cherry n.1
1. as an image of ripeness.
(a) (orig. US) the hymen, one’s virginity; often in phrs. below; also used of males, but for homosexual uses see sense 1d.
| [ | ![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Antiquary IV i: Due to the early Cherry: the first Apples / Deserve more grace: the budding rose is set by; [...] as well you may affirm the tender tree / Too young to graft upon]. |
| [ | | ‘Sport & Pastime’ Wit’s Cabinet 152: My Betty let us walk and taste of a cherry; Then not be affrighted, for thus we will do, Thou shalt have my cherry, and cherry-stones too [...] But Betty she tax’d him with breaking of vows: Quoth Johnny, Don’t say so, my love it is true, Thou shalt have my cherry, and cherry-stones too. And this is a vow I am resolv’d to keep, For a maidenhead I will have e’re I do sleep]. |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 25/2: CHERRY. Virginity of either girl or boy. | |
| ‘Clyde’ in Short Stories (1937) 151: You’re just one of those there bashful guys [...] so you got your cherry pickled in an ice box. | |
| There Ain’t No Justice 231: Did you thrill when you felt him taking your cherry? | |
| in Limerick (1953) 183: There was a young man of St. Kitt / Who was screwing a spinster, but quit. / Said she, ‘Don’t be scary, / It’s only my cherry’. | |
| in Derelicts of Company K (1978) 386: [of a man] You still got your cherry yet. | |
| Fings II i: I’m savin’ my cherry till I get married. | |
| (con. early 1950s) Valhalla 179: [of a man] ‘You lose somethin’ in Korea [...] that you can’t find somewhere else?’ ‘My cherry,’ Poke said. | |
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 229: She has no cherry, but she thinks it’s no sin, / for she still has the box that the cherry came in. | |
| Carlito’s Way 10: The good girls held on to their cherry. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Go-Boy! 154: [of a man] Take my cherry will ya! | |
| An Eng. Madam 86: I’d arranged with a beautiful coloured girl who was on the game that she should take my Dominic’s cherry. | |
| (con. 1920s) Legs 93: But come on, I’ll make up for it when I take your cherry. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] Debbie might have taken a couple of cherrys while she was at it. | |
| Daily Mail 30 Aug. 27: Mr Cici announced it was ‘cherry time’ and he and his pals drove me to a neighbourhood building covered in pictures of naked women. | |
| Devil All the Time 101: [H]e had soon found out about the cook who had taken her cherry and the one-nighters with the pimple-faced punks. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dead Man’s Trousers 98: What you need is an experienced woman to guide you through this cherry loss. | |
| Fabulosa 290/2: cherry virginity. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 88: ‘He took my cherry a zillion years ago’. |
(b) (orig. US) a female virgin.
| [ | | Sl. Dict. (1890) 11: Cherry. A young girl]. |
| [ | | Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 241/1: Cherry (thieves), a young girl]. |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 16: Cherry, a young girl. | |
| Never Come Morning (1988) 42: Some of them cherries ’r getting moldy on the bough these days. | |
| letter in Charters (1993) 202: She lived on Cherry Street and was a cherry when I met her. | |
| Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 80: Cherries are trouble, but married ones miss it something terrible. | |
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 284: Cherries are ripe and ready for plucking / A girl sixteen is ready for high school. | |
| (con. 1945) Gather Together In My Name 161: You a cherry, ain’t you? |
(c) a male virgin.
| (con. 1944) Naked and Dead 10: Not bad looking but awfully young. A cherry, no doubt. | |
| One to Count Cadence (1987) 142: Two big cherry farm boys [...] both blew their rocks before they even got in, and remained cherries. | |
| (con. 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 165: I’ll bet you’re a cherry! | |
| Go-Boy! 62: I was still living in a cheap rooming house in a sleazy district and worst of all I was still a cherry. | |
 | Skins ser.1 ep.1 [TV script] Sid’s getting de-cherried. |
(d) (gay) an anal virgin; anal virginity.
| ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants. | |
| Gay Detective (2003) 99: [in gay context] For God’s sake, Bessie! Are you afraid someone’ll steal his cherry? | |
| America’s Homosexual Underground 39: I wasn’t exactly a virgin. A couple of old men in the neighborhood had taken my cherry. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 44: cherry 1. see anal virgin. | |
| Zimmer’s Essay 61: The morning after Larry Glaister lost his cherry, the screw held him in the peter. | |
| (con. 1940s) Hold Tight (1990) 99: That queen treats her cherry like it was a diamond. | |
| Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐 a cherry: to be the first to fuck an anal virgin. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Gayle 61/2: cherry n. virgin male anus. |
2. (S.Afr., also cheerie, cherrie) a woman, a girlfriend.
| ‘Kid Hangover’ Casey and Co. (1978) 15: I’m being surrounded by a batch of gum-chewing cherries. | |
| Down Second Avenue 113: I fancy you, cherry. | |
| ‘Hennie van Saracen’ 🎵 The hardest thing of all was saying goodbye to my chick / ’Cause she’s a lekker cherry / And I digs her kind of kick. | |
| Blame me on Hist. 57: ‘Heit, bricade,’ he said, ‘this is my cheerie; take a walk, friend, this cheerie is a rubberneck – a real Delilah’. ‘Why, friend,’ I said, bluffing a man I knew by reputation as the knife terror of Alexandra Township. ‘She’s also my cheerie.’ ‘Don’t get hot running, friend,’ he said, removing his jacket. ‘Take a walk, bricade.’. | |
| ‘Cleft Stick’ Outside Life’s Feast 85: When I was with the vice-squad we had lekker time some nights you catch these young ous with their cherries in the back seats and you frighten the hell out of them. | |
| Ducktails in Gray Theatre Two (1981) 40: The cherry with the blond hair is good for a grip, ek se. | |
| Tsotsi 6: Why? Die Aap is asking a question. Boston laughs. ‘Because [...] of this cherry. Ja man. Buggered him up she did.’. | |
| ‘Outers’ Born in the RSA (1997) 42: Do you see that cherry in the white dress lying on the grass? | |
| Coolie Location 62: One day he brushed past her and swore that they were genuine: ‘Nah, that cherrie doesn’t need falsies.’. | |
| CyberBraai Lex. at www.matriots.com 🌐 CHERRIE: Girlfriend, sweetie, significant other. It is not used in polite circles. For instance, you do not want to phone your girlfriend’s home and say to her parents: ‘Hi – is my cherrie home yet?’ That is not regarded as nice. | |
| Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 8 Jan. 🌐 I tuned you, bru, don’t look at my cherrie! |
3. in fig. use, the state of being without sex for some time.
| Pimp 79: My twenty-one month ‘cherry’ was aching to chunk out. | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 15: Willie muledicked her and blew off his jail cherry. |
4. (US) the trace of hymenal blood the results from defloration.
| asstr.org 🌐 Jud poured some water on the cloth and told Judy, ‘Here, you can wash your cherry off your pussy and legs’. |
5. in non-sexual uses of sense 1.
(a) (US) an old car in near-mint condition.
| ‘Hot Rod Terms’ in AS XXIX:2 94: Cherry n. A stock car, usually an older model, apparently in as good condition as when it left the factory. | |
| False Starts 341: A monstrous old Cadillac convertible—a cherry with only 45,000 miles on the clock. | |
| Modern English 8: cherry (adj): is a word used by college boys and old queens (same difference) to describe a car they like. |
(b) (orig. US milit.) a novice, e.g. a fresh troop, one who has yet to be ‘blooded’ in combat, or prisoner serving their first jail sentence.
