fluster

en-verb

fluster (third-person singular simple present flusters, present participle flustering, simple past and past participle flustered)

flusters (present singular third-person)
flustering (participle present)
flustered (participle past)
flustered (past)

The verb is probably from Middle English *flostren, *flostre (implied in flostring, flostrynge (“agitation; blustering”)) from a Scandinavian (North Germanic) language; compare Icelandic flaustr (“a bustle; a hurry”), flaustra (“to bustle”).
The noun is derived from the verb.

(British, dialectal) To catch attention; to be showy or splendid.

erottua

to catch attention; to be showy or splendid


quiff

His woolly brown hair shaped into a drooping quiff, he's been sitting poolside all morning, snatching sucks on cigarettes before the waiters can tell him no, and thinking about reworking some incidental music for the band's gig tomorrow.

2012 September 2, Tom Lamont, The Observer:

A bottle of Rio and some chicken and chips / In my fuck-me-up pumps and my Winehouse quiff

2025, “Young”, performed by Little Simz:

(UK) A hairstyle whereby the forelock is brushed and/or gelled upward, often associated with the styles of the 1950s.


quiff

quiff (third-person singular simple present quiffs, present participle quiffing, simple past and past participle quiffed)

quiffs (present singular third-person)
quiffing (participle present)
quiffed (participle past)
quiffed (past)

(UK) To arrange (the hair) in such a manner.


lade

From Middle English lad, from Old English lād, from Proto-Germanic *laidō (“a way, course”). Related to lode, lead (“to conduct”).

Every trickling tiny lade, every foaming brook, told its own story.

(UK, dialect, obsolete outside of place names) The mouth of a river.

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A passage for water; a ditch or drain.


cheerio

/ˈtʃɪəɹ.i.əʊ/

/ˈt͡ʃɪəɹ.i.oʊ/

嗨

translations to be checked: exclamation used when greeting as well as when parting

"In that case," said Archie, relieved, "cheerio, good luck, pip-pip, toodle-oo, and good-bye-ee! I'll be shifting!"

1921, P. G. Wodehouse, Indiscretions of Archie, ch. XIII. Rallying Round Percy:

But we all knew it wasn't the final end of the HST. This wasn't "goodbye", more like a "cheerio, see you someplace soon".

2019 October 23, Pip Dunn, “The next king of Scotland”, in Rail, page 50:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Goodbye, an interjection said upon parting.


constable

From Middle English constable, cunstable, constabil, connestable, cunestable, from Old French conestable, from Latin comes stabulī (“officer of the stables”). For the sense-development; compare marshal. Doublet of connétable.

der

(UK, law) A police officer or an officer with equivalent powers.

konstablo

a police officer or an officer with equivalent powers


cordial

/ˈkɔɹ.d͡ʒəl/

Inherited from Middle English cordial, from Old French cordial, from Medieval Latin cordiālis (“of the heart”), from cor (“heart”).

Both supplement and taste-matched placebo were consumed in 70 ml of fruit cordial and 150 ml of water, which were drunk within a 5-min period.

2024 May 31, Andrew John Chappell, Adrien Parry, Trevor Simper, “The Acute Effect of Citrulline Malate Loading in Resistance Trained Males on: Anaerobic Muscular Endurance, Force Recovery and Muscle Soreness”, in Journal of Science in Sport and Exercise, →DOI:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A concentrated non-carbonated soft drink which is diluted with water before drinking.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) An individual serving of such a diluted drink.


first violin

(British, music) The leader of the violin section of a symphony orchestra; the concertmaster.


nationalism

en-noun

nationalism (countable and uncountable, plural nationalisms)

From French nationalisme. By surface analysis, national + -ism.

sectionalism

any geopolitical group pursuing its own interest

(UK, Ireland) Support for the union of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.


cornhole

cornhole (countable and uncountable, plural cornholes)

From corn + hole.
(anus): From the old-fashioned practice of using dried corncobs instead of toilet paper in outdoor privies.

The cornhole was a small, brick room opening off the threshing floor, about six or seven feet high, […] variously known as the cornhole or cornbin, and was designed for flail threshing, holding the grain until it was winnowed.

1969, J E C Peters, The Development of Farm Buildings in Western Lowland Staffordshire up to 1880, page 97:

A small room may be found opening off the threshing floor on one side […] This is the cornhole, a mid-eighteenth-century development so far known only in Staffordshire and Suffolk, with a few in east Sussex.

1981, J E C Peters, Discovering Traditional Farm Buildings, page 17 with illustration:

(UK, dated) A small room connected to a threshing floor.


harvest

harvest (countable and uncountable, plural harvests)

harvests (plural)
harvist (alternative)
hervest (alternative)
harst (alternative)
hairst (alternative)

From Middle English harvest, hervest, from Old English hærfest (“autumn, harvest-time; August”), from Proto-West Germanic *harbist, from Proto-Germanic *harbistaz (“harvest-time, autumn, fall”), from *harbaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kerp-.
Cognates
Cognate with Sylt North Frisian Hārefst, West Frisian hjerst, Dutch herfst, German Herbst, dated German Low German Harvst, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål høst, Norwegian Nynorsk haust; further with Latin carpere (“to seize”), Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós, “fruit”), κείρω (keírō, “to cut off”).

inh

Harvest is usually very damp and rainy.

(UK, dialectal) The third season of the year; autumn; fall.


wink

“I buy my winks,” said one, “at Billingsgate, at 3s. and 4s. the wash. A wash is about a bushel. […]”

1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861:

(chiefly British, slang) Synonym of periwinkle (“type of mollusk”).


helm

From Middle English helm (“helmet; crown of thorns of Jesus; warrior; inn or shop sign”) [and other forms], from Old English helm (“helmet”), from Proto-West Germanic *helm, from Proto-Germanic *helmaz (“protective covering”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelmos, from the root *ḱel- (“to cover”). Doublet of heaume and related to helmet.
Cognates
* Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌻𐌼𐍃 (hilms)
* Old Frisian helm (West Frisian helm)
* Old High German helm (Middle High German helm, modern German Helm; Italian elmo; Old French helme, modern French heaume; Spanish yelmo)
* Old Norse hjalmr (Danish hjelm, Norwegian hjelm, Swedish hjälm)
* Old Saxon helm (Low German Helm, Middle Dutch helm, modern Dutch helm)

(except British, dialectal) The crown or top of something.


rookie

Thought to be an alteration of recruit + -ie, or from rook (“a cheat”) + -ie. Another possible origin is Dutch broekie (short for broekvent (“a boy still in short trousers”)), a common term for a shipmate. Also suggested is Irish rúca (“an inexperienced person”).

(British) A type of firecracker, used by farmers to scare rooks.


bulge

From Middle English bulge (“leather bag; hump”), from Old Northern French boulge (“leather bag”), from Late Latin bulga (“leather sack”), from Gaulish *bulga, *bulgos, from Proto-Celtic *bolgos (“sack, bag, stomach”). Cognate with bilge, belly, bellows, budget, French bouge, German Balg, etc. Doublet of budge, and from the same root as belly and bellows. See also budget.

der

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A rounded fleshy mass, such as on a camel or zebu.


remove

From Middle English removen, from Anglo-Norman remover, removeir, from Old French remouvoir, from Latin removēre, from re- + movēre (“to move”), equivalent to re- + move. Displaced native Old English āfierran.

(British) (at some public schools) A division of the school, especially the form prior to last


you what

(idiomatic, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland, colloquial) An intensified version of what or huh.

come again?

polite expression to get someone to repeat


get off with

en-verb

get off with (third-person singular simple present gets off with, present participle getting off with, simple past and past participle got off with)

gets off with (present singular third-person)
getting off with (participle present)
got off with (participle past)
got off with (past)

He got off with my sister at the party.

"Hero, obviously, has been getting off with a number of young Basques. I hope her parents won't let it go too far."

1934, Rose Macaulay, Going Abroad, London: Collins, page 222:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) To have a sexual encounter with.


cuddle

Origin uncertain, but probably from a frequentative form of Middle English *cudden, cuththen, keththen (“to embrace”), a variant of cuthen, kuthen, kithen (“to be familiar with, make known”), from Middle English cuth, couth (“known, familiar”), equivalent to couth + -le. Cognate with Middle Dutch kudden (“to come together, flock together”). More at couth.

cog

Give me a cuddle, Paul; it'll cheer you up.

(UK) An affectionate embrace, a hug, such as is given to family members and close friends (less intimate than a snuggle, and typically of shorter duration).


cuddle

en-verb

cuddle (third-person singular simple present cuddles, present participle cuddling, simple past and past participle cuddled)

cuddles (present singular third-person)
cuddling (participle present)
cuddled (participle past)
cuddled (past)

прижа́ться

друг к дру́гу (drug k drúgu)

(UK, intransitive, transitive) To embrace (someone) affectionately; to hug (someone) closely.


hum

From Middle English hummen (“to hum, buzz, drone, make a murmuring sound to cover embarrassment”); akin to Dutch hommelen (“to bumble, buzz”), dialectal Dutch hommen (“to buzz, hum”), Middle High German hummen (“to hum”), probably ultimately of imitative origin.

onomatopoeic

imitative


hum

en-verb

hum (third-person singular simple present hums, present participle humming, simple past and past participle hummed)

hums (present singular third-person)
humming (participle present)
hummed (participle past)
hummed (past)

onomatopoeic

imitative

This room really hums — have you ever tried spring cleaning, mate?

(transitive, UK, dated, slang) To flatter by approving; to cajole; to deceive or impose upon; to humbug.


shiver

From a Germanic word, probably present in Old English though unattested, cognate with Old High German scivaro (German Schiefer (“slate”)).

a shiver of their own loaf

1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):

(obsolete, UK, dialect) A thin slice; a shive.


dosh

Unknown. Possibly a combination of dough and cash.

I'd like to buy a new car, but I'm short on dosh.

So all that remains is for me to sell this to Eve for as much extra dosh as I can guilt-trip out of her.

2020, Charles Stross, Dead Lies Dreaming: Book 1 of the New Management, A new adventure begins in the world of the Laundry Files, Hachette UK, →ISBN, page 154:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Money.


plaster

en-noun

plaster (countable and uncountable, plural plasters)

plasters (plural)
plaister (alternative)
plastre (alternative)

From Middle English plaster, plastre, from Old English plaster, from late Latin plastrum, shortened from Classical Latin emplastrum (“a plaster, bandage”); later reinforced by Anglo-Norman plastre.
The verb is from Middle English plastren, from the noun.

(countable, British, New Zealand, Canada) A small adhesive bandage to cover a minor wound; a sticking plaster.


fillet

From Middle English filet, vylette, felet, filette, flette, from Old French filet, diminutive of fil (“thread”), from Latin fīlum (“thread”).

fillet steak

(UK) A premium cut of meat, especially beef, taken from below the lower back of the animal, considered to be lean and tender; also called tenderloin.


charter

charters (plural)
chartre (alternative obsolete)

→ Bulgarian: ча́ртър (čártǎr)

→ Dutch: charter

→ Estonian: tšarter

→ French: charter

→ Italian: charter

ja-r

チャーター (chātā)

→ Japanese: チャーター (chātā)

→ Polish: czarter

→ Romanian: charter

→ Russian: ча́ртер (čártɛr)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: ча̏ртер

Latin script: čȁrter

→ Spanish: charter, chárter

→ Swedish: charter

→ Turkish: charter

→ Uzbek: charter

→ Welsh: siarter

From Middle English charter, chartre, borrowed from Old French chartre, from Latin chartula (diminutive of charta). See chart. Doublet of chartula.

