prop n.3
1. a scarf- or tie-pin.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Flash Mirror 7: [A] light-coloured neck scrag, gold chin prop, turnip and bunch of onions, pinched-in pin covers and Wellington mud-rakers . | |
| ‘The Artful Touch’ in Reprinted Pieces (1899) 168: In his shirt-front there’s a beautiful diamond prop. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 41/2: A fancy ‘prop’ that had once been Tommy’s, stuck boldy forward in the scarf of Mr. Timothy Foley. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Memphis Dly Appeal (TN) 12 Mar. 3/3: A breastpin is styled a ‘prop’, a diamond breastpin a ‘spark-prop’. | |
| ‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 506: Pipe his spark prop. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 9: Sue flimped a soot bag and a prop. She’s the flyest wire in the mob, and all the family men are spoony on her. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 July 7/3: There was a chap they used to cull the ‘king prop man’ from the handy way be had of getting away with gentleman’s ‘props,’ which is to say pins. | |
| ‘A Plank Bed Ballad’ in Referee 12 Feb. n.p.: A spark prop a pal (a good screwsman) and I / Had touched for in working two dead ’uns. | |
| Child of the Jago (1982) 50: ’E brought ’ome that there yuller prop — the necktie pin. | |
| Illus. Police News 15 Dec. 10/2: I have sent you a few things [...] three ‘spark’ (diamond) rings, a pearl ‘prop’ (pin), a few odds and ends. | |
| Autobiog. of a Thief 222: I got next to a Dutchman who had a large prop in his tie. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | ‘Thieves’ Sl.’ Toronto Star 19 Jan. 2/5: STUD Prop. | |
 | Jackson Dly News (MS) 1 Apr. 7/3: Crook Chatter [...] ‘A stick-pin is a “prop”’. | |
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/2: Pa’s prop, fawney and red lot are in the top right-hand drawer of the Duchess. | |
| London and its Criminals 60: Spread out before them on a grimy handkerchief are their day’s ‘pickings’. Several watches [...] three or four ‘props’. | |
![[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. | |
| Farewell, Mr Gangster! 280: Slang used by English criminals [...] Prop – a tie-pin. | |
| Phenomena in Crime 254: Props, headlights. Tie-pins. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 164/1: Prop. (Chiefly among pickpockets) 1. A tie-pin. | |
| No Hiding Place! 191/2: Prop. A tie-pin. | |
| (con. 1920s) Burglar to the Nobility 8: A proper dandy bloke who sported [...] a lavender satin throttler with a diamond prop-pin in it. |
2. a woman’s brooch.
| Sydney Sl. Dict. 9/2: Sue flimped a soot bag and a prop. She’s the flyest wire in the mob, and all the family men are spoony on her. Sue stole a reticule and a brooch. She’s the smartest lady’s pocket thief in the company (or ‘school’), and all the thieves are smitten with her. |
3. a diamond or other valuable piece of jewellery.
| World of Graft 135: The pugilist had been touched to the extent of a very valuable diamond pin [...]. All men are alike to the gun when there is anything to be stolen, and he relieves the pugilist of his ‘prop’ as readily as he ‘reefs’ the leather of a president of a railroad. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Feb. 1/1: A few of his friends purloined the prop [i.e. a silver-headed cane] and ‘spouted’ it for snifters. | |
| Mop Fair 177: You will find your props as safe [...] as if they had been spiked down. | |
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 66: prop [...] A diamond stud originally, now comprehending diamonds in any sense... Example: ‘Any heel gun can get a breech poke, but it takes an A1 claw to grab a prop’. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 150: Prop. – A diamond pin or stud. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| World’s Toughest Prison 813: prop – A diamond pin or stud. |
In compounds
1. a pickpocket in general.
| World of Graft 27: The remaining third of Chicago’s professional thieves are good, bad, and indifferent ‘sneaks’, ‘porch-climbers’, ‘slough-workers’, ‘peter-men’, ‘prop-getters’, ‘shovers of the queer’. |
2. (also stone getter) a stealer of diamond and other brooches.
| Our Rival, the Rascal 25: ‘Josh’ Hines [...] has earned his place as a remarkably expert "stone getter," as the pluckers of diamonds from shirt fronts are professionally styled. | |
| ‘Criminal Sl.’ in Amer. Law Rev. LII (1918) 890: Thieves who steal diamonds or other precious stones from the person are called ‘prop getters’ or ‘stone getters.’. | |
| Eve. World (NY) 1 May 30/6: One who steals diamonds, ‘stone getter.’ Jewelry-thieves, ‘penny-weighters’. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 414: Pop wires. Pickpockets who steal stickpins. Also called prop-getters. [Ibid.] 420: Stone-getter – diamond thief. | |
| ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 459: Prop getter, A thief who steals scarf pins. | |
| Man’s Grim Justice 25: One of the best stone-getters that ever nicked a diamond out of a necktie. | |
| Framlingham Eve. News 24 Oct. 2: A thief is called a ‘tea-leaf’, while one specialising in stealing scarf-pins is called a ‘prop-getter’. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
(US) a thief specializing in small pieces of personal jewellery.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
a thief who steals scarf- or tie-pins, brooches and similar small pieces of jewellery.
| Great World of London I 46: ‘Prop-nailers,’ who steal pins and brooches. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 7: Prop Nailers - Stealers of pins and brooches. |
(US und.) a venu specializing in thimble game under thimble n.
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 4 Jan. n.p.: He went into a prop room and lost [...] fifty dollars. |
(US und.) one who conducts the thimble game under thimble n.
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 4 Jan. n.p.: You should have been there to see the prop-shakers leave town [...] so as not to be jugged . |
(UK Und.) a thief specializing in tie-pins or other pieces of small jewellery.
| Phenomena in Crime 208: He might be an expert in cutting out hip-pockets, but clumsy as a ‘prop-worker’ (tie-pin thief). |