Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. cheated, swindled.

1852		H.B. Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin 54: So, then, ye’r fairly sewed up, arn’t ye?
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 224: If the men who were in his debt did not come up to the scratch on settling day he should be regularly ‘sewed up’.

2. ill, sick.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 224: SEWED UP, done up, used up.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

3. orig. of horses only, exhausted.

1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 89: SEWED UP, done up, used up.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. [as cit. 1859].
1873		Sl. Dict.
1902		Headon Hill Caged xxii n.p.: She’s about sewn-up... tired herself out at the game [F&H].

4. drunk, thus sew up, to render drunk (see cite 1894).

1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome III 171: However by cup after cup They left poor Patrick half sewed up.
1828		High Life in London 20 Jan. 5/2: [They] inveigled poor Terry O’Loughlin into a dram shop [...] We need not say hat Terry was in a few hours ’sewed up’.
1836		D. Crockett Exploits and Adventures (1934) 241: My poor friend, Thimblerig, got sewed up just as about as tight as the eyelet-hole in a lady’s corset.
1833		‘The Gape-Hole’ in Funny Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 48: The lush’d so fast, / Until at last / They all got sew’d up quite.
1841		Punch I 278: We had a great night in London before I started only I got rascally screwed, not exactly sewed up, you know, but hit under the wing so that I could not very well fly.
1853		Dickens ‘Slang’ in Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: For the one word drunk [...] foggy, screwed, hazy, sewed up [etc.].
1860		T. Haliburton Season Ticket 301: ‘Are you sure you wasn’t drunk, uncle?’ [...] ‘I am sure I wasn’t sewed up, for I remember everything that happened.’.
1866		Vermont Transcript (St Albans, VT) 9 Nov. n.p.: When she gets a litle toddled she isn’t satisfied [...] and by the time she comes home to me she was regular sewed up.
1894		Star-Gaz. (Elmira, NY) 15 May 4/3: Yale College Slang [...] They were trying to sew me up [...] and i wasn’t going to get my leg jerked, so I cut the game.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 18: Sewed up [From Dutch seeuwkt, sick, Hotten’s dictionary of slang. Probably related to sewed up, to rest upon the ground, as a ship, when there is not sufficient depth of water to float her; so, to be brought to a standstill; to be ruined or overwhelmed] Drunk.
1903		‘Hugh McHugh’ I Need The Money 90: Uncle Peter, the sedate and dignified, sewed-up to the eyebrows.
1928		M. Prenner ‘Sl. Synonyms for ‘Drunk’’ in AS IV:2 102: basted [...] sewed up.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight.
1940		J. MacLaren-Ross ‘A Bit of a Smash in Madras’ in Memoirs of the Forties (1984) 272: Mind you, he was properly sewn-up himself.
1960		J.D. Macdonald Slam the Big Door (1961) 63: You were all sewed up so completely you wouldn’t have been aware of a pass.

5. pregnant.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

6. confirmed, unsusceptible to error, esp. of a sporting contest in which the result has already been assured.

1913		Sun (NY) 27 July 40/1: ‘Looks like the boys have made another good touch,’ said Wise Jimmy. ‘In what line?’ the listener asked [...] ‘I heard everything in the sporting line was sewed up tight’.
1925		D. Hammett ‘The Scorched Face’ Story Omnibus (1966) 89: You can trust a man just as easily if you have him sewed up.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 1 Nov. [synd. col.] The very youthful Jack MacLean has the gent who owns the patents sewed up.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 66: There never was a town sewed up as tight as Burnham was under the syndicate.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 195: Tom Shaw and Harry have five of the six councils sewed up, and the sixth will toe the mark.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 76: It couldn’t be the Rollers. Didn’t the Man say that he had the Sixth Precinct sewed up?
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 127: Got it all sewn up, haven’t you? The Invincibles.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 30: When she’s got the wop sewed up, she’ll give me the boot.

7. set on a path, committed.

1970

San Diego Sailor 4: I was all sewed up now and I knew I wanted that kid more than I ever wanted anything.