Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a hat of any sort [abbr. SE beaver hat; note Ned Ward The London Spy (1699): ‘What are those Eagle-look’d Fellows, in their Narrow Brim’d White Beavers’; but note SE beaver/bever, that part of a helmet which when let down covers the face ].

1601		Jonson Cynthia’ s Revels I i: amo.: This hat possest mine eye exceedingly [...] what! is it a beaver? aso.: Ay, sir, I’ll assure you ’tis a beaver, it cost me eight crowns.
1608		‘The Turk in Linen’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 5: The Spaynyards constant to his blocke, / the ffrench inconstant ever; / but of all ffelts may be ffelt, / give me the English bever.
1611		J. Cook Greenes Tu Quoque Scene xvi: Felts? By this light, mine is a good Beaver.
1620		J. Howell Familiar Letters (1737) 1 May 40: I have sent you [...] the French bever [...] Bever-hats are grown dearer of late.
1630		J. Taylor ‘Wit and Mirth’ in Works (1869) II 178: He for a iewell wore, / Two ribbonds, and a feather in his beauer.
1640		H. Mill Nights Search I 30: He’l cock the broom-mans beaver.
1654		Citie Matrons 3: Feather-makers, Beaver-makers, Lace-makers.
1661		Pepys Diary 27 June n.p.: This day, Mr. Holden sent me a beaver, which cost me £4 5s.
1675		Woman Turn’d Bully III iii: Run, fetch my new Beaver.
1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia II ii: A rum nab. It’s a beaver of £5.
1693		Dryden Juvenal X 199: A Chap-faln Beaver loosly hanging by the cloven Helm.
1701		N. Ward ‘Battel without Bloodshed’ Writings (1704) 113: Then Vintners and Vict’lars, the chief of their Leaders, / Must cover their Horns with their Beavers and Feathers.
1712		J. Gay Trivia (1716) Bk II 19: The Broker here his spacious Beaver wears, Upon his Brow sit Jealousies and Cares.
1720		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy VI 191: This subtile deceiver, / Turn’d Bonnet into Beaver.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 148: Will [...] claps the Vintner’s Beaver on his Head.
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) II 3: She in his beaver stuck a candle, / Which made him cut a dreadful figure.
1769		‘Cock Up Your Beaver’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 77: Cock up your beaver, cock up your beaver, / Hey my Johny lad, cock up your beaver.
1788		‘The Distressed Rake’ Chap Book Songs 3: Before I was ty’d to this damnable bride / I wore a good hat and a beaver.
1791		J. O’Keeffe Wild Oats (1792) 63: I cannot bend me knee, nor take off my Beaver.
1802		M. & R. Lovell Edgeworth Essays on Irish Bulls 270: Our hero effected his retreat [...] leaving his new Dublin beaver behind him.
1812		‘The Theatre’ in H. Smith Rejected Addresses 108: Leaning forward, Jennings lost his hat; / Down from the gallery the beaver flew.
1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry II ii: What do you ask for your beaver, Charley?
1830		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 26 June 4/2: [He] had no sooner tipp’d his beaver, than these imps of Satan all exclaimed [etc].
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 13 Jan. 85: She sunk upon the bosom of the blue-coated guardian of the night [...] embraced him, knocked off his glazed-top-beaver into the mud.
1843		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 14 Jan. n.p.: Doffing his beaver.
1847		[A. Harris] (con. 1820s) Settlers & Convicts 13: Some wore straw hats, some beavers, some caps of untanned kangaroo-skin.
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 33: Getting his glossy beaver smashed flat as an opera hat in the desperate struggle.
1853		W. Sketch & ‘Nelse’ The Down-Trodden 34/1: A green vest, a ‘sugar loaf beaver,’ and a ‘stand up collar’.
1854		Banner (Melbourne) 2 June 9/3: ‘[W]hen you get home, tell the misses to send for a pot of paste blacking to polish up your beaver with!’ Is it necessary to add [...] that the pedestrian had on a ‘shocking bad hat’ at the time?
1861		T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 36: Here he comes, rather late, in a very glossy hat [...] ‘Who is that who has just come in in beaver?’ said Tom.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple III 177: The fluffy, broad-brimmed beaver.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 204: When he’d take off his new white beaver and make a bow and do a smile, he looked that grand and good and pious.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 31 May 4/3: He wore a beaver, carried a gingham.
1892		A. Bierce ‘A Vision of Climate’ Black Beetles in Amber 143: Throw up your beaver and throw down your pen!
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 121: His humorous account of how Lord Rosebury once pulled the lining itself out of Sir William’s beaver gave rise to much laughter.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 261: I’ll bet my Sunday beaver that you couldn’t tell one from the other.
1937		D.L. Sayers Busman’s Honeymoon (1974) 122: Before the shut door of the cellar stood the uniformed figure of P.C. Sellon, like young Harry with his beaver on.
[1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 173: Beaver Hat, also a salute as a soldier would give to an officer: ‘I threw the old captain up a beaver.’].
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 39: Beaver also is shorthand for beaver hat, and hat is another old byword for the female genitals.

