boggard

boggards (plural)
boggart (alternative)
buggard (alternative obsolete)
baggard (alternative obsolete)

Uncertain, but likely from Lancashire, Yorkshire etc dialectal variants of bug (“goblin; terrifying thing; etc.”), equivalent to bog + -ard.

A Boggarde, spectrum.

He thinks every bush a boggard, i.e. a bugbear or phantasm.

1768, John Ray, A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs, published 1818, page 123:

Boggle, Boggart, a fearful object, a hobgoblin.

1855, F.K. Robinson, Glossary of Yorkshire Words, page 17:

(UK dialectal) A bogey: a ghost, goblin, or other hostile supernatural creature, especially a small local spirit haunting gloomy places or the scenes of violence.


shorthold

(UK, law) Describing a tenancy that exists for an agreed term, at the end of which the property may be recovered by the landlord.


stilboestrol

en-noun

stilboestrol (countable and uncountable, plural stilboestrols)

(pharmacology) UK spelling of stilbestrol.


forcasten

en-adj

forcasten (comparative more forcasten, superlative most forcasten)

more forcasten (comparative)
most forcasten (superlative)

Originally the past participle of obsolete forcast (“to cast away”); also from Middle English forcasten, a variant of forcast (“rejected, cast away”), past participle of forcasten (“to cast away, reject”), of North Germanic origin, compare Danish forkaste (“to reject”), Swedish förkasta (“to reject”), equivalent to for- + cast.

I think Christ lieth like an old forcasten castle, forsaken of the inhabitants; all men run away now from Him.

1891, Samuel Rutherford, Letters of Samuel Rutherford:

(archaic, UK dialectal) Cast away, rejected; neglected; not used, cast off.


the quality

20 July 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian
I shall appear at the masquerade dressed up in my feathers, that the quality may see how pretty they will look in their travelling habits.

The rector kept open house on that day, but by degrees the “quality” gave up going, and the fair, of course, became disreputable, till at last it was put down as a nuisance.

I would have spoken further, but before I could get under way the door opened, revealing Ma Cream, and [my manservant Jeeves] shimmered silently from the room. Unless expressly desired to remain, he always shimmers off when what is called the Quality arrive.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

[In 1919 Ireland.] ‘Be quiet, Ripon! It's not nonsense at all. Ripon's father calls us “fish-eaters” and “Holy Romans” and so on. So does Ripon. So will you, Major, when you're among the “quality”. In fact, you'll become a member of the “quality” yourself, high and mighty, too good for the rest of us.’

1970, James Gordon Farrell, Troubles, 1st edition, page 34:

Yet they did not pretend to be members of ‘the quality’, the people of fashion, the cosmopolitan beau monde or the ton, although they were not above harping on their exalted acquaintances among the nobility or the antiquity of their lineage when they saw fit.

2006, James Alan Downie, "Who Says She's a Bourgeois Writer? Reconsidering the Social and Political Contexts of Jane Austen's Novels", in Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 40, Nr. 1, Fall 2006

(UK, idiomatic, archaic) The upper class, the high society, the gentry; the people of quality.


HMRC

CThEM

abbreviation of (the equivalent of) Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

CThEF

abbreviation of (the equivalent of) His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

(UK) Initialism of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

(UK) Initialism of His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.


verd

(obsolete, UK, law) The privilege of cutting green wood within a forest for fuel.

(obsolete, UK, law) The right of pasturing animals in a forest


beal

en-verb

beal (third-person singular simple present beals, present participle bealing, simple past and past participle bealed)

beals (present singular third-person)
bealing (participle present)
bealed (participle past)
bealed (past)

From Middle English belien, from Old Norse belja (“to bellow, roar”).

(UK dialectal) To bellow, roar, or shout.


clogs to clogs in three generations

From the common use of clogs by manual workers in north England and following the style of similar phrases which have been attested since 1700. The particular phrasing is perhaps of Lancashire origin. Compare shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.

(UK) Wealth earned in one generation seldom lasts through the third (grandchild's) generation.

富不過三代 /富不过三代

wealth earned in one generation seldom lasts

minkä yksi sukupolvi rakentaa, sen toinen kasvattaa ja kolmas hävittää

wealth does not survive three generations


half cut

en-adj

half cut (comparative more half cut, superlative most half cut)

more half cut (comparative)
most half cut (superlative)
half-cut (alternative common)

Originally jocular derivative of now rare use of cut in this sense, which dates from the 17th century, from cut in the leg, to have cut your leg, euphemism for being very drunk.

He had the girl's head on his shoulder but she was half cut and in her seventh heaven, so he just went on talking to me, proud of his English, you see.

1974, John Le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Folio, published 2009, page 233:

Drink up thy zider, drink up thy zider, For tonight we'll merry be. We'll knock the milk churns over and roll 'em in the clover, for the corn's half cut and so be we!

1975 July 10, “Drink Up Thy Zider” (track 6), in The Finest 'Arvest of The Wurzels, performed by The Wurzels:

Lucie Miller always loved Christmas back home in Blackpool. Her Mum running a still-frozen turkey under the hot tap at ten. Great-Grandma Miller half-cut on cooking sherry by eleven. Her Dad and her uncle arguing hammer and tongs about who was the best James Bond all through dinner.

2009, Death in Blackpool (The New Eighth Doctor Adventures; 4.01), Big Finish, publisher's summary:

You think: "That old fella's woken up still half-cut and put on his girlfriend's shoes by mistake."

2010 January 9, Alexis Petridis, “Ugg boots for men? No thanks”, in The Guardian:

(informal, UK, Ireland, Australia) Rather drunk.


kick into touch

en-verb

kick into touch (third-person singular simple present kicks into touch, present participle kicking into touch, simple past and past participle kicked into touch)

kicks into touch (present singular third-person)
kicking into touch (participle present)
kicked into touch (participle past)
kicked into touch (past)
kick to touch (alternative)

(UK, sports) To kick a ball over the touchline in a game of rugby, often to avoid pressure from the opponent team in a difficult situation, to end injury time or to gain territory.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I'm going to kick it into touch.

With referee Mark Clattenburg at the centre of a new racism row, is football once more succumbing to a blight many thought had been kicked into touch?

2012 October 29, Barney Ronay, “Is the Premier League becoming racist again?”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic) To evade an issue; to stop from happening.


and that

Are we meeting Tom and that?

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) And the others; used after a name to denote the friends or social group of that person.


arsy versy

Alteration of arsa versa, a blend of an alteration of arse + vice versa, modeled on vicey versey.

arsey versey (alternative)
arsy versey (alternative)
arsey versy (alternative)
arsy varsy (alternative)

1548, Nicholas Udall (translator), The Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the Newe Testamente, London: Edward Whitchurch, Volume 1, Luke 16,
Who would not haue iudged that same ryche man to haue been a perfecte exaumple and paterne of most welthie and happy state: and this poore Lazare man to be a paterne of vtter miserie? But felicitie is in nowyse to be measured by such thinges as fortune geueth to men in this lyfe. But in the matter that we nowe speake of, altogether was sodainly turned in and out clene arsie versy.

Dost thou not know that from the beginning the world goes arsie-versie.

1612, Benvenuto, The Passenger of Benvenuto:

[…] the estate of that flourishing towne was turned arsie versie, topside the otherwaie, and from abundance of prosperitie quite exchanged to extreame penurie.

1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., “The Description of Ireland”, in Chronicles of England, Scotlande and Irelande, page 26:

“You put your back up in the wrong place and you’re passive in the wrong place. You’ve got everything arsy-versy. […]”

1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York: Viking, page 457:

Us going in on foot and then the equipment being airlifted in is about as arsy-versy as you can get.

1989, Julian Barnes, chapter 8, in A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, New York: Knopf, page 194:

(idiomatic, British, vulgar) Tumbling upside down; head over heels; backwards.


wellingtonia

From the original taxonomic name, Wellingtonia gigantea, which was invalid because "Wellingtonia" had already been used for another plant. Probably named for the Duke of Wellington, who died the year before.

Sequoiadendron giganteum
Sequoiadendron giganteum#Translingual

(UK) A large coniferous tree, Sequoiadendron giganteum, from California.


oncost

From on- + cost, or from Middle English uncost (“additional expense”), from Middle Dutch oncost (“expenses, overhead”) (Modern Dutch onkost), equivalent to un- + cost. Cognate with German Unkost (“expenses”).

der

(UK dialectal, Scotland) The indirect expenditure incurred for the purpose of increasing the productive power of organised labour.


gdns

E. Norton (Machine Tools) Ltd., Grosvenor Gdns. House, Grosvenor Gdns., London […]

In Earl's Court, Barkston Gdns, very close to the tube, has a long row of perfectly pleasant hotels, all of which seem individual but clean and welcoming.

2004, Charles Godfrey-Faussett, Footprint England:

(UK, in street addresses) Abbreviation of gardens.


storeyed

(Canada, UK, Commonwealth) Alternative spelling of storied (“US spelling”) (having the stated number of storeys (building levels)).


lands preserved

(UK, Ireland) statement placed on signs or in newspaper ads, advising that hunting or shooting is not permitted on the property.


Amherst

Amherst
Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst

From either Old English elm or Old Norse almr (“elm”) + Old English hyrst (“wood”). The town in Nova Scotia is named after Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst (1717–1797).

af

It does sound unusual about the Kalij and Amherst compared to their close relatives. […] I've noticed Amhersts tend to be a little more nervous when compared to Goldens. They may stay around, but once they get spooked, they will probably split for good.

1999 January 28, Dan Cowell, “Re: Free-ranging pheasants”, in sci.agriculture.poultry (Usenet):

Lady Amherst's pheasant
Lady Amherst's pheasant#English

(British) Ellipsis of Lady Amherst's pheasant.


skew whiff

en-adj

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

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

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative spelling of skew-whiff.


compounder

1691–92, Anthony Wood (antiquary), Athenæ Oxonienses
The first of these two was a compounder, the other who was an accumulator, was lately made provost of Trin. coll. near Dublin, and on the 31st of March 1692 was nominated bish. of Kilmore.

(UK, archaic) One at a university who pays extraordinary fees for the degree he is to take.

(UK, historical) A Jacobite who favoured the restoration of James II, on condition of a general amnesty and of guarantees for the security of the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the realm.


leaderene

leader with pseudo-feminine suffix, like -ine. Credited to Norman St. John-Stevas, in reference to Margaret Thatcher.

(UK) A female leader (especially an autocratic one)

Margaret Thatcher
Norman St. John-Stevas


tomoz

From tomorrow + -z. Compare appaz (“apparently”), soz (“sorry”).

(UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Clipping of tomorrow.


tomoz

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Clipping of tomorrow.


sit-up-and-beg

/ˌsɪtˌəpənˈbɛɡ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sit-up-and-beg.wav

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-sit-up-and-beg.wav

From sit up + and + beg, likening the position to a dog sitting up on its hindquarters and begging by holding its front paws out.

I hadn't even found a proper bike shop – the one I did come across was full of the equivalent of our sit-up-and-begs.