In what Derbyshire police say amounts to a "thieves' charter," three judges ruled that because the car's identity had been changed it was impossible to trace the legal owner and therefore the person found in possession of it was entitled to keep it.

2001 March 23, Clare Dyer, “Stolen car ruling 'a thieves' charter'”, in The Guardian, London:

2005 November 30, Stephen Foley, “The market where 'caveat emptor' has become a charter for fraud”, in The Independent, London:

(UK, derogatory, in a noun phrase with another noun which is either an agent or action) a provision whose unintended consequence would be to encourage an undesirable activity


mush

From Angloromani mush (“man”), from Romani mursh, from Sanskrit मनुष्य (manuṣya, “human being, man”).

der

Oy mush, come over here and gimme a hand with the motor.

"Hey, Mush!" Tony Pellegrino called to Michael standing on the other side of the street.

2018, Brenda Spalding, Bottle Alley, Heritage Publishing, →ISBN, chapter 1:

(British, slang, chiefly Southern England) (US, slang, chiefly Nonantum) A form of address, normally to a man.

(British, slang, chiefly Northern England, Australia) The face.


stream

→ Finnish: striimi (live stream)

From Middle English streem, strem, from Old English strēam, from Proto-West Germanic *straum, from Proto-Germanic *straumaz (“stream”), from Proto-Indo-European *srowmos (“river”), from Proto-Indo-European *srew- (“to flow”). Doublet of rheum.
Cognate with Scots strem, streme, streym (“stream, river”), North Frisian strum (“stream”), West Frisian stream (“stream”), Low German Stroom (“stream”), Dutch stroom (“current, flow, stream”), German Strom (“current, stream”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål strøm (“current, stream, flow”), Norwegian Nynorsk straum (“current, stream, flow”), Swedish ström (“current, stream, flow”), Icelandic straumur (“current, stream, torrent, flood”), Ancient Greek ῥεῦμα (rheûma, “stream, flow”), Lithuanian srovė (“current, stream”) Polish strumień (“stream”), Welsh ffrwd (“stream, current”), Scottish Gaelic sruth (“stream”).

cog

All of the bright kids went into the A stream, but I was in the B stream.

(UK, education) A division of a school year by perceived ability.


pram

Janet Bird née Ollerenshaw was pushing her pram along Tockley High Street.

1975, Margaret Drabble, The Realms of Gold, published 1977, page 127:

For a start the pram was heavier than it appeared, and also they were pulling it along very uneven ground. The edge of the field was slightly banked which tilted the pram at an angle.

2006, Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale:

Stepping over her, he unbuttoned the pram′s apron and pulled it back.
At first he couldn′t make out what the pram contained. He had to crane himself over, holding his body back from the obscuring light. The pram was full of groceries—cabbage, sprouts, potatoes.

2012, Ramsey Campbell, Dark Companions, page 233:

The Key Train Requirements document, released in July by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), includes a new clause covering people travelling with pushchairs. It highlights the need for space in carriages for unfolded pushchairs or prams, separate from areas for wheelchairs and cycles. It also recommends extending seat reservations to include pram spaces.

2023 August 9, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Family-friendly travel: new standard covers pushchairs”, in RAIL, number 989, page 26:

A small vehicle, usually covered, in which a newborn baby is pushed around in a lying position.

(colloquial, loosely) A pushchair; a buggy.


pluck

en-verb

pluck (third-person singular simple present plucks, present participle plucking, simple past and past participle plucked or (obsolete) pluckt)

plucks (present singular third-person)
plucking (participle present)
plucked (participle past)
plucked (past)
pluckt (obsolete participle past)
pluckt (obsolete past)

From Middle English plucken, plukken, plockien, from Old English pluccian, ploccian (“to pluck, pull away, tear”), also Old English plyċċan ("to pluck, pull, snatch; pluck with desire"), from Proto-West Germanic *plukkōn, from Proto-Germanic *plukkōną, *plukkijaną (“to pluck”), of uncertain and disputed origin.
Perhaps related to Old English pullian (“to pull, draw; pluck off; snatch”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian plukje (“to pluck”), West Frisian plôkje (“to pick, pluck”), Dutch plukken (“to pluck”), Limburgish plógte (“to pluck”), Low German plukken (“to pluck”), German pflücken (“to pluck, pick”), Danish and Norwegian plukke (“to pick”), Swedish plocka (“to pick, pluck, cull”), Icelandic plokka, plukka (“to pluck, pull”). More at pull.
An alternative etymology suggests Proto-Germanic *plukkōną, *plukkijaną may have been borrowed from an assumed Vulgar Latin *pilūc(i)cāre, a derivative of Latin pilāre (“deprive of hair, make bald, depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). The Oxford English Dictionary, however, finds difficulties with this and cites gaps in historical evidence.
The noun sense of "heart, liver, and lights of an animal" comes from it being plucked out of the carcass after the animal is killed; the sense of "fortitude, boldness" derives from this meaning, originally being a boxing slang denoting a prize-ring, with semantic development from "heart", the symbol of courage, to "fortitude, boldness".

cog

For arguing that a man will be plucked take the Topics following: for among men likely to be plucked are these for the most part. He that hath no friends, he that hath many friends; the first because he hath none to put him in the right way; the second, because he hath many to draw him therefrom.

1835, Scriblerus Redivivus [pseudonym; Edward Caswall], “Topics Concerning Pluck”, in A New Art Teaching How to be Plucked, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: J. Vincent, →OCLC, page 34:

He went to college, and he got— plucked, I think they call it: and then his uncles wanted him to be a barrister, and study the law […]

1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:

Let us hide our heads, and shut up the page. The lists came out; and a dreadful rumour rushed through the university, that Pendennis of Boniface was plucked.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XX, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

He had been a medical student, and got plucked, his foes declared, in his examination.

1850, [Charles Kingsley], Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:

"Well, the gooseberry pie is really too deep for me: but 'ploughed' is the new Oxfordish for 'plucked.' O mamma, have you forgotten that? 'Plucked' was vulgar, so now they are 'ploughed.' 'For smalls; but I hope I shall not be, to vex you and Puss.'"

I trust that I have never plucked a candidate in the Schools without giving him every opportunity of setting himself right.

1884 May 8, William Stubbs, “XVII. A Last Statutory Public Lecture”, in Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Medieval and Modern History and Kindred Subjects, published 1887, page 440:

(UK, university slang, transitive, obsolete) To reject (a student) after they fail an examination for a degree.


social

en-noun

social (countable and uncountable, plural socials)

From Middle French social, from Latin sociālis (“of or belonging to a companion or companionship or association, social”), from socius (“a companion, fellow, partner, associate, ally”), from sequor (“follow”). Cognate with English seg (“man, companion, fellow”). More at seg.

der

Fred hated going down to the social to sign on.

(British, colloquial, with definite article) Ellipsis of social security.


bottle out

en-verb

bottle out (third-person singular simple present bottles out, present participle bottling out, simple past and past participle bottled out)

bottles out (present singular third-person)
bottling out (participle present)
bottled out (participle past)
bottled out (past)

I had really wanted to dive off the 10-metre platform, but in the end I bottled out.

(UK, informal) To fail to perform a promised or planned action due to lack of courage or nerve; to run away or back down from a contest or challenge.

craquer

to fail to perform a promised or planned action due to lack of courage or nerve


bloke

blokes (plural)
bloak (alternative archaic)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-bloke.wav

Origin unknown; the following borrowings have been hypothesized:
* From a modern Celtic language, such as Irish bloc (“block”) or Scottish Gaelic ploc (“large, stubborn person”, literally “block of wood”), themselves borrowings from English block
* From Hindustani لوک (lok) / लोक (lok, “people, folk”) or Shelta loke (“man”).

bor

He accordingly opened it [a letter], and read as follows:–
 "Tim put on the tats yesterday and went out a durry-nakin on the shadows, gadding a hoof. He buzzed a bloak and a shakester of a yack and a skin. […]"
 […] we will lay before our readers a translation of the slang document:–
 "Tim dressed himself in rags yesterday, and went out disguised as a beggar half-naked and without shoes or stockings. He robbed a gentleman and a lady of a watch and a purse. […]"

1847, George W[illiam] M[acArthur] Reynolds, “Old Death”, in The Mysteries of London, volume III (volume I, Second Series), London: G. Vickers, […], →OCLC, page 66, column 1:

Now I tell yer straight, I don't call it square for two big bloaks like us to tackle [i.e., steal from] one poor woman, and she a widder, and p'raps as 'ard up as us; it isn't English.

1892, John Pennington Marsden, “A Professional Secret”, in Job Lot: Sketches and Stories, Philadelphia, Pa.: Hallowell & Co., […], →OCLC, page 177:

Half-sheepishly, the mechanic had eased round to nudge his mate to look also at the comical-looking bloke. And the bloke caught them both. They wiped the grin off their faces. Because the little bloke looked at them quite straight, so observant, and so indifferent.

1923, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Torestin”, in Kangaroo, London: Martin Secker […], →OCLC, page 1:

The door flew open, and there was a bloke with spectacles on his face and all round the spectacles an expression of strained anguish. A bloke with a secret sorrow.

1930 February, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Jeeves and the Old School Chum”, in Very Good, Jeeves!, London: Herbert Jenkins Limited […], published 20 June 1930, →OCLC, pages 247–248:

Now, she messed around with a bloke named Smoky,
 She loved him though he was cokie, […]

1930 December 23 (recording date), Cab Calloway, Irving Mills, Clarence Gaskill, “Minnie the Moocher”, performed by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra:

No use, with a bloke like this, cracking up your own merits. Stick to the truth.

1939 June, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter IX, in Coming Up for Air, London: Martin Secker & Warburg, published 1948 (April 1959 printing), →OCLC, part II, page 132:

It was a Cockney bloke who had never seen a cow till he came inside. Cragg said it took some blokes like that, and city fellows are the worse.

1958, Brendan Behan, Borstal Boy, London: Hutchinson, →OCLC, page 281:

[L]ots of blokes have impeccable music taste but don't read, lots of blokes read but are really fat, lots of blokes are sympathetic to feminism but have stupid beards, lots of blokes have a Woody Allen sense of humor but look like Woody Allen. Lots of blokes drink too much, lots of blokes behave stupidly when they drive cars, lots of blokes get into fights, or show off about money, or take drugs. I don't do any of these things, really; if I do OK with women, it's not because of the virtues I have, but because of the shadows I don't have.

1995, Nick Hornby, “Sarah Kendrew (1984–1986)”, in High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 30:

As her current bloke was turning out better than expected, I didn't see much of her lately.

