Eighty-Six

[deckardcanine]

The slang term “86,” a verb,
Refers to kicking to the curb.
It launched in U.S. restaurants
And bars but moved to other haunts
Where customers can be refused.
It also has a noun form used
In reference to spent supplies
Or no more serving certain guys.
More broadly, it can mean “remove”
Or even “kill” (I don’t approve).

It may have come from soda jerks
With coded jargon. Think that works?
Another theory names it for
The number of an exit door
At Chumley’s Pub, which thus conveyed
A flight from Prohibition raids.
The story Merriam-Webster picks
Is simply rhyming slang for “nix,”
Tho that’s a mostly Cockney thing,
Not common for the states to bring.