Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the backside, the buttocks.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. a very attractive face.

1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 165: His Trowsis had er slitherin’ chin, ’n’ ther Sunday face iv er sick sheep.
1909		Altoona Trib. (PA) 10 Apr. 13/4: A picture of her Sunday face, which was the most beautiful face in the world.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 94: I was so pretty just my ass would have made you a Sunday face.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 171: That li’l humper’s ass is pretty enough to make Cecil a Sunday face.

one’s best clothes; also attrib.

1882

‘Blooming Aesthetic’ in Rag 30 Sept. n.p.: A Sunday-flash-togs young man, / A pocket-of-hogs young man, / A save-all-his-rhino, / To cut-a-big-shine, oh, / Will soon-have-a-pub young man.

(W.I.) any variety of clergyman or preacher.

1957

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

1. a criminal or debtor who only dares go out on Sunday, when the police are inactive.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1825		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 215: The Sunday men [...] are not now so numerous as formerly: the facility of a trip across the Channel enables many a shy cock to evade the scrutinizing eye [...] of the law.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 87: ‘[T]here is a writ out against Captain O’Rooney for four hundred pounds. He will not show up to-day. He is a Sunday man’.

2. a pimp [Sunday is the only day he can go out with his woman; the remainder of the time she will be working].

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see Monday morning quarterback n.

a debtor, one who risks going out on Sundays only.

1821

‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 44–5: He is a once-a-week man, or, in other words, a Sunday promenader—Harry Hairbrain was born of a good family, and, at the decease of his father, became possesed of ten thousand pounds, which he sported with more zeal than discretion, so much so, that having been introduced to the gaming table by a pretended friend, and fluctuated between poverty and affluence for four years, he found himself considerably in debt.

one whose degenerate weekday behaviour is replaced every Sunday by an air of sanctimonious and ultimately hypocritical piety.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(US) a fantasy, a lie.

1927

(con. 1917) J. Stevens Mattock 237: If you spy out a Bolshevik, go stool on him. I don’t give a damn. But you make a point to tell nothin’ but Sunday school stories about Johnny Hard and the rest of us who are just bums, see.

(US) curses, swearing.

1909

L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 377: Sunday-school words, n. Curse words, oaths.

phr. denoting extreme length, lit. or fig.

1836		D. Crockett Exploits and Adventures (1934) 190: He commenced singing, and his list of songs seemed to be as long as a rainy Sunday.
1895		Lafayette Advertiser (LA) 23 Mar. 6/1: He didn’t wear no mournin’ clothes to meeting, or put on a face as long as a rainy Sunday like Deacon Joiner.
1900		Manchester Courier 31 Mar. 14/2: Rocky felt as if he had sand in his head, and a headache as long as a rainy Sunday.
1909		Dly Missoulian (MT) 2 May 10/2: His patience is twice as long as a rainy Sunday.

see old man has his Sunday clothes on under old man n.

(Aus.) to be completely ignorant (of).

1911

E.J. Brady Tom Pagdin Pirate 54: ‘You know as much about this detective an’ pirate business as a dog knows about Sunday’.

lit. or fig., askew, at an angle.

1831		Navy at Home II 204: By ‘the piper that played before Moses’ I’ll jam that ram’s nob of his’n against the stanchion, and make him look ‘Seven ways for Sunday’.
1860		T. Haliburton Season Ticket 300: Deacon Properjohn, his eyes starein six ways for Sunday.
1889		World (N.Y.) 18 May 6/1: Tiernan drove the ball like a shot towards Dunlap. Dunny [...] put down his mawleys in the orthodox way, when zipp! Presto! the ball knocked a freckle from his left ear and went sailing above six ways for Sunday.
1903		Courier (Waterloo, IA) 10 feb. 3/3: The driver touched up his horse and got across just in time to prevent being knocked seven ways from Sunday.
1909		Star Press (Muncie, IN) 27 Jan. 7/2: The oriental ink consumer that wrote this is there ‘forty ways from Sunday’.
1912		H. Lawson ‘Grandfather’s Courtship’ in Roderick (1972) 862: I [...] set down suddenly, an’ the chair set down too — the legs went all ways for Sunday.
1914		Manhattan Republic (KS) 26 Mar. 1/1: Max Anderson [...] chairman of the meeting, had Joe Gannon whipped seven ways from Sunday.
1922		Bisbee Dly rev. (AZ) 10 Mar. 1/7: As for propaganda, you can beat the railways seven ways from Sunday.
1923		Times (Shreveport, LA) 18 Nov. 52/2: He’s got you beat forty ways from Sunday. He’s got enough jazz and pep to run a factory.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 486: The lad was the kind to knock a girl’s heart six ways from Sunday.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 334: Damned if they wasn’t cops ever’ which way from Sunday.
1936		J.T. Farrell World I Never Made 26: By the living God, he would tan their asses six sides of Sunday first!
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 11: In quiet, courteous tones [he] laid him out forty ways for Sunday.
1953		T. Williams Camino Real Block Twelve: This filing system is screwed up six ways from next Sunday ... File this crap under crap!
1960		(con. 1940s) D. MacCuish Do Not Go Gentle (1962) 376: Gonna cut yer screwy pal six ways to Sunday.
1977		Ludington Dly News (MI) 16 Feb. 4/3: The Nobel Prize-winning economist [...] is stretched six ways from Sunday insofar as his available time is concerned.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 175: You take care of this [...] or I’m gonna have your ass six ways to Sunday.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 39: We’ve got the little greaser six ways from Sunday. [Ibid.] 205: He won’t go for this one unless we can nail the kid eight ways from Tuesday.
1987		Corvallis Gaz.-Times (OR) 27 Mar. 1/2: ‘It’s horrible’ [...] ‘We were had seven ways from Sunday’.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 29: Norton was stuffed six ways to Sunday.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] He was stuffed, six ways to Saturday.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 101: I want you seven ways from Sunday!
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 333: Boy Toy/Butt Banger [...] – fuck him six ways from Sunday.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 83: I know you’re beat six ways to Sunday.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 130: I will have both your asses six ways to Sunday.
2013		E. Kurz ‘Pegleg’ in ThugLit Aug. [ebook] I been beat seven ways from Sunday more than anyone I know.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 139: She snitched. It hit me six ways from Sunday.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 331: [Q]uoting each other facts and figures to prove that the planet is focked seven ways to Sunday.