Liquor

subs. (common).—A drink.

  1882.  Punch, LXXXII. 193. 2. These nips and pegs and LIQUORS at all hours of the day were unknown to us.

  Verb. (common).—To drink; to treat: generally TO LIQUOR UP. Also (old).—TO LIQUOR ONE’S BOOTS (q.v.).

  1607.  W. S., The Puritaine, Oh, the musicians Master Edward, call ’em in, and LIQUOR them a little.

  1682.  DRYDEN, Absalom and Achitophel, ii. 461. Round as a globe, and LIQUOR’D every chink.

  1699.  WARD, The London Spy, p. 15. When, with abundance of pains, and as much patience, we had LIQUORED our throats.

  1718.  E. HINTON, Plutarch’s Morals, ‘The Apothegms of Kings and great Commanders,’ i. 294. ‘If the Athenians,’ said he, ‘deal severely with us, let them execute the sniveling and Gut-founder’d; I’ll die WELL LIQUORED, and with my Dinner in my Belly.’

  1838.  J. C. NEAL, Charcoal Sketches, i. 36. Come, boys, let’s LIQUOR—what’ll you have?

  1843.  W. T. PORTER, ed., The Big Bear of Arkansas, etc., p. 31. Jumping up, he asked all present to LIQUOR before going to bed.

  1850.  HENRY CLAY LEWIS (‘Madison Tensas’), Odd leaves from the Life of a Louisiana ‘Swamp Doctor,’ p. 175. Doc, les LICKER, it’s a dry talk.

  1852.  BRISTED, The Upper Ten Thousand, p. 57. The very necessity of ‘LIQUORING’ so often in our warm weather obliges us to weaken our liquor. You can’t ice this sherry too much.

  1853.  HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), Wise Saws, p. 34. Come in here to the hotel, and let’s LIQUOR, for I am nation dry.

  1872.  Daily Telegraph, 18 Sept. All five then went into the refreshment bar, and—as a bonâ fide traveller has a right to do—LIQUORED UP, clinking their glasses merrily together.

  1872.  Echo, 23 Aug. He joined them, and accepted the general invitation given by De Castro to have a ‘shout,’ or, as the Americans would say a LIQUOR-UP, at the hotel on the opposite side of the way.

  1882.  Daily Telegraph, 13 Nov., p. 5, col. 3. Who gobbled their food, LIQUORED UP repeatedly, smoked or chewed to excess, and expectorated incessantly.

  1888.  EGGLESTON, The Graysons, xix. Come boys, LIQUOR UP!

  TO LIQUOR ONE’S BOOTS, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. LIQUOR, TO LIQUOR ONE’S BOOTS, to drink before a journey, among Roman Catholicks to administer the extreme unction.

  IN LIQUOR, phr. (colloquial).—The worse for drink. For synonyms, see DRINKS and SCREWED.

  1756.  The World, No. 186. It was her misfortune over-night to be a little IN LIQUOR.

  1766.  COLMAN, The Clandestine Marriage, in Works (1777), i. 274. And now you are a little IN LIQUOR, you fear nothing.

  1888.  PAYN, Thicker than Water, xv. For her reflection, when all was said, had been similar to that indulged in by the gentleman IN LIQUOR, ‘too much, yet not enough.’