super n.2
1. a watch.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Worcester Herald 26 Dec. 4/3: Souper, a watch; regina, the chain and seals. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 57: schikster: What’s the slums of the swag? gonniff: Oh, all sorts of slums; prickers and chives, suppers and spreaders, fawney and fogles. | |
| Proc. Old Bailey 29 Jan. 324: I told Bedborough to dress himself—he said, ‘What for?’—I said on suspicion of a watch—he said, "What, for that souper up the court?’—I understood souper to mean a watch; it is a slang phrase for a watch. | |
| Paved with Gold 70: You knows, Buck, as well as I do, that we leads the life of dogs. Arn’t we all on us spotted (marked) here? and ain’t the Bobbies at our heels directly we stirs a foot, so that we can’t even do a kingsman (silk handkerchief) in a day, let alone a skin or a soup (a purse or watch)? | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Vocabulum 88: super or souper A watch. | |
| Salisbury & Winchester Jrnl 30 Apr. 3/3: The plan is to inquire the way [...] simulating deafness, for the purpose of getting near the pockets of their victims; and the abstraction of the watches (which the thieves term ‘super screwing,’ from the slang of ‘super,’ a watch). | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 25/1: If she ‘collars the super’ then I am sure she is ‘sweet’ on me. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 19 Oct. n.p.: Johnny [...] pointed out the bloke that lost his ‘super’. | |
| ‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Nov. 537: You must know where to dispose of a ‘super’. | |
| St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: The thieves’ ‘fly cops,’ ‘pulled his leather,’ ‘got his boodle,’ ‘lifted his spark,’ ‘shoving the queer,’ ‘crossmen,’ ‘give him the flip,’ ‘wring his super,’ ‘collar his wipe,’ etc. | |
| Illus. Police News 30 Mar. 3/2: Mr Barstow asked what a ‘super’ meant [...] ‘Why, a watch, of course’. | |
| ‘The Jargon of Thieves’ in Derry Jrnl 8 Sept. 6/6: If he had collared a ‘super’ and a ‘slang,’ he would have snatched a watch and chain. | |
| Signor Lippo 100: He moschkeners twenty or thirty supers a week. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Aus. Sl. Dict. 82: Super, a watch. | |
| Mirror of Life 27 July 14/2: His slang took wing, his souper fled, / His I’m afloat in style, / Was hit as if with the intent / To cover half his dial. | |
| Deming Headlight (N.M.) 28 May 1/3: In the last three years there have been three different terms for watch – ‘super,’ ‘thimble’ and ‘yellow and white.’. | |
| Boss 262: W’en one of ’em nipped a super or a rock, an’ wanted d’ quick dough, he brought it to me fadder, who chucked down d’ stuff an’ no questions asked. | |
| God’s Man 281: Now he tells everybody I got him loaded and lifted his souper. | |
| Rough Stuff 39: He told us of different houses throughout the country that dealt in brass peddling, such as blocks, which is what watches are called in the West. In the East they call ’em soupers, and in England, kettles. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 219: souper [...] A watch. [Ibid.] 230: super A watch. super twister A pickpocket who steals watches. | |
| et al. DAUL 28/2: Black gold souper. A cheap watch. | |
| Men of the Und. 325: Super, A watch. | |
| Lowspeak 131: Souper – a watch. |
2. the ring that secures a watch-chain to one’s garment.
 | implied in thimble-twister under thimble n. | |
| ‘I Was a Pickpocket’ in Men of the Und. 77: I got to be quite an adept in touching men for supers and fronts. |
In compounds
a watch and chain, soaper and slang.
| Sydney Mail 24 Feb. 247/3: I [...] heard him say that they had got a soaper and a slang, and 7s. 6d. from the man. | |
| Luton Times 29 Mar. 6/2: He said he had taken the prosecutor’s ‘super and slang’. | |
| Illus. Police News 1 Oct. 4/1: Head said he had seen persons go in and out with fine rings on their fingers [...] They also had ‘red supers and slangs’ (meaning gold watches and chains) in their pockets. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Mar. 11/3: ‘Now, Dubbo Kate, you shall be let alone if you tell me what has become of Rorty Johnson. We want him for a super and slang!’ This is when they are ‘on the track.’ When they’ve got a clue, they sit in a pub. all day, and gaze attentively up at the wrong house. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 82: Super and Slang, a watch and chain. | |
| Mirror of Life 16 Feb. 11/1: The other evening these fellows [...] took advantage of old Jem [Mace] [...] to ‘cross fam’ the old champion for his ‘souper and slang’. | |
| Four Years Nine 281: However, agreement was finally reached, Donald receiving the precious ‘super and slang,’ and the fat keeper the following miscellaneous lot [etc.]. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 229/2: Souper and slang (Thieves’). Watch and chain. Probably the first word is soup-plate from the once huge size of the watch, while the second may be a wilful corruption of sling, because the old long chain, worn round the neck would habitually sling about a great deal. | |
| Man’s Grim Justice 133: I want him to see the rock in my tie [...] and my slang an’ super. |
(UK Und.) a silversmith.
| Berkshire Chron. 3 Mar. 4/3: They had many things in view and one in particular. I asked them what that was; they said a ‘super chovey’ at Hungerford (i.e. a silversmith’s) which they could do before they came back . |
see under screw v.