Green’s Dictionary of Slang

water.

1481		Hist. of Reynard the Fox n.p.: To slake his thirst, he took a drink / Of Adam’s Ale from river’s brink [B].
1634		Lord Baltemore's Plantation in Mary-land 24: I rigg’d myself, and soon got up, / To cool my Liver with a Cup of (a) Succahana fresh and clear, / Not half so good as English Beer; / [...] / And was in fact but Adam's Ale.
1643		W. Prynne Sovereign Power of Parliament Pt II 32: They have beene shut up in prisons and dungeons lying on the cold ground [...] allowed onely a poore pittance of Adams ale, and scarce a penny bread a day.
1681		Behn Rover pt II I i: For your parts, who are the poor dependent, brown Bread and old Adam’s Ale is only current amongst ye.
1685		T. Brown Odes of Horace 11 in Works (1760) IV 11: Your claret’s too hot — Sirrah, drawer, go bring / A cup of cold Adam from the next purling spring.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 668: Bacbuc asked us then, how we liked our tiff. We answered that it seemed to us good harmless sober Adam’s liquor.
1698		N. Ward ‘A Satyr upon Derby-Ale’ in Writings (1704) 35: Thou Cur’st no Spleen, thou are unfit for me, / I’d’s live, almost, drink Adam’s Ale as thee.
1707		N. Ward Wooden World 77: Bringing him to his true Temperament again [...] with a Week’s Dieting upon Adam’s Ale and dry Bisket.
c.1712		M. Prior Wandering Pilgrim in Works (1959) I 677: A Rechabite poor will must live, And drink of adam’s ale.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 201: Adam’s Ale, water.
1785		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘The Lousiad’ Works (1794) I 245: Where old Adam’s beverage flows with pride.
1793		J. Caulfield Blackguardiana.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1825		Caledonian Mercury 13 June 3/4: Now-and-then stopping to grub the prads or sluice the ivories with some Adam’s ale.
1826		Vulgarities of Speech Corrected n.p.: adam’s wine.
1837		T. Hood ‘Drinking Song’ in Works (1862) IV 158: We’ll drink Adam’s ale, and we get it pool measure.
1850		Manchester Spy (NH) 24 Aug. n.p.: Cherrybounce and ‘Adam’s Ale’ of my recollection.
1842		C. Mathews Career of Puffer Hopkins 11: This pernicious principle of setting up pure water, democratic Adam’s ale, the true corporation gin, for purchase.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 96: Adam’s ale, our first father’s drink, water, ‘best with brandy’.
1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Aug. 2/5: The publicans do not so infuse their spirits with Adam’s ale .
1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature II 54: They warn’t put into Adam’s ale for nothin, that’s a fact.
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 161: I can trace something like an idea in [...] cold water [being] ‘Adam’s ale,’ the moon ‘a parish-lantern,’ and ‘a blue moon’ an indefinite period.
1872		‘Our Warrior Bold’ in Farmer of Chappaqua Songster 66: O, his drink is purest Adam’s ale.
1879		Sporting Times 3 Mar. 3/1: The officers only drank Adam’s ale .
1884		Daily Tel. 1 Apr. 5/2: The special banquet graced by adam’s ale or sick-room toast and water [F&H].
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict 3: Adam's Ale, water in English, wine in Scotch, whisky in Irish.
1896		G.F. Northall Warwickshire Word-Book 3: Adam’s-ale. Water.
1905		Marvel III:62 29: Oh, alack and alas! Ben went out in the rain, / And his boots got full of Adam’s ale in a lane.
1910		P.W. Joyce Eng. As We Speak It In Ireland (1979) 209: Adam’s ale; plain drinking water.
1918		R.H. Knyvett ‘Over There’ with the Australians 135: They had a special objection to carrying fresh water, and nearly always bolted when they discovered it was ‘Adam’s ale’ that was swishing about on the outside of their hump.
1929		B. Duffy Rocky Road 29: Adam’s ale is good for man and beast.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 225: Adam’s wine.
1941		J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 7: adam’s ale for water.
1954		R. Service ‘Intolerance’ in Carols of an Old Codger 45: I find the best of drinks to quaff / Is good old Adam’s ale.
2000		Indep. Rev. 18 Mar. 20: I rang up Thames Water to find out about this thirsty queue who get a prior slurp at Adam’s ale.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 781: She glugged a couple of gallons of water... not strictly Adam’s ale down to the amount of chlorine.

the penis.

