sewed up adj.
1. cheated, swindled.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin 54: So, then, ye’r fairly sewed up, arn’t ye? | ||
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.
, , | Sl. Dict. 224: SEWED UP, done up, used up. | |
Sl. and Its Analogues. |
3. orig. of horses only, exhausted.
Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 89: SEWED UP, done up, used up. | ||
Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. [as cit. 1859]. | ||
Sl. Dict. | ||
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).
Adventures of Johnny Newcome III 171: However by cup after cup They left poor Patrick half sewed up. | ||
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’. | ||
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. | ||
‘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. | ||
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. | ||
Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: For the one word drunk [...] foggy, screwed, hazy, sewed up [etc.]. | ‘Slang’ in||
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.’. | ||
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. | ||
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. | ||
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. | ||
I Need The Money 90: Uncle Peter, the sedate and dignified, sewed-up to the eyebrows. | ||
AS IV:2 102: basted [...] sewed up. | ‘Sl. Synonyms for ‘Drunk’’ in||
True Drunkard’s Delight. | ||
Memoirs of the Forties (1984) 272: Mind you, he was properly sewn-up himself. | ‘A Bit of a Smash in Madras’ in||
Slam the Big Door (1961) 63: You were all sewed up so completely you wouldn’t have been aware of a pass. |
5. pregnant.
Sl. and Its Analogues. |
6. confirmed, unsusceptible to error, esp. of a sporting contest in which the result has already been assured.
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’. | ||
Story Omnibus (1966) 89: You can trust a man just as easily if you have him sewed up. | ‘The Scorched Face’||
On Broadway 1 Nov. [synd. col.] The very youthful Jack MacLean has the gent who owns the patents sewed up. | ||
Really the Blues 66: There never was a town sewed up as tight as Burnham was under the syndicate. | ||
Jimmy Brockett 195: Tom Shaw and Harry have five of the six councils sewed up, and the sixth will toe the mark. | ||
Scene (1996) 76: It couldn’t be the Rollers. Didn’t the Man say that he had the Sixth Precinct sewed up? | ||
Pagan Game (1969) 127: Got it all sewn up, haven’t you? The Invincibles. | ||
Brown’s Requiem 30: When she’s got the wop sewed up, she’ll give me the boot. |
7. set on a path, committed.
San Diego Sailor 4: I was all sewed up now and I knew I wanted that kid more than I ever wanted anything. |