walk

   1. (the streets) to be a prostitute

   Seldom tout court, but if so used, the confusion may be considerable. In 1891 Daisy Hopkins was sentenced to fourteen days in prison by the University Court of Cambridge after being accused of walking with a member of the university. A higher court on appeal, perhaps unversed in euphemism, held this to have been no offence:

    Women walking the streets for tricks to take to their 'pads'. (L. Armstrong, 1955)

   2. to be dismissed from employment

   The usage wrongly implies a voluntary departure:

    Thing is, I give you maybe three, four years, you'll walk. (Diehl, 1978, suggesting such dismissal)

   Also of dismissal from courtship or cohabitation.

   3. to be stolen

   Normally of small tools or army kit, attributing powers of locomotion to inanimate objects rather than accusing one of your mates of theft. Such objects may also go for a walk:

    Hitherto, under state control, the biggest problem had been bits disappearing off the engines — even whole exhibits going for a walk. {Sunday Telegraph, 7 February 1999, reporting on the Nairobi Railway Museum)

   4. (in cricket) to acknowledge dismissal before the umpire's adjudication

   Euphemistic only in the negative, where not to walk implies bad sportsmanship:

    Gooch's initial movement suggested that he was going to walk, which might have deceived the umpire. {Daily Telegraph, 27 January 1995 — he was given out incorrectly)

   5. to escape deserved punishment or obtain early release from prison

   A shortened form of walk free from court or jail:

    'Havistock is going to walk, isn't he?' 'Sure he is,' Al said. 'What could we charge him with?' (Sanders, 1986)

    ... the most they'll get is twenty years, walk in seven or eight. (Clancy, 1989)

   Whence, to secure an acquittal:

    I've never had a client I've walked on a murder charge go out and do it again. (R. N. Patterson, 1996/2 — but how could an innocent man be a recidivist?)

   6. American unsportingly to throw a ball at a striker which he cannot reach

   From baseball:

    They boo their own pitchers if they 'walk' him — that is, deliberately throw wides he cannot reach, allowing him a free saunter to first base rather than run the risk of letting him blast one into the stands. (Daily Telegraph, 5 September 1998)

   7.(out/with/out with)

   to court

   The usage has survived the days when preliminary courtship was a pedestrian affair:

    You'll dance at the hops with me, ride with me, but you won't walk with me. (Cookson, 1967)

    Caleb was 'walkin' a maid out'. (Agnus, 1900)

    Donald Campbell... who for many years has walked out with Julie Christie, the actress... {Daily Telegraph, 28 December 2000)