honey n.1
1. senses based on the sweetness.
(a) (also hon, honey-chops, honey-comb, honey-girl, hun) a term of endearment, whether male to female or vice versa; occas. to a child of either sex.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | William of Palerne 1655: William seide, ‘mi hony, mi hert al hol þou me makest’ [OED]. | |
| Miller’s Tale line 3697: And softe he cogheth with a semy soun: ‘What do ye, hony-comb, sweete Alisoun, My faire bryd, my swete cynamome?’. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | ‘In Secreit Place this Hyndir Nycht’ in Mackenzie Poems (1932) 53: I hard ane beyrne say till ane bricht, ‘My huny, my hart’. | |
| Elynour Rummynge line 223: He calleth me his whytyng [...] His swetyng and his honny. | |
| ‘The Jolly Beggar’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 6: And what wad ye do wi’ them, my hinny and my dow? | |
| Wily Beguiled 17: Now I set my cap oth to side on this fashion (do ye see?) then say I, / Sweet hony, bonny, sugar candie, Pegge. [Ibid.] 22: Sweet Pegge, honny Pegge [...] my Love, my dove, my honnie. | |
| Well met Gossip B1: Tell me Hony, My Loue, my Doue, my Lambe, my prettie Conny. | |
| Eng. Moor I iii: There was a Lady lov’d a swine. Honey quoth she; And wilt thou betrue love mine. Hoogh, quoth he. | |
| Nights Search I 54: Persist, sweet Honey-chops! | |
| Walks of Islington and Hogsdon I i: Turn to me hony, and give me a kiss. | |
| ‘To the Tune of Beginning of the World’ Wit Restor’d (1817) 292: Good morrow my honey my suggar-candy, My litle pretty mouse. | |
| Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 103: I ne’er had thought, much less Desire / Basely to [...] steal away from thee, my Honey. | |
| ‘A Country Dialogue’ Covent Garden Drollery 105: And we’l be married my dear hony, Tomorrow morn. | |
| ‘Roger’s Delight’ in Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 211: For then she’ll be a Woman grown, I’ll lay Five Pounds in money; / And have a little one of her own, as well as Jug my Honey. | |
| ‘Song’ in Pills to Purge Melancholy I 89: Come Jug, my Honey, let’s to bed, / It is no Sin, since we are wed. | |
| Double Gallant III i: Dear Honey, or My dearest Angel. | |
| Hist. of John Bull 68: Our affairs, honey, are in a bad condition. | |
| The Quaker’s Opera I i: My Countrymen! Dear Honey, you mistake, I am not an Irishman. | |
| Roderick Random (1979) 291: [to a pistol] Upon which he called, with a true Tipperary cadence, ‘Fire away, honey’. | |
| Taste in Works (1799) I 13: Pr’ythee, sweet honey, let the child alone. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Disappointment I iii: Oh, how joyful shall I be, / When I get de money. / I will bring it all to dee; / Oh, my diddling honey. | |
| Cozeners in Works (1799) II 194: Put off your hood, my dear honey. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘Larry’s Ghost’ Irish Songster 7: Says he, Larry wid all my heart, / I have no objection my honey. | |
| Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 139: Behold your friends, my dearest honey. | |
| Essays on Irish Bulls 301: Arrah, honey! you’re an Irishman, whoever you are, and have spoke your mind in character. | |
| Post Captain (1813) 180: Say not a word honey [...] Come, let us fill and be off. | |
| Doctor Syntax, Picturesque (1868) 37/1: How shall I hug you, dearest honey, / When you return brimfull of money. | |
| Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 46: For sartin, honey, it’s the very ship. | |
| Sketches in London 39: ‘Now, then, Mick Ryan, my honey!’ said the Irishman. | |
| Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. IV 51: At our airliest convayniance, my honey! | |
| Autobiog. of a Female Slave 56: I tells you, honey, Masser does swar a heap. | |
| Bill Arp 174: If you were here, I would exclim, in the langdwage of my unkle Billy, ‘put your hand in mine, honey, and kiss me’. | |
| Bushrangers 221: If ye is honest in yer intentions, ye can take me afore the priest, and then ye can have the right to do as ye plase, honey. | |
| Tenting on the Plains (rev. edn 1895) 49: Oh la, honey, don’t you be skeart. | |
| ‘Discovered’ in Lyrics of Lowly Life 140: Say now, honey, wha’d he say? | |
| Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds 28: Out of consideration for you, me honey [...] we won’t get joined until de next new moon. | |
| [perf. Winifred Hare] ‘Can't you think of any other name but “Baby”?’ 🎵 ‘My baby’ and ‘My honey’ are far too common, sonny. | |
