Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to shoot; to kill.

1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 122: The reward of their havin tag’d as many of you as dont pike off.
1977		L. Block Time to Murder and Create 146: The corpse was hired to tag me. [...] I think he also was hired to kill somebody else a while ago.
2017		J.R. Lawrence My Camp 216: [T]here were a few overzealous jerks who shot at every target and that’s when you were in danger of getting tagged .

2. to follow.

1903		Nebraska State Jrnl (Lincoln, NE) 14 June 9/7: They’ve been tagged about to see that they don’t connect with the crimson eye.
1940		J. Archibald ‘No Place Like Homicide’ in Popular Detective Apr. 🌐 The doll spots me in the tavern as I go there a lot [...] She tags me to the rooming house.
1977		L. Block Time to Murder and Create 82: He could have tagged me from Polly’s. [...] If he’d picked me up at Polly’s, then it wasn't hard to tie him to Beverly Ethridge.

3. (also tag out) to punch.

1912		Van Loan ‘Sweeney to Sanguinetti to Schultz’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 43: ‘You say I did n’t tag this bird to-day [...] I did n’t, but I ‘m going to tag — you!’.
1927		B. Cormack Racket Act I: Listen! You get off base with Joe Scarsi and you’ll get tagged out, like the last one who tried to take one of Nick’s friends for a ride.
1937		C. Odets Golden Boy II i: That’s style, real style – you can’t tag him. And he’s giving it with both hands.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 41: If anyone tags him, he’s got a long way to fall.
1950		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 18 Mar. 20/1: The columnist figured he should tag-out the photog [...] The lensman resented the pencil pusher’s caveman tactics.
1959		H. Ellison ‘Have Coolth’ in Gentleman Junkie (1961) 129: I [...] tagged him one right on that monumental bazooz.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 39: tagged – [...] hit, punched.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 9: When I tagged a stud, he was hurtin’.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 20: I got tagged in a boxing smoker at Pendleton.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 21: Screaming like a berserker as I get tagged, start to go down, catch myself, and come back swinging.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 138: [T]he small guy [...] tagged him, two head-snapping lefts.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] ‘At least tell me you got to tag that cock-knocker’.

4. to arrest.

1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1956		H. Ellison ‘Johnny Slice’s Stoolie’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 81: Some of the kids [were] getting tagged and stuck in the can.
1967		J. Thompson ‘Exactly What Happened’ in Fireworks (1988) 12: Keller was going to kill Jake, but it was Jake who would be tagged for murder.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 39: tagged – Getting caught.

5. to imprison.

1956

N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 259: There I was [...] clean of my own jobs but tagged for two other guys’ and on my way to San Q.

6. to blame, to accuse.

1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 138: Until now you were tagged for both jobs, now there’s reason to believe that you never pulled anything.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 171: Nobody had ever got tagged for Whitey’s murder.
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 46: I had driven cars for twelve years [...] and been tagged for only two running violations, both the result of speed traps.
2000		F. Kellerman Stalker (2001) 537: ‘How many times has he been gotten bagged with an excess force complaint?’ ‘Nothing to tag him as a problem.’.
2005		R. Cea No Lights, No Sirens 155: We also were aware that if we were being watched, this would be a ground ball for IAB to tag us with.

7. to identify; to use someone’s street name.

1940		J. Archibald ‘No Place Like Homicide’ in Popular Detective Apr. 🌐 The doll spots me in the tavern as I go there a lot [...] She tags me to the rooming house.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 13: They called me Blackie [...] That’s the way they tagged me when me and the boys was robbing banks.
1963		J. Blake letter 7 Sept. in Joint (1972) 221: He makes me keep it, to tag me conspirator in the action.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 81: He could not tag them.
1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 24: Many people would tag Joan as a crack addict.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 255: Pete tagged Gearhart as a killer and handed me the collar.
2000		W.D. Myers ‘Block Party–145th Street Style’ in 145th Street 140: ‘It doesn’t have anything to do with Big Joe, Squeezie,’ Peaches said later, tagging me like she always does when she’s upset.

8. (US black) of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

1970		‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 79: Of course it wasn’t Tina Rinaldi I had tagged; it was a leggy brunette countess from Berlin.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 166: Any of you niggers ever tag a white bitch?

9. in fig. use, to suffer, to be punished.

1975

E. Torres Carlito’s Way 40: With the other shit thrown in I’m gonna get tagged.

10. to give a parking ticket; a summons.

1968		G. Radano Walking the Beat 112: ‘What happens if, in the end, you prove his point?’ ‘And what’s his point?’ ‘That you never should have tagged him’.
1973		E.F. Droge Patrolman 71: ‘Any car parked there in a half hour without authorization will be tagged and towed’.
1973		L. Shecter On the Pad 100: I go back, tell the guy, nah, he doesn’t want to know nothing. He’s going to tag everything.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 29: Well then, you go ahead and tell the guys, tag my car every time they see it.

11. to humiliate, to show up.

2001

T. Fontana ‘Medium Rare’ Oz ser. 4 ep. 9 [TV script] He really tagged that corporate clown.

12. to collide with.

2012

M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] So maybe the bread truck flees the scene and tags the Neon.