Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) the first drink of the day; also as a name of a given whisky.

1818		H.B. Fearon Sketches of America 249: Drinking [...] is effected by individuals taking their solitary ‘eye openers,’ ‘toddy,’ and ‘phlegm dispersers’ at the bar.
1840		Daily Pennant (St. Louis) 14 May n.p.: Tim had that morning taken a little dust of grog, that is to say an eye-opener, and a sleep-disturber, and a gum-tickler, and a gallbreaker, and an anti-fogmatic, and it may be two or three small horns more.
1846		D. Corcoran Pickings from N.O. Picayune 75: A ‘pig and whistle’ is the only reg’lar eye-opener – if you can’t get the ginivine article, you may fall back on a gin cocktail.
1857		Mt Alexander Mail (Vic.) 4 Dec. 7/7: The following are the slang names of some of the American beverages, sold at the principal hotels of New York and other large cities and towns:— Eye Openers, Brandy Smash, Stone Fence [etc].
1861		R.F. Burton City of the Saints 65: Having sounded our reveillée [...] we proceeded by means of an ‘eye-opener,’ which even the abstemious judge could not decline. [Ibid.] 215: Champagne, bottled cocktail, ‘eye-opener,’ and other liquors.
1878		A. Lloyd ‘The American Drinks’ Comic Songs 14: I think an ‘eye-opener,’ my dear, would do you good.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 July 3/4: A famous old ‘bum’ [...] was on his way to town to get his morning eye-opener .
1889		B. Mitford Fire Trumpet I 220: C—come and have a what-sh-may call a eye-opener—hic!
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 12 July 5/4: Boss’s Barometer [...] A.M. 6 o’clock An Eye Opener.
1895		Stevens Point Daily Journal (WI) 6 Dec. 1/2: Now he must have his regular eye-opener every morning [...] He takes about three fingers of toddy.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 17 Aug. 3/5: [T]hey went they dropped in to Cadden’s for an eye-opener.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 114: ‘Just got time for one morning jolt.’ ‘Sure. A little eye opener will do you good.’.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Aug. 32/3: He guv us an eye-opener w’en he opened the bar that mornin’, but w’en we put it on ’im for another he got personal and said things wot wouldn’t be took from nobody but a publican w’en a feller’s stiff.
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 112: He stole another bottle off ’n me that I was savin’ fer an eye-opener.
1930		K. Brush Young Man of Manhattan 240: In the mornings after the evenings there were drinks that he had to have [...] There was the drink called eye-opener, and the one, or more, called hair of the dog.
1940		S.J. Simonsen Among the Sourdoughs 85: Swarger would bring eye-openers and get everybody on their feet.
1956		L. Hughes Simply Heavenly II ix: A little eye-opener in the morning, a bracer at noon.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 798: eye opener – A drink of liquor; something to waken one.
1972		C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 63: We need an eye opener!
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 38: The dawn came on [...] to find Emil Jadick sitting bare-assed on the back porch, having an eye-opener of beer.
1999		Indep. Mag. 20 Nov. 49: Starting with a dawn eye-opener of wine or palinka (home-made fruit brandy).

2. a surprise, a shock, not necessarily unpleasant.

1854		Leics. Mercury 28 Jan. 4/3: His mistake proved a regular ‘eye-opener’ for him.
1863		Rio Abajo Press 3 Feb. 2: Quite a catalogue of similar examples of injustice and meanness [...] might be made [...] but we merely allude to them as an ‘eye-opener’ to the public [DA].
1868		H.L. Williams Black-Eyed Beauty 87: Her stories of New York were eye-openers.
1879		N&Q 136/1: His lecture must have been a lively and profitable eye-opener for the somnolence of a cathedral town .
1894		Truth (Sydney) 1 Apr. 1/1: The Bradford will case is an ‘eye-opener’ for the [...] Probate Court.
1895		W. Pett Ridge Minor Dialogues 71: I sor a regular eye-opener there once, I did, about a young man and a girl, and a jealous woman.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Jan. 24/1: Cavill’s swimming was the biggest eye-opener sprung on Sydney swimmers for a very long time.
1915		‘Ian Hay’ First Hundred Thousand (1918) 238: The hun has been rather firmly handled this afternoon [...] I think he has had an eye-opener.
1928		L. Mackay My Oul’ Town 103: But I got an eye-opener.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 172: It must have been an eye-opener for you, watching me handle this case.
1936		C. Drew ‘The Squib’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Sept. 36/1: The way he slammed them into the pockets and brought off difficult cannons was an eye-opener.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 92: That was an eye-opener to me.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 253: He picked up a book. It was Chicago Confidential. Instead of barbiturate, it was an eye-opener.
1967		J. Hibberd White with Wire Wheels (1973) 205: Just wait until I get my new Ford Mustang. That’ll be a real eye-opener.
1971		A. Buzo The Roy Murphy Show (1973) 121: This has been a revelation to me. A real eye-opener.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 150: When you listen to some of the stories the cows tell [...] that’s an eye-opener certainly.
1999		Guardian Guide 15–21 May 65: Biggest eye-opener? Mulder and Scully, in the shower. Together.
2000		Indep. Rev. 10 June 20: The contents of this emporium were a bit of an eye-opener.
2010		K. Richards Life 63: I did the bakery, the bread round at weekends, which was really an eye-opener at that age, thirteen.

3. an attractive woman.

1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Jan. 1/1: A new eye-opener has been disovered at the Port [and] the discoverer is a dashing young pressman of note.
1919		F. Hurst ‘Oats for the Woman’ Humoresque 72: He ’ain’t seen her since a child, and all of a sudden he comes West and finds in front of him an eye-opener.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 648: Plenty of lads would turn around on the street to get a load of her, because she was an eye-opener.

4. (drugs) the day’s first dose of a drug.

1938		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in AS XIII:3 183/2: eye-opener. The first injection of the day, often taken in bed.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 308: eye-opener. The addict’s first injection of a drug for the day.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 100: We damn near got enough stuff to go buy us an eye-opener.

5. (drugs) amphetamine.

1971		Illinois Legislative Investigating Committee Drug Crisis in Spears (1986).
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 337: eye-openers: Amphetamines.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 9: Eye opener — [...] amphetamine.

6. (drugs) crack cocaine.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 9: Eye opener — Crack.