muffin

→ Chinese: 瑪芬 /玛芬 (mǎfēn)

→ Danish: muffin

→ Esperanto: mafino

→ Finnish: muffini, muffinssi, muffinsi

→ French: muffin

→ German: Muffin

→ Japanese: マフィン (mafin)

→ Korean: 머핀 (meopin)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: muffins

→ Polish: muffin

→ Portuguese: muffin

→ Russian: ма́ффин (máffin)

→ Swedish: muffins

→ Yiddish: מאָפֿין (mofin)

From earlier moofin, probably a diminutive of Low German Muffe ("small cake"; Muffen (plural)), from Middle Low German muffe (“small pastry”). An alternative, and phonologically less plausible theory suggests a connection to Old French (pain) moflet (“roll”, literally “soft (bread)”).

gl

"small cake"; <i class="Latn mention" lang="nds">Muffen</i> (plural)

ncog

(British) A type of flattish bun, usually cut in two horizontally, toasted and spread with butter, etc, before being eaten; an English muffin.

(UK dialect, Northern England, especially Manchester) A roll, bap or cob, which may or may not be flat or toasted.


tic-tac

tick-tack (alternative)
tick tack (alternative)

(British) a system of sign language used by bookmakers at racecourses to communicate odds and bets; an associated group of words for each sign


racecourse

By Savernake the train was 4½min early; we then had the thrill of sweeping through Newbury at 95 m.p.h.—and one wonders if any of the punters on the neighbouring racecourse had any eyes for our flying cavalcade as we swept by, for it was a race day—[...].

1964 June, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 387:

(British, Australia) A racetrack where horse races are run.

хиподрум

(UK) a racetrack where horse races are run


ring of steel

closed-circuit television
closed-circuit television

(British) A form of civil protection (using closed-circuit television, control zones and restricted access) that effectively seals off city centres and financial districts; used in Northern Ireland and the City.


rollover

en-noun

rollover (countable and uncountable, plural rollovers)

rollovers (plural)
roll-over (alternative)

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

(British) In the National or European lottery, the situation in which a jackpot that has not been won is carried over to the next week.

siirtyminen ensi kierrokselle

Britain: in the National or European lottery, the situation in which a jackpot that has not been won is carried over to the next week


semi-skimmed milk

(UK) Milk from which about half of the cream has been removed.


short sharp shock

short sharp shock (plural short sharp shocks)

Coined by W. S. Gilbert in the song "I Am So Proud" from The Mikado, referring euphemistically to a beheading.

While COVID-19 has provided a short, sharp shock to the industry, the end hopefully appears to be in sight.

2020 December 2, Mark Phillips, “Rebuilding Rail in the 2020s”, in Rail, page 47:

(chiefly British) A regime intended to deter crime by making an immediate severe impact.


letting

House lettings are holding up despite fears that the buy-to-let boom could be running out of steam, according to specialist lender Paragon Mortgages.

2002 June 15, John Cranage, “No fear of slump in lettings”, in Birmingham Post, archived from the original on 2016-02-08:


earthly

earthlies (plural)
Earthly (alternative)

From Middle English erthely, erthlich, ierðlich, from Old English eorþlīċ, corresponding to earth + -ly. Cognate with Old Norse jarðligr (“earthly”).

He arched his eyebrows over the summons. "The poor devil has not an earthly!" said he. "He's lucky to have a summons. Usually they act on a warrant."

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

‘Then I didn't have a chance when I stood you a drink?’ I said. ‘Not an earthly!’ she said and laughed; but when I left she kissed me good-night.

1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 315:

(UK, colloquial) A slightest chance (of success etc.) or idea (about something).


parting

parting (countable and uncountable, plural partings)

Margaret Thatcher’s 80s power suits were scrutinised; David Cameron’s switching of his parting was national news (Cameron later nominated his barber for an MBE); and eyebrows were raised at Theresa May’s favourite and incongruous Frida Kahlo bracelet.

2019 September 13, Hannah Jane Parkinson, “Canvas of lies: what Dominic Cummings' dress sense tells us about Brexit”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(British) The dividing line formed by combing the hair in different directions.


dashed

en-adj

dashed (comparative more dashed, superlative most dashed)

more dashed (comparative)
most dashed (superlative)

It's a dashed shame that Tarquin failed all his A-levels — we were hoping to get him into Oxford.

I'll be dashed if I gan another step for less 'an oaf.

1824 May 15, “Kiddywinkle History, No. II”, in Blackwood's Magazine, page 540:

I'll be dashed if I squash in with any domestic staff.

1939, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 8, in Uncle Fred in the Springtime:

(British, dated, informal, euphemistic) Damned.


steamer

From steam + -er. The steamer duck or steamer (sense 6.2) is apparently named for its resemblance to a paddle steamer when swimming rapidly.

(British, crime, slang) A member of a youth gang who engages in steaming (robbing and escaping in a large group).

(British, Scotland, slang) A drinking session.


steamer

From steam tug, rhyming slang for mug (“a gullible or easily cheated person; a stupid or contemptible person”).

(British, slang) A mug.
A gullible or easily cheated person.

(British, slang) A mug.
A stupid or contemptible person.

(British, slang) A homosexual man with a preference for passive partners.


CIS

(UK, business) Initialism of Construction Industry Scheme.


efter

[…] E was an Efter, that went to the play; / F was a Fogle he knapped on his way; […]

1846, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of London, page 60:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A thief who frequents theaters.


south-east

en-noun

south-east (usually uncountable, plural south-easts)

(chiefly UK) Alternative form of southeast.


south-east

en-adj

south-east (not generally comparable, comparative more south-east, superlative most south-east)

more south-east (comparative)
most south-east (superlative)


puff

en-noun

puff (countable and uncountable, plural puffs)

From Middle English puff, puf, from Old English pyf (“a blast of wind, puff”), imitative. Cognate with Middle Low German puf, pof.

onomatopoeic

imitative

Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?

1938, P. G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters:


front bottom

Never before had she experienced the excitement that ebbed and flowed inside her. Her panties were soaking. In the past few months lovemaking with Angus had been a problem because she could not summon any fluid in her front bottom.

2009, David Silverman, Twinkle, page 107:

[…] and made her less interested in sex than usual, he supposed. That had never been a problem with Lalla. Nothing was a problem with Lalla—she could even fire ping-pong balls out of her front bottom, […]

2010, Wendy Holden, Farm Fatale: A Comedy of Country Manors, page 128:

(British, slang, euphemistic) The female genitalia; the vulva.


chop suey

en-noun

chop suey (countable and uncountable, plural chop sueys)

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

From Cantonese 雜碎／杂碎 (zaap⁶ seoi³, “mixed and broken”).

To someone who had spent part of their youth visiting a grandmother in Singapore, a lot of the food they served didn’t seem particularly Chinese to me: the flavour of chop suey with its chicken or pork or prawns, or chow mein, or the omeletty foo yung, never seemed quite right.

2011, Clarissa Dickson Wright, A History of English Food, London: Random House Books, →ISBN, page 455:

(Canada and British) Steamed bean sprouts served in a semi-thick sauce, and mixed with a choice of meat and/or vegetables.


sleeper

Compare Norwegian sleip (“a sleeper (a timber); as adjective, slippery, smooth”). See slape.

траверса

structural timber in a floor perpendicular to the joists and floorboards

The train, minus the three abandoned trucks, again proceeded at a slow pace, with a pump trolley doing pilot ahead ; this was very necessary as a great many sleepers were found to have been burnt underneath the fishplates.

1901, George Gipps, The Fighting in North China (up to the Fall of Tientsin City), Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, →OL, page 40:

I should imagine that the smooth riding and the quietness of the diesel or electric cab, coupled with the effect on the eyes of endless successions of sleepers disappearing from sight immediately under the driver's eyes, might in time have a soporific effect, so that the company of a second man, who can assist in signal observations when he is not at work in the engine cab, seems highly desirable in such conditions.

1961 July, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 401:

(rail transport, British) A railroad tie.


poss

en-verb

poss (third-person singular simple present posses, present participle possing, simple past and past participle possed)

posses (present singular third-person)
possing (participle present)
possed (participle past)
possed (past)

Piers Plowman
A cat […] possed them [the rats] about.

(obsolete, UK, dialect) To push; to dash; to throw.


read someone the riot act

read someone the riot act (third-person singular simple present reads someone the riot act, present participle reading someone the riot act, simple past and past participle read someone the riot act)

reads someone the riot act (present singular third-person)
reading someone the riot act (participle present)
read someone the riot act (participle past)
read someone the riot act (past)

From read the Riot Act. See sense 2. The Riot Act is a historical British Act of Parliament enacted in 1714, which stated that once a statutory warning was read out to rioters and they failed to disperse within one hour, then authorities may use any force to disperse them with impunity.

(British, Commonwealth, archaic, historical) To give a formal warning for a riotous assembly to disperse, usually through reading a section of the Riot Act.


posser

(UK) A tool for possing, or agitating laundry in a tub. It usually takes the form a bell shape or a circular plate with holes and vertical handle attached at the centre.


welcher

(British, offensive slang) A Welshman or person of Welsh descent.


welsher

(British) Alternative spelling of welcher.


moonlight

moonlight (third-person singular simple present moonlights, present participle moonlighting, simple past and past participle moonlighted)

moonlights (present singular third-person)
moonlighting (participle present)
moonlighted (participle past)
moonlighted (past)

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

From Middle English monelight, from Old English mōnan lēoht (“moonlight”, literally “moon's light, light of the moon”). Equivalent to moon + light. Cognate with Scots munelicht ~ muinlicht, West Frisian moanneljocht, Dutch maanlicht, German Mondlicht.

inh

(British, dated) To carry out undeclared work.


brilliance

en-noun

brilliance (usually uncountable, plural brilliances)

brilliances (plural)
brilliancy (alternative)

From brilliant + -ance. Compare French brillance.

bansay

The quality of being exceptionally effulgent

What brilliance it took from Harry Kane to control the cross and place the ball into the top corner.

(chiefly British) Magnificence; resplendence.


Verulam

Latin Verulamia, being the name of the Roman settlement on the same site.

(British) Baron Verulam, Viscount St Albans.

