lap n.1
the vagina.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Dyvers Balettys and Dyties Solacyous I i: ‘My darlyng, my daysy floure, Let me’ quod he, ‘ly in your lap.’. | |
| School of Abuse (1868) 34: Our wreastling at armes, is turned to wallowyng in Ladies laps. | |
| Hellen’s Rape 2: Young Lad, but yet such an old Lad, / In such a Ladies lappe, at such a slipperie by-blow [...] Old lad, and bold lad, such a Boy, such a lustie Iuuentus. | |
 | Bussy d’Ambois V i: Sing, and put all the nets into thy voice With which thou drew’st into thy strumpet’s lap The spawn of Venus; ... That, in thy lap’s stead, I may dig his tomb. | |
| City-Night-Cap in Dodsley Old Plays XIII Act I: We should lay our heads, And take our horns up out of women’s laps. | |
| ‘On himselfe’ Hesperides I 15: In her lap too I can lye Melting, and in fancie die. | |
| Ranters Last Sermon 2 Aug. 5: Let them not saly from your lapp / Till you salute them with a Clapp. | |
| ‘Ranting Whores Resolution’ Pepys Ballads (1987) III 138: [He will] lye in my lap, Like a Bird in a trap, And call me his Lady of pleasure. | |
| (attrib.) ‘To Chuse a Friend but Never Marry’ in Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719) III 342: But if you get too near their Lap, / You’re sure to meet with the Mishap, / Call’d a Clap. | |
| Female Fire-ships 10: For When he lay intranc’d in Celia’s Lap, / He little thought ’twould terminate in Clap. | |
| Secret Hist. of Betty Ireland (9 edn) 11: [Jupiter] took the most effectual Manner to obtain the Favour, for he poured himself into her [i.e. Danae’s] Lap. |
In derivatives
1. a husband; a lover.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
2. an unborn child.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
In compounds
1. sexual intercourse.
| DSUE (8th edn) 665/2: C.17–mid-18. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Modern English 72: copulation (n): [...] Lap-clap. |
2. conception; thus get a lap-clap, to become pregnant.
| Wily Beguiled 21: A Maid cannot love, or catch a lip clip, or a lap clap. | |
| Poor Robin n.p.: Some maids will get a lip-clip, but let them beware of a lap-clap; for fear of maids they become mothers, and sing the doleful lullaby [F&H]. |
1. the vagina; thus Lapland witch, a prostitute.
| Holborn Drollery intro: One that Sells lies, as a Lapland-Witch does. | |
| Rambler’s Mag. Feb. 78/2: It is recommended to [ladies] who move within the frozen sphere of maidenhood not to throw away the gudgeons and small fry who are disposed to bite, in confidence that whales and large fish are at all times to be found in the seas of Lap-land. | |
| Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 256: Zoons, what a gap the dog has made! / If Jove protects these sons of bitches, / To treat us thus like Lapland witches / He’ll first repent. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 290: lapland, meaning the female pudendum or female society in general; an example of a euphemism extended into a geographical pun. |
2. the world of women; in cit. 1922 the context is a maternity hospital, although the cit. may refer to sense 1 if the doctor was actually presiding at the birth.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Ulysses 404: Well, doc? Back from Lapland? | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 290: lapland, meaning the female pudendum or female society in general; an example of a euphemism extended into a geographical pun. |
one who enjoys cunnilingus.
| Queens’ Vernacular. | |
| ‘Michael’s Weakness’ La Femme Fiction 🌐 He was determined to take control; be her superior, not her lap lover – not now, anyway. |
SE in slang uses
In phrases
the buttocks, the posterior.
| Life in Jazz 52: Willie Cornish [was] a very rough, nasty talking gentleman, who quit the union and invited the officials to kiss the back of his lap. |
1. confidentially; also as adj.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Ballarat Star (Vic.) 19 Mar. 4/5: I have heard under the lap that they intend to play up £25,000, and if it comes off with them they will not be back for Caulfield. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 10 Oct. 1/2: Under the Lap. [...] Neither Chisholm nor Clibborn minds earning a few bob by selling ponies, why should not they — under the lap, of course — make a few bob by owning ponies? | |
| Dly News (Perth) 2 Sept. 7/4: The team can play football, but the public don't care for football kept under the lap, or up the sleeve; they want it on the ground. | |
| Truth (Perth) 17 Jan. 1/6: The Italian Government [...] afforded ‘under the lap’ support to the filibustering poet, D'Annunzio. | |
| Observer (Adelaide) 4 Jan. 16/3: The Opposition has made offers to the Government —under the lap, of course—that it will acquiesce in its measures, so as to avoid the expense of a general election. | |
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. | |
| I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 241/2: under the lap – just between you and me. |
2. orig. of betting, clandestinely; also as adj.
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 2 Jan. 4/1: Nothing under the lap, no pretence at pandering to the respectable members of Sydney society [...] One pony-owner openly stated the fields were padded out to give rorty Rosebery a jar, and nominations free of cost were as plentiful as Christmas boxes. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 30 Mar. 6/3: I did not see the Archbishop of Sydney there last night, but he may have been, under the lap, so to speak, for he looks a square-jawed old bloke who would enjoy seeing a good shift and cross-counter. | |
| Queenslander (Brisbane) 22 Jan. 18/1: A few books were betting under the ‘lap,’ but they did no good. | |
| Truth (Melbourne) 10 Jan. 3/3: [headline] Pawnbroking ‘Under the Lap’ [...] Many of these unlicensed pawnbrokers are known as ‘fences’. | |
| Richmond River Exp. (NSW) 16 Mar. 8/3: Liquor was hard to get — it had to be obtained ‘under the lap’ — and this had led to the use of deadly substitutes. | |
| Teleg. (Brisbane) 7 Jan. 14/3: Owing to the extensive operations of bookmakers who bet ‘under the lap’ and thereby do not contribute a penny towards the upkeep of racing [etc]. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Cold Stone Jug (1981) II 48: When I first started getting tobacco ‘under the lap’, I must have been pretty far down in the scale. | |
| Come in Spinner (1960) 322: That joint in Gloucester Street got the maximum fine of a hundred smackers for at least ten thousand quid’s worth of trade they done under the lap. | |
| Up and Down Under 85: Most grocers ran an ‘under the lap’ starting-price system; although illegal it attracted customers towards the shop. |