▪ I. ˈtucking, vbl. n.1
[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. |
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 n.1 9);
† 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. |
| 1822 in Dict. Amer. Eng. (1944) IV. 2369/1 Mr. Pettigrew Bot of D McDowell one *tucking Comb at $4.50. 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. 1499–1500 Ibid. 51 For a dossyn Tokynggirdels for the Vestre, xij d. 1530 Palsgr. 283/2 Tuckyng gyrdell [printed kyrdell], saincture a ecourter [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. |
▪ II. † ˈtucking, vbl. n.2 Obs. or
arch. [f. tuck v.2 + -ing1.] Touching; beating of a drum.
| c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 969 Whan he towcheyd it with his toukkyng, þey brast as ony glase, and rofe asonder, as it byn with thondor. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vii. 316 Singing, toucking of kettle Drummes, sounding of Trumpets, and other ostentations of ioy. |