subs. (old).—A watch: spec. an old-fashioned silver watch which in size approached a turnip: also FRYING-PAN (see WARMING-PAN).
PHRASES.—TO GIVE TURNIPS = to get rid of a person by hook or by crook; TO GET TURNIPS = to be taken in, jilted: a play on turn-up; ONE’S HEAD TO A TURNIP = a fanciful bet: cf. LOMBARD STREET TO A CHINA ORANGE, etc. Also see CRY.
1694. MOTTEUX, Rabelais, V. ii. You would have laid YOUR HEAD TO A TURNIP that they had been mere men.
