subs. (thieves’).—1. A watch: RED-KETTLE = gold watch.
2. (nautical).—An iron-built vessel; an ironclad.
3. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see MONOSYLLABLE.
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, iii. 221.
| The tinker too with Mettle, | |
| Said he wou’d mend her KETTLE, | |
| And stop up ev’ry Leak. | |
| Ibid., iv. 62. | |
| He never clencheth home a Nail, | |
| But his Trull holds up the KETTLE. |
POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK, phr. (common).—On ‘all fours’; ‘Six of one and half a dozen of the other.’
1890. Tit-Bits, 30 Aug., p. 332, col. 1. It was almost a case of the POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK, certainly; but the rebuke lost none of its point, nevertheless.
A PRETTY (or FINE) KETTLE (or KIDDLE = basket) OF FISH, subs. phr. (common).—A mess or confusion of any kind; a muddle.
1750. FIELDING, Tom Jones, VI. x. ‘There is a fine KETTLE OF FISH made o’t up at our house!’ ‘What can be the matter, Mr. Western?’ said Allworthy.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. KETTLE OF FISH. When a person has perplexed his affairs in general, or any particular business, he is said to have made a fine KETTLE OF FISH of it.
1835. C. SELBY, Catching an Heiress, sc. 3. Sal. La, miss, you must be joking; you can’t be what you a’n’t—you’d be sure to be found out, and then there’d be a pretty KETTLE OF FISH.
1849. DICKENS, David Copperfield, xix. I intend, Trotwood, to get that done immediately … and then—there’ll be a PRETTY KETTLE OF FISH!
1864. Tangled Talk, p. 337. It is an easy thing … to make a KETTLE OF FISH of one’s whole existence.
