Put the Smack Down

Grant Barrett gbarrett at AMERICANDIALECT.ORG
Wed Aug 11 17:46:18 UTC 1999


Came across "Puts the Smack Down" in a headline and asked the author what he thought it meant. Here is his unsubstantiated response. 
>Basically, it's a slang term used typically among the young (as
>most are); it means essentially "to use overwhelming force,
>often suddenly and swifty, to achieve a goal or a victory." It
>does not, however, necessarily indicate that victory was
>achieved, merely that it was sought with sudden and often
>excessive force.

There are a bazillion hits on Altavista. A fan page for the Purdue Boilers defines "put the smack down" as "To deliver consistent, firm justice."

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/attachments/19990811/19044b65/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/quickmail
Size: 1542 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/attachments/19990811/19044b65/attachment-0001.bin>


More information about the Ads-l mailing list