Why does 拉倒 mean "forget about it"? 拉倒 is a word that can mean "forget about it". For example:


  鲁迅 《华盖集续编·马上支日记》：“现在这书既然借不到，只好拉倒了。”


This seems strange though, because 拉倒 literally means "to pull over". What is the etymology of this word? What was being "pulled over" that signified forgetting about something?
拉倒


In a mandarian Chinese, this really means "pull down". However the words are constructing a certain dialect's pronunciations, so you cannot split words from words to understand its meaning. In ShangHai dialect, this means "give up because of no choices or no other ways", "Have to do something narrowly"：

【e.g】既然你不肯给我东西，那就*拉倒*了。（=那就算了）
Since you won't lend me what I want, that's all for that.