Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the tongue.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Velvet c. a Tongue.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) II [as cit. c.1698].
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		J. Burrowes Life in St George’s Fields 14: Dick and the Barber gave play to their Velvets.
1833		‘Her Muns with a Grin’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 50: Her muns vith a grin, vhich no velvet could vin.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

2. in fig. use, gain, profit, winnings; money [see Asbury, Sucker’s Progress (1938) 17: An extraordinary number of the terms, technical and otherwise, which were employed by Faro players in the palmy days of the game have passed into the language [...] Velvet — The bank’s money].

1896		Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 11 June 2/3: I’ll just rake off three of the fivers for velvet.
1904		Ade ‘Lonesome Trolley-Riders’ in True Bills 6: She had $13.50 in Velvet thrown up in front of her. Gillespie had Tabs against all the others.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 11: There we was givin’ ’em a private hunch on a proposition that was all velvet.
1919		A. Baer Two and Three 21 Feb. [synd. col.] ‘There’s only fifteen thousand here. Where’s the rest of the velvet?’.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 198: The Employees wanted in on the Velvet.
1920		A. Baer Two & Three 4 Jan. [synd. col.] All those foreigners have nicked us for pin money [...] Yank has a tough time borrowing velvet from his own government.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 18: Not every buck we take in is velvet.
1940		S. Lister Mistral Hotel (1951) 187: A trading profit would be made sufficient to meet all commitments and still show something in excess of a million francs of ‘velvet.’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 247: velvet Money that is easily gotten.
1961		J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling.
1983		J. Ciardi A Second Browser’s Dict. 285: Pure velvet. Pure profit. Easy money.

3. (Aus./N.Z.) any dark-skinned woman; thus a bit of velvet [abbr. black velvet under black adj.].

1956		T. Ronan Moleskin Midas 106: This bitchin’ country is going to the dogs. You got to pay so much for a bit of velvet that it’d be nearly as cheap to get married.
1971		K. Gilbert Cherry Pickers I i: No wonder that them fellahs all reckon ‘black velvet’ is hot — stuff!

4. the female pubic hair.

1982

Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 131: Pubes […] velvet, wig, wool.

5. see black velvet under black adj.