Green’s Dictionary of Slang

slog v.

[? Yorks. dial./SE slug, to hit hard]

1. (also slag) to hit, to punch, thus adj. slogging, violent, heavy.

[UK]Bell’s Life in London 9 Aug. 3/1: He planted several ‘slogging’ hits on the head [...] of Pedruzzi, who was sent down all abroad.
[UK]‘Knowing Bill’ in Rake’s Budget in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 87: The leary coves they fears me all / [...] / For they know if out ve fall, / That I’m the cove to slog Spoken— Lord love ye! you should only see me slog [...] I hits like the kick o’ my donkey and ’ll draw your claret afore you can say Jack Robinson.
[UK]‘Rampant Moll Was A Rum Old Mot’ in Secret Songster 4: He could dance – he could slog – and get drunk as a hog.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 15 Nov. 2/2: From this to the 13th round the same slogging system was pursued.
[UK]Swell’s Night Guide 60: cracksman: If she was to tumble to you widding about her, she’d mug you like a shot. Wouldn’t she Sall? shake: Safe, and no nunks. She can slog and no flies.
[UK]‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 118: He told Verdant, that his claret had been repeatedly tapped, [...] and his whole person put in chancery, stung, bruised, fibbed, propped, fiddled, slogged, and otherwise ill-treated.
[Aus]Sth Aus. Advertiser (Adelaide, SA) 30 July 3/7: WHAT IS ‘SLOGGING?’ Master Tom (who has been rebuked for making use of school slang) ‘But, Grandma, Slogging is derived from the Greek word slogo — to slaughter, baste, or wollop.
[Aus]Golden Age (Queanbeyan, NSW) 4 Sept. 3/2: Tom’s fistic slang is like so much Hebrew to us, we being in a most pastoral state of ignorance as to the meanings of [...] ‘slogging,’ ‘going to grass,’ [...] ‘letting fly the painter,’ ‘saluting the kisser,’ ‘rattling the ivories,’ ‘closing the skylights,’ ‘rolling in lemons,’ ‘drawing the vermillion,’ ‘tapping the claret,’ ‘flinging up the sponge,’ and the various other terms with which he garnishes his narrative.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 37/2: Ikey [...] when he saw that no one was ready to ‘slag’ for him, quickly drew on his ‘tog’.
[US]C.G. Leland ‘Hans Breitmann’s Party’ in Hans Breitmann’s Party 4: Und den I gissed Matilda Yane / Und she shlog me on de kop.
[UK] ‘’Arry in Parry’ in Punch 15 Nov. 217/2: You might play cricket well in their squares, slog for sixes, and run out your ’its.
[UK] ‘Blooming Aesthetic’ in Rag 30 Sept. n.p.: A tell-a-good-whopper young man, / A slogging-a-copper young man.
[Scot]Dundee Courier 22 Sept. 7/4: ‘What’s the poor devil been doing?’ A convict, with his hands shackled [...] was being dragged along, blood streaming down his face [...] ‘Slogging a screw, that’s what he’s been doing. And he’ll get a good bashing for it’.
[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 22 Feb. 3/4: If she objects he’s sure to slog / My ’Enrietta.
[UK]Mirror of Life 28 Oct. 3/2: One day a pug can make creation quit, / The next ‘The sucker cannot slog a bit’.
[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 19 Jan. 246: I felt as if I could have slogged every ball into the road.
[UK]‘Bartimeus’ ‘A One-Gun Salute’ in Naval Occasions 195: They said he’d slogged the Jauntie.
[Aus]Truth (Melbourne) 10 Jan. 11/2: [headline] Milburn Saylor’s First Win. American Slogs Alf Morey Out.
[UK]‘Sapper’ Final Count 934: You’ll be getting slogged in the neck if I hear you making that infernal noise.

2. to thrash, to beat; also fig.

[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
[UK]S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 220: Slog or Slug, to beat.
[Aus]E. Dyson ‘Bricks’ in ‘Hello, Soldier!’ 31: We slogged the cows remorseless, ’n’ they laid for us a treat.
[NZ]G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 102: They’ve got you well slogged.

3. to work hard (cf. slog one’s guts out ).

[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 24 Aug. 750: He’ll slog away about fifty times as hard.
[Aus]K.S. Prichard Coonardoo 303: Yet Hugh slogged on [...] He worked as few white man worked.
[Aus](con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 28: Jim started sloggin’ at the claim.
[UK]Willans & Searle Complete Molesworth (1985) 143: Some hav an aptitude for the game others just slog.
[UK]M. Amis letter 23 Oct. Experience (2000) 9: If I slog through that with sufficient vigour I should be O.K. on that part of the ‘O’ level paper.
[US]J. Bouton Ball Four 74: [II]t was up to somebody else to go out there the next day and do the slogging.
[UK]S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 126: Ten pairs of pants a day / I slog to make.
[UK]K. Sampson Powder 218: He was a machine, a tennis-playing, treadmill-slogging, weightlifting, hyped-up, over-motivated, ultra-competitive, third-millennium shithead.
[UK]A. Sillitoe Birthday 88: You slog your bollocks off day after boring day.

4. to persist; often as slog away/slog on.

[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 491: Look alive, boys [...] we must slog on for the next hour or so.
[UK]‘Dornford Yates’ Berry and Co 16: Reason dictates that I should foot-slog it to Bloodstock and try and get the police moving.
[US]Charlie Palloy & His Orchestra ‘Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?’ 🎵 Half a million boots / Went slogging through hell.
[UK]G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 119: Our blokes tried to get one or two of ’em with rifle fire. Got one. Slogged on.
[UK]A. Sinclair My Friend Judas (1963) 43: Judy and I went on slogging at the Martinis till half-eleven.
[Aus]A. Buzo Rooted III iv: What’s the point of slogging away on the outer? You’ve got to get on the inside.
[UK]N. Cohn Yes We Have No 64: She preferred to slog on by foot.
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 148: Time slogged. Wayne yawned.
[UK]K. Richards Life 9: He worked his way in; many months of slogging.

5. (N.Z.) to drink alcohol.

[NZ] McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

In compounds

slogging crib (n.)

(UK und.) somewhere where fights break out, e.g. a rough public house.

[UK]New Sprees of London 20: [R]ather a set of ruffs here, and it is sometimes a slogging crib as well as a chanting crib.
slogging match (n.)

1. a prize-fight, esp. one that exhibits brute force rather than skill.

[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 8 Oct. 3/1: There was a slogging match, or fite, a’tween two coves at the River.
[UK]Bell’s Life in London 25 Jan. 7/2: A slogging match was the order of the day, instead of sparring.
Chicago trib. 3 May 5/6: It was a slogging match from beginning to end, and the hardest hitting won.
Butte Wkly Miner (Buffalo, MT) 19 Apr. 2/6: Old sportsmen [...] pronounced it the most vicious slogging match they had ever witnessed.
[US]E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 32: Don’t you know any sloggin match on for tonight?
[UK]J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life II 315: This ‘exhibition’ was nothing more or less than a ‘slogging’ match.
[UK]Marvel 15 Oct. 12: This is a boxing-match, not a slogging-match.
[UK]Motherwell Times (Scot.) 25 Apr. 7/5: According to Hughie, ‘my greatest ambition is to preside at a slogging match where blood and gore is being spilt.’ I presume he refers to my presence at a few amateur boxing exhibitions.
[UK]Portsmouth Eve. News 7 Apr. 10/1: This was again a slogging match, with sanders supplying the better boxing.
[UK]Coventry Eve. Teleg. 30 Nov. 8/5: The opening contest [...] another welterweight event [...] proved to be more of a slogging match than a display of the arts and crafts of boxing.
Tucson Dly Citizen (AZ) 14 Dec. 61/1: The slogging match between Frank Peterson [...] and the Montana Kid [...] was the first real prizefight to take place in this city.

2. any form of (sporting) encounter lacking in finesse.

[UK]Lancs. Eve. Post 10 July 7/4: A Slogging Match. If the bowling resources of the Colne team had approximated those of last season [etc].
[Scot]Dundee Courier (Scot.) 19 Sept. 4/2: From the kick-off the game was a slogging match with no time for pretty football.
[Aus]Sydney Morn. Herald 8 June 5/6: From the last hurdle it was a slogging-match.
[UK]Sports Argus 27 Nov. 11/1: Rugby [...] there was little to choose between the sides in a ‘slogigng match’ between the two packs.

In phrases

slog it out (v.) (also slog it through)

1. to engage in a (hard and lengthy) fight; to persist.

Lang Ballad of Boat-race n.p.: They catch the stroke, and they slog it through [F&H].
[UK]Torbay Exp. 1 July 5/3: They elected to slog it out toe-to-toe [...] n the fourth round the Londoner [...] floored the American.
[NZ]G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 225: A v.d. film at the camp theatre while the Div was slogging it out in the Desert.
[UK]Birmingham Dly Post 21 Sept. 22/4: ‘Why should they suppose that artists [...] do not have to learn? [...] ll the masters had to slog it out’.
[US](con. 1919) E. Asinof Eight Men Out 125: He was not going to spend his life slogging it out in [...] the dingy club fight rings, or even in the world of baseball.
[UK]Illus. London News 1 Mar. 34/1: He failed to plunge into the battle and slog it out with Nixon and Goldwater.
[UK]T. Paulin ‘Yes, the Maternity Unit’ in Liberty Tree 35: Limp king dick has got the chop / but Quim and Bum must slog it out.
[Aus]Age (Melbourne) 12 Mar. 55/4: [pic. caption] If you like your holidays harsh you can spend eight days slogging it out over 1100 sand hills on a [...] desert crossing.
[UK]Observer Screen 5 Mar. 6: Mohammed Al Fayed and Neil Hamilton slogged it out.
[UK]Financial Times 25 Aug. 12/2: So we are still slogging it out [...] but the airline is stonewalling.

2. vtr. in fig. use, to extort through force or discipline.

[UK]Birmingham Mail 30 May 8/4: I used to work for one of those piece-work bosses who take all the work on [...] then slog it out of the under hands.

3. to work hard.

[Aus]B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 14: The average Aussie working man can really slog it out when he has to.
[UK]Guardian G2 17 Mar. 5: These people who slog it out on the Six Million Dollar Man machinery.
slog one’s guts out (v.)

see under gut n.