Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Anglo-Ind.) a spatch-cocked fowl [the bird was caught and killed as the putative eater dismounted from his horse and by the time he had washed and dressed was ready for the table].

1848		J. Berncastle Voyage to China 193: ‘Sudden death’ means a young chicken about a month old, caught, killed, and grilled at the shortest notice [Y&B].
1851		R.F. Burton Goa and the Blue Mountains 9: He then slew it, dipped the corpse in boiling water to loosen the feathers, which he stripped off in masses, cut through its breast longitudinally, and with the aid of an iron plate, placed over a charcoal fire, proceeded to make a spatchcock, or as it is more popularly termed, a ‘sudden death’.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: The sable patriarch offers to immolate a second fowl [...] but we decline [...] as our morning's experience of the dish, popularly called ‘a sudden death,’ does not warrant our indulging in a repetition.
1871		E.C.P. Hull European in India 105: The cook instantly seizes a couple of fowls [...] These are killed, plunged into a bucket of hot water (in aid of plucking), opened out, and grilled; and hence is produced a dish (sometimes called ‘spatch-cock,’ but more commonly by the appropriate title of ‘sudden death’), by no means unpalatable to the hungry stomach.
1874		Letters from India and Kashmir 32: The Khansamagh, in his den asleep, was soon up to the call of the syces, and preparing dinner. Creeping into an oven, he reappeared, a flutter was heard, and a croak or convulsions. It resulted in the famous Indian dish ‘sudden death,’ a spatchcock, on this occasion garnished with truffled sausages.
1886		Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson 653/2: Sudden death. Anglo-Indian slang for a fowl served as a spatchcock, the standing dish at a dawk-bungalow in former days.
1893		G.K. Betham Story of a Dacoity 208: A ‘spatch cock’ (variously known as ‘sudden death,’ or ‘spread eagle’), egg curry, rice, and chupatties (made of wheaten flour though) was their bill of fare.

2. (US) a strong alcoholic drink, esp. cheap whisky.

1860		T. Haliburton Season Ticket 9: They hain’t no compounds here, no mint juleps [...] phlegm cutters, chain lightening, or sudden death.
1865		‘Mark Twain’ Sketches New and Old (1926) 163: Our reserve [...] we had [...] kept out of sight and full of chain-lightning, sudden death and scorpion-bile all day [DA].
1877		R. Burdette Rise and Fall of the Mustache 160: ‘The Same,’ ‘Fast Freight,’ ‘Bran’an War,’ ‘Sherri’neg,’ ‘Sudden Death,’ ‘Crusade Drops,’ [...] and several other spirits.
1891		J.A. Riis How the Other Half Lives 95: From the teeming tenements [...] come the white slaves of its dens of vice and their infernal drug [...] a subtler poison than ever the stalebeer dives knew, or the ‘sudden death’ of the Old Brewery.
1900		Marvel XIV:343 June 15: Entering the inn, they called for a penn’orth of sudden-death each.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 167: ‘What’s yourn?’ asked the Cornet. ‘Pot o’ sudden death. And don’t forget the stout.’.

3. (sporting) in a variety of games (orig. coin-tossing), a way of deciding the victor in a tied contest by giving the judgement to the next individual or team to score.

1834		Blackwood’s Mag. May 752/1: ‘Which’, said he, ‘is it to be – two out of three, as at Newmarket, or the first toss to decide?’ ‘Sudden death’, said I, ‘and there will soon be an end of it.’ .
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict. 315: In tossing, to be decided by the first call is to ‘go sudden death,’ as distinguished from the longer forms of ‘best two out of three,’ and ‘first three.’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 82: Sudden Death, that which is decided by a first call in tossing.
1920		B. Cronin Timber Wolves 125: ‘You never tossed again?’ ‘Why no! You see it was sudden death.’.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 231: Boyce got criticized for electing to kick rather than receive after he won the coin flip. It’s who scores first in sudden death, of course.

4. a plain boiled pudding.

1889–90

Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.

5. coffee.

1914

E. Pugh Cockney At Home 216: Two cups o’ sudden death and some o’ your very best dead-fly cake.

6. a crumpet or bun.

1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 123: Stodge/sudden death are cakes.

7. (Aus.) one who is overwhelmed or infatuated, impulsively.

1957

D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 127: ‘Oh, Barbie, he’s a dream.’ [...] Barbie shook her head, smiling in tribute. ‘You’re sudden death all right.’.