Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) to murder, to assassinate, to kill.

[1816		W. Scott Old Mortality in Waverley II (1855) 612: Evandale is the man on earth whom he hates worst, and [...] were he once rubbed out of the way, all, he thinks, will be his own].
1848		G.F. Ruxton Life in the Far West (1849) 3: Thar was old Sam Owins – him as got ‘rubbed out’ by the Spaniards. [Ibid.] 90: Inarticulate words reached the ears of his companions as they bent over him. ‘Rubbed – out – at – last,’ they heard him say.
1864		J.F. Brobst letter in Brobst Well Mary, Civil War Letters 87: If the Johnny Rebs don’t rub me out or shoot an arm or leg off me [...] I will not look much different.
1876		Besant & Rice Golden Butterfly I1 142: Clawed I should have been, mauled I should have been, rubbed out I should have been on that green and grassy spot.
1882		W.A. Baillie-Grohman Camps in the Rockies 27: It is at least some satisfaction to know that if one does get ‘rubbed out’ the person who accomplishes it will have the same happen to him.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 68: Rubbed Out, dead.
1901		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 185: Any traveller as come to the water-hole and followed the track up, ’ll have to be rubbed out [...] It will be our lives against his!
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 27 July 12/2: ‘It’s a sartinty, gal [...] poor Rawlings has been rubbed out’.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 347: Rub Out (To). To die.
1927		D. Hammett ‘The Big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 284: This was the boy I had seen sauntering down Broadway a moment after Beno had been rubbed out.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 69: [He says] he’ll lure Romeo outside where a waitin’ gunman will rub him off and that’ll be that.
1930		R. Whitfield Green Ice (1988) 53: He rubbed her out.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: ‘Just because you had an easy time of rubbing out one woman [etc]’.
1933		‘Paul Cain’ ‘One, Two, Three’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 8: Mrs. Healey was the lady who had rubbed Healey.
1948		C. Hamlin ‘Killer Come Home’ in Ruhm Hard-Boiled Detective (1977) 335: How come he wanted you rubbed?
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 159: The Canton detective and his two Jungle pals [...] had imported a gunman to rub out the man who threatened them with exposure.
1950		A.B. Guthrie Way West 230: ’Member that nigger you had to rub out [...] dast him to irons and give him the best of it and kilt him afore his finger could bend. Waugh and Jesus Christ! Them was the fat days .
1953		‘Curt Cannon’ ‘Die Hard’ in I Like ’Em Tough (1958) 20: Why was Peter D’Alessio rubbed?
1962		F. Norman Guntz 91: It don’t matter ’ow tough ya are ya can always get rubbed out.
1966		D. Westlake Busy Body 24: We got the clearance to rub him.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 102: Angie was pretty cut up about ’er daddy gettin’ rubbed out.
1989		R. Dahl Rhyme Stew (1990) 57: Now look, if we could rub them out, / There’d be more beans and sauerkraut / And stuff for you and me to eat.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 24: He blamed Dad for the tragedy for years, for rubbing out his family.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 145: I’ve got fucking plans that’ll see Ged Brennan rubbed out if all goes well.

2. to die, usu. in passive.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 216: rubbed out dead, ? a melancholy expression, of late frequently used in fashionable novels.
1866		W. Stamer Life of Adventure 1297: [T]he bodies of these unhappy men are totally unfit for the hard work they are forced to undergo, and they are speedily ‘rubbed out’ of the land of the living.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 200: Rubbed out at last, they heard him say, the words gurgling in his blood-filled throat.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 347: Rub Out (To). To die.

3. (Aus.) to reject an idea or a suggestion.

1890

Bulletin (Sydney) 19 July 5/4: And when they prove it beyond mistake / That the world took millions of years to make, / And never was built by the seventh day / I say in a pained and insulted way / That ‘Thomas also presumed to doubt,’ / And thus do I rub my opponents out.

4. (Aus.) to debar, to ban (a person).

1895		Truth (Sydney) 17 Feb. 6/3: Had the stewards devoted themslves to ‘rubbing out’ a few of the runners in the first race, their action would have been a popular one.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 68: Rubbed Out, [...] a racing man disqualified.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 May 24/1: When [he...] won his several heats, almost every other man left in the final accused him of ‘cronk’ performances, threatened to have his scalp, and declared that, if he won, they’d have him ‘rubbed out.’.
1902		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 June 4/6: He is an unregistered bookmamker, well-known in [...] snide resorts of the rubbed-out ringman.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Jan. 2nd sect. 2/4: Wren has no time for ex-registered lads who have been ‘rubbed out’ for suspicious practices.
1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 RUB OUT — To disqualify.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 238/1: rub out – to disqualify a horse from a race for some illegal action.
1996		Penguin Bk of More Aus. Jokes 121: ‘Gotcha, you bastard,’ he said, grabbing the bloke. ‘You’ll get rubbed out for life.’.

5. to destroy something.

1861		R.F. Burton City of the Saints 63: The Dakotas and other prairie tribes will degenerate, if not disappear, when the buffalo is ‘rubbed out.’.
1900		Sporting Times 17 Feb. 1/3: He’d got to win twice to get home; first to rub out [...] Carkee himself, and then his accursed moniker!
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 364: These blunny old injins want rubbin’ out and buildin’ all over again.

6. (US) to leave.

1911		Wash. Post 10 Dec. 4/4: Forget that expressive phrase ‘beat it’ [...] ‘rub out’ is the newest one.
1933		C.G. Booth ‘Stag Party’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 92: Sam took the town over when Gaylord rubbed out.