Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see under maggot n.

a phr. indicating that something (usu. food and medicines but also of abstract objects, emotions etc) is unpalatable.

1986–7

Maledicta IX 52: black man choke, enough to make a adj phr [D] Very unpalatable; said of food and medicines.

utterly hilarious, devastatingly funny.

1616		W. Haughton English-Men For My Money E4: Oh maister Mouse, [...] it would make any Mouse, Ratte, Catte, or Dogge, laugh to thinke, what sport we shall have.
1836		Brighton Patriot 5 Apr. 4/2: The Brighton Gazette often says such queer things as would make a cat laugh.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 26: It’s enough to make a cat sick to hear fellers talk of independence who are mortgaged over head and ears in debt.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 337: The old play-acting rubbish [...] enough to make a cat sick.
1900		Punch 28 Feb. 152/2: He was ready to snarl, to smile, to growl, aye, and even to laugh – and if it be possible to ‘make a cat laugh,’ why not a lion?
1901		B. Pain De Omnibus 23: And ’ere is jest one more hinstance o’ the sime, wheer I’d ’ad enough ter make a cow satirical.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 30 Nov. 14/1: The latest confidence-trick exposed at Sydney Sessions would make a cat laugh.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 503: Christ, wouldn’t it make a Siamese cat laugh?
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 191: I’ve met ’em far funnier than him – make a cat laugh, some of the fellows I’ve known would.
1934		Sunderland Dly Echo 30 Oct. 7/4: The old saying, ‘funny enouigh to make a cat laugh’ might become a reality if [etc.].
1945		Cornishman 6 Sept. 3/3: Enough to Make a Cat Laugh. Comic Dog Show.
1957		P. Larkin letter 1 Oct. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 279: The inside back flap is a rotten mish-mash of biassed or worthless judgments, enough to make a cat laugh.

enough to render one very drunk.

1906

E. Pugh Spoilers n.p.: Go easy with this [...] Jest enough to screw you up, y’know, but not enough to split the grain.