o-be-joyful, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

o-be-joyful n.

[orig. naut. jargon]

1. brandy.

1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: O be joyful Good liquor, brandy.
1830		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 3 July 1/2: Seated by a table refreshing themslves with the ‘oh be joyful’.
1843		Gleaner (Manchester, NH) 18 Nov. n.p.: So let us take a little of the O be joyful [...] some of your best Brandy.
1861		letter q. in Wiley Life of Johnny Reb (1943) 167: I invited my companions to assist me in Emptying 3 canteens of ‘Oh! be Joyful’.
1896		Mirror of Life 28 Oct. 3/4: Jack forgets now about the ‘tar and pitch,’ and the oh, be joyful. Good luck, Jack!
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 230: Brandy is your nectar and you shout for [...] O-be-joyful. [note] Particularly a good brandy. A brandy drinker may be known as an O-be-joyfuller or O-be-joyful merchant.

2. (US, also oh-be-joyful, oh-be-rich-an’-happy) liquor in general.

1815		J. Wetherell Adventures of John Wetherell (1954) 328: Took a little taste of Obejoyful.
1823		see sense 1.
1830		Greensborough Patriot 4 Aug. 4/2: They didn’t come to, till the oldwoman and her darter poured some o be joy full down their throates [DA].
1830		N. Ames Mariner’s Sketches 153: Some ‘O! be joyful’ was ‘being making’ [...] into hot sling.
1851		Manchester Spy (NH) 5 Apr. n.p.: Wants [...] To know who smiled so often last Sunday at Squag — O, that will be joyful.
1865		N. Wales Chron. 20 May 2/6: Like a great many other clever fellows, he was too much addicted to the ‘O be joyful!’.
1884		A.P. Hill Tales of the Colorado Pioneers 100: They joined in a little ‘O-be-joyful,’ to bind the bargain [DA].
1894		Mirror of Life 20 Jan. 6/4: [of punch] An over-indulgence in the ‘O be joyfull’.
1906		Palestine Daily Herald (TX) 14 Aug. 4/3: My friend proposed to send down to the store [...] and get some o-be-joyful.
1914		G.A. England ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in DN IV:ii 77: oh-be-joyful. Also oh-be-rich-an’-happy. Hard liquor.
1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 Apr. 4/3: For two days Billjim longed in vain for the forbidden juice, but on the evening of the third day a truck containing 40 cases of ‘Oh be joyful’ was shunted on the siding, and two gaunt camels proceeded to take it […] to the Canteens.

3. rum.

1864, 1867, 1870

Hotten Sl. Dict.

In compounds

oh-be-joyful works (n.)

a public house.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues V 85/1: o-be-joyful works = a drinking shop.
1913		Pedagogical Seminary XI 437: The place where liquor is sold is a devil’s house, a gargle factory, a roosting-ken, an O-be-joyful works.

In phrases

I’ll make you sing o-be-joyful on the other side of your mouth [‘o-be-joyful’ implies hymn-singing; phr. mimics but appears to antedate ‘I’ll make you laugh on the wrong/other side of your face’]

a general threat of violence .

1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: I’ll make you sing O be joyful, with or on the other side of your mouth, a threat, implying the party threatened will be made to cry.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[1961		C. Himes Pinktoes (1989) 189: She was black and blue enough afterwards to sing the gospel].