(British) Synonym of Verulamium (“ancient Roman town”). A town in Britannia, Roman Empire; near the modern city of St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, UK.


tutor

tutors (plural)
tutour (alternative archaic)

From Middle English tutour, from Old French tuteur (French tuteur), from Latin tūtor (“a watcher, protector, guardian”), from tueor (“protect”); see tuition.

der

(UK) A university officer responsible for students in a particular hall.


fickle

en-verb

fickle (third-person singular simple present fickles, present participle fickling, simple past and past participle fickled)

fickles (present singular third-person)
fickling (participle present)
fickled (participle past)
fickled (past)

From Middle English fikelen, from fikel (“fickle”); see above. Cognate with Low German fikkelen (“to deceive, flatter”), German ficklen, ficheln (“to deceive, flatter”).

cog

(transitive, UK dialectal) To puzzle, perplex, nonplus.


as the actress said to the bishop

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the occupation of actress was commonly associated with prostitute. The phrase plays on the contrasting natures of an actress or prostitute on one hand and a presumably (although possibly not actually) chaste bishop on the other.

as the bishop said to the actress (alternative)
said the actress to the bishop (alternative)
said the bishop to the actress (alternative)

Heavens, that's a big one – as the actress said to the bishop.

The important thing was where you do it, not what you do (as the actress said to the bishop)

1976, David Widgery, The Left in Britain:

"Oh, well," offered Andrews wryly, as she peeled a piece of fruit, "nothing like a hot banana — as the actress said to the bishop." She then apologized for the tacky sexual quip, explaining, "It just slipped out — as the actress said to the bishop."

1998, Timothy White, The Entertainers: portraits of stardom in the twentieth century:

He has, as the actress said to the bishop, been an unconscionably long time coming,[…]

1999, Michael Sprinker, Ghostly demarcations: a symposium on Jacques Derrida's Spectres of Marx:

(UK, humorous) Used to highlight a sexual ambiguity in an innocent remark.


rhododendron

en-noun

rhododendron (plural rhododendrons or rhododendra)

rhododendrons (plural)
rhododendra (plural)

The obsolete sense derives from Latin rhododendron (“oleander”), from Ancient Greek ῥοδόδενδρον (rhodódendron, “oleander”), from ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”) + δένδρον (déndron, “tree”). The modern sense comes through the intermediary of the genus name Rhododendron.

щхъачей

flowering shrub in the genus Rhododendron

dwarf rhododendron Rhododendron anthopogon)

great white rhododendron (Rhododendron decorum

Pontic rhododendron
pontic rhododendron#English

Rhododendron ponticum
Rhododendron ponticum#Translingual

Any of various flowering shrubs in the genus Rhododendron, especially

(UK) Pontic rhododendron, common rhododendron (Rhododendron ponticum)


JCR

(education, UK) Initialism of junior common room (in British universities).


indicator

From Late Latin indicātor (“one who points out”), from Latin indicō (“point out”). By surface analysis, indicate + -or; see indicate.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, automotive) A turn signal; each of the flashing lights on each side of a vehicle which indicate a turn is being made to left or right, or a lane change etc.


mummy's boy

(chiefly UK) Alternative spelling of mama's boy.


party political broadcast

en-noun

party political broadcast (plural party political broadcasts)

(British) a short radio or television broadcast made by a political party


Squarial

(British) A flat, diamond-shaped aerial (antenna) for receiving satellite television signals; it became obsolete in the 1990s.


statementing

(British, education) formal official assessment of a child as having special needs.


earner

Those Japanese radios were a nice little earner: we sold all of them by lunchtime.

(British, Australia) A profitable product or scheme; something that brings in good money.


stonking

For instance he might see a White-eared Honeyeater, a not uncommon bird in the heathy areas at Bunyip, but in his excitement to call it, something in his brain scrambled and came out as: `White-cheeked Honeyeater!' White-cheeked Honeyeater is an absolute stonking crippler in Victoria, but Stu was not actually trying to string a rarity, he'd just got such a flood of new information swirling around his brain that sometimes it got jumbled up.

2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 67:

(slang, British, Australia) impressively large; exciting


streamer

From Middle English stremer, stremere, equivalent to stream + -er.

Since he also demonstrated that the A-streamers in his sample showed enhancement of measured intelligence over their primary school careers while the B-streamers showed deterioration, it can be seen what a far-reaching effect such decisions may have had upon child performance.

1984, Anthony Gale, Antony J. Chapman, Psychology and Social Problems, page 82:

(UK, education, in combination) A pupil belonging to a particular stream (division by perceived ability).


UCAS

(British) Acronym of Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.


ticketing

ticketing (countable and uncountable, plural ticketings)

(UK, mining, dated) A periodic sale of ore in the mining districts, in which buyers wrote their bids upon tickets.


CSE

CSE (countable and uncountable, plural CSEs)

John left school with eight CSEs.

Certificate of Secondary Education
w:Certificate of Secondary Education

(UK, education, historical, countable) Initialism of Certificate of Secondary Education, a former examination in UK schools; a pass achieved in this examination.


demain

(obsolete, British, law) A demesne, especially the ancient demesne claimed by William the Conqueror.


bags

en-verb

bags (third-person singular simple present bagses, present participle bagsing, simple past and past participle bagsed)

bagses (present singular third-person)
bagsing (participle present)
bagsed (participle past)
bagsed (past)
baggs (alternative)

Grammatical extension of third-person singular form of bag (“make first claim on something”).

So you were thrilled, and we picked out the mare for Harriet, and you bagsed the black, and I had the chestnut, and we all rode away one day.

2006, Jill Golden, Inventing Beatrice, page 81:

Mum bagsed being the priestess who got to dangle Stone over the volcano by his ankles.

2007, Debra Oswald., Getting Air, page 66:

Battered armchairs and a sofa were bagsed first; they were more comfortable than the school chairs that could get hard.

2008, Kate Dellar-Evans, Best of Friends: The First Thirty Years of the Friendly Street Poets, page 13:

‘Hey, it′s my turn in the front,’ Kalista called as she realised her brother had bagsed the front seat.

They used to share the water as kids, and for some reason Irene always managed to bags the first bath; Riva made do with the soapy second.

2016, Laurence Fearnley, The Quiet Spectacular, →ISBN, page 214:

(Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK) To reserve for oneself.


plod

en-noun

plod (usually uncountable, plural plods)

(UK, mildly derogatory, uncountable, usually with "the") the police, police officers

(UK, mildly derogatory, countable) a police officer, especially a low-ranking one.


ablutions

(plural only, UK, military) The location or building where the showers and basins are located.


plop

plop (countable and uncountable, plural plops)

Imitative of the sound, or perhaps a variant of plap.

onom

Imitative


plop

en-verb

plop (third-person singular simple present plops, present participle plopping, simple past and past participle plopped)

plops (present singular third-person)
plopping (participle present)
plopped (participle past)
plopped (past)

onom

Imitative


cockle

From Middle English cokel, cokkel, kokkel, cocle, of uncertain origin. Perhaps a diminutive of Middle English cokke, cok (“cockle”), from Old English cocc (found in sǣcocc (“cockle”)) + -le; or perhaps from Old French coquille, from Vulgar Latin *cocchilia, from conchylia, from Ancient Greek κογχύλιον (konkhúlion), diminutive of κογχύλη (konkhúlē, “mussel”), of Pre-Greek substrate origin.

Edward H[enry] Knight
w:Edward H. Knight

(Cornwall, mining) The mineral black tourmaline or schorl.

Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond
w:Rossiter W. Raymond


redneck

Bahuvrīhi compound of red + neck. Compare rooinek. The term originally characterized farmers that had a red neck, caused by sunburn from long hours working in the fields.

(UK, archaic, 19th and 20th centuries, religious slur) A Roman Catholic.


physiotherapy

en-noun

physiotherapy (countable and uncountable, plural physiotherapies)

(British, Commonwealth, Ireland) Therapy that uses physical techniques such as massage, ultrasound, heat, and exercise.

عِلَاج طَبِيعِيّ

therapy that uses physical techniques such as massage and exercise


fitness

fitness (usually uncountable, plural fitnesses)

From fit + -ness. First attested in the 16th century, with the physical sense from 1935.

(UK, slang) The condition of being attractive, fanciable or beautiful.


wazzock

Possibly from wiseacre, influenced by pillock, or possibly wazz + -ock. First attested in the 1984 novel When the Martians Land in Huddersfield by Mike Harding. Harding (born 1944) later claimed that he "used it when I was a kid,” it being “fairly common in the north, in Lancashire and Yorkshire”, and suggested that the term came from the instrument used to fling a monarch's excrement out the window.

I turn, as I must, to Mr Trump. His comments about Muslims are wrong. His policy to close borders, if he is elected as President, is bonkers. If he met one or two of my constituents in one of the many excellent pubs in my constituency, they may well tell him that he is a wazzock for dealing with the issue in that way.

2016 18 January, Victoria Atkins MP, House of Commons debate concerning Donald Trump

(British, Ireland, Northern England, derogatory, slang) A stupid or annoying person.


West Lothian question

Coined by Enoch Powell MP in 1977 after series of similar questions originally raised by Tam Dalyell, MP for West Lothian.

(British, politics) The anomaly whereby Scottish MPs can vote on issues affecting England, but English MPs cannot vote on Scottish issues.


stick and carrot

stick and carrot (plural sticks and carrots)

carrot and stick
carrot and stick#English

(especially UK) Alternative form of carrot and stick.


drop a bollock

en-verb

drop a bollock (third-person singular simple present drops a bollock, present participle dropping a bollock, simple past and past participle dropped a bollock)

drops a bollock (present singular third-person)
dropping a bollock (participle present)
dropped a bollock (participle past)
dropped a bollock (past)

(British, idiomatic, intransitive, vulgar slang) To make a mistake.


trig

You might as well smite that saw with your fist ; you might as well put a trig under the dam and stop it, as to practise on him

1850, Sylvester Judd, Richard Edney and the Governor's Family:

(UK) A stone, block of wood, or anything else, placed under a wheel or barrel to prevent motion; a scotch; a skid.


Bart

The First Lord's daughter proud,
Snubbed earls and viscounts nightly—
She sneered at barts aloud.
And spurned poor Joe Golightly.

(UK) Abbreviation or diminutive for baronet, later replaced by Bt. It is a post-nominative title; the pre-nominative is Sir (e.g. Sir John Smith Bart.).


TOE

en:Theory of everything
en:toe (disambiguation)

(UK, medicine) Initialism of transoesophageal echocardiogram.


money-spinner

money-spinners (plural)
moneyspinner (alternative)
money spinner (alternative)

But on April 13 it 'scrambled' a rake of Mk 2s and dual-braked 'Black 5' 45212 to start its lucrative summer money-spinner two days later.

2024 May 1, “Network News: West Coast Railways runs 'Jacobite' with Mk 1 and Mk 2 combination”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 9:

[…]and then those who, like the city’s mayor, see the £40m extravaganza as a welcome money-spinner and a wonderful showcase for the area’s attractions.

2025 June 27, Sam Jones, “Till Jeff us do part: divisive, star-studded Bezos wedding hits full swing in Venice”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Australia, figurative) Something that generates a continuous income.


letterbox

letterboxes (plural)
letter box (alternative)

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

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A box into which mail is put.

A collection point for mail intended for onward delivery, a secure box or receptacle for this purpose.

