dust someone's jacket
Archaic British slang meaning to give someone a beating or thrashing.
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#1·Apr 28, 2026
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.
Origin: Euphemistic idiom treating a beating as if one were simply knocking dust from someone's clothing; a common 19th-century British slang pattern. Editorial expansion authored on Slangora (model-assisted, hedged).
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#2·Apr 27, 2026
(slang, archaic) To give someone a beating.
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