verb. (common).—1. The mouth: also SLUICE-HOUSE. As verb.: e.g., TO SLUICE THE BOLT (DOMINOES, GOB, or IVORIES) = to drink heartily: see DOMINOES (GROSE). Whence SLUICERY = a public-house (GROSE).
1832. P. EGAN, Book of Sports, xiii. 203. Sam’s SLUICE HOUSE was again severely damaged, and some time must elaspe before he can crack a joke with any thing like pleasantry to his lips.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum: see MONOSYLLABLE.
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works, ii. 184. That whore, my wife … that us’d to open her SLUICE … to gratify her concupiscense.
Verb. (colloquial).—To paddle; to bathe (or wet) freely.
1861. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown at Oxford, xiii. He dried his neck and face, which he had been SLUICING with cold water.
1860. W. H. RUSSELL, My Diary in India, I. 4. The great seas … SLUICING the decks with a mimic ocean.
TO SLUICE OFF, verb. phr. (American).—To divert; to lay aside.
1862. The Congregationalist, 3 June. Some of present earning must thus be SLUICED OFF, to repair the poverty of the past.
