Green’s Dictionary of Slang

diddle n.1

[SE diddle, to walk unsteadily; i.e. the effects of the liquor]

1. gin or genever.

[UK]‘John Sheppard’s Last Epistle’ in Dly Jrnl (London) 16 Nov. 1: Moll Frisky was here t'other Night, / She tipp’d me a Quartern of Diddle.
[UK]T. Walker The Quaker’s Opera I i: qu.: What hast thou got? poor.: Sir, you may have what you please, Wind or right Nantz, [...] or Apricock-Water, or Roll-me-in-the-Kennel, or Diddle.
[UK]Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[US] ‘A Song Made by a Flash Cove’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 21: My blowen came here t’other night, / She fetch’d us a jorum of diddle.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]W.H. Smith ‘The Thieves’s Chaunt’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 120: The liquors around are diamond bright, / And the diddle is best of all.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[UK]Sl. Dict.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[UK]P. Baker Fabulosa 291/1: diddle gin.

2. liquor in general.

[UK] ‘Song No. 25’ Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: Moll Spriggins came here t’other night, / She tipp’d us a jorum of diddle.
[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: diddle rum, brandy, gin, &c.
[UK]G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 12: Diddle – spirituous liquors.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
[US]Matsell Vocabulum.

In compounds

diddle-cove (n.)

(UK Und.) a keeper of a gin or liquor tavern.

[UK]H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: Diddle cove, The keeper of a gin shop.
[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
[UK]Flash Dict.
[UK]G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
[UK]Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
[US]Matsell Vocabulum.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 24: Diddle Cove, a landlord.
[UK]P. Baker Fabulosa 291/1: diddle cove keeper of a gin or spirit shop. Can be extended to refer to a person serving behind a bar or working in an off-licence.
diddle-shop (n.)

a gin-shop.

[UK] ‘Frisky Moll’s Song’ in J. Thurmond Harlequin Sheppard 23: A Famble, a Tattle, and two Popps, / Had my Boman when he was ta’en; / But had he not Bowz’d in the Diddle Shops, / He’d still been in Drury-Lane.