verb. (showmen’s).—See quot.
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i. 269. The trio at this stage of the performances began PUCKERING (talking privately) to each other in murdered French, dashed with a little Irish.
IN A PUCKER, phr. (colloquial).—Anxious; agitated; angry; confused: cf. PUDDER.—DYCHE (1748); GROSE (1785). Whence TO PUCKER UP = to get angry.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, ii. The whole parish was in a PUCKER: some thought the French had landed.
1825. NEAL, Brother Jonathan, I. vii. Miriam [was] IN a plaguy PUCKER.
1888. W. D. HOWELLS, Annie Kilburn, xxix. He was IN such A PUCKER about her.
1883. PAYN, Thicker than Water, xiii. Mary’s letters, therefore, were among the few things that did not agitate Mrs. Sotheran, or, to use her own homely phrase, put her INTO A PUCKER—a moderately cold perspiration.
