give someone goss

English

Verb

give someone goss (third-person singular simple present gives someone goss, present participle giving someone goss, simple past gave someone goss, past participle given someone goss)

1. (US, slang, archaic) To beat or thrash someone.
   • 1846, William Trotter Porter, A Quarter Race in Kentucky: And Other Sketches, page 115:

     An assistant about the theatre grappled him, and they were soon upon the floor engaged in a regular rough-and-tumble fight. Two-thirds of the foot-lights were at once kicked over, while shouts of "Fair play," "Turn 'em out," "Give him goss," "No gouging," were heard on all sides.

   • 1856, Q. K. Philander Doesticks, Plu-ri-bus-tah, page 59:

     "Give the red man Goss!" she told him;
     "Drive him westward from the forest, […]
     Chase him west, with fire and fagot,
     Give him Goss! for he's no business,
     Business none, to be an Injun."

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary