Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a person, a ‘body’; often in comb. with adj. to denote a job, e.g. legal bod, a lawyer [the OED offers cits. for 1788, 1813 but suggests that while still meaning ‘a person’ they may in fact abbr. Scot. bodach, a peasant, a churl, rather than body].

1870		Bloomfield Times (PA) 5 Apr. 2/5: Well, you’d soon found [...] out [...] trying to steal any bod’s carpet-bag.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 96: I’m not buying smokes for the Fritz army as well as for all you bods.
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 152: You’ll see all Dickens’ bods have got names that suit them, like Pecksniff.
1964		‘Charles Barrett’ Address: Kings Cross 106: The classic reason given by most girls in the racket, if they were asked by nosey bods. how they drifted into such a way of life, was that it was caused by a deceiving man and disappointment in love.
1968		D. O’Grady A Bottle of Sandwiches 134: Three able bods are better than two, if the going gets rough.
1971		(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 42: Many of the bods wandered back to the barrack-room.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 154: There’s still a hell of a lot of bods to be got off yet.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 38: It was, after all, they said almost to a bod, Pig Iron Bob’s first start.
1983		K. Hudson Dict. of the Teenage Revolution 20: Bod. A person of either sex.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 257: ‘Now, not many bods are in on this piece of oil’.
1997		H.R.F. Keating Soft Detective 3: Got plenty of bods with nothing better to do this morning.
2004		(con. 1990s) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 378: Just pull off as though you’re a normal bod. [...] Don’t attract attention.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 18: Sonny’s a gym bod but I doubt if he could run a hundred yards.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] There were a few bods still outside.
2013		IOL News On Line (S.Afr.) 7 Mar. 🌐 Why won’t Sunny Leone show her hotbod! [...] with a bod like that, wonder what made the Leone babe go all coy.
2019		Guardian 23 Sept. 11/4: It’s come to something when old Labour bods can’t organise a decent purge.

2. a corpse.

1933		R. Strachey Many Happy Returns 33: The Red, the White and the Blue is unfurled and covers the dead bod, the corpse of a grocer given for England .
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 81: Up Castle Hill where I go, they dig fresh graves in the cemetery for tomorrow’s bods.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 69: The authorities had failed to find the rest of the Madame’s broken-up bod.

3. the human body, esp. as an object for sexual intercourse, e.g. give out bod, make oneself available for sex.

1947		G. Kersh Prelude to a Certain Midnight Bk I Ch. i: She had regular features, an excellent figure — she called it a ‘good bod’.
1962		R. Hauser Homosexual Society Appendix 3, 167: Bod, body. Example: Bonar bod — beautiful body.
1976		P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 423: Emma Lee Givens has put out the word that she’s hot for Sammy’s bod.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 14: SHANE: Whenner mate comes ome she godder gear offhand jumped in the cot too. Shoulda seen the bod on it!
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 31: A girl with a grown-up bod and an undeniable naughty rep.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 14: In love? [...] He only wants you for your bod.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 77: Good bod, too.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 141: Usher may’ve had a fly bod as well as fly tunes.
2010		L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] Lucky for Lucy she had a blow-your-mind bod.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 289/2: bod body.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 150: Her ‘boss bod’ was dotted with [...] puncture marks.

4. (US campus) a physically attractive person of the opposite sex.

1963		Dundes & Schonhorn ‘Kansas University Sl.: A New Generation’ in AS XXXVIII:3 172: Less common terms include: bod, body, cool bod, dish, hot bod, knockout, pack the gears, sex box, sex kitten, sex pot and stacked.
1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 55: bod ‘body, attractive figure’.
1981		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 1: bod – clipping of body. Used by either girl watchers or guy watchers.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 527: She’s got the bod of a Playboy Bunny.

5. the chassis or body of a vehicle.

1983

S. King Christine 358: The Fury’s bod, which had an advanced state case of cancer when the kid brought it in, now looks cherry.