instrument n.
1. in sexual contexts.
(a) the vagina.
 | Wife of Bath's Prologue line 149-50: In wyfhod I wol use myn instrument / As frely as my Makere hath it sent. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Groundworke of Conny-catching Ch. 17: They often gaine some money with their instrument, by such as they sudainely meet withall [...] Thus they trade their liues in lewd lothsome lechery. | |
| Return from Parnassus Pt II III ii: Her viol-de-gam is her best content; For ’twixt her legs she holds her instrument. Very knavish, very knavish, if you look into it. | |
| ‘Upon a Courtesan’s Lute’ in (1969) 176: Pretty lute, when I am gone / Tell thy mistress here was one / That hither came with full intent / To play upon her instrument. | |
| (trans.) Comical Hist. of Francion Bk ix 17: [He] advised her, after he had done playing with the Lute, that he could also play on another Instrument. [...] Come to me to morrow to the Wantons Cave, you, without doubt, shall find me there with my Instrument. | |
| Mock-Tempest III i: Though our Dancing Schooles ruin’d, we have sav’d our Instruments. | |
| ‘The Red Joke’ in Mad Tom’s Garland 8: I would play on her Instrument Ninety Nine, / With my Ram ge hoe, fal, lal, &c. |
(b) the penis; ext. as instrument of copulation/generation/propagation (cf. generation tool n.).
| Complaynte of Them that ben To Late Maryed 10: Whan I se her lye in shetes fayre and whyte, [...] With good wyll wolde I take then delyte; / Neuertheles I lete her haue her repose, [...] For thy [i]nstrument is not yet well in poynt. | |
| Witchcraft IV iv: A yoong man lieng with a wench .. . was faine to leave his instruments of venerie behind him, by means of that prestigious art of witchcraft [...] He caught hir by the throte, . . . saieng: Restore me my toole, or thou shalt die for it. | |
| Colonna 42v: [An] Infant holding his little Instrument in both his hands.... continued pissing into the ... water. | |
| Blurt, Master Constable D3: Deere instrument of mannie mens delight, are all these women? | |
| Duchess of Malfi II ii: There was a young waiting-woman, had a monstrous desire to see the glass-house [...] And it was only to know what strange instrument it was, should swell up a glass to the fashion of a woman’s belly. | |
| New Academy IV i: whi.: Look you, Madam, here is a draught of my marriage-instrument to your lap. eph.: His instrument being drawn, I must put up my pipe and be gone. | |
| Merry Passages and Jeasts No. 114 43: He profered him the kindnesse to gett his wife with child for him, but to draw him and tempt him on, [...] would laye a cheese with him that would make his Instrument come out at her Backe. | |
| 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. | |
| She Would if She Cou’d III iii: A poor Fidler [...] takes more delight in scraping / Upon his old squeaking Fiddle, then I do in fumbling / On that domestick Instrument of mine. | |
| Eve Revived 53: [of a dildo] The Figure of that Instrument Furnished ’em with tickling Ideas [...] I shall pass over in Silence what they did with that instrument. | |
| Juvenal VI 106: Into the Fair with Women mixt, he went, Arm’d with a huge two-handed Instrument; A grateful Present to those holy Quires, Where the Mouse guilty of his Sex retires. | |
| London Spy VI 126: The Doctor undertook to extinguish [...] all Venereal Fires that had unhappily taken hold of the Instruments of Generation. | |
| ‘I’le o’re Bogie we him’ in Roxburghe Ballads (1880) III 277: He laid me down upon my back, and all my Buttocks bair, And he pull’d out an Instrument, that coued me to a Hair. | |
| Whole Pleasures of Matrimony 88: Take the just Dimensions of your Husband’s Instrument of Generation, both as to Length and Compass. | |
| Dialogue between a Married Lady and a Maid II: Taking his Left-hand, and putting his Member into it, take, my dearest Tullia, said he, a better and pleasanter Instrument. | |
| Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 25: That instrument, from which the instinct of nature [...] now strongly informed me, I was to expect that supreme pleasure which she has placed in the meeting of those parts so admirably fitted for each other. | |
| Love at First Sight 127: [S]everal distress’d Virgins near this Place might [...] have been charitably relieved, had they come forth at the Sound of all kinds of Instruments; but their Hearts failing them, or the Key of the Door not being in the Way [etc]. | |
| ‘A Fore-Castle Song’ Songs Comic and Satyrical 97: Our instruments always do wonders. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘Daniel M’Clean’s Guaging Instrument’ Songs (publ. Monaghan) 2: The new fashion’d instrument I’ve got for guaging [...] Where any young maiden that makes application, / To ease her vexation. | |
| Bacchanalian Mag. 95: As for poor Catgut’s instrument, she much the same did soften — /’Cause she is apt, as I have heard, to cry encore too often. | |
| Lustful Turk in (1983) 229: So powerfully did his ravishing instrument stir up nature within me, that by mere instinct I returned him kiss for kiss. | |
| ‘What Will You Do When I Get You In Bed’ Ticklish Minstrel 16: With that long instrument and its ruby nose so red? | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 2 July n.p.: Dentists [...] My longest instrument I must / Pop in at once to give you ease; / But if I hurt you in the thrust, / Do tell of it, of you please. | |
| Pretty Little Games (1872) plate ix: His amorous sword of pleasure draws, / Blest instrument in natures cause. | |
| ‘Lady Pokingham’ in Pearl 9 Mar. 29: Placing herself right over him [she] gradually sheathed his grand instrument within her longing cunt. | |
| Randiana on asstr.org 🌐 My father and younger brothers all boasting instruments of enormous build. | |
| in Blatchford Memoirs (1983) 56: Running my tongue up his instrument and parting my lips to slip it between them. | |
| Forbidden Fruit n.p.: There's only one way to make your instrument lay down, but you must wait till I come to bed. | |
| Life & Amours (1967) I 25: Her vagina clasped his instrument so tightly. | |
| Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 40: Placing the head of his instrument in the proper place he let it remain there a moment while he tightened his clasp about her. | |
| in Letter from My Father (1978) 195: I took my cock out – it was big and hard – I was proud of that instrument. | |
| Faggots 141: He’d met Hubie and Hubie’s eleven-inch wonderful instrument. |
2. a dildo.
| ‘An Insatiate Wife’ in Reformer 25: Lock her from Man and Beast, from all Content, / She’ll make him Cuckold with an Instrument. |
3. (US Und.) the pickpocket who actually takes the object from the victim.
| Wash. Times (DC) 14 Sept. 10/4: Instrument— One who picks the pocket of a man. | |
| How I Became a Detective 92: Instrument – One who picks the pocket of a man. | |
| Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/4: The ‘wire,’ or ‘booster,’ ‘tool’ and the ‘swell instrument’ were names given to various members of the same mob to designate their relations to each other. | |
| (con. 1905–25) Professional Thief (1956) 45: The third operation is to put the duke (hand) down and extract the poke (pocketbook). The person who does this is known as the hook, wire, tool, or instrument. | |
| Parole Chief 245: This man [who picks the pocket] is called [...] a ‘hook,’ ‘tool,’ ‘wire,’ or instrument.’. |
In compounds
4. a condom.
| New London Spy 51: That valuable member of society [...] who sells preservative instrument-cases of all sizes. |