| My Lady of the Chimney Corner 65: Ah, honey, shure everybody would know that ye didn’t grow it. | |
| Perrysburg Jrnl (Wood Co., OH) 22 May 2/2: I am just Nuts to tear into the Sweet Home racket with ivy round the door. Do you get me, Hun? | |
| ‘Sweet Chil’ Nigger to Nigger 87: tad: How is you, honey? [...] sweet chile: Good day. Brother Tad, don’t you ‘honey’ me. I b’longs to Hank. | |
| ‘Billie’s Blues’ 🎵 Some call me honey, others think I’ve got money. | |
| Babe is Wise 284: A youth had gone bawling ‘You’re my funny honey bunny an’ I’m sartinly a-gonna be yours!’. | |
| ‘Heads You lose’ in Dan Turner Hollywood Detective Feb. 🌐 ‘And I wish you’d stop calling me baby. I’m Chloe Calverson. [...]’ ‘Have it your way, hon’. | |
| End as a Man (1952) 36: Get in the old position, honey. | |
| Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 9: Take it easy, honey. | |
| Little Men, Big World 58: Better tell him, honey. | |
| Cast the First Stone 36: I’ll eat my hat, honey-girl [...] if you ain’t the prettiest chick I ever seen. | |
| Owning Up (1974) 118: Could I have the check, honey? | |
| Daddy Cool (1997) 68: Goddam it, Janet, how many times have I got to tell you to stop calling me ‘honey’. | |
| Incest Schoolgirls 🌐 It was so damn good, honey. | |
| Robbers (2001) 62: I asked you a question, honey. | |
 | African Amer. Rhetoric(s) 106: Now just wait a minute, darling, Honey, Baby, Sweetie Pie, Baby cakes, I don’t think so! | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘It’s ok, hon’. | |
| Life 294: Well, it’s a long ride to the airport, honey; let me think about it. | |
| Thrill City [ebook] Shit, sorry, hon, is something wrong? | |
| Finders Keepers (2016) 68: ‘Where, hon?’ Linda asked. | |
| Glorious Heresies 34: ‘Hey, girl, how are you? I haven’t seen you in so long; what have you been up to, hon?’. | |
| California Bear 8: ‘Hi, honey,’ her aunt Reese said. |
(b) (also honey-boy) a sweetheart, a lover.
| Miller’s Tale line 3615: Hym thynketh verraily that he may see Noees flood come walwynge as the see To drenchen Alisoun, his hony dere. | |
| Satyre of Thrie Estaits I x: Quhair art thow, Bessy, my awin sweit thing, My hony, my hairt. | |
| ‘The Insatiate Lover’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 50: Come hither my own sweet duck, / And sit upon my knee [...] If thou wilt be my honey, / Then I will be thine own. | |
| Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 269: To leave her Country, and her Honey [...] And run away with such a one / As I. | |
| ‘Scotch Song’ in Pills to Purge Melancholy I 288: Never Woman was to Man so coy; / She’ll not be my Honey for my Love or Money. | |
| G. Ogle ‘Salutation of his Mistress’ in Pleasures of Coition 52: My Honey and my Gall! | |
| Orators in Works (1799) I 216: Leave off, honey Terence. | |
| ‘Sally in our Alley’ in Jovial Songster 112: I’ll hoard it up, and box and all, / I’ll give it to my honey. | |
| ‘Master Guineapig and Miss Shuttle’ Universal Songster I 31: She cried, oh, Guineapig, my dear, you are my dearest honey. | |
| Virginian 114: ‘Salute your honey!’ called the first fiddler. All partners bowed to each other. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 3 Aug. 14/3: They Say [...] That Wang’s ‘honey’ does not like pension money. Wang spends it. | |
| Negro and His Songs (1964) 190: She sings: ‘Don’t you let my honey catch you here – / He’ll kill you dead jus’ sho’s you born’. | |
| On Broadway 21 Mar. [synd. col.] Adele Jurgens’ honey gifted her with a $5,000 mink coat. | |
| ‘The Something in a Colored Man’ in Coll. Stories 406: ‘[Y]our honey-boy, so tall and so sharp and—so dead! | |
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 157: Went on down to de depot track, / Beggin’ my honey to take me back, / She turn ’round some two or three times: / ‘Take you back when you learn to grind’. | |
| ‘Duriella du Fontaine’ in et al. Life (1976) 45: I spoke to Van and shook her hand / And asked if this was his honey. | |
| Digger’s Game (1981) 98: Take the honey down to Puerto Rico. | |
| Patriot Game (1985) 70: Wait till Mrs. Ticker finds out about this, you got a honey. | |
| Deadmeat 124: You or Froggy would be there with your honey and I couldn’t hold the bed. | |
| (con. 1975–6) Steel Toes 18: Come home, [...] Get drunk, watch TV, love my honey up. | |
| Killer Tune (2008) 58: I draw the line at having to queue up to share you with one of your Hampstead honeyz. | |
| Rough Riders 180: I could use me a honey. |
(c) (orig. US, also hon) anyone or anything good of its kind.
| Reprisal I ii: You may talk as you please, Mr. Maclaymore — you’re a man of learning, Honey. | |
| Thraliana ii 19 Jan. 755: I suppose my eldest Daughter must have taught her how [to be abusive]; for she had no such Inclinations of her own and no such Capacity—Poor Honey! | |
| Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 262/2: She was, indeed, a darling honey. | |
| [perf.] ‘The company Promoter’ 🎵 And thinking that my companies all 'honey', then the money / Comes in thousands. | |
| ‘’Arry on Marriage’ in Punch 29 Sept. 156/1: Married life may be ticketed honey, but I know it’s more of a hum. | |
| Signor Lippo 59: Nothing is all honey. | |
| Making of an Englishman III 299: What am I doing now? Nothing extra, walking on in second line; it ain’t all ’oney, eh, Serrie? | |
| in Marschall That Old Gang o’ Mine (1984) 50: Wasn’t that a honey of a reply? | |
| ‘Truckin ’round Brooklyn’ in N.Y. Age 18 Jan. 7/1: Believe you me, the December issue is a honey. | |
| News of the World 11 June 1: There is one self-propelling American gun described by its crews as ‘a real honey’. | |
| Harder They Fall (1971) 164: ‘That’s a honey,’ the photographer said. | |
| Criminal (1993) 46: The Star’s quarterly report came out, and it had been a honey. | |
| letter 21 Jan. in Proud Highway (1997) 312: They thought that piece I did on you was ‘a real honey’. | |
| Tell Morning This 289: ‘First [dolls] are honeys, and then they begin to take you up on any little thing’. | |
| (con. c.1970) Short Timers (1985) 118: Did you see that tank? Was that tank bad? What a honey. | |
| Powder 191: God, what a fucking honey! | |
| Robbers (2001) 68: Take my word for it, he’d said, she’s a honey, been driving it myself. | |
| Call of the Weird (2006) 121: Okay, hon, follow my butt. |
(d) an attractive young woman.
| Aus. Felix (1971) 17: ‘Arrah, an’ is it yerself Purdy, me bhoy? Shure an’ it’s bussin’ ye I’d be afther – if me legs would carry me!’ And Purdey laughed and relished the honey, and had an answer pat for everybody – especially the women. | |
| ‘Stanford Expressions’ in AS II:6 276: honey — nice girl. | |
| Home to Harlem 23: I should think you was hungry foh a li’l brown honey. | |
| Dames Don’t Care (1960) 7: If either of you honeys wasn’t here I could go for the other in a big way. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 4 Nov. 20: Six charming honeys have started at the Club Murean. | |
| Man with the Golden Arm 50: I’ll fix you with a little honey [...] Clark Street hotel stuff. | |
| Come in Spinner (1960) 149: Doesn’t she look a honey? | |
| Last Seen Wearing in Second Inspector Morse Omnibus (1994) 384: A honey of a girl from Brighton. | |
| Rat on Fire (1982) 74: Officer Peters is not the first man who took a look at some young honey and decided he might like to try a little of that. | |
| Between the Devlin 53: But then again, with a honey like you living just across the hall, why not? | |
| Source Nov. 166: Healthy thighs and hips sway back and forth as honeys prance about in tight shorts. | |
| PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 154: I redo the plan [...] putting all the best-looking honeys at one table. | |
| Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 11: I had already caught the eye of a few honeys that worked there and i had started to spit game to them. | |
| Dead Man’s Trousers 76: [of an available female] The honeys, the Glen Hoddles and the Hollywood starlets all party at the Standard these days. |
(e) attrib. use of sense 1d.
