Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to stop for a while, to settle.

[1643		J. Howell Familiar Letters I (1737) 20 Nov. 285: I was committed to the Fleet, where I am now under close restraint: And, as far as I see, I must lie at dead anchor in this Fleet a long time].
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 386: He was anchored out that way, in frosty weather, for about three weeks.
1876		St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: After proceeding a few blocks, he stops in front of a ‘gin-mill,’ and says: ‘Here’s a ranch, let’s anchor’.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 July 13/1: Stafford Ransome, travelling commissioner of London’s new half-penny daily, the Express, was anchored by gout in a Perth hospital for a fortnight, and he is now tied to Adelaide by the same malady, which has crippled one foot.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 246: Anchored. Stationed; stationary.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 5 Feb. 1/1: The Cheap Jack hawker was busy arranging his goods outside the wagon preliminary to anchoring there.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 437: Anchor, (1) to get off a train. (2) to take residence in a place.
1927		C. Drew ‘Grafter and Goose’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Aug. n.p.: At a spot not twenty paces from where the Goose’s bookmaker carried on his business, detectives [...] congregated after each race. It was much too risky to anchor in their vicinity.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 19: Anchor. — To settle down at a steady job; to remain in one place.
1940		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 27 Apr. 7/7: Anchor into a square’s den, stash your dry goods and beat the castle for a rester.
1953		F. Flora ‘Collector Comes after Payday’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] ‘Where’s Joe Tonty anchored this week?’.
1962		B. McGhee Cut and Run (1963) 174: Ah better no ‘anchor’. Dizny dae tae stey too long in the wan place. Ah better blow.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 789: anchor – To settle down to a steady job.
1966		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 113: I decided to go over to her table and anchor a little old spell.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] & Cho–Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 197: anchor, v. – to wait: ‘Anchor it!’.

2. to grant a stay of execution.

1925		H. Leverage ‘Dict. Und.’ in Flynn’s mag. cited in Partridge DU (1949).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 18/2: Anchor, v. [...] 2. To grant a condemned man a stay of execution.