2001, Charlie Woods, “From Sepia to Vivid Colour”, in Bikie: A Love Affair with the Racing Bicycle, Edinburgh; London: Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN, page 58:

Studying my bike in detail he then said, 'That's a good sit-up you've got.' For a moment I thought he thought I was riding a sit-up-and-beg when really I had a touring steed complete with drop handlebars. And then I realised my stumbling block. He had pronounced a very Kiwi sit-up for set-up.

2007, Josie Dew, “Dannevirke, 12 February [2004]”, in Long Cloud Ride: A Cycling Adventure across New Zealand, London: Sphere, →ISBN, page 97:

Bicycles over many years have been bought / Something the inventor would never have thought! / From the sit up and begs that left you all shaken / From the old penny farthings did cycles awaken!

2013, Pete Barry, “The Art of Cycling”, in You’re Having a Larf! Fun Poetry for All the Family, [London]: New Generation Publishing, →ISBN, stanza 1, page 52:

(UK, cycling) A bicycle having handlebars that are rather high and curve backwards, so that the rider sits upright rather than hunching forward; a roadster.


grass up

en-verb

grass up (third-person singular simple present grasses up, present participle grassing up, simple past and past participle grassed up)

grasses up (present singular third-person)
grassing up (participle present)
grassed up (participle past)
grassed up (past)

My sister grassed me up to the caretaker! She thought she was doing me a favour — by grassing me up she was sure he'd let me off.

1999, Angela Devlin, Bob Turney, Going Straight: After Crime and Punishment, →ISBN:


grass on

grass on (third-person singular simple present grasses on, present participle grassing on, simple past and past participle grassed on)

grasses on (present singular third-person)
grassing on (participle present)
grassed on (participle past)
grassed on (past)

What I was pissed off about, though, was him telling everyone that he'd only grassed on me because I'd grassed on him first, which was a total lie.


oughtn't've

"Hell, mebbe we oughtn't've done that." Tony was regretful.

(UK, colloquial or dialectal) ought not to have


left hooker

left hookers (plural)
left-hooker (alternative)

From English left and hook + -er in the sense of the game of golf.

(UK, Ireland, colloquial, derogatory) A Roman Catholic, especially one of Irish descent.


ATOL

Air Travel Organisers' Licensing
w:Air Travel Organisers' Licensing

(UK) Acronym of Air Travel Organisers' Licensing.


growmore

From grow + more, originally a proprietary product manufactured and sold by the Growmore Company.

(UK) A general-purpose inorganic fertilizer for garden use.


WRNS

Women's Royal Naval Service
w:Women's Royal Naval Service

(UK, military, nautical) Initialism of Women's Royal Naval Service.


skinnymalinks

skinnymalinkses (plural)
skinnymalink (alternative)
skinny malink (alternative)

Uncertain. Possibly from a Scottish children's song, "Skinamalinky Long Leg," about a thin man and his adventures.

'But she's a skinnymalinks.'
'She had lots of puppyfat before puberty stretched her out. […]

1995, Emma Donoghue, Hood, Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 202:

Too often, the media have played down the positive aspects of bulimia, displaying endless photographs of skinnymalinkses, none of whom look as if they could down more than as^([sic]) dozen tubes of Pringles (haven't you tried them? oh but you must!) without leaving the lavatory in a state of disarray.

1995 April 9, Wallace Arnold, “Lunch and a little light bulimia with friends”, in The Independent:

'Oh, Lord, you've turned into a right skinnymalinks,' she noticed. 'Is that because of the boyfriend?'

1999, Marian Keyes, Last Chance Saloon, Poolbeg, →ISBN, page 423:

(informal, UK, dated in US) A skinny person.


frankalmoign

From Norman French fraunch aumoyne, meaning "free alms".

frankalmoin (alternative)
frankalmoigne (alternative)

(UK, historical) A form of land tenure in return for religious duty or service.


old girl

(chiefly British) An alumna, especially of a public school.

Listen, old girl, I've got some news.

(UK) Affectionate term of address for a woman.


village bike

From the joke that "everyone gets a ride" (i.e. sexual intercourse).

He said of the girl complainant: 'She was the village bike.' 'What do you mean by that?' asked the Chairman. 'Everybody rode her,' was the reply. The idiom is evidently widely diffused, and there is little profit in trying to establish who invented it […]

1983, Philip Howard, A word in your ear:

The local people privately called Jean's mother 'The Village Bike', on which everyone got to ride. Jean had no way of knowing whether the man who lived with them was her father; the man himself may not have known.

Dexter wrote: > […] My charity is always extended to the local drunks of the village where I was brought up.
You were the village bike then?

2003, Effervescing Elephant, “Re: Stealth aircraft over Lincs”, in uk.local.lincolnshire (Usenet):

The boys nicknamed her the “village bike” and any lad who wanted affection or experience picked her up for the night.

2009, Annette J. Dunlea, Always and Forever:

She has a bit of a Village Bike reputation, and she usually wears her hair in two pigtails.

2009, Brent Crawford, Carter Finally Gets It:

My ex wife's a bit of a village bike, does that count? :-P

2012 May 15, Bob Milutinovic, “Re: Attn : TPG Techs”, in aus.computers (Usenet), retrieved 2014-09-23:

(UK, slang, derogatory) A local woman who is sexually promiscuous.


zoot

en-noun

zoot (countable and uncountable, plural zoots)

How many zoots you getting out of a 3.5? I’m hearing 4 is normal🥴

2020 October 13, @_OsoSandro11, Twitter:

Green’s Dictionary of Slang
w:Green's Dictionary of Slang

(uncountable, slang, UK) PCP; phencyclidine.


gay-ass

en-adj

gay-ass (comparative more gay-ass, superlative most gay-ass)

more gay-ass (comparative)
most gay-ass (superlative)

From gay + -ass; see derogatory sense of gay.

(UK, informal, vulgar, derogatory) Stupid; uncool; immature or puerile.


nobbut

From no + but. Compare Scots nae but, nae bit (“no more than, only, merely, just”).

He were nobbut a lad when he joined the army.

(UK, Northern England) nothing but; only; just


trackie

From tracksuit + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

Dylan was wearing a light trackie top in the colours of the flag.

2005, Peter Docker, Someone Else′s Country, ReadHowYouWant, published 2010, page 300:

‘I′ve fucking had it with this town,’ she said. ‘I go into the super last night, they reckon they seen me taking frozen stuff out of me trackie at the car. So I′m gonna walk around with fucking frozen peas down me trackie, right? Right?’

2005, Peter Temple, The Broken Shore, page 99:

Carriages crammed with more sportswear than JD, including what looks like an orange and black trackie, similar to Casey′s; some dad out with his kid. You get a better class of person in Wembley.

2006, Niven Govinden, Graffiti My Soul, Penguin, page 69:

Pulling on a pair of trackie pants and a jumper, she quietly unclipped the flyscreen and pushed up the old window and climbed through, landing outside with a hollow thud.

2009, Fleur McDonald, Red Dust, ReadHowYouWant, page 118:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) A tracksuit.


bivvy

Well, if you're willing to sub me a shant of bivvy, then I'll tell ya

2016, Christopher James, Sherlock Holmes and The Adventure of the Ruby Elephants, →ISBN:


test card

In 1967, the BBC needed a ‘test card’ for its new colour broadcasts, to be put on the screen when programmes were not being transmitted so engineers could adjust the quality of the picture.

2013, Chris McManus, Right Hand, Left Hand, Hachette, →ISBN:

(UK, television) A test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no programme is being broadcast (often at startup and closedown).


old chap

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

‘Well, look here, old chap,’ he said, ‘let's have strict business between friends. If you'll pay me back four quid at the end of term, you shall have the two pounds. How does that strike you?’

1903, P. G. Wodehouse, A Prefect's Uncle, A & C Black:

(UK, dated) Affectionate term of address for a man.

Withnail: You fill this with piss, take this pipe down the trouser, and sellotape this valve to the end of the old chap. Then you get horribly drunk, and they can't fucking touch you.

1997-99, various writers, Blue Jam
DR PERLIN: I'll need to have a look at your old chap.


mahoosive

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

From massive; probably a blend of massive and a respelling of the letters hu in huge infixed in the former.

Well, I haven't had any real problems with it, it's not the most reliable ISP I've ever used (mahoosive understatement), but considering it's free it's not too bad.

2000 March 27, Laurence Bogle, “Re: DF”, in alt.fab.robert-jordan (Usenet):

I even said to someone look at them mahoosive mosquitoes!! […] I tell ya, between the mahoosive mosquitoes, bees & wasps and caterpillars, I was VERY happy to get back to the city & it's pollution.

2002 September 24, “Frothie” [pseudonym], “Re: More Mahoosive Spiders :S”, in alt.babylon5.uk (Usenet):

We do have a rather mahoosive store locally.

2003 October 10, “Catkins” [pseudonym], “Re: Just ‘done’ Tescos”, in freeserve.chat (Usenet):

Picture this: we had a fat tourist: wandering along in a mahusive pair of budgie smugglers (Speedo's), and wearing this ridiculous flower hat; pawing over a local girl.

2007 February 26, John P. Wood, Woody’s World Turns Left … into South East Asia, Bloomington, Ind., Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 247:

And on that note, I shall bid you all a fond au revoir. This scene-setting commentary will now end, and Phil Harlow will bring you all the action from the Stade de France before, during and after tonight's mahoosive match.

2007 October 20, Sam Lyon, “England v South Africa countdown”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2021-06-08:

Those destinations are the span of England. And it's not exactly a mahoosive country …

2010 January 23, “humble.life” [pseudonym], “Re: get this …”, in alt.support.depression (Usenet):

Rachel McAdams showed off a mahusive baby bump while out and about in Notting Hill, London late yesterday afternoon. Which could just about be the most exciting thing to ever happen, today.

2012 July 6 (updated 2012 September 25), Gilly Ferguson, “Is Rachel McAdams pregnant!? Let’s examine the evidence (the bump)”, in Daily Mirror, London: Reach plc, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-02:

Bass-thrum and glass-shard music swelled slowly in volume. Despite the sound's sweetness, its painful clarity, something in Ecko shivered – it jagged at his nerves like the old fingernails-down-a-blackboard trick. It was pure power, some ma-hu-sive engine that was just turning over, warming the fuck up.

2015 November, Danie Ware, “Muster”, in Ecko Endgame, London: Titan Books, Titan Publishing Group, →ISBN:

So if you're shy about going to the gym because there is always someone next to you using mahoosive weights, don't be. You do your weights, just make every workout count.

2019 June 17, Matt Goulet, quoting Henry Cavill, “Henry Cavill Reveals His Secret to Getting Big Arms”, in Richard Dorment, editor, Men’s Health, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Magazine Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-10-03:

(chiefly British, humorous, slang) Massive; huge; very large.


plain flour

en-noun

plain flour (usually uncountable, plural plain flours)

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

plain (“regular”) + flour.
The U.S. standard of identity comes from 21CFR137.105.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, cooking) A wheat flour with a medium gluten content, suitable for general use.

puolikarkea vehnäjauho

flour with medium gluten content, suitable for general use


fortypenny

(UK) Having a value or cost of forty pence.


antivenene

antivenene (countable and uncountable, plural antivenenes)

antivenenes (plural)
anti-venene (alternative)

From anti- + venene (“venom”), from Latin venēnum (“juice; venom”). Doublet of antivenom and antivenin.

