notch on one's bedpost

• notch in one's bedpost
• notch on the bedpost

From the practice of keeping track of the number of one's sexual liaisons by carving notches into the post of one's bed.

notch on one's bedpost (plural notches on one's bedpost)

1. (idiomatic, slang, offensive) A sexual conquest; a casual sexual partner.
   • 2002, Anne McAllister, The Great Montana Cowboy Auction, Silhouette Books (2002), →ISBN, page 22:

     He was a notch on her bedpost, a stepping stone on her quest for stardom.

   • 2007, Melinda Curtis, Count on Love, Harlequin (2007), →ISBN, page 167:

     She'd confused Sam's attentions with real feelings, and now she was just another notch on his bedpost.

   • 2010, Jenna Black, Glimmerglass, St. Martin's Press (2010), →ISBN, page 138:

     Bad enough to think he'd wanted me as just another notch on his bedpost, but to think he'd tried to seduce me for cold-blooded political purposes was unbearable.

   • 2011, Peter Robinson, Before the Poison, McClelland & Stewart (2011), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     […] He wasn't a notch on her bedpost. They were in love, for crying out loud.'

Considered offensive because objectifying – seeing a person as a conquest.

• See also Thesaurus:casual sexual partner.