Green’s Dictionary of Slang

play (at)... v.

a phr. used in various combs. as synons. for having sexual intercourse, e.g. play at brangle, ...bouncy-bouncy, ...buttock, ...hot cockles, ...leapfrog, ...mumble-peg, ...prick the garter, ...pully-hauly, ...put in all, ...stable my naggie, ...thread the needle, ...tops and bottoms, ...top sawyer, ...where the Jack takes Ace, ...pyrdewy; see also below and at individual nouns for more phrs.

[UK]Hickscorner Aiv: Syr she wynked on me and sayd nought But by her loke I knewe her thought Than in to loues daunce we were brought That we played the pyrdewy .
M. Drayton Nymphal I in Chalmers IV (1810) 447/1: The nymphs that near this place Disposed were to play At barley-break.
[UK]Jonson Cynthia’s Revels II i: cupid: O, that’s my lady and mistress, madam Philautia [...] she can dance, and she knows that too; play at shuttle-cock, and that too.
[UK]Shakespeare London Prodigal G3: Ha, sister, there you playd bo-peepe with Tom.
[UK]Rowlands Humours Ordinarie G2: I dare chalenge thee to [...] play [...] at hot-cockles, leape-frogge, or blindman buffe.
[UK]Massinger Bondman II ii: Some great women [...] Rather than be idle, haue been glad to play At small game.
[UK]Mercurius Fumigosus 28 6–13 Dec. 236: Her Husband plaid at Clicketts with a merry Wagg-tayle of the Town.
[UK]Mercurius Fumigosus 43 21–28 Mar. 339: But if their Husbands give them leave to play / At Bob-in-joe, pray who shall say them nay.
[UK]Mercurius Fumigosus 68 5-12 Sept. 3: Her Husband in a suspicious rage [...] found her at cuddle me cuddle with a young Gallant, he being with the Instrument of Generation fathoming the well.
[UK] ‘When as I doe reccord’ in Furnivall & Hales Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript of Loose and Humorous Songs (1868) 68: Ffull oft shee & I / within the buttery playd / att tray trippee of a dye.
T. Duffet Armenian Queen Prologue: In some close shade, where he has often plaid At Post and Pair with some fresh Country Maid.
[UK]J. Lacy Sir Hercules Buffoon III ii: fi.: Thou mun play at Rumpscuttle and Clapperdepouch with me, my Honey .
[UK]‘Nickydemus Ninnyhammer’ Homer in a nut-shell 22: Jove could not slumber after sporting: / Not that his Mind was set agog / To play the whole Night at Leap-frog.
[UK]H. Howard Choice Spirits Museum 61: Alas! he could not play at Venus’ Game.
[UK]Rambler’s Mag. Mar. 115/2: A thought full of guuile in Strephon did creep, / Whilst he hinted to Bella the game of Bo-peep / [...] / She ne’er in her life-time had play’d at Bo-peep.
[UK]Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 20: Set popes and cardinals agog, / To play with pages at leapfrog.
[UK] ‘L.A.W.—LAW!’ London Songster 14: The judge [...] advises you not to make breaches / In L.A.W.—Law. / Nor play the game of see-saw / With meat for another man’s maw.
[UK]D. Carey Life in Paris 275: Do you like to sit alone while my master and your mistress are playing at romps up stairs?
[US]Venus’ Miscellany (NY) 31 Jan. n.p.: I assure you, I liked the game of ‘leap frog’ much [...] Yours, Kitty Playcock.
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 111: Épouser. To copulate; ‘to stable my naggie’ [Ibid.] 130: Festoyer. To copulate; ‘to play’ [Ibid.] 199: Opération, f. The act of kind; ‘the game of prick the garter’. [Ibid.] 232: Régaler. To copulate; ‘to play at tops-and-bottoms’.
[UK](con. 1940s) G. Morrill Dark Sea Running 212: You’ve been playing grab-ass with the Legion wives.
[US]K. Brasselle Cannibals 79: I told you Chili won’t play tangletoes with friends.
[US]‘Sybah Darrich’ [Richard Ashby] Love on a Trampoline 117: ‘Seems a nice lookin’ hunk like you would like to play a little all-smocks-up’.
[US]Maledicta IV:2 Winter 196: The terms used for copulating […] are not really euphemistic because it is implicit that no ambiguity could possibly result and, unlike euphemisms, they are, or used to be, avoided in polite, mixed company. Related to this group are the allusive [...] play rub-belly.
‘Chelsea G. Summers’ in Hazlitt.net 8 Jan. 🌐 Let me put it this way: if you told your bae your wick was lit and you wanted to play at rumpscuttle and clapperdepouch, she would be in the dark.

