Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also slam up) fashionable, first-rate, of superior quality; thus slap-uppish, smartly, fashionably.

1824		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 10 Oct. 5/3: george cooper [...] is about to open a slap-up house in the vicinity of the theatres [...] ‘The liquors,’ George says, ‘shall he of the first quality, and Seager’s Daffy so brilliant and fine that it will serve as a looking glass to his customers’.
1829		‘On the Prigging Lay’ (trans. of ‘Un jour à la Croix Rouge’) in Vidocq IV 264: And then / Who should I spy but the slap-up spark / What I eased of the swag in St. James’s Park.
1836		‘I Met Her At A Bawdy Ken’ in Frisky Vocalist 30: She was, one time, a rummy swell, / And slap-up was her form, /Until a kid, once, in Pall Mall, / Made her mutton rather warm, [...] So now she’s on the town.
1841		in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster [song title] ‘She Wore Some Slap Up Togs.’.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 30 Apr. n.p.: Here is an announcement! Why the most slap-up of the fraternity can say no more.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Feb 2/6: [heading] A cheap commodious and slap-up drag.
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 22: He’s got a power of slap-up friends as won’t leave him long in the lurch.
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 93: I swopped the beggar [...] for a regular slap-up set of pets of the ballet, framed and glazed.
1865		Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1994) 314: A slap-up gal in a bang-up chariot.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 350: Ask Belgravy, and great Wictoria Street, and them slap up parts.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Jan. 8/3: He is proud, for he is wearing / His new ‘slap-up’ paget suit.
1885		‘’Arry on Song and Sentiment’ in Punch 14 Nov. 229/1: To cut a fair dash, dress slap-uppish, ’ave fourpenny smokes and good drink.
1889		J.K. Jerome Three Men in a Boat 53: We’ll have a good round, square, slap-up meal at seven.
1892		‘Little Crossing-Sweeper’ in F. Anstey Mr Punch’s Model Music Hall 83: Never was in such slap-up quarters in my life.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 28 Oct. 1/2: I’ll take an ’arf and cut the gate, / N’ give a dandy slap-up show.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 3: Knowin’ he’d take pride in it, an’ do the slam-up thing, we puts Doc Peets to deal the game unanimous.
1901		T. & G. LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Come Along, Let’s Make Up 🎵 ‘Straight, you are a blooming “slap-up” little donah’.
1902		Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 1: He didn’t sport no joolrey except a slap-up ring.
1903		A. Adams Log Of A Cowboy 129: You hear me, it was a slam up fine layout.
1908		J. Gunn We of the Never-Never (1962) 35: I’m real slap-up at Johnny cakes!
1918		R.H. Knyvett ‘Over There’ with the Australians 211: A real slap-up feed – some tinned sausages, mashed potatoes [...] preserved pears and cream, not forgetting a bottle of champagne.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 202: There is them slap-up private-apartment ones.
1935		C. Drew ‘Zarko Assassin’ in Bulletin 23 Oct. 48/3: He was a slap-up judge of a boxer and could indulge in a little glove-play himself .
1936		G. Greene Gun for Sale (1973) 14: He could have a slap-up meal at Simpson’s.
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 33: Fur coats and slap-up meals.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 187: I took Doc Mansfield to dinner at Paris House, in Phillip Street, a real slap-up Continental place with imported waiters where they served the right wines.
1961		(con. WW2) R. Poole London E1 (2012) 121: They’re gointa get married [...] an’ we’re gointa ’ave a real slap-up party.
1977		(con. 1960s) Nicholson & Smith Spend, Spend, Spend (1978) 172: We had a marvellous slap-up meal and loads of wine.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 189: Slap-up wedding, three or four children in quick succession.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 142: After a slap-up breakfast of soda bread and bacon and eggs.
2000		Indep. on Sun. 23 Jan. 10: A ‘slap-up five-course lunch’.
2008		J. Niven Kill Your Friends (2009) 25: You [...] take your parents out to the local Chinese for a slap-up feed.

2. in good spirits, comfortable.

1842

Egan ‘Bridle Cull’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 139: My brave brother troopers, slap-up in the abode, / Come listen unto me while I chant about ‘the Road’.

3. drunk.

1840

R.B. Peake Devil In London I iii: (Opens champagne and drinks.) dev.: Does your master allow all this? john.: Oh, ah! and much more. You should see one of Cribbing’s parties – they’d make you open your eyes. I’m slap up sometimes myself.

4. of a person, honest, honourable.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Aug. 24/1: Of course to the class I am endeavouring to show up, there are numbers of exceptions – men slap-up and straight, with no condemned humbug about them. [...] It is men of that stamp who uphold the dignity of the colonies and command respect where the other – and I am sorry to say, more numerous class – gain only contempt.