E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Glass Breaker (A).
A wine-bibber. To crack a bottle is to drink up its contents and throw away the empty bottle. A glass breaker is one who drinks what is in the glass, and flings the glass under the table. In the early part of the nineteenth century it was by no means unusual with topers to break off the stand of their wineglass, so that they might not be able to set it down, but were compelled to drink it clean off, without heel-taps.
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“Troth, ye’re nae glass-breaker; and neither am I, unless it be a screed wi’ the neighbours, or when I’m on a ramble.”—Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering, chap. 45.
“We never were glass-breakers in this house, Mr. Lovel.”—Sir W. Scott: The Antiquary, chap. ix.
