tucker meaning (slang): definition, etymology and quotations

tucker

verb

UK /ˈtʌkə/ · US /ˈtʌkɚ/

Etymology From tuck + -er.

Slang To tire out or exhaust a person or animal.

noun

Etymology From tuck + -er.

One who or that which tucks.

Discrimination. Firm, after having had a long controversy with its tuckers, laid off the whole tucking department for a week. Union maintained it was a clear case cf discrimination against the tuckers on account of the recent controversy. Determination: Complaint of the union was sustained. Tuckers were paid the amount of money they were deprived of through being discriminated against, $158.90.1914, US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Conciliation, Arbitration, and Sanitation in the Dress and Waist Industry of New York City, Bulletin of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 145, page 108, Nature of Grievance

By the fire the billies were boiling, the tucker of both camps spread out on tarpaulins.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 10:

Dated, Slang Work that scarcely yields a living wage.

Derived terms: bush tucker, dog tucker, tuckerbag, tuckerbox, tucker claim, tucker fucker, tuckerless, tucker money
Related terms: best bib and tucker, tucker fucker

noun

Etymology Inherited from Middle English tukere (“one who dresses or finishes cloth”).

Lace or a piece of cloth in the neckline of a dress.

“And, ma′am,” he continued, “the laundress tells me some of the girls have two clean tuckers in the week: it is too much; the rules limit them to one.” “I think I can explain that circumstance, sir. Agnes and Catherine Johnstone were invited to take tea with some friends at Lowton last Thursday, and I gave them leave to put on clean tuckers for the occasion.”1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, unnumbered page:
“Now let us go home, and never mind Aunt March to-day. We can run down there any time, and it′s really a pity to trail through the dust in our best bibs and tuckers, when we are tired and cross.”1869, Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives, published 1903, page 57:

Obsolete A fuller; one who fulls cloth.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.