catch a body
v. phr.— «Bell added in his statement that they had the intention of “catching a body, but it wasn’t. We didn’t go downtown to catch a body, only Arthur did.” The street term, “to catch a body,” refers to knocking someone down with a punch.» —“Victim just random ‘jump’” by Julie Shaw Philadelphia Daily News (Pennsylvania) June 12, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sign for “telephone” was one fist below your mouth and the other at your ear, as if you’re holding an old-fashioned candlestick...
Brittany in Green Coast Springs, Florida, says that when she was grumpy or irritated as a child, her mother would say a phrase that sounded like Don’t be such a scooch. This bit of Italian-American slang, often rendered as skutch, denotes a “pest”...