To slug it out

Posted by Smokey Stover on September 07, 2004

In Reply to: To slug it out posted by mr.sluggish on September 06, 2004

: Would anyone tell me how "to slug it out" first originated? and how is it applied?

The OED, which which I sometimes disagree to some extent in regard to American slang and colloquial dictions (as I do here), has "Chiefly north. and U.S. slug it out; to fight it out; to stick it out." I have never heard it used as "to stick it out." It comes from the verb "to slug," which in North America means to strike with a hard blow (usually with a fist). Hence, to North Americans, to slug it out means to fight it out with hard blows, certainly not with any finesse or rope-a-dope. When used figuratively, it means trading (figurative) blows. It may have come into the language from the slugs that were used in guns, but, then, it may not have. SS