Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also gig, gigs, jig-lamps, lamps) spectacles; thus a nickname for one who wears spectacles.

1848		E. Bradley [i.e. ‘Cuthbert Bede’] in Letter to J. C. H. n.p.: Gig-lamps (certainly a university term. I first heard it in 1848 or 1849, long before Mr. Verdant Green was born or thought of) [F&H].
1850		Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 Feb. 3/1: Mr. Brockatayn, a regular ‘gig’ or, as Theodore Hook used to call a real living encasements for optics, ‘a gig with lamps,’ was defendant.
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 22: Looks ferociously mild in his gig-lamps. [Ibid.] 76: Holloa, Gig-lamps, is that you ill-treating the dead languages?
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America II 33: Some men had a passion for seeing ‘gig-lamps’ on the nasal bone of those they admire.
1866		Western Dly Press 24 Jan. 4/1: A plaintiff [...] claiming the price of some red herrings from a man with weak eyesight, may facetiously describe him as ‘Peter Thomas alias Giglamps’.
1874		Leeds Times 20 June 3/2: He rather thought [...] we should look conspicuous, don’t you know, if we went as we were (there is no small beer about Giglamps!).
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 140: You with the giglamps, throw us your cigar.
1881		‘’Arry on Woman Rights’ in Punch 2 Apr. 156/2: No, this lot didn’t shriek or wear gig-lamps.
1892		‘F. Anstey’ Voces Populi 167: Stop, though, suppose she has spotted me? Never can tell with giglamps ... better not risk it.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 32: Gig Lamps, spectacles.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Feb. 11/2: [J]ust as ’Arry is telling Mary Han what a regular devil he is, two pairs of gig-lamps are fixed on him and a voice like a rat-tail file says: ‘Young people, will you take a tract?’.
1903		Taranaki Herald (NZ) 23 Dec. 7/4: His astygmatic ‘gig-lamps’ on his purple proboscis.
1904		C. Connors Bowery Life [ebook] De old bloke pulled out er pair uv gig-lamps an’ put ’em on, an’ den he give me er grate sizin’ up.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 6/1: One old juggins, with gold-rimmed gig-lamps and a bulge like a barrel.
1916		Kemmel Times 3 July (2006) 107/2: In what O.P. do his gig-lamps shine?
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 239: Hey, youse with the gig-lamps!
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Jig lamps, eye glasses.
1936		Derby Dly Teleg. 2 June 4/6: Lowk at Tome Grane i’ glasses. Tay your gig-lamps off Tom.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 192: The supposedly brainy young ’tec in the Eagle strip ‘P.C.49’ was known as ‘Gigs’ (1956) [...] The term ‘giglamps’ for spectacles [...] is on the wane, and few people now are nicknamed ‘Giglamps’ for wearing them (as Kipling was at Westward Ho!).
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 81: He takes off his gigs and gives them a wipe then opens his window.

2. (US) jewellery; thus gig-lamped adj., wearing jewellery.

1896		S. Crane ‘Diamonds and Diamonds’ in Stallman (1966) 174: The fat person gazed down at the ring [...] ‘How’s that for a gig-lamp?’ He pushed the trinket over the bar.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 285: We made money hand over fist, got all the gig-lamps out of hock [...] We were fully $300 to the good, outside of the jewellery we’d redeemed. [Ibid.] 256: He was [...] gig-lamped and togged to the limit.
1903		Inter Ocean (Chicago) 25 Jan. 34/4: Not even in the half-on-the-level plants was it esteemed the proper quirk to let a soused man push over his gig-lamps for chips.

3. a person wearing spectacles.

1899		Courier (Lincoln, NE) 20 May 6/2: Bighead— Dr Briggs cannot swallow th story of Jonah and the whale. Giglamps— Well, there are lots of people that can’t swallow Briggs.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Feb. 11/2: Every week these gig-lamps report progress to a company of other hard-faced people with similar green spectacles, and tell the Horrid Things they have seen.
1976		R. Morrieson Pallet on the Floor 49: That half-wit giglamp ‘Spud’ McGhee.

4. eyes.

1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 59: ‘Will you have the kindness to escort me to a car?’ she said, giving me the glittering gig-lamps.
1914		‘Hugh McHugh’ You Should Worry cap. 5: Dike carefully closed one eye and focussed the other on her. [...] Then he turned the open gig-lamp on me and began again.
1934		J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 285: One o’ the ugliest bogeys from the Yard has got his gig-lamps on me!
1942		R.L. Bellem ‘Broken melody’ in Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 Like a sap, I took my lamps off you for a minute.