Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. ‘any cheap, nasty, washy beverage’ or foodstuff (Hotten, 1874).

1871		O.E. Wood West Point Scrap-Book 227: But we must sit still, and be patiently stewed / Like a pot-full of ‘Mess-hall slumgudgeon’.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Roughing It 43: He poured for us a beverage which he called ‘Slumgullion’.
1873		Sl. Dict. 297: Slumgullion any cheap, nasty, washy beverage. An Americanism best known in the Pacific States.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 76: Slumgullion, washy drink.
1899		K. Munroe Forward, March 28: Had breakfast hours ago [...] Scouse, slumgullion, hush puppy, dope without milk, and all sorts of things.
1900		Gaz. (York, PA) 8 Mar. 3/1: It looked like brown sugar, an’ [he] give it ter the boys ter sweeten their slumgullion (tea) with.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 19 Apr. 12/1: They Say [...] That a certain hash manufacturer [...] has been engaged to manufacture seven different kinds of slumgullion for the royal family of the Squasham Hylands.
1914		Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/6: There are few choicer dishes in this world than a ‘hobo mulligan or a slum gullion’ when cooked up by a yegg of dubious visage and long road exprience.
1927		C. Samolar ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 389: Stew is mulligan, slum or slumgullion.
1929		L. Thomas Woodfill of the Regulars 294: ‘What’s slumgullion? How do you make it?’ ‘Make it, my eye! You don’t make it, buddy [...] It just accumulates.’.
1932		(con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 356: Slumgullion for grub, with potatoes full of eyes and moldy beans.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 229: Of course, there is small beer or [...] swankey, slumgullion, and swipes.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 116: You have to go into some greasy spoon joint and eat some slumgullion that a respectable dog would turn his nose up at.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 214: slum gullion A stew.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 87/2: Gullion. [...] 3. (P) Food; prison fare. ‘The cons kicked over (rioted) account of the gullion on the main line (regular prison mess).’ [Ibid.] 198/2: Slum-gullion. See Slum.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 45: A jail sentence, head shaven, fed on slumgullion, mustered in the mud, buffaloed and bossed.
1956		F.O. Beck Hobohemia 24: This mission flophouse where the hungry men were to be fed with slumgullion (the tramp’s name for Irish stew).
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 7: The first thing a long-distance cross-country runner would do [...] would be to run as far away from the place as he could get on a bellyful of Borstal slumgullion.
1960		W. Styron Set This House on Fire 179: How could he reject this haute cuisine in favor of Carole’s slumgullion.
1984		I. Doig Eng. Creek 300: Dish me up some of your goddamn slumgullion.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 66: Chow Prison food. There are relatively few terms describing prison food. (Archaic: gooby, gullion, slumgullion, slum).
1998		Guardian 5 Sept. 35/2: Slumgullion is the offal (of whales).

2. a representative or servant.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

3. in fig. use, nonsense.

1894		Bruce Herald 4 May 6/7: The ‘Verse’ was labelled variously ‘hog-wash,’ ‘flapdoodle mixture,’ ‘slumgullion,’ etc.
1900		T.J. Hains Mr Trunnell Mate of the Ship ‘Pirate’ 57: Of all the slumgullion I ever had stick in my craw, this beats me.