slang n.2
1. any form of chains or fetters used to secure a prisoner; usu. in pl.; the noose.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘De Kilmainham Minit’ in Luke Caffrey’s Gost 7: But yey, if de Slang you run sly, / De Trotler may still be outwitted, / And I scout again on de Lay. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Autobiog. (1930) 292: Slangs signifies irons or handcuffs. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 265: slangs fetters, or chains of any kind used about prisoners; body-slangs are body-irons used on some occasions. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Feb. 1/4: I napped Thrums in Slangs. | |
| ‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Mar. 534: His punishment was [...] six months in chokey with the black dress and slangs. | |
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 294: A man who [...] I think, had worn the black dress and ‘slangs’ as the fetters are called. | |
| Fast and Loose III 212: If I am caught, it’ll mean a ‘bashing’ and the ‘slangs’. | |
| Manchester Eve. News 4 Aug. 5/4: Slangs....Chains. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | ‘Thieves’ Sl.’ Toronto Star 19 Jan. 2/5: CHAIN Slang. |
2. a watch-chain.
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 265: slang A watch chain, a chain. | |
| ‘Hundred Stretches Hence’ in Vocabulum 124: The thimbles, slangs, and danglers filched, / A hundred stretches hence? | |
| ‘The Chickaleary Cove’ 🎵 How to do a cross-fam, for a super, or a slang, / And to bustle them grand’armes I’d give the office. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 26 Oct. n.p.: He found his gold ‘super’ gone and his ‘slag’ [sic] with it. | |
| Jottings from Jail 23: ‘Fullied for a Clock and Sl.,’ reveals the fact that the writer stole a watch and chain, was apprehended [and committed for trial]. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/2: I frisked a lushy yokel who was snoozing in the Park and found a thimble and no slang and a caser. He had a dummie, but no flimsies in it only some chovey stiffs. | |
| Leaves from a Prison Diary I 152: I was jogging down a blooming slum in the Chapel when I butted a reeler who was sporting a red slang. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 75: Slang, [...] a watch-chain. | |
| Child of the Jago (1982) 153: Both were gold, and heavy: a red clock and slang if ever there was one. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 16 July 4/7: We never wore a flogger coat, / A ‘thimble’ nor a ‘slang’. | |
| My Old Bailiwick 269: He knew I was crooked, but he couldn’t button his coat so’s that cross wouldn’t show his watch slang. | |
| Truth (Brisbane) 22 Jan. 6/4: A good suit of clothes, a hard face, a gold ‘slang’ (watch-chain), or a good Brummagem one [...] are the most conspicuous indica tions of a tip-slinging tout . | |
| City Of The World 274: He’s got to know whether his toy and tackle is a real clock and slang or only a measly Brummagem fake. | |
| Truth (Brisbane) 20 Mar. 16/5: Among his other assets was a gold watchchain that might have been used to tie up a mastiff [...] It seemed as if the hoodoo attaching, to the ‘slang’ was making a race of It. | |
| Man’s Grim Justice 133: I want him to see the rock in my tie [...] and my slang an’ super. | |
| You’re in the Racket, Too 119: Blimey, a kettle and slang like that’s worth a tidy bit. | |
| Phenomena in Crime 254: Kettle and slang. Watch and chain. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
3. (US Und.) a necklace.
 | ‘Overcoat Bennie’ in Mss. from the Federal Writers’ Project 🌐 It begins with St. Louis Jimmy’s arrival in the city with a $25,000 necklace which consisted of twenty seven emeralds and twenty six marquise diamonds set in platinum. James had stolen the ‘slang’ from a bedroom wall safe of a New York banker’s home. |
4. (S.Afr. gay) the penis.
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Gayle 95/1: slang n. (Afr.) (lit. = snake) penis. […] [Western Cape]. | |
| Acid Alex 187: And they fucking swore. Creatively. You were Piel, Slang, Spinnekop, Troep, Penie, Perd. |
In compounds
one who gilds ordinary metal chains and attempts to pass them off as ‘gold’; thus slang-dropper, the person who actually does the ‘trade’, usu. by dropping a chain in the street, picking it up as the victim is passing, then asking them to suggest how much it might be worth; they then get the dupe to buy it, assuring them that they themselves are losing by the deal.
| Sunshine Advocate (Vic.) 11 Sept. 6/3: Those who gild metal chains to sell them as gold are ‘slang dippers,’ while those who dispose of them are ‘slang droppers’. |
(S.Afr. gay) a public lavatory used for soliciting, a ‘cottage’.
| Gayle 95/1: slang n. (Afr.) (lit. = snake) penis. slangpark n. (Afr.) (lit. = snake park) public lavatories where men go for anonymous sex [Western Cape]. |
In phrases
double irons; thus double-slanged, fettered on both legs.
| New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: slanged double both legs iron’d. | |
| Dict. Sl. and Cant. | |
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 236: double-slangs double-irons. | |
| Northampton Mercury 24 Jan. 4/1: ‘There are two more — rogues [...] that ought to be double-slanged here [i.e. in prison]’. | |
| New and Improved Flash Dict. n.p.: Slanged, double ironed on both legs. |