hem up

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hem up

verb hems up · hemming up · hemmed up

informal, transitive To restrain (a person) by grabbing their collar. Taking him home she hemmed him up soon as they stepped in the door. Now Tony was a bad dude in the streets but when it came to his mama, he was a punk. A few cuss words on her part had him spilling everything.
slang, transitive To arrest or lock up. The last thing you want is to get hemmed up in prison.

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MLA

"hem up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/hem%20up. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

hem up. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/hem%20up

Chicago

"hem up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/hem%20up.

BibTeX

@misc{hem_up_2026,
  title = {hem up},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/hem%20up},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}