subs. (old).—1. A frolic. As verb. = to carouse; SPREEISH = drunkish: see SCREWED (GROSE and BEE).
1821. P. EGAN, Life in London, II. v. Roosters and the ‘peep-o’-day boys’ were out on a prowl for a SPREE.
1824. SCOTT, St. Ronan’s Well, xx. John Blower, honest man, as sailors are aye for some SPREE or another, wad take me ance to see ane Mrs. Siddons.
1844. Puck, 14. The Proctor caught him in a SPREE, Asked his name … with courtesie.
1847. J. E. WALSH, Sketches of Ireland Sixty Years Ago, 15. The ‘SPREE’ would probably have ended in the total sacking of Flattery’s house.
1848. E. Z. C. JUDSON (‘Ned Buntline’), The Mysteries and Miseries of New York, I. 113. Taking a cruise about town, or going on a SPREE.
1841. E. G. PAIGE (‘Dow, Jr.’), Short Patent Sermons, lxi. If a young man creates his own ruination by going it loose, and SPREEING it tight, it is surely a disgrace.
1859. Punch, xxxvii. 9 July, 22, ‘A Chapter on Slang.’
| Our friend prone to vices you never may see, | |
| Though he goes on the Loose, or the Cut, or the SPREE. |
1860. T. WINTHROP, Love and Skates. [He] took to SPREEIN’ and liquor, and got ashamed of himself, and let down from a foreman to a hand.
1870. All the Year Round, 3 Dec., 8. He is not ‘out on the rampage,’ the ‘loose,’ or the ‘SPREE.’
1885. Daily Telegraph, 16 Nov. He was always of the devil-may-care sort, fond of SPREEING about and lively company.
1892. KIPLING, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘Gentlemen-Rankers.’
| Gentleman-rankers out on the SPREE, | |
| Damned from here to Eternity. |
Adj. (Winchester).—1. Conceited; stuck-up; of persons; (2) smart, stylish, befitting a Wykehamist SPREE-MESS (see quot. c. 1840).
c. 1840. MANSFIELD, School-Life at Winchester College (1866), 72. At the end of the half-year we used to have large entertainments called SPREE-MESSES, between Toy-time and Chapel, consisting of tea, coffee, muffins, cakes, &c., the funds for which were generally provided by fines inflicted during Toy-time for talking loud, slamming the door, coming in without whistling (to show that it was not a Master entering), improper language, &c., &c. Sometimes a SPREE-MESS was given by the boys about to leave that Half.
1881. PASCOE, ed. Everyday Life in Our Public Schools, 94. Deprive a Wykehamist of words … such as ‘quill’ … ‘pruff’ … ‘SPREE’ … ‘cud’ … and his vocabulary becomes limited.
