Green’s Dictionary of Slang

of a man, to have sexual intercourse; often as play at up-tails-all v.

1606		E. Sharpham Fleire III i: She euerie day sings John for the King, and at Vp tailes all shees perfect.
1613		Beaumont & Fletcher Coxcomb I vi: Then set your foot to my foot, and up tails all!
1660		Ladies Champion 4: [Ladies will] try whether thou art a kin to an Irish man or no, and teach thee Hay then up go we, up tayls all, the Pitchers gone to’th wall.
1663–74		Job for a loyner n.p.: John unto his work did fall And Nan she play’d at Uptails all.
1672		‘A Country Dialogue’ in Covent Garden Drollery 107: We will play at uptailes all; We’l dance a dance, I faith shall please thee: Up and down, and never miss.
a.1690		‘City Painter’ Additional Mss 34362.10: They nor he nor any thing can stand; But what he can he dos ... The Sport is uptailes all.
c.1700		‘The Deptford Plumb-Cake’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 72: Yet Ned did all the Wives command, / and play’d Boys at up tails all.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 177: And it hath been adjudged / As well by great as small, / That of all Pastimes none is like / To Up-tails all.
1725		N. Ward Amorous Bugbears 49: The sweet liberty of Playing at Uptails-all.
1732		Progress of a Rake 6: The jovial Sisters were unmarried, but being born under the Constellation of Venus, could not refrain from playing at Up Tails All.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues III 207/2: To enjoy [...] the sexual favour [...] To play at [...] up-tails-all.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 196: The terms used for copulating […] are not really euphemistic because it is implicit that no ambiguity could possibly result and, unlike euphemisms, they are, or used to be, avoided in polite, mixed company. Related to this group are the allusive up her petticoats, up her way, play at up-tails-all.