nobble

en-verb

nobble (third-person singular simple present nobbles, present participle nobbling, simple past and past participle nobbled)

nobbles (present singular third-person)
nobbling (participle present)
nobbled (participle past)
nobbled (past)

Near-synonyms: hobble, hamper, hinder, impede, embarrass, disable

After 12 successive league wins[…]Charlton were nobbled by the First Division's no-hopers, who profited from a goalkeeping bloomer then held on to their lead for dear life.

2000 March 12, Stuart Barnes, “Swindon stunner for Curbishley”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Their core belief, unsupported by evidence or logic, is that homes are unaffordable because investors drive up prices.[…]Australians for Affordable Housing appears to think that nobbling investors will strike a telling blow for first-time buyers: remove negative gearing and increase capital gains tax, and homes will be affordable.

2011 October 22, Terry Ryder, “Affordable-housing lobby out to nobble investments”, in The Australian:

Google has come out fighting after Twitter claimed that changes to its search engine nobble results to favour Google+, damaging the internet.

2012 January 11, Gavin Clarke, “Google attacks Twitter's search bias claim”, in The Register:

His main fear is that the fledgling technology could have its wings clipped by traditional manufacturers, who will doubtless view it as a threat to their livelihoods, and do all in their powers to nobble it.

2012 September 9, “3D printing: Difference Engine: The PC all over again”, in The Economist:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) To injure or obstruct intentionally.

The jury was nobbled to delay unanimous verdict.

Unlike "noble" vigilantes, the police and court facilities which exist are said to be inefficient and corrupt, and juries are said to be easily "nobbled" or intimidated.

2000, Italo Pardo, Morals of Legitimacy: Between Agency and System, page 122:

For example jury trials were reformed to allow majority verdicts, so that criminals could less easily nobble them.

2002, Kevin Jefferys, Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown, page 107:

Here, though, Picot's overbearing power, and the fact that the bishop was an absentee, meant that the sheriff could use threats to "nobble" the judges.

2012, Mark Hagger, William: King and Conqueror, page 75:

(UK, Ireland, slang) To gain influence over by corrupt means or intimidation.

podmáznout

to gain influence by corrupt means or intimidation


nobble

(UK, slang) A deliberate act of injury or obstruction.


knap

The verb is derived from Late Middle English knappen (“to strike (something)”); further etymology uncertain, probably related to Middle Dutch knappen, cnappen (“to break (something) with a sharp sound, snap; to crack or crackle”) (modern Dutch knappen), probably ultimately onomatopoeic.
The noun is derived from Late Middle English knap, knappe (“sharp blow, strike”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from the verb (see above), or related to an ancestor of Danish knep and Swedish knäpp (“a flick, rap, snap”), probably ultimately onomatopoeic.

inh

(chiefly archaic or obsolete except UK, dialectal)

A sudden, sharp blow, knock, or slap; a rap, a whack.

Foot Stomp […] The sole of the attacker's foot covers the victim's foot without actually touching it. The sounds of the attacker's heel striking the floor creates the knap. The victim adds vocal and physical pain reactions.

1982, J. D. Martinez, “Kneeing, Kicking, and Stomping”, in Combat Mime: A Non-violent Approach to Stage Violence (A Burnham Publishers Book), Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, published 2001, →ISBN, page 148:

Pulling the punch straight back to its initial starting position, sometimes referred to as "snapping it back," is the most effective way of selling the straight punch. It tells the audience the punch was thrown, they hear a knap, and the victim is 'injured.' […] The knap sound, like all punches, is crucial to the effect of selling the punch, but the technique used to get the knap sound has to be well hidden.

2012, Andrew Ashenden, “The Straight Punch”, in Basics of Stage Combat: Unarmed, Boca Raton, Fla.: Universal-Publishers, →ISBN, page 63:

The sound made by such a blow, knock, or slap.

napsaus

(agriculture) Synonym of chattering damsel (“a component of a traditional mill which creates a vibratory motion to impel portions of grain toward the millstone; a clapper”).

chattering damsel
chattering damsel#English


Glasgow kiss

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

Sarcastic reference to the supposed stereotypical belligerence of Glaswegians.

In a Glasgow Kiss the hard head butted his huge nose, flattened it with a crunching sound […]

1962, Frank Bruno, The Black Pearl, page 187:

[…] the first white Yank glasses the first black Yank so I get in there and gave him the Glasgow kiss and that's that.

2014, Iain Maloney, First Time Solo, →ISBN, page 60:

(British, euphemistic, humorous) A sharp, sudden headbutt to the nose, usually resulting in a broken nose.


Slush Puppie

Blend of slush + hushpuppy, a trademark.

‘Slush Puppie?’ asks Fin.
‘Syrup mixed with piles of crushed ice,’ replies Daniel. ‘Don’t you know it? It looked radioactive and chemically but tasted cool and delicious.’

2023, H. Gareth Gavin, Never Was, Cipher Press, pages 128-129:

(British) A slushie, a slush, a nonalcoholic drink made of small ice crystals flavored with syrup.

Slush Puppy

an alcoholic drink; not to be confused with slush puppy


doss

en-verb

doss (third-person singular simple present dosses, present participle dossing, simple past and past participle dossed)

dosses (present singular third-person)
dossing (participle present)
dossed (participle past)
dossed (past)

Perhaps from Latin dorsum (“the back”), i.e. what one lies on when sleeping; perhaps from English dialect doss (“a hassock”).

I am going to doss tomorrow when the match is on.

(intransitive, British and Ireland) To avoid work, shirk, etc.

I normally have to doss in shop doorways or park benches.

(intransitive, British, slang) To sleep, especially in the open or in a derelict building because one is homeless.


doss

en-noun

doss (countable and uncountable, plural dosses)

I am going to have a doss tomorrow.

(slang, British and Ireland) The avoidance of work.

Circumnavigating the world in a canoe is no doss.

(slang, British and Ireland) An easy piece of work.

(slang, dated, British and Ireland) A place to sleep in; a bed.

(slang, dated, British and Ireland, by extension) Sleep.


grubber

He could, moreover, no longer be tempted to the Grubber, for all chocolate and sweets were taboo.

1925, The Oxford Outlook, numbers 34-43, page 158:

I remember the grubber which smelt of potato chips and chocolate and the steam-heated library with books about monasteries that no one else seemed to look at, and I remember the fresh weedless lawns between the school buildings […]

1960, Rupert Croft-Cooke, The Altar in the Loft, page 210:


gully

→ French: gollé

→ German: Gully

Origin uncertain. Possibly from a variant of Middle English golet (“esophagus, gullet”), from Old French goulet, from Latin gula (“throat”). Shift in meaning in Middle English to "water channel, ravine" may have been influenced by Middle English gylle, gille, galle (“deep narrow valley, ravine”); see gill. Compare Dutch geul.
Alternatively, from a diminutive of dialectal gull (“fissue, chasm”) + -y (diminutive suffix). See gull, gullick.

unc

uncertain


barrister

From bar (a collective term for lawyers or the legal profession) and the suffix -ster.

Postmen, binmen, dock workers, even barristers are now on strike. Where will all this end?

2022 September 7, Philip Haigh, “Comment: More strikes and poor morale”, in RAIL, number 965, page 3:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) A lawyer with the right to speak and argue as an advocate in higher lawcourts.

адвока́т

lawyer with the right to speak as an advocate in higher lawcourts


Belisha beacon

Named after Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport who introduced them in 1934.

A police constable concealed in a doorway in City Road, Finsbury, saw a youth of seventeen, who had two others with him, climb a Belisha beacon and break the globe with his fist. It was the hundredth beacon globe to be broken in Finsbury since November.

1935 January 10, “Cyclists air their grievances on road safety”, in The Guardian:

(British, Ireland) A tall black and white pole topped by a flashing orange globe, placed on either side of the road at zebra crossings; mostly now replaced by more sophisticated arrangements.


boffin

Origin unknown; a number of possible etymologies have been suggested, but no conclusive evidence exists.
One strong theory conjectures a connection from the "Mr. Boffins" of English novels, such as in Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.

unknown

Origin unknown

koumák

(informal) person with specialized knowledge or skills

In fact, a fighting friend of mine said that he could hardly walk in any direction in this war without tumbling over a scientist who had got in the way. In the Royal Air Force, where the concentration of scientists is perhaps greatest, they have a pet name for them. They call them “Boffins.” Why, I do not know. I said to a young friend of mine in the Air Force, “Why do you call scientists ‘Boffins’?” He said, “I don’t know. What else would you call them?”

[1942 February 3, Henry T[homas] Tizard, “Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. Luncheon.”, in Journal of the Institute of Petroleum, volume 28, number 219, London: The Institute of Petroleum, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-09-30, page 58:

With a rare and beautiful ease one can now ring up a boffin, as I did the other day, and say: "As a price for not opposing our Parliamentary Powers for a new marshalling yard, the Council at X demands that the bridge over X Lane shall have 16 ft. 6 in. headroom. This means steepening our gradient from 1 in 70 to 1 in 65 for half a mile on a 20-chain curve. What difference will this make to the loads of Type "2", "3" and "4" diesels please?". Back comes the answer.

1960 April, G. F. Fiennes, “Unpunctuality - the cause and the cure”, in Trains Illustrated, page 244:

An essential difference between a boffin and a back room boy, as [Robert] Watson-Watts points out, is that the boffin does not stay in the back room but emerges to poke his nose into other peoples[’] business. It is quite wrong to use the word ‘boffin’ simply to describe a scientist or a technician; a boffin is essentially a middleman, a bridge between two worlds, […]

1991, R[obert] Hanbury Brown, “Radar and the Battle at Night”, in Boffin: A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy and Quantum Optics, New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon.: Taylor & Francis Group, →ISBN, page 57:

He devoted six years to building the probe and, breaking with boffin tradition, transformed himself into an extroverted fundraiser to sell it to a public and government largely indifferent to space exploration. […] In fact, he's still busily rallying support for Beagle 2’s successor. Will he succeed? Can a lone boffin maintain a nation’s appreciation for exploration? [Colin] Pillinger could single-handedly determine whether the boffin remains a modest backroom boy or claims a lasting spot in the limelight.

2004 September, Nicole Dyer, “Rebirth of the Boffin”, in Mark Jannot, editor, Popular Science, volume 265, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Time4 Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 160, columns 2–3:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland, informal) An engineer or scientist, especially one engaged in technological or military research.

— Well, last year I used to have a friend Charley [Charley was in the top sets for English, mathematics and French] but this year he doesn't speak to me any more and every time I see him he's hanging around with boffins like. When I go round to his house, now and again, he's always got his 'O' level and 'A' level books open and he's always concentrating on his work. Hanging around with boffins. / — What are boffins? / — People who work. Stay in all the time. Never go out, go down the town or nothin. And always get good letters home and pats on the back by teachers.

