Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also bootheel) the liquor left at the bottom of a glass; thus no heeltaps! (occas. no bootheels!) or take off your heeltap! drain your glasses!

1764		Foote Mayor of Garrat in Works (1799) I 175: Crispin Heel-Tap, with the electors, are set out from the Adam and Eve [...] I can tell you this Heel-Tap is an arch rascal.
1782		Norfolk Chron. 26 Oct. 4/4: Then quickly put the bottle round, For shame! — no heel-taps I’ll allow.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Heel tap a person leaving any liquor in his glass is frequently called on by the Toastmaster to take off his Heel Taps.
1788		Windsor Nimrod Songs of the Chace 59: Then up with your bumpers my boys [...] A heel-tap’s a spy on our joys.
1795		Gent.’s Mag. 118: Briskly pushed towards me the decanter containing a tolerable bumper, and exclaimed, ‘Sir, I’ll buzz you: come, no heel-taps!’ [F&H].
1803		‘A Pembrochian’ Gradus ad Cantabrigiam 29: A pert jack-a-napes [...] briskly pushed towards me the decanter, containing a tolerable bumper, and exclaimed, ‘Sir, I’ll buzz you: come, no heel-taps!’.
1815		T.L. Peacock Headlong Hall (1816) 47: Push about the bottle. Mr. Escot, it stands with you. No heeltaps. [Ibid.] 74: A heeltap, a heeltap! I never could bear it! / So fill me a bumper, a bumper of claret.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 407: Merrywell kept the glass in circulation, insisting on no day-light nor heel-taps.
1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 31: Bottle stands — pass it round — way of the sun — through the button-hole — no heeltaps.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 229: Drinking off his his heel-taps, he concluded with saying [etc.].
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 232: Bumper-toast — no ‘eel-taps, no sky-lights.
1853		J.G. Baldwin Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi 302: At five years of age, they follow their fathers around to the dram-shops, and get drunk on the heel-taps.
1859		Bell’s Life in Sydney 30 Apr. 3/3: Our hero [...] quaffed it to the dregs, and no heel tap.
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America II 412: Another Figaro, if you please [...] No heeltaps. The Ladies of America!
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 98: Bill poured it down freely, and ‘left no heeltaps’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 17/2: ‘It gives,’ said a gallant Gaul, ‘very much plaisir to propose bon voyage to the Australian Army. We will drink this […] in bumpers – and no boot-heels.’ [Ibid.] 6 Jun. 22/2: ‘Fill ’em again’ we’re nearly broke – / No chateau margaux have we here – / But even with despised ‘sheoak’ / We drink – the Club too’s on the bier. / Our toast is this – no heel-taps there – / ‘While time and Jews leave us to rub / Along this weary world of care, / Let’s ne’er forget the Celtic Club.’.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 300: I played ‘possum’ and emptied my ‘heel taps’ into the wood-box, instead of down my throat.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 22 July 3/2: Fill ’em up! No heeltaps.
1898		E.S. Mott Mingled Yarn 111: ‘Come, no heeltaps, young un!’ shouted a brother officer across the table.
1902		S.F. Call 17 Aug. 3/1: ‘Good luck to ’em,’ cried the crowd, and down went the extraordinary toast with no heeltaps.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 25 Dec. 1/1: The last slave made up the 150 per-cent [profit] by serving out swipes and heeltaps.
1905		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Off the Mark’ Sporting Times 22 Apr. 1/3: ‘Take the wife again,’ said Sparoles, who had still a heel-tap left.
1908		G.R. Bacchus Pleasure Bound ‘Afloat’ (1969) 182: They drank to toast of the three consonants — L.F.F., ‘Luck, fuck and a fiver’ — with no heeltaps.
1926		(con. WWI) ‘Sapper’ Shorty Bill 302: No heel taps in that silent toast.
1937		J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 104: ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘no heel-taps. Bottoms up.’.
1946		J. Cary Moonlight (1995) 349: ‘Here we are,’ he cried, ‘we can send the glass round — no heel taps.’.
1954		(con. WWII) W. Faulkner Fable 338: He picked up his full glass. ‘Come on,’ he said to the corporal. ‘No heeltaps.’.

2. knockout drops.

1935

A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.