TO GIVE A GREEN-GOWN, verb. phr. (old).—To tumble a woman on the grass; to copulate. For synonyms, see GREENS and RIDE.

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  1647–8.  HERRICK, Hesperides, ‘To Corinna to go a Maying.’ Many a GREEN GOWN has been given.

2

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. GREEN GOWN. A throwing of young lasses on the grass and kissing them.

3

  1719.  D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, i., 277.

        Kit GAVE A GREEN-GOWN to Betty,
  And lent her his hand to rise.

4

  1714.  A. SMITH, An History of the Lives of Highway-Men, etc., i., 214. Our Gallant being dispos’d to give his Lady a GREEN GOWN.

5

  1742.  CHARLES JOHNSON, Highwaymen and Pyrates. Passim.

6

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.

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