come unstuck

en-verb

come unstuck (third-person singular simple present comes unstuck, present participle coming unstuck, simple past came unstuck, past participle come unstuck)

comes unstuck (present singular third-person)
coming unstuck (participle present)
came unstuck (past)
come unstuck (participle past)

“Well, if you must know,” he said, “she's broken the engagement.” This didn't get us any farther. We had assumed as much. You don't go calling people rats if love still lingers. “But it's only an hour or so,” I said, “since I left her outside a hostelry called the ‘Fox and Goose’, and she had just been giving you a rave notice. What came unstuck? What did you do to the girl?”

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

It is true that when political philosophers have tried to intervene directly in political life, they have usually come unstuck.

2003, David Miller, Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, page 9:

(idiomatic, British) To get into trouble, to have an accident or mishap, to go off the rails.


wankered

en-adj

wankered (comparative more wankered, superlative most wankered)

more wankered (comparative)
most wankered (superlative)

(British, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) Very drunk.


take it up the arse

en-verb

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

takes it up the arse (present singular third-person)
taking it up the arse (participle present)
took it up the arse (past)
taken it up the arse (participle past)

take it up the ass
take it up the ass#English

(British, Ireland) Alternative form of take it up the ass.


on the trot

We played five gigs on the trot.

But they came up against an impressive force in Bayern, who extended their run to 10 wins on the trot, having scored 28 goals in the process and conceding none.

2011 September 27, Alistair Magowan, “Bayern Munich 2 - 0 Man City”, in BBC Sport:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic, informal) Successively, in succession; one after the other.

2001, 26 July, Liverpool Echo, "Man is jailed for '80s killing"
The former South London publican admitted at the Old Bailey that he "went on the trot" on Christmas Day, 1986 following a brawl at a party […]

It seemed the two POs were happy enough with the situation; if Cain went on the trot they would be in the clear with two grand each […]

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) on the run; fleeing


cess

For the first meaning below, the writings of Edmund Spenser, published 1633, point to a borrowing from Irish cís (“tax, tribute, cess, rent”), likely from Latin census.
Other senses: Uncertain. Occurs in print at least as early as 1831, when Samuel Lover used the expression as one already long-established. He unambiguously stated the derivation of cess in the malediction bad cess to be an abbreviation of success. The OED speculated that it either was from success or from assessment meaning a military or governmental exaction. The verb is attested in Middle English (cessen).

EUDOX[US] But what is that which you call Cess? it is a Word sure unused amongst us here; therefore (I pray you) expound the same. IREN[EUS] Cess is none other than that which you yourself called Imposition, but is in a kind unacquainted perhaps unto you; for there are Cesses of sundry sorts: one is the Cessing of Soldiers upon the Countrey; [...] Another kind of Cess is, the imposing of Provisions for the Governours Housekeeping, [...]

1595-1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland as it was in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth:

The act provides for a levy of a cess on all coal and coke despatched from collieries in India, at such rate, not less than twenty-five paise and not more than fifty paise per ton, as may be fixed by the Central Government.

1967, G. R. Madan, Indian Social Problems, volume 2, →ISBN, page 225:

Therefore it was proposed to levy a cess on local authorities which are entrusted with the duty of supplying water under the law by or under which they are constituted and on certain specified industries.

2006, The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Georg Thieme Verlag, page 76:

(British, Ireland) An assessed tax, duty, or levy; billeting.

"Bad cess may attend you, where are you scampering to, you rambunctious"—but she could go no farther; the tears burst from her, and she gave way, without farther resistance, to an explosion of grief.

1852 November, O’Hara Family, “Clough Fionn; or, The Stone of Destiny”, in The Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume XL, number CCXXXIX, Dublin: James McGlashan, […]; London: W[illia]m S[omerville] Orr and Company, →OCLC, chapter XI, page 557:

Midland has had good cess with using minute commercials eight television stations, cited as one example of modernizing its advertising.

1962, News for Farmer Cooperatives, Information Office, Farm Credit Administration:

It is good cess to feel the warmth and sincerity of this couple who fill the role of the Queen's representative in Canada.

Bad cess to it, b'ys! Where's the blessed ting, at all, at all? Bad cess to it!

2004, Kevin O'Malley, Inside, →ISBN, page 37:

(British, Ireland, informal) Usually preceded by good or (more commonly) bad: luck or success.


cess

cess (third-person singular simple present cesses, present participle cessing, simple past and past participle cessed)

cesses (present singular third-person)
cessing (participle present)
cessed (participle past)
cessed (past)

...according to the quantity thereof, we may cess the said rent and allowance issuing thereout.

1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the Present State of Irelande:


Mexican wave

Popularised during the 1986 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico.

1995, Shane Cloude, An Introduction to Electromagnetic Wave Propagation & Antennas, Springer, 0-387-91501-X, pages 3–4,
This is an important idea and can best be illustrated by analogy with a Mexican wave. Although the Mexican wave seems to involve the coherent motion of a large number of people, it is clear to those who have been involved, that the “trigger” for an individual to react is entirely spatially and temporally local, i.e. the individual reacts at the appropriate time and space point simply by waiting until his or her neighbours react.

2001, John Morgan, Debrett’s New Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners: The Indispensable Handbook, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 127,
The usual signals for standing are: at the arrival of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; […]; and every time the Colour passes in front of you. The effect can sometimes be like a rather well-dressed Mexican wave.

2007, Scott Hamilton, An Analog Electronics Companion: Basic Circuit Design for Engineers and Scientists, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 94,
A Mexican wave travels around a stadium very much more rapidly than a person could.

Now Australian cricket is reeling from its quadruple loss. Joining the hat trick of players exiting the game in 2007 – once-in-a-lifetime legend Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Damien Martyn – was the Mexican wave. Cricket Australia, which instituted the ban, acknowledged that it could be construed as ‘the fun police gone wrong’ but explained that it was the only way to stop people throwing things.

2009, Justine Vaisutis, Australia, Lonely Planet, page 47:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A phenomenon that primarily occurs at sports events, where the members of the crowd stand up and/or raise their hands in turn, creating the illusion of a wave passing through the crowd.


under the counter

en-adj

under the counter (comparative more under the counter, superlative most under the counter)

more under the counter (comparative)
most under the counter (superlative)
under-the-counter (alternative)

This morning he said he could not remember exactly where or how the invoice was written. It was used to cover up an under the counter payment from the sale of his land in Lucan.

2003 September 19, “Lawlor questioned at Planning probe”, in RTE News:

(British, Ireland, colloquial) In an underhand way, sneakily; unofficially, particularly with regard to payment or tax avoidance.


Rudy

Stop your running around / Making problems in town / Rudy, a message to you, Rudy

1967, Dandy Livingstone, “A Message to You Rudy”:

They dance the West Indian Reggae because it is the only old‐fashioned dance beat around and the total opposite of Pepsi‐Rock, the Plastic Ono Band and Jethro Tull and Blood, Sweat & Tears, all of which they naturally despise; and they also have a wary respect for West Indians in general and the Rudys in particular, the Jamaican street gangs who are older and tougher then^([sic]) themselves.

1970 March 29, Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(UK slang, historical) A rude boy; a member of a Jamaican street gang in the 1960s and 70s.


voe

voes (plural)
vae (alternative)
vo (alternative)

Shetland and Orkney dialect, from Norn, from Old Norse vágr. Cognate with Swedish and Norwegian våg, and Faroese vágur. Doublet of way.

(British) A narrow sea inlet, particularly in the Shetland Islands, similar to a fjord.


spearchucker

From spear + chucker, in the offensive sense, alluding to a stereotype of Africans as primitive savages who use spears in hunting and war.

The other night, Jackson's on the radio asking if anybody in the area has seen two spearchuckers winging it off on foot with a pile of nigger clothes in their hands. Jesus Christ. Spearchuckers? Niggers? The guy's KKK material.

1983, Maurice Punch, Control in the Police Organization, MIT Press:

9:45 A man across the circle from me shouted, "Hey spearchuckers! Hey spearchuckers! Why don't you turn bright red! Oh!, They're not spearchuckers, they're Indians.

1991, 1990 Witness Report: Chippewa Spearfishing Season : Violence, Ineffective Law Enforcement, and Racism:

Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australian

(British, US, Australia, offensive, ethnic slur, slang) A black (African or African-American or an Aboriginal Australian) person.


fluid ounce

Any of various units of volume used for liquid measure, all approximately 1.73–1.83 cubic inches or 28.4–30 milliliters.

