subs. (common).—1. Money: generic: see RHINO. Also (rhyming slang) SUGAR-AND-HONEY.
1862. The Cornhill Magazine, vi. Nov., 648. We have just touched for a rattling stake of SUGAR at Brum.
1887. J. BONWICK, Romance of the Wool Trade, III. iv. 273. Up it goes once more, and then I hear him sing out ‘Sold again, and got the SUGAR’ (a colonial slang word used for ready money); ‘half a sheep for a shilling.’
2. (old).—Flattery; GAMMON (q.v.). Also as verb. etc.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, iii. 1. 48.
| ’Tis too much proved,—that with devotion’s visage | |
| And pious action we do SUGAR o’er | |
| The devil himself. |
Verb. (rowing).—To malinger at the oars; to shirk while pretending to row hard.
TO SUGAR OFF, verb. phr. (American).—To amount to: in speaking of large sums of money.
