coyote, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

coyote n.

[all fig. uses of SE coyote, a prairie dog, generally considered as a ‘negative’ animal]

1. (US) the vagina.

1890–1904

2. (US) a half-breed.

1890		Chicago Advance 20 Nov. n.p.: Some Indians, some Mexicans, many ‘coyotes,’ as the Mexicans call the half-breed population [DA].
1948		New Mexico Quarterly Rev. Summer 198: Often coyote is used as a synonym for native, and is applied to Indians and mestizos (mixed bloods) [DA].

3. (US) a very unpleasant person.

1872		S. Powers Afoot and Alone 277: Many slouching fellows make that pretense [i.e. supposedly searching for govt. lands] while they are really squatters or ‘coyotes’ [DA].
1876		B. Harte Two Men of Sandy Bar 79: The imposter, this Judas, this coyote.
1889		Thomas Co. Cat. (Colby, KS) 26 Sept. 3/3: We didn’t onderstand what a reg’lar coyote the feller was.
1900		R.H. Savage Brought to Bay 157: He’s a mean coyote – a sneaking dog – that fellow.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 May 1/1: One coterie of coyotes grafted hard for all four candidates.
1909		‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny 202: You blankety-blank, flop-eared, sheepheaded coyote.
1911		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 Days 108: I’d be a fine sort of coyote to leave him in that hell hole an’ not go back.
1924		C.E. Mulford Hopalong Cassidy Returns 9: Neither had ever told the other in words that he was anything more than a mangy coyote or a cross-eyed cow thief, knowing both to be lies.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 22: ‘Pie like mother made,’ he said savagely. ‘One coyote keeps him busy while the other sneaks round an’ plugs him from behind.’.
1947		(con. 1873) R. Peattie Sierra Nevada 66: The opponents picturesquely likened each other to skunks, tadpoles, and coyotes.
1952		W.D. Overholser Fabulous Gunman 133: She could have gone lording it over everybody; but no, she throws it away for a coyote like Lowrie.
1954		Mad mag. Mar. 30: His three partners are the most furshlugginer cayotes east o’ the Pecos.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1989		(con. 1880) Reno Gaz.-Jrnl (NV) 29 Jan. 42/1: ‘That ornery coyote! I never did like that blue-blazed varmine nohow’.

4. (US) a smuggler of illegal immigrants from Mexico into the US.

1923		Galveston Dly News (TX) 24 May 1/8: The characters of the ‘coyotes’ at the border are the lowest [...] ‘It is much easier to murder and rob, they believe, than to barter with a foreigner over the tribute for safe delivery on the American side’.
1929		M.A. Gill Und. Sl. n.p.: Coyotes – Labor agents.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 310: The big coyote, the white fixer, make us pay.
1980		in S. Terkel Amer. Dreams (1982) 34: A coyote is a smuggler of people.
2004		Houston Chronicle 22 June 🌐 A ‘coyote,’ or smuggler of immigrants, has been charged with murder in the brutal stabbing death of a young mother in May.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] Savd enough for a coyote to get her across the border.
2020		D. Winslow ‘The Last Ride’ in Broken 286: [H]is daddy used to cuss out the ‘wetbacks’ and threaten to shoot the coyotes who brought them.

5. (US campus, also coyote date) an ugly woman.

1988		Eble Campus Sl. Mar.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 69: A coyote date is ‘a woman who is so ugly that when her companion for the night wakes up the next morning and she is asleep on his arm, he would rather chew off his arm than wake her up’.

In compounds

coyote date (n.)

see sense 5 above.

coyote milk (n.)

(US) rough, cheap whisky.

1899

Witchita Dly Eagle (KS) 12 Sept. 4/4: There is a new name for the whiskey [...] ‘coyote milk’ [...] It has been known as ‘pizen,’ ‘sheep-dip,’ ‘squirrel whiskey,’ ‘white mule’ and ‘groundhog juice’.

coyote sandwich (n.)

(US) a tampon.

1999

J. Randall ‘A Visit from Aunt Rose’ in Verbatim XXV:1 Winter 26: Tampons [...] have their own euphemisms: mouse mattresses, the white horse, manhole cover, coyote sandwich, saddle blankets, teddy bears, and the industry-sanctioned [...] feminine supplies.

coyote-ugly (adj.)

(US campus) extremely ugly; thus ugly coyote, the experience of waking up next to an unattractive partner after a one-night stand.

1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 63: coyote ugly [...] so ugly that if you were to find yourself waking up next to such a person [...] and if he or she were sleeping on your arm, you would rather bite your own arm off to escape than wake him or her.
1999		Guardian Guide 29 May–4 June 23: ‘Ugly coyote’, apparently refers to the unpleasant surprise of waking up next to a less-than-attractive one-night stand.