Docking

When one man pulls his foreskin over the head of another man's cock and the two play while sheathed together.

Docking is when one man pulls his foreskin over the head of another man's cock, so the two are sheathed together, and then they play from there. It needs at least one uncut partner with enough skin to go round, and it is about as niche, tender and slightly comic as gay sex gets. Two ships, one harbor.

It is not penetration in any ordinary sense and it is not quite frot, though the two are close neighbors. Men who dock usually stroke each other while connected, so it also counts as a form of mutual masturbation.

Where it comes from

Green's Dictionary of Slang labels docking as US gay slang and finds it in Hal Max's glossary Gay (S)language in 1988, then in Brenda Love's Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices in 1992, which calls it "a form of masturbation that involves two people, usually men". The image is nautical, a ship pulling into its dock, and the word wears it lightly. Nobody has traced exactly who first used it this way.

Who is into it

Docking lives where foreskin fans gather. Uncut men often discover it with each other, and plenty of cut men are curious because it is the one thing they cannot do on their own. Where circumcision is common, an uncut partner can feel like a prize in himself, and docking is part of the appeal. Where foreskins are the norm, it is less exotic and more of a happy accident.

On the apps, docking turns up in the kink list next to frot, JO buddy sessions and foreskin play. It is popular with side guys and with anyone who loves cock-on-cock sex without anal.

In porn

Docking is a favorite of uncut porn, where it comes back as a set piece again and again. It photographs better than you would expect, and fans search for it by name. It is one of those words most gay men first learned from a video title.

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