subs. (common).—1.  The head. Hence, OFF HIS ONION = off his wits. See TIBBY.

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  2.  (thieves’).—A seal: generally in plural: e.g., BUNCH OF ONIONS.

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  1811.  GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. ONION HUNTERS, a class of young thieves who are on the look out for gentlemen who wear their seals suspended on a ribbon, which they cut, and thus secure the seals or other trinkets suspended to the watch.

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  1819.  J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, ii. 193, s.v.

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  18[?].  MAGINN, Vidocq’s Slang Song [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 104].

          When his ticker I set agoing,
        Tol lol, etc.
And his ONIONS, chain, and key.

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  1834.  W. H. AINSWORTH, Rookwood, IV. i. A handsome gold repeater … with a monstrous bunch of ONIONS (anglice, seals) depending from its massive chain. Ibid. ‘Nix my doll.’ My fawnied famms and my ONIONS gay.

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