Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to marry; thus spliced, married, splicing, marriage.

1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 33: Trunnion! Trunnion! turn out and be spliced, or lie still and be damned.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Spliced. Married. Sea Term, an allusion to joining two Ropes-Ends by Splicing.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘Tack and Tack’ in Collection of Songs II 162: To a kind heart for ever / I’ve spliced myself.
1797		‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized II v: In God’s name, let’s have ’em spliced.
1805		J. Davis Post Captain (1813) 27: It was a great sacrifice in so young a girl, to get spliced to so old a man.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
c.1815		J.K. Paulding Bucktails (1847) III ii: Divine lady [...] shall we be spliced?
1829		D. Jerrold Black-Ey’d Susan II iii: peter: Why they are spliced together for life. cross.: Married! why I never knew of this? peter: [...] They were spliced before we went upon the last station.
1836		‘Cat’s-Meat Nell’ in Cockchafer 4: Says I, ‘Nell, I’m in love, my dear, / And wish to know if vether / We to St. Giles’s church shall steer, / And there be spliced together.’.
1841		‘He Was Such A Queer Old Man’ Dublin Comic Songster 204: She vow’d that him she’d only love, / So got spliced to the queer old man.
1841		Sydney Herald 26 Oct. 2/4: Mr Rennie gave an immense number of examples of similar slang [...] sticks, for ‘household furniture;’ seedy, for ‘poor;’ spliced, for ‘married’.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 123: They have a ball [...] to shew off the girls, and give them an opportunity of getting spliced.
1848		Talfourd & Seymour Sir Rupert, the Fearless I v: Now then, you who’ve spliced the main brace, / Pe’haps will splice us two.
1851		Melville Moby Dick (1907) 22: Sal and me slept in that ere bed the night we were spliced.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Dec. n.p.: [cartoon caption] Capital fun to get spliced.
1857		Trollope Three Clerks (1869) 379: She’s just gone and got herself spliced to Peppermint this morning.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: [T]he ceremony of splicing is to be performed at dusk.
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act III: A fellow coming to office the morning he’s going to be spliced [...] by Jove, it beats the Old Bailey by lengths.
1870		D. Kirwan Palace & Hovel 65: We were spliced, Judy and I — she wos an Irish gal and a good worker.
1871		Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 7 Jan. 2/1: [W]hen they get marredi, they are ‘noosed,’ ‘coupled,’ ‘spliced,’ ‘paired’ and ‘squelched’.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 151: Now what’s to prevent me from splicing her, and making her happy through life.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 121: He'd already been doubly spliced, / But he wished for Number Three.
1887		J. Millard ‘Polly The Slavey’ 🎵 Perhaps some day I may be wed [...] Although there’s many spliced tis said / Who fate are now bemoaning.
1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 1 Feb. 3/4: [headline] A Dadeville, Ala., Splicing.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 2 June 1/4: The priests upon whom was the onus of severally splicing them proceeded to read with embarassing distinctness the causes whereforte matrimony was ordained.
1898		J.D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 36: That’s nice carryin’s on for a gal wots goin’ to be spliced the day arter to-morrer.
1898		Regiment 14 May 105/1: Jacques got this advice— / To seek no more above his rank the girl he wished to splice.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 58: I likes ye both, but I’ll splice with the one that stops boozin’ the first.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 Jan. 4/6: Poor Battenburg soon found that princess-splicing wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.
a.1904		Cliffe & Moore [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Coster’s Wedding 🎵 Jest seventeen of us, got wed for bett’r or wuss / And we had none of us been never spliced before.
1905		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘As Good As New’, Sporting Times 21 Jan. 1/4: He’s engaged to be spliced.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 296: I’ve heard Big Steve intended the young ones to be spliced up when they came of age.
1918		Aussie (France) 7 Sept. 7/2: Don’t youse blokes reckon a cove’s dilly to splice one of them mademoiselles when there’s whips of Aussie tarts like these?
1918		‘Bartimeus’ Long Trick 24: ‘Lor’, yes, and you got spliced too’.
1924		Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 296: Fancy that nipper wantin’ to be spliced.
1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 140: I got a regular girl [...] Goin’ to get spliced nex’ week.
1936		W. Holtby South Riding (1988) 375: Mrs. B. and I are going to splice up, my girl.
1938		G. Greene Brighton Rock (1943) 120: We shall see our young friend spliced yet.
1946		D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 40: When I was courtin’ my wife she said she was twenty. The day we got spliced she said she was thirty.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 150: Got spliced just after the war, didn’t they?
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 91: Is that why you never got spliced?
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 157: Two men who decide to make a go of it in prison want to be [...] spliced.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 95: He also got spliced and finished up siring six anklebiters.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 292: I can’t think of anything more romantic than getting spliced on the blue sparkling Mediterranean.
1994		C. Dexter Daughters of Cain (1995) 280: Like I told you, I’m gettin’ spliced – got to be a respectable girl now.
2000		Observer 30 Apr. 32: They do not seem to share the reluctance that so many heterosexual men and women feel nowadays towards the idea of getting spliced.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 168: [B]oth Charles Darwin and Thomas Malthus had got spliced to ladies with trustworthy genes.

2. to have sexual intercourse.

1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Nov. 3/2: That’s a nice young gal [i.e. a prostitute], I reckon; I calculate I’ll splice her cool; get change for these coins.
1908		D. Stewart Wild Tribes of London in Illus. Police News 18 Jan. 12/1: ‘And the gal?’ ‘Well, I’ll splice her, as I did her sister’.

3. to perform the marriage ceremony.

1904

Ade ‘To Make a Hoosier Holiday’ 🌐 Then we’ll lead the happy couple to the altar, and after Brother King has done a scientific job of splicin’, we’ll give them their combination Christmas and weddin’ presents.