Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to hit hard (esp. describing brute force as opposed to scientific punching); often ext. as slug it out, slug with to fight (with).

1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 Dec. 2/2: Harrigan still maintaining his advantage, returned to the old place, [...] delivering a few slugging hits upon the body and head.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 5 Oct. n.p.: As soon as he was ‘cop’d’ he ‘slugged’ the officer.
1883		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa (1893) 261: He won’t be at the slugging match.
1884		N.Z. Tablet 10 Oct. 7/2: When anyone catches me talking slang, he is especially invited to slug me in the seventh rib.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 125: His prison talk is generally of all the people he has ‘slugged’ (beaten).
1889		World (NY) 19 May 15/1: It would seem that Mike has effectually put the kibosh on adverse public opinion. Has Mike done this, or have the big Detroit sluggers slugged him out of a hole?
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 27 July 7/4: ... to allow a bigger man of the fallen one’s side [...] slugging the shoulderer over.
1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 22: An’ den I slugged ’im. See?
1895		Mirror of Life 9 Mar. 11/3: [I]t proved to be a slugging bout [...] The men wholly disregarded science, and hammered away in rough-and-tumble fashion.
1897		E.W. Townsend Chimmie Fadden 8: Say, Id a slugged de whole gang of dose farmers.
1900		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Mar. 7/1: [headline] ‘Spike’ Sullivan’s Second / Slugged Referee ‘Charley’ White For / Awarding Fight To Gans.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 59: Unless they stop to slug with you, don’t put a hand on ’em.
1903		T.W.H. Crosland ‘Hospital’ in Five Notions 34: It’s Tommy this an’ Tommy that, an’ ‘Mind an’ slug the Boer!’.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 11 Sept. 1/1: The aggressor in the slugging match was the dad of a dashing damsel who taught Scripture.
1911		‘Madge The Society Detective’ in Roberts et al. Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (1990) 106/1: She slugged me [...] And then she slugged Bob. We both went down. I’m ashamed to confess it, boss, but that woman has got a punch like a Missouri mule.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 14 June 7/3: They Say [...] That He will have to be shrewd or Peep D. will be slugging him.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 61: Slug the clubbers! [...] Knock their blocks off! Go to it, old man!
1916		Eve. Dispatch (London) 26 June 4/2: It was a toe-to-toe slugging match.
1921		R. Lardner ‘A Frame-Up’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 425: ‘Cut loose and slug’ Nate told him.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 186: Whenever I didn’t answer the way they wanted [...] they took turns at slugging me.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Breach of Promise’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 28: This [...] causes her to slug Mr. Jabez Tuesday on the bean.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: The guy who’d tried to slug me hit the floor with his face.
1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 152: He was [...] spending most of his time in the disciplinary cottage and getting what we called ‘slugged’ (that is, whipped on the bare buttocks, with a piece of rubber hose, by a very strong official).
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 64: Some jane slugged him with a car spanner.
1941		J.K. Butler ‘Saint in Silver’ in Goulart (1967) 65: The same bum that slugged me.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 87: He always felt better when he was [...] slugging it out with some guy.
1952		N.Y. World-Telegram and Sun 20 Aug. n.p.: In the latest outbreak of teen terrorism, a 15-year-old girl was shot and her boyfriend was slugged with a lead pipe.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 103: Green slugged the warden’s secretary with a gun butt.
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 175: Punch-drunk fighters on either side, slugging it out.
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 76: More folks getting robbed, slugged and stabbed to death [...] than usual.
1967		(con. 1940s) M. Dibner Admiral (1968) 26: It was too damn bad they had not stayed and slugged it out with the Jap.
1967		I. Rosenthal Sheeper 21: Not long ago someone really slugged me (breaking my jaw).
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 45: It was as if a giant fist had slugged the breath from us all.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 251: Will Dinky appear again and slug my handsome Robbie Swindon?
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 76: Then he slugs me in the stomach and tells me to get my butt out of the boat.
1996		P. Beatty White Boy Shuffle 123: Psycho Loco came through, slugging some fool for stepping on his shadow.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 114: I slugged him in the mouth.
1999		Guardian Rev. 23 July 23: Bad guys slugged broads.
2000		Guardian Guide 1–6 Jan. 90: Two bikini-clad female contenders slugging it out in a ring filled with chocolate pudding.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 39: Per some accounts, Katherine slugged Josephine.
2005		K. Huff A Steady Rain I iii: And no way Denny had to slug Connie like that to settle the argument, either.
2012		Mail & Guardian 13 Apr. 🌐 [headline] ‘Mdluh cops bugged Cele!’: Security chiefs slug it out.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 15: [W]e’d slugged it out and crashed through the porch railing together.
2012		Guardian 4 Oct. 🌐 Axelrod said the president had not wanted the debate to turn into a slugfest.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Broken’ in Broken 6: The Hondurans wanting to slug it out.

