Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a prostitute.

1639–42		Cavendish Varietie IV i: Ret, Ret, verily Ret, here’s the Partridge under the Table.
c.1642		T. Killigrew Parson’s Wedding (1664) II vii: When a stranger comes in, and spies a Covey of Beauties would make a Faulconer unhood, before he can draw his Leash he is warn’d that’s a markt Partridge.
1659		Greene & Lodge Lady Alimony II vi: These Heartless Partridges shall never nestle Under my feathers.
1678		Otway Friendship in Fashion IV i: Have I been mumbling an old Kite all this while instead of my Young Partridge? a pox o’ my depraved palate that could distinguish no better.
1683		Otway Atheist V ii: Would but my little Partridge call, methinks I could so shuckle, and run, and Bill, and clap my Wings about her.
1693		Congreve Old Bachelor I i: We have each our share of sport, and each that which he likes best; ’tis his diversion to set, ’tis mine to cover the partridge.
c.1700		Old Song in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads IV (1897) 247: Go home, ye Fop [...] And for half a Crown a Doxey get, But seek no more a partridge here .
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy I 131: Go home, ye Fop, where Game’s not dear, / And for half Crown a Doxey get, / But seek no more a Partridge here, / You could not keep, tho’ in your Net.
1749		Hist. of the Human Heart 123: [At] a noted Bagnio [...] they met with a Covey of Town Partridges, which Camillo liked better than all he had ever drawn a Net over in the Country, and amongst them Miss M- the famous Posture Girl.
1772		G. Stevens ‘The Sentiment Song’ Songs Comic and Satyrical 124: Ye Fowlers who eager at Partridges aim, / Don’t mark the maim’d Covey, but mind better Game; / ’Tis Beauty’s the Sport to repay Sportsmen’s trouble, / And there may our Pointers stand stiff in the Stubble.
1800		Sporting Mag. Oct. XVII 38/2: The common cry of scarcity extends even to the game. We are confidently assured, that not a partridge has been seen in any of the brick-fields near London.