| 释义 |
ˈpennyweighter U.S. criminal slang.
Also penny weighter, penny-weighter.
[f. pennyweight + -er1.]
One who steals jewellery or precious stones or metals.
1899‘J. Flynt’ Tramping with Tramps iv. 396 Penny⁓weighters, jewelry thieves. 1905Daily News 26 July 9 In the American description of her she was said to be a ‘penny weighter’... That is, one who goes into a jeweller's shop, inspects jewellery, and by means of some sticky substance on the fingers, manages to palm an article, and deposits it beneath the counter for a confederate to pick up. 1916[see heel n.3]. 1935Amer. Speech X. 19/1 Pennyweighter, one who steals gold or silver plate. Still survives in mining camps to designate one who steals very small quantities of gold, as opposed to a high-grader who appropriates any big nuggets which he sees in the sluice boxes. Present usage restricts it to a jewel thief, or a jeweler who substitutes paste gems for genuine ones. 1950H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 155/1 Penny-weighter, a thief who specializes in stealing uncut and unset diamonds.
So ˈpenny-weighting vbl. n.
1903H. Hapgood Autobiogr. Thief iii. 56 Penny⁓weighting is very ‘slick’ graft... A man..enters a jewelry store and looks at some diamond rings... Then he goes to a fauny shop (imitation jewelry) and buys a few diamonds which match the real ones he has noted. Then he and his pal, usually a woman, enter the jewelry store and..one of them..substitutes the bogus diamonds for the good ones. 1924G. S. Dougherty Criminal as Human Being iii. 89 Such a performance is sometimes staged in ‘penny-weighting’, but..only a single article can be taken by substitution. |