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tuck love

tuck

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To thrust or fold the edge of so as to secure or confine.
  • intransitive verb To wrap or cover snugly, as by tucking a blanket.
  • intransitive verb To make one or more folds in.
  • intransitive verb To put in an out-of-the-way, snug place.
  • intransitive verb To store in a safe spot; save.
  • intransitive verb To draw in; contract.
  • intransitive verb Sports To bring (a body part) into a tuck position.
  • intransitive verb To make tucks.
  • noun The act of tucking.
  • noun A flattened pleat or fold, especially a very narrow one stitched in place.
  • noun Nautical The part of a ship's hull under the stern where the ends of the bottom planks come together.
  • noun A body position used in some sports, such as diving, in which the knees are bent and the thighs are drawn close to the chest, with the hands often clasped around the shins.
  • noun A position in skiing in which the skier squats, often while holding the poles parallel to the ground and under the arms.
  • noun Informal A cosmetic surgical procedure in which skin or fat is removed, sometimes accompanied by muscle tightening, to create a slimmer or more youthful appearance.
  • noun Chiefly British Food, especially sweets and pastry.
  • noun Energy; vigor.
  • noun A slender sword; a rapier.
  • noun A beat or tap, especially on a drum.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A rapier. See estoc.
  • noun A blow; a stroke; a tap; a beat; especially, the beating of a drum. See beat or tuck of drum, under beat.
  • noun A blast; a flourish; a tucket.
  • noun A garment tucked, girt, or wrapped about one; in the following quotation, a turban.
  • noun In needlework, a flat fold in a fabric, or in a part of a garment, fixed in place by stitches, and frequently one of a series laid parallel.
  • noun A short pinafore.
  • noun In bookbinding, a flap on one side of the cover, made to fold over the other side and tuck into a strap which holds it fast.
  • noun A kind of net.
  • noun A pinch; a nip. See the quotation under tuck, transitive verb, 7.
  • noun Nautical, that part of a vessel where the after ends of the outside planking come together under the stern.
  • noun Eatables; viands; especially, sweets or pastry. Also tucker, in Australia.
  • noun An appetite.
  • noun Same as tang.
  • To beat; tap: said of a drum.
  • To draw close together; pull together.
  • To gather up; draw or pull up, or in any direction; draw into folds: frequently followed by up.
  • In needlework, to lay and sew tucks in: as, the waist was tucked lengthwise. See tuck, n., 2.
  • To press or crowd into a narrow space or compass; stuff; cram.
  • Hence To pack in barrels.
  • To gird; clothe tightly or compactly; hence, to cover snugly with wrappings, as with bedclothes or rugs.
  • To put into one's stomach; eat: usually with in.
  • In seine-fishing, to gather or draw (fish) out of a seine by means of a tuck-seine which is shot inside of the seine.
  • To pinch; nip; wound by the pressure of the finger-nail.
  • To string up; hang.
  • To contract; draw together.
  • To make tucks: as, a sewing-machine that tucks and gathers.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English tukken, possibly from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch tocken, tucken.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps from French dialectal étoc, from Old French estoc, of Germanic origin.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English tukken, to beat a drum, from Old North French toquer, to strike, from Vulgar Latin *toccāre.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French estoc ("rapier"), from Italian stocco ("a truncheon, a short sword")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English tuken, touken ("to torment, to stretch (cloth)"), from Old English tūcian ("to torment, vex") and Middle Dutch tucken ("to tuck"), both from Proto-Germanic *teuh-, *teug- (“to draw, pull”) (cf. also *tukkōnan), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”). Akin to Old High German zucchen ("to snatch, tug"), zuchôn ("to jerk"), Old English tēon ("to draw, pull, train"). More at touch.

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Examples

Comments

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  • brtom commented on the word tuck

    ... but when he says this it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me. HF 16

    December 5, 2006

  • fangio commented on the word tuck

    I'm feeling hungry:

    tuck shop

    tuck in

    Friar Tuck

    December 31, 2006

  • michaelt42 commented on the word tuck

    The term Friar Tuck, with its fairly obvious rhyming slang connotation, found its way into the UK House of Commons during Questions to the Prime Minister (Cameron) last Wednesday (March 27, 2012). Cameron, a Conservative, was accused by Ed Milliband, Labour leader, of "not caring a Friar Tuck" for the less well off; Milliband also derided the idea of a Robin Hood budget that would take from the rich to give to the poor. Normally language of this sort would be ruled in poor taste by the Speaker, but on this occasion, when the gloves were off in the post-Budget period and Millibrand was persuing a clear Robin Hood analogy, the Speaker let the remark pass.

    April 1, 2012