arch. Forms: 6 toke, tocke, touke, Sc. towk, 6–7 tucke, (7 took, touk, tuke), 7– tuck. [app. ad. F. estoc in same sense, in OF. and Norm. dial. étoc = Pr. estoc, It. stocco, ad. Ger. stock stick.] A slender, pointed, straight, thrusting sword; a rapier. Also transf. and fig.
1508. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IV. 122. Item for gilting and grathing of the lang towk,… iiij li.
1525. Rutland MSS. (1905), IV. 267. For the delyverance of a toke to my Lorde, xxd.
c. 1526. Harl. MS. 4217, lf. 10. A longe Tocke iij square, the hafte of siluer.
1553. Will of H. Cornish (MS.). A gilte saddell … a touke, a dagger, stirropes spurres and a handgoune.
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat., I. A j b. The Tucke, the targe, the sheilde.
1625. Darcie, Hist. Eliz., III. 223. To fight … in Duels, with a Rapier called a Tucke, onely for the thrust.
1647–8. Cotterell, Davila’s Hist. Fr. (1678), 25. Running him into the Visor with his Tuck.
1683. Sir J. Turner, Pallas Armata, 176. Long Rapiers and Touks.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 91/2. A Tuck [is] a four square Blade.
a. 1699. Lady Halkett, Autobiog. (1875), 63. Run through the body with a tuke.
1707. J. Stevens, trans. Quevedo’s Com. Wks. (1709), 176. My Sword … was a stiff Tuck.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), II. 880/1. He appeared with a tuck, such as is used by robbers.
1826. Scott, Woodst., i. He wore … a tuck, as it was then called, or rapier.
1885. Harper’s Mag., March, 656/1. The … ‘tuck’ or ‘rapier’ has been refined into the épée or duelling sword.
b. attrib. and Comb., as tuck-sheath; tuck-cane, a cane in which a tuck or rapier is carried, serving as a sheath; a sword-cane; tuck-fish: see quot.; tuck-stick = tuck-cane.
1700. S. L., trans. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind. 160. I had a *tuck Cane in my hand.
1785. Trusler, Mod. Times, II. 18. I … never went out afterwards, but with a tuck cane and a brace of pistols loaded.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. V. i. 86. The Head of the *Tuck-Fish…. The Snout is not so flat as in the Rapier-fish, but thicker and rounder, more like a Tuck, from whence I take leave to name it.
1506–7. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., III. 250. Tua *towk schethis.
1765. Lond. Chron., 19 Dec., 588. The master run the apprentice through the body with a *tuck-stick, which killed him.