| Newsweek 28 Oct. 71: Arledge had managed to cram nine events into a one-hour show, plus two interviews and three ‘honey’ shots (ABC lingo for prolonged looks at pretty female spectators). | |
| Sports Illus. 11 Feb. 14: He is responsible for the ‘honey shots’ during ABC telecasts of college football games. |
(f) (US, also honey-boy) a female term for an endearing, attractive man.
| N.Y. Tribune 8 May 32/1: I was almost to the point of thinking that I’d been picked as somebody’s honey boy. | |
| Door of Dread 53: I give him the glassy eye and sez, ‘Nix, my honey-boy, nix! Save that for the web-foots’. | |
| Home to Harlem 17: Just a little gift from a baby girl to a honey boy! | |
| Dawn Ginsbergh’s Revenge 206: The first picture (posed by ‘Honey-Boy’ Shugrue and Maggie Klein). | |
| ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 61: honey n Handsome or sexy male. | |
| Powder 70: She reckoned Keva was a honey with his long lashes, staring eyes and that wild mop. |
(g) (orig. US) in ironic use of sense 1c, something problematical.
| ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 333: a honey — [...] anything very difficult. | |
| Children’s Hour in Coll. Plays (1971) 20: martha: has she always been like this? cardin: She’s always been a honey. Aunt Amelia’s spoiling hasn’t helped any, either . | |
| Freak Show 89: ‘Them Fish People, what a pair they are!’ Bat nodded. ‘They’re honeys all right’. | |
| Beale Black & Blue 138: Now about the baddest and low-downest little place was on Beale Street was the Hole in the Ground. That was a honey down there, sure was. |
2. senses based on the texture.
(a) semen.
| A Rapture (1927) 7: I will rifle all the sweets, that dwell / In my delicious Paradise, and swell / My bagge with honey, drawne forth by the power / Of fervant kisses. | |
| Virtuoso Act I: Marry come up, you young Slut, are you so liquorish after the Honey of Man? | |
| Memoirs of an Oxford Scholar 95: This damps my Spirits, and hangs a heavy Weight upon my Heart --- This is the Gall Love mixes with my Honey. | |
| Kentish Gaz. 27 Aug. 2/1: Some officers of the army [...] had unloaded themselves of their honey in some of the hives of love . | |
| ‘The Queen’s Wedding’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 33: Now in this song, that I shall sing, if there is any one / Can prove there’s no improper word, why then I will have done. / So honey’s sweet, and quills make pens, and that is French by jinks. | |
| ‘Three Chums’ in Boudoir III 92: They sucked each other’s parts like two bees, till the last drop of the honey of love had been extracted. | |
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 33: Baume de vie, m. The semen; ‘white honey’. | |
| ‘What’s the Matter Now?’ 🎵 Mama wants some honey from the honey comb, / So, tell me, what’s the matter now? | |
| in Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 268: He gave her inches five, she says honey in my beehive. | |
| (con. c.1900) in Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 768: She’s a-sucking honey, / Double up, boys, / Get the worth of your money. | |
| Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 196: There are many terms for the ejaculate […] fetch, fuck, melted butter, honey, spunk and lather are all fairly common terms. | |
| ‘Hurricane Annie’ 🎵 But it keeps snowin and rainin and you done made me a load of money, / like the king of bees I’m gonna drop you a load of honey. | |
| Captured by the Cong Ch. viii 🌐 She gulped hungrily at the cock buried in her mouth, savoring the light trickle of sticky honey from the slit in the top. |
(b) vaginal secretions.
| et al. ‘A Song’ in Wit and Drollery 92: She set up a Shop in Hony Lane Whereto the flies did flock amaine, Some flew from France and some from Spaine, Brought by the English Pander. | |
| ‘The Bee-Hive’ in Pills to Purge Melancholy II 73: Under the Bee-hive lieth the Wax, and under the Wax is Honey. | |
| ‘Three Chums’ in Boudoir III 92: They sucked each other’s parts like two bees, till the last drop of the honey of love had been extracted. | |
| ‘Bumble Bee’ 🎵 He makes my honey [...] It’s all I want now / my bumblebee. | |
| ‘Sweet Mary Blues’ 🎵 She ain’t no bumble-bee, she can sure make some sweet honey for me. | |
| (con. 1948) Flee the Angry Strangers 386: A hustler like Paddy jenks to bring her ice cream and Horse and hotstick cats who had to dip into her honey. | |
| One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 75: I shift gears! Yeah! My bumblebee goes an gits him a lil french honey an I toot my whistle! | |
| Close Pursuit (1988) 100: Thinking about spreading some fine white legs and getting some of that uptown honey on his fingers. | |
| Blood Posse 238: Two of her fingers disappeared into her cunt. Slowly she drew them out glistening with honey. |
3. (US) one whose personality makes them hard to associate with but who has no appreciation of the fact [abbr. she’s a honey but the bees don’t know it].
