A drink concocted with spirits.
1788. [From drinking toddy] he proceeded to drink grog. After a while nothing would satisfy him but slings made of equal parts of rum and water, with a little sugar. From slings he advanced to raw rum, and from common rum to Jamaica spirits.—Dr. Rush of Philadelphia in the Mass. Spy, July 31.
1788. Rum, whisky, brandy, gin, stinkibus, bitters, toddy, grog, slings, and fifty other liquors, all come under the denomination of spirits.—Dialogue between a Sword and a Hogshead of Spirits: Maryland Journal, Nov. 21.
1804.
| And when deprived of every shift | |
| Paine takes a sling, and gives a lift; | |
| For though, when sober, Tom is dull, | |
| Stupid, and filthy as a gull, | |
| Yet give him brandy, and the elf | |
| Will talk all night about himself. | |
Mass. Spy, Jan. 25: from the Connecticut Courant. |
1806.
| The cordial drop, the morning dram, I sing, | |
| The mid day toddy, and the evening sling. | |
Mass. Spy, July 16. |
1819. Some of the company called for a sling, which I found to be a compound of whiskey, sugar, and water.—“An Englishman” in the Western Star: id., May 12.
1823. Jo. Tipler used to say that eleven glasses of sling before breakfast were as good as a thousand.—Id., Nov. 5.
1824. [We] talked politics, and drank two slings till eleven.—The Microscope, Albany, N.Y., April 3.
1824. A traveller entering a tavern called loudly for a sling. “Beware, honey,” said an Irishman, Goliah fell by a sling, and so may you.—Mass. Spy, July 14.
1825. I ceased altogether taking my sling and toddy, and laid aside my smoking apparatus.—Id., Feb. 16.
1826. When I got home, Moses made some sling, which we drank together.—Id., Oct. 11.
1827. Ven Tafid vent out to fight vid Goliah, he dook nothing vid him put one sling; now don’t mistake me, mine frients: it vas not a rum sling; no, nor a gin sling; no, nor a mint vater sling; no, it was a sling mate vit an hickery shtick.—A Dutch sermon, from the Cincinnati Parthenon: id., July 25.
1829. The morning bitters—the noon-tide dram—the evening sling—have withered the finest flowers in nature’s garden.—Id., July 8.
1839. “Had he nothing in his hand?” “He had nothing, sir, but a glass of brandy sling.”—Daily Sun, Cincinnati, May 22.