2000, Liz Young [i.e., Elizabeth Young], chapter 1, in Asking for Trouble, London: Arrow Books, Random House, published 2004, →ISBN, page 16:

It was a concert of some sort. Five or so blokes were on stage in a TV studio; […] The blokes didn't look like any pop group as I knew them. They were multiracial, knotted of brow, their garb was distinctive, involving a lot of what I later found out to be cheesecloth and kaftans along with ripped, faded denims.

2003, Stuart Maconie, “Hocus Pocus”, in Cider with Roadies, London: Ebury Press, →ISBN, page 43:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) A fellow, a man; especially an ordinary man, a man on the street.

Even now he's like this weird guy who comes into my life occasionally and asks me bloke questions. Sport, girls, your future. Even superannuation. Once he even started telling me how important superannuation was. What a dickhead.

1996, Nick Earls, chapter 31, in After January (UQP Young Adult Fiction), St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, published 2006, →ISBN, page 127:

[…] Pakeha, and colonial, masculinity is situated in a homosocial environment. This homosociality is both gendered and ethnicized. The kiwi bloke is a Pakeha working man, at home on the football field, in the sands of North Africa, at the pub (but in the public bar). He is a loner, hard, resolute, tall, strong but comradely and supports other men in their toils.

1999, Malcolm MacLean, “Of Warriors and Blokes: The Problem of Maori Rugby for Pakeha Masculinity in New Zealand”, in Timothy J[ohn] L[indsay] Chandler, John Nauright, editors, Making the Rugby World: Race, Gender, Commerce (Sport in the Global Society; no. 10), London, Portland, Or.: Frank Cass, published 2005, →ISBN, page 2:

[H]e is a ‘blokes bloke’. A proper bloke, rather than something feminine or obviously dysfunctional.

2004, Mickey Elias, Ed Seeker, “Jack-off Buddies”, in Men Speak the Unspeakable, London: Michael Elias Networks, →ISBN, page 62:

One week I ask everyone I meet what defines a "bloke." Some of the answers are: Blokes drink beer, not wine. They wear black wool singlets (sleeveless shirts) and dark green shirt-jackets, gum boots, and rugby jerseys with sleeves cut off. They eat stews made with carrots and onions and potatoes and dumplings.

2001, Rita Golden Gelman, “New Zealand via Bali”, in Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World, 1st paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press, →ISBN, page 273:

It [a television advertisement] opens with a young man lounging on a sofa watching television. The television soundtrack suggests he is watching sport (of course). He wears the standard checked shirt of the Kiwi bloke over a T-shirt and jeans, his hair is longish and unkempt, and he is generally a bit scruffy.

2012, Sue Abel, “Postfeminism Meets Hegemonic Masculinities: Young People Read the ‘Knowing Wink’ in Advertising”, in Karen Ross, editor, The Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Media (Handbooks in Communication and Media), paperback edition, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, published 2014, →ISBN, part III (Queering the Pitch), page 405:

Now we don't want you thinking I'm someone who isn't a chef pretending to be a chef. That'll just end in a train wreck. No, we want you to trust your bloke DNA and start thinking the way a bloke naturally thinks, and that is like a bloke!

2012, Jim O’Connor, “Brilliant Cooking”, in The Bloke’s Guide to Brilliant Cooking: And How to Impress Women, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, published 29 September 2018, →ISBN, page 22:

The ‘kiwi bloke’ is often represented as a stubbie-wearing, beer-drinking, sheep-shearing, ‘do-it-yourself’ heteronormative masculinity […] This hypermasculinisation is well-recognised in New Zealand culture. The ‘kiwi bloke’ is celebrated by the nation which leaves little room for the emergence and acceptance of alternative gender identities […].

2014, Jessica Jean Keppel, “Masculinities and Mental Health: Geographies of Hope ‘Down Under’”, in Andrew Gorman-Murray, Peter Hopkins, editors, Masculinities and Place (Gender, Space and Society), Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, page 367:

(Commonwealth, especially UK and Ireland, informal) A man who behaves in a particularly laddish or overtly heterosexual manner.

macho

A second green chit and then you get your hat for a talk with the bloke.

1989, Rick Jolly, Trugg Willson, Jackspeak: The Pusser’s Rum: Guide to Royal Navy Slanguage […], Torpoint, Cornwall: Palamanando Publ., →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, naval slang) (A lower deck term for) the captain or executive officer of a warship, especially one regarded as tough on discipline and punishment.


rum

en-adj

rum (comparative rummer, superlative rummest)

rummer (comparative)
rummest (superlative)

From the earlier form rome (“good”, slang); possibly of Romani origin; compare rom.

a rum idea; a rum fellow

"Lor, Noah!" said Charlotte, "What a rum creature you are! Why don't you let the boy alone?"

1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

[H]e stared after Pynsent stupidly, and pronounced to the landlord over the counter that he was a rum one.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 27, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

The young men had exchanged few observations; but in crossing Union Square, in front of the monument to Washington—in the very shadow, indeed, projected by the image of the pater patriae—one of them remarked to the other, “It seems a rum-looking place.”
“Ah, very odd, very odd,” said the other, who was the clever man of the two.

1878, Henry James, An International Episode:

"Can't you see him?"
"Well, I almost thought I did—for a moment. It's such a rum light."

"She's as 'appy as Larry, but she'll neither move nor eat. It's a rum 'un, isn't it?" It was very rum indeed.

1976, James Herriot, All Things Wise and Wonderful, page 346:

(UK, informal, dated) Strange, peculiar.


rum

(British, colloquial, dated) Any odd person or thing.


go down

en-verb

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

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

suhtautua (receiving person or party as subject, received thing in illative)

That meal went down a treat.

(intransitive) To be received or accepted.

(intransitive, UK, colloquial) To be pleasant, etc., when eaten or drunk.


poppy

en-noun

poppy (countable and uncountable, plural poppies)

→ Japanese: ポピー (popī)

Beckwithshaw
In Flanders Fields
John McCrae
Moina Michael

PIE word
 *péh₂wr̥
The noun is derived from Late Middle English poppy, Middle English popy, popi, popie (“plant of the genus Papaver; poppy seeds used as a spice”) [and other forms], from Old English popiġ (“poppy”), Early Old English popeġ, popaeġ, popæġ, popei [and other forms], perhaps from Late Latin *papavum, popauer, from Latin papāver (“poppy”), which may be from a reduplication of Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥ (“bonfire”). Doublet of papaver.
Sense 3 (“artificial poppy flower to remember those who died in the two World Wars and other armed conflicts”) reflects the efforts of American professor and humanitarian Moina Michael (1869–1944) to popularize the wearing of artificial poppies in remembrance of those who fought and died in World War I; she was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields” (1915) by the Canadian poet and soldier John McCrae (1872–1918): see the quotation.
The adjective is derived from the noun.

nb...

pape, papie, papy, papye, popẹ̄, poppei, popye, (Early Middle English) papig, popi, popig

blue poppy

Meconopsis, especially Meconopsis betonicifolia

Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets.

2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England under 21 5 Iceland under 21 0: Match report”, in Tony Gallagher, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2011-11-11:

(chiefly Australia, British, Canada) A simple artificial poppy flower worn in a buttonhole or displayed in other contexts to remember those who died in the two World Wars and other armed conflicts, especially around Remembrance Day/Remembrance Sunday.


pony

→ Belarusian: по́ні (póni)

→ Danish: pony

→ Dutch: pony
→ Indonesian: poni

→ Finnish: poni

→ French: poney
→ Romanian: ponei

→ Georgian: პონი (ṗoni)

→ German: Pony
→ Estonian: poni

→ Hungarian: póni

→ Irish: pónaí

→ Italian: pony

→ Japanese: ポニー (ponī)

→ Lithuanian: ponis

→ Maltese: poni

→ Norwegian: ponni

desc

→ Portuguese: pónei, pônei (Brazil), poney

→ Russian: пони (poni)

→ Spanish: poni

→ Swedish: ponny

→ Ukrainian: по́ні (póni)

1659 from Scots powny, apparently from Middle French poulenet (“little foal”), ultimately from Late Latin pullanus (“young of an animal”), from pullus (cognate to English foal). Sense “small serving of alcohol” from 19th century, both for small sizes generally and for a quarter pint specifically, from the small size.

uder

“You said a pony,” interposed Clavering; “my dear fellow, you said a pony, and I’ll be eternally obliged to you; and I’ll not take it as a gift—only as a loan, and pay you back in six months. I take my oath, I will.”
“Well—well—there’s the money, Sir Francis Clavering. […] Here’s five-and-twenty for you.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:


slog

en-noun

slog (countable and uncountable, plural slogs)

Probably a variation of slug (“to hit very hard”) or slough.
Possibly related to slag, seen in the North Germanic languages, in association with the third verb and second noun definition.

(countable, uncountable, chiefly British, Australia and Canada) A long, tedious walk or march.

It is as if Mr. Faulks had bled his own prose white, draining it of emotion in order to capture the endless enervating slog of war.

1996 February 11, Michael Gorra, “Tunnel Vision”, in The New York Times:

England's experimental line-up will have realised early on that this would be a long, hard slog against the multi-talented Brazilians with great strength in their starting line-up and on the bench.

2017 November 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0 – 0 Brazil”, in BBC Sport:

There, despite the long slog of the pandemic and all the distracting dramas at headquarters, the schools themselves have mostly kept it together.

2022 February 12, Danny Westneat, “The reason voters see past the terrible headlines with Seattle schools”, in The Seattle Times:

(countable, uncountable, chiefly British, Australia and Canada, by extension) A hard, persistent effort, session of work, or period.

Schufterei

hard persistent effort, session of work]


Jerry

A clipped form of German popularized during the First World War.

jerry (alternative)
geri (alternative)
gerri (alternative)

Phipps went on: “One of our chaps, out on a reccy over the Bulgarian front, thought he saw something in the snow. Something fishy. He dropped down to have a dekko and nearly had kittens. What d'you think? Jerry's got a mass of stuff there—tanks, guns, lorries, every sort of heavy armament. All camouflaged. White.”

2011 [1965], Olivia Manning, Friends And Heroes (The Balkan Trilogy), Random House, →ISBN:

[…] chucking your towel on the sunbed and making sure Jerry doesn't get there first.

2012, Bill Leckie, Penthouse and Pavement:

(UK, US, ethnic slur, dated) A personification of the German people.


Jerry

Jerries (plural)
jerry (alternative)
geri (alternative)
gerri (alternative)

But Robert had been cheeriness itself, had told them to buck up and think of England, reminding them that moaning wasn’t going to beat the Jerries.

2012, Margaret James, The Penny Bangle, Harpenden: Choc Lit, →ISBN, page 43:

(British, US, ethnic slur, dated) A German, particularly a male German.


post

posts (plural)
poast (alternative obsolete)

→ Bulgarian: пост (post) (Internet)

→ Chinese: po, PO

Cantonese: pou¹

Mandarin: pōu

Min Nan: pho͘

→ French: post

→ Irish: post

→ Italian: post

→ Malay: pos

→ Maori: pōhi

→ Polish: post

→ Portuguese: post

→ Russian: пост (post)

→ Scottish Gaelic: post

→ Spanish: post

→ Swahili: posta

→ Welsh: post

Borrowed from Middle French poste, from Italian posta (“stopping-place for coaches”), feminine of posto (“placed, situated”).

der

sent via post; parcel post

I take it too as an opportunity of sending you the fair copy of the poem on Dullness, which was not then finished, and which I should not care to hazard by the common post.

