beast with two backs

English

Etymology

First attested in English by Shakespeare in Othello, 1603. Supposedly a translation of the French "la beste à deux doz" from Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534, by François Rabelais.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

beast with two backs (plural beasts with two backs)

1. (idiomatic, euphemistic) Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 22:

     […] he 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 […]

Synonyms

• double-backed beast
• two-backed beast
• See also Thesaurus:copulation

Derived terms

• make the beast with two backs