In phrases

play a game single-hand (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[Scot]Dunbar ‘The Wowing of the King in Dunfermeling’ in Mackenzie Poems (1932) 52: And with hir playit, and maid gud game, Syne till his breist did hir imbrace, And wald haif riddin hir lyk ane rame.
[UK] in ‘Hurlothrumbo’ Bog-house Misc. 27: Salley Stukely is the prettiest Girl in England, / I wish I was to play a Game with her single-hand.
play a mouth organ (v.) (also play a piccolo)

(US) to perform oral sex.

[US]Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
[US]D. Lypchuk ‘A dirty little story’ in eye mag. 8 July 🌐 It looked like a real toothache, so she gave him a bit of punishment, playing the piccolo like a real Peter Puffer until she received Holy Communion.
play at all fours (v.) [note Cotton’s description in The Compleat Gamester (1674): ‘This game [...] is called All-Fours from Highest, Lowest, Jack and Game’, all of which terms can be taken as double entendres; thus n. game at all fours (see cite c.1850)]

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK] ‘Mistery Discovered’ in Chappell Roxburghe Ballads (1874) II 352: Fair Susan [...] At put Inn and Inn, or All-Fours, she’l play for what Bett you’d be naming.
[UK]C. Cotton Erotopolis 109: They had in these Academies other sorts of Games [...] as In and In, and All Fours.
[UK] ‘The Wenching Tanner’ Pepys Ballads (1987) V 252: My Dame and I fell to All-fours.
[UK] ‘The Old Mans Wish’ Pepys Ballads (1987) V 186: To play with my Mistress ... at All Fours, and t’other Thing too.
[UK]N. Ward London Spy I6 2: Each Tippling-House kept Open Doors, / At Midnight for Sots, Rogues and Whores, / To Curse and Wrangle at All-Fours.
[UK] ‘The Barnard Castle Tragedy’ in Chappell Roxburghe Ballads (1880) III 797: At all Four’s she’d play, as many people know; / A fairer Gamster no Man could ever show.
[UK]W. Toldervy Hist. of the Two Orphans III 166: Don’t you haul in my time by your tales of all-fours.
[Ind]Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 4-11 Aug. n.p.: Play at all fours and put, that being the favorite Game here — sweet little Miss!
Rambler’s Mag. May 180/2: You amused yourselves all last night upon All Fours [...] You even brag that you have not been in bed, nor played one game at My Lady’s Hole.
[UK]‘A Game at All Fours’ in Convivialist in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 20: My Lady an excellent supper devours, / Then teazes her spouse for a game at All Fours.
[UK]‘The Female Gamester’ in Facetious Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 271: Games at all fours, she beat me scores, / So well she knows the pack.
[US]Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 21 May n.p.: [of a brothel] Why ain’t that ‘all fours’ concern turned out? It’s shocking.
Frolicsome Widow [broadside ballad] What game is it madam you’re willing to play, / She immediately answered and told him the score / The game that I choose is that of all-fours.
[UK]Peeping Tom (London) 36 : .
[UK] ‘The Frankfort Affair’ Rakish Rhymer (1917) 68: So they toddled to bed with an amorous flame, / He play’d at all-fours, and got High, Low(e), and Game.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 71: Combat, m. The act of kind; ‘to play at all fours’.
play at belly-to-belly (v.) (also turn belly to belly)

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Nashe Have With You to Saffron-Walden in Works III (1883–4) 191: I will not present into the Arches, or Commissaries Court, what prinkum prankums Gentlemen (his nere neighbors) haue whispred to me of his Sister, and how shee is as good a fellow as euer turnd belly to belly.
[UK]Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I 86: There he played [...] at belly to belly.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS 30/2: belly to belly In the act of sexual intercourse.
play at blindman’s buff (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Rowlands Humours Ordinarie G2: I dare chalenge thee to [...] play [...] at [...] blindman buffe.
‘When Phebus addrest’ n.p.: The youth was rough, he tooke up her stuffe, & to blindmans buffe they did goe.
play at bo-peep (v.) [SE bo-peep, a nursery game in which one amuses a child by hiding (usu. the face), revealing, then repeating the process]

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Nashe Praise of the Red Herring 42: And what will not blinde Cupid doe in the night which is his blindmans holiday?
[UK] ‘Wully & Georgy’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 123: Out of London Town they aw did trip it, / Down to play at new bopeep at Tumbridge Well.
play at cherry pit (v.) [SE cherry pit, the chewy stone]

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Shakespeare Twelfth Night III iv: Aye, Biddy, come with me. What, man! ’tis not for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan: hang him, foul collier!
[UK]J. Day Ile of Guls VI i: She and I would haue about at cob-nut or at cherry-pit.
[UK]Rowley, Dekker & Ford Witch of Edmonton III i: I have lov’d a Witch ever since I play’d at Cherry-pit.
[UK]Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 87: There he played [...] at cherry pit.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
play at couch quail (v.)

to have sexual intercourse .

[UK]Skelton Speke Parott line 412: To jumbyll, to stombyll, to tumbyll down lyke folys; [...] and to play at cowche-quale.
[UK]Thersytes (1550) Epilogue: Of me ye shall heare tell Howe I haue made the knaues for to play couch-quaile.
play at couple your navels (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues III 207: To play at [...] couple-your-navels; cuddle-my-cuddie (Durfey).
play (at) cuddle my cuddie (v.) [SE cuddle + dial. cuddy, a woman]

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Wandring Whore IV 9: [refers to a tune] Thats she that says she has a fiddle in her arse, which caused an old Lawyer to give her six pounds to sing and play the tune called Cuddle me Cuddy, and hath had as many P- in her C- then hairs upon it.
[UK] ‘The Power of Women’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy I 42: From whence do you think he derived his Study [...] Twas playing with her – at Cuddle my Cuddy.
[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy III 28: Playing with her at Cuddle my cuddy.
play (at) fathers and mothers (v.) (also play (at) dads and mums, ...doctor, ...doctors and nurses, ...mothers and fathers, ...mummies and daddies) [the adult version of children’s sex games, the main one being playing doctors and nurses]

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) II 304: Lass we’ll have a game at mother and father.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
‘Lord & Marshall’ So Willing 30: Maybe some of the guys would be all excited at the prospect of playing doctor with a pretty girl, but he’d been around long enough to want more.
[Aus](con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 54: ‘Now, Mr Forpe [...] You wanna play doctors or somefing?’.
[UK]Guardian Guide 20–26 Nov. 52: Charlie and Max have both been overcome by the desire to play doctors and nurses.
[UK] (ref. to 1960s) in Baker & Stanley Hello Sailor! 109: The other apprentice wanted to ‘play doctors and nurses’ with Alan.
play at handie dandie (v.) [Scot./SE handie-dandy, a children’s game based on the rapid moving of an object from one hand to another, then back]

(Scot.) to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
play at hooper’s hide (v.) (also play at hoop and hide) [SE hooper’s hide, hide-and-seek]

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK] in D’Urfey ‘The Winchester Wedding’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 209: The while that his Wife with Willy, / Was playing at Hoopers-Hide.
[UK]N. Ward London Spy V 108: A parcel of Wenches fit for Husbands, playing at Hoop and Hide among the Pillars.
[UK]‘Ravishing Fifty Maids’ in Fanny Hill’s New Friskey Chanterr in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 349: [as 1684].
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
play at houghmagandie (v.) [SE/Scot. hough = hock = back of the knee + Scot. canty, cheerful, active]

to have sexual intercourse.