| et al. DAUL 42/2: ‘To break one’s cherry on a heist’—to engage in one’s first holdup. | |
| On the Yard (2002) 11: Well, they [i.e. the prison] won’t be gettin them no cherry. | |
| 365 Days 250: ‘We weren’t cherries, man,’ the trooper said drily. | |
| Glitter Dome (1982) 118: Zorro Garcia was a peewee member of the Black Spider Gang. When he was old enough he hoped to be a cherry, then a cutdown. | |
| Nam (1982) xi: I’m going to say he had cold beans and motherfuckers for breakfast, took some shots from the other guys for being a cherry and then went out and got blown into fifty million pieces. | |
| (con. c.1970) Phantom Blooper 14: All I’ve got left are New Guys. The replacement pipeline pulls cherries out of high school and ships them to Khe Sanh. | |
| Another Day in Paradise 182: Fuck it. You guys ain’t cherries. | |
| Cherry 148: Jimenez was a cherry. He was one of the replacements [...] after First Platoon lost the four guys killed [...] He hadn’t been around two months and he was dead. |
(c) the first instance of a given experience or action.
| Long Season 144: Only three outs to go and I had my first win of the year. It sometimes is hard to get that cherry . |
(d) as ext. of sense 4b, an annoying individual.
| et al. CUSS 95: Cherry A person without much social or academic ability. |
6. uses based on the colour (i.e. red) and shape.
(a) in billiards, the red ball.
| ‘The Squib’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Sept. 36/4: He’d hop in off the cherry a few times, then [...] play the pot- and-cannon game. |
(b) (US, also cherry light) the red revolving light on top of a police car.
| Clandestine 13: [T]wo black-and-whites were double-parked with their cherry lights on. | |
| Permanent Midnight 226: Blithely ignoring the whirling cherry for three and a half blocks. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 26: He saw roof lights. He saw cherry lights twirl. Two prowl cars [...] DPD Fords. | |
| A Steady Rain I iii: They know the law, they see cherry lights, hear the siren. | |
| Shore Leave 101: [T]he convoy of unmarked Fords and Commodores, cherry lights flashing without sirens. |
(c) (US) the still-glowing stub of a cigarette; quote 2011 refers to the glowing crack cocaine in a pipe.
| Firing Offense 83: Jerry Chase [...] dragged on her cigarette. The cherry from the last one was still smoking in the ashtray. | |
| Shame the Devil 118: Boyle took a last drag off his smoke, crushed the cherry in the ashtray, stood up, and left a heap of ones on the bar. | |
| Chicken (2003) 51: She takes a deep pull on her fag and I feel the heat of her cherry on my belly. | |
| Viva La Madness 70: Ted was [...] addicted to drug trafficking the same way as a crackhead is wedled to his cherry. | |
| Hard Bounce [ebook] So I paced and I smoked. [...] Except for the soft red glow of the cherry, it was nearly pitch dark. | |
| Young Team 123: The cherry crackles n the blue smoke gets sucked oot the windae. | |
| Boy from County Hell 349: [F]aces lit by cigarette cherries or aglow from phone screens. |
(d) a blush.
| Outlaws (ms.) 136: In spite of him being nice and impressed and all of that, I still can feel myself getting a cherry on. |
(e) the (head of the) penis.
| [ | | ‘The Vision!’ in Libertine’s Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) I 138: This gem was in a mossy bed, / Just like a cherry was its head, / [...] / A purse seem’d hanging down below]. |
| ‘A Smart Cunt’ in Acid House 258: He has a small, stumpy cock, the kind that is practically all cherry. | |
| Filth 169: I feel my hand go towards the lump in my flannels but, after a few tweaks of the cherry, I show my willpower. | |
| (con. 1980s) Skagboys 87: Pulls back the foreskin tae let the cherry surge gracefully intae the light. |
(f) (US campus/drugs) the still-burning residue in a pipe of marijuana than can be reignited by inhalation .
| (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Fall . |
In compounds
1. (US black) the vagina.
| ‘Cherry Ball Blues’ 🎵 I ain’t gonna give you none of my cherry ball. |
2. (US) cherry-flavored wine or liquor.