| Lucky Palmer 214: What do I think of Les Darcy? Boy, he was a honey. |
4. senses based on the colour.
(a) (US Und.) a (light-skinned) black person.
| Life In Sing Sing 249: Honey. A colored person. | |
| ‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/1: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] A Jap or Dingo is the term used for negroes, as is also honey . |
(b) (US, also honeydew) human excrement; thus honey-pit, honey-vat, a cesspit; honeyman, a cesspit cleaner.
| [ | | Maronides (1678) VI 71: Takes their Petitions and their money, / And all to cleanse his back-side honey]. |
| implied in honey house | |
| (con. 1910s) A Corporal Once 172: The busiest bee that ever buzzed would have nothing on you as a honey gatherer! | |
| (con. c.1900) Amer. N&Q Feb. 172: He told me he was ‘movin’ de honey from de garden house.’ . | |
| (con. 1950) Band of Brothers 6: Sanchez pointed to a Mauser, its blue steel shining at the bottom of a manure tank. [...] ‘You gonna stick yer paw in that honey pit?’. | |
| Meanwhile, Back at the Front (1962) 134: She pushed a dung barrow / Singing ‘Dung balls and honey / All fresh from the throne’. | |
| in DARE II 1072/1: honey, honeydew. | |
| (con. 1951) Unit Pride (1981) 176: He leapt out of the window [...] and landed right in the honey vat. | |
| Lowspeak 74: Honeyman – the cess pit cleaner. |
As terms of endearment
In compounds
a general term of affection.
| This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 48: Oh, honey-baby — you’re so big and strong. | |
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 153: Don’t you weep an’ moan, / Your honey babe’ll get you out o’ jail, if she have to sell her home! | |
| Gangster Girl 62: Is my honey-baby sore at her rough sweetie-man? | |
| Stand On It (1979) 135: Stroker! Is that you, honey-babe? | |
| Vanilla Kid 235: I can’t say ‘honey baby’ and ‘sweetie pie’ like you do. | |
| Calif. Red (1993) 121: Oh honey-baby, Mommy does want to know that you’re happy and having a good time. |
see sense 1f above.
(Aus.) a latrine bucket.
| ‘Pusan U.’ in Banglestien’s Bar n.p.: I enrolled in that great college / [...] / It was built from honeybuckets. |
1. a general term of affection.
| Mop Fair 4: The gods [...] dealt ‘Cecil’s little honey-bun’ [...] a bit of retributive justice. | |
| ‘A Second Word-List From Nebraska’ in DN III:vii 544: honey-bunch, honey-bun, n Term of endearment; darling, sweetheart. | |
| Silk Hat Harry’s Divorce Suit 6 Dec. [synd. cartoon strip] Ah my little honey-bug — who says Papa doesn’t think of his little wifey. | |
| Yellow Peril in Hatch & Hamalian Lost Plays of Harlem Renaissance (1996) 57: That’s them kids upstairs, honeybunch. | |
| Enter the Saint 83: ‘What’s the matter with my face?’ Ganning snarled. ‘Everything, honeybunch,’ drawled the Saint. | |
| (con. 1943–5) To Hell and Back (1950) 136: Dear honeybunch. It is little me again. | |
| On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 216: Louanne honeycunt you sit next to me. | |
| Little Men, Big World 147: What’s the matter, honey-bunch? Don’t like your nice milk? | |
| Waiters 176: Well, honeybugs, these may be your salad days. | |
| City of Night 262: Is this how it happened, honeybunch — or am I conjecturing too much from the past? | |
| Last Bus to Woodstock 79: Whata we done to you, honeybunch? | |
| Muscle for the Wing 169: Now, honey-bunchkins [...] I want to know where she lives these days. | |
| Whores for Gloria 52: Jimmy said all right now honeypies sit on that bed and take your clothes off. | |
| Dolores Claiborne 5: Oh – yes. Thank you, honeybunch. | |
| College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Honeybunny (vocative) Replaces the name of someone dear. | |
| (con. 1960s) Blood Brothers 178: No, seriously, he can get you anything you want for the right price, and I mean anything, honey buns. | |
| Robbers (2001) 166: You told me to talk about things, honeybunch, say what I felt. | |
| Nature Girl 159: Where’s my li’l Honey Pie runnin’ off to? | |
| (con. 1980s) Skagboys 83: Get them round this [...] c’mon honeybunch! |
2. a girlfriend.
