six o'clock swill

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six o'clock swill

(Brewing) informal Austral and NZ a period of heavy drinking, esp during the years when hotels had to close their bars at 6.00 p.m.

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive ?

The studies that emerged consider the biology of intoxication with a case study of legal response to intoxication and drunkenness, the origins of drunkenness with case studies of the anthropology of trading rounds and Indigenous Australians and alcohol, a historical and contemporary cross-cultural perspective with a case study of the Australian six o'clock swill, and drinking contexts and youth drunkenness with a case study of drunkenness on the British political agenda.

Expressions of drunkenness (four hundred rabbits)

Arvidson's poem 'Six O'Clock in the Gluepot' conjures up the six o'clock swill through presenting the barman's voice in the opening line--'What's it to be?'--and in the ironic conclusion which resituates the question in multiple temporal contexts: 'What's it to be?

"An Invincible Presence"

New Zealand must be the only country in the world that has a dictionary entry for "six o'clock swill."