Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) ruined (by gambling or other forms of speculation).

1775		K. O’Hara Two Misers I i: Why, Squander, the young merchant, fallen in at hazard yonder with some knowing ones, is fleeced, done up to the last shilling.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1797		M. Robinson Walsingham IV 277: Fine news! – I’m dished – done up. The sharps have queered me.
1801		‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 100/1: Done up. – Ruined by gaming.
1812		Egan Boxiana I 7: The absolute necessity to men, in such an uncertain way of life, before they are completely done up, of ‘making hay while the sun shines’.
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 18: He was so completely done up himself that he fled to Ireland.
1830		Marryat King’s Own II 148: I had indeed intended to quit him, as he was done up.
1837		Disraeli Henrietta Temple 300: You done up, Sir! a nob like you, that Morris and Levison have trusted for such a tick!
1840		Lytton Money V i: Oh, he must be done up!
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 18 Mar. 3/2: Jeremy Diddler cannot make an appearance, for he is done-up, and cannot get any more tick!!!
1853		Dickens ‘Slang’ in Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: . To say that a man is without money, or in poverty, some persons remark that he is down on his luck, hard up, stumped up, in Queer Street, under a cloud, up a tree, quisby, done up, sold up, in a fix.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 259/2: Why, a muck-snipe, sir, is a man regularly done up, coopered, and humped altogether.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple I 215: Ruined, done up, drove to desperation.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Apr. 4/2: On the list of visitors to a certain Melbourne hotel we notice the name of Baron Yon Donop. A done-up aristocrat, eh!
1886		T. Byrnes Professional Criminals of America [Internet ] He walks out in a brown study, not knowing exactly how he was done up, but quite sure he has been swindled.
1899		A.C. Gunter M.S. Bradford Special 57: ‘I’m done up.’ ‘Business gone wrong?’.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 175: We thought of o’ pawnin’ some of our furniture [...] we chucked the idea, and reckoned we was about done up nice like parcels.

2. (orig. US) beaten up; seriously wounded.

1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 19: The combatants were done up on both sides.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 125: The rest were done up, so that all the surgeons in Christendom cou’dn’t cobble ’em together agin.
1908		N.Y. Tribune 27 Sept. 13/1: ‘Lemme walk,’ Cayuse objected [...] ‘I’m not done up so’s I got to play baby’.

3. exhausted, worn out, fed up.

c.1813		‘Wellington’s Victory’ in Wellington’s Laurels 3: The French done up in fighting and cunning / Threw their feathers and firelocks down.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 24: In short, not to dwell on each facer and fall, / Poor Georgy was done up in no time at all.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 13: He is done up [...] quite done up, but the air will revive him.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 298: Several horses were left at Haverhill, being quite ‘done up’.
1841		‘She Wore Some Slap Up Togs’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 18: She look’d as if quite done up, unfit for further trade.
1847		[A. Harris] (con. 1820s) Settlers & Convicts 318: Sit down; I'll cook: you must be pretty nigh done up [...] you look as if you'd been boarding with — (the Sydney jailer) for three months.
1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 58: I’m so done up, tired as a dog.
1861		T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 57: What we did was to drive into Farringdon, instead of Hungerford, both horses dead done up.
1863		Times of India 27 Oct. 2/7: CALCUTTA 17th October. The Doorgah Poojah holidays have commenced and Calcutta is empty. [...] I shall not bother you with a detail of the various places the done-up Ditchers have flitted to. They will be back [...] and then we shall have dust and worry, and litigation again.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1876		B. Harte Gabriel Conroy II 93: He was so done up and bored with the journey.
1884		C.F. Lummis letter 19 Dec. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 178: I [...] sank down on a chair beside the glowing fireplace, I was ‘done up’.
1885		L. Emanuel Jottings [...] of a Bengal ‘qui hye’ 64: Occasional invalid ‘done-up’ passengers.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 201: With much fucking I got done up, and one night could get no cock-stand.
1896		Regiment 11 July 226/1: ‘I’ll be hanged if I walk another step, sir, I’m done up,’ and he sat there the picture of despair.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 160: I gets tired an’ done up a lot.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 106: I felt so done up an’ miserable.
1917		G. Bowerman diary 1 Oct. in Carnes Compensations of War (1983) 25: We were so completely fagged out [...] I was never so done up.
1929		‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 228: I’m through. Done up.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 132: He propped up his head in his hands. He was feeling all done up.
1937		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 19 Mar. 4/2: The workers are reported to be absolutely ‘done up,’ and at the ‘end of their tether’.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 131: What with the smell, and being dog tired, He was just about done up.
1951		S.J. Perelman New Yorker 8 Sept. 33: I was done up [W&F].
1959		B. Naughton ‘The Half-Nelson Touch’ in Late Night on Watling Street (1969) 133: We both felt pretty done up.

4. very drunk.

1833		A. Greene Life and Adventures of Dr Dodimus Duckworth II 176: He was seldom downright drunk; but was often [...] pretty well done up.
1847		J.M. Field Drama in Pokerville 147: Mr. Twirl was wound up, used up, done up, in short he was very drunk!
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 177: We put him in a cab and sent him home [...] I never saw a fellow so utterly done up.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 225: He is diddled, dish’d and done up.

5. (Aus.) in ext. use of sense 3, impotent.

1843

Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 18 Mar. 2/3: The Flashy Linendraper [...] we all know visits billy, but so she ought, if only out of gratitude. We are sure the old boy can’t hurt her, and what’s more must be done up.

6. worsted, put at a disadvantage, forced to lose out in a disagreement or struggle.

1846		Sunbury American (PA) 25 July 1/4: Cousin Jack peabody’s coming, and if he sees you, we’re done up as slick as abee in clover times without a honey bag.
1898		Sun (NY) 26 Dec. 5/3: Sniffles Done Up by Fate [...] Hard luck had overtaken Sniffles, and just at Christmas time, too.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 107: The example of him gettin’ done up will make others run true.
1944		Western Gaz. 12 May 8/4: The Board of Trade had firemen ‘done up all ways’ [They] had to give up 16 coupons a year for uniform [...] this left insufficient coupons for other clothes.

7. out of order, not working.

1849		Sam Sly 7 Apr. 3/2: [T]he Floating Bridge will ever be ‘done up’ while the watermen keep people in their boats so long.
1933		(con. WWI) F. Richards Old Soldiers Never Die (1964) 46: Ours [i.e. rifles] were done up too.

8. ill, whether mildly or extremely.

1901		Boy’s Own Paper 22 June 594: ‘A little bit done up, aren’t you?’ asked Reggie kindly.
1903		Burnley Exp. 21 Feb. 7/5: He Always Felt Done Up [...] Shortness of Breath and Racking Cough Ended.
1925		Western Times 28 Aug. 12/5: Mr. A.J. Cook Done Up. Feels He Must Take a rest [...] Mr Cook has not completely lost his voice, but he contrcated a bad cold.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 15: She was quite ‘done up’ and round at her sister-in-law’s.