| Augie March (1996) 501: He had his card parties and his honeybunch. |
(US) a general term of affection, usu. in Southern and/or black use.
| Amer. Madam (1981) 138: A girl wants to be liked, to be well liked, to be petted, be called kitten, eating pussy, dolly, baby Venus, honey child. | |
| Harder They Fall (1971) 29: Okay, honey-chile . . . Check, sugar . . .You name it, beauteeful. | |
| Little Men, Big World 77: ‘Night, honey-chile,’ she said. ‘Home to your sorghum and corn-pone.’. | |
| Burn, Killer, Burn! 49: We can settle that little problem, honey child. | |
| Llama Parlour 51: Why, it’s a downright testament to your talent, honey-child, your bein’ here at all. |
see sense 1a above.
see sense 1a above.
(US black) a pretty young woman with a golden-brown complexion, the image is of her being dipped in honey; thus honey-dipped adj.
| ‘Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy’ 🎵 I said, ‘Sorry, honey-dip, but I already ate’. | |
| Da Bomb 🌐 15: Honeydip: Sweet or sexy female. | |
| Pimp’s Rap 146: This fine honey-dipped chick sold me some black alligator kicks. | |
| Tuff 14: Yes you, honey dip, with the shopping bag. Why you walking so fast? | |
| ‘What U Wanna Do?’ 🎵 Yo, honey dip in the whip, I don’t walk with no limp. |
see separate entries.
see sense 1a above.
see honey-bun
(US) in television sports broadcasting, a shot of a notably attractive young woman.
| Dead Solid Perfect 146: [T]hey call [shots of attractive females] ‘hooking a barracuda,’ or ‘a honey shot,’ or, as a matter of fact, a ‘hold it’. |
(orig. US) a general term of affection from a man to a woman; occas. vice versa.
| ‘Oh My Lover’ 🎵 Dry [album] Oh my sweet thing / Oh my honey thighs / Give me your troubles / I’ll keep them with mine. | |
| WhirlGirl 🌐 Chapter 9, Episode 4. Not a Slutty Superhero. When a sexy superheroine thinks she’s just a mild-mannered waitress, there are great rewards for treating her with respect. And painful penalties for calling her ‘honey-thighs’! |
In phrases
(US black teen) a woman who is attractive at a distance or in poor light, e.g. in a club, but less so in close-up.
| Kansas City Star 31 Oct. 🌐 You might want to be leery about the lighting if you’re looking for love. It’s so dim at the bar and throughout the restaurant that the human eye could easily be fooled, and you could end up with a strobe-light honey. |
Pertaining to excrement or defecation
In compounds
a bucket used for night-soil.
| (con. 1914–1918) Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier 318: Honey-bucket. — Latrine — receptacle for excreta. Canadian. | |
| in Derelicts of Company K (1978) 387: Honey pot? Holy smokes! I thought he just fell in the water. Jesus Christ! That’s really the shits! Them things really stink! That’s worse than fallin’ in the fuckin’ GI shithouse. | |
| Penelope 52: They carry it [human fertilizer] around in wooden barrels called ‘honey buckets’. | |
| False Starts 115: A brief visit once a day to feed us and change our honey buckets. | |
| (con. c.1944) One Last Look 53: Our latrine (with running water instead of the usual ‘honey buckets’) is next door. | |
| Lowspeak 74: Honey pot – (Can.) prison lavatory. | |
| Our Canada 96: Yellowknife’s Old Town, where plumbing consisted of a simple ‘honey bucket’. | |
| Policy 170: Alex bolted from the honey bucket, trousers in one hand. |
1. (US) a vehicle for collecting human excrement.
