Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to accede to sexual advances.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

an old woman, occas. a man.

1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 228/1: One old body at Stepney was so pleased that she said, ‘O, the bloody-minded willain!’.
1862		H. Kingsley Ravenshoe I 114: She’s a good old body though.
1918		K.F. Purdon Dinny on the Doorstep 12: Mrs Molally [...] a big, soft bubbling kind of old body.
1997		R. Barnard No Place of Safety 31: Amiable enough old body. Bit of a dodderer. Getting past his sell-by date.

(US) completely, wholly.

1874		Grange Advance (Red Wing, MN) 20 May 8/3: We are apprehensive if the Pioneer is not carefully handled it will go over bodsy and breeches to Donnelly.
1878		Congressional Record 12 Apr. 2492/1: The yankee notions produced by Newark every year will buy out, body and breeches, any thoroughly Democratic State in the Union [DA].
1883		Northern Tribune (Cheboygan, MI) 10 Mar. 2/1: The latter have gone over body and breeches to the Democrats.
1891		Advocate (Meriden, KS) 5 Aug. 6/3: They did not absolutely capture the Republican party, body and breeches, until themeting [...] in July 1872.
1897		Dakota Farmer’s Leader (Canton, SD) 1/4Senator Kyle [...] is coming to [...] support the administration and getting in with it body and breeches: .
1908		Dly Public Ledger (Maysville, KY) 29 May 2/2: Henry Watterson has gone over to bryan body and breeches.
1913		Libby Herald 21 Feb. 1/3: Dunlop’s Advertiser [...] was an administration apper, heart and soul, body and breeches.
1920		Toiler (Cleveland, OH) 6 Aug. 14/2: The A.F. of L. is not a revolutionary organization. It is bound up, body, boots and breeches, in the continuance of the capitalist system.

1. (US) an undershirt.

1818		M.L. Weems Drunkard’s Looking Glass (1929) 65: ‘And naked came we too!’ replied they, snatching off their body bags.
1840		Flash Mirror 18: He has got such a slap up assortment of [...] body bags, gam kivers, fork linings, mawley sleeves, &c .

2. a shirt.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 66: I arnt had a boddy-bag all this vinter.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

3. a condom [SE bag/bag n.¹ (1f)].

1994		C. Major Juba to Jive.
2005		Jade LB Keisha the Sket (2021) 27: He gt up an sat on da end of da bed, probably putin on a body bag.

(orig. boxing) a waistcoat or a broad belt; cites 1867, 1875 refer to baby clothes.

1822		Plymouth Tel. ? Mar. n.p.: Bartlett entered first, and doffed the castor from his nob, his blue bird’s-eye from his squeeze, and his body-binder from his bread-basket.
1867		Reynolds’s Newspaper 11 Aug. 1/5: The prisoner said in reference to a baby’s bodybinmder which was found [...] ‘It was the baby’s’.
1875		Lincs. Chron. 19 Mar. 6/3: I have Betty Housham a calico body binder, a flannel petticoat [and] a little scarlet frock to give to the prisoner.

(W.I.) a dramatic loss in weight or change in one’s appearance making one less attractive.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 8: Body-come-down to lose weight dramatically; to look haggard; to lose one’s sex appeal.

(US) a louse.

1848

‘The Man who was not a Colonel’ High Private 42: Many a poor body companion was sent into the dep that morning [HDAS].

(US) those people who are present.

1972		Dahlskog Dict. Contemp. and Colloq. Usage.
1983		oral testimony in Lighter HDAS I.

(US Und.) an overcoat.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 10: Body Cover, a coat.

(US) anywhere that people can meet in the hope of finding a new sexual partner, e.g. a singles bar, a party.

1962–65

Cavan Liquor License 177: They heard it [a bar] was a ‘body exchange’ [HDAS].

(US) a louse.

1863

Moulton letter in Drickamer Fort Lyon to Harper’s Ferry (1987) 127: Plenty of ‘body guards’ [...] come voluntarily at their own will.

1. a homosexual who prefers rubbing and fondling a body to anal penetration or fellatio.

1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 5: body-lover (n.): A homosexual fricator (one who gets sexual satisfaction through body contact); the term has expanded now to mean ‘body worshiper’ employing the bodybuilders and the ‘body’ magazines.

2. a homosexual who derives sexual pleasure from bodybuilders.

1965

see sense 1.

(orig. US) a break-dancer; thus bodypop v.; body-popping n.

1982		Break Machine ‘Street Dance’ 🎵 On the sidewalks of Detroit, / They’re popping all night long.
1984		Times 13 July 10/8: Dwellers on Planet Rock [...] are often to be seen on pavements, body-popping.
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 41: popper One who pops and break dances.
1996		P. Beatty White Boy Shuffle 99: Kids from different neighborhoods [...] dance against one another in ‘breakin’’ or ‘poppin’ contests.
1999		Guardian Guide 12–18 June 59: Street-smart body-poppers Turbo and Ozone.
1999		Guardian Rev. 17 Sept. 6: Electric Boogaloo was a sub-genre of body-popping and break dancing.

(gay) one who looks primarily for partners who specialize in body-building.

1970		J.P. Stanley ‘Homosexual Sl.’ in AS XLV:1/2 53: The most popular compound formation involves some nouns plus queen [...] toe queen, felch queen, body queen, watch queen.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 35: body queen the homosexual man who is an aficionado of firm, muscular physiques 2. muscle-builder.

see separate entries.

body irons.

1812

Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.

see separate entry.

see birthday suit n.

human excrement.

c.1864		‘The Mysteries of London’ in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 25: If your wife’s boot is tight the snob comes to fetch it / Saying marm, don’t it fit, then I had better stretch it. / He-goes, and your wife will this question ax, / ‘What smells?’ when you find, he’s just dropp’d his wax.
1870		Cythera’s Hymnal 63: My bowels did relax, / dropped my bloody wax.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) IV 782: She sat some minutes after she had dropped her wax.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1987		personal ad restroom Murray & Murrell Lang. Sadomasochism (1989) 41: I command all willing slaves to write me — I will interview and choose those worthy to share my lovely body wax; into enemas?

(US prison) to commit murder.

1989

A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 17: Upstate, when you come in on a homicide beef, you know what they say about you? [...] They say you got a body.

(Irish) how are you?

1958

(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 273: Well, and how’s the body, kid?