Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the female breasts; esp. in phr. flash one’s charms, to reveal one’s breasts.

a.1680		Rochester ‘A Satire which the King took out of his Pocket’ in Works of Rochester (1721) 22: Go, read what Mahomet did [...] Who all transported with his Mistress Charms, / And never pleas’d, but in her lovely Arms.
1694		Rochester ‘To the Preceise Cloris’ in Gildon Chorus Poetarum 35: When all dissolv’d within thy clasping Arms, / Thou tast’st my vig’rous Love, I rifle all thy Charms.
1700		‘The Cumberland Lass’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 134: When I embrace her in my Arms, / she takes it kind and Courteously, / And hath such pretty winning Charms, / the like whereof you ne’er did see.
c.1707		‘Sylvia in Bathing’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 159: When Sylvia in Bathing, her Charms does expose, / The pretty Banquet dancing under her Nose.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 66: Her Eyes like Stars do so twinkle, / Her Face is smooth, without wrinkle, / Her Chin’s adorn’d with a Dimple, / Like the Charms above her Knee.
1732		Delightful Adventures of Honest John Cole 15: He began in the Kitchen, and continued rifling her Charms all the way up to the Garret.
1756		Memoirs of an Oxford Scholar 71: A Year had so greatly improved Chloe, and given such a Ripeness to her Charms, that I viewed with Admiration.
1763		J. Wilkes Essay on Woman 14: Say first of Woman’s latent Charms below.
1772		G. Stevens ‘A Love Song’ in Songs Comic and Satyrical 121: She has Charms upon Charms, such as few people may view.
1786		Nunnery Amusements 6: All her glowing charms at once display’d / Ripe as an Autumn peach each bubby rose.
1801		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Orson and Ellen’ Works (1801) V 394: ‘Am I in thine arms?’ – ‘Thou art, thou art!’ rejoin’d the Youth, And closely press’d her charms.
1819		Beppo in London lxvi: Master Beppo on her charms stood gazing.
1833		‘Mary And The Frozen Limb’ in Lummy Chaunter 63: I jump’d into bed and began to embrace her, / And kissing and pressing her ivory charms.
1841		‘Fanny’s Mill’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 13: Young Fanny on the grass did lay, / Her charms in view, so young and fair [...] And Roger he, the cunning elf, / With Fanny’s charms he helped himself.
1889		C. Deveureux Venus in India I 8: She thinks the shortest way, after all, will be to let him have his way, and so grudgingly allows her cold cunt to be uncovered, unwillingly opens her ungracious thighs, and lies a passionless log, insensible to her husband’s endeavours to strike a spark of pleasure from her icy charms. [Ibid.] I 158: I could not let you cover up that lovely form, and those exquisite charms!
1904		Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 57: I let go of the shawl which left my bosom exposed. His gaze was at once fastened on the charms exposed.
1946		E. Wilson Pikes Peek or Bust 81: Miss Harrison had loosely tossed a yellow silk dressing gown around her charms. It didn’t cover them all—the charms—and my eyes kept straying.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 125: My charms aren’t visible.
1985		‘Jennifer Blowdryer’ Modern English 77: tits (n): Charms.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 387: Among the others in this collection [F&H]: bubbies, charlies, blubber, butter-boxes, berkeleys, diddies, globes, dugs, and ‘charms’.

2. the male genitals.

c.1707		‘Philander and Sylvia’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 104: Then as if she were dead, she slept and lay still [...] Which embolden’d the Youth his Charms to apply.
1750		Friar and Boy Pt I 24: He chanc’d to find, The old man upon a day, Who was to him so kind. To whom he told what sport had past, Which vex’d the Friar sore: He gave Jack other charms at last, Which plagu’d him ten times more.
1765		H. Howard Choice Spirits Museum 61: Alas! he could not play at Venus’ Game [...] Charms superior, gentle Signior On the British Stage I’ll find.
1881		Sins of the Cities of the Plain 49: We lay for a short time side by side on the bed, kissing and toying with the most attractive charms of each other’s person.
1889		C. Deveureux Venus in India I 9: It would be strange if the manly charm which filled her loving hand, were not once more raised in response to her caresses.
2000		Observer Rev. 11 June 16: Only the [...] Dane, Thomas, had enough in the way of ‘charms’ to keep my friend Trixie’s fingers straying away from her pause button.

3. the female genitals.

1786		Nunnery Amusements 15: Pego calls to arms, / And fiercely strains to plunge into her charms.
1833		‘The Charming Fair’ in Out-and-Outer in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 147: Hodge then clasped her in his arms, / Resolved to rifle all her charms.
1849		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 1 Sept. n.p.: Angela P— [...] running around and declaring it was false, in regard to Daniel S. P—, enjoying her charms?

4. (US) money [its efficacy in overcoming problems].

1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 296: Among the less generally known terms [for money] are [...] charms.
1875		Amer. Eng. in Chambers’s Journal 25 Sept. 610: Money has forty or fifty different names; such singular terms as... shadscales, and charms figuring in the list [F&H].
1889		Farmer Americanisms.