A wad of junk mail was pushed through the letterbox in the front door and dropped onto the mat.

A delivery point for mail, a box, compartment or slot for this purpose.


wonky

en-adj

wonky (comparative wonkier, superlative wonkiest)

wonkier (comparative)
wonkiest (superlative)

From English dialectal wanky, alteration of Middle English wankel (“unstable, shaky”), from Old English wancol (“unstable”), from Proto-West Germanic *wankul (“swaying, shaky, unstable”).

inh

It seemed likely that he would need First Aid when those wonky steps yielded, at length, to the well-known law of gravitation.

1932, Frank Richards, The Magnet: The Terror of the Form:

(chiefly British, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) Feeble, shaky or rickety.


-z

Rhotacism of /ɹ/. Attested since at least 1987.

Barry + -z → Baz

Sharon + -z → Shaz

Jeremy + -z → Jez

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Forms nicknames, especially of personal names.

sorry + -z → soz

tomorrow + -z → tomoz

apparently + -z → appaz

(UK) Forms colloquial variants of words.


dextrous

en-adj

dextrous (comparative more dextrous, superlative most dextrous)

more dextrous (comparative)
most dextrous (superlative)

The man, who with his right hand (or indeed with either, hand that by habit is the moſt dextrous) endeavours to help and aſſiſt another, exerts his whole ſtrength, and is generally enabled to compaſs his friendly deſign; or if a blow is neceſſary to be given, the dextrous hand hits the desired mark, and gives juſt the force deſigned; whereas a blow given through paſſion, with the aukwardneſs of a weak-handed ſtroke, may beat out an eye, flatten a noſe, or indeed aiming at an enemy may ſometimes hit a friend.

1754, Sarah Fielding, Jane Collier, The Cry: A New Dramatic Fable, volume 1, page 189:

Yet the ſubjects of the Byzantine empire were ſtill the moſt dextrous and diligent of nations;

1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume 5, page 471:

"[…]She was renowned as one of the most dextrous horse thieves and horse breakers in the tribe, and seldom permitted an expedition to go on a raid without her presence. The translation of her Apache title was ‘Dextrous Horse Thief’."

1979, Donald E. Worcester, The Apaches: Eagles of the Southwest, University of Oklahoma Press, page 53:

Its fingers are longer, more flexible, and more dextrous than those of monkeys and can be moved individually.

1992, Richard A. Gabriel, The Culture of War: Invention and Early Development, Greenwood Publishing Group, page 1:

(chiefly UK) Alternative spelling of dexterous.


sus

The committee […] said ‘sus’ had acquired a symbolic significance out of all proportion to its significance as a criminal charge.

2002, Simon James, British Government: A Reader in Policy Making, page 84:

(UK, informal) Suspicion (in terms of a sus law).


baths

There is a baths on the other side of the road.

(UK) A building containing a public swimming pool or shower facilities; originally a place having individual cubicles where people without bathrooms could have a bath.


mawk

From Middle English mawke, moke, a contraction of mathek, maddok, from Old Norse maðkr (“maggot”), a diminutive of a base from Proto-Germanic *maþô (“worm”) (compare Old English maþa), from Proto-Indo-European *mat-, *mot- used in reference to insects and vermin. Cognate with Danish maddike, Swedish mask, archaic English maddock (modern maggot).


shattered

shattered (comparative more shattered, superlative most shattered)

more shattered (comparative)
most shattered (superlative)

I stayed up all night working, and now I'm completely shattered.

(British, colloquial) Extremely tired or exhausted.


splosh

en-noun

splosh (countable and uncountable, plural sploshes)

Onomatopoeic. Connected with splash and splish; compare also slosh.

Give us a cup of splosh, love.

(uncountable, UK, slang) Tea (the drink).


Buggins's turn

Earliest recorded use is by Admiral Fisher, later First Sea Lord, in a 1901 letter.
'Buggins' is a humorous invented surname, suggestive of a man of mediocre ability.

He will be appointed on the principle of Buggins's turn.

1919, Memories, John Fisher (reprinting a 1917 letter to him from an unnamed Privy Councillor) http://www.archive.org/stream/memoriesbyadmira00fishuoft#page/38/mode/2up
I remembered your old saying "Some day the Empire will go down because it is Buggins's turn."'

(idiomatic, British) A humorous, disparaging term for the appointment of a person by rotation or promotion, on the basis of length of service (it being that person's "turn") rather than merit or level of qualification.


earthed

(UK, Ireland) Grounded, connected electrically to the ground.


endeavoured

British standard spelling of endeavored.


chequebook journalism

checkbook journalism
checkbook journalism#English

(chiefly British) Alternative spelling of checkbook journalism.


brainstorm

brainstorms (plural)
brain-storm (alternative)
brain storm (alternative)

From brain + storm. In the sense of "problem-solve", devised as a method of group creative problem-solving by advertising executive Alex F. Osborn and his employees, who coined the term based on the image of using "the brain to storm a problem". First use appears c. 1945. In the sense of "seizure, convulsion, brain activity", from the unrelated idea that it resembles a storm in the brain. First use appears c. 1861.

2005 October 5, "Iguchi hit ruins Red Sox's night", BBC Online, 5 October
A terrible fielding error from Tony Graffanino proved costly. … Aaron Rowand collected an RBI double to get them off the mark before Graffanino's brainstorm. Juan Uribe hit a roller to the second baseman, who let the potential inning-ending double-play ball roll under his glove, leaving runners at first and third bases.


fluff

fluff (countable and uncountable, plural fluffs)

From earlier floow (“woolly substance, down, nap, lint”), also spelt flough, flue, and flew, from West Flemish vluwe,
of uncertain ultimate origin:
* Compare Old English flōh (“that which is flown off, fragment, piece”) - see flaw
* Possibly representing a blend of flue + puff; compare Middle Dutch vloe, or perhaps onomatopoeic; compare dialectal English floose, flooze, fleeze (“particles of wool or cotton; fluff; loose threads or fibres”), Danish fnug (“down, fluff”), Swedish fnugg (“speck, flake”).
* Alternatively, West Flemish vluwe may derive from French velu (“hairy, furry”), from Latin villūtus (“having shaggy hair”), from villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”).
For words of similar sound and meaning in other languages, compare Japanese フワフワ (fuwafuwa, “lightly, softly”), Hungarian puha (“soft, fluffy”), Polish puchaty (“soft, fluffy”), Romanian puf (“down, peachfuzz, soft hair of some animals, powderpuff”).

onomatopoeic

onomatopoeic

cog

(UK, roleplaying games) A form of roleplaying which is inconsequential and not related to the plot; often used in the context of (but not limited to) filling time.

"What?" cried the counter-man, indignantly. "Been a railwayman all these years, and don't know what fluff is? Why, 'pon me word, you deserve to get the sack!"

1900, The Railway Magazine, volume 7, page 560:

(UK, slang, obsolete) Short change deliberately given by a railway clerk, to keep back money for himself.


fluff

en-verb

fluff (third-person singular simple present fluffs, present participle fluffing, simple past and past participle fluffed)

fluffs (present singular third-person)
fluffing (participle present)
fluffed (participle past)
fluffed (past)

onomatopoeic

onomatopoeic

A genial counter-man told Mr. Manners that, if he played artful, he might even now obtain the position of outside porter; you got no pay there, but you could gain a moderate competency by fluffing.

1900, The Railway Magazine, volume 7, page 559:

(UK, slang, obsolete) To deliberately shortchange (a railway customer) and keep the money for oneself.


sprat

From Middle English sprotte, from Old English sprot. Older source is unknown. Cognate with German Sprotte, Dutch sprot. Compare sprout.

The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.

1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant, page 90:


enrol

en-verb

enrol (third-person singular simple present enrols, present participle enrolling, simple past and past participle enrolled)

enrols (present singular third-person)
enrolling (participle present)
enrolled (participle past)
enrolled (past)

(British, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Canada) Standard spelling of enroll.


Percy

Gallo-Roman
Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland

Proper noun sense 1 (surname) and sense 3 (place names) are derived from Norman Percy (“a baronial surname”), from Percy-en-Auge (“a place in Pays d’Auge, Normandy, France”, literally “Percy in Auge”), from Old French Perci, from Late Latin Persiacum, from Latin Persius (“a Gallo-Roman nomen gentile”), from Etruscan 𐌐𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (persu); further etymology uncertain, possibly from 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask”).
Proper noun sense 2 (given name) is either from the above, or is a clipping of Perc(ival) + -y (suffix forming familiar names).
The common noun is derived from the proper noun. Sense 2 (“penis”) is probably from the fact that Percy and penis begin with the same letter.

der

point Percy at the porcelain
point Percy at the porcelain

(Australia, UK, humorous) Chiefly in point Percy at the porcelain: the penis.


set about

en-verb

set about (third-person singular simple present sets about, present participle setting about, simple past and past participle set about)

sets about (present singular third-person)
setting about (participle present)
set about (participle past)
set about (past)
set about (infinitive)
set about (first-person present singular)
set about (first-person past singular)
set about (present second-person singular)
settest about (archaic present second-person singular)
set about (past second-person singular)
sets about (present singular third-person)
setteth about (archaic present singular third-person)
set about (past singular third-person)
set about (plural present)
set about (past plural)
set about (present subjunctive)
set about (past subjunctive)
set about (imperative present)
setting about (participle present)
set about (participle past)

From set (verb) + about (adverb, preposition).

Two youths set about him.

Used with the preposition sense of about.

(UK, informal) To attack (someone); to set upon.


potless

en-adj

potless (comparative more potless, superlative most potless)

more potless (comparative)
most potless (superlative)

(British, slang) Lacking in funds; without assets; poor.


screeve

en-verb

screeve (third-person singular simple present screeves, present participle screeving, simple past and past participle screeved)

screeves (present singular third-person)
screeving (participle present)
screeved (participle past)
screeved (past)

In view of the slang nature of the term, probably from Polari screeve (“write”), from Irish scríobh, eventually from Latin scrībō (“write”). Doublet of shrive.

(obsolete, UK, slang) To draw with chalks on a pavement or sidewalk.

