Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bar n.2

[? on the basis of a SE bar being a popular site for such activities]

(US gay) any public area, such as a park or beach, that is frequented by gay men looking for sex.

[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
[SA]K. Cage Gayle 56/1: bar n. a public place where men congregate for the purpose of picking up sexual partners (Meet you at the bar later?).

SE in slang uses

In compounds

bar-bummer (n.) [bummer n.3 (2)]

(Aus.) one who spends their time in bars, a ‘barfly’.

[Aus]H. Lawson ‘The Blanky Papers’ in Roderick (1972) 786: I boozed in blanky low pubs and Jimmy Woodser’d, like a blanky dirty old bar bummer.
[Aus] (?) H. Lawson ‘The Last Rose of Winter’ in Roderick (1972) 909: He took that bar-bummer’s chin between his thumb and forefinger and looked at his teeth.
bar-dog (n.) (also bar-bitch) [dog(sbody), a worker, a drudge; note SE sea-dog for model]

(US, Western) a bartender; thus bardogging, tending bar.

[US]Virginia Enterprise (MN) 5 July 5/2: It seems fishy to read of two west range saloons being robbed while the bartenders slept [...] In this law-abiding community the bar-dog is kept awake by the continuous rush of business throughout the night hours.
[US]Virginia Enterprise (MN) 28 May 4/3: The booze vendors have caused the arrest of the members [...] each of the bardogs claiming his till was short.
C. Martin Tie-fast Hombre 195: He knew that the bardog was trying to tell him something, something that he could not understand.
[US]R.F. Adams Western Words (1968) 12/2: bar dog A cowboy’s term for a bartender. Many bartenders were former cowboys too stove-up for riding.
N. Nye Riders on the Roan 36: ‘Hold it,’ growled a beefy weather-coarsened countenance three shapes down as the bardog reached for the private stock. ‘I’m a guy that likes to know who the hell he drinks with’.
[US](con. mid-19C) W.D. Jennings Cowboys 162: He’d settle down somewhere and leam a nice trade, maybe, like bar-dogging [...] Drinkers always seemed to like bartenders.
[US](con. 1886) A. Lynch ‘Been Done Wrong’ [unpub.] Cornett groaned, waved his hand at Frank and went to the bar, where he knew at least the bardog, Jasper, wouldn’t be so mentally lost.
[US]S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 76: Freddy had purchased the Chevvy from a half-drunk bar-bitch in a Lynn taproom.
bar-fly

see separate entries.

bar golf (n.) [play on a round of golf/a round of drinks]

(US campus) the practice of going from bar to bar drinking.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 1: bar golf – game where someone will go to 18 different bars or ‘holes’ in one night.
[US]Eble Sl. and Sociability 16: These slang items seem just as fresh and viable as 1992’s [...] bar golf for ‘going from bar (watering hole) to bar drinking’.
barhound (n.) [-hound sfx]

the habitual occupier of a bar.

[US]Tacoma Times 4 Apr. 6/3: A baseball manager had to be a sort of combination bar-hound and detective in order to keep his rookies from becoming too saturated.
[US]R. McAlmon Companion Volume 193: What are you, a lady or a bar-hound?
Westward 83/1: Learning to understand his fellow man, whether he found him as a fisherman or thief, brigand or barhound, miner or mariner.
Library Congress Catalog 1052: [song title] Barhound Blues.
J.D. Tumpane Scotch & Holy Water 125: A simple bank clerk by day, but a marauding barhound by night.
[US]B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 186: A bar-hound like you will never beat the clock.
bar-hog (n.) [joc. use of SE hog]

1. (US) a heavy drinker who spends most of their time in the bar.

[US](con. 1904) F. Riesenberg Log of the Sea 183: The stevies from the other hatches began to pile in behind the bar-hogs.

2. (US) a part-time prostitute, who frequents bars and uses them as a base for soliciting.

[US] Letter 18 May in Edelman Dear America (1985) 107: This is the usual approach of a bar-hog! [...] A girl will be sitting next to you and she’ll begin with ‘Hello. What is your name?’.
Haze Gray and Underway ‘Naval Terminology’ 🌐 Bar Hog – A woman who hangs out in bars.
bar-hop

see separate entries.

bar polisher (n.)

(orig. Aus.) a hard drinker.

[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 26 Aug. 5/4: When a [‘brewer’s] traveller visits a hotel to take an order he always ‘shouts’ for the people in the bar. [...] A large army of ‘bar polishers’ [...] look forward to the visit of the traveller with a vast amount of pleasure.
[US](con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 7: Bar-polisher Habitual drinker, frequenter of gin-joints.
bar prop (n.)

see separate entry.

bar rag (n.)

(US) a ‘regular’ in a given bar.

[US]A. Baer Two and Three 17 Jan. [synd. col.] The long established bar rag who has been swallowing ’em in the same place for forty years.
bar steward (n.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

charter the bar (v.) (also charter the grocery) [SE charter, to hire]

to buy drinks for everyone in a bar or public house.

[US]Ovid Bolus Esq. in Southern Lit. Messenger XVIII July 435: Bolus was no niggard. [...] He would as soon treat a regiment, or charter the grocery for the day, as any other way.
[UK]Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 238/1: Charter the bar, charter the grocery, to (American), to buy all the liquor in a groggery or ‘rum-mill’ and give it away freely to all comers.
[UK]‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight.