Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also toggs, togging, toggys, tuggs) clothes; often in combs., e.g. long togs, sporting togs, Sunday togs; see cite 1906 for rare sing. use.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 36: They go in and fisk all the Rooms for Silver and Tuggs; that is, Clothes or any Thing that lies in the Way.
1781		G. Parker View of Society I 48: Blow me up (says he) if I have had a fellow with such rum toggys cross my company these many a day.
1792		C. Dibdin ‘Bonny Kitty’ in Buck’s Delight 54: I [...] Swore my wishes were all at an end; / That I’d sported away all my looking dollars, / And borrow’d my togs of a friend.
1800		‘Pray Remember Jack’ in Jovial Songster 84: My lockers bare, / And togs all tatter’d grown.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: So he fences all his togs to buy her duds, and then He frisks his master’s lob to take her from the bawdy ken.
c.1816		‘Night Before Larry Was Stretched’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 79: He’d pawn all the togs that he had.
1829		‘Lag’s Lament’ (trans. of an untitled cant poem) in Vidocq (1829) IV 265: My toggs was the sporting’st blunt could buy, / And a slap up out and outer was I.
1834		‘I Am A Blowen Togg’d Out So Gay’ in Flare-Up Songster 16: At night in fine togs I am off to the play.
1840		Courier (Hobart, Tas.) 27 Oct. 3/1: [advert, from UK source] [S]lap-up full dress Togs. 2 couters, 3 quarters and a peg.
1846		Thackeray Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche in Works III (1898) 400: I used to dress myself in my full togs.
1846		Durivage & Burnham Stray Subjects (1848) 48: ‘Mr. Badger must be a werry deef ’un,’ said a mariner on liberty, looking very awkward and ferocious in ‘long-togs.’.
1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 317/1: Togging, clothing in general.
1850		(con. 1843) Melville White-Jacket (1990) 173: Still another mode of passing time, was arraying yourself in your best togs, and promenading up and down the gundeck.
1851		R.S. Surtees Young Tom Hall (1926) 78: The colonel [was] the first to get into his ‘togs’ [...] His coat was above a century old, and was made by a tailor at Dorechester [...] The collar, at first a soapy, but now a black-with-grease one, was right down upon the nape of the neck [etc.].
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 226/1: The rest of my tin goes for rent and baccy and togs.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Sept. n.p.: [A] knife was found in King’s ‘togs’.
1872		in ‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 462: [as spelt] ‘next morning I done it again & got me some new togs (clothes).’.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 222: We weren’t dressed in such togs as these ere, but had white canvas jumpers and trousers.
1880		‘Erro’ Squattermania 272: I see her get out of a hansom cab, in the werry best of togs.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 30 Sept. 2/3: [T]he boys will peep [...] whether rigged in fashion’s togs or the hand-me-downs of Chatham street.
1884		Leicester Chron. 7 June 12/1: You could come the broken-down parson dodge proper with them togs.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 311: Joe takes Jim’s togs. They fitted him all to pieces.
1893		Sporting Times 7 Jan. 1/4: On looking over my evening togs this morning, I found them all in holes.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 1 Apr. 1/7: Strip off yer togs [...] yer’ve got to have a bath.
1902		‘Billy Burgundy’ Toothsome Tales Told in Sl. 122: MORAL: Tart Togs Turn the Trick.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Jan. 5/2: A young, delicate-looking gentleman [...] in resplendent togs.
1906		Worker (Wagga Wagga, NSW) 27 Sept. 7/3: I’d dress me in my Sunday tog / And loudly shout ‘Hooray!’ .
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘Robe of Peace’ in Strictly Business (1915) 86: Swell togs.
1912		Sport (Adelaide) 8 June 14/2: They Say [...] That Wong went fisher’s hook because , he didn’t get his new togs.
1921		D.L. Sayers Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1977) 140: I got the guv’nor’s togs from the cloakroom.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 122: Get into some regular he-togs.
1925		Maryborough Chron. (Qld) 25 Mar. 4/1: His range of togs is largely concentrated in the white uniform of the ship’s steward.
1930		N. Gale ‘Nan’ in Messrs Bat and Ball 41: Her hero – Herbert Sutcliffe – smiles / His Century-smile in cricket togs.
1933		C. Drew ‘Gorilla Grogan’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 41/2: We slip into our togs and drop out of the side window and hit the breeze for our pub.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 190: If she had a baby she’d keep it clean and in cute togs.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 30 Sept. [synd. cartoon strip] If you had your togs pinched — how is it you didn’t catch a cold.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 402: I could meet her at dinner, in her new togs.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 187: He asked a man named Mick to drop his togs and billycan into the boarding-house.
1968		P. Barnes Ruling Class I viii: She got dressed up in some theatrical togs.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 283: He sold working togs to whores.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 198: I [...] saw that half the milk was spilling down Gilbert’s immaculate togs.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 19: [They] stripped the togs off Whiffy Maloney.
1983		M. Read Scouting for Boys in Best Radio Plays (1984) 162: georgina: Not taking your togs off Mr Cooper? coop: I bathed earlier thank you.
1999		Guardian G2 14 Sept. 3: I’d just returned from Africa and didn’t have much in the way of togs.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 161: His togs positively shrieked bogusness [...] a paisley handkerchief sprawling from a breast pocket is a certain giveaway of thwarted social aspiration.

2. (Aus./N.Z.) a swimming costume.

1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 93: Some old bathing-togs he had dug up somewhere!
1928		V. Palmer Passage 54: There were bathing-togs hanging over the rails. [Ibid.] 83: All right, kid; you nip in and get my togs [...] He was more at ease in his bathing-trunks than in his double-breasted serge suit.
1936		Williamstown Chron. (Vic.) 14 Jan. 7/2: Make sure you are wearing one of Keig’s [...] Swimming Suits. The togs reflect the character of the wearer.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 156: We’d fool about in the water, and if there was nobody around we wouldn’t worry about any togs.
1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 225: That’s Cecil in his swimming togs.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 105: Once when Australians went to the beach for a ‘dip’ they carried ‘cossies’, ‘bathers’ or ‘togs’ or in South Australia ‘swimmies.’.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 23: I decided, dropping my togs, that Pierce was up himself.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Togs (n): swimming trunks.