subs. (old cant).—A watch (GROSE); spec. ‘an Alarm, or Striking Watch or (indeed) any’ (B. E.). Hence TO FLASH A TATTLER = to wear a watch; TO SPEAK TO A TATTLER = to steal a watch: Also TATTLE.
1724. J. HARPER, ‘Frisky Moll’s Song’ in THURMOND’S Harlequin Sheppard [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 41].
| A famble, a TATTLE, and two popps, | |
| Had my Boman when he was ta’en. |
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. TATTLER … ‘Why, Doughey drew a gold TATTLER, and got two p’ud ten of the fence for it; so my regulars is ten bob—I’ll spilt else.’
1878. CHARLES HINDLEY, The Life and Times of James Catnach, ‘The Song of The Young Prig,’ Chorus.
| Frisk the cly, and fork the rag, | |
| Draw the fogles plummy, | |
| Speak to the TATTLER, bag the swag, | |
| And finely hunt the dummy. |
