rantan, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

rantan n.

[echoic, but note ran-dan, lit. ‘random’ (behaviour); thus mid-19C SAmE rantankerous, ‘a row, a drunken frolic, means given to quarrelling’ (Schele De Vere, 1872)]

1. a loud, banging noise.

a.1661

‘The Cities Feast to the Lord Protector’ in Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 374: With a ran tan the Devil is dead.

2. (also randan) a drinking bout, a spree, a riot; usu. in phrs. below; thus as v. see cite 1904.

1740		Garrick Lethe Act I: Lady Rantan’s Compliments to Mrs. Riot.
1888		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 327: Randy, an ale drinking, a spree.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Mar. 8/2: Dicky has been ran-tanning a bit lately, and his kick out was marked as a certainty.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 69: Though out on the ran-tan that night, amongst all the drunks [...] could be a bit tricker.

In phrases

on the rantan (also on the randan, ...rang-tang, ...randy)

out on a spree, getting drunk.

1663		J. Wilson Cheats I i: I was t’other night upon the randan, and who should I meet with but our old gang.
1764		Low-life 25: Young Fellows who have been out all night on the Ran-dan, stealing Staves and Lanthorns from such Watchmen as they find sleeping.
1853		Dickens ‘Slang’ in Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: For the one word drunk [...] on the ran-tan, on the re-raw, groggy, ploughed, cut, and in his cups.
1861		Melbourne Punch ‘The Lay of the Lags’ 14 Mar. 1/1: Therefore, pals, upon the ran-tan, / Here’s the health of Heales, my nibs, / For the less he pays the Peelers, / We shall bone the more of dibbs.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1881		Shields Dly Gaz. 10 Jan. 4/2: For the one word drunk [...] we find mops and brooms [...] moony [...] swipy, lumpy [...] on the ran-tan.
1887		R.L. Stevenson ‘Misadventures of John Nicholson’ in Works (1925) XXIII 207: John had been [...] visibly on the ran-dan the night before .
1894		Truth (Sydney) 8 July 4/7: They are great at running in / Any Bushy on the rantan.
1895		W. Pett Ridge Minor Dialogues 263: We painted the bally place red, I can tell you. When we’re out on a randan, we don’t care a ---.
1896		L. Stuart [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Girl on the Ran-Dan 🎵 [A] slippety-winketty sort of a girl, / On the Ran-dan-dan?
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Alarming Spread of “Doping”’ Sporting Times 8 Dec. 1/4: One night he faced her boldly, with the aspect of a man / Who expected, not her anger, but her pity; / Though ’twas obvious to her that he’d been out on the ran-dan.
1901		Manchester Courier 6 July 12/1: An American paper gives a list of 200 ways of describing when a man is intoxicated. He is on a spree, he is on the ran-tan.
1903		Mills & Scott [perf. George Leyton] ‘The best of friends must part’ 🎵 Young Spifkins and Jones, two smart clerks in the city, / Have been on the ‘ran-dan’ and feel just all right.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 27 July 3/4: ‘I say she’s on the ran-dan, myself. I ain't seen the cow since she went out to go to the the-ay-tre on Monday week’.
1906		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 30 Mar. 4/5: He is [...] on the rantan.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 24 May 12/1: They Say [...] That Curly H. was out on the rang-tang Saturday night.
1915		T. Burke Nights in Town 225: Lo, Luba. Bin on the randy?
1916		W. Pett Ridge Madame Prince 130: Sportive youths lifted each other up in order to ascertain the reason for this secrecy, and catching sight of Madame cried, ‘Hullo, Ma! Out on the randan?’.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 227: [He] has been on the [...] ran-tan.
1954		(con. 1940s) T.A.G. Hungerford Sowers of the Wind 73: How about coming up town tonight and getting on the flaming ran-tan?
1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 67: Netta, shy young Netta, out on the ran-tan.
1977		W. Burrowes Riordans 67: Francey on the ran-tan and not a bite of food in the place.
1984		(ref. to mid-19C) Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 959/1: on the randy, on the spree, squandering all one’s money [...] mid-C.19.
1986		(con. 1930s) P. O’Farrell Tell me, Sean O’Farrell 59: One morning a local lad struggled into Mass having been on the ran-tan all night.
1994		(con. 1960s) G. Byrne Pictures in my Head 61: ‘Out on the ran tan were we, last night?’ said a voice behind me.
1999		I. Rankin Dead Souls 260: ‘Out on a ran-dan?’ she said.
2003		Bug (Aus.) July 🌐 An ancient nemesis of young Aussie blokes and sheilas on the rantan has to be the warcry of ‘dress code.’.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘[I]t’s a pretty good life being young, wealthy and on the ran-tan’.