Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a pretty young woman [see Williams for fig. uses of peach in 16C–17C].

1754		E. Turner letter 16 Aug. in Dickins & Stanton 18C Correspondence (1910) 238: I had almost forgot that orange Peach, your Niece .
1884		Sporting Times 9 Aug. 5/4: Any nice-looking woman: I suppose you are one of the greatest writers who ever lived? Any Member of our Staff: What will you ’ave, Peach?
1892		W. Norr Stories of Chinatown 38: A little dark-haired peach.
1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 57: Lizzie B. is a peach, John Henry! You’ve got the eye for the good girls, all right, all right!
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 4: The Men were wondering why any Peacherette with a Kentucky Shape, who could take her pick of all Mankind, should want to carry such a sad Specimen of Incubus.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 11 Dec. 4/7: We have met you on the Goldfields, / We have bumped you on the Beach, / And we’ve always found you partial / To a stray and ripesome ‘peach’.
1909		F. Murry [perf. Marie Lloyd] Rosie had a very rosy time 🎵 Johnnies each of ’em thought her a peach.
1910		Williams & Godfrey [perf. Mark Sheridan] ‘By the Sea’ 🎵 For each peach that you meet seems so dainty and sweet / That you’ll hardly know which peach to bite.
1914		S. Lewis Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 188: Miss Croubel is a peach.
1915		C.J. Dennis ‘The Intro’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 22: But still I ’ug / That promise that she give me fer the beach. / The bonzer peach!
1922		A. Christie Secret Adversary (1955) 62: She’s some peach.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 37: Queenie was a peach—not only the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
1930		E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 61: Flapper: We look at the show — there are peaches of girls in the nude.
1933		S. O’Casey Within the Gates Act ii: Look, Godfrey, oh, look! Wot a peach! ‘Ow would you like to tuck ’er up at night, Godfrey?
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 339: You got a peach all right.
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 115: He forgets himself when he sees a real peach.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 89: A little brassiereless beauty, a real fence-corner peach.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 168: Peach A sexually attractive person, female.
1977		The Stranglers ‘Peaches’ 🎵 Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches.
1981		S. Berkoff Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 15: My dishy lovely slice of peach Melba.
1999		J. Baker Walking With Ghosts (2000) 162: Geordie was getting a real peach of a woman.
2001		N. Tosches Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 310: In standard slang, a pretty girl was a peach.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] His girl Hannah was a peach [...] the real deal, nineteen years of pure dynamic female glory.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘She’s a real peach, ain’t she?’.

2. (also peony) someone or something of exceptional worth, quality or desirability; a fine example.

c.1870		B. Harte How Are You, Sanitary i: Phrases such as camps may teach [...]. Such as ‘Bully!’ ‘Them’s the peach!’ [DA].
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 42: Mr. Paul painted his Whiskers’s beak, and you could see it a mile tru a fog! It was a peach!
1900		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 21 Apr. 7/1: The fight was a ‘peach.’ Neither man ever fought harder or better.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 3 Feb. 2/2: It’s a peach of a part and she's a peacherino, sure!
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 174: Say, this one’s a peach, ain’t he? [...] He indicated a big ‘husky’ dog with a bushy tail.
1905		Truth (London) 11 May 1176/2: [H]is intimation that one of the gentlemen was ‘soon blown out by a peach from Cotter which disturbed the middle peg’ is not quite so lucid as one could wish.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘A Bird of Bagdad’ in Strictly Business (1915) 189: Unless you’re a peach at guessing it’s back to the Bosphorus for you on your magic linoleum.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 13 Dec. 10/2: Put all your tickets on him, ‘girlies’; he’s a peach.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘The Revenge of Kid Morales’ in Taking the Count 279: They’re sore at each other [...] It ought to be a peach of a fight.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 45: ‘I poked him hard in the guts, and gave him a peach on the chin’.
1928		(con. 1918) L. Nason Top Kick 19: I’m comin’ down with my boils again. I got a regular peony right where it’ll do the most harm.
1929		L. Thomas Woodfill of the Regulars 114: I took a peach of a header into a big bank of snow.
1930		W.R. Burnett Iron Man 85: ‘Peach of a picture,’ said Coke.
1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 319: Say, he wasn’t bad! Or else I was a peach of a coach.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 416: Aunt Minnie was a peach. She was always baking cookies for us, and making ice cream, and stuff like that.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 24: It’s going to be a peach of a day. Light breeze.
1964		‘Charles Barrett’ Address: Kings Cross 60: We went and looked at her apartment. It was a peach, fourth-floor [...] and terrific harbour views.
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 10: I’ll never forget this, buddy. You’re a peach, real peach.
1970		D. Ponicsan Last Detail 106: Look, Charlotte, you’ve been a peach.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 174: You’ve got a peach of a gift, Li’l Darlin’.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 137: And you’ve been an absolute peach about it.
1999		Indep. Rev. 5 Nov. 4: A peach of a clarification comes from this week’s Harrow Observer.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] It was a peach of a day.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 9: [...] knowing the work would be viewed as a peach by any blagger worth his salt.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 296: If she wants to play let it be. Yes! She was a peach.

3. ironic or negative use of sense 3.

1894		S. Crane in N.Y. Press 2 Dec. in Stallman (1966) 108: Say, young feller, you’re a peach wid dose feet o’ yours. Keep off me!
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 217: Gosh, but playin’ drunk gimme one peach of a thirst!
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 38: Anything nice or noticeable, as a ‘peach of a cold’.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 7: She’s an old peach [...] She starts drinkin’ double Martinis about six an’ by midnight she’s good an’ high.
1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 41: The idiot we’ve got for a platoon leader takes the peach preserve.
1972		E. Shrake Strange Peaches 19: She brought one of them [i.e. ‘beatnik trash’] with her last summer. Some peach!
2008		J. Lansdale Leather Maiden 88: ‘There’s Mrs Timpson. She’s a peach’ [...] ‘Do I sense some bitterness?’.
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: He looks at me like I’ve just given him a peach of a backhander [...] He looks none too chuffed and starts to spark up a bit.

4. (US campus) a promiscuous woman.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 48: peach, n. A loose woman.

5. in pl., in sexual uses.

6. (drugs) in pl., dexedrine [the colour of the capsules].

1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.
1971		Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, OH) 16 Mar. 2/6: For example, the amphetamines are identified on the chart as ‘bennies,’ ‘peaches,’ [etc.].
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 16: Peaches — Amphetamine.