mama's boy

mama's boys (plural)
mamma's boy (alternative)
mommy's boy (alternative)
mummy's boy (alternative)
momma's boy (alternative)

He's such a mama's boy that he can't even ask a girl out for a date without his mother's approval.

And now we have plenty of mama’s boys who just want to have fun, who just want to —I don't know— use some women, have fun, have great sex, but they are not able to offer this responsibility in case something happens (!) so that’s why women, they are insecure because sex is something very precious that we have to offer; we women, because it’s our bodies, and our bodies, uhm, we become pregnant and men cannot become pregnant, so we bear all of these risks. And, for us, it’s a huge opening if we say yes to a man, if we give ourselves to a man, it’s not only that we open —uh, I’m sorry for the expression— our legs, but, it’s just that we open our heart and soul and we trust that this man is responsible; and if something happens (!) he will take action, he will be there (!) for us; he will behave... [nodding] like a man.

2020, Alexandra, 8:48–9:45 from the start, in Strong women and weak men, spoken by speaker, Family Code, via YouTube:

(informal, idiomatic, derogatory, Canada, US) A male who has a very close bond with his mother, and may consequently be perceived as soft or effeminate.


round robin

round robins (plural)
round-robin (alternative)

/ˌɹaʊnd ˈɹɒbɪn/

From round (adjective) + robin. Sense 1 (“senses relating to something with a round shape, or which goes around”) is connected with the word round, while sense 2 (“senses relating to people, animals, or plants”) is connected with some English regional senses of the word robin where it is used in the names of various fish and plants which are not related to the red-breasted bird. However, apart from the alliteration, it is not clear why the two words came to be linked together in compounds. It is possible that the term was first used to refer to sense 1.13.1 (“consecrated host”) which appears to be the earliest attested sense, and then extended to other senses either having the sense of round or robin.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a corruption of French ruban rond (literally “round ribbon”), referring to the practice in 17th-century France of signing on ribbons which were then attached to petitions of grievances in a circular manner: see sense 1.1. However, this etymology does not explain the senses of the term unrelated to a signed document.

der

Senses relating to people, animals, or plants.

(Canada, US, rare) A freshwater sunfish native to eastern North America, either the pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) or the redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus).


first floor

(Canada, US, Philippines) The floor of a building at the level of the street or surrounding ground; the ground floor


horse's ass

there are more horses' asses than horses

At the party he behaved like a real horse's ass.

(Canada, US, vulgar, idiomatic) A jerk; an unpleasant, unlikable person; an asshole.

That is one horse's ass of a paint job.

(Canada, US, vulgar, idiomatic) A thing or person which is visually unappealing.


butt-ugly

en-adj

butt-ugly (comparative more butt-ugly, superlative most butt-ugly)

more butt-ugly (comparative)
most butt-ugly (superlative)
butt ugly (alternative)
buttugly (alternative)

(Canada, US, slang, derogatory) Extremely ugly.


notwithstanding clause

en-noun

notwithstanding clause (plural notwithstanding clauses)

Section Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Secretary of State Lucien Bouchard is standing firm on his defence of Quebec's use of the constitutional "notwithstanding" clause to safeguard the French language in that province.

1989 January 12, Ross Howard, “Bouchard stands firm in defending Quebec on language move”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, page A4:

Literary critic William Empson identified seven kinds of ambiguity. Had he looked further, he might have discerned an eighth—Canada's constitutional debate, complete with notwithstanding clauses, devolutions and non-derogations, asymmetries and distinct identities.

1990, Keith Henderson, "Creative ambiguity" (Review of A Canadian Challenge by Christian Dufour), The Globe and Mail, Toronto, 15 Dec, p. C24

The struggle for gay rights took a historic leap forward yesterday with a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision. . . . Alberta Premier Ralph Klein suggested his province might use the Constitution's notwithstanding clause to override any similar decision affecting Alberta.

1999 May 21, Kirk Makin, “Gay couples win rights”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, page A1:

(Canada, law) Section 33 of Part I (Charter of Rights and Freedoms) of the Canadian Constitution Act (1982), which permits the creation of laws without regard for certain constitutional rights. Specifically, under section 33 the federal and provincial governments may enact laws "notwithstanding" section 2 (Fundamental Freedoms) and sections 7 through 15 (Legal and Equality Rights) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Such laws may be in effect for up to five years and are renewable.


Masshole

This damn Masshole cut in front of my car!

You're a typical Massachusetts driver, known affectionately as a "Masshole." Bit of advice: Don't ever go to Ohio, or you will get arrested within five miles of the border.

2002, John Sheirer, Free Chairs, →ISBN, page 132:

(Canada, US, derogatory, slang) A contemptible or obnoxious person from Massachusetts.

(derogatory, slang) Especially, an obnoxious or irresponsible automobile driver from Massachusetts.

OK massholes it is pouring rain, possibly all day. It is going to be more of a pain to get out and vote.

(Massachusetts, slang, usually self-referential) Any resident of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts; usually self-referential; Massachusetts; usually self-referential

God-damned Masshole trespasser who maybe ought to have his arrogant ass kicked for the hell of it.


cloverleaf interchange

cloverleaf interchange (plural cloverleaf interchanges)

(US, Canada) A junction of two highways, one crossing over the other, having a series of exit and entrance ramps, arranged in the form of a four-leaf clover, such that traffic may proceed from either highway in all directions.


partial cloverleaf interchange

partial cloverleaf interchange (plural partial cloverleaf interchanges)

partial cloverleaf interchanges (plural)

cloverleaf interchange
cloverleaf interchange

(US, Canada) A variation on the cloverleaf interchange in which there are fewer loop ramps.


Ogopogo

The ogopogo made no attempt to devour the sailboat crew, as he is reported to have done some years ago in the case of some Indians.

1930 July 19, “Mysterious Ogopogo Is Accused of Capsizing a Canadian Boat”, in The New York Times, page 17:

(Canada, cryptozoology) A large serpentlike aquatic creature, similar to the Loch Ness monster, which is said to live in Lake Okanagan, British Columbia, Canada.


Igopogo

The story of Lake Simcoe's monster started 11 years ago, when Wellington Charles, a fishing guide on the lake for many years, first sighted a mysterious marine animal. He described it as having a neck like a stovepipe with a face like a boxer dog. At the time, he named the thing Igopogo.

1963 July 1, “Igopogo, Simcoe Monster, Reported Sighted Again”, in The Globe and Mail, page 1:

(Canada, cryptozoology) A large aquatic creature, similar to the Loch Ness monster, which supposedly lives in Lake Simcoe, Ontario, Canada.


Manipogo

The creature was dubbed Manipogo in 1957, from a blend of Manitoba + Ogopogo.

(Canada, cryptozoology) A large aquatic creature, similar to the Loch Ness monster, which supposedly lives in Lake Manitoba, Canada.


Memphre

While there have been more than 100 reported sightings of a Lake Memphremagog creature called Memphre, a photograph submitted by two unnamed Quebec residents will not be recorded among them.

1986 October 11, “Photo of monster exposed as hoax”, in The Gazette, Montreal, Que., page F12:

(Canada, cryptozoology) A large aquatic creature, similar to the Loch Ness monster, which supposedly lives in Lake Memphremagog, Quebec, Canada.


Timbit

From Tim + bit.
A brand name: From Tim (the name of Canadian hockey player Tim Horton, and the doughnut shop chain he founded, now Tim Hortons) + bit.

When colleague John Stackhouse was searching for a title for his lovely book on travelling across Canada, he decided to go with Timbit Nation.

2003 June 26, Roy MacGregor, “When size definitely matters: How you order a coffee reveals what type of Canadian you are”, in The Globe and Mail, page A2:

(Canada) A bite-sized doughnut ball sold at the Canadian Tim Hortons restaurant chain and sometimes jocularly regarded as an icon of Canadian culture.

timbit

genericization of the trademark, used in Canada to refer to any donut hole ball pastry informally


Bloc Quebecois

(Canada) Alternative spelling of Bloc Québécois


NDP

But it was decided that a member of the Federal Parliament could not be president or associate president of the party. A NDP member elected in such party office would, however, be entitled to complete his parliamentary term.

1961 August 4, “Delegates Reject Full-Time Treasurer”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, →ISSN, page 9:

Mr. Green agreed that the Columbia River treaty was indeed a problem. He said that the Liberals and the NDP both wanted re-negotiation.

1962 July 17, Willis C. Armstrong, “Telegram from the Embassy in Canada to the Department of State”, in Charles S. Sampson, James E. Miller, editors, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, volumes 13, West Europe and Canada, Washington: US Government Publishing Office, published 1994, →ISBN, page 1188:

New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party#English

(Canada) Initialism of New Democratic Party.


out of gas

After twelve hours straight at the office, he was about out of gas and decided to go home and rest.

(Canada, US, idiomatic) Tired; lacking energy or motivation.


delicata

So named because of its delicate skin that does not need to be peeled before cooking and can be eaten.

But once you've tasted the sweet flesh of a delicata or slipped the strands of a spaghetti squash out of its shell, you'll never again regard winter squash as merely an agricultural art piece.

1992 October 27, Nanette Blanchard, “Autumn's Glory”, in Vegetarian Times, page 67:

You will need one medium butternut or two or three delicatas.

2004, Jack Bishop, Richard G. Jung, “Winter Squash Risotto with Sage and Parmesan”, in A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen, →ISBN, page 354:

The best winter squashes (delicata, for example) have edible skins and are amazing just chunked and roasted with a little oil[…].

2009 January 17, Mark Bittman, “Stale spices, canned beans are no-nos for new year”, in Toronto Star:

(Canada, US) An heirloom variety of winter squash, oblong in shape and having a cream-colored skin with green stripes


in the hospital

(Canada, US, idiomatic) Admitted as a patient in a hospital.


sugar bush

Alternative form: sugarbush

The lake abounds with the choicest species of fish, and in the vicinity are found sugar bushes and rice fields.

1851, Executive Documents, v 1, n 1, Washington DC: United States Senate, p 93

en:wooded area whose trees are tapped for sugaring

(Canada, US) A wooded area with sugar maples or other trees tapped for sugaring.


multistory

(US, Canada) Alternative spelling of multi-storey


pickerel

From Middle English pikerel; equivalent to pike + -rel.

(Canada) Walleye, A species of gamefish, Sander vitreus, native to the Northern U.S. and Canada with pale, reflective eyes.


teeter-totter

teeter-totters (plural)
teetertotter (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-teeter-totter.wav

Either from teeter + totter, or from a reduplication of either element.

