Cisalpine

The adjective is derived from cisalpine (“on this side of the Alps (chiefly the south side where Rome is located)”). Sense 2 (“of or pertaining to cisalpinism”) was popularized by the Cisalpine Club which was founded in England in 1792.
The noun is derived from the adjective.

In pointing to some of these excesses on both sides, I have it not in contemplation to canvass, argue or even to refute errors either ultramontane or cisalpine, but merely to secure to myself a tenable position, […]

1824, Francis Plowden, “Of Tithes and Other Church Property”, in Human Subordination: Being an Elementary Disquisition Concerning the Civil and Spiritual Power and Authority, to which the Creator Requires the Submission of Every Human Being. […], Paris: Printed by J. Smith, […], and published by W[illiam] Simpkin and R[ichard] Marshall, […], →OCLC, page 72:

Lord Stourton [i.e., Charles Stourton, 17th Baron Stourton] had declined to join the Cisalpine Club, which consisted of men opposed to what they considered the excessive claims of an ultramontane section, but he remained a supporter of the views held by the dissolved Catholic Committee; […]

1936 May, Joscelyne Lechmere, “A Great Catholic Historian. John, Cardinal Lingard, 1771–1851”, in The Ecclesiastical Review: Monthly Publication for the Clergy, volume IV (10th series; volume XCIV overall), number 5, Philadelphia, Pa.: Board of Trustees of the American Ecclesiastical Review for the Catholic University of America, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 474:

(UK) Of or pertaining to cisalpinism (“a movement in 18th–19th century Britain among Roman Catholics which took the view that allegiance to the Crown was compatible with allegiance to the pope, and that Roman Catholics should be emancipated from various legal restrictions”).


Cisalpine

Some of the Cisalpines carried their opposition to the monastic orders so far as to be very unfriendly to the French émigrées nuns, for whose expulsion from England Sir J. Mildmay introduced a Bill in 1800.

1897, Wilfrid Ward, The Life and Times of Cardinal Wiseman, 2nd edition, volume 1, page 203, note 1:

But the Cisalpines began to be overshadowed by the ultramontane spirit in the 1830s, and it was not until after the Second Vatican Council a hundred and thirty years later that English Roman Catholics again asked themselves whether they were primarily English or primarily Roman.

1992, D[enis] G. Paz, Popular Anti-Catholicism in Mid-Victorian England, →ISBN, page 83:

Just as with the Blackloists and Jansenists (and perhaps even more so), suspicion of the supernatural came to characterize the Cisalpines, although this time it had little to do with their doctrine of grace and more to do with the Cisalpines’ desire to make Catholicism comprehensible to a sceptical age.

2013, Francis Young, English Catholics and the Supernatural, 1553–1829, →ISBN:

(UK) In 18th–19th century Britain, a Roman Catholic opponent of ultramontanism and advocate of Catholic emancipation through compromise and obedience to secular authorities.


dirty weather

(British) Bad weather, especially foggy or stormy weather.


merry-totter

merry-totters (plural)
merry-trotter (alternative)

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A swing (hanging seat that swings back and forth).


mileway

* mile + way.
* (period of 20 minutes): In reference to the distance that might be covered in this time period.

(UK) Any of a number of roads near Oxford, England, whose upkeep was formerly paid for by nearby residents.


mollycot

(UK, dialect, obsolete, derogatory) An effeminate man.


SDPO

serious disruption prevention order#English

(UK) Initialism of serious disruption prevention order.


Wigan kebab

(UK, informal) A small pie served in a bread roll.

(UK, informal) One or more pies served on a skewer, in the manner of a shish kebab.


mostlings

(UK, Yorkshire, obsolete) Mostly; for the most part.


squary

en-adj

squary (comparative more squary, superlative most squary)

more squary (comparative)
most squary (superlative)


armourplast

Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and UK spelling of armorplast.


tPCT

teaching primary care trust
teaching primary care trust#English

(UK) Initialism of teaching primary care trust.


low tea

en-noun

low tea (countable and uncountable, plural low teas)

Low tea, the original aristocratic late afternoon break for conversation and dainty delicacies was a very social time and was served in the 'low' part of the day.

Afternoon tea has evolved into a combination of high and low teas. High tea, once called "meat tea", was originally the main meal of the British lower classes, eaten with the family at home at the end of a long workday. Low tea was a light meal or snack, enjoyed by the British upper classes in thr late afternoon to tide them over until their more substantial dinner in the evening. Low tea was often a social event, enjoyed in the company of friends or associates. The distinction between high tea and low tea was also a literal one, based on the kind of table used for serving. High tea was consumed at a high dining room table, while low tea was served in the sitting or living room on a lower side table or cocktail table (also called a coffee table).

2012, Beverley Dubrin, Tea Culture: History, Traditions, Celebrations, Recipes & More, page 27:

Counterintuitively, "low tea" has historically been for the upper classes the term used for afternoon tea, while "high tea" was initially the afternoon tea of the working classes.

2019, Julia Skinner, Afternoon Tea: A History, page 39:

(UK) A formal afternoon meal comprising light snacks, often accompanied by tea.


Queen's Birthday

Queen's Official Birthday
Queen's Official Birthday

A holiday or observance commemorating a female monarch and observing her birth, including:

(UK) the Queen's Official Birthday (observed on the Saturday falling between 11 and 17 June during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (died 2022))

(UK) the Queen's actual birthday (21 April in the case of Queen Elizabeth II)


evening tea

(uncountable, UK) A light evening meal, typically but not necessarily including tea.


TSSA

w:Transport Salaried Staffs' Association

(UK) Initialism of Transport Salaried Staffs' Association.


garburation

From garburate + -ion, equivalent to garbage + -ation.

(Canada, UK, rare) The act of using or process of a garburator.


'kin 'ell

'kin' 'ell (alternative)
kin 'ell (alternative)

‘But that’s not really fair on either of them,’ I say, desperately playing devil’s advocate. Come up with a good answer, Pete, please. / ‘’Kin ’ell, mate, life’s not fair,’ says Pete, getting up.

2002, Simon Brooke, chapter 16, in Upgrading: A Novel, London: Orion Books, →ISBN, page 223:

I remember playing Bradford City and getting booed off at half-time because it was only 1–0. I was thinking, ’Kin ’ell, we’ve played well there – we just haven’t scored enough.

2016 August, Simon Hughes, quoting Neil Mellor, “Neil Mellor, Kirkby Graduate”, in Ring of Fire: Liverpool into the 21st Century: The Players’ Stories, London: Bantam Press, →ISBN, page 143:

‘’Kin ’ell, Tom – ’scuse me French.’ He grinned at Matty. ‘I didn’t know you’d be here. I thought you’d give us lot the ’eave oh.’

2016 November, Mary Gibson, “All in the Family: August–September 1931”, in Bourbon Creams and Tattered Dreams (The Factory Girls; 4), London: Head of Zeus, published 2017, →ISBN, page 197:

(UK, Ireland, vulgar) Clipping of fucking hell.


scarcelins

(UK, regional, obsolete) scarcely; hardly


shuttance

[…] had it not been for the capture of Plunger — who, after all, was deemed a "good shuttance" — no one would have regretted the price at which the day's lesson had been bought.

1884, Benjamin Brierley, Tales and Sketches of Lancashire Life, volume 4, page 50:


sillyhood

(UK, regional, obsolete) A caul (part of the amnion that encloses a baby's head at birth).


skedlock

skedlock (countable and uncountable, plural skedlocks)


panmug

(UK, historical) An earthenware crock used to hold milk or butter, etc.


trougher

From trough + -er, due to comparisons between greedy people and pigs with their snouts in the trough.

As Abel Magwitch would have said, he was "a heavy grubber"; or as a Yorkshireman, with a similar disregard for elegance, would express it, "a good trougher."

1939, Harold Armitage, Early Man in Hallamshire, page 78:

A legendary trougher - he could eat for England.

1999 August 10, Dickie Bird, White Cap and Bails:

Forget the fact I was playing for England at cricket: I was also an Olympic-standard trougher, and so I would order big steaks, burgers, whatever I fancied, and Blacky thought nothing of ordering the same thing, or something similar.

Her appetite has definitely gone down, she's the classic bored trougher, but here there's so much to do she can sometimes forget to eat.

2017, Laura Kemp, Whatever Happened to Vicky Hope's Back Up Man?:

And according to an insistent story, Vince MacLean, a formal provincial Liberal leader and prodigious trougher running in Sydney - Victoria, was slapped in thr face by a woman at the door.

1997, The Canadian Forum, volume 76, page 10:

Many of the critical quotations about Rolnik's role in the UN come from Conservative MPs: "The aid budget is a way in which poor people from Britain pay for the lifestyle of rich people in developing countries. We are having to pay taxes to put this international trougher up in a four-star hotel.

2017, Dr. Stephen Harkins, Dr. Jairo Lugo-Ocando, Poor News: Media Discourses of Poverty in Times of Austerity, page 119:

Humza is the trougher's trougher.

2022 February 25, Craig Murray, craigmurray.org.uk:

(by extension) (chiefly British) A careerist politician, especially one representing the Scottish National Party.


parlourish

en-adj

parlourish (comparative more parlourish, superlative most parlourish)

more parlourish (comparative)
most parlourish (superlative)


pimpsy

pimpsy (comparative more pimpsy, superlative most pimpsy)

more pimpsy (comparative)
most pimpsy (superlative)

[…] the most direct and difficult route on the face. Now, at HVS it was doubtless seen as pimpsy by the modern generation, but in those days it had — briefly — made quite a name for the yacht owner.

1997, Ian Robert Mitchell, The Mountain Weeps: Thirteen Exercises, page 111:

'Can you magic my bollock back on now?'
'Of course I can; I can do anything. It would be pimpsy.'

2022, Richard Herring, Can I Have My Ball Back?:


slam door

In the early 1970s, the Southern Region was also reporting around 1,500 incidents each year caused by passengers opening slam doors - including a dozen deaths and other injuries caused by falling from trains, either in stations or on the move.

2023 February 22, Howard Johnston, “Southern '313s': is the end now in sight?”, in RAIL, number 977, page 41:

(rail transport, British, dated) A hinged railway carriage door which opened outwards, that could be opened from the inside only by opening the window and turning the handle on the outside. They originated on carriages with compartments and no corridors, and persisted on later carriage designs with corridors on one side of the compartments, being fitted on the non-corridor side.


NERC

Natural Environment Research Council
w:Natural Environment Research Council

(UK) Initialism of Natural Environment Research Council.


EBacc

English Baccalaureate
w:English Baccalaureate

(UK, education) Abbreviation of English Baccalaureate.


trainer sock

Pulling my trainers off but retaining my sweaty black Primark trainer socks, I step into the heels, one foot – God, they're high – then the other.

2011, Polly Williams, How To Be Married, Headline, page 135:

Next, I copied the standard uniform adjustments: rolled-up skirt, undone top button, trainer socks instead of regulation ankle ones. A girl in my class asked why I didn't shave my legs – I knew how to, right?

