Beat slang - to be banned, as in told to leave, usually permanently, i.e., "Don't ever come back."

Also, the name of a comic by Ian Boothby dealing with his employment and lifestyle on the site of and at the time of Vancouver's Expo 86.

Term used in the restaurant business. To 86 something means that every last particle of it is gone.

ex."86 the trout!" means we have no more trout left, therefore the trout is all gone.

To "86" something is to throw away or discard it. It's beat slang. According to the dictionary, "86" possibly came from Chumley's Bar and Restaurant in Greenwich Village which was at 86 Bedford Street.

On the '60s TV show Get Smart, Agent 86 was the central character Maxwell Smart's code name. He was married to Agent 99, who was never referred to by her real name. (Typical sixties, eh?) Maxwell Smart was played by Don Adams, who later went on to voice a similar character on the animated kids' TV series Inspector Gadget.

Another possible origin of the tem “86” can be attributed to the United States Navy.

It seems they used something called an “allowance type” (AT) aboard warships that indicated why certain parts were being kept in stock. Since many of the parts were either subject to upgrades, replacement or had become obsolete they were each assigned what was known as an “AT” code.

After World War II was over many of the ships in the fleet were either decommissioned, sold off for scrap or simply mothballed until the Navy could determine what to do with them. While they were dry docked, workers aboard the ship would take an inventory of the spare parts and those that could be discarded or were no longer useful were given the term AT-6 and the term has since become synonymous with throwing something away or discarding it entirely.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.