mahogany flat

English

Etymology

From their colour and shape.

Noun

mahogany flat (plural mahogany flats)

  1. (UK, obsolete, slang) A bedbug.
    • 1892, Sir George Giffard, Reminiscences of a Naval Officer, page 45:
      When ready for sea we went up to Greenhithe, that their lordships might inspect us, and then to Portsmouth, to take troops to Cork, a pleasant trip; but the troops left us a legacy of "mahogany flats," with which their beds were so swarming that we never got them under.

References
  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
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