half-dozen boys had drifted in from Chicago and was fixing to take Johnny out. | |
![]() | Friends of Eddie Coyle 170: Sooner or later somebody’s going to take them out. | |
![]() | GBH 96: And not even the local fourth division would tap tap tap as an overture to taking me out. | |
![]() | Fort Apache, The Bronx 312: I’ll take that bitch out just like I did to that fuckin’ puta. | |
![]() | Real Thing 63: What should Norton do? Get Eddie Salita and take the kid out? | |
![]() | Night People 74: Terrible about Sam Cooke gettin’ taken out like he did [...] Shot down by an old lady. | |
![]() | NZEJ 13 36: take out v. To assault [...] take out or take onv. to challenge to a fight . | ‘Boob Jargon’ in|
![]() | Guardian G2 8 July 3: In Yardie circles [...] ‘A leader is just as likely to be taken out by someone in his own posse as by a member of a rival gang’. | |
![]() | Human Stain 216: They’re all upset they didn’t take out Saddam Hussein. | |
![]() | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 184/1: take out v. 1 to assault severely 2 to kill. 3 to challenge to a fight. 4 to place in the segregation section of a prison. | |
![]() | Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] Takin out those two Daunt coons. Pity it wasn’t a whole fuckin busload. | |
![]() | Camden New Journal 3: She is convinced the plucky pet is ‘too lean and mean’ to be taken out by a fox. | |
![]() | (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 55: You take him out, they retaliate. | |
![]() | D. Tel. 2 Feb. 5/2: [headline] Brown ordered Pakistanis to ‘take out’ bin Laden. | |
![]() | Swollen Red Sun 149: ‘You’d hafta take out the whole family’. | |
![]() | Observer 10 July 🌐 The police said on Saturday they had no choice but to take out Johnson remotely after their efforts to talk him into surrendering ended unsuccessfully. | |
![]() | Blacktop Wasteland 210: He should take out Dreadlocks right now. | |
![]() | Hitmen 39: He had taken out a leading light in one of Dublin’s [...] criminal gangs [ibid.] 100 The attempt to take out Alan Ryan had failed: . | |
![]() | Opal Country 436: If someone has taken out Claxton [...] it’s important that we aren’t seen to be running up the white flag. | |
![]() | Seven Demons 244: [The truck] is going to T-bone us like a bear taking out a buffalo calf. |
3. (US black) to overwhelm emotionally.
![]() | Kingdom of Swing 42: Bessie [Smith] was a great big woman with a voice that was even larger than she was, and a heart that was bigger than both. When she sang the blues, it took you right out. |
4. to destroy (a specific target).
![]() | On the Waterfront (1964) 24: The night he took DeLucca out with a big left hook. | |
![]() | Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 133: ‘Take the car!’ Deke yelled, meaning, ‘Take out the car.’. | |
![]() | Erections, Ejaculations etc. 441: LSD can flake you too [...] bad acid like bad whores can take you out. | |
![]() | Crime Fighter 133: When police commanders identify a crime or serious quality-of-life problem [...] they should send enough people to take it out. | |
![]() | Sunrise Over Fallujah 7: [B]ombing the heck out of the enemy, taking out his communications, and disrupting his lines of supply. |
5. (Aus.) in fig. use, to dominate comprehensively, to win (easily) over challengers.
![]() | Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 43: [D]e Mestre had been [...] telling anyone dill enough to listen that Inheritor was by far the better of the two and should take out the event. | |
![]() | Rakim Told Me 71: ‘I went into this park and started battling everybody and beatboxing, and I took everyone out’. |
6. (N.Z. prison) to challenge to a fight.
![]() | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 184/1: take out v. 3 to challenge to a fight. |
In compounds
(US Und.) the man in a crooked card-game who always wins and as such attracts attention away from the real cheat who is manipulating all winning and losing cards.
![]() | World of Jimmy Breslin (1968) 39: The take-out guy always wins. The Mechanic feeds him the cards. |
In phrases
(US) to commit suicide.
![]() | On the Yard (2002) 344: Now he’s psyched, a stone nut. They say he tried to take himself out. Cut his wrists, for Christ’s sake! | |
![]() | Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 180: I asked the hallboy why the dude had tried to take himself out. | |
![]() | Plainclothes Naked (2002) 48: It looks like our guy took himself out with a slug of Drano. |