1959 7 Apr. 6/3 There seemed a general agreement that the fashion of carrying dangerous weapons was more widespread to-day than formerly. One read all too often about groups of young men ‘tooling up’ before setting off for a showdown with a rival gang.
1971 J. Mandelkau xiii. 142 We tooled up with pieces of wood and iron bars and hiked over towards their main camp.
1978 H. Wouk xxi. 213 We might have closed the Mediterranean and forced England to her knees even while..we tooled up for our summer Caucasus thrust.