NuLab

New Labour rendered in Orwellian Newspeak.

We are totally opposed to the creeping privatisation of these services which NuLab has indicated it will commence once this election is safely out of the way.

2001, Patrick Harrington, Cliff Morrison, Third Way Manifesto:

(UK, informal, derogatory, UK politics) New Labour.


barnacle

Uncertain, with long-debated origin. From Middle English barnakille, from earlier bernake, bernekke, most likely from Old Northern French bernaque (“barnacle”) (compare French barnache), probably from Medieval Latin barneca (“limpet”), probably from Gaulish (compare Welsh brennig, Irish bairneach), from Proto-Celtic *barinākos, from *barinā (“rock, rocky ground”) (compare Old Irish barenn (“boulder”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷr̥H- (“hill, mountain”) + Proto-Celtic *-ākos, from Proto-Indo-European *-kos, *-ḱos; for sense development, compare Ancient Greek λέπας (lépas, “rock”) which gave λεπάς (lepás, “limpet”).
First attestations referred to the goose, with corresponding folklore (q.v.).

der

(archaic, British, slang, in the plural) A pair of spectacles.


fettler

How's tha' doing fettler?

(slang, UK, Lancashire) A friend or mate


common room

He was […] none of your free-and-easy companions, who would scrape their boots upon the fire-dogs in the common room, and be not at all particular on the subject of spittoons; […]

1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 10.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 289:

Any expected permanent way checks are indicated daily on a map in the enginemen's common room.

1950 June, N. H. Bousfield, “Angers, a French Provincial Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 371:

(UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand) A shared lounge found in dormitories, universities, military bases, etc.


combination room

en-noun

combination room (plural combination rooms)

(UK, Cambridge University) A common room.


white metal

white metal (countable and uncountable, plural white metals)

(UK, auctions) Silver that cannot be labeled as silver in the UK because it does not bear an Assay Office mark.


look-in

(idiomatic, UK) A chance to participate, compete, or succeed.


exagramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of exagram.


roulement

(British, military) a short deployed tour for a major combat unit or other grouping of personnel on a continuing operation.


responsion

/ɹɪˈspɒnʃən/

(UK, education, historical, in the plural) The first of three examinations once required for an academic degree at the University of Oxford; nicknamed the little go and generally taken around the time of matriculation.


0800 number

the 0800 number advice line receives over five hundred calls a year

1995, Sheena Carmichael, Business Ethics: the new bottom line, →ISBN, page 41:

It is an alternative to a 0800 number where the callee bears the full cost of the call.

2002, Julie K. Petersen, Fiber optics illustrated dictionary, →ISBN, page 1046:

The important point about direct response is that it should not just be advertising with an 0800 number

2006, Frances Brassington, Stephen Pettitt, Principles of marketing, →ISBN, page 838:

(UK, New Zealand) A telephone number beginning with 0800; these numbers are free for the caller because the call is paid for by the company or organisation being called.


trilliard

From French trilliard, equivalent to tri- (“three”) + -illiard.

We read of milliards, and even trilliards, of roubles, marks, francs and dollars, but we do not comprehend them in the sense of visualising and retaining a clear-cut picture of what the figures really imply.

1922, Industrial Peace, volume 10, London: St. Catherine Press, page 167:

2003, François Cardarelli, Column in a table, Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins,
Power of ten ...UK, France (n rule) million billion billiard trillion trilliard

(UK, Australia, dated, rare) One thousand long scale trillions, or one short scale sextillion; equal to 10²¹ (1 followed by twenty-one 0s).

triiliardo

1021, a thousand million million million (a billion trillion) — see also sextillion


euthanase

en-verb

euthanase (third-person singular simple present euthanases, present participle euthanasing, simple past and past participle euthanased)

euthanases (present singular third-person)
euthanasing (participle present)
euthanased (participle past)
euthanased (past)

Back-formation from euthanasia. Compare euthanize.

1988, British Small Animal Veterinary Association, World Small Animal Veterinary Association, The Journal of Small Animal Practice, Volume 29, page 258,
One affected red and white pup was euthanased and the eyes sent for histological examination.

Mice from each treatment group, including negative controls, were euthanased seven days after the last feed.

2003, R. Fuller, Gabriela Perdigón, Gut Flora, Nutrition, Immunity and Health, page 188:

On one occasion I euthanased a horse because of sand colic. The girl's mother, who lived in Perth, and didn't observe the incident, complained to the Board. She stated that horses don't die of colic and I was required to give reasons why I euthanased the horse.

2010, Jal Maxwell, Square Peg - Round Hole, page 56:


two bob

(UK, Australia, obsolete) Two shillings; a florin.

Less flashy in its post-modernism than the MI6 building, more sober in its brick-framed glass curtain walling, Sally Malone would have pointed out that this was the two-bob side of the block, as against the half-crown riverbank site of the other building.

1999, Barry Maitland, The Chalon Heads: A Kathy and Brock Mystery, page 181:

Judging from the spectrum and the brightness Dr Stickland “wouldn′t give two bob either way”.

1975 September 4, “Monitor: Nova Honda brightens the night sky”, in New Scientist, page 515:

(idiomatic, UK, Australia, often attributive) A trivially small value.


personation

en-noun

personation (countable and uncountable, plural personations)

(UK) The act of voting in an election by impersonating someone else.


a little bit of bread and no cheese

/ə ˌlɪtl̩ ˈbɪt‿əv ˈbɹɛd‿n̩ nəʊ ˈt͡ʃiːz/

/ə ˈlɪt(ə)l ˈbɪt‿əv ˈbɹɛd‿n̩ noʊ ˈt͡ʃiz/

En-au-a little bit of bread and no cheese.ogg

Onomatopoeic; the bird’s song is thought to resemble the rhythm of the phrase.

The song of the yellow-hammer consists of little more than a monotone, repeated quickly several times, some emphasis being laid on the last note, which is also uttered at greater length. It is almost the only bird whose note is heard in the heat of a summer's day. The cow-boys in some parts of the country have given the following interpretation to the yellow-hammer's song:— "A lit—tle bit of bread, and no cheese."

1839 July 13, “British Birds”, in The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume VIII, number 467, London: Charles Knight & Co., […], →OCLC, page 266, column 1:

In Devonshire it [the yellowhammer] goes by the names of "Little-bread-and-no-cheese," and "Gladdy." Of the latter name I do not know the origin; that of the former is clear enough; for if the words "A little bit of bread and no cheese" be chanted rapidly in one note, descending at the word "cheese," the performance, both in matter and style, will bear a close resemblance to the bird's song.

1862, C[harles] A[lexander] Johns, “The Yellow Hammer. Emberíza citrinella.”, in British Birds in Their Haunts, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; […], →OCLC, page 192:

[A]s twilight sets in, the Yellow Hammer may still be heard, and is perhaps the last bird to give a parting note to the retiring day, with the exception of his congener the Corn-Bunting, who sings till it is quite dusk. Country people imitate the note of the Yellow Hammer by the words, "a little bit of bread and no cheese," the accent on the last word; but sometimes the utterance alters in tone, the request being for a "little bit of bread and no cheese," the last word being dropped and the accent on the penultimate.

1871–1881, H[enry] E[eles] Dresser, “Emberiza citrinella. (Yellow Bunting.)”, in A History of the Birds of Europe, […], volume IV, London: […] [Taylor and Francis for] the author, […], →OCLC, page 4:

[T]he yellowhammer, who also had words as well as tune, sang his refrain of "a little bit of bread and no cheese," with a tremendous emphasis on the no; […]

1875, [Walter Besant, James Rice], chapter VIII, in With Harp and Crown. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 139:

It is delightful to hear the yellowhammer's song—his only song: "A little bit of bread and no c h e e s e."

1896, “the Amateur Angler” [pseudonym; Edward Marston], “Spring and Summer Rambles”, in By Meadow and Stream: Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Places, London: Sampson Law, Marston and Company […], →OCLC, page 38:

There were several sorts of little birds, twittering different songs. The first one sang—“Who’s bin digging-up my nuts? Who’s-been-digging-up my nuts?” And another sang—“Little bita bread and - no - cheese! Little bit - a - bread an’ - no - cheese!”

1911, Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes, London, New York, N.Y.: Frederick Warne & Co., →OCLC, page 21:

"A little bit of bread and no cheese!" cry the yellowhammers petulantly. But no one takes any notice of them.

1931 May 20, Louis Golding, “A Rosary of Lovely Places”, in The Commonweal: A Weekly Review of Literature, the Arts and Public Affairs, volume XIV, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Calvert Publishing Corporation, →OCLC, page 74, column 1:

The Africans, it seems, have the British countryman's habit of making a phonetically similar sentence out of a bird's call. The yellow-hammer, for instance, is supposed to say "a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese". In Zande, the laughing dove calls urugu nolu akpi akpi, which can be translated as "the planter of eleusine [a local cereal] will die".

1961 January 26, “Notes and Comments: Bird Calls and Beer Drinking in African Language”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 9, number 219, London: IPC Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 197, column 1:

In Europe the song of the Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) can be heard, with a little poetic licence, as ‘a little bit of bread and no cheese’, the Quail (Coturnix coturnix) as ‘wet my lips’.

2015, Nick Baker, “Feathered and Flighty: Birds”, in The Complete Naturalist, London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Natural History, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 51:

Emberiza citrinella
Emberiza citrinella#English

(British, idiomatic) Used to represent the song of the yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella).


zeptogramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of zeptogram.


yoctogramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of yoctogram.


like a train

I could not get a shot in. They turned in my direction and came like a train. I stopped the first and the others spilled round him at a frightful speed. I was in the eddy of the first beast, as it were. I got in another shot at an angle behind the ear and down he went.

1949, Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell, Karamojo safari, page 85:

"That tide's coming in like a train, and if the Raider breaks up, the currents will drag them under!" Her voice was desperate. "I don't see 'ow anyone can get to them!" It was true.

1994, Sheila Garrigue, The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito, →ISBN, page 17:

Aspinall was suspended for the first three games but we started like a train. We took ten points from the first twelve, beating Leeds 4—0 at home with Hilaire and Blake coming back, and we went to the top of the league.

2005, Alan Ball, Playing Extra Time, →ISBN, page 221:


butt-woman

butt-women (plural)
butt woman (alternative)

My thoughts always revert to the angry butt-woman when the second chapter of St. James' Epistle is read in its ordinary course.

1862, Margaret Goodman, Experiences of an English Sister of Mercy, London: Smith and Elder, page 26:

"It was more like a funeral than a wedding," said the butt-woman, who was the sole spectator of the ceremony, with the exception of the bride's uncle and aunt, told her friends afterwards.

1892 September, Annie Thomas, “The Honourable Jane.”, in Belgravia: a London magazine, volume 79, page 10:

The butt-woman was just setting forth the need of money for church repairs but she interrupted herself when she found me studying monuments.

