swamp, v.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

swamp v.¹

[? SE swap]

1. to spend one’s entire earnings, usu. on alcohol; ext. as swamp a cheque v.

1850		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Jan. 2/7: Other members stayed away [...] and some, several of whom had been ‘swamping it’ in Botany on the previous day, had experienced that the water they then and there tested, disagreed with them .
1879		‘Australian’ Adventures in Queensland 2: They were denying themselves almost the necessaries of life to save every farthing of their wages for months and months together; then to pay a flying visit to Old Rickets, and ‘swamp their cheques like men’ [AND].
1883		Queenslander (Brisbane) 13 Jan. 49/1: I sought your town [...] / To swamp a cheque — of pounds above a score.
1894		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Nov. 14/3: When riding homeward penniless, you light your pipe and think This somewhat like the time you ‘swamped’ your hard-earned cheque in drink.
1894		G. Boothby On the Wallaby 243: I had only brought a few shillings with me. My lunch had cost me half-a-crown, and my bed would swamp another; as practically they were gone, I had no more.
1911		E.S. Sorenson Bush Cooks in Life in the Aus. Backblocks 81: Others swamp their earnings at the wayside rubby, and have themselves to blame that they are every year humping bluey.
1935		Queenslander (Brisbane) 10 July 2/1: A man might ‘swamp his cheque’ and ’jump his horses’ over the bar, but he will not part with his bundle.

2. of a publican, to use up a man’s entire earnings on drink.

1883

Sth Aus. Register (Adelaide) 20 Dec. 1s/6: Why should a publican be allowed to swamp a bushman’s cheque [...] A drunkard is a disgrace.

3. (Aus.) to drink.

1894		Truth (Sydney) 11 Feb. 7/1: ‘Take a liquor?’ ‘Yes,’ we answered, ‘Guess we all can swamp a beer’.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Aug. 13/2: Suddenly I stepped within a white light, and there, leaning on the bulwarks of the world with a long beer tipped to his throat, was a blurred and indistinct figure. But I knew him! It was the Devil! I couldn’t mistake his triumphant laugh as he swamped his giant drink.

4. (Aus.) to exchange, to barter.

1941