| ‘Cherry Ball’ 🎵 Won’t give my baby no more cherry ball / I won’t give my baby no more cherry ball / ‘Cause she may get drunk, Lord, and show her Santa Claus. |
3. (US black) a female lover.
| ‘Cherry Ball Blues’ 🎵 I love my cherry ball better than I love myself, / [...] /She get so she don’t love me, she won’t love nobody else. |
(US) a male virgin.
| diary 6 May in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 109: The quiet one’s [i.e. a Hong Kong prostitute] OK except she kept saying, You chelly boy? | |
| Big V 115: You’re like old Jacobs, goddamned cherry boy [HDAS]. | |
| koby.rikkyo.ac.jp 🌐 I’m cherry boy. / I don’t know women. / Please teach me how to deal women. / Will I finish my life not to know men’s plesure? | |
| www.boyerotica.com 🌐 If you’ve been hunting for pics of young virgin boys... LOOK NO FURTHER!! Cherry Boy has what you want! | |
| (con. Korean War) Last Rubicon 237: ‘You want short time, Cherry Boy—only fifty dollars?’ cooed a heavily made up girl who barely looked sixteen. ‘Me love Cherry Boys—finish quick—easy money’. |
(US) the act of losing one’s virginity, applicable to both sexes.
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 66: One messy cherry-bust with a short-term girlfriend. | |
| (con. 1972) What It Was 98: The Fourteenth Street cherry-bust. A rite of passage in this town. |
(US) a (young) man who specializes in deflowering virgins.
| ‘Problems in the Study of Campus Sl.’ in AS XXXIX:2 117: A cherry-buster, logically, is ‘a professional deflowerer’. | |
| Akron Beacon Jrnl (OH) 3 Apr. B9/1: [film listings] Downtown Adult Cinema 2 ‘Cherry Busters’ (X). | |
| Does This Mean You’ll See Me Naked 9: A few months later, the magnifier was utilized again to observe another penis tattoo, reading, ‘Cherry Buster.’ (I had to wonder just how drunk that person must have been.) . |
(US) a prison that houses first-offenders.
| Current Sl. I:3 2/1: Cherry farm, n. The branch of the penal system used for first offenders. | |
| Dict. Contemp. and Colloq. Usage. |
(US black) a male who pretends to a level of sophistication he does not have; thus cherryheaded adj.
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 cherry-head Definition: 1. a male perpertrating [sic] like he is hard. 2. a male that knows nothing about the game. Example: Nigga, you a cherry-headed mothafucka. Why you think you hard? |
see sense 6b
1. a virgin.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| ‘Cherry Ball Blues’ 🎵 Cherry, cherry pie, oh so good, / Give me, gine me some cherry pie. |
2. a woman.
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 78: As a term for a young woman, cherry dates to at the least the mid-nineteenth century (variations included cherry pie and cherry pipe). |
a male virgin.
| Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 200: Enough has been said here to enable the cherry prick (a cock virgin) to hold his own (or not to be left holding his own). |
(S.Afr. gay) a man who likes to deflower male virgins.
| Gayle 61/2: cherry queen n. a man who likes having sexual intercourse with male virgins. |
the penis.
| Queens’ Vernacular 44: cherry splitter (kwn LV, early ’60s) long, needle-like cock. |
a very tall virgin.
| Sl. U. 195: A girl who is six feet tall who’s a virgin would be a cherry tree. |
In phrases
1. to deflower someone.
