mattress, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

mattress n.

1. (US) a beard.

1930

G. Milburn ‘Who Said I Was a Bum?’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 143: I haven’t shaved for nearly a year, [...] A cop gave me a chase. / I thought I heard him holler, / ‘Take that mattress off yer face!’.

2. (US) pubic hair.

1938

‘Justinian’ Americana Sexualis 28: Mattress. n. The pubic hair.

3. (US) the face.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

4. (Aus./US, also mattrass) a woman as a sexual partner; a girlfriend, usu. derog.; also attrib. [the man ‘lies’ on her].

1955		W. White ‘Wayne University Sl.’ AS XXX:4 302: mattress mary [...] n. Woman of loose morals.
1960		(con. 1940s) G. Morrill Dark Sea Running 43: Ray was cocky good-looking guy. In every port we hit he was the big mattress man around town.
1963		G.L. Coon Short End 218: Bertha was just one great big warm mattress.
1975		J. Roe Same Old Grind 172: You old flabgut, you old mat[t]ress, you lard-ass old swing-tit, you blubber-bellied old bag.
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 64: Nadine’s the mattress for the whole football team.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 33: Mattrass someone, usually female who sleeps around.

5. (US Und.) a war between US Mafia families [backform. f. go to the mattresses ].

1963

(ref. to 1931) Chillicothe (MO) Constitution-Trib. 2 Oct. 1/2: Valachi said the ‘Boss of Bosses,’ Salvatore Maranzano told him there was going to be another gang war, a ‘mattress.’.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

mattressback (n.)

1. (Aus./US) a sexually promiscuous woman.

1960		J. Barth Sot-Weed Factor (1965) 461: Whore! [...] ‘Poupinette!’ ‘Mattressback!’ ‘Brimballeuse!’.
1974		C. Loken Come Monday Morning 128: Even if he got drunk enough endin’ up givin’ ole mattressback Carol a fast jab or two.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Mattress back. 1. A woman, particularly one of easy virtue.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 227: usage: ‘I hear the new mess maggot is a bit of a mattress-back’.

2. (Aus. prison) a prisoner who spends a lot of time in their cell.

1990

Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Mattress back. 2. A prisoner who spends a lot of time in his cell.

mattress jig (n.)

(US) sexual intercourse.

1922

Joyce Ulysses 404: If she who seduced me had left but the name. What do you want for ninepence. Machree, Macruiskeen. Smutty Moll for a mattress jig. And a pull alltogether. Ex!

mattress job (n.) [job n.² (2)]

a beating by police to persuade a person to make a confession. The victim is placed under a mattress and then jumped and stamped upon, so no visible marks are left on the victim’s body.

2004

N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 48: At the police station I was given a ‘mattress job’.

mattress-muncher (n.) [his response to anal intercourse]

(orig. Aus.) a passive homosexual man; thus much the mattress v.

1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 21: Any bloke who […] uses the adjectives ‘bizarre’ and ‘stunning’ in the same sentence munches the mattress.
1988		B. Humphries Complete Barry McKenzie v: The Australian Cultural Scene, which is, let’s face it, largely run by pillow biters and raving mattress munchers.
2002		I-94Bar 3:11 🌐 Yep, when you hear a poof joke, you might bite your tongue in these politically correct days, but these guys bite their pillows. They’re mattress munchers – and proud of it. Turd burglars. Drillers for Vegimite.

mattress polo (n.)

(US) sexual intercourse.

1933

J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 221: We’re all professional mattress polo players, Casy replied; they leered and snickered.

In phrases

go to the mattresses (v.) (also hit the mattresses) [the practice of sleeping on mattresses in one’s hideout, rather than in one’s bed at home. Orig. a US Mafia usage, the phr. was widely popularized by the success of Mario Puzo’s book The Godfather (1969) and the films that followed]

(orig. US Und.) to hide, to take refuge, esp. when under siege from another gang.

1969		M. Puzo Godfather 104: Their job today was to find an apartment in case the Family decided to ‘go to the mattresses’.
1973		R. Daley Target Blue 205: The Gallo mob was getting thinned out so fast that the survivors and their lion had taken to the mattresses.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 1891: And all we’re trying to do is stop the button men from hitting the mattresses.
2005		G. Pelecanos Drama City 77: Lee had fathered a couple of children, what they called beef babies, [...] when he’d gone to the mattresses, Corleone-style.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] he the fuck we ’posed to go to the mattresses wit’ these Jersey nigguhs and the feds on us hard?
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 219: ‘This [gang] war’s in the papers. [...] I suggest you go to the mattresses’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 62: I needed a bandage, a suture, something [...] Certainly a place to hide. I had to go to the mattresses.

work on mattresses (v.)

(US) to work as a (brothel) prostitute.

1855

Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 14 Apr. n.p.: Where did that white bonnet and fancy cloak come from? Does she work on mattresses?