carrot, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

carrot n.

[its shape, also f. the consumption of carrots by rabbits or coneys; also note correspondence from John Geipel (7 June 2000) ‘I [have] identified a cluster of obviously related words, many of them vulgar or taboo, all based on the Romani word kar (literally, “thorn”, “spike” or “prickle” – the original Sanskrit meaning) applied to the penis. The word has long been in circulation in impolite Spanish, as caralo, in the original Romani, anatomical sense; this, in turn, has given rise to such expressions as the exclamations: caray, carape, the universal Hispanic caramba and the euphemistic caracoles (literally: “snails”). Other derivative forms are: No importa un carajo (it doesn’t matter a bit), Ni carajo (nothing at all), the Mexican Que carajo quieres? (What the hell do you want?), caralote (idiot, nut-case); de caralo (splendid) and vete al caralo (go to hell). The diminutive carajillo (little prick) refers to the mug of coffee with a slug of brandy, taken to kick-start a cold winter’s day’]

1. the penis; cite 1834 ref. to use of a carrot as a dildo.

[a.1556		in H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 109: Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) [...] wrote a series of dialogues ... ‘Speak plainly and say “fuck,” “prick,” “cunt,” and “ass” if you want anyone except the scholars at the university in Rome to understand you. You with your [...] “job,” “affair,” “big news,” “handle,” “arrow,” “carrot,” “root,” and all shit there is.’].
c.1597		Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor IV i: eva: Remember, William; focative is caret. quick: And that’s a good root.
1613		Beaumont & Fletcher Honest Man’s Fortune V i: Single money whores that fed on Carrots.
1621		R. Burton Anatomy of Melancholy (1893) III 326: [Wives] which are so penned up they may not confer with any living man [...] have a Cucumber or Carrot sent into them for their diet, but sliced, for fear.
1674		Rochester ‘Timon’ in Works (1999) 260: A Dish of Carrets, each of them as long / As Toole, that to fair Countesse did belong.
1688		C. Sackville ‘A Faithful Catalogue’ in Lord Poems on Affairs of State (1968) IV 202: Talbot, that young sodomite, they say, / With tarse and carrot well enlarg’d the way, / With painful look he grins.
c.1690		‘Wanton Will. of Wapping’ Pepys Ballads (1987) V 251: [He gave her] a Tester and a Lap full of Carrots to the Bargain.
c.1731		Merry-Thought II 13: [on a tavern wall] Wer’t not for Whims, Candles, and Carrots, Young Fellows Things might ride in Chariots [...] Thank Heaven for all those Helps to Nature, Or else poor P– could get no Quarter.
1740		‘Roger Pheuquewell’ Description of Merryland (1741) 25: Carrots are no Strangers to this Soil, but are much used.
1834		‘The Buttered Carrot’ in Flash Minstrel! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) I 97: Hd munch’d it up quickly, and thus he did say— / ‘What a sin ’tis to throw butter’d carrots away’ .
1837		‘The Vicked Costermonger’ in Flash Olio in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 189: I’ll sarve you vith carrots and turnips gratis!
1849		Paul Pry 16 Apr. 3/3: Paul Advises [...] F. P—ll [...] when he walks out with that kitchen girl, not to talk such nonsense as ‘Carrots are very nice!’.
1975		H. Ellison ‘The Whimper of Whipped Dogs’ in Deathbird Stories (1978) 28: No Amherst intellectuals begging you to save them from creeping faggotry by permitting them to stick their carrots in your sticky little slit?
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 191: Thus the mouse goes into the mousehole, the carrot is used to tempt the cunny-warren, the kennel-raker rakes the kennel.
1983		R. Price Breaks 335: There I was in this bathroom with my cancerous carrot hanging out.

2. a large bundle of tobacco.