1909 March, Edna Bourne Holman, “At Herrick's home in Devon”, in Scribner's Magazine, volume XLV, number 3, page 259:

(obsolete, chiefly British) A female lay church worker who tends the pews in a church; a sextoness.


fusome

en-adj

fusome (comparative more fusome, superlative most fusome)

more fusome (comparative)
most fusome (superlative)
fusom (alternative)
fusum (alternative)
feusome (alternative)
fewsome (alternative)

From Middle English *fussom, equivalent to fouse (eager, ready, brave, noble) + -some.

What pleas'd him best, the warmed up some keal, And RALF dud mak a varra fusome meal,

1785, Tim Bobbin, The Lancashire Dialect: Containing the Adventures and Misfortunes of a Lancashire Clown:

Whya nowt but weel , she seems a varra conny fusom wife, en I hear they hoffer et dea varra weel, en baith draas yaa way, en gitten ther lile farm varra connoly stockt;

1840, Ann Wheeler, The Westmoreland Dialect in Four Familiar Dialogues, page 48:

(UK, dialect, obsolete) Handy, deft-handed, workmanlike.

She was...as douce and fewsome as ony woman's bairn

1867, Eliza Lynn Linton, Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg:

(UK, dialect, obsolete) Neat; handsome, comely, shapely, attractive.


FACT

Federation Against Copyright Theft
w:Federation Against Copyright Theft

(UK) Initialism of Federation Against Copyright Theft.


OLE

The problem started with damage to overhead line equipment (OLE - the railway's electrification system), which halted a Great Western Railway service.

2024 August 21, Philip Haigh, “Stranded trains: problems for passengers and operators”, in RAIL, number 1016, page 52:

(rail transport, UK) Overhead line equipment.


CMA

en-noun

CMA (countable and uncountable, plural CMAs)

(UK, countable) Initialism of computer-marked assignment (that uses scan sheets).


pontage

pontage (countable and uncountable, plural pontages)

From Latin pons, pontis (“a bridge”): compare French pontage.

They pay no Toll for Goods which they have in Right of the Church , and were formerly by the common Law discharg'd from Pontage and Murage

1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe […], →OCLC:

(UK, law, obsolete) A duty or tax paid for repairing bridges.


young'un

young'uns (plural)
youngen (alternative)
youngin (alternative)
youngon (alternative)
youngun (alternative)

"Jesus Christ! Was my folks refined. My mam she wouldn't think-a lettin' us young'uns call a pee pot a pee pot. A chamber's what she called it... And by God! Us young'uns had ter call the pee pot a chamber or git our God damn necks wrang."

1946, Elizabeth Metzger Howard, Before the Sun Goes Down, page 31:

(Southern US, African-American Vernacular, British West Country, Northern England, informal) Child.


go through the mill

en-verb

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

goes through the mill (present singular third-person)
going through the mill (participle present)
went through the mill (past)
gone through the mill (participle past)

All know the high estimation debtors held the Act 1861, by the number who went "through the mill" at the close of 1869.

(UK, slang, obsolete) To go through bankruptcy.


air-raid warden

en-noun

air-raid warden (plural air-raid wardens)

air-raid wardens (plural)
air raid warden (alternative)

capofabbricato

person who defends a building during an air raid

A person whose responsibility was to defend a particular building during an air raid, ensure the blackout was complete, and assist civilians to an air-raid shelter.

(UK, historical) A member of an Air Raid Precautions organization, dedicated to protecting and sheltering civilians from air raids during World War II.


jacksie

(slang, UK) Alternative spelling of jacksy.


yelper

From Middle English yelpere; equivalent to yelp + -er. The avocet is so called from its sharp, shrill cry.


sugar momma

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative spelling of sugar mama.


flu friend

(UK) A designated friend or relative who collects medicine on behalf of a person with flu who has been advised to remain at home.


daleside

With time, nutrients are leached from the organic material, rabbits graze the vegetation, and the species become more typical of daleside communities.

1999, C. Philip Wheater, Urban habitats:

(UK, often attributive) The side of a dale.


up hill and down dale

I have a great deal of sympathy with scientific doubters, and with those who test psychicism up hill and down dale and are not satisfied.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 275:

We bought a 1969 dark green VW Beetle which I immediately named "Doodle Bug," and off we went. The car did not give us a minute's trouble throughout the trip — up hill, down dale, across uncharted wastelands between super highways.

1980 December 6, Nancy Walker, “Toodle-Oo, Doodle”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 20, page 12:

(UK, US, Australia, idiomatic) Here and there; everywhere.


D-notice

D-notice (canonical)
also Notice D (canonical)
D-notices (plural)

Newspapers are afraid upon all sorts of minor counts, publishers, with such valiant exceptions as the publishers of this matter, are morbidly discreet; they get Notice D to avoid this or that particular topic; there are obscure boycotts and trade difficulties hindering the wide diffusion of general ideas in countless ways.

1940, H. G. Wells, The New World Order, Alfred A. Knopf, published 1940, page 15:

His mistake was to select a heavy English Sunday paper which occasionally ran his pieces. The D-Notice forbidding all reference to these events was there ahead of him.

1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 18:

(UK, historical) A defence notice; an official request to news editors not to publish or broadcast items on specified subjects for reasons of national security (replaced in 1993 with the DA-notice).


DA-notice

(UK) A defence advisory notice, an official (but unenforceable) request to news editors not to publish or broadcast items on specified subjects for reasons of national security.


arse around

en-verb

arse around (third-person singular simple present arses around, present participle arsing around, simple past and past participle arsed around)

arses around (present singular third-person)
arsing around (participle present)
arsed around (participle past)
arsed around (past)
arse about (alternative)

Quit arsing around and get to work!

Gob, he’s not as green as he’s cabbagelooking. Arsing around from one pub to another, leaving it to your honour, with old Giltrap’s dog and getting fed up by the ratepayers and corporators.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 299:

[…] up in London you arse around and go to the local and meet the boys and perhaps take in a flick, and then when you go to bed you find you’ve spent a quid and wonder where in hell it went and what you got for it.

1944, Nevil Shute, chapter 2, in Pastoral, London: Pan Books, published 1964:

It’s part of a whole lot of home-movie stuff I’ve just bought at Christie’s. Most of it’s too madly dull for words—you know, gay young things arsing around with no shame.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 284:

(intransitive, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To behave in a clownish, irresponsible or inefficient manner.


brussen

(UK, dialect, obsolete, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire) burst


lith

From Middle English lith, lyth, from Old English liþ (“limb, member, joint, tip of finger, point”), from Proto-Germanic *liþuz (“limb”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots lith (“part of the body, joint”), West Frisian lid (“part of the body, member”), Dutch lid (“limb, member, section”), Middle High German lit (“limb, member”), Swedish led (“joint, link, channel”), Icelandic liður (“item”), Dutch lid (“part of the body; member”) and gelid (“joint, rank, file”), German Glied (“limb, member, link”).

cog

(UK dialectal) A limb; any member of the body.

lith and limb;  out of lith

he departed with the lady / & brouȝt her to Camelot / Soo as they rode in a valey it was ful of stones / and there the ladyes hors stumbled and threwe her doun that her arme was sore brysed and nere she swouned for payne / Allas syr sayd the lady myn arme is oute of lythe wher thorow I must nedes reste me

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book III:

(UK dialectal) A joint; a segment or symmetrical part or division.


lith

From Middle English *lith, from Old Norse hlið (“a gap, gate, space”), from Proto-Germanic *hlidą (“door, lid, eyelid”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to conceal, hide”). Cognate with dialectal Norwegian lid, led (“an opening in a fence”), Scots lith (“a gap in a fence, gate opening”), Old English hlid (“lid, covering, door, gate, opening”). More at lid.

cog

(UK dialectal) A gate; a gap in a fence.


sadcase

sadcases (plural)
sad case (alternative)

(UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A pathetic, unfashionable or socially inept person.


Sarf London

Pronunciation spelling of south, representing a th-fronting South London accent.

Nigel Kennedy, the English violinist, is noted for having acquired a working-class “Sarf London” speech in early adulthood, overcoming the heritage of an elite education as a gifted child at the Yehudi Menuhin school, in the course of which he was exposed to continuous input of RP.

1995, Kevin Durkin, “Language Development II: Social Dimensions of Acquisition and Use”, in Developmental social psychology: from infancy to old age, →ISBN, page 248:

Their stance as the most honest band in the world was offset by some nagging doubts: even some of their true believers felt that Strummer (real name John Mellors) came from too privileged a background to be genuinely angry, while Jones’s ‘Sarf London’ accent was considered suspect.

2003, Peter Buckley, editor, The Rough Guide to Rock, →ISBN, page 203:

‘I figured that all this Sarf London wideboy bit was just smoke.’

2006, Martyn Waites, Mary's Prayer, →ISBN, page 106:


overthwart

/əʊvəˈθwɔːt/

From Middle English overthwart, overthwert, overtwert, overquert, overwhart, equivalent to over- + thwart. Compare Dutch overdwaars (“across”), Danish overtvært (“across”).

[…] entrance, and access on all sides, by the felling of huge Trees overthwart one another, was quite barr’d up;

1670, John Milton, The History of Britain, London: James Allestry, Book 2, p. 42:

(archaic, UK dialectal) From one side to the other of.


running shoe

She used running shoes so that she wouldn't slip.

(British) trainer with sharp spikes in the soles.


snoozle

en-verb

snoozle (third-person singular simple present snoozles, present participle snoozling, simple past and past participle snoozled)

snoozles (present singular third-person)
snoozling (participle present)
snoozled (participle past)
snoozled (past)

She […] seemed absorbed in her occupation; desisting from it only to […] push away a dog, now and then, that snoozled its nose overforwardly into her face.

1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

(British, rare) To nuzzle affectionately.


kitchen paper

en-noun

kitchen paper (usually uncountable, plural kitchen papers)

(UK) Paper towels intended for kitchen purposes such as absorbing spillages and wrapping sandwiches.


glutch

en-verb

glutch (third-person singular simple present glutches, present participle glutching, simple past and past participle glutched)

glutches (present singular third-person)
glutching (participle present)
glutched (participle past)
glutched (past)

From Middle English glucchen, a variant of gulchen (“to drink greedily”). Doublet of gulch.

And now Robert Creedle will be nailed up in parish boards 'a b'lieve; and noboby will glutch down a sigh for he!

1887, Thomas Hardy, chapter 43, in The Woodlanders:


laughing gear

2005, Brian Castro, The Garden Book, Giramond Publishing, NSW, page 110,
His dumb face made me believe him. I told him if he saw anything unusual to come and tell me. Sure, Mr Damon, he whimpered. Sure, Mr Damon...I could have knocked out his laughing-gear.

Wrap your laughing gear around these luscious Lebanese swamis (meat and spice wrapped in Lebanese bread).

2007, Danny Palmerlee, South America on a Shoestring, Lonely Planet, page 801:

You will recognize him instantly — a man with his laughing gear permanently attached to a liquor bottle.

2008, Teri Louise Kelly, Sex, Knives and Bouillabaisse, South Australia: Wakefield Press, page 59:

Wrap your laughing gear around fresh bread and tasty spreads to set yourself up for the day.