1707, Alexander Pope, Letter VII (to Mr. Wycherly), November 11

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) An organisation for delivering letters, parcels etc., or the service provided by such an organisation.

Royal Mail worker Evette Chapman gathered a team of 12 colleagues to deliver post in fancy dress and raise money for a nurses' charity and patients in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton.

2020 November 18, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, page 71:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A single delivery of letters; the letters or deliveries that make up a single batch delivered to one person or one address.


post

en-verb

post (third-person singular simple present posts, present participle posting, simple past and past participle posted)

posts (present singular third-person)
posting (participle present)
posted (participle past)
posted (past)
poast (alternative obsolete)

→ Finnish: postata

Mail items posted before 7.00pm within the Central Business District and before 5.00pm outside the Central Business District will be delivered the next working day.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) To send (an item of mail etc.) through the postal service.


casket

Probably from Norman cassette. Possibly reformed by analogy with cask, thus analyzable as cask + -et. Doublet of cassette.


cobbler

Probably a variant of or related to cob, cobb (“stony fruit kernel; nut used in the game of conkers, conker; game of conkers”), perhaps from Middle English cobbe (“head or leader; gangleader; bully (?); male swan, cob; the head; something rounded or in the form of a lump”): see further at etymology 3.

inh

["A]n' 'e was mad, an' so he snatched my cobbler an' run off with it. An' so I run after 'im, an' when I was gettin' hold of him, 'e dodged, an' it ripped 'is collar. But I got my cobbler—" He pulled from his pocket a black old horse-chestnut hanging on a string. This old cobbler had "cobbled"—hit and smashed—seventeen other cobblers on similar strings. So this boy was proud of his veteran.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “The Casting Off of Morel—The Taking On of William”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part I, page 50:

The shiny, hard seed of the horse chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum), especially when used in the game of the same name (sense 1.2); a conker, a horse chestnut.

Aesculus hippocastanum
Aesculus hippocastanum#Translingual

(games) Synonym of conkers (“a game for two players in which the participants each have a horse-chestnut (known as a cobbler (sense 1.1) or conker) suspended from a length of string, and take turns to strike their opponent's conker with their own with the object of destroying the opponent's conker before their own is destroyed”).


cobbler

Also river cobbler: basa (Pangasius bocourti), an edible species of shark catfish native to the Chao Phraya and Mekong river basins in Southeast Asia.

Pangas catfish (Pangasius pangasius), an edible species of shark catfish native to Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, and Pakistan.


caul

cauls (plural)
call (alternative)
cawl (alternative)

From Middle English calle, kelle, kalle, kolle (“caul, net, basket”), from Old English cāwl, cāul, cēawl, cēaul (“basket, container, net, sieve”), of uncertain origin. Reinforced by Old French cale (“close-fitting cap”), possibly a borrowing of the Old English term above, or alternatively related to Old French calotte (“headdress”), from Italian callotta, from Latin calautica (“type of female headdress which fell down over the shoulders”), itself of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots kell (“caul”).

ncog

(British, historical, often capitalized, used on maps) An entry to a mill lead taken from a burn or stream (a mill lead (or mill waterway) is generally smaller than a canal but moves a large volume of water).


poll

From Ancient Greek πολλοί (polloí, “the many, the masses”), as in hoi polloi.

der

(UK, dated, Cambridge University) One who does not try for honors at university, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman.


ten a penny

People with your skills are ten a penny these days.

(idiomatic, UK) So common as to be practically worthless.

二束三文

so common as to be practically worthless


rhubarb

en-noun

rhubarb (countable and uncountable, plural rhubarb or rhubarbs)

From Middle English rubarbe, from Anglo-Norman reubarbe (modern French rhubarbe), from Late Latin reubarbarum, rheubarbarum, rubarbera, rybarba, probably from Koine Greek ῥῆον βάρβαρον (rhêon bárbaron), from ῥῆον (rhêon, “rhubarb”) + Ancient Greek βάρβαρον (bárbaron), neuter of βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign; barbaric”) (English barbarian).
There is also a Medieval Latin variant rabarbarum, which appears to be influenced by Ancient Greek ῥᾶ (rhâ, “rhubarb”), and gave rise to some of the forms in modern languages. The Ancient Greek variant term appears to have been folk-etymologically influenced by Ancient Greek Ῥᾶ (Rhâ, “the River Volga”), which is in the region from which the plant came to the Mediterranean. The ultimate origin of the Ancient Greek terms is, however, Proto-Iranian *(h)rabā́š (“rhubarb, fennel”).
The word is cognate with Catalan ruibarbre, Italian rabarbaro, Dutch rabarber, German Rhabarber, Old Occitan reubarbe, Portuguese ruibarbo, Spanish ruibarbo.

der

ῥῆον βάρβαρον

cog

On 13 December 1942, Squadron Leader [Brian] Lane made his first flight from Ludham, a local familiarisation flight. That afternoon, he led a section of Spitfires low over the North Sea on a ‘Rhubarb’, a low-level sweep over the Dutch coast, looking for targets of opportunity.

2009, Dilip Sarkar, “Foreword”, in Brian Lane, edited by Dilip Sarkar, Spitfire!: The Experiences of a Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, →ISBN, page 11:

(British, military, aviation, historical) A Royal Air Force World War II code name for operations by aircraft (fighters and fighter-bombers) involving low-level flight to seek opportunistic targets.


rhubarb

en-verb

rhubarb (third-person singular simple present rhubarbs, present participle rhubarbing, simple past and past participle rhubarbed)

rhubarbs (present singular third-person)
rhubarbing (participle present)
rhubarbed (participle past)
rhubarbed (past)

der

ῥῆον βάρβαρον

(British, military, aviation) Of fighter aircraft: to fire at a target opportunistically.


rhubarb

en-noun

rhubarb (countable and uncountable, plural rhubarbs)

Attributed to the circa 1852 practice by the theatre company of English actor Charles Kean (1811–1868) at the Princess’s Theatre, London, of actors saying the word rhubarb repetitively to mimic the sound of indistinct conversation, the word having been chosen because it does not have harsh-sounding consonants or clear vowels.
The baseball senses are said to have been coined by the American sports writer Garry Schumacher and popularized by the American baseball commentator Red Barber (1908–1992). Barber also claimed to have started using the word in the 1940s, based on the practice in “early radio dramas” (presumably in the US, circa 1930) of actors repetitively voicing rhubarb. However, unlike the UK usage, he felt the practice applied to muttering by an angry mob, and so applied the word to arguments on the baseball field where he could not distinguish the words.

MADAME JOURDAIN: No, it’s all complete rhubarb. MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Dara dara bastonnara! He begins to dance and chant. MADAME JOURDAIN: Don’t think that’s going to make things any clearer.

1992, Moliere, translated by Nick Dear, Le Bourgeous Gentilhomme: A New Version by Nick Dear, U.K: Bloomsbury Publishing, page 70:

On my second day in the market garden our group spent all day moving empty rhubarb boxes to one side of a courtyard and all afternoon moving them back again. ‘Makes a change from talking rhubarb in the House of Commons I expect,’ said one of my fellow labourers.

2005, Jonathan Aitken, “Difficult days at Stanford Hill”, in Porridge and Passion, U.K: Continuum International Publishing Group, page 97:

People’s minds really serve up a lobar of rhubarb with the inner dialogue they tell themselves.

2009, Michael-ji-ji Mouseman the III, “We the damned”, in Ratology: Way of the Un-damned, Australia: Ladder to the Moon Publications (T/a Vital Aqua), page 68:

Boris Johnson has dismissed new evidence that he ordered the controversial evacuation of dogs and cats from Afghanistan for Pen Farthing’s Nowzad charity as “total rhubarb”…The PM doubled down on Thursday when asked if he had helped to get animals out, telling reporters: “No, that is…this whole thing is total rhubarb”.

2022 January 28, Jon Stone, “‘Total rhubarb’: Boris Johnson again denies he ordered Afghan animal airlift as fresh emails emerge”, in Independent:

(UK, uncountable, by extension) Nonsense; false utterance.


rucksack

(UK) A bag carried on the back or shoulder, supported by straps.


tide waiter

tide waiters (plural)
tidewaiter (alternative)

"Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a fish-monger and a tide-waiter."

1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:

Great employments are and will be in the hands of Englishmen; nothing left for the younger sons of Irishmen, but vicarages, tidewaiters places, &c. therefore no reason to make them worse.

1726, Jonathan Swift, Reasons against the Bill for settling the Tithe of Hemp, &c. by a Modus:

(UK, historical) A customs inspector at a seaport who oversees the landing of goods from merchant vessels in order to secure payment of duties.


trotter

From Middle English trottere, equivalent to trot + -er.

One of these proprietors is a magistrate of Oxfordshire, another a justice of the peace for Berkshire, and Stewart, who was a tailor's trotter, originally, was lately high sherriff ^([sic]) of his county.

1830, William Cobbett, Eleven Lectures on the French and Belgian Revolutions, page 8:

(UK, historical) A tailor's assistant who goes around to receive orders.


bleep

bleep (countable and uncountable, plural bleeps)

(medicine, UK) A pager, usually one held by a doctor or nurse in a hospital.


bleep

en-verb

bleep (third-person singular simple present bleeps, present participle bleeping, simple past and past participle bleeped)

bleeps (present singular third-person)
bleeping (participle present)
bleeped (participle past)
bleeped (past)

If his condition gets any worse, please bleep the registrar on call.

(medicine, UK) To contact someone by pager.


s-word

(euphemistic, UK, Ireland) The word spastic, regarded as an offensive word.


gaum

The noun is from dialectal (Northern) English, from Middle English gome, from Old Norse gaum, gaumr (“heed, attention”), from Proto-Germanic *gaumō (“attention”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰowe- (“to heed, pay attention”). The verb is from Middle English *gomen, from the noun. Compare native Middle English yemen, from Old English ġīeman (“to care for, heed”), and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌿𐌼𐌾𐌰𐌽 (gaumjan, “observe”).

cog

"S'cat! s'cat! — set that cat off that barns knee — it al puzzum it!"
"Ah've tel'd 'em awal abart that tu monny a hunderd times, bud thuh tak no moar gaum o' muh then a stoop."

1862, C. Clough Robinson, The Dialect of Leeds and its Neighbourhood, Illustrated, page 18:

"Good-night, Uncle Nat," he called. Uncle Nat walked on in grim silence, never turning his head, for quite half a dozen paces. Then he came back to the gate to which Adam had also returned. "Tak' no gaum o' my gruntlin', Addy," asked Uncle.

1919, Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, The Taming of Nan, page 31:

"Take no gaum," he said. "I've not heard her. This is between thee and me, Tommy. I'll use but one hand."

