Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also bellers, bellowses, bellus) the lungs [20C use mainly US].

1615		S. Latham Lathams Falconry 109: The lunges doe draw a breath whereby / to coole the heart as it doth lie: [...] But where these bellowes doe decay / then health from both doth fade away.
1631		Donne Elegy on Mistress Boulstred in Johnson Works Eng. Poets V 188/2: We, to live, our bellows wear, and breath.
1697		Vanbrugh Relapse V ii: He’s half way up the Stairs taking Breath; he must play his Bellows a little, before he can get up to the top.
1711		Vindication of Dr. H. Sacheverell 91: He [...] is troubled with bad Lungs, and would be insufferably noisy in Company, if his Bellows would hold.
1730		J. Miller Humours of Oxford V ii: Don’t abuse my Wife – Slut, quotha! i’gad let me tell you, she has done a cleaner thing than you’ll ever do while your Bellows blow, old Lady.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions .
c.1790		‘De Kilmainham Minit’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 7: But when on de Ground your friend lies, / Oh! tip me a Snig in the Jugler; [...] As de Surgints of Otomy tell us; / Dat when I’m cut down from de Rope. / You’ll bring back de Puff to me Bellows, / And set me, once more, on me Pins.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London II 91: Bring your bellows* in good order, and don’t be afraid of your bread basket.† [*Bellows—A cant term for the lungs. † Bread-basket—The stomach].
1823		N.-Y. Eve. Post 10 July 2/4: Neate was much distressed in the bellows line.
1826		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II 6: It’s hot work, this race of wit, / And sets the bellows piping.
1835		Metropolitan Mag. XIV Sept. 334: ‘Well done,’ cried I, dashing up to the jigger [i.e. of a coach], and demanding the blunt in as loud a voice as I could [...] bringing the bellows to work.
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England II 113: How I would like to lick him with a bran new cow hide whip, round and round the park [...] to improve his wind, and teach him how to mend his pace. I’d repair his old bellowses for him.
1848		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers (1880) 18: I heern a horn, thinks I it’s Sol the fisherman hez come agin, / His bellowses is sound enough.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 Mar. 1/3: Bill’s bellows were evidently getting wind.
1855		(con. 1837) Fights for the Championship 357: the office was given that swift’s bellows were out of order.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1876		J. Greenwood Low-Life Deeps 285: Summat had gone wrong with his bellus.
1888		H. King Savage London 387: They’ll have to mend yer bellows if they means to keep yer in the Union.
1896		‘’Arry on Spring-Time and Sport’ in Punch 18 Apr. 184/3: Don’t they wish they wos in it [i.e. cycling], my pippin, old boys with no bellows and shanks.
1889		Times-Democrat (New Orleans, LA) 9 July 3/6: Prize Ring Slang [...] ‘Bellows,’ lungs.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 8 Nov. 6/3: [He] made another shot for the bellows.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 7 Feb. 5/1: Though never a very robust man in appearance, Detective Kavanagh did not inspire the idea that his ‘bellows’ were weak.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 70: Wot price that fer a mouth-orgin, eh? Yer’d want a extra pair o’ bellows ter play that.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘Spike Wegg’ in Rose of Spadgers 146: Nex’ thing, ’e rips / A knife beneath me guard an’ gives a dig— / Sticks me fair in the bellers, like a pig.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Coffin for a Coward’ in Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 I [...] spotted a raw stab-wound in his bellows where a shiv had punctured him all the way to the ticker.
1948		R.L. Bellem ‘Death Ends the Scene’ Hollywood Detective May 🌐 There wasn’t much leakage of gore from the puncture in his bellows.

2. the male genitals.

c.1785		‘The New Dhooraling’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 401: With a blast of the bellows he fills the bag / Then his triangle Chanter begins to wag.
c.1790		‘Darby o’Gallagher’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost She being distrest did beg the request / Of a blast of the bellows from D. O’Gallagher.

3. a song.

1886

‘’Arry at the Smoking Concert’ in Punch 13 Nov. in P. Marks (2006) 66: [...] where they meet for a ‘bellows and blow,’ / As old president Pollywog patters it, meanin’ a song and a smoke.