bottle smasher

plural bottle smashers

1. colloquialSomeone who causes public disturbances or violent brawls while intoxicated.

   Hatchet-Swingers and Bottle-Smashers had been holding an all-night session.

   1901, Unattributed, “Caught His Pal”, in Duluth Evening Herald

   5 more examples

   We pulled a little switch this year, and held the stag in First Term in order not to crowd all the functions into one term. This worked quite well, as it seemed there were more bottle-smashers there is year than ever before.

   1959, R. M. Duncan — R. Solohub, “Engineering Social Review”, in Slide rule - Vol 25

   The bottle-smashers, if caught, will no doubt be more severely dealt with than Francis Caldwell, who was given a conditional discharge after admitting drilling a hole in his electrical meter to stop his wife running up huge bulls.

   1977, Unattributed, “One Way of a Cutting a Wife's Electrical Bill”, in The Times UK

   But having seen the antics of his customers—the grumblers as well as the bottle-smashers—is it any wonder that newcomers to the street are taking their coffee back?

   1998, Paul Vallely, “Gunmen sheltering in the shadow of the Cross”, in The Independent

   The was still cursing himself, the drunken bottle-smashers and life in general [...]

   2001, Lillian Darcy, The paramedic's secret, page 92

   Every third or fourth generation is a generation of radicals, of revolutionaries. We, my friends, are the bottle-smashers. We release the genies. We run riot, get shot, get infiltrated, get bought off. We die, go bust, sell out to the man. Sure as eggs is eggs. But the genies we let loose stay loose. In the ears of the young the genies whisper what was unsayable.

   2020, David Mitchell, Utopia Avenue