backside, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

backside n.

[backside has been SE in the UK since 1500 but is still considered improper in the W.I.]

the posterior, the buttocks, esp. as synon. with arse n. (1), as in kiss one’s backside, kick one’s backside etc.

1533		J. Heywood Play of Weather in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 119: merry report: No, but ye know how he may pass into you. gentlewoman: I pray you let me in at the back side. merry report: Yea, shall I so, and your fore side so wide?
1607		Rowlands Diogenes Lanthorne 35: Yet we thou seest goe bare-arse all, For each man to deride: I tell thee brother Asse I blush, To see mine owne backe-side.
1611		J. Cook Greenes Tu Quoque Scene xii: Bid the Kitchin-maide skowre the sincke, and make cleane her backe-side, for the wind lies just upon’t.
1631		J. Shirley School of Complement III ii: Hee did abuse me in the presence of my sweet-heart, and did (sauing this good company) kisse my backside.
1635		H. Glapthorne Lady Mother II i: You tooke up a Spitt [...] and broacht one of the wenches out [...] Oh, sir, you made such a hole in her backside.
1655		E. Gayton Wil Bagnals Ghost 24: But then he had a way begun / To gropen / In the back side.
1668		Dryden An Evening’s Love II i: They play’d most furiously at our Back-sides.
1673		J. Wade Vinegar and Mustard A2: When you rise out of bed, you turn your backside towards me, as though I should kiss that.
1683		‘Satire on Whigs & Tories’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 124: How oft has Howe [...] found the art the surest way to glide / Not into’s heart but his well shaped backside. Not Nob’s bum more adoration found.
1697		Cibber Womans Wit IV i: I’ll make him sley your Back-side for you!
1700		‘The Jolly Miller’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 273: Oh Nelly, cry’d Celie, thy Cloaths are all mealy, / Both backside and belly are rumpled all o’er.
1712		J. Arbuthnot Hist. of John Bull 118: You may kiss my backside if you please.
1721		Penkethman’s Jests 17: His Majesty ask’d him how his Wife did, who had just been cut for a Fistula in her Backside.
1730		Proceedings at Sessions of Peace, and Oyer and Terminer (City of London) Dec. 8/2: Huggin’s breeches were down [...] and his Back-side was bare.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 577: He began a song of imprecations upon his fare, who he swore had got a backside of block-tin.
1759–67		Sterne Tristram Shandy (1949) 126: ‘My sister, mayhap,’ quoth my uncle Toby, ‘does not choose to let a man come so near her ***.’ Make this dash, – ’tis an Aposiopesis. – Take the dash away, and write Backside, – ’tis Bawdy. – Scratch Backside out, and put in Covered-way* in, ’tis a Metaphor. [Ibid.] 44: She knew no more than her backside what my father meant.
1764		Complete London Jester 11: Then says the Quaker, he [i.e. the devil] may kiss my Backside.
1777		Lottery Jest-Book 13: It rubs my backside like a nutmeg-grater.
1787		Adventures of Jonathan Corncob 76: His backside was as raw and as smooth as a singed capon’s.
1792		H.H. Brackenridge Modern Chivalry (1937) Pt I Vol. I Bk IV 48: The Captain [...] dismissed him with a salutation of his foot on the backside.
1807		Merry Tricks of Leper the Taylor 3: He takes a great big pin and staps it straight up thro’ the cushion, with its head on the chair and the point to her back-side.
c.1813		‘Wellington’s Victory’ Wellington’s Laurels 3: Others try’d to bolt thro’ the passes, / So they were shot in the backside, / Tho’ the vulgar would say in their a---s.
c.1825		Friar and Boy 11: With that cracker she let fly, / Which seemed to shake the ground. [...] The little boy replied, / My mother has a good report, / You hear from her b--ks--e.
1835		‘The Face Without A Nose’ Secret Songster 113: At last the maiden teazed and vex’d, yet bent on frolick, too, / Pull’d up her petticoats and shew’d her backside to his view.
1841		Odd Fellow (London) 18 Sept. 1/4: But if backsides, once soft as down, / Have tough as teak become.
1894		G.F. Northall Folk-Phrases of Four Counties 34: You might as well rub your backside with a brickbat. Said of an action that would cause unnecessary hardship.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 315: He flogs the bloody backside off the poor lad till he yells meila murder.
1933		E.A. Robertson Ordinary Families 74: One did not speak to pacifists or conchies, one merely kicked their backsides if possible.
1945		(con. 1919) R. Westerby Mad in Pursuit 44: You could kick his backside, couldn’t you?
1956		B. Behan Quare Fellow (1960) Act II: Aren’t they impudent pups? [...] I’d tan their pink backsides for them.
1962		K. Waterhouse There is a Happy Land (1964) 80: Buttons tries to pull him out and gets his backside stuck in a drum.
1963		‘Geoffrey Tolhurst’ Flat 4 King’s Cross (1966) 93: Why, they’d probably fall over onto their black-clad backsides with surprise and fright.
1970		S. Naipaul Fireflies 20: We sure to make a profit then with you shaking your backside.
1983		S. Gee Never in My Lifetime in Best Radio Plays (1984) 65: Do you never get sick of sitting on your backside, doing nothing?
1994		J. O’Connor Secret World of the Irish Male (1995) 57: Keith shimmied up and down the stage, undulating his ball-alley of a backside.
2005		(con. c. 1945) A. Wheatle Island Songs (2006) 26: Yuh ’ave to discipline her an’ tek ah big hand to her backside.

In derivatives

backsiding (n.)

(W.I.) a severe thrashing.

1991		L.E. Adams Jam. Patois 86: When mi go home di ooman gi mi one backsidin. A good backsidin for i.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 2: Backsiding a thorough and severe thrashing: u. gi’ de yout’ a backsiding.

In compounds

backside artist (n.) [-artist sfx]

(US gay) a male homosexual who practises anal intercourse.

1989–2003

R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐 backside artist: a male homosexual who enjoys anal intercourse.

In phrases

backside of nowhere (n.)

(US) nowhere, a very out-of-the-way place.

1967–70

in DARE.

not know one’s backside from a hole in the ground (v.)

(US) to be particularly foolish.

1953

‘Jonathan Craig’ ‘Scrapbook’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] ‘The guy we got to take your place didn’t know his backside from a hole in the ground’.

on the bones of one’s backside

see on the bones of one’s arse under arse n.

In exclamations

my backside!

a general excl. of disdain, dismissal, arrogant contempt.

1786		C. Morris ‘The Virgin Minister’ Collection of Songs (1788) 60: Troth, in Ireland, we would / Be all apt to doubt him, / A man with virginity / Is all my backside.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 73: He hung up and winked at Jim. ‘Editor of the MotorCar, my backside!’ he said.
1963		F. Kohner Affairs of Gidget 62: Cozy? My backside!
1976		R. Morrieson Pallet on the Floor 74: ‘Rape her my backside,’ said Miriam crudely.
2016		V. McDermid Out of Bounds (2017) 397: ‘Health and safety, my backside!’.