His conclusions are that (1) about the same quantity of anti-venene necessary to neutralise the venom in vitro is capable of doing so when the forner is injected into the bloodstream, and the latter sub-cutaneously ;

1898, Royal Microscopical Society (Great Britain), Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, page 623:

What he really means is that the recommended use of anti-venene does not entirely agree with one set of medical opinion.

1973, East African Wild Life Society, World Wildlife Fund, Africana, volume 5, page 5:

Now it became necessary to take venom from captured Taipans, so as to produce anti-venene, and to put it in hospitals right through the danger areas.

1978, Australian Broadcasting Commission, A Big Country: More Stories about the People of Australia, page 13:

(UK and Australia, medicine) Synonym of antivenom.


Wren

From the similarity to WRNS, influenced by wrens (birds).

The characterisation of male officers as ineffectual chauvinists, and the offering of the Wrens as objects for Charlie's and the viewer's gaze, are mutually contradictory as well as uncomplimentary to all branches of the Navy.

2007, Jonathan R. Rayner, The naval war film: genre, history, national cinema:

There was plenty of work for Wrens in the training bases of the navy.

2008, Brian Lavery, CHURCHILL'S NAVY: THE SHIPS, MEN AND ORGANISATION, 1939-1945:

By the end of 1942 Wren officers were permitted to enrol on the meteorological course at RNC Greenwich, after which they were employed as fully qualified forecasters.

2008, Mark Barber, The British Fleet Air Arm in World War II:

(UK, informal) A female member of the Royal Navy (a member of the WRNS)


antiarmour

(British) Alternative spelling of antiarmor.


washing line

/ˈwɒʃɪŋ ˌlaɪn/


batwoman

(UK, military) A female batman (servant)


faceache

faceache (countable and uncountable, plural faceaches)

(UK, informal) A miserable-looking person.


patrial

From Latin patria (“fatherland, country”). The United Kingdom sense was first introduced by the Immigration Act 1971 (c. 77).

(UK) Relating to the right of abode in the United Kingdom by having a British parent or grandparent


patrial

(UK) One who has the right of abode in the United Kingdom by having a British parent or grandparent.


skeel

From Old Norse skjóla, from Proto-Germanic *skeulǭ.

The dairywoman now rolls the whole into one lump[…], closing the fingers, partially, at every stroke; thereby leaving it at the bottom of the skeel, exceedingly rough.

1789, William Marshall, The Rural Economy of Gloucestershire:

(UK, Scotland, dialect) A shallow wooden vessel for holding milk or cream.


battlebus

battlebuses (plural)
battle bus (alternative)

(UK, informal) A coach used as a mobile operational centre by a particular political party during an election campaign.


deprogramme

en-verb

deprogramme (third-person singular simple present deprogrammes, present participle deprogramming, simple past and past participle deprogrammed)

deprogrammes (present singular third-person)
deprogramming (participle present)
deprogrammed (participle past)
deprogrammed (past)

British and New Zealand standard spelling of deprogram.


hirn

From Middle English hirne, herne, from Old English hyrne (“horn, corner, angle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hurnijā, from Proto-Germanic *hurnijǭ (“horn, corner, angle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂-. Proto-Germanic *hurnijǭ is a diminutive form of *hurną, from which comes English horn. Doublet of hern.

inh

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Corner; nook; hiding-place.


disafforest

en-verb

disafforest (third-person singular simple present disafforests, present participle disafforesting, simple past and past participle disafforested)

disafforests (present singular third-person)
disafforesting (participle present)
disafforested (participle past)
disafforested (past)

From Middle English disafforeten, from Anglo-Norman disaforester and its probable etymon Latin disafforestō. By surface analysis, dis- + afforest.

The Charter of the Forests had for its object the disafforesting several of those tracts; the prevention of future afforestings: the mitigation and ascertainment of the punishments for breaches of the Forest Law.

1760, Edmund Burke, “An Essay towards an Abridgment of the English History. […]”, in [Walker King], editor, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, new edition, volume X, London: […] [R. Gilbert] for C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], published 1826, →OCLC, book III, page 534:

(UK, law) To change the status of land from that of a forest to ordinary land.


ahint

From Middle English at-hinden, from Old English æthindan (“behind, after”), equivalent to at- + hind.


ahint

ahint the coonter he sat i' the shop

But the sight of her eyes was not a thing to forget. John Dodds said they were the een of a deer with the Devil ahint them; and indeed, they would so appal an onlooker that a sudden unreasoning terror came into his heart, while his feet would impel him to flight.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:


frowsty

en-adj

frowsty (comparative frowstier, superlative frowstiest)

frowstier (comparative)
frowstiest (superlative)
frousty (alternative)

Origin unknown; possibly a variant of frowsy (frousy, frouzy, frowzy), etymology also unknown; and possibly related to Old French frouste (“decayed, in a state of ruin”). Compare also froughy, frow.

cog

He thought of getting back by half-past twelve, / And tot of rum to send him warm to sleep / In draughty dug-out frowsty with the fumes / Of coke, and full of snoring, weary men.

1917 May, Siegfried Sassoon, “A Working Party”, in The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, London: William Heinemann, published January 1918, →OCLC, stanza 6, page 29:

[T]he London theatres themselves, nearly all of them, the meanest, dirtiest, dingiest, fustiest, frowstiest edifices in the country.

1921, W[alter] L[ionel] George, “Playgrounds”, in A London Mosaic, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company, →OCLC, pages 15–16:

[W]hy are single rooms so much worse than double ones? Fewer, further, frowstier? Damper, darker, dingier? Noisier, narrower, nastier?

1968 September 11 (date written), Janice Rossen, quoting Philip Larkin, “Philip Larkin Abroad”, in Dale Salwak, editor, Philip Larkin: The Man and His Work, Basingstoke, Hampshire; London: The Macmillan Press, published 1989, →DOI, →ISBN, page 48:

Perhaps the very best people were in Paris, but there was enough going on in Brussels to replicate that older, frowstier form of society that was to Morgan's taste.

2000, Brian [John William] Thompson, “Going Home”, in A Monkey among Crocodiles: The Disastrous Life of Mrs. Georgina Weldon, London: Flamingo, HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, page 38:

Of an atmosphere: not fresh; close, musty, stuffy; of an object: having a musty, stale odour.


probator

(law, UK, obsolete) One who, when indicted for crime, confessed it and accused his accomplices in order to obtain pardon.


significavit

Borrowed from Latin significāvit (“he has signified”), from significāre (“to signify”).

bor+

the Kings Courts can receive Significavits from none but the person to whom (if need be) they may write to discharge the Prisoner

(UK, law, historical) A writ issuing out of chancery, upon certificate given by the ordinary, of a man's standing excommunicate by the space of forty days, for the laying him up in prison till he submit himself to the authority of the church.


aggravator

An aggravator, or love curl, of a delicate roundness, hung low upon the imperial forehead, […]

1848, William Evans Burton, Waggeries and Vagaries, page 57:

(UK, slang, obsolete) Synonym of Newgate knocker (“a lock of hair worn twisted back toward the ear”).


yote

en-verb

yote (third-person singular simple present yotes, present participle yoting, simple past and past participle yoted)

yotes (present singular third-person)
yoting (participle present)
yoted (participle past)
yoted (past)

From Middle English yoten, yeten (“to pour”), from Old English ġēotan (“to pour”), from Proto-West Germanic *geutan, from Proto-Germanic *geutaną (“to pour”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰewd- (“to pour”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian joote (“to pour”), West Frisian jitte (“to pour”), Dutch gieten (“to pour”), German gießen (“to pour”), Danish gyde (“to pour”). Related to gush, geyser.

(UK dialectal) To pour water on; pour in.


tourn

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A spinning wheel.


tiswas

Possibly coined by the Royal Air Force. Possibly a blend of it + is + was. Compare tizzy.

tizwas (alternative)
tizwoz (alternative)

It was her first ever visit to the capital and she was all of a tiswas.

(UK) A state of nervous excitement or confusion.


whang

whang (third-person singular simple present whangs, present participle whanging, simple past and past participle whanged)

whangs (present singular third-person)
whanging (participle present)
whanged (participle past)
whanged (past)

onomatopoeic

Imitative

I ought to have whanged him one in the eye.

(US, Scotland, British, dialect, slang) To whack or beat.


whang

Imitative

(British, Scotland, dialect, colloquial) A large piece or slice; a chunk.


whang

Debuccalized (/θw/ > /hw/) from Scots thwang, cognate to thong.

(UK, US, dialect, informal, dated) A leather thong.


chargehand

The most surprising thing was to discover that each job had its little tricks, peculiarities that had been learned in the experience of years, and one of the really pleasing features was the unlimited patience and kindliness of the chargehands and fitters, who would go to great lengths to teach the budding engineer all they themselves knew.

1944 September and October, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 283:

(UK) A person who is in charge of a small group of workers; a lesser foreman.


assenter

(UK, politics) One of the eight voters who endorse the proposer and seconder's nomination of a candidate for election to the parliament of the United Kingdom.


annet

annets (plural)
annot (alternative)
anny (alternative)

From Middle English ende, enede, from Old English ened, æned (“drake, duck”), from Proto-West Germanic *anad (“duck”), from Proto-Germanic *anadz (“duck”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énh₂ts (“duck”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Oante (“duck”), West Frisian ein (“duck”), Dutch eend (“duck”), German Low German Aant (“duck”), German Ente (“duck”), Norwegian and Swedish and (“duck, mallard”), Icelandic önd (“duck”), Latin anas (“duck, drake”), Lithuanian antis (“duck, mallard”), Russian у́тка (útka, “duck”), Sanskrit आति (ātí, “aquatic bird”).

black-legged kittiwake
black-legged kittiwake

(UK, dialect, West Country, Cornwall, obsolete) A black-legged kittiwake.


Y-fronted

Underneath he was wearing white Y-fronted underpants.

1975, George MacBeth, The Samurai, page 54:

(UK) Having a Y-shaped seam, as Y-fronts do.

Squeezing open the kitchen door, Amy came face to face with Greg's baggy Y-fronted backside. 'Greg! Amy's here!' shouted Sophie, too late.

2007, Jackie Clune, Man of the Month Club, page 18:


outshop

en-verb

outshop (third-person singular simple present outshops, present participle outshopping, simple past and past participle outshopped)

outshops (present singular third-person)
outshopping (participle present)
outshopped (participle past)
outshopped (past)

Just over 50 years ago, in September, 1910, Eastleigh locomotive works outshopped their first newly constructed locomotive, Class S14 0-4-0 motor tank No. 101.

1961 March, C. P. Boocock, “The organisation of Eastleigh Locomotive Works”, in Trains Illustrated, page 159:

(UK) To send a railway vehicle out from a workshop or factory after construction or overhaul.


pakamac

(UK) A lightweight mackintosh that can be folded up into a small pack when not in use.


Geddes Axe

From Sir Eric Geddes, who chaired a UK government committee charged with finding unprecedented spending cuts in the 1920s.

