Making Your Move
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In the 1969 Arlo Guthrie movie "Alice's Restaurant," telling the story behind his musical narrative performance, a woman asks "Are you going to make your move?" and he says, "I can do that." Then they fuck.
In real life at about that time a US Navy sailor known for his prowess, at about age 20, remarked to his roommate, "I'm about to make my move," and then took the birthday girl away from her party and into bed.
Have any of you ever used this expression or heard it used to indicate the attempted launch of an imminent sexual encounter? How common is the term and what is the first time you can recall hearing it, or the oldest example that comes to mind?
It just seems like an odd expression, almost what lawyers would call a "term of art," for a particular sexual situation of someone – always a man? -- who is on the brink of consummation or is on the verge of actually having sex with someone. It is essentially the final step in the process of seduction or pairing off for sex acts; not the actual penetration but the steps immediately prior to seeking assent.
Or perhaps these clumsy efforts to define the term are not how you use or have heard the term used, and a more fair description might be different.
http://onlineslangdictionary.com/ says "make a move" means "to approach someone with romantic intent." That certainly is a euphemism.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/ offers "to attempt to seduce someone" and "to show someone you are sexually attracted to them." No, it's an attempt to culminate that attraction by acting on the desire, right?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/ also circles around the specific intention by claiming that "to make a move" means "to make an advance on a person with the intention of becoming more than just friends."
Anyway, just struck me as an oddly specific sexual term, to say that one is moving in for the conquest– no, there may BE a conquest, but it's not for the bedpost notch but for the fuck that one makes one's move. And there is a related term to make your move too soon.
It's just one little bit of specialized male vernacular that applies to a particular and widely known activity or process that is familiar enough and common enough to have an apparently standardized term for it, but does the term go back before the 1960s? The Oxford English Dictionary doesn't seem to report on the phrase or its first known use.
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but it's not for the bedpost notch but for the fuck that one makes one's move
English is not my language yet " to make your move" is what I learned as standard expression not about " fuck". you got others expressions for that. Like when someone is shy and in love , some mate might say, "come on she's alone, it's the right time to make your move" meaning introduce yourself, tell her you like her , invite her to dance, offer her a drink etc. not a rude " go fuck her in the ass right here right now " lool ;D
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In my experience- to "make your move" is often linked but not limited to, initiating a romantic or sexual encounter. But this is just the more common but not only use for the phrase.
I've often heard and used it to mean the "right moment" or the most opportune time to act has opened up. So making a move is all about finding and using just the right moment to achieve your goal.