[Scot] Burns ‘There Was Twa Wives’ Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 70: There was twa wives, and twa witty wives, / As e’er played houghmagandie.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[UK]K. Bonfiglioli letter in Bonfiglioli Mortdecai ABC (2001) 377: Contrary to popular belief, i do not spend my days basking in the sun [...] playing houghmagandy with amoral colleens.
play (at) in and in (v.) (also throw in and in) [Nares, Glossary (1822): ‘in-and-in. A gambling game, played by three persons with four dice, each person having a box. It was the common diversion at ordinaries, and places of inferior resort [...] it appears that in was, when there was a doublet, or two dice alike out of the four; in and in when there were either two doublets, or all four dice alike, which swept the stake’]

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK] ‘Old Simon the Kinge’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 4: Soe fellowes, if you be drunke, / of ffrailtye itt is a sinne, / as itt is to keepe a puncke, / or play att in and in.
[UK] ‘The New Exchange’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 4: Here’s dice and boxes, if you please / To play at in and in [...] & if you like such thundering spourt, / Here is my ladyes hole.
[UK]Fletcher Chances I iv: Sure he has encountred Some light o’ Love or other, and there means To play at in and in for this Night.
[UK]J. Taylor Crabtree Lectures 106: If I should now offer to play at In and In, wee should next day see you upon the Pillery .
[UK]Parliament of Women B4: Mistris Dorcas Doe-little [...] saith she, my husband is a Gamester and [...] when he with his Sweet-hearts ventures his state at the Hole, I with his servant can passe away the time at In and In .
[UK]Mercurius Fumigosus 34 17–24 Jan. 270: He [...] so trappan’d his honest Wife, and her supposed Cosin. Which now must suffer for their fun, / For playing false at In and In.
Jack Adams, his perpetual almanack 19: The seventh house giveth judgment of marriages, Wives, quarrels, love [...] when to play at In and In.
[UK]Fumblers-Hall 17: You that play and never win / At the Game of In and In.
[UK]C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 196: What, with some Goddess he’d have bin / Playing, belike, at In-and-In, / And would be at the Rutting-sport?
[UK]C. Cotton Erotopolis 109: They had in these Academies other sorts of Games [...] as In and In.
[UK]Pagan Prince 15: They might the better be able to play at In, and In.
[UK] ‘Cuckolds All’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 78: Their Wives may play at In and In.
[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy III 144: So Fellows if you’ll be drunk, / Of frailty it is a sin, / Or for to keep a punk, / Or play at In and In.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 74: Conférer. To copulate; ‘to play at in-and-in’.
play at in and out (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK] ‘Walking in a Meadow Green’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 14: Then stifly thrust, he hit me just, / ffeare not, but freely spend it, / & play about at in & out; / once more, & none can mend it.
[UK] ballad in Wardroper (1969) 180: Then stiffly thrust and hit me just. / Fear not, but freely spend it / And play about at in and out / Once more, and none can mend it.
[UK]‘The Maiden’s Surprise’ in Libertine’s Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) I 129: Among the rest a ploughman gay, / For her was in an amorous way, / In and out, round about, doodle doo.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
play (at) level-coil (v.) [SE level-coil, any form of rough game, spec. that once played at Christmas (an embryo form of musical chairs) in which each player is in turn driven from their seat and replaced by another; Fr. (faire) lever la cul (à quelqu’un), to make someone raise their buttocks, properly ‘arse’; also found in Ital. as levaculo]

to have sexual intercourse; also as n. level-coil, sexual intercourse.

