Green’s Dictionary of Slang

brisket n.1

[SE brisket, the breast of an animal]

1. (also briskit) the human chest, thus brisket cut, a blow on that area of the body.

[Scot]J. Hogg Brownie of Bodsbeck II 20: I coudna swally my spittle for the hale day, an’ I fand a kind o’ foost, foost, foostin about my briskit.
[UK]‘Jon Bee’ A Dict. of the Turf, The Ring, The Chase, etc. 17: Brisket, or breast Cut — a hit on the breast or collar-bone.
[UK]Pierce Egan’s Life in London 5 June 149/1: Savage [...] felt for his opponent's brisket without ceremony.
[US]Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 8 Jan. n.p.: Arthur [...] sarviced him with so much pepper in the brisket.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 24 Feb. 3/1: She pitched into the brisket, and applying a prttty considerable foot to the loins, made him put out the best leg foremost.
[UK]G.J. Whyte-Melville Good for Nothing (1890) 212: My mate [...] sprang up between us to take the ball in his brisket that was meant for me.
[US]A. Adams Log Of A Cowboy 362: And did you notice the pock-marked colonel, baring his brisket to the morning breeze?
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Aug. 14/2: ’Long erbout one I woke up, wet, cold, ’n’ disgusted, t’ find er spout iv water playin’ on me frim somewhere out iv the darkness. I’d got it fair in the brisket, ’n’ was waterlogged frim chin t’ middle.
[UK]‘Bartimeus’ ‘Why the Gunner went Ashore’ Naval Occasions 292: You’d look fine in a red smuggler’s cap and thigh-boots, Major [...] With a black patch over one eye, and the skull and cross-bones embroidered on your brisket.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 5 Sept. 8: When they tried to puncture Brillo’s brisket I stoushed ’em.
[UK](con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 160: You will strip to the buff, my lad, as if you were in the prize-ring, and let him land on the brisket so that I can see whether he knuckles you, or not.
[US]H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 101: And he’s afther kickin’ me in the brisket till I’m blue as me own coat!
[US]W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 14: If you showed up with a slug in your brisket, Keno and his whole bunch got fired.
[Aus]P. White Solid Mandala (1976) 172: Poor Crankshaw, he was almost obliterated by brisket and a jutting forehead.
[US]G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 22: Then both of us took a good poke in the brisket but Bill didn’t survive his.

2. in pl., the female breasts.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 137/1: since ca. 1925.

3. the penis, in phrs. below.

In derivatives

In compounds

brisket-beater (n.) [sense 1 above + SE beater]

a Roman Catholic.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Flash Dict.
[UK]G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 7: Brisket-beater – a Roman Catholic.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
brisket beef (n.)

the penis.

[UK]J. Phillips Maronides (1678) VI 37: For women then, for all their freaks, / Lov’d bellies better than their backs; / [...] / Else Marrow-bones and Brisket-beef / Had been poor toyes for Pluto’s Wife .

In phrases

bare-brisket (n.) [SE bare]

a thin person.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (1984) 50/2: C.19–early 20.
bury the brisket (v.) (also bring the brisket)

(US) of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

J. Ellroy in Crime Time mag. No. 28 Oct. 🌐 Parenthetically, he [i.e. Robert Kennedy] did not play bury the brisket and pour the pork with Marilyn Monroe. He did not dip the schnitzel with her.
[US]J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 23: Get ready to bring the brisket to some housewives in heat.
queer about the brisket (adj.)

(Aus.) in discomfort or pain around the chest.

[Aus]Age (Melbourne) 24 July 13/5: I sat down, feeling queer about the brisket.