Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bod n.

[SE body ]

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].

[US]Bloomfield Times (PA) 5 Apr. 2/5: Well, you’d soon found [...] out [...] trying to steal any bod’s carpet-bag.
[UK](con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 96: I’m not buying smokes for the Fritz army as well as for all you bods.
[UK]A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 152: You’ll see all Dickens’ bods have got names that suit them, like Pecksniff.
[Aus]‘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.
[Aus]D. O’Grady A Bottle of Sandwiches 134: Three able bods are better than two, if the going gets rough.
[UK](con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 42: Many of the bods wandered back to the barrack-room.
[Aus](con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 154: There’s still a hell of a lot of bods to be got off yet.
[Aus]J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 38: It was, after all, they said almost to a bod, Pig Iron Bob’s first start.
[UK]K. Hudson Dict. of the Teenage Revolution 20: Bod. A person of either sex.
[Aus]J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 257: ‘Now, not many bods are in on this piece of oil’.
[UK]H.R.F. Keating Soft Detective 3: Got plenty of bods with nothing better to do this morning.
[UK](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.
[UK]J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 18: Sonny’s a gym bod but I doubt if he could run a hundred yards.
[Aus](con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] There were a few bods still outside.
[SA]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.
[UK]Guardian 23 Sept. 11/4: It’s come to something when old Labour bods can’t organise a decent purge.

2. a corpse.

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 .
[Aus]D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 81: Up Castle Hill where I go, they dig fresh graves in the cemetery for tomorrow’s bods.
[UK]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.

[UK]G. Kersh Prelude to a Certain Midnight Bk I Ch. i: She had regular features, an excellent figure — she called it a ‘good bod’.
[UK]R. Hauser Homosexual Society Appendix 3, 167: Bod, body. Example: Bonar bod — beautiful body.
[US]P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 423: Emma Lee Givens has put out the word that she’s hot for Sammy’s bod.
[Aus]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!
[US]D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 31: A girl with a grown-up bod and an undeniable naughty rep.
[UK]K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 14: In love? [...] He only wants you for your bod.
[UK]K. Waterhouse Soho 77: Good bod, too.
[UK]G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 141: Usher may’ve had a fly bod as well as fly tunes.
[US]L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] Lucky for Lucy she had a blow-your-mind bod.
[UK]P. Baker Fabulosa 289/2: bod body.
[US](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.

[US]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.
[US]G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 55: bod ‘body, attractive figure’.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 1: bod – clipping of body. Used by either girl watchers or guy watchers.
[US]S. King Dreamcatcher 527: She’s got the bod of a Playboy Bunny.

5. the chassis or body of a vehicle.

[US]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.

In phrases

how’s your bod?

(orig. US) how are you (feeling)?

J. Hughes Ferris Bueller’s Day Off [film script] He hands her the phone. girl: Hello? (pause). Who? (pause). Hi, Ferris. How’s your bod?