A word describing
money given by a guy to his friends to buy
ale on the occasion of the first time those friends see him with a new
girlfriend (an old tradition in a part of
England, apparently).
"When any young men meet with an acquaintance who is in company with his sweetheart, they put in their claim for 'pitcherings,' or for a sum of money to be given by the male, which is spent in ale, and the courtship is ever afterwards duly recognized. Should he be discovered again with a fresh companion, the claim is renewed. 'Pitcherings, owd lad! Pitcherings!' is the polite mode of putting it."
C. Clough Robinson's Dialect of Leeds, 1862, via the Forgotten English calendar.