tuck up fair n.
the gallows.
![]() | ‘The Mill’ British Minstrel 111: The beaks have sent their traps arter ’em, and if they’re cotched, they’ll show ’em the fall of the leaf at Tuck-up Fair. | |
![]() | Modern Flash Dict. 34: Tuck up fair – Newgate, at a hanging time. | |
![]() | Last Day of Condemned 39: He swore he’d make me dance on air, / To please the folks at Tuck-up fair. | (trans.) V. Hugo|
![]() | Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835]. | |
, , | ![]() | Sl. Dict. 262: Tuck-up-Fair the gallows. The notion of tucking up in connexion with hanging is derived from tucking up the bedclothes before going to sleep ― the last preparation. |
In phrases
to be hanged.
![]() | ‘Billy Bighead’ in Cove in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 227: And ’twas by great good luck they say, / That he didn’t dangle at tuck-up fair. |