(Canada, US, often childish) A seesaw; a piece of playground equipment consisting of a long board with seats at either end, with a pivot point in the center.


teeter-totter

en-verb

teeter-totter (third-person singular simple present teeter-totters, present participle teeter-tottering, simple past and past participle teeter-tottered)

teeter-totters (present singular third-person)
teeter-tottering (participle present)
teeter-tottered (participle past)
teeter-tottered (past)
teetertotter (alternative)

(Canada, US, intransitive) To ride a seesaw.


motorsports

Canada, US standard spelling of motorsport. the class of all motorsports


yogourt

en-noun

yogourt (countable and uncountable, plural yogourts)

From French yogourt, yoghourt, from Turkish; see yogurt.


sympathize

en-verb

sympathize (third-person singular simple present sympathizes, present participle sympathizing, simple past and past participle sympathized)

sympathizes (present singular third-person)
sympathizing (participle present)
sympathized (participle past)
sympathized (past)
sympathise (alternative)

Borrowed from French sympathiser. By surface analysis, sympathy + -ize. Displaced native Old English efnþrōwian (literally “to suffer with or together”).

ncog

‘[…] who is to hunt up my witnesses? All of them are sailors, drafted off to other ships, except those whose evidence would go for very little, as they took part, or sympathised in the affair. […]’

1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 31, in North and South:

“Whether one sympathises with the agitation for female suffrage or not one has to admit that its promoters showed tireless energy and considerable enterprise in devising and putting into action new methods for accomplishing their ends. […]”

1919, Saki, “The Threat”, in The Toys of Peace and Other Papers, London: John Lane, page 150:

[…] naturally the British aristocracy sympathized with the Confederacy, as one aristocrat with another, against a race of dollar lovers like the Yankees.

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter 9, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC, part II, page 171:

He’d go to […] Soviet Russia—now giving us the whole story, that he sympathized with the Reds and admired Lenin […]

1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 3, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC, pages 41-42:

President Obama in a speech this past week said that we should solve the nation's bee problem. Oh, God, we elected a guy who sympathizes with bees?

2014, Norm Macdonald Live, season 2, episode 9, spoken by Norm Macdonald:

(intransitive) To support, favour, have sympathy (with a political cause or movement, a side in a conflict / in an action).


aboiteau

(Canada, Acadia) Alternative form of aboideau


hibachi

c. 1870, from Japanese 火鉢 (hibachi, “a charcoal-powered heating brazier”, literally “fire pot”).

bor

(Canada, US) A cooking method and performance art in which the chef grills pieces of food on a hot metal griddle in front of the guests; teppanyaki. This terminology is virtually unknown in Japan.

(Canada, US) The griddle used in such cuisine; teppan.


RESP

(Canada) Acronym of registered education savings plan: an investment vehicle allowing caregivers to save for their children's post-secondary education, offering subsidies and potential tax advantages.


RRSP

(Canada) Registered Retirement Savings Plan—a program regulated by the federal government of Canada, offering tax advantages to help Canadian residents accumulate financial wealth, through a wide range of investment instruments, in order to provide financial security and income during retirement.


CESG

Government Communications Headquarters
Registered Education Savings Plan

(Canada) Canada Education Savings Grant—a subsidy provided by the federal government of Canada to Canadian residents enrolled in an RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan), in order to help defray the costs of higher education for the enrollee's children.


get sick

en-verb

get sick (third-person singular simple present gets sick, present participle getting sick, simple past got sick, past participle (UK) got sick or (US) gotten sick)

gets sick (present singular third-person)
getting sick (participle present)
got sick (past)
got sick (UK participle past)
gotten sick (US participle past)

(Canada, US) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see get, sick.


blank cheque

(Australia, New Zealand, British, Canada) Alternative form of blank check


nursery school

en-noun

nursery school (countable and uncountable, plural nursery schools)

kindergarten

borrowed from German "Kindergarten"; mainly Canada, the U.S. and Australia

(Canada, British) An educational institution for small children (normally around 3 to 5 years old, who not yet have begun primary school).

çerdhe

a school for pre-school children — see also kindergarten


CFS

CFS (countable and uncountable, plural CFSs)

Canada Flight Supplement
w:Canada Flight Supplement

(Canada, aviation) Initialism of Canada Flight Supplement (a pilot's guide to aerodromes, air control zones, and airways in Canadian airspace and Canadian air traffic control zones).


trey

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Middle English treye, from Anglo-Norman trei or treis, from Old French treis (“three”). Doublet of three and tres.

(US, Canada, basketball, informal, obsolete) A three-pointer.


Mondays

Downtown Library will be open Mondays from 10 am to 6 pm starting Jan. 25.

2010 January 15, “Recession boosts library attendance”, in The Spokesman Review, Spokane, WA:

Delicious is open from 9am to 6pm Mondays to Saturdays and from 10am to 4pm on Sundays.

2010 January 14, Eleanor Patmore, “Afternoon tea is back in Stortford!”, in Herts and Essex Observer:


Wednesdays

We are closed Wednesdays in the Summer.

Wednesdays we would go bowling.

(US, Canada) On Wednesday; each Wednesday.


Thursdays

(US, Canada) On Thursday; each Thursday.


sergeant major

sergeant major (plural sergeant majors or sergeants major)

sergeant majors (plural)
sergeants major (plural)

(Canada) A senior non-commissioned appointment in the Army of a company or unit, directly responsible to the officer in charge for their soldiers' performance, standards, discipline, morale, welfare, et al, that can be held by a Warrant Officer or above.


truck driver

truck drivers (plural)
truckdriver (alternative)
truck-driver (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-truck driver.wav

(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A person employed to drive a truck, especially a tractor-trailer or other large industrial truck.


drive truck

en-verb

drive truck (third-person singular simple present drives truck, present participle driving truck, simple past drove truck, past participle driven truck)

drives truck (present singular third-person)
driving truck (participle present)
drove truck (past)
driven truck (participle past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-drive truck.wav

My uncle was a truckdriver. He drove truck for Roadway for years.

(chiefly Canada, US, trucking, colloquial) To drive trucks, especially semi-trailer trucks, especially as one's occupation.


agri-food

en-noun

agri-food (countable and uncountable, plural agri-foods)

agri-foods (plural)
agrifood (alternative)

/ˈæɡɹiˌfuːd/

The Liberal statement does draw attention to its potential future agenda, namely, fisheries, forestry, agri-food, and mining, all resource-based sectors.

1982, G. Bruce Doern, How Ottawa Spends Your Tax Dollars: National Policy and Economic Development, 1982, James Lorimer & Company, →ISBN, page 21:

2007, F. Scala, A. Raio, A. Zoina, and M. Lorito, "Biological Control of Fruit and Vegetable Diseases with Fungal and Bacterial Antagonists: Trichoderma and Agrobacterium", chapter 7 of S. B. Chincholkar and K. G. Mukerji (eds.), Biological Control of Plant Diseases, Haworth Press, →ISBN, page 177,
Sales of organic products have increased dramatically in recent years (for instance, in Europe), and organic farming is the fastest-growing sector of agriculture and an important point in the EU agri-food policy.

(chiefly Canada, also US and Ireland, Australia) The business of producing food agriculturally (as opposed to through hunting, fishing, gathering, and so on); food so produced.


Yannick

From French Yannick, from Breton Yannig.


supreme court

(Canada) In certain provinces, a superior court of original jurisdiction, which however is inferior to the province's court of appeals.


half bath

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-half bath.wav


soccer player

soccer players (plural)
soccer-player (alternative)

(soccer, US, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) One who plays soccer, especially professional soccer.


go snake

en-verb

go snake (third-person singular simple present goes snake, present participle going snake, simple past went snake, past participle gone snake)

goes snake (present singular third-person)
going snake (participle present)
went snake (past)
gone snake (participle past)

Industry watchers note that high prices and record revenues likely mean the sector is headed for strong profits, despite its challenges. / “Prices have gone snake. If you think about it, the tariffs have been a constant over the whole thing. […]” observed James Beck, a forestry professor at the University of Alberta.

2004 August 23, Geoffrey Scotton, “Alberta lumber sales roar: Exports, prices put industry on record pace”, in Calgary Herald, Calgary, Alberta, page D4:

“On the road, refs are going to make their calls; I know that,” Hillis said Friday. “I'm a big boy, I've been on the road before. But there were two really hard fouls (on Wright and Matt Cherkas) . . . and I finally went snake.[”]

2004 November 6, “Cougars slammed by Wesmen”, in Leader-Post, Regina, Sask., page C8:

A few days after I got home from the ER, my mother called to yell at me. Since it turned out I wasn't dying, I hadn't told her of my medical adventure. I didn't want to worry her. Big mistake. A family member ratted me out and my little, white-haired mother went snake on me.

2007 April 18, Kim Ross-Polito, “Sidelines”, in The Crestline Advocate, number 29, Crestline, OH, page 2:

(idiomatic, chiefly Canada, informal) To act in an erratic or unrestrained manner.


fibre bundle

(topology, British, Canada) Alternative spelling of fiber bundle


redlining

en-noun

redlining (countable and uncountable, plural redlinings)

(systematic denial): From the red outlines used by the HOLC to mark D-rated neighborhoods with minority occupants.

Admittedly, our metropolitan plan was an exercise in hope. There were million reasons why it might not have worked. But it represented a responsible way to try to begin atoning for the public housing ghettos, the racial zoning and covenants, the redlining, the “Negro removal,” and the other policies and practices that had given us the two separate and unequal societies described by the Kerner report.

2007, Alexander Polikoff, Waiting for Gautreaux: A Story of Segregation, Housing, and the Black Ghetto, Northwestern University Press, →ISBN, page 120:

(Canada, US) The systematic denial of various services to residents of specific, often racially associated, neighborhoods or communities, either directly or through the selective raising of prices.


mudroom

mudrooms (plural)
mud room (alternative)

We made sure to hang our wet clothes on the hook in the mudroom when we came in from the snow.

In the mud room, I grabbed my wool-lined jacket and headed back out.

2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.2, at p.28

(Canada, US) A room used as a barrier between indoors and outdoors.


moviegoer

(chiefly Canada, US) Person who regularly frequents movie theaters.


pencil crayon

You'll notice that all the illustrations are done in different media: some with pencil crayons, some with felts, some with paint, some with chalk pastels.

1989, Anne D. Forester, Margaret Reinhard, The Learners' Way, page 116:

(Canada, UK, Ireland) A coloured pencil.


minivan

→ Japanese: ミニバン (miniban)

→ Korean: 미니밴 (minibaen)

→ Russian: минивэ́н (minivɛ́n)

→ Thai: มินิแวน (mí-ní-wɛɛn)

A small van, especially (Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines) one primarily used for family transport.


wowzer

(New Zealand, Canada, slang) Something of great interest or beauty.


JK

(Canada) Initialism of junior kindergarten.


homebody

homebodies (plural)
home-body (alternative)
home body (alternative)

Although my uncle likes to travel, my aunt is a homebody, so he usually comes with us while she stays home with her cats.

After Phillis left Mrs. Weston's room, she was on her way to her cabin, when she noticed Aunt Peggy sitting alone at the door. She was rather a homebody; yet she reproached herself with having neglected poor old Peggy, when she saw her looking so desolate and dejected.

1852, Mary Henderson Eastman, “chapter XIV”, in Aunt Phillis's Cabin:

Daddy did improve over the next few weeks, but it became apparent that he would be unable to live alone. I believe this must have been one of the most difficult times in his life. Not only had he lost his wife, he had lost his health and his home. He had always been a home body, insisting on being home by sundown. There were chores to do, his animals to tend. He was busy and happy.

2000, Roberta Zybach Yarbrough, A Trek in the Desert. Finding a Path Through Grief, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 63:

(Canada, US, informal) A person who prefers to remain at home, rather than participate in social events elsewhere.


hotcake

hotcakes (plural)
hot cake (alternative)

→ Alutiiq: haatkiik

→ Cantonese: 克戟 (hak¹ kik¹)

→ Cebuano: hatkeyk

→ Japanese: ホットケーキ (hottokēki)

→ Spanish: hotcake

For breakfast he ordered a stack of hotcakes with butter and syrup.


mom-and-pop

Mom-and-pop diners are disappearing from American streets and being replaced by bland corporate giants.

