Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to have a drink.

1889		Sporting Times 3 Aug. 5/5: We gargled [F&H].
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 37: Young Alf, being about to gargle, set down his glass.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 Jan. 4/7: He’ll drop his pals who gargle much / And take to psalms and psalters.
1905		Marvel III:55 3: Deuce take me, man, why don’t you gargle?
1919		A. Baer Two and Three 4 Feb. [synd. col.] Down in Georgia they gargle near-beer.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 90: ‘Could you gurgle a bit, sir?’ [...] and [he] got a good swig of rum and water from his water bottle down the boy’s spluttering throat .
1935		M. Fulcher ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 23 May 12/4: Thirsty travellers could drop in and gargle a beaker or two.
1943		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 3 Apr. 13: If you want to gargle, be like the bear’s brother, try and get further by laying some scratch on me.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 36: You’ve got a bloody big hangover from gargling.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 11: Lighting up an African he gargled on slowly.
1992		R. Price Clockers 496: That bastard used to gargle down a fifth of scotch a night.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 113: ‘And then you all hug or some shit and Tony goes home to resume gargling himself into the ground’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 79: I gargled Old Crow.