Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a bed, a lodging.

1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 165: Dorse, the place where a person sleeps, or a bed.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 63: Sixpence is the price for a dorse.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

2. sleep.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 69: Some men are sent to dorse by the most trivial blow upon the right place.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 14 May n.p.: [of a prize-fighter] After one hour 35 minutes physicking, he was sent ‘to dorse’.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Dec. 4/1: Hits, which projecting like the kick of horse, / Would send a score of fancy pets to dorse.
1855		Fights for the Championship 40: He, like Gregson, ‘went to dorse,’ and was some time before he came to himself.