drygulch

See also: dry-gulch

English

WOTD – 9 September 2010

"Take care not to be drygulched after the bend, stranger..."

Alternative forms

• dry gulch
• dry-gulch

Etymology

Because in the American West, outlaws often killed people as they passed through a dry gulch; or because cattle rustlers drove stolen animals off the edge of such a gulch. (ref. John Ayto 1998)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹʌɪɡʌltʃ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹaɪ.ɡʌlt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

drygulch (third-person singular simple present drygulches, present participle drygulching, simple past and past participle drygulched)

1. (US, slang) To murder; to attack, assault, especially in an ambush.
   • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, page 77:

     ‘Then one of them got into the car and dry-gulched me.’

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, pages 722–3:

     You've delivered yourselves into the hands of capitalists and Christers, and anybody wants to change any of that steps across ’at frontera, they're drygulched on the spot—though I'm sure you'd know how to avoid that, Dwayne.