1995, John Abraham, “Organizational Differentiation and Polarization: Setting, Social Class and Pupil Values”, in Divide and School: Gender and Class Dynamics in Comprehensive Education, London, Bristol, Pa.: The Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 55:

The opportunities for producers in the interactive multimedia environment are boundless. The boffins writing software programs for interactive multimedia will not be the producers of corporate communications. They need today's producers to bring their communication skills to the interactive domain, […]

1995, Bob Turnbull, “Corporate Video”, in Tom Jeffrey, editor, Film Business: A Handbook for Film Producers, 2nd edition, North Ryde, N.S.W.: AFTRS Publications, published 1998, →ISBN, page 35:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland, informal, by extension) A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward.

(loosely) an intellectual; a smart person.


brass monkeys

From the phrase cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey - supposedly a reference to the brass container for cannon balls on a British man-of-war (but this seems to have been discredited).

Blimey, it's brass monkeys out there today.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic, informal) Very cold.


bubble and squeak

en-noun

bubble and squeak (countable and uncountable, plural bubble and squeaks)

(food): Named from the sounds during cooking.

“But if she had rank and title?”
“Rank and title! Bubble and squeak! No, not half so good as bubble and squeak. English beef and good cabbage. But foreign rank and title!—foreign cabbage and beef!—foreign bubble and foreign squeak!”

1853, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VIII, in “My Novel”; Or Varieties in English Life […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book eighth, page 348:

“Better have it—better have it first. No hurry. What've you got in the pot that smells so good?”
“Bubble and squeak, sir.”
“Bubble and squeak! Ah!” And with those words the agent withdrew to where, in a farm wagon drawn up by the side of the road, three men were solemnly pulling at their pipes.

1915, John Galsworthy, chapter XVIII, in The Freelands:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Cabbage and mashed potatoes etc. fried together.


bunk off

en-verb

bunk off (third-person singular simple present bunks off, present participle bunking off, simple past and past participle bunked off)

bunks off (present singular third-person)
bunking off (participle present)
bunked off (participle past)
bunked off (past)

We all bunked off school yesterday to watch the football.

“You better be off to school now, young lady. You don’t want to be late…”
“I suppose so,” mumbled Zoe. Sometimes she wondered why she didn’t just bunk off like so many of the others.

2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:


car park

/ˈkɑɹ ˌpɑːɹk/

It is important also that we improve car park security.

1998, House of Lords, Parliamentary Debates, page ccxxxv:

The dog lumbered his way across the car park to a point where he had to cross Emmons′s path.

2006, Richard Mechan, The State Is Not Immune, page 9:

Beyond the car park a rough old track ran uphill.

2010, John Marsden, The Ellie Chronicles: Incurable, unnumbered page:

Follow the road to the car park and boat ramp at Buffalo Creek.

2011, Richard Thomas, Sarah Thomas, David Andrew, Alan McBride, The Complete Guide to Finding the Birds of Australia, page 119:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, Hong Kong) An outdoor area or a building where cars may be parked.

(Australia, New Zealand) A rectangular section, usually marked by painted lines, designated for the parking of a single car.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, figuratively, humorous) A road with serious traffic congestion preventing the movement of vehicles.


chancer

Actually, that's exactly what O'Dowd is doing in Get Shorty, presenting a taciturn thug with chewed up charm, a chancer pitching a movie in Hollywood.

2018 June 6, Peter Crawley, “Get Shorty: Chris O’Dowd as a chewed-up, charming chancer”, in Irish Times, retrieved 2022-08-29:

From then on, Emin became fixed in many minds as the drunken chancer who boasted about her promiscuity and called it art.

2024 May 29, Simon Hattenstone, “The radical, ravishing rebirth of Tracey Emin: ‘I didn’t want to die as some mediocre YBA’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, slang) A scheming opportunist.


dodgy

en-adj

dodgy (comparative dodgier, superlative dodgiest)

dodgier (comparative)
dodgiest (superlative)

From dodge (verb) + -y. First used in mid-19th century England.

Asked why, a spokesman gave a dodgy answer about legal ramifications.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Evasive and shifty.

Never listen to dodgy advice.

The dodgy old machine kept breaking down.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Unsound and unreliable.


dustbin

dustbins (plural)
dust bin (alternative)
dust-bin (alternative)

From dust + bin, as used for disposing of dust (originally ash from domestic fires) and other rubbish.

Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) A bin for holding rubbish until it can be collected; a garbage can.


engaged tone

(UK, Ireland, telephony) An audible signal to the calling party that indicates failure to complete the requested connection; a busy signal


ex-directory

(UK, Ireland) Of a telephone number or its owner: not in the directory; unlisted.


fairy cake

(UK, Ireland) A small cake baked in a small paper cup; a cupcake.


fizzy drink

en:any non-alcoholic drink that is carbonated

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A non-alcoholic, carbonated beverage such as fizzy lemonade or cola.


helter-skelter

en-noun

helter-skelter (countable and uncountable, plural helter-skelters)

In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten ("to hasten; to raise an alarm"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.

der

He is finishing, this week, a remarkable thing called a helter skelter: This is a circular building 50 feet high which people climb, by means of an interior winding stair. At the top they each take a seat in a semicircular wooden trough which curls around the outside of the house, gradually leading towards the ground with a terrific rush, they slide down this and are rapidly delivered on to the grass below.

1905 September 30, The Independent, Footscray, Vic, page 2, column 4:

For gentler sliding fun, you can take a ride on the helter-skelter.

2015, Louise Spilsbury, Ride that Rollercoaster!, page 12:

(chiefly British) An amusement ride consisting of a slide that spirals down around the exterior of a tapering central tower.


high street

high streets (plural)
highstreet (alternative)
High Street (alternative)

From Middle English high strete, highestrete, haye-strete, hye strete, heiȝe strete, from Old English hēahstrǣt (“high road”), equivalent to high + street.

(UK, Ireland, parts of New England) The main street of any town.

Woolworths has had a presence on the UK High Street for almost a century.

2008 December 27, “Woolworths store closures begin”, in BBC:

(UK, Ireland) Mainstream shops, banks, etc. that can be found on such a street, in contrast to more specialist shops and services.

(UK, Ireland) Physical, bricks and mortar shops, in contrast to Internet shops.


hosepipe

In a hot three-week drought that had begin in July he could have saved it, despite the hosepipe ban. But he had been too busy to haul full buckets the garden's length.

(UK, South Africa, Southern US) A flexible pipe for carrying water or other liquids; a garden hose.


rigour

en-noun

rigour (countable and uncountable, plural rigours)

From Middle English rigour, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French rigor, from Latin rigor (“stiffness, rigidity, rigor, cold, harshness”), from rigere (“to be rigid”). Compare French rigueur.

der

(British) Misspelling of rigor (“rigor mortis”).


up the duff

Unknown; the OED states that the phrase was originally Australian. Possibly related to in the pudding club (duff is a type of pudding) and thus related to dough.

Lynda up the duff—what odds do you put on that, eh, Mr Clever Dick, eh? That's shut his gob. That's put a crease in his brand-new suit.

1987, David Leland, Wish You Were Here, spoken by Lynda Mansell (Emily Lloyd):

At 19, he was married (‘only because she was up the duff’ he explains gallantly).

1994, The Daily Telegraph, quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, page 88, 2nd edition, 2005:

“Well, when he found out that my gran was up the duff, he went back to his native Norway (or it might have been Sweden)[…].”

1998, Tracey Ullman, Tracey Takes On..., page 98:

It just means that some daft wee hairy that gets knocked up the duff has tae get oan the bus tae Carlisle tae get cleaned oot.

1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 191:

The great coalface of fuckwits; the fly-by-nighters, who do their five years in Bondi, befriend a Roosters player, get a good coke dealer, meet some tight westie bitch who′s moved here while she works a job in PR, they fall in love, she gets up the duff and then they have to buy a house in Condell Park and they′re gone[…].

2008, Sam de Brito, The Lost Boys, page 14:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial, slang) Pregnant.


invigilator

/ɪnˈvɪd͡ʒɪleɪtəɹ/

From invigilate + -or, from Latin invigilatus, past participle of invigilo.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A person who supervises students during an examination; a proctor

(chiefly UK, Ireland or archaic) A person who supervises a gallery at a museum.


loudhailer

As Ukrainian forces struggled to hold the flattened city, it was claimed that civilians in captured territory were being deceived into leaving shelters to be bussed out to Russian camps by soldiers wielding loudhailers.

2022 March 24, Daniel Boffey, “Ukraine sinks Russian ship as Moscow accused of forcible deportations from Mariupol”, in The Guardian:


mains

I plugged it into the mains and it blew up!

We don't have mains power out here, only a generator.

mains electricity, mains voltage

(chiefly British) The domestic electrical power supply, especially as connected to a network or grid.

We have gas heating, but it's bottled gas, not mains gas.

The properties formerly relied on a well, but are now connected to the mains water supply.

(chiefly British) A large-scale network or grid supplying any of various other services, such as water, gas or sewerage, to properties.


minder

From Middle English mynder, mendowre (“one who has a good memory; bears in mind; watches over; a keeper”); equivalent to mind + -er.


naff off

en-verb

naff off (third-person singular simple present naffs off, present participle naffing off, simple past and past participle naffed off)

naffs off (present singular third-person)
naffing off (participle present)
naffed off (participle past)
naffed off (past)

Princess Anne caused controversy when she told photographers to “naff off” in 1982.

2013 April 1 [1982], Melissa Mohr, quoting Anne, Princess Royal, Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 153:

Oi, you cheeky slag / Naff off

2003, “Mind Out”, in Asylum Speakers, performed by Foreign Beggars ft. Skrein:

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A mild version of fuck off


nark

Uncertain. Perhaps from Angloromani nok (“nose”), from Romani nakh, from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀡𑀓𑁆𑀓 (ṇakka), ultimately a doublet of nose.

So I went and laid down on the grass. While laying there I piped a reeler whom I knew. He had a nark (a policeman's spy) with him. So I went and looked about for my two pals, and told them to look out for F. and his nark.

1879 October, J[ohn] W[illiam] Horsley, “Autobiography of a Thief in Thieves’ Language”, in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XL, number 240, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 505, column 1:

the bystander. […] She thought you was a copper's nark, sir. / the note taker [with quick interest] Whats a copper's nark? / the bystander [inapt at definition] It's a—well, it's a copper's nark, as you might say. What else would you call it? A sort of informer.

