Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Anglo-Ind.) to seize; to grab or nab; to take hold of.

1828		[C. D’Oyly] Tom Raw, the Griffin 316: But better late than never, – as they say. / So we’ll now give it. – When the foe gave way. / They were pursued and puckerlow’d, and Cossim / Ordered his long resisted debt to pay / With interest twelve per cent.
c.1830		Oriental Sporting Mag. (1873) 15 July 395: [H]aving taken a pull at the brandy flask to ensure a correct tone to the system, we enlisted (a term we learnt during the Looshai expedition, Mr. Editor: – it means ‘puckaro’d’) one or two of the boldest of the bystanders.
1855		J.H. Stocqueler ‘The crime of colour’ in Patriotic Fund Jrnl 24 Feb. 185/1: Presently a man – another – and a third, dashed pass the tomb. ‘Puckerow! Puckerow!’ (‘seize! seize!’) called out the voice of a horseman a few yards in their rear.
1857		Bombay Qly Rev. V 134: ‘A thorough chor, Sir, is that fellow; – always puckerao-ing Griffs for that punch-khana of Rustomjee’s’.
1866		G.O. Trevelyan ‘Dawk Bungalow’ in Fraser’s Mag. Mar. 390: Fanny, I am cutcha no longer. Surely you will allow a lover who is pucka to puckero. (Takes her hand).
1878		H.A. Giles Subjects connected with the Far East 1114: PUCKEROW, TO. Slang term, common in India and China, signifying to appropriate other people’s property.
1888		Kipling ‘The Taking of Lungtungpen’ in Plain Tales from Hills (1889) 113: ‘We hunted, an’ we hunted, an’ tuk fever an’ elephints now an’ again; but no dacoits. Evenshually, we puckarowed wan man. ‘Trate him tinderly,’ sez the Lift’nint. So I tuk him away into the jungle, wid the Burmese Interprut’r an’ my clanin’-rod’.
1888		Kipling ‘The Three Musketeers’ in Plain Tales from Hills (1889) 73: ‘Hall right,’ sez we, ‘you puckrow that there pony an’ come along. This Sahib’s been decoited, an’ we’re going to resky ’im!’.
1891		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 26 Oct. 1/4: The way he treated poor Miss C, deserved he vivisection. / For all the while he pukkeroed the girl’s dibs and caresses.
1895		M. Macmillan Globe Trotter in India 82: Puckerao, samjhao, maro, and banao are likewise colloquially conjugated as English verbs, especially by English soldiers.
1899		W.A. Fraser ‘The Rechristening of Diablo’ in McClure’s Mag. Sept. 429/2: ‘Puckerow Johnson sahib afore ‘e gets hoff ’ome,’ said Drake, decisively; ‘an’ keep ’im in jail till ‘e pays hup’.
1904		A. Mervyn Smith Sport & Adventure in Indian Jungle Mar. 185: ‘Here, puckerow juldee! Pack up ek-dum! (take hold quick, pack up at once). Gad, we must get into the station sharp’.