Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. sexual excitement; thus v. itch, to be sexually excited, adj. itching, sexually excited.

1594		Gesta Grayorum in J. Nichols Progresses and Processions of Queen Elizabeth (1823) III 335: Maids of the chamber or the kitchin, / If you be troubled with an itchin, / Come give me but a kisse or two, / I’le give you that shall soone cure you.
1610		Beaumont & Fletcher Scornful Lady II ii: y. love: Have you any mind to a wench? [...] e. love: When I feel that itching, You shall assuage it, sir, before another.
1623		Massinger Duke of Milan III ii: There is no Chirurgion like me to take off A Courtiers Itch that’s rampant at great Ladies.
1635		H. Glapthorne Hollander I i: As any woman else is for my money, onely I must confesse, I have an itch, a tickling thought to her before the rest of common prostitutes.
1654		E. Gayton Pleasant Notes III xxiv 279: She was plumpe as any Plover [...] she was comely. / And which gave the whole Town the Itch, / (Of love I mean) both faire and rich.
a.1661		‘Bum-Fodder’ in Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 56: Old Martin and Scot have all such an itch, / That they will with the Rump try t’other twitch, / And Lenthal can grease a fat Sow in the Britch.
a.1674		Rochester ‘The Argument’ in Poems on Several Occasions 37: Thus was I Rook’d of Twelve substantial Fucks, / By these base stinking, over itching Nocks.
1681		‘The Ladies’ March’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 58: Yet here she plys in hope of luck, sir, / Still itching though St. Albans fucks her.
1699		‘The Black-Smith’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy I 31: If any Taylor have the itch.
1704		‘England a great bedlam’ in N. Ward Poems on Divers Subjects (1706) 143: Just so a base Adult’rous Wretch, / To gratifie his lustul Itch, / Cleaves to a Harlot he has bedded, / And slights the honest Spouse he’as [sic] wedded [...] Next to this Itch that cocks our Tails, / The Bottle in its turn prevails.
c.1705		‘As Oyster Nan Stood by her Tub’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 177: Come in, says he, you silly Slut, / ’Tis now a rare convenient Minute; / I’ll lay the Itching of your Scut.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy V 74: You lye you Bitch youv’e got the Itch.
1721		Penkethman’s Jests 75: An old Fellow having a great Itch after his Neighbour’s young Wife.
1725		View of London & Westminster (2nd part) 40: [in a list of prostitutes] Miss Itchtail [Is Visited] By a D[octor?] [ibid.] 49: Miss Itching [Is Visited] By a Merchant.
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) I 87: For some bitch / Had given half the troops the itch; / And by a like unseen mishap, / The other half had got the cl—p.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 24: Then there was cineus, a queer bitch / As e’er was ’nointed for the itch: / I’ve often seen that rogue for fun, / Make constables and watchmen run.
1831		Satirist (London) 4 Dec. 278/2: They 'ye all got the dirty Scotch fiddle [i.e. an STD] ’tis feared, / For none such an itch have for scraping together.
1834		‘The Mot Of Drury Lane’ in Luscious Songster 38: She warmed me well – gave me the itch.
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 10/1: Itch – Love.
1942		H. Miller Roofs of Paris (1983) 167: Charlotte may be a squirt but she has a full grown itch under her tail.
c.1954		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 156: Casey Jones was a son-of-a-bitch. / His balls were covered with the whorehouse itch.
a.1963		‘The Fall’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 85: There’s that cute little bitch with the whorehouse itch / That I could latch onto.
1973		(con. 1940s–60s) Hogbotel & ffuckes ‘Lovers’ Alphabet’ in Snatches and Lays 32: I is the itch that causes her giggle.
1988		N. Eastwood Gardener Got Her n.p.: Well, if you get that itch again, honey, you just call Dr. Mike and I’ll be right there.

2. syphilis.

1615		T. Overbury New and Choise Characters n.p.: [An Hypocrite] Amongst Dogs, the mange; amongst Horses, the glaunders; amongst Men and Women, the Northerne itch, and the French Ache be diseases.
1640		The Wandering Jew 28: Your hot lust throwes Vlcers, Blanches, and the French Itch all over your body.
1654		Witts Recreations Epitaph No. 44: Here resteth young Doll Rich, that dainty drab, Who troubled long with itch, dy’d of the scab.
1793		Bacchanalian Mag. 74: Original and selected Toasts and Sentiments [...] May each Buck catch his doe, and each Rogue catch the itch.
1836		‘Toasts’ in New Cockalorum Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) II 30: May each buck catch his doe, and each rogue catch the itch.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 19 Feb. n.p.: Be careful George, or you may catch the itch.
1843		Sheffield Indep. 20 May 1/4: Dr Hallett’s Gold Anti-Venereal Pills [...] for the care of every stage and sympton of a Certain Complaint [...] Never failing cure for the itch [...] Hallett’s Original Ointment.

3. (drugs) an addiction to narcotics.

[1829		Australian (Sydney) 12 May 3/5: The wife of his bosom, he said, was most affectionately addicted to tippling [...] whenever she could muster a tester she indulged her ‘itch’].
1956		H. Gold Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 310: It was a scratchy, jumpy place in a high, a Christmas itch of heroin.
1960		I. Freeman Out of the Burning (1961) 137: Like skin itch, dilated pupils and dreaminess, a craving for sweets is a sign of being stoned.
1961		C. Cooper Jr Weed (1998) 220: She’s got [...] a ten-year itch from usin stuff all day.