subs. (thieves’).—A watch. TO CHURCH (or CHRISTEN) A YACK = to change the case, or substitute a fictitious inscription, in order to prevent identification.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, ii. 57. At last he was bowled out in the very act of nailing a YACK.
1857. DUCANGE ANGLICUS, pseud. The Vulgar Tongue, 38. He told me as Bill had flimped a YACK.
1868. DORAN, Saints and Sinners, II. 290. [The thieves] ‘CHURCH THEIR YACKS’ when they transpose the works of stolen watches to prevent identification.
