repo, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

repo n.

[abbr.]

1. (Aus./US) the repossession of items bought on hire purchase, but not paid for.

2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 318: They looked like, walked like, and quacked like visitors from Planet Repo.
2012		R.T. Brown ‘Indebted’ in C. Rhatigan and N. Bird (eds) Pulp Ink 2 [ebook] Let’s call it repo work.

2. (US) a car which is repossessed for non-payment of instalments; also attrib.

1972		J. Gores Dead Skip 8: I’ve got a repo for you [...] Seventy-two Mercury Montego hardtop [OED].
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 11: My desk was covered with repo orders, ranging in make and model from Datsun Sedan to Eldorado Ragtop.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 259: The Tiki-ites favored flash rides [...] They vibed repo bait.

repo man (n.)

(US) a repossession man, one who is employed by finance companies to repossess goods on which the owner is defaulting as to his payments.

1970		Wall Street Journal 21 July 1/1: Mr. Civerolo and his helper are auto repossessors, or ‘repo men’.
1984		A. Cox [film title] Repo Man.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 368: The repo man got Greg’s car yesterday.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 50: The boom is over now and the repo men are at the door.
2014		M. McBride Swollen Red Sun 136: His shed waited where the repo man had left it.