Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. in physical senses, used of a person, to tire out, to put at a disadvantage or defeat, to nonplus, to bring to a standstill, to put hors de combat.

1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 53: For in milling tough Tom, and sewing him up, You’ve prov’d your executive powers most great.
1832		Mons. Merlin 13 Oct. 4: He had [...] on different occasions, threatened to sew him up, or do him some grievous bodily harm.
1834		‘A Grand Turn-Out’ in Randy Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) I 188: Another round, and Jack will be quite sowed up.
1855		Hants Advertiser 17 Nov. 6/1: He should be compelled to sew him up if he didn’t pay his subscriptions.
1867		Coventry Standard 8 Mar. 3/4: ‘’ll sew him up if he’s been robbing me [...] I will indeed’.
1884		W.C. Russell Jack’s Courtship I 283: I should be ‘sewed up,’ as Jack says, for want of funds.
1904		‘O. Henry’ Cabbages & Kings 201: ‘I’m sewed up now, Billy. That tomfool letter we sent ruined whatever chance I had left’.
1965		B. Crump ‘Here And There’ in Best of Barry Crump (1974) 173: That sewed us up good and proper.

2. (also sow up) to make drunk; thus sewn up, drunk.

1828		‘A Flat Enlightened’ Life in the West I 149: [T]he wine is sent about, not sufficiently at once to completely ‘sew him up,’ but enough to [...] stupify his senses.
1833		Cruikshank & Wight Sun. in London 59: In the gin temples [a man] can only get drunk [...] that is to say, it sews him up.
1846		Manchester Times 9 Oct. 5/1: His grace’s strong beer ‘sewed-up’ all their riders.
1848		Paul Pry 11 Dec. n.p.: [H]e still goes on drinking his champagne, and appears [...] quite ‘sown up’—but, no! gentle reader! this man is sober!
1871		Walsall Free Press 25 Feb. 2/7: The man who can’t resist ‘just a thimbleful’ of brandy will sometimes find the thimbleful holds enough to sew him up.
1904		Belfast News-Letter 15 June 6: ‘Balmy,’ [...] ‘sewn up’ [...] and others of the same kidney are all of nineteenth century invention.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘He Felt His Position’ Sporting Times 7 May 1/3: She marched him quickly homeward to explain as best he might / What the ‘late work’ was which sewed him up, and rendered him so tight.
1965		B. Crump ‘One of Us’ Best of Barry Crump (1974) 134: He [...] poured him a dirty glass of home-brew. ‘Guaranteed to sew yer up before yer kin git through a second bottle.’.

3. of a person, to render secure, to dominate; thus intensified as sew up in a sack.

1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 139: You might have [...] bought it and failed, as some of our importin’ marchants sew up the soft-horned British.
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 43: To use Jack Horan’s own phrase, the apothecary was ‘sewed up’ before he had any suspicion of the fact.
1857		London Standard 5 May 3/3: He refused to render his accounts, and vowed that he would 'sew up the company'.
1897		Ade Pink Marsh (1963) 147: If I could say ’at jus’ e’ way you done it I would n’ let Willis Tuckeh o’ no otheh man sew me up in no ahgament.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 18: I have got you sewed up in a Sack when it comes to Correct English.
1909		W. Irwin Confessions of a Con Man 90: I had the officials sewed up.
1918		A.N. Depew Gunner Depew 81: Ain’t it hell the way they got this whole bunch sewed up in the gully?
1928		E. O’Neill letter 22 Apr. in Bogard & Bryer Sel. Letters (1988) 292: I have thirty-five dollars sewn up in it.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 286: He knocked six in and left Studs sewn up.
1934		R. Chandler ‘Finger Man’ in Pearls Are a Nuisance (1964) 110: Maybe they thought you’d highball [...] That would sew you up right.
1948		D. Dodge Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 9: I wanted to sew you up tight [...] You’re too good-looking to leave lying around loose while I’m in an army camp.
1963		(con. 1919) E. Asinof Eight Men Out 73: Pesch had claimed that he’d sewed up Gandil, Risberg, and Felsch, placing them on a payroll for $200 a week. For this, they supposedly threw one or two ball-games a week.

