Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to clothe; thus rigged out or rigged up, dressed (up).

1605		Chapman & Jonson Eastward Ho! I i: If a privy search should be made, what sort of furniture are you rigged now?
1626		Jonson Staple of News II i: She is not rigged, sir; setting forth some lady Will cost as much as furnishing a fleet.
1640		The Wandering Jew 35: Some Gally-asse richly rigg’d, and I warrant richly laden.
1676		Wycherley Plain-Dealer IV i: You shall see how I rigg’d my Squire out, with the remains of my shipwracked Wardrobe.
1686–88		‘The Invincible Pride of Women’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 21: Is it her forecast to contrive to rise about the hour of Noon, / And if she’s trimm’d and rigg’d by five, why this I count is very soon.
1696		J. Dunton Night-Walker Sept. 16: I met with a Gentlewoman very finely rigg’d.
c.1700		London-Bawd (1705) 67: [He] soon perceived how he had been impos’d upon; and furnish’d him with more money to new Rig himself.
1713		W. King York Spy 32: After we were rigg’d, we took a Walk into the Town.
1723		C. Walker Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 17: The Hospitable Dame [...] soon rigg’d her out fit to adorn the Side-Box at an Opera.
1732		Proceedings Old Bailey 5 July 169/2: I ask’d him how he came to be so well Rigg’d?
1744		Newcastle Courant 23 June 2/3: We all contributed to new rig her. My Morning Gown made her a Gown and Petticoat.
1748–49		Cleland Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 13: In were brought two bundles of linen and wearing apparel; in short, all the necessaries for rigging me out, as they termed it, compleatly.
1757		Foote Author in Works (1799) I 136: He’s very young, and exceedingly well rigg’d.
1775		Gentleman’s Mthly Intelligencer Aug. 409/1: Every doxy that had been constant in the harbour, was now new rigged at the expence of her lover.
c.1780		Correct List of the Sporting Ladies [broadsheet] She is extremely well rigged from head to Stern, being lately in keeping by Ned Neptune, a jolly Tar.
1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 62: We shortly after rigged her with an entire new and very neat change of wearables.
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 93: By G— thou art a tight little frigate, and well rigg’d too.
1808		B. Bradshaw Hist. of Billy Bradshaw 16: I had new-rigged her also from the heel upwards.
1818		Byron Beppo v: You like by way of doublet, cape, or cloak, Such as in Monmouth Street, or in Rag Fair, would rig you out in seriousness or joke.
1821–5		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 212: Rigged out in full holiday canonicals.
1833		‘The Chummies’ Society’ Fun Alive O! 54: I rigged my two ’prentices out.
1836		D. Crockett in Meine Crockett Almanacks (1955) 54: Betsey herself come out all rigged up in her best bib and tucker.
1841		‘Go For Go: or a Bit On The Sly’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 15: He rigged himself out from top to toe.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. III 59: So good a one that you’d never know him if you met him, rigged up as he now is!
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 358: I think I’m pretty tidily rigged – eh?
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 26 Feb. n.p.: Josh returned home a little earlier [...] to ‘rig up,’ as he termed it.
1855		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 May 60/1: His Majesty's Band has been rigged out in new (imitation) kinkaub uniforms with caps of the same material,.
1856		G.G. Foster N.Y. by Gas-Light (1990) 176: But the bonnet! – that is the crowning achievement of the out-door adornment of the full-rigged g’hal.
1856		Abbeville Banner (SC) 19 June 1/5: His mother [...] rigged out in a beautiful jacket.
1861		Hills & Plains I 115: Full-rigged Mrs. Ochter, with the yacht Esther gliding along in her wake, sailed graciousily in.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 114/1: She rigged me out, and kept me, till I run away again.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 36/1: I ‘piped’ a good-looking soldier —an officer, I think, he was, by the way he was rigged. [Ibid.] 63/2: She rigged up in her best, and when all was ready he hoisted her [...] to Fred Hogg’s.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 97: It was Cornet O'Leary rigged / Up as his counterpart!
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 356: Being rigged out in the clothes I have endeavoured to describe [the prisoner] is taken down to the railway station at Horrabridge.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 27: She [i.e. the female thief] must, above all things, be well dressed. Thus ‘rigged,’ she makes her descent upon a fashionable jeweller, or dealer in other costly articles of female luxury.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 199: Old Bill came up, rigged out just as I had seen him so many times before.
1897		E.W. Townsend Chimmie Fadden 35: Well, I had me buttons off, and was rigged up in me new dude harness.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 135: Rigged meself out like the Duke of Barnet Fair.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Jan. 13/2: There will now be a hatter and a shoemaker [...] in the Labor corner, and if tailor John M’Mahon at last gets in for Fitzroy, the corner will be able to rig-out the whole House, if it only gets the job.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Out for the Day and In for the Night’ Sporting Times 9 June 1/4: She was rigged up regardless of cost, as if cash / Was no object, when used in such sort / As to yield a result calculated to smash / All the donahs who lived up her court.
1902		Sun (NY) 12 Oct. 18/2: Dippy’s wife rigged herself out in about a million dollars’ worth of the happy fall rags .
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Ethics of Pig’ Gentle Grafter (1915) 227: He was rigged up in the ready-made rutabaga regalia.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 189: Oh, Lanty will rig you out!
1920		F. Packard White Moll 259: Maybe you think it’s easy to get all this Gypsy Nan stuff off me face [...] and rig up in my own clothes that I haven’t seen for so long.
1922		‘Sapper’ Black Gang 350: I shall rig myself out here, after Ted arrives.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 285: Jeez, I’m sorry I’m not rigged up better.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 182: Her mother rigged up in dull black, edged with yellowish lace.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 65: He rigged himself out like a Texas ranger of old.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 87: It wasn’t the sort of job you could ever boast about in Borstal, but at least it kept me alive, and rigged my brothers and sister in good clothes.

2. in fig. use, to ‘patch up’.

1885		C.F. Lummis letter 10 Jan. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 241: With my perfect health [...] the bone must knit very fast, and I shall be fully-rigged again.
1915		C.E.W. Bean Anzac Book 132: We keep their clothing up to dick, / Equip and arm ’em, too; / We rig out the returning sick / Almost as good as new.