Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a dog.

1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 264: All the blackguards backed the growler.
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 24 Nov. 110/3: Seven years passed [...] when God called from this world Miss Oliver, and old growler, the watchdog.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1898		Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 23 Feb. 4/2: ‘Doggie’ in the Witness Box [...] ‘My client will now address a few words in Hindustani’ [...] At the first sound of the familiar words Growler jumped over the side fo the box and rushed to his master.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 175: Barker or growler (dog).

2. a horse.

1929

(con. c.1910) J.B. Booth London Town 307: I can’t pass a night growler without my right hand itching to pass over his rump.

3. an iceberg.

1931

B. Lubbock Bully Hayes 62: The old man’s as cool as a Labrador growler—if you knows what that is—a bloody iceberg, no less.

4. (Aus.) a sausage [play on dog n.² (7)].

1938

Western Mail (Perth) 30 June 34/2: I bought some snaggers — bush lingo for growlers or sausages.

5. (US) a police car siren; the car itself.

1961		H. H. Ellison Rockabilly (1963) 56: He purposely opened it full-throat and allowed a growler to run him to the kerb. He even paid the speeding ticket.
1961		H. Ellison ‘Gentleman Junkie’ in Gentleman Junkie 25: It was the revolving angry red eye of a police growler.

6. a lion.

1978

P. Theroux Picture Palace 192: They were replaced by a lion act, six growlers on red stools making mauling motions with their paws.

7. (UK juv.) a nagging woman.

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 growler adj. a woman who nags: e.g. ‘She was a right old growler!’.

8. (UK prison) a menacing prison inmate who resists using physical violence.

2004

N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 107: There are plenty of growlers in prison, people who can put on a good show of verbal and body language but stop short of physical violence.