Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) used in a number of semi-euph. excl. e.g. I’ll be browned! brown me! [synon. with buggered adj.¹ / bugger me! under bugger v.¹ ].

1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 34: Well, I’ll be browned!
1929		C. McKay Banjo 33: But brown me ef I’m a telling-it-too-much kind a darky.

2. (orig. US, also do a brown) to perform anal intercourse, to sodomize.

1905–07		‘Old Gingerbread’ in Bawdy N.Y. State MS. n.p.: She asked me to brown her, I knew it was wrong, / But I couldn’t stop old ginger bread nine inches long.
1919		Transcript Foster Inq. in L.R. Murphy Perverts by Official Order (1989) 42: Zipf explained that by ‘brown’ he meant ‘pushing my prick in his ass’. [Ibid.] 48: ‘What proof have you got that I “browned” you?’ he demanded.
c.1925		Burgess Papers in K. White First Sexual Revolution (1993) 94: I have never told a girl that I have browned or have been frenched. She would think that I was queer.
1934		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana II 6: ‘Where did you get that simply devine [sic] new overcoat?’ ‘Browning King’s, dear.’ ‘I didn’t ask you how, I asked you where.’.
c.1940		God Ship Venus in Bold (1979) 102: We browned and browned that faithful hound / From Calais ’cross to Dover.
1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1945		D. Vining A Gay Diary (1996) 19 July 486: He admitted that what he likes is browning and being browned.
1945		‘Alice Blue Gown’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of the RAAF 14: ’Twas the first time I ever was browned.
1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 4: brown: To have anal intercourse, with reference to active partner. [Ibid.] 31: One of the them manages at the same time to ‘brown’ and ‘blow’ the other one.
1967		‘Philip Barrows’ Whores, Queers & Others I [ebook] ‘I knew at the bar the first night I saw you that you’d be good in bed. Can I brown you now?’.
1970		San Diego Sailor 36: I didn’t think he’d done much browning before with a thing that size.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 88: anal intercourse [...] do a brown (dated, ’20s).
1973		(con. 1940s–60s) Hogbotel & ffuckes ‘Alice Blue Gown’ in Snatches and Lays 15: In my sweet little Alice blue gown, / ’Twas the first time I ever was browned.
1977		G.F. Newman A Prisoner’s Tale 50: Most in here let you brown ’em for a bit.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 96: I’d brown a dead mule before I let you lay one cracker hand on my black butt.
1988		R. Doyle Commitments 79: Did he brown yeh, Jimmy? Outspan asked. – No. he just ran his fingers through me curly fellas.
1989–2003		R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐 anal intercourse: [...] Syn: do a brown.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 469: I found a snapshot of Rock Hudson browning a Filipino jockey.
2009		(con. 1960s) J. Ellroy Blood’s a Rover 26: Got a fruit gig for you. They guy likes to brown well-hung Filipinos.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 152: [S]ome faigelah deputy browning guys in Ferndell Park.

3. (US) used fig., to treat harshly.

2023

(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 30: [of a divorcing wife] She’ll get wise and brown him up the dirt road.