Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) the vagina; also attrib.

1540		implied in labour leather
1593		Passionate Morrice (1876) 91: In Shooelane there is one that selles running leather, the vertue whereof is maintained with liquor of a careless heart; so that hee or shee that cannot play light of loue, shall not be customed there.
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 79: At that Queen Juno smil’d and said / [...] / For if they once do come together, / He’ll find that Dido’s reaching leather.
1680		‘The Bulls Feather’ in Euing Broadside Ballads No. 23: There’s nere a proud Gallant / that treads on Cows leather, / But may be Cornuted, and wear the Bulls Feather.
1694		Motteux (trans.) Pantagruelian Prognostications (1927) II 689: Many a one’s Yard will hang down and dandle, for want of Leathern Pouches.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I:10 8: And could, without a Wizard’s Sense, / Judiciously infer from thence, / If Madam sate with Ease, or whether / She rode in Danger of her Leather.
1720		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy VI 92: But if by chance a Flaw I find, / In dressing of the Leather; / I straightway whip my Needle out, / And I tack ’em close together.
1729		‘Dyer of Roan’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 193: Bound fast, in Love’s Thong of Whit-leather, Was the Reverend Catholick Brother.
1793		Burns ‘As I Cam O’er the Cairney Mount’ Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 140: The Highland laddie he drew his durk and / sheath’d in my wanton leather.
1836		‘The Bit Of Leather’ Cockchafer 46: Lubin quite pleased was, and transported altogether, O. / For he had ne’er before seen a woman’s piece of leather, O [...] With his tool he stood before her eyes, twigging of her leather, O!
1841		‘The Frisky Family’ Gentleman Steeple-Chaser 36: The girl’s fond of jock, and lads fond of leather.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 16 July n.p.: the whip wants to know What those two cadets were doing [...] Were they after sole or upper leather?
1855		Yokel’s Preceptor 29: Leather, The female centre of attraction.
1865		‘Grinding Old Women Young’ in Rambler’s Flash Songster 10: Oh, the tinker’s wife, dropt in for to have a grind, / And the cobbler’s with her old leather.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Dec. 1/1: A leather-chasing lothario definitely vowed to amble to the altar with his south beach girl.

(b) sexual intercourse; thus phr. nothing like leather, nothing is as good as sex.

1837		‘Sal Stuff’ in Ri-tum Ti-tum Songster 11: My name is Sal Stuff, / I’m such a mot for leather, / With my twiddle rumpty bum.
1849		Paul Pry 8 Jan. 7/1: Paul Wishes to Know [...] Why the two girls in Swan lane stand so much in their doorway every evening. Is it all for love of leather.
1850		Fast Man 7:1 n.p.: ‘huzzah’ inquires if we think the exhibition of 1851 will have any effect upon the price of leather. What sort does Our correspondent mean, dressed or undressed.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 672/2: nothing like leather, nothing like a good copulation, C.19–20.

(c) a run-down whore; a poor, promiscuous woman.

1844		New Sprees of London 23: If you are not afraid of the glue, or if you have not much ochre about you, you may pick up leather here in plenty, but from such leather, Providence protect us!
1935		A. Pollock Und. Speaks.

(d) (US) the anus.

1939		D. Maurer ‘Prostitutes & Criminal Argots’ in Lang. Und. (1981) 117/2: leather. 1. The anus.
1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 27: leather (n.): The anus; thus, leathering is pedication.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 19: the rectal opening, anus [...] leather (obs, ’30s: comparing the texture of the tissue immediately surrounding the a-hole with leather).
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

