Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a sword.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: skewer a sword.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 151: Steady, young sir, put up your skewer.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Jun. 6/4: ‘You have knighted, madame, a freak of nature.’ And then he went out backwards, gingerly holding the three knightly skewers in under his coat-tail.
1914		C.J. Dennis ‘The Play’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 16 July 47/1: Fair narks they are, jist like them backstreet clicks, / excep’ they fights wiv skewers ’stid o’ bricks.

2. a pen.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.