Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also hang it up) to leave a bill unpaid at a public house, hotel, etc; to buy on credit (with the intention of defrauding the creditor.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: hang-it-up speaking of the Reckoning at a Bowsing-ken, when the Rogues are obliged, for want of Money, to run on Tick.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: hang it up speaking of the Reckoning at a Bowsing Ken, score it up.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Hang it up, speaking of a reckoning, score it up.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: Hang it up to leave a reckoning unpaid at a public house.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 40: hang it up Think of it; remember it.
1879		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 13 Dec. 14/2: [A]n old Dutchman, who tried to ‘hang up’ a Bowery eating saloon for the price of a pork chop.
1881		Northern Trib. (Cheboygan, MI) 5 Nov. 3/1: He’s a ‘toddy blossom’ and hangs up his landlord.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 17: get hung up for To get credit for. ‘Where can I get hung up for a pair of shoes?’.
1898		F. Dumont Dumont’s Joke Book 74: I went this morning to get a drink and he refused to ‘hang up’ the drinks. So I left.
1913		H.G. Van Campen ‘Woes of Two Workers’ in McClure’s Mag. Aug. 198/2: I was sure he’d turn out a millionaire, an’— will you b’lieve it? — he lit out an’ hung the desk up for his bill!
1927		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 42: If we get our names in the papers we can hang up some hash joint for the hash.
1933		Butler & Driscoll Dock Walloper 2: clews to the butler vernacular [...] hang me up for it—charge the drinks.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 91/1: Hang up. [...] 3. To defer payment with the intention of cheating a creditor.

2. (US) to pawn.

1892		Campbell, Knox & Byrnes Darkness and Daylight in N.Y. 610: Ladies’ dresses are ‘hung up,’ as they would be injured by folding. Hence arises the slang term of ‘hung up’ for an article that has been pledged at the pawnbroker’s.
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 346: Hanging Up The Clock—Boomer term that meant hocking your railroad watch.

3. (US) to charge exorbitantly.

1905		cited in J. Wright EDD III 52/1: A man having a bill brought in unexpectedly [...] would say, ‘I’m darned if I’ll be a hanged up like this here’.
1912		A.G. Field Watch Yourself Go By 285: Say, kid, how much are you going to hang me up for?
1958		J.C. Holmes Horn 55: So then this square cab driver hung me up for a buck getting over here to Geordie’s.