To throw someone (be thrown) out. The term, American and dating from the 1920s, comes from the practice of bartenders and bouncers throwing out customers who are drunk and unruly, unlikely to pay their bills, or otherwise considered a disturbance. The expression may also be related to another meaning of bum—backside—in that such evictions are often physical and may indeed involve a kick in the pants, or worse. In 1925 Liam O’Flaherty wrote (in The Informer), “They might give him ‘the bum’s rush,’ breaking his neck silently.”