(UK) A unit of volume equal to one twentieth of an imperial pint or approximately 28.4 ml


tye

From Old English tīh (“plot of land”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīh. Cognate with Old Frisian ty (“thingstead”), Middle Low German tî, tigge, whence northern German Thie (“old thingstead, village square”).

cog

(British) A patch of common land, often a village green.


blagging

en-noun

blagging (countable and uncountable, plural blaggings)

Matt Driscoll claimed that "blagging", or impersonating a third party, was used to secure the confidential information after receiving a tip that [Alex] Ferguson might be suffering from ill health. The former journalist added: "I was told sometimes you'd get a situation where if an investigator sent a fax to a GP or a hospital saying 'I'm his specialist, I need these details' it was incredible how often that would just get sent straight back."

2012, Alan Gillies, “Threats to the Security of Your Information”, in Data Protection for Slightly Bigger Companies, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 47:

(uncountable) The use of deception, guile, or persuasion to obtain something; (countable) an instance of this; a blag.

Usual petty-theft beginnings. Graduated to the bigger stuff—jump-ups, blaggings. Eventually controlled a few similar types down east somewhere.

1980, Anthony Heal, Man in the Middle, page 64:

(uncountable, criminal slang) Robbery; (countable) an instance of this.


knobbing

A knobbing is over before you know it and no harm done to the family but the shame of a dirty photograph can follow a husband into his grave .

2013, Miles Gibson, Kingdom Swann: The Story of a Photographer, page 8:

Even when she was knobbing her fiancé's dad, she seemed to be more depressed than evil (which isn't surprising, as most of the knobbing took place in the gents' toilets in the Queen Vic).

2014, John Grindrod, Shouting at the Telly:

Mark inwardly cringed at the term, especially as their 'knobbing' hadn't been too brilliant, anyway .

2014, Will Stebbings, Further Off the Mark, page 1:

(UK, vulgar, slang) A session of penetrative sexual intercourse or the act of sexual penetration.


tronc

From French tronc des pauvres (“poor box”).

(British) A monetary pool, in which tips are collected and later shared out between all staff, e.g. in a restaurant.


copybook

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

(Quebec, UK) A notebook containing blank, often lined, pages for writing answers.


aestivoautumnal

From Latin aestīvus (“summer”) + autumnus (“autumn, fall”) + -al.

estivoautumnal (alternative)
aestivo-autumnal (alternative)

(British) Relating to or happening in summer and autumn.


LRC

Labour Representation Committee
w:Labour Representation Committee

(British) Initialism of Labour Representation Committee.


twining

twining (countable and uncountable, plural twinings)

Canon Bryan Rowe, quoted in the article. It's going to take months to put right. But you won't hear any twining [Cumbrian dialect for moaning]. Nobody is going: 'Woe is us'. Everybody is just trying to help somebody else.

2009 November 23, agency., “Cockermouth starts journey back from flood devastation”, in The Guardian:

(British, uncountable, regional, Cumbria) complaining or grumbling


tiffin

tiffin (countable and uncountable, plural tiffins)

Chinese Pidgin English: tiffin

→ Macanese: tifim, tifinâ

Apparently from English tiffing, present participle of tiff (“to take a small drink, to sip”) (slang).

[…] I bought a pine-apple at the same time, which I gave to Sambo. Let's have it for tiffin; very cool and nice this hot weather.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Green Silk Purse”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 31:

That garden belongs to Manockjee Metta; that day many of us met and had tiffin and supper. At tiffin there were ten of us.

1845, A Detailed Report of the Proceedings on the Trial of the Eighteen Parsee Prisoners for Murder, before the Supreme Court, Bombay, on Wednesday, July 17, 1844. Also, an Appendix, Containing the Examinations, Depositions, and Confessions of the Prisoners after Trial. With a Petition to the Queen in Council, from the Native and European Inhabitants, on Behalf of the Prisoners, London: Samuel Clarke, 13 Pall Mall East, →OCLC, page 42:

"Bring sahib coffee at six in the morning; breakfast at nine; tiffin at one." / "What's that last one, Moro?" / "We had tiffin at Suez, and it means luncheon," interposed Morris. / "I didn't hear the word; but it is all right, and tiffin it is after this time. Come; are you going down-stairs, fellows?"

1895, Oliver Optic [pseudonym; William Taylor Adams], Across India, or, Live Boys in the Far East (All-over-the-World Library; 3rd ser.), Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard, Publishers, 10 Milk Street, →OCLC:

Had tiffin at 11.30 a.m. 1½ rations of rice with fried fish. Added frying oil and soup powder. Excellent, both in quantity and quality, but stomach is a bit troublesome. Can't wonder at it really!

2004, Harry Berry, My Darling Wife, or, How I Passed the Time of Day Between 18th April 1940 and 5th November 1945: Being the Unexpurgated Letters, Diaries and Other Scribblings of an Ordinary Soldier, Hertford: Authors OnLine Ltd., →ISBN, page 288:

Tiffin is an old colonial term. Often thought of as a snack taken with afternoon tea, tiffin is actually a light lunch eaten at midday. Indian colonial writings make numerous references to tiffin. […] Tiffin was not always the lightest of meals. In a 1904 account, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, an American travel writer and photographer, described the overindulgent culinary order of the day in colonial Calcutta: "The solid two-o'clock tiffin, following the heavy ten-o'clock breakfast, is so soon succeeded by the four-o'clock tea and the eight-o'clock dinner, that it is a surprise that any one survives the constant feasting which fills Anglo-Indian life."

2008, Sarah Murray, Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat, New York, N.Y.: Picador, →ISBN, pages 88–89:

Tiffin work started with Raghunath Medge's father, who worked first of all at Bombay Churchgate station. When the British Raj was in power, then there was work at Churchgate. The people who worked at Girni had tiffin delivered to them. […] People went out early in the morning and tiffin was delivered later.

2013, Sara Roncaglia, Feeding the City: Work and Food Culture of the Mumbai Dabbawalas, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, →DOI, →ISBN, page 22:

(British, India) A (light) midday meal or snack; luncheon.

"Young memsahib, an empty tiffin box costs ten rupees in the market. With the food, it's worth maybe fifteen rupees. Do you think I could retire after I steal it?" the man said. “I'm getting late. Do you want your husband to get his lunch or not? That last one's for him, isn't it?" He jerked his chin at the tiffin Anahita was still hugging.

2011, Mahtab Narsimhan, The Tiffin, Toronto, Ont.: Dancing Cat Books, →ISBN:

(British, India) A box or container used to carry a tiffin.


tiffin

en-verb

tiffin (third-person singular simple present tiffins, present participle tiffining, simple past and past participle tiffined)

tiffins (present singular third-person)
tiffining (participle present)
tiffined (participle past)
tiffined (past)

Do you know that he tiffins with her three times a week, and every night, after leaving here, he finishes the evening in her society, sitting in the veranda and smoking cigarettes till all hours.

1884, B[ithia] M[ary] Croker, Pretty Miss Neville. A Novel. (Harper's Franklin Square Library; no. 363), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Bros., →OCLC, page 328:

Pack had been tiffining by himself to the right of the arch, and had heard everything.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Bisara of Pooree”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co., →OCLC, page 223:

Slept, tiffined, and read in heat of the day. At 4 p.m. hunted again, and finished the evening with a jolly good dinner.

1899, Henry Keppel, A Sailor's Life under Four Sovereigns, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co.; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Co., →OCLC, page 336:

And so I lay at Arashiyama which is near Kyoto, in a yellow straw tea-house overlooking the beautiful river of which I have written, my mouth full of fried mountain trout and my soul soaking in a great calm. […] The lady of the tea-house insisted upon screening us off from the other pleasure-parties who were tiffining in the same verandah, and we were left alone with the trout.

1988, Rudyard Kipling, “1889: Letter Six”, in Hugh Cortazzi, George Webb, editors, Kipling's Japan: Collected Writings, London, Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: The Athlone Press, →ISBN, page 98:

From the diary it would appear that the main activities were shooting, walking, and alternating meals on each other's boat. "We dined with them. They tiffined with us." "Tiffined with them. They dined with us."

2011, Elizabeth Clinch, Nicholas Clinch, Through a Land of Extremes: The Littledales of Central Asia (Legends and Lore Series), Seattle, Wash.: The Mountaineers Books, →ISBN, page 73:

(British, India, intransitive) To eat a (light) midday meal or snack.


stockist

I need a replacement cartridge but I can't find a stockist.

But of all the tunes, the one she loved the most, and almost managed to capture in its entirety, was a song she had seen performed live back in the late 1970s, when she had first travelled to Britain with the hope of finding stockists for her clothing.

