[f. TUCK v.1 + -ING1.]
† 1. The fulling and dressing of cloth. Obs.
1467–8. [see TUCKING-MILL].
1530. in Weaver, Wells Wills (1890), 24. All that belongyth to my crafte of tokynge and sherynge.
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), I. 167. The … charges in the wholl manufactory … in … Tuckinge, shearinge, dying, dressinge and the like.
2. Fishing. The taking of fish from the seine with the tuck-net.
1847. Zoologist, V. 1706. On tucking, all the fish were discovered to be dead.
1888. Argosy, 279. To get the fish [pilchards] out of the seine is the next operation … this is called tucking, and it is carried on by means of a small net or tuck net.
3. The gathering or girding up of one’s garments; concr. the part or fold so gathered; also, the putting of tucks in a garment; concr. a tuck, or tucks collectively.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 504/2. Tukkynge vp (of clothys, or stykkynge…), suffarci(naci)o.
1713. Guardian, No. 10, ¶ 7. The taking and tucking up of gowns.
1880. Plain Hints Needlework, 22. Tucking … is used both as ornament, and for elongation when the material has shrunk.
1893. Athenæum, 7 Oct., 498/1. A higher tucking of the picturesque and flowing robes,… would carry more of conviction.
4. The action of putting anything away so that it is snugly covered or concealed, or of thrusting in something, as a bed-covering, so as to confine it at the end or edge; hence (slang) tucking in, hearty or greedy feeding; also concr.
1810. Splendid Follies, I. 186. Tom Sponge now began cramming unmercifully, exclaiming every three mouthfuls, ‘Rare tucking in, Sir William.’
1833. Macaulay, Ess., Walpole (1897), 272. Whose vast volume of wig and infinite length of riband had figured at the dressing or at the tucking up of Louis the Fourteenth.
1874. J. Brown, Lett., in Recoll. (1893), 65. This tucking [of the leg of a fowl under its wing] … was due to the force automatic.
1876. Besant & Rice, Gold. Butterfly (1877), 196. They gave themselves unreservedly to ‘tucking in.’
1884. Roe, Nat. Ser. Story, vi. High winds and frosty nights prompted to careful covering and tucking away.
5. attrib., as tucking-bush, the dwarf juniper, Juniperus nana; tucking-comb, a comb confining the hair; tucking-gauge: see quot.; † tucking-girdle, a girdle worn with the alb, which is drawn through it until the skirt is of the proper length; tucking-maund, a tuck-basket (TUCK sb.1 8); † tucking-shear(s, shears used in cloth-finishing: † tucking-stock, a fulling-stock or fulling-mill. See also TUCKING-MILL.
1890. W. P. Lett, in Big Game N. Amer., 88. Large patches of *‘tucking-bushes,’ or dwarf juniper, which grow about breast-high, with strong branches stiffly interlaced.
1895. S. B. Kennedy, in Outing (U.S.), XXVII. 11/2. He stopped and held up a gold-tipped *tucking comb.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tucking-gage, an attachment for marking tucks at a determinate distance ready for the next line of sewing.
1487–8. Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 131. Item, for a dossen *tuckyng gyrdilles, x d.
1490–1. in Swayne, Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896), 37. For tukkynge girdillis for Awbis, iiij d. Ibid. (1499–1500), 51. For a dossyn Tokynggirdels for the Vestre, xij d.
1530. Palsgr., 283/2. Tuckyng gyrdell [printed kyrdell], saincture a ecourier [printed ecourser].
1896. Gd. Words, Jan., 18/1. The *‘tucking-maund’ is … a somewhat shallow basket, through which water may readily escape, but mackerel cannot.
1478. Croscombe Churchw. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.), 6. A *tokyng shere.
1533. in Weaver, Wells Wills (1890), 102. My son Thomas … ii. pere of tokyne sherys.
1778. Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Staverton, Staverton, Wilts, on the Avon,… has 4 *tucking-stocks and 2 grist-mills.
