Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. lacking booty.

1898		Lincoln Eve. News (NE) 29 June 2/4: [headline] Swagless Swiggers. Tipplers and Suspicious Men Up in Court.
1900		Marvel 15 May 14: A couple of swagless, though well-fed burglars.
1918		Chicago Dly Trib. 21 Nov. 6/3: The loot squad homeward plods its swagless way.

2. (US) in sport, lacking in score.

2013

News-Messenger (Fremont, OH) 18 Mar. B4/5: Several players had uncharacteristically swagless games.

(Aus. und.) that member of a criminal team deputed to leave with the plunder.

1895

Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 83: Swagman, [...] he who takes away the plunder.

in the manner of an intinerant’s pack.

1913

Wkly Times (Melbourne) 4 Jan. 5/2: He [...] pillaged the larder for bread, scones, tarts - anything he could lay his grimy paws upon. He rolled them swagwise in a kitchen towel.

a street-seller of miscellaneous goods; thus swag-barrow, his cart.

1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 355/1: Of these swag-barrowmen, there are not less than 150. [...] The tinwares of the swag-barrows are nutmeg-graters, bread-graters, beer-warmers, fish-slices, goblets, mugs, save-alls, extinguishers, candle-shades, money-boxes, children’s plates, and rattles. [Ibid.] 447/1: At the back and sides of the swag-barrow are generally articles which are best displayed in an erect position [...] The miscellaneous dealers of whom I am treating, who are known among street-folk as ‘swag-barrowmen,’ or in the popular ellipsis, ‘penny swags’.
1949		T. Bonnet Mudlark 212: Ben Fox, the tosher; Iron George, the swag-barrow man; Mrs. Feeney, the hurdy-gurdy woman.

(UK Und.) a criminal receiver’s shop or store; thus swag-chovey bloke/bloak, a marine store dealer.

1839		H. Brandon Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 168: The paper makers get the tats and [...] fence the milky ones with some swag chovey bloak.
1847		Cheltenham Chron. 4 Feb. 4/4: I took them [i.e. stolen goods] to a Swag Chovey Bloak.
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 39: [as cit. 1839].
c.1863		glossary in Occurence Book of York River Lockup in Seal (1999) 37: I took them to a swag chovey bloak and got 6 finnips and a cooter for the yacks.
1874		Derbyshire Courier 12 Dec. 7/1: Local Flash language [...] A swag chovey bloak, a marine store dealer who buys stolen property.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 9/2: The paper makers get the tats, and never tip the mots a posh, but fence the milky ones with some swag chovey bloak. The men who pretend they are from a paper mill obtain the rags, and never pay the women (of the houses they call at) anything, and then sell the white rags to some marine store dealer.
1904		Sun (NY) 10 July 29/4: Here is a genuine letter written in thieves’ slang, recently found by the English police [...] I know a lavender cove and a swag chovey bloke that will toke [sic] some of the white jacks.

(UK Und.) a receiver of stolen goods.

1821		D. Haggart Life 67: I performed the part of a swag cove through the Carse of Gowrie, where I disposed of most of the stockings. Having got to Dundee, we fenced the thaan to a broker and flash-cove, named James Davidson.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.

a thief specializing in silk; cit. 1882 is slightly mis-defined.

1882

A. Pinkerton Professional Thieves and Detectives 59: Silk robberies, or, in criminal parlance, [...] ‘swag-getters’.

see separate entries.

a shop that deals wholesale in cheap articles.

1829		Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II 74: It is impossible to describe the applause bestowed upon Delay by the boys of the Blue Anchor, the Cock and Cross, and the Ship and Gun, near the great swag shop in the east.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 105: swag-shop, a warehouse where ‘Brummagem’ and general wares are sold, fancy trinkets, plated goods, &c. Jews are the general proprietors, and the goods are excessively low priced, trashy, and showy.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 267/1: All these street-sellers obtain their supplies at the ‘swag-shops’. [Ibid.] 333/2: The slaughterer sells by retail; the swag-shop keeper only by wholesale. [Ibid.] 335/2: One of the largest ‘swags’ made such an allowance to a street-seller last week.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1881		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 6 May 7/4: I’ll buy a swag in the blinks line. I know something of that business.
1882		Dundee Courier 15 Sept. 7/5: The shop was what we call a swag shop, or in plain English, a Birmingham and Sheffield warehouse.
1891		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 21 Dec. 8/1: If the cutlers worked for nothing but honour it would only serve the swag shop or shoddy manufacturer, to cut each other’s throats in selling their goods .
1901		Manchester Eve. News 19 June 2/5: He had said that he got the stuff at a ‘swag shop’ in Withy Grove [...] but to-day he admitted stealing it from a shop in Oldham.
1912		Leamington Spa Courier 13 Sept. 7/1: The ‘swag’ shop is the slang name given by tramps to the establishments at which they are in the habit of purchasing their wares.
1926		W.H. Davies Adventures of Johnny Walker 166: There may not be a swag-shop (a shop where hawkers are supplied) near.
1934		P. Allingham Cheapjack 199: There are many swag shops in Manchester.
1986		Eve. Herald (Dublin) 9 Jan. 15/2: [advert] The Swag Shop [...] Vast Selection of Pound Shop Lines Our price 89p.
1996		Liverpool Echo 27 July 34/1: [advert] The Swag Shop Supporting Kids in Need.