1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act I, pages 109–110:

When we got to the Chief of Police's office a crowd of the most dreadful-looking scoundrels, obviously police narks, informers, and spies of every kind, were hanging about outside the door.

1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XII, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:


orientate

orientate (third-person singular simple present orientates, present participle orientating, simple past and past participle orientated)

orientates (present singular third-person)
orientating (participle present)
orientated (participle past)
orientated (past)

From orient + -ate or a back-formation from orientation. Compare French orienter and Italian orientare.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, intransitive) To face a given direction.

He[…]stood for a moment, orientating himself exactly in the light of his knowledge.

He came out of the station and took some time to orientate himself.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, reflexive) To determine one's position relative to the surroundings; to orient (oneself).

Try to orientate your students towards the science subjects.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, transitive) To position (something), to align relative to a given position.


parkie

(UK, Ireland, slang) A parking or traffic warden.


parky

en-adj

parky (comparative parkier, superlative parkiest)

parkier (comparative)
parkiest (superlative)

Uncertain, but probably from parky above or from dialectical pronunciation of perky.

Gene Hunt: [seeing a woman in a sari] A bit parky to be out in just her nighty.

2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3:

(British, informal) Synonym of chilly: somewhat cold but not extremely so.


min

From Middle English min, from Old English min (“less; small, mean”), from Proto-Germanic *minniz (“less”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Scots min (“less, lesser”), West Frisian min (“small, bad”), Dutch min (“less, small”), Low German minn (“small, low, lean”), German minder (“less”), Icelandic minna (“less”), Latin minus (“less”).

der

myn (alternative)
minne (alternative)
mynne (alternative)

The more and the minne

(obsolete or UK dialectal, Scotland) Less; smaller; lower.


chump

Origin uncertain; probably a blend of chunk and lump or stump, or perhaps a nasalised variant of chub (“someone chubby, something thick”). Compare Icelandic kubbur (“block of wood, chip (computing)”), Old Norse kumbr for kubbr (“block of wood”), English chop.

unk

uncertain

cog

(UK, slang, obsolete) A person's head or face.


pelican crossing

en-noun

pelican crossing (plural pelican crossings)

Short for pedestrian light-controlled crossing.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A pedestrian crossing with traffic-lights operated by pedestrians


plonker

“You kept the hat! You bloody plonker!” “Fuck me.” “And now look at you, bouncing off the cars like a bouncing idiot.” “Fucking hell!” “Is he gonna be alright?”

2020 May 20, Jemaine Clement, “The Return” (: from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 2, episode 7, spoken by Nadja (Natasia Demetriou):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, derogatory) A fool.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A penis.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, dated) A man who sanctions sexual relationships between his girlfriend and his male friends.


prat

Unknown. Perhaps a specialised use of Etymology 1 (see above).

Those protestors will have achieved nothing good. They are stupid prats.

2023 June 29, Metro, London, page 10, column 3:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A fool, contemptible person.


pushchair

/ˈpʊʃ.t͡ʃɛə(ɹ)/

He reversed the pushchair out of the shop and continued towards his errands.

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

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

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A small carriage in which a baby or child sits and is pushed around.


gooseberry

From goose + berry. It is possible that the first element was originally something related to the gros- of French groseille and/or the kruis- of Dutch kruisbes but has been altered by folk etymology.

Robert and Susan were so in love with each other that nobody could go near them without feeling like a gooseberry.

"But," said Philippa dolefully, "if I go I'll have to be gooseberry, and that will be a new experience for Philippa Gordon."

1915, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “In the Park”, in Anne of the Island, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, →OCLC:

Kryten, you are a total gooseberry. Next time I play on the AR machine I'm going to give you some money and send you to the pictures.

1993 October 21, Rob Grant, Doug Naylor, Gunmen of the Apocalypse (Red Dwarf), season 6, episode 3, spoken by Dave Lister (Craig Charles):

en:person who is neither necessary nor wanted

(chiefly British) An additional person who is neither necessary nor wanted in a given situation.


Darth Vader

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

"Darth" is a blend of dark + death (the derivation from Dark Lord of the Sith is a later development).
"Vader" is traditionally explained as being from Dutch vader (“father”). However, the idea of Vader's fatherhood was only developed for The Empire Strikes Back (after the character was introduced), making this improbable. It is more likely a shortening of invader or from the surname Vader.

When the new GEX stock (Darth Vaders!!) are in service, and the inevitable happens and they break down, EWS will no doubt trundle along to rescue it

1999 September 17, gl1, “Gatwick Express New Stock Nose Cones”, in uk.transport.london (Usenet):

What was modified so that 73s could haul (or push) and heat air-con stock on Gatwick Express (pre Darth Vader) - the locos or the coaches?

2005 January 5, Peter Masson, “What future for the MK3's?”, in uk.railway (Usenet):

Is there not also a degree of commonality with the Darth Vader units of Gatwick Express, which are likely to join the Southern fleet when (if) the GatEx franchise is terminated?

2006 February 11, Tony Polson, “First Capital Connect want more 319s from Southern”, in uk.railway (Usenet):

(informal, British, rail transport) A British Rail Class 460 train.


muck about

en-verb

muck about (third-person singular simple present mucks about, present participle mucking about, simple past and past participle mucked about)

mucks about (present singular third-person)
mucking about (participle present)
mucked about (participle past)
mucked about (past)

It was only a joke. We were only mucking about.

The only time I walk out on singin' is when there's muckin' about and youse don't take it serious.

1957, Ray Lawler, The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Sydney: Fontana Books, published 1974, page 68:

(informal, intransitive, British, Australia) To be playful; full of fun and high spirits; to treat a situation unseriously.


skew-whiff

en-adj

skew-whiff (comparative more skew-whiff, superlative most skew-whiff)

more skew-whiff (comparative)
most skew-whiff (superlative)
skew-wift (alternative)
skew wift (alternative)
skew wiff (alternative)
skew-wiff (alternative)
scew-whiff (alternative)
skew whift (alternative)
skew-whift (alternative)
skew whiff (alternative)
skewiff (alternative)
ski whiff (alternative)
squewiff (alternative)
skewquieff (alternative)
skeow-wheef (alternative)
skeow wheef (alternative)

From skew + weft.
The expression 'skew weft' dates at least from the 18th century as a term used by handloom weavers, typically in northern England. It was used originally to describe fabric which was out of alignment, and the term survives today in the manufacture of glass fiber cloth.
The word weft does not derive from 'whiff' as in a puff of air (as suggested elsewhere). The modern spelling comes from a corruption of 'skew-wift' whose sound developed colloquially in spoken English from the original. Bow weft also exists.

I hung up that picture, but it looks skew-whiff to me.

“[…]I′ve just been looking up at them and it seems to me that Cassiopeia′s Chair is a bit more skew-whiff than usual. Either it′s been moved or we′re heading the wrong way.”

1971, Blackwood′s Magazine, volume 309, page 497:

I nudged him to remember what was surely the best day of his life—when he had walked serenely through the milling throng, moist-eyed, and sheepish grin more skew-whiff than ever, in the starling-shrieking, jabbering cockpit of that tumbledown stadium at Delhi on Christmas Eve in 1981.

1984, Punch, Volume 286, Part 1, page 87:

His genially skew-whiff posture for the camera may be intended to deflect easy attempts to get an angle on him.

1997, Australian Literary Studies, volume 18, University of Tasmania, page 199:

Johnson replied, with a shake of his massive head so vigorous that his ill-fitting wig became even more skew-whiff:[…].

1999, Alan Wall, The Lightning Cage, page 4:

He wasn′t wearing shoes or a jacket and tie, and his front stud was undone, so that the white collar stood up skew-whiff.

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:

In a gorgeous old stone-fronted house at a skew-whiff angle to the road, this main-street, mainstream eatery serves big breakfasts, pizzas, burgers, lasagne, focaccias, bruschetta and salads.

2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin, Lonely Planet, page 112:

The Cat is a large, comfortable space with a great atmosphere and skew-whiff 1950s decor (a Melbourne trademark).

2009, Justine Vaisutis, Australia, Lonely Planet, page 530:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) Askew; lopsided, not straight.


squiffy

squiffy (comparative squiffier, superlative squiffiest)

squiffier (comparative)
squiffiest (superlative)

Unknown; possibly coined in the 19th century.

In the Palace bar. I'd been there an hour or so with two or three other chaps. I was a bit squiffy.

1992, J. B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls, Heinemann, →ISBN, page 51:

His champagne glass was constantly refilled by the man who might or might not have been a butler, so that by the time they actually sat down to play, Ramsay was decidedly squiffy.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) slightly drunk or intoxicated; tipsy

To this day I cannot and will not wear a tie properly. On the one or two occasions I have worn them since I left school, I've worn them squiffy, on purpose.

2004, Jude Rawlins, Cul De Sac: Lyrics, Prose & Poems 1987-2004, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 11:

The graphics make your eyes go squiffy.

2005, Catherine Soanes, Angus Stevenson, editors, The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition), Oxford University Press:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Crooked, askew; awry


surround

From Middle English sourrounden (“to submerge, overflow”), from Middle French souronder, suronder, from Late Latin superundō, from super + undō (“to rise in waves”), from unda (“wave”).

inh

He drifted through the room, avoiding the furniture by instinct, closed the door that led to the passage, and only then flicked on his flashlight.
It swept around the room, picking out a desk, a telephone, a wall of bookshelves, and a deep armchair, and finally settled on a handsome fireplace with a large surround of red brick.

1972, Frederick Forsyth, The Odessa File, Viking, SBN 670-52042-x, chapter 15, page 283

(British) Anything, such as a fence or border, that surrounds something.


roundabout

From round + about [from early 20th c.].

what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts

(chiefly UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Australia and sometimes US) A road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island.

دَوَّار

(chiefly British) A horizontal wheel which rotates around a central axis when pushed and on which children ride, often found in parks as a children's play apparatus.

въртелѐжка

children's play apparatus which rotates around a central axis when pushed


sarky

en-adj

sarky (comparative sarkier, superlative sarkiest)

sarkier (comparative)
sarkiest (superlative)

Full of Coxon's trademark sarky lyricism, this 14-track concept album celebrates and laments the bittersweet nature of love, avoiding being dull or mawkish by being so gorgeous and satisfyingly coherent.

2006 February 19, Nosheen Iqbal, “Graham Coxon, Love Travels at Illegal Speeds”, in The Observer:

It would seem that during his Bournemouth team’s recent 2-1 defeat at Sheffield United, referee Jon Moss gave the hosts some “soft fouls” and made “little sarky comments” that “didn’t help”.

