show someone one's etchings
English
Verb
show someone one's etchings (third-person singular simple present shows someone one's etchings, present participle showing someone one's etchings, simple past showed someone one's etchings, past participle shown someone one's etchings)
- (idiomatic) A clichéd innuendo used to offer to bring someone to a private location in order to have sex, to show a place where people can engage in sexual intercourse (alternatively replacing "someone" with a phrase starting with to)
- Let me show you my etchings.
- 1988, Ruth Seamands, Pearls in the Rain, Bristol Books, →ISBN, page 47:
- “Never wanted to show off my etchings before. I only show my etchings to redheads,” he said with a grin. ”Now that you've come, I can't wait to show them to you. […] ”
Usage notes
Ian Stuart-Hamilton's An Asperger Dictionary of Everyday Expressions notes that this is rarely used as "an invitation to have sexual intercourse",[1] presumably speaking of real-life situations. However, this sense remains a common trope in fiction.
Synonyms
- discuss Uganda, graft the forked tree, see someone's etchings; see also Thesaurus:copulate
References
- Ian Stuart-Hamilton, "Come up and see my etchings", An Asperger Dictionary of Everyday Expressions, Jessia Kingsley Publishrs (3rd ed. 2007, 1st ed. from 2004), →ISBN, page 60.