beast with two backs
nounEtymology First attested in English by William Shakespeare, see quotations. Supposedly a calque of French la beste à deux doz (in modern French, la bête à deux dos) from Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534, by François Rabelais.
1
Euphemistic, Idiomatic Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.
- I am one ſir, that come to tell you, your daughter, and the Moore, are now making the Beaſt with two backs.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 4:
- [H]e remained one of the few boys of his year with whom Adrian had never made the beast with two backs, or rather with whom he had never made the beast with one back and an interestingly shaped middle, […]1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 15:
- Synonyms
- double-backed beast, two-backed beast
- Derived terms
- make the beast with two backs