2016, Laurence Fearnley, The Quiet Spectacular, →ISBN, page 263:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A retailer or distributor who has stocks of a certain type of item for sale.


Samaritans

(UK) A telephone helpline providing support to those at risk of suicide.


hybrid vigour

UK, Australia, and Canada spelling of hybrid vigor.


overbridge

No major platform improvements have been possible in the past because the piers of an overbridge at the north end of the station prevented respacing of the tracks.

1951 May, “Track Layout at Euston”, in Railway Magazine, page 290:

On the subject of permanent structures, the NYMR has Grosmont Tunnel (lined throughout), but only five overbridges, three of the last-named being the County Councils's ^([sic]) reponsibility for repair.

1979 August, Michael Harris, “A line for all reasons: the North Yorkshire Moors Railway”, in Railway World, page 412:

(British) A bridge that allows traffic to pass over a road, river, railway etc.


underbridge

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

As to underbridges, the policy is to wait until the small underline bridges become due for renewal when they will be replaced by prestressed concrete structures.

Additionally, NR has been given permission to alter highway rights at the underbridge at Littleport station.

2020 December 2, “Network News: Green light for NR to close crossings”, in Rail, page 23:

(British) A bridge that allows traffic to pass under a road, river, railway etc.


guv'nor

“Now we have to get out of here before the fuzz start sniffing around. Fingers, get the Rolls resprayed and change the number plates in case they trace it.”
“Yes, guv’nor.”

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

(UK, Ireland) An informal form of address to a man; see guv. This version is especially likely to be applied to the owner of a business or the landlord of a public house.


safeguarding

en-noun

safeguarding (countable and uncountable, plural safeguardings)

We cannot have a culture that sees safeguarding as a separate add-on. It needs to be part of our DNA, as an expression of our love for one another and our commitment to the Gospel.

2022 October 10, Past Cases Review 2, National Safeguarding Steering Group of the Church of England, archived from the original on 2024-06-11, page 4:

(UK, Ireland, formal) Policies and actions for the protection of children and vulnerable adults.


like death warmed up

like death warmed over
like death warmed over#English

(British, Ireland, Australia) Alternative form of like death warmed over.


at the end of one's tether

He proposed to call witnesses to show how the prisoner, a profligate and spendthrift, had been at the end of his financial tether, and had also been carrying on an intrigue with a certain Mrs. Raikes, a neighbouring farmer’s wife.

1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 152:

(UK, idiomatic) At the limit of one’s patience; frustrated or annoyed.

jemandem reißt der Geduldsfaden (gleich)


remould

en-verb

remould (third-person singular simple present remoulds, present participle remoulding, simple past and past participle remoulded)

remoulds (present singular third-person)
remoulding (participle present)
remoulded (participle past)
remoulded (past)
remold (alternative)

He could not change that which has remoulded itself to resist change.

2019, Chigozie Obioma, An Orchestra of Minorities, Abacus (2019), page 505:


remanet

(British, law, Parliament) A bill that has been postponed or deferred to another session.


byname

From by- + name. Cognate with Dutch bijnaam (“nickname”), German Beiname (“nickname, epithet”), Swedish binamn, Danish binavn and Norwegian Bokmål binavn.

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A pseudonym; nom-de-plume.


racing car

racing cars (plural)
racing-car (alternative)

[A] grey racing car drew up with a grinding of brakes and a sputter of gravel in front of the main entrance of Belpher Castle.

1919, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 6, in A Damsel in Distress:

Like some fine-tuned racing car, it kicks up a lot of its own dust.

1987 September 14, Jay Cocks, “Music: The Badder They Come”, in Time:

(UK, automotive, motor racing) A race car.


barken

barken (third-person singular simple present barkens, present participle barkening, simple past and past participle barkened)

barkens (present singular third-person)
barkening (participle present)
barkened (participle past)
barkened (past)

The poor patient knew at once his master's tongue, and lifting up one of his eyes, the other being stiff and barkened down, said in a melancholy voice, "Ah, master, do you think I'll get better?"

1828, David Macbeth Moir, The Life of Mansie Wauch:

"The best way's to let the blood barken upon the cut — that saves plasters, hinney."

1908, Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, or, The astrologer:

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To become hard or form a crust, like bark.

"And it wad far better become ye, Mr. Saddletree," continued his helpmate, "since ye say ye hae skeel o' the law, to try if ye can do onything for Effie Deans, puir thing, that's lying up in the tolbooth yonder, cauld, and hungry, and comfortless--A servant lass of ours, Mr. Butler, and as innocent a lass, to my thinking, and as usefu' in the shop--When Mr. Saddletree gangs out,--and ye're aware he's seldom at hame when there's ony o' the plea-houses open,--poor Effie used to help me to tumble the bundles o' barkened leather up and down, and range out the gudes, and suit a' body's humours--And troth, she could aye please the customers wi' her answers, for she was aye civil, and a bonnier lass wasna in Auld Reekie.

1818, Sir Walter Scott, The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Vol. 1., Illustrated:

(transitive, UK dialectal) To tan or dye with bark.


piss proud

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

From piss (“urine”) + proud. Appears in Francis Grose’s A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796):
: “PISS-PROUD. Having a false erection. That old fellow thought he had an erection, but his — was only piss-proud; said of any old fellow who marries a young wife”.

I fucked culture for being unnatural (it was nothing but the city's piss-proud erection).

1988, George O'Brien, Dancehall Days, page 150:

(British, vulgar) Having an erection when waking from sleep or, more generally or metaphorically, a false or "empty" erection.

And my guess is that his piss-proud father told him...

2000, Sandra Gulland, The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B, page 30:

Full of the strong beer brewed at the camp, the men boasted, piss proud of their sexual exploits.

2003, Maureen Jennings, Let Loose the Dogs, page 291:

(British, vulgar, by extension) Falsely proud, implying an outward display of success or virility belies a dubious reality.

(British, derogatory, dated) Denoting an old man who marries a young woman, implying the only erection he could muster would be prompted by the bladder.


tumbleweed moment

en-noun

tumbleweed moment (plural tumbleweed moments)

From the motif in western movies where the wind blows tumbleweeds through the scene, usually to establish that the place is desolate or empty.

…real life television news quizzes have the benefit of careful editing to remove the tumbleweed moments.

2004 July 14, Laura Davis, “Arts Diary: STAGE QUIZ”, in Daily Post, Liverpool, England:

When you’re wondering if they might just sit there self-consciously not saying anything (a tumbleweed moment) you need to get away from the centre-front, start moving around.

2005 April 1, Trevor Wright, How to Be a Brilliant English Teacher, Routledge, →ISBN, page 78:

Peter Gibson, of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “in a world of daft pranks, we want littering to be that tumbleweed moment, the joke that falls flat on its face.”

2005 December 19, Robert Stansfield, “Gimp ad to shame litter louts”, in The Mirror, London, England:

(British, figuratively, broadcasting) A period of stony, unresponsive silence.


out on the tiles

"I've had a pint of bitter and now I'm feeling better and I'm out on the tiles." - Led Zeppelin, Out on the Tiles (1970).

(idiomatic, British) Out for a night on the town.


black bag

The road was full of black bags awaiting the arrival of the dustbin men.

(UK, Ireland) A black plastic sack produced for the disposal of household waste.


give a toss

en-verb

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

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

“Tiles ... tiles ... splashback,” he burbled, trying to make himself heard over the crunching of diazepam tablets. Boris shrugged, not bothering to talk in meaningful sentences or even attempting to conceal the fact that he didn’t really give a toss.

2019 November 18, John Crace, “Boris Johnson gets down to the business of getting business down”, in The Guardian:

(British, Ireland, Australia, slang, chiefly in the negative) To care.


bird in the bosom

(idiomatic, UK, dated) A secret pledge that one makes for another.


certiorari

/ˌsɝʃəˈɹɛəɹaɪ/

/ˌsɝʃəˈɹɛəɹi/

/ˌsɝʃəˈɹɑɹi/

/ˌsɜːʃəˈɹɛəɹaɪ/

/ˌsɜːʃəˈɹɛəɹi/

/ˌsɜːʃəˈɹɑːɹi/

From the present passive infinitive of Latin certiōrō (“to make certain”), from the words used at the beginning of these writs when they were written in Latin: certiorārī volumus (“[we] wish to be made certain”).