[UK]Florio Worlde of Wordes n.p.: Giocar’ a leua culo, to play at leuell coile or itch buttock.
[UK]R. Brome Mad Couple II i: How easie a worke / ’Twere for one woman to supply ’em both, / And hold her husband play to levell Acoile, / A wooden two-leav’d booke, a paire of Tables / Would do’t.
[UK]J. Wilson Cheats IV ii: I made her confess that the Alderman and one Bilboe play level de coile with her.
[UK] ballad in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 12: She swives like a stoat, / Goes to’t leg and foot, / Level coil with a prince and a player.
[UK] ‘The Bathing Girles’ in Ebsworth Westminster Drolleries (1875) II 103: Then each at other did make a pass at kissing then, And round it went to every one level coile.
[UK] ballad in British Museum Additional Mss 34362.18: [She] Goes to’t Leg & foot Level coyle w’h a Prince & a Player.
play at potfinger (v.) [one sticks one’s finger in her ‘pot’/pot n.1 (1); the vagina sense is slightly later, but the generic pot, a woman, fits the chronology]

to stimulate the vagina with the fingers.

[UK]Arden of Feversham line 1768: Didst thou ever see better weather to runne away with another man’s wife, or play with a wenche at pot-finger?
play at push-pin (v.) (also play at push-a-pike, ...put-pin) [push v. (1) + pin n. (1a); + pun on children’s game push-pin or put-pin, in which each player pushes or fillips their pin with the object of crossing that of another player]

to have sexual intercourse; thus game of push-pin n., sexual intercourse.

[UK]Misogonus in Farmer (1906) IV iii: If there be any gentleman, [Or any] gentlewoman [...] That can play at put pin.
R. Middleton Epigrams 13: At cards and dice Puria could neuer win, / Therefore she loues no game but blunt pushpin.
[UK]Fletcher Women Pleased II iii: No lesse sport serve ye, Then the Heire to a Dukedom? play at push-pin there Sir?
[UK]Middleton & Rowley The Changeling I ii: Ay, play at push-pin, cousin, ha, ha!
[UK]Massinger Duke of Milan III ii: This wanton at dead midnight, Was found at the exercise behind the Arras, With the ’foresaid Signoir [...] she would neuer tell Who play’d at push-pin with her.
[UK]N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus II:7 10: When at push-a-pike we play With beauty, who shall win the day?
[UK]Swift Gulliver Decypher’d 33: Some argue [...] why may not Prelates play at Push-pin.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 337: He one evening with the maid / A game at pushpin had begun.
[Scot] ‘Miss Sutherland’ Ranger’s Impartial List of the Ladies of Pleasure in Edinburgh n.p.: She is a firm votary to the wanton Goddess, and would willingly play morning, noon, and night, at the delicious game of push-pin.
[UK]‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Royal Visit to Exeter’ Works (1801) V 107: The King no notice tuke, ’tis zaid, But, leek a pisky, laugh’d and play’d To push-pin wey the Queen.
[UK]‘A Game at All Fours’ in Convivialist in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 20: John and Susan below, get at push-pin for love.
[UK] ‘The Winchester Wedding’ Cockchafer 42: They found them both down on the floor, / Having a game at push-pin!
[UK]‘Bound for india’ in Cabinet of Venus 99: I now played the royal game of push-pin in earnest and she joined me heart and soul.
play at shuttlecock (v.) [pun on the SE ‘game’ and shuttle n. (1)]

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Satirist (London) 25 Sept. 197/3: The Doctor plays with Lady B. / At trap—and ball with Countess C.; / At shuttlecock with Mrs. A., / And rubbers short with dear Miss E.
play at the close-buttock game (v.) (also play at the brangle-buttock game)

