Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also daffy soup) gin.

[1728		Proc. Old Bailey 1 May n.p.: [advert] [T]he great Elixir of Life, called Daffy'’ Elixir, truly prepared, so very useful in all Families in the greatest Exigencies. Price 2 s. 6 d. the Half-Pint].
1790		M.P. Andrews Better Late than Never 18: I must take a little Daffy, – will you have a taste?
1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 9: The only definition he [i.e Egan, ‘the writer of this article’] can give to the term ‘DAFFY’ is, that the phrase was coined at the Mint of the Fancy.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 393: Daffy’s Elixir was a celebrated quack medecine, formerly sold by a celebrated Doctor of that name, and recommended by him as a cure for all diseases incident to the human frame. Thus Gin, Old Tom, and Blue Ruin, are equally recommended in the present day; in consequence of which, some of the learned gentlemen of the sporting world have given it the title of Daffy’s.
1822		Tom And Jerry; Musical Extravaganza II i: The prize cup which he had previously filled with daffy soup.
1824		Dublin Eve. Mail 7 July n.p.: Friday evening Tom Belcher’s ‘Castle,’ in Holborn, was crowded to excess by friends of all kinds, who gratfied their thirsty souls [...] from an humble daffy, to a bottle of claret.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 70: [note] The only definition [the writer] can give to the term ‘daffy’ is that the phrase was coined at the Mint of the Fancy, and has since passed current without ever being overhauled as queer.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 3 Sept. n.p.: He would ‘melt’ a quarter or accept a ‘daffy’.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 58: I take the swell to the tape shop, took our daffies.
1850		Fast Man 8:1 n.p.: [H]e vas glad to git a sheer of half-a-noggin of daffy, a vet of heavy, or half-a-screw of backy.
1873		Sl. Dict. 138: Daffy gin. A term with monthly nurses, who are always extolling the virtues of Daffy’s Elixir, and who occasionally comfort themselves with a stronger medicine under Daffy’s name. Of late years the term has been altered to “soothing syrup”.
1882		Punch LXXXII 193: [...] A good many of them, too has been partaking freely of daffy [F&H].
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 52: You must keep Bendy from such stuff as this [...] he said, handing over to her a bottle of ‘daffy’.
1955		(con. early 19C) A.J. Liebling ‘The University of Eighth Avenue’ in A Neutral Corner (1990) 35: The fighters joined their admirers in lushing Blue Ruin, which was just another name for Daffy, or gin.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1824

Morn. Chron. (London) 21 Apr. 4/2: Of late years [...] his application to the daffy bottle has been so frequent.

3. a small measure, usu. of spirits; thus synon. (costermonger) daffies.

1823		Devizes & Wilts. Gaz. 29 May 2/4: He called for a daffy and drank ‘Confusion to the muff.’ We presume he mean the losing man.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 430/2: When I goes in where they are havin’ their daffies – that’s drops o’ gin, sir – they looks at me.