Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. sexual intercourse; often as a bit of how’s-yer-father.

1974–5		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 117: To think I nearly played how’s yer father with her.
1982		P. Bailey An Eng. Madam 135: I thought I knew all there was to bloody know when it came to how’s-your-father.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 205: A spot of playful how’s your father after a busy day in the House.
1999		Guardian Rev. 11 Sept. 9: An act of intimate sexual behaviour whose many synonyms include [...] how’s your father, bonk, rumpy-pumpy, and have it off.
2003		Indep. Rev. 1 Oct. 5: Should he be planning a bit of how’s-yer-father with the young lady, I trust he had had the foresight to bring something for the weekend.

2. used of anything for which one either does not know or prefers not to mention the name .

1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] ‘I ain’t too fuckin’ SP’d up on all that howsyourfather’.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 194: [of cocaine] I got a nice bitta how’s-your-father.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 84: I still got a touch of the old howsyourfather, you get my meaning?
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [29]: [T]hat jaykit ye left at the hozzy, thaire wis a bit ay how’s-yir-faither in thaire n ah sortay taxed it.

3. occas. use as a general euph., swear like how’s yer father, i.e. swear ‘like fuck’.

1916		Funny Wonder 5 Feb. 1: I do get luck in lumps, and no error. How’s your father? See you next week!
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: Home postings wallahs, sitting back easy, sorting out the judies from Land’s End to how’s your father.

4. petty criminality.

1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 122: Area outside got a very very big touch of how’s your father, very very big touch indeed.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 39: We got through immigration, touch of the how’s your father.

5. a condom.

1992

M. Frayn Now You Know 114: One unused how’s-your-father still tucked away at the back of my wallet.