dust down

(slang, archaic) To pay up, especially in cash; to settle one’s accounts, to lay down one’s money.

(transitive) To remove dust from.

(transitive, slang) To jilt or desert (a person).

Archaic British slang meaning to give someone a beating or thrashing. The phrase uses the humorous pretence of 'dusting' a jacket — knocking the dust out of it — as a euphemism for punching and hitting someone. It belongs to the colourful vocabulary of 19th-century slang for physical punishment.