c.1670. Old English Ballads [Brit. Mus., C. 22, e. 2. 43]. 'Dead and Alive.' He never left off swigging, Till he had suckt all out.
d.1701. Creech, Virgil, 'Eclogues,' iii. The flock is drained, the lambkins swig the teat, But find no moisture, and then idly bleat.
1706. Ward, Wooden World, 38. Not but that he can fight, and that very heartily too, after a lusty swig at the Brandy.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 246. When my landlord does not nick me . . . But very fairly fills it full, I just can swigg it at one pull.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, 39. The Hero that sits there, Swigging blue ruin in that chair.
1835. Marryat, Pacha Many Tales, 'English Sailor.' The sailor having taken a swig at the bottle.
1838. Beckett, Paradise Lost, 19. Half-cocked with swigging ale and beer.
1851. Hawthorne, Seven Gables, xi. The jolly toper swigged lustily at his bottle.
1885. Harper's Mag., lxxi. 192. Take a little lunch . . . and a swig of whiskey and water.
1899. Whiteing, John St., xi. I buy a ha'porth of bread, take a swig at a fountain, and tramp the East End parks to kill time.
Swigman, subs. (Old Cant).—See
quots. (Awdeley, Harman,
Dekker, B. E., and Grose).
1567. Awdeley, Frat. of Vacabondes, 5. A swygman goeth with a pedlers pack.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Swig-men, c. the 13th Rank of the Canting Crew, carrying small Habberdashery-Wares about, pretending to sell them to colour their Roguery.
Swill, verb. (old colloquial: now
vulgar).—To drink (and, occasionally,
to eat) piggishly: hence
as subs. = booze (q.v.), the lap, or
the act: in contempt. Swill-bowl
(swiller, swill-pot,
swill-tub, or swill-belly)
= a heavy toper (or glutton);
swilled = drunk: see Screwed
(B. E. and Grose).
1530. Jyl of Brentford's Testament [Furnivall], 7. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 466. The verb swyll takes a new meaning, that of bibere.]
1542. Udal, Erasmus's Apophth., 367. Lucious Cotta . . . was taken for the greatest swielbolle of wine in the woorlde.
d.1563. Bale [Works (Parker Soc.), 193]. Their oiled swill-bowls and blind Balaamites.
1580. Baret, Alvearie. Swilbolles, potores bibuli.
1593. Harvey, Pierce's Superogation, ii. 141. Wantonness was never such a swillbowl of ribaldry.
1597. Shakspeare, Richard III., v. 2. 9. The . . . usurping boar . . . Swills your warm blood like wash.
1616. R. C., Times Whistle [E. E. T. S.], 20. They which on this day doe drink and swill In such lewd fashion.
1652. Brome, Jovial Crew, 11. As Tom or Tib When they at bowsing ken do swill.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 1. xxxiii. What doth that part of our army in the meantime which overthrows that unworthy swill-pot Grangousier?
1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 198. The husband, instead of my dear soul, has been called blockhead, toss-pot, swill-tub, and the wife sow, fool, dirty drab.
1775. Sheridan, Duenna, iii. 5. Ye eat, and swill, and sleep, and gormandize, and thrive.
1808. Scott, Marmion, i. 22. Let Friar John, in safety, still . . . Roast hissing crabs, or flagons swill.
1866. Eliot, Felix Holt, xi. Swilling themselves with ale.
1899. Wyndham, Queen's Service, xxxvi. He was swilling beer in the canteen as if he had never done anything else in his life.
Swim, subs. (common).—One's
particular pursuits, pitch (q.v.),
or fancy. Hence in a good (or
bad) swim = lucky (or unlucky).
1883. Greenwood, In Strange Company. Amongst themselves they are skinners, knock-outs, odd-trick men, and they work together in what . . . their profession calls a 'swim.'
