Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) a vicious violent fight; thus fig. an acrimonious but non-violent dispute.

1826		Eve. Post (NY) 28 Aug. 2/4: William Dean, late of the penitentiary, was killed in an affair of the ‘knock down and drag out’ character.
1827		J.F. Cooper Prairie 93: That prevented me from putting the matter, at once, to yonder red-devil, and making it a real knock-down and drag-out!
1837		R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods III 37: It war a reggelar fair knock-down-and-drag-out, and I lick’d him!
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 44: Many of the roughest and most untamable specimens of these beings – who are first at a fray and ever ready for a feast or a frolic, a knock-down-and-drag-out – practise the social virtues with a sincerity.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 51: Mr. Flybynight’s nose and [...] a cabman’s upper lip, both injured during a ‘knock-down and drag-out fight.’.
1878		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Apr. 6/4: He had a cheerful mode of ‘putting’ his opponents in a rough-and-tumble or a rush-in-and-drag-out, with his head.
1882		E. Nye Forty Liars (1888) 23: They hungered for war, and ached for a grand knock-down-and-drag-out every two weeks.
1887		McCook Tribune (NE) 3 Mar. 1/3: Knock downs and drag outs were recherche in their legitimate halls.
1897		Brenham Wkly Banner (TX) 25 Nov. 7/3: The rough and tumble, fist and skull, knock-down and drag-out bout in which they engaged.
1904		‘Hugh McHugh’ I’m from Missouri 70: No more knock-downs and drag-outs whin thim two laddiebucks gets together in the Sinate.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘For the Pictures’ Taking the Count 329: It’s a real old knock-down-and-drag-out after the fourth round.
1927		C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words & Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 359: That was a knock down and drag out fight.
1939		W. Winchell On Broadway 3 Sept. [synd. col.] The knock-down-drag-out in the Old Country is playing censor to the local shows.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 135: I think he’d have had a knockdown drag-out fight on his hands.
1965		L. Haylen Big Red 174: He would have to write a report for the company. How did you make a knock-down drag-out fight under the gum trees into a report for Head Office.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 311: We had serious arguments, loud knock-down-drag-outs that always went in circles.
1997		T. Fontana ‘A Game of Checkers’ Oz ser. 1 ep. 8 [TV script] What if he gets into a brawl. A knock-down drag-out with his old roomie.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 57/1: It was on, the biggest knock down drag-out in the history of Oz rock concert violence.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 259: If they were going to have a knock-down, drag-out in Wald Houses, Housing PD need to be standing by.