Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a drunken spree; also attrib.; thus get a jag on ; on a jag

1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 87: Proverbiall Periphrases of one drunk. He’s disguised [...] He has a jagg or load.
1889		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Dec. 6/4: The happy students made several efforts to induce his Bearship to climb the flag pole, but the jag Bruin was carrying prevented him from doing so.
1892		St Paul Daily Globe (MN) 20 Mar. 13/1: Ethics of the Jag — Variety of Information concerning Drinks and Drinking.
1894		Mirror of Life 10 Nov. 15/2: A young man with an elegant jag hiccups to policeman that he wants to get a cab.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 280: What can they do when they find a bloke paradin’ the streets with a jag on?
1902		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley’s Opinions 192: The jag is over. Manny a man that looked like a powdher pigeon a month ago looks like a hunchback today.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 July 1/1: The boss and his under-strapper [...] wearying of the monotony of work [...] slip out occasionally for a joysome jag.
1912		H. Lawson ‘Johnson’s Jag’ in Roderick (1972) 796: And so the thing would be repeated to the end of Johnson’s Jag.
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 75: A friend who is sleeping off the effects of what low people call a jag.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: jag. A Drinking bout.
1929		A.T. Rogers ‘Casual Observer’ in Charlotte Obs. (NC) 29 Jan. sect. 3 8/6: Women of nashville, Tenn., have announced that they will start immediately to sniff breaths in [...] on the streets and even in private homes. That’s a cheap way to accumulate a jag.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 207: Proud to feel that any drink from my cellars could have produced such a majestic jag.
1936		C. Drew ‘The Hoodoo Tour’ in Bulletin 18 Nov. 38/4: ‘What’s up with you? You look as if you’d been on a jag’.
1948		Dan Burley ‘Back Door Stuff’ 6 Nov. [synd. col.] Trying to sleep off last night’s jag.
1952		G. Meek ‘Wool, Wether And Wine’ Station Days in Maoriland 75: And this shearer’s roll and six quid as well [...] Went over the ‘crow’ at the bush hotel for a riotous non-stop jag.
1959		J. Thompson Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 33: Had to pack the chow down to come off a jag.
1988		S. King Tommyknockers (1989) 100: Jag-drinkers frequently come off their binges deeply depressed.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 7: He is on one of his drinking jags when the movie is released.
2015		‘Elvis Costello’ Unfaithful Music 9: My mother seemed to [be] alternately sympathizing or receiving consolation over their husbands’ latest jag [...] drink and other women were generally involved.

2. a drunkard.

1902		Indianapolis Jrnl 25 May 15/2: He grabs hold of a tar whom he spots [...] as a ‘jag’.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 27 Apr. 8/7: The luscious jag had grown a-weary of his skate and determined ;to sober up.
1911		D. Runyon ‘The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew’ in From First to Last (1954) 76: The screw brought in a jag — a laughing jag — a guy with his snoot full of booze and who laughed like he’d just found a lot of money.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 179: ‘Six cheers for the Scandanavians,’ whooped a jag.
1941		M. Prenner ‘Drunk in Sl.’ in AS XVI:1 Jan. 70/2: drunken person [...] jag.

3. (also jag juice) a drink, or a number of drinks.

1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 1 Mar. 6/3: Gutters Full of Jag Juice [...] The crusaders [...] rolled the barrel kegs into the street, burst them open and allowed the red, red liquor to flow into the gutter.
1894		Mirror of Life 24 Mar. 15/2: Possibly [...] he will receive the contents of a glass or two on the outside to neutralise the effects of the ‘jag’ he has inside.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 101: ‘Package? What’s that?’ ‘W’y, a load, a jag!’.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 59: Chi is Jack, you know, an’ jumps from jag to jag like a shammywah.
1908		Ariz. Republican (Phoenix, AZ) 22 May 5/4: Assimilating jag-juice from Alkali Ike’s own private bottle.
1918		G.E. Griffin ‘O’Reilly’ Ballads of the Regiment 69: He drank up all the ‘jag juice’ that the whisky man would sell.
1919		Agric. Jrnl 4-5 314: [headline] Jag Juice from Frozen Apples Contains Most Alcohol.
1920		Orgden Standard (UT) 19 Jan. 6/5: [headline] Caught With Bottles of Jag Juice Police Say.
1962		B. McGhee Cut and Run (1963) 95: ‘Could ye go a jag?’ he asked [...] ‘C’mon inty the lavvy. Ah’ve a boattle of “scud” here.’.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 65: Gus likes a good jag when he’s clocked off.