1772		D. Taitt in Travels Amer. Col. 537: Others took the cock off his riffle and Sixteen carrots of Tobacco [DA].
1812		A. Stoddard Sketches of Louisiana 227: Carottes of tobacco are still made by the French of Missouri and Louisiana. The leaves, after the large stem has been removed, are laid together lengthwise and compressed; then the bundle is covered with a cloth and tightly wrapped from end to end with a cord, making the tobacco into an almost solid mass from twelve to eighteen inches long and tapering almost to a point at each end [DA].
1857		Illinois Agricultural Society Transcripts II 360: The Creoles manufactured the tobacco into carrots, as they were called. A carrot is a roll of tobacco twelve or fifteen inches long [DA].
1890		Congressional Record 27 Aug. 9213/2: I have here some carots [sic] of Cuban tobacco [DA].
1941		J.F. McDermott Gloss. of Mississippi Valley French 43: carotte, n.f. Leaves of tobacco twisted or rolled into the shape of a carrot — the common form in which tobacco was stored and sold in the Mississippi Valley [DA].

3. (drugs) a very large cannabis cigarette packed to the brim and generally the size of an average garden carrot [note the Camberwell carrot, an extra-large cannabis cigarette, coined in the film Withnail & I (1986)].

1986		B. Robinson Withnail and I [film script] Danny: The joint I am about to roll requires a craftsman and can utilize up to twelve spliffs. It is called a Camberwell carrot. Marwood: It’s impossible to use 12 papers on one joint. Danny: It is impossible to roll a Camberwell carrot with anything less.
2001		Guardian G2 13 June 10: Most Paulines I knew would have assumed a Camberwell carrot was a vegetable grown in south London.

In compounds

carrot bed (n.) [plays on sense 1 + carrots n. (1)]

a red-headed girl’s vagina .

c.1786

Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Carrot bed. a red haired girls Commodity.

In phrases

cuff a/the carrot (v.)

1. (US gay/prison) to fellate.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 156: Prison fellation is [...] cuffing a carrot.

2. to masturbate.

2003

Number One Adult Sexual Health Terms Advisor 🌐 Masturbation Slang Male Terms: [...] cuff the carrot.

does your bunny like carrots?

a coarse comment made by a man to a passing woman.

1986

(ref. to 1915–16) in Partridge Dict. Catch Phrases 102: does your bunny like carrots? ‘[Heard in] 1915-16 and no doubt existing earlier. Street boys to girls, jocular familiarity, with sexual symbolism.’.

In exclamations

take a carrot! [the potential of a carrot as a dildo. Note naut. jargon carrots! go away!; note correspondence from John Geipel (7/6/2000): ‘Partridge records the Victorian expression: “Take a carrot” (piss off), which may stem from the Romani root kar. The word corey (penis) is certainly known to English Romanies, (even the decorous George Borrow listed it in the two senses, “thorn” and “membrum virile”) and John Sampson recorded such derivatives as koriakeri (“prick-hungry”) applied to a lustful woman by one tribe of Welsh Gypsies’]

an insulting excl., usu. used to women.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 74: The Boshman, [...] secretly tells them to ‘take a carrot’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

carrot-chewer (n.)

(Aus.) a countryman, a peasant.

1901

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 28 Aug. 1/5: The Corowa carrot-chewers were betting like Benzons.

carrot-cruncher (n.) [the equation of root vegetables and country-dwellers]

a countryman, a peasant, esp. a visitor to London from the provinces and the countryside.

1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 58: They looked like provincials up in town for a day’s shopping, real carrot-crunchers.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Healthy Competition’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Who wanted to go out to the sticks and flog ’em to the carrot crunchers?
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 72: The old bill round there are, compared to the Met, a bit of a joke, carrot crunchers.
2004		(con. 1990s) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 351: The ‘carrot-crunchers’, which is what we called the locals.

carrothead (n.)

