Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to fit a prisoner with fetters.

1755		Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. (1785) n.p.: Garnish. To fit with fetters. A cant term.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1925		H. Leverage ‘Dict. Und.’ in Flynn’s mag. cited in Partridge DU (1949).