slang or colloq. Also 8 swigg. [app. f. SWIG sb.1] To drink (esp. intoxicating liquor) in deep draughts; to drink eagerly or copiously. a. trans. (with the vessel, or the drink, as obj.).
1682. Wit & Drollery, Tom-a-Bedlam, iv. 151. When short I have shorn my Sows face, And swigg’d my Horned Barrel.
c. 1688. Roxb. Ball., Jolly Welsh Woman, v. (1893), VII. 724. Now while hur had gotten the jugg at her snout,… Hur gave it a tug, ’till hur swigg’d it half out.
1762. Bridges, Burlesque Trans. Homer (1772), 246 (Farmer). When my landlord … fairly fills it full, I just can swigg it at one pull.
1837. Marryat, Snarleyyow, ix. You sailors will ever be swigging your can.
1780. R. Tomlinson, Slang Pastoral, 3. With such a companion,… To swig porter all day.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, App. i. 39. The Hero, that sits there, Swigging Blue Ruin, in that chair.
1838. Jas. Grant, Sk. Lond., 62. The oceans of ‘Entire’ which they are everlastingly swigging.
1845. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxxi. Beer; of which he swigged such copious draughts that most of his faculties were utterly drowned and washed away.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, xxxvi. He swigged off a great bumper as he was making the remark.
1871. Ruskin, in Collingwood, Life (1893), II. 127. ‘I am … drinking as much tea,’—taking his second cup—‘as I can swig.’
B. absol. or intr.
c. 1654. L. Price, Dead & Alive, II. v., in Roxb. Ball. (1891), VII. 389. The second time that he set [up] the bottle to his snout, He never left off swigging, till he had suckt all out.
a. 1734. North, Autobiog., xi. § 184, in Lives (1890), III. 143. I went to a dairy-house and swigged of the milk and water.
1792. J. Budworth, Fortn. Ramble, i. 4. He pulled a bottle of chamomile tea out of his pocket, and swigged heartily.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xli. Them down-hearted fellers as can’t svig avay at the beer.
1838. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. I. St. Nicholas, lix. Swigging as though he would empty the Rhine.
Hence Swigging vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1702. Yalden, Æsop at Court, Fox & Flies, iv. I’ll brush those Swigging Dogs away, That on thy Blood remorseless Prey.
1723. Vanbrugh, Lett., in Athenæum, 6 Sept. (1890), 322/3. I have been drinking waters at Scarborough three or four days, and am to return thither … for a weeks swigging more.
1826. W. E. Andrews, Crit. Rev. Fox’s Bk. Mart., III. 288. They had a swigging bout in prison.
1865. E. Burritt, Walk to Land’s End, 268. This would be called in America pretty large swigging for one family.
