Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to have sexual intercourse.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 705: C.18–early 19.

2. to ply with drink.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Aug. 14/3: [F]or at every available bar would the holy one have crawled down from the coach-roof, to, in the unmelodious vernacular of the Cabbage-garden, ‘lubricate his ejaculator.’ [Ibid.] 29 Aug. 22/2: [W]e borrowed, for a couple of days, the chambers of a brother Bohemian (who had gone away to lubricate a country uncle), and settled down to write.

3. to drink.

1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 May 4/1: ‘Lubricate your ejaculator’ is the latest form of invitation to drink.
a.1881		G.C. Harding Misc. Writings 131: Arter I’ve lubricated with about forty drops o’ instant death, I'll tell ye the whole story .
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Oct. 24/2: [I]t was customary to have daily a bucket of beer in the precincts, but the red-headed one would never even smell it. Felt no desire, although his sire and brothers lubricated diurnally for years in his presence. [Ibid.] 8 Dec. 42/2: True, he stumbled across several kindred spirits with whom he severally lubricated; but no single one with whom he shared that mental and moral affinity [...] so essential to the [...] brotherly drunk.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Jan. 4/5: The bunce was cut out after the first or so [...] had lubricated.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Sept. 15: newchum: ‘And so you think we’ll have a drought?’ / swaggie: ‘Putty well sure of it! There ain’t a place to lubricate till we get to the next township, an’ that’s 18 miles orf.’.
1952		G. Meek ‘A Clean Slate’ Station Days in Maoriland 89: Mother Doogan kept a shanty, forty miles along the track; / Where swagmen lubricated and the shearers blued their cheques.
1968		J. O’Grady Gone Troppo (1969) 1: That’s the time to knock off and lubricate the tonsils.
[1996		P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] Couple of the yokels no doubt waterin the tonsils ].
2006		P. Shannon Davey Darling 202: The blokes wanted to send him off properly. Lubricate his journey into the afterlife, if you will.

4. to bribe.

1928

D. Express 26 June 7/3: His late employers [...] had [...] dismissed him for [...] ‘lubricating the police’ .