The necessity for its maker, if he wishes to remain in business, to produce an efficient machine which shall at the same time be cheap, and therefore must be as simple as possible, has acted as a kind of "Geddes' Axe," (sic) sweeping away a number of inessential contrivances […]

1923, Rupert T. Gould, The Marine Chronometer, Holland Press, published 1960, page 209:

(UK) Any process tending to eliminate non-essential elements


forstand

forstand (third-person singular simple present forstands, present participle forstanding, simple past and past participle forstood)

forstands (present singular third-person)
forstanding (participle present)
forstood (participle past)
forstood (past)
forestand (alternative)

From Middle English forstanden, from Old English forstandan (“to defend, help, protect, withstand, prevent, hinder, resist, oppose, benefit, avail, understand, signify, be equal to”), from Proto-West Germanic *frastandan (“to understand, oppose”), equivalent to for- + stand. Cognate with West Frisian ferstean (“to understand”), Saterland Frisian ferstounde (“to understand”), Dutch verstaan (“to understand”), German verstehen (“to understand”). Compare also Norwegian Bokmål forstå (“to comprehend, understand”), Swedish förstå (“to comprehend, understand”).

cog

How can I forstand your Professors, when they dinna forstand themselves.

1878, Samuel Smiles, Robert Dick: baker, of Thurso, geologist and botanist:

(transitive, UK dialectal) To understand; comprehend.


flexi

en-noun

flexi (countable and uncountable, plural flexis)

This is remarkable for those who want to trade on a flexi basis, because a trader can choose when he wants to trade–morning, noon or night.

2011, V. S. Somanath, International Financial Management, page 156:

(usually uncountable, UK) Clipping of flexitime.


rumness

(UK, colloquial, dated) Oddness, strangeness.


rumly

en-adv

rumly (comparative more rumly, superlative most rumly)

more rumly (comparative)
most rumly (superlative)

c. 1840–1850, Virgil's Aeneid, book v., translated by Thomas Moore
Thus rumly floor'd, the kind Acestes ran, / And pitying, raised from earth the game old man.

(UK, colloquial, dated) In a rum manner; oddly, strangely.


Gift Aid

(UK) A policy that enables charities to reclaim the income tax on donations from taxpayers.


offcomer

Similarly, there is jokey talk of the possibility of dynamiting offcomer homes in the village (just as the Welsh have done to English cottagers), and of beating up any offcomer who tells tales about Wanet to other offcomers […]

2005, Signe Howell, The Ethnography of Moralities, page 96:

They are offcomers, a neat appellation intended to highlight their lack of local family. This could be reinforced with suitable word associations; 'from down South' was typical, or something implying weirdness such as 'he is into art'.

2017, Ken West, R.I.P. Off!: Or The British Way of Death, page 4:


twiffler

(UK) A plate intermediate in size between a dinner plate and a side plate, about 9½ inches in diameter.


ossifrage

/ˈɒsɪfɹɪd͡ʒ/

From Middle French ossifrage, from Latin ossifraga (“osprey”), ossifragus (“osprey”), from ossifragus (“bone breaking”).

And their young Ospraies bee counted a kind of Ossifragi: from them come the lesser Geires, they againe breed the greater, which engender not at all. Some reckon yet another kind of Ægle, which they cal Barbatæ; and the Tuscanes, Ossifrage.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book X.] 3.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:

And we were just about
To turn and face the foe, as some tire bird
Barbarians pelt at, drive with shouts away
From shelter in what rocks, however rude,
She makes for, to escape the kindled eye,
Split beak, crook'd claw o' the creature, cormorant
Or ossifrage, that, hardly baffled, hangs
Afloat i' the foam, to take her if she turn.

1871 Robert Browning,Balustrion's Adventure: A Transcript from Euripides, line 117–24


placitum

(UK, law, obsolete) A court, or cause in court.


Smiggy

(UK, Northern England) Traditional nickname for a person with the surname Smith.


messet

From the mixture of these, and other breeds, we have messets, lap-dogs, dancers, waps, mongrels, and an endless number of varieties and compounds for which it is difficult to find a name.

1806, John Bigland, Letters on Natural History:

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A dog, especially one as a pet.


traft

Probably from trough, Old English troh, trog.

(UK, dialect, Cornwall) A tray or trough for washing fish.


triff

As I remember it, Elite screwed up the first time it had a go at this one, and ended up having to get Gargoyle (who?) to cobble something together in about two weeks or something ridiculous. You wouldn't believe it, though. This one's triff through and through.

1989, Jonathan Davies, Scooby-Doo (video game review in Your Sinclair issue 46)

Our daughter thinks you're wonderful. “Cool” I think was the adjective she used. […] Or maybe it was “triff”.


regimental sergeant major

en-noun

regimental sergeant major (plural regimental sergeants major or regimental sergeant majors)

regimental sergeants major (plural)
regimental sergeant majors (plural)

warrant officer class 1
warrant officer class 1

(UK, Australia, army) The senior warrant officer in a regiment or battalion, usually a warrant officer class 1.


crocket

(obsolete, hunting, dialect, British) The tips of the antlers of an adult stag.


blue-rinse brigade

(UK, Australia, slang, derogatory) Elderly women with traditional, conservative views.


chavel

en-verb

chavel (third-person singular simple present chavels, present participle chavelling, simple past and past participle chavelled)

chavels (present singular third-person)
chavelling (participle present)
chavelled (participle past)
chavelled (past)

From Middle English chavel (also chawl, jawle, jawe), from Old English ċeafl (“a bill, beak, snout, jaw, jaw-bone, cheek, cheek-bone”), from Proto-West Germanic *kafl, from Proto-Germanic *kaflaz (“jaw”). Doublet of jowl; see there for more.

inh

The bracken lay sere under the trees, broken and chavelled by the restless wild winds of the long winter.

1911, D. H. Lawrence, The White Peacock:


tracker mortgage

en-noun

tracker mortgage (plural tracker mortgages)

(UK, finance) A variable-rate mortgage where the amount of interest paid on the loan is linked to the Bank of England's base rate by a fixed differential.


supplicat

(UK, historical, universities) A petition, especially onewritten, with a certificate that the conditions have been complied with.


absit

Borrowed from Latin absit (“let (him or her) be absent”), the third-person singular present active subjunctive of absum (“be absent”).

bor

In the evening, after some difficulty, he persuaded his tutor to give him an absit to sleep at Huntingdon that night, and drove over there after dinner in a fly with Egerton, Castleton, and Grey.

1868, George Charles L. Tottenham, Charlie Villars at Cambridge, page 198:

Another associated matter was the subject of a discussion, on one occasion only, on the effect of an absit on a student's residence if he used it to be away from Cambridge from Saturday to Monday 'as is allowed at at least one College'.

1983, W. W. Grave, Fitzwilliam College Cambridge, 1869-1969, page 53:

An exeat was needed to be away for the night and, in theory at least, an absit for the greater part of the day.

1992, Eric Lionel Mascall, Saraband: The Memoirs of E.L. Mascall, →ISBN, page 56:

The following week he wrot her. 'It is a most shameful thing that he should keep me on like this...I am awfully cross because now I am not able to come home for an absit [overnight leave] on Thursday which I very much wanted to do.'

2015, William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, →ISBN:

(UK) Formal permission to be away from a college for the greater part of the day or more.


subtopia

en-noun

subtopia (countable and uncountable, plural subtopias)

Blend of suburb + utopia, coined by British architectural critic and broadcaster Ian Nairn.

coin

In the 1890s and in the early years of the present century there was considerable building development in the area around Sanderstead, Warlingham and Oxted, where large villas were springing up. East Grinstead, Tunbridge Wells and Uckfield were growing fast, as was that loosely knit "subtopia"—neither town, village nor country—which is known collectively as Crowborough.

1960 November, H. P. White, “The evolution of train services on the Southern's Oxted line”, in Trains Illustrated, page 662:

Their bland don't-mind-me-meekness is all the more offensive for it, resulting in an energy vampire form of architecture. It's subtopia writ large if anything.

2023 September 23, Travis Elborough, “Traces of utopia”, in FT Weekend, House & Home, page 1:

(UK, derogatory) Sprawling suburbs, collectively.


underfelt

en-noun

underfelt (countable and uncountable, plural underfelts)

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

(UK) A layer of felt-like material laid underneath a wall-to-wall carpet


between the hammer and the anvil

en-au-between the hammer and the anvil.ogg

Referring to the metal on a blacksmith's anvil, which is beaten with a hammer.

Yet for a time the nation was again placed between the democracy of the levellers and the despotism of the Stuarts, — between the hammer and the anvil.

1848, Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigné, The Protector, a vindication, page 250:

The sinner / Will testify / They'll suffer / When sacrificed on high / The burning sermons purge their evil words / Between the hammer and the anvil

1990, Judas Priest, Between The Hammer and the Anvil:

damned if one does and damned if one doesn't

(chiefly UK, idiomatic) With the choice between two unpleasant or distasteful options; in a predicament or quandary.

بَيْنَ ٱلْمِطْرَقَةِ وَٱلسِّنْدَانِ

with the choice between two unpleasant or distasteful options

yuxarı tüpürürsən bığ; aşağı tüpürürsən saqqal


toppingly

en-adv

toppingly (comparative more toppingly, superlative most toppingly)

more toppingly (comparative)
most toppingly (superlative)

(UK, informal, dated) In a topping manner; splendidly, wonderfully.


prepper

‘We have a vacancy at a very nice little prepper in North Yorkshire. Cundall Manor.’


standfirst

The standfirst talked of “Jubilation as article 50 is finally served”.

2017 March 30, Jon Henley, Jane Martinson, The Guardian:

(UK, journalism) Explanatory text under the main heading of a news article, smaller than the heading but still larger than the main text.


wankle

en-adj

wankle (comparative more wankle, superlative most wankle)

more wankle (comparative)
most wankle (superlative)

From Middle English wankel, from Old English wancol, from Proto-West Germanic *wankul.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Weak; unstable; unreliable; not to be depended on.


inlock

(law, UK dialectal, Northern England) Any corner or part of a common field plowed up and sowed with oats, etc. and sometimes fenced in with a dry hedge while the lave of the field lies fallow and common.


foredeal

foredeals (plural)
fordele (alternative)
fordeal (alternative)
fordeale (alternative)
forthdeal (alternative)
fordell (alternative)
fordel (alternative)

From earlier fordele, from Middle English foredel, foredele. Equivalent to fore- + deal. Compare Saterland Frisian Foardeel (“advantage, gain, benefit, profit”), Dutch voordeel, Low German fortel, German Vorteil (“advantage”), Danish fordel, Swedish fördel. More at fore-, deal.

cog

(UK dialectal, Scotland) The first place; lead; precedence; preference.

