slog n.
1. (UK Und.) in senses of violence.
(a) a fight.
Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 5: Such meetings don’t always end as they begin, it being customary to wind up with a general ‘slog’ or at least a private ‘scrapp’. | ||
Wild Boys of London I 7/1: He ain’t much in a slog; but he can put the hug on to rights; and in they goes, right and left. | ||
Hants Teleg. 29 Sept. 11/6: He calls a man a ‘Johnny,’ a battle ‘a blooming slog’. |
(b) a blow (with a blackjack or cosh).
Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 81/1: Joe drew his ‘neddy’ ready for the ‘slog’. |
2. in senses of physical effort.
(a) work that is definitely hard and poss. unrewarding.
Printers’ Vocab. 127: When a person is working hurriedly he is said to have a ‘slog on’ [OED]. | ||
Egregious Eng. 172: That one way amounts to sheer mechanism and slog [OED]. | ||
Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 15: Two months’ solid slog in every department, and a seat on the board as a reward. | ||
Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 35: When we’re not too tired from slog / hustling down the highest. | ||
Indep. Education 15 July 4: The success and hard slog of all our teachers. | ||
Indep. on Sun. Real Life 16 Jan. 9: It’s not like the usual slog in the gym. | ||
Hard Stuff 50: School was still an unavoidable slog. | ||
California Bear 7: The day was a slog, and she spent most of it worried about her final English paper. |
(b) an exhausting journey, usu. on foot.
Godson 153: ‘[W]e ought to [...] take that trail [...] up round that ridge. Might be a bit of a slog, but it won’t do us any harm’. | ||
Candy 25: We’ll follow this track along the creek for [...] about fourteen Ks. That’ll be quite a slog. | ||
Birthday 59: It used to be a real slog on the push-bike. | ||
Hard Stuff 218: What could have been a fun trip became a miserable slog for a few days. |