Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) to have sexual intercourse; thus unlaid, used of those who have not had intercourse.

1927		J.H. O’Hara letter 1 Nov. in Bruccoli Sel. Letters 25: First I must get laid [...] I haven’t had any poontang since I was in Germany.
1930		(con. 1917) ‘W.W. Windstaff’ ‘A Flier’s War’ in Longstreet Canvas Falcons (1970) 282: We’re going to Paris to [...] drink, eat, sleep, and get laid.
1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 154: I wasn’t that hard up. If I wanted to get laid, I knew where to go.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 35: We sure had us a time tonight, Getting laid and everything.
1955		F. Brookhouser Now I Lay Me Down 29: Look, I want to get laid.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn (1966) 93: Tralala was 15 the first time she was laid.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 26: Lonesome men that belonged to The Great Army of the Unlaid.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 10: I used to get laid in Central Park.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 112: I could not help but wonder on this night of all the talent getting well and truly laid.
1991		W.T. Vollmann Whores for Gloria 38: So get laid or jerk off, said Code Six.
1998		C. Fleming High Concept 82: Short, fat, ugly kids who couldn’t get laid in high school.
1999		J. Poller Reach 37: Those who tote them around on the off-chance that they might get laid never in actuality do.
2000		Guardian Weekend 8 Jan. 3: It was where all the spare men could go and get laid by Martian women.
2000		H. Dowd ‘Crazy Summer’ 🌐 I still hadn’t been laid even though I had convinced a couple of the girls I dated to jerk me off.
2007		D. McDonald Luck in the Greater West (2008) 88: Abdullah had promised that he’d get him laid.
2010		(ref. to 1963) K. Richards Life 138: Six months ago I couldn’t get laid.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] ‘I just needed…’ She paused, trying to find more elegant words for to get laid.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 10: Plans were being hatched around the best places to get laid.

1. (US black) to make explicit.

1941

‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 13 Sept. 9/7: This is x-rayed, relayed and parlayed for you, and especially for you [ibid.] 13 Dec. 9/6: This jive is layed, parlayed, x-rayed, but never delayed.

2. having had frequent or protracted sexual intercourse.

1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 311/2: laid, relaid, and parlayed 1. To experience something thoroughly; to dispense with all, esp. sexual restrictions.
2004		Vail Trail 18 Mar. 🌐 Even the nerds from the engineering school were down in Cancun getting laid, relayed and parlayed, all on their parents’ dime.

3. absolutely deceived, cheated.

1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 311/2: laid, relaid, and parlayed 2. Completely deceived, cheated, or taken advantage of.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 3: Puerto Ricans been gettin’ jammed since the forties [...] We been laid, relayed, and waylaid and nobody wants to hear about it.

(US) to have sexual intercourse.

1933

J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 266: You’re Francis, the one and only original coose man. Before Adam laid bricks with Eve, you was.

(US) to have sexual intercourse.

1949		F. Brown Dead Ringer 21: ‘Your cooch shows would be strips, and with little tents pitched in back for the customers who really wanted to lay it on the line after the–’ ‘Who,’ I said, ‘gave you the idea carney girls are whores?’.
1957		C. Howard ‘Enough Rope for Two’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] ‘I’ll lay it on the line for you, Maxie, [...] I figure I’m entitled to that dough more than you’.
1963		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 175: Sometimes I got a nickel and sometimes I got a dime, / But when I got a quarter, Lulu lays it on the line.
1970		(con. 1950s) H. Junker ‘The Fifties’ in Eisen Age of Rock 2 (1970) 102: Does she put out? Lay it on the line? Do the deed?
1980		L. Mantell Murder and Chips 81: He sounded a trifle regretful that Sheila had not laid it on the line with him.

(Aus.) to have sex with.

1842		Flash (N.Y.) 10 July 1/2–3: Moll Quiff — What do you mean by writing to me in that style, you India rubber harlot? What do I know about your George’s and your Jem’s, and your Dick’s, and your Harry’s. I believe you lay off with a thousand of ’em.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 194: You like laying off with girls better than anything in the world, don’t you?
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 63: I think she’s in love with every bloke she lays off with.
2000		Penguin Bk of All-New Aus. Jokes 130: ‘I’ve got bad news. I have to lay you or Jack off.’ And Debra replied: ‘Would you mind jacking off? I’ve got a terrible headache.’.

1. to have sexual intercourse.