(UK dialectal, Scotland) Progress; advancement.


foredeal

en-verb

foredeal (third-person singular simple present foredeals, present participle foredealing, simple past and past participle foredealed)

foredeals (present singular third-person)
foredealing (participle present)
foredealed (participle past)
foredealed (past)
fordele (alternative)
fordeal (alternative)
fordeale (alternative)
forthdeal (alternative)
fordell (alternative)
fordel (alternative)

(UK dialectal, Scotland) To store; lay past; keep in reserve; hoard.


spiffingly

en-adv

spiffingly (comparative more spiffingly, superlative most spiffingly)

more spiffingly (comparative)
most spiffingly (superlative)

(UK, colloquial) In a spiffing manner; wonderfully, marvellously.


some mothers do have them

Popularised by the popular British comedy show Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em starring Michael Crawford as the clumsy and foolish Frank Spencer (although it had been in common British use for many years before then).

(UK) A colloquial and mildly pejorative reaction to a clumsy or foolish action.


NEB

National Enterprise Board
w:National Enterprise Board

(UK, historical) Initialism of National Enterprise Board.


tiddlywink

Sense 1 (“unlicensed beerhouse or pawnshop”) and sense 2 (“alcoholic drink”) are possibly related to tiddly (“(noun) alcoholic beverage; (adjective) somewhat drunk”).


wankerish

en-adj

wankerish (comparative more wankerish, superlative most wankerish)

more wankerish (comparative)
most wankerish (superlative)

Caroline underlines her copy with the Bic pen she always carries along with her sketching pencils. And I told her that was a wankerish thing to do, but she keeps right on doing it even in public.

1994, Edward Farrell Marsicano, No satisfaction: and, The happy time, page 67:

But I wasn't sorry to prod him a bit; his preciousness about the grind of years, or the loss of youth, was sometimes as wankerish as his arrogance.

2008, Dhivan Thomas Jones, Green Eros, page 176:

(slang, vulgar, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Like a wanker (obnoxious person).


rake over old coals

en-verb

rake over old coals (third-person singular simple present rakes over old coals, present participle raking over old coals, simple past and past participle raked over old coals)

rakes over old coals (present singular third-person)
raking over old coals (participle present)
raked over old coals (participle past)
raked over old coals (past)

(figuratively, British) To bring back old problems; to dig up old trouble.


ICI

Imperial Chemical Industries
w:Imperial Chemical Industries

(UK) Initialism of Imperial Chemical Industries.


shopping trolley

en-noun

shopping trolley (plural shopping trolleys)

2007, Scott Moeller, Chris Brady, Intelligent M&A: Navigating the Mergers and Acquisitions Minefield, John Wiley, UK, 2011, unnumbered page,
As Wal-Mart builds up its knowledge of what goes into your shopping trolley, it can aid the positioning of goods as well as the pricing of complementary goods.

Children are often placed in shopping trolleys; in the designated seats as well as in the trolley itself.
A fall from a shopping trolley is a regular occurrence, possibly due to diminished attention of the parents while shopping.

2010, Rob A. C. Bilo, Simon G. F. Robben, Rick R. van Rijn, Forensic Aspects of Pediatric Fractures, Springer, page 123:

Which payment system and shopping trolley software is right for you?[…]When you go to the supermarket or other retail outlet, you pick goodies off the shelves and put them in a shopping trolley.

2011, Kim Gilmour, Dan Matthews, Greg Holden, Starting and Running an Online Business For Dummies, UK, page 255:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A shopping cart.


sick note

sick notes (plural)
sicknote (alternative)

Near-synonym: aegrotat

(UK) A note from a doctor certifying the patient is ill, and therefore unable to go to work, school, etc.

neschopenka

note from a doctor certifying a worker's or a student's sickness


wither-

From Middle English wither-, from Old English wiþer- (“again, against”), from Proto-West Germanic *wiþra-, from Proto-Germanic *wiþrą (“against, toward”), from Proto-Indo-European *wī-tero- (“further apart”), *wī- (“separate, alone”). Cognate with Low German wedder (“against”), Dutch weer (“again, back”), German wider (“against, contrary to”), wieder (“again”). More at with.

der

weather- (alternative)
wother- (alternative)
widder- (alternative)

(now chiefly UK dialectal, Scotland) Prefix meaning: "against", "in opposition to"; "in return"; "counter-"; "contrary (to)"; "in the opposite direction (of or to)"; "backwards".


I've lost my keys

(UK) Indicates that the speaker has lost his or her keys.


peak organisation

en-noun

peak organisation (plural peak organisations)

But comparisons at peak organisation level are useful as a kind of aggregate data. In addition, such organisations have often given a lead to member unions on the treatment of women, and the position of women unionists in peak organisations may well serve as an example to member unions.

1986, Joni Lovenduski, Women and European Politics: Contemporary Feminism and Public Policy, page 172:

1997, James Elliott, Tourism: Politics and Public Sector Management, Routledge, UK, page 187,
A peak organisation seeks to represent all the companies within that industry. There are several peak organisations in the tourism industry.

2005, Alfred C. Aman, Jr, Globalisation, Democracy, and the Need for a New Administrative Law, Michael Likosky (editor), Privatising Development: Transnational Law, Infrastructure and Human Rights, Brill Academic Publishers, UK, page 289,
Peak organisations are not at all typical in the U.S., but the economic discourse that increasingly dominates much of regulation, and certainly, the raison d′etre for privatisation, narrows the discourse in such a way as to make most groups sound essentially the same. There may be no peak organisation, per se, but the discourse is so similar that this may be a distinction without a difference.

(UK) An organisation which represents an entire sector of industry or the community to the government, often incorporating other organisations in that area.


extract the Michael

en-verb

extract the Michael (third-person singular simple present extracts the Michael, present participle extracting the Michael, simple past and past participle extracted the Michael)

extracts the Michael (present singular third-person)
extracting the Michael (participle present)
extracted the Michael (participle past)
extracted the Michael (past)

Facetious alteration of take the mickey.

We've had some fun this month extracting the Michael from the Software Editor. Playing on his kind, easy going temperament we handed him a copy of Firebird's Don't Buy This and persuaded him that it was a collection of megabrill games.

1985, "Don't Buy This" (video game review) in Crash (issue 17, pages 46-47)

(UK, slang, humorous) Synonym of take the mickey.


single yellow line

en-noun

single yellow line (plural single yellow lines)

She hugged the single yellow line, but she drove fast.

He knew it would be risky parking on a double yellow line, or even a single yellow line, at this hour, but in a side street off the back of Kensington Church Street he found areas demarcated on the roadway with white lines.

1999, Ruth Rendell, A Sight for Sore Eyes:

At half past eleven, Roy Grace parked his Alfa Romeo on a single yellow line outside the unlit shop window of a dealer specializing in retro twentieth-century furniture.

The postman in question was parked on a single yellow line with parking-time restrictions.

2007, Barrie Segal, The Parking Ticket Awards: Crazy Councils, Meter Madness and Traffic Warden Hell:

(UK) A single yellow line painted at the side of a road to show that parking is permitted only at specified times.


double yellow line

double yellow line (plural double yellow lines)

The person who parked their car on the double yellow line may be a doctor who has been called urgently to the house of a critically ill patient ...

1995, Nina Fletcher, Janet Holt, Ethics, law, and nursing:

I'm sorry, you were parking on a double yellow line, you've got a ticket.

1998, Ruth Gairns, Stuart Redman, True to life: English for adult learners.:

1999, Ruth Rendell, A site for sore eyes:

When he reached the street Claber and the girl were crossing the road to a Mercedes coupé, parked on a double yellow line.

2001, Julian Symons, A Three-Pipe Problem:

(UK) A pair of yellow lines painted at the side of a road to show that parking is not permitted at any time.


-side

Deeside, Humberside, Merseyside, Tameside, Teesside

(chiefly UK) Forms proper nouns naming the conurbation around a river.


Lord Muck

(UK) An appellation given to a man who behaves in a perceived aristocratic manner.


Lady Muck

(UK) An appellation given to a woman who behaves in a perceived aristocratic manner.


reem

en-adj

reem (comparative reemer or more reem, superlative reemest or most reem)

reemer (comparative)
more reem (comparative)
reemest (superlative)
most reem (superlative)

Of unclear origins, popularised by Joey Essex. Possibly derived from cream or ream.

The cast of The Only Way Is Essex have tried every fake tan in the universe and insist this is best before a reem night out.

2011 June 13, Julie McCaffrey, “Forget a suntan, fake it, safely bake or soothe it”, in The Mirror:

Imagine a totally reem Hogwarts where Harry Potter looks like he should be in a Wham! video while Hermione's always on her pink BlackBerry and trying to catch Ron's attention by rolling up her skirt higher and higher.

2012, Becci Fox, Confessions of an Essex Girl: A Smart, Sexy and Scandalously Funny Expose, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

Room service: The reemest way to get food! […] The party royal is the most reem though because he goes to Vegas.

2014, Joey Essex, Being Reem, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(UK, chiefly Essex, slang) cool, excellent; desirable; sexy.


bring-and-buy

There was a bring-and-buy on in the village green.

(UK, New Zealand) A small-scale sale where people bring items to sell and buy others' items. The money raised usually goes towards charity.


claykicker

(slang, historical, UK, military) A member of a tunnelling engineering squad in World War I.


sadster

You see, when it comes to buying a car, people who'd haggle with the milkman turn into sadsters with 'empty my wallet' writ large on their foreheads.

I'm not a friendless sadster, just looking for some good company & see what gives from there!

1999, nice bloke, “Decent, witty, sober, passionate man available”, in uk.local.essex (Usenet):

(UK, slang) A socially inadequate or undesirable person; a saddo or loser.


gobful

The Professor, in order fittingly to celebrate this golden moment, leaned back in his chair, lit the worst cigar ever sold west of the Mississippi River, and blew five large gobfuls of smoke into the face of Mr. Gilhoolie, directly above him.

1926, Robert H. Davis, Irvin S. Cobb, Over My Left Shoulder, page 20:

One after another, gobfuls of mash are gobbled up.

1989, Robert McLiam Wilson, Ripley Bogle, published 1998, page 121:

The reps sat in the only beam of midwinter afternoon sunlight, and they guzzled paté, crackers, gobsful of spring onions, lettuce done in varnish, they farted and burped and read business contracts to one another,[…].

1992, Barry Dickins, Post Office Restaurant and Other Stories, page 42:

They stood, mouths open and teeth bared, till the yolk-like film that seeped from their gums had slid to form small gobfuls, at which time, one after the other like a Gatling gun, they spat the slime at Pemmell′s face.

2002, John Scott, “Warra Warra”, in Peter Craven, editor, The Best Australian Stories 2002, page 311:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, slang) A mouthful.

“[…]But when you speak of love, I am no longer old. I am absolutely full of it. I have crammed great gobsful of it into my music.”

1921, Charles David Isaacson, Face to Face with Great Musicians, volume 2, page 197:

Three of them were full already – the diggers had scooped up great gobfuls of concrete and soil.

2005, L.J. Adlington, The Diary of Pelly-D, unnumbered page:

Mr Laxton:[…]I once had a conversation with someone who was a permanent secretary — a top-notch civil servant in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — who was in the business of handing out big gobfuls of money — billions here, there and everywhere.

2009, British House of Commons East Midlands Regional Select Committee, East Midlands Development Agency and the Regional Economic Strategy: First Report of Session 2008-09, page 29:

(UK, slang, by extension) A large portion or amount.