(obsolete, UK, slang) To write begging letters.


softy

(informal, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A soft drink containing no alcohol.


mooch

mooch (third-person singular simple present mooches, present participle mooching, simple past and past participle mooched)

mooches (present singular third-person)
mooching (participle present)
mooched (participle past)
mooched (past)
mouch (alternative)

From Middle English moochen, mouchen (“to pretend poverty”), from Old French muchier, mucier, mucer (“to skulk, hide, conceal”), from Frankish *mukkjan (“to hide, conceal oneself”), from Proto-Germanic *mukjaną, *mūkōną (“to hide, ambush”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mūg-, *(s)mewgʰ- (“swindler, thief”).
Cognate with Old High German mūhhōn (“to store, cache, plunder”), Middle High German muchen, mucken (“to hide, stash”), Middle English müchen, michen (“to rob, steal, pilfer”). More at mitch.
Alternate etymology derives mooch from Middle English mucchen (“to hoard, be stingy”, literally “to hide coins in one's nightcap”), from Middle English mucche (“nightcap”), from Middle Dutch mutse (“cap, nightcap”), from Medieval Latin almucia (“nightcap”), of unknown origin, possibly Arabic. More at mutch, amice.

inh

Near-synonyms: loiter, roam

These chaps that mooch about, as Hyde was doing, pick up all sorts of odds and ends. He may have pinched them from a chemist’s shop.

1922, J. S. Fletcher, The Middle of Things, New York: A. Knopf, page 161:

You have to be alone to mooch about properly. Other people will just get in the way and be all energetic about things. So wait until they've gone, make a cup of tea and then let the mooching commence.

2007 August 10, Guy Browning, “How to … mooch about”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

With 79 minutes gone, the most celebrated team of the modern age had been reduced to bunch of mooching, stumbling yellow-shirted spectators.

2019 May 8, Barney Ronay, “Liverpool’s waves of red fury and recklessness end in joyous bedlam”, in The Guardian:

A handful of camera crews mooched around the entrance to the Giorgio Cini foundation, where a pair of tight-lipped but polite individuals sat before monitors under a gazebo and politely fended off requests for information.

(British) To wander around aimlessly, often causing irritation to others.

I'm tired of driving you all over and sick of you living in my house, mooching my food.

2019, Susan Alice Bickford, Dread of Winter:

(transitive, chiefly British) To steal or filch.


mooch

Jack wouldn't be arriving for another ten minutes, so I had a mooch around the garden.

At the secondary school where I normally work as a librarian, I take key workers’ and other children on a “nature mooch”. We undull our senses.

2020 April 20, Nicola Chester, “Country diary: a nature mooch undulls the children’s senses”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:


middling

en-adj

middling (comparative more middling, superlative most middling)

more middling (comparative)
most middling (superlative)

The noun is probably from middle (noun) + -ing; the adjective is most likely derived from the noun, and the adverb from the adjective.

I am in a middling Way, between Healthy and Sick, hardly ever without a little Giddineſs or Deafneſs, and ſometimes both: So much for that.

1728 September 18, [Jonathan] Swift, “[Letters on Several Occasions.] Letter XXIII. To the Same [Dr. Thomas Sheridan].”, in Miscellanies, 4th edition, volume XIII, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley in Pall-mall, published 1751, →OCLC, page 125:

“And how’s that chest of yours?” demanded Mrs. Morel. / He smiled again, with his blue eyes rather sunny. / “Oh, it’s very middlin’,” he said.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Strife in Love”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 200:

(colloquial, regional British) In fairly good health.


middling

St. Jerom ſeated, a middling ſized upright plate, from J. Palma, dated 1596. I think this is one of the fineſt prints by this great maſter. The drawing is admirable, and the engraving is executed with the utmoſt freedom.

1785, Joseph Strutt, “HENRY GOLTZIUS”, in A Biographical Dictionary; Containing an Historical Account of All the Engravers, from the Earliest Period of the Art of Engraving to the Present Time; and a Short List of Their Most Esteemed Works. …, volume I, London: Printed by J. Davis, for Robert Faulder, New Bond Street, →OCLC, page 343:

Iwami, otherwise Sekisju, is two days journey long, going from ſouth to north, a middling good country, producing plenty of cannib, and affording ſome ſalt.

1811, Engelbert Kempfer [i.e., Engelbert Kaempfer]; J[ohann] G[aspar] Scheuchzer, transl., “The Division and Sub-division of the Empire of Japan into Its Several Provinces; as also of Its Revenue and Government”, in The History of Japan; republished in John Pinkerton, editor, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World; Many of which are Now First Translated into English. Digested on a New Plan, volume VII, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row; and Cadell and Davies, in the Strand, →OCLC, page 665

(colloquial, regional British) Fairly, moderately, somewhat.

(colloquial, regional British) Not too badly, with modest success.


prefab

(British) A single-storey prefabricated home built in many British cities immediately after World War II, intended to have a short life, but in a few cases still in use.


noughts and crosses

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, games) A two-player game played on a three-by-three grid, in which players take it in turns to place their respective symbol (either a nought or a cross) in a cell of the grid, the objective being to form a row, column or diagonal of three of one's own symbol.


crumpet

en-noun

crumpet (countable and uncountable, plural crumpets)

17th century, either from crompid cake (“wafer, literally, curled-up cake”), from crompid, form of crumpen (“to curl up”); cognate to crumpled. Alternate etymology is from Celtic; compare Breton krampouezh (“crepe, pancake”) and Welsh crempog (“pancake”).
Sense of “desirable woman” attested 1936, possibly as Cockney rhyming slang for strumpet; alternatively, compare tart (“loose woman, prostitute”) (itself possibly Cockney rhyming slang for heart or sweetheart). Note that muffin has a similar sense, and that, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, "Muffins and crumpets" was a familiar street-cry in UK.

Joan Bakewell was famously described as "the thinking man's crumpet".

John and his mates have gone out to find themselves some crumpet.

The regulars are all guys, a varied selection, my friends. There's Sammy—small, wiry, dark-haired. A hat manufacturer, crumpet mad—always chatting up different birds.

1969, Jackie Collins, The Stud, reprint edition, Simon & Schuster, published 1999, →ISBN, page 32:

Our lives are saturated with middle-class crumpet Benedict Cumberbatch - but does he deserve the attention, asks Michael Hogan

2014 November 12, Michael Hogan, “Have we reached peak Benedict Cumberbatch?”, in The Telegraph:

(UK, slang, dated, countable, uncountable) A sexually attractive person or, collectively, people; usually referring to women.

He bad been worried off his crumpet all day, making arrangements on her behalf.

1900 October 27, The Warwick Argus, Qld, page 4, column 5:

"If I don't get down them stairs soon I'll go off my crumpet, sittin' about up here all day with the jumps on me."

1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 80:


burnish

en-verb

burnish (third-person singular simple present burnishes, present participle burnishing, simple past and past participle burnished)

burnishes (present singular third-person)
burnishing (participle present)
burnished (participle past)
burnished (past)
burnish (infinitive)
burnish (first-person present singular)
burnished (first-person past singular)
burnisht (archaic first-person past singular)
burnish (present second-person singular)
burnishest (archaic present second-person singular)
burnished (past second-person singular)
burnishedst (archaic past second-person singular)
burnisht (archaic past second-person singular)
burnishes (present singular third-person)
burnisheth (archaic present singular third-person)
burnished (past singular third-person)
burnisht (archaic past singular third-person)
burnish (plural present)
burnished (past plural)
burnisht (archaic past plural)
burnish (present subjunctive)
burnished (past subjunctive)
burnisht (archaic past subjunctive)
burnish (imperative present)
burnishing (participle present)
burnished (participle past)
burnisht (archaic participle past)

The verb is derived from Middle English burnishen, burnysshen (“to polish, burnish; (figuratively) to brighten, give lustre to; to clean (something) until shiny; to decorate (with something shiny), adorn”) [and other forms], from burniss-, a stem of Old French burnir (compare, for example, the first-person present singular indicative form burnis), a variant of brunir (“to make clean and shiny, polish; to make brown”) (modern French brunir), from Frankish *brūnijan (“to polish, make resplendent”), from Proto-Germanic *brūnijaną (“to decorate; tan”), from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz (“brown”, adjective), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“brown”, adjective). Doublet of brown and brunneous; unrelated to burn.
The noun is derived from the verb.

nb...

bornysch, bornysh, bornyssh, burnesch, burnesh, burnessh, burneyssh, burnisch, burnischen, burnissh, burnysh, burnyssch, burnyssh,

der

His [a hart's] head when it commeth firſt out, hath a ruſſet pyll vpon it, the which is called Veluet,[…]. When his head is growne out to the full bigneſſe, then he rubbeth of that pyll, and that is called fraying of his head. And afterwards he Burniſheth the ſame, and then his head is ſaid to be full ſommed.

1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “Of the Termes of Venery”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 244:

The Stagg or Buck burnisheth his head, by rubbing it againſt the trees, Het Hart wrijſt ſijn hooſt tegen de boomen.

1658, Hendrick Hexham, “The Termes and Words of the Art of Hunting, and the Interpretation of Them out of English into Netherdutch”, in Het Groot Woorden Boeck: Gestelt in ’t Neder-duytsch, ende in ’t Engelsch […] = A Large Netherdutch and English Dictionarie; […], Rotterdam: […] Arnout Leers, →OCLC, column 2:

Deer are ſaid to burniſh their Heads, vvhen rubbing off a vvhite dovvny Skin from their Horns againſt a Tree, they thruſt 'em into a reddiſh Earth, to give 'em a nevv Colour and Luſtre.

1728, E[phraim] Chambers, “BURNISHING”, in Cyclopædia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […] In Two Volumes, volumes I (A–H), London: […] James and John Knapton [et al.], →OCLC, page 135, column 2:

Of a stag: to remove the velvet (“skin and fine fur”) from (its antlers) by rubbing them against something; to velvet.

Hovv you itch Michaell, hovv you burniſh! / VVill not this ſouldiers heat out of your bones yet, / Doe your eyes glovv novv?

1624 (first performance), John Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. A Comoedy. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Leonard Lichfield […], published 1640, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:

So vvhen the VVar has rais'd a Storm, / I've ſeen a Snake in human Form, / All ſtain'd in Infamy and Vice, / Leap from the Dunghill in a trice, / Burniſh and make a gaudy ſhovv, / Become a General, Peer, and Beau, / Till Peace hath made the Sky Serene, / Then ſhrink into it's Hole again.

1706, [Jonathan Swift], “The Description of a Salamander. […]”, in Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, London: […] John Morphew […], published 1711, →OCLC, pages 374–375:

To become bright, glossy, and smooth; to brighten, to gleam, to shine forth.


burnish

en-noun

burnish (countable and uncountable, plural burnishes)

With a good burnish, the old table should fetch a higher price.

(uncountable) The making of something bright, shiny, and smooth by, or (by extension) as if by, rubbing; (countable) an instance of this; a burnishing, a polishing, a shining.


burnish

term-label

(intransitive, obsolete except British, dialectal)

burnishes (present singular third-person)
burnishing (participle present)
burnished (participle past)
burnished (past)

From Middle English barnishen, barnish (“to grow big (with child), to become pregnant; to grow stout or strong”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from barn (“child, offspring; infant; unborn child; human being, person; male person, man (especially a young man or young warrior)”). (from Old English bearn (“child”), from Proto-West Germanic *barn (“child”), from Proto-Germanic *barną (“child”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”)) + -ishen (suffix forming verbs).

inh

A man Grovveth in heigth and length untill he be one and tvventie yeares of age: then beginneth he to ſpread and burniſh in ſquareneſſe.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XI.] A Discourse Anatomicall, of the Nature of Living Creatures, Part by Part, According to Their Particular Members.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 345:

We must not all run up in height, like a hop-pole, but also burnish and spread in breadth: then shall we be well proportioned and complete.