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 286: Won’t your father be disgusted / When he finds your cherry’s busted? | |
| Down These Mean Streets (1970) 164: ‘You-all gonna be the first one to break cherry.’ ‘Hey, man! Nothing like that. I ain’t gonna chinga her till we’re married.’. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 21: break [...] a cherry to be the first to fuck an anal virgin [...] pop a cherry. | |
| Street Players 198: I might bust that cherry for you. | |
| Ladies’ Man (1985) 71: Staying up talking about pussy, busting cherries and oral finesse. | |
| Paco’s Story (1987) 5: Folks do not want to hear about Alpha Company — us grunts — busting jungle and busting cherries. | |
| (con. 1985–90) In Search of Respect 38: Don’t you come cryin’ to me when they take that ass a’ yours downtown and bust your cherry. | |
| ‘Chickenhawk’ at www.cultdeadcow.com 🌐 So Uncle Larry shoved his big hot dick into your tight little box. Was he the first? [...] Did he bust your cherry? | |
| Virgins 135: ‘You bust her cherry? Haven't you been working on that for, like, two years?’ . |
2. to be deflowered; to lose one’s virginity.
| (con. 1949) Big Blowdown (1999) 254: Why, you lookin’ to bust your cherry or somethin’, sonny? |
3. in fig. use, to experience something new.
| (con. early 1950s) Valhalla 140: It’s all brand spanking new gear. Most of their weapons haven’t had their cherries busted. | |
| Muscle for the Wing 118: Mister [...] I bust a cherry every day gettin’ some new kind of kick. | |
| Night People 184: ‘You’d just completed your first assignment [...]’ ‘Broke my cherry, as you norteamericanos say.’. | |
| ‘Screwby’ Generation Kill ep. 3 [TV script] At least I got to bust my cherry [i.e. make one’s combat kill]. | |
| Joey Piss Pot 185: [of a prison sentence] ‘Bruno’s been away twice, but never for more than a few years. Vito hasn’t busted his cherry yet’. |
1. (orig. US) to seduce and deflower virgins, usu. women.
| ‘Boy Talk’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 129: My boys’ constant barrage of cherry-popping tales. | |
| Spectator LXXII:2 on Valdosta State University 🌐 I think the very notion of ‘cherry popping’ both demeans women and gives a lot of men a bad reputation. | |
| F&R Virgin Blood n.p.: I intended to fuck her fast and hard the way Lori has been having me fuck her lately, but Lori still mentions with some distaste her cherry popping night. |
2. in fig., non-sexual use.
| Stingray Shuffle 198: Look’s like you’re up [i.e. on stage], Bob. Cherry-poppin’ time. Break a leg. |
(US) in sadmomasochistic scenarios, to place foreign objects into a partner’s vagina, e.g. dildos.
| personal ad, restroom Lang. Sadomasochism (1989) 51: Female, 21, well-endowed, 38-22-35, needs male master for humiliation, bondage, cherry-stuffing. |
to take a woman’s, occas. man’s, virginity.
| ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 25/2: CHERRY. Virginity of either girl or boy, as in the phrase to cop (filch) ’er cherry. | |
| in Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 79: Never let a sailor get an inch above your knee. / He’ll love you and he’ll kiss you, he’ll say there’s none like you, / But when he’s copped your cherry, he’ll say, To hell with you. | |
| (ref. to late 19C) Amer. Madam (1981) 18: A girl who worked on shy johns, or adolescents who still jerked off, down from college getting their cherry copped. | |
| (con. 1920s) Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 320: It was something to brag about, like copping a cherry. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 42/2: Cherry, n. The hymen. (‘To cop a cherry’—to seduce a virgin.). | |
| Entertaining Mr Sloane Act II: She had your cherry? | |
| (con. mid–late 19C) Wilder Shore 216: Various desires for perverted debauchery could be satisfied in the stalls, cribs or in alleys [...] copping a cherry. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 21: cop [get] a cherry to be the first to fuck an anal virgin. | |
| (con. WWII) Hollywoodland (1981) 176: Hey, hombre, you copped her cherry yet? | |
| Wizard of La-La Land (1999) 19: Her brother, Harry, copped her cherry when she’d been thirteen. |
1. to take a woman’s virginity.
