Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to defeat, to treat harshly.

1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 15: cane up — Damage; harass; goad.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 46: Cane The: Punishment. E.g., ‘Smith got properly caned at the Orderly Room this morning’ i.e. got a stiff sentence of C.B.
1960		H.E. Bates When the Green Woods Laugh (1985) 246: Hot weather affected you at all? [...] It’s caned a lot of people.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 127: [I]f you told the ref the [penalty] count was one-sided he’d [...] try to even things up before the end of the game because it wouldn’t look good on his report to be seen caning one side.
1997		C. Newland Scholar 93: Don’t big yourself up, ’cause you’ll only feel shitty when I cane you.
2000		eve Sept. 64: Feeling jaded having ‘caned’ her body while working late-night shifts in Tokyo bars.

2. (also cane it) to attack, esp. fig., e.g. to drink heartily, to take a large amount of drugs.

1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 18: I have [...] caned my liver with gallons of hooch.
1959		F. Norman in Lilliput June in Norman’s London (1969) 83: Personally this [i.e. 10:00 am] is a bit early in the morning for me to start caning the grape juice.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 44: They had all been caning the gin quite a bit.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 33: Them bell-ends. Been caning it down The Bwyton all afternoon.
1999		Indep. Rev. 11 Dec. 4: About a third had caned the drink.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 30 Jan. 9: Adverse side effects had only been recorded in those who were ‘caning the stuff’.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 88: Strutter was sure she wasn’t supposed to be caning it in her condition.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 25: We’ve caned it a little at the hotel.

3. to have sexual intercourse.

[1833		song title in Funny Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 39: She Svears Ven I Have Caned Her].
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 73: Fuck, I would cane that woman if I got her in a place somewhere.

4. (also cane it) to hurry, to rush; to drive fast.

1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 27: Go’a cane it now. Runnin’ well late.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 108: He’s still caning it.

5. (also cane it) to do something in an aggressive, urgent manner, e.g. a robbery.

1992

in R. Graef Living Dangerously 224: You just open the door a bit [...] and then you cane it.

6. (also cane it) to make a lot of money.

1997		C. Newland Scholar 202: Levi canes it out dere, believe me.
1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 40: Im hopen up is own clothes shop, an night-club [...] E’s caneing it.

7. (UK juv.) to be seriously reprimanded.

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 cane, caner n. to be ‘told off’ or to be badly beaten at something (not normally physically). Anything really bad, so to receive a caning is to get told off, ‘He caned you!’, ‘You got a real caning there!’.

8. to cover a wall or other object in graffiti.

2001

N. Macdonald Graffiti Subculture xi: Bomb, cane, destroy, kill: To completely cover something in graffiti.