The neighbours were having a noisy party so I went and gave them a gobful.

2007, Gideon Haigh, article in The Guardian, reprinted 2008, The Warne-Muralitharan Trophy: Marrige of Inconvenience, Inside Out: Writings on Cricket Culture, page 54,
But his erstwhile colleague Jason Gillespie believes that the Sri Lankan probably expects it: ‘With Murali coming out he always cops a gobful in Australia and he′ll be expecting to cop that again. He might have to grin and bear it. […] ’

I usually cop gobfuls from opposition fans, which is fair enough. They pay their money to come along and give it to the players they don′t like.

2011, Barry Hall, Michael Cowley, Pulling No Punches, unnumbered page:

—-Cheeky southern blert, a sey an am about ter give im a real gobful but then a don′t bother. It woulden be werth it like.

(UK, Australia, slang) A blast of verbal abuse, usually considered justifiable.


Munro bagger

Also, among party employees, being a Scot or a Munro-bagger, or both, is a good path to promotion.

1993, Andy McSmith, John Smith: playing the long game, page 218:

(UK, sometimes derogatory) A mountaineer who aims to climb as many of the Munros (Scottish mountains higher than 3,000 feet) as possible.


trimphone

From trim + phone, originally a trademark, with trim explained as Tone Ring Illuminator Model.

Song thrushes normally have a large song repertoire, and Slater suggests that the trimphone sound has been taken up because it is sufficiently similar to the normal songs to be learned and imitated[…]

1983 April 14, New Scientist, volume 98, number 1353:

While an acoustic coupler can be used with ordinary telephones, it cannot be used with modern trimphones[…]

1986, Barry Strickland-Hodge, Barbara Allan, Medical information: a profile, page 54:

(UK) A luxury telephone of the 1960s with a then-innovative electronic ringer and illuminated dial.


old mate

Old mate dropped by and we watched the cricket for a bit.

(colloquial, Australia, New Zealand, UK) In general, any person, whose specific identity can be deduced from context.


slotten

slotten (comparative more slotten, superlative most slotten)

more slotten (comparative)
most slotten (superlative)

From a dialectal past participle of slit.


vanilla slice

Strain 1162 was isolated from a vanilla slice that was incriminated in a second outbreak originating in the same bakery, six weeks after the first outbreak.

1941, Studies from the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories and School of Hygiene, University of Toronto, volume 12, page 852:

1978, Association of Public Health Inspectors (UK), An Examination of the Bacteriological Quality of Retail Vanilla Slices, Environmental Health, Volume 86, page 67,
One hundred and thirty-three vanilla slices, purchased from shops in the County of West Yorkshire, were examined to determine the numbers and type of bacteria present at the time of purchase.

She passed the answering machine as she brought over a tray with the coffee and a vanilla slice that she′d divided unevenly.
‘Homemade?’ I asked, as she handed me the larger portion.

2003, David Philip Reiter, Liars and Lovers, Australia: Interactive Press, page 197:

2011, Vicky Daddo, Meeting My Renaissance Man, Stephen Thompson (editor), Mythic Resonance, Specusphere, Australia, unnumbered page,
‘Vanilla slice,’ he said, his voice directed at the glass cabinet. […] I pulled back the tray with the vanilla slices and he ducked down like a meerkat on sentry duty.

Leaving Lady Margaret to do battle with the bookies, I bought myself a country-baked vanilla slice. The biggest, mouth-watering vanilla slice I′d ever laid eyes on. Then, cake clutched in both hands, face sticky with creamy custard—not the chewy rubbery custard found in store-bought slices—I wandered over to the catching pen in readiness to catch Ben′s dog at the end of the race.

2012, June Whyte, Muzzled: A Kat Mckinley Greyhound Mystery, Untreed Reads, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia) A snack similar to a mille-feuille, consisting of a layer of vanilla custard or cream between two layers of pastry.


budge up

en-verb

budge up (third-person singular simple present budges up, present participle budging up, simple past and past participle budged up)

budges up (present singular third-person)
budging up (participle present)
budged up (participle past)
budged up (past)

‘Budge up, yeh great lump,’ said the stranger.

1997 June 26, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], chapter IV, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter; 1), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(UK, intransitive, informal) To move or scoot over in order to make room for someone, especially when sitting.


waff

waff (third-person singular simple present waffs, present participle waffing, simple past and past participle waffed)

waffs (present singular third-person)
waffing (participle present)
waffed (participle past)
waffed (past)
waugh (alternative)

(UK, dialect, archaic, intransitive) To bark; to woof.


Act of Parliament clock

en-noun

Act of Parliament clock (plural Act of Parliament clocks)

(UK, historical) A large clock, once hung in inns, erroneously thought to derive from a tax on clocks.


mahusive

Picture this: we had a fat tourist: wandering along in a mahusive pair of budgie smugglers (Speedo's), and wearing this ridiculous flower hat; pawing over a local girl.

2007 February 26, John P. Wood, Woody’s World Turns Left … into South East Asia, Bloomington, Ind., Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 247:

Rachel McAdams showed off a mahusive baby bump while out and about in Notting Hill, London late yesterday afternoon. Which could just about be the most exciting thing to ever happen, today.

2012 July 6 (updated 2012 September 25), Gilly Ferguson, “Is Rachel McAdams pregnant!? Let’s examine the evidence (the bump)”, in Daily Mirror, London: Reach plc, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-02:

Bass-thrum and glass-shard music swelled slowly in volume. Despite the sound's sweetness, its painful clarity, something in Ecko shivered – it jagged at his nerves like the old fingernails-down-a-blackboard trick. It was pure power, some ma-hu-sive engine that was just turning over, warming the fuck up.

2015 November, Danie Ware, “Muster”, in Ecko Endgame, London: Titan Books, Titan Publishing Group, →ISBN:

(chiefly British, humorous, slang) Alternative spelling of mahoosive.


with knobs on

And although starting to talk about problem drug takers and demedicalization, when it came to talking about services, it fell back on the old medically dominated system, what Roger Lewis described as 'clinics with knobs on'.

1984, Anne Jamieson, Alan Glanz, Susanne MacGregor, Dealing with drug misuse: crisis intervention in the city:

And the same to you with knobs on!

The door opened a foot. Parker squinted out, looking like death on a Popsicle stick. With knobs on.

2005, Brad Whittington, Living With Fred:

(idiomatic, UK) (manner) Extremely; in a similar way, but taken to an extreme.


undern

From Middle English undern, ondern, from Old English undern (“third hour of the day; nine o'clock; morning”), from Proto-Germanic *undurniz (“interval”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥ter, *h₁enter (“between”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch onder, dialectal German Untern, dialectal Swedish undarn.

inh

underne (alternative)
undirn (alternative)

(UK, dialectal) A light meal, particularly in the afternoon.


AWT

Armathwaite railway station
w:Armathwaite railway station

(transport, UK) Abbreviation of Armathwaite railway station.


by way of

Thoreau, too, come to think of it, was, by way of being a prophet, a pioneer in this Emancipation of Man from Bothery.

1898, H. G. Wells, “The Trouble of Life”, in Certain Personal Matters, pages 16–17:

"From what you tell me, he's by way of being the brains of the family."

1921, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Springtime:

(UK, often followed by being) Possessing the characteristics, nature, or standing of; in the state or condition of.

par le fait de

possessing the characteristics, nature, or standing of


Boris bike

After former Mayor of London Boris Johnson, associated with the launch of the hire scheme.

Alan Waller, a sustainability analyst, says he is happy to be followed to the gym, provided the bikes are not referred to as "Boris bikes". "The scheme was secured under Ken Livingstone," he says. "Boris took all the credit. I try not to call them Boris bikes."

[2014 July 26, Paula Cocozza, “A day in the life of a London Boris bike”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

London’s blue “Boris bikes” are to be painted red under a seven-year sponsorship deal with Santander worth around £7m a year, it has been announced.

2015 February 27, Gwyn Topham, “‘Boris bikes’ to be painted red under Santander deal”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, informal) A bicycle offered for hire in London, England as part of a bike-share scheme launched in 2010.


dreshel

This gurt pig zays, I wants meat;
T'other one zays, Where'll ye hay et?
This one zays, In gramfer's barn;
T'other one zays, Week! Week! I can't get over the dreshel.

1923, Come Hither: A Collection of Rhymes and Poems for the Young of All Ages:

(UK, archaic) Alternative form of threshel.


Picrous Day

(UK, historical) A festival formerly celebrated by the tin miners of Cornwall on the second Thursday before Christmas.


permie

Even if you take six months off you will still earn more than most IT permies, and about three times as much as non-IT permies.

1999, Martin, “Bullying, Abuse and Harrrassment^([sic]), then Termination at work”, in uk.legal (Usenet):


money spider

(UK, Ireland) Any spider of the family Linyphiidae, or (loosely) any very small spider, superstitiously believed to bring financial good luck.


cessavit

(UK, law, obsolete) A writ given by statute to recover lands when the tenant has for two years failed to perform the conditions of his tenure.


wankerdom

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar) The state or essence of being a wanker (idiotic person).


King's shilling

en-noun

King's shilling (plural King's shillings)

King's shillings (plural)
Queen's shilling (alternative)

I have taken the King's shilling, but perhaps if you came for me they would let me go back with you. I was a fool when I did it. I don't want to be in the army.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Strife in Love”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 182:

(British, historical) A shilling accepted by new recruits when agreeing to or tricked into enlisting into the British army or navy during the 18th and 19th centuries.


garpike

(especially UK) A saltwater fish in the family Belonidae.


spazzer

None of the staff thought it was much fun, but the spazzers cheered up no end.

1991, Terry Johnson, Imagine drowning, page 19:

A PC isn't a console you spazzer gaylord

2003, mrgoat, “Which is the best console overall”, in uk.games.video.misc (Usenet):

"You accusing my mum of breeding a load of spazzers?"

2008, Patt Scott, Police Surgeon: Lethal Deception, page 5:

(UK, slang, offensive) A mentally retarded person.


fuel poverty

(chiefly UK, Ireland, New Zealand) The inability of a household to keep adequately warm at a reasonable cost.


fuel-poor

en-adj

fuel-poor (comparative more fuel-poor, superlative most fuel-poor)

more fuel-poor (comparative)
most fuel-poor (superlative)

(chiefly UK, Ireland, New Zealand) Unable to keep one's dwelling adequately warm at a reasonable cost.


gavver

"Yeah, the gavvers were after Dad for a bunch of stuff he'd done years ago — fake license plates, stolen cars, that dodgy Range Rover deal he had going..."

2007, Kevin Brooks, The Road of the Dead, page 177:

The gavver in the car had really rattled him.

2009, Kate Wild, Fight Game, Book 1, page 28:


skillo

skillo (comparative more skillo, superlative most skillo)

more skillo (comparative)
most skillo (superlative)

Dan Dare's back, and what a completely skillo follow-up to the original.

1988, Dan Dare II (video game review in Your Sinclair issue 27, March 1988)

Win A Mountain. Ooops, sorry, that should read win a Mountain Bike - gosh wow a brilliant skillo give away if ever there was.

