Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. in prize-fighting, a match typified by brutality rather than skill.

1845		Era (London) 26 Jan. 10/3: Lane’s attitude was the most ungainly [...] and seemed to make up his mind for some slogging work.
1860		Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 Apr. 4/1: That portion of the Fancy [...] who go in for a slogging, would have been delighted [...] by the exhibition of an unflinching milling.
1886		Phila. Times 6 May n.p.: There was some terrible slogging... Cleary planted two rib-roasters, and a tap on Langdon’s face [F&H].

2. hitting, fighting.

1850		Fast Man 3:1 n.p.: The manly art of bar slogging.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 48/1: I had to wait for the others to get through, in case there might be some ‘slogging’ required with the ‘flats’.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 128: It was ’ard sloggin’ all froo.
1931		Nottingham Eve. Post 27 Jan. 9/5: The promoters [...] sent six men into the ring to ffight [...] There was some rare slogging for a few minutes, and then one by one the ‘fighters’ went to the canvas.

3. a beating, a thrashing.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 133: Sandy Macintosh did more good than he thought when he gave me that slogging.

4. working hard; esp. as slogging away/away at; also used adj.

1906		H. Lawson ‘The Spirits of Our Fathers’ in Roderick II (1967–9) 188: It was many years of ‘slogging’, where strong men must be brave.
1932		C. Sandburg letter 26 Oct. in Mitgang (1968) 285: It’s been a long slogging kind of a job.
1955		K. Williams Diaries 27 Mar. 111: There is an awful lot of hard slogging in Miss Mckenna’s work.
1968		D. Ireland Chantic Bird 27: Whenever I needed a few hours of good slogging I’d take a spade [...] and raise a sweat pushing dirt back in holes.
2000		Guardian Guide 19–25 Feb. 22: A little charm. A lot of style. Quite a lot of slogging.