Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a term of affection, usu. for a woman.

1517		Skelton Elynour Rummynge line 223: He calleth me [...] his conny His swetyng and his honny.
c.1550		T. Ingelend Disobedient Child Ciii: My darlynge, my Conye, my Bryde.
1566		W. Adlington (trans) Golden Asse 110: [to an ass] [S]he kissed me, and looked on me with burninge eies, saiying: I holde thee my cony, I hold thee my nops, my sparowe,.
1567		Trial of Treasure E: My mouse my nobs and cony swete My hope and ioye my whole delight.
1596		Chapman Blind Beggar of Alexandria v: New fashion terms I like not; for a man To call his wife cony, forsooth, and lamb: And pork and mutton, he as well may say.
c.1600		Timon in Dyce (1842) II i: My sparrow, my hony, my duck, my cony.
1609		T. Heywood Rape of Lucrece (1874) 256: My Willy, my Billy, my hony, my cony, / my love, my dove, my deare.
1619		Rowlands Well met Gossip B1: Tell me Hony, My Loue, my Doue, my Lambe, my prettie Conny.
1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk II 239: My sugar, my sweeting, my honey, my little coney, — yet it had in circumference full six acres, three rods, five poles, four yards, two feet, one inch and a half of good woodland measure, — my tender peggy, my cod-piece darling.
1659		Greene & Lodge Lady Alimony V iii: Thou shalt have anything, my Conny Christobel.

2. in sexual senses (cf. cunny n.) [the stereotyped sexuality of rabbits + the pubic hair is supposedly reminiscent of the rabbit’s tail + play on cunt n.].

3. (also cunny) a dupe, the victim of a confidence trick, of card-sharping etc.

1592		Greene Defence of Conny-Catching 5: For if euer I brought my Conny but to crushe a pot of ale with mee, I was as sure of all the Crownes in his purse, as if hee had conueyed them into my proper possession by a deede of gifte.
1608		Dekker Belman of London F2: He that looseth his money, not a Cozen but a Cony.
1613		Rowlands Knaves of Spades & Diamonds 108: A man would thinke no Conie could be caught. Who wil be drawne at Dice and Cards to play, With one who he meets a stranger on the way.
1630		J. Taylor ‘Taylors Revenge’ in Works (1869) II 144: Couldst thou find no other way, / To Sharke, or Shift, or Cony-catch for money, / But to make me thy Asse, thy Foole, thy Cony?
c.1649		Black Dog of Newgate in Griffiths (1884) 79: The coney put down £10, every penny of which was to be paid to the man in the moon.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Cony A silly Fellow, a meer Cony, very silly indeed.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1832		in Egan Bk of Sports 154: He borrow’d a trifle more money, / And ventur’d another bet / Along with blubber-mouth Coney.
1891		in Punch 25 Apr. 201: The ‘Cony’ is feeble, the Bear’s a rough bore.