(US) a red-headed person.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 2 July n.p.: the whip wants to know Who those young ladies are that were walking with the carot head [sic].
1867		B. Harte Sketches of Sixties 110: You here yet – Carrothead.
1870		Tiffin Trib. (OH) 28 Jan. 4/1: Get up, you little carrot-head!
1899		H. Lawson ‘Pigeon Toes’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 377: The children call me ‘Pigeon Toes’, / ‘Green Eyes’ and ‘Carrot Head’.
1902		Nat. Trib. (DEC) 15 May 4/4: I luv u heaps and slathers bettern he does that carrot-head.
1914		Wash. Times (DC) 22 Mar. 18/1: [headline] World Bows to ‘Carrot-Heads’ of Childhood Days.
1960		L. Ferlinghetti Her 101: I see only a woman with a carrot head leaning out and beckoning me.
1971		P. Callow Yours 46: Mike, a carrot-head, even younger than me, lifted his head and stood watching the fun.
1986		E.C. Smith American Surnames 151: The strength of nicknames for the red-haired person is illustrated by the many slang terms which are easily understood such as brick top, carrot head, hot top, hot head, ginger top [etc.].
1991		B. Quinn Smokey Hollow 99: A tough-looking man with [...] close-cropped red hair which earned him the nickname carrot-head.
2000		J. Baker Chinese Girl (2001) 161: We can’t move on carrot-head or Shooter at the moment.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 46: A tall husky carrothead, his long frizzy hair pulled back in a bushy ponyail .

carrot-headed (adj.) (also carrot-haired, carrot-thatched, carroty-haired, carroty-headed, carrotty-headed)

(US) having red hair.

1845		Sunbury American 11 Oct. 4/1: The little hump-backed, freckled face, bow-legged, carrot-headed upstart.
1859		F. Cozzens q. in Brown Tartan to Tartanry (2010) 76: I have a reasonable amount of respect for a Highlandman in full costume; but for a carrot-headed, freckled, high-cheeked animal, in a round hat and breeches, that cannot utter a word of English, I have no sympathy.
1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 331: Any other carroty-haired, ’possum-headed, forty acre, post and rail son of a seacook.
1875		Wheeling Dly Intelligencer (VA) 5 Nov. 1/4: A carrot-headed Mephistopheles in appearance.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple I 251: His burning desire to take the carroty-headed scoundrel by the scruff of the neck.
1878		F.H. Hart Sazerac Lying Club 185: Her husband, that carrotty-headed old cat.
1884		R.C. Hartranft Journal of Solomon Sidesplitter 196: What carrot-headed, ugly little urchin is that, madam?
1886		S. Watson Wops the Waif 2/2: Just yer try it on, yer carrotty-headed billy goat.
1898		E. Pugh Tony Drum 42: My sister’s a carroty-headed gal.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 196: Mr Urquhart, a jolly, carroty-haired man.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 97: I see a carrot-headed, bull-necked assassin, with hair on his chest so thick I thought at first he was wearing a red sweater.
1928		Derby Dly Teleg. 31 July 7/2: Somebody once said people with red hair were lucky [...] I say the carroty one always comes to the top.
1942		R.L. Bellem ‘Daughter of Murder’ Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 I tensed as the carrot-thatched cupcake staggered out over the threshold.
1954		J.E. Macdonnell Jim Brady 243: You sawn-off carrot-headed squirt.
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 243: This carroty-headed woman.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 374: He was a lanky carrot-headed rugged-looking extrovert bloke.
1974		P. Adam-Smith Barcoo Salute 82: The ‘carrot-haired fairy’ [...] an infamous dame, and the white women who came up from the cities.
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 69: [A] carrot-haired young man in a boxy suit.

carrot-pate (n.)

a red-headed person.

[1654		Citie Matrons 5: I catch’d up a parson (with a carret-beard)].
1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 241: Continence [...] Should be so constant and so great, / Which rare is in a Carrot-pate.
1755		W. Hay Select Epigrams of Martial VI 77: Two girls with raven and with carrot pate.

carrot-pated (adj.) (also carotty-pated, carroty-pated, carrot-powed)

having red hair.

