Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see shut one’s face under face n.

(UK Und.) to confess.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 100/2: On his being conveyed back to the ‘start,’ he ‘opened’ to the ‘coppers’ everything concerning his arrangements with us.
1895		Derby Mercury 9 Jan. 8/3: I knew then that Selby had got a bit more (money) than he opened to (told) me.
1895		People 6 Jan. in Ware (1909) 189/2: I knew then that Selby had got a bit more (money) than he opened to (told) me.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 119: Feeling that I’d be shoved back if I didn’t open pretty soon.

1. of a woman, to have sexual intercourse.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
a.1968		‘School Ma’am on the Flat’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 54: He knew he’d have to marry her if he opened up her flue, / If John Henry gets to raring up, he will flog him with his hat / Before he goes a-courting another school ma’am on the flat.

2. to confess, to speak intimately.

1897		Ade Pink Marsh (1963) 113: It’s ’bout fo’ to one ’at any man’s got as much as million dollahs ain’t goin’ ’o open up.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 1: Neither of the two ‘committees’ which have recently investigated New York City was successful in getting him to ‘open up’.
1908		‘Old Sleuth’ Dock Rats of N.Y. (2006) 117: I know you and until you ‘open up’ and tell who employed you to ‘shadow’ me, you will be kept close.
1917		R. Lardner ‘Gullible’s Travels’ in Gullible’s Travels 95: I’d heard him, in at lunch, tellin’ the dinin’-car conductor what Wilson should of done, so I wasn’t su’prised when he opened up on me.
1927		(con. 1917) J. Stevens Mattock 231: You open up, come clean [...] or by the holy old hell you’ll get coldcocked so your mother won’t know you.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 54: When he opened up on the mob, it was decided that he had lost all claim to the rest of his end (share).
1943		R. Chandler Lady in the Lake (1952) 42: Boy, did I open up to you. Nellie with her hair in her lap.
1953		W. Brown Run, Chico, Run (1959) 20: Nobody on the block would open up to the nabs.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 811: open up – To become confidential.
1974		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 20: He probably opened up to me because i was no threat to his new position.
1992		P. Earley Hot House 40: Some inmates tested me. [...] They wanted to see if I would snitch on them. I never did. After weeks of watching me, one by one these men began to open up.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 136: As more snitches open up about Davey, I hear more about his keen interest in [..] the greater New York narcotics rackets.

3. (US) to start talking.

1904		C. Connors Bowery Life [ebook] Den Slats opened up ag’in. ‘Say, Willie,’ she sez, ‘yer ain’t got er cigaret, hev yer?’.
1918		A.N. Depew Gunner Depew 238: So they drilled me up in front of our men [...] and I opened up. The first thing I said [etc].
1976		Woodward & Bernstein Final Days 414: ‘We might as well get down to it. [...] Who wants to open up?’ .

4. to berate.

1915		Truth (Brisbane) 25 July 3/3: ‘What yer want openin’ up on a bloke what’s livin’ respectable now, fer?; I ain’t worked a crook lay fer five year’.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 39: After they were in the cab, and on the way home, the man opened up on her.

5. (US) to persuade someone to talk.

1964

(con. 1917) S. Woodward Paper Tiger 73: We got hold of the diplomat and he reluctantly gave us a detailed description of his losses. We opened him up by telling him that the Worcester police were on the point of recovering everything.

6. (US gay/prison) to sodomize a prisoner.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 155: After he has been opened up (fucked), his ass is referred to as gash, nooky, pussy.

1. (US) to start firing (at), to stab; also fig., to attack verbally.

1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 203: Finally I got mad and opened up on him.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 123: When all the Push gathered at the Round Table and some one let fall the Name of the High-Binder, they would open up on Rufus and Pan him to a Whisper.
1927		(con. 1908) H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 294: When the boys get there you get the bums into the street and open up wi’ your cannisters.
1930		D. Ahearn Confessions of a Gunman 216: You may see him and open up on him and give it to him.
1938		M. Rand ‘Clip-Joint Chisellers’ in Ten Story Gang Aug. 🌐 Shiv summoned his massed pulchritude to the women’s room and opened up on the girls.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 156: He opened up with the Remington and on the third shot he made the luckiest hit of his life.
1982		J. Davis Kullark 59: Somehow I always knew when they were goin’ to open up, always had time to yell to me mates behind me.
1990		M. McAlary Crack War (1991) 39: Pappy was already there, opening up on him.
2009		Times Rev. 30 Apr. 23/1: A teenager threatened to use a knife to ‘open up’ a drinker in a bar.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 5: ‘All this hippie stuff working, is it [...] No feeling the need to open the warden’s face any more?’.

2. to interrogate, to question.

1955

‘Hal Ellson’ Rock 45: One of these days I mean to open up on her myself and see what makes her tick.

see spill one’s guts under spill v.