plough, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

plough v.

also plow

1. (US) to have sexual intercourse.

1553		Erasmus (trans.) in Wilson Arte of Rhetorique 29^v: What punishement is he worthy to suffer, that refuseth to Plough that lande, whiche beyng tilled, yeldeth children.
1575		Appius and Virginia in Farmer (1908) 24: What raging seas would I not plough To her commodity.
a.1580		G. Harvey Letter-Book 113: Ten divelles not enoughe Her grounde to plowe Such terrible plaguye furrowes, Sutch infinite tunny burrowes.
1594		Gesta Grayorum in Nichols Progresses and Processions of Queen Elizabeth (1823) III 339: Rich widdowes were ordeined for younger brothers; for they, beinge borne to noe lande, must plough in another man’s soyle.
1608		F. Davison A Poeticall Rapsodie in Wardroper (1969) 118: Mile lives long in France, and while he’s there / His ground bares nought, his wife doth children bear. / Why should th’one barren, th’other fertile be? / His ground lacks ploughing up; so doth not she.
1612		Pasquil’s Nightcap (1877) 33: Within her furrowes haue there plow’d so manie, That for to reape the crop she knowes not anie?
1632		Massinger City-Madam II iii: I will undertake To find the North-passage to the Indies sooner, Then plough with your proud Heifer.
c.1642		T. Killigrew Parson’s Wedding (1664) II vii: Is’t not a sad sight to see a rich young Beauty [...] subject to some rough rude Fellow, that ploughs her, and esteems and uses her as a chattel.
1654		T. Killigrew Thomaso Pt 1 IV iv: This is Loves holy-day; the rest were working-days, in which I but plow’d the sex.
1655		Mercurius Fumigosus 58 27 June-4 July 4: But certainly he sow'd but his wilde Oates / If he did plow under her Petticoats.
1671		‘The Careless Swain’ in Ebsworth Westminster Drolleries (1875) 81: I have plow’d in her ground, who will may take her.
1680–1		N. Lee Princess of Cleve IV ii: Your Horns are a growing, your Bed is a going, your Heifer’s a Plowing [...] Let her Plo-Plo-Plow on, if the Se-Se-Seed be well Sown, we shall have a good Cro-Crop.
1693		Petition of the Ladies of London in Harleian Misc. IV (1809) 328: So many longing young ladies shall not lie unploughed, unharrowed, and uncultivated.
1702		T. Brown Letters from the Dead to the Living in Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1927) 440: How could you [i.e. Aphra Behn] do otherwise than produce some wit to the world, since you were so often ploughed and sowed by the kind husbandmen of Apollo?
1708		N. Ward Adam and Eve 86: She ploughs with some Gallant.
1713		Ozell Rape of the Bucket 57: Mars and the Theban Youth ... Twice Fifteen Times, with Vulcan’s Heifer plow’d.
1731		Beau’s Misc. 63: To the Tune of Jolly Roger Twankdillow of Ploughden-Hill.
a.1749		Robertson of Struan ‘Spoke by an Old Man’ Poems (1752) 80: To plow the Ground on Venus’ Field.
1765		‘The Honey Moon’ Musical Companion 8: Now since I have gain’d my true love you know, / I will forsake the harrow, and take to the sweet daily plough.
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 9: O there, my dear, wriggle your tail, / And finely your furrows I’ll plow.
1837		‘The Sailor’s Yard’ Ticklish Minstrel 33: ‘O lor, what a yard!’ she cried, with a grin [...] And insisted that Jack should plough the wide C.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 12 Feb. n.p.: Although to boarding used you are, / And ploughing, too, the open sea.
1867		Rosa Fielding 38: ‘[A]s he has ploughed up the furrow he is very properly going to put his seed into it’.
1890		‘Neaniskos’ Priapeia Epistle lii 51: When they have grievously ploughed thee stretched prostrate, to the same part shall come a rampant little ass, by no means inferior in well-hung pizzle.
1893		‘Bob Sterling’ Town-Bull `17: I got behind and ploughed into her quivering body.
1902		D. St John Memoirs of Madge Buford 107: ‘A field not ploughed and watered soon grows stale. Harrow her well; plough her frequently’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 528: Plough her! More! Shoot!
1938		G. Greene Brighton Rock (1943) 166: I watched ’em every Saturday night, didn’t I? Bouncing and ploughing.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 161/1: Plow. To rape; to have sexual intercourse or pederastic relations with.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 24: Nobody wants a Sheeney plowin’ their sister.
1974		(con. late 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 581: Well, shee-it, man, we plowed your old mother’s ass – me and Buck – and she liked it too.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 304: plow (plough). To copulate.
1995–2003		S. Sheppard ‘Sex Talk’ at Gay.com 🌐 Then came the ‘Castro clone’ look, now a tired cliche, but then semi-revolutionary. Gone in the first flush of sexual liberation was the old butch-femme divide, replaced by flannel shirts and Levi’s 501s worn by tops and bottoms alike. It was an assertively butch look that said, ‘Real men do like to get plowed.’.
1999		Guardian G2 13 Sept. 6: He tried to plough me with a squashy penis.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 12: I hear she gets ploughed by a Mandingo and then there’s some orgy stuff.
2012		C. Rosmus ‘Hangdog’ in C. Rhatigan and N. Bird (eds) Pulp Ink 2 [ebook] She pictured a younger, sadistic Gordon plowing her mommy.
2016		Times 13 Aug. 🌐 She gave somebody a blow job last night, and everybody reckons it’s max hilaire. Another [blonde], wearing lots of eye make-up in a brave attempt to not look like everybody else, went farther. ‘Basically, I got ploughed by Alex’.