| Down These Mean Streets (1970) 15: I felt that bragging to other fellas about how many cherries I’d cracked or how many panties came down on rooftops or back yards was nobody’s business but my own. | |
| Great Santini (1977) 313: After I cracked her cherry, I decided to write my name in her big vagina. | |
| Dolores Claiborne 100: I think he would have picked her cherry before Labor Day if it hadn’t been for Joe Junior and Little Pete bein out of school. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Official Dancehall Dict. 10 Cherry 1. virginity: u. to pick her cherry/deflowering a virgin. |
2. in fig. sense, to become initiated in a given calling.
| Gonif 76: He was talking to a young man who cracked his cherry in the thievery business with forty times that at Ludwig’s. | |
| Great Santini (1977) 258: You are [...] virgin fighter pilots. The only way to crack the cherry is through combat experience. |
(US) to lose one’s virginity, both lit. and fig. use.
| Nightmare Alley (1947) 73: Sailor, you been leaving a trail of busted hearts and busted cherries all along the route. | |
| Battle Cry (1964) 212: [of first drunkenness] Well, Sister Mary finally got his cherry busted. |
1. to lose one’s virginity.
| (con. WWI) Squad 132: I told him he wuz too young to lose his cherry. | |
| ‘Looking ’Em Over’ in Short Stories (1937) 44: Girls you would think of only as decent girls, who were losing their cherries, one right after the other. | |
| ‘The Little Blond Fellow’ in Short Stories (1937) 71: I think he’s still got to lose his cherry. | |
| (con. 1920s) Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 224: Hell, he is only young, sixteen. He hasn’t lost his cherry. | |
| Call House Madam (1943) 430: A Pasadena hotel man sent his son over to us [...] to lose his cherry in our house. | |
| Ginger Man (1958) 39: Jesus, I’m excited, like I was going to lose my cherry. | |
| in Encounter n.d. in Norman’s London (1969) 65: What I need is a nice kinky little mystery who hasn’t lost her cherry yet; if I could find one, I’d go straight. | |
| in Sweet Daddy 107: When she was a kid before she lost her cherry, she already used to eat it. | |
| (con. 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 164: I told him he was just excited about losin his cherry and all. | |
| Waiting for Sheila (1977) 127: Ready for it. Ready for the big event. Ready to lose my cherry. | |
| Gardener Got Her n.p.: She was due to lose her cherry, and there was no way she could put off the big event [...] But she was terrified of the pain. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Geek Love 203: [of Siamese twins] She just sold our cherry! [...] And I was saving mine! | |
| Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 175: ‘Can you still thump as has as you used to, Les?’ ‘I hope so [...] I might end up losing my cherry in here [i.e. prison] if I can’t’. | |
| (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 129: Please God, I just wanted to lose my cherry. | |
| Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 81: [T]hat night he lost his cherry in the back of the old man’s Holden down at Woolloomooloo. | |
| Indep. Rev. 25 June 11: Justine wants to lose her cherry, but not to smooth Alex or nerdy Chaz. | |
| Indep. Rev. 13 June 7: To lose one’s cherry against one’s will is bad enough. | |
| Urban Grimshaw 144: I lost my cherry last night [...] Trudi twice and Molly twice. | |
| Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 63: What he really wanted to do was [...] try to lose his cherry, and surf. |
2. in fig. use, to be initiated into a new experience.
| One to Count Cadence (1987) 65: I had to lose my cherry sometime. | |
| Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1994) 57: joan: I have never been called that in my life. bernie: Well, you just lost your cherry. | |
| Union Dues (1978) 341: And Tracey Ann lost her cherry. | |
| Goodfellas [film script] 22: You broke your cherry! |
1. to lose one’s virginity.
| Muscle for the Wing 189: The night Shuggie popped her cherry on a picnic table in Frechette Park. | |
| Iced 152: A cousin of hers had popped her cherry when she was nine. | |
| Skins ser.1 ep.1 [TV script] He’s got to pop his cherry and I’ve nominated you to [...] help out. | |
| ‘Honolulu’ in Knockemstiff 190: [She] asked if he was ready to get his cherry popped. | |
| Decent Ride 163: Ah wis eleven before ah popped my cherry. |
2. fig. use of sense 1, to do something for the first time.
