Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to take someone’s money or possessions; thus unloading n.

1749		Smollett (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas I 36: Let him go and unload that monk, while we observe his behaviour.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 199: The nice young stranger was unloaded of over one hunded and sixty pounds.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 86: unloading [...] Current among pickpockets. Picking pockets in a crowd as passengers alight from street or railroad cars.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 182: Godstrewth, Jimmy, he’s unloaded that sort of bloke you saw just now a hundred times.
1948		‘Josephine Tey’ Franchise Affair (1954) 83: [A] disgraceful old man unloading on his income-tax.

2. to ejaculate.

1841		‘Female Tobacconist’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 43: One was a youth, turned twenty and two, / He view’d her bird’s eye, then called for a screw; / His pipe being charged, and ramm’d in with his paw, / He was obliged to unload, before it would draw.
c.1935		‘Betty Co-Ed’ [comic strip] I’m going to unload about a barrell [sic] of baby fluid.
1945		R.S. Close Love me Sailor 12: ‘Looks as if he’s hoping to unload tonight,’ I said. ‘You’ve got a dirty mind,’ said Ern. [...] ‘Rutting’s not dirty, it’s only natural,’ I said.
1970		B. Naughton Alfie Darling 196: I mean you even begin to wonder is this bird worth this marvellous thing you’re going to unload.
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 60: Evie had not been there. Moira was gone too. Guy, burning hard, found himself paining to unload.
2002		Juha ‘Polari’ 🎵 on Polari [album] Now me & the gang gonna be a boat load of men / lined up to unload in your throat. / How deep does it go? How hot does it get? / Mine went in dry but shit, it came out wet & drippin.
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘Knockemstiff’ in Knockemstiff 40: With a shudder, he unloaded his jizz all over Lucy’s plastic face.

3. to drop, to dispose of, to get rid of.

1870		W.W. Fowler Ten Years In Wall Street 32: In that case, the ring find themselves saddled with a large amount of stock, for which there is little demand. And now the problem is to unload.
1881		Wash. Eve. Critic n.p.: 24 Nov. The policy of Gibson & Co. is to unload the odium of their wretched force [i.e. farce] upon the President.
1890		T.S. Van Dyke Millionaires of a Day 19: I would be too smart to run another ranche in this country. I would unload it on some tenderfoot.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 41: I don’t wonder old Blue Beak had a lot of conversation to unload. [Ibid.] 218: I thought it would be a bright scheme to hang onto the place for a year or so, before I tries to unload.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 74: What else did they unload on you?
1926		M. West Sex (1997) I i: Wait until the old gink finds out what she is. Watch him unload her.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 193: Unload.-[...] To get rid of, as something of doubtful or little value.
1937		J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 119: They’re good enough even if the rocks do take a bit of unloading.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 72: Take it away. You can’t unload your brats on me.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 39: A millionaire Wall Street broker [...] who decided to unload it [i.e. a property] in a hurry.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 19: Now just what would she unload on Mrs Dalgety this time?
1954		J. Steinbeck Sweet Thursday (1955) 122: I could unload nearly fifty.
1968		D. Ireland Chantic Bird 155: She was edging me to the door. ‘You’re trying to unload me,’ I said.
1972		K. Bonfiglioli Don’t Point That Thing at Me (1991) 44: Old Spinoza has [...] about a quarter of a million grubby pound notes [...] Well, we knew he would be having to unload soon.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 31: Jenny Denver, Twelvetree’s firstborn by the wife he’d unloaded when Jenny had been ten.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 124: Unloading a single O.Z. sometimes took up to an hour.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 64: Av got t’run round-a fuckin pubs and pleyces unloadin it all like.
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘Blessed’ in Knockemstiff 172: I was on the phone one day, trying to unload a hot four-wheeler.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 53: Fake bearer bonds — unload them in Mexico.

4. (US) to get off or out of a vehicle.

1904		‘Number 1500’ Life In Sing Sing 262: Oh, yes, I’ve heard guns shoot, but how were they loaded? You missed the number. They hadn’t the shot. Well, we had better unload.
1919		D. Runyon ‘A Tale of two Fists’ VIII in Pittsburgh Press (PA) 30 Apr. 25/4: One day [...] Jack [Dempsey] was forced to ‘unload’ by a hard-hearted ‘shack’ [...] which is to say a brakeman made him get off the train.
1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 48: A shack [...] telling us to dig up or unload.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 260: ‘Hey,’ one barks, ‘get the hell off this freight. Unload now.’.
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 221: I [...] drove out onto the road, where I told him to unload.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 78: Which of you assholes is going to be the first to unload?
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 15: A hundred and fifty bags of shopping, six killer dogs and thirty tooled up brats unload on floors six, seven, fifteen and twenty.

5. to throw a punch, to beat up; to smash into.

1905		Marvel III:58 17: ‘You’re no trifle,’ retorted the tramp [...] ‘So you’ll find unless you unload quick.’ ‘That’s a threat.’ ‘It is.’ ‘Then sling it at somone who’s afraid of you.’.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 156: I got a mind to unload and jus’ kick th’ hell outta all thirteen asses in this squad, right now!!!
1974		R. Blount Jr About Three Bricks Shy of a Load 113: ‘Unload’ and ‘ sell out’ are players’ term[s] for what you do when you put all of yourself into another body.
1986		S. King It (1987) 116: He unloaded on her pretty good.

6. to offer one’s opinion; to give orders.

1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 16: Every Breezy Boy I met had a different hunch and they called me into the wharf and unloaded.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 16: As Leonidas and me does the anti-famine act Homer unloads his hard-luck wheeze.
1940		J. Archibald ‘No Place Like Homicide’ in Popular Detective Apr. 🌐 Satchelfoot unloaded in a hurry. ‘Look, I pick up the guy and I grab his bag [etc.]’.
1946		C.S. Montanye ‘Don’t Meddle with Murder’ in Thrilling Detective May 🌐 Mullin unloaded the usual directions.
1991		Age (Melbourne) 3 May 4/2: ‘They were trying to get me to [...] unload on the Government’.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] Shake waited for Gina to unload on him. She let him wait.

7. (US) to fire one’s gun.

1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 291: The bunch of us oughta be able to swear Trompey into Matteawan if we stand ‘pat’; but if we start tryin’ to unload hardware and seein’ coppers through th’ smoke, we’re gone.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 128: The Swede unloads a cannon, and gits Joe in the currency kick.
1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 84: Marines do like to unload on the motherfuckers when they have a chance.
1993		Tarantino & Avery Pulp Fiction [film script] 115: He unloads on this guy and he doesn’t hit anything.
2001		Saigon ‘Contraband’ 🎵 in Source Aug. 208: Some crazy Pac fan that flipped and unloaded a clip.
2004		Simon & Alvarez ‘Homecoming’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 6 [TV script] I unloaded on the young ’un too soon, man.
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] ‘We roll on the fucker, and I unload into him’.

8. to defecate.

1941

in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 142: When, frightened by chance, / I unload in my pants.

9. (Aus.) to vomit.

1967

J. Hibberd White with Wire Wheels (1973) 156: Take it away, or I’ll unload in your lap.

10. (US drugs) to empty a hypodermic syringe when one injects a narcotic.

2023

F. Bill Back to the Dirt 42: A loaded shot was in the mug. Wylie [...] grabbed the needle, stabbed it between the toes, unloaded the rig.