A recent query about the meaning of "sink my jig" led me off on a bit of a tangent. After finding a Jiggs dinner (it's a thing), I wanted to make sure they were "sinking" dinners and drinks back then and there. It appears they weren't. Examples online are just plain rare. Ngram doesn't register any hits for "sink a drink", even with wildcards. That didn't seem right. I eventually persuaded Elephind to cough up two examples of "sink a drink" from short stories published in newspapers in Australia. The earlier one was from 1935.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47231802?searchTerm=%22sink+a+drink%22 (second column, 2/3 down.)
There doesn't seem to be a way to copy the page image from this archive.
MW grudgingly acknowledges the usage in "sink" definition 11 – "chiefly British : to drink down completely"
When and where did folks first start to "sink" drinks and comestibles?
How did the familiarity of the phrase expand? Was there a single song lyric or similar that popularized it, or did it just slowly gain traction over most of a century?
Best Answer
The OED lists a 1932 citation:
Personally, I feel like the meaning is pretty transparent, since it's pretty similar to "downing a drink" (which apparently is the older expression).