verb. (common).—A generic verb of action. Thus 1 (thieves’) = to throw away or pass to a confederate; and 2 (general) to do easily; TO SLING A POT = to drink; TO SLING THE BOOZE = to stand treat; TO SLING A BOB (a tanner—anything) = to give; TO SLING ONE’S HOOK (BUNK, or DANIEL) = to decamp; TO SLING A DADDLE = to shake hands; TO SLING A CAT = to vomit; TO SLING A TINKLER = to ring the bell; TO SLING ONE’S JUICE (or JELLY) = to masturbate; TO SLING A POEM, ARTICLE, or BOOK = to write; TO SLING A HAT = to wave one in applause; TO SLING THE SMASH = to smuggle tobacco to prisoners; TO SLING ABOUT = to loaf; TO SLING INK (or A PEN) = to write: hence INKSLINGER = a clerk or author; TO SLING A FOOT = to dance; TO SLING ONE IN THE EYE = to blacken it; TO KILL A CROW WITH AN EMPTY SLING (RAY) = to gain without effort; TO SLING OFF (or PATTER or JAW) = to talk, to abuse, to insinuate: cf. SLANG; TO SLING A SNOT = to blow one’s nose with the fingers: also TO SLING; TO SLING (or JERK) A PART = to undertake a rôle: TO SLING A NASTY PART = to play so well that another would find it difficult to rival it; TO SLING ROUND ON THE LOOSE = to act recklessly; SLING YOURSELF (LET HER SLING!) = ‘Bestir yourself.’
1835. CROCKETT, Tour to the North and Down East, 37. We swung round to the wharf,… and when the captain told [the people who] I was, they SLUNG THEIR HATS, and gave three cheers.
1864. C. F. BROWNE (‘Artemus Ward’), Works (1870), 277. The chaps that write for the Atlantic, Betsy, understand their bisness. They can SLING INK, they can. Ibid., 305. You axe me, sir, to SLING SUM INK for your paper.
1873. GREENWOOD, In Strange Company, 338. He … swore … that if we did not that instant ‘SLING OUR DANIELS’ … he would ‘shy’ at us every heavenly article of crockery his apartment contained.
1884. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, xix. Teach singing-geography school for a change; SLING A LECTURE, sometimes.
1899. R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, vi. An’ blow me if I sha’n’t be sold up, too, if I don’t soon SLING MY ’OOK an’ git some more. Ibid., xxi. If ever I ketch yer messin’ abaht wi’ any o’ them, I’ll SLING ’im ONE IN THE EYE.
