Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a euph. oath, lit. ‘God’s eyelid!’.

1599		Jonson Every Man Out of his Humour II i: ’Slid, methinks these answers should offend him.
1608		Yorkshire Tragedy I i: ’Slid, I hear Sam, Sam’s come.
c.1618		Massinger & Field Fatal Dowry V i: S’lid, I will put him to’t.
1629		R. Brome Northern Lasse I iv: ’Slid I’le marrie out of the way.
c.1635		W. Cartwright Ordinary II v: ’Slid, father, you’re the strangest man.
c.1637		R. Brome Damoiselle I i: Slid, I had eene forgot.
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk I 42: Z’lid. Jove forgive me that I swear.
1664		Etherege Love In A Tub II iii: I’le not abate you an ace. ’Slid, y’are not So honest as I took you for.
1665		‘R.M.’ Scarronides 8: ’Slead (quoth he) ’twas his common Oath.
1668		Etherege She Would if She Cou’d I i: ’Slid, I know not how proud You are.
1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 154: ’Zlid, thou has done it to a Hair.
1675		Woman Turn’d Bully I ii: ’Slid, if I stay with her but three minutes longer, she’ll finde where I’m defective.
1682		Buckingham Chances IV ii: ’Slid I am afraid.
1709		Cibber Rival Fools I i: ’Slid I’ll swallow a whole Bushel of Bullets [...] but I’ll have something of the Soldier in me.
1710		Swift letter vi 14 Oct. in Journal to Stella (1901) 40: Slids, I would the horse were in your—chamber!
c.1720		Comical Cheats of Swalpo 4: ’Slidikins; Sir, they’ll steal our small Guts to make Fiddle-strings of.
1851		Melville Moby Dick (1907) 114: Slid! man, but I was frightened.