(British, law) A grant of review of a government action by a court with discretion to make such a review.


stive

stive (third-person singular simple present stives, present participle stiving, simple past and past participle stived)

stives (present singular third-person)
stiving (participle present)
stived (participle past)
stived (past)

1796, Amelia Simmons, American Cookery, 1996 Bicentennial Facsimile Edition, page 64,
Let your cucumbers be ſmall, freſh gathered, and free from ſpots; then make a pickle of ſalt and water, ſtrong enough to bear an egg; boil the pickle and ſkim it well, and then pour it upon your cucumbers, and ſtive them down for twenty four hours; […] .

(UK, dialect, transitive, intransitive) To stew; to be stifled or suffocated.


decigramme

(British) Alternative spelling of decigram.


jacksy

jacksies (plural)
jacksie (alternative)
jaxie (alternative)
jaxy (alternative)


taxi rank

Although she detested her client, the taxi rank system meant she had no choice but to take the case.

(British) The system whereby barristers must accept a brief if they are the first available when one comes up.


corner shop

After six such encounters in tiny corner shops which normally complained that they were out of sugar, that the cornflakes were late in again and that they couldn't get tomato sauce for love nor money, the Captain, his head reeling, had staggered into the High Street off-licence.

1992, Robert Rankin, The Antipope, page 123:

(UK) A small retail store, often in a residential area, that carries a limited selection of everyday items and is open long hours for the convenience of shoppers.


school run

The roads are crammed with parents on the school run.

Would you mind doing the school run for James this morning?

A billion trips are made on the school run every year and, between us, parents produce two million extra tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, a cause of global warming.

2006 April 30, Cole Moreton, “The school run”, in The Independent:

(chiefly British) A period of increased traffic where parents or carers take or collect children to and from school by car; a journey for this purpose during this period.


sprayed

en-adj

sprayed (comparative more sprayed, superlative most sprayed)

more sprayed (comparative)
most sprayed (superlative)
spraid (alternative)

(UK, dialect, obsolete) chapped with cold


cheap and cheerful

cheap and cheerful (comparative more cheap and cheerful, superlative most cheap and cheerful)

more cheap and cheerful (comparative)
most cheap and cheerful (superlative)

There's a cheap and cheerful coffee shop on the next street which sells quite a good selection of sandwiches.

(UK) Not of bad quality, or otherwise enjoyable, despite being cheap.


industrial action

en-noun

industrial action (countable and uncountable, plural industrial actions)

Furthermore, overdue training of crew on the new Class 385 electrics, compounded by industrial action, meant that announcements of train cancellations "due to a member of the train crew being unavailable" became very familiar to passengers across east central Scotland.

2019 November 6, Robert Drysdale, “Wires offer boost to Borders revival”, in Rail, page 42:

The federation, set up in 1919 after police were banned from taking industrial action when strikes led to riots and looting, is a statutory body that provides legal support to its officers, as well as fighting their corner like a union would over pay, conditions and welfare.

2025 April 5, John Simpson, “Police Federation under fire for backing ‘unsackable’ rogue cops”, in The Observer:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, labour) A workplace protest by employees designed to inconvenience or disrupt the business of the employer.


wifie

Dialectal diminutive of wife (“woman”), equivalent to wife + -ie.

(UK, informal, endearing) A woman, who is a best friend of another woman.


rotter

Calvin could be anywhere in this zoo. I hope he at least has the sense to stay put, wherever he is. Where would the little rotter go if he was lost and separated from his stuffed toy?

1988 July 26, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic):

Some Johnny with brains produces a hypothesis. Everybody calls him a rotter at first. But he remains calm in the face of opprobrium.

1908 August, George A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter VII, in Spanish Gold, 2nd edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], published September 1908, →OCLC, page 76:

(UK, Australia, slang) A despicable, worthless person; a scoundrel.


beer and skittles

Found as early as 1837, in Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, where it appears in the form, “It’s a reg’lar holiday to them—all porter and skittles”. The most common form, as a negative admonition, appears to have been popularized by Thomas Hughes in Tom Brown's School Days (1857, see quotation below).

Well, well, we must bide our time. Life isn't all beer and skittles—but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman's education.

1857, Thomas Hughes, chapter 2, in Tom Brown's School Days:

Being a soldier's wife isn't all beer and skittles.

1911, Anthony Hope, chapter 22, in Mrs. Maxon Protests, page 259:

His plight reveals a truth that's often obscured by the envy of newspaper readers; that it's not all beer and skittles in restaurant-critic land.

2012 March 24, John Walsh, “The perils of reviewing restaurants”, in The Independent:

Such highly intensive deployment left little wriggle room, something with which Dunster is all too familiar. "It hasn't all been beer and skittles," he says dryly.

2022 October 5, Nick Brodrick, “Pendolinos: a huge role to play”, in RAIL, number 967, page 41:

(chiefly UK, idiomatic) Fun times; pleasure and leisure.


meself

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

‘True, I haven’t introduced meself.’

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

(slang or dialectal, UK, Ireland, Australia) Alternative form of myself.


resection

en-verb

resection (third-person singular simple present resections, present participle resectioning, simple past and past participle resectioned)

resections (present singular third-person)
resectioning (participle present)
resectioned (participle past)
resectioned (past)

According to Dyson LJ, mental health professionals will be acting unlawfully in resectioning a patient following discharge by a tribunal if 'the sole or principal ground on which they rely is one which in substance has been rejected by the tribunal.'

2002, Legal Action: The Bulletin of the Legal Action Group, page 12:

After just three weeks at home, with yet more 'abuse in the community' I am resectioned, and Helen re-admitted the same night.

2009, Simon Richard Lee, The Fourth Helen of the Apocalypse!, →ISBN, page 28:

He argued that the only way that his client could be retained in the hospital was if she was resectioned altogether. To be assessed for a new section she had to show fresh evidence of mental disorder and risk to others.

2013, Rod Madocks, Ship of Fools, →ISBN:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) To readmit involuntarily into a mental hospital.


kenspeckle

en-adj

kenspeckle (comparative more kenspeckle, superlative most kenspeckle)

more kenspeckle (comparative)
most kenspeckle (superlative)

'It [the gold coin] is sae bonny and sae kenspeckle,' said she, 'that I think I'll keep it for the sake of the giver.'

(Scotland, northern British) Easily recognized, distinctive, conspicuous.


mithridatisation

From mithridatise + -ation, in reference to Mithridates VI of Pontus.

(UK, rare) Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of mithridatization.


come-all-you

come-all-yous (plural)
come-all-ye (alternative)

From the common occurrence in such songs of an exhortation beginning "come all you".

He slapped his thighs and whooped and catcalled, encouraging anyone who knew it to join in the ‘traditional come-all-you’!

2006, Patrick McCabe, Winterwood, Bloomsbury, published 2007, page 3:

(dialectal, British, Ireland) A traditional folk or country song.


in the reign of Queen Dick

Since Dick is a man's name, it would never be borne by a queen.


mackle

en-verb

mackle (third-person singular simple present mackles, present participle mackling, simple past and past participle mackled)

mackles (present singular third-person)
mackling (participle present)
mackled (participle past)
mackled (past)

It's dry and warm and if Jacob and I were to put our heads together I'm sure we could find something in the tack-room, some harness, or a nose band or two that could be mackled together to make a carrying contraption.

1998, Audrey Howard, When Morning Comes:

(UK, dialect, transitive) To assemble in a makeshift manner; to cobble together.


miss out

miss out (third-person singular simple present misses out, present participle missing out, simple past and past participle missed out)

misses out (present singular third-person)
missing out (participle present)
missed out (participle past)
missed out (past)

People often miss out the "l" in "vulnerable".

He made a list of children in the class but missed out Sally.

DOCTOR (as the TARDIS is showing pictures of his previous companions): Miss out the metal dog, why don't you?

2010 November 8, Meanwhile, in the TARDIS... (mini-episodes included in the fifth season of Doctor Who)

"That's because we recognise these towns do have a significant population who need to travel, and they've been kind of missed out."

2024 December 11, David Stubbings, “Network News: Go-op targets 2026 start for open access to Taunton”, in RAIL, number 1024, page 13:

(chiefly British, transitive) To leave out, to omit.


TCR

en-noun

TCR (countable and uncountable, plural TCRs)

(UK, utilities) Abbreviation of tariff comparison rate.


wits' end

wits' ends (plural)
wit's end (alternative)

The Seamen they
Bestir their stumps, and at wits end do weep.
Wake, Jonas, who saith
Heave me over deck.

1699, Edward Taylor, The Poems of Edward Taylor, published 1989, page 136:

He was so eloquent in drawing the picture of his own neglected merits, and so pathetic in lamenting over it when it was done, that I felt quite at my wits' end how to console him, when it suddenly occurred to me that here was a case for the wholesome application of a bit of Robinson Crusoe.

