feel, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

feel n.

also feelee

1. an act of sexual groping.

1884		‘Experiences of a Cunt Philosopher’ in Randiana 49: The easy transition from a kiss to a feel, from a feel to a finger frig, and eventually [...] to a gentle insertion of the jock.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 11: Does every man kiss, coax, hint smuttily, then talk baudily, snatch a feel, smell his fingers, assault and win exactly as I have done?
c.1930		(ref. to 1898) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 265: The macks would follow a mark and try and pull him back to a window for a looksee or feelee.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 19: He imagined what it would have been like if she’d let him give her a real feel.
1955		F. Brookhouser Now I Lay Me Down 24: He slips in some more feels at the movies.
1960		J. Havoc Early Havoc 65: ‘Well [...] he got in his feel, didn’t he?’.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 92: Expeditions and forays and recces into foreign feels.
1967		(con. 1951) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 17: Grabbin’ a couple of quick feels.
1983		W. Trevor Fools of Fortune 76: If you ever get a feel of her, Quinton, will you tell me what it was like?
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 68: Some blonde bit was walking his way flashing her tits at him. His time for a feel.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 271: He’d have to battle for every lousy feel.

2. (US) in pl., an emotional response.

2014

C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 5: FEELS — feelings sum of one’s emotions: ‘I have too many feels after what happened last night’.

In compounds

feel day (n.) [pun on SE field day]

(Can.) heavy petting.

1930		J.T. Farrell ‘Looking ’Em Over’ in Short Stories (1937) 48: All the boys around the beach here have a feel-day with her.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 146: Wouldn’t it have been nice to have had her there and have her let us lay our heads in her lap, and have a feel-day.
1961		H.C. Woodbridge ‘Misc.’ in AS XXXVI:3 227: feel-day, n. Petty party.

In phrases

cop a feel (v.)

(US) to indulge in some form of petting or sexual groping, but not intercourse.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 25/2: Cop a feel, a presumptuous man, who will not let his hands behave when with an attractive girl.
1942		H. Miller Roofs of Paris (1983) 36: Christ, you can’t even cop a feel from her.
1955		E. Hunter Blackboard Jungle 97: All because the poor bastard tried to cop a feel.
1967		Realist Feb. 29/1: [cartoon caption] Ronald Reagan was in this big crowd and I copped a feel.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 196: He wanted to take Harold’s place on Ora Lee’s lap and cop a feel.
1988		N. Eastwood Gardener Got Her n.p.: Then he slid his lotion-slick hands down under her and cupped her ripe young tits. ‘Hey, Mike, knock that off.’ Lucy giggled. ‘Can’t blame a guy for copping a feel,’ he chuckled.
1993		J. Mowry Six Out Seven (1994) 247: Lactameon was used to dudes copping a feel.
2004		D. Boyer Kings and Queens: Queers at the Prom 121: I knew she was a virgin, so if I did cop a feel, she might have been, “What are you doing?
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] The other blokes thought I was a top sheila, pressing myself against the guy and letting him cop a feel of my tits.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 82: Her little shoulders got me hot. I copped a feel [...] And she loved it.
2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 27: Whitey’d [...] tried to cop a feel from her breast.

put the feel on (v.)

(US) to sound out, to assess.

1938

D. Runyon ‘The Brakeman’s Daughter’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 509: I hear Big False Face is putting the feel on Cheeks Sheracki with reference to the brakeman’s daughter until he finds out Cheeks knows this joke as well as he does himself.