kick ass and take names

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

kick ass and take names (third-person singular simple present kicks ass and takes names, present participle kicking ass and taking names, simple past kicked ass and took names, past participle kicked ass and taken names)

1. (idiomatic, US, Canada, colloquial) To beat someone in a competition, fight, or other situation.
   • 1987, Pat Conroy, The Lords of Discipline, page 394:

     We kick ass and take names and call muster.

   • 1990, David H. Hackworth, Julie Sherman, About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior, page 217:

     Hell, I thought, if I were wearing that star, I'd kick ass and take names and have this place turned upside down in a week.

   • 2012, Robert Fitzpatrick, Betrayal, page 17:

     “Fitz,” Assistant Director Roy McKinnon said the day he summoned me to his office at headquarters in Washington in late 1980, “we need an Irishman to go to Boston to kick ass and take names.”