Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pucker n.

a state of fear or excitement, a fuss, a panic; usu. as in a pucker

1741		implied in in a pucker
1778		K. O’Hara April-Day Act I: How to get out o’ this pucker.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 78: PUCKER, poor temper, difficulty, dishabille.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1901		Monroe & Northup ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:iii 145: pucker, n. In phrase, ‘Don’t get a pucker on’ = don’t get angry.
1949		‘Josephine Tey’ Brat Farrar 190: Patrick ‘weren’t never one to make a pucker’, no matter how ‘tedious bad’ things were.
1966		True Apr. 39: ‘Roger. Do you require dustoff?’ ‘Negative, but the pucker factor would be lower if he could orbit for awhile.’.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 86: The fear of lost luck [...] squeezing down on his asshole — pucker factor, we called it.
1991		J.B. Keane Love Bites and Other Stories 68: I seized him by the belt of his overcoat and allowed myself to be dragged out of an otherwise imponderable pucker.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 29: I remember a python shoot through the bush in front of me [...] It was a number ten pucker factor, but I had not spooked.

In derivatives

puckery (adj.)

tense, nervous.

1833

S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 65: Every body’s puckery and sour enough.

In phrases

in a pucker [one’s face puckers up when expressing excitement]

in a state of excitement.

1741		Richardson Pamela I 164: She sat down by me, and seem’d in a great Pucker.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 5: Well, to be sure, the whole parish was in a pucker.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: All in a pucker; in a dishabille. Also in a fright; as, she was in a terrible pucker.
1801		M. Edgeworth Angelina Ch. iii: Be not in a pet or a pucker!
1819		Beppo in London xxii: Those things which put our ladies in such puckers!
1825		J. Neal Brother Jonathan I 202: Edith was in tears [...] Miriam, in a ‘plaguy pucker’.
1837		R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods II 208: I was in what thee may call a pucker, not knowing what to do.
1846		D. Jerrold Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain Lectures 47: I’m sure those Briggs girls – the little minxes! – put me into such a pucker.
c.1850		F.M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 120: ’Twas nat’ral enough [...] that the squire’s wife should be in a terrible pucker to see the Ladies’ Book.
1857		John o’ Groat Jrnl 2 Jan. 4/1: ‘Tell him not to be in a pucker,’ sez I.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 365: ’Twas well I didn’t tumble up against her, I was in such a pucker to make her mind ’asy about Mat.
1888		W.D. Howells Annie Kilburn xxix: He was in such a pucker about her [F&H].
1903		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:v 300: pucker, n. Hurry. ‘Don’t be in such a great pucker.’.
1952		B. MacMahon Children of the Rainbow 130: Bidamn! [...] You have me in a proper pucker.
1995		M. Ryan et al. No Shoes in Summer n.p.: By the time he arrived I was in a bit of a pucker [BS].

SE in slang uses

In compounds

pucker-assed (adj.) [-assed sfx]

(US) timid, fearful; also as adv.

1986		L. Heineman Paco’s Story (1987) 184: Lieutenant Stennett, the English major from Dartmouth, who’d been sitting pucker-assed on the other side of the night laager.
[1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 6: That first view of the stuff always puckered my ass right up].
1996		J. Ellroy My Dark Places 152: I had to be a locked-down, uptight, pucker-assed motherfucker.
2003		thebookofoshenry.blogspot.com Journal 5 Sept. 🌐 I took all the half assed thoughts—like the chaadvicken—and all the pucker assed characters—like Unrayth The Wise, Zagnut the Unholy, and Sphincter Boy—and used them as fertilizer for a sub-epic adventurous farce.