Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 3.pdf/226

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3. (common).—Sugar. [A restricted use of a colloquialism.]

1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, Bk. V., ch. ii. A private room and a pint of brandy, my dear. Hot water and lots of the grocery.


Grog, subs (old: now recognised).—Spirits and water; strong drink generally. [Till Admiral Vernon's time (1745) rum was served neat, but he ordered it to be diluted, and was therefore nicknamed 'Old Grog,' in allusion to his grogram coat: a phrase that was presently adapted to the mixture he had introduced.] Groggy = drunk.

Verb. (old).—To dilute or adulterate with water.

1878. Lincoln, Rutland, and Stamford Mercury, 8 Mar. The defendants had grogged the casks by putting in hot water.

To have grog on board (or to be grogged), verb. phr. (common).—To be drunk. For synonyms, see Screwed.

1842. Comic Almanack, October. He stands and listens, sad and dogged, To 'fined five bob' for being grogged.


Grog-blossom, subs. (common).—A pimple caused by drinking to excess. Also Copper-nose and Jolly-nose. Fr., un nez culotté and un nez de pompettes.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, Grog-blossom, s.v.

1883. Thos. Hardy, The Three Strangers, in Longman's Mag., March, p. 576. A few grog-blossoms marked the neighbourhood of his nose.

1888. W. Besant, Fifty Years Ago, ch. xi., p. 169. The outward and visible signs of rum were indeed various. First, there was the red and swollen nose, next, the nose beautifully painted with grog-blossoms.


Grog-fight, subs. (military).—A drinking party. Cf., Tea-fight.

1876. R. M. Jephson, Girl he Left Behind Him, ch. 1. He had been having a grog-fight in his room to celebrate the event.


Groggery, subs. (American).—A public bar; a grog-shop.


Groggy, adj. (colloquial).—1. Under the influence of drink. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1829. Buckstone, Billy Taylor. i., as a gay young woman, will delude Taylor away from Mary, make him groggy, then press him off to sea.

1863. Fun, 23 May, p. 98, c. 2. They fined drunkards and swearers, and there is a record in the parish-books, among others of a similar nature, of a certain Mrs. Thunder who was fined twelve shillings for being, like Mr. Cruikshank's horse at the Brighton Review, decidedly groggy.

1872. Echo, 30 July. A model of perfection had she not shown more than necessary partiality to her elder friend's brandy bottle during the journey, despite the latter's oft-repeated caution not to become groggy.

2. (colloquial).—Staggering or stupified with drink. Also (stable) moving as with tender feet. Also (pugilists') unsteady from punishment and exhaustion. Fr., locher = to be groggy.

1831. Youatt, The Horse, ch. xvi., p. 380. Long journeys at a fast pace will make almost any horse groggy.

1846-8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, vol. ii., ch. v. Cuff coming up full of pluck, but quite reeling and groggy, the Fig-merchant put in his left as usual on his adversary's nose, and sent him down for the last time.

1853. Diogenes, vol. ii., p. 177. The anxiety is not confined to the metropolis; as a respectable grazier, who rides a groggy horse, on hearing of it at a public-house the other day, affirmed it to be the mysterious cause of the rise in the value of horseflesh.

1888. Sportsman, 28 Nov. In the tenth Thompson, who had been growing groggy, to the surprise of Evans began to force the fighting.