pipe off

verb

verb

Dated, Slang To watch (a person or building) for purposes of theft.

To put the matter to further test, on the succeeding night other of their men were instructed to "pipe off" the place still more cautiously. But these too were discovered by Miles's vigilant but bogus police, given chase to, and unmercifully clubbed.1900, Allan Pinkerton, Professional Thieves and the Detective:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.