Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) an alcoholic drink, esp. as a ‘pick-me-up’.

[1801		Times (London) 9 Oct. 1/2: [advert] The cordial balm of gilead, a restorative unequalled, a bracer and invigorator of the whole animal function].
1810		Edenton Gaz. (NC) 14 Sept. 4/2: I drink from seventeen to twenty glasses of brandy or whiskey and water (by way of bracer) every day precisely at 11 o’clock.
1829		Savannah (GA) Mercury 1 July n.p.: I take [...] a cooler at nine, a bracer at ten, a whetter at eleven.
1877		J. Habberton Jericho Road 12: Treat him to whisky; he needs a bracer [DAE].
1891		W. De Vere ‘Jim Marshall’s New Pianner’ Tramp Poems 9: He landed one beneath his belt, just like a mornin’ bracer, And then another followed suit, wo’t Lish Row’d call ‘a chaser’.
1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xviii: Work the remorse gag before they have a chance to get a bracer for their hangover.
1911		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 Days 17: They must have one more bracer.
1919		F. Hurst ‘Even As You And I’ in Humoresque 280: Aw, say – have a heart; blow me to a bracer, too!
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 73: We stopped in a bar on the way to my beanery, to get a bracer.
c.1933		C. Himes ‘The Way of Flesh’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 228: Jes a lil ole bracer, capn, wid all dat sorrow n all.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 209: Cheer up, Mr. Grey. What you need is a good bracer.
1958		Southern & Hoffenberg Candy (1970) 49: I could do with a bracer before seeing your father.
1976		R. Morrieson Pallet on the Floor 96: God, I feel like a bracer.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 7: I take the occasional bracer myself.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 110: [A] bracer at my elbow.