1640, T[homas] F[uller], “Growth in Grace”, in Ioseph’s Partie-colored Coat: Containing, a Comment on Part of the 11. Chapter of the 1. Epistle of S. Paul to the Corinthians: […], London: […] Iohn Dawson, for Iohn Williams, […], →OCLC; republished as William Nichols, editor, Joseph’s Party-coloured Coat: […], London: William Tegg, 1867, →OCLC, page 101:

A ſlender poet muſt have time to grovv, / And ſpread and burniſh as his brothers do. / […] / Then damn not, but indulge his rude eſſays, / Encourage him, and bloat him up vvith praiſe, […]

1675, John Dryden, “Prologue to Circe”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume II, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 310:

Sure he preſum'd of praiſe, vvho came to ſtock / Th' etherial paſtures vvith ſo fair a flock; / Burniſh'd, and bat'ning on their food, to ſhovv / The diligence of carefull herds belovv.

1687, [John Dryden], “[The First Part]”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 22:

Of a person's body: to grow large or stout; to fatten, to fill out.

[Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects] is to paſſe a running examination ouer the vvhole Edifice, according to the properties of a vvell ſhapen Man. As […] vvhether the Fabrique bee of a beautifull Stature, vvhether for the breadth it appeare vvell burniſhed, […] and ſo forth.

1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC, II. part, page 117:

My thoughts began to burniſh, ſprout, and ſvvell, / Curling vvith metaphors a plain intention, / Decking the ſenſe, as if it vvere to ſell.

[1633], George Herbert, “Jordan”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC, page 95:

Some have ſuſpected the declining of the Luſtre thereof [i.e., of London], becauſe of late it vergeth ſo much VVeſtvvard, increaſing in Buildings in Convent Garden, &c. But by their Favour (to diſprove their Fear) it vvill be found to Burniſh round about, to every point of the compaſſe, vvith nevv Structures daily added thereunto.

a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “London”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC, page 190:

(by extension) Of a thing: to increase in size; to expand, to spread out, to swell.


south-west

en-noun

south-west (usually uncountable, plural south-wests)

In Chuchow in the south-west of Chekiang, as we learn from a Shaoshing letter, rebel soldiers have, before the arrival of the soldiers sent by the Governor, killed the magistrate of Sian city named Wu.

1901, “Native Account of the Situation”, in The Boxer Rising: A History of the Boxer Trouble in China, 2nd edition, Shanghai Mercury, Ltd., →OCLC, page 60:

(chiefly UK) Alternative form of southwest.


south-west

en-adj

south-west (not generally comparable, comparative more south-west, superlative most south-west)

more south-west (comparative)
most south-west (superlative)


south-west

Little detailed information is available on the series of violent shocks which occurred in Hopeh province, north-eastern China, in March 1966. The earthquake of 7 March (No. 184), whose epicentre was located in the region of Hsing-t’ai, about 400 km south-west of Pekin, probably caused extensive damage since the magnitude was 7 and the focus shallow.

1970, “Earthquakes”, in Annual summary of information on natural disasters 1966, Belgium: Unesco, →OCLC, page 26:


bluebottle

bluebottles (plural)
blue-bottle (alternative)

From blue + bottle, after the resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles. In sense 3 (“cornflower”), via Middle English blewbothel. Sense 6 (“police officer”) is in reference to the colour of the uniform.

Batemans Bay, New South Wales
bluebottle

I will have you as soundly swing’d for this, you bluebottle rogue!

c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi]:

[…] comic writers […] have never failed to make capital out of the New Police, Peel's Raw-Lobsters, Peelers, Blue Bottles, &c., &c.

1878, Charles Hindley, The life and times of James Catnach, page 206:

COOMBE: He got the clinch only last week — eighteen months. You see it's no good having anybody here as ain't got a^([sic]) unblemished character. We don't want to have the bluebottles come sniffing round here, do we?

1882, Henry Herman, Henry Arthur Jones, The Silver King:

(UK, Australia, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A police officer.


orthopaedics

(British) Alternative spelling of orthopedics.


entrée

Borrowed from French entrée. Doublet of entrada and entry.

ENTREES AND ENTREMETS. Usually, outside of France, entrees are side or corner dishes. ... In conclusion I again remark, entrees can be made from almost anything, the difference being, they are highly cooked and seasoned. Remember nothing large is served as an entree. There are game entrees, meat entrees, fish entrees, fowl entrees, etc.

1887, Estelle Woods Wilcox, Practical housekeeping: A careful compilation of tried and approved recipes (published in Dayton, Ohio, United States), page 457:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, historical in the US and Canada) A smaller dish served before the main course of a meal.

предястие

dish served before the main course of a meal — see also starter, appetizer


sithee

Sithee, ther's a bowt here at's comin lowse, best to get it aat an a new-un in.

(UK, Yorkshire, Lancashire) See thee; variously used as a farewell (i.e. I will see you later) or an admonition to pay attention (= see here)


marmalade dropper

en-noun

marmalade dropper (plural marmalade droppers)

Suggesting the idea of an astonished person dropping marmalade at the breakfast table while reading or hearing the news.

2023 'The return of David Cameron: What is going on?', BBC News.
"Just because something is a marmalade dropper, doesn't make it a good idea."

(British, informal) Astonishing information, especially something learned from the news media.


hopping

hopping (countable and uncountable, plural hoppings)

Alternative spelling (C17) of hoppe, from Middle French houbelon

Hopping Down in Kent, Alan Bignell (1977).

(British) hop picking, the practice of picking hops; for Londoners a holiday period working in the hop gardens of Kent.


squish

squish (countable and uncountable, plural squishes)

Apparently an alteration of squash, influenced by obsolete squiss (“to squeeze”). Cognate with Scots squische, squies (“to crush, squeeze”). Compare also French esquicher from Old Occitan esquichar (“to squeeze, squish”). See also squeeze, squelch.

cog

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

Where they are loaves and joints melt as snow in the sunshine; bowls of cream are of no more account than acorn-cups filled with dew; and the 'squish'—as they call the mother's home-made marmalade—has to be renewed daily; […]

There was a time when the “squish” manufactured by Mr. Frank Cooper at Oxford was not known very extensively outside the world of undergraduates. With the march of events though the fame of Cooper's Oxford marmalade has become world-wide, and the natural consequence is that a new factory has had to be built to cope with the increased business.

1905, The Sphere: An Illustrated Newspaper for the Home, page VIII:

(uncountable, UK, slang, archaic) Marmalade.


Bonfire Night

Guy Fawkes Night
Guy Fawkes Night#English


panto

en-noun

panto (countable and uncountable, plural pantos)

(British, informal) Clipping of pantomime.


BBFC

British Board of Film Classification
w:British Board of Film Classification

(UK) Initialism of British Board of Film Classification.


runner bean

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

(chiefly British) The pods, sliced, as a vegetable.


rump

en-verb

rump (third-person singular simple present rumps, present participle rumping, simple past and past participle rumped)

rumps (present singular third-person)
rumping (participle present)
rumped (participle past)
rumped (past)

From Middle English rumpe, from Old Norse rumpr (“rump”), from Middle Low German rump (“the bulk or trunk of a body, trunk of a tree”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rumpō (“trunk of a tree, log”). The ultimate origin could be related to Proto-Germanic *hrimpaną (“to wrinkle”) (Dutch rimpel and German rümpfen (“to wrinkle”)); outside of Germanic, compare Ancient Greek ῥάμφος (rhámphos, “crooked beak”).
Cognate with Icelandic rumpur (“rump”), Swedish rumpa (“rump”), Dutch romp (“trunk, body, hull”), German Rumpf (“hull, trunk, torso, trunk”).
In the sense of remnant, first attested in the Rump Parliament of 1648; its original meaning here was a reference to the rotten, unclean hindquarters of an animal, gradually morphing to refer to the "remnant" aspect of the Parliament rather than its perceived unsavory nature.

cog

Seems this Stevie had a score to settle with some guy that had rumped him over a bundle of traveller's cheques and he thought by telling me this guy was the one that shot me I'd find him and kill him stone dead; […]

2007, Peter Gerrard, The Guvnor Tapes - Lenny McLean's Unpublished Stories, As Told By The Man Himself, Kings Road Publishing, →ISBN:

They'd been rumped out of half a kilo of charlie by a toeraf of a crack-head called Mad Mickey D from Bermondsey. And after he rumped them he was going round telling everybody that the Arifs were total fucking mugs. So they called him out for a drink one night, palled him up and then proceeded to get him paralytic.

2013, Horace Silver, Judas Pig, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:


ionising

en-adj

ionising (comparative more ionising, superlative most ionising)

more ionising (comparative)
most ionising (superlative)

(British) Alternative spelling of ionizing.


stony

stony (comparative stonier, superlative stoniest)

stonier (comparative)
stoniest (superlative)
stoney (alternative)

From Middle English stony, stoni, stani, from Old English stāniġ, stǣniġ (“stony, rocky”), from Proto-Germanic *stainagaz (“stony”), equivalent to stone + -y. Cognate with Scots stany (“stony”), West Frisian stienich (“stony”), Dutch stenig (“stony, metalled”), German steinig (“stony, rocky, gravelly”), Swedish stenig (“stony, rocky, pebbly”).

cog

Seriously, Dedalus. I’m stony. Hurry out to your school kip and bring us back some money.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

(UK and Australia, slang) Ellipsis of stony broke: without any money.


bizzo

en-noun

bizzo (countable and uncountable, plural bizzos)

TOM: I knew you'd have to do the full bizzo, I knew it. You disgust me.

1993, Plays International, volume 9, page 41:

We don't want this to turn into one of those pie-in-the sky bizzos where you aim too high and then never end up doing it.

2007, David Free, A Dancing Bear, page 96:

2009, Alex Archer (a pseudonym; written in-house), Rogue Angel: Eternal Journey, Harlequin Enterprises, page 53,
None of my bizzo, really, but why was he after you?

Hong's calm started to crack coz he'd seen Dave do his one drink for himself bizzo many times over the years since they'd met.

(UK, Australia, slang) Business; a matter or matters of personal concern; a course of action.


journo

From journalist + -o (“diminutive suffix”). Australian.https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/journo

He′d been packed in with all the other journos, standing out only in that he was taller than most and didn′t make as much noise.