(US, Canada, typically of a business) Small and unsophisticated, typically because operated by a couple or a family.


hangashore

From Irish aindeiseoir (“sickly person, wretch”).


passive armour

en-noun

passive armour (countable and uncountable, plural passive armours)

passive armours (plural)
passive armor (alternative)

(British, Canada) Shielding that is chemically inert (unlike reactive armour) and does not require electricity or active sensors to operate. It is usually made of metal, ceramic, or in some cases, composite materials.


garbage can

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-garbage can.wav

(Canada, US) A receptacle, usually roughly cylindrical and wider at the top than at the bottom, which serves as a place to discard waste materials.


flunker

(slang, Canada, US) Someone who has flunked: failed in an examination, been kept back to repeat a grade, or flunked out of school.


bare-butt

(Canada, US, slang) With the buttocks exposed, as for a spanking or a mooning.

It has taken millions of years of evolution — pelagic, geologic, biological, and cultural — to create the Monterey Peninsula of today, a charming series of communities that appeal to bare-butt, stoned-out hippies as much as to some of the wealthiest and most talented people in the world.

2001, Thom Akeman, Monterey Peninsula: A Cypress Shore, Graphic Arts Center Publishing, published 2001, →ISBN, page 7:

Although Horcón has tolerated bare-butt bathing for some years, the municipalidad of Pichilemu wants to be the first to officially accept nudism, despite the opposition of its parish priest, who declared 'nudism leads to adultery'.

2005, Tim Burford, Chile: The Bradt Travel Guide, Globe Pequot Press, published 2005, →ISBN, page 369:

[…] All the while, he's paddling toward the beach, and when he got up there, the shark was cruising around on the inside. So he took his shorts off, threw them to the shark and just walked bare-butt down the beach. […]

2009, Stuart Holmes Coleman, Fierce Heart: The Story of Makaha and the Soul of Hawaiian Surfing, St. Martin's Press, published 2009, →ISBN:

(Canada, US, slang, by extension) Stark naked.


iced tea

iced tea (countable and uncountable, plural iced teas)

iced teas (plural)
ice tea (alternative)

→ Japanese: アイスティー

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-iced tea.wav

(Canada, Philippines) Sweetened iced tea, flavoured with lemon.


red-eye

red-eye (countable and uncountable, plural red-eyes)

red-eyes (plural)
red eye (alternative)
redeye (alternative)

The noun is derived from red + eye; sense 2.3 (“strong but poor-quality whiskey”) and sense 3 (“overnight airplane flight”) are probably so named because they may cause people to develop bloodshot eyes.
The verb is derived from the noun.

The red-eye (Vireo olivaceus), [...] The first (the red-eye) is one of the most abundant birds in the woods of the northern states. In the spring months, he is one of the most conspicuous of our singers, and, though his notes are short, they are very musical and lively.

1851, J[ohann] G[eorg] Heck, “Sub-order 3. Dentirostres, Tooth-billed Birds.”, in Spencer F[ullerton] Baird, transl., Iconographic Encyclopædia of Science, Literature, and Art. … Translated from the German, … In Four Volumes, volumes II (Botany, Zoology, Anthropology, and Surgery), New York, N.Y.: Rudolph Garrigue, […], →OCLC, pages 550–551:

The Red-eye sings with clear to slurred whistles using a variety of phrasings. It scolds with a harsh "dzur." [...] Red-eyes are common in city and town parks.

1998 June, W[illiam] Bruce McGillivray, Glen P[eter] Semenchuk, “Shrikes and Vireos”, in The Federation of Alberta Naturalists Field Guide to Alberta Birds, Edmonton, Alta.: Federation of Alberta Naturalists, →ISBN, page 196:

(countable) Any of various animals that have red eyes.

(Canada, US) The red-eyed vireo (Vireo olivaceus), a small American songbird.

(countable) Types of beverages or sauces.

(Canada, regional) A drink consisting of beer with tomato juice.


grow op

First use appears c. 1998. A clipping of grow operation.

Police sweep massive grow op: ‘Sophisticated organized crime’ behind pot: Police

1998 Aug. 21, Province (Vancouver, Canada), final edition, p. A8 [headline]


ASC

Advertising Standards Canada
w:Advertising Standards Canada

(Canada) Initialism of Advertising Standards Canada.


butt-naked

Probably related to (and perhaps simply a variant of) buck naked. It is not clear which of the two forms came first, but the earliest written evidence suggests that buck naked is present some four decades earlier.

They could hardly have all marched off butt-naked.

1998, John Peel, The Outer Limits: The Vanished, New York: Tor Kids, →ISBN, page 8:

He cannot picture life without alcohol, drugs or butt-naked rooftop escapades.

2008, Chris Kovach, chapter 11, in Alcoholics Synonymous, →ISBN:

(Canada, US, informal) Stark naked, completely nude.


street hockey

(Canada, US) An informal version of hockey (ice hockey) played on a quiet street, with a ball instead of a puck.


jello

jello (usually uncountable, plural jellos)

jellos (plural)
Jell-O (alternative)
Jello (alternative)

Genericization of the brand name Jell-O.

The jello was gone in five minutes and the cigarette smoked.

1940, Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Houghton Mifflin, published 2004, →ISBN, page 306:

Distribution of cherry jello was stepped up to college campus towns across America.

2002, Rich Zubaty, Your Brain Is Not Your Own, →ISBN, page 159:

She didn't want to eat anything heavy and decided that jello had zero fat content.

2006, Xana, Harvest Moon, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 178:

(Canada, US) A dessert made by boiling gelatine, sugar and some flavoring (often derived from fruit) and allowing it to set.


provincehood

(Canada) The status of being a province.


close enough for government work

en-adj

close enough for government work (not comparable)

en-au-close enough for government work.ogg

Originally nonironic (meaning good enough to meet especially high standards); later evolved to mean good enough, though only barely.

(Canada, idiomatic, humorous) Acceptable; equivalent to government work, neither worse nor better.


second-degree murder

en-noun

second-degree murder (countable and uncountable, plural second-degree murders)

tappo

act or crime of murder with intent, but without premeditation

roughly equivalent concept in Finnish law

szándékos, de nem előre megfontolt szándékkal elkövetett emberölés

(law, chiefly US, Canada) The criminal offence of murder in a form defined as less serious than first-degree murder; the precise distinction may vary by jurisdiction but typically involves second-degree murder being intentional but not premeditated.

(law, chiefly US, Canada) An act that constitutes the crime of second-degree murder.


whole note

(Canada, US, music) A semibreve, a musical note four beats long in 4/4 time.


trashman

trashmen (plural)
trash man (alternative)

(US, Canada) Someone whose job it is to collect refuse from people's homes and take it to be processed.


garbage man

garbage men (plural)
garbageman (alternative)

(Australia, US, Canada) Someone, usually male, whose job it is to collect refuse from people's homes and take it to be processed.


loosey-goosey

en-adj

loosey-goosey (comparative more loosey-goosey or loosier-goosier or loosey-goosier, superlative most loosey-goosey or loosiest-goosiest or loosey-goosiest)

more loosey-goosey (comparative)
loosier-goosier (comparative)
loosey-goosier (comparative)
most loosey-goosey (superlative)
loosiest-goosiest (superlative)
loosey-goosiest (superlative)
loosey goosey (alternative)
loosy-goosy (alternative)

They said that he couldn't hit International League pitching because he was too loosey-goosey at the plate.

1946 July 8, “By Jim Coleman”, in The Globe and Mail:

“All these other guys are scared to death,” the pinch-hitter kept telling himself as he walked towards the plate, “I’m loosey-goosey, I’m loosey-goosey, I’m loosey-goosey.”

1955, Trent Frayne, “Why Big-League Goalies CRACK Up”, in Maclean's, archived from the original on 2022-04-09:

(sports, originally baseball, Canada, US) relaxed


assmonkey

assmonkeys (plural)
ass monkey (alternative)

Near-synonym: assclown

"Look," said Mayer, suddenly nervous, "there's no sense in acting like complete ass monkeys over this. I'm sure we can reach a mutually beneficial settlement."

2000, Martin DiPietro, “The Pull”, in Nest: 28 Tales of Pulp Fiction, →ISBN, page 72:

“You little assmonkey!” The kid danced away to the front of the car.

2002, Brian Rockstroh, Far From Grace, →ISBN, page 10:

"God, love," I said, "Annnnnd ... trampolines!" ¶ "You are such an assmonkey."

2004, Stacey Cochran, The Band, →ISBN, page 188:

(Canada, US, slang, humorous) An obnoxious or contemptible person; a jerk.


redbird

Then she chanced to look up and catch sight of a redbird in a tree.

(Canada, US) Any of several unrelated American songbirds having red plumage, especially the tanager or cardinal.


hybrid vigour

UK, Australia, and Canada spelling of hybrid vigor


labour union

(Canada, British spelling) Alternative spelling of labor union


forty-ninth parallel

(Canada, US) A nickname for the approximately 1200-mile (1900-kilometer) portion of the border between Canada and the USA, extending along the forty-ninth parallel of latitude from Lake of the Woods to the Pacific Ocean.

(Canada, US, nonstandard) A nickname for the entire border between Canada and the USA.


East Indian

East Indian (comparative more East Indian, superlative most East Indian)

more East Indian (comparative)
most East Indian (superlative)

From East Indies + -ian. May also be analyzed as east + Indian.

(Canada, Caribbean) Of or pertaining to the people, products, or culture of India, or South Asia in general.


garbage bag

The road was full of garbage bags awaiting the arrival of the trash men.

(Canada, US) A plastic bag produced for the disposal of household waste.

كِيس قُمَامَة

plastic bag for the disposal of household waste


trash bag

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-trash bag.wav

The road was full of trash bags awaiting the arrival of the garbage men.

(Canada, US) A plastic bag for the disposal of household waste.

(Canada, US, derogatory, informal) A disrespectful person.


deadbeat dad

If the '90s offer one villain by consensus, it is the deadbeat dad, that selfish fugitive condemned by liberals and conservatives alike for his irresponsible behavior and generous contributions to the cycle of welfare dependency.

1995 April 3, David Van Biema, “Dunning Deadbeats”, in Time:

(chiefly US and Canada, idiomatic, derogatory) A man, especially one who is divorced or estranged from his partner, who fails to provide monetary child support when he is legally required to do so.


aluminize

en-verb

aluminize (third-person singular simple present aluminizes, present participle aluminizing, simple past and past participle aluminized)

aluminizes (present singular third-person)
aluminizing (participle present)
aluminized (participle past)
aluminized (past)

US, Canada, and Oxford British English standard spelling of aluminise.


aluminized

US, Canada, and Oxford British English standard spelling of aluminised.


Robertson screwdriver

en-noun

Robertson screwdriver (plural Robertson screwdrivers)

From Canadian inventor P. L. Robertson (1879-1951).

The Robertson-head screw has a square hole in the head, made in three different sizes, and must be driven with a special Robertson screwdriver.

1963, Alonzo Wass, Building construction estimating:

The Robertson screwdriver is among the tools found at hardware stores and building supply outlets across Canada.

2002, Mark Kearney, Randy Ray, I Know that Name!: The People Behind Canada's Best-known Brand Names from Elizabeth Arden to Walter Zeller:

Robertson screwdrivers have colour-coded handles, to make it easy to determine which size you will require.