2020 February 12, Scott Murray, “Dan Gosling, Jon Moss and breath-freshening hard candy”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Sarcastic.


sellotape

en-noun

sellotape (countable and uncountable, plural sellotapes)

From genericized trademark Sellotape, from cello(phane) + tape. The spelling with S- was to avoid an existing trademark on the word Cellophane itself.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Adhesive tape.


sellotape

en-verb

sellotape (third-person singular simple present sellotapes, present participle sellotaping, simple past and past participle sellotaped)

sellotapes (present singular third-person)
sellotaping (participle present)
sellotaped (participle past)
sellotaped (past)

The door was slightly ajar, with a newspaper cartoon sellotaped to it:

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 258:

(transitive, British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) To seal with adhesive tape.


slaphead

(UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A bald person; somebody with a shaved or hairless head.


sticking plaster

en-noun

sticking plaster (plural sticking plasters)

sticking plasters (plural)
stick plaster (alternative UK)

As I live, these covered parts of him were checkered with the same squares as his face; his back, too, was all over the same dark squares; he seemed to have been in a Thirty Years’ War, and just escaped from it with a sticking-plaster shirt.

1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 3:

(New Zealand, British) An adhesive bandage used in dressing wounds


tannoy

A genericised trademark of Tannoy Ltd, a manufacturer of public address systems. "Tannoy" is a syllabic abbreviation of tantalum alloy, which was the material used in a type of electrolytic rectifier developed by the company.

Although the supermarket tannoy was bravely broadcasting Rigoletto, its meat counter was thick with wurst and its wine shelves loaded with Liebfraumilch.

1987, Christina Hardyment, “Harlekins and Gondolas”, in Heidi’s Alp: One Family’s Search for Storybook Europe, Book Club edition, New York, N.Y.: The Atlantic Monthly Press, →OCLC, page 163:

Terry Putnam, from Weymouth, adds: "Riding home from Bristol a few days ago, as we approached Weymouth the guard announced over the tannoy 'The next station is Weymouth - please remember to take all your luggage and children with you...'"

2020 August 12, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, page 70:

public address system
public address system

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) A public address system.


tannoy

en-verb

tannoy (third-person singular simple present tannoys, present participle tannoying, simple past and past participle tannoyed)

tannoys (present singular third-person)
tannoying (participle present)
tannoyed (participle past)
tannoyed (past)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, ambitransitive) To transmit, or communicate with, by means of a public address system.


skip

From Middle English skep, skeppe, from Old English sceppe, from Old Norse skeppa, skjappa (“basket, bushel, measure”), perhaps from Middle Low German scheppe (“a unit of weight”), perhaps related to Middle Low German schēpel (“buschel, measurement for grain”), German Scheffel (“bushel”). These could all ultimately be related to *skap (“shape”).

cog

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) A large container for waste, designed to be lifted onto the back of a truck to remove it along with its contents, or to be picked up by hydraulic arms so that its contents can be dumped into the truck.

(UK, Scotland, dialect) A skep, or basket, such as a creel or a handbasket.

kas

UK, Scotland, dialect: a skep, or basket, such as a creel or a handbasket


waistcoat

→ Hindi: वास्कट (vāskaṭ)

desc

→ Japanese: ウェストコート (wesutokōto), ウェスクット (wesukutto)

→ Malay: weskot

→ Maori: wēkete

→ Punjabi: ਵਾਸਕਟ (vāskaṭ)

From waist + coat. Compare Yola wauscoat, wazcoote.

Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.[…]A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

(chiefly British) A sleeveless, collarless garment worn over a shirt and under a suit jacket.


Maundy money

(British) A special coinage given to the deserving poor in a religious ceremony performed by Anglicans on Maundy Thursday.


Easter

en-noun

Easter (countable and uncountable, plural Easters)

→ Chickasaw: Iista'

The noun is derived from Middle English Ester, from Old English ēastre, seemingly from Ēastre, a proposed Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn whose festival is thought to have been celebrated around the vernal equinox. Further from Proto-West Germanic *Austrā, from Proto-Germanic *Austrǭ, derived from either Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews- (“dawn; east”) or, more semantically plausible, from *austrą, *auzrą, a metathesized form of *wazrą (“spring (season)”), *-ǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *wósr̥ (“spring”).
The English word is cognate with German Low German Oostern (“Easter”), Old High German ōstarūn (modern German Ostern) and is possibly a doublet of east. Despite a modern folk etymology, not related to Ishtar.
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

(UK, Ireland, law, education) Ellipsis of Easter term.


conker

From 19th-century dialect conker (“snail-shell”); the game of conkers was originally played using snail-shells; from conch + -er or a variant of conquer.

His bald spot gleams like a burnished conker.

2006, Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa:

(British) A horse chestnut, used in the game of conkers.

pysen boced

horse chestnut used in the game of conkers


conkers

(British, games) A game for two players in which the participants each have a horse-chestnut (known as a "conker") suspended from a length of string, and take turns to strike their opponent's conker with their own with the object of destroying the opponent's conker before their own is destroyed.


tanker

Nor is the government facing a strike by tanker drivers, as was the case in early 1979 during the winter of discontent.

2021 September 23, Larry Elliott, “Petrol disruption will fuel fears of new winter of discontent”, in The Guardian:

(automotive, UK) A fuel tanker, petrol tanker, road tanker.


gill

From Middle English gille, from Old French gille (“a wine measure”), from Medieval Latin gillo (“earthenware jar”).

(archaic, British) A measuring jug holding a quarter or half a pint.


gill

From Middle English gille, from Old Norse gil.


take the piss

en-verb

take the piss (third-person singular simple present takes the piss, present participle taking the piss, simple past took the piss, past participle taken the piss)

tlb

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang, idiomatic, transitive)

takes the piss (present singular third-person)
taking the piss (participle present)
took the piss (past)
taken the piss (participle past)
piss-take (alternative)
pisstake (alternative)

Possibly from piss-proud (“falsely presenting as successful”). In which case taking the piss out of would mean deflating their false pride, usually through disparagement or mockery. As the piss-proud metaphor became dated, taking the piss out of someone came to refer to disparagement or mockery itself, regardless of the pride of the subject. Eventually the shortened, intransitive form taking the piss became common.

You know, cos he was like taking the piss out of them and they took the piss out of him.

1987, Judy Vermorel, Sex Pistols: the inside story, page 16:

A lot of that stuff that people take the piss out of all the time is actually useful.

1999, Carole Zucker, In the company of actors: reflections on the craft of acting, page 152:

To tease, ridicule or mock (someone) (with out of).

He's either taking it easy or taking the piss by arriving at the eleventh hour.

2008, Will Swanton, Some Day: Inside the Dream Tour and Mick Fanning's 2007 Championship Win:

To subject those present to teasing, ridicule or mockery, or to show contempt.

I've got three exams on the same day! That's taking the piss!


tarmac

en-noun

tarmac (countable and uncountable, plural tarmacs)

Clipping of tarmacadam, which is from tar + macadam (“crushed stones”). Originally a trademark owned by its inventor, Edgar Hooley.

How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […].

1922, Michael Arlen, “3/1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

(loosely, UK, Ireland, Canada) Any bituminous road surfacing material.

(UK, Ireland, Canada) The driveable surface of a road.


tarmac

en-verb

tarmac (third-person singular simple present tarmacs, present participle tarmacking or tarmacing or tarmaccing, simple past and past participle tarmacked or tarmaced or tarmacced)

tarmacs (present singular third-person)
tarmacking (participle present)
tarmacing (participle present)
tarmaccing (participle present)
tarmacked (participle past)
tarmacked (past)
tarmaced (participle past)
tarmaced (past)
tarmacced (participle past)
tarmacced (past)

To your left is a green lane, partly tarmacked with chippings, which leads up to a little car-parking area.

2008, Valerie Belsey, Exploring Green Lanes in North and North-West Devon, →ISBN, page 108:

Residents in Bolton are angry after workmen tarmaced only one half of their road leaving the other half strewn with potholes.

2014, Taking the rough with the smooth: Bolton residents anger over half-tarmaced road, ITV Granada

(British, Canada) To pave with tarmacadam or a similar material.


quieten down

quieten down (third-person singular simple present quietens down, present participle quietening down, simple past and past participle quietened down)

quietens down (present singular third-person)
quietening down (participle present)
quietened down (participle past)
quietened down (past)

As the lights dimmed the audience quietened down.

(intransitive, British) To become quieter.

Diplomacy can only begin when the violence quietens down.

(intransitive, British) To reduce intensity of an activity.

The teacher did her best to quieten the children down.

(transitive, British) To make someone or something become quieter.


quieten

quieten (third-person singular simple present quietens, present participle quietening, simple past and past participle quietened)

quietens (present singular third-person)
quietening (participle present)
quietened (participle past)
quietened (past)

quieten the class

Take deep, deep breaths and quieten your mind while you contemplate what has been revealed within my latest journallings to you.

2013, Dianne Pegler, The Sacred Order of the Magi, page 149:

(transitive, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) To make quiet.

quieten down please, the speaker is going to start.

(intransitive, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) To become quiet.


Grand Slam

(British, soccer) winning in each of the three UEFA cups - UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and Cup Winners' Cup (defunct).


wog

The origins are not entirely clear. The term was first noted by the lexicographer F.C. Bowen in 1929, in his Sea Slang: a dictionary of the old-timers’ expressions and epithets, where he defines wogs as "lower class Babu shipping clerks on the Indian coast."
The most common theory is that it is a clipping of golliwog, which was first used as the name of a black-faced doll in Florence Upton’s 1895 book The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. A variety of folk etymologies exist, with the most common claiming that the word is an acronym for one of either westernized, worthy, wily, or wonderful preceding “Oriental gentlemen”. Another erroneous claim is that it was used in the mid 1800s, with WOGS (meaning Working On Government Service) stencilled on the shirts of Indian workers in Egypt.
The Scientologist sense is from the usage of L. Ron Hubbard, who apparently accepted the folk etymology from “worthy Oriental gentleman” but employed the term to mean “common ordinary run-of-the-mill garden-variety humanoid”.

perker

an offensive term for a dark-skinned person

'One of the little Indian girls whose name is Polly has just come in to ask, " Miss D., what is a wog? One white boy called me a polliwog, and I thought a wog must be something bad."'

1889, The American Missionary Volume 43 p. 81:

"The King Edward's Horse called the Indian Cavalry 'The Wogs'—which is the diminutive of 'Golliwogs',—a description that was very apt of these dark apparitions in khaki and tin-hats."

