south, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

south adj.

1. (also southern) used in var. phrs. to mean down, e.g. south pole n.²and phrs. below.

1889		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Dec. 2/4: [S]he made a misstep and fell, coming plump down on the southern part of her anatomy.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 80: Were those two buttons of my waistcoat open all the time. [...] Good job it wasn’t farther south.
1953		E. Wilson Look Who’s Abroad Now 6: They kiss a lady’s hand all the way up to the elbow, and if they see yes-yes in her eyes, all the way up to the shoulder. [...] South of that is considered out of bounds.
1942		H. Ranfurly diary 26 May in To War With Whitaker (1994) 131: I said it may become difficult to obtain elastic girdles and that bras are very dependent on elastic, but I dodged mentioning needs further south.
2002		(con. 1998–2000) J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 19: All the muscles in my stomach and parts south cramp as the copper taste of fear rises to my mouth.
2013		J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 169: Your stinkers prefer when Mommy goes south. They make a mess, Mommy changes their diapers.

2. morally ‘down’, i.e. racy, sexy, pornographic.

1933

S. Walker Night Club Era 178: Next he went to see ‘Aphrodite’ at the Century Theater, a production which, for those days, was regarded as pretty far south.

3. less than.

1995

J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 228: She of the Scottish lilt and blood pressure just south of the U.K. GNP.

In compounds

southpaw

see separate entries.

south pole (n.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

down south (adj.)

1. (Aus./N.Z.) hidden; in one’s pocket; also as n., the pocket.

1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 20: down south — (1) Hidden, buried. (2) In one’s pocket.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: down south. Hidden, buried. In one’s pocket.
1952		West Australian (Perth) 23 Aug. 20/2: World War I gave us ‘down south’ (hidden).
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiv 4/3: down south: The pocket, i.e. in the direction of the pocket.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 67: down south [...] 2. The trouser pocket bottom, where money may be unsuccessfully searched for. ANZ.

2. (N.Z.) below the hem, where a slip is showing.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 67: down south [...] 3. Below the hemline of a dress, where the petticoat or slip is visible.

3. (US) in hell.

2021

S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 257: ‘[D]o you think we’ll see the boys? Like, if we don’t make it out of this, you think we’ll pass them on our way down south?’.

south of (adj.)

in terms of age, younger than.

2023

M. Herron Secret Hours 190: [J]ust another man, still south of forty.

south of the border

(US) below the waist, usu. referring to the vagina.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 187: south of the border (’40s) the vagina.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 296: A hurricane blew up in her heart; she started seeping south of the border.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 79: ‘You wanna talk to me, you gotta get me wet — and I don’t mean south of the border. I mean in here.’ Mrs. Zank made a feeble attempt to point down her throat.

way down south in Dixie (n.)

fellatio.

1939		D. Maurer ‘Prostitutes and Criminal Argots’ in Lang. Und. (1981) 118/2: way down south in dixie. The act of ‘Frenching’ a man. Also cop a bird, lay the lip.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

south gate discharge (n.)

see back-gate exit under back adj.²