Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (prizefighting) a heavy blow.

1826

Pierce Egan’s Life in London 17 Dec. 789/2: ‘He’ll go to work soon [...] and give O’Neale a slogger’.

2. one who delivers heavy blows, esp. in boxing or cricket.

1829		Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 19: He got away from a slogger, but immediately commenced an exchange of blows.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 75: No one dares dispute the ability of the boshman; cos he’s the pet of the motts, and a numming slogger.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 237: He was called Slogger Williams, from the force with which it was supposed he could hit.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 110/2: Artful had ‘scrapped’ several times in the prize ring [...] and was considered a promising ‘slogger’.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple II 254: Puggy Sloggers the celebrated converted pugilist.
1882		Bristol Magpie 6 July 7/1: We are sorry to have to record the serious indisposition of Slogger Bill. He sustained several injuries in a friendly encounter with the Brumagem Pet.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Jan. 14/3: The Mayor of New York has issued a little proclamation which will render that city no longer the paradise of the slogger.
1892		Illus. Police News 26 Nov. 4/3: I’ll show you what it is to cross the path of Sam the Slogger.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 75: Slogger, a pugilist.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Aug. 24/2: The doings of a slogger in English county matches [...] are no guide to what he is likely to do with Australian bowling on fast pitches.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 19 June 3rd sect. 17/5: Slogger Jeffries’ paternal relative was a preacher.
1910		Illus. Police News (London) 9 Apr. 10/3: It must not be imagined that Pickard is only a slogger. They are not wild blows that he sends in.
1914		M. Glass Potash And Perlmutter 132: In the left-hand corner crouched Slogger Atkins, the English lightweight.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 135: ’E’s a big feller – fourteen stone easy – and used to be a bit of a fighting-man – a slogger.
1936		Norman Gale ‘Reflected Glory’ in Close of Play 42: We recall how Billy Farmer / Scored a chimneypot-and-six one day at Horsted Keynes, / Where Sheffield Park in person, highly tickled by the damage, / Presented half a sovereign to the Slogger for his pains.
1947		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 May 11s/1: [The] Manassa Mauler — the most amazing mixture of a slogger and a cissy the prize ring has ever seen.
1968		R.D. Magoffin We Bushies 73: he was quite a fair slogger this Dundyboo dogger.

3. a weight attached to a string and used as a weapon.

1892		Daily News 12 Apr. 7/1: The prisoner [...] said if he did not go away he would fetch his ‘sloggers’ to him .
1904		Times 8 Jan. 10/5: Striking him about the head with an instrument called a ‘slogger’.

4. a hard, ponderous worker.

1884		Western Champion (Qld) 27 June 3/5: [advert] OH! Working Men and Sloggers, you know that if you choose, / The BACK DRUM is the plus where you can get a booze.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1914		R. Tressell Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 441: If they happened to be good ‘sloggers’ – men who made a practice of ‘tearing their guts out’.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 5 Dec. 6/6: We want sloggers to go fightin’ / Men as knows what they are at.

5. a heavy, hard-wearing shoe.

1987

T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 588: His own shoes were heavy brown sloggers, with soles that stuck out like rock ledges.