2000, Robert Bingham, Lightning on the Sun, page 34:

Journos and scribes are officially welcomed by the Taliban and then never given visas to enter. The Red Cross needs Talib approval for all journos before you can book a flight.

2003, USA International Business Publications, Afghanistan Business Law Handbook, page 254:

2004, Pam Austin, Bob Austin, Getting Free Publicity: The Secrets of Successful Press Relations, How To Books, Oxford, page 8,
And we hope that all women journos will forgive us if, in these pages, we use the word ‘he’ as shorthand for ‘he/she’ when referring to members of the Fourth Estate.

2007, Sara Voorhees, The Lumière Affair: A Novel of Cannes, Simon & Schuster, New York, page 22,
TV journos consider print journos to be snobs who write for other print journos (and are therefore read by a Lilliputian portion of the population). Print journos believe TV journos to be cretins who are worshipped blindly by the lowest common denominator.

2008 August 11, Namrata Joshi, Movie Review: Mission Istaanbul, Outlook, page 80,
His nubile wife (Shriya Saran), also a TV journo, calls him names like “mouthpiece of terrorists”.


goodo

“Now we′re cooking! It works!” crowed Bob. “And now before it grows dark let′s pour it off into our storage tanks.”
“Goodo, Bob. We rich now!” Ebony gloated.

1957, Horace Sawyer Mazet, Shark Fishing off the Great Barrier Reef, page 61:

“Goodo,” Picnic said, blinking. “Man, look at the quail.”

1984, Thomas Pynchon, Slow Learner: Early Stories, published 1995, page 40:

Some bantering responses joked about whether David May was connected to Brian May, and the rock group Queen, but most expressed a sense of relief that anyone was willing to come to the small-town, economically struggling club. Jo Tomlinson: ‘Goodo, a signing! Even though we did boo him last year...’

2004, David L. Andrews, Manchester United: A Thematic Study, page 203:

John held both my hands tightly, looking straight into my eyes for several moments. His eyes moistened, “I don′t know how to thank you – it′s been quite a spell since my Janeie has been happy.” Bob gleefully joined in, “Goodo Sport!...Goodo!”

2009, George W. Adams, Under the Southern Cross, page 111:

‘I have a sore elbow...’ I fib in a small whine, as I know she worries sometimes when I have too many nightmares.
‘Goodo. Well, let me “tiss” it better,’ she whispers back, so as not to wake Dad from his heavy, snoring slumber, and with her eyes still closed—as the surrounding bush continues to coo its soft night noises through her open bedroom window—she reaches out, finds my proffered elbow, and applies a kiss.

2010, Peter FitzSimons, A Simpler Time, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) Good; used to show approval or satisfaction.


paedo

(British, slang, uncountable) paedophilia.


paedo

(British, slang) Paedophile, paedophiliac.


pelf

pelf (countable and uncountable, plural pelfs)

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

From Late Middle English pelf, pelfe (“stolen goods, booty, spoil; forfeited property; money, riches; property; valuable object”), possibly from Anglo-Norman pelf (a variant of pelfre (“booty, loot”)) and Old French peufre (“frippery; rubbish”); further etymology uncertain, possibly a metathesis of Old French felpe, ferpe, frepe (“a rag”). The English word is perhaps related to Late Latin pelfa, pelfra, pelfrum (“forfeited or stolen goods”), Middle French peuffe and French peufe, peuffe (“old clothes; rubbish”) (Normandy), and pilfer.

Now for women, in ſtead of laborious ſtudies, they have curious, needleworkes, Cut-workes, ſpinning, bone-lace, and many prettie deviſes of their owne making, to adorne their houſes, […] Which to her gueſts ſhe ſhews, with all her pelfe, / Thus far my maides, but this I did my ſelf.

1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Exercise Rectified of Body and Minde”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 4, page 282:

(uncountable, dated) Rubbish, trash; specifically (British, dialectal) refuse from plants.


buffer

Agent noun from obsolete verb buff (“make a dull sound when struck”) (mid-16c.), from Old French buffe (“blow”).
The “boatswain's mate” sense is said to be popularly explained by the mate being a “buffer”, that is intermediary, between officers and men, but various other explanations have also been proposed.

bufro

anything used to isolate or to minimise the effects of one thing on another

He decided to run for president of the POs' Mess against the Buffer, Chief Bosun's Mate Mal Crane, but the two had a face-to-face in his cabin one night in Narvik and sorted it out.

2001, Mark Higgitt, Through Fire and Water, page 43:

I happen to be on the brow handing my Bosun's Mate duties over to an Ordinary Seaman when the Buffer arrives with an unofficial Side-Party to man the brow with Bosun's Calls at the ready.

2015, Peter Broadbent, A Singapore Fling: An AB's Far-Flung Adventure:

(UK, nautical, slang) The chief boatswain's mate.


buffer

Who does not remember that adorable little dog, and that last Christmas season at Olympia, when the Whimmy we had all loved had been dead a month or so, and his buffer ran disconsolately round the circus, pining […]


doco

From documentary + -o (“diminutive suffix”).

Seibert has many complaints about nature docos, not the least of which is the music that seems to suggest that animals are constantly shadowed by symphony orchestras.

1994, Phillip Adams, Classic Columns, page 144:

Now we spend about a third of our time in the US working on docos, working with US wildlife.

I started thinking that I had to get back to where I was when I was put into the field to do docos [documentaries] and put in situations to capture sound as simply as I could and be sure to get what I could get.

2000, Tom Kenny, Sound for Picture: Film Sound through the 1990s, page 160:

(UK, Australia, informal) Abbreviation of documentary.


service station

service station (plural service stations)

→ Afrikaans: diensstasie (calque)

→ Dutch: servicestation


bn

bn. (alternative)
bln (alternative)
bln. (alternative)

(chiefly British, Commonwealth except Canada, Ireland) Abbreviation of billion.


eggy

en-adj

eggy (comparative eggier, superlative eggiest)

eggier (comparative)
eggiest (superlative)


chavish

chavish (comparative more chavish, superlative most chavish)

more chavish (comparative)
most chavish (superlative)
chavvish (alternative)

(derogatory, UK, slang) in the manner of or typical of a chav.


CBI

(British) Initialism of Confederation of British Industry.


dipper

desc

→ Kashubian: dyper (Canada, United States)

From Middle English dippere; equivalent to dip + -er.

(UK, India) The control in a vehicle that switches between high-beam and low-beam (i.e. dips the lights), especially when used to signal other vehicles.


sunbeam

From Middle English sonnebeem, sonne beem, from Old English sunnbēam, sunnebēam (“sunbeam”), equivalent to sun + beam.

DOCTOR: You seem to be our best bet so far, don't you think so, Mel? Mel? Where's Mel?
DEPUTY: No, no, no, sunbeam. You're coming with us.

1987, Doctor Who (TV series), Paradise Towers (aired 5 October)

(UK) Synonym of sunshine (“ironic form of address to an inferior or troublemaker”).


gen

Nose around any modest-sized station and the odds are you'll find that the chargeman's office doubles as a bashers' club, a place where shivering spotters can get warm and catch up on the gen.

2015, Nicholas Whittaker, Platform Souls: The Trainspotter as 20th-Century Hero:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Information.


gen

Etymology unknown. Possibilities include:
* Clipping of argent
* Clipping of generalise, from back slang for English shilling.

unk

Etymology unknown.

The betting also began to shift. "Sixpence Ned wins!" cried three or four; "Sixpence he loses!" answered another; "Done!" and up went the halfpence. "Half-a-crown Joe loses!"—"Here you are," answered Joe, but he lost again. "I'll try you a 'gen'" (shilling) said a coster; "And a 'rouf yenap'" (fourpence), added the other. "Say a 'exes'" (sixpence).—"Done!" and the betting continued, till the ground was spotted with silver and halfpence.

1851, Henry Mayhew, “Gambling of Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 17:

"Give me two gen, then, and take the whole bloody tol. I've walked me teef orf afore rouf this mornin', and wot 'ave I got? Two bloody yenneps! I ask yer."


LWT

London Weekend Television
w:London Weekend Television

(UK, television) Initialism of London Weekend Television.


LegCo

/ˈlɛd͡ʒ.kəʊ/

Legislative Council
w:Legislative Council of Hong Kong

(British, Hong Kong) Acronym of Legislative Council, the unicameral legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.


plonk

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

From WWI military slang, derived by alteration of French vin blanc (“white wine”) by the law of Hobson-Jobson. Recorded earliest in the playful rhyming slang form plinketty-plonk. Possibly influenced by the sound of wine being poured into a glass.

The third category of wines is highly unattractive as these may only be sold as generic wines (white, red or rosé), without reference to any geographical location. Only surplus plonk and cooking wine would aspire to fall in this segment, which can be blended with any other wine - to any extent.

1998, Pierre Spahni, Swiss Wine Market Report, page 95:

Diesel took a large swallow out of the glass of red wine. He spluttered, choked, and spilled wine down one leg of his fawn colored pants. “My God,” he gasped, when he could speak. “What is that crap?”
“Why cheap red wine,” Ford displayed the label. “You know. Plonk.”

2003, Joan del Monte, Plonk Goes the Weasel, page 201:

2011, Charles Spence, Maya U. Shankar, Heston Blumenthal, Chapter 11: ‘Sound Bites’: Auditory Contributions to the Perceeption and Consumption of Food and Drink, Francesca Bacci, David Melcher (editors), Art and the Senses, page 229,
Given the results reported in this chapter, one obvious solution to the ‘plonk paradox’ (why cheap wine tastes good on holiday but terrible at home) would be to try and recapture some of these sensory impressions in one′s own living room, in order to enhance the flavour/pleasantness of the wine-drinking experience (and turn that horrible tasting wine into something that tastes really rather nice), and to elucidate the respective contributions of contextual effects on hedonic ratings.

(uncountable, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Cheap or inferior everyday wine.


plonk

Chris and that plonk had better be flushing the scum out.

(countable, derogatory, UK, Ireland, law enforcement slang) A female police constable.


well, well

Well, well. What have we here?

(with sarcasm) Well, well. Look who's back. And they said we'd never see him again.

Wel, wel (Meander) thou art deepely read:
And hauing thee, I haue a iewell ſure:
Go on my Lord, and giue your charge I ſay,
Thy wit wil make vs Conquerors to day.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

Well, well, we must bide our time. Life isn't all beer and skittles; […]

1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:

well, well, well
well, well, well#English

(current in UK, but dated in the US and Canada) Synonym of well, well, well.

current in UK; but dated in the US and Canada; current in UK; but dated in the US and Canada


jumble

en-noun

jumble (countable and uncountable, plural jumbles)

From Middle English jumbelen, alteration of jumbren, jombren, a variant of jumpren, frequentative of jumpen (“to jump”), equal to jump + -le. More at jumber, jump, jumper.

