pair n.
1. the female breasts.
Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies 36: No vulgar hand is permitted to press her semi-ovals of delight, no indecent lip is suffered to touch her balmy pair. | ||
‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) IV 758: I had a feel round her buttocks. My God, what spankers! and her breasts, what a pair! | ||
Ulysses 225: She has a fine pair, God bless her. Like that He held his caved hands a cubit from him, frowning. | ||
Last Exit to Brooklyn 106: Everyone with a few bucks had a dame. [...] Not one of em had a pair half as big as hers. | ||
(con. 1940s) Andy 221: Boy, could I use a lay. The black Marys up north swing a lovely pair. | ||
Who is Teddy Villanova? 234: Got some pair, that cooze. | ||
Nubile Treat 🌐 He dug big tits, and his sister had a really fine pair, big and round. | ||
Guardian Editor 10 Mar. 9: She’s got a huge pair. Wonderful. |
2. (US) the testicles; usu. in phr. have a pair v., to be macho, manly or imper. grow a pair!
Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk IV 410: We would kiss his bare arse without boggling at it, and eke his two pounders; for he has a pair of them, the holy father, that he has. | (trans.)||
(con. 1969) Dispatches 59: If you wanted someone to know you’d gone insane you really had to sound off like you had a pair. | ||
(con. c.1970) Phantom Blooper 18: You better sound off like you got a pair, sweetheart, or I will personally unscrew your head and shit in your shoulders! | ||
Crooked Little Vein 156: I think I liked you better before you started acting like you grew a pair. | ||
Drawing Dead [ebook] Buck up and ship out and grow a goddamned pair. | ||
Twitter 20 Nov. 🌐 Americans have right to protest, jeer, boo or even support a man who doesn't respect/know Bill of Rights. You won. Grow a pair and shut up. | ||
Base Nature [ebook] He just needed to grow a pair [...] and start acting like a man again. | ||
X 29 Nov. 🌐 Having a sturdy pair may help at times [...] but empathy, integrity, kindness are the stuff of what makes strong leaders . | ||
🌐 You might want to say that MPs should butch-up and grow a pair, but be careful what you wish for. | Writing from London 22 Feb.
SE in slang uses
In phrases
to give someone a bribe.
Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Gloves. To give any one a pair of gloves; to make them a present or bribe. | ||
, | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn). | |
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
see pants n. (3)
two black eyes.
‘Bail Up!’ 153: He gave me the pair of spectacles which adorn me barnacles. |
a very thin person.
Sl. and Its Analogues. |
a two-wheeled vehicle.
Eng. Dict. I n.p.: Fenchmonth, Which fee, for a paire of Wheeles is foure pence, and for Paniers two pence. |
see under wing n.1