Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also key of Cupid) the penis [the complement to keyhole n.; see double entendres in D’Urfey, Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719), e.g. ‘Ne’er hope to keep a find Cabinet lock’d, / When every Furr’d Gown has a Key, Sir’ and ‘To have her stock, / So close kept Lock’d, / And put a Key to her Till’].

c.1564		Buckley ‘Oxford Libell’ in Arundel Ms. II 284: There is a key of longe time knowen / it cannot ruste y’ vse is greate / Yeat entreth in where seed is sowen / in everie locke it playeth feate.
1607–8		R. Armin Two Maids of More-clacke H: I am thy treasure but thou bear’st the keie.
1617		Davies of Hereford Wits Bedlam 53: My Key can open, but not shut the Lock: Sith tis a Spring; and Kayes in generall Will doo’t.
1638		‘Cuckolds Haven’ in Chappell Roxburghe Ballads (1871) I 46: A woman that will be drunk, will eas’ly play the Punck; For when her wits are sunk all keyes will fit her Trunk.
1656		Mennis & Smith ‘Epigrams’ Musarum Deliciae (1817) 31: Husband (said she) I swear by cock [...] The dev’ll himselfe can’t keep that lock / Which every key can open.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 130: [He] Would give his whole Shop, To get pretty Peggy’s good will; To have her stock, So close kept Lock’d, And put in a Key to her Till.
1723		Rape of the Bride vi: There is no other Intention hereby, but [...] Amusment and Diversion [...] especially [of] the Ladies, the Lock is before ’em, and all have Liberty to try and fit their Key.
1772		G. Stevens ‘The Sentiment Song’ in Songs Comic and Satyrical 125: More upright fore-knowledge that Lock is commanding [...] That Lock has the Casket of Cupid within it, / So – Here’s to the Key Lads, – the Critical Minute.
1780		M.P. Andrews Fire and Water! (1790) 30: Or would you with Madam put in for a word, / He too has a key for my lady.
1781		Belle’s Stratagem 28: If I had an amour, it should at least be with one whose amorous cabinet had never been opened by any other key of Cupid than my own.
1793		Bacchanalian Mag. 67: Maids, wives, and widows, are all pleas’d, / If once they can posess this key.
1833		‘Humphrey’s Clock’ in Fal-Lal Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 25: At last, my friends, whene’r you roam / To your wife and clock that grace your home, / You sit down and first you sup, / Then take out your key and wind them u[p].
1841		‘Woman’s Dial’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 6: Ruth’s lock was a trouble, for, feeling an itch / That no key she could get would come up to the pitch.
1879		London Life 24 May 5/1: [T]hat ‘rorty’ or ‘norty’ song of Stella de Vere's, ‘I’ve lost my key’.
1894		C. Harpur Adventures of Lady Harpur I 6: I rubbed [...] the hot chink [...] which I felt to be [...] the very mainspring of my being. I knew not then of that wondrous key which could enter in [...] and put all the hidden machinery into motion.
c.1900		Murtray and Powell [perf. Marie Lloyd] She’d never had a lesson in her life 🎵 When she played for Mr Gee / She could always find the key / Though she'd never had a lesson in her life.
1905–07		Bawdy N.Y. State MS. n.p.: To put the key into the lock full half an hour he tried, / At last he was successful and then the maiden cried.
1924		Virginia Liston [song title] You’ve Got The Right Key, But The Wrong Keyhole.
1949		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 709: What is that funny trick / That stands so straight and shiny, so stiff and slim and slick? / That is the key to Heaven, child.
1981		McKee & Chisenhall Beale Black & Blue 116: Some of his Memphis friends were afraid he’d tell the one about why he had broken off a long-standing relationship with a woman friend: ‘My key,’ he would say impishly, ‘don’t fit her keyhole no more.’.
1990		R. Campbell Sweet La-La Land (1999) 25: Had he showed so many of them the key that his bastards were scattered from Atlanta to New Orleans?

2. (Aus./N.Z.) constr. with the, a declaration that one is a habitual criminal, thus the indefinite detention that, following the Habitual Criminals Act (1905) was mandatory for such individuals, who would first serve a specified sentence, then, subject to behaviour etc. would begin the indefinite ‘key’ [SE throw away the key].

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 41: key, an habitual criminal.
1946		Singleton Argus (NSW) 4/2: The ‘key’ is a well-known underworld description for an habitual criminal .
1950		S.J. Baker in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/3: A crook who earns a ‘Kathleen Mavourneen’ (that is, ‘It may be for years and it may be forever . . .’), ‘key,’ ‘twist,’ or ‘The Act’ has been declared an habitual criminal with an indeterminant sentence.
1967		Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxv. 6/3: keyman, an habitual criminal. From throwing away the key [DAUS].
c.1972		Parramatta Jail Gloss. 5: the key (to be given the key), being declared an habitual criminal [DAUS].
1983		Aus. Journal of Cultural Studies May 91: One year: A Sleeper. / Six months: A Zac. / Three months: A Drunk’s Lagging. / Indefinite detention at the governor’s pleasure: The Key.
1984		T. Anderson Boobtalk 8: the key Habitual criminal’s sentence. Under the NSW Crimes Act, this may be imposed if a person is convicted three times or more of the same type of offence. It carries an additional sentence of up to seven years, within minimum remission, to be served consecutive to the sentence for the actual crime [DAUS].
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Key, the. A sentence given to an habitual criminal or ‘H.C.’, usually seven years.

3. (US prison, also keys) a prison warder [metonymy SE key, which they carry].

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 97: Key and Keys A name given to prison guards in reference to the large ring of keys they carry and the loud, jingling sound they make.

4. (US prison) a pack of cigarettes [? its role as a means of exchange, thus it ‘opens doors’].

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Key: Pack of cigarettes. (NY).