Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) as good as defeated, virtually hopeless.

1903		It (Lawrenceburg, KY) 19 Feb. 1/3: He let fly the brick which struck one of the negroes in the head and bounded over the cranium of the other, which sent both down ‘for the count’.
1904		Anamosa Prison Press 7 n.p.: The attack of vertigo [...] was ‘the worst ever.’ The genial old fellow was ‘down for the count’ at noon but came up smiling next morning.
1912		Standard 69 63/1: The refrigerating plant of the building went out of business and stayed ‘down for the count’.
1919		Lumber Manufacturer & Dealer 6316/2: The fight over deliveries was waged between the farmers and the town dwellers, with the result that the city men went down for the count.
1924		Hecht & Bodenheim Cutie 46: You pull a half nelson on me and I am down for the count when the bouncers step in.
1931		W.N. Burns One-Way Ride 3: Gentleman Jim Corbett telling John McCormack how he put old John L. down for the count.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 256: These dudes’re down for the count.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 166: Emerald would have to go down for a count before it would ever again be about love. Crack is a whole universe, not just a drug.

dead; also fig.

1929		W. James Sand 148: That critter [i.e. a yearling] had tore things up a considerable before going down for the last count.
1931		US Congressional House Committee on Rules Hearings 91: Unless some relief is extended to them, some of them in a considerable number of these districts are going down for the last count.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 244: I was nearly down for the long count. The ref was about to count nine.
1990		Lavender Reader 19: I guess Lydia Gay is going down for the last count?
2004		Lansdale & Coscarelli Bubba Ho-Tep 46: He felt something inside him grate against something soft. He felt like a water balloon with a hole poked in it. He was going down for the last count.

ruined, defeated; exhausted, asleep.

1911		Green Book Mag. 6 550/1: Genevieve is out for the count and Van Twister has twisted his ankle.
1915		Motor Age 26 16: A broken connecting rod [...] put the Fiat 90 engine out for the count.
1931		(con. 1890s) C.W. Willemse Behind The Green Lights 25: I whaled the nearest fellow so hard that he flew against an iron pillar [...] crashed down in a heap – out for a good long count.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 233: Death is a funny thing [...] and you never think much about it until one day, it puts your best friend out for the count.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 88: ‘That’s all I got,’ sez the punk, and, bingo! – the jocker lays ’im out fer the count.
1955		H. Ainley In Order to Die 111: [T]wo other men went down either dead or dying—three others, badly wounded, were out for the count.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 243: A friend of yours called in [...] while you were out for the count, but she wouldn’t let him see you.

(US) to be shocked [boxing imagery; the number, from one to ten, indicates the intensity].

1979

E. Torres After Hours 226: He took about a six-count.

to murder, to kill.

1976		Clare & Kramer Intro. to Amer. Corrections n.p.: Take him off the count: he’s been killed.
1985		J. Breslin World According to Breslin 90: ‘Take him off the count’ is their [i.e a street gang’s] way of saying that a person should be killed. When a young person is ‘on the count,’ it means he is back on the streets.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 78: Are you telling me to take them off the count, Captain?
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 144: If I don’t supply the junkies [...] they gonna take me off the count.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘You took pena off the count for me’.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Broken’ in Broken 16: ‘Here’s to taking dope off the streets [...] and bad guys off the count’.

1. to die, lit. and fig.

1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 188: The Beauty Doctor seldom took the Count, but this was one of those Times.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 92: He fell over and took the Count before a Punch had been delivered.
1915		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 July 6/4: A noo, glad pride that ain’t the pride o’ class. / An’ Mick’s contempt it took the count at lars!
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 4: Wanted to euchre her out of the twenty thousand life insurance she got when Benny took the booze count last winter, eh?
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 211: Refusing to take the Count, she is still working away.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: take the count. To be knocked out or killed.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 58: Soldiers had plenty of euphemisms for death and the devices that brought it. These included [...] get it in the neck; to go out to it; to take the count (both from boxing).

2. (US) of a man, to get married.

1910

B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 22 Nov. [synd. strip] A single man has got it soft. I was a boob ever to take the count.

3. to give up, to leave.

1924

Hecht & Bodenheim Cutie 37: At ten o’clock Morris had taken the count.

(US) to die.

[1907		Times (Munster, IA) 4 June 4/5: Barney Aaron, the old bare knuckle fighter [...] was laid away yesterday at the age of 77 years. The timetook his last count on the old sport after a year in the sanitarium].
1910		Santa Ana Register (CA) 10 Aug. 1/3: Joe Gans is dead. Surrounded by his clostest friends [...] he took his ‘last count’.
1924		Catering Industry Employee 33 33/1: We do, however, need a flock of new members to fill up the vacancies occasioned by the departure of those who took the last count.
1936		L. Pound ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 200: He took the last/the long, long count.
1952		T.A.G. Hungerford Ridge and River (1966) 175: ‘This stoush’s nearly over.’ ‘It’s good for another three years,’ Wallace said derisively. ‘We’ll all take the long drop before it’s over.’.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 65: Let’s kill a few of these bastards and take th’ long rest ourselves.