Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 123/2: Amongst the foremost to ‘duke’ me upon entering was Squib Dixon.
1895		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 .
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 63: DOOK-ME Aust. thieves and push shake hands with me.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Sept. 4/7: I waits out by ther cab an’ tries ter dook ’er.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 48: Duke me, sis, duke me.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘Easy Picking’ in Taking the Count 308: ‘Duke me, kid!’ [...] he smiled frankly and extended his glove.
1914		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.
1915		Honk! 28 Jan. 2/2: My hand is dead sore from ‘ringing dookes with ’em’.
1918		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.
1923		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/4: I fronts ’im. ‘Dook me, brother,’ ses I. ‘Didn’t I meet you at Dubbo?’.
1927		Ellesmere Guardian 27 May 4/3: ‘We Dook the Duke‘ meant We shake hands with the Duke.
1936		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?
1940		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.
1953		A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 134: The Kid duked him with aplomb.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1975		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).

1915		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’.
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 8: Duke me – Hand it to me.
1942		‘Spielers’ in Botkin Sidewalks of America (1954) 267: You [...] duke him, that is, you hand him the article and say thanks.
1953		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.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 138: I can dook you a caser if it’s any good to you.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 93: Don’t go around dookin’ a few bob to every bot that puts the hard word on yer.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 210: What you sniffin’ on, bro? Pecker duke it on y’all – free o’ charge.
1978		H.C. Baker I was Listening 41: You [...] just dooks yerself a good hand from the bottom of the pack [AND].
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 87: What you got to do is duke the guy five now and then.
1990		(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.
2000		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.

[1850		Glasgow Gaz. 2 Nov. 1/5: The shrieks of various young Paisley ‘scuddies’ getting penny-worths of ‘dooking’ from their mithers].
1935		(con. late 1920s) L. Hughes Little Ham Act I: I don’t duel, I duke.
1945		C. Himes If He Hollers 127: ‘I was going down to the A.C. on Thirty-fifth Street, learning how to duke’.
1959		H. Salisbury Shook-Up Generation (1961) 171: DUKE To fight (with fists).
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 48: I had no balls for fighting, and they could duke.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: duking, ducking v. fighting or, at least, looking tough.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 27: The gamblers snatch their money from the green felt table and give the combatants room to duke in.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 156: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Fox. Dime. Duke. Dap.

4. to inform.

1968

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.

1995

L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.

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

2012

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.