ruboutn.
/ˈrʌbaʊt/, U.S. /ˈrəbˌaʊt/ U.S. slang.
A murder, an assassination, esp. of one gangster by another.
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the world > life > death > killing > man-killing or homicide > murder or assassination > [noun]
murderingeOE
murderOE
banec1175
morth gamec1275
morth spellc1275
slaughterc1325
murdermenta1400
murderdom1514
massacre1589
remove1592
assassinate1596
assassinment1602
assassination1610
assassinacy1611
assassinaya1641
removal1655
murderation1715
murdrum1767
thugdom1839
aliicide1868
hatchet job1925
liquidation1925
rubout1927
murder one1966
neutralization1971
1927 D. Hammett in Black Mask May 11/2 The hombre she blamed for Paddy's rub-out.
1934 Sun (Baltimore) 21 Aug. 7/1 Another..witness is Mrs...Fontaine, alleged ‘gang-girl’ associate of ‘Big George’ Phillips wounded in one ‘rub out’ attempt.
1953 Sun (Baltimore) 12 June 34/3 Police marked down the Messina murder as one of Baltimore's extremely rare gangland rubouts.
1977 Time 10 Jan. 22/1 In what was clearly a political rub-out, the couple..had been killed by at least a dozen shots.
2006 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 5 Mar. iv. 5/3 A young Gigante, still making his bones, shot but only grazed Costello in a failed rubout attempt.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1927