Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a watch.

1873		Sl. Dict. 120: Clock a watch. Watches are also distinguished by the terms ‘red clock,’ a gold watch, and ‘white clock,’ a silver watch. Generally modified into ‘red’un’ and ‘white’un.’.
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Sept. 6/5: Passing — spellken, I saw a crowd waiting for admission, and Downy Sam in the middle of it, buzzing for clocks.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Clock - A watch. Red clock, a gold watch. White clock, a silver watch.
1887		J.W. Horsley Jottings from Jail 24: Mike, whose record is ‘7 or the chuck for a clock,’ i.e., he hopes to be acquitted, but rather expects seven years for stealing a watch.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 6/6: He takes him down with the confidence for another score and then bones (i.e. steals) his clock and tackle (i.e. watch and chain).
1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 58: I done a click! I got a clock — a red ’un!
1903		H. Hapgood Autobiog. of a Thief 52: If there was no stone in sight, I’d content myself with the ‘clock’.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 321: Clock, A watch.
1999		Observer Mag. 22 Aug. 14: Quit looking at your clocks.

2. the face; occas. the head.

1899		Sketch (London) 22 Feb. 18: ‘If they gits yer “dial” in the Rogues’ Gallery yer don’ stand no show at all [...] They ain’t got my “clock” there yit’.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘When The Cranks Have Had Their Way’ Sporting Times 16 May 1/3: ‘Tell me, friend,’ he asked the native with the melancholy ‘clock’.
1917		A.G. Empey Over the Top ‘Tommy’s Dict. of the Trenches’ 286: ‘Clock.’ ‘Trench’ for the face.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 152: ‘Take that you fuckin’ bastard!’ says Madeley, an’ sloshes ’im one in the clock.
1937		E. Raymond Marsh 448: ‘You go with him.’ ‘And show my clock to a bogey? Not in ten years!’.
c.1939		B. Bennett ‘Doctor Goosegrease’ in Billy Bennett’s Third Budget 17: In my beauty parlour I tranfom the faces / Of women to look in their prime. / Talking about altering clocks back and forward, / I’ve pushed back some clocks in my time.
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 23: He painted people with their noses right between their eyes. He started measuring up the human clock at ten years old.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 266: That there young ’Arry Noakes don’t ’arf want a slosh around the clock!
1963		H.E. Bates Oh! To be in England (1985) 380: I ought to bust your clock in!
1971		(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 126: Och, girl, let’s have a fucking dekko at your clock.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 89: He hit the screw hard in the face and the screw toppled over backwards, sitting there with a surprised look on his clock and blood gushing out of his nose.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 44/1: clock n. 2 the face.

3. a bomb; thus got a clock, carrying a handbag (in which a bomb is hidden) [see cit. 1909].

1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 80/1: Clock (London). A dynamite bomb, when carried in a small square Gladstone bag. Took its rise in the ’80’s, during the dynamite scare, when a dynamiter, being stopped by a policeman and asked what he had in his bag, replied – ‘A clock’. [Ibid.] 145/2: Got a clock (Peoples’, Historical). Carrying a handbag.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 191: Like these clocks they use are so poky, all done up with sticking-plaster and that, they can blow up when you’re legging them.

4. a speedometer, taximeter or similar dial that has a ‘face’.

1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 227/1: C.20.
1953		F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 157: Brindo almost stripped the gears and smashed the clock with his fist.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 17: Shit a brick, there’s fifteen and a zac on the clock already.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 120: [It] has far too many miles on the clock.
2004		M. Wall John Peel 151: After putting in more than half a million miles on the clock, he had finally agreed to the now decrepit old girl [i.e. a car] being carted off.
2015		‘Elvis Costello’ Unfaithful Music 319: It was a rickety old Continental Silver Eagle [...] and had a lot of miles on the clock.

5. (US prison) a life sentence.

1931–4

D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 331/1: clock, n. A life sentence in jail: ‘doing time the clock around’.

6. (US black, also clocker) the heart.

1933		J. Gray ‘The Nudist Gym Death Riddle’ Vice Squad Detective 🌐 That dumb dick’s clock would stop if he ran into anything more vicious than a two-bit streetwalker.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 136/1: Clock or clocker — the heart.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 45/2: Clock, n. 1. The heart.

7. (Aus.) a prison sentence of 12 months; thus synon. phr. round the clock.

1941		in Baker Pop. Dict. Aus. Sl. 18: clock: A 12 months’ goal sentence. Also ‘round the clock’.
1950		News (Adelaide) 1 July 5/3: ‘He wants to jack up, but his mouthpiece drums him to nod the nut, and he cops the clock in boob’ .
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 231/2: clock – a twelve-month sentence to jail.
1955		‘No. 35’ Argot in G. Simes DAUS (1993).
1968		J. Alard He who Shoots Last 2: Anyhow I’d better stall; if I get picked up, I’ll at least get the clock. [Ibid.] 123: I got a hand orf da beak; but I only got da clock ta do; I’ve got four down.
c.1972		Parramatta Jail Gloss. 5: a clock, twelve months [DAUS].
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 22: Clock Twelve months in prison.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Clock. 1. A twelve month sentence.

8. (US prison) fig. use of sense 6, courage.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 45/2: Clock, n. [...] 2. Courage; nerve. ‘What a clock you got to buck that combo (compete with that gang).’.

9. surveillance, observation.

2001

(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 252: Tell ’im fe keep a good clock ’pon her.