| Gleaner (Manchester, NH) 30 Dec. n.p.: New-Market Wants to Know [...] If the employment he is in now, suits him and what port he will steer for when he gets through? Will he go with the honey cart. | |
| Let Tomorrow Come 140: You’re wastin’ your time in this racket. You ought to be drivin’ a honey-cart somewhere. | |
| Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: honey cart . . . garbage wagon. | |
| (con. WWII) Yanks Don’t Cry 119: Honey carts — the second step in Japan’s crop fertilizing program — are flat wagons fitted out with several large wooden barrels that are pulled through the streets by a horse or an ox, and sometimes by a man or a woman whose status in life is lower than that of a ninsoku [HDAS]. | |
| www.paulnoll.com 🌐 [pic. caption] This man is fertilizing with human ‘night soil’ with his homemade ‘honey-cart’. |
2. (US) a portable outdoor toilet.
| in Western Folklore XIII (1954) 10: The ‘powder room,’ of both genders, portable, for [use on filming] locations, is the ‘honey cart’ [HDAS]. |
1. see sense 4b
2. see also SE compounds below.
a latrine cleaner; thus honey-dipping, the removal of excrement or sewage; thus a term of abuse.
| Milk and Honey Route 207: Honey dipping - Working as a shovel stiff in a sewer, or any kind of unpleasant shovel work. | |
| Amer. N&Q Feb. 172: Before the days of improved plumbing in Petersburg (Va.) [c. 1900], the squad that cleaned privies at night was known to boys as the ‘honey-diggers’ [HDAS]. | |
| ‘Der Arme Dolmetscher’ in Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) 184: If tha’s Kraut, whassat man doin’ on honey-dippin’ detail? | |
| Annual Pictorial Bulletin, 14th Air Force Association 7: But they also served who acted as ‘honey-dippers’ (left center) — one of the less glamorous occupations in the Far East — and female grain carrier (lower left). | |
| (con. 1969) Dispatches 14: The VC got work [...] as shoeshine boys and laundresses and honey-dippers. | |
| High Cotton (1993) 44: Not until I can get Arnez to get a honey dripper to do something about those drain-pipes. | |
| Saga of Sailor Jack 53: A honey dipper is usually an old man and sometimes an old woman. The honey box is drained at least once a week. |
(US) a privy or outside lavatory.
| ‘College Sl. Words And Phrases’ in DN IV:iii 233: honey-house, n. water-closet. |
1. a vehicle for collecting human (occas. animal) excrement.
| Beachcomber in the Orient 283: The ‘honey wagons,’ as the carts are called by European residents. | |
| All Brave Sailors 43: Here the ‘honey-wagons’ used to go, collecting the accumulation from thousands of privies. | |
| Amer. N&Q Feb. 172: Before the days of improved plumbing in Petersburg (Va.) [c. 1900], the squad that cleaned privies at night was known to boys as the ‘honey-diggers’ and the night wagon was the ‘honey-wagon’ [HDAS]. | |
| (con. 1940s) Do Not Go Gentle (1962) 129: The honey-wagon boys — that’s us. | |
| Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words. | |
| Dau 18: Hutch [...] was busy pumping out the medivac’s toilets and checking the gauges on the side of the large, yellow honey wagon. | |
| (con. 1930s) ‘Old Newark’ 🌐 In the 1930’s [...] the main instrument used for removing [horse] droppings was The Honey Wagon. | |
| Discover America Diaries 169: At this campsite, however, the owners have what’s called a mobile sewer, a portable sewer tank towed by a tractor, euphemistically called a Honey Wagon. | |
| Rant 21: The honeywagon comes to pump out your tank and he finds more than just natural waste, it’s an extra cost. |
2. a manure cart used for cleaning out barns.
| ‘A.E.F. English’ in AS V:5 384: Honey wagon. French manure cart. |
3. a garbage wagon.
| You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Honey Wagon: Garbage truck. |
4. a portable toilet.
| ATS 801: Honey wagon, a rolling toilet. | |
| 6000 Words 93: Honey wagon [...] a portable outdoor toilet. | |
| 9000 Words 95: Honey wagon [...] a portable outdoor toilet. | |
| Film Production Management 58: If you cannot afford an extra ‘honey wagon’ for them, at least try to give them a room at the location where they can retire. |
5. a vehicle used to spread manure on a field.
| Current Sl. V:4 14: Honey wagon, n. A manure spreader. |
Other uses
In compounds
1. a sexual partner.