1972, William Mayne, The Incline, →ISBN, page 141:


gaum

en-verb

gaum (third-person singular simple present gaums, present participle gauming, simple past and past participle gaumed)

gaums (present singular third-person)
gauming (participle present)
gaumed (participle past)
gaumed (past)
gorm (alternative)

No, bubby, couldn't hev the wax. Gaum him all up so 't mammy 'd hafter nigh abaout skin him tu git him clean ag'in; […]

1894, Rowland Evans Robinson, Danvis Folks, chapter VI, The Paring-Bee, page 117

Isn't it horrible, mamma! One fly produces fifty-two billions of descendants in 60 days in June and July, and they go and crawl over sick people and wade through pus, and sputa, and foul matter exuding from sores, and gaum themselves with every kind of disease-germ, then they go to everybody's dinner-table and wipe themselves off on the butter […]

c. 1908, Mark Twain, “Little Bessie”, in Mark Twain's Fables of Man, published 1972:

Butter became in my eyes a gauge of character and gentility, almost of integrity. I watched these ravenous wretches "gaum" their batter-cakes with it, help themselves to more than they really wanted, leaving great golden chunks of it half melted and wholly useless, mixed as it was with gravy […]

1930, Marietta Minnigerode Andrews, Memoirs of a Poor Relation: Being the Story of a Post-war Southern Girl and Her Battle with Destiny, page 293:

Simply gaum them all over with thick claybank mud and throw them into the fire. The clay will bake hard.

1990, Appalachian Journal, volume 18, page 196:

(US and UK, dialects, chiefly Midlands, Southern US, Appalachia) To smear.


clamour

clamour (third-person singular simple present clamours, present participle clamouring, simple past and past participle clamoured)

clamours (present singular third-person)
clamouring (participle present)
clamoured (participle past)
clamoured (past)
clamor (alternative US)

From Latin clāmor (“a shout, cry”), from clāmō (“cry out, complain”).

The second argument , against the integrity of the Law from this Omission , has been clamoured by a large Body of Answerers

1738–1741, William Warburton, The Divine Legation of Moses […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II.1, or II.2), London: […] Fletcher Gyles, […], →OCLC:


apposition

en-noun

apposition (countable and uncountable, plural appositions)

/ˌæpəˈzɪʃn̩/

From Middle English apposicioun, from Middle French apposition, from Latin appositiō, past participle of appōnere (“to put near”).

(UK) A (now purely ceremonial) speech day at St Paul's School, London.


moss

moss (countable and uncountable, plural mosses)

From Middle English mos, from Old English mos (“bog, marsh, moss”), from Proto-West Germanic *mos (“marsh, moss”), from Proto-Germanic *musą (“marsh, moss”), from Proto-Indo-European *mews- (“moss”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Moas (“moss”), West Frisian moas (“moss”), Dutch mos (“moss”), German Low German Moss (“moss”), German Moos (which shows the same polysemy of "moss" and "bog, fen"), Danish mos (“moss”), Swedish mossa (“moss”), Icelandic mosi (“moss”), Latin muscus (“moss”), Russian мох (mox, “moss”), Polish mech. Doublet of mousse.

cypress moss

Hypnum cupressiforme; Lycopodium alpinum

flowering moss (Pyxidanthera barbulata; Portulaca grandiflora;

moss crop

Eriophorum vaginatum; Eriophorum polystachion; Argentina anserina, syn. Potentilla anserina; Eleocharis palustris, syn. Scirpus caespitosus

willow moss

Hypnaceae, possibly Taxiphyllum barbieri

the mosses of the Scottish border

Loynton Moss


arbour

From Middle English arbere, arber, an alteration of herber, erber (“pleasure garden; herb garden”) influenced by Latin arbor (“tree”).


stash

en-noun

stash (countable and uncountable, plural stashes)

Unknown. Perhaps a blend of stick + cache or stow + cache.

We've now ordered stash for everyone who said they wanted some.

(uncountable, UK, slang) Clothing or other items branded with a particular university club or society's logo.


council

From Middle English counseil, conseil, from late Old English cuncile, from Anglo-Norman cuncile and Old French concile, from Latin concilium. Doublet of concelho.

A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council).


sickle cell anaemia

sickle-cell anemia
sickle-cell anemia#English

(medicine, British) Alternative form of sickle-cell anemia.


chapel

→ Japanese: チャペル (chaperu)

→ Korean: 채플 (chaepeul)

From Middle English chapele, chapel, from Old French chapele, from Late Latin cappella (“little cloak; chapel”), diminutive of cappa (“cloak, cape”). Doublet of capelle.
(printing office): Said to be because printing was first carried on in England in a chapel near Westminster Abbey.

der

(UK) A place of worship of a denomination not in conformity with the Church of England, usually Protestant.

(UK) A trade union branch in printing or journalism.


will o' the wisp

en-noun

will o' the wisp (plural will o' the wisps)

will o' the wisps (plural)
will-o'-the-wisp (alternative)
will-o'-wisp (alternative)
will of the wisp (alternative)
will-in-the-wisp (alternative)
Will-with-the-wisp (alternative)

/ˌwɪləðəˈwɪsp/

Will (“male given name”) + of + the + wisp (“bundle of straw or hay used as a torch”)

1988, Michael Weikath, "Keeper of the Seven Keys", Helloween, Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II.
Will o' the wisps / Misguiding your path / You can't throw a curse / Without takin' their wrath

Any of several kinds of pale, flickering light, appearing over marshland in many parts of the world with diverse folkloric explanations and multiple possible scientific explanations including bioluminescence and chemiluminescence.

(British folklore) A flickering light or lantern, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes, held by a supernatural creature who uses it to lure travelers at night to their demise.


kerb

kerbs (plural)
curb (alternative)
kirb (alternative)

From curb (“raised border or frame”) [from mid-17th c.]. Doublet of curve.

Mobile starting-gates and horse-boxes stand parked along the kerbs, and behind every large house, it seems, is a red brick stableyard, gleaming with fresh black-and-white paint and polished steel.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164:

(British, Australia, New Zealand) The raised edge between the pavement and the roadway, typically made of concrete though originally consisting of a line of kerbstones.

縁石

えんせき, enseki, ふちいし, fuchiishi, へりいし, heriishi


kerb

en-verb

kerb (third-person singular simple present kerbs, present participle kerbing, simple past and past participle kerbed)

kerbs (present singular third-person)
kerbing (participle present)
kerbed (participle past)
kerbed (past)
curb (alternative)
kirb (alternative)

(British, transitive) To damage vehicle wheels or tyres by running into or over a pavement kerb.


border

en-noun

border (countable and uncountable, plural borders)

Inherited from Middle English bordure, from Old French bordeure, of Germanic origin, from Frankish *bord, equivalent to modern French bord (“a border”) + -er.
Akin to Middle High German borte (“border, trim”), German Borte (“ribbon, trimming”). Doublet of bordure. More at board.
Further cognate to English board, Old Norse barð (“edge”), Swedish bård (“edge”), also English beard, German Bart (“beard”) (edge of the face) etc.

cog

(British, uncountable) Border morris or border dancing.


district

→ Luganda: disitulikit

From French district, from Medieval Latin districtus (“a district within which the lord may distrain, also jurisdiction”), from Latin districtus, past participle of distringere (“to draw asunder, compel, distrain”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringere (“to draw tight, strain”). Doublet of Detroit.

дистри́кт

USA and some other English-speaking countries

South Oxfordshire District Council

(UK) An administrative division of a county without the status of a borough.


wicket

From Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wiket, from Old Norse (specifically, Old East Norse) víkjas, diminutive of vík. Compare modern French guichet, ultimately from the same Old Norse source.

Watt climbed the stone steps and stood before the wicket, looking through its bars. He admired the permanent way, stretching away on either hand, in the moonlight, and the starlight, as far as the eye could reach, as far as Watt's eye could have reached, if it had been inside the station.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:

(British, Canada) A service window, as in a bank or train station, where a customer conducts transactions with a teller


girt

From Middle English girt, gert, a metathetic variant of gret (“great”). More at great.

(UK, rural dialect) Alternative spelling of gurt in the sense 'great'.


CCG

clinical commissioning group
w:clinical commissioning group

(UK, medicine) Initialism of clinical commissioning group.


dietary

/ˈdaɪəˌtɛɹi/

From Medieval Latin diētārius, from Latin diaetārius, from diaeta + -ārius.

“[…] Do I understand that he asked for more, after he had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary?” “He did, sir,” replied Bumble. “That boy will be hung,” said the gentleman in the white waistcoat; “I know that boy will be hung.” Nobody controverted the prophetic gentleman’s opinion.

1837 February, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “Treats of Oliver Twist’s Growth, Education, and Board”, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], published 1838, →OCLC, page 30:

In general, beets, carrots, and turnips are all of aphrodisiac value in erotic dietary.

1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 42:


on the nail

Allegedly from the tradition of striking bargains by placing cash on the nails in Bristol, Limerick and Liverpool. The Oxford English Dictionary, however, cites an Anglo-Norman phrase from c. 1360, "payer sur le ungle" to pay on the (finger)nail meaning "to pay immediately and in full", and the Latin "ad unguem", exactly. It quotes parallel usages from 17th century French, Dutch and German sources and adds that "N.E.D. (1906) notes that: ‘the explanations associating it with certain pillars at the Exchange of Limerick or Bristol are too late to be of any authority in deciding the question’."

Tell me, have you a mind to anything in the Doctor's book? Speak the word, and I will help you to it upon the nail.

1596, Thomas Nashe, Have With You To Saffron Walden:

You shall have ten thousand pounds on the nail, and I will take you back to London with me besides and teach you what is fortune.

1845, Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, Or, The Two Nations:

(British, Ireland) immediately, without delay

Six o'clock on the nail. She wasn't going to be late.


nails

Malik shook his head, stirring the coffee. 'Evans is nails, mate.'


trance

en-verb

trance (third-person singular simple present trances, present participle trancing, simple past and past participle tranced)

trances (present singular third-person)
trancing (participle present)
tranced (participle past)
tranced (past)

The verb is derived from Middle English traunce, trauncen, trancen (“to move about (?); to prance (?); to trample the ground”) (whence modern English trounce with the same senses, which see for more). The noun is probably derived from the verb.

(obsolete outside British, dialectal, intransitive) To walk heavily or with some difficulty; to tramp, to trudge.

Trance the world o'er.

1626 February 1 (licensing date), John Fletcher [et al.], “The Faire Maide of the Inne”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

After the flitting of the bats, / When thickest dark did trance the sky, / She drew the casement-curtain by, / And glanced athwart the glooming flats.

1830 June, Alfred Tennyson, “Mariana”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, stanza II, page 11:

(obsolete outside British, dialectal, intransitive) To pass across or over; to traverse.

(obsolete outside British, dialectal, intransitive) To travel quickly over a long distance.


trance

So saying, he led the way out through halls and trances that were weel kend to my gudesire, and into the auld oak parlour; […]

(obsolete outside British, dialectal) A tedious journey.


braces

(British) A pair of straps crossing one's shoulders and extending down to one's trousers, where a clip or button arrangement allows them to affix to the trousers, ensuring that they will not fall off.


mousetrap

en-noun

mousetrap (countable and uncountable, plural mousetraps)

mousetraps (plural)
mouse trap (alternative)

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

From Middle English mouse-trappe, mous trappe, mouse trape, equivalent to mouse + trap. Cognate with Dutch muizetrap, muizentrap (“mousetrap”), German Low German Muustrappe, Muustrapp (“mousetrap”). In the Internet sense, refers to a computer mouse.

