Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a person with whom one has sexual intercourse, or a promiscuous woman; usu. qualified as a good lay, a bad lay, an easy lay etc.

1635		J. Shirley Lady of Pleasure V i: We could not get a lay, A tumbler, a device, a bona roba, For any money.
c.1790		‘Luke Caffrey’s Ghost’ in Chap Book Songs 4: You know One-ey’d Bid of de alley; / De heffer was min on de lay.
1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 231: lay — An immoral woman; a prostitute.
1932		J.T. Farrell in Story Mar.–Apr. 46: A foursome passed homeward; two of the group were girls whom Jack and George agreed were swell lays.
1941		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 19: Said a lecherous fellow named Shea, / When his prick wouldn’t rise for a lay.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 254: There’s some proper right looking lays up there.
1955		K. Amis letter 22 Aug. in Leader (2000) 448: She’s quite nice, big tits, friendly piggy face, easy lay.
1959		S. Bellow Henderson The Rain King 119: She may have been a hot lay once, as she claims.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 48: What a great Lay that chick is!
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 29: He had carted the body-builder/sociologist to Paris to seduce him, only to discover he was a lousy lay.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 30: For a would-be religious / She had a prodigious / Repute as a jolly good lay.
1985		‘Thommo’ Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 79: LAY — A very average root.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 260: You’re not a Hot Lay either, not quite. Too calculating.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 27: He forced himself not to take gratitude lays and found women elsewhere.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 63: Not only is this guy a lousy lay, but he’s also this, like, total misogynist.
2000		M.E. Dassad ‘Chickenhawk’ at www.cultdeadcow.com 🌐 You’re a pretty good lay, I guess you’ve had a lot of practice.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 24: She doesn’t want to split up with him just because he’s a bad lay.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 214: A barry lay, though. Simon [...] gets ye in a fair auld lather.
2012		P. Heatley ‘Red- Eyed Richard’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] He was a young guy [...] He’d been a lousy lay.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 33: ‘Molly was a good woman’ [...] ‘Good lay, ya mean’.

2. (orig. US, also lay-to) an act of sexual intercourse.

1928		‘Investigator Reports, 1927–1929’ Committee of Fourteen Papers 44: You want a lay, don’t you?
1929		M. Levin Reporter 134: Maybe I’ll get a coupla good lays out of it.
1931		‘Peter Long’ (Gene Fowler) The Demi-Wang n.p.: The poor fellow had not enjoyed a lay-to since arriving in the city from abroad three months before.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 102: I had a married woman the other day who told me she hadn’t had a lay for six months.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 26: What d’ya say we all give the bum a lay.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 119: He says, just like that, How about a lay?
1959		‘Count Palmiro Vicarion’ Limericks 43: Two shits and a bloody fine lay.
1961		T.I. Rubin In the Life 59: She called it a mass lay, you know, Doc, mass? Means a whole bunch at the same time.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene vi: len: What yer reckon on ’er? fred: For a lay?
1973		D. Goines Street Players 55: Just give me a plain old lay.
1986		MC Lyte ‘I Cram to Understand U’ 🎵 Juicin the girls up for some money and a lay.
1999		Guardian Guide 14–20 Aug. 95: It was really love, not a lay, he was after.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 37: [R]umour had it that she preferred younger men, and eyewitnesses suggested the effect intensified with every lay.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 21: [H]er fuck-up of a son’s trying to throw a lay on a girl probably just got out of her training bra.