down the banks

Meanings

Noun

• a severe criticism, scolding, reprimand, or punishment

Prepositional phrase

• in prison

Related

Similar words

• a bollocking, a dressing-down, a tongue-lashing
• , eat the head off someone

Origin

• Unknown. Probably of Irish origin.
• Notes & Queries, 3rd series, volume 1 (8 March 1862), page 189 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, , page 571
• The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006, , volume 1 A–I, page 646