Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus.) to trap, to corner; the orig. use was to describe the ‘stand and deliver’ tactics of late 19C bushrangers.

1838		Sydney Monitor 26 Oct. 2/2: Bushrangers [...] They bailed up the overseer and then [...] proceeded to the house of Mrs F. and ordered her to open her chests &c., from which they took a roll of banknotes.
1839		Colonist (Sydney) 18 May 3/4: On the .27th ult. the station of Mr. Cooper, at King's Plains, Bathurst, was visited by two armed bushrangers, who (to use a slang phrase of their own) baled up Mr. C. and his whole household, or, in other words, placed their lives at instant peril in case of resistance, and robbed the premises of property to the amount of 1201.
1844		Mrs. C. Meredith Notes and Sketches of New South Wales 132: The bush-rangers in robbing a house [...] walk quietly in and ‘bail up,’ i.e. bind with cords, or otherwise secure, the male portion, leaving an armed guard over them.
1849		J.P. Townsend Rambles in New South Wales 75: One [i.e. Aborigine] came running to us, saying that he had ‘bailed up,’ or secured, a white fellow [...] having caught him without a pass.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 11 Sept. 1/5: Around the table we noticed Messrs Slaughter, Stifler, Bolter, Bailemup, Slyboots, Litefinger, besides many others,.
1854		W. Howitt Two Years in Victoria (1855) II 309: So long as that is wrong, the whole community will be wrong, – in colonial phrase, ‘bailed up’ at the mercy of its own tenants.
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 256: What was that battle the Doctor and you were reading about [...] Where they got bailed up among the rocks, you know, and fought till they were all killed.
1862		G.T. Lloyd Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and Victoria 192: Come, sir, immediately, [...] bail up in that corner, and prepare to meet the death you have so long deserved.
1879		W.J. Barry Up and Down 21: Two men [...] commanded us to ‘bail up!’.
1880		G. Walch Victoria in 1880 133: The Kelly gang [...] bailed up some forty residents in the local public house.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 168: Just at the worst pinch or at a turn, someone sings out, ‘Bail up.’ The coachman sees a strange man in front, or close alongside him, with a revolver pointed straight at him.
1892		F.A. Hare Last of Bushrangers 116: Ned Kelly came out of the house, and covering him with his revolvers, ordered him to ‘bail up’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 5: Bale Up, throw up your arms, used by bushrangers to persons whom they intended robbing.
1896		J.F. Lillard Poker Stories 210: An ‘agent’ entered the car with an order to ‘bail up’.
1901		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 138: He surprised the Yarrabee Station, ‘bailing’ Mr. Waugh the overseer, Mr. Apps, and others.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Apr. 1/1: Visitors are bailed up for bunce after the manner of a wax- work’s spruiker.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Aug. 10/1: Asses come and ask me questions; telephones ring in my ear; / Beggars bail me up for thrippence for a long, delicious beer.
1922		N.Z. Truth 29 Apr. 1/3: A heap of his friends bailed him up one evening and tendered him a valedictory dinner.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 62: She was set to cook a meal while the men were bailed-up until disarmed and relieved of valuables.
1938		F. Anthony ‘Gus Tomlins’ in Me And Gus (1977) 173: We bailed the three of them up in a corner and kissed them once all round.
1947		North. Standard (Darwin, NT) 8 Aug. 9/1: A 14-year-old Bathurst (N.S.W.) boy ‘bailed up’ a man of 52 with a toy gun.
1957		J. Greenway ‘Australian Cattle Lingo’ in AS XXXIII:3 164: bail up, v. 1. To hold up, to rob.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 106: There was no hope of getting away from him once he bailed anybody up in the staffroom.
1973		(con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 45: A flamin’ great dog came tearin’ out and bailed me up.
1987		(con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 43: Bang-Bang had bailed up a dude gambler from Rathgar against the trees outside the public lavvo.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 bail up v 1. to call some one to halt, particularly when the intention is to rob. Usually used in reference to Australian bushrangers. Possible origin: to place a cow in bails prior to milking. (‘He tried to bail up a traveller en route to the diggings.’).
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 15: bail up To confront or constrain.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [A] screw saw his legs protruding and bailed them up before they reached the ground.
2015		G. Disher Heat [ebook] ‘One to bail up the van, one to intercept the money. One to drive and monitor the police band’.

2. (Aus.) to stop someone in the street for a chat.

1879		W.J. Barry Up and Down 112: She bailed me up and asked me if I was going to keep my promise and marry her.
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 63: He deliberately bailed Mag up in front of the Crow Hotel.
1950		(con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 275: It gave him no end of satisfaction to bail up Dick and remark chirpily: ‘So you backed the wrong horse, after all, Dick!’.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 203: This bloke that bailed me up had been a good heavy in his day.

3. to arrest.

1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 62: I suppose [...] none of you chaps know the names of the fellows who got bailed up by young Hillyar this morning?
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 12/2: Two or three clergymen were bailed up for travelling without tickets the other day in Melbourne, and a good many people well up in Scripture seem to have made an unlawful rise of late.

4. to come to a stop, to halt.

1879

Grey River Argus (NZ) 13 Jan. 2: Lonigan, instead opf bailing up, ran to a ‘battery’ and ‘popped up his head‘ as if he were going to shoot.

5. to rob.

1900		Truth (Sydney) 25 Nov. 7/4: There he sees 2 blackgard coves, as / Was a bailin’ up the gell; / One was tryin' for to choak her; / She was fightin’ hard and well.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Oct. 13/2: Hawthorn omnibus stuck up and passengers robbed. Undetected. Three ladies bailed up and house robbed at Vaucluse, Richmond.
1942		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 18 July 14: I’ve been’ bawled out, bailed up, held up, held down, hung up, bulldozed, blackjacked, walked on, chated, mugged, hugged, squeezed [and] mooched.
1954		T. Ronan Vision Splendid 94: No bloody black fellow is going to bail up on me.