Green’s Dictionary of Slang

drunk with gin.

c.1850

Peeping Tom (London) 35 137/1: The lady was tearful — and ginish.

see under blossom n.²

a ‘dirty, abandoned, flabby, debased woman, generally over thirty; the victim of alcoholic abuse, within an ace of inevitable death’ (Ware).

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

a facial spot or ulcer resulting from excessive gin-drinking.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.

a tour of public houses for the purpose of drinking a series of gins.

1879		Essex Standard 19 July 6/6: The favourite pastime of some of these gentry [...] is to go for what they term a two-of-gin crawl, which means flitting from pub to pub.
1883		Bird o’ Freedom 7th Mar. in Ware (1909) 141/2: Phil Benjamin was taking his daily constitutional, which consisted in what is called ‘a gin crawl’ – in this instance between Drury Lane and Covent Garden.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 22 Mar. 2/1: ‘Early Bird’ and the Prodigal Son were doing their usual gin crawl down George-street [etc].
1892		A. Chevalier Our Little Nipper 🎵 I used to do a gin crawl ev’ry night, An’ very, very often come ’ome tight .
1900		Sporting Times 22 Sept. 6/3: Same old gin crawl. / Same old bar, / Meet same ‘actor,’ ‘Have cigar?’ / Same old stinkers, / D for two, / Blow your head off. / Nothing new.
1910		Hull Dly Mail 1 Sept. 7/3: [Music hall] Artistes followed the ‘gin crawl’ to the public houses [...] drinking till it was time [...] for their performance.
1913		Fortnightly Rev. 100 494: Sinners [...] slouching drearily past one public-house after another [...] would not have enjoyed the harmless variety of the unintelligent pursuit as much as any ‘gin-crawl’.
1929		(con. WW1) Blackwood’s Mag. 225 156: An expedition which brought the most divergent types into common concord, and drove them to a ‘gin-crawl’ in one another's messes.
1935		Chambers Jrnl 350/2: We bore our lot with fortitude until Rennell and Burrows came over from the Howe gunroom on a gin-crawl.
1983		(con. WW1) J.W. McPherson et al. Man Who Loved Egypt 41: We sallied forth on what Edgar called a gin-crawl. We called at one or two noted German beer-houses and Edgar had an invitation for the two of us to a dance at the ‘Princess Club’.

(US) a tavern, a bar.

1859

Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 5/4: Filling their stomachs [...] to the ruin of the unsuspecting proprietors of gin-depots.

(US) a tavern, a bar.

1859

Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 7/1: William Rowe, who keeps a gin-fountain on Bunker Hill street.

(orig. US) a gin drinker.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 30 Apr. n.p.: Five of the above gin heads have signed the temperance pledge and broke it.
1869		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 20 Oct. 2/6: One letter calls Mr Cunningham ‘old gin-head’.
1871		N.Y. Times 20 Aug. 1/5: ‘Jake Wiley is a perfect gin-head; he’s drunk all the time’.
1910		Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, AK) 9 Dec. 8/7: Fannie was drunk and too drunk to be gotten into the police station [...] She is a ‘gin head’ and a ‘dope fiend’.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 56: She was called Gin-head Susy.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Madame La Gimp’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 240: A busted romance makes her become a gin-head.
1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 147: There was plenty of these old gin heads about.
1965		K. Kesey Sometimes a Great Notion 206: Each conflding in her that before long he aims to split from that ginhead who's been holding him back.
1974		D. Tracy Honk If You’ve Found Jesus 82: Now there was a real ginhead, that dopey bastard with the borrowed gun. Who asked him along?
1995		J.P. Miller Surviving Joy 72: She said I was just like my daddy, and if I didn’t watch it I was gonna turn out a ginhead just like ‘im.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
2002		E. Bogosian Mall 202: The helpful ginhead pushed three and the elevator rose to the third floor.

(Aus./US) a barman.

1878		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 24 Apr. 8/2: Devlin and Treacy have appeared at one of the variety theaters [...] but whether as scene-shifter or gin-jerkers is not specified.
1883		Detroit Free Press 2 Aug. 7/6: ‘Who is that man who has just gone out?’ asked a globe trotter of a barkeeper in Deadwood City [...] ‘That,’ replied the gin-jerker, ’that’s a perfect gentleman’.
1905		Salina Dly Union (KS) 9 Mar. 3/3: It is reported that the Assaria ‘thirst parlor,’ or ‘razzle dazzle retreat,’ or ‘gin jerkers jolly’ [...] has closed up.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Aug. 1st sect. 1/1: That the hoary-headed barman is still in the toils of the grass -widow. That the gin-jerker is duplicating his old-time Subiaco doings.
1939		C. Rodda Theme is Murder 103: ‘Mix me a drink,’ he ordered. I said: ‘May I ask if I am a detective, or do you employ me as a gin jerker?’.

a gin shop.