1921, Lionel James, chapter 18, in The History of King Edward's Horse, page 188:

(UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) Any person who looks in-between "white" and "black": originally specifically an Indian, but later also broadened to anybody of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean descent.


wog

wog (third-person singular simple present wogs, present participle wogging, simple past and past participle wogged)

wogs (present singular third-person)
wogging (participle present)
wogged (participle past)
wogged (past)


monger

monger (third-person singular simple present mongers, present participle mongering, simple past and past participle mongered)

mongers (present singular third-person)
mongering (participle present)
mongered (participle past)
mongered (past)

/ˈmʌŋ.ɡə(ɹ)/

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

From Middle English mongere, mangere, from Old English mangere (“merchant, trader, dealer”), from Proto-West Germanic *mangārī, from Latin mangō (“dealer, trader”), perhaps from Ancient Greek μάγγανον (mánganon, “contrivance, means of enchantment”), from Proto-Indo-European *mang- (“to embellish, dress, trim”).

der

(transitive, British) To sell or peddle something.


papoose

Borrowed from Narragansett papoos (“a child”).

(UK) A backpack for carrying a baby, or specifically a cradleboard.


scupper

en-verb

scupper (third-person singular simple present scuppers, present participle scuppering, simple past and past participle scuppered)

scuppers (present singular third-person)
scuppering (participle present)
scuppered (participle past)
scuppered (past)

Of unknown origin; possibly verbized form of Etymology 1, but this is unlikely.

unk

unknown

The bad media coverage scuppered his chances of being elected.

]The only chance was to get the guns and try a rescue. Of course they may scupper them at once in revenge.[

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

This is the face of American exceptionalism[…] threatening to scupper both the court and, failing that, UN peace-keeping operations in Bosnia and anywhere else the US might have forces deployed on such work.

2002 July 2, Hugo Young, “We can't allow US tantrums to scupper global justice”, in The Guardian:

Anthony Watson’s late interception and Owen Farrell’s 100% kicking contribution also helped scupper the Wallabies, despite the promise of their exciting new centre Jordan Petaia and the roadrunner pace of winger Marika Koroibete.

2019 October 19, Robert Kitson, “England into World Cup semi-finals after bruising victory over Australia”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media:

Pacers should have all been withdrawn by now, but that has been scuppered by a failure to deliver new trains on time and delays to infrastructure projects. The most high-profile withdrawals were to be Northern's Class 142s and '144s' (the latter by the end of 2018, and the '142s' by the end of last year).

2020 May 20, John Crosse, “Soon to be gone... but never forgotten”, in RAIL, page 62:

(transitive, UK) To thwart or destroy, especially something belonging or pertaining to another.


piss-up

. . . passed: all bullshitted up for the pictures or a piss-up in the town.

1950, Jocelyn Greene, The Goose Cathedral, The Bodley Head, page 14:

Last night a bunch of them turned out to a pub near Edgeware [sic] Road tube (where a few of them had helped treat the injured on the 7th), and we had a good old-fashioned piss-up courtesy of Europhobia's generous readers.

2005, Tim Worstall, 2005: Dispatches from the Blogosphere, The Friday Project, p 228

Therefore with the blessing of Lizzie (herself too upset to attend) Rupert had arranged a sort of pre-wake piss-up in the function room of his London club with a malt whisky tasting, several real ales on tap and a takeaway curry delivered.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) A party where people consume alcohol.

couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery


minger

See minging (from Scots mingin) and -er.

Mike's new bird's a right minger! I wouldn't touch her with yours, mate!

Two suits [destroyed] in one day! Look at it, thanks to you, I couldn't even get on the cover of Minger Monthly!

2009, Doug Naylor, Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, spoken by The Cat (Danny John-Jules):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, offensive) An unattractive or ugly person.


daffy

An allusion to an old medicine known as Daffy's Elixir.

1837-39, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
“Do you give the children Daffy, Mrs. Mann?” inquired Bumble, following with his eyes the interesting process of mixing.

[…] he failed repeatedly until he took over his famous house in Haymarket, where for many years, surrounded by such admirers as Byron, Tom Moore and Hazlitt, he smoked his yard of clay, drained his glass of 'daffy', and […]

1954, Denzil Batchelor, Big Fight: The Story of World Championship Boxing, page 44:

Within Castle Tavern, at Holborn, Charles Perth and Lord Lucan were drowning their disparate sorrows in a glass of daffy.

1991, Julie Caille, Change of Heart, page 255:


Chelsea tractor

en-noun

Chelsea tractor (plural Chelsea tractors)

From Chelsea, a wealthy area of London in which this type of vehicle is popular, and tractor, an ironic allusion to a large, off-road vehicle, as a humorous juxtaposition between the vehicle's size and power and its use on low-speed roads in a city environment. Potentially also an allusion to their reputation for causing unnecessary traffic congestion, due to their unsuitability for small roads, in a similar fashion to tailbacks caused by tractors on rural roads.

This far up the hill was a maze of narrow streets choked with BMWs and Chelsea Tractors.

2011, Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London, Gollancz, published 2011, page 45:

As Simms and Murray note: “The part of the UK where the largest and most powerful 4x4s – so-called Chelsea tractors – are most popular is indeed the inner London borough of Kensington and Chelsea.”

2023 November 5, Andrew Anthony, “Monsters of the road: what should the UK do about SUVs?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, colloquial, derogatory) An SUV or 4x4 vehicle which is chiefly driven on urban or suburban roads for light duties, such as taking children to school.


pisser

From Middle English pissere; equivalent to piss + -er (agent noun). The sense referring to a urinal formed from piss + -er (patient suffix).

(UK, Ireland, slang, mildly vulgar) A disappointing or frustrating situation or event.


piddle

piddles (plural)
piddel (alternative obsolete)
pidle (alternative obsolete)

Unknown, although possibly originally paw + -le (suffix forming verbs involving continuous or repeated movement). In later use, a euphemistic diminutive of piss. The noun derives from the verb.

The spunk with his piddle comes bubbling.

(British, Australia, euphemistic slang) Piss: urine.

Piddle, urine; occ. the act of making water.

1937, Eric Honeywood Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, page 625:

On the way out to the gardens, he had to stop for a piddle but was so weak he couldn't maintain his balance while lifting his rear leg.

2013, Angela Lemanis, Contemplating Life from the Back Step, page 84:

(British, Australia, euphemistic slang) A piss: an act of urination.

It's the alteration of the little words that makes all the difference between Poetry & piddle.

(British, figurative) Nonsense or a trivial matter.


piddle

en-verb

piddle (third-person singular simple present piddles, present participle piddling, simple past and past participle piddled)

piddles (present singular third-person)
piddling (participle present)
piddled (participle past)
piddled (past)
piddel (alternative obsolete)
pidle (alternative obsolete)

Ha, ha, ha, Paddy shit in his breaches, ha, ha, ha, I shall laugh till I piddle myself.

1784, cited in Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Vol. VI, p. 128

(UK, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, euphemistic slang, intransitive or reflexive) To urinate.


mutton dressed as lamb

A metaphorical sense of mutton (“unattractive older woman”) being dressed (clothed) as lamb (“a younger attractive woman”) and also a pun on mutton (“meat from old sheep”) being dressed (prepared) as lamb (“meat from young sheep”), related to obsolete lamb-fashion.

In one of the rare cinematic depictions of an older woman as sexually attractive and active, Moreau also contributes to the end of Syl′s innocence by seducing him in the summer house. No mutton dressed as lamb could have done better!

2003, Elizabeth W. Markson, “Chapter Three: The Female Aging Body Through Film”, in Christopher A. Faircloth, editor, Aging Bodies: Images and Everyday Experience, page 85:

Elegant, slightly chic, but not mutton dressed as lamb. It was important to present a professional appearance to her former employer.

2007, L. H. Maynard, M. P. N. Sims, Demon Eyes, New York: Dorchester Publishing, page 224:

South African women are also so scared of looking like mutton dressed as lamb that we have plenty of women looking like lamb dressed as mutton!

2009, Dr John Chibaya Mbuya, Bulelwa Muphela, Grooming and Ettiquette for Corporate Men and Women, unnumbered page:

2009, Jah Wobble, Memoirs of a Geezer: Music, Mayhem, Life, Serpent's Tail (Profile Books), UK, page 65,
I thought that the American side of punk was generally full of mutton-dressed-as-lamb degenerates, most of whom were smack heads, who could do with acquainting themselves with a bit of soap and some hot water.

(UK, derogatory) A middle-aged or elderly woman dressed in a style more suited to a young woman, especially if in a deliberate attempt to appear young.

老來俏 /老来俏

karitsaksi pukeutunut lammas (literal translation)


bangers and mash

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bangers and mash.wav

(British, New Zealand, informal) A meal of sausages and mashed potato, usually with onions and gravy added.

makkarat muusilla

Unfortunately, as you walk around these trails you might be unfortunate to see the reason in the form of helpings of bangers and mash at the side of the path (the mash of course being toilet paper).

2011, Paul Carpenter, The Moray Way and the Ben Macdui Trail, page 21:

(British, slang) Human faeces combined with toilet paper.


bummer

From bum (“engage in anal sex”) + -er (agent noun suffix).

af

You know, the kind of guy who would, if he wasn't gay, probably be shouting ‘Oi, gay boy!’ or ‘You bummer!’ or even ‘Oi, paki!’ or what have you. They're not enlightened.

Matt (interviewee) quoted in 2021, Laura Dixon, Gender, Sexuality and National Identity in the Lives of British Lifestyle Migrants in Spain (page 108)

(UK, slang, derogatory, offensive) A gay man.


daft

en-adj

daft (comparative dafter, superlative daftest)

dafter (comparative)
daftest (superlative)

From Middle English dafte, defte (“gentle; having good manners; humble, modest; awkward; dull; boorish”), from Old English dæfte (“accommodating; gentle, meek, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *daftī (“fitting, suitable”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₂ebʰ- (“fitting; to fit together”). Related to Old English dafnian, dafenian (“to be fitting, appropriate, or becoming”), Russian до́брый (dóbryj, “good”).
Compare silly which originally meant “blessed; good, innocent; pitiful; weak”, but now means “laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance; mentally simple, foolish”.
Unrelated to, though perhaps influenced by, daff (“fool (n.); to be foolish (v.)”) (past form daffed).

неразумен

foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly

a daft idea

Thou art the daftest fuill that ever I saw. / Trows thou, man, be the law to get remeid / Of men of kirk? Na, nocht till thou be deid.

1602, David Lyndesay [i.e., David Lyndsay], Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, in Commendation of Vertew and Vitvperation of Vyce (in Scots), Edinburgh: Printed be Robert Charteris, →OCLC; republished as Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, in Commendation of Vertew and Vitvperation of Vyce (Early English Text Society, Original Series; no. 37), [London]: [Published for the Early English Text Society, by N[icholas] Trübner & Co.], [1869], →OCLC, page 451, lines 2008–2010:

You are the daftest fool that ever I saw. / Trust you, man, by the law to get a remedy / From men of the church? No, not till you are dead.

