Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus./US) a drunkard.

1900		Coopers Intl Jrnl 10 n.p.: A booze-fighter [...] cares more for saloons and barrel houses than he does for his union.
1902		Boston Globe Sun. Mag. 21 Dec. 7–8: There are [...] the ‘gapers’ or the ’booze-fighters’.
1903		‘Hugh McHugh’ I Need The Money 82: My old friend Dike, the booze killer.
1910		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 102: They disthributed copies iv ‘Death in th’ Bottle’; or, ‘The Booze-Fighter’s Finish’ among our sojery.
1913		H.A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 92: ‘Shorty’ was gradually winning the title of a thirty-third degree ‘booze- fighter’.
1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 116: I have met every kind of a crook there is. [...] booze fighters and cop fighters.
1935		C.G. Finney Circus of Dr Lao 14: Larry the infantryman, Larry the booze-fighter, Larry the whorechaser.
1942		E. Paul Narrow Street (1947) 312: You’re both a pair of boozefighters beyond help.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 792: booze fighter – A heavy drinker.
1972		N. Algren ‘The Last Carousel’ in Texas Stories (1995) 141: One can’t expect too much of a semi-literate booze-fighter.
a.1985		‘The Open Book’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 111: But each range breeds its own brand of bastard / and boozefighter, bugger or bum.

2. (US) a narcotics addict (in the context of using alcohol to counter withdrawal symptoms).

1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 440: Booze-fighter, A dope fiend.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.