(chiefly British, informal, uncountable) Ordinary, everyday cheese.


caffled

That rope's all caffled.


dip

dip (countable and uncountable, plural dips)

From Middle English dippen, from Old English dyppan, from Proto-West Germanic *duppjan, from Proto-Germanic *dupjaną; see *daupijaną (“to dip”). Related to deep.

My Dad, God bless him, rarely cooked anything, but if he ever did he would make himself an egg banjo! Fried bread? Or ‘dip’?

2020 May 29, Bocca della Verita (@BocaVerite), Twitter:

(UK, dialect, uncountable, Birmingham) Fried bread.


slammer

I was in Britain, wanting to take a train to Portsmouth, and I only needed a one-way ticket. I did love the English trains; we still had slammers then. A slammer is a train where you got to slam the door shut yourself.

2009, Claude Lambert, On Pets and Men, page 33:


Big Bang

Coined by English astronomer Fred Hoyle on the BBC Third Programme, broadcast at 18:30 GMT on 28 March 1949. It is a popular but misinformed belief that this was intended as a derogatory term, Hoyle being a proponent of the opposing steady state theory, but Hoyle himself has rejected that notion.

(UK, finance, historical) The sudden deregulation of financial markets effected by prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1986.


mollydooker

mollydookers (plural)
mollydook (alternative)
molly-dooker (alternative)
mollyduker (alternative)

Probably from molly (“(dialect) fussy man who does women's work”) + dook (variant of duke (“fist”)) + -er.

‘G′day,’ Martin says. ‘So who′s who?’ They don′t answer him. Maybe they can′t talk. ‘I reckon you′re Alan, the mollydooker, and you′re Eddy. Am I right?’ They cringe, don′t know what a ‘mollydooker’ is.

2003, Joy Dettman, Henry′s Daughter, page 45:

I thought to myself how remarkably young Emma looked to be twice Penny′s age, which would make her 35 years of age, and a Mollydooker, Emma was (left handed).

2004, John Leonard Spencer, Waving Goodbye To A Thousand Flies, page 90:

In addition to those duels favouring Australia, Michael Kasprowicz was dynamite against left-handers in 2004 (forty-two per cent of his victims) and England's top three are all mollydukers.

2005 January 10, Ian Chappell, Inside Cricket, reprinted 2006, A Golden Age, unnumbered page

There is no doubt he was one of the best shearers I′d ever picked up for when I used to rouseabout. But he was a bloody mollydooker—a left-hander—and it was difficult to pick up his fleece when he finished shearing his sheep.

2007, Barry Heard, The View from Connor's Hill: A Memoir, Large print (16 point) edition, page xi

The fish shed needed drones to do the feeding, kids like Scrubber Higgins – mollydook surfer, fair to average half-forward flanker, Xbox champion, unemployed before becoming an instant aquaculture expert.

2009, Bruce Pascoe, Bloke, unnumbered page:

“Is it harder for a pilot, being left-handed?” she asked, as if adding to an existing conversation.
He glanced down at his left arm, flexed his fingers, now free of plaster. “Been a mollydooker all my life. Reckon I don′t know any different.”

2011, Kristina McMorris, Letters From Home, page 278:

(UK, Australia, slang) A left-handed person.


boomer

(UK) A Eurasian bittern (subfamily Botaurinae).


fam trip

(UK, aviation, travel) A free (or low cost) trip for travel agents or consultants, provided by a travel operator or airline as a means of promoting their service.


drum

(slang, chiefly UK) A person's home; a house or other building, especially when insalubrious; a tavern, a brothel.


poser

(British) A particularly difficult question or puzzle.

труден въпрос

a particularly difficult question or puzzle


mold

mold (countable and uncountable, plural molds)

molds (plural)
mool (alternative)
mould (alternative)
mould (alternative Commonwealth)

From Middle English molde, from Old English molde, from Proto-Germanic *muldō (“dirt, soil”) (compare Old Frisian molde, Middle Dutch moude, Dutch moude, obsolete German Molte, Norwegian Bokmål mold, and Gothic 𐌼𐌿𐌻𐌳𐌰 (mulda)), from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥h₂-téh₂ (compare Ashkun mič, Kamkata-viri muři, mřey, mřëi, Prasuni mire, Waigali muk, all meaning "clay").

(UK, dialectal, chiefly plural) Earth, ground.


MDC

(British, historical) Initialism of Milk Development Council.


rear

From Middle English rere, from Anglo-Norman rere, ultimately from Latin retro. Compare arrear. Doublet of retro.

Then why does Cuddy leave his cot so rear!


rear

en-verb

rear (third-person singular simple present rears, present participle rearing, simple past and past participle reared)

rears (present singular third-person)
rearing (participle present)
reared (participle past)
reared (past)

rearing bit

a bit designed to prevent a horse from lifting his head when rearing

(transitive, vulgar, British) To sodomize (perform anal sex)


draughts

(board games, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, uncountable) A board game for two players in which the players each have a set number of pieces (typically 12 or 20, depending on the rule set), known as men, and the object is to capture each of the opponent's pieces by jumping one's own pieces over the opponent's pieces.


villa

Borrowed from Italian villa, from Latin vīlla (“country house”). Doublet of vill and ville.

They were just ordinary suburban children, and they lived with their Father and Mother in an ordinary red-brick-fronted villa, with coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bath-room with hot and cold water, electric bells, French windows, and a good deal of white paint, and 'every modern convenience', as the house-agents say.

1905, E. Nesbit, chapter 1, in The Railway Children, page 1:

(UK) A family house, often semi-detached in Victorian or Edwardian style, in a middle class street.


athletics

From athletic: see -ics. Probably formed on the model of gymnastics.

(sports, especially British) A group of sporting activities including track and field, road running, cross country and racewalking.

田徑 /田径

(chiefly Britain) a group of sporting activities including track and field, road running, cross country, and racewalking


funny

en-adj

funny (comparative funnier, superlative funniest)

funnier (comparative)
funniest (superlative)

'Moved in where?' Sam asked Brona in confusion. 'What boyfriend?'
'Glen,' Brona said quietly. 'You met him a while ago, remember? He only moved in last week. I was going to tell you but […] I thought you might be funny about it, that's all.'

Ash would have been happy to sit and stare at Viv all day, but when he saw the other guys staring at his sister, too, he got funny about it.

2012, Jade Varden, The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2):

(UK, Ireland, informal) Showing unexpected resentment.


funny

Perhaps a jocular use of funny. See above.

I myself recollect the funnies at Eton, which were certain little boats, capable of containing one person only, who, like an Indian in his canoe, was constantly obliged to balance himself, with such critical nicety, that the least mistake was certain of producing a ducking.

1810, Letters from a Nobleman to His Son, During the Period of His Education at Eton and Oxford, volume 1, pages 63–64:

As I do not belong to the boat-club, I always row by myself in a funny […] or at least go in a two-oared boat, with some friend with whom I should otherwise be walking.

1841 December 12, William Thomson, “[Letter to father]”, in Silvanus P. Thompson, The Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs, volume 1, published 1910, page 33:

We were going to have a go in one of the double scull ‘funnies’ that could be had from the Rowing Club in the harbour, but he is off up the line tomorrow to rejoin his old Battery.

1971, Julian Tyndale-Biscoe, Gunner Subaltern, page 144:

There was a great market for leisure boats, too: no wherries any longer, but whole fleets of punts, rowing gigs, funnies, skiffs, whiffs and randans […]

1999, Patrick Wright, The River: The Thames in Our Time, →ISBN, page 145:

(UK, Ireland, nautical, dated) A narrow, clinker-built double-ender for sculling.


black-eyed Susan

en-noun

black-eyed Susan (plural black-eyed Susans)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-black-eyed Susan.wav

(UK, cooking) A kind of boiled pudding with currants.


halt

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-halt.wav

Halts were normally unstaffed, tickets being sold on the train.

2024 June 10, Wikipedia contributors, “Train station”, in English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation:

(British, Ireland) A small railroad station, usually unstaffed or with very few staff, and with few or no facilities.


spliff

spliffs (plural)
spiff (alternative)
spleef (alternative)
splif (alternative)

From Jamaican Creole, possibly a blend of split, referring to the ready-made wrap, + whiff, referring to the smell of the smoke.

smoke a spliff

Pablo switched off the wipers and struck a match to light the spliff he had just finished building.

1992, Victor Headley, Yardie, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, published 1993, page 167:

Danny takes another toke on the spliff and then passes it over to Griff, who accepts it and draws deep on it and then points with the lit end across the room at Gwenno like some strange weatherman indicating a pocket of high pressure.

2001, Niall Griffiths, Sheepshagger, New York: Thomas Dunne, published 2002, page 104:

“Well, well, well,” Ma Taffy says, sitting back and returning the spliff to her mouth. She exhales a cloud of ganja that envelops herself and the boy.

2016, Kei Miller, “Chapter 1”, in Augustown, New York: Pantheon, pages 14–15:

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, Jamaica) A cannabis cigarette.


derv

Initialism of diesel engine road vehicle.


lorry

lorries (plural)
larry (alternative)
lorrie (alternative)

→ Central Dusun: luri

→ Chichewa: lore

→ Hausa: lori

→ Iban: lori

→ Juba Arabic: lori

→ Malay: lori (“heavy truck”)

→ Tausug: lūri

→ Chinese: 羅里 (luólǐ), 羅厘 /罗厘 (luólí)

→ Chichewa: lore

→ Farefare: loore

→ German: Lore

→ Irish: leoraí

→ Malay: lori

→ Moore: lore

→ Scottish Gaelic: làraidh

→ Swahili: lori

→ Telugu: లారీ (lārī)

→ Welsh: lorri, lori

→ Zulu: iloli

Uncertain; perhaps from dialectal English lurry (“to lug or pull about, drag”), or from the forename Laurie. First attested in early to middle 19th century.

cog

But whenever one of the motor-trucks lumbering by bore a big U.S. on its rear panel Troy pushed his light ambulance ahead and skimmed past, just for the joy of seeing the fresh young heads rising pyramid-wise about the sides of the lorry, hearing the snatches of familiar songs—"Hail, hail, the gang's all here!" and "We won't come back till it's over over here!"—and shouting back in reply to a stentorian "Hi, kid, beat it!", "Bet your life I will, old man!"

1918, Edith Wharton, chapter IX, in The Marne, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, pages 87–88:

The railway is still vital to Jordan's export trade, but in spite of the poor quality of the road, diesel lorries are gradually robbing it of freight traffic, and anyone who can afford to fly does so rather than face the long desert journey by rail.

1956 March, R. C. Blaker, “The Hedjaz Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167:

The most frequent age for starting in the actual occupation of lorry driving is 17 years. Trampers tend to start later, the mode amongst them being 19 years. The mean average age for beginning in lorry driving in the sample is between 21 and 23 years. The mean average number of years spent in lorry driving varies according to the type of driver.

