"cleaned his clock" Antedating to 1946

[Sam Clements]

Between you and Ben, I should turn in my database.

Great work, as usual.

Sam Clements
----- Original Message -----
From: <douglas at NB.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 4:08 PM
Subject: Re: "cleaned his clock" Antedating to 1946


> From N'archive:
>
> ----------
>
> _Reno Evening Gazette_, 18 Sep. 1942: p. 12: <<"Who knows?" Lobert said
> yesterday, eager for the Brooklyn game. "Maybe we'll clean their
> clocks.">>
>
> ----------
>
> _Cook County Herald_, 6 May 1930: p. 1:
>
> [Tomatoes versus citrus fruits]
>
> <<But the science boys now say that the vitamines in the tomato can clean
> the clock of any of the others so highly recommended and not half tried.>>
>
> ----------
>
> _Trenton Evening Times_, 28 July 1908: p. 11:
>
> <<It took the Thistles just one inning to clean the clocks of the Times
> boys.>>
>
> ----------
>
> And from ProQuest: a different usage, but MAYBE ancestral ("clean the
> clock" = "halt abruptly" or so):
>
> ----------
>
> _The Bookman_ 69(5), July 1929: p. 524:
>
> Grover Jones, "Railroad Lingo":
>
> <<Should the engineer "wipe the gauge" or "clean the clock", it means that
> he has brought the train to a sudden stop by setting the air brakes.>>
>
> ----------
>
> Bunch of other railroad lingo in this last piece.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org