The quotation, 1888, shows the method of
transference. It then means generally, to stop. Like the
similar verb, <i>to stick up</i> (q.v.), it is often used
humorously of a demand for subscriptions, etc.

1844. Mrs. Chas. Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South
Wales,' p. 132:

"The bushrangers . . . walk quickly in, and `bail up,' i.e.
bind with cords, or otherwise secure, the male portion."

1847. Alex. Marjoribanks, `Travels in New South Wales,' p. 72:

". . . there were eight or ten bullock-teams baled up by three
mounted bushrangers. Being baled up is the colonial phrase for
those who are attacked, who are afterwards all put together,
and guarded by one of the party of the bushrangers when the
others are plundering."

1855 W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 309:

"So long as that is wrong, the whole community will be wrong,--
in colonial phrase, `bailed up' at the mercy of its own
tenants."

1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and Victoria,'
p. 192:

"`Come, sir, immediately,' rejoined Murphy, rudely and
insultingly pushing the master; `bail up in that corner, and
prepare to meet the death you have so long deserved.'"

1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 112:

"She bailed me up and asked me if I was going to keep my
promise and marry her."

1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 36:

"His troutship, having neglected to secure a line of retreat,
was, in colonial parlance, `bailed up.'"

1880. G. Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p.133:

"The Kelly gang . . . bailed up some forty residents in the local
public house."

1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 76:

"Did I ever get stuck-up? Never by white men, though I have
been bailed up by the niggers."

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 105:

"A little further on the boar `bailed up' on the top of a
ridge."

1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 368:

"One of the young cows was a bit strange with me, so I had to
shake a stick at her and sing out `Bail up' pretty rough before
she'd put her head in. Aileen smiled something like her old
self for a minute, and said, `That comes natural to you now,
Dick, doesn't it ?' I stared for a bit and then burst out
laughing.It was a rum go, wasn't it? The same talk for cows
and Christians. That's how things get stuck into the talk in a
new country. Some old hand like father, as had been assigned
to a dairy settler, and spent all his mor