1747		Life and Character of Moll King 12: I shall catch her at Maddox’s Gin-Ken, sluicing her Gob by the Tinney.
1788		‘Rolling Blossom’ in Festival of Anacreon in Wardroper Lovers, Rakers and Rogues (1995) 179: At the gin ken I took a swig, / Reeled home, blind drunk, a-singing.

the mouth; the throat.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see separate entry.

(US) an habitual gin-drinker.

1856		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 25 Oct. n.p.: How long has Nick been fancy to that old gin pig, Laura H?
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Sept. n.p.: Big Moll Johnson, the Amazon of ‘Hooker’s division,’ a ‘rusty’ old ‘gin pig,’ lost to virtue and wedded to sin.

(US) a bartender; thus gin-slingery, a bar.

1838		Blackburn Standard 16 May 4/1: In New York the system [i.e. touting for custom] pervadeth every place of public resort from the oyster cellar and gin-slingery to the proudest saloon.
1889		US Army & Navy Jrnl & Gaz. 26 471: Whereupon the gin-slinger went behind his counter and drew his pistol, saying he would protect his property.
1893		All the Year Round 262/2: The gin-slinger, too scared to speak, went back to his bottles ; and when all the glasses were filled Pete's health was drunk with cheers.
1895		Pharmaceutical Era 14 759: If you want to be a saloon keeper, take out your license and be a gin slinger; you need no college education [...] and the roll of honor of your school doesn’t want barkeepers among the names of the honor bearers.
1911		R. Beach The Ne’er-do-well 16: Now don’t be so nervous — we’ll cure this fellow's ambition as a gin-slinger.
1921		J. Conrad Works 17 166: What if he did want to see his money back, like any tame shopkeeper, hash-seller, gin-slinger, or ink-spewer does ?
1944		R.K. Cope Comrade Bill 46: The secretary of the Engine-drivers’ Union was the gin-slinger in the Castle Bar.
1995		P. Williamson Heart of the West 85: ‘The good stuff, Shiloh,’ he said to the gin-slinger. ‘Not that tanglefoot in the barrel.’.
2002		J.C. Simmons Icy Blue Descent 54: There was only one other patron in the bar and he was in no condition to talk, so I tried a shot in the dark with the gin-slinger.

(US) an alcoholic, a gin-drinker; thus gin-soaked, adj.

1932		T. Martin Newgate Garland 98: A stay-out-all-night, / Have-a-kid-in-the-end young girl. / Make-a-bloke-choke young girl, / Love-a-gin-soak young girl.
1949		A. Dean Snipe Hunt 111: ‘Man was a gin-soak, anyhow.’ ‘Was he?’ The Marshal peered through the glass door to the bar.
1951		N. Algren Chicago: City On the Make 70: The jungle hiders come softly forth: geeks and gargoyles, old blow winos, sour stewbums and grinning ginsoaks.
1956		W. Golding Pincher Martin 91: He found he was cursing an invisible Nat, cursing him for Mary, for the contempt in old Gin-soak’s fsce.
1973		Plays & Players 21 14: Diana Dors played a frightening old gin soak in Lionel Jeffries' film The Amazing Mr Blunden.
1981		Granta 4-5 117: Ned’s mother was a second- generation gin-soak.
1991		R. Weaver (ed.) Canadian Short Stories (5 ser.) 123: How could a gin soak have been a former schoolfellow of Judith Paxton, nee Dreedle? Preposterous. It only showed what good hotels were coming to these days.
2000		Observer Screen 16 Jan. 15: He is kept under virtual house arrest by his gin-soaked mother.

1. a distiller; thus gin-spinnery, a distillery.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1826		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 8 Jan. 397/1: The Costermongers, Dustmen , &c [...] will forbear drinking gin till the reduction of duty [...] is allow [sic] by the gin-spinners to the public.
1831		Northampton Mercury 17 Sept. 2/1: Resurrection of a Gin-Spinner [...] They discovered a private distillery, and apprehended a known ‘jigger man,’ a private still worker, named Dennis Duggan. [...] About six months ago [...] a gin-spinning establishment which he had formed [...] was broken up by the same officers.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 11 Feb. 2/4: Let it not be said that your Journal can be fooled by the handy-work of a [...] gin-spinner .
1874		Western Times 3 July 5/3: Go to Manchester, my son, and start a gin-spinnery [...] pass an Indemnity Bill to rehabilitate the Gin-spinner.
1888		F. Green in N&Q Ser. 7 VI 153: I have always understood that a gin-spinner is a distiller who makes gin, but could never find out why so called [F&H].