1968, Peter G. Hollowell, “The Lorry Driver’s Career”, in The Lorry Driver (The International Library of Sociology; 154), London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; New York, N.Y.: Humanities Press, →OCLC; republished Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 1998 (2007 printing), →ISBN, page 61:

Until the main road from Hatfield to Hertford was diverted a few years ago, heavy lorries trundling through the village sometimes knocked chunks off corner buildings, but now the village has regained much of its former tranquillity.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 224, about Hertingfordbury:

Our journey through the streets of Singapore awoke strange emotions. Very little of the structural damage seemed to have been repaired beyond make-shift patchwork. The streets had a dingy and forlorn look. We arrived outside the British American Tobacco building and had our first experience of the shouting and hustlings that accompanied all Japanese supervision of our movements. We were shouted at to get out of the lorry with our baggage and make out way into the building.

1987, Richard Pool, “Prisoner of War”, in Course for Disaster: From Scapa Flow to the River Kwai, London: Leo Cooper, Heinemann, →ISBN, page 164:

The plantain lorry caught up with them in a blind curve. Jeff caught a glimpse of the driver's face in the mirror as he fought to swing the old truck out around the car. At that moment Jeff heard the sound of the horn of a vehicle coming up the road. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the old lorry beside him; its driver desperately trying to avoid the passenger lorry coming up the scarp.

2003, John C. Kennedy, “The Child”, in Last Lorry to Mbordo: Misadventures in Nation Building: A Novel, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 176:

At the platform in Pathankot, they must have overheard me asking the porter handling my luggage that I wanted to go to the lorry stand for Kashmir. [...] There were no buses then, some primitive contraptions called lorries. A far cry from the spacious and comfortable buses of the present day. They were not only rudimentary and crude, they also travelled very slow.

2005, Nagindra Mohan Kachroo, “Nostalgic Home Fires”, in Moments of Melancholy: (A Basket of Short Stories), New Delhi: S. B. Nangia, A. P. H. Publishing Corporation, →ISBN, page 129:

I know I swing me Volvo all around you market square. I know you think that lorry drivers, we just don't care. But the streets are so narrow, built so many years ago. They were built for horses' carts, not juggernauts you know.

2019, “I love my juggernaut”, in The Pothole Song Album, performed by Richie Kavanagh:

There was also the influx of a third of a million road lorries, sold at giveaway prices after their war roles ceased and used by competing one-man businesses to skim off sundry agricultural freight.

2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:

(British, Ireland, South Asia, Africa) A large and heavy motor vehicle designed to carry goods or soldiers; a truck


strip

en-noun

strip (countable and uncountable, plural strips)

Brill Publishers
en:strip (disambiguation)

From alteration of stripe or from Middle Low German strippe, of uncertain ultimate origin, perhaps derived from a lost strong verb Proto-Germanic *strīpaną, with no clear cognates outside of Germanic except for Irish sríab (“line, stripe”).

(UK, soccer) The uniform of a football team, or the same worn by supporters.


sucker

From Middle English souker, sokere, sukkere, soukere, equivalent to suck (verb) + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Suuger, West Frisian sûker (“sucker”), Dutch zuiger (“sucker”), German Sauger (“dummy; vacuum”).


clicker

Let Clickers bark on the whole Day

1709, Thomas d'Urfey, “The Character of a Seat's-man”:

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(UK, obsolete) Someone who stands by a shop door to invite people to buy; a tout.


clever

en-adj

clever (comparative cleverer or more clever, superlative cleverest or most clever)

cleverer (comparative)
more clever (comparative)
cleverest (superlative)
most clever (superlative)

dull

antonym(s) of “smart, intelligent or witty”

ineffectual

antonym(s) of “resourceful, perhaps cunning”

→ German: clever

→ Limburgish: klevver

From East Anglian dialectal English cliver (“expert at seizing”), from Middle English cliver (“tenacious”).
* perhaps from Old English *clifer, clibbor (“clinging”);
* or perhaps from Dutch, Low German, or East/Saterland Frisian (compare kluftich (“clever, prudent”), probably derived from Proto-West Germanic *kleuban (“to cleave, split”));
* or dialectal Norwegian klover (“ready, skillful”), itself borrowed from Middle Low German klever, related to kleven (“to stick”), from Old Saxon klibōn, from Proto-West Germanic *klibēn, related to the Old English word above;
* possibly influenced by Old English clifer (“claw, hand”) (compare clawian (“to claw”)).
Related to cleave. Perhaps influenced by Welsh celfydd (“talented, dexterous, expert”).

cog

But at that moment I knew it was all over for me, I had never thought that this day would come, but it had and I was not feeling too clever. In fact I had to escape to a nearby toilet to be sick.

2010, Colin Ross, Death of the Docks, page 196:

Right, and no, because the solicitor has told her that Walter's legs didn't look too clever, which, apparently, everyone's putting down to a fall, thankfully.

2019, Neil Forsyth, 30:07 from the start, in Guilt, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Jake McCall (Jamie Sives):

(UK, colloquial, chiefly in the negative) Fit and healthy; free from fatigue or illness.


plush

en-adj

plush (comparative plusher, superlative plushest)

plusher (comparative)
plushest (superlative)

From French peluche (“fluff, plush”). The fact that historically (in past centuries) plush upholstery was so expensive as to be socially exclusive undoubtedly connects the senses of "luxurious" and "soft".

They lived in a plush apartment complex.

(UK) Very expensive, or appearing expensive; opulent, luxurious.


tune

From Middle English tune, an unexplained variant of tone, from Old French ton, from Latin tonus, from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “a tone”). Doublet of tone, ton, and tonus.

You heard the new Rizzle Kicks song? — Tune!

(UK, slang) Used to show appreciation or approval of a song.


wash up

en-verb

wash up (third-person singular simple present washes up, present participle washing up, simple past and past participle washed up)

washes up (present singular third-person)
washing up (participle present)
washed up (participle past)
washed up (past)

You wash up tonight and I'll dry.

I'm not washing up all these dishes.

(British, ambitransitive) To clean the utensils, dishes etc. used in preparing and eating a meal.


morning glory

en-noun

morning glory (countable and uncountable, plural morning glories)

morning glories (plural)
morning-glory (alternative)
morningglory (alternative)

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

What's the story morning glory? Well? / You need a little time to wake up wake up

1995, “Morning Glory”, performed by Oasis:

Morning Glory (Penis) Would appear to refer to one that stands tall and erect on waking.

2003, Ray Puxley, Britslang: An Uncensored A-Z of the People's Language, Including Rhyming Slang, Robson, published 2003, page 326:

Like any man he wakes up with a morning glory. He precums.

2011, Michael Kantor, Now That You're Out, page 64:

(UK, informal) An involuntary erection present upon waking.


northern

en-adj

northern (comparative more northern, superlative most northern)

more northern (comparative)
most northern (superlative)

From Middle English northerne, from Old English norþerne, from Proto-West Germanic *norþrōnī, from Proto-Germanic *nurþrōnijaz. Cognate with Old High German nordrōni and Old Norse norrœnn.
Morphologically north + -ern.

Les Dawson was a famous northern comedian.

(British) Characteristic of the North of England (usually capitalised)


Bedfordshire

From Middle English Bedefordschire, from Old English Bedanfordsċīr, equivalent to Bedford + shire.

I'll be up to Bedfordshire if you two don't mind. I'm on early shift in the morning so I'll have to be up and out by five.

Now come along young lady, up to Bedfordshire.

1998, Mary Sheepshanks, A Price for Everything:


stroppy

stroppy (comparative stroppier, superlative stroppiest)

stroppier (comparative)
stroppiest (superlative)

From obstropulous, obsolete slang form of obstreperous, + -y.

In this case, the application of the famous method was a little shaky. To be fair, the director was dealing with a pretty stroppy cast.

1989, Kenneth Branagh, Beginning, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 64:

Her shape and posture shadowed her daughter′s, though Kerry carried herself with more attitude, a stroppier jutting of the hips than her mother.

2004, Simon Brett, The Hanging in the Hotel, Pan Macmillan UK:

Even today, women who show signs of anger and who express themselves in some assertive way may be labelled stroppy for doing so.

2010, Gillian Bloxham, W. Doyle Gentry, Anger Management For Dummies, UK edition:

The people who actually produced the paper, mainly the printers, were a stroppier lot, with a more aggressive union.

2010, Alexandra Bell, Rising to the Deadline, Trafford Publishing, Canada, page 140:

Davina told me earlier that Luke was the stroppiest patient she'd ever had and that he'd given her a lecture on how inefficient and time-wasting her medical was.

2010, Sophie Kinsella [pseudonym; Madeleine Wickham], Mini Shopaholic, page 341:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Ornery, fractious, belligerent, or obstreperous, and hence difficult to deal with.


gillion

From gi(ga)- + -illion. Modelled after million, billion etc. Compare also jillion.

The internationally agreed symbol for 10^6 is M and this is the initial letter of million. Would it not be logical and convenient to turn this happy accident into a principle and use G, the internationally agreed symbol for 10^9, as the initial letter of the word for 1,000,000,000? That number would thus be called a gillion. Whether the g should be hard or soft is a matter of opinion. I incline to hard because of the derivation from giga.

1968, N. W. Pirie, More About the Units (Nature vol. 220):

(British, rare) A thousand million, proposed as an alternative to the (now little used) British milliard and the (ambiguous, in the UK) US billion.


mum

en-verb

mum (third-person singular simple present mums, present participle mumming, simple past and past participle mummed)

mums (present singular third-person)
mumming (participle present)
mummed (participle past)
mummed (past)
mumm (alternative archaic)

From Middle English mum or mom (“silent”), reminiscent of the sound made when gagged or with a hand over one's mouth. Perhaps related to dated German Mumme (“mask”).

onomatopoeic

reminiscent

"Well, Sal, you mum your dubber pretty generally, but when you do slacken your glib you may as well do it civilly."

1857, Hidden Links; Or the Schoolfellows. A Tale, volume 2, page 233:

(UK, slang, obsolete, transitive) To silence.


tinkle

en-noun

tinkle (countable and uncountable, plural tinkles)

From Middle English tinclen, equivalent to tink + -le (frequentative suffix).

Give me a tinkle when you arrive.


custom

custom (countable and uncountable, plural customs)

PIE word
 *ḱóm
 PIE word
 *swé
From Middle English custume, borrowed from Anglo-Norman custume, inherited from Latin consuētūdinem, a noun derived from cōnsuēscō, from con- (“with”) + suēscō (“become used or accustomed to”). Doublet of costume and consuetude.
The adjectival form first appears c. 1830.

klandizie

habitual buying of goods from one same vendor

Let him have your custom, but not your votes.

1710 September 28, Joseph Addison, The Whig Examiner, number 3:

(dated outside UK) Habitual buying of goods from one same vendor.

(collectively) The habitual patrons (i.e. customers) of a business; business support.


excess

excess (countable and uncountable, plural excesses)

From Middle English exces (“excess, ecstasy”), from Old French exces, from Latin excessus (“a going out, loss of self-possession”), from excedere, excessum (“to go out, go beyond”). See exceed.

der

(British, insurance) A condition on an insurance policy by which the insured pays for a part of the claim.


trimmings

Don't forget to take the trimmings down by twelfth night.

