Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a beauty.

1786

J. O’Keeffe Peeping Tom 22: I long to drink your ladyship’s health – you are the tulip of Coventry.

2. a dandy.

1788		J. O’Keeffe Farmer 26: The Tulip of Kensington Gardens to be ousted by a Cabbage Stalk!
1796		G. Colman Yngr Iron Chest I ii: What wag! what tulip!
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 181: Tulip — fine habilments of various colours and strong ones, compose the tulip [...] Tulips compared to Swells, are what gilt gingerbread is to a gilden sign-board; the one fades soon, the other is at least intelligent to the last.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

3. a bishop’s mitre.

1879

A.R. Ashwell Bishop Wilberforce I 66: [note] I heard one of the fellows [...] say ‘No, It’s not a Tulip’, meaning that there was no mitre on the panel [of the carriage] .

4. the penis.

1842

‘Sally May’ in Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Songs 8: Oh, my tulip is now standing / For a slap at Sally May.

5. the vagina.

1866

E. Sellon Phoebe Kissagen 35: His prick was still stiff as ever, notwithstanding the spurting shower of love’s nectar, with which he had just refreshed my tulip.

6. as my tulip, a person, used affectionately.

1796		G. Colman Yngr Iron Chest III i: wint.: Thou hast stolen it from me, tulip! ha! good ifaith! — sams.: Ha! ha! — Well ifaith that is a good jest!
1831		‘Gallery of 140 Comicalities’ Bell’s Life in London 24 June 3/1: Now, my tulips, I’ll larn you to be prigging dust on my valk.
1841		‘Joe Buggins’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 35: My tulips all I’ll tell a ditty, if the time you will not grudge.
1842		Boston Satirist (MA) 21 Oct. n.p.: ‘No my tulip, let us rather / Hand in hand the bucket kick’.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 1 Apr. 3/3: Take care, my tulip, you will be a Good-all some night or other.
1854		D. Jerrold Heart of Gold Act II: Well, he was a tulip.
1858		‘A. Pendragon’ Queen of the South 105: What’ll you lend me on this, my tulip?
1863		C. Reade Hard Cash II 244: ‘All right, my tulip,’ said Mr. Green cheerfully.
1873		Sl. Dict. 233: My Tulip a term of endearment used by the lower orders to persons and animals; ‘kim up, my tulip,’ as the coster said to his donkey when thrashing him with an ash stick.
1873		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Little Mr. Bouncer 26: No, my tulip! you leave it to yours truly.
1885		J.S. Borlase Blue Cap, the Bushranger 49/2: He [...] had been declared [...] to be a ‘brick,’ a ‘trump,’ a ‘tulip.’.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) II 328: I know there is, Bob, my old tulip.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 51: My Tulip, a term of affection.

7. the female genitals.

1841		‘The Gown Of Green’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 22: When I gaz’d on her tulip with true delight, / I thought that I ne’er had beheld such a sight; / I knew not what to compare to the slit, / Unless a black cat with its throat cut.
1915		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 280: Oh, John saw a tulip, a big yellow tulip / When Mary took off her clothes.

8. (Aus.) an attractive young woman.

1917

‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 33: I bet you you’re not game, when you see that tulip I’ve been tellin’ you about, to take her in your arms and kiss her.

9. (Irish) a fool, usu. a funny one.

1958		E. Dundy Dud Avocado (1960) 124: I think he is a tulip. I think he’s a whole bunch of tulips.
1991		R. Doyle Van (1998) 404: He was some tulip, Bertie; he was fuckin’ gas.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 39: Ram-raided the offy in a robbed Peugot, the fooken tulip.