2007, William S. Peckham, Michael C. Hammar, Never Hang Wallpaper With Your Wife: Decorating and Renovating From a Guy's Point Of View:

(chiefly Canada) A type of screwdriver having a square tip, designed to drive a Robertson screw.


ass clown

(Canada, US, slang, derogatory) Alternative form of assclown.


summer cottage

(Canada, US) A cottage rented out in the summer to vacationers.


shinplaster

From shin + plaster.
Probably coined during the American War of Independence (1775–1783). Named for its resemblance to, and suitability for makeshift use as, a bandage for dressing the shin.

(historical, Canada informal) A 25¢ banknote.


grannies

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-grannies.wav

And there I was, standing in the middle of the room, in my bra and undies, wearing a Burger King crown, balancing on one leg and praying. A peal of laughter arose from the rest of the girls, who were all clothed. ‘I knew she’d be wearing grannies!’ I heard someone say.

2007, Karen Yampolsky, Falling out of Fashion, Headline Publishing Group, published 2009, →ISBN:

“I’m just a little shocked.” / Monica laughs. “Shocked! You should have seen his face when he pulled down my shorts! He looks at me and says, ‘I wasn’t expecting a hot number like you to wear grannies.’ Then we have hot wild sex in the parking lot of the gym!” […] “What did Jena say?” / Monica laughs. “I guess you didn’t expect me to catch you climbing out of a Ford wearing grannies!’”

2011, Lexi Michaels, Time for a Fresh One, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 19:

“See, you’ve been enhancing yourself all along. A thong serves a specific purpose as does a balconette, or demicup, otherwise you’d just be wearing grannies all the time, right? I mean, if all you wanted to do was cover your ass and support your boobs.”

2012, Quincy Poaches, Dismal: The Maria Patterson Memoirs, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 167:

(US, Canada, slang, derogatory) Granny panties.


French dressing

French dressing (usually uncountable, plural French dressings)

Italian dressing

vinegar, oil, herbs and spices; a vinaigrette

(Canada) A salad dressing that is a uniform viscous sauce with a tangy sweet flavour. It is generally made from vegetable oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, water, and spices.


tyee

(Canada) A large chinook salmon that weighs more than 13.5 kg.


homebrew

homebrew (countable and uncountable, plural homebrews)

Homebrews, American imports, former big-leaguers—the Terriers had it all.

2006, David Menary, Terrier Town: Summer of ’49, page 19:

(Canada, sports, countable) A player who plays for the team named after their own native town.


eat one's Wheaties

en-verb

eat one's Wheaties (third-person singular simple present eats one's Wheaties, present participle eating one's Wheaties, simple past ate one's Wheaties, past participle eaten one's Wheaties)

eats one's Wheaties (present singular third-person)
eating one's Wheaties (participle present)
ate one's Wheaties (past)
eaten one's Wheaties (participle past)

An allusion to the breakfast cereal Wheaties, long advertised as the "Breakfast of Champions", and its long-standing association with sports celebrities.

But he just couldn't get the ball through the goal posts (poor Harry . . . he didn't eat his Wheaties, or else his shoe was on backwards).

1971 October 19, Haney Reilly, “Another game, another loss but Hawkeyes looked better”, in Telegraph-Herald, Iowa, USA, retrieved 2011-07-01, page 17:

Jo-Ann Wonsik answered a Herald want ad for a career requiring day after day of heavy lifting. . . . "And you've got to eat your Wheaties on this job," she said.

1994 September 11, “Garbage Collector Lifts Away Worries”, in Miami Herald, page 1B:

Of all the movie promotions in all the towns in all the world, Keanu Reeves had to walk into this one: a California Institute of Technology forum at which he was asked, “How could an alien being grow so fast without violating standard mass- and energy-conservation laws?” . . . He paused. “I ate my Wheaties.”

2008 December 10, Felicity Barringer, “Science Students Get a Real-Life Lesson, in Science Fiction”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-07-01:

(US and Canada, idiomatic) To prepare or fortify oneself for an activity requiring exertion.


built like a brick shithouse

en-adj

built like a brick shithouse (not comparable)

EN-AU ck1 built like a brick shithouse.ogg

From the figurative extension of the idea that an outhouse is overbuilt if one builds it with bricks.

Sonia is a hot young blonde who is built like a brick shithouse! She is stacked and well put together.

2005 March 18, Hot Azz Sonia, “SONIA'S BUILT LIKE A BRICK SHITHOUSE!”, in alt.sex.phone.ads (Usenet):

(US, Canada, simile, idiomatic, colloquial, vulgar) (Of a woman) Having an athletic or muscular body; often implying also having large breasts or an attractive body.


PWA

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(professional wrestling, Canada) Initialism of Pure Wrestling Association.


blackfish

en-noun

blackfish (plural blackfishes or blackfish)

(Canada, US) Either of two dark-coloured fish of the west Atlantic, the tautog of New England (Tautoga onitis) and the black sea bass (Centropristis striata).


sickle-cell anemia

sickle cell anaemia (alternative)
sickle-cell anaemia (alternative)

Coordinate term: sickle cell trait

(Canada, US) The most common form of sickle-cell disease, with anemic effects.

鐮刀型紅血球疾病 /镰刀型红血球疾病

disease characterized by sickle-shaped red blood cells

鎌状赤血球症

かまじょうせっけっきゅうしょう


senioritis

I don't know, but "senioritis" is real, as I discovered in my senior year. Senioritis is a frame of mind particular to high-school seniors.

1984, W. Dean Memering, Frank O'Hare, The Writer's Work: Guide to Effective Composition - Page 121

And right now she has a raging case of senioritis. […] Whether you call it senioritis or senior slump, there's no disguising the collective sigh of relief […]

2003, Barbara Cooke, Carleton Kendrick, Take Out Your Nose Ring, Honey, We're Going to Grandma's: Hanging In ... - Page 111

I worked hard my senior year, something that was particularly difficult due to the senioritis that many others were feeling. But it paid off!

2007, Vault Editors, The College Buzz Book - Page 336

(US, Canada) A tendency of seniors in high school or college to skip class or slack off due to a desire to move on, or because they have already been accepted by a college and their further academic performance is no longer as relevant.


-ass

tlb

(originally African-American Vernacular, chiefly Canada, US, slang, vulgar)

Partially from ass, and partially from a corruption or simplification of assed.

That's some Nixon-ass shit he's pulling.

What's that formal-ass language you're using? We're at a party!

-like

resembling; forms adjectives from nouns only


deadfall

en-noun

deadfall (countable and uncountable, plural deadfalls)

Heaver forest growth on the north-facing slopes, together with considerable deadfall and soil cover, makes geologic interpretation there difficult.

1967, Calvin S. Bromfield, “Introduction”, in Geology of the Mount Wilson Quadrangle, Western San Juan Mountains, Colorado: […] (Geological Survey Bulletin; 1227), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 6:

(uncountable, Canada, US) Coarse woody debris; deadwood.

A fifth negative test pit was excavated near the largest creek at Middle Point. As well, the roots of all deadfalls within the corridor were examined for the presence of cultural material. Deadfalls were more common in the drier areas, especially near stream channels.

1988 February, Rachel Joan Dale, J. David McMahan, “Research Methodology and Results”, in Cultural Resources Survey of the Proposed North Douglas Highway Extension, Outer Point to Point Hilda (Project No. 68870) (Office of History and Archaeology; report no. 12), Anchorage, Ak.: Office of History and Archaeology, Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, Alaska Department of Natural Resources, →OCLC, page 9:

We should go up to the forest and see if we can find more dry deadfalls. That green wood you were trying to burn last night was all smoke and no heat.

2012, Robin Hobb [pseudonym; Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden], City of Dragons (The Rain Wild Chronicles; 3), London: Harper Voyager, →ISBN:

(countable, specifically) A fallen tree.

Coarse woody debris; deadwood.
A fallen tree.

It [the wolverine] is so cunning as rarely to enter a deadfall itself, but will carefully pull it to pieces and then eat the bait in safety. I was informed by hunters at Selkirk Settlement that they sometimes lost the successful result of several days' trapping by a single wolverine, which, following their path, would pull down every deadfall, or destroy any animal already caught.

1859, Robert Kennicott, “The Quadrupeds of Illinois Injurious and Beneficial to the Farmer. [Wolverine, or Glutton.]”, in Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1858: Agriculture (House of Representatives, 35th Congress, 2d Session; executive document no. 105), Washington, D.C.: James B[lair] Steedman, printer, →OCLC, page 246:

The beaver trap is a deadfall of considerable weight, nicely adjusted over the animal's road or track, frequently on a dam. […] The animal passing under the deadfall has to step on a little stick raised an inch or two above the ground, and this brings down the deadfall on its back.

1876, John J. Rowan, “The Trapper”, in The Emigrant and Sportsman in Canada. […], London: Edward Stanford, […], →OCLC, page 369:

It was a week after the taking of the black fox that Skookum Bill, on a short exploring trip a few miles west of their cabin, came across a deadfall which held a dead marten. He took the marten, and, when he returned, said to Dobbs: "I didn't know you'd built any deadfalls in the timber past the big draw?"

1922 November 25, A[rthur] M[urray] Chisholm, “A Thousand a Plate”, in Western Story Magazine, volume XXX, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Street & Smith Corporation, →OCLC, chapter II, page 90, column 2:

Marten, wolverine, lynx, ermine, fox, mink, beaver, and land otter were plentiful in the general vicinity of Kijik and traps and deadfalls were set for them.

1974, Alaska Planning Group, United States Department of the Interior, “History and Archeology”, in Final Environmental Statement: Proposed Lake Clark National Park, Alaska, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, part II (Description of the Environment), section A (Existing Environment), pages 61–62:

(countable, Canada, US, hunting) A kind of trap for animals, consisting of a heavy board or log that falls on to the prey.

piège assommoir

trap consisting of a heavy object that falls on to the prey


gross out

[T]his film is refreshingly low on scatological gags and other gross-out humor, preferring all-purpose bad jokes to bathroom ones.

1993 May 21, Janet Maslin, "From 'Rambo' to Rodham, Smirking All the Way" (film review of Hot Shots! Part Deux), New York Times (retrieved 22 April 2014)

. . . another ramshackle assortment of sight gags, scares, laughs and gross-outs […]

2014 April 19, Stephen Schaefer, "Wayans’ ‘Haunted’ sequel fails to scare up laughs" (film review), Boston Herald (retrieved 22 April 2014)

On the surface, the film is a globe-trotting gross-out caper in which Nobby, who's from a hellish version of the titular Lincolnshire town ("twinned with Chernobyl"), is reunited with his long-lost brother Sebastian (Mark Strong), who has become a spy for the British secret services.

2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ' Sacha Baron Cohen's vital, venomous action movie'”, in The Daily Telegraph (London):

(informal, chiefly Canada, US) Something which sickens, causes distress, or appalls by reason of being disgusting, gory, or repulsive.


gross out

en-verb

gross out (third-person singular simple present grosses out, present participle grossing out, simple past and past participle grossed out)

grosses out (present singular third-person)
grossing out (participle present)
grossed out (participle past)
grossed out (past)

Lisa likes him clean-shaven. "You know, when there's things crawling out of your beard or whenever you've got food left from lunch or dinner, I don't know, that just kind of grosses me out," she says.

