shicker, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

shicker n.

also shick, shicka, shigger, shikkar, shikker

(usu. Aus./N.Z.)

1. alcohol; a drink.

1902		Sun. Times (Perth) 9 Nov. 4/8: From the land of shilling liquors / To the coast where beer’s a ‘tray’, / All who vend the soothing shickers / Long Jehovah Jones to slay.
1903		Sun. Times (Perth) 15 Nov. 4/7: Should we run a shop / Which must sell no liquor / ‘Tea’ could mean a drop / Of illicit shicker / [...] / Whisky, beer or brandy.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Mar. 11/4: I’m fond of a smoke and a shick / And my thirst’s nearly always in nick.
1908		H. Lawson ‘The Blanky Papers’ in Roderick (1972) 785: I went in for the blanky shicker and blanky self-pity.
1910		Truth (Brisbane) 4 Dec. 11/3: After a little desultory chat I invited him to the Abode of Shikker.
1911		E. Dyson ‘On a Bender’ in Benno and Some of the Push 76: S’pose you ain’t studied how beer eats inter differen’ people, Scotty? Nothin’ brings character out like shick.
1915		H. Lawson ‘A Letter from Benno’ in Roderick (1972) 844: So Good Luck, Harry Lawson! and keep off the Shick.
1915		Truth (Brisbane) 25 July 3/3: ‘I hope you are keeping off the shigger’.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘The Push’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 42: I ’ave took a pull on shicker fer the honour uv me land.
1926		J. Doone Timely Tips For New Australians 21: SHICKER.—A slang word denoting intoxicating liquor.
1931		Sun. Times (Perth) 19 Apr. 10/6: I’ll swear off the shicker. I’ll keep my word.
1945		Sun. Times (Perth) 15 Apr. 2/4: When there’s unrestricted liquor / And the drunks in suburbs fight / And in ecstasies of shicker / Keep the neighbours up all night.
1957		J. Greenway ‘Aus. Cattle Lingo’ in AS XXXIII:3 168: shicker, n. Liquor.

2. a drunkard; thus (? nonce use) shikkur’osity: drunkenness.

[1861		Sydney Morn. Herald 2 May 8/5: The word shicker [...] means, it is said, in Hebrew, or in some slang dialect of Hebrew, ‘drunkard’].
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 180: It’s these cheap ’n’ easy shickers rollin’ round on their ear what brings discredit on beer.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Jan. n.p.: [headline] Shicks that Pass in the Night [...] Zig-zagging home from a recent spree a group of journalists desired more shypoo.
1910		Eve. Post (Wellington) 30 Apr. 7/3: Martin pleaeded guilty to shikkur’osity.
1913		H. Lawson ‘Benno and his Old ’Uns’ in Roderick (1972) 805: Her Old ’Un ‘shickered’ till he got ‘mucked’ every pay day. Blank the blanky shicker.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘In Spadger’s Lane’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 71: In some back crib, a shicker’s loud ’owled verse / Stops sudden.
1929		M. Levin Reporter 250: ‘The idea ish,’ shaid Mister Shicker, ‘that modern architecture ish all wrong.’.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 234: Don’t take any notice of him [...] He’s the biggest shikker in Town.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 65: Shick [...] a drunken person.
1945		A. Kober Parm Me 156: Will be Uncle Herry and Uncle Philip — two foist-class shikkers!
1945		J. Henderson Gunner Inglorious (1974) 86: Looks like a shicker on Saturday night.
1951		S. Levenson Meet the Folks 126: a shicker On a liquid diet.
1959		M. Richler Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 218: That shicker!
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 344: But to piss it away on Monte, on a shicker. A no-good cocktail-drinking bum.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 27: When the Jew says a shicka is a goy, he doesn’t mean the Greek.
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 392: Shikker drinker, drunkard.

3. a drunken spree.

1906		Gadfly (Adelaide) 28 Mar. 9/1: Next mornin’ the proper beak sen’s word ’e’s puttin’ in all ’is time at the pump, ’count uv a private pertic’ler shick uv ’is own.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 161: shickered, from the Yiddish for drunk, has been in use since at least the early 19th century [...] It was probably preceded by shick or shuck as a general term for excessive imbibing.

