wooden kimono

English

Etymology

From earlier criminal slang phrases like wooden overcoat with the same meaning.

Pronunciation

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Noun

wooden kimono (plural wooden kimonos)

1. (US, slang) A 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, Mezz Mezzrow & Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues, Payback Press 1999, 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."