2013 Aug. 22, Ann Oldenburg, "Beardless 'Duck Dynasty' brother reveals wild past" (video game review), USA Today (retrieved 22 April 2014)

The Stick of Truth is a game where you can choose to use a toilet and then, later, fling the result at your enemies to weaken them by grossing them out.

2014 March 4, Chris Suellentrop, "Trey Parker and Matt Stone Make a ‘South Park’ Game" (video game review), New York Times (retrieved 22 April 2014)

(informal, transitive, chiefly Canada, US) To sicken or distress (someone) by being disgusting, gory, or lewd.


555-2368, 1-555-321-2368, and (555)234-2368 are all 555 numbers; they aren’t real.

(Canada, US, fiction) Pertaining to a fake telephone number. The local exchange and area code number 555 was reserved in North American dialing plan for fictional numbers, prior to the 21st century.


water fountain

Network Rail says the introduction of free water fountains at its managed stations has helped to save the equivalent of three million plastic bottles from entering landfill.

2020 March 11, “Network News: Water fountains cut plastic waste”, in Rail, page 23:

(US, Canada) A mechanical device designed to dispense small quantities of drinking water, usually in a public place such as a school or office.

飲水機 /饮水机

device designed to dispense drinking water


where there's smoke, there's fire

en-au-where there's smoke, there's fire.ogg

with a grain of salt
with a grain of salt

(UK, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand) If there is a hint of something occurring it could indeed be true, but such rumors should be taken with a grain of salt.

لَا دُخَانَ بِلَا نَار

if there is a hint of something occurring it could indeed be true, but rumors should be handled with skepticism


Nanaimo bar

Probably from the name of the city Nanaimo (British Columbia, Canada).

Today, Nanaimo's signature cuisine is a little sweeter. That would be the Nanaimo bar, a layered custard, coconut and chocolate confection that originated in 1952 and put the little town on the map.

2009 October 8, Reb Stevenson, “Travel: Rejuvenated Nanaimo now a place to be”, in Toronto Star, Canada, retrieved 2016-01-26:

(chiefly Canada) A chilled dessert confection consisting of a chocolate crumb-based layer, covered by a layer of custard icing, and topped with a layer of smooth chocolate.


air marshal

(British, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, military) A military rank between that of air vice-marshal and air chief marshal, equivalent to an army lieutenant general.


prepping

(Canada, US) The practice of making active preparations for a possible catastrophic disaster or emergency, typically by stockpiling food, ammunition, and other supplies.


ice pellets

(chiefly Canada and US, meteorology) Sleet.


no screaming hell

In overall management skills, "he's no screaming hell," says the analyst. "He doesn't have the long view."

1979 May 5, Jay Bryan, “Jake Moore is a man used to getting his way”, in Montreal Gazette, retrieved 2011-08-29, page 48:

Factory speakers are no screaming hell.

2005 Nov., "Re: 6 volt speakers? old car radio question," jalopyjournal.com, posting by Poncho62 (Hanover, Ontario, Canada) (retrieved 17 Dec. 2007)

I hate to say it but Canadian television was no screaming hell before Corner Gas.

2007 June 28, "The Ruby," cornergas.com, posting by WandasTrainee (retrieved 17 Dec. 2007)

[I]f we're being honest, Markov was no screaming hell in his first four or five games back.

2010 November 16, Sean Gordon, “Sports: The only constant is change”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 2011-08-29:

(Canada, idiomatic) Not particularly effective or impressive; below expectations.


peace bond

"... We're scared for you, and we think you oughta do something about him."
Atticus smiled wryly. "Do what? Put him under a peace bond?"

1960 July 11, Harper Lee, chapter 23, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:

“She's awready^([sic]) about to get us put under a peace bond. She's all the time spying in that alley behind her shutters.”

1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, chapter 7, in A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN, page 151:

(Canada, US, law) A court order forbidding one party to bother another.

lähestymiskielto

Court order forbidding one party to bother another


quinzhee

quinzhees (plural)
quinzee (alternative)
quin-zhee (alternative)

Borrowed from South Slavey kǫ́ yíi (“in the house”).

Knowing the proper art of building a quin-zhee could have saved me and my friends from many snow fort cave-ins when young.

1990 February 1, Sue Lebrecht, “You need patience building snow fort”, in Toronto Star, page A23:

(Canada) A shelter made by hollowing out a pile of snow.


buttfucker

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-buttfucker.wav

2012, John Butler, Boys Hard at Work, page 143:

Jeff Palmer was gorgeous, he too had a wonderful physique, and his impressive cock stayed as hard as Tom Chase's; what set Jeff apart was that he was perhaps the most savage, most ferocious buttfucker any of them had ever seen.

2012, John Butler, Model/Escort, page 274:

(Canada, US, vulgar, derogatory) One who engages in anal sex.


sparkling cider

en-noun

sparkling cider (countable and uncountable, plural sparkling ciders)

(Canada) A carbonated alcoholic beverage based on apples, a champagne-style apple cider/hard cider/hard apple cider/cider


bird course

Possibly referring to the small size of bird's brains (compare birdbrain).
In the movie Sister Act 2, a bird course is referred to as being a course one can "fly right through," a reference to the course being easy to pass.

One of the most popular targets for criticism has been the credit system, Rutledge said, "because the public has the impression that students are just taking a bunch of bird courses—I wish they'd even tell me what a bird course is."

1975 August 30, Elaine Carey, “Back to school: What's happening in the classes?”, in Toronto Star, page A2:

Clarke stumbled into music by way of a high school course he took to raise his grades. "Music was a bird course. I had more interest in math, science, and women", he divulged.

2002 October 26, Nathalie Younglai, “Conducting without boundaries”, in Guelph Mercury, page C3:

Forty-five years ago, a McGill University commerce student named Seymour Schulich was looking for a bird course to bolster his grades and came upon a prime candidate — business history.

2006 March 13, Gordon Pitts, “Forward-looking CEOs are looking to the past”, in Globe and Mail, page B12:

(Canada) In an educational institution, a course which is regarded as particularly easy.


visible minority

visible minority (plural visible minorities)

Almost 4 million Canadians identified themselves as a visible minority in the 2001 Census, accounting for 13.4% of the total population.

2007, "Visible Minorities Making Canada Increasingly Diverse," Ministry of Finance, Government of Ontario (retrieved 12 June 2008)

(Canada) A visually recognizable racial group, excluding aboriginal peoples, whose members constitute less than half of a population; an individual member of such a group.


hooped

en-adj

hooped (comparative more hooped, superlative most hooped)

more hooped (comparative)
most hooped (superlative)

Wayne Zandarco says he doesn't have a Plan B for a possible shutdown of bus service. "I'm hooped," he said.

2014 September 19, CBC News, Saskatoon bus riders rattled by possible lockout:

(western Canada, slang) beset with unfortunate circumstances that seem difficult or impossible to overcome; screwed.


CF

(Canada, military) Abbreviation of Canadian Forces.


core lane

(Canada) In a multi-lane controlled-access highway or expressway system, a lane close to the median and physically separated from the outer lanes, which has fewer entrances and exits than the outer lanes and which is intended for vehicles traveling longer distances, so that these vehicles may proceed in a relatively uninterrupted manner and often at greater speed.


collector lane

(Canada) In a multi-lane controlled-access highway or expressway system, a lane which is physically separated from the (core) lane(s) closest to the median and which is intended for vehicles traveling relatively shorter distances, so that these vehicles may enter and exit the highway system without unduly interrupting the flow of traffic.


LB

Happy Valley-Goose Bay, LB A0P 1E0

1999, Mark Rowh, Opportunities in Electronics Careers, Lincolnwood, IL: VGM Career Horizons, →ISBN, page 120:

(Canada, dated) Abbreviation of Labrador.


social insurance number

en-noun

social insurance number (plural social insurance numbers)

(Canada) A nine-digit number issued by the government of Canada to citizens, permanent residents, and some categories of temporary residents, for official identification in the provision of government services and income taxation. Abbreviation: SIN.


SIN

social insurance number
social insurance number#English

(Canada) Initialism of social insurance number, an identification number issued by the government of Canada.


swarming

(colloquial, Canada) A crime where an unsuspecting innocent bystander is attacked by several culprits at once, with no known motive.


Reformer

(Canada, historical) A member of the Reform movement in 19th-century Canada.


hand truck

(Canada, US) An L-shaped box-moving handcart with handles at one end, wheels at the base, with a small ledge to set objects on, flat against the floor when the hand-truck is upright. It makes otherwise bulky and heavy objects easier to move.


road train

Road trains are big rigs made of tractors that pull more than one trailer.[…]They are driven in remote areas of Canada, the United States, and Australia. Australia is home to the largest road trains in the world.[…]It is common for Australian road trains to have up to six trailers attached to a single tractor, with each trailer holding up to 140 tons (127 tonnes) of freight.

2007, Adrianna Morganelli, Trucks: Pickups to Big Rigs, page 17:

Livestock road trains tend to travel in convoys and its^([sic]) best to pull over for a rest and watch them pass.

2007, Dick Eussen, Australia′s Savannah Way: Cairns to Broome, page 13:

Where there are two semi-trailers and one motive unit this is called a double bottomed articulated vehicle or road train. Especially in Australia, road trains may consist of more than two trailers. In the UK, serious consideration is being given to their use on motorways.

2010, Alan Rushton, Phil Croucher, Peter Baker, The Handbook of Logistics & Distribution Management, page 398:

(US, Australia, Canada) A transport conveyance consisting of a conventional prime mover truck pulling two or more trailers.

bridge; B; A; There are no (drawbar) connected Dolly Converter in the train

B-double (A Prime mover Towing a - trailer and a turntable

Double Roadtrain

A-double, Prime mover towing 2 semi Trailers, with one(1) -(Drawbar) Dolly Converter

Triple Roadtrain

A-triple, Prime mover towing 3 semi Trailers, with two (2) -(Drawbar) Dolly Converters

B-Triple (3 trailers, 2x trailers towing a third connected semitrailer

and connections

ie. Tractor/Prime-mover pulling 2x B-Doubles interconnected by an - (drawbar)

ABB Quad Roadtrain - 4 trailers ie. a Semitrailer towing an-connected .

BBA Quad

B-connections LoadShare on rear wheelsets with the following semitrailer, A-connected trailers do not LoadShare, ie. use a drawbar to the dolly

often with a more stable (3x) hybrid A-type drawbar interconnections


OHIP

health insurance
health insurance#English

(Canada) Acronym of Ontario health insurance plan.


NSERC

(Canada) Acronym of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, a Canadian government agency that provides grants for research in the natural sciences and in engineering.


bar room

bar rooms (plural)
barroom (alternative)

(Canada, US) A room where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter.


soaker

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(Canada, slang) The experience of stepping in a deep puddle and having one's foot become completely engulfed in water.


light rail

light rail (countable and uncountable, plural light rails)

The new Denver light rail runs along the Interstate highway.

(US, Canada, rail transport) A kind of passenger railway in urban and suburban settings typically characterized by a mixture of tram (or in North America streetcar) and metro features, crossing streets at grade crossings and normally powered by electricity.

lättbana

translation of "light rail"; of rare usage


snow fort

snow forts (plural)
snowfort (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-snow fort.wav

2008, Laura Dolce, "Seeing snow through a child's life," seacoastonline.com (New Hampshire), 3 Jan.,
It wasn't a big lawn . . . but to us it was stadium-sized, with plenty of room for snow angels, snowball fights and the all-important snow forts.

