# beast with two backs

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/beast-with-two-backs
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.

## Examples

- The characters in the play are described as the beast with two backs.
- They become the beast with two backs in the dark bedroom.
- He jokes about the beast with two backs after the party.
- The writer used the phrase the beast with two backs to describe the lovers in a poetic and old-fashioned way.
- The neighbors complained to the landlord after hearing the beast with two backs through the thin apartment walls every night.
- The director decided to cut the scene where the couple acts as the beast with two backs to keep the movie's rating low.
- While reading the old play, the students felt embarrassed when the teacher explained that the beast with two backs was actually a metaphor for a couple in bed.
- In his classic tragedy, the playwright uses the crude image of the beast with two backs to provoke the audience and express his characters' deep anger.

## Origin

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. (disputed)

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.