Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a broad-brimmed hat.

1656		E. Gayton Wit Revived 6: Q. Why is a broad hat said to be full? A. Because ’tis a brimmer.
1661		A. Brome ‘To My Worthy Friend, Mr. Alex. Brome’ Poems (1982) 62: Now takes his brimmer off, and to her flyes, / Singing thy Rhimes, and straight she is his prize.
1671		J. Eachard Observations n.p.: How horribly he is thought to have abused a divine, only in twisting the ends of his girdle, and asking him the price of his brimmer [N].
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 111: brimmer. A hat, from the breadth of its brim.
1844		Quaver 219: The scavenger no tile will touch, / But a fancy silk broad brimmer.
1862		‘Cheap John’ in Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 50: Look at this ’ere hat – there’s a brimmer!
1886		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 1 June 2/4: Straw hats became the rage, and the ‘skimming-dish brimmer’ went through several stages of revision. It was turned up on the left [...] wsorn low on the forehead [etc].
1927		Memphis Jug Band [song title] Sun Brimmers Blues.

2. a brimming glass.

1650		H. Neville Newes from the New Exchange 10: Yes, my Lady Craven […] Fill a Brimmer […] Tis well fill’d, and fairely drunke .
1657		T. Jordan Walks of Islington and Hogsdon I i: I vow I’le pledge a brimmer: My Mistris hath a Rose Cheek / her eye-brows they are jetty, / Then drink off a brimmer / to her that doth ---- / For tis a Health to Betty.
1658		Mennis & Smith ‘The Drunken Lover’ Wit Restor’d (1817) 288: Her lipps are two brimmers of Clarret [...] And her eyes are two cups of Canary.
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk I 61: Here, Sirs (quoth he) I drink this Brimmer.
1678		Otway Friendship in Fashion II i: Pox on’t, let it be a Brimmer: Gentlemen, God save the King.
1682		Buckingham Chances III ii: Will’t please you, Sir, to give me a Brimmer?
1693		Dryden Juvenal VI 105: What care our Drunken Dames [....] Full Brimmers to their Fuddled Noses thrust.
c.1700		London-Bawd (1705) 164: Here’s to ye, says she; and drank off her Glass, and made John fill a Brimmer and drink it off.
1706		R. Estcourt Fair Example III iii: whims.: To the pretty’st Woman in Cheapside. sym.: Done, a Brimmer, that’s my Mistress.
1723		C. Walker Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 113: Brimmers of Citron-Water, Ratafia, and the like.
1734		W. Dunkin ‘The Parson’s Revels’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 214: The glorious memory flows round / In brimmers.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 77: Come then; one Brimmer to all your Healths.
a.1749		Robertson of Struan ‘To a Humdrum Company’ Poems (1752) 240: Come, let us toss one round in Brimmers.
1770		T. Chatterton Revenge I vi: You hogshead of liquor [...] You soul of a brimmer [...] You tippler, you sot—.
1786		F. Pilon He Would be Soldier IV i: Come to the charge again, and a brimmer it shall be.
1793		Bacchanalian Mag. 56: Fat Comus toss’d his brimmers o’er / And always got the most.
1812		G. Colman Yngr ‘Two Parsons’ Poetical Vagaries 137: In a brimmer, Mother Church was tasted: With jokes, and winks.
1822		W. Scott Peveril of the Peak II 269: I present you a brimmer to the health of the fair lady.
1837		‘In Praise of Woman’ in Rum Ti Tum! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 159: Then bring me a goblet from bacchus’s hoard, / [...] / I’ll fill up a brimmer and drink to the fair.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin II 97: ‘Pass the bottle [...] fill up a bumper; come, a brimmer; no daylight, Sir’.
1856		J. Strang Glasgow and Its Clubs 287: Swallowing a bumper of Scottish mountain dew, thoughtlessly followed it with a brimmer of brandy.
1868		Chelmsford Chron. 25 Dec. 10/4: That’s a brimmer.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Aug. 13/3: Deceived by the seductive appearance of the bottle, he filled a brimmer, and we watched him drink.
1886		M.E. Braddon Mohawks II 175: ‘Fill me another brimmer, Asterley,’ said the Dowager.

3. (US black) a heavy drinker.

1936

D. Burley in Chicago Defender 31 Oct. 26: revised dictionary brimmer — A heavy drinker.

4. see brim n.¹ (2)