(chiefly Northern US and Canada) A walled structure constructed of snow and used for children's wintertime play.


PAYE

(Canada) Initialism of pay at year end, i.e. with funds from the prior fiscal year.


oh my

Which might mean shaping it, gelling it, snooting it, barn dooring it, and putting it on a stand or a clamp. Maybe taking the dome diffuser off. Perhaps zooming it. Oh my. And you thought you were just taking a picture.

(idiomatic, euphemistic, chiefly US and Canada) oh my God


HMCS

(Canada, nautical, military) Initialism of His (or Her) Majesty's Canadian Ship; ship prefix of the Royal Canadian Navy


recreational vehicle

recreational vehicle (plural recreational vehicles)

desc

→ Canadian French: véhicule récréatif (calque)

(Canada, US) A self-propelled vehicle (motor home), or trailer designed for use as living quarters on overnight recreational activities and travel.


let out

en-verb

let out (third-person singular simple present lets out, present participle letting out, simple past and past participle let out)

lets out (present singular third-person)
letting out (participle present)
let out (participle past)
let out (past)

We're gonna have practice tomorrow morning for an assembly we're giving on Thursday before school lets out for Easter.

1999, Laura Beckham, A Bad Seed: And Other Stories, page 47:

(Canada, US, intransitive) Of a school: to finish for the day or term, allowing the pupils to go home.


front yard

natad

area with greenery to the front of the house

(US, Canada) A yard to the front of a house or similar residence, typically having a lawn and often trees, shrubs, and/or flowers.


Supreme Court

The highest court in a legal jurisdiction.


cariole

carioles (plural)
carriole (alternative)

(Canada, historical) A sleigh drawn by horses, with seats for a driver and possibly passengers.

(Canada, historical) A toboggan drawn by dogs, with a passenger or cargo compartment enclosed by skins or fabric, and a small platform at the rear.


ghost car

The committee is asking Metro Council to tack new restrictions onto Metro licences, including . . . an expanded ghost car program.

1984 October 10, “Curbing Metro's auto ripoffs”, in Toronto Star, page A18:

Officers in a ghost car were doing speed enforcement near 82 Street and 132 Avenue when a white 1995 Ford Contour sped by.

2007 July 13, Eliza Barlow, “Police pursuit called off”, in Edmonton Sun, Alberta, retrieved 2008-02-28:

(Canada) An unmarked police car or an unmarked vehicle used as a decoy by police.


Cowtown

From cowtown, being the centre of the Canadian cattle industry.


EF

(Canada, US, meteorology) Followed by a number from 0 to 5: initialism of Enhanced Fujita, a rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale used to indicate the intensity of a tornado. It has superseded the Fujita scale.


drop the gloves

drop the gloves (third-person singular simple present drops the gloves, present participle dropping the gloves, simple past and past participle dropped the gloves)

drops the gloves (present singular third-person)
dropping the gloves (participle present)
dropped the gloves (participle past)
dropped the gloves (past)

From the practice of ice hockey players of removing their heavy gloves before striking blows in fistfights.

Nobody used to care when players such as John Ferguson, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard dropped the gloves, because they could play the game, too.

2007 March 27, Mike Brophy, “Getting rid of the goons”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 2008-10-14:

(Canada and US, ice hockey, idiomatic) To fight.

But Bradley, who dropped the gloves on Gore in a combative debate Wednesday night and called the vice president chronically dishonest, ignored Sullivan's advice.

2000 January 30, Thomas DeFrank et al., “George W. & Al Bank on Bubba”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 2008-10-14:

(Canada and US, idiomatic, by extension) To remove a prior impediment to action; to prepare for or engage in a dispute.


dollar store

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(US and Canada) A retail store selling inexpensive items, especially one in which all items have a price of one dollar.


ratfink

ratfink (third-person singular simple present ratfinks, present participle ratfinking, simple past and past participle ratfinked)

ratfinks (present singular third-person)
ratfinking (participle present)
ratfinked (participle past)
ratfinked (past)
rat fink (alternative)
rat-fink (alternative)

It led to some rather incredible and colourful claims in the submission by the union that the employers had ratfinked on previous agreements.

1980 November 21, Anthony George Malcolm, “Agricultural Workers Amendment Bill: Report of Labour and Education Committee”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): Second Session, Thirty-ninth Parliament: House of Representatives, volume 435, Wellington, N.Z.: P. D. Hasselberg, government printer, published 1981, →OCLC, page 5237:

The dumb bastard says he never rat-finks on a woman. They're too precious, he tells me. And he should know. He has had many of them.

1992, Sean Flannery, Moving Targets, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN:

There's a breed of people in every office who breed problems around them—ratfinking about your long lunch breaks, revealing confidential salary information, blaming everyone for every error.

1999, Karen Salmansohn, The 30-day Plan to Whip Your Career into Submission: Transform Yourself from Job Slave into the Master of Your Destiny in just One Month, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, →ISBN:

On Feb. 11, McLeod officials marched into the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to relate this story, just as Netscape rat-finked on Microsoft to the Department of Justice. FCC officials demanded that Qwest tell them what the heck was going on.

2000 May 1, David [Stephenson] Rohde, “Qwest's Behind-the-scenes Merger Maneuver”, in John Dix, editor, Network World, volume 17, number 18, Southborough, Mass.: Network World, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 40:

Take a three-inch notepad (similar to a Post-It note), and print a large, brightly colored letter on it. […] "T" stands for "Tattle Tale." Punishment for rat-finking on the other child.

2010, Jill Milligan, Michael Milligan, “Creative Moms: Putting the 'D-I-S' in 'D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E'”, in Mom Rules: Notes on Motherhood, the World's Best Job, New York, N.Y.: Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN, page 59:

I shoved Sahlil off of me. He fell backward on my bed. "What? Who the hell rat finked on me?"

2016, Mo (Monique) Daviau, Every Anxious Wave, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 88:


dialled

(British), (Canada), simple past and past participle of dial


open water

en-noun

open water (usually uncountable, plural open waters)

At the end of June, James Bay was generally open water except for loose ice persisting over its northwestern section.

2005, "Seasonal Summary for the Canadian Arctic, Summer 2005," Canadian Ice Service, Government of Canada, 6 Dec, p. 1 (retrieved 14 Mar. 2008)

(chiefly Canada) An area of an ocean, sea, lake, or river which is not covered by ice.


OB-GYN

OB-GYN (countable and uncountable, plural OB-GYNs)

OB-GYNs (plural)
ob-gyn (alternative)
obgyn (alternative)
ob/gyn (alternative)
ObGyn (alternative)
Ob-Gyn (alternative)
Ob/Gyn (alternative)
OBGYN (alternative)
OB/GYN (alternative)
OB-Gyne (alternative)

(countable, initialism, acronym) (prefixed with the) A clinic or doctor's office with these specialties.


red rocket

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-red rocket.wav

Toronto's Red Rocket streetcars are renowned worldwide as a symbol of our city.

1991, "Save the Red Rocket," (editorial) Toronto Star, 9 Sep., p. A14

(Canada, slang) Any of the red-painted electrical streetcars and subway trams operated by the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Canada, especially the classic models used during the early and mid-20th century.


fiador

(Canada, US) In some styles of horse halter and bridle, an optional part similar to a throatlatch.


butt-slapping

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(Canada, US, slang) Slapping the buttocks (an action associated with jest or as in a locker room).


colourize

en-verb

colourize (third-person singular simple present colourizes, present participle colourizing, simple past and past participle colourized)

colourizes (present singular third-person)
colourizing (participle present)
colourized (participle past)
colourized (past)

(Canadian spelling, Canada) Standard spelling of colourise.


flatlander

ridge-runner

antonym(s) of “person who was born or raised by someone outside low altitude mountainous regions”

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-flatlander.wav

(chiefly derogatory) A person who lives at, lived at, or was raised by someone at a low altitude or from any city. A person not raised in or by someone directly from high mountain areas. (used by those who were born, raised, and are still living in higher altitude non-city or city like areas).


check mark

check marks (plural)
checkmark (alternative)

Put a check mark in the box corresponding to the correct answer.

(Canada, US, Philippines) A mark (✓) made to indicate agreement, correctness or acknowledgement.


non-commissioned member

en-noun

non-commissioned member (plural non-commissioned members)

commissioned officer
commissioned officer

non-commissioned officer
non-commissioned officer

(Canadian military) A members of the Canadian Forces that is not a commissioned officer; includes warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and privates.


butter tart

(Canada) A tart filled with butter, sugar, eggs, and often raisins.


Smithereen

From the name of the city, after Sir A. W. Smithers (1850–1924), chairman of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Influenced by smithereens?

(Canada) A native of Smithers, British Columbia.


kubasa

kubasa (countable and uncountable, plural kubasas)

From Ukrainian ковбаса́ (kovbasá /kowbasˈa/, “sausage”, see there for more), a very early Slavic borrowing with no clear antecedent.
The Slavic variants (including Polish kiełbasa, whence kielbasa) point to several reconstructed forms from Proto-Slavic *kъlbasa, *klobasa, *kobasa. It is considered most likely to be borrowed from Proto-Turkic *kül + *bastï, literally “ash pressed”; compare Turkish külbastı (“roasted meat”), basmak (“to press”).

bor

(Canada) A smoked pork sausage with garlic, originating in Eastern Europe.


holubtsi

From Ukrainian го́лубці (hólubci), singular голубе́ць (holubécʹ). Doublet of golubtsy.

(Canada, especially western) cabbage rolls.


farmer's sausage

en-noun

farmer's sausage (countable and uncountable, plural farmer's sausages)

farmer's sausages (plural)
farmer sausage (alternative)
farmers sausage (alternative)

(Canada) Smoked raw pork sausage of Mennonite origin.


fibreboard

fibreboard (countable and uncountable, plural fibreboards)

British and Canada standard spelling of fiberboard.


training wheel

From training (“relating to the moving of a firearm laterally so that it points in a different direction; relating to imparting and acquiring skills”) + wheel.

compound

(chiefly Canada, US and in the plural, cycling) One of a pair of small wheels, each attached to one side of a bicycle's rear wheel to provide support for new riders.

輔助輪 /辅助轮

one of a pair of small wheels, each attached to one side of a bicycle’s rear wheel to provide support for new riders — see also stabilizer


medicare

He said, for him, the Liberals defined Canada by championing medicare and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and by addressing such issues as same-sex marriage.

2009 January 20, Les Whittington, “Ignatieff decries Harper's 'plan'”, in Toronto Star:

(Canada) The Canadian public health insurance system.


first minister

first ministers (plural)
First Minister (alternative)

(Canada, often in plural) The prime minister or a provincial or territorial premier.


First Nations

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-First Nations.wav

Generally speaking, the works of First Nations artists were made with materials such as wood, leather or cloth.

2001, Quebec, Francois Remillard, Hunter Publishing, Inc, →ISBN, page 27:

The prolonged suffering and ghastly deaths of Jesuit missionaries at the hands of hostile First Nations on the borders of the French colonies in Canada in the early seventeenth century rank high in the history of Christian suffering.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 714:

(Canada) The indigenous peoples of Canada (typically not including Inuit or Metis); Indians.

