to use up

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

To discomfit; destroy. Grose has this word, which he calls a military one, meaning killed.


I have promised to write the life of the magician of the North [Mr. Van Buren], and I'll do it; and if, when you read it, you don't say I've used him up, I'm mistaken, that's all.--Crockett, Tour, p. 234.

Moving on the first day of May in New York, has used me up worse than building forty acres of stone wall.--Maj. Downing, May-day in New York.

In 1836, New York went Loco-foco by 26,000 majority, and the Whig party was thought, by its adversaries, to be used up for some years.--N. Y. Tribune, Nov. 1, 1845.

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