To play a joke on someone; also, to murder someone. As a euphemism for murder, this term was American underworld slang that became popular with mystery novelists of the 1930s and 1940s. Thus, Eric Ambler wrote (Journey into Fear, 1940), “He was to be ‘taken for a ride.’” In the meaning of playing a trick or deceiving someone, the term is slightly older, being so defined in Dialect Notes in 1925. J. P. McEvoy used this version in Hollywood Girl (1929): “She certainly took him for a ride.”