Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to knock down.

1945		W.B. Huie From Omaha to Okinawa 99: I goosed one of them big Russian broads, and she decked me!
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 171: Shut up, or I’ll deck you.
1961		H. Ellison ‘No Game for Children’ in Gentleman Junkie 77: Now scram, before I deck you!
1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 53: If you’ve got to deck a guy, don’t pick on some weenie from MACV.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 11: deck – To knock someone out in a fight.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 396: He had decked that bid stiff three times.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 240: Come on, clowns, or I’ll deck you both.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 139: If he stood defenceless, his father could deck him in a second.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 270: [His] passion for a scene had evaporated when he’d seen his Master decked.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 105: The endgame is literally to ground your opponent [...] So you attempt to deck, drop, down, or dust him with all due speed.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 114: Finnegan, another wild man, once decked a DA because he thought he was a bookie.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 98: They’d had a bit of a stink [...] with a bunch of yobbos [...] Les decked five, Billy got three.
1989		(con. 1960) P. Theroux My Secret Hist. (1990) 165: If I decked him there were witnesses.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 211: The point is that Mark Brandon ‘Chopper’ Read [...] got decked by a two bob poof.
1998		J. O’Connor Salesman 93: We fuckinwell decked him [...] We danced him into the cobblestones, that’s what we did.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 62: I want to punch his face and deck him.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 31 Oct. 11: Put down that gun or I’ll deck you.
2000		Guardian Guide 5–11 Feb. 12: He has (apparently) decked someone. [...] ‘I didn’t intend to get physical,’ he laments, too late.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 9: Vincent decked the offender with a right hand.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 65: ‘Go fuck your mother’s cunt’ It was then John decked him.
2014		Observer 13 Apr. 17/4: There’d be no point decking someone if [...] they might get five of their crew to retaliate.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘If you weren’t so cute, I’d probably deck ya’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 69: Two car-park kids tried to corner me. I decked them and [...] bashed them in the balls.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 17: I’d love to deck him.

2. to press down the accelerator pedal of a car; thus to go fast.

1961

H. Ellison ‘No Game for Children’ in Gentleman Junkie 83: He decked the gas pedal and fed all the power he had to the engine.

3. of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

1968

G. Radano Walking the Beat 49: I made up my mind I was going to deck her that night.

4. to hit.

1985

Slick Rick ‘La Di Da Di’ 🎵 Looked Sally in the face and decked her in the eye / Punched her in the belly and stepped on her feet.