cruise n.
1. (usu. gay) the search for a sexual partner, usu. focussed on known pick-up areas, e.g. a park, a beach, etc.
![]() | A Scarlet Pansy 165: As soon as the college examinations were finished, Fay [...] set out on a summer tour to include the Pacific Coast and as much as possible of that which lay between it and New York. ‘My grand cruise,’ Fay styled it. | |
![]() | Socxial Problems 106/2: The major form of establishing contact is the ‘cruise’, with the fellator passing ‘queer-corners’ or locations until his effort is recognized by one of the boys [Simes:DLSS]. | |
![]() | At the Cross 55: ‘Bella said ‘Go on, forget it for tonight, go out and have a good old cruise’ [Simes:DLSS]. | |
![]() | Suck Slave 12: I wasn’t on the cruise in the basement. I didn’t know what the word meant [Simes:DLSS]. | |
![]() | Our Hero has Bad Breath 98: It was around then I changed my job and my apartment, too, but not my habit of an occasional cruise around the Cross [Simes:DLSS]. | |
![]() | Beat 99: Prissie was off. Maybe for a cruise, maybe just to get out of the house [Simes:DLSS]. |
2. (US Und.) a male homosexual who picks up partners on the street.
![]() | DAUL 53/1: Cruise, n. (West and Pacific Coast) A male oral sodomist who makes street pickups. ‘That cruise we robbed looked like a bum but he went for four C’s (four hundred dollars) on the shake (extortion).’. | et al.|
![]() | Tearoom Dangler 165: It is dark heresy to admit that a subway cruise, finally borne intact to a hotel room, is a better lay than a star bargain from a King’s Cross pub [Simes:DLSS]. |
3. (gay) a quick glance that assesses a passing individual in sexual terms.
![]() | Herbert Fortune & Men’s Eyes 15: [no text] [Simes:DLSS]. | |
![]() | Ladies’ Man (1985) 240: Donny gave me a shot in the ribs. ‘Your first cruise’. [Ibid.] 243: Most of the guys passing gave him a heavy cruise. | |
![]() | OutRage Dec. 46/2: Now we have a total cruise, no disguises and no hiding. | |
![]() | Surprising Myself 207: [H]is eyes snapped back at me. He stared. It was more a stare than a cruise, but everyone had their own style [Simes:DLSS]. | |
![]() | Guardian Guide 31 July–6 Aug. 93: Were you or were you not on a gay cruise? |