4. attrib. use of sense 3.

1898		St Paul Globe (MN) 13 Feb. 21/6: It is but an easy task for the old toper [...] to get aboard what has been dubbed the ‘jag wagon’ [...he] landed safely at the door of a palatial beer jjoint.
1915		Van Loan ‘The Spotted Sheep’ in Taking the Count 94: Give him that front room [...] the one I had the last time I took the jag cure.

5. (drugs) the consumption of a drug, usu. defined by the drug in question; occas. used of other substances, see cite 1915, 1919.

1894		C.W. Gardner Doctor and the Devil 39: A Chinaman [...] was freely getting his opium ‘jag’.
1911		E.B. Morris Senior 11: Oh cut the hot air. You have just accumulated a boiled milk jag.
1912		H. Lawson ‘Ah Dam’ in Roderick (1972) 798: He told me his opium jag was costing him five shillings a day, and seven-and-six a night.
1915		Washington Herald (DC) 23 May n.p.: [headline] Inspiring an Actress to Act by Giving Her a Perfume ‘Jag’.
1934		V.G. Burns Female Convict (1960) 131: She was really all lit up with a fine dope-jag.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 120: One cigarette, if smoked by those who know the way, will give a thorough ‘muggles jag’ to at least three persons for an entire night.
1940		C. Himes ‘Marihuana and a Pistol’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 372: A marihuana jag is a condition of the mind that rapidly and continually changes while each stage through which it passes contains only the present.
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 114: We also found the Pumpkin Pie Kid [...] getting over a marijuana jag.
1967		K. Kolb Getting Straight 143: The Messiah bit is wearing thin [...] All you had was an acid jag!
1967		N.Y. Times Mag. 29 Oct. 27: At the end of the Methedrine jag, when she crashes, she will know.
1973		K. Burkhart Women in Prison 447: Jag A drug habit.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 342: jag: An extended drug experience; the equivalent of a trip with reference to drugs other than hallucinogens or marijuana; may particularly refer to cocaine and amphetamine experiences.

6. the experience of taking a specific drug.

1928		(con. 1918) L. Nason Top Kick 25: You got another one o’ your coke jags.
1959		Denver Post 2 Aug. n.p.: Police in Pueblo, Colo. and several other cities in the West and Midwest report that juveniles seeking a quick bang and a mild jag spread liquid glue on the palms of their hands, then cup their hands over their mouth and nose and inhale deeply.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 30: No kicks or jag or nothing.

7. in fig. uses.

8. a hangover.

1891		Salina Dly Republican (KS) 25 Sept. 3/2: Convalescing Jag — Explanatory of the condition of a person who is recovering from a debauch, and who ‘will never do it again’.
1916		Day Book (Chicago) 31 Mar. 5/2: Mayor George Harris [...] made his weekly visit to Hastings Saturday night and came back with his usual Saturday evening jag.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 8: A jag that woulda lasted any ordinary guy for about three years.

9. a drugs party.

1955

Q. Reynolds Police Headquarters (1956) 273: He led them to an apartment where a ‘jag’ (narcotics party) was being held.

10. a trance.

1954

Mad mag. Aug. 8: How many times have I told you not to interrupt my hypnotic jags!

11. the injection of a narcotic drug.

1980		S. McConville ‘Prison Language’ in Michaels & Ricks (1980) 526: Injection may be described as [...] a jag.
2019		A. Parks February’s Son 148: ‘I got a jag in my arse for tetanus’.