Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to menace, to intimidate.

1904		Stone Co. Oracle (Galena, MO) 15 Sept. 5/3: How long will it be before the desperados [...] shall advance still further into the country? Are you ready to be [...] thugged out of your own convention by the train loads.
2009		W.D. Myers Dope Sick 80: ‘[B]etter than being me and standing on the corner with all the other beat-down dudes being thugged by the system’.

2. (US black) to take on the stereotypes of a thug n. (1)

2000		Age (Melbourne) 16 Jan. 7/6: [US speaker] Capone explained why he and his partner like to smoke dope in the recording studio: ‘We need (expletive) to be thugged out in here’.
2014		Young Jeezy ‘Holy Ghost’ 🎵 You know we coppin’ Louie loafers just to thug in 'em.
2018		Young M.A. ‘I Got the Bag’ 🎵 Silky on, fresh white tee with the Constructs on, thuggin' it.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 201: Not looking like a thug while thugging around the city was a strategy.