| [ | | (con. 1908) Adventures of a Woman Hobo 180: ‘We live on the fat of the land the whole year round, don’t we, honey-drips?’ ‘You’re quite right.’ [...] responded his wife]. |
| Blues Fell this Morning 125: A lover may be a ‘bumble-bee’ a ‘honey-dripper’. | |
| One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 38: I say, Shove over, Lover. I say, Honeydripper, make room fer this Honeydripper! |
2. an attractive young person.
| (con. 1930s–50s) Night People 117: Honeydripper. A goodlooking boy or girl. | |
| et al. A2Z 49/2: honey dripper – n. attractive girl. |
(orig. in espionage use) a form of deception in which the bait is an attractive, seemingly available woman.
| Papua New Guinea Post-Courier (Port Moresby 25 July 6/5: Anatoly Filatov was photographed in, a compromising position with a female companion, and then forced to spy for Washington. Filatov, then a low-level diplomat in Algeria, was the victim of what intelligence types call a ‘honey trap’. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Ottawa Jrnl (Ontario) 24 July 2/3: [headline] Doomed spy caught in CIA ‘honey trap’. | |
| Newcastle Jrnl 11 May 8/2: The decision was taken to set a ‘honey trap’ for the Russian - to lure him Into a compromising relationship with a woman so that he could eventually persuaded to defect. | |
| Age (Melbourne) 1 Apr. 7/2: Such classic spy situations, where sex is used to trick individuals into espionage, are known [...] as ‘honey traps’. | |
| Trib. (Cosocton, OH) 16 Apr. 7/2: [headline] ‘Honey trap’ is one of oldest spy tricks. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Sun. Indep. (Dublin) 10/3: It was this clandestine operation, codenamed Edzell, that became the most infamous honey trap in legal history. | |
| Reading Eve. Post 27 Nov. 7/2: D.I. Grim (David Haig) needs a woman so he is planning a honey trap. He wants Constable Maggie Habbib (Mina Anwar) to dress up in her finest mini skirt and boob tube and ensnare Terry the Tank. | |
| Gazette (Montreal) 26 May 16/1: They dismissed the sting as a classic ‘honey trap’ — one in a growing list executed by the tabloid’s squadron of pretty young reporters. | |
| Gutshot Straight [ebook] I did a couple of honey traps with this friend of mine. | |
| Twitter 27 Feb. 🌐 The honey trap is a tale as old as time, but this 21st century twist is irresistible. | |
| Empty Wigs (t/s) 439: Trapped in an elevator. Honey trapped. Honey trapped in an elevator. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(Aus.) a passive homosexual.
| Hist. of Rome Hanks 43: Nah! Nah! Honeybum, Crime said — Oh, f— you, the drummer said. | |
| Argot in DAUS (1993). |
(US) an extraordinary person or thing.
| Missing Bride 427: Oh, you’re a honey-cooler. What have you been doing now, Imp? | |
| in DN VI (1928) 349: Make [this Indian] your friend, for he is a good one. Do the square thing by him and he is a honey-cooler. Do anything mean to him, and he is a johan, and he will get even . | |
| Vivia 131: Blaise Wildman, who, looking out of the kitchen-door [...] swore it was ‘going to be a honey-cooler of a night’. | |
| Puck 20 315/2: ‘It’s a honey-cooler, now I ’m giving you the straight tip.’ I can not describe the degree of harshness with which those coarse expressions, ‘la-la’ and ‘honey-cooler’ jarred upon my sensitive organization. | |
| Sun. Herald and Wkly Intelligencer (Wash., DC) 12 Oct. 7/1: The Columbia Athletic team next year will be a honey cooler. | |
| St. Louis Republic (MO) 9 Dec. 50: She was a Honey-Cooler to look at. | |
| You Can Search Me 82: That boy is a honey-cooler all right. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 20 Dec. 8/1: By cripes! but she was main shore a honey cooler for big! | |
| Long Is. Agronomist 4-5 95: At times however we are handed one which is a honey-cooler, a veritable daisy, yea even a red, white and blue daisy, with a square centre. | |
| Poultry Item 19 77: A lallapalooser is a honey-cooler, a cookoo; a daisy; a cling-stone peach. It’s easy to define words when you know language. |
1. (US) whisky.
| Amer. Thes. of Sl. 99.1: Liquor. . . honey dip [DARE]. | |
| Western Words (2nd edn) 152: Honeydew — A logger’s name for whisky [DARE]. |
2. see also sl. compounds above.
a piece of good luck.
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. |
see separate entry.