Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to hang; cite 1767 refers to an attempted suicide; thus n. tuck-up a judicial hanging.

1724		Hist. of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard 39: Mr. Wild reply’d, I cannot do it. You are certainly a dead Man and will be tuck’d up very speedily.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 341: He rode very contentedly to the Place of Execution, where he was tuck’d up with as little Ceremony as usual.
1741		Richardson Pamela I 138: I never saw an Execution but once, and then the Hangman ask’d the poor Creature’s Pardon, [...] and then calmly tuck’d up the Criminal.
1750		F. Coventry Hist. of Pompey Little (1785) I 40/2: While I was expecting every hour to be tucked up, his majesty [...] took pity on me the very day before execution.
1767		Derby Mercury 11 Sept. 3/1: A few Days ago a Lady [...] having lost a Considerable Sum at Gaming, was so charhin’d that she tucked herself up in her own Bed-chamber but fortunately her maid came in, and cut her down.
1769		London Mag. Jan. 43/1: I shall have you hang’d, you shall swing for it, you dog, you shall be tuck’d up, you shall dangle.
c.1780		‘On Newgate Steps Jack Chance was Found’ 🎵 No Popery made the blade to swing. / And when tuckd up he was, just the thing.
1793		F. Reynolds How to Grow Rich III ii: I’m to be tucked up for only squeezing a hare!
1800		‘The Tight Little Island’ Jovial Songster 54: The Spanish armada set out to invade-a, / Quite sure if they ever came nigh land, / They cou’dn’t do less than tuck up queen Bess.
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 334: Being positively assured [...] that you were going to [...] amuse yourselves, by tucking up an admiral and his captain.
1831		Satirist (London) 11 Dec. 291/1: The tuck up of that murderous wretch Holloway, is likely to produce an abundant tuck in among the killing fraternity.
1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 278: The hammerin’ of the carpenters seems to strike your ears as they erect the gallus; and then his struggles like a dog tucked up for sheep stealin’, are as nateral as life.
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 22 Sept. 35/2: If him no mend his manners, somebody else tuck him up, what call Massa Jack Ketch.
1840		E. Howard Jack Ashore II 155: My wife is going to be hung – I’ve been nabbed for debt – I am bound over to appear at ’sizes agin Poll, and thus, after a way, help to tuck her up.
1850		J.C. Neal Pic-nic Sketches 50: Jist to have writs served upon it, or to be tuck up for debts and assault and battery.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 250: ‘All right,’ says the bottom sheriff, ‘I’ll tuck him up at eight o’clock tomorrow mornin’ without fail.’.
1869		Australasian (Melbourne) 17 July 8/5: [T]o to be hanged is to be topped, tucked up, turned up, stretched.
1884		(con. 1715) A. Griffiths Chronicles of Newgate 134: Several had tried to get out by breaking through the press-yard wall, ‘from which they were to be let down by a rope, instead of being tucked up by one at Tyburn.’.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 63: They were all to be tucked-up on Pickerton Heath where the gallows was erected.
1936		L. Pound ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 200: Tuck up.

2. (Aus./UK Und., also tuck) to imprison, to arrest.

1838		Paul Pry 30 Sept. 183/3: [H]e generally waits on a debt for a palmer [...] and then gets his poor tool, George, to tuck him up the next day under ‘orders from the plaintiff’.
1910		Truth (Perth) 1 Oct. 4/7: And he’s ‘tucked up nice and snug’ / In the ‘booby-hatch’ or ‘jug’ .
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Tucked - apprehended, imprisoned.

3. to defraud, to steal from.

1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 229: In the right hands every cash dispenser in London could’ve been tucked-up.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Healthy Competition’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] He’s been tucked up something chronic by that best mate of his.

4. see take up v.