1868 January 4 – June 6, [William] Wilkie Collins, “First Period. The Loss of the Diamond (1848). […]”, in The Moonstone. A Romance. […], volume II, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1868, →OCLC, chapter XXII, page 29:

The frightened women were at their wits' end.

1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XVIII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1906 February 26, →OCLC:

Our dozen cabin passengers sorely put to wits' end to pass yesterday without cards in observance of the Sabbath.

c. 1911, John Muir, in John Muir and Michael P. Branch, John Muir's Last Journey: South to the Amazon and East to Africa (2002 edition), page 138

Yet years of talks, threats and sanctions have failed to halt the program, and officials are at their wits' end on how to wean Iran off its nuclear habit.

2010 December 10, Leo Cendrowicz, “Talks on Iran's Nuclear Program Produce ... More Talks”, in Time:

(chiefly British) The limit of one's sanity or mental capacity; the point of desperation.


soakaway

These trenches, you know, are much deeper than one's height; you don't see anything. It's like walking along a mud-walled passage. Every now and then some one stumbles into a soakaway for rainwater.

1916, H. G. Wells, chapter 9, in Mr. Britling Sees It Through:

(chiefly UK) A deep hole used for drainage, where rainwater and other wastewater drains directly into the ground, without connection to any mains drainage or sewerage pipes.


gunner

Cebuano: gunner

gonna (non-rhotic, based on the /ˈɡʌn.ə/ pronunciation)

From Middle English gonner; equivalent to gun + -er.

(UK, slang, soccer) A fan of the Arsenal Football Club.

Pagellus bogaraveo
Pagellus bogaraveo#Translingual

(UK, Ireland, dialect) The sea bream, especially Pagellus bogaraveo (blackspot sea bream)


jerry

We used chamber-pots a good deal – ‘jerries’ – cause of much hilarity doe to the hostilities.

1976, Angela Carter, “The Mother Lode”, in Shaking a Leg, Vintage, published 2013, page 3:


jerry

1883 November 17, Tit-Bits
Watch stealing, or jerry getting, as the thieving fraternity designate the operation, is carried on to a considerable extent all the year round.

R. Austin Freeman, A Savant's Vendetta
'Do you know a jerry when you sees one — a red 'un, mind you?' […] The fellow looked furtively at the door and then, diving into an inner pocket, pulled out a handsome gold watch with a massive chain attached, exhibited it for a moment and then dropped it back.

(UK, thieves' cant, obsolete) A watch (timepiece).


fizzog

Thus psychologically broken, they're offered a lifeline: Nicky and Co. offer to shave a decade off their fizzogs courtesy of a haircut, a makeover and a faceload of plastic surgery.

2005 February 26, Charlie Brooker, The Guardian:

(UK, slang, dated) Alternative form of phizog (“the face”).


French knickers

For this reason, any woman would much, much rather receive a pair of silk French knickers trimmed with antique lace that require handwashing in Evian water and which she will never actually wear than the three-pack of tummy-control pants from M&S that she desperately needs.

2004 December 3, Jess Cartner-Morley, “Present perfect”, in The Guardian:

(UK) A type of full-fitting women's underwear and/or sleepwear.


levered firm

(UK, business, finance) A company that funds its operations by taking out loans.


Bazza

From Barry (or any personal name starting Ba-) + -zza.

“Barry, you've been on the Coast too long. Tomorrow morning I'm going to organize a job for you elsewhere. I'd start packing if I were you.”
However, Bazza wasn't put off that easily.

(British, Ireland, Australia) A diminutive of the male given name Barry.

‘I′m standing at me own door, Bazza. Nothing illegal in that, is there?’
‘Do you want a lift, Basil?’ I asked him.

2001, Kerryn Higgs, All That False Instruction, page 181:

(British, Ireland, Australia) A diminutive of the male given name Basil.


falk

falks (plural)
falc (alternative)
faik (alternative)


fent

From Old French fente, from Latin findēre (“to cleave”).

(UK, dialect) A remnant; an odd piece left over.


-metre

(nonstandard, British) Alternative form of -meter (suffix used to form the names of measuring devices).


mamaw

mamaws (plural)
mammaw (alternative)
mawmaw (alternative)

Probably an affectionate alteration of mama or reduplication of mother.

(UK, dialect, Scottish lowlands) One's mother.


dawk

en-verb

dawk (third-person singular simple present dawks, present participle dawking, simple past and past participle dawked)

dawks (present singular third-person)
dawking (participle present)
dawked (participle past)
dawked (past)

Ultimately from Old English dalc (“pin”). More at dalk.

(transitive, UK dialectal) To drive a sharp instrument into; incise with a jerk; puncture.

(transitive, UK dialectal) To dig up weeds.


windhover

From wind + hover, due to the bird’s habit of hovering by beating the wind with its wings; compare the earlier word windfucker.

Falco tinnunculus
Falco tinnunculus#Translingual

(British) The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus).


rule OK

rule OK (third-person singular simple present rules OK, present participle ruling OK, simple past and past participle ruled OK)

rules OK (present singular third-person)
ruling OK (participle present)
ruled OK (participle past)
ruled OK (past)

Yet nationalism rules OK across most public management.

2006 May 31, David Walker, “Beware leadership by syringe.”, in The Guardian:

(idiomatic, British, informal) To be popularly accepted, or supported by the general majority of people.


degen

degens (plural)
degan (alternative)
dagen (alternative)

"Crash the cull—down with him—down with him before he dubs the jigger. Tip him the degen, Fib, fake him through and through; if he pikes we shall all be scragged."

1828, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter XXVIII, in Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman, volume 1, New York: J. & J. Harper, page 228:


patchery

patcheries (plural)
parcherry (alternative)
patcheree (alternative)
patcherry (alternative)

(UK, India, military, historical) Living quarters for married soldiers.


haul someone over the coals

haul someone over the coals (third-person singular simple present hauls someone over the coals, present participle hauling someone over the coals, simple past and past participle hauled someone over the coals)

hauls someone over the coals (present singular third-person)
hauling someone over the coals (participle present)
hauled someone over the coals (participle past)
hauled someone over the coals (past)

In reference to a punishment once meted out to heretics.

The teacher hauled him over the coals for not doing his homework.

in no uncertain terms
in no uncertain terms

(chiefly UK, idiomatic) To express anger with someone in no uncertain terms when they do something wrong.


grace and favour

In 1986 a fire began in a grace-and-favour apartment above the King's Apartments in the south Wren wing.

2005, Nigel R. Jones, Architecture of England, Scotland, and Wales, page 127:

In the days before she formally stepped down, Truss held farewell parties for her supporters at the prime ministerial grace-and-favour mansion of Chequers.

2023 September 1, Aubrey Allegretti, “‘She’s totally lost it’: inside story of the unravelling of Liz Truss’s premiership”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(British, as a modifier to a form of accommodation) Owned by the sovereign or government and granted free of rent to a person as an expression of gratitude or obligation.


divi

(British, informal, dated) The dividend paid out by the Co-op


candidature

en-noun

candidature (countable and uncountable, plural candidatures)

/ˈkændɪdət͡ʃʊɚ/

/ˈkændɪdət͡ʃɚ/

From French candidature, equivalent to candidate + -ure.

(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) The condition of becoming a candidate; candidateship.


Nissen hut

Named after Canadian engineer Peter Norman Nissen (1871–1930).

named-after

A group of six men could erect a Nissen hut in just four hours. Its design could be easily modified for a range of uses such as hospitals, kitchens, drying rooms and bathhouses.

2015, James Campbell et al., editors, Studies in Construction History, →ISBN, page 244:

A row of original, large and life-expired MoD 'wriggly tin' Nissen huts close to the Rail Live entrance haven't simply been reskinned, they have been replaced with new, modern equivalents to the original design.

2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “The Rail Live story...”, in RAIL, number 984, page 36:

(UK, Ireland) A prefabricated building, formerly used by the military, having a semicircular roof of corrugated iron.


get on someone's wick

en-verb

get on someone's wick (third-person singular simple present gets on someone's wick, present participle getting on someone's wick, simple past and past participle got on someone's wick)

gets on someone's wick (present singular third-person)
getting on someone's wick (participle present)
got on someone's wick (participle past)
got on someone's wick (past)

Tony Thorne's Dictionary of Contemporary Slang states that wick is a shortening for Hampton Wick as rhyming slang for prick, i.e. penis.

His silly questions are really getting on my wick.

