Dictionary

cackle-bladder en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈkækəlˌblædə(ɹ)/
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From cackle + bladder, because originally chicken blood was used.

Meanings

1. A bladder containing (real or fake) blood, used to fake someone's death or injury, as in espionage or confidence tricks where a person is made to think that he is an accessory to murder.
   • It's a trick con men call the cackle-bladder. You take a little bag made from a pig's bladder and fill it up with chicken blood, and keep it inside your mouth until it's time to play dead. 1981, James Sherburne, Death's Gray Angel: A Paddy Moretti Mystery, page 39:
   • 1951 June 16, Racket Squad (television review), in The Billboard, page 8, It tells you how they work on the mark's own larcenous cravings for a killing, how they build him up to betting his entire stake — and then "put the chill on" via the "cackle bladder" routine, a prop murder, so named because originally the "corpse" bit on a chicken bladder and drenched himself in chicken blood.
   • "A cackle-bladder," she murmured. "A what?" "It's a way to deal with the violent ones. You make them party to the consequences of violence, make them believe they've murdered someone." 2002, Judith Ivory, Untie My Heart, page 141:
   • Use a cackle bladder to bite on and spit blood whether faced with a gang or a single assailant. This is often enough to dissuade would-be aggressors […]. 1975, Anthony Greenbank, Survival in the City, page 198:

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