Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) an appointment or engagement with someone, usu. for social/sexual purposes.

1885		E.W. Howe Mystery of Locks 187: If he’ll make a date with me, I’ll exchange stories with him [DA].
c.1895		F. Norris Vandover and the Brute (1914) 75: On a certain evening about four months later Ellis and Vandover had a ‘date’ with Ida Wade and Bessie Laguna.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 138: Her Date Book had to be kept on the Double Entry System.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 211: ‘Keep ’em up now, young man, keep ’em up,’ commanded the knight of the road. ‘I got some more dates to-night, an’ I can’t linger with you long.’.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 266: The domesticated grimalkin [...] who had gone in search of a lady friend who had broken the date.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 196: [He] had made a Date with a slippery Go-Between for Friday.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 62: He abandoned the group of date diggers.
1938		R. Chandler ‘Red Wind’ in Red Wind (1946) 17: Waldo just dropped in to ask about a dame he had a date with.
1942–52		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 103: When out on a date / He hardly could wait / To say, ‘Turn over, bud; my turn next’.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 15: Been having any dates?
1953		F. Brown Madball (2019) 9: Trixie Connor [...] she put out for cash and [...] she’d be a sure thing.
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 91: The time when he had a date with Daisy he tell her to meet him there.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 10: She’s got a lunch date.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 30: We made a date to meet in the same place at ten o’clock the next morning.
1975		J. Roe The Same Old Grind 67: ‘I’m a whore [...] When I make dates I’m the boss. I tell the date when and where to meet me’.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 52: ‘Stop it I’m not like that!’ . . . Oh just for now which doth ensure a second date.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 56: Keith was always late for his dates, especially for the first one.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 35: Dud, are you asking me to get the future L.A. D.A. a fucking date?
1999		K. Sampson Powder 16: It’d mainly be the Sloaney dames, young and old and indeterminate, any one of whom would dig out one of their gold fillings for a date with Guy.

2. (orig. US) a person with whom one makes or has made such an appointment.

1925		in Wentworth & Flexner DAS (1975) 140/2: The development of the word date from the meaning ‘point of time’ to [...] ‘social engagement’ and now into an agent-noun ‘escort’ .
1929		D. Parker ‘The Last Tea’ in Penguin Dorothy Parker (1982) 185: She’s probably got about a million dates.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 83: She tho’t perhaps I was waiting for a date.
1946		D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 71: I drifted out with the blonde but didn’t do much good for myself because she had a date for that night.
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 66: I got a date and she’s waiting for me.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 124: He’s got no date because his steady’s gonna be there.
1968–70		Current Sl. III–IV (Cumulation Issue).
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 28: Dates interesting enough to want to see again: 2.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 62: You’re a cheap date, Maude.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 196: So you’ve brought a date?
1999		Indep. Rev. 17 July 9: Unlike most of her colleagues [...] Rosenal has a steady date.

3. (US) a prostitute’s client.

1939		D. Maurer ‘Prostitutes and Criminal Argots’ in Lang. Und. (1981) 116/1: date. A customer.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 162: They take the dates to handy assignation hotels in the block.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 72: So one night she had a date, so she told me to come back later, in an hour or something like that.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 373: Why she remained out on 125th Street after turning her two average dates I do not know.

4. (US) a paid encounter with a prostitute.

1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 41: They [prostitutes] go out on ‘dates’ and the man ‘seduces’ them. [Ibid.] 179: We saw youngsters here—about fifteen and sixteen—trying to make dates.
1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 186: At a hotel, if it’s a straight date it’s usually $10, and French date, a blow job, is $20.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 111: You want a date, honey?
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 146: Depends on what you want to do [...] Basically forty for the date and ten for the room.
1990		M. McAlary Crack War (1991) 36: Moore never got more than $20 for any one date.
2002		G. Pelecanos Hell to Pay 141: Some white boy just went in. I axed him for a date, but he said he already had a girl.
2011		G. Phillips ‘Slicers’ Serenade of Steel’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] Come on, stud muffin, forty for a date.
2013		A. Tucher ‘Under the Bus’ in ThugLit Feb. [ebook] A lot of clients got away from the office for lunchtime dates.