Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, also corner up) to put someone into a difficult or embarrassing position.

1824		Mass. Spy 21 Apr. n.p.: Cornered up so unexpectedly, she candidly confessed [DA].
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 109: CORNERED, hemmed in a corner, placed in a position from which there is no escape – American.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple II 268: If only I had capital enough. It’s that I’m cornered for.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 14/1: Foley’s latest offer to box for the love of the thing and pay his expenses over to Sydney cannot fail to corner the Victorian, and he must now accept or forever hold his peace.
1894		‘Mark Twain’ Pudd’nhead Wilson 166: Wilson detected it in his hand [...] and charged him with it, and cornered him up so close that he had to confess.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Scandal and the Weather’ Sporting Times 16 July 1/4: She had me cornered when she said, ‘I’m like you and the rest, / I am saying what I think about the weather!’.
1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 28: ‘We’re non-unionists, friend!’ admitted my hobo mate, finding himself cornered.

2. to perform a confidence trick whereby shoddy goods are sold by pretending they are high-grade stolen property and playing on the ‘thrill’ some people derive from such a purchase; thus cornering n.

1977

D. Powis Signs of Crime 179: Corner, to; or cornering The criminal practices of (a) selling shoddy goods by pretending falsely they are high-class stolen property.

3. to arrange to sell stolen goods and then have fake ‘policemen’ break in, confiscate the goods and threaten the victim with charges of receiving; the charges can, naturally, be dropped in return for a bribe, which is arranged by a fake ‘solicitor’, who makes sure there is no real police involvement by assuring the victim that he has no rights in law and that paying and shutting up is the best thing to do; thus cornering n.

1977

D. Powis Signs of Crime 179: Corner, to; or cornering [...] selling genuinely stolen goods to a greedy and foolish tradesman, receiving his money for the stolen goods and leaving his premises. By arrangement the seller then signals other corrupt persons who, pretending to be honest police officers, enter and search the ‘mug’s’ premises and find the goods. The tradesman will be threatened with a charge of ‘receiving’, the property seized and privily returned to the first conspirator to be re-sold or used again for another ‘cornering’. The tradesman will then be blackmailed, by a middleman or stakeholder, who alleges he is able to bribe and influence the police or even the courts. He will skilfully play this part, posing as the friend of the dupe.