So that if a boor complains of a broken-head, or a beer-seller of a broken can, or a daft wench does but squeak loud enough to be heard above her breath, a soldier of honour shall be dragged, not before his own court-martial, who can best judge of and punish his demerits, but before a base mechanical burgo-master, who shall menace him with the rasp-house, the cord, and what not, as if he were one of their own mean, amphibious, twenty-breeched boors.

1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume III (A Legend of Montrose), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 188–189:

In case you haven't heard of them [the Taipings], I must tell you that they were another of those incredible phenomena that made China the topsy-turvey mess it was, like some fantastic land from Gulliver, where everything was upside down and out of kilter. Talk about moonbeams from cucumbers; the Taipings were even dafter than that.

1985, George MacDonald Fraser, chapter 1, in Flashman and the Dragon: From the Flashman Papers, 1860, London: Collins Harvill, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Plume, 1987, →ISBN:

You haven't exactly been playing the master tactician through all this, but that seems the daftest course you could possibly have taken.

1990, Iain Pears, The Raphael Affair, London: Gollancz, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Harper, 2014, →ISBN, page 22:

(chiefly British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Foolish, silly, stupid.

"Ow, he is just a wood harum-scarum creature, that wad never take to his studies;—daft, sir, clean daft." / […] / "[W]owff—a wee bit by the East-Nook or sae; it's a common case—the ae half of the warld thinks t'other daft. I have met with folks in my day, that thought I was daft mysell;[…]" / "I cannot make out a word of his cursed brogue," said the Cumbrian justice; "can you, neighbour—eh? What can he mean by deft?" / "He means mad", said the party appealed to, thrown off his guard by impatience of this protracted discussion.

1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Darsie Latimer’s Journal, in Continuation. Sheet 2.”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 143–144:

The boy gathered himself up, shook his shaggy head, and, said, in a piteous tone: 'Davie's daft!' 'Davie's daft!' He then kicked the poor idiot till his cries attracted the attention of the guests, some of whom immediately came to the spot: […]

1843 April, “The Vale of Glencoe: A Tale of Scotland”, in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XXI, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Published by John Allen, […], →OCLC, page 339:

‘It’s a lee [lie],’ says the man; ‘she’s either drunk or daft.’ / ‘Me drunk, you ill-tongued vagabond!’ says my Auntie Kirsty, who couldna bear such a reproach on her good name, ‘I’m a’ but blackfasting this day from either meat or drink; you had better no meddle wi’ my character.’

1876, S[arah] R. Whitehead, “On the Wrong Coach”, in Daft Davie and Other Sketches of Scottish Life and Character, London: Hodder and Stoughton, […], →OCLC, page 220:

(chiefly British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Crazy, insane, mad.

побъркан

crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad


postmaster

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

(British) A kind of scholar at Merton College, Oxford; portionist.


reservation

en-noun

reservation (countable and uncountable, plural reservations)

/ˌɹɛz.əʴˈveɪ.ʃən/

From Middle French reservation, equivalent to reserve + -ation.

A vehicle crashed through the central reservation into the path of oncoming traffic.

A three-lane motorway can be up to (or even more than) 35 metres wide, with a hard shoulder on either side and a central reservation.

2023 August 23, Chris Howe, “Green screen: HS2's route through the shires”, in RAIL, number 990, page 34:

(UK) The area which separates opposing lanes of traffic on a divided motorway or dual carriageway; see also central reservation.

median

central reservation, motorway lane separator


flatter

From flat (“dwelling, apartment”) + -er (residency suffix).

af

(British, New Zealand, slang) Someone who lives in a rented flat.


ozone

From German Ozon, coined 1840 by Christian Friedrich Schönbein, from Ancient Greek ὄζον (ózon), neuter participle of ὄζω (ózō, “I smell”), in reference to its pungent odour.
The “fresh air” sense is from an erroneous former belief that seaweed contains and releases ozone.

A patent obtained in England, and specified far from clearly, for obtaining ozone by boiling seaweed,†† may be mentioned as a curiosity, and also the credulity with which ozone-baths, prepared in this manner, find a ready sale, in spite of, or perhaps rather on account of, their high price.

1875, William Crookes, The Chemical News, page 99:

To Ramsgate baths she sped, in quest / Of seaweed and ozone ; / For seaweed and ozone were best, / They said, to give her tone.

1888, L. T. Meade, A. Balfour Symington, Edwin Oliver, Atalanta, volume 1, page 674:

It's got the lot: fresh sea air, ozone, seaweed. You could cut the air with a knife.

2007, Robert Douglas, Tales of the Unexpected: Somewhere to Lay My Head, unnumbered page:

(British, informal) Fresh air, especially that breathed at the seaside and smelling of seaweed.


Sod's law

It's Sod's law that it will rain when going for a picnic.

It was amazing and typical of Sod's Law, the moment I turned for home, the wind direction would not only change, but be the complete reverse.

2013, Allen Carr, The Easy Way to Enjoy Flying, Penguin UK, →ISBN:

(chiefly UK) The principle that what can go wrong, will go wrong, usually with some observed degree of irony

ley de la indefectible mala voluntad de los objectos inanimados


roly-poly

en-noun

roly-poly (countable and uncountable, plural roly-polys or roly-polies)

roly-polys (plural)
roly-polies (plural)
rolly polly (alternative)
rolly-poly (alternative)
rolly-pooly (alternative)

/ˌɹəʊlɪˈpəʊli/

The noun is apparently derived from roll (“to turn over and over”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’), reduplicated with a change of the initial consonant. Compare rolly (“having the ability to roll, rolling”, adjective), which is attested since the 19th century.
Sense 1.7 (“mischievous or worthless person”) is possibly influenced by poll (“head; (archaic) scalp; (by extension) person”).
The adjective and adverb are attested later than the noun, and so are probably derived from it.

suffix

[page 135] "Fanny has made the roly-poly pudding," says he; "the chops are my part. Here's a fine one; try this, Goldmore." […] [page 137] The three mutton-chops consumed by him were best of the mutton kind; the potatoes were perfect of their order; as for the roly-poly, it was too good.

1846 February 28 – 1847 February 27, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Snobs and Marriage”, in The Book of Snobs, London: Punch Office, […], published 1848, →OCLC, pages 135 and 137:

And he hates rabbit, and never touches roly-poly, and I must say the beef isn't over tender; […] Dinner began and proceeded till the last piece of the roly-poly pudding was consumed, though not by Cyril; […]

1869, Emma Jane Worboise, “Mrs. Matthews’ Family”, in The Fortunes of Cyril Denham, London: James Clarke & Co., […]; Hodder & Stoughton, […], →OCLC, page 190:

This is, indeed, an awful meal, and we have as yet only reached the joint, and there is a detestable, indigestible, unswallowable jam roly-poly to follow.

1873 March 26, “Rose Anna: Regina: Henry is Troubled in His Conscience”, in C[harles] H[enry] Ross, editor, Judy, or The London Serio-comic Journal, volume XII, London: Published by the proprietor […], →OCLC, page 233, column 1:

(British, also attributively) A baked or steamed pudding made from suet pastry which is spread with fruit or jam (or occasionally other fillings) and then rolled up.

kääritty hillotäytteinen ihrasta tehty kohokas


tea towel

tea towels (plural)
tea-towel (alternative)
teatowel (alternative)

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

From tea + towel. Attested from the middle 19th century. Compare earlier tea-cloth from the late 18th century.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A cloth, made from cotton or linen, for drying dishes and glassware.


scrubber

What did you think, it was happy ever after with a Woodlands Road scrubber in a seaside resort?

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 267:

(UK, Ireland, slang) A prostitute or a slovenly woman.

(UK, Ireland, slang) A dirty or unhygienic person.


flannel

en-noun

flannel (countable and uncountable, plural flannels)

flannels (plural)
flannen (alternative dialectal)
flanan (alternative Scotland)
flanning (alternative Scotland)
flanen (alternative Scotland)

zh-l

法蘭絨／法兰绒 (fǎlánróng)

⇒ Chinese: 法蘭絨／法兰绒 (fǎlánróng)

→ Danish: flannel

desctree

→ French: flanelle
→ Catalan: franel·la
→ Dutch: flanel
Afrikaans: flanel

→ German: Flanell
→ Danish: flonel

→ Italian: flanella
→ Luxembourgish: Flanell
→ Portuguese: flanela
→ Spanish: franela
→ Tagalog: pranela
→ Egyptian Arabic: فنلّة

→ Swedish: flanell

→ Japanese: フランネル (furaneru)

From Middle English flaunneol, from Anglo-Norman flanelle (compare Norman flianné), diminutive of Old French flaine, floene (“coarse wool”), from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *wlānos, *wlanā (“wool”) (compare Welsh gwlân, Breton gloan), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. More at wool.

"The Witch of Endor was a fool to her, sir: bless you, she would make no more of raising every gentleman in the Bible out of these here beastly tombs than I should of growing cress on an old flannel."

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

(New Zealand, British, countable) A washcloth.

(UK, obsolete) Synonym of flip (“hot mixture of beer, spirit, etc.”).


flannelled fool

en-noun

flannelled fool (plural flannelled fools)

(British, idiomatic) A cricketer (from the white flannel trousers they traditionally wear).


cause célèbre

causes célèbres (plural)
cause celebre (alternative US)

From French cause (“cause, case”) + célèbre (“famous”), in the title of an 18th-century compilation of famous legal cases, Causes célèbres.

Getting iced out by the tech giants turned Parler into a cause célèbre for conservatives who complained they were being censored, as well as a test case for the openness of the internet.

2021 February 15, Jack Nicas, “Parler, a Social Network That Attracted Trump Fans, Returns Online”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

As Musk has waged this pressure campaign, he has incessantly posted in support of the far right in Europe and their current causes célèbres.

2025 January 10, Ali Breland, “Elon Has Appointed Himself King of the World”, in The Atlantic:

(chiefly UK) An issue or incident (originally, a legal case) arousing widespread controversy or public debate.

引起轟動的事件 /引起轰动的事件

issue or incident arousing heated public debate


dollymop

Those women who, for the sake of distinguishing them from the professionals, I must call amateurs, are generally spoken of as “Dollymops.” Now many servant-maids, nurse-maids who go with children into the Parks, shop girls and milliners who may be met with at the various “dancing academies,” so called, are “Dollymops.” We must separate these latter again from the “Demoiselle de Comptoir,” who is just as much in point of fact a “Dollymop,” because she prostitutes herself for her own pleasure, a few trifling presents or a little money now and then, and not altogether to maintain herself.

