{"id":10820,"date":"2015-04-28T16:47:53","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T08:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/?p=10820"},"modified":"2026-03-07T06:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T05:05:24","slug":"10-best-euphemisms-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 Best Euphemisms for Sex"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We always try to talk frankly about sex, including all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things that go along with it, (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/top-10-common-sex-injuries\/\">such as the 10 most common sex injuries<\/a>) but that doesn\u2019t mean that we don\u2019t also enjoy using a few slightly more poetic (or at least vague) terms to describe it. Here is our list of our 10 favorite euphemisms for sex, but don\u2019t hesitate to add yours in the comments!<\/p>\n<h2>1. Making the Beast with Two Backs<\/h2>\n<p>As in nearly every situation, Shakespeare said it best. If you read<em> Othello<\/em> in high school (and no, watching <em>O<\/em> doesn\u2019t count) this may have been your first introduction to the coarser language in the bard. While not specifically used in the context of a dirty joke (of which Shakespeare made many) it was the most obvious and caused more than a few English teachers to blush.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Gettin\u2019 Busy<\/h2>\n<p>This is one of the vaguer and less poetic terms, but it also very accurately describes your life when you have a new partner. Been too \u201cbusy\u201d for yoga? To meet friends for drinks? Yea, we\u2019ve all been there. Thankfully, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/are-long-term-relationships-better-than-casual-ones\/\">this stage of a relationship<\/a> doesn\u2019t last too long. The sex continues, of course, but you both eventually remember that you need to do things like buy groceries and see the sun.<\/p>\n<h2>3. Knocking Boots<\/h2>\n<p>Whether you still harbor any cowboy fantasies or not (and seriously, who doesn\u2019t) this conjures up images of all sorts of activities that\u2019ll kick your heels up. Of course, if you do wrangle yourself a cowboy, we do recommend taking the boots <em>off<\/em> before jumping into bed. Actually, spurs. Hmmm\u2026<\/p>\n<h2>4. Afternoon Delight<\/h2>\n<p>This 1976 hit by the Starland Vocal Band is line after line of the most charming and lighthearted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metrolyrics.com\/afternoon-delight-lyrics-starland-vocal-band.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sexually-suggestive lyrics<\/a> we\u2019ve ever heard (and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/best-songs-female-masturbation\/\">we&#8217;ve heard our fair share.<\/a>) It certainly captures what many of us picture of early 70s sexual freedom, if not the actually carefree joy of afternoon sex. After all, \u2018why wait until the middle of the cold dark night?\u2019<\/p>\n<h2>5. Get it On<\/h2>\n<p>Maybe less colorful than others, but if it\u2019s good enough for Marvin Gaye then it\u2019s good enough for us. We all know what \u2018it\u2019 is (we\u2019re all sensitive people, with so much to give) and whether or not you\u2019re a fan of the song, we\u2019re guessing at one time or another someone has charmingly (if only half-seriously) suggested that you get it on.<\/p>\n<h2>6. La Petite Mort<\/h2>\n<p>Ah, French, the language of love. A lot of sex-related vocabulary may be just as coarse as English when you translate it, but a few terms have poetic quality that sounds so much better in a Romance language. This euphemism for orgasm, meaning \u2018a little death,\u2019 refers to the state during and directly after orgasm when your mind reaches a transcendent blankness.<\/p>\n<h2>7. A Roll in the Hay<\/h2>\n<p>Another term that conjures pastoral images of a countryside tryst, it can be used more broadly for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/outdoor-sex-tips-succeed-sex-outside\/\">outdoor sex<\/a>, if you don\u2019t have a hayloft (or ranch hand) at your disposal. It\u2019s probably for the best anyway; hay is really quite poky and barns get quite chilly at night.<\/p>\n<h2>8. Slap and Tickle<\/h2>\n<p>It may arguably refer to foreplay over penetrative sex, this phrase still implies a bit of naughtiness and fun that we are definitely a fan of. We can say from experience that both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/less-slap-tickle-whip-teaser-comparison\/\">spanking and tickling<\/a> can be quite fun!<\/p>\n<h2>9. Doing the Horizontal Tango<\/h2>\n<p>If you take any two person activity and add \u2018horizontal\u2019 to it, it will adequately communicate sex, but we like this one the best because, much like calling it the \u2018Four-legged foxtrot,\u2019 it captures the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/silent-disco\/\">sensual nature of dancing<\/a> with the sometimes awkward tangle of limbs.<\/p>\n<h2>10. Getting to Know Someone in a Biblical Sense<\/h2>\n<p>In case you need to be clear (yet not explicit at all) about getting to know a new person, this phrase certainly gets the job done. And, if it actually had anything to do with the bible, we\u2019re sure it would make Sunday morning service all the more interesting! Incidentally, this phrase is particularly interesting because the pun \u2018to know\u2019 is an ancient Hebrew one. That means that there is a deliberate wordplay in the Old Testament: when Adam and Eve are ejected from Eden because they ate from the Tree of Knowledge, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/5-sexual-encounters-changed-world\/\">it may well be a euphemism for sexual union<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Enjoy 15% off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LELO.com<\/a> with code <span style=\"color: #800080;\">VOLONTE15<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We always try to talk frankly about sex, including all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things that go along with it, (such as the 10 most common sex injuries) but that doesn\u2019t mean that we don\u2019t also enjoy using a few slightly more poetic (or at least vague) terms to describe it. Here is our list of our 10 favorite euphemisms for sex, but don\u2019t hesitate to add yours in the comments! 1. Making the Beast with Two Backs As in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[551,579,553],"coauthors":[950],"class_list":["post-10820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sex-tips-advice","tag-humour","tag-sex","tag-top-10"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The 10 Best Euphemisms for Sex<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From the poetic to the truly vague, we pick our 10 favorite euphemisms for our sex and look at their history.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 10 Best Euphemisms for Sex\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the poetic to the truly vague, we pick our 10 favorite euphemisms for our sex and look at their history.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Volont\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LELO.Official\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-28T08:47:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-07T05:05:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/EN_Volonte_150410.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katy Thorn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Lelo_Official\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Lelo_Official\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katy Thorn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/\",\"name\":\"The 10 Best Euphemisms for Sex\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/EN_Volonte_150410.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-28T08:47:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-07T05:05:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/68fd3f91f3030cf2e5f30b74d1b3026d\"},\"description\":\"From the poetic to the truly vague, we pick our 10 favorite euphemisms for our sex and look at their history.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/EN_Volonte_150410.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/EN_Volonte_150410.jpg\",\"width\":660,\"height\":330},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/10-best-euphemisms-sex\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Volonte\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sex Tips &amp; 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