2008, Charles Rawlings-Way, New Zealand:

‘Get your laughing gear round that lot,’ Frank drawled as he put the chops, steaks and bangers on the table.

2009, Mark Abernethy, Second Strike, NSW: Allen & Unwin, page 586:

Despite having pretty mean teeth, it lacks the laughing gear of the pike and thus smaller baits tend to be used.

2012, Peter Kaminsky, Fishing For Dummies, UK: John Wiley & Sons, page 63:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, humorous, slang) The mouth.


confectioner's

(UK) A shop that principally sells confectionery


neshness

I should be inclined to think it was from general neshness of constitution.

1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, Chapter 41:

(British, dialect) The condition of being nesh.


BATNEEC

(UK, environmental regulation) Initialism of best available techniques not entailing excessive costs.


superloo

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

The French "superloos" are open 24 hours. They afford total privacy in an atmosphere of warm, clean-smelling air and piped-in music.

I shall certainly hear more about the superloo than drugs, and it will be genuine and spontaneous...

1987, George Marshall, In a distant isle: the Orkney background of Edwin Muir:

The city was promised 550 'free' pillars that could be turned into superloos with Muzak and heated seats, kiosks...

2000, Nick Cohen, Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the Preposterous:

...and the theatre and the travel agents and the superloos and the monument and the corners and the doorways and the altering light and diminishing crowds.

(UK, informal) A luxurious public toilet.


Hokey Cokey

(UK) A group dance performed in a circle, in which people move various of their body parts in and out of the middle, and shake them about.


pergal

(UK) A box containing a plastic bladder of milk (most commonly with three Imperial gallons of milk), used commercially in a refrigerated machine that dispenses the milk as needed for customers.


List 99

Those subject to a disqualification order, and those permanently included on the Protection of Children Act List, are also included on List 99 automatically.

2006, Great Britain Department of Health, Working together to safeguard children:

As changes are being made to List 99 (by including new offences that will merit automatic disqualification), additional individuals will be barred from working in daycare settings and as childminders.

2006, Ann-Marie McAuliffe, Alison Linsey, John Fowler, Childcare Act 2006: the essential guide:

Mr Hudson was placed on List 99, which bars dubious characters from teaching jobs.

The management of the registration of people considered to be unsuitable to work with children and placed on List 99 became increasingly complex […]

2007, Joyce Lishman, Handbook for practice learning in social work and social care:

(UK, historical) A confidential register of people forbidden to work with children, maintained by the Department of Education and Skills.


squeaky bum time

Attributed to Sir Alex Ferguson, famed Scottish association football manager and former player, it implies the sound made by moving around in a plastic seat while squirming under pressure. Ferguson had said "squeeze your bum time" (that is, clenching one's buttocks under pressure) but it was misheard by journalist Kevin McCarra and the misquote stuck.

"It's getting tickly now - squeaky-bum time, I call it."

2003 March 18, “Fergie just can't stop playing his mind games”, in Daily Express, page 62:

(informal, chiefly UK) Chiefly, an exciting part of a sporting event, particularly the final moments of a close game or season.


bathing box

Boatsheds and bathing boxes were strung along the beaches of Port Phillip Bay for the shelter of boats as well as the bodies of the affluent.

1999, Clarice Beckett, Rosalind Hollinrake, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Clarice Beckett: Politically Incorrect, page 28:

She watched until her father reached the wreck, waiting until he turned and began the return swim, then she started up the beach toward the tea-trees and the line of gaily painted bathing boxes.

2002, Alex Miller, Conditions of Faith, page 3:

His father had a franchise from the Burnaby estate that allowed only him to put bathing boxes on the south beach for which he paid a rent of perhaps a shilling per box.

2004, Peter McNiff, Stories from a Small Town: Anecdotal History Of Greystones, County Wicklow, page 45:


beach hut

2000, Michael Dregni, 101 Uses for an Old Farm Tractor, Voyageur Press, British Columbia, page 29,
Kenneth Anderson's 1940s John Deere Model H could also double as a beach hut or lifeguard stand.

Beach huts, owned or leased, are not habitable but can be used as a shelter and changing room on the beach.

2003, Barbara Segall, Jerry Harpur, Gardens by the Sea, page 123:

Installed in a stark London gallery, Emin's work symbolized the beach hut as icon of the seaside.

2006, Fred Gray, chapter C, in Designing the Seaside: Architecture, Society and Nature, page 176:

As you travel further south there is a string of mellow beach huts with Buddhist names such as Shanti and Nirvana, catering for small numbers of hip, adventurous young Israelis.

2010, Amelia Thomas, Michael Kohn, Miriam Raphael, Dan Savery Raz, Israel & the Palestinian Territories, Lonely Planet, page 395:

But you'll have to wait in line in the morning to reserve a beach hut, and one never gets used to the sad sight of parrots, toucans, and cockatoos squawking in their cages.

2011, Darwin Porter, Frommer's Caribbean, page 77:

(UK, Australia) A small, single-room building above high-water mark on a beach that is used for changing into swimming clothes, for recreation, or for temporary storage.


fanny about

fanny about (third-person singular simple present fannies about, present participle fannying about, simple past and past participle fannied about)

fannies about (present singular third-person)
fannying about (participle present)
fannied about (participle past)
fannied about (past)
fanny around (alternative)

Then he dithered and fannied about.

1977, Jon Fleming et al., Soldiers on Everest, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, page 97:

Johnson waited for an age while the barmen tossed bottles back and forth, poured luminous liquids into glasses from great heights, and fannied about with fruit and frivolities.

2007, Philip Bryer, None of Your Business, →ISBN, page 151:

Obviously, I smirk watching this chaos unfold, from my lofty moral vantage as a woman checking Twitter dozens of times a day, a woman who often presents her husband with meals consisting of fridge remnants as I'm too busy fannying about on the internet to cook or shop.

(chiefly British, intransitive, slang) To waste time or fool around; to engage in activity which produces little or no accomplishment.

... the mechanic who tidied up after the Krays, took care of business while the Twins were fannying around the clubland circuit.

2001, Iain Sinclair, Landor's Tower, →ISBN, page 287:

Out of all the random cities one gets to fanny about in Europe, all my flings are descending onto Luxembourg like a plague of horny man-teens.

2009 May 27, Lucy Hunt, “No more broken hearts?”, in iafrica.com, retrieved 2009-09-08:

(chiefly British, transitive and intransitive, slang) To wander about or prowl around.


Lycra lout

The Daily Mail and Alun Michael might well have been right to think that Lycra louts were important to the public, but that does not make it an issue of high politics.

2001, Edward Page, Governing by numbers: delegated legislation and everyday policy-making:

Red traffic lights mean nothing to the Lycra lout, the psycho cyclist, the berk on a bike (Parsons 2002, 21).

2007, Paul Rosen, Peter Cox, David Horton, Cycling and society:

Is it my imagination, or is the world being taken over by Lycra louts with their arses in the air, their handlebars on the bitumen and their anti-erectile-dysfunction gel inserts firmly installed?

2007, Catherine Deveny, It's not my fault they print them:

(UK, slang, derogatory) An irresponsible cyclist, typically dressed in elastane cycling shorts and a cycling jersey and riding a racing bicycle.


controlee

(informal, UK) A person who is the subject of a control order.


control order

(UK, law) An order made by the Home Secretary to restrict an individual's liberty for the purpose of protecting members of the public from a risk of terrorism.


postcoded

The UK postcode list, known as the Postcode Address File (PAF), has been resold by the Post Office for years, even though more widespread use would ease the Post Office's task: postcoded letters are easier to sort and deliver.

2006 April 20, Charles Arthur, “Living on the Street with No Name”, in The Guardian:


dog's dinner

to make a dog's dinner (of)

The Polizei had made a dog's dinner of this. Vera would have done better, no doubt of it. It now remained to be seen whether the Law would do better.

She must look like a real dog's dinner. No wonder he'd been looking over her head to the girl who took the coats.

1997, Norma Harrs, Where Dreams Have Gone:

Just think; without that Mrs Pankhurst and her wrecking crew jumping under racehorses (phwooar!) and chaining themselves to railings (kinky!), these young women would be out getting an education and respecting their own sexuality, not getting themselves up like dog’s dinners and being the passive playthings of men.

2004 March 6, Julie Burchill, “Welcome to the world of the Stepford Sluts”, in Times Online, retrieved 2010-11-29:

The folio text is unevenly spaced (the compositor made a dog's dinner of setting the text), with three spaces closed up...

2007, Mark Bland, Early Modern Manuscript and Printed Book Studies:

(Ireland, UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) A complete mess.


flumpence

(UK, colloquial, rare) A derisory amount of money


josser

/ˈd͡ʒɒsə(ɹ)/

As I neither answered nor raised my eyes Mahony exclaimed again: 'I say . . . He's a queer old josser!'

1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “An Encounter”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 30:

(UK, informal) A man, especially one who seems foolish or simpleminded.


dring

dring (third-person singular simple present drings, present participle dringing, simple past and past participle dringed)

drings (present singular third-person)
dringing (participle present)
dringed (participle past)
dringed (past)

(UK, dialectal, transitive) To press; squeeze; crowd; push.


fishmonger's

(UK) A shop that sells wet fish and seafood.


thripple

From Middle English, attested as a plural therrepillis.

(UK, dialect) A ladder-like extension fitted to the front, rear, and sometimes sides of a haywagon or other towed agricultural trailer so as to increase its capacity.


riblet

(UK) A cut of veal or lamb taken from near the rib


loblolly

en-noun

loblolly (countable and uncountable, plural loblollies)

loblollies (plural)
lob-lolly (alternative)
lob lolly (alternative)
loblollie (alternative)
lob-lollie (alternative)
loplolly (alternative)

From Yorkshire dialect lob (“boil”, literally “bubbling up”) + dialect lolly (“broth”).

(UK, dialect) A thick stew; lobscouse or similar.


secondee

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-secondee.wav

From second (“to transfer temporarily to alternative employment”) + -ee. First attested in the 1980s.

af

At the very least, the government should consider restricting the emigration of skilled people who are in short supply and extend its monitoring system to include emigrating graduates of vocational and higher institutes, as well as government secondees and people officially contracted to work abroad.

1983, R. Paul Shaw, Mobilizing human resources in the Arab world, Routledge, →ISBN, page 182:

Operator shall engage or retain only such employees, secondees, contractors, consultants and agents as are reasonably necessary to conduct Joint Operations.

2005, Charlotte J. Wright, Rebecca A. Gallun, International Petroleum Accounting, PennWell Books, →ISBN, page 436:

In the above situation secondees from the back-offices were put in the contact centre environment, however their knowledge was not exploited to complement and enhance the quality of the end-user training.

2007, David Jesse Finnegan, Leslie P. Willcocks, Implementing CRM: From Technology to Knowledge, John Wiley and Sons, →ISBN, page 80:

Haines pointed out that GBR in fact has a team of about 50 people currently, while Hendy was quick to refute the Telegraph's claim: "The vast majority [of GBR employees] are secondees from other parts of the railway. There aren't 200 people just being recruited to set up some monolithic organisation. There's a whole range of secondees from all over the place.