1663		Wandring Whores Complaint 4: The other night I met with a Carrot-pated Cull.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk IV 274: All the men and women, and children [...] are like your carrot-pated Poictevins, who are a boorish sort of people.
1703		T. Baker Tunbridge Walks V i: Jenny Trapes — What that Carrotpated Jade.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 323: Each little Fop the Town has newly made, / Would Cry, Confound the Carrot Pated Jade.
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) I 64: He pray’d, and in a minute strait, / The carrot-pated God took flight.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 2: The God with carrot-pated locks / Amongst them sent both plague and pox.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Carroty pated, ginger hackled, red haired.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 9: In dreadful ire, / The carrot-pated god took fire.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812		J. Bell Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 46: The hat was worn by carrot-pow’d Jenny’s Jacky-o.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 27: A hanger-on to bracket-faced, carotty-pated, gravy-eyed ape-leaders.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1826		Vulgarities of Speech Corrected.

carrot-polled (adj.) (also carroty-poled) [poll n.¹ (1)]

having red hair.

1833		P. Pry Reminiscences, Mishaps and Observations 17: There was carroty-poled, lantern-jawed Irishman amongst them.
1989		J. Hibberd Memoirs of an Old Bastard 131: He’d taken quite a liking to the seven carrot-polled boys.

carrot-top (n.)

a red-headed person; also as a nickname.

1889		P. Cox Frontier Humor 56: What! Him what the boys in Gosport used to call Carrot-Top Jim?
1896		Record Union (CA) 21 Dec. 7/1: He was known familiarly as ‘Rufus,’ ‘Red-Head,’ ‘Carrot-Top’.
1907		J.W. Carr ‘Word-List from Hampstead, N.H.’ in DN III iii 183: carrot-top, n. A person with bright red hair.
1915		Wash. Times (DC) 10 Dec. 13/1: The small carrot-top of a girl.
1924		C.E. Mulford Hopalong Cassidy Returns 13: Ain’t no use bitin’ me, Carrot-Top!
1935		E. Pound letter 17 Apr. in Paige (1971) 273: Redhead [...] carrot-top, sorrel-top, reddy.
1935		M. Fulcher ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 25 May 5/1: Bricktop Wright and Bricktop Smith were so nick-named because their craniums are hard and not carrot-tops as you were led to believe.
1942		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 27 Nov. 8/5: ‘It was nothing much,’ the 21-year-old carrot-top from Mississippi explained away his wound.
1956		H. Ellison ‘Made in Heaven’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 181: You still soft over that carrot-top?
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 190: Red heads attract a barrage of nicknames: [...] carrots, carrot-top.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1978		T. Davies More Aus. Nicknames 37: Carrot Top Has red hair, of course.
1989		A. Ahlberg Heard it in the Playground (1991) 100: Slap head! / Four eyes! / Carrot top!
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 93: George and Carrot-Top, you boys get to hoppin’.
2011		Independent 12 May 8/2: The venerable carrot-top joined the Telegraph in 1986.

carrot-topped (adj.)

having red hair.

1884		Northern Trib. (Cheboygan, MI) 13 Nov. 9/3: A small specimen of carrot-topped humanity.
1890		Wichita Dly Eagle (KS) 14 Dec. 4/2: The president [...] is a member of [...] the same church as our carrot-topped friend.
1909		Ranch (Seattle, WA) 1 Dec. 8/2: ‘I know,’ sung out a carrot-topped youth.
1917		N.Y. Tribune 9 Sept. 35/4: The most comical soldier boy in all the world: pale and wan but broadly grinning, short and carrot-topped.
1922		N.Y. Tribune 29 Nov. 14/6: ‘Red’ Lucas from Nashville [...] Larry Doyle is responsible for the carrot-topped member of the Lucas tribe.
1934		Central Qld Herald (Rockhampton, Qld) 26 July 12/2: Blue [...] chated [sic] with the Carrot top bar maid.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 96: I called her a carrot-topped Jezebel.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 160: Grizzled, carrot-topped Big Ralph heaved himelf from the truck.
1994		J, Wambaugh Finnegan’s Week 135: Her baby was going to look like her carrot-top husband.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 172: Guy and Wheezer had a good feeling about the carrot-topped nutter.
2004		T. Winton ‘Abbreviation’ in Turning (2005) 20: The carrot-top cousins squealed for a ride in the boat.