Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a prostitute.

1656		Mennis & Smith et al. ‘Of Banishing the Ladies out of Town’ Wit and Drollery 65: Farewell good places old and new, And Oxford Kates once more adieu; But it goes unto our very hearts, To leave the Cheese-cakes and the Tarts.
1699		‘The Praise of the Dairy-Maid’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy I 14: The charming delights of Cheese Cakes and Custard; / For at Tottenham Court / You can have no Sport, / Unless you give Custards and Cheese cakes for’t.

2. (orig. US) pin-up pictures [? the photographer’s call for the woman to ‘Say cheese’].

1913		T.A. Dorgan Daffydils 15 Jan. [synd. cartoon strip] We present Mlle Cheesecake, the Maid of Mystery.
1934		Time 17 Sept. 30/2: ‘Cheesecake’—leg-pictures of sporty females.
1941		W. Winchell On Broadway 15 Mar. [synd. col.] The slang word ‘cheesecake’ means a woman’s legs.
1956		H. Ellison ‘Nedra at f:5.6’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] I’ve made my living at cheesecake [...] from every crotch-crazy angle you can think of.
1963		A.E. Morgan Six-Eleven (1966) 183: A closeup of her left eyebrow is cheesecake.
1967		New Scientist 13 Apr. 72/3: In flickering torchlight the scenes probably appeared to move. Some of them clearly included cheese-cake and leg shows.
1976		M. Braly False Starts 52: We [...] kept between us a scrapbook filled with cheesecake.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 7: A blonde bimbo with an enormous pair of boobs who’d posed for a heap of cheesecake.

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1946		E. Wilson Pikes Peek or Bust 184: ‘I wore a blouse and skirt split up the side. It was kinda tight. [...] I never did cheesecake before. I didn’t want to be a little cheesecake dame’.
1952		(con. 1944) Wilder & Blum Stalag 17 [film script] 45: In Stosh’s hand is the big Betty Grable cheesecake photo.
1955		E. Hunter Blackboard Jungle 223: Angry because he was behaving like a godamned adolescent ogling a cheesecake magazine.
1963		‘Geoffrey Tolhurst’ Flat 4 King’s Cross (1966) 89: ‘Would you like to pose for me?’ He looked down at the pavement. ‘It’s for cheesecake pictures,’ he added.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 124: Fisher was sitting at the table in their quarters over a fresh batch of cheesecake magazines, clipping pictures out for his collection.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 27: It [i.e. sex appeal] was a quality [...] partly learned from cheesecake calendars and Tanya Tucker albums.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 71: You can [...] take all the cheesecake photos you want.
1999		Guardian Guide 5–12 June 21: The crown princess of American cheesecake pinup girls.
2001		J. Baker Shooting in the Dark (2002) 145: She brushed some of the cheesecake posters aside.
2004		Mad mag. July 46: A magazine full of [...] cheesecake pictures with no real nudity.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 23: [C]heesecake mags going back to ’36.

4. (orig. US) a pin-up girl, a sexy woman .

1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 12 Dec. [synd. col.] It was in one of [the hotel’s] rooms that Arnold Rothstein was laid low with what some [...] say was a piece of a certain 50th Street restaurant’s cheese cake.
1942		Time 24 Aug. 14: The Supreme Empress of Cheesecake, the very Marlene Dietrich herself.
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 115: All these cheesecakes have bambini.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 199: And this here pretty secretary of hers was setting [sic] at the end of the desk, with her knees crossed – cheesecake, I think is what they call it in the newspapers.
1976		J. Heller Good As Gold (1979) 129: I wanted to be a cheesecake model or pose in the nude.
1986		Sophiatown in M. Orkin At the Junction (1995) 175: The front page of Drum is waiting! Cheesecake, crime, babies, boxing – and more cheesecake.

5. a fool.

1943

R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 117: Ain’t you got no eighteen pence, you sloppy old cheesecake, you?

6. (US black) a white homosexual [the colour but why homosexual?].

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 cheese cake Definition: a white man who is homosexual Example: That cheese cake was trying to suck me off.