pleasure, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pleasure n.

also pleasance

an orgasm; sexual intercourse.

1498

15001600170018001900

1934

[1498		J. Alcock In die Innocencium n.p.: [L]echery is pleasure].
1560		Becon Inuectiue Agaynst Whoredome cited in Williams Dict. Sexual Lang. I 1055: He denounces ‘those maids ... Al gyuen ... to fylthy pleasaunce’.
1687		J. Phillips [trans.] Cervantes Don Quixote 185: [T]he Lecherous Baggage, finding she had the Key of her Mistress’s Secrets, and that her Mistress was now become her Slave (a main Misfortune. that attends the forbidden Pleasures of Women).
1698		‘The Enjoyment’ in Poetical Remaines of Rochester, Etherege, and Others 97: Tho’ fallen from the top of Pleasure Hill, / With Longing Eyes we look up thither still.
1848		Paul Pry 27 Nov. n.p.: From this human scum [i.e. pimps] do many of these children of pleasure (?) suffer blows, indignity, and abuse of the grossest kind.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) IV 774: Then I frigged [...] and after immense trouble got a pleasure.
1934		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana II 28: Just about that time I had my pleasure an’ fell off the roof.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

pleasure boat (n.) (also pleasure conduit, ...girth, ...pit, ...place)

1. the vagina.

1596

1600170018001900

a.1904

1596		Davies of Hereford ‘In Katam’ in Epigrams viii: Content thee Kate, although thy pleasure wasteth, Thy pleasure’s place like a buff jerkin lasteth [F&H].
1662		G. Torriano [trans.] The second alphabet consisting of proverbial phrases 227: Salir il Monte di Venere [...] to get up Venus Mount, viz. to use Carnal Copulation, to get upon a Womans Pleasure Place, or Mount Faulcon.
1730		J. Miller Humours of Oxford I i: gain.: What, bound for the Port of Wedlock, Sir? ape.: No, no, no, no, Sir, I only use her as a Pleasure-Boat [...] purely as a passo Tempo.
1748–49		Cleland Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 77: He lets the fury loose [...] and driving with refresh’d rage, breaks in, and plugs up the whole passage of that soft-pleasure-conduit. [Ibid.] 83: I [...] tightened the pleasure-girth around my restless inmate, by a secret spring of suction and compression.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) II 401: Yet as my belly touched hers, and my prick rubbed against her pleasure-pit it became useless.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. a mistress, a kept woman.

1687

J. Phillips [trans.] Cervantes Don Quixote 138: I could never believe he courted me for a Wife, but rather for a Miss; and truly I was brought up too piously to be any man’s Pleasure-boat, how great soever.

pleasure-lady (n.) (also pleasurable lady)

1. a prostitute (cf. lady of pleasure under lady n.).

1654

17001750180018501900

a.1904

1654		Citie Matrons 8: You Pleasure-Ladies, that live by sporting.
1675		Æsopicks 82: Then said the Crow, Why how now sawcie Jack! / Thinkst thou a Strumpet sits upon thy Back? / Were I a Pleasure-Lady, here I’d sleep.
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 91: All the pleasurable ladies from the Liberty, rode criss cross upon their neddies.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. ()

pleasure-pivot (n.)

the penis.

a.1749

1748–49

Cleland Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 123: So that stuck upon the pleasure-pivot, and clinging round his neck [...] he carried me once around the couch.