Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to knock out.

1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 45: The gang was shouting all the time, ‘Take him out!’.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 185: He took me out in the fourth round one night at Legion Stadium.
2010		A. Steinberg 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.

1919		‘R. Andom’ Troddles in Trenches 120: ‘I’d love [to] take my chances to revenge that young fellow they’ve just taken out’.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 26: I’ll take him out...He’ll think a bridge fell on him .
1947		‘F. Bonnamy’ Self Portrait of Murder (1951) 9: Suppose you show us how to take out that dummy.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett 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.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 170: Sooner or later somebody’s going to take them out.
1980		T. Lewis GBH 96: And not even the local fourth division would tap tap tap as an overture to taking me out.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 312: I’ll take that bitch out just like I did to that fuckin’ puta.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 63: What should Norton do? Get Eddie Salita and take the kid out?
1992		B. Gifford Night People 74: Terrible about Sam Cooke gettin’ taken out like he did [...] Shot down by an old lady.
1999		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’.
2000		P. Roth Human Stain 216: They’re all upset they didn’t take out Saddam Hussein.
2001		D. Looser 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.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] Takin out those two Daunt coons. Pity it wasn’t a whole fuckin busload.
2007		Camden New Journal 3: She is convinced the plucky pet is ‘too lean and mean’ to be taken out by a fox.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 55: You take him out, they retaliate.
2011		D. Tel. 2 Feb. 5/2: [headline] Brown ordered Pakistanis to ‘take out’ bin Laden.
2014		M. McBride Swollen Red Sun 149: ‘You’d hafta take out the whole family’.
2016		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.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 210: He should take out Dreadlocks right now.
2021		Breen & Conlon 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: .
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 436: If someone has taken out Claxton [...] it’s important that we aren’t seen to be running up the white flag.

3. (US black) to overwhelm emotionally.

1939

Goodman & Kolodin 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).

1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 24: The night he took DeLucca out with a big left hook.
1965		C. Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 133: ‘Take the car!’ Deke yelled, meaning, ‘Take out the car.’.
1972		C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 441: LSD can flake you too [...] bad acid like bad whores can take you out.
1999		J. Maple Crime Fighter 133: When police commanders identify a crime or serious quality-of-life problem [...] they should send enough people to take it out.
2008		W.D. Myers 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.

1996		J. Byrell 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.
2005		B. Coleman 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.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 184/1: take out v. 3 to challenge to a fight.