Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. weak beer; sour beer.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: swipes. Purser’s swipes; small beer.
1793		Hants. Chron. 29 Apr. 4/1: The Soldier’s Litany [...] May we all be deliver’d [...] From contractor’s brown George and a poor landlord’s swipes.
1803		J. Wetherell Adventures of John Wetherell (1954) 3 Apr. 35: Bob Moody had the misfortunes to taste pursers’ swipes rather freely.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome I 39: A chaos too, of grog and swipes.
1820		‘Arthur O’Bradley’s Wedding’ Orange Boven Songster 6: I must have some more whisky; / For I hate your barley swipes.
c.1830		‘The New-Fashioned Farmer’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 136: With fine brown beer their hearts to cheer / But they must drink swipes, sir.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 352: It’s been as dull as swipes.
1849		Freeman’s Jrnl (Ireland) 3 Aug. 2/4: It is his lordship’s custom to gather all the little children together every year, and stuff them with Newry ‘swipes’.
1849		Sam Sly 3 Mar. 1/1: A tall fellow was as we entered bawling out for a pint of ‘swipes’.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 188: Porter and swipes / Always give me the — stomach-ache!
1862		J.A. Hardwick ‘Whitechapel v. Westminster’ Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 21: The nobs scorn swipes.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple I 254: I feel as flat as swipes.
1886		‘’Arry at the Smoking Concert’ Punch 13 Nov. in P. Marks (2006) 66: Every species of lotion from Brandy and Soda to fourpenny swipes.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 18 Mar. 8/2: And p’raps converse in Yankee slang, / And scoff the Yankee swipes.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 241: Let’s to the Swiss cheese, the pickled herrings, and the Bavarian swipes.
1900		(con. 1854–5) Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Sept. 13/4: When Sir Charles Hotham was Governor of Victoria, he gave the guests at his reception ‘colonial ale,’ or as it was then called ‘swipes.’.
2000		(con. 1855) Age (Melbourne) 25 Apr. 52/2: The so-called ‘Murphy Swipes’ [brewed by Murphy Bros.] was so bad that many of the guests were ill.

2. any beer; also attrib.

1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 132: Then, with some civil jaw, / Part squatted, to drink bohea, / And part swig’d barley swipes.
1800		Sporting Mag. Apr. XVI 27/2: Her daughter [...] the lovely Kitty Swipes.
1810		‘Paddys Wedding’ Garland of New Songs (5) 3: To the bride’s good health went round the swipes.
1827		J. Wight More Mornings in Bow St. 40: ‘It was swipes I wanted — and not inkpots’.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford III 231: ‘There now, you gallows-bird! you has taken the swipes without chalking; you wants to cheat the poor widow; but I sees you, I does!’.
1841		‘Paddy’s Wedding’ Dublin Comic Songster 189: To the bride’s dear health, round went the swipes.
1844		New Sprees of London 17: The great little man [i.e. Edmund Kean] rolled in about twelve o'clock one night, multa beargred—that is to say, swipes aboard.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 Nov. 3/1: He adjourned to a pot-house where he drank as much swipes as he could well entertain.
1854		Wrexham Advertiser 16 Dec. 2/6: ’Tis drink that pulls the country down, / So change the swipes-pot for the tea.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 214: What a stunning tap, Tom! You’re a wunner for bottling the swipes.
1865		‘When We Went Out A Shooting’ Rambler’s Flash Songster 38: We fill’d a glass, to every lass, / And got dead-drunk with swipes.
1874		Kent & Sussex Courier 9 Dec. 6/1: One [...] accuses one of the pupil teachers (of the feminine gender) with writing a treatise on Swipes, Bunker or Cat-lip, and I must necessarily infer that she must have a proneness for getting Buffy and Kisky.
1886		S. Watson Wops the Waif 7/2: If I spent all my Joey on swipes, I don’t think ’twould make me tight.
1891		T.B. Reed Cock House Fellsgarth 161: [of ginger beer] No more shoe-leather or flat swipes.
1892		Punch 26 Nov. 252: If it’s Public ’Ouse ’gainst Wash ’Ouse, if it’s Slumland wersus Swipes, / I am on for booze and backy.
1906		Marvel 17 Nov. 465: Cut out and fetch a gallon of fourpenny swipes from the pub!
1910		Truth (Perth) 3 Dec. 6/8: She went workin at the wash tub / [...] / While the godly gifted husband / Went for swipes.
1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘A One-Gun Salute’ Naval Occasions 185: An intimate familiarity extended to slaps on the nose (boko), and once a dash of swipes down the back of his neck as Ivor stooped to recover a broken pipe.
1922		(con. 1900s) S. Leslie Oppidan 13: He learnt the important differences [...] between swipes and swiping, between whiffs and stinks.

3. a public-house potman.

1827		Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 211: It seems the man of many types / That night enacted ‘Sammy Swipes’.
1837–8		‘Sam Swipes’ Cuckold’s Nest 19: My name is Sam Swipes, and Sal is my dear, / I labour all day to get her some beer.
1864		Liverpool Mercury 15 Dec. 1/1: Swipes (the Pot Boy).
1895		Manchester Eve. News 23 Dec. 2/5: Mr Horace Mills, who appears as ‘Swipes,’ a pot boy.
1903		Portsmouth Eve. News 27 Jan. 3/4: Sammy Swipes the pot boy.

4. in a public house, tap-droppings.

1900

Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 1 Sept. 3/6: The language of the London East-end pub [...] ‘Swizzle’ and ‘Swipes’ — the droppings of the tap.