get someone in a line

English

Verb

get someone in a line (third-person singular simple present gets someone in a line, present participle getting someone in a line, simple past got someone in a line, past participle got someone in a line or gotten someone in a line)

1. (archaic, slang) To hoax or entrap somebody, so as to get some sport out of them.
   • The Naval Chronicle, Containing a General and Biographical History of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, with a Variety of Original Papers on Nautical Subjects (volume 33, page 281)

     I am afraid they have got me in a line.* In addition to the rest of my troubles, I find this shifting ships and fitting out messes attended with an enormous expense. […] * A common phrase among the seamen at Bitche, meaning to allure or entice.

   • 1826, The Universal Songster, Or Museum of Mirth:

     He's got the gibbet in his face now. Gad! you have choked him there. Yes, she's got him in a line.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary