Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. of convicts, transported to a penal colony.

1798		Sporting Mag. Oct. XIII 52/1: A Gentleman under a rule of transportation, advertises that he is going to reside abroad.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 390: To think of lummy Jack — the Dodger — the Artful Dodger — going abroad for a common two-penny-half-penny sneeze-box!

2. usu. ext. as all abroad: in boxing use, groggy, confused following a number of blows; .

1820		Carlisle Patriot 9 Dec. 2: The finisher was applied, and Williams went down to all abroad. The swells looked blue.
1821		‘Battles’ in Fancy I 428: The poor fellow was all abroad and in great distress.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 300: Neal was so much abroad that he could not make any return.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair I 60: At the twelfth round the latter champion was all abroad [...] and had lost all presence of mind, and power of attack or defence.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 190: Giving the man such a nose-ender that sent him all abroad.

3. drunk.

1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 293: The ‘uncommonly big Gentleman’ was also quite abroad, roaring out, ‘Life’s a bumper,’ with a large goblet full of champagne in his hand.
1833		Satirist (London) 2 June 5/1: The Countess Gadabout gave an ‘at home’ [...] at which a foreign Prince recently arrived in this country was completely ‘abroad’.

4. general uses of sense 1: lit. or fig. confused, having lost one’s bearings; often as all abroad, extremely confused [the schoolmaster is abroad plays on a line from Lord Brougham (in a speech of 1828), implying that education is widespread without any social limits].

1840		R. Barham ‘Lay of the Old Woman Clothed in Grey’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 266: Bandied about thus from pillar to post, / To be ‘all abroad’ – to be ‘stump’d’ – not know where / To go.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 Oct. 2/4: The schoolmaster was all abroad, and the fair delinquent was dismissed with a caution.
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 353: Can me and my master stay here to-night? We’re all abroad in this fog.
1862		H. Kingsley Ravenshoe III 192: I am all abroad.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 June 2/3: Verily, the schoolmaster is abroad in Pennsylvania—yes, we should say all abroad, and ought to be brought up with a round turn.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 13: At the crack of the pistol, I was all abroad ‘Like a dog at a fair, looking seven ways for Sunday’.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 15 July 660: No spik Spanish [...] All abroad with your lingo.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Apr. 11/4: The same sapient organ informs young Victoria that ‘Mauser’ is pronounced ‘Maw-ser.’ The schoolmaster very much ‘abroad’!