Meanings
plural beasts with two backs
- euphemisticidiomaticTwo people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.
I am one ſir, that come to tell you, your daughter, and the Moore, are now making the Beaſt with two backs.
c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 41 more example
[H]e 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, […]
1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 15Synonyms: double-backed beast, two-backed beast
Synonyms & antonyms
nounTwo people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.
Origin
- Frenchla beste à deux doz
- Englishbeast with two backs
First attested in English by William Shakespeare, see quotations. Supposedly a calque of French la beste à deux doz (in modern French, la bête à deux dos) from Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534, by François Rabelais.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
beast with two backs. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beast%20with%20two%20backs
“beast with two backs.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beast%20with%20two%20backs. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “beast with two backs,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beast%20with%20two%20backs.
Source: beast with two backs on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.