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

(slang, British) An amateur, often part-time, female prostitute in 19th-century London.


zip

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A zip fastener.


toyboy

toyboys (plural)
toy-boy (alternative)
toy boy (alternative)

I'm out with my toy boy, toy boy / And when I get to take him home / I know he's gonna love me right

1987, Stock Aitken Waterman, “Toy Boy”, performed by Sinitta:

But Ahlamalik Williams, 25, is just the latest in a long line of toyboys 61-year-old Queen of Pop Madonna has been linked to since her spilt from long-term partner Guy Ritchie, after which she decided she 'wanted to have fun'.

2019 December 18, Sophie Jane Evans, “How Madonna is falling for increasingly younger toyboys”, in The Sun, retrieved 2021-03-15:

(UK, Australia, sometimes derogatory, sometimes humorous) A young male partner for a woman or man.


donk

(British, uncountable) A sub-genre of Scouse house music containing distinctive percussion sounds.


giro

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

Via German, from Italian giro (“circulation”), from Latin gyrus (“circle”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to curve, to bend”).

der

His Sheperd's Bush giro was in doubt now, because he had declined the exciting career opportunity to work in the Burger King in Notting Hill Gate.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “The First Shag in Ages”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 146:

(UK, Ireland, informal) An unemployment benefit cheque.


lunchbox

lunchboxes (plural)
lunch box (alternative)
lunch-box (alternative)

The campaign tagline, 'I've got a tiny packet', is written across [Linford] Christie's trademark impressively muscled upper body. 'Tiny packet' makes us remember that Linford is known for his 'lunchbox' from his heyday as a sprinter because of the bulge apparent in his lycra shorts. His lunchbox and now his tiny packet allude to the diminishing of black men to just their genitals[…]

2015, Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Shirley Anne Tate, Creolizing Europe: Legacies and Transformations, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 109:

(slang, UK) The male genitals when enclosed in clothing.


beget

en-verb

beget (third-person singular simple present begets, present participle begetting, simple past begot or (archaic) begat, past participle begotten or (rare) begot)

begets (present singular third-person)
begetting (participle present)
begot (past)
begat (archaic past)
begotten (participle past)
begot (participle past rare)

From Middle English begeten [influenced by Old Norse geta ("to get, to guess")], from Old English beġietan (“to get”), from Proto-Germanic *bigetaną (“to find, seize”), equivalent to be- + get. Cognate with Old Saxon bigetan (“to find, seize”), Old High German bigezan (“to gain, achieve, win, procure”).


pongo

(British, slang) A lazy, good-for-nothing person.


victualler

victuallers (plural)
victualer (alternative)

From Middle English vitailler, from Old French vitaillier; equivalent to victual + -er.


allocate

From Middle English allocate (the common first word of writs authorizing payment), from Medieval Latin allocātum, substantivized from the nominative neuter singular of allocātus, see -ate (noun-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Alternatively, from allocāte, the second-person plural imperative of allocō, compare English liberate (“a warrant for the payment of a pension, allowance, debt, etc.”).

noncog

(obsolete, UK, historical, law) A writ authorizing payment, allowance, grant.


gutter

Sranan Tongo: gotro

From Middle English gutter, guttur, goter, from Anglo-Norman guttere, from Old French goutiere (French gouttière), ultimately from Latin gutta (“drop”).


shandy

en-noun

shandy (countable and uncountable, plural shandies)

(uncountable, UK, Ireland) A drink made by mixing beer and lemonade.


MLA

MLAs (plural)
M.L.A. (alternative)
M. L. A. (alternative)

Wanglin Lowangdong, incumbent MLA of Borduria Bogapani trails in the constituency.

2019 May 23, The Hindu Net Desk, “Arunachal Pradesh Assembly results live updates | BJP wins 7 Assembly seats, leads in both LS seats”, in The Hindu, archived from the original on 2022-11-12:

MLAs past and present gathered for an event at Stormont on Friday to mark the agreement's 25th anniversary.

2023 April 7, Chris Andrews, “Good Friday Agreement: Use courage and vision of 1998, says George Mitchell”, in BBC News:

(British, Canada, India, politics) Initialism of member of the legislative assembly.


ploughman's lunch

ploughman's lunch (plural ploughman's lunches or ploughmen's lunches)

ploughman's lunches (plural)
ploughmen's lunches (plural)

Originally devised by a marketing executive of the Dairy Council in a 1960-61 advertising campaign to sell English cheese and beer.

(British) A light meal of bread, cheese, and pickled onions (or cucumbers), etc., especially one served in a pub at lunchtime.


knob

en-verb

knob (third-person singular simple present knobs, present participle knobbing, simple past and past participle knobbed)

knobs (present singular third-person)
knobbing (participle present)
knobbed (participle past)
knobbed (past)

From Middle English knobbe, from Middle Low German knobbe (“knob; knot in wood”), probably via Old Saxon from a variant of Proto-Germanic *knappô (“knob, lump”), one of several kn- words related to *knudaną (“to knead”).
Cognate with Dutch knob, knobbel (“knob”), German Knubbe, Knubbel (“knob”). See also knop. For the sense of a rounded hill, see nab and knab.

der

One morning, maybe three weeks after my last grapple with Penny, Thomson came roaring into our form room. ‘Oi, Fleming, you spastic. Guess who I knobbed last night?’

1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 17:

Had Jack knobbed her as well? Molly wondered.

2013, Sarah-Kate Lynch, Finding Tom Connor:

(British, slang, vulgar, transitive, of a man) To have sex with.


red lemonade

en-noun

red lemonade (usually uncountable, plural red lemonades)

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

(UK, Ireland) Lemonade coloured with natural food colouring, giving it a red appearance and a slightly sweeter taste.


hophead

(British, slang) A beer enthusiast or homebrewer.


snort

From Middle English snorten, from earlier fnorten, from Old English *fnorettan, related to Middle English snoren, fnoren, from Old English fnora. See snore and sneeze for more on the change from fn- to sn-.


odd and curious

For the odd and curious of us, to fly like a bird is a not an easy thing.

The odd and curious is born good and pure. The society corrupts.

(idiomatic, British) On the Isle of Man, the common or general man.


townie

cocky ()

antonym(s) of “person who lives in a city or town or has an urban outlook”

Professional gamblers have a cushy racket in college football because old grads and even townies of college localities are sentimental bettors and easy to separate from their money.

1947 November, “College football business”, in Kiplinger Magazine, page 36:

School is an ivory tower on the hill; it nestles in the gated groves of academe. It’s residents do not mix with “townies.”

1994, Terry O'Banion, A Learning College for the 21st Century, page 11:

In Spike Lee's movie School Daze you play a townie who's very hostile to the college students from out of town.

2004, Terry Gross, All I Did Was Ask, page 336:

(UK, US) A person living in a university area who is not associated with the university.

[Hamlet] was only repeating the phrase of an ordinary English rustic when jeering at a “townie”—whom he suspected of being a gutter-snipe—that “He don’t know a hawk from a hernshaw”.

1914 June 6, Roper Lethbridge, “Village Words”, in The Saturday Review, page 737:

From being a born-and-bred townie from north London, to a 36-year-old part-time farmer and full-time businessman is no mean achievement.

1998, Ken Ashton, “Preface”, in Graham Irwin, A Farm of Our Own, page 8:

The term cockney originally meant cock’s egg or misshapen egg such as a young hen might lay, in other words a lily-livered townie as opposed to a strong countryman.

2003, Rob Humphreys, The Rough Guide to London, page v:

(UK) A person who has moved from a town or city to a rural area. Especially, one who is perceived not to have adopted rural ways.

(UK) A person familiar with the town (urbanised centre of a city) and with going out on the town; a street-wise person.

Bobby Wick stormed through the tents of his Company, rallying, rebuking, mildly, as is consistent with the Regulations, chaffing the faint-hearted [...] comforting the panic-stricken with rude speech, and more than once tending the dying who had no friends — the men without "townies"[.]

1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 148:

Here I parted with my fellow-townies, whose home shed at Millhouses covers fields where I played as a child.

1949 March and April, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–2”, in Railway Magazine, page 83:

The modern Aussie is a townie through and through. Australia is the least densely populated country on earth; it is also among the most highly urbanised.

1999, Richard D. Lewis, When Cultures Collide: Managing Successfully Across Cultures, page 191:

In the 1940′s, a social survey of Victorian country towns found a similar gap between the interests and outlooks of farmers and townies, and an underlying fear on the part of the townsfolk.

2002, Graeme Davison, “Rural Sustainability in Historical Perspective”, in Chris Cocklin, Jacqui Dibden, editors, Sustainability and Change in Rural Australia, University Of New South Wales Press, page 40:

In that sense, the townies, not the farmers, were the inheritors of a pioneer capacity for hard work.

2005, Marc Brodie, “Chapter 9: The Politics of Rural Nostalgia between the Wars”, in Graeme Davison, Marc Brodie, editors, Struggle Country: The Rural Ideal in Twentieth-Century Australia, page 9.9:

Earlier, there would probably have been a grudge match between two townies, or locals.

2008, Jim Sharman, Blood & Tinsel: A Memoir, Melbourne University Publishing, page 18:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) A person who lives in a city or town, or has an urban outlook.


sycamore

sycamore (countable and uncountable, plural sycamores)

sycamores (plural)
sycomore (alternative)

Circa 1350 as Middle English sicamour, from Old French sicamor, from Latin sȳcomorus, from Ancient Greek σῡκόμορος (sūkómoros, literally “fig-mulberry”), from σῦκον (sûkon, “fig”) + μόρον (móron, “mulberry”). Possibly influenced by Hebrew שִׁקְמָה (shikmá, “fig-mulberry”).
In the 16th c. applied to the European maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), in the early 19th c. to various plane tree species introduced to North America, perhaps in analogy to their shadiness.

ncog

The thronged boughs of the shadowy sycamore / Still bear young leaflets half the summer through

1899, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “The Day-Dream”, in Pictures & poems:

Acer pseudoplatanus
Acer pseudoplatanus#Translingual

(British) A large British and European species of maple, Acer pseudoplatanus, known in North America as the sycamore maple.


God botherer

(UK, slang, derogatory) A person who persistently promotes religious beliefs to others, even when unwelcome.

(UK, slang, derogatory) An excessively pious person.

(UK, military slang) A military chaplain.


stig

From the eponymous character in the book Stig of the Dump (Clive King, Puffin, 1963, →ISBN.

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

(UK, slang, derogatory) Someone from a poor background, with poor dress sense.