1990 January, “Competitions”, in Sinclair User, number 94:

Anyway, I love the Jet Set Radio soundtrack (as well as the game) and in particular the tracks by Guitar Vader. So after a bunch of web browsing I found Guitar Vader are selling their skillo album 'Die Happy' on Mp3.com*^([sic]).

2001, Tinman, “Lazy and stupid : Help me do my shopping”, in alt.digitiser (Usenet):

(UK, slang, 1980s-1990s) great, excellent


face like a bag of spanners

en-noun

face like a bag of spanners (plural faces like bags of spanners)

Everyone is used to it now, David and Victoria Beckham are the King and Queen of the tabloids and every half-decent footballer is a star and a pin-up, even if he's got a face like a bag of spanners.

2006, Robbie Fowler, David Maddock, Fowler: My Autobiography, page 105:

More wrinkles than a tortoise, face like a bag of spanners.

2009, Ron Clooney, A Measure of Wheat for a Penny, page 275:

(UK, informal, humorous) A very ugly face.


have a laugh

en-verb

have a laugh (third-person singular simple present has a laugh, present participle having a laugh, simple past and past participle had a laugh)

has a laugh (present singular third-person)
having a laugh (participle present)
had a laugh (participle past)
had a laugh (past)

Near-synonym: have (someone) on

Some of the kids had a laugh and put glue on the teacher's chair.

Fifty quid for that piece of junk? You're having a laugh!

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic) To joke; kid around.

We had a great laugh yesterday at the funfair.

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic) To enjoy oneself; have fun.


pannum

Possibly from Italian pane (“bread”) or directly from Latin pānem, the accusative of pānis (“bread, loaf”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to feed, to graze”).

der

panem (alternative)
panum (alternative)
pannam (alternative)
pennam (alternative)

Here's Pannum and Lap, and good Poplars of Yarrum, / To fill up the Crib, and to comfort the Quarron.

1641–42, Richard Brome, A Joviall Crew, or, The Merry Beggars, published 1652, act 2:

As far as injun, pannum, and cheese, and a drop of heavy goes, you are perfectly welcome.

1844, Charles Selby, London by Night, act 1, scene 2:

I have a rorty gal, also a knowing pal, / And merrily together we jog on, / I doesn't care a flatch, as long as I've a tach, / Some pannum for my chest, and a tog on.

c. 1864, Alfred Peck Stevens, “The Chickaleary Cove”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris, published 1896, page 161:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Bread; food.

pannum-bound

said of a pauper or prisoner when his food is stopped


telly tennis

From telly + tennis, the game having a superficial resemblance to tennis.

tele-tennis (alternative)
teletennis (alternative)

The monitored heart-rate on a small screen, like a hesitant green version of the telly tennis he'd played in pubs or railway stations.

1976, Elaine Feinstein, The ecstasy of Dr Miriam Garner, page 101:

Hooked on telly tennis, or football? We've been carrying out some in-depth testing of (playing with) a TV games unit for you to build.

1979 October 4, New Scientist, volume 84, number 1175, page 48:

He finds them sitting at a small table holding a horizontal video tube and stands watching them play telly tennis.

1992, Mudrooroo (Colin Johnson), Long live Sandawara, page 61:

(slang, video games, UK, Australia) The game of Pong, or any TV game closely based on it.


give a shite

en-verb

give a shite (third-person singular simple present gives a shite, present participle giving a shite, simple past gave a shite, past participle given a shite)

gives a shite (present singular third-person)
giving a shite (participle present)
gave a shite (past)
given a shite (participle past)

I'd carry a sandwichboard only the girl in the office told me they're full up for the next three weeks, man. God, you've to book ahead, man, you'd think it was for the Carl Rosa. I don't give a shite anyway so long as I get a job, even as a crossing sweeper.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16: Eumaeus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 574:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar, very uncommon) To care; mind; consider important.


revivor

There may be also a bill of revivor when the suit is abated by the death of any of the parties

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

(UK, law) revival of a suit which is abated by the death or marriage of any of the parties.


rorty

en-adj

rorty (comparative rortier, superlative rortiest)

rortier (comparative)
rortiest (superlative)
raughty (alternative)

19th century UK. Unknown etymology. Farmer (1903) categorises the term as costermongers' slang.

unk

Unknown etymology

"Tell us a good story, Rodney — one of your rorty ones." / Mr. Rodney shrivelled. / "I fear," he murmured — "I fear I am scarcely in the — er — rorty vein to-night."

1898, Robert Smythe Hichens, The Londoners, page 280:

But compared with the heavy, muffling darkness of the night in which the countryside was sunk, the lights looked positively rorty

1932, Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm:

Any speed any gear it doesn't matter. The 2Eleven's got an enormous powerband huge performance and the rortiest exhaust I've heard in an Elise-based car

2007 May 31, “Lotus 2-Eleven - Road Test First Drive”, in Autocar:

(British, informal) Boisterous, rowdy, saucy, dissipated, or risqué.


PSPO

(UK, law) Initialism of public space protection order.


primitia

en-noun

primitia (plural primitias or primitiae)

the primitias of your parsonage

1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:

(UK, law, obsolete) The first year's whole profit of an ecclesiastical preferment.


mitrailleur

(UK, military, obsolete) A rapid-fire team-served musket or rifle.

(UK, military, obsolete) The person in charge of such a weapon.


Spanish practices

Many in the newspaper business – including some who criticised Murdoch at the time – now concede that the end of Fleet Street's Spanish practices probably helped prolong the life of the British press by a good few decades.

2011 July 27, Jon Henley, “Rupert Murdoch and the battle of Wapping: 25 years on”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK) Irregular practices in favour of the workers at a place of work, which are implied, but not specified, in the work contract.


sleeping partner

sleeping partner (plural sleeping partners)

sleeping partners (plural)
sleeping-partner (alternative)

Somewhat later, the Frenchman Charles Fourier was ridiculed for expecting day by day the sleeping-partner to turn up who would invest in his Phalanstère plan, which was based on ideas very similar to those sponsored by one of the greatest contemporary experts on finance.

1957 [1944], Karl Polanyi, chapter 9, in The Great Transformation, Beacon Press: Boston, page 108:

(UK, Ireland) A business partner who doesn't play an active role in running the day-to-day operations of a business, who instead, finances the business in the form of capital investment.

stiller Gesellschafter

a business partner who is not involved in the day-to-day business, but puts up capital


wendy

Toughen up, you big wendy.

(derogatory, slang, British, particularly northern UK) A wuss; someone who is particularly cowardly.


press tits

en-verb

press tits (third-person singular simple present presses tits, present participle pressing tits, simple past and past participle pressed tits)

presses tits (present singular third-person)
pressing tits (participle present)
pressed tits (participle past)
pressed tits (past)

'Press tits at four thirty a.m.'

2010, Frank Barnard, Blue Man Falling: A riveting World War Two tale of RAF fighter pilots:

[…] For the rest of my life / I'd take me a wife / A Wimpy bomb-aimer, / For he'd press a tit, / And I'd press a tit, / We'd all press tits together, […]

2011, Lewis Brandon, Albert Smith, Ian Smith, Night Flyer/Mosquito Pathfinder: Night Operations in World War II:

(UK, military, slang, RAF) To initiate a start-up sequence.


fordrive

fordrive (third-person singular simple present fordrives, present participle fordriving, simple past fordrove, past participle fordriven)

fordrives (present singular third-person)
fordriving (participle present)
fordrove (past)
fordriven (participle past)

From Middle English fordriven, from Old English fordrīfan (“to drive, sweep away, drive on, impel, compel, drive away, expel, overtax”), from Proto-West Germanic *fradrīban, from Proto-Germanic *fradrībaną (“to drive away, drive out, expel”), equivalent to for- + drive.
Cognate with West Frisian fordriuwe, ferdriuwe (“to expel”), Dutch verdrijven (“to expel”), German Low German verdrieven (“to drive away”), German vertreiben (“to expel, drive out, banish”), Danish fordrive (“to oust, expel”), Swedish fördriva (“to drive away, drive out, banish”).

cog

(transitive, UK dialectal) To drive away; expel.

(transitive, UK dialectal) To drive about; drive here and there; drive astray.


back labour

en-noun

back labour (usually uncountable, plural back labours)


take on the chin

en-verb

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

takes on the chin (present singular third-person)
taking on the chin (participle present)
took on the chin (past)
taken on the chin (participle past)

Elsewhere in Sweden recently, two underage girls pressed charges when a teenage boy exposed himself to them at a lake. The court decided, despite the victims' testimonies, that the offence was "not of a sexual nature" and dismissed it. But I'm guessing the girls didn't push for molestation charges because they were censorious prudes who would grow into knowing how to take such behaviour on the chin – they felt genuinely threatened, they took their concerns to court, and they deserved more than being told that they'd misread the situation all along.

2013 September 20, Holly Baxter, “Is masturbating in public a laughing matter?”, in The Guardian, retrieved 2014-01-06:

(idiomatic, transitive, UK) To accept without flinching or complaining.


NFA

Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said the case has been classified as "no further action" (NFA) due to lack of evidence.

2020 November 24, “Individuals linked to Chin Peng's ashes will not face charges - minister”, in Malaysiakini:

ACP Nik Ezanee closed the investigation by classifying it as no further action (NFA) after hearing about the woman's plight.

2021 January 31, Farik Zolkepli, “PJ police go the extra mile to help the needy”, in The Star:

Police have completed investigations into a Physical Education (PE) teacher who allegedly made a rape joke in front of his students at school, and have classified it as No Further Action (NFA).

2021 August 5, Muhaamad Hafis Nawawi, “Case of teacher who allegedly made rape joke classified as NFA”, in New Straits Times:

no further action
no further action#English

(law enforcement, criminal law, UK, Malaysia) Initialism of no further action; a potential outcome for a suspect from a police investigation.


NFA

NFA (third-person singular simple present NFAs, present participle NFAing or NFA'ing, simple past and past participle NFAd or NFA'd or NFAed)

NFAs (present singular third-person)
NFAing (participle present)
NFA'ing (participle present)
NFAd (participle past)
NFAd (past)
NFA'd (participle past)
NFA'd (past)
NFAed (participle past)
NFAed (past)

After that interview, I think we can NFA him.

(law enforcement slang, UK) To formally end the police investigation of a suspect with no further action.


die in the arse

die in the arse (third-person singular simple present dies in the arse, present participle dying in the arse, simple past and past participle died in the arse)

dies in the arse (present singular third-person)
dying in the arse (participle present)
died in the arse (participle past)
died in the arse (past)


doll's house

doll's houses (plural)
dolls' house (alternative)
dollshouse (alternative)
dollhouse (alternative)

Adam Stockhausen's doll's-house production design is eye-wateringly precise, the black-and-white images of the city's ancient buildings (shot in Angouleme) deserve their own coffee table book

2021 July 12, Nicholas Barber, “The French Dispatch: Four stars for Wes Anderson's latest”, in BBC:

(UK) A miniature house used by children as a toy for recreating domestic settings.


DWP

So now Mahmood was in debt and his existing benefits were stopped because the DWP computer thought he was receiving universal credit.