2. (US) money; beaver pelts were orig. a form of exchange.

1848		G.F. Ruxton Life in the Far West (1849) 66: Ho, boys, hyar’s a deck, and hyar’s the beaver (rattling the coin).
1950		A.B. Guthrie Way West 35: He would saw open the big log where he had cached his beaver, banks being what they were. [Ibid.] 256: Whose beaver you earnin’, Caleb?

3. a bearded man; thus the early 20C+ street game in which children would compete to be the first to spot a bearded man and signify their success by shouting Beaver!; Marples (1940) places origin in Oxford, home of many bearded academics.

1910		F. Richardson Whiskers and Soda 211: He provided a list of celebrated clean-shaven men and also of celebrated beavers, as bearded men are technically termed [OED].
1922		H. Champion ‘Here Comes Old Beaver’ [monologue] Let’s sing: ‘Here comes old Beaver! Beaver! Beaver! Beaver!’ [...] ’E don’t look worth a Caesar.
1926		‘Sapper’ Final Count 851: Tufts of hair sprouted from [his face] like whin bushes on a seaside links: he was the King Emperor of Beavers.
1930		E. Waugh Vile Bodies 102: ‘See the beaver with the medal,’ said Humility to Faith.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 8: beaver, beard, or bearded man. The word owes its origin to a game popular at Oxford soon after the last war. Players had to watch for men wearing beards (of whom there were perhaps more in Oxford than elsewhere), and whoever first cried ‘Beaver’ on seeing a bearded man scored one point.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 75: The cry ‘Beaver!’ is a thing of the past.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1963		L. Daiken Out Goes She 9: If Four-Eyes, Beaver, and Harold Lloyd are dead as the dodo.
1963		(ref. to 1920s) R.L. Finn Time Remembered (1985) 52: During the Beaver Craze you scored points for every beard you saw.
1971		(ref. to 1929) C. Watson Snobbery with Violence (1979) 197: University students in 1929 amused themselves with a game called ‘Beaver’. [...] The contestants, walking in a group, were alert for the sight of anyone wearing a beard. The first to spot such a person and loudly cry out ‘Beaver!’ scored a point.
1981		(con. c.1920) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 52: To a boy with long hair the phrase was ‘Hey, Starve the barber!’ To a man with a beard ‘Hey, Beaver!’.
2019		Twitter 1 Aug. 🌐 Beavers win major victory in Catalonia: 'The Workers' Commissions union raised the issue, arguing that Burger King's rules on banning beards, moustaches and stubble ‘undermined the dignity of its workers’.
2020		Twitter 10 Mar. 🌐 Some splendid beavers leading the parade.

4. a beard; thus beavered, bearded.