2021 December 15, Stefanie Foster, “Network News: Great British Railways: start the railway reform now”, in RAIL, number 946, page 7:

(UK) A person who is transferred temporarily to alternative employment, or seconded.


snorker

[…] a snorker left on the plate. Sam groans, but obediently sinks his fork into a third sausage […]

2012, Chris Terrill, Shipmates, page 56:

Tim is told off for trying to smuggle Dad a 'snorker' (sausage) from the catering trolley.

2022, Emily Bevan, The Diary of Losing Dad, page 15:

(UK, slang, originally Australia and naval slang) A sausage.


gissa

This bloke comes up to his mate, and says "Ere," 'e says, 'gissa fag, tosh,' 'e says.

1952, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Shirley Brooks, Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, Sir Owen Seaman, Punch:

(Pacing up and down in front of the protesting ICKLES, threateningly.) C'mon, Emma, gissa hand here.

"An' you're gorgeous, here, gissa kiss."

(UK, slang, nonstandard, in imperative utterances) Give us a; give me a.


anythink

'Well, mother told me to ride acrost and see if you wanted anythink.

1901, Henry Lawson, Joe Wilson and His Mates:

"Lost anythink, Matey?" said he.

1911, Herbert George Wells, The New Machiavelli:

Now, Alfred," she said, "you mind out for baby cryin', and if she should 'appen to want for anythink, just give a call to Mrs. Thomas through the next door."

1913, Henry W. Nevinson, Essays in Rebellion:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(UK) Pronunciation spelling of anything.


Leader of the Opposition

en-noun

Leader of the Opposition (plural Leaders of the Opposition)

Leaders of the Opposition (plural)
leader of the opposition (alternative)

(politics, UK) In a house of legislature following the model of the Westminster system (such as the UK House of Commons), the parliamentary leader of the largest political party not forming the government.

Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition in the United Kingdom

Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons


brickor mortis

I've certainly heard people complain of feeling "credit crunched", although I can't really imagine anyone using the term brickor mortis with a straight face.

[2009 January 14, Hilary Osborne, “Empty of pocket, rich in diction: The credit crunched dictionary”, in The Guardian:

(UK, informal, rare) A condition of the housing market in which very few houses are bought and sold.


go for a burton

en-verb

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

goes for a burton (present singular third-person)
going for a burton (participle present)
went for a burton (past)
gone for a burton (participle past)
go for a Burton (alternative)

Originated in the RAF in World War II. Unknown beyond that, but may have some association with beer. One version is that it was from a series of ads for Burton's beer which showed a group of people with one missing and the tag line "He's gone for a Burton".

[G]one for a Burton […] has, in the R.A.F., ousted gone West[.] "He is dead" may appear somewhat remote from "He has gone for a glass of Burton": but, then, all euphemisms do, at first, appear remote.

1945, Eric H Partridge, “Words Get Their Wings”, in College English, volume 7, number 1, page 27:

(British, of a person or object) To be lost, spoiled or destroyed.


done and dusted

1953, UK, with "dusted" alliterative and expressing "finishing touches". Compare home and hosed.

All to be done and dusted before the National Honey Show. After this the grand clear up.

(British, Ireland, idiomatic, of a task) Completed thoroughly and satisfactorily.

kua kēhi

an idiomatic expression - completed thoroughly


reccy

[…] to look down on the reccy where young men were playing football to this ceaseless din.

2000, Peter Nichols, Diaries, 1969-1977, page 36:


Johnny Foreigner

UK late-20th century. The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang says "first recorded in 1990 but in use earlier". From John or Johnny as a personified idea. Compare Johnny Canuck (“Canadian”), Johnny Crapaud (“Frenchman”), Johnny Reb (“Confederate American”).

No wonder Johnny Foreigner lays in supplies of the stale bread rolls whenever he appears over the horizon.

1983, Richard Ingrams, John Wells, Private Eye - Issues 550-575, page 70:

Mr. King's message was that Johnny Foreigner does it better than us. In Germany, in Japan and in the United States, these bottlenecks just do not happen.

1984 December 3, John Torode, “Why must training for tomorrow be a dead turn-off?”, in The Guardian, page 18:

A time when Johnny Foreigner knew his place. A time when beautiful women from other countries existed primarily to be seduced...

1999, James Chapman, Licence to thrill: a cultural history of the James Bond films:

...the constant threat of spontaneous outbreaks of singing on Centre Court by pop has-beens and the occasional ungentlemanly antics of Johnny Foreigner...

2004, Charles Godfrey-Faussett, Footprint England:

(UK, informal, derogatory) Foreigners collectively; people who are not British.


South Britain

constituent countries
constituent country

(historical or loosely) England and Wales: (UK, law) The jurisdiction covering England and Wales, two constituent countries of the United Kingdom, which share a single legal system and are treated as a single country for various purposes.


nish

From German nichts (“nothing”) or possibly Yiddish נישט (nisht, “no, not”). Originally borrowed from Polari.

If you like the director you do it for nish, so Marcus Thompson got us all to do it for nothing.

1998 March 4, Janie Lawrence, quoting Ian Dury, “The Dury's Out”, in The Independent:

I've got nish to say to you. You can save your breath.

2017, Dreda Say Mitchell, Blood Mother: Flesh and Blood Trilogy Book Two, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

These fucking little smart arses download fucking tunes for nish.

2017 September 20, BBC Backstage Music Pass, Liam Gallagher (actor):


vinney

Variant of vinny (“mouldy”) used substantively, from Middle English *vinny, *finny, from Old English fyniġ (“mouldy”); related to vinew.

(UK, dialect, Dorset) A traditional blue cheese made in Dorset, England, from skimmed cows' milk.


lippen

lippen (third-person singular simple present lippens, present participle lippening, simple past and past participle lippened)

lippens (present singular third-person)
lippening (participle present)
lippened (participle past)
lippened (past)
licken (alternative)

From Middle English lipnen (“to trust”), of obscure origin. Perhaps an alteration of Middle English litnen (“to trust”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hlíta, compare Swedish lita (“to trust, depend, rely on”).

cog

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To entrust; trust to (someone/something).

Do not lippen to him! / I was lippening on you.

"And never lippen to what you see from the window," she said. "The eye is deceitful as well as the heart."

1896, Margaret Oliphant, The Library Window:

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To trust; to expect; to depend or rely (on).


Union Flag

(nautical, British) The flag flown on ships of the government of Great Britain or the United Kingdom.


whiffle

en-verb

whiffle (third-person singular simple present whiffles, present participle whiffling, simple past and past participle whiffled)

whiffles (present singular third-person)
whiffling (participle present)
whiffled (participle past)
whiffled (past)
wiffle (alternative)

1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff + -le (“(frequentative)”) and (onomatopoeia) sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680.


gawm

gawm (third-person singular simple present gawms, present participle gawming, simple past and past participle gawmed)

gawms (present singular third-person)
gawming (participle present)
gawmed (participle past)
gawmed (past)

"Ay, 'tis indeed," she went on, "and Mistress Ruth has eyes an' ears, an' uses 'em to better purpose than some folks I know" — and she threw a significant glance at her bewildered better half — "as can only stand gaffin' and gawmin' at a body."

1885, Mary Catherine Rowsell, Traitor Or Patriot?: A Tale of the Rye-house Plot, page 278:

“Now, yah ha done! and don't be gawming there, yah soft-headed chawbacon. Go hoam to yar mother!”

1888, W. R. Credland, “A Farm in the Fens”, in Papers of the Manchester Literary Club, volume 14, page 267:

‘There, be off with you! how can I figure with you standin' gawmin' at me there like a stuck pig with an orange in its mouth!’

1897, J. Carmichael, “Man and Beast”, in Monthly Packet, page 392:

"What does he want," she said, "gawmin' at me as if a wor a wild beast show?"

1897, James Prior, Ripple and Flood: A Novel, page 368:

(UK, dialectal) Alternative form of gorm (gawk, gape)


unstreamed

(UK, education) Not divided into streams.


SPAG

(UK, education) Acronym of spelling, punctuation and grammar, a set of criteria used in marking certain examinations.


paper towel

(British) A sheet of absorbent paper dispensed in restrooms, usually used for drying washed hands.


fainites

fainits (alternative)
faynights (alternative)

(UK) A call for truce used in children's games.


Mothering Sunday

From the former British custom of visiting mother churches (q.v.) at Mid-Lent, which by the English Civil War had passed on to servants receiving leave to go a-mothering, visiting and providing small gifts to their families. Revived as a national tradition in the early 20th century after the model of Mother's Day in the United States.

...on Mothering Sunday, when all the ‘servant-lads’ and ‘servant wenches’ are, in some parts of the country, set at liberty for a day, to go and see their mothers...

1838, William Howitt, Rural Life in England, page 159:

Mary, it's twenty good year—twenty-one, come Mothering Sunday—'Since he was here at the farm.

1880, Arthur Joseph Munby, Dorothy, page 66:

"Mothering Sunday," the fourth Sunday in Lent, when absent sons and daughters—particularly the young apprentices—would return to their homes with some little present for both parents, but more especially for the mother... Imagine the... pride of the mother in the simple gift, and the admiration of the small brothers and sisters who gathered around and longed for the time when they also would be out in the great unknown world and could come "a-mothering."

1894 March, Mary B. Merrill, “Mothering Sunday”, in Mary Mapes Dodge, editor, St. Nicholas: a monthly magazine for boys and girls, volume 21, part 1, page 388:

Mothering Sunday is a British, Christian tradition. The Americans celebrate ‘Mother's Day’ later in the year.

2007, Susan Elkin, 100 Ideas for Secondary School Assemblies, page 12:

(UK) The fourth Sunday of Lent, three Sundays before Easter, now especially as a day to honor one's mother.

Laetare Sunday

usual liturgical name in Catholicism & Anglicanism

Refreshment Sunday

in reference to the customary relaxation of Lenten abstention on this day

Sunday of the Five Loaves

in reference to Catholic practices on this day


playwork

(UK) A branch of childcare involving the supervision and development of play.


oner

May all your conkers be oners / May your love life fail with dishonours

1993, Henry Normal, Nude modelling for the afterlife:

The history of 'oners' becoming 'sixers' through successive victories[…]

2005, Benedict Le Vay, Eccentric Britain, page 32:

Conkers so highly prized that it's a wonder they even manage to hit the ground before being swept away to be pickled or baked and then going on to new careers as 'oners', 'twoers', and so forth.

2006, Charles Campion, Fifty Recipes To Stake Your Life On, page 119:


fifteener

Not intensely bloody decapitation, but the sort of violence you'd see in a fifteener.

2009 January 24, Interviews by Becky Barnicoat, “Good to meet you: The Jackson children”, in The Guardian:

(UK, informal) A film assigned an age rating of 15, those under 15 not being permitted to view it.


theatre

en-noun

theatre (countable and uncountable, plural theatres)

From Middle English theater, theatre, from Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “a place for viewing”), from θεάομαι (theáomai, “to see, watch, observe”).

der

Mother[…]considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

City's players and supporters travelled from one end of the emotional scale to the other in those vital seconds, providing a truly remarkable piece of football theatre and the most dramatic conclusion to a season in Premier League history.

