bash the bishop

English

Etymology

Uncertain or disputed. Goldman (1950) suggests that beat the bishop comes from a resemblance of the penis to a bishop’s miter; Partridge (7th ed., 1970) likewise derives bash the bishop from a resemblance to the Staunton bishop chess piece. Other sources, such as Green, suggest that assonance of bishop with bash, beat, bop etc. may have given rise to the phrase as a type of word play.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

bash the bishop (third-person singular simple present bashes the bishop, present participle bashing the bishop, simple past and past participle bashed the bishop)

1. (idiomatic, slang) To masturbate (male).
   • 2003, Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair:

     “Hello, Gladys,” I said, shaking her by the hand. “Joffy here used to bash the bishop so much when he was a boy we all thought he would go blind.”

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:masturbate

Translations

slang for masturbate (male)

• Catalan: pelar-se-la (ca), cascar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 打飛機／打飞机 (zh) (dǎ fēijī) (to beat the aeroplane)

• Finnish: runkata (fi)
• French: étrangler le borgne (fr), s’astiquer le manche, se tutoyer, s’astiquer le poireau (fr), se crosser (fr) (Quebec), se taper une queue (fr)
• Russian: гонять лысого (to drive the bald one)
• Serbo-Croatian: sapunjati mačora
• Spanish: pajearse (es), pelársela, darle a la zambomba

References

• Goldman, Hyman, editor (1950), “Beat the bishop”, in Dictionary of American Underworld Lingo, New York: Twayne
• Partridge, Eric (1970) A Dictionary of Slang & Unconventional English, 7th edition, volume 2, →ISBN
• Jonathon Green (2024) “bishop n.²”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, retrieved August 26, 2021