Vaseline, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Vaseline n.

(Aus./US) butter or margarine.

1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 52: vaseline — Butter or margarine.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: vaseline. Butter or vaseline [sic].
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

Brandname in slang uses

In compounds

Vaseline brown (n.)

see high brown n.

vaseline valley (n.) [the use of Vaseline to ease anal intercourse + ? pun on California’s Silicon Valley]

1. (US gay) used of the gay cruising area of Central Park in NYC.

1949

‘Swasarnt Nerf’ Gaedicker’s Sodom-on-the-Hudson 3: The lower of the two areas [in Central Park] is popularly known by the ill-conceived name of Vaseline Valley.

2. (Aus.) a stretch of Oxford Street, Sydney acknowledged as the city’s gay centre.

1995

‘Ganymede’ ‘For Money or Love’ 🌐 I’m not talking about him working Vaseline Valley, Julia. And even if I was, the kids who are making forty or fifty a trick are a lot older than he is.

vaseline villa (n.) (also vaseline alley) [see prev.]

(US gay) a YMCA frequented by gay men; thus any such rendezvous.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1985		K. Vacha Quiet Fire 172: They had a little place in the jungle called ‘vaseline alley.’ I used to go there and pick up all kinds of trade and tricks.