hang it up v.
1. to stop doing something, often as abandoning crime.
‘English Sl.’ in Eve. Telegram (N.Y.) 9 Dec. 1/5: Let us present a few specimens:– [...] ‘Hang it up.’. | ||
Scene (1996) 88: I’m thinkin about hangin it up [...] just coppin enough from Puck to keep Connie straight. | ||
No Beast So Fierce 11: I can root in some fool’s cash register — but I want to hang it up. | ||
Dolores Claiborne 170: Either you part with an inch of the Jim Beam [...] or we hang it up for tonight. | ||
Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] : hang it up n. to stop coming to prison, to retire from one's career as a criminal [...] hang the boots up = hang the toothbrush [...] hang up (one’s) balaclava (also hang up (one’s) crowbar) = hang the toothbrush . |
2. (US Und.) to escape from prison.
Joint (1972) 14: There is another and better way to hang it up, which is to have a car pick me up on the road where the crew is working. | letter 25 Feb. in
3. to give up trying, to accept defeat, to acknowledge that a target will never be achieved; .
Bounty of Texas (1990) 206: hang it up, v. -[...] not to get into trouble anymore. | ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy||
About Three Bricks Shy of a Load 132: ‘That New York game, I was ready to hang it up in pregame warm-ups. You get those feelings, people don’t realize’. | ||
Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. | ||
Rivethead (1992) 146: Sooner or later, the vultures would hang it up. |