(a) a wallet or purse, or bag.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 30: Come Culls, shall us pike to the Push or Gaff, a rum Vile for the File or Lift to pitter lay or Leather lay; come let us pike, we shall napp a rum Bit; that is, Come Men, shall us go to the Throng, or Fair, a good Town for the Pick-Pockets or Shop-Lifters, to steal Portmanteaus or Leather Bags [...] Come, let us pike to glee for Pitter or Leather.
1841		Flash (NY) 3 Oct. n.p.: He was drawing his leather to pay the bill.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 Aug. 3/2: He went out with sixpence, and he came home, minus a tanner and his leather.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 51: leather A pocket-book; portmonnaie. ‘The bloke lost his leather,’ the man lost his pocket-book.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 5 Oct. n.p.: I saw Candy Clark and Kid Murphy get a ‘leather’ from a ‘flat’ in the cars.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 459: [as spelt] ‘When we got to Chicago on the cars from there to here, I pulled off an old woman’s leather’ (robbed her of her pocketbook).
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 195: I caught a glimpse of the sucker’s leather.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 44: Leather, [...] a pocket-book.
1896		H. Blossom Checkers 44: I left my leather full of bills [...] in the hotel safe.
1902		‘Billy Burgundy’ Toothsome Tales Told in Sl. 54: From his leather the heavy-hearted black warbler flashed a clipping.
1910		H. Hapgood Types from City Streets 317: Women kept their leathers in a big open pocket in the back of their dresses.
1923		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 June 21/2: In the wash joint he produced a brand-new shining ‘leather’.
1929		E. Booth Stealing Through Life 296: Bag – hell! [...] If you started into a jug with a leather that size, you’d get shot before you got to the counter.
1938		Smith’s Wkly 21 May 6/4: I remember meeting [...] ‘Tibby,’ greatest of all Australian ‘whizzmen’ (pickpockets). [...] ‘Blime,’ he roared, ‘I been working with a gay (mug), and taking risks in the ‘rort’ (crowd) for a ‘bloodhoon’ who never lifted a ‘leather’ (wallet) in his life’.
1938		D. Runyon ‘The Brakeman’s Daughter’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 503: The sailor loses his leather containing a month’s salary.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 88: The point-out [...] does not have the advantage which finding the leather has.
1952		‘I Was a Pickpocket’ in C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 76: The dip made away with her ‘leather’ or pocket-book.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxvi 4/1: leather: A wallet.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 35: Leather Wallet.
2012		Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 11: ‘Where the tickets at?’ said Jones. ‘They in my leather’.

(b) a shoe; thus lay leather v., to walk.

[1824		Morn. Chron. (London) 15 Apr. 4/2: [denoting the whole body] Lennox is completely gone in the upper leather [...] before he can peel again he must get new vamped].
1854		T. Buckley Sydenham Greenfinch 64: Tumbling-Boy [...] is wheeled off by the Clown, and finally kicked.) Comic Man. ‘How’s the leather?’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 May 22/1: But the Baron of Pott’s Point did not shake / In his patent-leathers for fear, / For he did not go to that tank, and take / And glue to the side his ear.
1909		‘A “Push” Story’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Sept. 17/1: ‘We got lively on our leather ’n’ 'twasn’t long before a ’ot chorus wuz ’ummin’round th’Roberts’ bungalow’.
1915		H. Hershfield Abie the Agent 16 June [synd. cartoon strip] I’ll dress up from bottom to top — I’ll buy a pair fency pettened leathers.
1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1002: Therefore, Jelly took a quick backward look at his shoe soles to see how his leather was holding out.
1944		C.S. Montanye ‘Death with Music’ in Thrilling Detective Feb. 🌐 I laid leather on the sidewalk.

(c) a leather ball, usu. a cricket ball or football; in the US a baseball.