2022, Laila Woozeer, Not Quite White, Simon & Schuster, page 85:

(British) A short sock that covers the foot and beyond that not essentially more than the ankle.


job and knock

(UK, informal) The situation where a worker completes an assigned job and is then able to leave ("knock off"), regardless of the time taken.


in a right state

in a right state (comparative more in a right state, superlative most in a right state)

more in a right state (comparative)
most in a right state (superlative)

The COVID-19 pandemic had the world in a right state.

At the end of a long day at work, I’m usually in a right state.

“Come off it,” said Ron, “you’re in a right state!”

2003, J. K. Rowling, chapter 20, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

(British, idiomatic) in a mess or in a state of chaos; very unkempt, in poor condition.

The dancers were in a right state as their track wouldn’t play minutes before their performance.

Trigonometry lectures always had me in a right state!

(British, idiomatic) in a state of panic or confusion.


ditchfinder

My MX-5 was *ace* in the snow in February round here. I went where other cars couldn't go with no problem at all. It was on Avons, and felt a whole hell of a lot safer then the FWD Puma on Pirelli ditchfinders did.

2009 August 5, Mike P, “Re: Rear wheel drive”, in uk.rec.cars.misc (Usenet):

The better half's Lupo was transformed when the cheap and nasty Nankang ditchfinders came off (and they were well above the legal limit) and mid-price Kumhos went on. The cheapos compromise on grip and can become noisy.

2012 February 26, Chris Bartram, “Re: tyres”, in uk.rec.driving (Usenet):

Sure, mismatching isn't ideal, but I'd much rather have mismatched decent tyres than matched AliBaba-brand-it-yourself ditchfinders.

2016 June 7, Adrian, “Re: Tyre noise”, in uk.rec.cars.maintenance (Usenet):

(UK, automotive, slang) A poor-quality tyre for a car, usually one made and sold cheaply.


harbour master

(British) Alternative spelling of harbormaster.


Troy town

Troy towns (plural)
Troytown (alternative)

Presumably because, in popular legend, the walls of the city of Troy were constructed in such a confusing and complex way that any enemy who entered would be unable to find his way out.

(UK) A turf maze, especially one in England.


Pernod and black

en-noun

Pernod and black (plural Pernod and blacks)

Pernod and blacks (plural)
pernod and black (alternative)
Pernod and Black (alternative)

The cocktail in Britain is a rigidly-defined social institution: each has its own particular meaning—the G & T is the alcoholic equivalent of the interview suit; Pernod and black is an alternative to glue sniffing for repentant trendies, etc.

2011, Mark Polonsky et al., USSR: From an Original Idea by Karl Marx, page 32:

(chiefly UK) A drink made of Pernod and crème de cassis or blackcurrant syrup and water.


make the running

en-verb

make the running (third-person singular simple present makes the running, present participle making the running, simple past and past participle made the running)

makes the running (present singular third-person)
making the running (participle present)
made the running (participle past)
made the running (past)
make all the running (alternative)

He added: "In this period if you looked at the western world and asked who is making the running, from the point of view of modern society and particularly in terms of liberty, it would be Britain and we forget that. Britain is absolutely the model of the future."

2014 April 7, Mark Brown, “Royal art show, The First Georgians, to open at Buckingham Palace”, in The Guardian:

(idiomatic, chiefly UK) To have a leading or influential position in a field or activity; to be more active than others.


must get in front

(UK, slang, derogatory) The perceived attitude of a motorist who drives poorly in order to stay in front of other road users.


Norman no mates

en-noun

Norman no mates (plural Norman no mates)

(British, slang) Synonym of Billy no mates (“a person with few or no friends”).


Parliamentary green

(UK, monarchy) A green color used by the House of Commons.


obstropulousness

(UK, obsolete, slang) The quality of being obstropulous.


Mozzers

You see, in my estimation, Mozzers does the best of the supermarket meal deals, because of the sheer breadth of choice available.

2021 June 28, Kirsty Bosley, “I ate Morrisons meal deals all day and this is what I found”, in birminghammail.co.uk, archived from the original on 2021-11-11:

Mozzers says its trading prospects are just dandy for the coming year, but there's no way the share price would surge on its own back to the price Clayton Dubilier & Rice is offering today.

2021 July 21, Jim Armitage, “Morrisons future isn't entirely out of its hands - it could asset strip itself”, in standard.co.uk, archived from the original on 2021-06-21:

While another added: "@Tesco well that's me going back to Morrisons then. The free EV charging compensated the extra drive to the store. Mozzers is at the end of the road. #lostbusiness"

2022 November 5, Andrew Smart, “Tesco anger electric car users after introducing EV fees to UK stores”, in gazette and herald.co.uk, archived from the original on 2022-11-05:

(UK, slang) Morrisons, a British supermarket.


Harry starkers

(chiefly British, slang) Synonym of starkers (“completely nude”).


double science

(UK, education) A GCSE option in which three sciences are studied (biology, chemistry, physics) but to a lesser degree than if all three were taken separately, and only two GCSE certificates are awarded.


triple science

(UK, education) A GCSE option in which three sciences are studied separately (biology, chemistry, physics) and three GCSE certificates are awarded.


half-colonel

'Yep. Lieutenant one day; major by the end of the week: lieutenant-colonel the week after. That's what it's like.' He snuffed down his nose in self-contempt. 'The office in Cairo is full of bogus half-colonels like me.'

1965, Olivia Manning, Friends and Heroes (The Balkan Trilogy; 3), Bath: Chivers, page 895 (in series):


two pennies

There is a bit of debate on whether using a join at the end of your rounds still qualifies the doll as Amigurumi. Let me add my two pennies…

2008 August, Tamie Snow, Tiny Yarn Animals: Amigurumi Friends to Make and Enjoy, New York, NY: Penguin Group, →ISBN, page 6:

two pennies' worth
two pennies' worth#English


old fellow

Bislama: olfala

→ Tirax: olfala

(UK, dated) Synonym of old chap (“affectionate term of address for a man”).

(UK, colloquial) Synonym of old chap (“the penis”).


on the sniff

But the fact that online “dating” was a euphemism for ACTION, the same way as walking into a bar is a sign that you're out on the sniff, suited me just fine.

2011, Autumn Stephens, Roar Softly and Carry a Great Lipstick, page 56:

Ed stayed leaning in and after signalling to the others to do the same, he inclined his head towards the girls at the adjacent table. 'West End's heaving with that sort on a Saturday night,' he said. 'Office girls out on the sniff.'

(UK, slang, vulgar) In search of a sex partner.


on the other bus

“He's a bit of a loner and I think he's on the other bus, if you know what I mean.” He added and waved a limp wrist over the bar. The other men reacted to the news that Blackman might be gay by shaking their heads in disgust […]

“So am I. C'mon you never noticed that he's on the other bus?” he said, and then thought that Valana probably didn't even know what a bus was. “He's well groomed, takes care of himself a bit too much, if that doesn't give you any clues, […]

2015, Don Galloway, Time Ryder Powerstone Book Two:


on the hurry up

'Read the CAD as you go – on the hurry up please. Need you there as soon as possible. Make sure you let Control know when you're on scene.'

2018, Alice Vinten, On the Line: Life – and death – in the Metropolitan Police:

(UK, law enforcement, slang) At top speed; as fast as possible.


jarmies

“Nice jarmies, Tom,” he said with a smirk. Minutes later, he'd dropped off into the unconscious realm, but the smirk remained.

1981, Gerard Lee, True Love and How to Get It, page 104:

'Don't look at me! You were doing that. Only kids wear jarmies anyway.'

2014, Geoffrey Riddell, The Boy Made of Shining Happiness, page 92:

(UK, slang) Alternative form of jammies (“pyjamas”).


jaxie

(UK, slang) Alternative form of jacksy (“backside; buttocks”).


HAF

(UK) Initialism of holiday activities and food (“a subsidy programme for disadvantaged children”).


UHB

(UK) Initialism of University Hospitals Birmingham, a hospital network, and the trust that operates it, part of the NHS, associated with the University of Birmingham, in West Midlands, England, UK.


stock pot

In this country, the product - a concentrated stock sold in a four-pack of small tubs, each of which makes three and a half cups of broth - is called Knorr Homestyle Stock. Other names in markets around the world include Knorr Stock Pot, Knorr Marmite de Bouillon and Knorr Bouillon Pur.

2011 September 12, Stuart Elliott, “Unilever Tries to Corner 'Stock' Market”, in NYTimes.com, archived from the original on 2011-09-25:

In order to show customers that the product is presented in a wet format, Coley Porter Bell has added a stock pot shaped cut out to reveal the actual product.[…]Having recently redesigned the core Oxo Cubes packaging to be more modern and iconic, we wanted to take the essence of that work into the new Oxo Stock Pot design.

2015 September 15, Tony Corbin, “New Coley Porter Bell-designed Oxo range unveiled”, in www.packagingnews.co.uk, archived from the original on 2015-09-20:

Continental stock pot - chicken: One unit contains four handy pots, each one making 2 cups of stock.

2017 May 14, Bronwen King, “Is packet stock as good as homemade?”, in stuff.co.nz:

[…] a quick Twitter survey reveals the Michelin-garlanded Marco Pierre White is not alone in his devotion to jellied stock pots, while I prefer organic cubes (won't someone think of the chickens?).

2017 October 9, Felicity Cloake, “Can't be bothered to make stock? Here are the ways to keep cooking simple”, in TheGuardian.com, archived from the original on 2017-10-09:

(cooking, British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) A mass-produced plastic container of a standard size and shape containing a gelatinous bouillon.


shag monster

(UK, slang) A sexually promiscuous person.


arse-up

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang, vulgar) A mistake or blunder; a cock-up.


nunnywatch

What a nunnywatch we were in, to be sure, when we heard they weren’t married.

1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, page 126:

(UK, dialect, obsolete, rare) A fuss; a mess.


odds and bods

Barbary lions had been believed extinct in the wild since the mid-twentieth century, survived only by a few odds and bods of DNA carried in captive individuals descended from Haile Selassie's private collection.

(chiefly UK, informal) Synonym of odds and sods (“miscellaneous items”).

(chiefly UK, informal) Synonym of odds and sods (“ordinary people who lack distinction”).


LEZ

(UK, transport) Abbreviation of low emission zone.


ZEZ

(UK, transport) Abbreviation of zero emission zone.


NYSD

w:en:North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League

(UK, sports) Abbreviation of North Yorkshire and South Durham. A cricket league, the North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League in England, UK.


fanny rat

Jay had also been worried that he was going to look like a melt following me around like a lovesick puppy, and he wanted to be seen as more of a fanny rat.

2016, Vicky Pattison, Nothing But the Truth: My Story:

“I certainly do not mean to imply that James is a fanny rat for royals,” he clarified.

2017, Sierra Rose, Redeeming The Billionaire Playboy:


fanny merchant

To cut a long story short, Howard looked like an intrepid explorer with an all-year tan but in actual fact he was just a chap who stayed at home and wore pan-stick: in other words, a fanny merchant.

2001, Val G. Lee, The Comedienne, page 65:

He was a “cultured left back” (translation-he could play but was a bit of a fanny merchant) and he could hit a shot.

2012, Paul Larkin, Poles 'N' Goals and Hesselink, page 67:

Right now he's calling me a 'fanny merchant' as he pins me to the wall in the Dublin Airport Hotel and lets me know exactly what he thinks of the Liverpool way just hours after a game at Lansdowne Road.

2016, Jason McAteer, Blood, Sweat and McAteer: A Footballer's Story:

(UK, slang, derogatory, vulgar) An effeminate and ineffectual man.


jillock

She scolded him, but, between you and me, I got the impression that she was probably thinking, poor Tyson, being ridden by such a jillock. I know she was. That's what horsey people think.

2008, Griff Rhys Jones, Mountain: Exploring Britain's High Places:


jockey pants

In frightened haste he takes clean Jockey pants, T-shirts, and socks from a drawer, three shirts in cellophane and blue cardboard from another, a pair of laundered suntans from a third, draws his two suits and a sports shirt from the closet, and wraps the smaller clothing in the suits to form a bundle he can carry.

1995, John Updike, Rabbit Angstrom The Four Novels: Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, and Rabbit at Rest, page 86:


prang out

en-verb

prang out (third-person singular simple present prangs out, present participle pranging out, simple past and past participle pranged out)

prangs out (present singular third-person)
pranging out (participle present)
pranged out (participle past)
pranged out (past)

Compare pranged (“paranoid”), prang (“crack cocaine”).

All right, look, don't prang out. They had this paint-party-brunch thing. But I only stayed for 45 minutes, painted a tiny bit of a door, ate half an almond croissant and bounced.

2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane, spoken by Nathan (Simon Manyonda):

(UK, slang) To worry, panic; to suffer an anxiety attack.

Anyone who has heard Mr. Skinner's recent album, "The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living" (Vice), will be surprised (and possibly relieved) that he seems to have stopped "pranging out" on cocaine. With precise but conversationally rendered detail, this British M.C. bemoans the downside of stardom and excess: drug-binge paranoia, unfulfilling shopping sprees, […]

2006 June 29, Sia Michel, “Mike Skinner Gives His Vocal Cords an Endurance Test”, in The New York Times:

(UK, slang) To have a bad experience on drugs; to have a freakout.


full screw

It was especially important when I was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant, with all its additional responsibilities. I'd loved being a fullscrew – a corporal – because I was still one of the lads and didn’t have too much else to think about.

2016, Chris Graham, Five Minutes of Amazing: My Journey Through Dementia, London: Sphere, →ISBN, page 111:


GRT

To help with inspiration five professional GRT artists were commissioned to create a poster […]. The resulting set of images show a mixture of contemporary and historical GRT lifestyles and language.

2008 June, “Poster Competition Results”, in Gypsy, Roma, Traveller History Month Magazine, The Gypsy Media Company, page 13:

(British) Alternative form of GTR (“Gypsy, Traveller, Roma”).


ice pole

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

To us, these are (and always have been) called cool pops. To others - particularly on Twitter - they're everything from 'ice pops' to 'ice lollies' to 'ice poles' to 'freeze pops' to Tip-Tops.

2023 April 17 (last accessed), “The internet is arguing about what these frozen things are officially called”, in entertainment.ie, entertainment.ie, archived from the original on 2022-03-27:

(UK (especially Scotland)) A frozen snack consisting of flavored ice or juice in a tube; a freeze pop


ice lol

[…]the others are rooting through the freezer in hot pursuit of the ice-lols.

2019 February 16, Donncha O'Callaghan, “Six Nations: England may be onto something with this 'tempo percentage' lark”, in TimesOnline:

(British, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) Clipping of ice lolly.


Trulliberian

en-adj

Trulliberian (comparative more Trulliberian, superlative most Trulliberian)

more Trulliberian (comparative)
most Trulliberian (superlative)

From Parson Trulliber, a character in Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews (1742), + -ian.

(UK, obsolete) Resembling or characteristic of a rude, vulgar country clergyman, devoted to agricultural pursuits.


Mr Freeze

In Britain from the name of the British freeze pop brand Mr Freeze, created in 1966 and since produced by a series of British and Irish companieshttps://www.talkingretail.com/products-news/chilled/mr-freeze-reports-good-march-sales-18-05-2012/ (currently Calypso Soft Drinks Ltd)https://www.talkingretail.com/products-news/frozen/mr-freeze-unveils-limited-edition-bulk-box-15-05-2014/. In Canada from the Canadian Mr Freeze brand that was acquired by their local rival Kisko in 2005https://kiskofreezies.com/pages/about-us#:~:text=Kisko%20freezies%20initially%20founded%20in,Kingston%2C%20Jamaica%20by%20the%20Josephs%20family.

Brand names also came up with many naming the treat based on the product sold in their region. US users claimed that the sweet treat aught(sic.) to be referred to as an Otter Pop, a popular brand across the pond. Meanwhile UK users were more in favour of the Mr Freeze, found in many a corner shop while Welsh customers said the correct name was in fact a Tip Top.

2018 June 25, Martha Cliff, “Ice pops... or freezies? Debate over the CORRECT name for classic summer treat goes ciral on Twitter - so what do YOU call them?”, in MailOnline, archived from the original on 2021-10-09:

(UK, Ireland, Canada) A frozen snack consisting of flavored ice or juice in a tube; a freeze pop, irrespective of brand.


cozzie livs

Equally wild is the sticky toffee pudding, the only dessert on the menu and rolling in at the low, low price of £3. At the risk of going all Old Man Yells At Cloud, you can’t get anything for £3 in these days of the cozzy livs.

2023 May, Peter Simpson, “Skua, Edinburgh”, in The Skinny, number 208, page 61:

(slang, chiefly UK, Australia) Cost of living crisis.


reset the dial

en-verb

reset the dial (third-person singular simple present resets the dial, present participle resetting the dial, simple past and past participle reset the dial)

resets the dial (present singular third-person)
resetting the dial (participle present)
reset the dial (participle past)
reset the dial (past)

While contemporary designers give us trends, Quant reset the dial on the way we get dressed. Under her influence, women rejected their parents’ vision of beauty and embraced their own.

2021 October 28, Karen Dacre, “Miniskirt mayhem! Nine ways Mary Quant revolutionised women’s clothes – and lives”, in The Guardian:

He said: “I’ve been incredibly lucky to play a part in major new media innovations, from the birth of Sun Online to most recently Times Radio, which has reset the dial on what quality news radio can achieve, and I’m pleased to be still playing a part on the station.

2022 January 10, Laura Webster, “More journalists join Piers Morgan at Rupert Murdoch's TalkTV channel”, in The National:

With the NHS struggling to clear huge surgical and screening backlogs and facing continued pressure from Covid-related staff absences, it’s a tough time for it to take on another major challenge. But ministers have promised to “reset the dial” on gender inequalities in healthcare, with the publication of the first ever government-led women’s health strategy.

2022 July 20, Hannah Devlin, “Are there enough concrete commitments in the women’s health strategy to truly ‘reset the dial’?”, in The Guardian:

Viewers have since been questioning whether Love Island producers – wary of replicating the toxic masculinity of earlier seasons – have in fact reset the dial too far, with many fans branding the women’s behaviour “toxic femininity”.

2023 March 12, Eloise Hendy, “Is there really such a thing as ‘toxic femininity’?”, in The Independent:

(idiomatic, chiefly UK, often followed by on) To change something radically; to reform or revolutionize something.


ready for the off

From the notion that horses, greyhounds and racegoers that are ready for the off (beginning) of a race are ready for the action that subsequently follows.

Tullamore ready for the off(title)

2010 July 27, Caitriona Murphy, “Tullamore ready for the off”, in independent.ie, archived from the original on 2023-04-24:

Bradford West byelection almost ready for the off(title)

2012 March 12, Martin Wainwright, “Bradford West byelection almost ready for the off”, in TheGuardian, archived from the original on 2015-10-12:

"My thoughts exactly I said, so I am going to get ready for the off", now getting ready for the off meant taking off your pads and your whites (trousers) removing your jockstrap and box, pitting your trousers back on, packing your bag, and you were ready to go.

2013 June 25, Basil Jay, Sliding Down the Bannisters of Life, page 67:

Both aircraft began to lean forward against the brakes, like greyhounds ready for the 'off'.

2017, Richard Pike, Phantom Boys Volume 2:

(UK, Ireland) Ready for action; set to go; good to go.


ansaphone

When I get home there are two ansaphone messages, one from Laura’s friend Liz and one from Laura.

1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 60:

(British, New Zealand, colloquial) Alternative form of answerphone.


clippingly

en-adv

clippingly (comparative more clippingly, superlative most clippingly)

more clippingly (comparative)
most clippingly (superlative)

Things were going on clippingly.

1863, William Wotherspoon Ireland, Randolph Methyl: A Story of Anglo-Indian Life, volume 2, page 72:

(UK, slang, obsolete) Excellently; very well.


bill up

en-verb

bill up (third-person singular simple present bills up, present participle billing up, simple past and past participle billed up)

bills up (present singular third-person)
billing up (participle present)
billed up (participle past)
billed up (past)

Fam, I don't blaze / But I can bill up, so if I get bored / I might mm, bill it / At studio, I'm like mm, kill it

2015, Jme, “Pulse 8” (track 1), in Integrity>, performed by Jme:

You see skengs ain't cheap and the corn ain't free / But I'll smoke it for free, bill it up, go to sleep

2015, Reekz MB, LD, Dimzy, “Trapping’s Alive” (track 15), in In Skengs We Trust, performed by 67:

(ambitransitive, UK, slang) To roll up a marijuana cigarette.


detective inspector

en-noun

detective inspector (plural detective inspectors)

detective inspectors (plural)
DI (alternative abbreviation)

(UK, law enforcement) A police rank used in Commonwealth countries.


equality money

(UK, property law) Money paid as part of an exchange of real estate to compensate for any difference in value.


marriage value

(UK, property law) The difference in value between a leasehold interest in land and the hypothetical value of its reversionary interest were the leasehold to be determined, which typically increases as the leasehold draws towards its end; frequently considered the market value chargeable to the tenant for a long extension of the leasehold, or for the purchase of the reversionary interest.


cheesy chips

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

(cooking, British, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative form of cheese fries.


bash together

en-verb

bash together (third-person singular simple present bashes together, present participle bashing together, simple past and past participle bashed together)

bashes together (present singular third-person)
bashing together (participle present)
bashed together (participle past)
bashed together (past)

(UK, informal) To roughly assemble; to put together.


busk it

busk it (third-person singular simple present busks it, present participle busking it, simple past and past participle busked it)

busks it (present singular third-person)
busking it (participle present)
busked it (participle past)
busked it (past)


bumload

From bum + load, from bum (“the buttocks”); compare assload, arseload, buttload, shitload.

[…] a brilliantly terrible FMV action game where you play as an unnamed marine who's been sent to an uncharted tropical island to kill a bumload of undead creeps and take out the doctor who's planning to use them to take over the world.

2021, Chris Scullion, The Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Encyclopedia, page 230:

(UK, slang, mildly vulgar) A large amount.


drum horse

The soul of the Regiment lives in the Drum-Horse who carries the silver kettle-drums. He is nearly always a big piebald Waler. That is a point of honour; and a Regiment will spend anything you please on a piebald.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Rout of the White Hussars”, in Plain Tales from the Hills:

“Alexander,” The Life Guards' drum horse, kindly lent for the occasion, carried the 5th Lancer's silver kettle-drums draped with the 16th Lancer's drum banners.

1963, Cyril Nelson Barclay, History of the 16th/5th The Queen's Royal Lancers, 1925-1961, page 194:

As they drew closer, I recognized the horse— it was none other than Clarence, the regimental drum horse of the mounted band of the Life Guards, who on parade bears a vast, heavy silver kettle drum on either side just ahead of the saddle.

2009, Michael Korda, Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life:

A drum horse called Apollo would not behave, skittering sideways determinedly.

6 May 2023, Rachel Cooke, “It was ludicrous but also magnificent: the coronation stirred every emotion”, in The Guardian:

(UK) A horse that carries a rider and two silver kettle drums in certain ceremonies of state.


Silicon Roundabout

Before long, Silicon Roundabout had indeed been adopted by estate agents, local councillors and even No 10. Silicon Roundabout became the cornerstone of the government's new Tech City strategy, whose idea was to nurture our little homegrown tech district to see if it couldn't be fanned into full flame.

2014 March 10, Cory Doctorow, “The slow death of Silicon Roundabout”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Silicon Roundabout started as a very British joke. When the now-defunct travel social networking company Dopplr moved from above a pub in Hoxton to 100 City Road beside Old Street Roundabout in March 2008, they found not only more space but a burgeoning social scene.

2020, Chris McMillan, “Producing Cool”, in The London Dream: Migration and the Mythology of the City, John Hunt Publishing, →ISBN:

Less than a year earlier, Tech Hub, London’s first tech-focused co-working space, had also closed down, citing falling demand and rising rents. Insiders say London’s tech sector is now as strong as it has ever been, but is the closure of these spaces evidence that Cameron’s Silicon Roundabout vision failed, or that it succeeded?

2021 September 16, Oscar Williams, “The last days of Silicon Roundabout”, in The New Statesman:

(UK, humorous) East London Tech City, a technology cluster in Shoreditch, East London.


alternative provision

(UK, education) The arranging of full-time education for a pupil who has been excluded from their school.


MGN

(UK, journalism, historical) Initialism of Mirror Group Newspapers.

(UK, railways, historical) Initialism of Midland and Great Northern.


scoff down

scoff down (third-person singular simple present scoffs down, present participle scoffing down, simple past and past participle scoffed down)

scoffs down (present singular third-person)
scoffing down (participle present)
scoffed down (participle past)
scoffed down (past)


batfolder

(obsolete, dialect, British) One who catches birds at night.


drink out

drink out (third-person singular simple present drinks out, present participle drinking out, simple past drank out, past participle drunk out)

drinks out (present singular third-person)
drinking out (participle present)
drank out (past)
drunk out (participle past)

Lift your glass and drink it out!

Yes, ... then, drink out drink out the glass!

1890, Carl Millöcker, Der Arme Jonathan: Operette in drei Akten, page 8:

that was very odd ! that so much punch could be drank out already!

1807, Oliver Goldsmith, The Poems and Essays of Oliver Goldsmith, page 23:

(obsolete, British, transitive) To finish a beverage; to empty a cup by drinking the contents.


PIF

public information film
w:public information film

public service announcement
public service announcement

(UK, historical) Initialism of public information film, a type of public service announcement.


Gunchester

″You hear people firing off guns all the time,″ she said. ″That’s why they call it Gunchester. I just thought some poor bugger’s got it again, and went on sudsing my hair.″

1993 November 15, Shawn Pogatchnik, “‘Gunchester’: A Dead Son and Shooting in the Street With AM-Guns Invade Britain, Bjt”, in Associated Press:

The chief constable of Greater Manchester Police has said that the city has finally shrugged off its notorious Gunchester image thanks to their intensive efforts to combat gangs.

2011 April 11, Helen Carter, “Farewell to Gunchester”, in The Guardian:

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, gang violence increased, which earned the area [Moss Side] the nickname of "gunchester".

2018 August 13, Imran Rahman-Jones, “Moss Side: A history of the Manchester neighbourhood”, in BBC:

Manchester earned its name Gunchester in the 1980s and 1990s but violence came to a head when Benji Stanley, 14, was shot dead at a takeaway.

2021 March 21, Emily Retter, “Inside 'Gunchester': The brutal blowtorch-armed gangs running riot in Manchester”, in Daily Star:

(UK, informal, derogatory) The English city of Manchester, particularly Moss Side, referring to the city's historical high gun crime rate.


return the favour

return the favour (third-person singular simple present returns the favour, present participle returning the favour, simple past and past participle returned the favour)

returns the favour (present singular third-person)
returning the favour (participle present)
returned the favour (participle past)
returned the favour (past)

return the favor
return the favor#English

(UK) Alternative spelling of return the favor.


beardie-weirdie

beardie-weirdies (plural)
beardie weirdie (alternative)
beardy-weirdy (alternative)
weirdie-beardie (alternative)

When he addressed Labour Students' 30th anniversary reception at this year's Brighton conference, he must have been surprised – and probably impressed – by the lack of beardie-weirdies.

2001 October 3, Matthew Tempest, “New Labour's power-dressed future”, in The Guardian:

(UK, informal) A man having a beard and long hair, stereotypically associated with being eccentric or intellectual or holding radical political views.


do bits

do bits (third-person singular simple present does bits, present participle doing bits, simple past did bits, past participle done bits)

does bits (present singular third-person)
doing bits (participle present)
did bits (past)
done bits (participle past)

And you and Clarko you did bits and I heard that this bird got nits.

2017 November 7, “Courtney Jade Reply (Freestyle)”performed by Soph Aspin:

“The accent really took over when I started watching the show,” she said. “It blew the accent the fuck up, and everyone was obsessed with their cute little sayings, like ‘doing bits.” (For the uninitiated, that means getting intimate but not having sex.)

2023 May 15, Alaina Demopoulos, “Why are so many young Americans adopting fake British accents?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(intransitive, slang, UK) To engage in nonpenetrative sexual activity.


American muffin

en-noun

American muffin (plural American muffins)

An American muffin is usually yeastless bread baked in a cupcake shape; although defined in some British dictionaries as a sweet.

1989, Ofelia García, Ricardo Otheguy, English across Cultures. Cultures across English: A Reader in Cross-cultural Communication, page 239:

The American muffin looks something like a large cupcake, but has a rounded top instead of a flat one and is never toasted.

2008, Charis Cotter, Terry Durack, 1001 Foods: The Greatest Gastronomic Sensations on Earth, page 825:

American muffins are chemically leavened, enriched, semi-sweet quickbreads baked in individual portions. Although American muffins can be split, warmed, toasted, and spread with dairy products or fruit preserves, they are generally consumed "as is" at room temperature for breakfast, brunch or light snacks.

2015, Darra Goldstein, editor, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, page 465:

Nineteenth-century editions of Cassel's Dictionary of Cookery, published in London, defined the "American muffin" as a "yeast-raised griddle bread."

2017, Stella Parks, Brave Tart: Iconic American Desserts:


Cecil house

Named after English journalist Cecil Chesterton (1879–1918).

named-after

Whately was an active supporter of the Cecil Houses in London, which provided overnight accommodation for homeless women, where they could obtain ‘a clean bed, with plenty of hot water for baths, tea and biscuits, for one shilling a night, with no questions asked’

2018, Keith Gildart, David Howell, editors, Dictionary of Labour Biography: Volume XIV, Springer, →ISBN, page 279:

(UK, historical) A shelter providing accommodation for homeless women.


IHAT

Iraq Historic Allegations Team
w:Iraq Historic Allegations Team

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of Iraq Historic Allegations Team.


get the push

en-verb

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

gets the push (present singular third-person)
getting the push (participle present)
got the push (participle past)
got the push (past)

(British, informal) To be fired from one's job.


naffing

Mike: Well that's naffing stupid!

[…] or Dragon is not only waffling a load of nonsensical gibberish that doesn't even hang together as a naffing sentence, but I'm also totally stone sodding deaf into the bargain!!

2008, Jay Holloway, The Prang Codex, page 132:


nadgered

en-adj

nadgered (comparative more nadgered, superlative most nadgered)

more nadgered (comparative)
most nadgered (superlative)

'Good day?' he says.
'Not bad,' I say. 'You?'
'I'm nadgered,' he says.

(UK, slang) Tired or exhausted; knackered.


nick-bent

More than once this caused all sorts of problems as the nick-bent women were picked up by the genuinely bent women, only to call the whole thing off when they got close to their release date.

(UK, slang) Engaging in homosexual relationships only while in prison and segregated from the opposite sex.


SERPS

(UK, finance) Acronym of State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme.


pranged out

pranged out (comparative more pranged out, superlative most pranged out)

more pranged out (comparative)
most pranged out (superlative)

(UK, slang) In a state of panic; suffering an anxiety attack.


BIS

Until recently, the BIS has not asked colleges to submit audited accounts and demonstrate a financially sustainable business plan. […] What is certain is that the size of the outlay caught BIS off guard and the impact has already been felt by students at established universities.

2014 May 21, Andrew McGettigan, Shiv Malik, John Domokos, “Private sector and students profit at the college they call 'the ATM'”, in The Guardian:

w:Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

(UK, government) Initialism of Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.


RHI

(UK, historical) Initialism of renewable heat incentive (“a payment system for the generation of heat from renewable energy sources”).


piss-takery

From piss-take + -ery, compare take the piss.

If they can’t make Shakespeare’s language their own, the passionate, tragic emotions on the page simply become the stuff of cliché – making ‘Wherefore art thou, Romeo?’ ripe for comedic piss-takery.

2013 October 10, Trevor Johnston, “Romeo and Juliet [film review]”, in Time Out:

(chiefly British, slang) The act of taking the piss.


away-day girl

From the name of cheap "away-day" tickets introduced by British Rail.

This provision has particular implications for prostitutes working in the Paddington area where most women are thought by the police to be 'away-day girls', who travel to London from the Midlands and Northern cities.

1987, The Police Journal - Volumes 60-61, page 215:

These women live in Wolverhampton, Southampton, or other major cities and go to London for the purpose of prostitution and return on the same or the next day. As our interviews with prostitutes show, the away-day girl is more appropriately part of the fictional presentation of street prostitution.

1993, Nanette J. Davis, Prostitution, page 121:

Unlike Matthews' (1990) opportunity-driven "away day girls" who desisted in the face of a crackdown in London, the subjects of this study were, as a group, highly motivated and unlikely to desist.

2001, Robert R. Weidner, I Won't Do Manhattan:

Even the away-day girls get netted eventually.

2002, Jack Curtis, Point of Impact, page 53:

Hovering around the soggy sandwiches on this crisp June morning were the Kylie Minogue Sound-Alike Competition runner-up; the usual, baffled assortment of writers on promotional tours accompanied by twenty-something 'away day' girls exclaiming with vivacious insincerity the importance of 'the Vegetarian Personality' or 'Versailles; the View From Sweden'; and the actress Petronella de Winter in a slashed pink vinyl dress ingeniously welded back together with a blow torch and bits of bicycle chain — all the better to show off her recent nipple realignment.

The 'exodus' of women from northern towns to London is a feature of women's magazine stories on prostitution and the reader may here make an association of 'Away Day girls'.

2018, Lorna Ryan, Reading the Prostitute:

(UK) A prostitute who travels to another city to pick up clients, returning home either the same or next day.


single justice procedure

en-noun

single justice procedure (plural single justice procedures)

(UK, law) The situation where a magistrate decides a minor criminal case (such as driving without insurance, or TV licence evasion) without taking it to court.


mad with it

en-adj

mad with it (comparative more mad with it, superlative most mad with it)

more mad with it (comparative)
most mad with it (superlative)
mad wae it (alternative)
mad wi' it (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-mad with it.wav

'I like being with my pals and getting mad with it,' he shrugs. 'I grew up to hate the police.'

2011 September 24, Gavin Knight, “The woman taking the fight to Glasgow's gangs”, in The Daily Telegraph, archived from the original on 2021-10-18:

In the most exaggerated Californian accent I could manage, I started to whisper esoteric Glasgow slang expressions, to create an image of Mo having fully immersed himself into his new city's culture. 'You guys getting mad wae it on Friday, or whit?'

2014, Kevin Bridges, We Need to Talk About ... Kevin Bridges, London: Michael Joseph Ltd, →ISBN, page 262:

He wouldn't tell anyone about what he heard over the arctic winds. They would think him crazy. If anyone told him the same thing he'd think they were crazy or at the very least, "mad wi' it" drunk!

2016, Joanne Sundell, Arctic Will, Waterville, M.E.: Five Star Publishing, →ISBN, page 48:

Hugh says he was "chucked" out of school aged 14 and then spent all of his time out with his "pals". "I was always getting mad with it," he says.

2017 August 4, Lucy Adams, “Police officer 'embedded' in prison”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 2022-04-12:

In the now viral Twitter post, Caitlin [Harvey] penned: 'A year ago I was mad with it on a night out and got chatting to the toilet attendant who told me she had recently moved here from Nigeria and had no friends.'

2019 July 30, Harriet Johnston, “Woman who struck up a friendship with a 'lonely' Nigerian toilet attendant on a drunken night out reveals they now go on walks together - and she's even met her new friend's son”, in Daily Mail, archived from the original on 2023-06-05:

(UK, chiefly Scotland, slang) Extremely drunk or intoxicated.


ungainness

(UK dialectal) The state or condition of being ungain; ungainliness, gracelessness.


skreak

en-verb

skreak (third-person singular simple present skreaks, present participle skreaking, simple past and past participle skreaked)

skreaks (present singular third-person)
skreaking (participle present)
skreaked (participle past)
skreaked (past)

(UK, regional, archaic) creak; shriek; squeak


Shottingham

(UK, informal, derogatory) The city of Nottingham, England in reference to its historical high gun crime rate.


clackerbag

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

[>New research *seems* to indicate a danger in keeping a powerful radio transmitter so close to one's gonads...]
You could accidentally catch yer clackerbag under the morse key.

1999 May 18, Chris Lawrence, “Re: I'll be Bach”, in demon.local (Usenet):

When I was a kid, I somehow managed to knacker my (just dropping) bollocks up. I honestly can`t remember how, the trauma of knackering my clackerbag must have put it out of my mind, and its not the kind of question I can ask me mam when I nip around for a cuppa...

2004 September 7, Loz H, “Re: OT-Wounded animal”, in alt.sports.soccer.everton (Usenet):

I typed KP Nuts... next thing I see OFT walk in, touch up the barmaid and get a knee in the clackerbag.

2004 November 14, Græme, “Re: OT Fancy a drink?”, in uk.sport.football.clubs.rangers (Usenet):

Ross looked back and forth between the dog and the child, the latter still glistening with intent and the former continuing to fixate upon his nads[…]. Why didn’t the anorexic mongrel solve both problems by sidling over and licking the self-emoliating rug-rat’s mitts, thus taking the edge off its appetite and its eyes off his clackerbag?

2013, Christopher Brookmyre, Bedlam, London: Orbit Books, →ISBN, page 19:


SoA

The SoA wants Amazon to clearly label products as AI-generated and allow readers to filter out AI titles.

2023 September 30, James Tapper, “Authors shocked to find AI ripoffs of their books being sold on Amazon”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

(UK) Initialism of Society of Authors, a United Kingdom trade union.


SIO

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of senior investigating officer.


GIC

en-noun

GIC (countable and uncountable, plural GICs)

(UK) Initialism of gender identity clinic.


privilege day

(UK) A day of annual leave granted to civil servants, in addition to normal holidays.


jarmas

You've had too much to drink, get your jarmas on and get to bed!

2018, Kirsty-Louise Card, The Price of Fabulous, page 162:


aled up

en-adj

aled up (comparative more aled up, superlative most aled up)

more aled up (comparative)
most aled up (superlative)

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

Not that John would have been the only one 'aled up' here – it was a Liverpool party after all, […]

2013, Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles - All These Years:


hog-whimpering

hog-whimpering (comparative more hog-whimpering, superlative most hog-whimpering)

more hog-whimpering (comparative)
most hog-whimpering (superlative)

(UK, slang) Extremely drunk, to the point of incoherence.


indijaggers

At all events, the point is that if you go on taking solid arsenic for a good long time — say a year or so — you establish a what-not, an immunity, and can take six or seven grains at a time without so much as a touch of indijaggers.

“It's veal, Mrs. Spurgeon,” Cary hastily assured her, “which, as I'm sure you must know, allows one to enjoy the taste and appearance of mutton, without risking the old indijaggers.”

(UK, slang, dated, humorous) Indigestion.


council housing estate

en-noun

council housing estate (plural council housing estates)


chemise lifter

Based on earlier shirt lifter, a chemise being a feminine style of shirt.

Maddy watched the chemise-lifter execute her caricatured saunter out of frame and back to her cell for the 8 a.m. lock-up.


bin juice

I almost gag as we pass a large plastic container stinking of stagnant bin juice and old cigarettes.

2000, Ray Banks, The Big Blind, Wildside Press, →ISBN, page 65:

As he moves to try and lift the lid, plastic sacks split underneath him, releasing further rancid stink and covering him in bin juice.

2011, Jonathan Trigell, Cham, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

'Would you rather eat toe jam or drink bin juice?' Aidan asked. 'Depends,' Jed said. 'Toe jam if it's only a day old, but bin juice if it's been sitting there a week.'

2020, Danielle Binks, The Year the Maps Changed, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(British, Australia, informal) Fetid liquid that has accumulated in a rubbish bin.


manslag

But too many boys are little manslags / The manslags tryna get the dick in my pants

2017 January 4, “Mashup Remix”, performed by Soph Aspin:

(UK, slang, derogatory) a promiscuous man; a manslut


sub-post office

sub-post office (plural sub-post offices)

(UK) A post office run by a self-employed subpostmaster on behalf of the central post office.


happy days

Imagine having five servants upstairs. Oh happy days.

2016, Mattie Turnbull, Days of Apprehension and Adventure, page 106:

The current Secretary of State likes to see statistics. We have lots of statistics. Happy days!

2023 June 28, Anthony Smith talks to Paul Clifton, “The industry has to go back to basics”, in RAIL, number 986, page 40:

(British, Ireland) An exclamation which expresses satisfaction.


slotch

slotches (plural)
sloatch (alternative)
slodge (alternative)
sloch (alternative)

Uncertain. Perhaps related to slouch and slug, ultimately from or related to Old Norse slókr (“lazy fellow”).

(UK, dialectal) An idle, slouching fellow; a slovenly, slipshod person.

(UK, dialectal) A greedy or sloppy eater; a glutton.


slotch

en-verb

slotch (third-person singular simple present slotches, present participle slotching, simple past and past participle slotched)

slotches (present singular third-person)
slotching (participle present)
slotched (participle past)
slotched (past)
sloatch (alternative)
slodge (alternative)
sloch (alternative)

(UK, dialectal, intransitive) To go about in a lazy, slovenly manner; to slouch, walk heavily, or be slipshod.

My shoes are slotching because they're too big.

(UK, dialectal, of shoes) To slip or flop due to being too large.

(UK, dialectal) To eat or drink greedily with a loud noise; to glut; to lap up; to drink to excess; get drunk.


greenyard

greenyards (plural)
green-yard (alternative)
green yard (alternative)

Enclosed by a high wall, the site included a greenyard for holding stray cattle, later used as a stoneyard, and there was also a stone-faced brick watch-box.

2008, “Rosebery Avenue”, in Philip Temple, editor, Northern Clerkenwell and Pentonville (Survey of London; 47), New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 125:

An enclosure covered with turf or grass.

(UK) A pound used for the reception of stray animals.


blacky-white

The captain, his face the color of a ripe tomato, leaned over the rail screaming insults at white men who married blacky-whites, the dishonesty of foreigners, and his opinion of the whole proceedings in general.

2015, Daniel P. Mannix, Peter Ryhiner, The Wildest Game, page 243:

Chee-chees, blacky-whites, half castes, Anglo-Indians. Midnight's orphans. The Brits hated us for giving human form to their rapacious colonial lust.

2021, Robyn Andrews, Merin Simi Raj, Anglo-Indian Identity, page 401:

(UK, obsolete, informal, offensive, ethnic slur) A Eurasian (person of mixed European and Asian ancestry).


dicky up

dicky up (third-person singular simple present dickies up, present participle dickying up, simple past and past participle dickied up)

dickies up (present singular third-person)
dickying up (participle present)
dickied up (participle past)
dickied up (past)

The way they dicky up the corpse in the fancy funeral parlours today, with cosmetics and other tricks of the trade, and dressed in the best clothes, one would think they were trying to tell you what Our Lord said about the little daughter of Jairus, 'She is not dead but sleeping.'

1998, Criostoir O'Flynn, There Is an Isle: A Limerick Boyhood, Boulder, C.O.: Mercier Press; Irish American Book Company, →ISBN, page 206:

I go to Edges. Pick up a tin of white outdoor paint. Last one in the shop. 'First Holy Communions,' the man says, by way of explanation. 'People dickying up their properties.'

2014, Ciara Geraghty, Now That I've Found You, London: Hodder, →ISBN, page 131:

(UK, Ireland, slang) To adorn, dress up, spruce up.


dickied up

en-adj

dickied up (comparative more dickied up, superlative most dickied up)

more dickied up (comparative)
most dickied up (superlative)

Anyhow, there we are, all sitting like stuffed ducks in the front seat—Una and Agnes and Rose and Mother and me—you know—and mother dickied up in her good black shawl and everything— […]

1964, Brian Friel, Philadelphia, Here I Come! (play), New York, N.Y.: The Noonday Press, published 1965, page 59:

Four cars turned off the main street and parked in the square in the last few minutes. Faces of misery on the people in them. Maybe they've all a funeral to go to. They were all dickied up to the nines, but no colour nor smiles.

2015, Donal Ryan, A Slanting of the Sun: Stories, Hanover, N.H.: Steerforth Press, →ISBN, page 153:

We are probably more comfortable in a recession, when we have less money to worry about getting all dickied up like a dog's dinner. (A friend in New York calls my look "rumpled street urchin". It's true. I have lost many a battle with a bargain bin.)

2016 September 27, Quentin Fottrell, “Why you should never judge a man in an ill-fitting cardigan”, in The Irish Times, Dublin: Irish Times Trust, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-08-08:

(UK, Ireland, slang) Dressed up, decked out.


grocery shop

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


that's me told

(British, informal) You sure told me! You sure showed me! (suggesting that the speaker is suitably chastened for their foolish error)


death by misadventure

en-noun

death by misadventure (countable and uncountable, plural deaths by misadventure)

(UK law) An accidental death not caused by any violation of law or criminal negligence, but by a risk taken voluntarily.

riskikäyttäytymisen aiheuttama tapaturmainen kuolema

śmierć na skutek nieszczęśliwego wypadku


Gatso

From the Gatso brand of speed cameras and red light cameras, widely used in the United Kingdom.


Gatso

en-verb

Gatso (third-person singular simple present Gatsos, present participle Gatsoing, simple past and past participle Gatsoed or Gatso'd)

Gatsos (present singular third-person)
Gatsoing (participle present)
Gatsoed (participle past)
Gatsoed (past)
Gatso'd (participle past)
Gatso'd (past)

Hmm, sounds like a plan we should recommend to the next idiots who come along moaning about how unfair it is they've been Gatso'ed, to go speeding back past the camera in the opposite direction.

2001 November 10, Lordy, “Re: Gatso Cameras”, in uk.rec.driving (Usenet):

(transitive, UK, informal) To fine (a driver) for exceeding the speed limit with the help of a speed camera.


deffos

A quick peep out of the window confirmed I was not in Clerkenwell. 'Dead sure about it. I can see the sea and everything. Deffos in Hawaii.'

2013, Lindsey Kelk, About a Girl, Rearsby, Leicester: W F Howes Ltd, →ISBN, page 124:

"Lay off, Jass. Can't we just forget it and have a good night?" Jass looked like she was going to protest but decided against it, and broke into a wide smile. "Deffos. Come on, more cocktails are needed!"

2014, Holly Bourne, The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting, London: Usborne, →ISBN, page 214:

A fourth wrote: 'Loving 90s week on sewing bee tonight. Deffos my favourite decade. I was more grunge than Spice Girls.'

2023 July 6, Harriet Johnston, “Viewers of the Great British Sewing Bee left stunned as contestant makes a revelation about her age”, in Daily Mail, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-08:


unshired

The young giant, Hugh Maguire, may have been to the Castle to complain of Miler’s hounds, for he had already written a complaint of such doings on the part of that mighty southern pluralist, who went about in armour like a man of war, and had his life-guard like the chief of an unshired country.

1897, Standish O’Grady, The Flight of the Eagle, pages 82–3:

Connacht, and Ulster apart from the two ancient counties, were still unshired, still outside the normal action of the Dublin administration.

1940, T. W. Moody, “The Irish Parliament under Elizabeth and James I: A General Survey”, in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, volume 45, →JSTOR, page 44:

The last years of Rufus’s reign were critical in the assertion of Anglo-Norman, and specifically royal, control over the unshired area of what we know as England north of the Ribble in the west and the Tees in the east.

2000, R. R. Davies, The First English Empire: Power and Identities in the British Isles, 1093–1343, →ISBN, page 5:

(UK, Ireland) Not shired, not constituted into counties; (by extension) ungoverned.


mini skip

mini skips (plural)
mini-skip (alternative)
miniskip (alternative)

(UK) A small-sized waste container, which can be hired for waste disposal when a standard-size skip is too large.


longful

en-adj

longful (comparative more longful, superlative most longful)

more longful (comparative)
most longful (superlative)

a longful time

(UK, dialect, archaic) Long (in duration).


twopenny rope

(UK, slang, obsolete) A rope stretched out in a low doss-house in order to suspend a kind of hammock of sacking on which a person can sleep.


Slasher

(UK, military, historical, slang) A member of the 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot.


sporting door

(UK, slang, obsolete) The outer (lockable) door of a set of rooms in a college or similar institution.


stem ginger

(UK) A form of confectionery consisting of a ginger root cooked in sugar until soft.


wheeltapping

(UK, rail transport, historical) The work of a wheeltapper, tapping a train's wheels with a hammer to detect cracks.


delivery van

As the train approached Welshpool on the return journey, an unexpected incident was provided by a baker's delivery van, which had been drawn up across the track. Some skilful manoeuvring of the vehicle was necessary before the train could pass.

1949 November and December, “Note and News: By Special Train to Llanfair”, in Railway Magazine, page 410:

(British) An enclosed commercial vehicle used for deliveries to businesses and homes.


class A

Finally! If only you'd been supplying the people of Margate with arabica beans instead of dodgy class As.

2024 January 21, Jack Rooke, “Tennis Table Tennis”, in Jim Archer, director, Big Boys, season 2, episode 3, spoken by Danny (Jon Pointing):

(UK, slang) Any illicit drug (e.g. cocaine, heroin) categorised as “class A” under the United Kingdom's Misuse of Drugs Act (1971).


monster meeting

en-noun

monster meeting (plural monster meetings)

Monster meetings were held throughout the country, at which O’Connell addressed vast multitudes, stimulating exertion, inspiring enthusiasm, kindling hope.

1896, “The Repeal Movement”, in Richard Barry O’Brien, editor, Ireland, page 310:

The Monster meetings were signally characterised by an utter absence of both drink and disorder.

1921, Seumas MacManus, The Story of the Irish Race: A Popular History of Ireland, page 580:

They summoned for 10 April 1848 a monster meeting which should march from Kennington Common to the House of Commons and present a petition said to contain five million signatures.

1966, Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, volume 1, page 350:

(UK, Ireland, archaic or historical) A mass public demonstration, especially one of those held in Ireland in 1843–45 demanding the repeal of the union with Great Britain.


high juice

high juice (usually uncountable, plural high juices)

(UK, uncommon) Synonym of squash (“a soft drink made from a fruit-based concentrate diluted with water”).


KRs

(UK, military) Abbreviation of King's Regulations.


give your head a wobble

Give your head a wobble, Zoë, I told myself. You can't go around being broken-hearted because your heart isn't broken any more. That would be off-the-scale ridiculous.

(UK, colloquial) Think again; an admonition to somebody who is behaving badly or saying something unacceptable.


let's have it

(UK, colloquial) Tell what you have to say.

(UK, colloquial) An invitation to fight.


get in the sea

I pushed it away – I'd often muttered, 'Oh, get in the sea,' to myself in annoyance at him, but that was definitely not what I'd meant.

2023, Sophie Ranald, Not in a Million Years:

don't let the door hit you on the way out

Entries in :Category:English dismissals.

(UK, colloquial, dismissal) Used to tell somebody to go away or express contempt.


mock examination

mock examination (plural mock examinations)

(chiefly UK, education) An examination, where the marks may or may not count, which serves chiefly as practice for future exams or so that the teachers are able to set a grade before the end of the term.


bluft

en-verb

bluft (third-person singular simple present blufts, present participle blufting, simple past and past participle blufted)

blufts (present singular third-person)
blufting (participle present)
blufted (participle past)
blufted (past)

(UK, dialect, transitive, obsolete) To blindfold.


warm space

(UK) A place that members of the public can visit free of charge for warmth, companionship, and possibly food, established in response to the 2021–present United Kingdom cost-of-living crisis.


oftens

(UK, regional, archaic) Synonym of often.


offence to be taken into consideration

en-noun

offence to be taken into consideration (plural offences to be taken into consideration)

offences to be taken into consideration (plural)
offence taken into consideration (alternative)
TIC (alternative)

From offence + to be + taken into consideration.

com

(UK, criminal law, law enforcement) An additional criminal offence which a defendant agrees to admit to following their conviction, which is formally taken into account when they are sentenced, but with a lesser weight than a full conviction.


OCG

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of organised crime group.


AFO

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of authorised firearms officer.


neither use nor ornament

en-adj

neither use nor ornament (not comparable)

Implying that the subject has neither practical nor aesthetic value.

Where is that lad? He's neither use nor ornament!

(UK, colloquial, euphemistic, chiefly of a person) Useless.


Normal Island

The phrase ‘normal island’ has lately become a staple of UK social media discourse; it marks a weary dissent from the sometimes comically jingoist and authoritarian tendencies that animate so much public debate in contemporary Britain.

[2021 November 25, Des Fitzgerald, “Normal Island: COVID-19, Border Control, and Viral Nationalism in UK Public Health Discourse”, in Sociological Research Online, volume 28, number 2, →DOI:

2021 December 8, Ruby Lott-Lavigna, “Normal Island: UK Loses It Over ‘Illegal’ Christmas Party at Boris Johnson’s House”, in Vice

“Just another normal day here on Normal Island,” people observe, nodding at the respectful closure of Legoland or the mournfully closed cycle racks in Norwich.

2022 September 15, Marc Burrows, “For those of us who are neither monarchists nor republicans, this is the strangest time”, in New Statesman:

As the publication explained, the £100million spent on the coronation could’ve paid for a £38,000 donation to every single food bank in the UK. / Another day on normal island.

2023 May 6, Dayna McAlpine, “Yup, A Gold Carriage In A Cost Of Living Crisis Is A Different Level Of Bad Taste”, in HuffPost UK:

(UK Internet slang, derogatory, ironic) Great Britain.


boffinism

(British, informal) Synonym of boffinry.


Gaychester

(UK, informal, historical) The gay (homosexual) subculture of Manchester, England, around the early 1990s.


picky bits

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

As your baby gets better at feeding himself, you can introduce a daily meal of “picky bits” – for example, mini sandwiches, pitta breads, or toast soldiers with cheese; veggie sticks with humus; chunks of cheese or finely grated cheese; […]

2012, DK, The Day-by-Day Baby Book (page 340)

It doesn't have to be a fancy three-course meal. Picky bits like tapas are just as good.

2018, Gemma Collins, The GC: How to Be a Diva:

She couldn't imagine Valentina rolling out the Tupperware in a heatwave, shaking out a blanket and declaring it an evening meal of picky bits.

(UK, colloquial) Miscellaneous snack foods served together.


picky tea

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

My granda would make everything from scratch and it was a wonderful feast of a picky tea. His potatoes deep-fried in batter were amazing.

2017, Sarah Millican, How to be Champion:

I scoff these as a mid-afternoon snack, as part of a 'picky tea' or even just because. Cheese and onion is an iconic flavour combination across the world, mainly because of crisps, but they are just so good together!

2023, Jane Dunn, Jane’s Patisserie Everyday:

(UK, colloquial) A meal of miscellaneous snack foods served together.


clippy

2021, Roy "Chubby" Brown, George Proudman, Chubby Laid Bare
[…] but someone must have recognised me 'cos the police came round, saying that I'd attacked the clippy on the bus.

(British, slang) Alternative form of clippie (“bus conductor”).


throw an ant into a sty

en-verb

throw an ant into a sty (third-person singular simple present throws an ant into a sty, present participle throwing an ant into a sty, simple past threw an ant into a sty, past participle thrown an ant into a sty)

throws an ant into a sty (present singular third-person)
throwing an ant into a sty (participle present)
threw an ant into a sty (past)
thrown an ant into a sty (participle past)

(idiomatic, colloquial, UK) To cause confusion.


knob rot

galloping knob rot

a rapidly progressing or uncontrollable sexually transmitted disease

The Raff's getting like the boy scouts. The old regulars, they didn't think you were properly in until you'd gone down with galloping knob rot […]

1966, Gordon M. Williams, chapter 2, in The Camp, London: Mayflower, page 23:

You've been under attack for days, there's a soldier down, he's wounded, gangrene's setting in. "Who's used all the penicillin?" "Oh, Mark Paxton, sir. He's got knob rot off some tart."

2001 August 13, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, “New Girl” (22:51 from the start), in The Office, season 1, episode 5 (television production), spoken by Gareth Keenan (Mackenzie Crook), BBC:

Liam O'Grady removed (unconscious) from church for failing to forever hold his peace, and instead brandishing note from sexual health walk-in clinic declaring he is now knob-rot free and begging Thin Kylie to take him back […]

2014, Joanna Nadin, The Time of My Life (The Rachel Riley Diaries), Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 320:

sexually transmitted disease
sexually transmitted disease

(British, vulgar slang) A sexually transmitted disease (when contracted by a man).


double appointment

en-noun

double appointment (plural double appointments)

It would help if patients who know they have a difficult problem could book a double appointment, […]

1998 March 4, [anonymous], “In the surgery: cutting down on those waiting times”, in The Burton Mail, page 8:

“Because I have to get multiple prescriptions, it’s often a double appointment, which is $160,” [Kathy Barr] said. About $80 of that is refunded via Medicare.

2022 August 13, Clay Lucas, “Vulnerable patients asked to cough up as more GPs shun bulk billing”, in Brisbane Times, retrieved 2023-08-30:

general practitioner
general practitioner

(healthcare, British, Australia, New Zealand) An appointment with a GP (general practitioner) which is allocated twice much time as usual.


graps

en-verb

graps (third-person singular simple present grapses, present participle grapsing, simple past and past participle grapsed)

grapses (present singular third-person)
grapsing (participle present)
grapsed (participle past)
grapsed (past)

From Middle English grapsen, re-unmetathesised version of graspen (“to grasp”), from Old English *grǣpsian.
Compare to its equally unmetathesised cognates German Low German grapsen (“to grab; grasp”), German grapsen, Saterland Frisian Grapse (“double handful”).

cog

(chiefly African-American Vernacular and UK, dialectal) Alternative form of grasp.


cheers my dears

'Cheers, my dears,' chuckles Dottie, raising a glass and chinking it against ours.

2021, Erin Green, From Shetland, With Love:

(UK, informal) Alternative form of cheers (“toast to drinking”).


corey

coreys (plural)
cory (alternative)
kory (alternative)

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

Borrowed from Angloromani kor, kori, korri, kuri (“penis”), from Romani kar (“penis”), from Prakrit *𑀓𑀸𑀝 (*kāṭa, “stick, penis”).

She always gets the numbers right, she's got me into maths / I'd take away her pants and add my corey to her gash

2004, Kunt and the Gang, “Carol Vorderman”, in I Have a Little Wank and I Have a Little Cry:

'Georgie knows what she's doin', Nan. She says she only lets Ryan touch her titties and she's not gonna touch his cory until he marries her.'

2011, Kimberley Chambers, The Victim, Random House, →ISBN, page 317:

"He’s a good looking chappy ain’t he?" said Fury, before asking Ngannou, "Have you got a big corey?" ¶ Corey of course is British slang for the male genitalia, which left the Cameroonian baffled.

2022 April 24, Michael Benson, “Tyson Fury does joint interview with Francis Ngannou after Dillian Whyte KO as pair tease hybrid fight and Fury baffles UFC heavyweight champion with question about the size of his manhood”, in Talksport:


short drop

(UK, historical) A technique for execution by hanging, according to which the condemned stands on a raised support such as a stool or ladder, with the noose around the neck, and the support is then moved away.


baity

en-adj

baity (comparative baitier, superlative baitiest)

baitier (comparative)
baitiest (superlative)
batey (alternative)

“Oh, sir—uncle is such a batey old chap. It was a spree! I never saw him so mad!”

1907 August 17, The Rev. A. N. Malan, “The Mystery of Abbeyside School”, in The Boy's Own Paper, volume XXIX, number 1492, London: Religious Tract Society, page 4:

‘If Jimbug gets baity with me, like that time last week . . .’ Remembering the scene, Anthony frowned; the blood came up into his cheeks.

1936, Aldous Huxley, Eyeless in Gaza, London: Chatto & Windus, page 55:

Blackadder: Baldrick, where's the manuscript? / Baldrick: You mean the big papery thing tied up with string? / Blackadder: Yes, Baldrick, the manuscript belonging to Dr Johnson. / Baldrick: You mean the baity fellow in the black coat who just left?

1987 September 24, Richard Curtis, Ben Elton, “Ink and Incapability” (11:46 from the start), in Mandie Fletcher, director, Blackadder the Third (television production), via BBC1:

I welcome the offer made by the noble and learned Lord to discuss and to negotiate. If only he had done that at the beginning of November when I talked to him about the number of days that we should sit; but the noble and learned Lord got batey with me when I suggested that we should negotiate.

2011 January 18, Lord Strathclyde (Leader of the House of Lords), “Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill”, in parliamentary debates (House of Lords), column 314:

(British, dated, slang) Angry, bad-tempered.


LSOA

(UK, census) Initialism of lower super output area.


output area

(UK) The smallest unit for which UK census data are published.

tilastoalue

smallest unit for which census data is published


MSOA

(UK, census) Initialism of middle super output area.


USOA

(UK, census) Initialism of upper super output area.


HMPS

(UK, law enforcement) Abbreviation of His/Her Majesty's Prison Service.


EUSS

European Union Settlement Scheme
w:European Union Settlement Scheme

(UK, immigration) Initialism of European Union Settlement Scheme.


how are you diddling

Popularised by comedian Ken Dodd (1927–2018).

Repeats many sentences and hundreds of words, including the following: […] “Hello, are you working? How are you diddling?”

1905 October 21, “King of wild beast merchants, Cross, Liverpool. Wonderful talking grey parrot”, in The Illustrated London News, volume 127, number 347, page 588:

Hello old 'un, how you diddling?

1983 December 25, John Sullivan, “Thicker than Water” (2:52 from the start), in Only Fools and Horses (television production), spoken by Reg Trotter (Peter Woodthorpe), via BBC1:

Yo yo yo. How are you diddling then? And wasn't Zoe fantastic this morning?

2019 January 14, Sara Cox, Sara Cox (radio broadcast), via BBC Radio 2:

(UK, colloquial, humorous, dated) How are you doing?


banjo string

My banjo string snapped the other day, there was blood everywhere!

1994 November 9, K.J. DREA, “Banjo string snapped!”, in alt.banjo (Usenet):

Tell someone you've cut your frenulum and the chances are you'll get a blank look. But if you mention - to a man at least - that you've snapped your banjo string, he'll wince in sympathy.

2002 February 28, Jonathan Cope, “Ouch!”, in The Guardian:

And also, can please nobody mention that I snapped a man's banjo string whilst making love to him on a table, which resulted in him being deported?

2016 March 28, Tony Roche, 13:20 from the start, in Fresh Meat, season 4, episode 6 (television production), spoken by Melissa "Oregon" Shawcross (Charlotte Ritchie), Channel 4:

(British, vulgar, slang) The frenulum of the penis.


blackstuff

From black + stuff, popularized by the 1982 BBC television series Boys from the Blackstuff.

I continue my climb along the road that once was dirt and pebbles but now is freshly paved with blackstuff.

2013, Lisa Selvidge, Summer Times in the Algarve, page 130:


woman and girl

I’ve lived here forty years, woman and girl.

(British) During one's womanhood and girlhood; since one's childhood; all one's life.


Lord High Chancellor

(politics, UK) The official title of the Lord Chancellor.


wog box

wog boxes (plural)
wog-box (alternative)
wogbox (alternative)

From the stereotypical association of such stereos with black and South Asian people.

‘I was spoken to by an officer ... in a totally racist way. When locking me in my cell she said to me “Don't turn up that ‘wog box’ too loud.” […]

1997, Biko Agozino, Black Women and the Criminal Justice System, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, page 133:

Yeah, I don't normally go there. They've always got that wog box on.

2004 November 19, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, “Jeremy Makes It”, in Peep Show, season 2, episode 2 (television production), spoken by Mark Corrigan (David Mitchell), Channel 4:

Don't you think that wog-box of yours causes enough aggravation already?

2009, Michael Arditti, The Enemy of the Good, London: Arcadia Books, →ISBN, page 289:

(British, slang, offensive, ethnic slur) A large portable stereo system; a boom box.


LFS

en-noun

LFS (countable and uncountable, plural LFSs)

Labour Force Survey
w:Labour Force Survey

(UK, countable) Initialism of Labour Force Survey.


MACA

Military aid to the civil authorities
w:Military aid to the civil authorities

(UK) Acronym of Military aid to the civil authorities.


go on holiday

en-verb

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

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

(UK) To experience a period of time away from home, school, or business in order to relax or travel.


strat shag

From strat (“strategic”) + shag (“act of sex”).

com

(UK, slang, dated) An act of sex intended to advance one's own personal aims.


CDWM

There is something distinctly British about CDWM. There was a running joke that you could have predicted how Britain was going to vote in the EU referendum by watching old episodes of the show.

