kettle n.1
1. the vagina [the image of a vagina as a receptacle].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘Room for a Jovial Tinker’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 44: ‘Let up thy Tools, Tinker,’ quoth she, ‘and see there none be lost, / And mend my Kettle handsomely, what ere it doth cost.’. | |
| ‘Room for a Jovial Tinker’ in Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 75: ‘Set up thy tools, Tinker,’ quoth she, ‘and see there be none lost, / And mend my Kettle handsomely, what ere it doth me cost.’. | |
 | Jovial Tinker It seem’d her Kettle was so black, he could not hit the mark [...] e’re forty weeks were gone, her Kettle fell in two. | |
| ‘Soldier and a Sailor’ in Love for Love III xv: The Tinker ... with Mettle, Said he could mend her Kettle, And stop up ev’ry Leak. | |
| ‘A Soldier and a Sailor’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) IV 119: The Tinker too with Mettle, / Said he would mend her Kettle, / And stop up ev’ry Leak. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 26: The Tinker that deals all in Mettle, / He never clencheth home a Nail, / But his Trull [...] holds up the Kettle. | |
| ‘My Lady’s Kettle’ in Buck’s Delight 50: Tho’ tight he work’d, spite of his soul / There still remain’d a swinging hole, / A hole in my lady’s kettle! | |
| ‘The Female Workwoman’ in Icky-Wickey Songster 44: He [...] hammered my kettle with all his might. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | ‘The Jolly Gauger’ in Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 102: Sic kail ne’er crost my kettle, nor sic a joint o’ beef. | |
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 62: Chaudron, m. The female pudendum; ‘the kettle’. |
2. (US) a steam engine [the steam].
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 116: Kettle. – A locomotive, usually a derisive term for one which leaks steam from every joint. | |
| High Iron 222: Kettle: Locomotive. | |
| Railroad Avenue 124: I used to pull the throttle on that old kettle. |
3. a variety of watch [the original large circular pocket watches allegedly resembled kettles].
(a) a pocket watch; thus red kettle, a gold watch; white kettle, a silver watch; dummy kettle, a toy watch.
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 156/1: Maiy, its neowt but a nouwd kettle wat I got gin mi i’ Yorksheer froo my granny. | |
| Illus. Police News 15 Dec. 10/2: I have sent you a few things [...] two W. K. (white kettles — silver watches), small R. P. K. (red plated kettle-gold-plated watch) [...] three ‘spark’ (diamond) rings, a pearl ‘prop’ (pin), a few odds and ends. | |
| Life In Sing Sing 250: Kettle. A watch. | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 86: I ain’t no use fur a dame what can’t even stall while a guy gits off a kettle (watch). | |
| Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/4: A watch [...] may be called a ‘block’ or a ‘turnip’ or a ‘kettle.’. | |
| ‘Levelling with Elisha’ in Old Man Curry 13: Take away my old white kettle, and I’m a soldier gone to war without his gun. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 409: Kettle. A watch. | |
| London and its Criminals 21: ‘Well, “Izzy,” how’s business?’ I asked ‘Not so bad, you know,’ he answered. ‘I had a “kettle” (watch) last week which fetched a pony at Ruby’s.’. | |
| (con. 1910–20s) Hell’s Kitchen 119: Kettle ... watch. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Eve. Herald (Dublin) 9 Dec. 4/6: A ‘screwsman’ going to his ‘fence’ would inquire ‘What price a pair of “gypsy gauns,” a “red kettle,” a “white kettle,” a “Newgate tackle” and a “prop”. The ‘screwsman’ is asking what the ‘fence’ will pay for two single stone diamond rings, a gold watch, a silver watch, , or gold watch and chain and a tiepin. | |
| Cheapjack 201: The only gear we’ve got is a few ropes of pearls and three or four dozen dummy kettles. | |
| You’re in the Racket, Too 119: Blimey, a kettle and slang like that’s worth a tidy bit. | |
| Phenomena in Crime 196: There’s a fish [i.e. a safety catch] on my kettle. | |
| et al. DAUL 114/2: Kettle. (Obsolescent) A large, heavy or old-fashioned man’s watch. | |
| (ref. to 1930s–70s) Coronation Cups and Jam Jars 206: Kettle – Watch. | |
| (con. c.1903) in Samuel East End Und. 73: One of the fellows had a watch and chain. ‘He’s got a kettle,’ I said to Peaky. |
(b) a wrist watch.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 6: Kettle: Watch. | |
| Gilt Kid 244: Next buckshee kettle that comes my way I’ll just stick to it. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| in Sun. Graphic 23 Nov. in Norman’s London (1969) 40: I took a butchers at my kettle, and saw that the bird-lime was coming up to half past seven. | |
| Guntz 119: He [...] jabbed his forefinger at the dial of this gold kettle. | |
| (con. 1950s–60s) in Little Legs 112: Once they told me about some kettles (watches). | |
| What They Was 118: A big kettle like a Rolex or a Cartier. |
4. (US) an automobile.
| Judge Rummy 26 May [synd. strip cartoon] ‘This old coffee grinder [...] I’ll never get it started’ ‘Hey there, get outa the way with that old kettle’. | |
| ‘Death Ends the Scene’ Hollywood Detective May 🌐 Pasted to the stern of my thundering kettle, I tried to savvy the Marlowe character’s escape caper. |
5. (N.Z. prison) a prison-made devide for boiling water.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 98/2: kettle n. = tea bomb. |
In compounds
(UK und.) stealing watches.
| Illus. Police News 21 Oct. 4/1: Sidney Gill, labourer, said he had found it hard to get employment after coming out gaol, so had gone back his old game kittle-banging [sic] - (slang for watch-stealing). |
(UK Und.) confidence tricksters specializing in the sale of cheap watches.
| Doctor Is Sick (1972) 113: Four members of the Kettle Mob [...] came down the stairs [...] Edwin, student of philology, knew what kettles were, cheap smuggled watches guaranteed to go for a day or two. |
In phrases
of a woman, to have sexual intercourse.
| ‘Tom Tinker’ in Flare-Up Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 291: A lady she call’d him her kettle to mend. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
tea, esp. as drunk at tea parties.
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant. |