Forms: 4–7 tucke, 9 Sc. towk, 6– tuck. [f. TUCK v.1, in various senses.]
1. A fold or pleat in drapery; † in quot. 1613, a plait of the hair (obs.); now spec. a flattened fold (or one of several parallel folds) in a garment, secured by stitching, either to shorten the article or for ornamentation.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, I. v. (Skeat), l. 132. That no iangling may greue the lest tucke of thy hemmes.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Alforza de vestido, a plaite in a garment, a tucke.
1613. Chapman, Maske Inns Court, A iv. Her tresses in tucks, braided with siluer.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., Towk, a take up in ladies’ clothing.
1861. Gloucestershire Chron., 21 Sept. ‘What do you do when you have outgrown your clothes? You throw them aside, don’t you?’ ‘Oh, no,’ replied the little girl, ‘we let out the tucks.’
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, Tucks … are parallel folds of material, lying … on any article of dress,… either for shortening a garment, or for the purpose of ornamentation.
2. The gathering of the ends of the bottom planks of a ship under the stern; that part of the hull where the bottom planks are collected and terminated by the tuck-rail (see 8).
a. 1625. Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301). Ye Tuck, the word is significant for it is (as you would saie) the verie gathering vp of the Ships quarter, vnder water.
a. 1687. Petty, Treat. Naval Philos., I. i. The … Stern-post, and Dead-rising up the Tuck.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4510/7. The Hoy Burthen 9 or 10 Tun,… Moon shap’d in her Sleir, with a square Tuck.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xxvii. He’s built like a Dutch schuyt, great breadth of beam, and very square tuck.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 157. The tuck, the aft-part of the ship where the ends of the planks of the bottom are terminated by the tuck-rail.
3. Fishing. Short for TUCK-NET.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, I. 30. The Tucke … is narrower meashed, and … with a long bunt in the midst.
1865. Couch, Fishes Brit. Islands, IV. 91. To take up the fish [pilchards] … the principal sean is left undisturbed, while the volyer passes within the enclosure and lays its sean, termed the Tuck, round the former on the inner side; and then the latter is drawn together so as gradually to contract the space and raise the fish to the surface.
4. A pluck, twitch, pull, tug; in quot. 1648 referring to the ‘tucking’ of freshmen at Oxford: see TUCK v.1 4 b. Now only dial.
1648. Wood, Life, 15 Feb. (O.H.S.), I. 139. Nothing was given him but salted drink … with tucks to boot.
1805. A. Scott, Poems, 105 (Jam.). Whan thou had fairly pass’d the clips, An’ a’ the taylor’s tukes an’ nips.
1887. Suppl. to Jamieson, Took, touk, towk, a tug, pluck, pull: ‘He gied her sleeve a bit took.’
5. The thrusting in of the ends or edges of anything so as to secure them in position. Also with in.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xiii. She ever and anon came to the bedside, and smoothed and arranged something about the bed-clothes, and gave a tuck here and there.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. ii. The sentinel smartly giving his rolled shirt-sleeves an extra tuck on the shoulders.
1900. Daily Mail, 5 Feb., 7/1. The guimpe or tiny tuck-in chemisette.
b. A flap on one cover of a book, which folds over and is tucked in a band or the like on the other cover, serving to keep the book closed.
1880. Print. Trades Jrnl., No. 32. 30. A double tuck, rendering a clasp of any description unnecessary.
1893. [see tuck-cover in 8].
6. slang. Usually tuck-out (also tuck-in): A hearty meal; esp. in school use, a feast of delicacies, a ‘blow-out.’
1823. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., 232. He, being inclined for a tuck out, repaired where he was likely to meet with oysters.
1836. E. Howard, R. Reefer, xxxviii. Tell my steward to give them a good tuck-out and a glass of grog.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xv. We meant to save all our money for the tuck.
1856. F. E. Paget, Owlet of Owlst., 172. I was at the dessert; and a jolly good tuck I had, besides.
1886. T. Hardy, Mayor Casterbr., ix. We will have a solid, staunch tuck-in.
b. Food, eatables; esp. delicacies, as sweet-stuff, pastry, jam, etc. (school slang). Cf. TUCKER sb. 6.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. v. The Slogger looks rather sodden, as if he didn’t take much exercise and ate too much tuck.
1860. Tylor, Anahuac, viii. (1861), 210. Ten or twelve of these little bowls on the table, each with a different kind of ‘tuck’ in it.
1899. E. Phillpotts, Human Boy, IV. ii. 93. [He spoke] regretfully, as though he was being robbed of tuck.
c. A hearty appetite for food. dial.
1838. Holloway, Dict. Provincialisms, s.v., ‘He has a pretty good Tuck of his own,’ means that a man is a great eater. Hants. Sussex.
1847–78. Halliwell, Tuck (1) to eat. Also, an appetite.
7. Phrases. † a. Ducks and tucks (of uncertain meaning). Obs.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man (1631), 621. Covet not to win estimation … by … Frierly ducks, and such like Italian and Spanish tricks and tuckes.
1609. Sir E. Hoby, Lett. to T. H[iggons], 106, margin. Leaue your ducks and your tuckes, and your apish toies, and serue God in spirit and truth.
b. Nip and tuck: see NIP sb.1 6.
8. attrib. and Comb. (some f. the verb-stem): tuck-basket, a basket used in dipping the fish from the tuck-net; tuck-boat, in seine-fishing, a boat that carries the tuck-net; tuck-cover (see 5 b); tuck-creaser, tuck-folder, an attachment in a sewing-machine which marks the line of, or folds down, the next tuck in readiness for stitching (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); † tuck-hole, a hole in a ploughshare by means of which it is hooked to the beam (cf. TUCK v.1 8, quot. 1733); tuck-hunter, one in search of a feast; tuck-joint, a joint in tuck-pointing (see TUCK-POINT); tuck-marker = tuck-creaser; tuck-plate, in an iron ship, a curved plate of the hull at the point where the stern-post is bolted to the transom-frame: cf. sense 2; tuck-rail: see quot.; tuck-seine = TUCK-NET. Also TUCK-MILL, -NET, -POINT, -SHOP.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4), 127. *Tuck basket for taking fish out of seine.
1855. J. R. Leifchild, Cornwall Mines, 15. The *‘tuck’ boat then makes the inner circuit of the ‘seine,’ the smaller net being dropped overboard as she goes.
1893. Westm. Gaz., 24 June, 7/2. With *tuck cover (like pocket-book), and flap and pencil.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. Pl. v. 40. Heel to *tuck hole of share—2 ft. 61/2 in …. Tuck hole to point of share—81/2 in.
1840. A. Bunn, Stage, I. xii. 295. Nothing can stop the mouth of a *tuck-hunter.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 226. Rough arches … finished off with … a *‘tuck joint.’ This consists in marking the divisions by a neatly raised line of fine white plaster.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tuck-marker,… also known as a tuck-creaser, for making a crease on goods as a guide for width in making the next fold.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 157. *Tuck-rail, the rail which … forms a rabbet for the purpose of caulking the butt ends of the planks of the bottom [see sense 2].
1825. Encycl. Lond., XX. 435/1. [In pilchard fishing] three boats belong to each sean; the first and largest is called the sean-boat…. The next boat is called the vollier (follower)…, and carries another sean, called the *tuck-sean, which is about 100 fathoms long, and 18 deep…. The third boat is called the lurker.
1874. [see SEINE sb.1 β].
