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)

1. (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", 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