Green’s Dictionary of Slang

submarine n.1

[resemblance]

1. (US Und.) a doughnut.

1916
192019301940
1949
[US]Day Book (Chicago) 8 Sept. 17/1: ‘Couple of dougnuts and a cup of coffee without cream’ [...] ‘Two submarines and a mug of murk — no cow!’.
[as cite 1916].
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 186: submarines.–Doughnuts.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. (orig. milit.) a sausage roll.

[UK]Yorks Eve. Post 16 Oct. 5/4: Munitions workers very glibly speak of sausages as ‘Zeppelins,’ and sausage rolls as ‘submarines,’ tea cakes as ‘doorsteps’ and a rock bun as ‘Hill 60’. Another [...] way of ordering a sausage roll is to ask for a ‘lucky-to-get-hold’.

3. (US, also sub) a type of large, over-filled sandwich; thus super-sub.

1949
1950196019701980199020002010
2013
[US]N.Y. Herald Trib. 7 Aug. 24/2: Women with home freezers buy ‘subs’ in sets of a dozen to freeze, then defrost and serve when the crowd gathers.
[US]E. Liebow Tally’s Corner 20: Two shifts of two waitresses [...] fixing hamburgers, french fries, hot dogs, ‘half-smokes’ and ‘submarines’.
[US]T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 390: Ray was once more lunging across his desk eating a super-sub and drinking his vat of yellow coffee.
[UK](con. 1960) P. Theroux My Secret Hist. (1990) 107: ‘What can I do you for?’ ‘A large meatball sub.’.
[US]M. Leyner Et Tu, Babe (1993) 69: Maybe Lincoln had simply split a sopressata and smoked mozzarella sub with hot peppers and extra onions with Mary Todd.
[UK]Guardian G2 29 Jan. 7: Never embarrass yourself again by asking for a hoagie in Vermont or a grinder in Philadelphia, when what you really want is what they call a hero in Maine or a poor boy in Louisiana (and a sub, pretty much everywhere else).
[US]K. Shea ‘Having Chiqui’ in ThugLit July-Aug. [ebook] Mike ‘Muzz’ Mukowski stopped eating his submarine sandwich [ibid.] Muzz [...] resumed sinking his teeth into the flank of the sub sandwich.

4. (US campus) a tampon.

[US] P. Munro Sl. U.

5. (N.Z. prison) a package of contraband hidden in a body cavity, thus v. to hide and carry such a package.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 180/2: submarine n. a small package of contraband smuggled in the rectum or vagina [...] submarine v. to insert contraband into the rectum or vagina to smuggle it into, or out of, prison.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

submarine races (n.) (also submarine racing)

(US teen) petting, esp. in an automobile and at the edge of a lake or a beach.

1943
195019601970198019902000
2001
[US]Stoneham Liberator (MA) 46: ‘The officers claimed that young people were distracting the attention to the other people who were trying to see the outcome of the submarine races’.
[US]‘Last Will & Testament’ in Galleon (Palm Beach Jr Coll.) 33: ‘I, Archie Kramer, leave my reserved space at the submarine races to anyt freshman fresh enough to take it!’.
[US] in Current Sl. (1967) I:4 5/1: Submarine races, n. Kisses.
[US]‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 38: submarine races – Lover’s lane.
[US]Current Sl. III–IV (Cumulation Issue) 135: Watch midnight submarine races, v. To have sex relations in an out-of-the-way place.
[US]Current Sl. V:3 12: Submarine racing, v. Having sexual intercourse.
[US]M. McQuay My Science Project 80: He had somehow managed to talk Irene into another night at the submarine races, and this time he was going to do it right.
[US]G. Parker Out of the Blue 111: ‘My good woman, haven’t you ever been to the submarine race before?’ ‘The submarine races? Noah Decker, you back this truck out of here right now!’.
[US]J. Patterson Violets Are Blue 34: They were parking out near the hills. It’s a popular spot for submarine races’.