six o'clock swill

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

six o'clock swill (uncountable)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, historical) The last-minute rush to buy alcohol at a bar before it closed at 6pm.
   • 2003, Nicholas Faith, chapter 7, in Australia's Liquid Gold, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     Licensing laws in Australia were finally relaxed in 1967, bringing an end to the infamous six o'clock swill and encouraging people to eat out.

   • 2007, D. Kirkby, T. Luckins, Dining On Turtles: Food Feasts and Drinking in History, Springer, →ISBN, page 93:

     The six o'clock swill was the male ritual of consuming as many beers as possible in the hour before hotels and pubs closed at six o'clock. Early closing was introduced during World War One, when wartime patriotism and austerity and a general temperance mood impelled its introduction.

Further reading

• six o'clock swill on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Eric Partridge (1984) Paul Beale, editor, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English […], 8th edition, New York: Macmillan, page 1075