2012 May 13, Phil McNulty, “Man City 3-2 QPR”, in BBC Sport:

But the picture was different elsewhere - Theatre Royal Windsor recorded full houses, although the managing director stated that the actors had trouble getting to and from the theatre.

2023 December 27, David Turner, “Silent lines...”, in RAIL, number 999, page 31:

(chiefly Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK) Alternative spelling of theater.


pize

en-noun

pize (countable and uncountable, plural pizes)

Unknown; perhaps a variant of pest, pox.

Pize on 'em, they never think beforehand of any thing;—and if they commit Matrimony, 'tis as they commit Murder; out of a Frolick: And are ready to hang themſelves, or to be hang'd by the Law, the next Morning.— […]

1695, [William] Congreve, Love for Love: A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act V, scene ii, page 77:

Ah! a pize upon it! Dick, after all, was the man.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “He is Visited by Pallet; Contracts an Intimacy with a New Market Nobleman; and is by the Knowing Ones Taken in”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 338, column 1:

Dame, what makes your ducks to die? / What the pize ails 'em? What the pize ails 'em?

1818, James Ford, editor, The Suffolk Garland: Or, A Collection of Poems, Songs, Tales, Ballads:

(British, regional, archaic) Used in various imprecatory expressions: a pest, a pox.


shilling shocker

shilling shocker (plural shilling shockers)

(British, historical) A cheap paperback book produced for the mass market in 19th-century Britain, often consolidating twelve to fifteen episodes of a serial novel whose chapters had previously been published separately as penny dreadful pamphlets. Shilling shockers were typically focused on the subjects of crime and violence and were especially popular in late Victorian England. The novels were rather short and cost one shilling.


ring the changes

en-verb

ring the changes (third-person singular simple present rings the changes, present participle ringing the changes, simple past rang the changes, past participle rung the changes)

rings the changes (present singular third-person)
ringing the changes (participle present)
rang the changes (past)
rung the changes (participle past)

(UK) To enliven by varying combinations.

(slang, UK, 19th century and earlier) To pass counterfeit money.


wheeltapper

wheeltappers (plural)
wheel-tapper (alternative)

(UK, rail transport, historical) A railway employee tasked with tapping the train's wheels with a hammer to detect cracks.


sticky-tape

sticky-tape (third-person singular simple present sticky-tapes, present participle sticky-taping, simple past and past participle sticky-taped)

sticky-tapes (present singular third-person)
sticky-taping (participle present)
sticky-taped (participle past)
sticky-taped (past)

(transitive, UK) To affix or attach with sticky tape.


jimmer

jimmers (plural)
jemmer (alternative)
gemmer (alternative)
gemew (alternative)

/ˈd͡ʒɪmə(ɹ)/

From Middle English gemow, from Old French gemel, from Latin gemellus (“twin”).

Although it ſhall appeare that in thoſe few places of antiquity where this word Maſle is found, it is found diuorced by the ſpace of heaven and earth, both from the body and marrow bones of the Popiſh Maſſe, as alſo from the jimmers and trinkets thereof.

1618, Thomas Cartvvright [i.e., Thomas Cartwright], chapter VIII, in A Confvtation of the Rhemists Translation, Glosses, and Annotations on the New Testament. […], page 37:

[…] he is a Chriſtian by Art, not by a new nature , dreſt up like a Puppet, in the faſhion and outward ſhape of a man,that moves by the jimmers which the workman faſtens to it, and not inform'd by a ſoul of its own,and therefore as ſuch an image,when worn by time,or broken by violence, can do nothing to renue it ſelf,but crumbles away by piece-meals,till it comes at laſt to nothing ; […]

1659, William Gurnall, “Of a recovering ſtrength that ſincerity hath, and whence” (chapter XVII), in The Christian in Compleat Armour, or, A Treatise of the Saints War Againſt the Devil, […], 2nd edition, London: […]Ralph Smith […], page 183:

“[…] I also remember the following dialogue in the Suffolk vernacular between a neighbouring farmer and his backus (¹) boy :—‘I sa, Mester?’ ‘ Well, bor.’ (²) ‘If thar ain't Sillett's owd razor-backed hogs broke out agin. That thar owd sarpint of a sow ha' got her snout under the gate, and lifted it off the jimmers, (³) and I ketched a glint (⁴) of the rest on 'em skrigglin' (⁵) thar way through the shruff (⁶) in the hedge holl (⁷) and making another gap right atwin (⁸) the stub-apple (⁹) and the touch-wood (¹⁰) tree, and tha ha' bin' a pamplin' (¹¹) all over the land, and rootin (¹²) up our taters, and not one on 'em ringled (¹³). Mester, I think we'd better pound 'em.'” (¹⁴)

1875, Frederick Clifford, chapter XII, in The Agricultural Lock-out of 1874 […], Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, page 281:

It is unlucky to sit opposite the “jimmers ” (i. e. the hinges) of the table when playing at cards.

1880, Alfred Nutt, “Notes”, in The Folk-Lore Record, volume III, London: […] The Folk-Lore Society, by Messrs. Nichols & Sons, page 127:

(obsolete, UK, dialectal, chiefly in the plural) A hinge.


bona vacantia

"The company asked also for an express vesting order concerning the land, which had legally gone to the Crown as bona vacantia" http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=WvY3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA814&dq=bona+vacantia

(UK, law) The principle that there is no unowned property, and that if there is no other owner then property vests in the Crown.


flasket

From Middle English flasket, from Old French flaschet, diminutive of Old French flasche, from Late Latin flasca.
Related to Welsh fflasged (“a vessel of straw or wickerwork”), fflasg (“flask, basket”), and English flask.

cog

There, in a meadow by the rivers side, A flocke of Nymphes I chaunced to espy, 20 All lovely daughters of the flood thereby, With goodly greenish locks, all loose untyde, As each had bene a bryde; And each one had a little wicker basket, Made of fine twigs, entrayled* curiously, 25 In which they gathered flowers to fill their flasket**, And with fine fingers cropt full feateously@ The tender stalkes on hye.

1591, Edmund Spenser, The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5:

(dated, UK) A long, shallow basket with two handles.


conveyorised

en-adj

conveyorised (comparative more conveyorised, superlative most conveyorised)

more conveyorised (comparative)
most conveyorised (superlative)

(UK) Alternative spelling of conveyorized.


beauty parlour

(UK) Alternative spelling of beauty parlor.


frim

frim (comparative frimmer or more frim, superlative frimmest or most frim)

frimmer (comparative)
more frim (comparative)
frimmest (superlative)
most frim (superlative)

frim folk

(UK, dialectal) Alternative form of fremd.


up to standard

up to standard (comparative more up to standard, superlative most up to standard)

more up to standard (comparative)
most up to standard (superlative)

(British) Of a necessary standard of quality for its intended use.


patriality

In the late 1960s, I observed that it also proved a struggle to craft a non-discriminatory policy of patriality that preserved some traditional rights for those descendants of Britons living in white Commonwealth countries.

2009, Geoffrey Luck, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 29

(British, immigration) The right to reside in the United Kingdom, free from the constraints of immigration policy.


chase up

en-verb

chase up (third-person singular simple present chases up, present participle chasing up, simple past and past participle chased up)

chases up (present singular third-person)
chasing up (participle present)
chased up (participle past)
chased up (past)

Could you chase up last month's invoices?

The band chased the video up with an acoustic redux of the track, as well as performances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Macy’s annual Fourth Of July Spectacular in New York.

2021 July 23, Ellie Robinson, “Coldplay shoot for the stars with their cinematic new track ‘Coloratura’”, in NME:

(British, New Zealand, transitive) To follow up, so as to ensure completion.


debendification

(UK) The replacement of bendy buses with non-articulated buses.


pubco

Many tenants complained that the wholesale price they paid for tied products was excessive, which made them uncompetitive in their local marketplace. However, pubcos told us their wholesale selling price was broadly similar to the standard national wholesale prices, before discount, published by the brewers and charged to free house operators.

2009, “House of Commons Select Committee on Trade and Industry Second Report.”, in Hansard:

(UK) A large business enterprise that owns a number of pubs under tenant agreements, or as managed houses.


managed house

(UK) A public house which is owned by a brewery, or other holding company, and run by a manager rather than a tenant.


free house

(UK) A public house that is not owned or managed by a brewery company, and can therefore stock a range of beers from several producers


tied house

[T]he scandal was the pretty common one of a corrupt agreement between hotel proprietors and a salesman who took and gave secret commissions, so that his business had a monopoly of all the drink sold in the place. It wasn't even an open slavery like an ordinary tied house; it was a swindle at the expense of everybody the manager was supposed to serve.

1935, G. K. Chesterton, The Scandal of Father Brown:

(UK) A public house which is either owned by a brewery, or other holding company, and run by a manager, or rented and run by a tenant, or perhaps contractually tied because of loans from a brewery, and which therefore is obliged to purchase a certain percentage of its stock from said pubco.


Bombay mix

(UK) A traditional Indian snack of mixed dried ingredients with spices and salt, often including fried lentils, peanuts, chickpea flour noodles, corn, vegetable oil, chickpeas, flaked rice, and fried onion.


sparko

He will scream the house down during the day when I put him down to sleep. This lasts an absolute maximum of five minutes before he is fast asleep, totally sparko.

2011, Deborah Harrow, A Mummy's New World, AuthorHouse, page 147:

It's the hardest punch I've ever seen or heard. This guy was sparko, covered in blood, and as we found out afterwards, his jaw was shattered, not to mention the glass damage, and it caused a few rows between the rival team's supporters.

2012, Thomas Appleby, Life in the Harsh Lane: The Nine Lives, Mishaps, and Adventures of a No-Body, Xlibris, page 29:

My name was put forward as the driver even though I was sparko in hospital.

2013, Carole McEntee-Taylor, A Battle Too Far: The True Story of Rifleman Henry Taylor, Pen & Sword Military, page 123:


nott

en-adj

nott (comparative more nott, superlative most nott)

more nott (comparative)
most nott (superlative)
not (alternative)

From Old English hnot, of unknown origin.

For these and other reasons farmers who occupy good land in the vale with their hill farms are getting tired of the horned sheep, and use their hill farms only as summering-ground for nott sheep and bullocks.

1850, “On the Farming of Somerset”, in Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, volume XI, page 679:

Do ye know that riddle about the nott cows, Jonathan? Why do nott cows give less milk in a year than horned?

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles:

(now UK dialect, Newfoundland) Of an animal: having no horns; polled.


games room

There is also a fine dance and concert hall, a capacious reading room, a well-appointed billiards room with five tables, various committee and games rooms, photographic dark rooms, and a small but compact ladies' lounge.

1944 May and June, Arthur B. Longbottom, “The Derby Railway Institute”, in Railway Magazine, page 150:

(chiefly UK) Alternative form of game room.


Continent

(UK, Ireland) Mainland Europe, as seen from the British Isles.


wike

From Old English wic. See wick (“village”).