(UK, colloquial) To annoy or upset someone, especially by repeated disagreeable actions.


an Englishman's home is his castle

a man's home is his castle
a man's home is his castle#English

(British) Synonym of a man's home is his castle.


jolly well

You jolly well deserved it.

We never had a Christmas in the country before. It was simply ripping. And […] we had games and charades, and hide-and-seek, and Devil in the Dark, which is a game girls pretend to like, and very few do really, and crackers and a Christmas-tree for the village children, and everything you can jolly well think of.

1904, Edith Nesbit, The New Treasure Seekers, Chapter 1:

"Oh, I shall pull it off. I shall jolly well have to succeed," said Michael light-heartedly; feeling unusually confident.

1920, Eric Leadbitter, Rain Before Seven, page 122:

Adrian thought it worth while trying out his new slang. […] ‘That’s beastly talk, Thompson. Jolly well take it back or expect a good scragging.’

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section III, page 26:

For most main lines, that's one or two extra trains every hour. "We jolly well ought to be able to encompass that on a lot of lines," he suggests.

2022 April 6, Philip Haigh, “Passenger numbers increase... and freight must follow”, in RAIL, number 954, page 51:

(UK, dated, emphatic, sometimes humorous) Certainly, very well.


a bit

That hat seems a bit small for him.

It rained a bit last night.


a bit

Q: How much trouble did you stir up last night? A: Just a bit.

(especially UK, meiosis) A large amount.


rivage

en-noun

rivage (countable and uncountable, plural rivages)

From Anglo-Norman rivage, Middle French rivage, from Late Latin rīpāticum.

(law, UK, historical) A duty paid to the crown for the passage of vessels on certain rivers.


barley water

barley water (countable and uncountable, plural barley waters)

barley waters (plural)
barley-water (alternative)

Large quantities of barley water were consumed constantly, but in the old days, a special boy was kept to run out for beer.

1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 14:

(British) A soft drink made by boiling pearl barley with water, and adding flavouring and sugar.

χυλός

a drink made by boiling pearl barley with water


plea of the crown

plea of the crown (plural pleas of the crown)

(British law) A legal action against a criminal.


shop-walker

shop-walkers (plural)
shopwalker (alternative)

Small trades-folk, male and female shop-walkers, better class artisans, lower middle-class women worn with household cares, occasional young folk in search of a sensation—these were the impressions which the audience conveyed to the trained observation of Malone.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Describes an Evening in Strange Company”, in The Land of Mist, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published 1926, →OCLC, page 25:

The shop-walkers behaved curiously, too. As the little group passed they bowed to Maia as though she were a Queen.

1934, P[amela] L[yndon] Travers, “Christmas Shopping”, in Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins; 1), London: Gerald Howe Ltd […], →OCLC, page 185:

(British) A retail store floor supervisor.


gizzing

From Arabic غَزَلَ (ḡazala, “to display amorous behavior, to court”).

der

Nay then; but you're a gizzing at me, maister.

1875, The Gentleman's Magazine, page 253:

She sang the flirtiest song, something about “But I knew dear, somebody else was gizzing you”.

2004, Patricia Page, Across the Magic Line: Growing Up in Fiji, page 197:

(dialect, UK, archaic, ambitransitive) To grin and laugh at someone.


ironmongery

en-noun

ironmongery (countable and uncountable, plural ironmongeries)

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

"He came in. He had a gun. He was crazy. You can see he was crazy; look what he did to Ricky. He thought Ricky was me. He wanted to steal my adjustables. Look."
Sonny smiled and tilted the steel case so Henry could look at the jumble of rusty ironmongery inside.

(dated, UK, Ireland, uncountable) Tools and other hardware that can be bought in an ironmonger's shop.

(UK, Ireland, uncountable) The trade of an ironmonger.

(UK, Ireland, countable) An ironmonger's shop.


ghost train

(UK) A rail service which does not appear in the public timetables.

(UK) A supernatural manifestation of a railway locomotive or passenger cars.


serialisation

serialisation (countable and uncountable, plural serialisations)

(British) Alternative spelling of serialization.


do exactly what it says on the tin

en-verb

do<does,,did,done> exactly what it says<says,said,said> on the tin

do exactly what it says on the tin (third-person singular simple present does exactly what it says on the tin, present participle doing exactly what it said on the tin, simple past did exactly what it said on the tin, past participle done exactly what it said on the tin)

does exactly what it says on the tin (present singular third-person)
doing exactly what it said on the tin (participle present)
did exactly what it said on the tin (past)
done exactly what it said on the tin (participle past)

Based on the slogan from a series of UK television commercials for Ronseal (sealant products), beginning in the 1990s.

[The Erotic Art Museum] does exactly what it says on the tin: presents erotic art […]

2004, Andrea Schulte-Peevers, Germany, Lonely Planet,, →ISBN, page 689:

“That update is doing exactly what it says on the tin,” Jack started, demonstrating the date of birth restriction. It only returned the day and month now, holding back the year, causing some of Jack's regression tests to fail.

2013, Stephen J. Sweeney, Firmware, volume 1:

"Until we get a train that performs to specification, it's difficult to put a timeline on it. The train does not do what it says on the tin.

2022 January 26, Paul Clifton, “Network News: ... and Arterio woes could mean more cascades”, in RAIL, number 949, page 10:

The solutions to this crisis are clear. We must keep fossil fuels in the ground and deliver a clean, green and affordable energy system. We need publicly owned utilities to do what they say on the tin, rather than simply siphon off obscene profits to shareholders.

2022 August 12, Caroline Lucas, “As drought blights the UK, our politicians have their heads buried in the sand”, in The Guardian:

(idiomatic, British, Ireland) To do what is described or what one would expect, with no further explanation needed.


toe rag

“ […] Look what it's all driven me to!—a beggar, a tramp, a toe-rag commercial. […] ”

1896, Walter Frith, In Search of Quiet: A Country Journal, May–July (novel), Harper & Brothers Publishers, page 156

Bamforth: Flipping toe-rag! He wants carving up. It’s time that nit got sorted out. […]

1959, Willis Hall, The Long and the Short and the Tall, Heinemann, published 1994, 978-0-435-23302-0, page 5:

Where I come from, the word ‘reptile’ is a term of endearment, used in much the same way as ‘toe rag’ or ‘moosh’.

2001, Eric Clapton, liner notes to Reptile”, quoted in William Ruhlmann, “Reptile / Mar. 13, 2001 / Reprise”, Vladimir Bogdanov et al., All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues, Third Edition, Hal Leonard Corporation, page 116

(British, slang, derogatory) Alternative form of toerag (“tramp”).


napoo

napoo (third-person singular simple present napoos, present participle napooing, simple past and past participle napooed)

napoos (present singular third-person)
napooing (participle present)
napooed (participle past)
napooed (past)

World War I British and ANZAC army slang, probably a corruption of French “il n′y a plus” (“there is no more”).

He will napoo the rations.

“The general says that if you are wise you will leave before the cannons come. Otherwise you′ll get ‘napooed,’ ” and he made an expressive gesture. “Compris?”

1918, Roland Pertwee, The Little Landscape: Everybody′s Magazine, volume 38, page 35:

I thought a man was lucky if he did not get napooed first trip in.

1918, Hereward Carrington, Psychical Phenomena and the War, page 68:

1984, John Masters, Man of War, 1984, US title High Command, page 230,
“No,” Merton said shortly. “We sit tight, they find us. If we both go wandering about looking for each other in the middle of the night, we′ll start a battle and the whole plan for tomorrow will be napooed.”

German planes had not only carried out a raid behind our lines, but a long-range shell had actually hit one of the Battalion cookers and “napooed” it completely.

1988, Sidney Rogerson, Twelve days, page 19:

(UK, army, slang) To finish; to put an end to; to kill.


napoo

“[…]Finish! Napoo!” and he spread his hands expressively, holding the cup upside down with the cloth hanging out of it, before he went on: “But it hasn't come to that yet.[…]”

1939, Ruthven Todd, Over the Mountain, published 1978, page 216:


abstractor

(dated, historical, UK) A clerk of a certain title or grade in the British civil service.


ablings

(British, dialectal) Alternative form of aiblins.


petrol filling station

en-noun

petrol filling station (plural petrol filling stations)

(British) filling station, especially one attached to a supermarket


moreish

en-adj

moreish (comparative more moreish, superlative most moreish)

more moreish (comparative)
most moreish (superlative)
morish (alternative)

More-ish. This wine has but one fault, and that is, it is more-ish: i.e. more of it is wanted, or there is too little of it.

