Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to go to bed, to sleep.

1947		B. Stiles Serenade to the Big Bird 113: Sam casually announced that I was staying home. ‘Oates is going,’ he said. ‘You can sack.’.
1957		‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 101: Hey, you s’pose to sack in with Red in the after cabin’.
1959		A. Sinclair My Friend Judas (1963) 19: I [...] took a swig of milk from the bottle, turned off the Brube, and sacked down. I was pooped, all muzzy.
1966		R.E. Alter Carny Kill (1993) 10: ‘Got a place to sack,’ he asked.
1982		(con. 1970) J.M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley (1983) 471: ‘I’m sackin,’ he whispered.

fast asleep.

1960		J.D. Macdonald Slam the Big Door (1961) 111: I got him hosed off and sacked out.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 241: He’s in the back there with Wrye, sacked out.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 196: It’s almost 2:00 a.m. [...] It’s sacked-out soporific.

1. (US) to go to bed, to sleep.

1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 9: I’m tired and dirty and I want to get sacked in for the night.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 35: When I’m gone from the ould sod, sacked in with some lovely French doll.
1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 223: Come on, Al. Let’s sack in.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 155: He went to his own bunk and sacked in.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 79: Listen, pal, before I sack in [...] why don’t you tell us.

2. to lie in, to stay in bed.

1960

(con. WWII) R. Leckie Marines! 41: He’s still sackin’ in.

(US black) to terminate, to bring to a conclusion.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

see sense 2b above.

to fall asleep, to go to bed.

1944		Vocational Trends 7 82: Butch is sacked out. He stayed up late last night beating his gums with the gang.
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 31: Gonna sack out, Skipper. Anything you want me to do first?
1966		P. Pinney Restless Men 69: ‘Musgrove bloody Park!’ Specs growled. ‘Hot as a bodgie fiver! Every vag and winedot in Brisbane sacks out there.’.
1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 40: Some shucked their uniforms [...] and shaved before sacking out.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 115: I took it easy for a few days — sacked out a lot, watched television.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 14: When Keith left I sacked out immediately. Not that I had much say in the matter. Twenty-two hours later I opened my eyes.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 63: We better all sack out if we expect to get an early start in the morning.
2004		E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 230: Stephanie [...] got comfy, and sacked out.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] They would all be in the shed, the dogs sacked out [...] round the old potbelly stove.

(US) to have sexual intercourse.

1959

‘Sheldon Lord’ Strange Kind of Love 96: [T]hat’s a lot of time to watch two women sexing around on a linen sheet. I’'s even longer when [. . .] you've sacked out with both of them--although not both at the same time.

1. (US) to go to bed.

1946		J.W. Bishop ‘Amer. Army Speech’ in AS XXI:4 Dec. 251: Sack. Bed. To sack up or hit the sack is to go to bed. Sack time is sleep.
1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 224: I guess that they’re sacked up asleep.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 73: Guess I’ll go sack up.
c.1973		J. Thompson ‘Sunrise at Midnight’ in Fireworks (1988) 165: What he was sacked up with was two other guys – [...] they’d been having a party.

2. (US) to be quiet.

2014

Observer (London) 9 Nov. 22/2: Vets need to sack up. We will bash each other for no fucking reason.

a resurrectionist or grave-robber.

1828		Saunders’s News-Letter (Dublin) 24 Mar. 2/4: [A] woman, named Hickey, happened to passing on Ormond quay yesterday evening, where one number of boys, who were whipping tops on the flagway, made use of the obnoxious words, ‘sack-em-up’ on which she was attacked a number of persons.
1828		Dublin Morn. Register 27 Dec. 3/3: ‘[Y]ou’re a parcel rascally Sack-’em-ups, and ’'ll be bound you have the body of some poor dead cratur in the coach—shame upon you, for surgeons, that you wouldn’t let the dead rest on a blessed Christmas night!’.
1830		Devizes & Wilts Gaz. 9 Apr. 4/2: Mr. C[harles]. had a very animated looking bust of a man which occasionally uses in illusions in ventriloquism. The box was opened, when the figure, acting on a spring, started up" [...] Terror, [...] was seen in the face every one that remained, for the greater part had rnn awuy, and thus Mr. Charles convinced them he was no ‘Sack’em-up’.
1830		Waterford Mail 13 Mar. 4/5: The box was opened and the skeleton of a child found in it. This was confirmation [...] that the old woman was not only a ‘sack ’em up’ herself, but the mother [...] of a family of ressurectionists.
1843		W. Carleton Misfortunes of Barney Branagan (1850) 237: He also entertained a terror of the sack-’em-ups [...] created by the exaggerating tongue of rumour, which gave awful accounts of men who were kidnapped, smothered, and sold to the surgeons for large sums of money.
1860		J.V. Huntington Rosemary 24: A coarse bag and naked body is the wonted style of the resurrectionist, or ‘sack-em-up’ — to use an expressive old country term.
1868		Shamrock (Dublin) 11 Jan. 254/2: It was, indeed, the very height of the period of bodysnatchers, sack-em-ups and resurrection-men.
1872		London Jrnl 21 Dec. 394/1: Lanty, did you ever hear of a resurrectionist—a sack-em-up?
1881		W. Carleton Works I 474: A mere sack-’em-up, who disinters the dead, and sells their remains for money.
1929		J. Moore Ball [bk title] The Sack-’Em-Up Men.
1933		(con. 1880s) W.B. Blanton Medicine in Virginia in the Nineteenth Century 70: This latter was the Potter’s Field in the eighties when old Billy, veteran sack-em-up man, and his promising assistant, Chris Baker, were in their heyday.
1943		G.A. Little Malachi Horan Remembers 25: There were in those days men who went by the name of ‘sack-em-ups’ – what you would call resurrection men. They used to rob graveyards and sell the bodies to the doctors.
1983		(con. 19C) E. O’Brien Conscience and Conflict 58: With the Act came the end of the body-snatching era — the ‘sack-em-up’ man was no more.

1. (US campus) to survive a challenging situation [? one places it in a fig. SE sack].

1966		‘Tom Pendleton’ Iron Orchard (1967) 276: We’re gonna sack up this oil business, sweetheart. I can make deals for these people. A percentage are bound to hit.
1997–2000		Da Bomb 🌐 24: Sack Up: To come through in a difficult situation.

2. (drugs) to divide up and place bulk drugs into separate bags prior to sale.

2000

W. Shaw Westsiders 75: Bailin’ through the party with a pound of bud / All sacked up in straight dimes and dubs.

be quiet!

2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 49: —Sack it, ya fat cunt, Begbie says —she’s mine, but, eh, Lesley?
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 455: fuckin sack it, barksdale., ah’m tellin ye!