Word Confusion: Tucks versus Tux

Plural for the noun: tucks
Gerund: tucking

Third person present verb: tucks
Past tense or past participle: tucked
Present participle: tucking

Plural: tuxes, tuxedos, tuxedoes

• [Usually with modifier; informal] A surgical operation to reduce surplus flesh or fat

[Also tuck position in diving, gymnastics, downhill skiing, etc.] A position with the knees bent and held close to the chest, often with the hands clasped around the shins

[British; informal; dated] Food, typically cakes and candy, eaten by children at school as a snack

[tuck into] To eat, or start to eat with enthusiasm

[Maritime] The part of a vessel where the after ends of the planking or plating meet at the sternpost

[Archaic; Arms, Armor] A rapier, estoc, or other thrusting sword ²

[Dialect] A touch, blow, or stroke ³

[Chiefly Scottish] A drumbeat or the sound of one beat on a drum

[North American; tux] Tuxedo ⁴

Verb, intransitive:
To draw together ¹

• Contract
• Pucker

[Needlework] To make a flattened, stitched fold(s)

To fit securely or snugly

[Dialect] To throb or bump ³

Verb, transitive:
[And usually with adverbial of place and followed by in, up, under, etc.] Push, fold, or turn (the edges or ends of something, especially a garment or bedclothes) so as to hide them or hold them in place ¹

• Draw (something, especially part of one’s body) together into a small space
• Put (something) away in a specified place or way so as to be hidden, safe, comfortable, or tidy

Make a flattened, stitched fold in (a garment or material), typically so as to shorten or tighten it or for decoration

[Informal] To eat or drink

[Dialect] To touch or strike ³

• A suit of formal evening clothes, including a tuxedo

[Informal] Tuck

I heard she got a tummy tuck.

Candyman’s is a terrific tuck shop.

Lenzi nailed a reverse 3–1/2 somersault tuck on his final dive.

“Chuck’s Cheerful clearly uses a version of the square tuck while the Sultana uses a rounded tuck” (Imagna).

A tuck is a thrusting sword intended to pierce armor.

“Trumpets sound, and drums tuck” (Jamieson).

Tuck back your hair, Danny.

He put on his tuck.

Verb, intransitive:
It was a bed that tucks into the corner.

The table can be tucked into that alcove.

We tucked in with enthusiasm.

Batters are advised to leave off the gloves or sliding pads as a tuck could rule him out.

Verb, transitive:
Tuck the money into your wallet.

He tucked his shirt into his trousers.

Mom tucked my baby brother in.

She tucked her legs under her.

The colonel was coming toward her, his gun tucked under his arm.

She tucked her arm into his.

The suit was pinned and tucked all over.

He tucked into her with a flurry of blows.

He tucked away a big meal.

His female friend wore a tux as his best “man” at the wedding.

He wore a tux to the fundraiser.

1. Old English tūcian meaning to punish, ill-treat is of West Germanic origin and related to tug.

   It was influenced in Middle English by the Middle Dutch tucken meaning pull sharply.

2. First recorded in 1500–10; earlier tocke, apparently a phonetic variant of the obsolete stock meaning sword, from the Italian stocco, from the German Stock meaning stick; cognate with stock.
3. It was first recorded in 1300–50; Middle English tukken meaning to beat, sound (said of a drum), from the Middle French (north) toker meaning to strike, touch.
4. In 1920–25 in a shortening and respelling of tuxedo.

It was first recorded in 1920–25 by shortening tuxedo.