1929		S.J. Perelman Dawn Ginsbergh’s Revenge 37: A noted beard architect and designer of many famous beavers.
1934		Weseen Dict. Amer. Sl.
c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 73: Your man was puttin up a beaver!
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1961		G.L. Coon Meanwhile, Back at the Front (1962) 134: The old beavered bastard can’t even listen.
1981		(con. 1920s) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 220: beaver a beard.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 39: Beaver [...] is slang for beard and beard has referred to the female pubic hair as well as male facial hair since at least the seventeenth century.

5. (orig. US, also beav) the female pubic hair, the vagina, esp. in commercial pornography use; thus beaver trader, a pimp [the supposed similarity between the beaver’s coat and the pubic hair].

1927–41		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 238: There was a young lady named Eva / Who went to the ball as Godiva, / But a change in the lights / Showed a tear in her tights / And a low fellow present yelled, ‘Beaver!’.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 78: Beaver The female pubic area.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 24: They show everything — beaver, cock, the whole store.
1977		S. Kernochan Dry Hustle 36: Hey, you know Roxanne with the red beaver? Reddish-brown?
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 205: The only thing they shoot is beaver.
1989		(con. 1968) W.E. Merritt Where the Rivers Ran Backward 177: Don’t make no difference whether she’s fat or ugly [...] When beaver’s scarce, them that are carrying the pelts sets the price.
1991		R.G. Barratt ‘Plenty to Grumble About’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] But what about her minge? What do the Yanks call them? Beavers?
1999		Guardian Rev. 15 Oct. 4: They are watching badgers, and Greg says he is studying Frances’s ‘beaver’.
2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 96: Scanning the street for vigs and rival beaver-traders.
2010		C. Hiaasen Star Island (2011) 38: His biggest score was one of the Britney beaver pics.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 21: An attractive [...] woman facing us flashes a semi-beaver. Pencil skirt crawling up her parted thighs to reveal Hot Mama panties.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 169: The only people allowed near my beaver are Jason and Dr Bowman.
2021		Twitter 20 Apr. 🌐 If you like eating Beav great, we have something in common.

6. attrib. use of sense 5; thus beaver book, a pornographic book; beaver film/flick, a pornographic film.

1969		H. Ellison ‘A Boy and his Dog’ in Beast that Shouted Love (1976) 180: It was a beauty, a beaver flick [...] called ‘Big Black Leather Splits’.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 42: How’s your deep-dish beaver Pie today?
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 144: Sells, I figure he sells beaver pictures.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 169: The walls were adorned with beaver photos of outrageously large breasted women.
1989		W. Kotzwinkle Midnight Examiner (1990) 182: Do you suppose baloney makes the princess star in beaver flicks?
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 39: Related expressions include beaver chaser, bever feaver (i.e., horny), beaver flick, beaver pose, and shooting beaver (female exhibitionism, similar to mooning or shooting moon).
1999		J. Ellroy ‘My Life as a Creep’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 127: The store sold beaver books, fuck-suck books, hom books, novels, slides [etc.].
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 389: Hate tracts/bug spray/beaver pix/gun oil.
2009		(con. 1960s) J. Ellroy Blood’s a Rover 24: Bobby Gallard skimmed beaver mags.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 31: I raided stacks of beaver-photo books for pictures.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 64: Beaver pix of Eva Braun [Ibif.] 181: A stack of forty-two beaver photos.

7. (orig. US) a woman.

1969		Current Sl. IV:1 4: Beaver, n. A girl.
1975		L. Dills CB Slanguage 9: Beaver: woman or girl; Beaver bear: female state trooper.
1977		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 1: beaver – woman.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 105: Lots of high-class beaver up in New York, huh?
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 13: Beaver, cunt, piece (of ass), pussy, quim, snatch, tail, and twat are among the words that are used to denote both a woman and her genitals.
1999		Guardian Travel 31 July 10: As we passed a pub, three men [...] stared at us and slowly opened up a piece of paper on which was written, in big black capitals: NICE BEAVER.