Kevin

→ Breton: Kevin

→ Cebuano: Kevin

desc

→ Chinese: 凱文 /凯文 (Kǎiwén) (transliteration)

→ Danish: Kevin

→ Dutch: Kevin

→ Estonian: Kevin

→ French: Kevin, Kévin m

French: Kevine f

→ German: Kevin

→ Lithuanian: Kevinas

→ Norwegian: Kevin

→ Polish: Kewin

→ Portuguese: Kevin

→ Spanish: Kevin

→ Swedish: Kevin

→ Tagalog: Kevin

Name of a seventh-century Irish saint, from Irish Caoimhghin or Caoimhín, from Old Irish Cóemgen (literally “dear birth/person”). It first became popular outside Ireland in the mid-twentieth century.

der

(British, derogatory, slang) A working-class male.


SAS

The SAS are absolutely charming. Ruthless trained killers are just a phone call away.

2003, Richard Curtis, Love Actually, spoken by Prime Minister (Hugh Grant):

He was the last original member of the SAS, whose exploits were dramatised in the BBC series SAS: Rogue Heroes (2022), based on the 2016 book of the same name by Ben Macintyre.

2024 January 14, Michael Smith, “Mike Sadler obituary”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Special Air Service
Special Air Service#English

(British, Australia, New Zealand, military) Initialism of Special Air Service.


SBS

Special Boat Service
w:Special Boat Service

(UK, military) Initialism of Special Boat Service, an elite unit of the British Royal Marines, similar to the SAS but operating in a naval environment.


copper-bottomed

en-adj

copper-bottomed (comparative more copper-bottomed, superlative most copper-bottomed)

more copper-bottomed (comparative)
most copper-bottomed (superlative)

From the copper sheathing applied to the bottom of a wooden ship to prevent damage from marine organisms. In literal sense 18th century, in figurative sense attested since at least 1807. The British idiomatic use comes from the fact that with Britain being a major naval power, there was always a ready market for copper in ship construction, making it a reliable commodity to invest in.

The copper-bottomed angel at Messrs. Paff’s in Broadway.

(British, idiomatic) Thoroughly reliable; secure.


faff

From a dialect word meaning "blow in gusts".

Adjusting this television is a bit of a faff.

God it must be a faff having to get nigh-on naked every time your bladder runneth over, and imagine how much worse it must be if you only have a 20-second break to run off stage to the loo.

2007 November 27, Hadley Freeman, “Miaow!”, in The Guardian:

Breakfast in bed at the royal household is a massive faff. A page boy must carry the tray upstairs, but he's banned from actually serving it. So he leaves it on the floor by the bedroom door, whereupon a housemaid picks it up and knocks on said portal.

2011, Patrick Kingsley, “Life with the Queen Mum revealed”, in The Guardian:

The fuss and faff meant Christmas had long since been drained of any joy and excitement.

The show is a carefully curated manifesto of “social success without faff”.

2023 September 23, Tim Hayward, “Not so easy does it”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 19:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) An overcomplicated task, especially one perceived as a waste of time.


faff

en-verb

faff (third-person singular simple present faffs, present participle faffing, simple past and past participle faffed)

faffs (present singular third-person)
faffing (participle present)
faffed (participle past)
faffed (past)

Stop Faffing And Just Do It

2009, Steven Aitchison, 100 Ways to Develop Your Mind, page 131:

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) To waste time on an unproductive activity.


obscene

en-adj

obscene (comparative obscener or more obscene, superlative obscenest or most obscene)

obscener (comparative)
more obscene (comparative)
obscenest (superlative)
most obscene (superlative)
obscæne (alternative archaic)

From Middle French obscene (modern French obscène (“indecent, obscene”)), and from its etymon Latin obscēnus, obscaenus (“inauspicious; ominous; disgusting, filthy; offensive, repulsive; indecent, lewd, obscene”). The further etymology is uncertain, but may be from ob- (prefix meaning ‘towards’) + caenum (“dirt, filth; mire, mud”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweyn- (“to make dirty, soil; filth; mud”)) or scaevus (“left, on the left side; clumsy; (figurative) unlucky”) (from Proto-Indo-European *skeh₂iwo-).

der

For the purposes of this Act an article shall be deemed to be obscene if its effect or (where the article comprises two or more distinct items) the effect of any one of its items is, if taken as a whole, such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.

1959 August 29, Obscene Publications Act 1959 (7 & 8 Eliz. II, chapter 66), London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-08-04, section 1(1):

The tract was far more political and religious than sexual, but Cockburn [Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet] found it obscene because it would suggest to young persons (of either sex) "impure and libidinous" thoughts.

2006, Philip A. Dynia, “Obscenity”, in Paul Finkelman, editor, Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, volumes 2 (G–Q), New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1116, column 1:

The principle that obscene material must have more serious effects than arousing feelings of revulsion leads to the doctrine that material that in fact shocks and disgusts may not be obscene, since its effect is to discourage readers from indulgence in the immorality so unappetizingly portrayed.

2009, Andrea Millwood Hargrave, Sonia M. Livingstone, “Annex II: The Legal Framework of English Law Regulating Media Content”, in Harm and Offence in Media Content: A Review of the Evidence, 2nd edition, Fishponds, Bristol, Chicago, Ill.: Intellect Books, →ISBN, pages 282–283:

An article is not obscene simply because it is repulsive or filthy. The prosecution must prove that its tendency is strong enough actually to deprave and corrupt a significant proportion of its likely audience; in other words, to pervert or corrupt their morals sufficiently for it to constitute a public menace. [...] Anything tending to deprave or corrupt may be obscene, including material encouraging the taking of dangerous drugs or glorifying violence, particularly if it is expressly targeted at children or adolescents.

2016, Hugh Jones, Christopher Benson, “Defamation and Other Risks”, in Publishing Law, 5th edition, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, part IV (Publish and Be Damned), page 228:

(chiefly British, criminal law) Liable to corrupt or deprave.


fumble

fumbles (plural)
famble (alternative)
fimble (alternative)

(British) A dessert similar to a cross between a fool and a crumble.


sig

From Middle English sige. Cognate with Middle Dutch seic, seike, Middle Low German seyche. Related also to sink (“to fall”).


scuffer

(slang, British, archaic) A London policeman (of the Victorian era).


matey

en-adj

matey (comparative matier, superlative matiest)

matier (comparative)
matiest (superlative)

You've been very matey with that new bird.

She asked in what sort of accident I had broken my back, and when I told her that I had been shot down she became much more matey.

1948, Dennis Wheatley, The Haunting of Toby Jugg, published 2007, page 148:

We decided that it would be more matey to have communal meals, so all the guests and hosts foregathered at the hotel for lunches and dinners, and at every sitting there were about 40 of us, all in high spirits.

1995, Gwynneth Latham, Michael C. Latham, Kilimanjaro Tales: The Saga of a Medical Family in Africa, page 140:

2002, Jon Latimer, Alamein, page 128,
he wrote: ‘They took a bit of getting used to. I was dressed as a general and they treated me in the most matey way, but despite this it was easy to see that there was nothing wrong with their battle discipline.’

His opening salvo, “If you didn′t care what happened to me, and I didn′t care for you,” gives way to a more matey mood at the end: “You know that I care what happens to you. And I know that you care for me.”

2002, Alan Di Perna, Guitar World, Guitar World Presents: Pink Floyd, page 29:

Adolphus Egerton Ryerson was his full name, but he insisted on being called Egerton Ryerson, under the mistaken conviction that this was much more matey than Adolphus.

2005, Donald H. Akenson, An Irish History of Civilization, volume 2, page 293:


hobble

From Middle English hobblen, hobelen, akin to Middle Dutch hoblen, hobbelen (Modern Dutch hobbelen).

(dialect, UK and Newfoundland) An odd job; a piece of casual work.


ITU

intensive treatment unit
w:intensive treatment unit

(British) Initialism of intensive treatment unit.


cottager

From cottage (“to have sex in a public lavatory”) + -er (agent noun suffix).

suf

(British, slang) One who engages in sex in public lavatories; a practitioner of cottaging.


spack

Possibly a contraction of spastic (as a term of abuse).

unk

Possibly

(UK, slang, derogatory, offensive) A person with cerebral palsy.

You spilt beer on your shirt, you spack!

For quotations using this term, see Citations:spack.

(UK, slang, derogatory, offensive) An incompetent or physically uncoordinated person.


twunt

Sorry for being kind of a twunt about other matters, but it's because of posts like this that I don't want to write you off or lose you as a friend.

2003 August 13, David Watson, “the UN in anime”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

Let the pub-dodging twunt embarrass himself with his primitive, witless and repetitive insults.

2003 October 29, Farlie A, “Peter 'Heather' Thomas!”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet):

Is that the twunt who looks like Bill Bailey's younger brother?

2003 November 29, Thanatos, “Annoying ads”, in uk.media.tv.misc (Usenet):

I note that in a recent New Scientist some twunt was advocating the use of C02 pressure washers and acidic/caustic cleaning foams instead of the usual disinfectant approach.

2005 February 25, David Marshall, “Re: Election Campaign”, in alt.dur.general (Usenet):

It is completely normal to harbour desires to batter these smug twunts about the head with a hot MacBook Air.

2011 July 8, Grace Dent, The Guardian, 8 Jul 2011:

“You're so perfect at everything, deal with it yourself. I'm outta here.” [glass shattering] “Okay. That sounded expensive. Terry, Terry, don't be a twunt. What did you break?”

2023 August 14, May Darmon, “The Re-Visibility Bouillabaisse” (9:01 from the start), in Solar Opposites, season 4, episode 10, spoken by Korvo (Dan Stevens):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, vulgar) A fool; an extremely objectionable person.


reader

From Middle English reder, redar, redere, redare, from Old English rēdere, rǣdere (“a reader; scholar; diviner”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādāri, equivalent to read + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Räider (“advisor”), Dutch rader (“advisor”), German Rater (“advisor”).

(chiefly British) A university lecturer ranking below a professor.


oil painting

en-noun

oil painting (countable and uncountable, plural oil paintings)

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

"Very lovely!" he said, staring her straight in the face.
"You needn't try and be funny!" she said. "If you mean me, I'm no oil-painting, and I know it!"

1920, Henry St. John Cooper, “Sunny Ducrow”, in Putnam's, page 117:

Wayne Swan: All I can say is that she's a much more attractive person than the Prime Minister.
George Brandis: You're not exactly an oil painting yourself, Wayne.

2007 "Virginia Trioli talks to George Brandis and Wayne Swan" Lateline ABC (Australia) 14 September 2007

(British, humorous, litotes, chiefly in the negative) A physically attractive person.


fawce

en-adj

fawce (comparative more fawce, superlative most fawce)

more fawce (comparative)
most fawce (superlative)


cost centre

(UK, accounting, management) Alternative form of cost center.