1613		Beaumont & Fletcher Captain IV iii: [She] is the best, that e’re man laid his leg o’er.
1675		T. Duffet Psyche Debauch’d III i: The delicat’st bit of Man’s meat that e’er lips weer laid to, or legs laid over.
1682		‘Satire to Julian’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 88: For bugg’ring of a rotten door, I’d rather famed be, / Than lay leg o’er that painted whore.
1918		H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 29/1: LAY THE LEG. Have sexual intercourse.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 123/1: Lay the leg. To engage in an act of sexual intercourse.

2. (US prison) to sodomize.

1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 27: lay the leg (v.): Intercourse (probably pedication) with a boy or man. (Slang.).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 88: anal intercourse [...] lay the leg (kwn black & prison sl).

(US) to fellate.

1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 27: lay the lip (v.): To fellate. (Slang.).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 33: to suck a penis [...] lay the lip (’40s).

(US prison) to have (presumably homosexual) sexual intercourse.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Laying the Track: Having sex.

(US) to have sexual intercourse with.

1924		Hecht & Bodenheim Cutie 46: We will stop first at my little love nest and lay up for a few repairs.
1935		W. Smith Bessie Cotter 58: He don’t lay up with no dame.
c.1940		‘The Castration of the Strawberry Roan’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 92: I was layin’ round town in a house of ill fame, / Laid up with a rough, tough hustlin’ dame, / When a hop-headed pimp with his nose full of coke / Beat me outta that woman and left me stone broke.
1974		C. Loken Come Monday Morning 107: Man it’d kill her if she ever knew he was layin’ up with somebody else.
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 34: layin’-up [...] ‘She ain’t my girlfriend; I’ve just been layin’-up with her’.

see also under relevant n. or adj.

see lay into v.

see lay (a/some) cable

1. to fail completely, esp. in show business.

1891		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 14 Feb. 5/3: ‘Go forth, my friends, into the wide world, and tell all mankind that at last I have produced something, I have Laid An Egg.’ And they looked and they saw a hollow shell full of wind and water.
1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 27 Dec. [synd. col.] A floperoo called ‘These Few Ashes’ [...] laid an egg.
1929		Phila. Inquirer 16 June n.p.: To ‘be laid an egg’ is the sad fate of one who has been completely crushed, outwitted, defeated.
1931		W. Winchell On Broadway 10 Jan. [synd. col.] I hope you lay an egg so big that hens, for miles around, will be conscripted to hatch it.
1938		R. Chandler ‘Red Wind’ in Red Wind (1946) 51: You haven’t murdered anybody, the way you tell it, but you laid an egg down at police headquarters.
1947		C. Sandburg letter 7 Feb. in Mitgang (1968) 438: I have laid an egg in the shape of another long chaotic book.
1951		Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 81: But laying an egg was better than being hit by one.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 116: They’re waiting for you to lay an egg.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 83: Les figured out why Crystal’s last two records had laid a giant egg.
2001		Indep. Rev. 7 Mar. 1: We did it on the stage tour in Southampton where it laid a total egg.

2. (Aus./N.?.) to worry, to be agitated.

1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 17: All right, don’t lay an egg. I’m coming as fast as I can.
1982		H. Beaton Outside In 37: No need to lay an egg, Ma.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 126: lay an egg 1. Make a fuss.

3. (N.Z.) to defecate.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

(US) to make tyre marks by accelerating fast in a car.

1966		Current Sl. I:2 4/1: Lay a batch (patch), v. Leave black tire marks during acceleration.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 21: The car laid a patch and warped away.
1999		N. Stephenson Cryptonomicon 647: And then they were gone; resisting the urge to lay a patch until they were a couple of blocks distant.

(Aus.) to knock out.

1888

Wanganui Herald 18 Feb. 2/9: Professor West, of New Zealand, was ‘laid aside’ in Sydney [...] in a round a a half.

see lay into v.

see separate entry.

see under shop n.¹

to beat, to thrash.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Cane upon Abel a good Stick or Cudgel well-favoredly laid on a Man’s Shoulders.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Cane, to lay cane upon Abel. to beat any one with a Cane or Stick.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn, 3rd edn) n.p.: To lay Cane upon Abel; to beat any one with a cane or stick.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		Life and Trial of James Mackcoull 40: He had got an Indorsation from a Kenchin-cove [sic] in Edinburgh, who laid Cain on Abel so smartly, that he lost his balance.

1. (US black) to wait.

