green gown

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (file)

Noun[edit]

green gown (plural green gowns)

  1. (archaic, historical) A dress that has been stained green from rolling in the grass; generally with allusion to sexual activity, especially a woman's loss of virginity. [from 16th c.]
    • 1604 or 1605 (date written), Thomas Dekker, The Second Part of The Honest Whore, [], London: [] Elizabeth All-de, for Nathaniel Butter, published 1630, →OCLC, Act I, signature A2, recto:
      Oh, a morning to tempt Ioue frõ his Ningle Ganimed, vvhich is but to giue Dary VVenches greene govvnes as they are going a milking; []
    • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, [], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 2, subsection 4:
      Sometimes they lie open and are most tractable and coming, apt, yielding, and willing to embrace, to take a green gown, with that shepherdess in Theocritus, Idyll. 27, to let their coats, etc. []
    • 1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury, section II:
      Who first gave our SALLY a Green-Gown is uncertain, but it is reported by many [] that upon being admitted an Honorary Member of Mrs. Wisebourn's Academy, she was, (tho' very indifferently) arrayed in that Colour []
    • 1814, Frances Burney, The Wanderer, section III.4:
      The boy [] flung himself upon Juliet, with all his force; protesting that he would give her a green gown.