Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK und.) an act of shoplifiting by a prostitute.

1663

Wandring-Whores Complaint 3: Ruth. [I] went to a Linnen-Drapers and cheapned several sorts of Linnen [...] sometimes the shop-lift helps me, when the Buttock and Fyle fails me. Bawd. [...] I know you’r as good at the Fyle as Isbel, I and the Buttock too.

2. (UK und.) a prostitute who doubles as a pickpocket, usu. with the help of her man.

1683		XV Comforts of Marriage 115: He turns Pad, and she Buttock and File (that is Highway-Man and Pick-Pocket-Whore ... according to the Canting of the Roguish Crew).
[1696		Motteux (trans.) Pantagruelian Prognostications (1927) II 694: Pickpockets, divers, buttocking foils, thieves].
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: A Buttock and File, c. both Whore and Pickpocket Buttock and File.
1701		N. Ward ‘A Walk to Islington’ in Writings (1704) 76: Buttocks and Files, House-Breakers and Padders, / With Prize-Fighters, Sweetners, and such sort of Traders.
1703		Hell Upon Earth 3: The Buttock and File, that is, such as go abroad in a good borrow’d Habit, with a pretended Maid, who catching some senseless Woodcock in their wheedling Snare, bring him home, where, after a good Treat for Buttocking, they retaliate his Favour, by diving into his Breeches for the remainder of his Cash.
1718		C. Hitchin Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers 12: As for the Buttocks, they will turn Files, alias Night-walking Pickpockets.
1725		J. Sheppard Sheppard in Egypt 26: Their Places were sufficiently supplied with the Buttucks and Files of the Hundreds.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1743		Fielding Life of Jonathan Wild (1784) I 117: The same capacity which qualifies a Mill-ken, a Bridle-cull, or a Buttock and File, to arrrive at any degree of eminence in his profession, would likewise raise a man in what the world esteem a more honourable calling.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle ii in Groom (1999) xxviii: A Buttock and File A Pick-pocket Whore.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 5: Buttock-and-File n. A shoplifter.
1897		C. Whibley ‘Jonathan Wild’ A Book of Scoundrels 79: He lived on terms of intimacy with the mill-kens, the bridle-culls, the buttock-and-files of London.

a shrewish woman.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

1. a prostitute who does not double as a pickpocket.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Buttock and twang or a downright buttock and sham file, c. a Common Whore but no Pickpocket.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Buttock and twang, or a down buttock and sham file, a common whore but no pickpocket.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. a robbery executed by a prostitute who lures a customer, picked up in a tavern, into a dark alley where she picks his pocket and her male accomplice knocks down the victim so that both can escape.

1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 7: Buttock and Twang, Which is walking to be pick’d up, and frightning him that does it with her pretended Husband, after she has pick’d his Pocket, so that the Fool runs gladly away without his Watch or Money.
1714		A. Smith Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 165: She [went] upon the Buttock and Twang by Night; which is picking up a Cull, Cully, or Spark, and pretending not to expose her Face in a Public House, she takes him into some dark Alley, so whilst the decoy’d Fool is groping her with his Breeches down, she picks his Fob or Pocket, of his Watch or Money, and a giving a sort of a Hem as a signal she has succeeded in her Design, then the fellow with whom she keeps Company, he knocks down the gallant, and carries off the Prize.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c 365: She marry’d one Humphry Jackson, a Butcher, who was taught to leave off his Trade and go upon the Pad [...] while she went upon the Buttock and Twang.

see separate entry.

working as a prostitute.

1555

Fardle Facions II viii 167: Whiche [wiues] maie neuertheless vse buttocke banquetyng abrode [F&H].

a brothel-keeper.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: buttock broker, (cant) a bawd, or match-maker.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

see under dance v.

see under down adv.²

to have sexual intercourse.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 111: epousseter. To copulate; ‘to go buttock-stirring’.

an Irish wager, a rump of beef and a dozen of claret.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 166/2: late C.18–mid-19.

a caning or thrashing at school.

1700

N. Ward ‘The Dancing-School’ in Writings (1704) 223: When School-Boys do plead their old Charter of Omnia Bene, in Opposition to the Tyrannical Injunction of Buttock Penance, Inflicted according to the Arbitrary Wills of those Grammarian Monarchs.