Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also plank on, ...out, ...up) to pay money down, to lay out money, esp. when done without quibbling.

1835		D. Crockett Col. Crockett’s Tour to North and Down East 59: He had made a power of money; and during the last war planked up more gold and silver to lend the government than Benton ever counted.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 152: Why, says he, shell out, and plank down a pile of dollars.
1853		W.G. Simms Sword and the Distaff 273: ‘Plank down agin the heap, both of you.’ The money was counted.
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 1 Oct. n.p.: They planked down twenty-five cents each.
1859		Argus (Melbourne) 30 Apr. 4/6: [A] glossary is sometimes necessary to enable English readers to comprehend [...] American journals ! What, for example, is the meaning of ‘dod-derned’ and ‘dog-gone,’ of [...] ‘some pumpkins’? of ‘dreadful slick,’ ‘everlasting cus,’ [...] ‘planking-down,’ and ‘dumfoozled’?
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America II 231: It is the wicked father-in-law who won’t ‘plank down’ the dollars at the proper time.
1875		M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 46: ‘You needn’t try that game on me,’ said the gatekeeper. ‘So just plank down your money or stay outside.’.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 345: I plank out your share of the dollars regular.
1884		Sporting Times 1 Nov. 3/5: Their get-up is usually of the classiest, and certainly they used to plank down their dibs.
1886		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 29 May 14/3: Men who plank down the hard cash are seldom to be heard beefing unless they have lost.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 100: All right, plank her [i.e. wager] up.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 228: Arizona Bill and his mate, who were ready [...] ‘to plank down considerable dollars’.
1889		‘’Arry on Chivalry’ in Punch 20 July 177: You don’t catch him planking on Chivalry.
1891		G.R. Sims ‘A Tale of a Tub’ Dagonet Ditties 150: Plank down your dollars, Yankee boys.
1894		‘Mark Twain’ Pudd’nhead Wilson 87: In de fust place, you gits fifty dollahs a month; you’s gwine to han’ over half of it to yo’ ma. Plank it out!
1895		Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] He knows a Good Thing When He Sees It 🎵 And he’d planked down his all on the cert.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Oct. 24/2: George Frederick ’ll win it; there’s nothing else in it; / It’s a moral, I tell yer, ’e’ll smother ’em dead. / An’ listen to me, sir, I’m no blanky geyser, / I tell yer I know what the beggar can do; / It’s no bloomin’ guiver; you scrape up a fiver / An’ plank it on now ’e’s at fifty to two.
1900		Marvel XIV:344 June 5: Well, gaffer, you’ve planked down the thick-’uns straight so far.
1901		B. Pain De Omnibus 99: ‘Whart ’ave you done with thet bob?’ ‘Planked it on a ’orse,’ says Jimes.
1910		Marvel 15 Oct. 5: I planks down my bit of brass.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 July 2nd sect. 10/6: The ‘Tommy,’ [...] picked out a horse, and the ex-Crowland gent planked bis sovereign on.
1914		Dubbo Liberal (NSW) 4 Dec. 6/3: The trio toed the mark in the hall of justice, the former finding it necessary to plank up five quidlets.
1917		B.E.F. Times 15 Aug. (2006) 208/1: You can plank up your diamond tiaras that that’s out of the wrong pew.
1920		Sun (Sydney) 26 Feb. 6/5: Felix Nella, yer see, ’adn’t won a race for a dog’s age; though, mind yer, the good coin ’ud been planked down dozens of times.
c.1921		T. Norman Penny Showman 69: To see the public rush [...] and plank down their sixpences, made even the cashier smile.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 158: His lady friend derived a vicarious excitement from ‘planking on’ five hundreds and thousands for him.
1939		Rover 18 Feb. 3: Happy planked down his five dollars on the table.
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 70: He [...] dug his hand in his pocket and planked down half a crown.
1983		W.F Marshall ‘Sunt Lachrymae Rerum’ in Livin’ in Drumlister 55: Away I went, / Content, / For he planked me down / A half-a-crown.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 135: He would reach with awful ceremony into his pocket and plank her winnings down on the kitchen table.

2. to place, to put down.

1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 104: How dare you plank down this drunk in here, my private room, sir?
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 247: The players dragged over and planked themselves down, facing him.
1938		G. Greene Brighton Rock (1943) 71: He [...] planked the receiver down.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 14: The suitcase was the damnedest thing you ever saw. [...] I planked it down in front of him.
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 117: She planked the cup of tea down in front of her.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 65: Next day she actually bought me a packet of ten Gold Flake and planked them down in front of me.

(US) the speedy handing over a payment or debt.

1859

Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 7/3: Did he pay the livery stable man ‘2:40 on the plank road’.

1. to sleep on the floor.

1858

Bell’s Life in Sydney 21 Aug. 3/2: She extended the rights of hospitality so extensively as voluntarily to relinquish her couch to her visitors, contented to ‘plank it’ for the night.

2. (Irish) to be anxious.

2001

G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Plankin’ it (phr): very nervous.