Green’s Dictionary of Slang

paraffin lamp n.

1. a tramp.

1990		J. Healy Streets Above Us (1991) 45: ‘You trying to be funny, you fucking paraffin lamp?’ snarls the sergeant.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 165: He’s dressed like a total lamp. [Ibid.] 187: I put on a black suit [...] to compensate for feeling like a paraffin lamp waking up among the dustbins.
2010		K. Richards Life 27: One day we dfound a dead tramp in there [...] A dead para-fin (Paraffin lamp, rhyming slang for tramp).

2. a sexually promiscuous woman [tramp n. (2)].

2002

D. Shaw ‘Dead Beard’ at www.asstr.org 🌐 Dionne has always been a genuine paraffin lamp to anything wearing lesley crowthers.

In derivatives

lampish (adv.)

like a tramp.

2000

J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 289: He’s forty-five, dressed lampish, and is totally blown away.