(obsolete, UK, dialect) A home; a dwelling.


tenpence

(obsolete, British, Ireland) A coin worth ten old pence.

(rare, British, Ireland) A coin worth ten new pence.

(obsolete, British, Ireland) The value of ten old pence.


your good name

In modern South Asian English, likely calque of Bengali ভালো নাম (bhalō nam), Hindi शुभ नाम (śubh nām, literally “good name”), and similar collocations in other Indian languages.
Good has a sense similar to honourable, as in older English phrases such as “good sir” or “your good wife”.

clq

‘Society ought to be proud of such men as you, Mr. – what is your good name, sir?’ – ‘Phiggins, at your service.’

1838, Bentley's Miscellany: Proceedings of the Wide Awake Club, page 361:

'That must be your nick name. But what's your good name ?' 'I ain't get any bad name only one name Goofy.' She laughs. 'It's a funny name for a man.'

The man moved a little away and cleaned himself. "And your good name?" "You can call me Satyadas."

1998, Civacaṅkari, Knit India Through Literature: The East:

“What's your good name?” I asked him. “Marcos,” he replied.

2004, Michael Muhammad Knight, The taqwacores:

What is your good name, sahib?

2004, James O'Reilly, Larry Habegger, Travelers' Tales India: True Stories:

(respectful, South Asia, also archaic UK) Your name.


oofy

en-adj

oofy (comparative more oofy, superlative most oofy)

more oofy (comparative)
most oofy (superlative)

From oof + -y. Oof is a clipping of ooftish, from Yiddish אויפֿן טיש (oyfn tish, “on the table”) in the phrase געלט אויפֿן טיש (gelt oyfn tish, “money on the table”).

der

How lucky for me she never can have heard of the glorious Tinman, or my oofy maiden-aunt; wouldn't she have jumped at me, if she had?

1896 December, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, “Dariel: A Romance of Surrey. Chapter VIII.—Through the Corn.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLX, number DCCCCLXXIV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publication Co., 112 Wall Street, →OCLC, page 727, column 1:

Money isn't everything in this world. Youth and love and pluck are the main things. Hang it, what if you do get into debt occasionally? You've got a pretty oofy father-in-law.

1909, J[oseph] Storer Clouston, chapter XI, in The Prodigal Father, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 215:

This Tom has a peculiarity I've noticed in other very oofy men. Nick him for the paltriest sum, and he lets out a squawk you can hear at Land's End. He has the stuff in gobs, but he hates giving up.

1934, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VII, in Right Ho, Jeeves, London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, 3 Duke of York Street St. James's London S.W.1, →OCLC, page 70:

(British, slang, dated) Having lots of oof (money); rich, wealthy.


oofless

en-adj

oofless (comparative more oofless, superlative most oofless)

more oofless (comparative)
most oofless (superlative)


scrub up

en-verb

scrub up (third-person singular simple present scrubs up, present participle scrubbing up, simple past and past participle scrubbed up)

scrubs up (present singular third-person)
scrubbing up (participle present)
scrubbed up (participle past)
scrubbed up (past)

He scrubs up well.

(UK, informal) To become clean, handsome, smart in appearance, e.g. for a special occasion, especially when it is out of character to be seen as such.


snagger

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

Snag List Steve is not a happy snagger. […] It's his job to ensure that new homes are finished properly for their buyers - his clients.

2019 February 15, “'Some so-called tradesmen should be truly ashamed of themselves' - Steve's snagging headache bodes badly for buyers”, in Irish Independent:

We've gone from a small company in west Wales to the UK's number one snagger inspectors

2022 October 21, John Cooper, quotee, “The building inspectors exposing cowboy builders on TikTok: Experts' videos blasting 'absolutely shocking' paving, electrics and brickwork have been watched over eight million times”, in Daily Mail:

I was a snagger on the building site, where I was going around pointing out problems.

2024 January 3, Saoirse Monica Jackson, quotee, “Derry Girls star Saoirse Monica Jackson reveals surprising job she did before becoming famous”, in Irish Mirror:

(chiefly Ireland, UK) A person that reviews newly built properties to find issues to be remedied before the client buying the home moves in; someone who produces a snag list.


hard disc

To store immense amounts of valuable data on one hard disc is courting trouble.

1989, Doig Simmons, Linda Reynolds, Computer Presentation of Data in Science, page 23:

A hard disc is both much larger, and very much faster, than any floppy.

1991, M. H. Beilby, R. D. Harding, M. R. Manning, Scientific Programmer's Toolkit: Turbo Pascal Edition, page 1:

We will start with current systems, such as longitudinal hard disc and tape.

2008, Thomas Thomson, Leon Abelmann, Hans Groenland, “Magnetic Data Storage: Past, Present and Future”, in Magnetic Nanostructures in Modern Technology, page 237:


disc drive

(UK) Alternative spelling of disk drive.


foud

From Old Norse fōgeti, cognate with German Vogt, from Latin vocatus, from vocare (“to call”). Doublet of Vogt.

From the twelfth century Shetland had been administered directly by the Norwegian crown through the 'foud', rather than forming part of the patrimony of a great aristocratic estate. The foud appointed 'underfouds' and the Shetlands evolved their own elected officers, a 'lawman' and parish 'lawrightmen', who adjudicated and negotiated the collection of customary taxes and fines on behalf of the local population.

1983, Paul Thompson, Tony Wailey, Trevor Lummis, History Workshop Series, Living the Fishing, Routledge & Kegan Paul:

(British, Shetland and Orkney) A bailiff or magistrate.


get a word in edgeways

get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> a word in edgeways

get a word in edgeways (third-person singular simple present gets a word in edgeways, present participle getting a word in edgeways, simple past got a word in edgeways, past participle (UK) got a word in edgeways or (US) gotten a word in edgeways)

gets a word in edgeways (present singular third-person)
getting a word in edgeways (participle present)
got a word in edgeways (past)
got a word in edgeways (UK participle past)
gotten a word in edgeways (US participle past)

The baggage-camel had been bobbing his head to and from for some time past, anxious to get a word in edgeways.

1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Servants of the Queen”, in The Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC, page 196:

I sat there, letting his voice run on. Even if I'd wanted to, I couldn't have gotten a word in edgeways. Perhaps if life continued thi way, I would gradually lose the faculty of speech, [...]

1999, Zena Collier, chapter 3, in A Cooler Climate, Lincoln, Neb.: toExcel Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 24:

I only included the interview because it is revealing of Javanese gender relationships. The young dancer is muted and hardly gets a word in edgeways, as the (male) troupe leader and her mother hijack each question and provide answers which are sometimes contradictory.

1999, Felicia Hughes-Freeland, “Dance on Film: Strategy and Serendipity”, in Theresa J. Buckland, editor, Dance in the Field: Theory, Methods and Issues in Dance Ethnography, Basingstoke, Hampshire, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →DOI, →ISBN, part II (Methodological Approaches), page 117:

Stanton stood up. It seemed the only way of getting a word in edgeways.

2014, Ben Elton, chapter 5, in Time and Time Again, London: Black Swan, Transworld Publishers, →ISBN, page 57:

Betsy rang me every now and then, but I couldn't get caught up in the 'fight' like she did. Besides, if I got a word in edgeways during each call I'd be lucky.

2014, Emma O’Reilly, with Shannon Kyle, “Old Wounds”, in The Race to Truth: Blowing the Whistle on Lance Armstrong and Cycling’s Doping Culture, London: Bantam Press, →ISBN, page 248:

Rishi Sunak:[…]You want to be Prime Minister, how would you resolve the strikes?
Keir Starmer: I wish he had as much— (cut off)
RS: How would you resolve them?
KS: I wish he had as much to say when Liz Truss was crashing the economy.
Julie Etchingham: Can you answer Rishi Sunak's point please, Keir Starmer?
KS: Well I will if I could get a word in edgeways. His record is him saying, "I'm not going to get in the room to negotiate" […]

2024, Keir Starmer, 17:49 from the start, in The ITV Election Debate 2024, ITV:

get a word in edgewise
get a word in edgewise#English

(chiefly British) Alternative form of get a word in edgewise.


fruit cup

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

(UK) A speciality drink, often gin-based, designed to be made into a long drink by adding a soft drink such as lemonade or ginger ale.


PAF

Postcode Address File
w:Postcode Address File

(UK) Initialism of Postcode Address File (“the UK Post Office's list of every postal delivery point, which is licensed to most delivery companies and banks, and many retailers”).


pal up

pal up (third-person singular simple present pals up, present participle palling up, simple past and past participle palled up)

pals up (present singular third-person)
palling up (participle present)
palled up (participle past)
palled up (past)

He'd happened to pal up with a Free French bloke who'd been in the orthopaedic wards, and when this fellow went home with a couple of bone grafts Rushleigh got an invitation to stay at his place down at Nice, buckshee.

1955, Richard Gordon, Doctor At Large, House of Stratus:

... you could make a bit of conversation.' 'I don't want to. I'm on holiday with my family. I don't want to pal up with some bloke from the Pru, just because he's asked me to pass the sauce.'

1996, Laurie Graham, The Ten O'Clock Horses, Hachette UK:

Normally in the CID you'd pal up with somebody, but nobody seemed to be his pal. 'He was creepy, a creepy type of bloke, you know. He always seemed to be hanging around, and he always seemed to be bloody listening to other people's[…]

2006, David Seabrook, Jack of Jumps, Granta Publications:

(intransitive, informal, UK, Australia) To become friends.


learning diffculty

en-noun

learning difficulty (plural learning difficulties)

learning difficulty (canonical)
learning difficulties (plural)

(chiefly UK) Any medically recognized condition (as opposed to a disease) that inhibits a person's ability to function in the world.


scrat

en-verb

scrat (third-person singular simple present scrats, present participle scratting, simple past and past participle scratted)

scrats (present singular third-person)
scratting (participle present)
scratted (participle past)
scratted (past)

From Middle English scratten. Origin uncertain; apparently related to Swedish kratta (“to rake”). Also compare German kratzen (“to scratch”).

He himself had scratted in the thin dust of evangelical tracts.

1978, A.S. Byatt, The Virgin in The Garden, Vintage International, published 1992, page 89:


up someone's street

This new album should be just up your street.

(UK, informal, idiomatic) Perfectly suitable to someone; matching someone's interests and abilities.


tracklement

Coined in its current sense by the English cookery writer Dorothy Hartley in her book Food in England in 1954, but probably derived from a similar dialect word with variant spellings (e.g. tranklement, tanchiment) used before that date across North and Central England and meaning "ornaments, trinkets; bits of things".

preserves, conserves and homemade tracklements are sold at

1992, Simon Scott with Nancy Scott, Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands, 1993-1994, page 140:

nestled together in a cunning arrangement, ornamented by the tracklements she had labored to obtain for her friends

2004, Katharine Weber, The Little Women, page 159:

The content of these stores, as well as wine, would mostly be preserved foodstuffs and tracklements.

2006, Janet MacDonald, Feeding Nelson's Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era, page 128:

(UK, rare) A savoury condiment (for example a mustard, relish or chutney), especially one served with meat.


gutter press

(British, derogatory) The sensationalist tabloid newspapers in general.


put through

put through (third-person singular simple present puts through, present participle putting through, simple past and past participle put through)

puts through (present singular third-person)
putting through (participle present)
put through (participle past)
put through (past)

Playing football brought people together – we’d play against any brick wall, on any kerb, or see if we could put the window through in the art department.

2005 October 25, “Pete Doherty pens song for his football team”, in NME:

(transitive, UK) To smash (e.g. a window) so as to create an opening.


stannary town

(British) A town considered to be the administrative centre of a stannary region in Devon and Cornwall


rafty

en-adj

rafty (comparative raftier, superlative raftiest)

raftier (comparative)
raftiest (superlative)

Perhaps akin to German Reif (“hoarfrost”).


HBMS

(UK, military, nautical, obsolete) Initialism of His/Her Britannic Majesty's Ship, replaced by HMS (His/Her Majesty's Ship).


SPAD

signal passed at danger
signal passed at danger#English

(rail transport, UK) Initialism of signal passed at danger.


SPAD

(rail transport, UK) An instance of a signal passed at danger.


SPAD

en-verb

SPAD (third-person singular simple present SPADs, present participle SPADing, simple past and past participle SPADed)

SPADs (present singular third-person)
SPADing (participle present)
SPADed (participle past)
SPADed (past)

(rail transport, UK) To pass a signal at danger.


shote

The rest are common to other Shires, but the Shote in a maner peculiar to Deuon and Cornwall: in shape and colour he resembleth the Trowt

1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall. […], new edition, London: […] B. Law, […]; Penzance, Cornwall: J. Hewett, published 1769, →OCLC:

Thymallus thymallus
Thymallus thymallus#Translingual

(obsolete, UK, dialect) A fish resembling the trout, the grayling (Thymallus thymallus).


like the clappers

Partridge says: "Possibly rhyming slang for 'clappers of a bell', 'hell'."

After hurling their insults, they ran like the clappers to get away.

And when it started off they first studied them, and of course they went like the clappers to prove what they could do, which was the thing they shouldn't be doing because it was a study, and of course, they've got to work like the clappers all the time once it came into operation.

1998, Diana Gittins, Madness in its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913-1997:

We've gone through regional and rural Australia like the clappers, and everywhere we went, irate voters shouted at us and we stuck our heads out the windows and shouted: "What?" and the electorate respected us for it.

In fact she made quite a nice little rider — a bit rough, like these Australians always were, but quite secure in her seat and going like the clappers.

2006, Kerry Greenwood, Murder in the Dark:

(simile, UK, informal) Very hard or very rapidly.


mappen

Dunnet gowl, Aggy. Mappen I'll be maister man mysel' soon.

1887, Hall Caine, chapter VII, in A Son of Hagar: A Romance of Our Time […], volume I, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, 1st book (Retro Me, Sathana), page 128:

(UK, dialectal, obsolete) It may happen that; maybe, perhaps.


prink

prink (third-person singular simple present prinks, present participle prinking, simple past and past participle prinked)

prinks (present singular third-person)
prinking (participle present)
prinked (participle past)
prinked (past)

(UK, university slang, humorous) To pre-drink.


like turkeys voting for Christmas

En-au-like turkeys voting for Christmas.ogg

Because turkeys are commonly eaten at Christmas, turkeys voting for (an early) Christmas would be hastening their own death. The phrase is thought to have been coined by the British Liberal Party politician David Penhaligon (1944–1986) who used it to express opposition to the 1977 Lib–Lab pact. It was popularized by the British Prime Minister James Callaghan (1912–2005) who used it in the House of Commons in March 1979 when his Labour Party lost a vote of no confidence: see the 1977 and 1979 quotations.

coinage

a turkey voting for Christmas (alternative)

The next morning [14 December 1977] the Liberals held a two-and-a-half meeting at which Steel let them have their head. Only two MPs, Howells and Johnston, said they were willing to continue the Pact. The opponents were delighted. […] ‘Us voting for the Pact is like a turkey voting for Christmas’, said David Penhaligon

[1977 December 14, Alistair Michie, Simon Hoggart, “The Wispy Beards Strike Back”, in The Pact: The Inside Story of the Lib-Lab Government, 1977–8, London: Quartet Books, published 1978, →ISBN, page 156:

The minority parties have walked into a trap. If they win, there will be a general election. I am told that the current joke going around the House is that it is the first time in recorded history that turkeys have been known to vote for an early Christmas.

[1979 March 28, James Callaghan, Prime Minister, “Her Majesty’s Government (Opposition Motion)”, in House of Commons Debates (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), volume 965, London: Parliament of the United Kingdom, archived from the original on 2022-12-07, column 471:

Many of the responses to proposals, particularly regarding deregulation, were unsupported: it would have been like turkeys voting for Christmas in some respects.

1998, Philip Allmendinger, Huw Thomas, “Conclusions”, in Philip Allmendinger, Huw Thomas, editors, Urban Planning and the British New Right, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 247:

Bear in mind, however, that for some purchasing people, deciding to use an agent is a little like turkeys voting for Christmas.

2001, Trevor Kitching, “The Internet – the New Frontier for Scam Merchants”, in Purchasing Scams and How to Avoid Them, Aldershot, Hampshire, Burlington, Vt.: Gower Publishing, →ISBN, page 90:

The anti-divorce rallying cry of Fine Gael’s Alice Glenn, ‘Women voting for divorce is like turkeys voting for Christmas’, captured the sense of fear felt by many at the economic consequences of divorce for women.

2002, Frances Gardiner, Mary O’Dowd, “The Women’s Movement and Women Politicians in the Republic of Ireland, 1980–2000: Introduction”, in Angela Bourke et al., editors, The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, volumes V (Irish Women’s Writing and Traditions), New York, N.Y.: New York University Press, →ISBN, page 233, column 1:

like turkeys voting for an early Christmas

(British, simile, humorous, of an action) Self-defeating; serving to bring about a situation detrimental to the performer of the action.

James Callaghan
Lib–Lab pact
Oxford University Press

sahata omaa oksaansa

of an action: self-defeating or serving to bring about a situation detrimental to the performer

scier la branche sur laquelle on est assis

肉屋を支持する豚 (nikuya wo shijisuru buta, literally “pigs who support butchers”)

пчёлы про́тив мёда (pčóly prótiv mjóda, literally “bees against honey”)


head

/laɪk ˌtɜːkiz ˈvəʊtɪŋ fɚ‿n̩ ˌɜːli ˈkɹɪsməs/

/laɪk ˌtɝkiz ˈvoʊtɪŋ fɚ‿n̩ ˌɝli ˈkɹɪsməs/

En-au-like turkeys voting for an early Christmas.ogg

like turk
eys vot
ing for an ear
ly Christ
mas

like turkeys voting for Christmas#English

(British, simile, humorous) Synonym of like turkeys voting for Christmas.


sturt

Lift up your hart and be of gude curage,
Sturt in na way your leiknes can asswage

1837, John Rolland, The Seven Sages: In Scotish Metre:

(obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect) disturbance; annoyance; care


sturt

en-verb

sturt (third-person singular simple present sturts, present participle sturting, simple past and past participle sturted)

sturts (present singular third-person)
sturting (participle present)
sturted (participle past)
sturted (past)

(obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect, transitive) To vex; to annoy; to startle.

(obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect, intransitive) To start with fear.


bone-idle

Laziness that penetrates the very bones. Attested 1836. Similar terms (bone-lazy, bone-sore, bone-tired) pre-dated it in The Vocabulary Of East Anglia, 1830, Robert Forby. Compare to the bone.

For the last three weeks I have been going what you call bone-idle.

(chiefly British, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic) Utterly lazy.


dinner hour

dinner hours (plural)
dinner-hour (alternative)

(British) The midday break in British schools (some areas), lunchtime.


Rhodie

[…] the British squaddies look with faint contempt on the Rhodesians (or "Rhodies" as they sometimes call them; military slang mushrooms overnight).[…]

1980, Simon Hoggart, “Ironing the lawn in Salisbury - the last days of Rhodesia”, in The Guardian:

Remaindered from the Rhodesian war, all they have now is their ghosts inadequately repressed by extreme religion, alcohol, purple pills or a penchant for tearing down bars. Don't believe these guys don't exist. Spot them at the end of a Harare Rhodie bar or even worse stumbling towards you across the terrace of a bush hotel […]

2004 September, Peter Longworth, “Dark hearts”, in The Guardian:

(British, South Africa, informal, sometimes derogatory) A white person who is resident in, or self-identifies with Rhodesia, particularly in its pre-independence days.


Jedward

(UK, Ireland, informal) John & Edward, an Irish singing duo who achieved fame in The X Factor in 2009.


passivisation

en-noun

passivisation (countable and uncountable, plural passivisations)

passivisations (plural)
passivization (alternative)

(British) Alternative form of passivization.


yure

yures (plural)
ewer (alternative)
ure (alternative)

From Middle English ȝowre, from Old Norse júr, júgr (“udder”), from Proto-Germanic *eudarą, *ūdarą. More at udder.

(UK, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) udder


noit

noit (usually uncountable, plural noits)

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Alternative form of note (“business”).


accident and emergency

(chiefly British, New Zealand) The department of a hospital that deals with injuries and medical emergencies.

спешно отделение

department of a hospital that deals with injuries and emergencies


invaliding

(UK) The act of exempting someone from duty because of injury or ill health.


tidgy

en-adj

tidgy (comparative more tidgy, superlative most tidgy)

more tidgy (comparative)
most tidgy (superlative)

[…] all we could scrape up was jobs selling things for tidgy little firms that weren't big enough to be mopped up into any of the nationalisation schemes...

'It's only a tidgy one,' he said. 'Nobody in Huguenot seems very impressed.'

'She says Indian elephants are tidgy little things.' 'They're not then.' Emma was getting heated. 'They're– ' 'Emma!' said Jenny sharply. The child subsided.

2001, Eric Malpass, At the Height of the Moon:

I was going to let him have one in the tidgy triangle below the throat like Suze taught me, but everything stopped at the sound of Paulie retching.

2008, Jim Cartwright, Supermarket supermodel:


double cream

en-noun

double cream (usually uncountable, plural double creams)

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

(UK, Ireland) A relatively thick cream suitable for pouring, whipping and piping.


stone frigate

(UK, naval slang) A shore establishment of the Royal Navy and some Commonwealth navies.


tits up

tits-up (alternative)
titsup (alternative)

Perhaps derives from an expired animal lying on its back, or the behaviour of aeroplanes' attitude indicators, which in some regional conventions turn upside down when faulty and display an inverted 'W' resembling a pair of breasts.

The vast majority go tits up in the first year. Basic economics, even if the people have some training and education in retail.

1987, Nora Roberts, Daring to dream, page 157:

But believe me, sunshine, if this show goes tits up, none of us are going to come out smelling of roses."

