See quotations. Mr. Bartlett gives an example from the Montgomery (Ala.) Mail, 1857.
a. 1854. [The planets] would all knock off work at once, and either play sick, or go “sloshing about” the heavens in the most rancantankerous sort of style imaginable.—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ iv. 69. (Italics in the original.)
1862. Sloshin around is jest goin rite thru a crowd, an mowin your swath, hitten rite an left everybody you meet slap over the face an eyes.—Seba Smith, ‘Letters of Major Jack Downing,’ Oct. 6. (Italics in the original.)
