Old British underworld and criminal slang meaning to harm or kill someone — to deliver violence as casually as handing something over.
Old British underworld and criminal slang meaning to harm or kill someone — to deliver violence as casually as handing something over. The euphemistic framing is darkly ironic; handing something out sounds almost generous, which makes the violent meaning hit harder. Like many criminal slang terms, it was designed to be understood in-group while sounding innocuous to outsiders.
Word on the street was they'd hand it out to anyone who crossed them.
Add your own interpretation of "hand it out".
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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(slang) To harm or kill (someone).