Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to bribe.

1512		Hickscorner Av: Ye knowe well there is crafte in daubynge I can loke in a mannes face and pycke his purse And tell newe tydynges it was neuer trewe.
1670		J. Ray Proverbs 75: There is a craft in dawbing.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Dawbing, bribing.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 68: A Justice [...] committed us to Goal; but here by our Artifices, and daubing the Jailers Hand with Perswasive, we obtained our Liberty.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Dawb, to dawb, to bribe; the cull was scragged because he could not dawb, the rogue was hanged because he could not bribe.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.