Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also Lord Harry, old Henry) the Devil.

1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 13 23–30 Aug. 121: If Plaisterers must marry, before their dead Wifes cold, / ’Tis pitty (by Old Harry) but they should be Cuckold.
1764		K. O’Hara Midas II i: I swear by Old Harry The moment madam’s coffin’d – Her I’ll marry.
1786		J. O’Keeffe Wicklow Mountains 40: This is surely old harry calling this wicked fellow to him.
1811		J. Poole Hamlet Travestie I i: I’ll speak to it, should e’en Old Harry dare me.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 24: ‘An elegant six’—‘All luck, by old Harry’.
1833		‘The Turncock’ in Regular Thing, And No Mistake 68: Sam swore he loved, she swore again, / ‘blow her if she’d marry’, / He thought to blow his brains out / straight, and toddle to old Harry.
1848		Talfourd & Seymour Sir Rupert, the Fearless I v: Nor send us all straight to Old Harry.
1851		Western Times 8 Nov. 5/5: Old Harry and the Dragon came to be consigned to the flames.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 106/2: As soon as a ‘poke’ was ‘brought off’ and ‘slung,’ the ‘stall’ who ‘copped’ it [...] ‘namased’ like as if the old ’Arry was after him.
1870		G.W. Hunt [perf. George Leybourne] ‘Awfully Clever’ 🎵 They think they're as deep as old Harry, / But the bait and the hook I can see.
1879		A. Pinkerton Reminiscences 24: Everything is going to the old Harry while I am playing detective!
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 360: I lay I’ll tan the Old Harry out o’ both o’ ye!
1890		H. Lawson ‘Word to Texas Jack’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 65: Texas Jack you are amusin’. Great Lord Harry how I laughed.
1896		‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 268: Then indeed there was the Old Harry to pay [...] they hopped right up and down with rage.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 97: You’re just full of the old Harry.
1920		O.O. McIntyre Bits of New York Life 17 Dec. [synd. col.] Then in our bourgeosie [sic] way we were all full of the Old Harry.
1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 36: The girls in the shop said they would make a dandy match, just her size, short, blond, blue eyes, full of old Harry in ’em.
1938		D. Runyon ‘It Comes Up Mud’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 546: He is pretty sure it is old Henry Devil himself.
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 128: We’ve dropped the old hook, it’s good old Harry flatters and a make-and-mend.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 41: But George, ’e’s got the cheek of Old ’Arry.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 277: Old Nick. One of many old nicknames for the devil, e.g., the Old Gentleman, Old Harry, Old Roger, and Old Scratch.

2. a form of unspecified adulterant used in wine.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Old Harry, a Composition used by Vintners, when they bedevil their Wines.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

3. a devilish individual.

1834

Satirist (London) 12 Jan. 10/3: William Tatton [...] will be in communication an ‘old Harry,’ of no diabolic propensities„ and who never exercise his broiling faculties on any more spiritual matter than a rump steak, nor hears more damned sounds than the complaints of an irascible mutton-chop, dropping fatness and execrations on the fire.