1788

Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 124: [She] particularly likes Adam’s apple-tree, sensitive plant, stich-wort, nutmegs and such valuable productions.

(US) a shovel, a spade.

[c.1600		Shakespeare Hamlet V i: There is no ancient gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers: They hold up Adam’s profession. He was the first that ever bore arms].
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1965		R.W. O’Neill High Steel 269: Adam’s arm: a shovel [HDAS].

the penis.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

the penis.

c.1775		in Frisky Songster Adam’s dagger [...] The one-eyed stag .
1836		‘Toasts’ in New Cockalorum Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) II 30: Adam’s dagger and the case to put it in.

see under dance v. (1)

the human fingers.

1867		H. Dufton Journey through Abyssinia 1862-3 1: Rich fertility of the country — Arab hospitality — Adam’s knife and fork.
1884		W. Bradley Wreck of Nisero 24: If they can imagine us, five or six at a time, with sleeves rolled up, round a big pot, dipping in with Adam’s knife and fork (our fingers), and a half cocoanut-shell for a drinking-cup.
1900		West Australian (Perth) 26 Feb. 7/5: I will just give you a verse of a song one of our men sang: Bully beef for breakfast, bully beef for tea, / Biscuits hard as bath bricks, a hundred years at sea. / Adam’s knife and fork, boys, Nature’s cutlery, / But there’s gun-fire tea for Kruger in the morning.'.
1902		J. Milne Epistles of Atkins 26: He has no complaint against ‘Adam’s knife-and-fork boys, Nature’s cutlery,’ but has a vague notion that bully- beef and dry biscuit lose their succulence after a time.

the penis.

1883

‘Three Chums’ in Boudoir II 50: Her soft hand had been placed on his thigh, right over Adam’s needle, which fairly throbbed.

a slow, stubborn person.

1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 570: Adam’ s off ox, n. phr. A term used only in the expression, ‘He wouldn’t know me (or sombody or something) from Adam’ s off ox’.
1944		J. Archibald ‘Downed on the Farm’ in Ten Detective Aces Nov. 🌐 When he sets his feeble mind on a thing he puts glue on it first, and even Adam’s off-ox couldn’t pull it loose.
1946		H.A. Smith Rhubarb 47: That daffy nympho Myra and Adam’s off ox – what could he possibly do about them?
1966–9		in DARE questionaire.
1978		in DARE.

the vagina; one of many literary euph., usu. positive.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(US gay) nudity.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

(US) no shoes, i.e. barefoot.

1907

C. M’Govern By Bolo and Krag 109: One of these cops had shoes [...] while the other three went about in Adam’s slippers.

(UK Und.)

1846

Swell’s Night Guide 107/2: Adam’s storeroom, the womb of woman, also quim, snatchblock, long-eye, also crack.

see Adam’s ale

a very long time ago (plus ad hoc modern variations).

1829		Blackwood’s Edinburgh Mag. Oct. 571/2: I know not whether he be bard or beggar; though I believe both, ever since Adam was an oakum-boy in Chatham dock-yard, have been considered synonymous.
[1836		Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 15 Apr. 3/6: He has more faith than history; hence he believes ‘that Adam was an oakum boy in Chatham Dock-yard].
1839		Monthly Chron. 3 126: [note] Men-of-war’smen, to employ their own jocular language, have had the benefit of these things ‘ever since Adam was an oakum-boy in Chatham dock-yard.’.
1840		E. Howard Jack Ashore 237: I wouldn’t have her, [...] if all the generations of the two families, since Adam was an oakum boy in Deptford Dockyard, had been doing nothing else but making wills that it should be so.
1843		Jack’s Edition of Life at Sea 373: His prejudices being in favour of the things that were, about the time when Adam was an oakum boy in Chatham dock-yard.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1896		‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 65: Old rounders some of them who had been on the coast since the year one, when Adam was ‘oakum’ boy in the Brooklyn navy yard.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 90: Ever Since Adam Was An Oakum Boy: A colloquial Navy phrase to indicate that something goes back to ancient history.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 212: They’ve prepared a dossier which goes back to when Adam was a lad.
[2001		C. Lee Eight Bells & Top Masts 10: The world was changing faster than since the day it had started to rain over Noah’s boatyard].
2016		Guardian CiF 14 Dec. 🌐 Strange that ‘bush baptist’ has only just made the grade. The term has been around since Joshua played fullback for Jerusalem.
2017		Denver Post 24 Jan. 🌐 The idea that the government is obligated to create a good living for you is one the Republican Party has fought since Adam was in the third grade.