Hire a stall at a fair or sell your wares at a car boot sale. Adjust your jumble's price to something very reasonable and attractive for people to buy. Your income will depend on the quality and quantity of the jumble […]

2014, Ben Isacat, How to Do Animal Rights, page 110:

(uncountable, British) Items for a rummage sale.

"That's a nice coat," said Bella. "I used to have one like that. Got it at a jumble. But it didn't suit me. You look great in it."

1982, Hunter Davies, Flossie Teacake's Fur Coat:

(countable, British, informal) A rummage sale.


moggy

Unknown, but probably originally Mog + -y, a Scots or Northern English variant of maggie (“girl”), from Maggie, a diminutive of Margaret and Margery. First attested in reference to mongrel cats in Cockney.

Cockney slang... ‘moggies’ for cats.

1911, John William Horsley, I Remember: Memories of a 'Sky Pilot' in the Prison and the Slum, page 254:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A domestic cat, especially (depreciative or derogatory) a non-pedigree or unremarkable cat.


scavenger

scavengers (plural)
skavenger (alternative)

Originally from Middle English scavager, from Anglo-Norman scawageour (“one who had to do with scavage, inspector, tax collector”), from Old Northern French *scawage, escauwage (“scavage”), Old French *scavage, escavage, alteration of escauvinghe (compare Medieval Latin scewinga, sceawinga), from Old Dutch scauwōn (“to inspect, to examinate, to look at”). Usually reinterpreted/re-analysed today as scavenge (which was originally a backformation from this word) + -er. Compare Old English sċēawung (“a showing, spectacle, examination, inspection, toll on exposure of goods”) and Dutch schouwing (“inspection”). More at show.

cog

(UK, Ireland, obsolete) A street sweeper.

(UK, Ireland, historical) A child employed to pick up loose cotton from the floor in a cotton mill.


wee-wee

en-noun

wee-wee (countable and uncountable, plural wee-wees)

wee-wees (plural)
weewee (alternative)
wee wee (alternative)

Reduplication of wee; onomatopoeic for the sound of urination.

(UK, childish) Urine.
(childish) An act of urination.

But because little girls' genitals are tucked away, it's easy never to refer to them at all. They become the part with no name. Even up-front women are flummoxed. Vagina? Fanny? Front bottom? Twinkie? Privates? Didge? Down there? Flower? Wee-wee? Tuppence?

1999, Lyn Gardner, “Don't mention the, er”, Guardian

‘Wee wee’ was the word my parent’s taught me to call my vagina.

2016, Emily-Jane Clark, “14 weird and wonderful words parents use for vagina”, Metro

(childish, slang, UK) The vulva or vagina.


Winchester

From Middle English Wynchester, Winchestre, from Old English Wintanċeaster, from Latin Venta Belgārum (literally “Venta of the Belgae”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Celtic *wentā (“town, place”), Proto-Indo-European *h₁wen- (“place (?)”) + Old English ċeaster, from Latin castra (“camp”).
The bottle is named for the former customary units of the English city. The rifle is named named after American businessman Oliver Winchester (1810–1880). The computer disk is named for the rifle.

named-after

A city in and the county town of Hampshire, England.

(UK) Ellipsis of Winchester College, a prestigious public school in Winchester.


tick off

en-verb

tick off (third-person singular simple present ticks off, present participle ticking off, simple past and past participle ticked off)

ticks off (present singular third-person)
ticking off (participle present)
ticked off (participle past)
ticked off (past)

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

Fred was ticked off by the teacher for playing around in class.

Having ticked us off in this way, the rascal had an elaborate description of rails at the pit mouth, and of a zigzag excavation by which funicular trains were to burrow into the earth.

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:

(British, Australia, transitive, historically US) To reprimand.


darter

(UK) Any of the dragonflies in the genus Sympetrum


cream tea

en-noun

cream tea (countable and uncountable, plural cream teas)

It is built around a wide centre street known as the Mall, one of the few semi-flat stretches in the area, & along the Mall one finds scores of English shops with pots of red geraniums at their doors, a proper hotel with good mahogany bedsteads & Peliti’s tearoom, where one drinks cream tea from fine china cups.

2011, Elle Newmark, The Sandalwood Tree, Emily Bestler Books / Washington Square Press, →ISBN, page 136:

Tea with cream, specifically (UK) clotted cream.

He scanned the next set of pictures and noticed that she was either on her own or with people who were considerably older than her. ‘Bingo,’ said Winters. ‘Ballroom dancing with another woman. Eating cream tea in the parochial club. Watching paint dry in the church hall. And there I was thinking ET was the only image system that could make me want to cry.’

2018, Mark Roberts, Killing Time, Head of Zeus Ltd, →ISBN:

(UK) An afternoon tea including cream tea and, usually, scones and jam.


black tea

black tea (countable and uncountable, plural black teas)

(British) A cup of tea served without milk.


pudding rice

(chiefly British) a short-grained rice used to make rice pudding; also makes reasonable risotto


praepostor

praepostors (plural)
praepositor (alternative)
præpositor (alternative)
prepositor (alternative)
præpostor (alternative archaic)
prepostor (alternative)

He rose, always in spite of himself, into the Doctor’s form, and for the last two years or so of his time was among the præpostors, though he never rose into the upper half of them.

1873–1884 (date written), Samuel Butler, chapter XLIV, in R[ichard] A[lexander] Streatfeild, editor, The Way of All Flesh, London: Grant Richards, published 1903, →OCLC, page 195:

(British) a prefect in some public schools


rede

From Middle English red, rede, from Old English rǣd, from Proto-West Germanic *rād, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaz.
Cognate with Danish råd, Dutch raad, German Rat, Swedish råd, Norwegian Bokmål råd. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish ráidid (“to speak, say, tell”). Doublet of rada.

cog

Ophelia:
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

When the Bull heard these words he knew the Ass to be his friend and thanked him, saying, "Right is thy rede"

1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume I, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC:

‘Yet do not cast all hope away. Tomorrow is unknown. Rede oft is found at the rising of the Sun.’


rede

en-verb

rede (third-person singular simple present redes, present participle reding, simple past and past participle red or redd)

redes (present singular third-person)
reding (participle present)
red (participle past)
red (past)
redd (participle past)
redd (past)

From Middle English reden, ræden, from Old English rǣdan (“to counsel, advise; plot, design; rule, govern, guide; determine, decide, decree; read, explain”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną.
Cognate with German raten, Low German raden, Dutch raden. More at read.

der

The meane whyle his squyer founde wryten vpon the crosse that Bagdemagus shold neuer retorne vnto the Courte ageyne / tyll he had wonne a knyȝtes body of the round table body for body / lo syr said his squyer / here I fynde wrytyng of yow / therfor I rede yow retorne ageyne to the Courte / that shalle I neuer said Bagdemagus

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:

Meanwhile, his squire found written upon the cross that Bagdemagus should never again return to the court / till he had won a knight's body of the round table, body for body. / “Lo sir,” said his squire, / “here I find writing about you; / therefore I rede you return again to the court.” / “That I never shall,” said Bagdemagus.

The secret of Man's Being is still like the Sphinx's secret: a riddle that he cannot rede.

To interpret (a riddle or dream); explain.


bellend

(UK, Ireland, vulgar) Alternative spelling of bell-end.


dishonour

en-noun

dishonour (countable and uncountable, plural dishonours)

tlb

(UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa)

dishonours (plural)
dishonor (alternative US)

From Old French deshonor, equivalent to dis- + honour.

negotiable instrument
negotiable instrument

(law) Failure or refusal of the drawee or intended acceptor of a negotiable instrument, such as a bill of exchange or note, to accept it or, if it is accepted, to pay and retire it.


NIC

Despite propelling the tax burden to its highest peacetime level – through a combination of next April’s national insurance contributions (NICs) increase and a sharp rise in corporation tax due to take effect in 2023 – the chancellor painted himself as the champion of low taxes.

2021 October 27, Heather Stewart, “Johnsonism wins budget battle but will Sunakism win the war?”, in The Guardian:

national insurance
national insurance#English

(UK, finance) Acronym of national insurance contribution.


slink

en-noun

slink (countable and uncountable, plural slinks)

From Middle English slynken, sclynken, from Old English slincan (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Germanic *slinkaną (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleng-, *slenk- (“to turn; wind; twist”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to sneak; crawl”).
Cognate with West Frisian slinke, Dutch slinken (“to shrink; shrivel”), Low German slinken, Swedish slinka (“to glide”). Compare also German schleichen (“to slink”). More at sleek.

der

(UK, Scotland, dialect) A thievish fellow; a sneak.


rookery

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

The Flower and Dean St rookery had been home to many of those who lived at least partly by street crime.

1980, Jerry White, Rothschild Buildings: life in an East End tenement block, 1887-1920, page 128:

These rookeries sustained criminal social systems that provided schooling in crime for the young and newcomers.

1995, Cyrille Fijnaut, Changes in Society, Crime and Criminal Justice in Europe:

In the Victorian imagination, crime and the criminal class were always associated with rookeries, the dense slum areas in which criminals were said to live.

1998, Stephen Inwood with Roy Porter, A History of London, page 522:

(British, historical, by extension) A place where criminals congregate, often an area of a town or city.


rancour

en-noun

rancour (countable and uncountable, plural rancours)

First attested as Middle English rancour in the early 13th century, from Old French rancor, from Latin rancor (“rancidity, grudge, rancor”), from ranceō (“be rotten or putrid, stink”), from which also English rancid.

uder

By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 4, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

British, Canada, and Australia spelling of rancor.


lat

At Salisbury Plain and Camberley in 1909/10 I learnt a number of camping expressions like... lats (latrines).

1927, William Edward Collinson, Contemporary English, page 92:

Other synonyms [sc. for lavatories] are rears, lats... and dubs.

1940, M. Marples, Public School Slang, page 112:

(UK slang, usually in the plural) A latrine: a rudimentary or military facility for urination and defecation.


BBC English

received pronunciation
received pronunciation

(British) A form of received pronunciation formerly used in British broadcasting.


chiffchaff

/ˈt͡ʃɪf.t͡ʃæf/

Echoic of the repetitive "chiff-chaff" song of the European species, Phylloscopus collybita.
*
 Audio: (file)

onom

Echoic

I thought I heard something singing chiffchaff, chiffchaff. So I had a look and there was a chiffchaff.

(UK, onomatopoeic, uncountable) The song of the chiffchaff.


head

pinch punch first of the month (alternative)

en-au-pinch and a punch for the first of the month.ogg

‘Pinch and a punch for the first of the month.’ I nurse my wounded arm and look down at my giggling son.
'You just hit me.'
'No I didn't. That's what you do on the first of the month.'
'Who says so?'
He looks at me exasperated.