2. to reject a candidate as not reaching the pass standard in an examination [SE plough under].

1857		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) III 343: After all, I believe it was those Second Aorists that ploughed me.
1863		C. Reade Hard Cash I 16: Ploughed is the new Oxfordish for ‘plucked’ [...] Plucked was vulgar, so now they are ploughed.
1873		Sl. Dict. 256: To be ploughed is to fail to pass an examination. About twenty years ago ‘pluck,’ the word then used, began to be superseded by plough. It is said to have arisen from a man who could not supply the examiner with any quotation from Scripture, until at last he blurted out, ‘And the ploughers ploughed on my back, and made long furrows.’ ― University.
1873		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Little Mr. Bouncer 56: Poor Ellison has been plucked again [...] Broughton the gentleman-commoner of Worcester College, has been ploughed for his Greats.
1884		Sporting Times 9 Aug. 6/4: No 3, whose brother had been twice ploughed for Woolwich.
1891		in Punch 25 Apr. 196: Most of these gentlemen were ‘ploughed’ in their examination.
1900		P. White West End 148: ‘I’ll pay you back directly I have passed.’ [...] ‘But suppose you’re ploughed?’.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 11 Oct. 4/7: Wealthy man’s son who went home to a big public school and was violently passed out (‘ploughed’ is the term’) [etc.].
1913		A. Lunn Harrovians 215: Peter contented himself with doing enough to avoid being ploughed.
1937		P. Morris [trans.] Bernanos Diary of a Country Priest 108: Mme Dumouchel [...] was vexed with me for having ploughed her daughter, in my quarterly exam.
1946		(con. 1914) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 157: I hope to stink the old swine’s right because like that they won’t plough me for Sandhurst.
1947		M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl. n.p.: Ploughed under ... Flunked a course.

3. to beat up.

1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 209: Jack hit him. He plowed him. He smashed him.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 240: I just want to plow his yellow ass!

4. (US) to assault or kill with a motor vehicle.

1986

J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 241: The roadblocks had probably been set up right after he plowed the pig on Formosa.

In derivatives

ploughman (n.)

a sexually active man.

1725		Bailey (trans.) Erasmus’ Colloquies 170: xa.: I suspect that I am now with Child by him again. eu.: O brave! to a good Soil, here’s a good Ploughman to till it.
a.1796		‘O Can Ye Labour Lee, Young Man?’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 260: The ploughman points his sockie in [...] An’ baudly ploughs his yokin’.
c.1800		Burns ‘The Ploughman’ Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 146: The sairest ploughing e’er I plough’d, / Was ploughing amang hair, jo.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 12 48/3: [advert] tuzzy muzzy songster — The Ploughman.

In compounds

turnwrist plowing (n.)

masturbation, as supplied by a prostitute to a male client.

c.1850

Peeping Tom (London) 9 34/3: [A] syllabus of the names of the chief culls, or letches [...] Hand Insurance, or Turnwrist Plowing.

In phrases

plough into (v.)

to begin eating enthusiastically.

1908

A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 27: The gent come back with a loaf of bread an’ some cold mutton [...] We ploughed into it an’ no error.

plough the back forty (v.) (also plow the back forty) [back forty under back adj.²]

1. to have sexual intercourse.

2003		‘Maureen’s Lusty Confessions’ on Apartment 231 🌐 How I long to scale atop your veiny love stalk so that you may savagely spear my hairy doughnut...My hairy doughnut of love. I envision you plowing my back forty for hours at a time like a crazed farmer, stopping only to wipe the lust filled sweat from your brow.
c.2003		‘Hard Action’ on XXXMoviestore.ws 🌐 Chris gardens and shows Ted Cox how to plow the back forty.

2. (US) to waste time.

2000

M. Feldman ‘All The News That Isn’t’ 25 Nov. at NotMuch.com 🌐 For Al Gore, about time to hitch up that mule and plow the back forty in Georgetown. Lieberman, wisely, kept his day job.

plough the deep (v.) (also plow the deep) [fig. use of SE; ? reinforced 20C+ by rhy. sl.]

to (go to) sleep; also as euph. for sexual intercourse.

1788		‘Poll of Plymouth’ Songs (publ.?) 8: We plough’d the deep, and now between, / Us lay the ocean wide.
1836		‘Come, Sleep With Me’ in Frisky Vocalist 31: ’Twill please you when in bed we be, / And then we’ll plough the deep deep C.
1842		‘The Wonderful Giant’ in Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Songs 34: Don’t let him plough the deep C.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Plough the deep, sleep.
1942		D. Runyon in Star (Marion, OH) 31 July 6/8: I will now [...] climb into the roses red, place the lump of lead on the weeping willow and plow the deep.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 648/2: plow the deep – sleep.