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 11: Honest widows may without danger play at the close buttock game with might and main. [Ibid.] I Bk II 249: The women there take great delight in playing the close-buttock game. [Ibid.] 357: You and I had one merry bout together, at the brangle-buttock game.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US]E. Field ‘A French Crisis’ Facetiae Americana 18: No prurient dame [...] Could be compared with Limousin at this close-buttock game.
play at tric-trac (v.) [Fr. tric-trac, a variation on backgammon]

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Bacchanalian Mag. 75: What maiden her love could be spurning — / Tho’ he at tric-trac will play.
play (at) two-handed put (v.) [pun on put = Fr. putain, prostitute]

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK] ‘Gee Ho, Dobbin’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 203: I rumpl’d her Feathers, and tickl’d her scutt, And played the round Rubber at two-handed Put .
[UK]‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow [as 1730].
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 239: Sabouler. To copulate; ‘to play at two-handed put’.

In phrases

play carnival (v.) [‘guess-my-weight’ competitions were a fairground attraction]

of a woman, to position one’s vagina directly above one’s partner’s mouth, either literally sitting or squatting above their face, in order to facilitate cunnilingus.

[US](con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 66: ‘You know how to play carnival?’ ‘I don’t know that one, no.’ ‘I sit on your face and you try to guess my weight.’.
[US](con. 1968) W.E. Merritt Where the Rivers Ran Backward 48: I’d sure like to play carnival with her.
play checkers (v.) [the movements in checkers (UK: draughts)]

(US gay) to move from seat to seat in a cinema in search of a receptive sex partner.

[US]G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
[US]Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 7: checkers, play (v.): To move from seat to seat in a motion picture house in an effort to find a willing youth. A homosexual sits next to a likely ‘candidate’ and makes some verbal or physical overture or ‘pass’; if rejected, he moves to another seat, and so on.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
play chopsticks (v.) [joc. use of ‘Chopsticks’, a basic piece learnt by a novice piano-player]

(orig. gay) to indulge in mutual masturbation.

[US]G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
[US]Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 8: chopsticks, to play (v.): Mutual masturbation; not necessarily exclusively between homosexual boys. Derived from the ‘crossing of hands’ as in piano duets called ‘chopsticks’.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 116: mutual masturbation by two men. [...] playing chopsticks (’40s).
[US]Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 147: From them she might pick up and more to startle than identify with her sisters use words and expressions such as [...] play chopsticks (mutual masturbation, from the crossing of hands when playing Chopsticks on the piano).
[UK]Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 22: playing chopsticks v. A beginners’ duet. Engaging in mutual masturbation.
play fast and loose with a woman’s apron-strings (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Pennyless Parliament of Thread-bare Poets 38: And those, that play fast and loose with Women’s Apron-strings, may chance to make a journey for a Winchester pigeon.
[UK] ‘The Threading of the Needle’ Sportive Wit in Bold (1979) 157: O, that I durst but play at in-and-in / [...] Or fast-or-loose, I care not whether much.
[UK]Dryden Sir Martin Mar-all V i: They say the Women govern their Ladies and you govern us: So if you play fast and loose, not a Gallant will bribe us for our Good-wills.
[UK]‘Phoebe Crackenthorpe’ Female Tatler (1992) (29) 71: Such articles [...] may be more binding on their sides that employ her than those of marriage would be on hers, had she any husband to play fast and loose with.
[UK]Spy on Mother Midnight III 12: [T]hat was indeed the case of father and grandfather, they could not dabble with a milk-maid, or speak kindly to my lady's woman, but straight the apron-strings were out of order, and a squalling bratt proclaimed their amours nine months after.
play hey gammer cook (v.) (also play gammer hi, hey gaffer cook, ...gammer cook, ...high gammer cook) [? dial. gammocks, wild play]

to have sexual intercourse; thus as n. hey gammer cook.

