Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to run away, to leave, to ‘take oneself off’.

c.1785		‘The Dog and Duck Rig’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 79: Sherries home with a flat to be stroaking.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: To Sherry. To run away: sherry off.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1826		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II 293: I must sherry directly after dinner, gentlemen.
c.1830		‘Smith’s Frolic’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 61: Then up a dark alley I sherry’d amain.
1834		Sun (N.Y.) 20 June 2/2: The officer observing a ‘Snow Ball’ approaching, who would be likely to ‘spot’ him with the convict, ‘sherried’.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 317/1: Sherry, to leave.
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 1 Jan. n.p.: A star policeman grabbed me in the act, / But straightway I did mill him in the eye, / And sherried.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 79: sherrid Run away.
1877		Chicago Trib. 7 Apr. 3/1: ‘Sherry your nibs’ — ‘make tracks’.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Crime That Failed’ in Sandburrs 80: At last she’s seen enough an’ sherries her nibs to d’ cat’edral.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 17: You had better sherry for Fift’ Avenue where you belong.
1906		Chelmsford Chron. (Essex) 24 Aug. 3/6: May every good fellow be found in port [...] and all bad ones be obliged to sherry off!
1963		A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 234: Mrs. M would walk in with all the money in the world, and I’d sherry. Beat it.