adj. (colloquial).—1. Dissipated; specifically, given to venery: As in the French, avoir la cuisse gaie = to be addicted to the use of men. Hence GAY WOMAN, or GIRL, or BIT = a strumpet; GAY HOUSE = a brothel; TO BE GAY = to be incontinent; GAY IN THE LEGS, IN THE GROIN, IN THE ARSE = SHORT-HEELED (q.v.); GAYING INSTRUMENT = the penis [Lexicon Balatronicum, 1811, s.v.]; GAY MAN = a wencher; GAY LADIE (old) = a mistress; GAYING IT = copulating.
1383. CHAUCER, The Canterbury Tales, ‘The Miller’s Tale,’ 3767.
| What eyeleth you? Some GAY girl, God it wot, | |
| Hath brough you thus upon the very trot. |
1754. The Adventurer, No. 124. The old gentleman, whose character I cannot better express than in the fashionable phrase which has been contrived to palliate false principles and dissolute manners, had been a GAY man, and was well acquainted with the town.
1857. Punch, The Great Social Evil, 19 Sept. How long have you been GAY?
1857. J. E. RITCHIE, The Night Side of London, p. 40. Here in Catherine-street vice is a monster of a hideous mien. The GAY women, as they are termed, are worse off than American slaves.
1868. Sunday Times, 19 July. As soon as ever a woman has ostensibly lost her reputation, we, with a grim inappositeness, call her GAY.
2. (common).—In drink. For synonyms, see SCREWED.
ALL GAY (or ALL SO GAY). adv. phr. (common).—All right; first-rate; ALL SERENE (q.v.).
TO FEEL GAY. verb. phr. (colloquial).—Inclined for sport, venereal or other; TO FEEL NAUGHTY (q.v.).
