Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a drunkard, a drinker.

1593		‘Philip Foulface’ Bacchus’ Bountie in Harleian Misc. II (1809) 302: The greatest soakers shal be least controulde.
1608		Dekker Belman of London F3: Then there are certain old soakers, whose office is to doe nothing but listen for Bets, either even or odde, and these are called Gripes.
1652		Character of Low Countries 60: One is drunk soner, the other longer [...] The Dutchman would still be the perfectest soker .
1663		A. Cowley Cutter of Coleman-street (1721) 742: The Persons [...] Mr. Soaker, a little fudling Deacon.
1665		Pepys Diary 15 Feb. n.p.: At noon, with Creed to the Trinity House, where a very good dinner among the old soakers.
c.1670		Purgatorium Hibernicum 38: A Constant whifler and a Smoker / He was I and as true a Soaker / [...] / And many a Coge of Irish Nectar / God knows they tops together .
1679		A. Wood Life of Anthony à Wood II (1772) 290: The black potman carried it for Perrot, a thorough paced Soaker.
1689		T. Shadwell Bury Fair V i: An old Soaker, with [...] a red Face, a Brain clouded with Fumes.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Soker, a Toper, or Fuddle-cap. An old Soker, a true Pitcher-man.
1700		Congreve Way of the World IV ii: The sun’s a good pimple, an honest soaker; he has a cellar at your Antipodes.
a.1716		R. South Sermons VI iii n.p.: By a good natur’d man is usually meant neither more nor less than a good fellow; a painful, able, and laborious soaker [F&H].
1755		Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. (1785).
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) II 193: The old soakers they left there / Kept drinking on to drown all care.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 152: For there the sly old soaker knew [...] They must, when once the broil began, Advance.
1781		Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 30 June-7 July n.p.: Eunuchs bear Wine better than Men do, listen to this ye Jovial Soakers.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: An old soaker, a drunkard, one that moistens his clay to make it stick together.
1795		Sporting Mag. Apr. VI 44/1: The most corpulent soakers are masters of arts; the leanest, bachelors.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 266: Silva, said one of our merriest soakers, we shall make something of you, my friend.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 19: The light-wet, that now shines in each glass / Of the Soakers that sit in sweet Chancery lane.
1834		Ely’s Hawk and Buzzard (N.Y.) 21 June 1/1: An independent loafer can be accomodated with a bonk [sic] or rat hole to crawl in for eight pence — a loafer of some distinction, one for six pence — a Barney of little quality four pence — a real spirit head soaker, six pence, with rot gut bitters in the morning, and sore eyed negroes at different prices.
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 43: The shower which makes all Nature smile, only causes him to laugh — ‘on the wrong side of his mouth,’ for he regards it as a temperance man does a ‘regular soaker!’.
1837		N.Y. Daily Express 26 June 2/5: Soakers. [headline] [...] four men in a beastly state of intoxication.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 5 Feb.. n.p.: He lay like a soaker taking his rest / With the perfume of mint-juleps around him.
1844		J.W. Kaye Peregrine Pultuney I 274: The president happened to bear a very high character as a ‘soaker,’ so the wine circulated briskly.
1855		J. Brougham Basket of Chips 369: The private soakers as locks themselves up with the grog, and mugs themselves, alone.
1862		Capt. Clutterbuck’s Champagne 274: ‘Soaker,’ called Tom Gervaise to a fiery-faced officer, with vacant, staring eyes.
1863		letter q. in Wiley Life of Johnny Reb (1943) 167: It [i.e. whisky] was such villainous stuff that only the old soakers could stomach it.
1873		Sl. Dict. 301: Soaker an habitual drunkard.
1876		Wkly Herald (Cleveland, TN) 11 Aug. 4/2: ‘Thunder,’ exlaimed the soaker.
1880		D.W. Barrett Life and Work among Navvies 61: He will threaten to leave you and go to ‘Ned Soaker’s’.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 4/4: The habitual soaker seldom commits any excess, but if drinking is a crime per se, the most flagrant offender – if we measure the crime by the quantity of liquor imbibed – is least harmful to society.
1889		Thames Star (Waikato, NZ) 11 July 1/6: ‘Let us go to the brewery, my friends.’ ‘All right,’ chimed in an old soaker [...] ‘I’m with you’.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Aug. 10/1: ‘Gratius tibi,’ said Peter, [...] who, though an habitual soaker, was a man of education and accustomed to season his discourse with Latin scraps.
1890		Sporting Times 8 Mar. 1/5: If the pictur won’t look like the medicine soaker, an’ you kin give me the assurances; you may p’int the cammerer.
1895		T.E. Dunville [perf. Charles Osbourne] ‘Conundrums’ 🎵 If a soaker is a fellow on the‘'drunk’ / Then a broker is a fellow on the ‘brunk’.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 4 Dec. 1/1: The prospect of being served by aged and fangless hags has already made soakers swear off swanky.
1905		Sporting Times 1 Apr. 1/5: The old soaker sitting by the upturned cask in the ‘Jug and Bottle,’ sighed heavily.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 July 11/4: So each who is a brute and cheat, / A gambler and a soaker, / Should straightway take a wife to beat / Out sin, and hit him up a treat / With paste-pin or with poker.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 249: Well, I suppose that does seem like a long time for an old soaker like you to go without a gargle!
1922		Joyce Ulysses 387: Some were for ejecting the low soaker without more ado.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight.
1936		(con. 1900s) F. Richards Old Soldier Sahib (1965) 78: He was called ‘The Soaker’ and he had a reputation as a beer-shifter.

2. a drunken spree.

1915

‘Alpha’ Reminiscences Goldfields i 51: He [...] usually went on the spree every second month, and while in that state lost more than he made, the house being freeman’s key for a time, until he again sobered up, after having had what he declared ‘a regular soaker.’ [AND].