wooden kimono

A variation of earlier criminal slang such as wooden coat.

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wooden kimono (plural wooden kimonos)

1. (US, slang) Synonym of coffin.
   • 1935, Capt. Billy's Whiz-Bang Winter Annual, back cover:

     "And you're just about ready to give up the ghost and call for a wooden kimono."

   • 1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Not too Far Tangent”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 19:

     I expected the man to show up any minute with his tape measure to outfit me with a wooden kimono.

   • 1976, Tom Waits, Small Change, Asylum Records, 1976, Track #10:

     "The wooden kimono was all ready to drop in San Francisco Bay, but now he's mumbling something all about the one that got away."