why is a watch called a kettle in english slang?

21 answers by real people - why is a watch called a kettle in english slang?

• GetTopUp Team

  1 month ago

  The use of “kettle” to mean “watch” first appeared in the argot of thieves in the 19th century, and apparently first referred to the large pocket watches popular at that time. The shape and heavy metal construction of old pocket watches makes likening them to kettles only a slight stretch, and a thief specializing in watches was known in the early 20th century as a “kettle banger.”

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• ?

  4 days ago

  Slang For Wrist Watch

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• Anonymous

  1 month ago

  a kettle is a watch.

  a tin kettle is a silver watch

  a red kettle is a gold watch

  inslang it’s the words ” to-tick “backwards

  kitot deriv. kettle

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• Anonymous

  1 month ago

  Not in all English slang – they wouldn’t have the first idea what you were talking about in Newcastle. This is specifically Cockney rhyming slang, the lingua franca of London’s east end.

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• keny

  1 month ago

  so if a stranger asks me the time and i tell them sorry i dont know me kettle stopped you promise i wont get taken away wearing one of those nice white jackets with the extra long sleeves

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• Anonymous

  1 month ago

  A watched kettle never boils… is all I know.

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• Jane S

  1 month ago

  from kettle and hob = fob = watch

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• Anonymous

  1 month ago

  I don’t see that it is.

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• daisymay

  1 month ago

  Cockney slang

  kettle & hob = fob (watch)

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• davis d

  1 month ago

  because a car is called a a book.

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