Chiefly colloq. [f. TIDY a.] trans. To make tidy or orderly; to put in order; to arrange neatly; refl. to put one’s hair, dress, etc., in order; to make oneself neat. Often with up.
1821. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), II. 127. I mean to have it whitened and tidied up this summer.
1847. C. Brontë, J. Eyre, iv. Bessie … employed me as a sort of under nursery maid, to tidy the room, dust the chairs, &c.
1868. F. E. Paget, Lucretia, 106. When the cook went up stairs, after tea, to tidy herself.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 73. My notes for a day will contain facts relating to the kraw-kraw, price of onions,… genealogies,… law cases,… &c., &c. And the undertaking of tidying these things up is no small one.
1898. G. B. Shaw, Plays, II. Candida, 131. The large table has been cleared and tidied.
b. To stow away or clear up for the sake of tidiness.
1867. [see tidying below].
1884. Nonconformist, 1 May. It was left on the hall table … and had been ‘tidied up’ by one of those … housemaids who are the bane of every busy man.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 5 July, 2/1. If anything is broken or tidied away beyond recall.
Hence Tidying vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1867. H. Latham, Black & White, 90. After such a war … there is no small amount of sweeping up, and tidying away,… to be done.
1884. Blackw. Mag., Dec., 734/3. Comte de Rivaulx! echoed Madame, pausing in her tidying.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 7 Jan., 3/2. Lovers of nature … view with horror the onslaughts of these tidying gentlemen.
