Green’s Dictionary of Slang

duke v.1

[duke n.3 (1); note WWI Aus. milit. dook ’im one, to salute]

1. (also dook (it), duke it, ring the dukes) to shake hands, to welcome.

[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 123/2: Amongst the foremost to ‘duke’ me upon entering was Squib Dixon.
L.G. Tisdale Three Years Behind the Guns 8: A fellow walked up with extended hand and said, ‘Duke me, kid!’ From this gesture I knew it was a handshake and responded .
[Aus]Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 63: DOOK-ME Aust. thieves and push shake hands with me.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Sept. 4/7: I waits out by ther cab an’ tries ter dook ’er.
[US]B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 48: Duke me, sis, duke me.
[US]Van Loan ‘Easy Picking’ in Taking the Count 308: ‘Duke me, kid!’ [...] he smiled frankly and extended his glove.
[Aus]Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 6/1: I hit my veranda shake-down in a few minutes, dooked the landlady, smilled at the cook [and] kissed the housemaid.
[UK]Honk! 28 Jan. 2/2: My hand is dead sore from ‘ringing dookes with ’em’.
Nat. Leader (Brisbane) 6 Sept. 8/1: Are you a Bananalander?’‘Too right,’ I says; and he come over and dooked me with ’is pudgy ’and, like I was a long-lost friend.
[Aus]Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/4: I fronts ’im. ‘Dook me, brother,’ ses I. ‘Didn’t I meet you at Dubbo?’.
[NZ]Ellesmere Guardian 27 May 4/3: ‘We Dook the Duke‘ meant We shake hands with the Duke.
[NZ]G. Meek ‘The Favourite’ in Station Days in Maoriland (1952) 64: Don’t you feel you’d like to dook him as he rattles past to win?
[NZ]G. Meek ‘London’ in Station Days in Maoriland (1952) 100: I always thought that Churchill was a grumpy sort o’ bloke, / But, when I sees his picture dookin’ diggers from New Zea- / I had a sort o’ feelin he was also dookin’ me.
[US]A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 134: The Kid duked him with aplomb.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
[US]J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 79: But that asshole Lieutenant Finque ain’t trying to duke you into the Oriental community by using you as a part time community relations officer at Japanese luncheons.

2. (also dook (it), duke it, ...on) to give out, to hand over; to bribe (see cit. 1953).

Drew & Evans Grifter 8: ‘I just saw you dook Davies back that brummy quid. He didn’t know it was crook [...] but you jerried to it lively’.
[US]Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 8: Duke me – Hand it to me.
[US] ‘Spielers’ in Botkin Sidewalks of America (1954) 267: You [...] duke him, that is, you hand him the article and say thanks.
[Aus]K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 232: I’m dooking all the higher-ups just to keep in sweet so that I don’t get some honest copper winning promotion on me.
[Aus]D. Niland Shiralee 138: I can dook you a caser if it’s any good to you.
[Aus]S. Gore Holy Smoke 93: Don’t go around dookin’ a few bob to every bot that puts the hard word on yer.
[US]A. Brooke Last Toke 210: What you sniffin’ on, bro? Pecker duke it on y’all – free o’ charge.
H.C. Baker I was Listening 41: You [...] just dooks yerself a good hand from the bottom of the pack [AND].
[US]G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 87: What you got to do is duke the guy five now and then.
[US](con. 1930s–60s) H. Huncke Guilty of Everything (1998) 268: The guy that ran the men’s room would then duke you whatever the doorman had written on a note.
[US]G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 109: Now and then I duke Peter a few bucks.

3. (also duck) to fight with the fists.

[Glasgow Gaz. 2 Nov. 1/5: The shrieks of various young Paisley ‘scuddies’ getting penny-worths of ‘dooking’ from their mithers].
[US](con. late 1920s) L. Hughes Little Ham Act I: I don’t duel, I duke.
[US]C. Himes If He Hollers 127: ‘I was going down to the A.C. on Thirty-fifth Street, learning how to duke’.
[US]H. Salisbury Shook-Up Generation (1961) 171: DUKE To fight (with fists).
[US]L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 48: I had no balls for fighting, and they could duke.
[US]H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: duking, ducking v. fighting or, at least, looking tough.
[US]O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 27: The gamblers snatch their money from the green felt table and give the combatants room to duke in.
[US]‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 156: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Fox. Dime. Duke. Dap.