2. to criticize harshly.

1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 118: We are [...] going in for the slugging of books [...] we have ruined one or two well-known authors.
1989		R. Atkinson Long Gray Line (1990) 61: Egregious offenders [...] were ‘slugged’. That meant demerits.

3. (also slug around) in fig. use, to dispute aggressively; often ext. as slug it out.

1894		S. Crane in N.Y. Press Nov. in Stallman (1966) 105: The people lost their liberty because they went to sleep. Then [...] they wake up and slug around and surprise all the men who thought they were in a trance.
1943		Time 10 May 98: Twice it screens exciting action: once when the sub slugs it out with a disguised German raider.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 22: You always went back and slugged it out.
1962		S. Paige Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever 242: ‘You know, Mr. Lou, you fooled me buntin’ like that. I thought you’d stand up there and slug it out with me’.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 364: Hitting and elbowing and kneeing and scratching and off sides and on sides and slugging it out.
1999		Guardian Guide 15–21 May 69: Two American guests slugging it out over the burning issues of the day.
2000		Guardian G2 14 Jan. 13: Representatives of the two companies could be isolated [...] to slug it out.

4. in fig. use, to overcome.

1899–1900

C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 184: There was a far deeper expression of pleasure on his face [...] than there had been [...] when he was slugging Shag Shaughnessy’s faro layout.

5. in fig. use of sense 1 .

1901		Chicago Trib. 12 June 4/5: Coffee Slugs Even harder than a Prize Fighter. A newspaper man is subject to trials and tribulations [...] Coffee ‘slugs’ a great many of them.
1936		Western Champion (Qld) 12 Dec. 3/1: There was a barmaid sluggin’ the pump.
1947		E. Condon We Called It Music 159: [H]e slugged Jack Kapp into meeting us at the Apex at one o’clock .

6. (Aus.) to obtain money from, esp. to overcharge.

1913		Sport (Adelaide) 5 July 9/3: Where did you get the money from, Frankie? Did you slug the Old Pot?
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 68: Get slugged, to be charged excessively.
1944		A. Marshall These Are My People (1957) 141: ‘How much do you slug ’em a week?’ ‘I get paid so much an article.’.
1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 120: Uncle Wally noticed that the new boundary fence our neighbour had slugged him half the costs of was about six feet on Uncle Wally’s side of the survey pegs.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 19: Makes you wonder how the government’s union cronies will react to attempts to slug their members.

7. to shoot.

1918		Jackson Dly News (MS) 1 Apr. 7/2: Crook Chatter [...] ‘Shooting, paradoxically enough, is “slugging”’.
1929		E. Booth Stealing Through Life 256: Remember his caper? Slugged two coppers; his partner was topped.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 73: If the dust in them two pokes ain’t exactly sim’lar, Luce didn’t slug Evans.
1943		Fortune Feb. 122: Guns slugging at close range.
1944		H. Brown Walk in Sun 48: They slugged one into his leg at Mareth.

8. (US) to trudge, to move with an effort, to make an effort; thus slugging adj.

1928		V. Palmer Passage 63: Patient, slugging work was what he put his trust in.
1934		S. Walker City Editor 131: [Sportswriter Paul Gallico] slugs along with a simple, pliant vocabulary which makes him the ideal man for his spot.
1944		Reader’s Digest Nov. 62: He was always slugging away at novel writing on the side.
1967		(con. 1940s) M. Dibner Admiral (1968) 107: We’ll slug our way through.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 7: We saddled up our rucksacks and slugged off into the deepest, baddest part of the Goongone Forest.

9. to kill, to murder.

1935		N. Algren ‘American Obituary’ in Entrapment (2009) 39: Frank Mears, no address, slugged for ninety cents.
1939		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ 5 May [synd. col.] Mrs. Dutch Schultz didn’t get herself slugged for allegedly slandering a comrade killed with Dutch . . . She almost got slugged.

10. (US) to apply, to dose.

1956		‘James Updyke’ [W.R. Burnett] It’s Always Four O’Clock 50: ‘[K]eep him off the stuff if you can. [...] He ought to sleep ten or twelve hours. I slugged him slightly’.
1961		(con. 1945) G. Forbes Goodbye to Some (1963) 84: ‘When you slug too much morphine in there, you go into shock?’ There is a wail of derisive laughter.