roll in the hay

English

Etymology

In the case of the euphemism, US origin, 1945.^[1]

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

roll in the hay (plural rolls in the hay)

1. (euphemistic) A session of sexual intercourse.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulation

   Don't disturb them. They're having a roll in the hay, I think.

   • 2009, Glenn Yeffeth, editor, James Bond in the 21st Century, BenBella Books, Inc., →ISBN:

     The early aubades and tagelieder in particular are just full of noble knights who nonetheless are a rather randy lot and never pass up the chance for a good roll in the hay with an unhappily married noblewoman.

   • 2013, Ellery Adams, Peach Pies and Alibis, Penguin, →ISBN, page 9:

     “Amen to that. Our girl needs another employee, a car, and a roll in the hay. And not necessarily in that order.”

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see roll,‎ in,‎ the,‎ hay.
   • 1854, Maria Jacob, “July”, in The Days, Months, and Seasons of the Year, Explained to the Little People of England, Nathaniel Cooke, →OCLC:

     But hay-makers would rather be without one [a rain fall], and if it were wet weather, that gay party of children would not be able to enjoy their roll in the hay. I think they are going to cover that little boy with hay, and then he will jump up and serve them the same. Their gambols do no harm, as the more the hay is scattered and shook about the better, and the hay-making, which began last month, is now to be finished.

   • 1863, Mrs. Henry Wood, “Chapter 19”, in The Shadow of Ashlydyat, Macmillan and Company, published 1907, →OCLC, page 307:

     Meta had been the whole morning long in the hayfield. Not the particular hayfield already mentioned; that one was cleared of hay now; but to some other hayfield, whose cocks were in full bloom—if such an expression may be used in regard to hay. There were few things Miss Meta liked so much as a roll in the hay; and, so long as cocks were to be found in the neighbourhood, Margery would be coaxed over to take her to them.

   • 1865, Edward Spooner, Parson and People: Or, Incidents in the Every-day Life of a Clergyman, F.J. Huntington, →OCLC, pages 62–63:

     Nothing, seemingly, could exceed the delight of the young ones when, after a good game in the fields and a roll in the hay, which happened to be in a state in which they could not injure it, they were allowed, in regular order as marshalled by their teachers, to walk through the private gardens and the principal rooms of the mansion.

References

1. Eric Partridge (2005) “roll in the hay”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 2 (J–Z), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1636.