As “savages” become soldiers, and soldiers become social activists, the tribe has rapidly developed a First Nations identity as advocates of both stripes mobilize memories of past resistance in different contexts. Whether the state is green or blue, therefore, Taroko memories will continue to shape the relationship between state and tribe.

2006, Scott Simon, "Formosa's First Nations and the Japanese: from colonial rule to postcolonial resistance," Japan Focus, ISSN 1557-4660, https://web.archive.org/web/20080309204819/http://japanfocus.org/products/details/1565

(Canada, less common) The indigenous peoples of any country or region.


First Nation

(Canada, usually in the plural) The indigenous peoples of Canada (not including Inuit or Metis).


skunky

en-adj

skunky (comparative skunkier, superlative skunkiest)

skunkier (comparative)
skunkiest (superlative)

Don't know when to expect reimbursements from Chloe. After all this time I consider her behavior skunky.

1944, Patricia Highsmith, Her Diaries and Notebooks, Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2021, April 4

(Canada, US, colloquial) Mean, contemptible.


manual labour

en-noun

manual labour (countable and uncountable, plural manual labours)

(British spelling, Canada) Alternative spelling of manual labor: physically demanding work done by hand.


CIC

Citizenship and Immigration Canada
w:Citizenship and Immigration Canada

(Canada, historical) Initialism of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.


urban reserve

(US, Canada) A division of property owned by a First Nations community within an urban area.


pure laine

en-adj

pure laine (comparative more pure laine, superlative most pure laine)

more pure laine (comparative)
most pure laine (superlative)

From French pure laine (literally “pure wool”).

bor

(Canada) Of or pertaining to francophone Quebecers of "pure" French ancestry, descended from settlers in New France.


RCN

Royal Canadian Navy
w:Royal Canadian Navy

(Canada, military, nautical) Initialism of Royal Canadian Navy.


RCI

(Canada, radio) Initialism of Radio Canada International.


depanneur

(Canada, Quebec) Alternative spelling of dépanneur


CIAU

(Canada, sports) Initialism of Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union: now called CIS - Canadian Interuniversity Sport.


stage mom

(Canada, US) A woman who aggressively manages her children's acting or performing career, often in what is considered a detrimental and overbearing manner.


green paper

(Canada) An official document sponsored by the Crown of propositions put before the nation for discussion.


saltie

Ah, but when will the first oceangoing boat arrive [in Duluth, Minnesota]? . . . In 2015, the first saltie to arrive was the Malta-flagged Kom, which arrived April 13 with a Bulgarian crew to load durum wheat headed for Italy.

“The season's first ships”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), Midwest Weekends, 2015 April 16, archived from the original on 2015-04-29

(Canada, US, nautical) An ocean-going ship that enters the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway.


Canadiens

(Canada) the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club


Habs

(Canada) The Montreal Canadiens hockey club.


hockey bag

(Canada, slang) A bag the size of a hockey bag, large enough to carry a body.


hadda

If I hadda known, I wouldn't've gone.

(Canada, US, nonstandard) had (used in conditional statements; compare had've)


Texas mickey

(Canada, informal) A very large bottle of hard liquor, holding 3,000 ml (106 imperial oz. or 101 US oz.), or, formerly, one holding 133.3 oz.


driver's licence

en-noun

driver's licence (plural driver's licences or drivers' licences)

driver's licences (plural)
drivers' licences (plural)

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand) An official identification document which states the recipient may drive a motorized vehicle.


Girl Guide

It′s cookie season every spring, from early April to mid-May, when hundreds of Girl Guides hit the street flogging boxes of trets in their annual fund-raising drive.

2002, Scott Mitchell, Secret Toronto: The Unique Guidebook to Toronto's Hidden Sites, Sounds & Tastes, page 117:

She was wearing the blue uniform of a Girl Guide.

2006, Richard Whittington-Egan, Molly Whittington-Egan, Murder on File: The World′s Most Notorious Killers, unnumbered page:

Daisy told the group that in Britain, Girl Guides wore uniforms.

2007, Susan Bivin Aller, Juliette Low, page 32:

(UK, Canada) A member of the Girl Guides, a world wide youth organisation for girls.


Girl Guides

1935 July 16, Kenya Gazette, page 802,
The proviso to clause 5 makes it possible for existing Girl Guides organizations which were not formed and do not function under the authority of the Girl Guides Association to avoid the penalties prescribed by the Bill.

Baden-Powell enlisted his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell, to help him form the Girl Guides, when, at his first call to form the group, 6,000 girls registered.

2002, Robert T. Grimm, Notable American Philanthropists: Biographies of Giving and Volunteering, page 189:

A small satellite exhibition at Casa Loma (1 Austin Tce 416-923-1171) celebrates the contributions of Lady Mary Pellatt, wife of the castle′s builder, to Girl Guides in Canada.

2002, Scott Mitchell, Secret Toronto: The Unique Guidebook to Toronto′s Hidden Sites, Sounds & Tastes, page 117:

Hore-Ruthven accepted appointment as Governor of South Australia, arrived in Adelaide in May 1928, and began to travel the state by Moth aeroplane. He took an active role in the Boy Scouts, his wife in the Girl Guides.

2004, Brian Carroll, Australia's Governors General: From Hopetoun to Jeffery, page 103:

(UK, Canada) A worldwide youth organisation for girls. Known as Girl Scouts in the USA.


kiss-ass

(Canada, US, slang) An obsequious person who tries to win the favor of someone, usually their superior.


bohunk

Probably Bohemian + Hungarian. Compare hunk, hunky, honky.

I know you're surprised that I live in a Czech neighborhood. But my father-in-law, a smart old Jew, bought investment property in this nice safe Bohunk district.

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 287:

(Canada, US, ethnic slur) An immigrant from Central Europe, Eastern Europe, or the Balkans, especially one who is regarded as vain, aggressively masculine, and socially unsophisticated.

(Canada, US, derogatory) A brawny or coarse person.


babiche

First attested around 1800–10. From Canadian French, from Mi'kmaq ápapíj (“cord, thread”), diminutive of ápapi, from Proto-Algonquian *aʔlapa·py, *aʔlapa·pyi, from *aʔlapy- (“net”) + *-a·py (“string”).

(Canada, US) Thong(s) of rawhide or sinew used as cord, lacing, or webbing, in the manufacture of snowshoes, braided straps and tumplines, fishing and harpoon lines, knit bags, etc.


rag the puck

en-verb

rag the puck (third-person singular simple present rags the puck, present participle ragging the puck, simple past and past participle ragged the puck)

rags the puck (present singular third-person)
ragging the puck (participle present)
ragged the puck (participle past)
ragged the puck (past)

You're having a brutal year, with sales of Hyundais in Canada down nearly 20 per cent. Are you just trying to rag the puck and kill time until the new Sonatas arrive?

2004 September 30, Michael Vaughan, “Five Questions for President, CEO Hyundai Canada”, in Globe and Mail, Toronto, retrieved 2008-05-12:

We're kind of running the clock here and there's a question as to whether the government's ragging the puck. There's absolutely no reason why we can't get an agreement. I'm optimistic we can, but it's getting a bit late.

2010 June 12, Michael Ignatieff, “Harper may be ‘ragging the puck’ on detainee records: Ignatieff”, in Globe and Mail, Toronto, retrieved 2010-06-12:

(chiefly Canada, by extension) To proceed slowly in order to use up time; to stall for time.


stickhandle

stickhandle (third-person singular simple present stickhandles, present participle stickhandling, simple past and past participle stickhandled)

stickhandles (present singular third-person)
stickhandling (participle present)
stickhandled (participle past)
stickhandled (past)

He has ducked questions in Parliament on everything from Afghan detainees to Radarsat 2, leaving them to be stickhandled by other ministers.

2008, "Editorial: Hillier goes, not Bernier, Toronto Star, 16 Apr. (retrieved 13 May 2008)

Obama, on the other hand, stickhandled his preacher problem and retained his poise and dignity.

2008 May 8, Diane Francis, “Obama vs McCain. Finally”, in National Post, Canada, retrieved 2008-05-13:

(chiefly Canada, by extension) To deal capably and swiftly with a situation, especially in a manner which deflects potential problems.


outharbour

outharbours (plural)
outharbor (alternative)

Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador

(Canada) In Newfoundland and Labrador, any city, town, or village having a harbour, other than the main port of St. John's.


canaille

en-noun

canaille (countable and uncountable, plural canailles)

(uncountable, Canada) Shorts or inferior flour.


rebroadcaster

(Canada) A radio or TV station that relays the programs of another


canaller

canallers (plural)
canaler (alternative)

(nautical, chiefly Canada) A vessel of a design modified for use in a particular canal.


kogo

Blend of K- (“Korea, Korean”) + pogo (“corndog-on-a-stick”)

blend

(Canada, food) Korean-style deep-fried battered sausage on a stick


oogle

If you want to be accepted by them, you have to wear all black. My hair wraps, I have one that's a rainbow, so I'm not a hobo. I'm an oogle, because I'm not wearing all black. That's just kid stuff. But the old hoboes are cool.

2009, Cliff (Oats) Williams, One More Train to Ride (page 52)

[…] an older couple with a dog and a coffee cup containing coins that the woman rattled hopefully. "Like this is a scene. Like this is a choice, like it's some party you can drop by and then leave when you get tired of it. But for some stupid reason, oogles like to playact."
"Wait. You're saying this girl liked to pretend she was homeless?"

2014, April Henry, The Body in the Woods (page 134)

And while Eli's vibe is hipsterish and cheerful, his friends are clearly "travelers" — also known as crusties, also known as crust punks, also known as gutter punks, also known as oogles, also known as homeless, transient young people.

2019, Emily Guendelsberger, On the Clock:

(Canada, US, slang, often derogatory) A hobo or transient who is homeless by choice rather than necessity.


zipperhead

From zipper + head. From the leather helmets formerly used by early Canadian armoured crewmen, with a pattern of stitching resembling a zipper. There is also a folk etymology referring to the zippers on armoured-vehicle crew suits (repurposed flight suits).

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-zipperhead.wav

(Canada, military slang) A soldier in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps or in the Armoured Crewman military trade.


tube steak

tube steaks (plural)
tube-steak (alternative)
tubesteak (alternative)
tube-steak (alternative)

A rhyming allusion to cube steak and the item's shape.

She said it's often used in doughnuts and American hot dogs (solving at least a minuscule part of the what's-in-a-tube-steak mystery).

2008 May 14, Lisa Donovan, “Mace has sweet, mild flavor all its own”, in Chicago Sun-Times:

(chiefly Canada, US, idiomatic, humorous) A frankfurter/hot dog.

I want to slip my tube steak into your sister. What'll you take in trade?

1987, Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, Gustav Hasford, directed by Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket, spoken by Joker (Matthew Modine):


PMO

en-noun

PMO (countable and uncountable, plural PMOs)

Prime Minister's Office
Prime Minister's Office#English

(government, Canada, Australia, Singapore) Initialism of Prime Minister's Office; The Office of the Prime Minister, composed of the prime minister and his or her top political staff.


D-bag

Just get out of my life, you D-bag!

(neologism, slang, Canada, US) An idiot or jerk; a general-purpose moderate insult.


dogan

I turned, expecting to see some skirted, leering priest with a crucifix in his hands summoning us into his dogan den.

