subs. (nautical).—1. Food. Hence 2. (GROSE) = a foul feeder: also SLUSH-BUCKET; SLUSHER (or SLUSHY), see quot. 1890. Also 3 (old) = a drunkard.
1890. The Argus, 20 Sept., 13, 6. ‘Sundays are the most trying days of all,’ say the cuisiniers.… This man’s assistant is called ‘the SLUSHER.’
1896. A. B. PATERSON, The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, ‘Those Names,’ 162. The tarboy, the cook, and the SLUSHY … with the rest of the shearing horde.
4. (American journalists’).—Indifferent matter; PADDING (q.v.).