2009, Ellie Nielsen, Buying a Piece of Paris: A Memoir, page 208:

(British, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) Said on the first day of a new month, while pinching and punching someone as a prank (especially by children). The victim may respond with "a flick and a kick for being so quick" and the original attacker may reply with "a punch in the eye for being so sly".

It does not seem to be the Minister for the Environment's day, he has really had a pinch and a punch for the first of the month. He received a punch a few minute ago, and now he is being pinched. It is significant that the Bill is intended to come into force on 1 April next year. The Bill was promised in the Speech from the Throne. It has gone back and forth between departments, and ended up in caucus several times, ...

1981, Parliamentary Debates, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, page 3112:

Bugger, this wasn't the goods at all – this was a pinch and a punch for the first of the month. A letter in fact from Fire Commander Bruce stating that although he was in receipt of my application, neither he nor the Fire Commander of IB were certain of the Fire Service Commission's final policy for employment of women as operational firemen.

2007, Anne Barry, Playing with Fire, page 59:

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) More generally, a pair of attacks or setbacks at the start of something.


glossy

The supermarket glossies are full of celebrity gossip and fad diets.

(chiefly British, informal) A glossy magazine.


DOL

(UK) Initialism of deprivation of liberty.


dimethyl sulphoxide

dimethyl sulfoxide
dimethyl sulfoxide#English

(organic chemistry, chiefly British) Alternative spelling of dimethyl sulfoxide.


abigeus

In the Civil Law, he was accounted an Abigeus who carried off one Horse or one Ox, or four Swine or ten Sheep; if he took a smaller Number of Swine or Sheep, he was reckoned a Fur rather than an Abigeus.

1730, Institutions of the Criminal Law of Scotland, page 127:

The stealing of a single horse or ox might make a man an abigeus, but it seems that the crime could not be committed on less than four pigs or ten sheep.

1883, A history of the criminal law of England - Volume 1, page 27:

It is obvious why the thief of only one domestic animal was not treated so severely as an abigeus. The reason for the severe punishment of rustlers, abigei, was the need of a stronger protection for agricultural interest, particularly in countries where these offenses were more frequent.

1943, Seminar: Annual Extraordinary Number of The Jurist:

(law, UK, obsolete) A thief who steals livestock in large quantities.


TVP

(UK) Initialism of Thames Valley Police.


convenience

en-noun

convenience (countable and uncountable, plural conveniences)

Borrowed from Latin convenientia, from conveniens (“suitable”), present participle of convenire (“to come together, suit”). Doublet of convenance.

public convenience
public convenience#English

(chiefly British) Ellipsis of public convenience (“a public lavatory”).


concession

concession (usually uncountable, plural concessions)

From late Middle English concession, from Middle French concession, from Latin concessiō (“a grant, permission, conceding”), from concēdō. Doublet of concessio.

der

A privilege granted by an authority, especially to conduct business on favorable terms within certain conditions and particularly:

(chiefly UK) A discounted price offered to certain classes of people, such as students or the elderly.

alennus

(chiefly UK) A person eligible for a concession price (see above).


seagulling

As long as he can stay away from the seagulling in the tight games.

2002 May 25, Greig Blanchett, “Re: So. To The ABs”, in rec.sport.rugby.union (Usenet):

Jack has to cut out the seagulling and get in and do the dirty work.

2009 December 28, Steve Hepburn, “Rugby: Oval ball gazing for 2011 World Cup”, in Otago Daily Times:

And while Williams cut down the seagulling, he still wasn't hitting the breakdown with any vigour.

2011 August 29, lord shineything [username], “Re: AB Players”, in rec.sport.rugby.union (Usenet):

(British, Australia, New Zealand, rugby slang) The practice, in Rugby Union, of forwards running in the back line rather than concentrating on their primary positional duties in open play (see rugby union positions).


cracking

It was a cracking good show.

(British) Very, usually associated with praise.


rowlock

rowlocks (plural)
rollick (alternative)
rollock (alternative)
rullock (alternative)

An alteration, based on row, of earlier oarlock, from Old English ārlōc, equivalent to oar + lock.

I took a good gap and a stretch, and was just going to unhitch and start when I heard a sound away over the water. I listened. Pretty soon I made it out. It was that dull kind of a regular sound that comes from oars working in rowlocks when it's a still night.

1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:

Everything smelled salt and there was no noise except the swishing of water and the clop-clop of water against the sides and the splash of the oars and the jolting noise of the rowlocks.

1951, C. S. Lewis, chapter 8, in Prince Caspian, Collins, published 1998:

(nautical, chiefly British) A usually U-shaped pivot attached to the gunwale (outrigger in a sport boat) of a boat that supports and guides an oar, and provides a fulcrum for rowing; an oarlock.


nearside

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

An unhappy-looking "foreigner" on Beattock shed on August 18 was Class A2 No. 60529. It had taken the West Coast main line with an unidentified working, but failed at Lockerbie with a blown-out nearside cylinder; [...].

1962 October, “Motive Power Miscellany: Scottish Region”, in Modern Railways, page 286:

(British) The side of a road vehicle nearest to the kerb: the left side if one drives on the left of the road.


back end

back ends (plural)
back-end (alternative)
backend (alternative)
backen' (alternative)
back-en' (alternative)

I'll see you on the back end of tomorrow.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) The latter end of any given time, especially the latter part of the year; autumn; late autumn.


HST

en-noun

HST (countable and uncountable, plural HSTs)

(UK, rail transport) Initialism of High Speed Train, a common name for the InterCity 125.


let in

en-verb

let in (third-person singular simple present lets in, present participle letting in, simple past and past participle let in)

lets in (present singular third-person)
letting in (participle present)
let in (participle past)
let in (past)

He let me in heavily.

(UK, slang, obsolete) To cheat or victimize.


expiry

en-noun

expiry (countable and uncountable, plural expiries)

(British, New Zealand, Australia, Canada) End; termination; expiration.

(British, New Zealand, Australia, Canada) Death.


colliery

From the hillock a score of red paths diverged as black ones do from a colliery, one of them leading to the homestead itself […]

1938, Xavier Herbert, “Chapter VII”, in Capricornia, page 91:

(British) An underground coal mine, together with its surface buildings.


Authorized Version

the Authorized Version (canonical)
Authorised Version (alternative)
Auth. Ver. (alternative)

King James Version
King James Version#English

(British) Synonym of King James Version.


composite

Borrowed from Middle French composite, from Latin compositus, past participle of compōnō (“put together”). Doublet of compost, compote, and kompot.

The units are made up as either:
[...]
Trailer composite—4 first-class compartments—24 seats; and 3 second-class compartments—24 seats,
[...]
A total of 40 vehicles are to be built, Ten of each type of power car, ten trailer composites, five trailer seconds and five trailer second/buffets.

1963 April, “New Inter-City diesel multiple-units for W.R.”, in Modern Railways, page 266:

(rail transport, UK) A railway carriage with compartments for two different classes of travel; see Composite Corridor.


erk

Claimed to be a respelling of the abbreviation airc for aircraftsman; or else from irk.

But I wasn’t accepted for flying duty—eyesight failed me. Neither was Frank, which, I’m ashamed to say, I found a relief. We were both channelled as aircrafthands, known to everyone as erks.

2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 9, in Small Island, London: Review, page 345:

(British, slang) A member of the groundcrew in the RAF.


erm

Erm, I don't think that was supposed to happen.

– Bob would never say something like that!
– Erm, he just did.

Used to express embarrassment or subtle disagreement.


gramophone

[ˈɡɹæ.məˌfəʊn]

[ˈɡɹæ.məˌfoʊn]

From the trademark Gramophone, coined by German-American inventor Emile Berliner in 1887 after the invention of the first phonograph, from Ancient Greek γράμμα (grámma, “letter”) + φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”).


RMS

en-noun

RMS (countable and uncountable, plural RMSes)

RMSes (plural)
R.M.S. (alternative)
R. M. S. (alternative)

(UK, nautical) Initialism of Royal Mail Ship.

(UK, nautical) Initialism of Royal Mail Steamship.

Initialism of Royal Mail Ship.
Initialism of Royal Mail Steamship.


editorialisation

editorialisation (usually uncountable, plural editorialisations)

(British) Alternative spelling of editorialization.


lino

lino (usually uncountable, plural linos)

Clipping of linoleum, probably influenced by -o (“diminutive suffix”).

But there was nobody at Kig and Kadgit's except the charwoman wiping over the “lino” in the passage.

1919, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Pictures”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 163:

The third thing was the TORN lino in the kitchen, new puppy found it great fun to tear strips of lino off the floor .. first you scrabble like crazy with your claws to start a tear, and then you use teeth to tear off a lovely strip of lino to chew . We are still too scared to replace the lino as the next puppy will probably do the same .

1996 July 20, Malcolm Tippett, “Dogs ...No Way”, in aus.jokes (Usenet):

When we moved here, the people before had dogs, complete with crawling carpet and jumping lino. When we ripped up all the carpet and lino prior to moving in, we also bought half a dozen flea bombs, and bombed UNDER the house.

2002 October 30, Augie, “Frontline or Advantage for fleas?”, in aus.pets (Usenet):

I took up the lino from the kitchen and found this newspaper clipping

2010 April 25, George W Frost, “Found this old paper under the lino of a reno”, in aus.sport.aussie-rules (Usenet):

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, colloquial, informal) Clipping of linoleum.


lino

Contraction of linesman + -o (“diminutive suffix”).

Lino flagged a bit late but was right

2014 October 4, MartTheTaxi, “Twitter status”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(UK, colloquial, informal, soccer) Abbreviation of linesman.


safeguard

en-verb

safeguard (third-person singular simple present safeguards, present participle safeguarding, simple past and past participle safeguarded)

safeguards (present singular third-person)
safeguarding (participle present)
safeguarded (participle past)
safeguarded (past)

From Middle English savegard, from Middle French sauvegarde, from Old French salve garde, sauve garde, reconstructed as safe + guard.

(UK, Ireland, by extension) To implement safeguarding.


GMP

en-noun

GMP (countable and uncountable, plural GMPs)

Guaranteed Minimum Pension
w:Guaranteed Minimum Pension

(countable, UK, pensions) Initialism of Guaranteed Minimum Pension.


GMP

Greater Manchester police (GMP) say they have launched an investigation into the alleged abduction of Batty, a 17-year-old who went missing while on holiday in Spain at the age of 11.

2023 December 23, “Alex Batty says worst thing about going missing was ‘not having a proper education’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester#English

(UK) Initialism of Greater Manchester Police.


Poppy Day

From being the last day on which the commemorative poppy flower is worn.


Remembrance Sunday

(UK) The Sunday closest to Remembrance Day, which falls on the 11th of November.