or daffy’s elixir, subs. (common).—Gin. [From a popular medicine sold as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century: see advertisements (1709), in J. Ashton’s Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, i., pp. 7, 8: now known as ‘Tincture of Senna.’] For synonyms, see DRINKS.
1821. The Fancy, vol. I., p. 304. While carrying on his new vocation of publican, Jack did not deny himself the use of drops of DAFFY.
1841. LEMAN REDE, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 2. Take some DAFFY to the back parlour.
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, IV., 430. When I goes in where they are a havin’ their DAFFIES—that’s drops o’gin, sir.
1871. London Figaro, 15 April. [If the baby] should bawl persistently … he would … thoroughly dose it with DAFFY.
1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., 193. They had low foreheads, and wore big buttonholes, for so they termed the flowers, it was ‘the thing’ to wear. A good many of them, too, had been partaking freely of DAFFY.
