It is possible, although I'd admit, entirely speculative, that 'nip and tuck' is a deliberately garbled version of 'neck and neck'. The phrase is somewhat similar to 'neck and neck', which has virtually the same meaning. Why 'nip' and why 'tuck'? There are several meanings of both words but none of them suggests anything that relates directly to any sort of close race or result. "It will be a close race in this county - Tully and Cummins, nip and tuck and I don't know which will have it." report this ad The first known usage of 'nip and tuck' comes from the Arkansas Times and Advocate, August 1838: "There we were at rip and tuck, up one tree and down another." 'Rip and tuck' is first found in James Kirke Paulding's Westward Ho!, 1832: This has a different meaning - something akin to 'fast and loose', but it is hard to imagine that the two phrases are unrelated. There is an earlier expression 'rip and tuck'. The earlier usage is a little more difficult to understand as the connections between both words 'nip' and 'tuck' and the 'close result' meaning of the phrase aren't easy to see. Liz emerges porcelain pretty, accompanied by Keith The name began to be used in the 1970s and the earliest reference I can find to it in that context is from The Lethbridge Herald, January 1974:Ĭosmetic surgery at an Nipping and tucking are what me might imagine being done in such a procedure. It is easy to see why it was later appropriated as the name of the minor cosmetic surgery 'skin-tightenning'. The 'close result' meaning of this phrase originated in the 19th century. What's the origin of the phrase 'Nip and tuck'? More recently, 'Nip and tuck' has been adopted as the name of a cosmetic surgery procedure.
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