slamkin, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

slamkin n.

also slammerkin, slammock, slommack, slummux

[note the slovenly ‘Mrs Slammekin’ in John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera (1727); however, the name may have reflected the slammerkin, a loose gown or dress, rather than the later sl.]

1. a slovenly woman.

1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera II vi: Mrs. Slammekin, that is not fair.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Slammakin. A female sloven, one whose clothes seem hung on with a pitch-fork, a careless trapes.
1796		Sporting Mag. Sept. VIII 310/1: He [...] borrowed money of all his friends, and risqued his whole fortune upon Miss Slamerkin.
1800		Sporting Mag. Apr. XVI 28/1: Miss Dunstan [...] asked Miss Slammerkin ‘what she was for?’.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 248: Tom, as Giovanni, amorously paid court to all the ladies that crossed his path, from the squeamish Nun to saucy Poll Slammerkin.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 69: She was a rale slamakin, brawney and look’d for all the world as if she cou’d swallow a nigger.
1839		Eve. Mail (London) 20 Nov. 4/4: The simple pair, Jenny Diver and Sukey Tawdry, appeared as [...] Mistress Diana Trapes, Mistress Mary Brazen, Mistress Slammerkin.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 310: slommack. A slattern.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 95: slommack a slattern, or awkward person.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 81: slamkin A slovenly female.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 233: SLAMMOCK, a slattern or awkward person.
1873		Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1864].
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1888		Banbury Beacon 15 Sept. 2/4: First the garment fell into disgrace and [...] the slang of the period applied to it, became vulgar. No one out of billingsgate region would now describe an untidy person as a ‘slammerkin’.

2. a servant.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 13/2: The servant girl came out for beer every night about 9 o’clock [...] So we agreed that Joe should take advantage of this, and while the ‘slamkin’ was in the public house [...] he should enter and secrete himself.

3. a run-down animal.

1875

M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 97: I spent more’n he’s wo’th a tryin’ to cure ’im, an’ don’t everybody laugh at me ’cause I’ve got sich a derned ole slummux of a hoss.