1862		Golden Age (Queenbeyan, NSW) 14 Aug. 3/4: There is the same flash imagery, such as, the ‘five and quarter’ being sent on an ‘aerial voyage’ by Slogger; the ‘leather’ being neatly trundled by Bowler; the twisters of Downey presenting a noli me tangere appearance to Bat.
1865		New Joe Miller’s Jest Bk 365: They [i.e. the French] can see no delight at being bowled over at twenty -two yards, or at getting in the way of the ‘leather’ at a much longer range.
1887		Dly Morn. Astorian (OR) 24 Sept. 2/2: You may send in your curved balls and smash the leather in the nose to the right or left field.
1894		Northern Echo 22 Oct. 4/3: The Saints worked the leather up the field [...] and the finishing touch was left to Costello, who kicked wide of the right goal post.
1895		Riverina Recorder (Moulamein, NSW) 16 Jan. 2/5: They Say [...] That leather i.e. a cricket ball] hunting is conducive to bad language.
1904		Marvel 12 Nov. 1: Whilst he was banging the leather across the football field.
1908		N.Y. Eve. Mail 13 Apr. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 39: Turkey lay down on three strikes [...] but maybe he didn’t clout the leather after that.
1916		Dundee Courier 17 May 5/7: Scottish Horsemen Chase the Leather. A football match was played at Pitlochry yesterday [etc.].
1958		Willans & Searle Complete Molesworth (1985) 245: Go on, Stanley, net the leather.
2019		D. Jenkins Reunion 119: [of a football] ‘I did like to pop the man luggin’ the leather’.

(d) (US) a nightwatchman [? some item of their uniform or weaponry].

1842

Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 26 Mar. n.p.: On came the ‘leather,’ one two three, / With mace in hand and ready step.

(e) by metonymy, a brutal kicking with a boot or shoe.

1897		H. Darnley [perf. Louie Freear] ‘Blowed if father ain’t Commenced to Work’ 🎵 His family’s going to talk to him to make him mend his ways, / And if he’s saucy we will give him leather.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Hold ’Em, Yale!’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 154: They are using the old leather, kicking guys in the stomach.

(f) (US) a boxing glove.

1912		N.Z. Truth13 Jan 8/2: Johnson dealt out stoush and knocked Murray topsyturvy, at the same time putting in a number of chance roots with the leather.
1921		implied in leather-pusher
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 23: His thickened nose and slightly puffed eyes from too much leather.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 201: Shit man, now that’s what I call laying on the leather!

(g) (Aus./US) a whip.

1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 Jan. 1/1: Rumors of the existence of a jockeys’ ring are again rife [and] it is alleged a quartette of leather flappers know more than all the owners.
1914		J. Hawthorne Subterranean Brotherhood 188: Still he favored whipping for them; he said the use of the ‘leather’ was really more humane than the dungeon.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 60: He laid the ‘leather’ on my bare hide that day until I fainted. [Ibid.] 112: The ‘leather’ was riveted on a stuffed leather handle about two feet long and four inches in diameter. The strap was approximately three feet six inches long, three inches wide and a half inch thick. It had ten or twelve rivets in the end of it.

(h) (US) a holster; also attrib.

1921		‘Max Brand’ Seventh Man 216: The other slipped his hand down to his gun-butt and moved his weapon to make sure it was perfectly loose in the leather.
1948		N. Nye Breed of the Chaparral (1949) 124: Tune the leather-slapper, the gunsmoke king of corpse-makers!
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 23: He felt the leather. He took it down from the shelf [...] He slid the two-inch Colt revolver from the black leather holster.

(i) (US) a saddle; thus fork leather v., to ride a horse; hit leather v., to ride off; pull/hunt leather v., to grasp the saddle while riding a bucking horse.

1954		Mad mag. Dec. 22: I’ve been hittin’ leather night and day ... ridin’ ridin’ ridin’!
c.1960		‘Jimmie Tucker’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 67: If you can ride that hoss, and not pull leather, / You and my daughter can throw your things together.

(j) (US Und.) a pickpocket.

1936

N. West Cool Million (1954) 28: ‘Some smart leather must have gotten it.’ ‘Leather?’ queried our hero, not understanding the argot of the underworld [...] ‘Yes, leather — pickpocket.’.

(k) a leather coat or jacket.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 245: leather, leather piece Leather or leatherlike jacket.
1994		G. Pelecanos Shoedog 65: Gorman and his boys wore baggy work pants [...] Banlon pullovers, black high-top Chucks, and three-button black leathers.
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 65: He wore a black turtleneck under a black leather, with loose-fitting blue jeans.