settle someone's hash
verb1
Idiomatic To physically or verbally subdue someone.
- Wait and see old Caleb Quirk get into the box. I'll settle his hash in half a minute.1851, S. G. Warren, Ten Thousand a Year, Jesper Harding, page 344:
- “But wait till I light on you, no matter where it is, I’ll settle your hash for a bit, yer little swine!”1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 13”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
1 more example
- 2004 July 8–14, "Devious Rabbit Tricks Bush Into Signing Gun Ban", The Onion, available in Embedded in America, →ISBN, page 202, "Sez Pezziden' Bush, sezee, 'I'm gwine ter settle yo' hash, ole Rabbit....'"