2019 October 14, Robert Booth, “Computer says no: the people trapped in universal credit's 'black hole'”, in The Guardian:

Department for Work and Pensions
w:Department for Work and Pensions

(UK) Initialism of Department for Work and Pensions.


PAT

en-noun

PAT (countable and uncountable, plural PATs)

electrical engineering
electrical engineering

portable appliance testing
w:portable appliance testing

(electrical engineering, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia) Initialism of portable appliance testing.


wanchance

wanchance (usually uncountable, plural wanchances)

(UK dialectal) Ill luck; misfortune; calamity.


set-up

en-adjective

set-up (comparative more set-up, superlative most set-up)

more set-up (comparative)
most set-up (superlative)

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

set-up time. The time taken to SET UP a machine or to change it from making one product to another.

1990, John Bessant, Richard Lamming, Macmillan Dictionary of Production Technology and Management, Palgrave Macmillan UK, page 153:

(chiefly British) Alternative form of setup.


set-up

Stevenage's first-half performance forced a change of formation from Newcastle at the break, as they brought on Nile Ranger for Leon Best and switched to a 4-2-3-1 set-up.

2011 January 8, Paul Fletcher, “Stevenage 3 - 1 Newcastle”, in BBC:

A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. This set-up solves several problems […].

2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):


wanse

en-verb

wanse (third-person singular simple present wanses, present participle wansing, simple past and past participle wansed)

wanses (present singular third-person)
wansing (participle present)
wansed (participle past)
wansed (past)
wanze (alternative)

From Middle English wansen (“to decrease, diminish”), from Old English wansian (“to diminish”), from Proto-West Germanic *wansōn, a variant of *wanisōn, from Proto-Germanic *wanisōną (“to lessen”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty”). Cognate with Old Norse vansa (“to do too little, suffer loss”), Old Norse vansi (“lack, want”). More at wane.

cog

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To wane; waste, waste away; pine; wither.


offcome

(UK, dialectal, chiefly Scotland) An apology; excuse.

(UK, dialectal, chiefly Scotland) An escape or evasion by subterfuge or pretext; a way of avoiding or getting out of a difficult or uncomfortable situation.


shitebag

(UK, Ireland, vulgar, very uncommon) Alternative form of shitbag.


latitat

Latin, meaning "he lies hidden", from latito.

This bill of Middlesex must be served on the defendant by the sheriff, if he finds him in that county; but , if he returns “non est inventus" then there issues out a writ of latitat to the sheriff of another county

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

(UK, law, historical) A writ based upon the presumption that the person summoned was hiding.


wandle

en-adj

wandle (comparative more wandle, superlative most wandle)

more wandle (comparative)
most wandle (superlative)


sheeprun

From sheep + run (“animal enclosure; place where something can run”).

1900, William Bulfin, Tales of the Pampas, quoted in 2003, Katherine Mullin, James Joyce, Sexuality and Social Purity, 63,
Over the richest sheepruns in the province of Buenos Ayres you may gallop during every hour of the summer without crossing a single rood of land that is not owned by some son of the Emerald Isle.

1910, Catherine Helen Spence, Jeanne Young (posthumous completion), Catherine Helen Spence: An Autobiography, 2004, page 26,
It had surprised him when he travelled overland to Adelaide to see from Willunga 30 miles of enclosed and cultivated farms, and it surprised me to see sheepruns close to Melbourne.

1978, Juliet Astley (Norah Lofts), Copsi Castle, page 67,
Here was she, cancelling her visit to the sheeprun, that part of Sheppey Lea of which she was most proud since it had been reclaimed literally from a waste of near-derelict land, all bracken and gorse and coarse grass.

When contemporaries complained that the extension of sheepruns left a trail of deserted villages they were commenting on the enclosures of the previous century, but later complaints bear witness to a more profound upheaval.

1979, Joan Simon, Education and Society in Tudor England, page 169:

The irony was that many of the Scottish Highlanders found themselves manning sheepruns in the antipodes having been eliminated from their own economy by precisely the same forces that had caused the Highland clearances.

1993, Eric Richards, “Margins of the Industrial Revolution”, in Patrick O′Brien, Roland Quinault, editors, The Industrial Revolution and British Society, page 221:

(UK, New Zealand, Australia) A sheep farm.


suited and booted

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-suited and booted.wav

From suited (“wearing a suit”, adjective) + and + booted (“wearing a boot or boots”, adjective), the words chosen for the rhyme.

You can get Suited and Booted at such figures as will astonish you at the Star Store.

1876 November 30, “Local notices [advertisements]”, in Ja[me]s M. Cavaness, editor, Southern Kansas Advance, volume 8, number 47 (number 411 overall), Chetopa, Kan.: Jas. M. Cavaness, page 3, column 3:

Heroines will be suited and booted in tweeds this winter. Anyway, that is Dorothy Mackaill's latest street costume; a tweed suit and shoes of the same material trimmed with a little leather.

[1928 December 19, “Screen Life in Hollywood: Tailored shoes”, in Mandan Daily Pioneer, volume XV, number 198, Mandan, N.D.: Pioneer Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 4, column 5:

Jauntily suited and booted, Kathy Sheron (15), of Whitson-road, Huntington Station, New York, arrives in London to claim her prize. Kathy has won the Dave Clark Five—the British Beat Group—in a national contest, along with the title, "Miss Natural Wonder."

1965 August 7, The Guardian Journal, number J43,507, G34,027, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: T. Bailey Forman, →OCLC, page 3, column 3:

The ultimate in suede suited and booted for individualists [title]

1974 November, “The Ultimate in Suede Suited and Booted for Individualists [advertisement]”, in John H[arold] Johnson, editor, Ebony, volume XXX, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6:

In this novella, the TM [Talkative Man] meets Dr Rann, who claims to be a United Nations specialist, and unable to find a place for the strange visitor—who, as they used to say, was suited and booted—takes him to his own house.

1999, S. Krishnan, “Talkative Man [Introduction]”, in R[asipuram] K[rishnaswami Iyer] Narayan[aswami], edited by S. Krishnan, A Town Called Malgudi: The Finest Fiction of R. K. Narayan […], New Delhi, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2002, →ISBN, page 259:

A couple of suited and booted business types appeared by my side, tossing peanuts into their mouths and gawping at the screens as though they had never seen a television before. They couldn't be from the TV station or any of the production companies that made the shows, because they were far too formally dressed.

2002, Tony Parsons, chapter 13, in Man and Wife, special overseas edition, London: HarperCollins, published 2003, →ISBN, part 2 (Your Heart is a Small Miracle), page 132:

When Bobby and Elaine showed up at a candidate's night or event or at just another speaking engagement, the chairman was wearing a suit and tie and Elaine was suited and booted in a dress, heels, the whole nine yards.

2006, Flores Alexander Forbes, chapter 11, in Will You Die with Me?: My Life and the Black Panther Party, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, published July 2007, →ISBN, page 81:

Initially, his [Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar's] photograph was popularized through posters and pamphlets published and distributed by the RPI [Republican Party of India] for disseminating information about forthcoming meetings. The image was that of a suited and booted, westernized gentleman holding a copy of the Constitution in one hand. This image appeared to the common Dalits as a symbol of awareness through education and the fight for a better future. It also helped deconstruct the stereotypical notion of Dalits as being oppressed, suppressed and illiterate.

2006, Badri Narayan, “Visuals, Cultural Performances and Myths”, in Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics (Cultural Subordination and the Dalit Challenge; 5), New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, →ISBN, page 76:

When she finally slept, it was to dream relentlessly of Michael. One moment he would be standing behind his desk, suited and booted, the next they would be naked in bed together, his glare boring into her soul, […]

2020, M. S. Batham, chapter 6, in Love, Vengeance, and Lies, Garibaldi Highlands, Squamish, B.C.: eXtasy Books, →ISBN, page 64:

(originally South Asia) Dressed smartly, especially in business or formal wear.

puku yllään

dressed smartly, especially in business or formal wear


muppetry

(UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) The behaviour of a muppet; foolish incompetence.


forwander

en-verb

forwander (third-person singular simple present forwanders, present participle forwandering, simple past and past participle forwandered)

forwanders (present singular third-person)
forwandering (participle present)
forwandered (participle past)
forwandered (past)

From Middle English forwandrien, equivalent to for- + wander.

Ah, I am full weary, lief, let me sleep, Forwandered and walked in this forest.

2009, Richard Beadle, Pamela M. King, York Mystery Plays:

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To wander until weary; wander far and wide.

[…] His courage, His purity, His meekness; His daily wakefulness to God's voice, the swiftness and brilliance of His speech for others, His silence under His own torments; His resorts—among the bruised, the prisoners, the forwandered of Israel, […]

1897, Sir George Adam Smith, The book of Isaiah:

The Lent term had pulled me down, a week of modest enjoyment thereafter in town had finished the work; and I drank in the sharp moorish air like a thirsty man who has been forwandered among deserts.

(transitive, UK dialectal) To weary with wandering; cause to wander until weary.


umgang

From Middle English umgang, umbegang (“circumference, circuit”), from Old English ymbgang, ymbegang (“going about, going round, circuit, circumference, surrounding belt, a winding course, bend, a going about a business”), from Proto-West Germanic *umbigang, from Proto-Germanic *umbigangaz, equivalent to um- + gang. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Uumgong, West Frisian omgong, Dutch omgang (“dealing, handling”), German Umgang (“dealings, handling”), Danish omgang (“game”). More at um-, gang.

(now chiefly UK dialectal) A round about; a way around; detour.

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) An instance of going or passing around; a trip.

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) A circuit; circumference.


jow

jow (third-person singular simple present jows, present participle jowing, simple past and past participle jowed)

jows (present singular third-person)
jowing (participle present)
jowed (participle past)
jowed (past)

Alteration of jowl (“to knock, strike, ring a bell”), with loss of final l.

(UK, dialectal, transitive) To knock, strike, bump.


jow

Apparently from earlier *jowl, from Middle English chaulen, chavelen (“to jabber”). Compare jawl (“to talk loudly”).


breadcake

One [chip shop] offered extra peas, beans, curry or breadcake for just 10p with a full meal on Tuesday evenings […]


YELLIS

(UK, education) Year eleven information system: a mathematics and vocabulary test used to compare the performance of GCSE pupils.


autogas

en-noun

autogas (countable and uncountable, plural autogases or autogasses)

Blend of automotive + gas (originally a trade name "Autogas", but now a common noun)

Petrol ... 20.3% more than autogas ... The results conclusively demonstrate the carbon benefits of autogas vehicles

2005, Cars of the Future: Seventeenth Report of Session 2003-04 (British House of Commons):

Autogas powers more than 10 million vehicles in over 54 countries worldwide .... In terms of air-borne emissions of the principal regulated noxious gases, autogas is among the lowest emitters of all ...

2006, Class of 2006: industry report cards on environment and social responsibility (United Nations Environment Programme. Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics ):

Autogas is the common name for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) when it is used as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles.

2009, Frederic P Miller with Agnes F Vandome and John McBrewster, Autogas:

(UK, Australia) Synonym of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).