Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to stop doing something, often as abandoning crime.

1874		‘English Sl.’ in Eve. Telegram (N.Y.) 9 Dec. 1/5: Let us present a few specimens:– [...] ‘Hang it up.’.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 88: I’m thinkin about hangin it up [...] just coppin enough from Puck to keep Connie straight.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 11: I can root in some fool’s cash register — but I want to hang it up.
1993		S. King Dolores Claiborne 170: Either you part with an inch of the Jim Beam [...] or we hang it up for tonight.
2001		D. Looser 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.

1951

J. Blake letter 25 Feb. in 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.

3. to give up trying, to accept defeat, to acknowledge that a target will never be achieved; .

1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 206: hang it up, v. -[...] not to get into trouble anymore.
1974		R. Blount Jr 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’.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 146: Sooner or later, the vultures would hang it up.