In derivatives

shickerhood (n.)

(Aus./N.Z.) drunkenness.

1920

Quick March 10 July 41: He was now at the penultimate State of shickerhood [DNZE].

shickersome (adj.)

(Aus.) drunken.

1935

Sun. Times (Perth) 9 June 11s/8: ‘Now and again,’ said the shicker-some soul / who was breasting the bar for a booze / I may take a drink.

In compounds

shicker-foundry (n.)

(Aus.) a brewery.

1906

Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Sept. 1/1: The secret of the good qualities of a Port beer has leaked out [...] The boiler furnaces of the said shicker-foundry are fed with immature humanity.

shicker juice (n.)

(Aus.) alcohol; also attrib.

1921		North. Standard (Darwin, NT) 20 Oct. 2/4: How many bottles of whisky go to the gallon before private enterprise [...] takes over the shicker-juice business.
1927		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 May 6: The cheapest form of self-abuse / You who are rich from shicker-juice.

shicker-pot (n.)

(Aus.) a glass, a tankard.

1934

Sun. Times (Perth) 6 May 9s/8: Put your shicker-pots down with a sigh.

shicker saloon (n.)

a public house.

1908

Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Oct. 14/3: After that ’e wired a few blokes t’ join ’im in shiftin’ some cellar cordial, ’n’ they wandered off with ’im t’ th’ Fathom uv Froth shicker saloon.

shicker shop (n.) (also shicker house)

a public house.

1902		Sun. Times (Perth) 9 Nov. 4/8: ‘The State-Owned Shicker Shop’.
1903		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Mar. 1/1: Disinfectant and whitewash is used on these run-to-seed shicker shops.
1909		N.Z. Truth 19 Jan. 1: The obviously thirsty miner, who was impatiently anxious to make a break for the nearest shicker-shop.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Aug. 1st sect. 1/1: There was a gay old time in a suburban shicker-shop last Wednesday.
1924		Sun. Times (Perth) 2 Nov. 11/1-2: The alleged skew-wiff shicker house [...] the Government boozery.

shicker-up (n.)

a drinking session.

1914		Sport (Adelaide) 14 Mar. 4/3: C P had a row with his tabbie last week and had a shicker up on Saturday night to celabrate.
1916		F. Garrett diary 30 Aug. 🌐 AIF opened a canteen, wet and dry, and groceries [...] General shickerup.

In phrases

on the shicker (adj.) (also on the shick, on the shikker)

(mainly Aus./N.Z.) on a drinking spree, drunk.

1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 July 10/3: If you’re swearing off strong liquor, / After being on the ‘shikker,’ / Do not weep.
1912		Sport (Adelaide) 5 Oct. 15/4: They Say [...] That Frank V. nearly slipped down the drain pipe last Sunday but being on the shikker the night before, his fat head saved him.
1915		Sport (Adelaide) 26 Feb. 5/1: ‘He’s always on the shicker’.
1915		C.J. Dennis ‘A Spring Song’ in Chisholm (1951) 10: Me, that ’as done me stretch fer stoushin’ Johns, / An’ spen’s me leisure gittin’ on the shick.
1919		Advertiser (Adelaide) 1 Oct. 6/8: Someone has been on the ‘shicker’.
1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 89: A thoroughly drunk man is [...] shicker; and this last word, itself of Yiddish origin, has produced shickered and on the shicker.
1946		D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 40: Dryblower got on the shicker and shot the ram to prove to her that the ram didn’t matter in his life. When he sobered up he felt different.
1956		T. Sutherland Green Kiwi 149: He had known most of the famous bushman [...] and also many instances of their riotous inclinations when ‘on the shicker’.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 46: Shicker: If one gets ‘on the shicker’ one intends to get drunk, hence shickered.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 161: shickered, from the Yiddish for drunk, has been in use since at least the early 19th century in various forms, including on the shicker. It was probably preceded by shick or shuck as a general term for excessive imbibing.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 185: shick/shicker/shickered/on the shicker Drunk. From the Yiddish word shiker, to be drunk. ANZ 1880s.