2007, Gemma Townley, The Hopeless Romantic's Handbook, page 102:

(idiomatic, slang, vulgar, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Broken; failed; inoperable.

(idiomatic, slang, vulgar, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Dead.


voddy

voddy (countable and uncountable, plural voddies)

'There's sure to be a fridge for keeping the beer cold.' 'I don't drink beer — it's fattening. Voddy and lime is my tipple.

1993, Anne Weale, Footprints in the Sand:

A man, only a few metres away, standing up in plain view, swigged on a bottle of voddy. Talk about careless! Egan couldn't believe his eyes.

2004, Catherine Bateson, The Air Dancer of Glass:

“Oh yeah, I owe you for a bottle of voddy by the way.” “Why?” he asked, screwing his face up in puzzlement.

True, we are fond of a voddie or nine, but we know how to handle our liquor, with the emphasis being on "handle".


lightsabre

British standard spelling of lightsaber.


loverly

en-adj

loverly (comparative more loverly, superlative most loverly)

more loverly (comparative)
most loverly (superlative)

(UK, nonstandard, pronunciation spelling) lovely


luvverly

luvverly (comparative more luvverly, superlative most luvverly)

more luvverly (comparative)
most luvverly (superlative)

(UK, nonstandard) Pronunciation spelling of lovely.


lurvely

lurvely (comparative more lurvely, superlative most lurvely)

more lurvely (comparative)
most lurvely (superlative)


chiplike

chiplike (comparative more chiplike, superlative most chiplike)

more chiplike (comparative)
most chiplike (superlative)

...the chemical structure required for the generation of chiplike flavor during deep fat frying of methionine is specific.

1987, William F Talburt, Ora Smith, Science:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Resembling or characteristic of a chip (wedge of fried potato).


if the cap fits

if the cap fits, wear it
if the cap fits, wear it#English

(British) Ellipsis of if the cap fits, wear it.


blowoff

blowoffs (plural)
blow-off (alternative)


cross-channel

cross channel (alternative)
cross-Channel (alternative)

The intelligent ship-owner will rejoice to find, that in the partition of trade, which is the inevitable consequence of a state of peace, England still retains the lion's share; whilst for a fine weather and cross channel trade, our neighbours (to use a mariner's phrase) can put to sea in a hencoop, the superiority of our ships and crews secures a preference for British bottoms where dangers are to be run and risks surmounted.

1834, Michael Thomas Sadler, “The Sadlerian School of Political Economy”, in Selections from the Edinburgh review, volume 6, page 154:

the Gauls, who carried on the cross-channel trade between Gaul and Britain, were the inhabitants of the northern coast.

1858 (May 1) Notes & Queries, 2nd Series, v.122 p.349

was it not worth while ... for the country to ... make Dover Harbour really safe and adequate ... they thereby greatly promoted the convenience and safety of the cross-Channel traffic

1876 (May 23) Baron Carlingford, House of Commons, v229 c1108

With her graceful lines she is a fine example of the modern cross-channel steamer, and her interior arrangements are considerably superior to those of her predecessors.

1939 June, G. W. Tripp, “The Modern Railway Steamer”, in Railway Magazine, page 392:

Montgomery to command the British land forces under Eisenhower in the cross-Channel invasion

1951 October 29, “F.D.R.'s big decision”, in Life, page 76:

2004 (April 5), Nicholas Watt, The Guardian, After 100 years, we love France - but they don't like us and we don't like them
The poll, a joint cross-channel venture carried out by ICM in Britain and BVA Institute in France on behalf of the Guardian and the newspaper Libération, follows a difficult period in Anglo-French history in the wake of the Iraq conflict.

That travels across a channel of water; relating to somewhere on the opposite side of the channel

(British) Relating to the English Channel; to, from, or on the Continent; involving both Britain and the Continent, especially France

outre-Manche

on the other side of the English channel

Effect on the Revenue by the alteration of the Cross Channel Trade: The Acts of last Session of Parliament in regard to the removal of foreign goods between Great Britain and Ireland...

1825 (February 24) House of Lords Sessional Papers, v.120: Tenth report of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the Collection and Management of the Revenue arising in Ireland, Scotland, etc. p.233

the complete freedom given to general commercial intercourse, by which the cross-channel trade was made, by 6th Geo. 4th c. 107, a coasting-trade; and the intercourse with Ireland was left as unrestricted as that between London and Newcastle.

1834 (April 23) Thomas Spring Rice, House of Commons, v22 c1208

Arriving in Dublin from the Cross Channel steamer

1940 (June), Norman Somerville, The Rotarian, "Rotary in a Confused World", p.7

The Central Statistics Office publishes annual figures on the estimated total earnings from all visits to Ireland. These figures include a breakdown into the following categories for overseas travel routes: air cross-channel, sea cross-channel, continental and transatlantic.

2005 (November 29) Tom Kitt, Dáil Éireann, v611 c8

2008 (January 23) Tommy Marren, Western People "All-Ireland League could be soccer’s saviour"
Our fascination for cross-channel soccer never ceases to amaze me. We head to places like Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and even Elland Road week in week out in our droves to support teams that have little or no Irish involvement yet we find little or no attraction in attending matches in the eircom League that are virtually on our doorstep.

(chiefly Ireland, dated in British) Relating to the body of water between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland (the Irish Sea, Saint George's Channel, and the North Channel); to, from, or in the other of the two islands


streaky bacon

(UK) Bacon made from pork belly rather than from side or back cuts


period pants

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

(British, informal) Underwear worn by a woman or girl during menstruation, typically old, cheap, or of a dark colour in case of staining.


jogging bottoms

(British) tracksuit bottoms, (US) sweatpants


tracksuit bottoms

(British) A type of soft, lightweight trousers used for sports or informal occasions, (US) sweatpants.


adjustable spanner

en-noun

adjustable spanner (plural adjustable spanners)

(British) An adjustable hand tool for tightening and loosening nuts and bolts.


the world is one's lobster

Originally a malapropism spoken by character Arthur Daley in the British TV comedy-drama Minder.

the world is one's oyster
the world is one's oyster#English

(British, humorous) Intentional misrendering of the proverb "the world is one's oyster".


IFA

independent financial adviser
w:independent financial adviser

(UK, finance) Initialism of independent financial adviser.


sedentarise

en-verb

sedentarise (third-person singular simple present sedentarises, present participle sedentarising, simple past and past participle sedentarised)

sedentarises (present singular third-person)
sedentarising (participle present)
sedentarised (participle past)
sedentarised (past)

(British, anthropology) Alternative spelling of sedentarize.


curry favour

curry favour (third-person singular simple present curries favour, present participle currying favour, simple past and past participle curried favour)

curries favour (present singular third-person)
currying favour (participle present)
curried favour (participle past)
curried favour (past)

(British, Canada) Alternative spelling of curry favor.


unitary council

en-noun

unitary council (plural unitary councils)

(UK) A single-tier local authority that has responsibility for all government functions in its area


grist to the mill

What evil will not a rival say to stop the flow of grist to the mill of the hated one?

1875, Anthony Trollope, chapter 58, in The Way We Live Now, London: Chapman and Hall, […]:

This might all seem grist to Berkeley’s mill. Berkeley himself knew that we interpret our experience in spatio-temporal, objective terms. But he thought we had to ‘speak with the vulgar but think with the learned’: in other words, learn to regard that interpretation as a kind of façon de parler, rather than the description of a real, independent, objective world.

1999, Simon Blackburn, Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy (Oxford University Press paperback, ch. 7 section 6: "Kant’s Revolution", pp. 258–259

grist for the mill
grist for the mill#English

(idiomatic, chiefly UK) Alternative form of grist for the mill.


thrutch

en-verb

thrutch (third-person singular simple present thrutches, present participle thrutching, simple past and past participle thrutched)

thrutches (present singular third-person)
thrutching (participle present)
thrutched (participle past)
thrutched (past)

From Middle English thrucchen (“to push, rush”), from Old English þryċċan (“to push, press, trample on, crush”), from Proto-West Germanic *þrukkijan, from Proto-Germanic *þrukkijaną (“to press”). Cognate with West Frisian drukke (“to press”), Dutch drukken (“to press, squeeze”), German drücken (“to press, push, squeeze”), Swedish trycka (“to press, push, squeeze”).

cog

If awd known wot aw know neaw, says Bobby, thrutchin his honds deep into his breeches pockets un hutchin up his shilders, theaw'd not ha getten me t' Knottmill fair.

1857 February 14, James Taylor Staton, “Dumplin Haw Ghost”, in The Bowtun Luminary, volume 8, number 7, Bolton, page 52:

GOOD. A class o' folk ut thinken theirsels so perfect they need no thrutch for t' get a front place i'th' top shop. But if they yerd th' trumpet seaund they'd be off like red-shanks; an' wouldno' care whoa they elbowed back at th' gates.

1881, Benjamin Brierley, Ab-o'th'-Yate's Dictionary; or, Walmsley Fowt Skoomester, Manchester: Abel Heywood & Son, page 91:

(UK dialectal, Northern England) To push; press; shove; thrust.

Thrutchings.—To thrutch is to squeeze. The whey which is squeezed out of the cheese when under pressure and after being salted, is called thrutchings.

1891 March 4, Robert Holland, “Cheese-making and Butter-making Terms in Use in 1688”, in The Cheshire Sheaf, Chester: The "Chester Courant" Office, published 1895, Replies, page 39:

(UK dialectal, Northern England) To press or squeeze cheese in a vat.

Thir wur o lot o foke thrutchin reawnd summut; un aw thrutcht mi sel omung um , for to see whot wur gooin on.

1857, “Part Sixt Un Last”, in Sam Sondnokkur's Ryde fro Ratchda to Manchistur, 2nd edition, Manchester: John Heywood, page 14:

But, there it wur,—an' there it had to stop! for noather her nor me could stir a peg. ... Well; they olez say'n there's th' most thrutchin' wheer there's th' least reawm, an' it wur so theer, by th' mon;[…]

1874, Edwin Waugh, “The Nomination”, in The Chimney Corner, Manchester: Abel Heywood & Son, published 1879, page 40:

(UK dialectal, Northern England) To crowd; throng; squeeze; huddle together.

Then he grunted, an' mumble't, an' glendur't around,
An' he tooted about o'er th' neighbourin' ground;
Still, never a soul to turn th' stone could he find,
An' it made him a little bit thrutched in his mind.

1874, Edwin Waugh, “The Old Coal Man”, in The Chimney Corner, Manchester: Abel Heywood & Son, published 1879, page 74:

(UK dialectal, Northern England, figuratively) To trouble; oppress; distress.


thrutch

(UK dialectal, Northern England) A narrow gorge or ravine.

There wur nowt left for Yem, theerefore, but to rouse up hur conshusness, so so settin his feet ogen hur un his bonds, he gien one sammin good thrutch, un sent hur slap off th' bed on to th' floor;

1857 January 10, “Jealousy”, in The Bowtun Luminary, volume 8, number 2, Bolton, page 15:

(UK dialectal, Northern England) A push; shove; thrust.

(UK dialectal, Northern England) A throng; crowd.