dial. [Perhaps a use of swanky adj. (see prec.) with the connotation ‘thin, poor.’] Small beer, or other poor or weak liquor. Also attrib.
1841. Hartshorne, Salopia Antiqua, Gloss. 583.
1863. Tyneside Songs, 25. We ’ve Tom-an’-Jerry an’ swanky shops, An’ places where yor claes they pops.
a. 1872. Newfoundland Fisheries, 110 (Schele de Vere). Each man … took his turn at the swankey pail.
1893. J. A. Barry, Steve Brown’s Bunyip, 225. The captain certainly had sent them a couple of dozen of porter. But, as one explained.—What’s the good of sich rubbishin’ swankey?
1908. W. M. J. Williams, King’s Revenue, xi. 80. The ‘Swankey shops,’ which were houses where beer at 11/2d. the quart was sold without a licence.