(British) Domestic decorations for a room, especially Christmas decorations.


trim up

en-verb

trim up (third-person singular simple present trims up, present participle trimming up, simple past and past participle trimmed up)

trims up (present singular third-person)
trimming up (participle present)
trimmed up (participle past)
trimmed up (past)

"Have you trimmed up yet?"

(British, informal) To put up trimmings, especially at Christmas.


crimper

From crimp + -er (agent noun suffix) or, for the climbing hold, + -er (patient suffix).


dresser

From Middle English dressure, dressor, dressour, a borrowing from Old French drecëur, drecëure, from the verb dresser.

The pewter plates on the dresser / Caught and reflected the flame, as shields of armies the sunshine.

1847, Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie:

But it went through her like a flash of hot fire when, in passing, he lurched against the dresser, setting the tins rattling, and clutched at the white pot knobs for support.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 2”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

The other room was a kitchen, with an open fireplace, a safe, a dresser and a tin sink, with a tap from the tank outside.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 29:

(UK) An item of kitchen furniture, like a cabinet with shelves, for storing crockery or utensils.


dresser

From Middle English dresser, equivalent to dress + -er.

Because we were the first by a long way to turn trendy, we're still the only dressers in Scotland and our enemies were easily recognised: denims and DM's, skinheads and parkas.

2015, Jay Allan, Bloody Casuals: Diary of a Football Hooligan:

(UK) A football hooligan who wears designer clothing; a casual.


utter

utter (third-person singular simple present utters, present participle uttering, simple past and past participle uttered)

utters (present singular third-person)
uttering (participle present)
uttered (participle past)
uttered (past)
utter (infinitive)
utter (first-person present singular)
uttered (first-person past singular)
utter (present second-person singular)
utterest (archaic present second-person singular)
uttered (past second-person singular)
utteredst (archaic past second-person singular)
utters (present singular third-person)
uttereth (archaic present singular third-person)
uttered (past singular third-person)
utter (plural present)
uttered (past plural)
utter (present subjunctive)
uttered (past subjunctive)
utter (imperative present)
uttering (participle present)
uttered (participle past)

PIE word
 *úd
From Middle English outren, utteren (“to display for sale; to market; to sell; to say, speak; to put into words, express, tell; to make known, reveal”), partly:
* from outre, utter (adjective, adverb) (see etymology 1 and etymology 3) + -en (suffix forming the infinitives of verbs); and
* from Middle Dutch uteren (“to announce, make known; to demonstrate, show; to speak; to drive away”) (modern Dutch uiteren); or from Middle Low German üteren, ütern (“to demonstrate, show; to speak; to sell; etc.”) (modern Low German ütern; compare Middle High German ūzeren, whence German äußern (“to express, say, utter”)), probably from Proto-West Germanic *ūtanā (“from outside or without; outside of”), from Proto-Germanic *ūtanē (“from outside or without; outside of”), from *ūt (“out; outward”) (from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“away; out, outward; upwards”)) + *-anē (suffix forming adverbs with ablative direction).

laskea liikkeeseen

(transitive) to put (currency or other valuable items) into circulation

пускам в обращение

(transitive) to pass off (counterfeit currency, etc.) as legal tender; to use (a forged cheque) as if genuine

utters

unwanted depressions, etc., on the surface of an object caused by a tool

God proſper you, to the uttering all hollovv Harts of England.

1536 December 23 (date written; Gregorian calendar), John Strype, quoting Hugh Latimer, “A Visitation of the Religious Houses. […]”, in Ecclesiastical Memorials; Relating Chiefly to Religion, and the Reformation of It: Shewing the Various Emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry the Eighth. […], volume I, London: […] John Wyat, […], published 1721, →OCLC, page 260:

As fier being encloſed in a ſtraite place, wil by force vtter his flãme, […] ſo thys cãcard crocodrile, ⁊ ſubtile ſerpent, could not lõg lurke in malicious hartes, nor venemous ſtomackes, but in cõcluſion ſhe muſt (according to her nature) apere ⁊ ſhew her ſelf.

a. 1548 (date written), Edward Hall, Richard Grafton, “[The Troubleous Season of Kyng Henry the Sixt.] The .XXXVII. Yere.”, in The Vnion of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre & Yorke, […], London: […] Rychard Grafton, […] [and Steven Mierdman], published 1550, →OCLC, folio xc, verso:

As fire being enclosed in a strait place, will by force utter his flame, […] so this cankered crocodile, and subtle serpent, could not long lurk in malicious hearts, nor venemous stomachs, but in conclusion she must (according to her nature) appear and show herself.

Seeſt not thilke ſame Hawthorne ſtudde, / How bragly it beginnes to budde, / And vtter his tender head?

1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “March. Ægloga Tertia.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 8, verso:

And moſt deare Actors, eate no Onions, nor garlicke: for vve are to vtter ſvveete breath: and I do not doubt but to hear them ſay, it is a ſvveete Comedy.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], signature G2, verso:

[Ô] vvoman, vvoman, vveepe novv or neuer, thou haſt made more ſorrovves then vve haue eyes to vtter.

c. 1607–1611 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], Iohn Fletcher, Cupids Revenge. […], London: […] Thomas Creede for Iosias Harison, […], published 1615, →OCLC, Act V, scene [iii], signature L3, recto:

[N]ovv the King forſakes / The Campe, he muſt maintaine luxurious mouthes, / Such as can vtter perfum'd breath, and theſe / Straite compoſe a faction, engroſſe his eares.

c. 1626–1629 (date written), Wm. D’avenant [i.e., William Davenant], The Tragedy of Albovine, King of the Lombards, London: […] [Felix Kyngston] for R. M[oore], […], published 1629, →OCLC, Act I, signature C2, recto:

He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco smoke instead of idle speeches; […]

1819 June 23, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Rip Van Winkle”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number I, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, pages 82–83:

Four little winged marble boys used to play their virgin fancies, spouting out ever fresh streams from their innocent-wanton lips, in the square of Lincoln’s-inn, when I was no bigger than they were figured. […] Are the stiff-wigged living figures [lawyers], that still flitter and chatter about that area, less gothic in appearance? or, is the splutter of their hot rhetoric one half so refreshing and innocent, as the little cool playful streams those exploded cherubs uttered?

1821 September, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple”, in Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, pages 193–194:

[F]lowers utter their beauty and their fragrance, as much as birds utter their songs.

1850, Leigh Hunt, “At Home in England”, in The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt; […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 205:

Within the room, a series of prints so typical as to merit description, told the great incidents of Greek History. There was […] a mythological matron, in a classical helmet, uttering a tear at a rustic cross bound in blue and white ribbons and inscribed ΕΙΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΠΕΣΟΝΤΑΣ—To The Fallen—1912, a souvenir of the First Balkan War; […]

1928, Robert Byron, “To Methodius”, in The Station: Athos: Treasures and Men, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC, pages 109–110:

(obsolete except UK, dialectal) To discharge or send out (something); to eject, to emit.


nominal

PIE word
 *h₁nómn̥
From the Middle English nominalle (“of nouns”), borrowed from Latin nōminālis (“of names”), from nōmen (“name”).

(UK, police jargon) A person listed in the Police National Computer database as having been convicted, cautioned or recently arrested.


commuter

forens

a person who regularly travels to and from work and home

pendel

transport system or vehicle in such systems

How can an operator be, at the same time, top for overall satisfaction and bottom for value for money? I turned to Anthony Smith for the answer, leaning on his 20 years running Transport Focus and its predecessors.
It's commuters, he explained. "You can't please commuters, you can only not displease them."

2024 October 2, Philip Haigh, “Different types of passengers require different types of fare”, in RAIL, number 1019, page 54:

(transport) A person who regularly travels between two places.

(US, UK, Canada) To and from work and home.


attitude

en-noun

attitude (countable and uncountable, plural attitudes)

/ˈætɪˌt͡ʃuːd/

From French attitude, from Italian attitudine (“attitude, aptness”), from Medieval Latin aptitūdō (“aptitude”) and actitūdō (“acting, posture”), from Latin aptō and actitō. Doublet of aptitude.

der

He doesn't take attitude from anybody.

I asked the waiter for a clean fork and all I got was attitude.

And if a nigga get a attitude / Pop it like it's hot

2004, “Drop It Like It's Hot”, performed by Snoop Dogg ft. Pharrell Williams:

(Canada, US, UK, Philippines, informal) Unpleasant behavior.


previous

en-noun

previous (countable and uncountable, plural previouses)

previouses (plural)
prævious (alternative archaic)

It turned out the shoplifter had a lot of previous.

Simmons had eight previouses: robberies, burglaries, a couple of felonious assaults.

1994, William J. Caunitz, Three complete novels: Black Sand; Suspects; One Police Plaza:

(informal, UK) An existing criminal record (short for "previous convictions")

For that Smalling will have to do his time grazing in the scapegoat’s paddock because his contribution here supplied hard evidence of a player lacking the football intelligence that is needed at the highest level. He has previous on that front and it is difficult to find any mitigation for the way he scythed down James Milner when the first rule for a defender on a yellow card is not to dive in unless it is absolutely necessary.

November 2 2014, Daniel Taylor, “Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United”, in guardian.co.uk:

Mitigation will be limited given his previous and as he has already attended tackle school he cannot return.

2023-08-13, Gerard Meagher, “Owen Farrell’s red card likely to put England’s World Cup plans in disarray”, in The Guardian:

(informal, UK) A track record of similar behaviour, especially bad behaviour.

The two players refused to shake hands — there's a bit of previous there.

(informal, UK) A record of previous hostility or conflict (between people).


submersible

(British) A small nonmilitary, non-nuclear submarine for exploration.

غَطَّاسَة

(British) A retroactive term used for non-nuclear submarines; nuclear submarines are termed "true submarines".

(British) A term used primarily by some navies for nuclear submarines, termed "true submersibles", because they cannot retroactively declare that their non-nuclear submarines should be called by a different name.


taking

taking (countable and uncountable, plural takings)

Fred was concerned because the takings from his sweetshop had fallen again for the third week.

Count the shop's takings.

[...] the woman who keeps the greengrocer’s shop was adding up the day’s takings with her hands in red mittens.

1929, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in A Room of One’s Own, London: The Hogarth Press, published 1931, page 60:

According to T. B. Sands in his history of the M.S.W.J.R. (Oakwood Press: 8s 6d) Fay at first had to await cash takings from stations before he could pay his staff; [...].

1961 October, “Talking of Trains: Last of the M.S.W.J.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 586:

The child was not returned to the mother. [...] strangers giving him suck found it easier to display the utter despair in their faces that made for successful begging, whereas if [the mother] had had the pleasure of clasping her little son to her bosom all day, it would have been impossible to keep a spark of joy, however tiny, out of her eyes, which would have adversely affected the takings.

1995, Rohinton Mistry, chapter 12, in A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, pages 554–555:

(in the plural, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) Cash or money received (by a shop or other business, for example).