down the banks

Etymology
. Probably of Irish origin.


 * Notes & Queries, 3rd series, volume 1 (8 March 1862), page 189 posits a connection with "down the khud", supposedly used of a person falling down a precipice in the Himalayas.
 * Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (1998) suggests falling off the raised bank of a bog into muddy water.
 * Bernard Share (Slanguage, 1997) suggests a link to "The Banks of my own Lovely Lee", a Cork anthem nicknamed "De Banks".

See also:
 * Laurence Urdang, Walter W. Hunsinger, Nancy LaRoche, Picturesque expressions: a thematic dictionary (1985, ISBN 0810316064, page 571
 * The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006, ISBN 0415259371, volume 1 A–I, page 646

Noun

 * 1)  a severe criticism, scolding, reprimand, or punishment
 * 2) * 1855, Albany Register, "An Independent Voter" (reprinted in Supplement to the Connecticut Courant, volume 20, number 27, page 211):
 * Independent woters ain't the chalk—and the K. Ns. has done it!— They've spiled the trade. Sam's done it—Amerikins has done it! Take 'em up for interfeerin' with other people's bisness. Give 'em down the banks; send em up ninety days; give em that,"—and he struck straight out at an imaginary head, with a force that sent him with a lurch across the sidewalk, up against the side of the buildings.

Usage notes

 * Typically A gives B down the banks; B gets down the banks from A.

Synonyms

 * see also Thesaurus:reprehend
 * a bollocking, a dressing-down, a tongue-lashing
 * chew someone out, someone

Prepositional phrase

 * 1)  in prison
 * 2) * 1852 April, "Flavul", The Knickerbocker, volume 39, page 336, "Transcripts from the docket of a late Sheriff of New-York":
 * was (and, if he has not gone &apos;down the banks,' is) a gentleman such as we frequently see at the watering-places; a leader of the select parties there congregated. I became acquainted with Fitzjames in my way of making new friends. I had professional engagements with him, and from the name of 'the plaintiff,' I concluded it grew out of a sporting debt. Ah, Heberton, in that you were nearly gone &apos;down the banks!'
 * 1) * 1855, Albany Register, "An Independent Voter" (reprinted in Supplement to the Connecticut Courant, volume 20, number 27, page 211):
 * A independent woter ain't the cheese any longer. The Stars is out in all kinds o' weather, and if they shines on a feller when he's got half a dozen glasses on board, the Watch-us', Squire Cole, and ten days down the banks, is the word!