Green’s Dictionary of Slang

US a brothel.

1844

Gleaner (Manchester, NH) 20 July n.p.: My Whistling Instrument. Well calculated to please the Misses that used to visit my Horrizontal Acacademy.

sexual intercourse.

1844		Gleaner (Manchester, NY) 20 July n.p.: Addresses on horrizontal amusement, game of brag, horrizontal mesmerism, lying and slandering and sow teat sausages, were delivered.
1959		‘Sheldon Lord’ 69 Barrow Street 10: It was a single bed, and that at least was a good sign. If she got in the mood for any horizontal acrobatics she could go someplace else instead of making love in her own apartment.
1960		(con. 1940s) G. Morrill Dark Sea Running 38: Ever see a society broad that didn’t play horizontal polo?
1979		D. Maitland Breaking Out 63: Australian male’s regard for women as a quick horizontal handshake.
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 2: bonk [...] horizontal dance with.
1988		S. King Tommyknockers (1989) 218: They smoked reefer and ‘did the horizontal bop’ almost every weekday afternoon.
1989		Eble College Sl. 101 81: Intercourse...horizontal bop, horizontal mambo, horizontal twist and shout.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 139: We hadn’t so much as touched tongues, let alone done the horizontal tango.
1994		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 5: horizontal hula – sexual intercourse. Also horizontal bop, horizontal tango.
1994		UTSQ n.p.: Hey, babe, what say you and I get together and do the horizontal polka? [HDAS].
1998		J. Lansdale Rumble Tumble 94: I’m not playing the horizontal tango with some redneck’s weasel, you look me up.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 126: To [...] bonk a term with a refreshing tone of breezy informality that contrasts strongly with the perjorative nature of many older terms for horizontal folk dancing.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 256: Kind of woman he used to chase down for a horizontal rumble.
2000		F. Mac Anna Cartoon City 10: Does your missus know that you’re doing the horizontal mambo with a young one in the back of your truck?
2003		N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 42: Word is you and his sister Jeanette were doing the horizontal two-step.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 104: The two of us used to do the horizontal Rhumba together.
2010		K. Richards Life 532: Smart, practical, caring, thoughtful and a very hot horizontal consideration.
2016		‘Chelsea G. Summers’ in Hazlitt.net 8 Jan. 🌐 You don’t have to do much linguistic Sherlocking to decode the figurative language lurking behind ‘horizontal mambo’ or ‘booty call’.

1. (US) sleep.

1907

C. Fowler letter 2 June in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 238: I ought to be doing ‘horizontal exercise’ on my corking mat now, as pipe down has gone long since.

2. (Aus.) sexual intercourse.

1951

D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 192: I liked a bit of horizontal exercise as much as the next bloke.

sexual intercourse.

1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1998		M. Newall ‘Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knyght’ in Indep. Weekend Rev. 26 Dec. 1: Muche drynkeing, fyghteing and horizontel joggeing was theyr.
2000		Indep. Rev. 8 Jan. 11: Park is more interested in what her girls think about ‘horizontal jogging’ than the price of children’s trainers.

(US) sleep.

c.1943

‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Horizontal pleasure: Sleep.

sexual intercourse.

1843		N.Y. Sporting Whip 4 Feb. 3/2: The girl deals out horizontal refreshment to any one who will pay her price.
1863		letter q. in Wiley Life of Billy Yank (1952) 258: In the evening Horizonal Refreshments or in Plainer words Riding a Dutch gal.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1902		Transactions of the Tri-State Medical Assoc. (Carolina and Virginia) 69: After satiating his appetite with both liquid and ‘horizontal refreshments’ he went to sleep.
1918		J.M. Grider War Birds (1926) 128: I’d be willing to guarantee that no one had indulged in any horizontal refreshments here.
[1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 9/2: Horizontal refreshment – Sleep].
1935		(con. late 1920s) L. Hughes Little Ham Act II: Gilbert warn’t no good for nothing but what my white actress lady where I used to work calls ‘horizontal refreshment’.

(Aus./N.Z.) sexual intercourse.

2001

Erickson Lord’s Prayer 🌐 What I remember is hearing Ma and Pa, the old folks upstairs, pray the Lord’s Prayer every night before they went to sleep. The ceiling would creak, the bed would groan, the sigh’s of horizontal relaxation drifted through the floor boards. Then the prayer.

(US) a prostitute.

1989		(con. 1870s) Rosa & Koop Rowdy Joe Lowe 24: In defense of decency [...] these old-time scriveners delighted in colorful descriptions of the ‘ladies of the night.’ One finds such enlightening comments as ‘ceiling expert,’ ‘horizontal worker,’ ‘diddles in the dark’.
2000		B. Davies Silver Lining 🌐 ‘Jane about Town? Horizontal Worker? Fallen Woman? Cyprian?’ Liz laughed at Christie’s expression. ‘You can’t call us anything we haven’t already heard.’.

1. to drink or drug oneself into a stupor.

[1832		Morning Courier and N.-Y. Enquirer 5 Mar. 2/3: James Graham, black, said that he had seen ‘the said Sloane [...] so horizontally drunk that his cap could not stay on his head’].
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Jan. 9/2: Well, old fellow, I got very horizontal the other night. Fact is, I lost my way, and woke up four hours after in a place at the rear of Garton’s Hotel.
1990		UTSQ n.p.: Get horizontal—get drunk. ‘Let’s go out to the Strip Friday night and get horizontal’ [HDAS].

2. to have sexual intercourse.

2002

(con. 1980s) i80s.com 🌐 get horizontal Having sex.

3. to lie down, to go to sleep.

1889		B. Mitford Fire Trumpet II 202: Look here, Payne, go and do the horizontal there on the sofa.
1975		L. Dills CB Slanguage.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 217: I’ve got to get horizontal [...] I feel rough.