tuck
See also: Tuck
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tʰʌk/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌk
Etymology 1
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”) (compare also *tukkōną), 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”). Doublet of touch.
Verb
tuck (third-person singular simple present tucks, present participle tucking, simple past and past participle tucked)
- (transitive) To pull or gather up (an item of fabric). [From 14thc.]
- (transitive) To push into a snug position; to place somewhere safe or somewhat hidden. [From 1580s.]
- Tuck in your shirt. I tucked in the sheet. He tucked the $10 bill into his shirt pocket.
- 1907, Robert William Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326, page 6:
- It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side.
- (intransitive, often with "in" or "into") To eat; to consume. [From 1780s.]
- (ergative) To fit neatly.
- The sofa tucks nicely into that corner. Kenwood House is tucked into a corner of Hampstead Heath.
- To curl into a ball; to fold up and hold one's legs.
- The diver tucked, flipped, and opened up at the last moment.
- To sew folds; to make a tuck or tucks in.
- to tuck a dress
- To full, as cloth.
- (LGBT, of a drag queen, trans woman, etc.) To conceal one’s penis and testicles, as with a gaff or by fastening them down with adhesive tape.
- Honey, have you tucked today? We don’t wanna see anything nasty down there.
- (when playing scales on piano keys) To keep the thumb in position while moving the rest of the hand over it to continue playing keys that are outside the thumb.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Derived terms
Translations
push the end of fabric out of sight
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fit neatly
curl into a ball; fold up and hold one's legs
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sew folds
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Noun
tuck (plural tucks)
- An act of tucking; a pleat or fold. [From late 14thC.]
- (sewing) A fold in fabric that has been stitched in place from end to end, as to reduce the overall dimension of the fabric piece.
- A curled position.
- (medicine, surgery) A plastic surgery technique to remove excess skin.
- (music, piano, when playing scales on piano keys) The act of keeping the thumb in position while moving the rest of the hand over it to continue playing keys that are outside the thumb.
- (diving) A curled position, with the shins held towards the body.
- (nautical) The afterpart of a ship, immediately under the stern or counter, where the ends of the bottom planks are collected and terminate by the tuck-rail.
Related terms
Translations
act of tucking
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sewing: fold stitched from end to end
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curled position
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medicine: plastic surgery technique
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music: act of keeping thumb in position while moving the rest of the hand over it
diving: curled position
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Etymology 2
From Old French estoc (“rapier”), from Italian stocco (“a truncheon, a short sword”)
Noun
tuck (plural tucks)
- (archaic) A rapier, a sword.
- 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 2
- [...] with force he labour'd / To free's blade from retentive scabbard; / And after many a painful pluck, / From rusty durance he bail'd tuck [...]
- 1601, Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, Act III, Scene I.
- [...] dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation, for thy assailant is quick, skilful, and deadly. [...]
- Sir Walter Scott
- He wore large hose, and a tuck, as it was then called, or rapier, of tremendous length.
- 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 2
Translations
short sword — see rapier
Etymology 3
Compare tocsin.
Etymology 4
Old Occitan tuc (“uncooked”).
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