[UK]T. Duffet Mock-Tempest I i: [A] Trunk of Perfum’d Linnen which the Old Knight us’d to play hey Gamer Cook.
[UK]T. Duffet Psyche Debauch’d 74: King Andrew and his Queen at Hey-gammer-Cook in a Grotto of Innocence.
[UK]M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 72: Nor shou’d thou scape my Claws, tis I / Had got one Touch at G’ammar hi.
[UK]John the Glover, and Jane his Servant in Williams Dict. Sexual Lang. I 577: [They] strait-way [...] fell to their billing, to Hey Gaffer Cooks they went.
Burlesque of L’Estrange’s Quevedo 116: [Playing] at Gammer Cook i’th’ dark.
[UK]N. Ward Infallible Predictor in Writings II 350: [Inns of Court men] Study High-Gammer-Cooks Lessen, much more than they do Cook upon Littleton.
[UK]Whipping-Tom Rod For a Proud Lady Pt 2 11: Drinkers, who drinking a great deal of Sugar in their warm Water, [...] makes ’em so good humour’d, as not to deny their Sparks a Game at Gamar Cook, Gratis.
[UK] graffito in Merry-Thought (1731) I 18: If the Husband had come And had seen his Wife’s B—m, He’d a known by her Looks, She’d been playing-At Hoy Gammer Cooks.
[UK]Harlot’s Progress 28: A Lord / [...] / saw Moll at Play, and lik’d her Looks, / And long’d for — what?Hey Gammer Cooks?
[UK]C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 436: He being eager on the Game of High Gammer Cook.
play (a game of) hide the salami (v.) (also play hide the banana, ...cigar, ...the salam, ...sausage) [salami n./banana n. (2a)/sausage n. (3)]

(US) to have sexual intercourse.

[US](con. 1930s–40s) B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 108: Hobo slang (kwn ’30s & ’40s) The actual fucking of another man was called bunking up, jungling up (? fr sl jungle = hobo camp) or playing hide the sausage.
[US]P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 312: If I’d known she was giving it away free, I’d have played hide the banana with her myself.
[US](con. 1966) P. Conroy Lords of Discipline 222: I’d love to play hide the sausage with that hot madonna.
[US]Z-Link 30 Oct.–1 Nov. 🌐 Cheap drinks, cheap entertainment, cheap atmosphere – the perfect excuse to leave early and play hide-the-salami.
[US]S. King Roadwork in Bachman Books (1995) 44597: That’s when some stupid jock playing Friday night hippie plays hide the salami with you.
[US]M. Petit Peacekeepers 89: I know you want to get your wick dipped and play a little hide the sausage.
[US]‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 142: Did you write your famous opening line to the nerd, the sensitive suggestion, ‘Wanna play Hide the Salami?’.
[US](con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 294: [He] plays hide the salami with members of the canine persuasion.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Fall 4: jelly roll – have sex. Also Play hide the sausage.
[UK]M. Dibdin Thanksgiving 22: Next thing you’re squished up together playing hide the salami.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 101: hide/sink the salami/sausage/sausie/sav/soss/sossy Male intromission of the penis, or more generally, sexual intercourse, eg, ‘Fancy a bit of hide the sausage tonight, dear?’ ANZ later C20.
[Ire]Eve. Herald (Dublin) 7 June 22/5: Lover Boy finally admited to playing hide the cigar with Monica.
[US]D.D. Brazill ‘Lady and the Gimp’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] Penhaligon was sent down for playing hide the salami with an under-aged student.
[US]J. Dicker Harry Quebert Affair (2015) 27: It’s just your genius panicking, the same way your libido makes you go soft when you’re about to play hide-the-salami.
P. Wagner ‘5 Worst Things A Chick Says Late Night’ justdobetter.com 5 Feb. 🌐 ‘'Listen, going home and playing a little game of hide the salam does not make you “that kind of girl”’.
[US]J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 84: It’s not all fun and games and hide the salami’.
play hoop-snake with (v.)

(gay) for two homosexual men to indulge in mutual fellatio.

