Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (also prickshaft) the penis [note blaxploitation films of the 1970s, starring macho private eye ‘John Shaft’].

1611		Davies of Hereford Scourge of Folly 160: Many Archers do as good, and pricke with Shaftes as low.
1622		J. Taylor Whore in Works II 107: [She] Abides the brunt of many a prickshaft shot.
1633		Rowley Match at Midnight II i: moll: What a suiter have I got, I am sorry you are so bad an Archer sir. eare.: Why Bird, why Bird? moll.: Why, to shoote at Buts, when you shou’d use prick-shafts, short shooting will loose ye the game.
1656		‘On Luce Morgan’ in Wardroper (1969) 378: A friar’s shaft she lacked alone, Because in England here was none. At last some vestal fire she stole Which never went out in her hole, And with that zealous fire being burned, Unto the Romish faith she turned, And therein died.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 72: It is a Shaft of Cupid’s cut. ’Twill serve to Rove, to Prick, to Butt; There’s never a Maid, but by her will Will keep it in her Quiver still.
1839		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 6 Apr. 107/3: Question and Answer [...] Why do the poets so much extol Cupid for his shaft, being but a boy?
1904		Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 41: He overcame her resistance and that hard and shining shaft was again buried completely in her body.
1966		R.H. Rimmer Harrad Experiment 109: Her snatch must be made of gold. I want to stick my shaft in her little gold mine.
1974		(con. 1945) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 401: She trailed her fingertips along his hard shaft.
1977		B. Judell ‘Sexual Anarchy’ in Blue Boy (Miami) Aug./Sept. in Jay & Young (1979) 137: Only what turns one on is important. A slightly elongated nipple, a nine-inch shaft.
1979		Maledicta III:2 232: He [i.e. the homosexual male] also may or may not know the following words and expressions: [...] give him the shaft.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 332: I slide my hand up and down my hardened shaft.
2000		M.E. Dassad ‘Chickenhawk’ at www.cultdeadcow.com 🌐 I could feel her belly tightening beneath me as I slammed my shaft in and out of her snatch, slickly lubricated with her own lust.

(b) (US) a (woman’s) leg.

1732-1820		Order of the Beggar's Benison and Merryland (1892) 31: Dinner Sentiments [...] Instructions in Riding ‘[...] secure your seat in the saddle, and then try posting between a pair of shafts’.
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 5/1: Bum shaft – Bad leg.
1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 15 Nov. [synd. col.] [The] paper [...] referred to the femme shaft [...] as a ‘limb’.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Shaft, a woman’s leg.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 21 Mar. [synd. col.] Ann Sheridan is credited by her studio as having the prettiest shafts of any lassie in Hollywood.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 76: That excited filly had some pair of shafts, hey, Noodles?

(c) (US) a woman’s body, considered simply as a sexual object.

1934		H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 411: Every time I sees a pretty cunt come walkin’ up de street, I says, wit’ a mean shaft an’ a sweet pair o’ knockers, Jesus, O’Toole, I says, dere’s a mare I’d radder lay den lay on.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 43: A shaft like that wasted on a clown like Drunkie John.