see separate entry.

see swagman n.¹

1. (US und.) a disappointing haul from a robbery.

1859

Matsell Vocabulum.

2. (Aus./US und.) potential loot that is rejected due to its unwieldiness .

1883		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 30 June 11/2: Money, jewelry, diamonds and silver-ware are all that are touched. ‘Dead swag,’ or cumbersome goods are too heavy to carry or dispose of.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict 23: Dead Swag plunder not easily disposed of.

(N.Z.) a tramp.

1947

H. Beattie Early Runholding in Otago 12: The class of wayfarers [...] were always called swaggers in Otago. These ‘gentlemen of the swag’ were not in evidence until after the gold diggings broke out.

(Aus./N.Z.) to travel as an itinerant.

1922		Westralian Worker (Perth, WA) 14 Apr. 1/2: The ‘pommy,’ not knowing the ropes, and being in a strange land, will accept a pound or thirty shillings—he’s got to; or else starve or go on the ‘swag’.
1937		Newcastle Sun (NSW) 13 Oct. 5/5: Before he left he asked her if she would go on the swag with him but she said she could not as her child was too young.
1974		(con. 1930s) I. Agnew Loner 63: I want a shakedown [... I’m on the swag.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 51/2: go on the swag become a tramp; eg ‘During the Great Depression, many men had no choice but to go on the swag. There was nothing for them to do at home.’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

(Aus./N.Z.) to carry a pack; note cit. 1861 refers to a tea-chest; cit. 1907 uniquely refers to S. Afr.

[1851		Empire (Sydney) 17 Oct. 2/4: [in context of mining] From the hill at the Razorback side of Oakey, the Messrs. Owen [...] are ‘humping the swag’ to the washing hole, and doing fairly; but the labour is immense].
1853		W. Howitt Two Years in Victoria (1855) I 226: He ‘humped his swag’, in diggers’ phrase, that is, shouldered his pack.
1861		Bell’s Life in Sydney 16 Feb. 3/6: The missing demi-chest was [...] on the back of Mr. Hannon, who, as the porters were all engaged, had condescendingly ‘humped the swag’.
1871		M. Clarke in Money Knocking About in N.Z. vi: When he meets with some unpretending fellow [...] who has ‘humped his swag’ into strange lands, and traversed the ‘wallaby-track’ under the direst conditions.
1880		‘Edward Howe’ Roughing It in Van Diemen’s Land 29: They were to travel on foot, ‘humping the swag’.
1898		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘On Kiley’s Run’ in Man from Snowy River (1902) 84: The lonely swagman through the dark / Must hump his swag past Chandos Park.
1901		H. Lawson ‘Send Round the Hat’ in Roderick (1972) 476: You don’t expect ’em to hump their swags to Sydney!
1907		P. Fitzpatrick Jock of the Bushveld 14: The Lydenburg Goldfields prospectors ‘humping their swags’ or driving their small pack-donkeys.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Aug. Red Page/4: [T]he pen-name stands for Edwin Greenslade Murphy, who humped his swag and took to dryblowing in the early days of Coolgardie.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 43: Billy humped a swag for this act.
1975		K. Willey Ghosts of the Big Country 112: And the time had come, the shearer knew, / To hump the swag outback.

(Aus./N.Z.) to start thinking of leaving one job and going in search of another.

1941		Baker N.Z. Sl.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 110/1: look for one’s swagstraps consider looking for another job.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

a seller of penny lots.

1861

(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 447/2: The miscellaneous dealers of whom I am treating, who are known among street-folk as ‘swag-barrowmen,’ or, in the popular ellipsis, ‘penny swags’.