tipping the velvet

Obscure Victorian pornographic slang for cunnilingus — going down on a woman, the 'velvet' being exactly what you think. It surfaced from 19th-century smut and stayed buried until Sarah Waters dug it out as a title.

The 1998 debut novel by Sarah Waters, a lesbian coming-of-age story set in Victorian music halls, later adapted into a 2002 BBC series. The title is the era's own slang reclaimed, which is the whole point — queer history written back into a period that tried to erase it.