| Guardian G2 20 Jan. 17: I only joined in time to play on two tracks [...] so really I’m popping my cherry here. | |
| ‘No Through Road’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] They’re sending in some rookie fucken D to pop his cherry on this thing. | |
| Border [ebook] ‘You gotta get your dick wet, Ric [...] You gotta fuck the Skinny Lady [...] Don’t worry, I’ll help you pop your cherry’. |
to deflower a girl or woman, occas. a young man.
| Down These Mean Streets (1970) 227: It ain’t like I popped her cherry. I wasn’t the first at the wall. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 21: To be the first to fuck an anal virgin [...] pop a cherry. | |
| (con. 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 138: Hey, Mama, you wanta pop a real cherry? [...] We got this kid here. He’s a cherry. | |
| Guardian Rev. 18 June 5: Prissy little Miss True Love Waits, who’s begging to get her cherry popped. | |
| Chicken (2003) 29: Frannie popped my professional cherry. She was my first sex job, and she turned me on to a lot of work. | |
| Sellout (2016) 59: Living it up at the club, popping bottles, niggers and cherries in that order. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Glorious Heresies 103: Popping cherries all around her, [...] Charging them fifty quid to bob, red and tearstained, on top of her. |
(US) to initiate someone into a new experience.
| Girl Called Honey 147: ‘Ever sniff? Ever skin-pop and smile all night at the ceiling?’ ‘No.’ Marie smiled. ‘A virgin,’ [...] ‘You better let me take your cherry, Honey. Better let Marie turn you on to the world’. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
1. cherry brandy.
| Phraseologia Generalis 369/2: Any mingled drink; as punch, cherrybouncer, etc. | |
| Caledonian Mercury 14 Oct. 1/2: What say you to a slug, boys — Cherry bounce! Cherry bounce! | |
| Maid of the Oaks 49: A pint of hot negus to warm me, a bottle of cyder to cool me again, and a dram of cherry-bounce to keep all quiet. | |
| Fontainebleau in Dramatic Works (1798) II 269: So I down with a glass of good right cherry bounce. | |
| ‘Rovers’ in Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin (1854) 196: This cherry-bounce, this loved noyau, My drink for ever be . | |
| Salmagundi (1860) 393: A glass of cherry-bounce, or raspberry-brandy. | |
| Life in Paris 475: Lady Halibut [...] fortified herself with a double dose of cherry-bounce. | |
| Bashful Man I iv: A little drop of something [...] a glass of brandy, now, or a little cherry-bounce. | |
| Gilbert Gurney 146: ‘Bounce!’ exclaimed Hull, ‘cherry bounce my dear fellow [...] I have gallons of it – make it by the hogsheads.’. | |
| Sports and Adventures Scotland (1853) 128: A glass of cherry-bounce was insisted upon, to fortify the ‘dear Doctor's stomach against damp’. | |
| Home Mag. (Phila., PA) June 389: Only a small glass of rum in the moming, after dinner a glass of cherry bounce in addition to your coffee. | |
| Ballou’s Dollar Mthly Mag. Jan. 64: Nothing less than cherry-bounce would do to celebrate this glorious episode in my life. | |
| ‘Dover Volunteer Rev.’ in Songs for the Army 58: Some – coffee drink, some – whiskypunch – some cherry-bounce, or brandy. |
2. brandy mixed with sugar.
| Satirist (London) 3 Feb. 459/3: The Baroness Rothschild [...] played a deep game at cherry-bounce, that appeared to keep all ‘tings snoug and comfortable’. | |
| Poor Robin n.p.: Brandy...if you chuse to drink it raw, Mix sugar which it down will draw; When men together these do flounce, They call the liquor cherry-bounce [N]. | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 131: hebe was gone to fetch a pot / Of something strong, and sweet, and hot, / Hucklemybuff ’tis call’d in heaven, / A name by vulcan’s blacksmiths given; / On earth the learned parson rounce, / Gave it the name of cherry bounce. | |
| Age (London) 31 July 93/1: Glengall replied [...] ‘Wine—pooh—its cherry brandy.’ ‘I should rather think,’ said Raikes, ‘its cherry bounce’ . |
3. an extremely strong drink composed of a mix of 110% proof alcohol, water and cherry syrup.