1788, Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, page 322:

Tell you what, that crack is really moreish.

2004, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, David Mitchell, Robert Webb, “Peep Show - Jeremy Makes It”, in IMDB, YouTube:

Although surprisingly moist, thanks to the stock (indeed, the contrast between the crisp exterior and the squidgy middle is horribly moreish), the combination of parsley, garlic and breadcrumbs reminds me of a very fancy loaf of garlic bread – and all but overpowers the sweet flavour of the cashews.

2011 December 15, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook the perfect nut roast”, in The Guardian:

The Rogers name carries a lot of weight in the Rogers family, I thought to myself with moreish resentment each time I saw him from then on.

2021, Megan Nolan, Acts of Desperation, Random House, →ISBN:

(UK, Australia, informal, of food, drink, or other consumable) Causing one to want to have more, addictive.

drink; or other consumable; drink; or other consumable


where there's smoke, there's fire

en-au-where there's smoke, there's fire.ogg

with a grain of salt
with a grain of salt

(UK, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand) If there is a hint of something occurring it could indeed be true, but such rumors should be taken with a grain of salt.

لَا دُخَانَ بِلَا نَار

if there is a hint of something occurring it could indeed be true, but rumors should be handled with skepticism


Potteries

(British) An area in the West Midlands of England, based around Stoke-on-Trent, a centre of the pottery industry.


air marshal

(British, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, military) A military rank between that of air vice-marshal and air chief marshal, equivalent to an army lieutenant general.


chokey

Borrowed from Hindi चौकी (caukī) and Urdu چَوکی (caukī, “post, police station, etc.”).


arr

Blackbeard the Pirate
Indiana University Press
Long John Silver
Robert Newton

Possibly from aye.
The pirate-imitation form was derived from the West Country dialect after its use by West Country-born actor Robert Newton (1905–1956) in the films Treasure Island (1950) and Blackbeard the Pirate (1952)—and the former’s spin-off media—in which he played, respectively, the fictional pirate Long John Silver and the historical pirate Edward “Blackbeard” Teach (c. 1680 – 1718; also a West Country native).

(British, West Country, West Midlands, Yorkshire) Yes.


nicked

en-adj

nicked (comparative more nicked, superlative most nicked)

more nicked (comparative)
most nicked (superlative)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Stolen.

Get yer trousers on, you're nicked.

1974, Ian Kennedy Martin, Regan, spoken by Jack Regan (John Thaw):

"Mr Punch," I said. "You're nicked."

2011, Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London, Gollancz, published 2011, page 324:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Captured (by police); arrested.


embuggerance

It didn’t matter for them, the course was just a three-week embuggerance and then they’d go home for tea and medals.
…
We were sleeping with most of our kit on anyway, but it was a major embuggerance to have to pull on your boots, flak jacket and helmet and leg it down to the slit trenches.

1993, Andy McNab, Bravo Two Zero, from, published 2008, →ISBN, pages 27 and 80:

Jackrum stared at him blankly for a moment, and then said: ‘Well, now … it looks like what we have here is an embuggerance which, my lads of the Cheesemongers, is defined as an obstruction in the way of progress. I propose to deal with it in this wise!’

2003, Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment:

(British, military, slang) Any obstacle (natural or artificial) that gets in the way of progress.


slaggy

slaggy (comparative slaggier or more slaggy, superlative slaggiest or most slaggy)

slaggier (comparative)
more slaggy (comparative)
slaggiest (superlative)
most slaggy (superlative)

2005, Maria Beaumont, MissFit, Arrow Books, UK, page 175,
This evening I′ve been the cheapest, slaggiest slag ever.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, derogatory) Resembling or characteristic of a slag; slutty, promiscuous.


snaggy

snaggy (comparative snaggier, superlative snaggiest)

snaggier (comparative)
snaggiest (superlative)

I couldn't live wi' a snaggy man like him if I was paaid^([sic]) for it.

1889, English Dialect Society, Publications, numbers 59-64, page 501:

(UK, dialect, archaic) Bad-tempered; crotchety.


slag off

en-verb

slag off (third-person singular simple present slags off, present participle slagging off, simple past and past participle slagged off)

slags off (present singular third-person)
slagging off (participle present)
slagged off (participle past)
slagged off (past)

There’s pressure to be a brand. I’m even locked out of my social media because I just get drunk and slag people off.

2023 February 24, Michael Segalov, quoting Will Young, “Will Young: ‘I’m locked out of my social media because I get drunk and slag people off’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, transitive) To talk insultingly to or about someone or something; usually one who is not present.

mollata

to talk insultingly to or about someone or something


little-go

en-noun

little-go (plural little-gos or little-goes)

little-gos (plural)
little-goes (plural)

"Oh," said Mr. Charles Larkyns, "they give you no end of trouble at these places; and they require the vaccination certificate before you go in for your responsions, - the Little-go, you know. You need not mention my name in your letter as having told you this. It will be quite enough to say that you understand such a thing is required."

1853, Edward Bradley, chapter 7, in The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green:

At school they never flogg'd him, / At college, though not fast, / Yet his little-go and great-go / He creditably pass'd, / And made his year's allowance / For eighteen months to last.

1856, William Makepeace Thackeray, The King of Brentford's Testament:

Let's see, this is only his third term? I'll give him, perhaps, two more to make the place too hot to hold him. Take my word for it, he'll never get to his little-go.

1861, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1883, page 128:

[…] the interrogators were able to recognize this as, “There was a question just like that on my little-go.”

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 801:

(historical, British) Alternative form of little go (“university exam”).


Rachmanism

From Rachman + -ism, from Peter Rachman, accused of being an unscrupulous British landlord.

(British) The exploitation of tenants of slum properties by unscrupulous landlords; the practice of charging extortionate rents for inferior properties, especially to poor, disadvantaged or immigrant tenants.


cotter pin

(UK) A pin or wedge inserted through a slot to hold machine parts together; a cotter.


shopwalker

(British) Alternative form of shop-walker.


logmaker

So, on the alert for any sound which might enable him to locate logmaker or roadcutter who would put him on the track of Angus, he tramped along and it was not long before his attention was rewarded.

1922, Canada Lumberman and Woodworker - Volume 42, page 50:

Log making exhibited a workload which could be classified as moderate to heavy because the logmaker used a chainsaw on the landing.

1993, John Galbraith, Managing New Zealand's Forests for Future Markets:

A poor logmaker who managed to achieve 70% of the optimum would be loosing^([sic]) $60 per tree which is $30 per tonne or $18,000 per hectare.

(UK) One who cuts trees at a tree farm and prepares logs for further processing; lumberman.


draughtsmanship

draughtsmanship (usually uncountable, plural draughtsmanships)


dodgem

What better way to let off a little steam, than by zipping around on the dodgems, or flying high on the Cosmic Typhoon roller coaster?

2007 December 19, “Special Offer”, in North Devon Gazette, UK:

(UK, Ireland) A bumper car in an amusement park.


autojumble

(British) A sale of second-hand spare parts for old cars


autotest

(British) A motorsport challenge involving a series of tests, generally around traffic cones, to measure precision driving skill.


puttock

From Middle English puttock, puttok, potok, puttoc, of uncertain origin; perhaps representing an unattested Old English *putta (“hawk”) + -ock; or perhaps from Old English *pūthafoc (literally “pout-hawk”), equivalent to pout (“a kind of fish”) + hawk. Compare also pout (“a young bird”), poult.

inh

Some like to hounds, some like to Apes, dismayd, / Some like to Puttockes, all in plumes arayd: / All shap't according their conditions […]

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

Who finds the partridge In the puttock's nest, But will suspect 'twas he that did the deed? " But then Shakespeare knew the habits of partridges and puttocks as well as Milton knew his Bible or his Tacitus.

1873, Appletons' Journal - Issues 224-249, page 724:

(now British regional) Any of several birds of prey including the red kite, buzzard and marsh harrier


QBD

Queen's Bench Division
w:Queen's Bench Division

(British) Initialism of Queen's Bench Division.


QPM

Queen's Police Medal
w:Queen's Police Medal

(British) Initialism of Queen's Police Medal.


camp bed

(chiefly UK) A lightweight portable bed used by the military, campers, etc.


new lease of life

en-noun

new lease of life (plural new leases of life)

new leases of life (plural)
new lease on life (alternative)

The latest developments in drugs to treat patients with bipolar disorders have given many a new lease of life.