4. to exhaust physically.

1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 137: She’s in first rate training, ’pon my word: I thought she’d have sewn me up at one time – the pace was terrific.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 71: Sewn Up, quite worn out.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 369: We had n’t gone more ’n two blocks when we was all sewed up.

5. to surround, to seal off; in lit. and fig. uses.

1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 168: I had the market on the good pot uptown sewed up.
1969		D. Pendleton Executioner (1973) 55: Let’s sew this guy up good and get him on ice and out of our hair.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 203: When it comes time to sew this city up.

6. to outwit, to cheat, to swindle.

1844		Essex Standard 30 Aug. 4/6: You might have traded with him and got it for half nothin’ as some of our importint [sic] merchants sew up the soft-horned British.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1038/2: 1838.

7. (orig. US, also sew, tack up) of an object/idea, to conclude, to possess completely, to finalize, to place under complete control; often intensified as sew up in a bag.

1902		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Dec. 6/3: When he came back again the following night there was no crap table in the place. In the parlance of the crap shooters, he had ‘sewed up’ the game.
1913		Van Loan ‘The Good Old Wagon’ in Lucky Seventh (2004) 203: Three runs were home, and the game was ‘sewed’ past unraveling.
1915		R. Bolwell ‘College Sl. Words And Phrases’ in DN IV:iii 235: sew up, v. To make certain of (a place on a team, in a club, etc.).
1919		H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 178: It looks like we got the game all sewed up in a bag.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 129: He’s got the event sewn up in a parcel.
1929		D. Hammett Red Harvest (1965) 119: ‘What do we do: find him for them [i.e. the police] and turn him in with the job all tacked up?’.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 396: I think I’ll have that sewn up just as neat as you’d like in a week or two.
1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 64: We got every damn building on Seventh Avenue sewed up, and he’s trying to tell us we lost the strike!
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 190: This ain’t no fair fight. Hitler’s got the game sewn up.
1947		C.S. Montanye ‘Frozen Stiff’ in Popular Detective Mar. 🌐 The dame had the dough sewed up in a trust fund.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 21: There was no race this Saturday at Randwick that Jack Harper and I could sew up for a big plunge.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 162: I had the thing all sewed up.
1960		P. Rabe Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 125: Benotti sewed up our source of discs.
1963		A.E. Farrell Vengeance 162: Got the game sewn up, eh!
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 208: That bloody Dennis never said a word till it was all sewn up.
1965		(con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 35: He had to let them Jews and all in. Now they got the country sewed up.
1979		D. Maitland Breaking Out 123: Sanderson’s got this place sewed up as tight as a fish’s arsehole.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 35: His life, he found, was sewn-up, was wall-to-wall. It was closed.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 284: They cant back off your case, as they normally would with another four years sewed up.
1999		Guardian Guide 4–10 Dec. 4: The man who [...] has it all sewn up.
2000		Indep. Rev. 15 Jan. 4: They’ll have it all sewn up.

8. to impregnate; thus sewed up adj. (5)

1933		N. Algren ‘So Help Me’ Texas Stories (1995) 20: He had sewed her up but his pa wouldn’t let him marry her on account she ain’t no Jew.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 Winter 200: The future father may be praised, saying he has her sewn up or tied up, which means he has impregnated her.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1038/2: C.19–earlier 20.

9. to bring about the conviction of someone (through fabricated evidence).

1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 462: Sew up, To convict on overwhelming evidence.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 35: sew up v.To secure a conviction using fabricated evidence.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 162/2: sew up v. to secure a conviction using fabricated evidence.

10. (US Und., also sew) to ensure that a victim causes no trouble once they have been defrauded in a confidence trick.

1937		J.M. Cain Serenade (1985) 166: He’s sewed for five years [...] from the date on the contract.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 306: To sew a man up. 1. To caution a mark, who has just been beaten with a short-change racket (but doesn’t know it), against pickpockets, then sew his wallet in his pocket with needle and thread carried for the purpose. 2. To make any arrangements necessary to prevent the mark from causing trouble after he has been fleeced.

11. see sew v. (1)