2006, Terrence Rundle West, Run of the Town, →ISBN, page 45:

(chiefly Canada, offensive) A Roman Catholic, especially one of Irish origin.


power wall

They're called "power walls"—those highly visible shelves behind convenience store cashiers. Tobacco companies pay big bucks to use them ($100 million in Canada in 2005), admitting the walls are their single most effective advertising tool.

2006 October 9, Jacqueline Nunes, “Can't find the smokes?”, in Maclean's, volume 119, number 40, page 26:

2008, "Tobacco "power wall" displays banned," at www.toronto.ca, (retrieved 2 June 2008),
When you go into your local convenience or grocery store after May 31, 2008, you'll notice the "power wall" displays of tobacco products behind the counter are gone.

(marketing, Canada) Behind retail sales counters in jurisdictions where tobacco advertising has been banned or heavily restricted, a prominent, enticing display of tobacco products.


walk in the snow

walk in the snow (plural walks in the snow)

From a remark by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Eliott Trudeau (1919-2000) on February 29, 1984, describing how he made his decision to retire.

Mr. Trudeau told reporters yesterday he made the decision to put an end to almost 16 years in office after a long, solitary walk Tuesday night through a blinding Ottawa blizzard. . . . "It was a great walk in the snow."

1984 March 1, Charlotte Montgomery, Thomas Walkom, “Pierre Trudeau steps down. New leader likely by end of June”, in Globe and Mail, Toronto, page 1:

"I went for a walk in the snow last night—and I'm staying." So said Jean Chretien on January 15th, varying the phrase with which Pierre Trudeau announced his sudden resignation as Canada's prime minister in 1984.

2002, “Shuffle in the snow; Politics in Canada”, in The Economist, volume 362, number 8256, page 49:

Even in defeat, Ignatieff could not shake even one more Trudeau comparison. Trudeau's historic long walk in the snow came in February 1984.

2006 December 4, Mike Blanchfield, Norma Greenaway, “Ignatieff takes his own walk in the snow”, in Calgary Herald, Alberta, page A9:

(Canada, chiefly politics, idiomatic) An occasion when a momentous career decision is made, especially a decision to resign or retire.


PQ

(dated, Canada) Initialism of Province of Quebec- in Canada


King's Counsel

head

King's Counsel (plural King's Counsel or King's Counsels, abbreviation KC)

King's Counsel (plural)
King's Counsels (plural)
KC (abbreviation)

When the case eventually came to court in December 1903, Wellcome’s team, headed by Moulton, contained three King’s Counsel; they had marshalled seventy-two witnesses and intimated that they could produce as many again.

1994, Robert Rhodes James, “‘A Morbid Misery’”, in Henry Wellcome, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 292:

Arrayed in front of him was a very expensive line-up of London’s best legal brains. Each director had his own team of two, and in some cases three, defence barristers. Including two King’s Counsels who represented the Official Receiver, there were a dozen silks in court.

2011, Martin Vander Weyer, “[Misfeasance] Wilful Neglect?”, in Fortune’s Spear: The Story of the Blue-Blooded Rogue Behind the Most Notorious City Scandal of the 1920s, London: Elliott and Thompson Limited, →ISBN, page 256:

(UK, Canada, New Zealand, occasionally Australia) An honorific status officially conferred on senior or meritorious barristers (and occasionally other kinds of lawyer) during the reign of a king.


aboideau

en-noun

aboideau (plural aboideaux or aboideaus)

aboideaux (plural)
aboideaus (plural)
aboiteau (alternative)

(Canada, Acadia) A tide gate, designed to protect marshland, so constructed as to let out water at low tide, but to prevent an influx of water at high tide.


plew

From Canadian French, from French poilu (“hairy”). Doublet of poilu.

The cured "plew" of the adult beaver weighed about a pound and a half and at best would fetch from four to six dollars a pound at the mountain rendezvous

1967, John Arkas Hawgood, America's Western Frontiers: The Exploration and Settlement, page 96:

"The days when a good plew fetched six dollars, beaver or kitten, is over," he grumbled. "The beaver trade's rubbed out, Lank.

2001, Armstrong Sperry, Wagons Westward: The Old Trail to Santa Fe, page 7:

The price for a pint was a beaver plew or an Indian buffalo robe. Coffee and gunpowder were a plew or a robe a pound, blankets fifteen plews apiece,

2005, Ralph Moody, Stanley Galli, Kit Carson And The Wild Frontier, page 46:


kabloona

kabloona (plural kabloonas or kabloona or kabloonat)

kabloonas (plural)
kabloona (plural)
kabloonat (plural)
kabluna (alternative)
kadloona (alternative)

Borrowed from Eastern Canadian Inuktitut ᖃᓪᓗᓈᖅ (qallunaaq, “foreigner”) or Greenlandic kablunâk (“white person, Dane”) (now spelled qallunaaq), or a combination of the two.

bor

After food and pleasantries had been exchanged, the old man asked what they were doing so far from the God-Walking People's northern lands, and when one of the hunters explained that they were looking for living or dead kabloona […]

(Canada, US) A non-Inuit person in Canada or Greenland, especially a European or someone of European descent.


kudlik

kudliks (plural)
qudlik (alternative)
qulliq (alternative)

Borrowed from Greenlandic ĸutdleĸ, now spelled qulleq; cognate to Inuktitut ᖁᓪᓕᖅ (qolliq).

(Canada, historical) A type of soapstone lamp used by the Inuit, a qulliq.


machicote

Borrowed from Ojibwe majigoodenh (“dress”), from Proto-Algonquian *-iko·tay (“skirt”), with an empty prefix and contemptive suffix.

bor+

(US, Canada, historical) An underskirt worn by some Native American girls and women.


nitchie

nitchies (plural)
neechee (alternative)
neechie (alternative)
neechi (alternative)

From Ojibwe niijii (“my friend”); its further origin is not entirely clear. Eugene Stillday says it is a short form of niijikiwenh (“my brother, my fellow man”).
Also from Cree [Term?].

(Canada, derogatory) A Native North American.

(Canada, used among ethnic Ojibwe and Cree) (my) friend


quickhatch

quickhatches (plural)
quickehatch (alternative)
quickèhatch (alternative)
quiquehatch (alternative)
queequehatch (alternative)
quequahatch (alternative)
quequehatch (alternative)
quiquahatch (alternative)
quiquihatch (alternative)
quickahash (alternative)

From East Cree *ᑸᐦᑾᐦᐋᒉᐤ (*kwiihkwahaacew) (modern Cree ᑮᐦᑿᐦᐋᐦᑫᐤ (kiihkwahaahkew, “wolverine”); compare Ojibwe gwiingwa'aage); assimilated to quick + hatch, omitting the middle syllable present in older forms.


unhyphenated

... when we shall recognize in our press and at the ballot box no votes but American votes, and no citizens but simply unhyphenated American citizens; when we shall insist that every man who places a ballot in our ballot box shall be able to read that ballot in the language of Lincoln and Grant, we shall have reached the hour when we may begin the most momentous and delicate task ever set before a people—the creation of a great nation out of the fragments of many diverse and even hostile nationalities.

1894, Rena Michaels Atchison, Un-American immigration: its present effects and future perils, C. H. Kerr & company, page 140:

For Pennsylvania yields to no State in the courage and virility of her sons—plain, unhyphenated Americans, not yet pushed by invaders off the soil; loyal men, whose fathers gave their blood like water for the Union.

1916, Agnes Repplier, quoted in "The Glory of Pennsylvania", American Lutheran survey, Volume 5, Lutheran Survey Pub. Co., page 78

First of all, and probably greatest of all in view of most present-day writers, they were "unhyphenated!" This is indeed wonderful! And again, most wonderful! Unhyphenated! So interesting a fact as this, and one so eminently desirable, invites most critical investigation, for the very breath of suggestion insinuates at once that "hyphenism" and "Americanism" are by the very nature of things contradictory, and that "hyphenism" must needs be on a par with, if not exactly the same as, treason. We are therefore very much interested in the new fact that Pennsylvania's glory lies in the giving of "unhyphenated" Americans to the new nation born of the travails of the Revolution.

1916, L. W. Rupp, "The Glory of Pennsylvania", American Lutheran survey, Volume 5, Lutheran Survey Pub. Co., page 78

Some believe it is an expression of Hebrew-Americanism, others think it is an expressio of Negro-Americanism, still other's think it is pure American, unhyphenated.

1922-10-26, "Leave jazz alone", The Musical Courier (reprinted in 2002, Karl Koenig, Jazz in print (1856-1929): an anthology of selected early readings in jazz history, Pendragon Press, page 210)

The concept that Canada was "one nation" and its citizens "unhyphenated", in Diefenbaker's words, had to be set aside.

1984, Janet Kerr Morchain, Mason Wade, Search for a nation: Canada's crises in French-English relations, 1759-1980, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, page 66:

The score for Unhyphenated white men, 36.0, falls just about midway between all white men and black men; the mean prestige score for Unhyphenated white women is 33.6, is considerably closer to the level for black women than all white women.

1985, Richard D. Alba, Ethnicity and race in the U.S.A.: toward the twenty-first century, Routledge & K. Paul, page 178:

Early on Trudeau scorned the idea of making everyone "good, clean, unhyphenated Canadians," and the Reform is explicitly opposed to the Trudeau government's bilingual and multicultural programs.

1992, R. Kent Weaver, The Collapse of Canada?, Brookings Institution Press, page 149:

Stanley Lieberson (1985) has used the term unhyphenated white to identify a growing group of Americans who lack any clear-cut identification with or knowledge of specific European origins.

1996, Wynetta Devore, Elfriede G. Schlesinger, Ethnic-sensitive social work practice, Allyn and Bacon, page 34:

Who—what—were African Americans becoming in relation to political change in America and Africa? Would they simply become unhyphenated Americans, or, in gaining formal equality, would they enact a transnational American citizenship in solidarity with African peoples and in so doing participate in the democratization of America?

2006, Kevin Kelly Gaines, American Africans in Ghana: Black expatriates and the civil rights era, UNC Press Books, page 76:

2007, Herb Duerr, The Unhyphenated Canuck: Reflections and Confessions of an Opinionated Immigrant, iUniverse.com
The Unhyphenated Canuck: Reflections and Confessions of an Opinionated Immigrant (title)

The color barriers in superhero comic books began to fall in 1969 when Marvel Comics introduced the Falcon, the first African-American superhero (the Black Panther, an unhyphenated African superhero preceded him three years prior) in Captain America #117.

2010, Steve Kenson, Mutants & Masterminds: Silver Age, Green Ronin Publishing, →ISBN, page 16:

(Canada, US) Of people, belonging to a single ethnicity or nationality.


job action

(chiefly US and Canada) A workplace protest by employees designed to inconvenience or disrupt the business of the employer, especially one which is limited in duration or severity.


Edmonchuk

Edmonton + -chuk, a suffix from Ukrainian surnames, from Ukrainian -чук (-čuk), in reference to Edmonton's large proportion of residents of Ukrainian ancestry.

(Canada, informal) The city of Edmonton, Canada.


Rand formula

From Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ivan C. Rand (1884–1969), who developed the formula in 1946.

collective agreement
collective agreement

(Canada, law) The principle, widely recognized in Canadian law and in collective agreements, that all employees of a unionized workplace must pay dues to the labor union, whether they choose to be members of the union or not.


smokie

(Canada, US) A type of smoked sausage, often used for hot dogs.