| Life in Jazz 12: ‘Cherry Bounce’ [...] was composed of one hundred and ten proof pure alcohol [...]. He mixed the very strong alcohol with water and then tested the mixture to be sure it burned the mouth and singed the tongue. Then he would color and sweeten this mixture with a cherry-flavored syrup. |
(Aus.) a coffin.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Jul. 7/3: The word ‘shell’ we think unusually appropriate and graceful. It performs the double office of satisfying all the requirements of metre and all the wants of Robert. That it does the former felicitously will be seen at once when you try to substitute for it some word such as ‘coffin,’ ‘piner,’ or ‘cherry-case’. [Ibid.] 17 Oct. 12/1: [S]o pleased was he with the success of his job that, after pointing out its beauties to its future tenant, he propped it up against his front fence, near the main road, so that everyone with an artistic taste who passed could stop and admire the amateur cherry-case ‘builder’s-slap up’ piece of workmanship. | |
| Newsletter (Sydney) 27 May 16/4: We [...] exposed a few crooked undertakers for squeezing two or three infirmary infants into cherry cases. |
red or black.
| , , | | Sl. Dict. 99: Cherry-Colour a term used in a cheating trick at cards. When the cards are being dealt, a knowing one offers to bet that he will tell the colour of the turn-up card. ‘Done!’ says Mr. Green. The sum being named, Mr. Sharp affirms that it will be cherry-colour; and as cherries are either black or red, he wins, leaving his victim a wiser man, it is to be hoped, and not a better for the future. |
| Sharping London 34: Cherry Colour, a cheating trick at cards, either black or red, being cherry colour. |
coloured black or red.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cherry-coloured cat, A black cat, there being black cherries as well as red. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Illus. London News 23 Jan. 78, col. 2: A favourite hoax is the great exhibition, wherein a cherry-coloured cat and a rose-coloured pigeon [...] are to be shown. The former consists of a black cat and a white pigeon [F&H]. |
(US black) a pimp.
| ‘Cherry Hill Blues’ 🎵 You can stand on the corner on Sixteenth and Morgan Street / And see the cherry heels go by like police on the beat. |
(US drugs) hashish oil.
| Bk of Jargon 337: cherry leb: Hash oil. |
see redcap n. (2)
(S.Afr.) sherry.
| DSUE (8th edn) 205/2: C.20. |
1. the red light on the roof of a police car.
| San Antonio Exp. (TX) 26 Apr. 14/2: Faults like completely bungled color processing that turns police cars cherry tops into plum tops. | |
| Muscle for the Wing 212: That’s when the cherrytop appeared in the rearview mirror, the light revolving, stabbing beams of red into the car. | |
| Pain Killers 366: They hit the cherry top, but not the siren. | |
| (con. 1972) What It Was 99: A couple of squad cars [...] arrived, sirens and cherry-tops activated. | |
| Shore Leave 161: [T]he dark street, lit only by the strobing of the cherry tops. |
2. a police car with a red light on its roof.
| Van Wert Times-Bulletin (OH) 8 Mar. 12/7: State Patrol cruisers are all decked out for the Bicentennial. Red, white and blue stripes have been added to the sides of the cherry tops. | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 182: Red light flashed [...] from the cherry-tops parked out on the street. | |
| Pain Killers 279: The blaring cherry-tops nosed off Avenue Fifty-one into the alley. |
3. a police officer.
| Marengo Beacon News (IL) 19 Aug. 1/3: Persons are enabled to relate to policemen as people —not as cherry-tops or the men in blue. | |
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 cherry tops Definition: the cops Example: Hide da shit man, the cherry tops are here! |