tuck

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tuken, also touken and tukken,^[2][3] inherited from Old English tūcian (“to ill-treat, punish, torment”),^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]} later influenced by Middle Low German tucken (“to pull sharply”) and Middle Dutch tucken.^[4][5][2] Barnhart, Etymonline, Hoad and the American Heritage Dictionary take the verb as borrowed from the Low German and Dutch verbs, the American Heritage Dictionary only possibly.^{[9][10][11][12]} The OED, which calls the origin uncertain, finds two groups of forms: those with a long vowel belong to the Old English senses "punish" and "rebuke", while the short-vowel forms of the 14th century and after, with the senses "pull" and "gather up", match the Low German and Dutch verb; it compares the shortening of the vowel with that in suck.^[13][14] The continental verbs are cognate with Old High German zucchen (“to snatch, jerk”) and German zucken (“to twitch, jerk”),^{[13][9][6][11]} and the group is related to tug, tow and togian (“to pull”).^{[9][10][3][11]} Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *teuh- (“to draw, pull”).^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

To afflict as a punishment; to ill-treat or torment: in Old English, in Ælfred's translation of Boethius.^[13][8][2]

Semantic evolution

The Old English sense "to punish, torment" lasted until about 1230, and the figurative "to rebuke, upbraid" until 1651.^[13][3] In Middle English the verb was also used for dressing cloth by stretching it on tenters (1377, in Piers Plowman), a sense implied earlier in the surname Tucker (1273),^[13][9][10] and for tugging or plucking (before 1400).^[13] The modern line begins with pulling up and gathering the loose clothes of a person (about 1385, in Chaucer) and gathering a garment into folds (about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum);^[13][9] the noun, a fold or pleat, appears in Thomas Usk's Testament of Love (written about 1385, printed 1532).^[13][9] From 1587 the verb meant to thrust something into a snug or hidden place,^[13][9][10] while from 1635 it also meant to turn in the edges of bedclothes.^[9] In 18th-century slang to tuck food was to eat it heartily (1784), and tuck in followed;^[10][16] the noun tuck became a hearty meal (1823) and, in school slang, food, especially sweets and pastry (1857, in Tom Brown's School Days), whence the tuck shop.^[13][10][11] Later technical uses include the part of a ship's hull where the bottom planks meet under the stern (before 1625),^[13][3] the tuck position in diving and gymnastics (1951, with tuck position by 1931)^[13][10] and, in American slang, a cosmetic operation to remove fat or skin.^[17]

Timeline

• before 900 – Old English tūcian, to punish, ill-treat.^[13][7]
• before 1225 – to rebuke, upbraid (obsolete by 1651).^[13]
• 1273 – implied in the surname Tucker.^[9][10]
• 1377 – to dress cloth by stretching it.^[13]
• c. 1385 – to gather up a person's garments; noun, a fold, in Usk.^[13][9]
• c. 1440 – to gather up in folds.^[13][9]
• 1587 – to thrust into a snug or hidden place.^[13][9]
• before 1625 – the part of a ship's hull under the stern.^[13]
• 1626 – to put tucks in a garment.^[13]
• 1635 – to tuck in bedclothes.^[9]
• 1784 – to eat heartily.^[10][16]
• 1823 – noun, a hearty meal.^[13]
• 1857 – food, sweets and pastry, in school slang.^[13][10]
• 1951 – a tuck position in diving.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To push the loose ends or edges of something into place so as to make it neat and secure: Tuck your shirt in.^[18][3]
2. To put something into a small, snug or hidden place; often with away: She tucked the receipt into her purse.^[18][13]
3. To pull up or gather into a fold; to draw together or contract.^[3][13][18]
4. To make a tuck or tucks in a garment, to shorten or decorate it.^[3][18][13]
5. (informal) tuck in, tuck into: to eat heartily.^[10][16][11]
6. (obsolete, Old English–1230) To punish or ill-treat.^[13][4]
7. (obsolete, 1225–1651) To rebuke or upbraid.^[13][3]

Noun

1. A flattened fold sewn into a garment to shorten, tighten or decorate it.^[3][18][13]
2. An act of tucking, or something tucked in.^[3][18][13]
3. A body position, as in diving or gymnastics, with the knees bent and drawn up to the chest.^[3][13]
4. (British, informal) Food, especially sweets and cakes eaten by schoolchildren.^[13][17][11]
5. The part of a ship's hull under the stern where the ends of the bottom planks meet.^[3][13]
6. (informal) A cosmetic operation to remove fat or loose skin.^[17]

Word family

• tucker
• nip and tuck
• tuck pointing
• tummy tuck

Related words

• tug
• tow

Usage notes

Two other words spelled tuck are now archaic or Scottish: tuck a beat of a drum, as in tuck of drum, from Old French toquer (“to strike, touch”), the northern French form of toucher (see touch and tucket),^{[13][4][14][6]} and tuck a slender thrusting sword or rapier (1508), from French estoc, of Germanic origin.^{[13][4][3][14]} The OED enters the phrase nip and tuck under this word.^[13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
16. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
18. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins