form

form (countable and uncountable, plural forms)

→ Korean: 폼 (pom)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: form

From Middle English forme (“shape, figure, manner, bench, frame, seat, condition, agreement, etc.”), borrowed from Old French forme, from Latin fōrma (“shape, figure, image, outline, plan, mold, frame, case, etc., manner, sort, kind, etc.”).
In sense "division grouping school students" (now dated), derived from public school nomenclature later adopted by state schools. It is sometimes said to be from the sense of "bench", where students of certain ages would sit together, though this is disputed, or alternatively from the sense of "established method of expression or practice".

der

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

It's fair to say she has form on this: she has criticised David Cameron's proposal to create all-women shortlists for prospective MPs, tried to ban women wearing high heels at work as the resulting pain made them take time off work, and tried to reduce the point at which an abortion can take place from 24 to 21 weeks.

2011 May 4, Jane Martinson, The Guardian:

As for the notion that it’s not how Sunak would have won, that doesn’t mean a whole lot coming from a guy whose recent form includes losing to Liz Truss.

2023 July 4, Marina Hyde, “Who’s for political Bazball with Rishi? Voters? Tories? Anyone?”, in The Guardian:

(social) To do with structure or procedure.

(UK) Past history (in a given area); a habit of doing something.

(UK, education) A class or year of school pupils.

To do with structure or procedure.
A class or year of school pupils.

Nathaniel: Maister, there is nobody to teach in the sixth form.
Maister: What a thing is this?
N: He is sick in bed.
M: How do you know?
N: One of the scholars in his house told me so.

1653, Corderius, Colloquia scholastica Anglo-Latina, […] 1653, page 220:

I am a very weak, insufficient scholar, sitting on the lowest form in Thy great school-house, which is the whole world, and trying to spell out the mere letters of Thy alphabet […]

1880, Charles Kingsley, Out of the Deep: Words for the Sorrowful, London: Macmillan & Co., page 190:

One other day after afternoon school, Mr. Percival came behind me and put his hand on me. "Let me see, what's your name? Which form are you in?[…]"

1928, George Bickerstaff, The mayor, and other folk:

From the sixth form will come the scholars and the administrators.

1976, Ronald King, School and college: studies of post-sixteen education:

(UK, education, dated) A numbered division grouping school students (usually every two years) in education between Years 1 and 13 (often preceded by an ordinal number to specify the form, as in sixth form).


potato

en-noun

potato (countable and uncountable, plural potatoes)

potatoes (plural)
potatoe (alternative obsolete)
p'tater (alternative dialectal informal)
tater (alternative dialectal informal)

Borrowed from Spanish patata, itself borrowed from Taíno batata (“sweet potato”).

(informal, UK) A conspicuous hole in a sock or stocking.


thong

From Middle English thong, thwong, thwang, from Old English þwong, þwang (“thong, band, strap, cord, strip of leather; phylactery”), from Proto-West Germanic *þwangi, from Proto-Germanic *þwangiz, *þwanguz (“coercion, constraint, band, clamp, strap”), from Proto-Indo-European *twenk- (“to squeeze, press, pressure”). Cognate with Scots thwang, thwayng, thang (“thong”), Middle Low German dwenge (“clamp, jaws, steel-trap”), German Zwinge (“vise, clamp”), Danish tvinge (“clamp”), dialectal Norwegian tveng (“shoestrap, shoelace”), Icelandic þvengur (“strap, thong, latchet”).

cog

She was impressed by her friend's confidence to wear a thong on the crowded beach.

(UK, US) An item of clothing, usually an undergarment or swimwear consisting of very narrow strips designed to cover just the genitals and nothing more.


flip-flop

flip-flops (plural)
flip flop (alternative)
flipflop (alternative)

→ Japanese: フリップフロップ (furippu-furoppu)

Onomatopoeic. Most probably an imitation of the sound produced when walking in them.

the necessity for yet another place at which to buy a polo shirt or a pair of flip-flops may not be apparent to the town's residents

30 August 2004, The New Yorker,, page 38

(US, UK, Fiji) A sandal consisting of a rubber sole fastened to the foot by a rubber thong fitting between the toes and around the sides of the foot.


GCSE

You need GCSEs in Maths and English to work here.

General Certificate of Secondary Education#English

(UK, education) Initialism of General Certificate of Secondary Education: a British qualification taken by secondary school students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.


AS

(education, UK, historical) Initialism of Advanced Supplementary.

AS-level

Advanced Subsidiary
w:Advanced Subsidiary

(education, UK) Initialism of Advanced Subsidiary.


course

→ Gulf Arabic: كورس (kōrs)

From Middle English cours, from Old French cours, from Latin cursus (“course of a race”), from currō (“run”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”). Doublet of cursus and cour.

polku

path that something or someone moves along

the course of true love never did run smooth

What's your course in university?
—Business studies. And you?

During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant[…]

1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond:

(UK, Ireland, Philippines) an educational programme at a college or university leading to an academic degree or vocational qualification.


lite

From Middle English lit, lut (“little”), from Old English lȳt.


lite

en-adj

lite (comparative liter, superlative litest)

liter (comparative)
litest (superlative)


lite

en-verb

lite (third-person singular simple present lites, present participle liting, simple past and past participle lited)

lites (present singular third-person)
liting (participle present)
lited (participle past)
lited (past)

From Middle English liten, from Old Norse hlíta (“to rely on, trust, abide by”). Cognate with Icelandic hlíta (“to comply”), Swedish lita (“to trust, rely on, depend on, confide in”), Danish lide (“to trust”).


lite

(British, dialect) The act of waiting; a wait.


shan't

shalln't (alternative)
sha'n't (alternative)

From shall + -n't; contraction of shalln't or shall not, historically via shannot.

I shan't be coming back after the way you've treated me today.

That's not a threat, sir, for they have played fair with me, and I sha'n't sacrifice a penny of their money—unless they force me to do so. But—I'm in control. I'm sitting pretty. They can't unseat me, and I warn them not to try.

1922, Rex [Ellingwood] Beach, “chapter XXIV”, in Flowing Gold, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, by arrangement with Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 290:

(UK, Ireland, colloquial; archaic in US, Canada; dated in Australia, New Zealand) Contraction of shall not (negative auxiliary).


oughtn't

We ought to wake dad, oughtn't we?

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) (US, Philippines, dated, rare) ought not (negative auxiliary).


mightn't

Her driver was new to the country; he mightn't be prepared for the leaping of the yellow water down dry arroyos, swift as the pouncings of a cat, or the snake-like slidings of tons of loosened rock and clay from the steep potreros […]

1931, Mary Hunter Austin, Starry Adventure, page 274:

“But, mightn’t there have been something unusual about the Stimatis contract itself?” [Perry Mason cross-examining Roger Correll.]

1963, Perry Mason, The Case of the Greek Goddess (Television Season 6, Episode 25)

"But at night she would still think the same thing: mightn't it be that he wouldn't come to see her anymore?"

1974, Mario Vargas Llosa, Conversation in the Cathedral: A Novel, Harper & Row (First Rayo Edition, 2005), page 275

(British) might not (negative auxiliary)


needn't

I needn’t have washed the car: shortly after it started raining.

I've worked many's the time to make up for the wages he's squandered, and I need a drop to keep up my strength. Take it good and leave it good, that's what I do; and if Jem did the same, he'd be welcome to it for all I should say to him, and he needn't sign no more than me. The [temperance] pledge is a very good thing for them as can't manage theirselves, and its kind in you, Mr. Watts, to come round and talk to the people, and get the drunkards to leave off the drink; but, bless you, I needn't sign.

1871 April 1, M. A. Paull, “‘I Needn’t Sign.’ (A Story for Wives, Founded on Fact.)”, in The Western Temperance Herald: The Official Organ of the Western Temperance League, volume XXXV, number 4, London: Houlston & Sons, 65, Paternoster Row; Yeovil: Clinker & Tite, →OCLC, page 54:

‘Oh no,’ said the boy casually. ‘I won’t think much about them, mother. You needn’t worry. I wouldn’t worry, mother, if I were you.’ / ‘If you were me and I were you’, said his mother, ‘I wonder what we should do!’ / ‘But you know you needn’t worry, mother, don’t you?’ the boy repeated.

1926 July, D[avid] H[erbert Richards] Lawrence, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, Harper's Bazaar, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Corporation, OCLC 1639362

There were perhaps half a dozen occasions on which he might have withdrawn and returned to the life that had been marked out for him. He needn't have been tortured in South Africa; he needn't have written his book; he needn't have taken the job with Sablich's; having taken the job, he needn't have become associated with Thrushcross Grange and Jimmy Ahmed.

1975, V. S. Naipaul, Guerrillas, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN:

Of course, since he's Judy's lover he had to say she's got nicer legs! It's true he needn't have been so assertive about it. That wasn't very tactful towards poor Li; Li is right when she says that Fred is an egoistic lout. A terrible lout.

1996, Karel Čapek, “The Yacht on the Lagoon”, in M. Weatherall, R. Weatherall, transl., War with the Newts, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, →ISBN, page 75:

We needn't swing the bludgeon when bargaining is still on the table. We needn't beat our plowshares into swords so long as we can browbeat or otherwise befuddle our enemy into believing our way is the best way—the only way. Thus, we needn't bloodily and bodily slay a foe when we can startle, stifle, and, when need be, snuff out any flame of resistance to our will.

2010 October, Haha Lung with Christopher B. Prowant, Mind Warrior: Strategies for Total Mind Domination, New York, N.Y.: Citadel Press, →ISBN, page 2:

She needn't argue with Renee and Marian (she is speaking to them again) about the Black Panthers. She needn't worry that Lydia seems to be taking too many and more frightening drugs. She needn't keep it from Adam that she is smoking pot with her friends; […]

2011, Mary Gordon, The Love of My Youth, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, page 195:

(negative auxiliary, chiefly British, formal or literary) Need not.


usedn't to

He usedn’t to live in London.

Usedn't your uncle to live with you?

(Ireland, archaic in British, obsolete elsewhere) used not to, didn't use to


cant

From Middle English cant, kaunt, presumably from Middle Low German *kant, perhaps a slang word related to kant (“edge, rim”), from Medieval Latin canthus. Attested from the 13th or 14th century.

Homophone: Kant (in anglicized pronunciation)


haunt

en-verb

haunt (third-person singular simple present haunts, present participle haunting, simple past and past participle haunted)

haunts (present singular third-person)
haunting (participle present)
haunted (participle past)
haunted (past)
hant (alternative)
ha'nt (alternative)
haint (alternative)
harnt (alternative)

From Middle English haunten (“to reside, inhabit, use, employ”), from Old French hanter (“to inhabit, frequent, resort to”), from Old Northern French hanter (“to go back home, frequent”), from Old Norse heimta (“to bring home, fetch”) or/and from Old English hāmettan (“to bring home; house; cohabit with”); both from Proto-Germanic *haimatjaną (“to house, bring home”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“village, home”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“village”).
Cognate with Old English hǣman (“to cohabit, lie with, marry”); related to Old English hām (“home, village”), Old French hantin (“a stay, a place frequented by”) from the same Germanic source. Another descendant from the French is Dutch hanteren, whence German hantieren, Swedish hantera, Danish håndtere. More at home.

cog

[…]haunte thi silf to pite [or pitee].

c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, […], volume I (in Middle English), Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC, I. Timothy 4:7, columns 1, 2:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.

Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.

a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, edited by Margaret Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […] John Daye, […], published 1570, →OCLC:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To practise; to devote oneself to.


main

en-adv

main (comparative more main, superlative most main)

more main (comparative)
most main (superlative)

From Middle English mayn, main, maine, mæin, meyn, from main (noun) (see further at etymology 2); compare Old English mæġen (“strong, main, principal”) (used in combination) and Old Norse megn, megenn (“strong, main”).
The word is cognate with Old High German megīn (“strong, mighty”) (modern German Möge, Vermögen (“power, wealth”)), and also akin to Old English magan (“to be able to”). See also may.

cog

Suck[y]. A Draught of Ale, Friend, for I'm main dry. / Pen[elope]. Fie! fie! Niece! Is that Liquor for a young Lady? Don't disparage your Family and Breeding!

1754, Samuel Foote, “The Knights”, in The Knights. A Comedy, in Two Acts. […], Dublin: Printed by Richard James, […], →OCLC, act II, page 35:

Why, it's main jolly to be sure, and all that so fair.

1778, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “The Camp: A Musical Entertainment”, in The Dramatic Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. With a Memoir of the Author (Dove’s English Classics), London: Printed and published by J. F. Dove, […], published c. 1813–1828, →OCLC, act I, scene ii, page 309:

It was main hot, and the windy was open, and I hear that old song comin’ out as clear as clear […]

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

(British, dialectal) Exceedingly, extremely, greatly, mightily, very, very much.


yam

en-verb

yam (third-person singular simple present yams, present participle yamming, simple past and past participle yammed)

yams (present singular third-person)
yamming (participle present)
yammed (participle past)
yammed (past)

Ultimately from Fula nyaamude (“to eat”) or a cognate Fula-Wolof term.

“If I was that snake I’d just open my jaw and yam that fool up in one bite!”

2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 78:


caucus

tlb

(US, Canada, Israel, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, archaic in UK, not used in the European Union)

Unknown. Often claimed to be from an Algonquian language; transcribed words such as cawaassough and caucauasu meaning "counselor, elder, adviser" appear in early texts. A popular folk etymology attested in Great Leaders and National Issues of 1896 stated: "In the early part of the eighteenth century a number of caulkers connected with the shipping business in the North End of Boston held a meeting for consultation. That meeting was the germ of the political caucuses which have formed so prominent a feature of our government ever since its organization." American Heritage Dictionary states the term is taken from the Caucus Club of Boston in the 1760s, possibly from Medieval Latin caucus (“drinking vessel”).

bor

He conferred with Mr. Warren of Plymouth upon the necessity of giving into spirited measures, and then said, "Do you keep the committee in play, and I will go and make a caucus against the evening; and do you meet me."

1788, William Gordon, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment, of the Independence of the United States of America:

A usually preliminary meeting of party members to nominate candidates for public office or delegates to be sent to a nominating convention, or to confer regarding policy.


pope

Jamaican Creole: puop

Tok Pisin: pop

→ Hindi: पोप (pop)

→ Urdu: پوپ (pop)

From Middle English pope, popa, from Old English pāpa, from Vulgar Latin papa (title for priests and bishops, esp. and by 8th c. only the bishop of Rome), from early Byzantine Greek παπᾶς (papâs, title for priests and bishops, especially by 3rd c. the bishop of Alexandria), from late Ancient Greek πάπας (pápas, title for priests and bishops, in the sense of spiritual father), from πάππας (páppas, “papa, daddy”).

der

do not sit in Rome and strive with the Pope

This is the only piece in which the author has given a hint of his religion, by ridiculing the ceremony of burning the pope, and by mentioning with some indignation the inscription […]

1830, Alexander Pope, The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, page xxi:

As York's succession was challenged by burning the pope, the Duke of Monmouth was again heralded in the city as a Protestant alternative.

2005, Gary S. De Krey, London and the Restoration, 1659–1683, →ISBN, page 182:

(Roman Catholicism and generally) An honorary title of the Roman Catholic bishop of Rome as father and head of his church, a sovereign of the Vatican city state.

(UK) An effigy of the pope traditionally burnt in Britain on Guy Fawkes' Day and (occasionally) at other times.

Byfleet-river, wherein are very large pikes, jack, and tench ; perch, of eighteen inches long ; good carp, large flounders, bream, roach, dace, gudgeons, popes, large chub, and eels.

1792, William Augustus Osbaldiston, The British Sportsman, Or, Nobleman, Gentleman and Farmer's Dictionary of Recreation and Amusement, page 176:

It resembles the perch (unfortunately for itself) in having a very long and prickly fin on its back, advantage of which is taken by the boys about Windsor, who are very fond of 'plugging a pope.' This operation consists in fixing a bung in the sharp spines on the poor pope's back fin, and then throwing him into the water.

1862, Francis T. Buckland, Curiosities of Natural History, page 230:

Popes are caught whilst gudgeon-fishing with the red worm, but they are sometimes a great nuisance to the perch-fisher, as they take the minnow.

1865 January 14, Astley H. Baldwin, “Small Fry”, in Once a Week, page 105:

Gymnocephalus cernua
Gymnocephalus cernua#Translingual

(British) The ruffe, a small Eurasian freshwater fish (Gymnocephalus cernua); others of its genus.

Alca genus; 6 species, including the razorbill, the penguin, the pope, and others.

1759, “Linnæus's Systema Naturæ”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, page 456:

The Pope: This is a very singular bird; it is about the size of our widgeon, or somewhat larger, but is not quite so large as the duck: the head is large and rounded; the eyes are small, and stand forward on the head, and lower down than in the generality of birds [...]

1773, John Hill, “Alca”, in A General Natural History, volume 3, page 442:

"About a hundred yards further North" says Troutbeck, "is a 'subterraneous' cavern called the Pope's Hole, about fifty fathoms under the ground, into which the sea flows, so called from a sort of bird which roosts in it by night, about ninety feet high above the level of the water."!! [...] It derives its name from its being a place of shelter to some puffins, vulgo "popes".

1822, George Woodley, A view of the present state of the Scilly Islands, pages 264–5:

The Norsemen catch great numbers of these popes, parrots, or lunder, as they are variously named, and train dogs to go into the holes where the puffin has its nest, lying in it with feet in the air.

1864, Charles Issac Elton, Norway: The Road and the Fell, page 94:

I was informed by a fisherman that there were now hundreds of gannets in the channel off Plymouth, and that he had also met with some puffins (which he called "popes")

1874, J. Van Voorst, Zoologist: A Monthly Journal of Natural History, page 3904:

Fratercula arctica
Fratercula arctica#Translingual

(UK regional, Cumberland, Cornwall, Devon, Scotland) The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica).


magazine

→ Burmese: မဂ္ဂဇင်း (magga.jang:)

→ Cebuano: magasin

→ Dutch: magazine

→ French: magazine

→ Portuguese: magazine

→ Italian: magazine

→ Gujarati: મેગેઝિન (megejhin)

→ Hebrew: מגזין (magazin)

→ Japanese: マガジン (magajin)

desc

→ Kashubian: magazina (Canada, United States)

→ Shan: မႅၵ်ႈၵၸိၼ်း (mēk kǎ tsín)

→ Shan: မႅၵ်ႈၵၸိၼ်း (mēk kǎ tsín)

→ Spanish: magacín

→ Turkish: magazin

→ Malay: magazin

From Middle English magasyne, from Middle French magasin (“warehouse, store”), from Italian magazzino (“storehouse”), ultimately from Arabic مَخَازِن pl (maḵāzin), plural of مَخْزَن (maḵzan, “storeroom, storehouse”), noun of place from خَزَنَ (ḵazana, “to store, to stock, to lay up”). First attested in the 1580s.

ref

Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “magazine (n.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

etydate

Most teletext "magazines" contain about 100 pages of information, typically including news headlines, weather reports, sports scores, video games, and stock prices.

1983, Channels of Communications, volume 3, page 41:

The operator is able to build Teletext magazines of, typically, 100 pages per magazine, specify transmission times […]

1984, Telecommunications, volume 18, page 89:

(historical, television, UK, Ireland) A collection of Teletext pages.


mug

→ French: mug → French: meugue

→ Finnish: muki

→ Maltese: magg

→ Swedish: mugg

→ Welsh: mẁg, mỳg

Early 16th century (originally Scots and northern English, denoting "earthenware, pot, jug"), of unknown origin, perhaps from North Germanic (compare Swedish mugg (“mug, jug”), Norwegian mugge (“pitcher, open can for warm drinks”), Danish mugge), or Low German mokke, mukke (“mug”), German Low German Muck (“drinking cup”), Dutch mok (“mug”), also of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Old English muga (“stack”) and Old Norse múgr (“mass, heap (of corn)”). Compare also Middle English mug, mog (“a measure of salt”).

cog

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, derogatory, slang) A stupid or contemptible person.


mug

en-verb

mug (third-person singular simple present mugs, present participle mugging, simple past and past participle mugged)

mugs (present singular third-person)
mugging (participle present)
mugged (participle past)
mugged (past)

Madgbury showed game, drove Abbot in a corner, but got well Mugg'd.

1857, "The Leary Man", in Anglicus Ducange, The Vulgar Tongue
And if you come to fibbery, You must Mug one or two,

"Suppose they had Mugged you?" / "Done what to me?" / "Mugged you. Slogged you, you know."

1866 May 5, London Miscellany, page 102:

(transitive, obsolete, UK, Ireland) To strike in the face.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, slang) To learn or review a subject as much as possible in a short time; cram.


peep

Back-formation from peeps, a shortened form of people.


cot

Borrowed from Hindi खाट (khāṭ), from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀔𑀝𑁆𑀝𑀸 (khaṭṭā), from Sanskrit खट्वा (khaṭvā, “bedstead”).

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A bed for infants or small children, with high, often slatted, often moveable sides.


busy

From Middle English bisy, busie, from Old English bisiġ (“busy, occupied, diligent”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisīg (“diligent; zealous; busy”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian biesich (“active, diligent, hard-working, industrious”), Dutch bezig (“busy”), Low German besig (“busy”). The spelling with ⟨u⟩ represents the pronunciation of the West Midland and Southern dialects while the Modern English pronunciation with /ɪ/ is from the dialects of the East Midlands.

cog

I remember playing on a building site once and coming across a five-pound note. I could hardly believe it when I spotted it poking out of the rubble. Excitedly, I ran straight home and gave it to my mum. I was hero of the hour until I got into trouble with the busies – the police – soon afterwards for pinching a bottle of milk from a float.

2016, Chris Graham, Five Minutes of Amazing: My Journey Through Dementia, London: Sphere, →ISBN, page 30:

(slang, UK, Liverpool, derogatory) A police officer.


pretty

en-adj

pretty (comparative prettier, superlative prettiest)

prettier (comparative)
prettiest (superlative)
pooty (alternative nonstandard)
purdy (alternative nonstandard)
purty (alternative informal)
pratty (alternative dialectal)
prettie (alternative obsolete)
pretie (alternative obsolete)

desc

→ Japanese: プリティー (puritī), プリティ (puriti), プリチー (purichī)

Indic, spelling pronunciation, proscribed

From Middle English prety, preti, praty, prati, from Old English prættiġ (“tricky, crafty, sly, cunning, wily, astute”), from Proto-West Germanic *prattug, from Proto-Germanic *prattugaz (“boastful, sly, slick, deceitful, tricky, cunning”), corresponding to prat (“trick”) + -y. Doublet of pratty.
Cognate with Dutch prettig (“nice, pleasant”), Low German prettig (“funny”), Icelandic prettugur (“deceitful, tricky”). For the semantic development, compare canny, clever, cute.


slip

From Middle English slippen, probably from Middle Low German slippen, from Old Saxon *slippian, from Proto-West Germanic *slippjan, from Proto-Germanic *slipjaną (“to glide”), an iterative form of *slīpaną (“to slip, slide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyb- (“slimy; to slide”). Possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *slewbʰ- (“slip, slide”), or related to Proto-Germanic *slībaną (“to split”); related to Old English slipor (“slippery”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian slipje (“to slip”), Dutch slippen (“to slip”), German Low German slippen, slupen (“to slip”), German schlüpfen (“to slip”).

der

there's many a slip between the cup and the lip

there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip

(UK, dated) A narrow passage between buildings.


peculiar

From Latin pecūliāris (“one's own”), from pecūlium (“private property”), from pecus (“cattle”).

Peculiar in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

(UK, canon law) an ecclesiastical district, parish, chapel or church outside the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese in which it is situated.


muggle

en-verb

muggle (third-person singular simple present muggles, present participle muggling, simple past and past participle muggled)

muggles (present singular third-person)
muggling (participle present)
muggled (participle past)
muggled (past)

Origin unknown; attested in Berkshire, Devonshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Lancashire, Somersetshire, Staffordshire, the West Country, Wiltshire, and Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. The word is possibly a variant of muddle.

And zo thay muggled along, 'till tha volks all begun to make giame on them.

1872, Agrikler [pseudonym; Joseph Edwards], “Tha Man as Coodent Plaze Nubbody”, in Rhymes in the West of England Dialect. […], 2nd edition, Bristol, Somerset: Leech and Taylor, […], →OCLC, page 39:

I might have a made out to muggle along if so be Mister Jolly would a rised my wages, or the Union could a kept on taken care o' this last poor little un, till sich time as I might a married some'un to keep the childern tidy; [...]

1873, [Edward Jenkins], “Justices’ Justice and Statutes at Large”, in Little Hodge, author’s edition, New York, N.Y.: Dodd & Mead, […], →OCLC, page 102:

She might truly be said "to muggle along;" everything in her house was in the greatest state of confusion, and, it must be added, dirt.

1877 May, [Frances Hariott Wood], “The Old Red School-house”, in W[illiam] Meynell Whittemore, editor, Sunshine for 1877. […], number 185, London: William Poole, […], →OCLC, chapter VI (Widow Lawrence’s Story), page 77, column 2:

He rose to no eminence and got through life somehow, ‘muggled along,’ as Somersetshire people say.

1889, [John Hutton Balfour Browne], “Popular”, in Times and Days: Being Essays in Romance and History, London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 28:

MUGGLE, [...] To muddle along, to live in a muddling, haphazard way.

[1903, “MUGGLE, v.¹ and sb.²”, in Joseph Wright, editor, The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume IV (M–Q), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 195, column 1:

"He has whiskers and whuskers but no wapers; / He whiffles and whaffles and muggles along;" / Thus ran the headlines of the morning papers; / The reporters all put to sea in a flong.

1934, Margaret, Lady Rhondda, editor, Time and Tide, volume 15, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1016, column 1:

[T]he tractor struggles and muggles through the overgrown tour path, the tall grass whispers on the bottom of our cage, [...]

2010 October, Paul Tremblay, “Tour: Slipshod Safari”, in We Will Never Live in the Castle, Toronto, Ont.: ChiZine Publications, published April 2013, →ISBN:

(intransitive, UK, Ireland, dialectal) Often followed by along: to live or work in an unorganized and unplanned way; to muddle along.


wicked

From Middle English wicked, wikked, an alteration of Middle English wicke, wikke (“morally perverse, evil, wicked”). Of uncertain origin. Possibly from an adjectival use of Old English wiċċa (“wizard, sorcerer”), from Proto-West Germanic *wikkō (“necromancer, sorcerer”), though the phonology makes this theory difficult to explain. Alternatively, perhaps related to English wicker, Old Norse víkja (“to bend to, yield, turn, move”), Swedish vika (“to bend, fold, give way to”), English weak.
The "excellent, awesome" sense is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of "evil, mischievous". Compare similar semantic development in terrific and sick.

cog

I didn't really wanna go see On Golden Pond with the fam, but my mom made me go, and I must say that in retrospect it was a wicked expressive film, with a lot of significant meaning.

The band we went to see the other night was pissah, and they were wicked loud!

(slang, especially southern New England, British) To a superlative extent, very, extremely


wicked

(British, dialect, chiefly Yorkshire) Infested with maggots.


nasty

en-adj

nasty (comparative nastier, superlative nastiest)

nastier (comparative)
nastiest (superlative)

From Middle English nasty, nasti, naxty, naxte (“unclean, filthy”), whence also Early Modern English nasky (“nasty”), of obscure origin. Probably from earlier Middle English *naskty, *naskedy, from Middle English *nasked (“dirty, messy”) + -y, ultimately of North Germanic origin (comparable to Danish nasket (“dirty, foul, unpleasant”), Swedish naskot (“dirty, filthy”), Swedish naskig, naskug (“nasty, dirty, messy”)), themselves all probably related to Proto-Germanic *hnaskuz (“tender, soft”). Likely doublet of nesh and nosh. Cognate with Scots nastie, nestie (“dirty, filthy”).
Alternative theories have also been proposed, which include:
* From Low German nask (“nasty”) + -y.
* Middle Dutch nestich, nistich ("nasty, dirty, unpleasant" > Modern Dutch nestig (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)), perhaps ultimately connected to the Scandinavian word above, or related to *nest (“nest”).
* From Old French nastre (“lowly, strange”), shortened form of villenastre (“infamous, bad”), from vilein (“villain”) + -astre (pejorative suffix), from Latin -aster.
* Other suggestions include Old High German naz (“wet”), hardening of English nesh(y) (“soft”), or alteration of English naughty.
* Modern use of the word is sometimes attributed to the popular and often derogatory 19th century American political cartoons of Thomas Nast, but the word predates him.

unc

obscure

gloss

"nasty, dirty, unpleasant" > Modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">nestig</i> (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)

There was a nasty period during the First World War when the family's allegiance was called into question - not least because one of the Schroders had been made a baron by the Kaiser.

(chiefly UK) Awkward, difficult to navigate; dangerous.

Moving into the middle ages, William the Conqueror managed to rout the English and rule the country, then see off numerous plots and assassination attempts, before his horse did for him in a nasty fall, killing him at 60.

(chiefly UK) Grave or dangerous (of an accident, illness etc.).


torrid

en-adj

torrid (comparative torrider, superlative torridest)

torrider (comparative)
torridest (superlative)

From Latin torridus, from torreō (“parch, scorch”).

Tomás O'Leary had a torrid time behind the forwards, fumbling on the floor, hesitant with his kicks.

2010 January 24, Eddie Butler, “"Rugby must beware leaping from the lenient to draconian over gouging"”, in The Guardian:


honeycomb

en-noun

honeycomb (countable and uncountable, plural honeycombs)

Alhambra
Oxford English Dictionary
United States Army

The noun is derived from Middle English hony comb, from Old English huniġcamb, from huniġ (“honey”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂ónks (“honey”)) + camb (“comb”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“peg; tooth; row of teeth”)). The English word is analysable as honey + comb. The Oxford English Dictionary posits that the arrangement of several plates of wax “hanging parallel to each other from the roof of the hive suggests a comb with its teeth”. The verb is derived from the noun.

kennosto

something resembling honeycomb in having numerous cells or small holes

hunaja

something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; something desirable or pleasant

honeycomb toffee

(countable, figurative) Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.

(uncountable, chiefly Australia, British, often attributive) A crumbly confection usually made by boiling together golden syrup, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, and water.


poo

en-noun

poo (countable and uncountable, plural poos)

That doggy's doing a poo.

2025 (viewed), "Bowel Dysfunction", Midlands Partnership University (NHS Foundation Trust) https://www.mpft.nhs.uk/services/specialist-pelvic-health-team/bowel-dysfunction
Chronic Constipation – Symptoms can be: You have to strain a lot to poo; Your poos are hard and lumpy; You feel unfinished after having a poo.

(countable, chiefly UK, childish) A piece of feces or an act of defecation.


tea cosy

tea cosy (plural tea cosies or tea cozies)

tea cosies (plural)
tea cozies (plural)
teacosy (alternative)
tea cosey (alternative)
tea-cosy (alternative)
tea cozy (alternative)

She had just finished knitting a tea cosy decorated with a floral pattern.

(British) An insulating cloth covering, shaped to fit over a teapot to maintain warmth.


billiards

→ Irish: billéardaí

→ Welsh: biliards

From French billard, originally referring to the wooden cue stick, diminutive of Old French bille (“log, tree trunk”), from Vulgar Latin *bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile (“large tree, tree trunk”)), from Proto-Celtic *belyos (“tree”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰolh₃yos (“leaf”), from *bʰleh₃- (“blossom, flower”).

cog

(games, British) A two-player cue sport played with two cue balls and one red ball, on a snooker sized table.


great

en-adj

great (comparative greater, superlative greatest)

greater (comparative)
greatest (superlative)

→ Welsh: grêt

Early Modern English; 16ᵗʰ–17ᵗʰ centuries

From Middle English greet (“great, large”), from Old English grēat (“big, thick, coarse, massive”), from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“big in size, coarse, coarse grained”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd-, *gʰer- (“to rub, grind, remove”).
Cognate with Scots great (“coarse in grain or texture, thick, great”), West Frisian grut (“large, great”), Dutch groot (“large, stour”), German groß (“large”), Old English grēot (“earth, sand, grit”). Related to grit. Doublet of gross.

cog

behind every great man there stands a woman

a dirty great smack in the face

Great Scott!

(informal, British) Intensifying a word or expression, used in mild oaths.


putt

(British, motorcycling, slang) A motorcycle.


lug

From Middle English luggen, possibly from Scandinavian source, (compare Swedish lugga, Norwegian lugge); also in English dialectal as lig (“to lug”). Noun is via Scots lugge, probably from Old Norse (compare Norwegian and Swedish lugg). Probably related to slug (“lazy, slow-moving”), which may be from similar source(s).

While shaving, the poor sod had a fit and cut part of a lug off.


lug

From Middle English lugge (“pole, stick, staff”).

inh

And from the bodies [of pines and oaks] the boughes and loftie lugges they beare.

eight lugs of grownd; / Into the which returning backe, he fell

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 11:

(UK, archaic, dialect) A measure of length equal to 16+¹⁄₂ feet.


special

From Middle English *special, especial, especiall, from Old French especial (whence also French spécial), from Latin speciālis (from speciēs). In this sense displaced native Old English synderlīċ. Doublet of especial.

And you can't trust a "Special" like the old-time copper when you can't find your way home.

1919, Fred W. Leigh, Charles Collins, “My Old Man”performed by Marie Lloyd:

(British, colloquial) A special constable.


lounge

German: Lounge

Japanese: ラウンジ (raunji)

Korean: 라운지 (raunji)

Swedish: lounge

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from French s'allonger (“to lie down”). Compare French longer (“to walk along”). Compare also German lungern (“to hang or lounge around, linger”).

cog

The lounge was furnished in old English oak and big Knole settees. There were rugs from Tabriz and Kerman on the highly polished floor. […] A table lamp was fashioned from a silver Egyptian hookah.

1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 18, in The Subtle Minotaur:

(British) The living room or sitting room of a house.


mater

From Latin māter (“mother”), partly via Late Middle English matere. Doublet of mata and mother. Ancestor of matrix.

Their maters are all pals of my mater’s, and I don’t want to get them into trouble for aiding and abetting my little show, if you understand what I mean.

1919 June 14, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “A Damsel in Distress”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, number 50, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, chapter XX, page 57, column 1:

“The mater will be delighted to see you again—after all those years,” he added.

1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 5:

And then there’s the mater! Poor old mater! She goes about on tiptoe; she’s always watching me and pretending she’s not watching me; I believe she would like to have everything padded with feather beds. All the while she has been wanting me to do the goody book thing, get down on my knees and put my head in her lap and blub.

1923, Warwick Deeping, “John Stretton”, in The Secret Sanctuary (The Scherz Phoenix Books), Berne: Alfred Scherz Publishers, published 1945, →OCLC, page 32:

Strangled by the wishes of pater / Hoping for the arms of mater / Get to me the sooner or later

1985, Mick Hucknall, Neil Moss, “Holding Back the Years”, in Picture Book, performed by Simply Red:

“Mater, you look well.” / “I am well. And you,” she said in that dryly prosaic deep voice of hers, “look healed.”

1997, Colleen McCullough, Caesar’s Women, page 17:

(British, slang, now chiefly archaic or humorous) Mother.


pudding

en-noun

pudding (countable and uncountable, plural puddings)

→ Belarusian: пу́дынг (púdynh)

→ Burmese: ပူတင်း (putang:)

→ Chinese: 布丁 (bùdīng), 布甸 (bùdiàn)

→ Esperanto: pudingo

→ Estonian: puding

→ French: poudingue

→ Italian: puddinga

→? French: poutine (semantic loan)

desctree

→ French: pudding, pouding (post-1990 spelling)
→ Romanian: budincă
→ Turkish: puding

→ Dutch: pudding

→ German: Pudding

desc

→ Japanese: プディング (pudingu), プリン (purin)

→ Latvian: pudiņš

→ Lithuanian: pudingas

→? Michif: poutchine

→ Polish: pudding

→ Portuguese: pudim

→ Russian: пу́динг (púding)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: пу̀динг

Latin script: pùding

→ Spanish: budín, pudding, pudin, pudín

→ Swedish: pudding

→ Ukrainian: пу́динг (púdynh), пу́ндик (púndyk)

→ Welsh: pwdin

From circa 1305, Middle English podynge (“kind of sausage; meat-filled animal stomach”), puddynge, from Old French boudin (“blood sausage, black pudding”), from Latin botellus (“sausage, small intestine”). Doublet of boudin.
* An alternative etymology assumes origin from Proto-Germanic *put-, *pud- (“to swell”) (compare dialectal English pod (“belly”), Old English puduc (“wen, sore”), Low German puddig (“swollen”), Westphalian Puddek (“lump, pudding”), Puddewurst (“black pudding”). More at pout.

der

the proof of the pudding is in the eating

We have apple pie for pudding today.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Dessert; the dessert course of a meal.


toad in the hole

en-noun

toad in the hole (countable and uncountable, plural toads in the hole)

toads in the hole (plural)
toad-in-the-hole (alternative)

(UK, Ireland) A traditional English dish of roasted sausages (or formerly other kinds of meat) in batter.

toad in the hole

there's nothing equivalent in Finnish cuisine


Bangla

(Singapore, Malaysia, British, offensive, ethnic slur) A Bangladeshi.


dumpling

A folk word, first attested in c. 1600s, apparently from a Norfolk (East Anglian) dialect, of uncertain origin:
* perhaps from some Low German word (compare dümpeln (“bobbing up and down”)),
* or from the rare dialectal adjective dump (“lump, of the consistency of dough”) (first attested in the late 1800s), + -ling (diminutive suffix), although dumpling is recorded much earlier. However, compare dumpy (“short and stout”).

(cooking) A ball of dough that is cooked and may have a filling and/or additional ingredients in the dough.

(chiefly UK) Specifically, a ball of dough used in stews and other sauced dishes; a thick noodle.


bureau

Unadapted borrowing from French bureau, earlier "coarse cloth (as desk cover), baize", from Old French burel (“woolen cloth”), diminutive of *bure (compare Middle French bure (“coarse woolen cloth”), French bourre (“hair, fluff”)), from Late Latin burra (“wool, fluff, shaggy cloth, coarse fabric”); akin to Ancient Greek βερβέριον (berbérion, “shabby garment”). Doublet of burel and borrel, taken from Old French.

cog

(chiefly British) A desk, usually with a cover and compartments that are located above the level of the writing surface rather than underneath, and often used for storing papers.


batter

en-verb

batter (third-person singular simple present batters, present participle battering, simple past and past participle battered)

batters (present singular third-person)
battering (participle present)
battered (participle past)
battered (past)

From Middle English batteren, batren, bateren, a frequentative of Middle English batten, baten (“to beat”), equivalent to bat + -er (frequentative suffix).

That cocktail will batter you!

I was battered last night on our pub crawl.

(UK, slang, usually in the passive) To intoxicate.

the bible mentioned in the oath emitted this day , by Andrew Murison , as the book and bible from whence the printed leaves , battered on the B. L. Coy's notes , now challenged as forged , are alleged to be taken

1826, Thomas Beveridge, A Practical Treatise on the Forms of Process...:

(UK, obsolete) To coat in a paste-like substance; to fasten with a paste-like glue.


aerial

aerials (plural)
aërial (alternative archaic)

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

From Latin āeri(us) + -al, from Ancient Greek ἀέριος (aérios), from ἀήρ (aḗr, “air”).

(chiefly UK) A rod, wire, or other structure for receiving or transmitting radio, television signals etc.


truck

en-noun

truck (countable and uncountable, plural trucks)

Belizean Creole: chrok

→ Bengali: ট্রাক (ṭrak)

→ Bislama: trak

→ Cebuano: trak

→ French: truck

→ Hindi: ट्रक (ṭrak)

→ Indonesian: truk

→ Japanese: トラック (torakku)

→ Korean: 트럭 (teureok)

→ Maguindanao: trak

→ Malay: trak

desctree

→ Spanish: troca
→ Southeastern Tepehuan: trooka

→ Polish: trak

→ Tagalog: trak

→ Taos: tròkiʼína

→ Tausug: tarak

→ Tok Pisin: trak

→ Urdu: ٹْرَک (ṭrak)

Perhaps a shortening of truckle, related to Latin trochus (“iron hoop, wheel”) from Ancient Greek τροχός (trokhós).

(UK, rail transport) A railroad car, chiefly one designed to carry goods.


truck

en-verb

truck (third-person singular simple present trucks, present participle trucking, simple past and past participle trucked)

trucks (present singular third-person)
trucking (participle present)
trucked (participle past)
trucked (past)

From dialectal truck, truk, trokk, probably of North Germanic origin, compare Norwegian dialectal trokka, trakka (“to stamp, trample, go to and fro”), Danish trykke (“to press, press down, crush, squeeze”), Swedish trycka. More at thrutch.

cog

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To tread (down); stamp on; trample (down).


local

From Middle English local, from Late Latin locālis (“belonging to a place”), possibly also via Old French local; ultimately from Latin locus (“a place”).
The ring-theoretic senses derive from Krull, who first referred to Noetherian commutative rings with a unique maximal ideal as "Stellenring" (Stellen (“place”) + ring) in 1938. The term was inspired by algebraic geometry, where local rings encode information about the behavior of curves (surfaces, etc.) at points; hence, describe "local" behavior.

der

I got barred from my local, so I've started going all the way into town for a drink.

As they take me to my local down the street.

2010, “Nothing”, in Science & Faith, performed by The Script:

(British) One's nearest or regularly frequented public house or bar.


loo

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

Uncertain, although usually derived in some way from Waterloo, the site of Wellington's 1815 victory over Napoleon, likely via a pun based on water closet. Other suggested derivations include corruptions of French l'eau (“water”), lieu (“place”), lieux d'aisances (“'places of convenience': a lavatory”), lieu à l'anglaise (“'English place': a British-style lavatory”), bordalou (“a diminutive chamber pot”) or gardez l'eau (“'mind the water'”), via Scots gardyloo, formerly used in Edinburgh while emptying chamber pots out of windows; the supposed use of "Room 100" as the lavatory in Continental hotels; a popularisation of lew, a regional corruption of lee (“downwind”), in reference to shepherds' privies or the former use of beakheads on that side of the ship for urination and defecation; or a clipped form of the name of the unpopular 19th-century Countess of Lichfield Lady Harriett Georgiana Louisa Hamilton Anson, who was the subject of an 1867 prank whereby her bedroom's name-card was placed on the door to the lavatory, prompting the other guests to begin speaking of "going to Lady Louisa".

I suppose it is unreal because we have been expecting it [sc. World War II] for so long now, and have known that it must be got over before we can go on with our lives. Like in the night when you want to go to the loo and it is miles away down a freezing cold passage and yet you know you have to go down that passage before you can be happy and sleep again.

1940, Nancy Mitford, chapter II, in Pigeon Pie, page 27:

Ensure that the tents are well-sited and clean, rubbish bins empty, and that the loos have toilet paper.

2006, Garth Thompson et al., The Guide′s Guide to Guiding, 3rd edition, page 160:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A lavatory: a room used for urination and defecation.

The lack of running water in rural areas often makes Western-style loos hygienic disasters. Suddenly the noncontact squat toilet doesn′t look like such a bad option any more (as long as you roll up your trouser legs).

2009, Katharina Kane, Lonely Planet: The Gambia and Senegal, page 275:

Waterless urinals are a great way of keeping the guys out of the cubicle toilets, keeping the urine separated from the solid waste (when using composting loos) and reducing water consumption if you have flush loos.

2010, Meegan Jones, Sustainable Event Management, page 206:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A toilet: a fixture used for urination and defecation.


glean

The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”), from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Late Latin glen(n)are, the present active infinitive of glen(n)ō (“to make a collection”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *glanos (“clean; clear”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”).
The noun is derived from Late Middle English glene (“collection of heads of grain gathered by gleaning; head of grain”), from Old French glene, glane (“act of gleaning; legal right to glean”) (modern French glane (“act of gleaning”)), from glener, glainer (verb): see above.
cognates
* Medieval Latin glana, glena (“bundle of ears of grain”)

inh

Even the greateſt, in reſpect of God, is but a gleaner. God, he is the Maſter of the Harveſt; all Gifts and Graces they are his, in an infinite meaſure; and every godly man, more or leſſe, gleanes from him. Abraham gleaned a great gleane of Faith; Moſes, of Meekneſſe; […]

1654, Thomas Fuller, “A Comment on Ruth. Motive.”, in Two Sermons: […], London: […] G. and H. Eversden, […], →OCLC, page 153:

But late at Night, vvith vveary Pinions come / The lab'ring Youth, and heavy laden home. / Plains, Meads, and Orchards all the day he plies, / The gleans of yellovv Thime diſtend his Thighs: […]

1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 130, lines 264–267:

(obsolete except UK, dialectal) A collection of something made by gleaning.


trucker

truckers (plural)
truker (alternative)
trukker (alternative)
trucour (alternative)
truiker (alternative)
treukour (alternative)

From Middle English *trukere (“one who disappoints, a deceiver”), from Middle English trukien (“to fail, run out, disappoint”), equivalent to truck (“to fail”) + -er (agent noun suffix). Compare trooker.

suffix

(derogatory, UK dialectal) One who has done something offensive; a deceitful, dishonest, or disreputable person; a deceiver; a cheat.

(derogatory, UK dialectal, Scotland) A rogue; rascal; miscreant; a ne'er-do-well.


trucker

en-adj

trucker (comparative more trucker, superlative most trucker)

more trucker (comparative)
most trucker (superlative)
truker (alternative)
trukker (alternative)
trucour (alternative)
truiker (alternative)
treukour (alternative)

(derogatory, UK dialectal, Scotland) Dishonest; resulting from or inspired by dishonesty.


curriculum

en-noun

curriculum (plural curricula or curriculums)

Borrowed from Latin curriculum (“course”), derived from currō (“run, move quickly”). Doublet of curricle.

bor+

Drawing on texts recommended in curricula and controlling for two countries with benchmarked curricula improves the external representativeness of the corpus.

2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 108:

(UK, Canada, Australia) The set of standards schools are required to teach all students.


knocking shop

knocking shops (plural)
knocking-shop (alternative)
knock shop (alternative)
knock-shop (alternative)

[A]lways reminds me of one of the costlier knocking-shops, you know—'Maison Japonaise' …

1945, Evelyn Waugh, “Epilogue”, in Brideshead Revisited […], London: Chapman & Hall, published 1952, →OCLC, page 300:

Bloody nonsense, "All come together"... Sounds like the motto of a knocking shop in Marrakesh.

1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:

Mr Clark, an unrepentant philanderer now gone to the knocking shop in the sky, recorded for posterity his liaisons with Valerie, Josephine and Alison Harkess.

2004 June 12, Vikram Dodd, “Coven's footnote to Clark diaries”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

[It] had made Mick's heart soar, if only briefly, at the thought that he and Alma might outlive the monster breeze blocks that were used to smash their home ground into crack dens, knocking shops and a despairing dust that settled everywhere on people's heartstrings.

2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, page 30:

(chiefly Australia, British, New Zealand, slang) A brothel.


series

en-noun

series (plural series or (obsolete) serieses)

series (plural)
serieses (obsolete plural)

→ Japanese: シリーズ (shirīzu)

→ Korean: 시리즈 (sirijeu)

→ Burmese: စီးရီး (ci:ri:)

Attested from the 1610s; borrowed from Latin seriēs, from serere (“to join together, bind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, put together, to line up”). Related to desert, insert, sermon, and sorcerer.

مُتَسَلْسِلَة

in analysis: sum of the terms of a sequence

I enjoyed the third series of “Friends”.

(broadcasting, chiefly UK) Synonym of season (“one of the groups of episodes that together make up a whole series”).


tableau

Unadapted borrowing from French tableau, from Old French tablel (“a surface which is used primarily for painting”).

(UK, dated) Hence, an arrangement of actors in static positions on stage, having the effect of pointing up a particular moment in the drama, conventionally revealed by opening tableau curtains (known as "tabs").


fish finger

fish fingers (plural)
fishfinger (alternative)

“Birds Eye fish fingers,” he said, “are made from cod, and when, a short while back there was talk of some strange deep sea varieties creeping into fish fingers, we, as a company spent £500 000 reassuring the consumer[…].”

1976, Fishing News International, volume 15, page 41:

Next week will solve your problems / But now, fish fingers all in a line

1977, “Ex-Lion Tamer”, in Pink Flag, performed by Wire:

After green peas, the product that most helped Birds Eye was fish fingers.

2007, Michael Symons, chapter XX, in One Continuous Picnic: A Gastronomic History of Australia, page 242:

2009, Linda Larsen, The $7 Meals Cookbook: 301 Delicious, Nutritious Recipes the Whole Family Will Love, Adams Media, MA, page 148,
Fish fingers are usually sold in very large packages, about 3–5 pounds.

If chip butties are the king of beige, fish finger sarnies are the queen. Home-made fish fingers are super-easy to make and freeze well, so make a large batch and keep them for a rainy day.

2012, Tom Herbert, Henry Herbert, The Fabulous Baker Brothers, unnumbered page:

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A rectangular stick of processed fish coated in breadcrumbs that is cooked by frying or grilling.


glut

Inherited from Middle English glotien /glotten, probably derived from Old French gloter /glotir /glotoiier (“to eat greedily”) [compare French engloutir (“to devour”), French glouton (“glutton”)], derived from Latin gluttiō, gluttīre (“to swallow”). Compare Russian глота́ть (glotátʹ, “to swallow”).

cog

Four goals scored by a single player in a match can be described as a 'haul', while five goals is unofficially a 'glut'.

2020 October 23, “What is a brace in soccer?”, in Goal:

(British, soccer) Five goals scored by one player in a game.


tram

→ German: Tram

→ Hindi: ट्राम (ṭrām)

desc

→ Urdu: ٹرام

→ Urdu: ٹرام

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Oxford University Press

Early 16th century, borrowed from Scots, probably from Low German traam (“tram, shaft of a barrow”), from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch trame (“narrow shaft, beam”), said to be ultimately from a lost West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) word, probably from Proto-Germanic *drum (“splinter, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“peg, post, boundary”), cognate with Latin terminus.
Compare Middle Low German treme; West Flemish traam, trame.
The popular derivation from the surname of the English pioneer tramway builder Benjamin Outram (1764–1805) is false: the term pre-dated him.
The sense of a rail vehicle derives from tram-way, in its earliest sense meaning literally a log-covered road, but later applied to the earliest wooden railways, used for transporting coal in carts which came to be called "trams".

der

Lizzie and she got a dozen of large bottles and the loan of a basket and we got a currant pan and a half-pound of cooked ham in the shop next door and got on the tram for Whitehall.

1981, Brendan Behan, edited by Peter Fallon, After the Wake: Twenty-one Prose Works including Previously Unpublished Material (Classic Irish Fiction Series), Dublin: The O'Brien Press, →ISBN:

(Australia, British, rail transport) A passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road (called a streetcar or trolley in North America).

The horse-drawn tram has vanished, and so will the trolley, and some eccentric Berlin writer in the twenties of the twenty-first century, wishing to portray our time, will go to a museum of technological history and locate a hundred-year-old streetcar, yellow, uncouth, with old-fashioned curved seats […]

1976 [1925], Vladimir Nabokov, “A Guide to Berlin”, in Details of a Sunset and Other Stories, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 93:

(British, historical) A car on a horse railway or tramway (horse trams preceded electric trams).


crust

en-noun

crust (countable and uncountable, plural crusts)

From Middle English cruste, from Anglo-Norman and Old French cruste, from Latin crusta (“hard outer covering”), from Proto-Indo-European *krustós (“hardened”), from *krews- (“to form a crust, begin to freeze”), related to Old Norse hroðr (“scurf”), Old English hruse (“earth”), Old High German hrosa (“crust, ice”), Latvian kruvesis (“frozen mud”), Ancient Greek κρύος (krúos, “frost, icy cold”), κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “crystal, ice”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬎𐬰𐬛𐬭𐬀- (xruzdra-, “hard”), Sanskrit क्रूड् (krūḍ, “thicken, make hard”).

cog

(British, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Northern US) A slice of bread cut from the end of a loaf; the heel.

to earn one's crust

Like most of us, I am frequently asked by friends and people I meet in business situations or round the dinner table what I do to earn my crust.

1999, Norman Longworth, Making Lifelong Learning Work: Learning Cities for a Learning Century, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 1:

(British, Australia, informal) A living.

“Well, all I can say is that if yer don't take yer dial outer the road I'll bloomin' well take an' bounce a gibber off yer crust.”

1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 90:


overegg

en-verb

overegg (third-person singular simple present overeggs, present participle overegging, simple past and past participle overegged)

overeggs (present singular third-person)
overegging (participle present)
overegged (participle past)
overegged (past)
over-egg (alternative)

From over- (prefix meaning ‘excessive; excessively’) + egg, from the phrase over-egg the pudding, a reference to adding too many eggs to a pudding and thereby ruining it.

affix

But hard riding men, in strange countries, are apt now and then to over-egg the pudding, as the Yorkshire landlord told his Grace of Cleveland.

1839 September, Nimrod [pseudonym; Charles James Apperley], “A Hunting Tour in the Midland Counties: The Quorn: The Belvoir: And the Cottesmore”, in Craven [pseudonym; John William Carleton], editor, The Sporting Review, a Monthly Chronicle of the Turf, the Chase, and Rural Sports in All Their Varieties, London: Rudolph Ackermann, […], →OCLC, page 187:

[Seymour] Hersh vilifies the [Richard] Nixon–[Henry] Kissinger team for the way they adapted the handling of the Vietnam "peace" talks to the sordid claims of the presidential election time-table, but he over-eggs the omelette. It is reasonable to criticise them for having pretended to the American people (and perhaps themselves) that there was some way to negotiate a peace which would preserve the independence of south Vietnam. It is not reasonable to argue, as Hersh does, that the U.S. might have been able to bomb its way to such a durable peace in the spring of 1973, if the White House had not been hamstrung by the debilitating effects of the Watergate scandal.

1983 October 8, Ian Davidson, “As they were [review of Kissinger: The Price of Power by Seymour M. Hersh]”, in Financial Times, number 29,140, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12, column 3:

[M]any British officials, as David Holden deduced from conversations with them in the Crescent bar in the mid-fifties, were 'afflicted with a familiar form of colonial myopia known as localitis' – […] Maybe Holden slightly overeggs the pudding.

1991, Glen Balfour-Paul, “Comparisons, without Odium”, in The End of Empire in the Middle East: Britain’s Relinquishment of Power in Her Last Three Arab Dependencies, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 1992, →ISBN, page 162:

[Hall] Caine over-eggs the omelette but it is still a strong story.

1997, Vivien Allen, chapter 24, in Hall Caine: Portrait of a Victorian Romancer, Sheffield, South Yorkshire: Sheffield Academic Press, →ISBN, page 353:

NML [Capital] insists Argentina is overegging the RUFO [rights upon future offers] worry: given that the country has appealed its case all the way up to the Supreme Court and been rebuffed, a judge is unlikely to deem any deal "voluntary".

2014 July 26, “Argentina’s debt saga: Unsettling times: The clock is ticking toward an Argentine default”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-25:

The men [in Pascal Rambert's play Actrice (2015)] fare less well: The husbands of both sisters overegg their Russian accents, with Jakob Öhrman, as the boisterous Pavel, left to utter inanities including, "The truth is in my alcoholism."

2017 December 22, Laura Cappelle, “2 French playwrights reclaim their works, bringing them home”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-08-23:

Janis Joplin sounds unerringly like Ray Stevens' Bridget the Midget in places. While Raise Your Hand is a pretty undeniable Stax-on-helium workout, her version of the Bee Gees' To Love Somebody is overegged.

2019 August 15, Bob Stanley, “‘Groovy, groovy, groovy’: Listening to Woodstock 50 years on – all 38 discs”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-05-08:

over-egg the pudding
over-egg the pudding

(transitive, idiomatic, originally UK, regional) Chiefly in over-egg the pudding: to spoil (something) by exaggerating it, or an aspect of it; to overdo.


top

en-verb

top (third-person singular simple present tops, present participle topping, simple past and past participle topped)

tops (present singular third-person)
topping (participle present)
topped (participle past)
topped (past)

From Middle English top, toppe, from Old English top (“top, highest part; summit; crest; tassel, tuft; (spinning) top, ball; a tuft or ball at the highest point of anything”), from Proto-West Germanic *topp, from Proto-Germanic *tuppaz (“braid, pigtail, end”), of unknown ultimate origin.
Cognate with Scots tap (“top”), North Frisian top, tap, tup (“top”), Saterland Frisian Top (“top”), West Frisian top (“top”), Dutch top (“top, summit, peak”), Low German Topp (“top”), German Zopf (“braid, pigtail, plait, top”), Swedish topp (“top, peak, summit, tip”), Icelandic toppur (“top”).
The sense of a spinning toy is separated from this, obscurely related to Dutch top and dop in this sense, against Standard Dutch tol, and French toupie having this sense.

cog

Depression causes many people to top themselves.

(British, slang, reflexive) To commit suicide.

Thirty-six were cast for death, and only one was ‘topped’ (hanged), the very one that expected to be ‘turned up’ (acquitted) for highway robbery.

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

(British, slang, rare, chiefly archaic) To murder or execute.


tartan

en-noun

tartan (countable and uncountable, plural tartans)

→ Catalan: tartà

→ Scottish Gaelic: tartan

The noun is an unadapted borrowing from Scots tartan, from Old Scots tartane, tertane, probably from Old French tertaine, tiretaine (“cloth of wool mixed with cotton or linen”), probably from tiret (“kind of precious cloth”) + -aine modelled after futaine (“woven cloth made from cotton mixed with linen or silk”). Tiret is derived from tire (“kind of silk cloth”), from Medieval Latin tyrium (“cloth dyed with Tyrian purple”), a noun use of Latin tyrium, an inflection of tyrius (“of Tyre, Tyrian”), from Latin Tyrus (“Phoenician city of Tyre (in modern Lebanon)”) (from Ancient Greek Τῠ́ρος (Tŭ́ros), from Phoenician 𐤑𐤓 (ṣr) or 𐤑𐤅𐤓 (ṣwr)) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives).
Another suggestion is that the Scots noun is from Middle English tartaryn (“rich cloth (probably silk) imported from the East, probably from China through Tartary”), from Old French (drap) tartarin (literally “cloth of Tartary”), from Medieval Latin Tartarīnus (“of Tartary or the Tatars”), from Latin Tartarus, Tatarus (“Tatar person”) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that tartarin referred to a more expensive fabric.
Noun sense 2.2 (“type of fly used in fly fishing”) may refer to its use in Scotland: see the 1837 quotation. Sense 2.3 (“young person who is a member of a Protestant gang in Northern Ireland”) is from the fact that they were traditionally supporters of Rangers Football Club based in Glasgow, Scotland.
The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun, while the verb is also derived from the noun.

طرطان

woven woollen fabric with a distinctive pattern of coloured stripes intersecting at right angles originally associated with Scottish Highlanders

The Shankill was a tough district all right. It was really hard-line Protestant and most of the kids were in tough Prod gangs, like the Tartans.

1977, Peter Carter, chapter 3, in Under Goliath, London: Puffin Books in association with Oxford University Press, published 1980, →ISBN, page 15:

(countable, UK) A young person who is a member of a Protestant gang in Northern Ireland.


wag

en-verb

wag (third-person singular simple present wags, present participle wagging, simple past and past participle wagged)

wags (present singular third-person)
wagging (participle present)
wagged (participle past)
wagged (past)

From Middle English waggen, probably from Old English wagian (“to wag, wave, shake”) with reinforcement from Old Norse vaga (“to wag, waddle”); both from Proto-Germanic *wagōną (“to wag”). Related to English way.
The verb may be regarded as an iterative or emphatic form of waw (verb), which is often nearly synonymous; it was used, e.g., of a loose tooth. Parallel formations from the same root are the Old Norse vagga feminine, cradle (Swedish vagga, Danish vugge), Swedish vagga (“to rock a cradle”), vugge (“to rock a cradle”), Dutch wagen (“to move”), early modern German waggen (dialectal German wacken) to waver, totter. Compare waggle, verb

inh

"My misfortunes all began in wagging, Sir; but what could I do, exceptin' wag?" "Excepting what?" said Mr. Carker. "Wag, Sir. Wagging from school." "Do you mean pretending to go there, and not going?" said Mr. Carker. "Yes, Sir, that's wagging, Sir."

1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “chapter xxii”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:

They had "wagged it" from school, as they termed it, which..meant truancy in all its forms.

1901, William Sylvester Walker, Blood, i. 13:

[…] she wagged English and Science just to go in his car […]

2005, Arctic Monkeys, “Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts”, in I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor:

(UK, Australia, slang) To play truant from school.


ton

→ Tokelauan: tone, tane

Variant of tun (“cask”), influenced by Old French tonne (“ton”).

ton

various units of mass notionally equivalent to a tun

Any of various units of volume, originally notionally equal to the contents of a tun, particularly:

The measurement ton of (US) 40 or (UK) 42 cubic feet (about 1.1 or 1.2 m³).

(colloquial, chiefly UK) Synonym of hundred, particularly

Synonym of hundred, particularly
100 pounds sterling.

Synonym of hundred, particularly
100 points.

Synonym of hundred, particularly
100 runs.

Speed along the lane / Do a ton or a ton and twenty-five

1970, Mungo Jerry, “In The Summertime”, in In The Summertime:

Neil: How fast can this thing go then, do you reckon?
Simon: Well, it's the special edition, so I reckon it could probably top a ton.
Neil: Bollocks!

2008, Damon Beesley, Iain Morris, “Caravan Club”, in The Inbetweeners, Series 1, Episode 5, E4:

The HSDT team, however, had some work to do, although by the end of 1972 the power car interior had been adjusted and BR had agreed to 'double-manning' with extra pay when speeds topped the ton.

2021 October 6, Greg Morse, “A need for speed and the drive for 125”, in RAIL, number 941, page 50:

Synonym of hundred, particularly
A speed of 100 mph.

satanen (note that km/h is used in Finland and thus satanen is generally understood as 100 km/h or about 60 mph; 100 mph is around 160 km/h)


practical

From Middle English practical, practicale, praktycall, from Medieval Latin practicālis.

(British) A part of an exam or series of exams in which the candidate has to demonstrate their practical ability

практика

a part of an exam or series of exams in which the candidate has to demonstrate their practical ability


lady

⇒ Afrikaans: haar ladyskap

→ Arabic: لِيدِي (līdī)

Egyptian Arabic: ليدي (lēdī)

→ Belarusian: лэ́дзі (lédzi)

→ Bulgarian: ле́йди (léjdi)

→ French: lady

→ German: Lady

→ Greek: λαίδη (laídi), λέδη (lédi)

→ Italian: lady

→ Japanese: レディ (redi), レディー (redī)

→ Korean: 레이디 (reidi)

→ Latvian: lēdija

→ Macedonian: леди (ledi)

→ Polish: lady

→ Romanian: lady

→ Russian: ле́ди (lédi)

→ Spanish: lady

→ Swedish: lady

→ Tongan: leitī

→ Ukrainian: ле́ді (lédi)

→ Volapük: läd

From Middle English lady, laddy, lafdi, lavedi, from Old English hlǣfdīġe (“mistress of a household, wife of a lord, lady”, literally “bread-kneader”), from hlāf (“bread, loaf”) + dīġe (“kneader”), related to Old English dǣġe (“maker of dough”) (whence dey (“dairymaid”)). Compare also lord. More at loaf, dairy, dough. Unrelated to lad.

nais-

with a professional title: who is a woman

(UK, slang) A five-pound note. (Rhyming slang, Lady Godiva for fiver.)


ordinance

ordinances (plural)
ordinaunce (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English ordinaunce (ca. 1300), from Old French ordenance (“decree, command”) (modern French ordonnance), from Medieval Latin ordinantia, from ordinans, the present participle of ordino (“put in order”) (whence ordain). Doublet of ordonnance.

der

An edict or decree, authoritative order.

(UK, pre-1992 universities, Commonwealth) Detailed legislation that translates the broad principles of the university's charter and statutes into practical effect.


rand

From Middle English rand, from Old English rand (“edge, border, margin, rim, shore”), from Proto-Germanic *randaz, *randō (“edge, rim, crust”), from Proto-Indo-European *rem- (“to rest, prop or support oneself”). Cognate with Dutch rand (“edge, border, outskirts, rim”), German Rand (“edge, border, margin, rim, outskirts”), Swedish rand (“rand, stripe, edge, verge”). Related to rind.

cog

They quarrelled an' fought 'mang the clippin's an' rands, / The tailor insistin' the colour was blue.

(UK, dialect, rare) A border, edge or rim; a strip, as of cloth.


burgle

en-verb

burgle (third-person singular simple present burgles, present participle burgling, simple past and past participle burgled)

burgles (present singular third-person)
burgling (participle present)
burgled (participle past)
burgled (past)

In St. Louis, burglars burgle by daylight

1867 March 14, “This and That”, in Delaware Tribune, Wilmington, DE, page 1:

The New York World has coined a new verb -- "to burgle."

1867 August 24, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, page 8:

The language grows apace. A "cablegram" has been received, and $400 have been "burgled."

1868 February 13, Louisville Daily Courier, Louisvile, KY, page 4:

Burgled his safe and bolted with the tin.

1868, John Brougham, Much Ado About a Merchant of Venice, New York: Samuel French, page 13:

[S]he went and burgled three pears out of the dish ...

1869, Joanna H. Mathews, Bessie at School, London: James Nisbet & Co., page 183:

Conceive the Great Lexicographer admitting to his Dictionary such excrescencies as: "Burgle, verb active, To break into a dwelling-house,"

1870 February 5, “American Slangography”, in Punch, London, page 44:

Burglarize, to, a term creeping into journalism. ... The word has a dangerous rival in the shorter burgle.

1872, M. Schele De Vere, Americanisms: The English of the New World, New York: Charles Scribner, page 587:

When an American says, "I've been burgled" -- where an Englishman would say, "My house has been broken into by thieves" -- he succeeds in shortening the statement by more than half ...

1873 April 21, Albert Julius Mott, “Inaugural Address”, in Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, volume xxvii, London: Longman, Greens, Reader & Dyer, page 30:

Well, I hope to goodness the house won’t be burgled during the night.

1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Beryl Coronet”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2011:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To commit burglary.

And when scrum-half Ben Youngs, who had a poor game, was burgled by opposite number Irakli Abuseridze and the ball shipped down the line to Irakli Machkhaneli, it looked like Georgia had scored a try of their own, but the winger's foot was in touch.

2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:

Foden did his job admirably. The fact that both City goals came from burgling possession in the final third indicated how successfully City managed collectively to disrupt Real’s buildup play.

2020 August 7, Jonathan Liew, “Phil Foden stars to offer Manchester City glimpse of multiple futures”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, sports) To take the ball legally from an opposing player.


keen

en-adj

keen (comparative keener or more keen, superlative keenest or most keen)

keener (comparative)
more keen (comparative)
keenest (superlative)
most keen (superlative)
keene (alternative)
kene (alternative)

From Middle English kene (“bold, brave, sharp”), from Old English cēne (“keen, fierce, bold, brave, warlike, powerful; learned, clever, wise”), from Proto-Germanic *kōniz (“knowledgeable, skilful, experienced, clever, capable”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).
Cognate with Danish køn (“handsome, pretty”), Dutch kien (“smart, wise, able”), koen (“daring, valiant, doughty, courageous”), German kühn (“bold, daring, audacious, hardy, valiant, venturesome”), Icelandic kænn (“wise, crafty, clever, able”), Faroese kønur (“expert (in, on), experienced, skilful, able, capable”), Scots keen (“lively, brisk; avaricious”). Related to Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”). More at cunning, can.

cog

(British) Of prices, extremely low as to be competitive.


rob

en-verb

rob (third-person singular simple present robs, present participle robbing, simple past and past participle robbed)

robs (present singular third-person)
robbing (participle present)
robbed (participle past)
robbed (past)

From Middle English robben, from Anglo-Norman robber, from Late Latin raubāre, from Frankish *raubōn (compare Dutch roven) and Old High German roubōn, raubōn (“to rob, steal, plunder”), from Proto-Germanic *raubōną. Doublet of reave.

That bloke robbed my phone!


wack

Clipping of wacker (“a Liverpudlian; a resident of Liverpool, England”)

clipping

A few well chosen words such as "Let's be having you wack!", works wonders. The dockers know that they've got a Scouse to deal with. I'm not saying that a Southerner couldn't handle the situation, but the job might well take longer.

1966, The British Journal of Photography, volume 113, H. Greenwood, page 17:

Leading Seaman Hanlon, a tough young man from the Liverpool docks, greeted him with, 'Wot's up with you, wack? Lost yer bleeding maor summat?'

2011, Douglas Reeman, Torpedo Run, Random House, →ISBN:

One of the young men stepped forward to explain. It was obviously an enthusiasm of his. 'Hey, Wack, gerron wiv it, eh?'

2019, Richard Woodman, Voyage East, Canelo, →ISBN:

(UK, Liverpool) A friendly term of address.


spanner

Japanese: スパナ (supana)

Korean: 스패너 (seupaeneo)

Malay: sepana

مِفْتَاح إِنْجْلِيزِيّ m (miftāḥ ʔinglīziyy, literally “English key”)

га́ечны ключ m (háječny ključ, literally “nut key”)

га́ечен ключ m (gáečen ključ, literally “nut key”)

γερμανικό κλειδί n (germanikó kleidí, literally “German key”)

га́ечный ключ m (gáječnyj ključ, literally “nut key”)

гайкови́й ключ m (hajkovýj ključ, literally “nut key”)

Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more bolt to screw in.

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) A hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts.

The groove in this toolholder is what the spanner grabs onto when you are changing the tool.

(Canada, US) Any of certain types of such a tool that have a pin or hook to engage the driven object.

Halfway through the production of Macbeth, the director found that the stage was smaller than he expected. This really threw a spanner in the works.

(UK, Ireland) A problem, dilemma or obstacle; something unexpected or troublesome (in the phrase spanner in the works)

You spanner, Rodney! I wanted some time, not a bunch of thyme!

(UK, Ireland, mildly derogatory) A stupid or unintelligent person; one prone to making mistakes, especially in language.


wrench

wrenches (plural)
wrenche (alternative obsolete)
wrinche (alternative obsolete)
wringe (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English wrench, from Old English wrenċ. Compare German Rank (“plot, intrigue”).

(UK) An adjustable spanner used by plumbers.


draught

en-noun

draught (countable and uncountable, plural draughts)

From Middle English draught, draght, draȝt, from Old English *dreaht, *dræht (related to dragan (“to draw, drag”)), from Proto-Germanic *drahtuz, noun form of *draganą; equivalent to draw + -t.

(British) A checker: a game piece used in the game of draughts.

(UK, medicine, obsolete) A mild vesicatory.

And therefore, for the whole process, and full representation, there must be more than one draught; the one representing him in station, the other in session, another in genuflexion.

1650, Thomas Browne, chapter V, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 22:

drawing sudden draughts upon the enemy when he looketh not for you

1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:

(UK, obsolete) A sudden attack upon an enemy.


job

→ Antillean Creole: djòb

→ Brazilian Portuguese: job

→ Cantonese: job

→ Danish: job

→ Dutch: job

→ French: job

→ German: Job

→ Italian: job

→ Louisiana Creole: djòb

→ Norwegian Bokmål: jobb

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: jobb

→ Romanian: job

→ Swedish: jobb

From the phrase jobbe of work (“piece of work”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a variant of Middle English gobbe (“mass, lump”); or perhaps related to Middle English jobben (“to jab, thrust, peck”), or Middle English choppe (“piece, bargain”). More at gob, jab, chop.

der

“He was ex-job, Beavis. Detective sergeant out of County, Banbury, retired in ‘59.”

2018 February 11, Colin Dexter, Russell Lewis, 14:17 from the start, in Endeavour(Cartouche), season 5, episode 2 (TV series), spoken by DS Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans):

But there it was on the screen: The personal details of his old colleague from Kennington station in the late nineties.[…]She’s job. We used to work together.

2018 July 24, Chris Merritt, Last Witness:A Gripping Crime Thriller You Won’t Be Able To Put Down:

“I’m job, D.S Townsend. I have to report a missing person.”

2022 February 9, Daragh Carville, Richard Clark, Furquan Akhtar, 01:33 from the start, in The Bay, season 3, episode 5, spoken by D.S Jenn Townsend (Marsha Thomason):

The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

w:A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

(UK, slang, law enforcement) The police as a profession, act of policing, or an individual police officer.


semi

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

The prefix semi- (from Latin) used as a noun.

2008, Elliott Placks, quoted in Helen Isbister, Morris Bryant, Property, Career FAQs, Australia, page 40,
I′m selling two side-by-side semis that are currently under construction, a waterfront apartment and a house in Rose Bay.

The smaller semis of the 1920s and 1930s were closely related to the three bedroom pre-1919 narrow fronted terraces, at least to the larger pre-1919 terraces.

2008, Barry Goodchild, Homes, Cities and Neighbourhoods: Planning and the Residential Landscapes of Modern Britain, page 52:

The roads were lined with cramped little semis and 1960s bungalows: Britain's cheapest houses, in their flimsy, pebble-dashed glory.

2012, Tim Moore, You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Around Unloved Britain, Vintage, →ISBN, page 150:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, informal) A semi-detached house.


ky

I put on a big fanny of Ky, that is a straight-sided pot of cocoa for them returning.

2005, Patrick Halliday, Survival, page 24:

(UK, naval slang) Alternative form of kye (“cocoa”).


same

en-adv

same (comparative more same, superlative most same)

more same (comparative)
most same (superlative)

From Middle English same, samme, samen, (also ysame, isame), from Old English samen (“together”), from Proto-Germanic *samanai (“together”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one, together”). Cognate with Scots samin (“together”), Dutch samen (“together”), German zusammen (“together”), Swedish samman (“together”), Icelandic saman (“together”).


bobby

From the given name of Sir Robert Peel, who established London’s police force.

If I am wrong, and if Lessingham’s wrong, how do you explain his extraordinary insistence on taking it inside the cab with him, which the bobby describes?

(British, Ireland, Australia, slang) A police officer.

(British, Ireland, Australia, slang) A railway signaller.


traveller

travellers (plural)
traveler (alternative US)

From Middle English traveler, travelour, travailere, travailour (“worker", also "traveller”), equivalent to travel + -er. Compare Anglo-Norman travailur, travailour, Old French travailleor, travelleeur, travelier.

(British) Someone who lives (particularly in the UK) in a caravan, bus or other vehicle rather than a fixed abode.


beast

en-verb

beast (third-person singular simple present beasts, present participle beasting, simple past and past participle beasted)

beasts (present singular third-person)
beasting (participle present)
beasted (participle past)
beasted (past)
beest (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English beeste, beste, from Old French beste (French bête), from Latin bēstia (“animal, beast”); many cognates – see bēstia.

(British, military) To impose arduous exercises, either as training or as punishment.


saloon

→ Dutch: saloon

→ Finnish: saluuna

→ French: saloon

→ Russian: салун (salun)

→ Bengali: সেলুন (śelun)

→ Hindi: सैलून (sailūn)

From Occitan salon, French salon, either augmentative of salle (“room”), or borrowed from Italian salone (“hall”), augmentative form of sala, salla (“room”); in both cases borrowed from a Germanic source such as Old High German sal (“house, hall”), from Proto-Germanic *salą, from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“dwelling”). Doublet of salon.

A pint of beer in the saloon bar costs a penny more than in the public bar.

(British, dated) A lounge bar in an English public house, contrasted with the public bar.

обща зала

a large public room for use as a lounge on a ship

(British) A car with a boot or trunk compartment separate from the driver/passenger space; a sedan.


estate

From Middle English estat, from Anglo-Norman estat and Old French estat (French: état), from Latin status. Doublet of state and status.

Professor Loretta Lees from King's College London's geography department says, "The word 'estate' has become synonymous with the term 'ghetto'. It's become a dirty word. Back in the '20s and '30s it didn't carry the same stigma."

2012 October 19, Josephine McDermott, “London's new housing loses the 'dirty word'”, in BBC News:

(UK, sometimes derogatory) A housing estate.

(UK, automotive) A station wagon; a car with a tailgate (or liftgate) and storage space to the rear of the seating which is coterminous with the passenger compartment (and often extensible into that compartment via folding or removable seating).


dragon

→ Fijian: drekoni

→ Japanese: ドラゴン (doragon)

desc

→ Korean: 드래곤 (deuraegon), 드래건 (deuraegeon)

→ Marathi: ड्रॅगन (ḍrĕgan)

→ Marshallese: tūrāikōn

→ Niuean: tarākoni

→ Swahili: dragoni

→ Tamil: டிராகன் (ṭirākaṉ)

→ Yoruba: dírágónì

From Middle English dragoun, borrowed from Old French dragon, from Latin dracō(n), from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “a serpent of huge size, a python, a dragon”), probably from δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “I see clearly”). Mostly displaced Old English draca (whence modern drake)—from the same Latin source, as are Draco, dracone, and dragoon.

taniwha

Maori mythological creature similar to a dragon

(UK, slang, rare, derogatory) An unattractive woman.


gar

Belone belone
Belone belone#Translingual

(especially UK, Ireland) A garfish, Belone belone.


gar

en-verb

gar (third-person singular simple present gars, present participle garring, simple past and past participle gart)

gars (present singular third-person)
garring (participle present)
gart (participle past)
gart (past)

From Middle English garren, gerren, from Old Norse gera, gerva (Swedish göra, Danish gøre), from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną. Compare yare; but also Old Cornish gorra (“put, place, set”).

I shall firste begyn at Sandwyche, and there I shall go in my shearte, barefoote, and at every ten myles ende I shall founde and gar make an house of religious, of what order that ye woll assygne me [...].

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XX:

Time gars me tremble. Ah, how sore the baulk! / While Time in pride of strength cloth ever stalk [...].

1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Night 15:

(now chiefly UK dialectal) To make, compel (someone to do something); to cause (something to be done).


skid

(UK, slang, obsolete) A sovereign (old coin).


macadamization

en-noun

macadamization (countable and uncountable, plural macadamizations)

macadamizations (plural)
macadamisation (alternative)
McAdamization (alternative)

/məˌkædəmɪˈzeɪʃən/

(British; American and Oxford British spelling) The process of paving roads with macadam.


hop

From Middle English hoppen, from Old English hoppian (“to hop, spring, leap, dance”), from Proto-West Germanic *huppōn, from Proto-Germanic *huppōną (“to hop”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewb- (“to bend, bow”).
Cognate with Dutch hoppen (“to hop”), German hopfen, hoppen (“to hop”), Swedish hoppa (“to hop, leap, jump”), Icelandic hoppa (“to hop, skip”).

der

1896, Benjamin Brierley, James Dronsfield, "Ab-o'th'-Yate" Sketches and Other Short Stories
One singing-room we had closed, and so damaged a "twopenny hop" that it could not have survived another season had our own prosperity continued unchecked.

(UK, US, slang, dated) A dance; a gathering for the purpose of dancing.


tom

From generic use of the proper name Tom.


tom

Toms 90p a pound

“I'd like sausage, eggs, bacon, toms, mushies, beans – oh, and some fried bread,” said Mike.

2009, Mark Penny, Jonathan Penny, The Golden Pig, page 160:

(British, greengrocers' slang) A tomato (the fruit).


tube

From Middle French tube, from Latin tubus (“tube, pipe”), related to tuba (“long trumpet; war-trumpet”), of obscure ultimate origin, but possibly connected to tībia (“shinbone, reed-pipe”); see there. Doublet of tubus.

you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube

you can't put the toothpaste back into the tube

I took the tube to Waterloo and walked the rest of the way.

The economist also observed that some of the Victoria Line's cost should be debited to existing lines, as they would benefit from the rebuilding of their interchange stations with the new tube.

1962 October, “The Victoria Line”, in Modern Railways, page 217:

(British, colloquial, often capitalised as Tube, a trademark) The London Underground railway system, originally referred to the lower level lines that ran in tubular tunnels as opposed to the higher ones which ran in rectangular section tunnels. (Often the tube.)

And thus it came about that on that October morning I found myself in the deep level tube with the Professor speeding to the North of London in what proved to be one of the most singular experiences of my remarkable life.

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine:

(obsolete) One of the tubular tunnels of the London Underground.


carrier

From Middle English cariere, partly from carien + -ere, after Anglo-Norman carier, cariour, and partly directly from Anglo-Norman. By surface analysis, carry + -er.

но́сьбіт

A person or object that carries someone or something else.


scale

en-verb

scale (third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled)

scales (present singular third-person)
scaling (participle present)
scaled (participle past)
scaled (past)

From Middle English scale, from Old French escale, from Frankish and/or Old High German skala, from Proto-Germanic *skalō. Cognate with Old English sċealu (“shell, husk”), whence the modern doublet shale. Further cognate with Dutch schaal, German Schale, French écale.

(UK, Scotland, dialect) To scatter; to spread.


bray

bray (third-person singular simple present brays, present participle braying, simple past and past participle brayed)

brays (present singular third-person)
braying (participle present)
brayed (participle past)
brayed (past)

From Middle English brayen (“to break or crush into pieces”), from Anglo-Norman breier, Old French breie, breier, broiier (modern French broyer (“to crush, grind”)), possibly from Frankish *brekan (“to break”), from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”); thus making the English word a doublet of break.

der

If anything he brayed him all the harder – the old family bull recognising his fighting days were close to over.

2011, Sarah Hall, “Butcher’s Perfume”, in The Beautiful Indifference, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 25:

(transitive, British, chiefly Yorkshire, by extension) To hit (someone or something).


hen

From Middle English hen, from Old English henn (“hen”), from Proto-West Germanic *hannju, from Proto-Germanic *hanjō (“hen”), from Proto-Indo-European *kan-, *kana- (“to sing”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hanne (“hen”), West Frisian hin (“hen”), Dutch hen (“hen”), German Low German Heen (“hen”), German Henne (“hen”), Danish høne (“hen”), Swedish höna (“hen”), Icelandic hæna (“hen”). Related to Old English hana (“cock, rooster”). Also cognate to Latin cicōnia (“stork”), Latin canō (“to sing”), Russian каню́к (kanjúk, “buzzard”). Compare Russian пету́х (petúx, “rooster, cock”) from Russian петь (petʹ, “to sing”).
Sense 7 after cock (“male chicken; man's penis”).

Weibchen

generic term for the female of any animal

(UK, informal) A bride-to-be, particularly in the context of a hen night.


nait

From Middle English naite, from Old Norse neyte, neyti (“use”), from Proto-Germanic *nautiz (“use”).

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Use; profit; foredeal; advantage.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Use; end; purpose.


nait

en-adj

nait (comparative naiter or more nait, superlative naitest or most nait)

naiter (comparative)
more nait (comparative)
naitest (superlative)
most nait (superlative)

From Middle English nait, nayt, from Old Norse neytr (“in good order, fit, fit for use”), from Proto-Germanic *nautiz (“useful, helpful”). Compare Old English nyttol (“useful”).

der

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Useful; good at need; fit; able.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Quick and effective; deft; skilful.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) In good order; trim; tidy; dainty; clean.


buck

From Middle English bukke, bucke, buc, from Old English buc, bucc, bucca (“he-goat, stag”), from Proto-West Germanic *bukk, *bukkō, from Proto-Germanic *bukkaz, *bukkô (“buck”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ- (“ram”). Doublet of puck (billy goat).
Currency-related senses hail from American English, a clipping of buckskin as a unit of trade among Indians and Europeans in frontier days (attested from 1748).
The idea of rigidly standing implements is instilled by Dutch bok (“sawhorse”) as in zaagbok (“sawbuck”).
The sense of an object indicating someone’s turn then occurred in American English, possibly originating from the game poker, where a knife (typically with a hilt made from a stag horn) was used as a place-marker to signify whose turn it was to deal. The place-marker was commonly referred to as a buck, which reinforced the term “pass the buck” used in poker, and eventually a silver dollar was used in place of a knife, which also led to a dollar being referred to as a buck.

This pusillanimous creature thinks himself, and would be thought, a buck.

1808, Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Connoisseur: The British Essayists, volume 32, page 93:

The Captain was then a buck and dandy, during the reign of those two successive dynasties, of the first rank of the second order ; the characteristic of which very respectable rank of fashionables I hold to be, that their spurs impinge upon the pavement oftener than upon the sides of a horse.

1825, Constantine Henry Phipps, I Zingari: The English in Italy, volume II, page 153:

three and a buck

A unit of a particular currency
(UK, slang, obsolete) A sixpence.

A unit of a particular currency
A sixpence.

An implement the body of which is likened to a male sheep’s body due maintaining a stiff-legged position as if by stubbornness.

(UK, dialect) The body of a post mill, particularly in East Anglia. See Wikipedia:Windmill machinery.

(UK, obsolete, slang) An unlicensed cabman.


buck

From Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk, body, hull of a ship, fishtrap, container”), from Old English būc (“belly, bottle, jug, pitcher”), from Proto-West Germanic *būk, from Proto-Germanic *būkaz. Doublet of bucket.

inh

(UK, dialectal) The body of a cart or waggon, especially the front part.

(UK, dialectal, anatomy) Belly, breast, chest.


buck

en-verb

buck (third-person singular simple present bucks, present participle bucking, simple past and past participle bucked)

bucks (present singular third-person)
bucking (participle present)
bucked (participle past)
bucked (past)
bouk (alternative)

(UK, dialectal, intransitive) To swell out.


drey

(British) A squirrel’s nest, built of twigs in a tree.


kip

1760–70, probably related to Danish kippe (“dive, hovel, cheap inn”) and Middle Low German kiffe (“hovel”). From the same distant Germanic root as cove.

(informal, chiefly UK, Ireland) A place to sleep; a rooming house; a bed.

I’m just going for my afternoon kip.

(informal, chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Sleep, snooze, nap, forty winks, doze.

(informal, chiefly UK, Ireland) A very untidy house or room.

(informal, chiefly UK, Ireland, dated) A brothel.


kip

kip (third-person singular simple present kips, present participle kipping, simple past and past participle kipped)

kips (present singular third-person)
kipping (participle present)
kipped (participle past)
kipped (past)

Don’t worry, I’ll kip on the sofabed.

"Steady on, mate. How was I to know this was your gaff? I was lookin' for somewhere to kip."

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 56:

He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.
"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind it if wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."

1997, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, published 1998, page 60:

(informal, chiefly UK) To sleep; often with the connotation of a temporary or charitable situation, or one borne out of necessity.

přespat

to sleep, in a temporary, charitable, or necessary situation


murder

murder (third-person singular simple present murders, present participle murdering, simple past and past participle murdered)

murders (present singular third-person)
murdering (participle present)
murdered (participle past)
murdered (past)
murther (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English murder, murdre, mourdre, alteration of earlier murthre (“murder”) (see murther), from Old English morþor (“secret slaying, unlawful killing”) and Old English myrþra (“murder, homicide”), both from Proto-West Germanic *morþr, from Proto-Germanic *murþrą (“death, killing, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥tro- (“killing”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer-, *mor-, *mr̥- (“to die”). Akin to Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌸𐍂 (maurþr, “murder”), Old High German mord (“murder”), Old Norse morð (“murder”), Old English myrþrian (“to murder”) and morþ.
The -d- in the Middle English form may have been influenced in part by Anglo-Norman murdre, from Old French murdre, from Medieval Latin murdrum (whence the English doublet of murdrum), from Frankish *morþr, *murþr (“murder”), from the same Germanic root, though this may also have been wholly the result of internal development (compare burden, from burthen).
(crows): Attested at least since 1475.

inh

I could murder a hamburger right now.

“Is that so? Well, I could murder a cup of tea,” said Auntie Flip.

2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(figuratively, colloquial, British) To devour, ravish.


barking mad

(British, New Zealand, informal) Completely insane.