1896		H. Blossom Checkers 57: They’ve been laying dead with it all the meeting [...] but to-day they’ve got him in a good soft spot.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 148: I’ve got to let him lay dead for a week or ten days to give him time to cover it with a beard, as well as show a better haircut.
1931		D. Runyon ‘The Lily of St. Pierre’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 139: He can lay dead there till things blow over.
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 9: Chappie you lay dead here we are going inside and make with some African golf and if the nabbers are in existence come on with the shout ‘Cool off the nabbers are about.’.
1954		‘Hepster’s Dict.’ Mad mag. June 20: lay dead – wait .
1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 139: Just lay dead and let the race leaders handle it.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 20: File the window dividers [...] get ’em thin enough to kick out, then lay dead for a foggy night.

2. to do nothing, to stop everything.

1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 219: I’m gonna lay dead till half past the unlucky comes on.
1959		Esquire Nov. 70: lay dead: to wait.To stay in one place, don’t move.
1965		(con. 1940s) Malcolm X Autobiog. (1968) 227: After a month of ‘laying dead’, as inactivity was called, I knew I had to get some kind of hustle going.
1967		J. Horton ‘Time and cool people’ in Trans-action 4 6/1: The dudes could be found when they were ‘laying dead’ — hanging on the corner, or shooting pool and ‘jiving’ (‘goofing’ or kidding around) in a local community project.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 244: lay dead 1. Do nothing. 2. Stop everything.

see separate entries.

see lay into v.

(US juv.) to keep a lookout.

2002

(ref. to 1930s) ADS-L 22 Feb. 🌐 A letter appeared in this morning’s (Thursday’s) Daily News asking for ‘where and how certain expressions started’ that the writer, ‘an old geezer’ from the Red Hook area of Brooklyn, remembers. ‘When were were kids in the early 30’s — and sneakily shooting dice in the street — we would have a lookout stationed at a strategic spot. This lookout would be classified as “laying giggy”.’.

see separate entries.

see lay into v.

see separate entry.

1. see lay back v.

2. see separate entry.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

see under one n.¹

(US) to be frank.

1977		E. Torres Q&A 85: Play it straight down the middle. Ass on the table. You do your job, you can’t get hurt.
1978		S. Longstreet Straw Boss (1979) 320: Why don’t we lay our asses on the table.

(US black) to take advantage of a situation.

1944

‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

(US) to smoke opium.

1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 22: He could ‘lay the hip’ every afternoon and float on the wings of the poppy.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. 30: laying/lying on the hip – an opium smoker [...] the act of smoking opium.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 311: lay the hip. To smoke opium.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 100: Lay on the hip – To smoke opium.

see lay into v.

see separate entry.

see under paper n.

to remove the physical division between the vagina and the anus.

1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Pit. To lay pit and boxes into one; an operation in midwifery, whereby the division between the anus and vagina is cut through, broken, and demolished: a simile borrowed from the playhouse, when, for the benefit of some favourite player, the pit and boxes are laid together.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Pit. To lay pit and boxes into one; an operation in midwifery or copulation, whereby [etc. as 1785].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1823		in Egan’s Grose [as cit. 1796].

(US) to drive off at speed, spinning the wheels as one accelerates away.

1970		(con. 1950s) H. Junker ‘The Fifties’ in Eisen Age of Rock 2 (1970) 104: I got cut out. Peel out, lay rubber.
1979		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Short Timers (1985) 139: The poge colonel’s Mighty Mite lays rubber.
1980		Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 113: A driver [...] lays wheels by abruptly driving off to the accompaniment of loud exhaust pipes and screeching tires.
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 403: She guns the motor and she cuts outta there, laying down rubber.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 113: He would lay some rubber.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 155: The cops punched the gas. They laid tread and pursued.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 243: I laid some rubber on the main drag.

see cable n. (4)

(US black) to tap-dance, esp. as a professional.

1944		Cab Calloway New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 257: lay some iron (v.): to tap dance. Ex., ‘Jack, you really laid some iron that last show!’.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 210: That kid would sit in a chair and lay more iron that a lot of the best dancers who stood up and beat the boards in Harlem.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 120: Lay some hot iron Dance really well.

to knock someone down.

1788		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn).
1796		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

to play cards.

1864, 1867, 1870

Hotten Sl. Dict.

1. see lay down v. (1a)

2. see lay up v. (1)

1. see lay back v.

2. see separate entries.