Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also peddle it, peddle one’s arse, ...butt, ...gash, ...hips, ...hump, ...peter, ...shape, ...snatch, ...stuff) to work as a prostitute, of either gender; to be very promiscuous; thus peddle ass v., as a generic [ass n. (2)/arse n. (1)/butt n.¹ (1a)/gash n.¹ (1)/hump n.¹ (3a)/peter n.⁴ /stuff n. (8a)].

c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 101: You’d find nigrah gals peddling gash and joint copping in the alleys.
1934		H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 413: G-go p-peddle yer h-hump, h-he says.
1935		W. Smith Bessie Cotter 68: Well, owe it some more. You can peddle your hips for it. [Ibid.] 207: I’d rather peddle my shape in Shanghai Blum’s China cathouse.
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 140: Go on Via Roma and peddle your stuff and stop trying to act like trade.
1951		C. Willingham ‘Love on Toast’ in Gates of Hell (1966) 25: She certainly has peddled her ass all over town.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 90: My chicks aren’t peddling ass for her.
1965		A. James America’s Homosexual Underground 71: There had been rumors [...] about the vice ring that entrapped youths and taught them the tricks of peddling their asses to perverts.
1970		San Diego Sailor 75: But all that’s left for the others is to go on peddling their peters.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 51: I’d rather peddle ass for a quarter a throw.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 30: The honkies [...] were, it seemed plain, about to be taken by the two sharp sisters peddling their ass.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 184: You gettin all siddity on me, think you too good to be out peddlin your butt on the street.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 47: Why the hell should she [...] peddle her ass to a lot of sleazes.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 70: Hank was nothing but a dick and a smile. How else could anybody think there was easy money in peddling your ass?
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 105: She carhops, maybe peddles it on the side.
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 234: Kids who peddle their arse down the Dilly.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 113: [S]he wasn’t going to peddle her snatch in Ross County, not as long as he was sheriff.
2012		J. Robinson Gospel of the Game 3: You had better be peddling your ass and you had better be selling it fast.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 20: ‘Blue-movie actors [...] They peddle it on the side’.

2. in fig. use, to prostitute oneself.

1992

K. Lette Llama Parlour 41: Everybody’s pedlin’ their ass in this town [...] We’re all gettin’ screwed.

see under paper n.

(US) to sell one’s possessions, esp. to a second-hand store.

1926		N. Klein ‘Hobo Lingo’ in AS I:12 652: Peddle-out—selling old clothing or shoes to second hand store.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 142: Peddling Out.–Selling or trading the old clothes which have been begged from housewives, and which are not needed by the tramp, who obtains from his fellows food, drink or tobacco in exchange for his goods.

to work as a prostitute; thus pussy-peddling n.

1964		R. Gover Here Goes Kitten 126: It’s a lot easier for a girl t’peddle her pussy than it is for a man t’peddle his mind.
1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 49: Give her some [medicine] too, so she be young as me, and can peddle her pussy.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 192: Pushing drugs, selling pussy, and shit like that.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 71: She peddled her pussy like that, bloodied and chip-toothed.
1998		J. Lansdale Rumble Tumble 65: They take their money, their drug pushin’, their pussy peddlin’, and their murderin’ seriously.
2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 274: She went out and peddled pussy on Capp Street.

to send a prostitute out to work.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 55: He couldn’t understand how a boy with a score of one-hundred and seventy-five could do a stupid thing like peddling a girl’s ass.

(US) an excl. of disdainful dismissal.

1932		J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 335: peddle your fish – mind your own business.
1960		W. Styron Set This House on Fire 317: ‘Go peel a grape!’ Slam!