cellar, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cellar n.

[both occupy a ‘low’ position on the body]

1. (also cellarage, cellar-door) the vagina.

c.1698		‘The Fair Maid of Islington’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 412: Although I hired a Cellar of her, / And the Possession was mine. / I ne’er put any thing into it, / But one poor Pipe of Wine.
1781		Belle’s Stratagem 39: Some sable sweep’s wife, whose sutty lord gave you a plumper, [...] as you passed her aromatic cellar.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues IV 337/1: The female pudendum [...] cellar (R. Brome); cellarage; cellar-door.

2. a shoe, a boot; usu. in pl.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

In phrases

in the cellar [note PG Wodehouse (1881–1975) coinage ‘down among the wines and spirits’]

1. drunk.

1737

B. Franklin ‘Drinkers Dictionary’ in Pennsylvania Gazette 6 Jan. in AS XII:2 90: They come to be well understood to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK. [...] He’s been in the Cellar.

2. (also cellar) in sports, at the bottom of a league or similar points table.

1904		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 25: Said the man in the cellar as he looked up and saw a form approaching.
1912		Van Loan ‘Loosening Up of Hogan’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 130: They might finish [...] with six teams in front of them and the cellar champions clamoring behind.
1919		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 25: The Phillies lost again. Is that what the cheering was??? Yep they’re still in the cellar. But I don’t get that. They didn’t lose last place.
1960		J. Brosnan Long Season 191: These two wins kept Philadelphia from climbing over us into seventh [...] our momentary escape from the cellar was greeted like a reprieve.
1967–8		C. Bukowski Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1973) 14: We were in the cellar, 25 games out of first place.
1982		(con. 1970) J.M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley (1983) 80: Yer fuckin nuts, Duke. Boston’s in the cellar.
1996		(con. 1959) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 310: ‘They [i.e. a baseball team] gonna do anything this year?’ ‘They’ll end up in the cellar, like last year.’.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 21: But not all groups that contribute to the slang or colloquial vocabulary of English are associated with the underworld. For example, in the cellar ‘in last place’ comes from sports fans.
2020		D. Winslow ‘The San Diego Zoo’ in Broken 165: [T]he Padres are firmly in last place with little chance of escaping ‘the cellar’.

3. in trouble.

1901

‘Hugh McHugh’ John Henry 15: Right there was where I fell in the cellar.

4. miserable, feeling low, ‘down in the dumps’.

1951

M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 52: The babes Servo makes usually wind up in the cellar.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

cellar-cordial (n.)

(Aus.) alcohol.

1908

Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Oct. 14/3: After that ’e wired a few blokes t’ join ’im in shiftin’ some cellar cordial, ’n’ they wandered off with ’im t’ th’ Fathom uv Froth shicker saloon.

cellar-smeller (n.) (US)

1. (also cellar sniffer) a Prohibition agent or Temperance campaigner.

1920		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 25: I know him — He’s a celler smeller for the Anti-Saloon-League.
1922		Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) 14 Sept. 4/4: The Flappers’ Dictionary [...] Cellar-smeller: Prohibition enforcement officer.
1922		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 25: I wonder what’s up with that dumb bell. I think that he’s a celler sniffer lookin’ for a still.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. a young man who is always on hand for free liquor.

1922

Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 29 Apr. 7/2: Flapper Dictionary cellar smeller – A young man who always happens to be around when liquor is to be had without cost.