"smackdown"

[Fred Shapiro]

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:

> Does anyone have an example of _smackdown_ before the 1999
> debut of _WWF Smackdown!_? I'm looking for it specifically
> in the sense 'a beating; defeat; confrontation', _not_ in
> phrases of the sort _lay_ (or _put_) _the smack down_.

1990 _Windsor Star_ 27 Dec. [article beginning on page A11] (Factiva)  No
fewer than four students have been suspended for smooching in violation of
Allan Herchek's edict, pushing Lamont to the brink of a campus revolt.
... The kids in Lamont think his smackdown reeks of Orwellian rule.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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