[US]G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
[US]Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 22: hoop snake (with), to play (v.): To indulge in mutual orogenitalism; from the mythical hoop snake which is said to have taken its tail in its mouth.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 182: to practice orogenitalism [...] play hoop snake [with somebody].
play Mr Wobbly hides his helmet (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[Aus]R.G. Barrett White Shoes 57: Some sort of pink satin knickers that almost sent Mr Wobbly into a tail spin [Ibid.] 58: Mr Wobbly swelled up and exploded inside DD like a hand grenade.
[UK]K. Lette Mad Cows 25: So, shall we play Mr Wobbly Hides His Helmet?
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Mystery Bay Blues 148: Mr Wobbly started climbing out of Norton’s Speedos, angier than ever.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Mystery Bay Blues 248: If Grace’s sweet lips had gone within cooee of Mr Wobbly it would have been a disaster. Instead Les spread Grace’s legs and slipped the angry little fellow into his favourite hiding place.
play night baseball (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[US]D. Lypchuk ‘A dirty little story’ in eye mag. 8 July 🌐 Nobody has ever asked me to engage in East African activities and I’ve never played night baseball before.
play solitaire (v.)

to masturbate.

[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 257: There was a young man from the Bronx / Who when offered a piece said, ‘No thonx.’ / He said, ‘I declare, / I prefer solitaire, / And all that I do is just yonx’.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
play the first game ever played (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 212: Toasts [...] The first game ever played at.
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 96: Divertissement, m. The act of kind; ‘the first game ever played’.
[UK]Binstead & Wells A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 272: Well, well, round goes the world; here’s to the first game ever played at!
play three to one (and sure to lose) (v.) [three, the penis and testes, and one, the vagina; what the man is sure to lose is semen]

of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Three to one. two Stones and a P—k against one C—t. he is laying [sic] three to one though sure to lose.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: He is playing three to one, though sure to lose; said of anyone engaged in the amorous congress.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
play tickle-tail (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[US]H. Miller Roofs of Paris (1983) 114: She wanted to play head-to-tail with Anna. [Ibid.] 196: Billie sees to it that you keep in line when you play tickle tail with her!
play tickle the pickle (v.)

(US) to have sexual intercourse.

[US]J. Thompson Pop. 1280 in Four Novels (1983) 479: You and Myra better stop playing tickle the pickle, boy.
play touchy-touchy (v.)

(US) to indulge in sexual fondling.

[US]‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 138: We had a few of those rip-off Limeaid tequila drinks [...] and played touchy-touchy with a couple bimbos.
play with oneself (v.)

to masturbate.

[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 273: There was an Archbishop of Rheims / Who played with himself in his dreams. / On his night-shirt in front / He painted a cunt, / Which made his spend gush forth in streams.
[US] in P. Smith Letter from My Father (1978) 61: Emma played with me and I played with her.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 526: You can apply your eye to the keyhole and play with yourself while I just go through her a few times.
[US]C. McCullers Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1986) 164: He was always wanting to stop off behind bushes and pee and play with himself awhile.
[US]T. Runyon In For Life 270: All nut doctors are the same [...] They just want to know if you play with yourself.
[UK](con. 1948–52) L. Thomas Virgin Soldiers 13: I do like to have a little play with myself in the night.
[US]M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 166: Man, don’t sit next to me if you’re gonna start playing with yourself again.
[UK]G.F. Newman Villain’s Tale 60: So instead he reached under the covers and grabbed his cock. ‘Caught you! Playing with yourself,’ he said.
[UK]T. Blacker Fixx 234: Your own gray-haired mother [...] announces that the country’s womenfolk should learn to play with themselves.
[UK]Guardian Guide 4–10 Dec. 87: When his mum knocks on the bathroom door to find out what he’s up to, you’ll wish he had been playing with himself.
[Aus]Penguin Book of All-New Aus. Jokes 33: A young boy is in his room playing with himself when his mother comes in and catches him. ‘If you keep doing that you’ll go blind!’ she yells. The boy replies: ‘Well, can I keep doing it until I need glasses?’.
[UK]K. Richards Life 52: He was famed for playing with himself through his trouser pocket.