Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to ambush, to take by surprise.

1889		Dental Register 43 397: Mudge— ‘For heaven's sake, Bosworth, have you been sandbagged or in a railway accident?’.
1892		Clay-worker 17-18 677: JOHN McCAlN SANDBAGGED. While on his way home [...] John McCain, the well known brick manufacturer of Denver, was way-laid by thieves, who tried to ‘slug’ him. The blow aimed at his head landed on his neck.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 10 Feb. 5/5: A money-lender [is] accused of hiring a horse-trainer to vulgarly ‘sand-bag’ a girl and drown her.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 84: Thought you’d been sandbagged and thrown into the bay.
1902		Truth (Sydney) 31 Aug. 8/3: There’s rows and ructions / Goin’ on about Hyde Park, / Tellin’ of sand-baggin’ cases, / Pluggin’ in there after dark.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 217: Somebody who had already greased the police had been sandbagged in error.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 8: Well, you ain’t been sandbagged or jabbed with a poison needle yet.
1919		Smith’s Wkly 22 Mar. 10/4: [headline] The Hidden Hand. / Attempt to Sandbag ’Car’ / Political Rough-House Tactics.
1924		Hecht & Bodenheim Cutie 62: Before anybody could sandbag her she had run the hat pin into Cutie’s left chest.
1928		Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/4: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ‘sand-bag,’ to knock out.
1936		A. Russell Gone Nomad 55: Knuckle-dusting, sandbagging—and being sandbagged—were the recreations and excitements of [...] the inhabitants.
1940		S. Lister Mistral Hotel (1951) 68: What did you expect me to do? Come and sandbag you and drag you down by force?
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 47: sand bag – To be taken; falsely used and robbed.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 118: They’ll use him to sandbag me.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 92: We’re gonna sandbag this bastard!
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 362: He sandbagged me. Have Tim put a stationary tail on his office.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 117: I walked upstairs. No surprises sandbagged me.

2. to cheat, to trick.

1896		Ade Artie (1963) 64: Even if he does sandbag a few o’ them rich blokies what’s the diff?
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 7 Dec. 6/6: [T]hey were not ‘jobbed,’ or ‘sand-bagged’ or ‘mobbed,’ and [...] they lost fairly and honestly.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘A Service of Love’ in Four Million (1915) 60: Old gentlemen with thin side-whiskers and thick pocket-books would sandbag one another in his studio for the privilege of buying.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 254: He sandbags now not because he really wants to, but because he cannot help himself.
1922–24		O.O. McIntyre White Light Nights 147: This polite form of sandbagging is a tax on fear—the inherent New Yorkish ‘fear of the uniform’.
1951		S. Lewis World So Wide 49: When you looked at Tessie Weepswell you did not see a woman of sixty but the glove-soft credulous girl who had been sandbagged by the Honourable Orlando.

3. to get rid of.

1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Oct. 5/7: They sandbag editors for less - Servia!
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 10/4: How about sand-bagging the traditional ‘Little Boy from Manly’ on the figurehead of Australia? His is out-of-date, and, anyhow, he never was Australian.
1984		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 6: sandbagged – thrown out of your room so that your roomate can be with his or her girlfriend or boyfriend.
2014		D.B. Flowers Bangs 281: [H]e knew the Medford cops would attempt to sandbag the case.

4. (US) to intimidate.

1923		D. Hammett ‘The Gatewood Caper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 137: He had made his several millions by sandbagging everybody that stood in his way.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 63: There had been no lightening up of the eye, no answering pressure of the palm [...] The fellow seemed sand-bagged.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 26: Ostrava was no friend and would use whatever he could get his hands on to sandbag Tillman come contract time.

5. to extort.

1939		W. Winchell On Broadway 4 Nov. [synd. col.] De Witt has chopped down [...] every type of phoney who has tried to sandbag coin from a newspaper.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 28: I’d been working divorce shakedowns and sandbaging tomcat hubbies.

6. (US police) to frame by planting evidence.

2004		J.A. Juarez Brotherhood of Corruption 192: wondering if he was trying to set me up or if he was really serious about sandbagging (planting drugs) [sic] this woman.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 122: Ratfuck Bobby [Kennedy] fucked us. He staged the evidence raid four days early. I got sandbagged.