Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a piece of bread and cheese.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 1240: [...] C.20.

2. an egg.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

3. a last drink.

1899		A. Binstead Gal’s Gossip 15: He joyfully fell in with her suggestion to step inside and take a ‘binder’.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 198: Stay and have just one binder wi’ yours truly.
1938		Sun. Dispatch (London) 3 July n.p.: Publand...first round is known as ‘one’, second as ‘the other half’, third as ‘same again’, fourth as ‘a final’, fifth as ‘one for the road’, sixth as ‘a binder’, and seventh as ‘swing o’ the door’ [DSUE].
1943		G.A. Little Malachi Horan Remembers 51: ‘A binder’, the last drink before going home, so called from the last sod of turf forced into a creel to bind the load.
1953		Word for Word: Encyc. of Beer (Whitbread & Co.) 13/1: Binder, colloquial expression for the last drink... Also used to describe the person who orders a drink after closing time .
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 165: The proper form and ceremony after having a few wets was to have a binder.

4. (N.Z.) a good, filling meal.

1881		H. & C.R. Smith Isle of Wight Words 46: Binder, a quantity. ‘A pretty good binder of it.’.
1917		Chronicle NZEF 19 Sept. 55/1: I was hungry so I turned my eyes away from the promising binder [OED].
1925		Auckland Capping Book 13: If you hunger there is the ‘binder for a bob’ [DNZE].
1933		(con. WWI) A.E. Strong in Partridge Sl. Today and Yesterday 287: I had started off with a duck’s breakfast, but I saw a cookhouse and decided to give it a pop for a binder.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 148: I shouted him a bob dinner and I could tell by the way he ate he was in need of a binder.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 75: Well, there she is, sir, and a pretty good binder, too [...] Curried sausages.
1953		Temple Sutherland Golden Bush 32: No, he didn’t want a feed, he said; he’d just got up from an ‘almighty binder,’ thanks just the same.
1964		R. Helmer Stag Party 80: This little hori’s damned hungry [...] I could scoff a real binder, just quietly!
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 165: The proper form and ceremony after having a few wets was to have a binder.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn).
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 15/1: binder meal; originally tramp slang for a satisfying meal, associated in army with constipation.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

5. (US Black) a contract.

1939		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 23 Dec. 7/1: Hot Lips Hackett just signed a binder with a new manager.
1943		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 12 June 20/1: Dooley Wilson inked a seven-year contract with RKO Pictiures [...] His first flicker under the new binder will be with Kay Kyser.

6. in pl., brakes; thus jump on the binders, to put on the brakes; excl. hit the binders! brake! [their tightening on a moving wheel].

1942		‘H.W.’ What’s the Gen? 19: To jump on the binders, to apply the brakes [OED].
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 11: ‘Pa,’ he’d say, ‘for your faucets with the best binders.’ ‘What are binders?’ Pa’d grumble. ‘Brakes, ya brown square!’.
1962		D. Dempsey ‘Lang. of Traffic Policemen’ AS XXXVII:4 267: Binders, brakes. Most often used in referring to emergency stops. ‘Hit the binders!’.

7. one who orders a drink in a public house after ‘last orders’.

1953

see sense 3.