Green’s Dictionary of Slang

kickeraboo adj.

(W.I.) dead.

1735		J. Atkins Voyage to Guinea 60: Some Negrish Words [...] Kickatavoo, Killed, or Dead.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Kickerapoo, dead, (negroe word).
1789		House of Commons Committee on Slave Trade 37: [Dr Trotter] has also seen them [i.e. slaves], when the tarpaulings have inadvertently been thrown over the gratings, attempting to heave them up, crying out, ‘Kickeraboo! kickeraboo!’ i.e. ‘We are dying’.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘Kikaraboo’ in Dibdin’s Sel. Songs IV 191: Lilly laugh and be fat, de best ting you can do, / Time enough to be sad when you kickaraboo.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1815		Spirit Eng. Wit 193: ‘Well, Quashy, I am going to die’ ‘Oh, massa, no kickeraboo yet’.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1785].
1833		M. Scott Tom Cringle’s Log (1862) 400: De poor dumb dog never shall cure him [...] and den in so good temper, and so gratify wid dere attention, dat he will eat till him kickeriboo of sorefut (surfeit).
1835		R. Madden Twelvemonth’s Residence in the West Indies 242: Some of my companions, who thought themselves seasoned, as it is called, but have gone ‘kickeraboo’ for all that, poor fellows.
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 24 Nov. 109/1: When him really gone to kickeraboo let jim Crow be bury along side Massa Melbourne.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 316/1: kickerapoo, homme mort, expression empruntée aux nègres d’Afrique.
1873		Sl. Dict.