To reduce to helplessness.
1829. I want to lay out [this candidate] as cold as a wedge.—Mass. Spy, July 22: from The Savannah Mercury.
1850. Gentlemen of the South, you have us in your power. All I ask is that, after you have laid us out cold, you will not point us out as having been bought dog-cheap.—Mr. Hale of N. Hampshire, U.S. Senate, April 17: Cong. Globe, p. 759. [The allusion is to John Randolph’s famous taunt.]
1885. Old Tecumseh and myself hold on, two tough old knots, with a good deal of the steel in us yet, and quite enough vitality to lay out any number of those who pride themselves on what they can do.—Admiral D. D. Porter, ‘Incidents of the Civil War,’ p. 174.