2. a dealer in spirits.

1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 218: Swipey Bill, a translator of Soles [...] has just called in at the gin Spinners to get rid of his last duce.
1826		‘Nocturnal Sports’ in Universal Songster II 180/1: Three as prime sprigs as hiver [...] bilked a gin-spinner.
1833		Cruikshank & Wight Sun. in London 19: One shopkeeper got out upon the roof of his house with a dustman’s bell, and endeavoured to drown the sound of the church bell [...] Whether this man was a gin spinner, or not, the evidence does not state.
1836		Berks. Chron. 3 Dec. 3/3: The best Cream of the Valley cost but 3s a quart at my uncle’s, who is reckoned the first gin spinner in the county .
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 168: i think ive seed im a sarvin out svipes and blue ruin at the gin-spinners corner o’ [...] petticut lane [ibid.] 169: ven turnin’ round to look for the gin-spinner, blow me! sam, if i didn’t see the cove a-goin heels over head .
1840		London Mag. Mar. 96/2: [T]eaching the accomplished daughters of the smallest class of ‘gin-spinners,’ butter-and-egg venders, dairymen and rag-merchants, to ‘play the piany’.
1849		Paul Pry 8 Jan. 7/1: Jem S—s, the lushey butler, not to be seen so much with Farrant. No more gin spinning going on, I hope. You have no more horses and carts to lose.
1851		Cork Examiner 29 Dec. 3/1: Anthony Norries [...] is shortly to be married to the daughter of a wealthy gin spinner in Lambeth.
1857		C.M. Smith Curiosities of London 166: The extravagant and plundering profit realized by the gin-spinner sufficiently accounts for the eagerness with which licenses are sought after whenever a pretext can be found [...] for opening a public-house or a gin-shop.
1865		Westmorland Gaz. 4 Nov. 7/5: If the landlord of a gin-palace is called a ‘gin-spinner’ is the landlady a ‘spinning jenny’?
1887		Western Times 20 Sept. 3/2: How much could be got out of a daily glass of gin if it were allowed to remain in the gin-spinner’s hands for a year.

3. a wine-vault.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Gin-Spinners — Wine Vaults.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 63: Witnessing great numbers of society swallow blue ruin like water, at the gin-spinners.

the mouth.

1824		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 Dec. 376/2: Never again could [...] he feel his ‘ivories’ loose within his gin-trap.
1959		A. Sinclair My Friend Judas (1963) 39: Then I landed him the old sockeroo slap bang in the gin-trap.

1. a drunkard.

1866

J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 187: Fetch forty on ’em, you infernal old rotten gin-tub.

2. (US black) a variety of rot-gut whisky.

1981

Bill Coleman in Levet Talkin’ That Talk 182/1: It was the most disgusting alcohol I had ever tasted. They had bootleg whiskies they called gin tub or white lightning but this one seemed more like embalming fluid to me.

see under dry adj.¹

the Morning Advertiser newspaper.

1860		Irish Times (Dublin) 30 Mar. 2/5: The Gin and Gospel Gazette, the Morning Advertiser, which Mr. Bright says is notorious lor mixture of piety and ruffianism.
1860		Leicester Jrnl 6 Apr. 3/1: The Morning Advertiser has obtained from well known divine the sobriquet of the Gin and Gospel Gazette.
1866		W.W. Good Political, agricultural, and commercial fallacies 392: We will learn modesty and humility, and something more, from the Gin and Gospel Gazette.
1874		H. Sampson Hist. Advertising 17: A few years back great fun used to be got out of the ’Tiser, or the ‘Gin and Gospel Gazette,’ as it was called, on account of its peculiar views on current questions.
1881		G.R. Emerson Gladstone 212: [It covered] ratting, betting, sporting events generally, and conviviality, which the public-house readers of the ’Tiser particulaerly appreciated. This incongruity in the contents of the journal obtained for it, in profane circles, the nickname of the ‘Gin and Gospel Gazette’.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1892		W.S. Walsh Hnady-book of Literary Curiosities 88: The latter nickname superseded another closely similar, the Gin and Gospel Gazette, which the paper had enjoyed for many years.
1914		Aberdeen Eve. Exp. 9 Feb. 2/9: ‘Gin and Gospel.’ The announcement of the resignation of the editor of the ‘Morning Advertiser’ will recall the name the paper's most famous editor, James Grant, who [...] earned for it the nickname of ‘Gin and Gospel’.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 45/2: Gin and gospel, a religious publication (prison).

see separate entries.