Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to take a drink, to empty a glass (or bottle) by drinking its contents.

1879		London Life 30 Aug. 2/2: ‘White, satin’ is their [i.e. barmaids] favourite ‘tipple,’ and such a facility have they for ‘lowering’ it, that [...] every distillery in the country would have to be requisitioned to supply their wants.
1895		‘’Arry on the Elections’ in Punch 27 July 39/1: And when we pulled up at the ‘Crown,’ if you’d jest seen me lower the beer!
1898		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Feb. 4/3: ‘Don’t you find gin as a drink very lowering?’ ‘Yes [...] I lower a great deal of it every day’.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 3: Condemning his friends to sherry-and-seltzer while lowering only the best whisky himself.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Aug. 13/2: The first glass made me just mellow; but when I had lowered the second glass I couldn’t stand – my legs seemed as if they had broken their moorings.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 227: Perhaps the invitation was to [...] lower.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 21: He had developed a method of breathing through his nose [...] which enabled him to lower half-a-gallon plus in one go.

see under belt n.

see under bomb n.

1. to hit hard; to knock out.

1929		Leatherneck XII n.p.: he curtain raiser brought together Corporal Perine (142) [...] and Louie Lee (142), Shanghai's Chinese entry. Perine lowered the boom on Lee in the third round.
1940		Phila. Eve. Ledger 20 July n.p.: ‘Lower the boom’ – to strike another person.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Half-Size Homicide’ in Speed Detective Nov. 🌐 Maybe I shouldn’t have lowered the boom on a bozo of Moon’s miniature dimensions.
c.1943		‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Lower the Boom: Sock somebody.
1960		‘Lord Buckley’ Hiparama of the Classics 23: A little bit later this here big Cat that got criss-crossed [...] found this little OO-Bop-A-Lap in the corner, where he couldn’t get away, and the big Cat wanted to lower the boom on him.

2. to give up on.

1939

‘Hotel Sl.’ in AS XIV:3 Oct. 239/2: to drop the boom To refuse further credit.

3. to take decisive action against.

1944		O. Ferguson ‘Vocabulary for Lakes, [etc.]’ AS XIX:2 108: You drop the boom on somebody for a right or for a favor (‘Who’s going to drop the boom on the old man for that bottle of whiskey he’s got stashed up in the safe?’).
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 147: I didn’t want to lower the boom on him.
1965		C. Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 183: The paper said you lowered the boom on Deke.
2007		W. Ellis Crooked Little Vein 243: If it helps, they’re in no position to drop the boom on you. You’re cool.

4. to reprimand severely, to put an end to someone’s misbehaviour.

1941		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 8 Feb. 7/1: The law [...] lowered the boom on him [...] in the domicile of many slammers until he gummed.
1944		O. Ferguson ‘Vocabulary for Lakes, [etc.]’ AS XIX:2 108: ‘I really dropped the boom on him’ meaning, I let him have it, I told him off.
1957		M. Shulman Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1959) 181: This time it had been Maggie Larkin [...] who lowered the boom.
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 84: If I hadn’t just felt that mother-raper lowering the boom on me.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 218: My father [...] lowered the boom and told me this was it – move out of the house completely.
1972		K. Bonfiglioli Don’t Point That Thing at Me (1991) 43: Then I lowered the boom. ‘You were going to tell me how you knew [etc.].’.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 58: Now it was time to make amends and win back his confidence before lowering the boom.
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] I was getting ready to drop the boom on his best friend. The best friend who had killed his only daughter.

5. to murder, to kill.

1946		C. Himes ‘The Something in a Colored Man’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 403: Somebody had lowered the boom on one Harold Rivers [...] somebody walked up behind him and played I’ll Walk Alone in his back with a .32.
1958		H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 10: He couldn’t cut out, or the boom would lower on him.

6. (Aus.) of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

1969

A. Buzo Rooted III iii: Well, actiually, I’m thinking of lowering the boom on a young lady I’m taking out tonight.