2020 May 27, Kieran Yates, “Fifteen years of TV dinners: why Come Dine With Me has endured”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, television) Initialism of Come Dine with Me, a British reality show where participants have to score the experience of eating at each others' houses.


enforcement agent

en-noun

enforcement agent (plural enforcement agents)

The enforcement agents in Spice’s case are from a large corporation called CDER. A number of days after I write, a company director responds, pointing out that the necessary regulations have been observed. Looking over the letters, the debt-advice charity StepChange confirms they are right. Yet the regulations are almost nonexistent, making such minimal demands of bailiffs such as not knocking on your door in the middle of the night – or not entering a house if there’s only a child present.

2023 August 17, Aditya Chakrabortty, “Can’t pay and they really do take it away: what happens when the bailiffs come knocking”, in The Guardian:


SLT

SLT (countable and uncountable, plural SLTs)

(UK, education) Initialism of senior leadership team.

(UK, healthcare) Initialism of speech and language therapy.

(UK, healthcare) Initialism of speech and language therapist.


Chich

a night out in Chich


dodgy box

Either dodgy (“[legally] dubious”) + box (“device”) or dodge (“avoid [paying]”) + -y + box, playing on Digibox.

com

Almost one in five Irish cable television customers has an illegal decoder to unscramble channels that they are not paying for, according to industry estimates.

2009 January 18, Jan Battles, “One in five cable customers has a ‘dodgy box’”, in The Sunday Times, Dublin:

Earlier this week, eBay announced it was removing pre-loaded dodgy boxes, meaning those with Kodi Android software already on them.

2017 April 26, Gordon Hunt, “Are dodgy boxes illegal? The EU has its say”, in Silicon Republic, Dublin:

The Untouchables showed up on our dodgy box during the week, right on that scene where Al Capone is attending a performance of the opera Pagliacci.

2017 June 30, Ian O'Riordan, “Pat Hickey interview avoids the hard questions”, in The Irish Times, Dublin, page 6 Sports:

I paid for Via play to ensure I got a quality reliable stream and the stream on Amazon is awful. I'm getting a better stream on my dodgy box.

2023 April 30, hail_hail, Kerrydale Street:

(UK, Ireland, informal) A device providing unauthorized access to encrypted television or streaming services.


anaunters

From an + aunters or alteration of in aunters, likely influenced by Old English an (“on”).


mingebag

(UK, derogatory, slang, chiefly Scotland, Northern England) A jerk; a mean or obnoxious person; a miser.


pinner-up

(UK, slang, obsolete) A seller of old songs, pinned against a wall or framed canvas.


real jam

That's the real jam!

It's real jam, that little pictur his . I wouldn't mind springin' the price to a century. There! Shall I send my boy round to tell him so?

George Augustus Sala, The Story of Jack the Painter, in 1863, Tales and Essays (volume 3, page 10)

It was real jam to see little NORRIS, who was out for the first time, in a horrid state about his four greys.

(UK, slang) Anything exceptionally good.


Gar and Starter

(UK, slang, obsolete, historical) The Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond, London.


Parliamentary Secretary

en-noun

Parliamentary Secretary (plural Parliamentary Secretaries)

Minister of the Crown
Minister of the Crown

(British) a Member of Parliament appointed, usually as a junior minister, to assist a Minister of the Crown with departmental responsibilities


DERA

w:Defence Evaluation and Research Agency

(UK, historical, 1995–2001) Initialism of Defence Evaluation and Research Agency.


cane it

en-verb

cane it (third-person singular simple present canes it, present participle caning it, simple past and past participle caned it)

canes it (present singular third-person)
caning it (participle present)
caned it (participle past)
caned it (past)

Near-synonyms: hoon it (UK), hoon


hoon it

hoon it (third-person singular simple present hoons it, present participle hooning it, simple past and past participle hooned it)

hoons it (present singular third-person)
hooning it (participle present)
hooned it (participle past)
hooned it (past)

(UK, slang) To drive very fast or recklessly.


Mid Beds

Labour seizes Tamworth and Mid-Beds from Conservatives in UK by-elections

(UK, informal) Mid Bedfordshire (an electoral district in Bedfordshire, England).


willy warmer

willy warmers (plural)
willie warmer (alternative)
willie-warmer (alternative)
willy-warmer (alternative)

It was beautifully knitted, a long thin stocking with a little drawstring at the end. […] ‘It’s a Willy Warmer . . . for them long winter nights.’

1980, Brian Shakespeare, Fox: Part One, London: New English Library, page 25:

The kind of sex Ann Summers sells is of the nudge-nudge, wink-wink, oom-pah-pah variety – all Babylove Crotchless Briefs in pink and black lace, or the sheep willy-warmer that bleats hopefully.

2002 November 16, John Stoddart, “Business Before Pleasure”, in The Times, page 17:

My first spot in the show involved a monologue on the trials and tribulations of being the parent of a misunderstood flasher and I stood at the microphone, knitting a long woollen willy warmer as I spoke.

2008, Julie Walters, That's Another Story: The Autobiography, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, →ISBN, page 171:

(British, slang) A woollen novelty garment designed to cover the penis.


SIAC

w:Special Immigration Appeals Commission

(UK) Initialism of Special Immigration Appeals Commission.


back-class

back-class (third-person singular simple present back-classes, present participle back-classing, simple past and past participle back-classed)

back-classes (present singular third-person)
back-classing (participle present)
back-classed (participle past)
back-classed (past)

(UK, military) To retake a failed part of training.


mark someone's card

mark someone's card (third-person singular simple present marks someone's card, present participle marking someone's card, simple past and past participle marked someone's card)

marks someone's card (present singular third-person)
marking someone's card (participle present)
marked someone's card (participle past)
marked someone's card (past)

(UK, idiomatic) To forcefully correct someone's behaviour.


infanteering

(UK, Canada, military) The role of being an infantry soldier.


jump the dock

jump the dock (third-person singular simple present jumps the dock, present participle jumping the dock, simple past and past participle jumped the dock)

jumps the dock (present singular third-person)
jumping the dock (participle present)
jumped the dock (participle past)
jumped the dock (past)

From jump (“flee”) + the + dock (“place in the courtroom where the accused sits”).

com

(UK, slang) To escape from custody during a court sitting.


ask back

en-verb

ask back (third-person singular simple present asks back, present participle asking back, simple past and past participle asked back)

asks back (present singular third-person)
asking back (participle present)
asked back (participle past)
asked back (past)

(transitive, chiefly UK) To offer someone to get back to one's house after a date.


dog egg

dog eggs (plural)
dog-egg (alternative)
dog's egg (alternative)

Probably popularised by the magazine Viz and its spin-off Roger's Profanisaurus books. Compare the Australian slang barker's egg, attested earlier.

For the first time a musical collector ‘dog’s egg’ created in the opulent Faberge tradition, capturing magnificently the magic of a fouled footpath.

1997 October–November, “The Legendary Faberge Musical Dog’s Egg”, in Viz, number 86, page 2:

Terry was essentially stripped of the armband for boinking Wayne Bridge’s ex, and having a family of roughnecks who were as attractive to tabloid front pages as a nice, fat dog-egg is to a swarm of bluebottles.

2011 March 15, Dan Jones, “Time to forgive and end all this moral hypocrisy”, in Evening Standard, page 59:

I had chosen to attend the British comedy awards which, once attended, could not be unattended, like the worm-ridden dog egg in the infant school playground which, once seen, cannot be unseen.

2014 December 21, Stewart Lee, “I’ve had it with comedy awards – and so has my bounty hunter alter ego”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-08-18:


ibr

I’m not talkin about attackin threat lol the question was skillful and ibr, Marcelo skill wise, could do more

(Internet slang, text messaging, chiefly UK) Initialism of I'll be real.


spy cop

(UK, law enforcement, slang) An undercover police officer tasked with infiltrating a politically active group which is deemed to pose a risk of criminal activity, so as to allow the police to monitor the group's activities on an ongoing basis.


gypo

Talk to almost any European today—that is, an accepted European. “Those bloody gypos,” says an Englishman. “Filthy, lazy beggars and thieves,” says a Belgian. “Kidnappers,” says a Frenchman. Even according to some gypsiologists, the Roma are not essentially a nomadic or “wandering” people; […]

"[…] that you're closing down a logging operation, when you look out there in the woods and there's gypos running around like pissants on a honey tree, that there's no logging out there. Let's move these people. In fact, if these people have got to become gypsies of the industry and move around and log because you shut their jobs off and they've got to go to work for Brand X Logging, then at least let us contract and do it for a major employer where our seniority and our benefits are still intact."

1983, Proceedings of the Forty-First Annual Convention of the Western Council of Lumber, Production and Industrial Workers, page 75:

Sure enough the Scots and the gypsies had introduced each other and it looked like me and Paul had a riot on our hands. Johnny, the other lad, had to stay on the door, as is standard practice. There was a ruck of about twenty blokes punching and kicking seven bags of shit out of each other, so me and Paul got amongst it as best we could. I pulled the gypos back, sovereign rings and all, while Paul weighed into the kilt-wearing warriors.

2003, Julian Davies, Terry Currie, quoting Steve Wraith, Bouncers: Their Lives in Their Own Words, Milo Books, →ISBN:

Some people live in caravans all the time, I say to Ronnie. / Yeah, the gypos, he says. / When they knocked all the old houses down on Kates Hill the gypsies came and lived there. […] Some people doh think the same as us. Some people am different to us. Don’t worry about it. / Like the gypos? / Don’t you dare say gypos! I doh want to hear you saying that word! […] You can call them gypsies. I don’t want you repeating what you hear other people say. / She says this all the time. / Actually, I have heard my dad call them gypos when he was washing the car, talking to a neighbour of ours called Mick, but I think I’d better not mention it.

2012, Anthony Cartwright, How I Killed Margaret Thatcher, Tindal Street Press, →ISBN:

“[…]And any fucking gypo, foreigner, anyone, just kill them,” said the voice.

2023 November 26, Rory Carroll, Lisa O'Carroll, “‘Remember who we are’: riots, race, and the end of the ‘Irish welcome’”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

(UK, slang, offensive) Alternative spelling of gippo.


pretty police

(UK, law enforcement, slang, historical) Male police officers disguised as gay men who instigated sexual encounters with gay men as an excuse to arrest them for soliciting sex.


coriander seed

(UK, Ireland) A dried fruit of the coriander plant, used as a spice.


silly sausage

(UK) Term of affection, used when someone has made a minor mistake.


dappy

en-adj

dappy (comparative dappier, superlative dappiest)

dappier (comparative)
dappiest (superlative)


productionalise

en-verb

productionalise (third-person singular simple present productionalises, present participle productionalising, simple past and past participle productionalised)

productionalises (present singular third-person)
productionalising (participle present)
productionalised (participle past)
productionalised (past)

(British) Alternative spelling of productionize.


productionalisation

(British) Alternative spelling of productionization.