dairy, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dairy n.¹

also dairies

[ref. to lactation]

(20C+ US black) usu. in pl. dairies, the female breasts; sometimes of a man.

c.1707		‘Andrew and Maudlin’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 144: Kate o’th’ Kitchen, and Kit of the Mill, / Dick the Plow-man, and Joan of the Dairy.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Dairy, a Womans Breasts, particularly one that gives Suck.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
c.1811		‘A Leary Mot’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 77: A blue bird’s-eye o’er dairies fine – as she mizzled through Temple Bar.
1822		Tom And Jerry; Musical Extravaganza 53: Dairy, a bosom.
1836		‘Make The Bed’ in Cockchafer 24: Your haunches are so plump and jolly, / Your dairies are with lust so rife.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 98: The dairy hills of delight are beautifully prominent, firm, and elastic.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 24: dairy The breasts of a woman that suckles a baby.
1873		Sl. Dict. 138: Dairies a woman’s breasts, which are also called charlies.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Dairies - A woman’s breasts, which are also called Charlies.
1890		C. Hindley Vocab. and Gloss. in True Hist. of Tom and Jerry.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 21: Avantages (les), m. Well developed breasts; ‘dairies’.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 41: CHARLIES: a woman’s breasts: variants – dibs, lemons, dairies, bubs.
1908		‘Mary Took the Calves to the Dairy Show’ [song title] in Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video (1951).
1940		N. Mitford Pigeon Pie 81: A soldier’s dairies are well covered with ammunition pouches and for this reason should be left alone, and also becos a very little lower down yer gits the belly.
1941		J.M. Cain Mildred Pierce (1985) 442: The most noticeable change was what Monty brutally called the Dairy: that had appeared almost overnight on the high, arching chest.
1945		‘Old Mother Murphy’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of the RAAF 31: She can balance two pennies on the ends of her dairies.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 141: There are a number of vernacular terms that refer to a woman’s breasts as big, tasty, [...] grapes, apples, dairies, knobs, guns, headlights.
1988		J. McDonald Dict. of Obscenity etc.

In compounds

dairy arrangements (n.)

the female breasts.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

In phrases

air the dairy (v.)

of a woman, to reveal her naked breasts.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

sport the dairy/dairies (v.)

of a woman, to reveal one’s breasts.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: She Sported her Dairy; she pulled out her breast.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.