hands-up, verb

Origin:
See hensop.
a. intransitive. To surrender; figurative, to give up an unequal struggle. Cf. hensop.
1901 ‘Linesman’ Words by Eyewitness 239The refugee camps within the British lines wherein dwell the hundreds of Dutchmen who have surrendered or ‘hands-upped’.
1901 P.J. Du Toit Diary (1974) 51At Kleinplaats I met the scouts, ‘hands-upped’ and surrendered my arms to Captain Willows..who took me to Colonel Higgy..in command then at Witpoort.
1903 R. Kipling Five Nations 161I am doin’ my Sunday School best,..To come in an’ ’ands up an’ be still, An’ honestly work for my bread.
1935 H.C. Bosman Mafeking Rd (1969) 51‘I am turning back,’ he said, ‘I am going to hands-up to the English.’
1948 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Unto Dust (1963) 145He had to resort to artificial aids to keep his hair and beard black..in his hopeless struggle against the onslaughts of time...In the end Gysbert Jonker had to hands-up of course.
1977 T.R.H. Davenport S. Afr.: Mod. Hist. 141A.P. Cronje was the moving spirit behind the National Scouts, composed of Boers who had ‘hands-upped’ from conviction that their cause was hopeless and only surrender could bring relief.
1978 A.P. Brink Rumours of Rain 324‘Ja, the old useless,’ commented Ma..‘And Gert too. The whole lot of them hands-upping just like that.’
b. transitive. To cause or force (someone) to surrender.
1936 H.F. Trew Botha Treks 170The man rode gaily along..and so puffed into Grootfontein. To his alarm and astonishment he was promptly ‘hands-upped’ by a German picket.
1937 G.F. Gibson Story of Imp. Light Horse 220Why on earth did you not ‘hands-up’ the old man and take him prisoner?
1946 V. Pohl Adventures of Boer Family 39How on earth did you hands-up all these men by yourself?
a1951 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Unto Dust (1963) 160My Mauser is very rusty. I’ll have to hands-up or shoot one of the enemy and take his Lee-Metford off him.
To surrender; figurative, to give up an unequal struggle.
To cause or force (someone) to surrender.
Derivatives:
Hence hands up  adjective; handup  noun, hands-upper sense 1 a; hands-upping  verbal noun, surrendering.
1901 E. Hobhouse Report of Visit to Camps 3There are nearly 2,000 people in this one camp, of which some few are men — they call them ‘hands up’ men and over 900 children.
1902 Appleton’s Ann. Cycl. 629The Boers who had accepted British sovereignty..contemptuously called ‘handups’ by the others.
1975 W. Steenkamp Land of Thirst King 78Stories..tell vividly of the cold ferocity with which the men of the three races struggled for the possession of Namaqualand. Hands-upping was a luxury they did not believe in much: You fought, and you won or died.
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figurative or allusive
handsopper, nounn.hands-upper, nounn.
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