Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a sixth term of imprisonment of whatever length.

1872

Daily News 27 Apr. 3/4: They announced that they were in for a ‘fiver’ or a ‘sixer’, according to the number of their visits to a particular gaol.

2. a six-month prison sentence, six months’ hard labour.

1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 18 Nov. 3/3: Hearing this [sentence], Sarah looked a little blacker, and having uttered this parting exclamation, ‘well, I s’pose I must try the sixer,’ left the court to do it.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 52/1: As for her ‘bloke,’ he had ‘copped’ a ‘sixer,’ but she was going to ‘turn him up’ any way.
1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 503: We got smugged, and got a sixer (six months) each.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 22/4: See what I done for you. Mind the time you kerosined old Doodle’s pug? You’d a got a sixer, if I hadn’t a ‘squared’ it for a couple of ‘stiffs’.
1894		A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 151: Occasional misfortunes in the way of a moon, or another drag, or perhaps a sixer.
1907		H. Lawson ‘Mateship’ in Roderick (1972) 725: Bill goes up for a ‘sixer’.
1909		‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/1: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] A sizer [sic] is but six months in a lockup.
c.1910		L. Esson ‘Jugger’s Out Ter-d’y’ in Seal (1999) 39: Jugger got er sixer / Toppin’ orf a John.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 139: It was to get railroad fare to Mexico that I got myself jammed in here. A six-er, I suppose.
1922		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 Dec. 18/3: They gave ‘Brum’ a ‘sixer,’ and had a good look round for me.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 136: We’ll both get a ‘sixer’ in the morning if we go in front of a judge with our teeth rattlin’.
1928		J. O’Connor Broadway Racketeers 182: Even if its only a sixer in the pen, too many sixes are bad for the health.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 246: I just did a ‘Sixer’ on a chain gang in Mississippi, and I’m on the bum.
1948		Truth (Brisbane) 26 Dec. 20/3: In Brisbane Police Court last week [...] a pair of the city’s hardened lags went down the chute for a ‘sixer,’ for stealing.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 32: Red goes up for sentence in a couple of days [...] Looks like he’s good for a sixer-like.
1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 211: ‘What happened to Jess?’ ‘She took a sixer.’.
1962		B. McGhee Cut and Run (1963) 101: I wasn’t really cribbing about my sentence. I was quite happy with a ‘carpet’. At a Summary Court [...] we could have got a ‘sixer’.
1977		T. Ronan Mighty Men on Horseback 18: The Provosts grabbed me and I drew a sixer in the peter.
1981		(con. 1900–30) A. Harding in Samuel East End Und. 283: Sixer – A six-month sentence.

3. a 6-ounce (170g) loaf.

1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 194: He keeps a sharp eye on that man to see that he does not ‘filch’ a ‘sixer,’ as the six-ounce loaf, served with dinner, is called.
1881		Nottingham Eve. Post 28 Jan. 4/5: Only had my sixer and a drop of skilly at Westminster [workhouse].
1887		J.W. Horsley Jottings from Jail 62: For dinner on Tuesdays, there is another ‘sixer’.
1911		J.W. Horsley Memoirs of a ‘Sky Pilot’ 70: Eight ounces were given instead of the wholemeal ‘sixer’ made in Coldbath Fields.

4. (Aus.) a six-shooter.

1880

Bulletin (Sydney) 29 May 2/4: A Melbourne man who had threatened to shoot his wife was found to have a loaded ‘sixer’ in his pocket.

5. (Aus.) six strokes of the cane as a school punishment.

1911

Truth (Sydney) 2 July 1/4: A Newtown teacher rebuked a dirty scholar the other day, telling him that if he didn’t wash better they would soon be able to grow a crop of taters behind his ears. ’Oh, well, if it’s coming to that,’ answered the nipper, ’Fisher will also be after me for the land-tax’ The witty rejoinder saved him a sixer.

6. (Aus./US black/campus) a six-pack of beer.

1989		P. Munro Sl. U.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 24: She doubted if he could have [...] lifted anything heavier than a sixer of beer.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] [He] opened the wine and ripped a beer off the sixer for himself.
2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] [I] carried both sixers over the the mini [i.e. fridge] and loaded that bastard up.

7. (drugs) six pills.

1995

J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 187: I’d geezed a sixer of Dil-Dils.