4. to inform.

[US]K. Brasselle Cannibals 314: He had trapped himself with me by duking me into the fact that the articles in Face would be getting worse.

5. (US black) to have sexual intercourse.

[US]L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.

6. in carnival use, to persuade a potential victim to play a (crooked) game.

[US]W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Duke — When a shill (game operator's employee posing as a member of the crowd) persuades someone to play, especially to play a rigged game.

In phrases

big duke (v.)

(Aus. und.) to overwhelm and confuse (a potential victim) with words.

[Aus]Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Apr. 13/7: While, they were ‘big dooking’ the client in one room He would be earwigging in the next.
duke in (v.) [handshaking in both duplicitous and sincere contexts] (US)

1. to introduce, to bring in to a plan or group; also as n.

[UK] in Variety 8 Jan. 123: My sticks duked him in and he went for about 3C’s on a set joint.
[UK] in Partridge DU (1949) 215/1: When the criminal asks to be introduced to another person he says he wanted to be duked in.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 63/2: Duke-in, n. An introduction; a come-on. [...] v. 1. To introduce. 2. To ensnare in a swindle; to induce.
[US]R. Oliver ‘More Carnie Talk’ in AS XLI:4 280: Duke me in on that action.
[US]J. Wambaugh New Centurions 241: ‘It wouldn‘t hurt to try for a prostitution offer. If we get it, we could always try to use them to duke us into the upstairs drinking’.
[US](con. c.1967) J. Ferrandino Firefight 19: Amaro wished he had a joint [...] no one as yet offered to duke him into any.

2. to fool, to trick.

see sense 1.
[US]W.L. Alderson ‘Carnie Talk’ AS XXVIII:2 115: duke ’em in, v. phr. To work a mark into a game (usually flat), to swindle.
[US]Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 14: Con Games which are run on new inmates to fool or exploit them for money or other items. (Archaic: hook, duke in, short con). [Ibid.] 15: Lay a Rap To persuade. (Archaic: duke in).

3. to give a share.

[US]L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 188: You gonna duke me in on the insurance bread?
duke it (v.)

see senses 1 and 2 above.

duke it out (v.) (also duck it out)

1. (US) to fight with fists.

[US]Esquire 64 45: If he throws any sevens, he might have to duke it out with the troublemakers .
[US]S.C. Wilson Time Warp Tales [comic bk] They duked it out with each other way past dawn.
[US]E. Torres Carlito’s Way 7: Me and this black kid ducked it out.
[US]R. Price Blood Brothers 35: How many times you think Cheri came tonight watching you guys duke it out.
[UK]J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 33: If they try to duke it out all somebody is gonna do is shoot ’em.
[UK]M. Dibdin Dark Spectre (1996) 43: Wayne and Dawn have been duking it out again, which is why the call went out as a domestic.
[US]Source Nov. 176: They’ve decided to squash their beef the old-fashioned way, by going into a boxing ring and duking it out.
[UK]N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 139: No one wanted to duke it out, and everyone was looking to ‘stripe’ the next man.

2. to argue, to dispute; to challenge.

[US]D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 53: A chicken-fried steak and cream gravy at Herb’s Café could duke it out with any phony Frenchman who ever wore a chef’s hat.
[US]R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 15: Daddy shouting for her to shut up unless she wanted them to duke it out again.
[UK]Guardian Rev. 3 Feb. 8: Creationists and scientists [...] ended up duking it out in the Supreme Court.
[UK]‘Aidan Truhen’ Seven Demons 47: They are quite comfortable duking it out on the street with your Albanians, your Ukrainians, your Taiwan mob [etc].
duke on (v.)

see sense 2 above.

duke out

see separate entries.