Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Und.) to lure a victim into a confidence game.

1732		Progress of a Rake 41: And all the while, to lug him in, / Each swore he’d rather lose than win.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 1/1: ‘Lugging’ is a potent factor with the guns who infest racecourses.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 123: It is almost uncanny the way some of these officers can pick out a thief who is lugging a sucker.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 301: To lug. To steer a mark for a confidence game.

2. to escort someone, to bring along a companion.

[1734		J. Gay Distressd Wife II viii: You are Beast enough to be fond of the Country, I find, and I am to be lugg’d thither to keep you Company].
1822		Tom And Jerry; Musical Extravaganza II ii: The law shall take its course – I’ll ring my creaks and lug you off; and charge you for robbery.
1833		S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 122: Forty old maidens, some younger, some older, / Each lugged an old bachelor home on her shoulder.
1841		‘Miseries Of Matrimony’ Dublin Comic Songster 78: They lugg’d me off to prison straight.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 Feb. 3/2: Mr Chjarles Turner, publican [...] was lugegd up by his better half, who stood sentry over him with her parasol.
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 19: He was lugged off and took down in that there place.
1859		Shoreditch Obs. (London) 10 Dec. 3/5: The bobby touches me on the shoulder [...] and says ‘Come along’ [...] and he lugs me off here.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 22/2: He was lugged out and the next case called.
1890		Sporting Times 1 Feb. 5/5: I lugged him all over Notre Dame.
1904		Sun (NY) 10 July 29/4: Here is a genuine letter written in thieves’ slang, recently found by the English police [...] The noise of the milling the glass brought tray flies. She chucked a reeler and was lugged before the beak and fine[d] a bull.
1926		Kipling ‘Propagation of Knowledge’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 226: Then lug in Claude Halcro in the Pirate.
1940		J.G. Brandon Gang War 160: Sorry to lug you out so early in the morning.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 191: Lug around (a person) To have an unpleasant person in one’s company because of orders received or a sale to be made.

3. to arrest or imprison.

1832		Satirist (London) 21 Oct. 338/4: [T]he defendants were ‘lugged’ off to the station-house.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 47: Lugged Before the Beak, brought before a magistrate.
1901		B. Pain De Omnibus 38: The gent wud twig as ’e were tight, an’ likely git ’im lugged fur bein’ drunk while drivin’ ’is keb.
1997		G.V. Higgins Change of Gravity [ebook] [H]e’d end up going back inside again. If he ever gets lugged again and almost anything’d do it.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 101: I won’t mind that I got lugged and I’m gonna hafta spend the next eight years my life beatin’ my meat.

4. to lure a victim into a place where they can be robbed and beaten.

1923

Gippsland Times(Vic.) 29 Jan. 3/2: ‘Lugging a man’ is the term used for enticing a person to some place where he can be robbed and assaulted.