(figuratively) An opportunity for an improved quality of life, due to some change in circumstances.

nuevo contrato / hálito / arrendamiento / aliciente / sentido vital


textphone

(British) A telephone with a simple keyboard and a small screen, used by the deaf.


move house

en-verb

move house (third-person singular simple present moves house, present participle moving house, simple past and past participle moved house)

moves house (present singular third-person)
moving house (participle present)
moved house (participle past)
moved house (past)

I haven’t had any post since I moved house.

(idiomatic, UK, Ireland) To change one's place of residence.


leave over

leave over (third-person singular simple present leaves over, present participle leaving over, simple past and past participle left over)

leaves over (present singular third-person)
leaving over (participle present)
left over (participle past)
left over (past)

The family leaves over enough food from Sunday dinner for Monday lunch and dinner.

(British, transitive) To allow a portion to remain unused or unconsumed.


rawk

Rawks o' muck dahn't side on his faace.

1865, William Stott Banks, Wakefield Words:

'At drew all them rawks.

When the piece is on shade, cool down gradually and thoroughly to avoid “rawks” […]

1943, Textile Colorist: A Monthly Journal Devoted to Practical Dyeing, Bleaching, Printing and Finishing, Dyes, Dyestuffs and Chemicals as Applied to Dyeing, volume 65, page 241:

(UK, dialectal, possibly obsolete) A mark.


slyboots

slyboots (plural)
sly-boot (alternative)
sly-boots (alternative)
slyboot (alternative)

But Truth is such a flyaway, such a slyboots, so untransportable and unbarrelable a commodity, that it is as bad to catch as light.

1838 July 24, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Literary Ethics. An Oration Delivered before the Literary Societies of Dartmouth College, July 24, 1838”, in J[ames] E[lliot] Cabot, editor, Nature, Addresses, and Lectures (Emerson’s Complete Works; I), Riverside edition, London: The Waverley Book Company, published 1883, →OCLC, page 166:

"Oh, you sly-boots!" says the Countess. "Guess you come after the old lady's money!"

1858–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Troubles and Consolations”, in The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume II, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1859, →OCLC, page 283:

You're such a slyboots, old cocky. I could kiss you.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 15]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

Peter: All we gotta do is tell a little white lie. Just go with it. [dials phone] Is this the Grant-a-Dream Foundation? My son Chris is dying!
Chris: Holy crap, no! Oh, my God!
Peter: That was the lie.
Chris: Oh, you slyboots.

2000 April 4, Chris Sheridan, “If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'”, in Family Guy, season 2, episode 9:

This slyboots took me for a ton of money, made me do whatever she wanted.

2004, Umberto Eco, Geoffrey Brock, transl., The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, New York, N.Y.: Harvest/Harcourt, page 54

Cruz was obviously analogizing Bernie Sanders to the Bolsheviks and Hillary Clinton to the Mensheviks. The oleaginous Texan is an erudite slyboots, but his history is off-kilter.

2015 November 1, Hendrik Hertzberg, “That G.O.P. Debate: Two Footnotes”, in The New Yorker:

(chiefly British) A person who is clever or shrewd, especially one who is stealthy, manipulative, and rather charming.


ne'er cast a clout till May be out

cast not a clout till May be out (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ne'er cast a clout till May be out.wav

Ne’er is a contraction of never; while clout is an archaic or dialectal word for a (worthless) piece of cloth or a rag, and is used to refer to clothing in a derogatory manner.

Leave not off a Clout, / Till May be out.

[1732, Thomas Fuller, compiler, Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British, London: […] B. Barker […]; and A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, […], →OCLC, paragraph 6193, page 276:

There is another ungracious rhyme about this favourite month of the poets— / Till May be out / Change na a clout: / That is, thin not your winter-clothing till the end of May—a good maxim if we are to put faith in the great father of modern medicine, [Herman] Boerhaave, who, on being consulted as to the proper time for putting off flannel, is said to have answered, "On Midsummer night, and—put it on again next morning!"

[1834 February 8, “Popular Rhymes. The Weather.”, in William Chambers, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal, volume III, number 106, Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, […]; [William Somerville] Orr and Smith, […], published 1835, →OCLC, page 16, column 2:

Of old it was said,— / "Ne'er cast a clout / Till May is out." / More recently the version is, / "No garment cast / Till May be past." / The advice is the same, but how different the style!

1849 May 4, “To Correspondents. [Poetry.]”, in The Liverpool Mercury, and Lancashire, Cheshire, and General Advertiser, volume XXXIX, number 2088, Liverpool: Thomas Rogerson, […], and John Smith, […], at the Mercury and General Printing Establishment, […], →OCLC, page 286:

The defenses against him [the month of March] should be more carefully watched than those of the depth of Winter. Fires are left to smolder down in the warmth of the day until the house is thoroughly chilled, and a sudden damp wind springs up in the afternoon and carries disease and death into the open windows. "Till May be out, Ne'er cast a clout," is counsel as good as homely.

[1875 March 9, “March”, in New-York Tribune, volume XXXIV, number 10,588, New York, N.Y.: [s.n.], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6, column 5:

In this sense the Boeotian poetry may be taken to have its germ in maxims similar to our English / "Till May be out, ne'er cast a clout," / or / "A rainbow in the morning / Is the Shepherd's warning."

[1914, Hugh G[erard] Evelyn-White, “Introduction”, in Hesiod, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod: The Homeric Hymns and Homerica […] (Loeb Classical Library; no. 57), London: William Heinemann; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Co., →OCLC, page xi:

Proverbs emphasise the protective function of clothes, which are valued more highly if they protect from heat or cold, rain or sun: […] It was better to wear too much than too little, and one should not be in too much of a hurry to shed one's winter clothes at the first sign of fine weather: ‘Ne’er cast a clout till May be out.’

1994, Daniel Roche, “Caring for Clothes: From Propriety to Cleanliness”, in Jean Birrell, transl., The Culture of Clothing: Dress and Fashion in the ‘Ancien Régime’ (Past and Present Publications), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 1999, →ISBN, part 3 (Producing, Selling and Stealing: The Distribution of Appearances), page 377:

The well-known phrase ‘Cast ne’er a clout [or ‘Ne’er cast a clout’] till May is out’ cautions people not to cast off their winter clothes until they are sure that summer is with us. In recent years it has been commonly stated that the phrase does not refer to the month of May but rather to the blossoming of the hawthorn, which in many parts is referred to as ‘may’, but many earlier references to the phrase make it perfectly clear that the month is what is meant. The saying was often extended to include other months, as in […] a rhyme printed in Notes & Queries in 1870 but claimed to be current in Yorkshire a hundred years before: / Don’t change a clout / Till May is out; / If you change in June / ’Twill be too soon.

2006, Steve Roud, “May”, in The English Year: A Month-by-month Guide to the Nation’s Customs and Festivals, from May Day to Mischief Night, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, published 2008, →ISBN, pages 200–201:

May 31st is the day to look out and iron summer dresses, as our grandmothers used to say. / "Ne'er cast a clout / Till May be out."

2020, Elizabeth Wood, “May”, in Pancakes and Plum Pudding: A Pathway to the Past (Looking at Customs, Cooking, Saints’ Days and Superstitions), Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador, →ISBN, page 87:

(UK, dialectal) Do not change from winter clothes to summer clothes until June, as there is often a sudden cold snap in May.

do not change from winter clothes to summer clothes until June (many are not direct translations but convey a similar sentiment)

the weather at the end of March bodes the weather when May begins

mitä Mariana katolla, sitä vappuna vaolla

en avril ne te découvre pas d’un fil, en mai fais ce qu’il te plaît

april, aprilone, non mi rifai metter giù il pelliccione

aprile, non ti scoprire; maggio, adagio adagio; giugno, allarga il pugno

kwiecień plecień, bo przeplata trochę zimy, trochę lata

первая ла́сточка весны не делает (pervaja lástočka vesny ne delajet, literally “the first swallow does not mean spring has come”)

si quieres criarte gordito y sano, la ropa del invierno gasta en verano


old stick

He's a funny old stick but I think you'll like him.

(idiomatic, colloquial, British) A person.


approved school

en-noun

approved school (plural approved schools)

youth detention center
youth detention center

(British, Ireland, historical) A former institution for the care and education of young offenders; a reformatory, reform school, youth detention center.


sneezer

He has been lagged for beaker hunting, was a mushroom faker, has been on the steel for snamming a wedge sneezer; […]

1859, Snowden's Magistrates Assistant, page 497:

Some person has deprived me of my East Indian silk handkerchief. — What, have you lost your sneezer?

1835, Charles Mathews, Mathews's New Budget of Fun, etc, page 156:


babby

→ Irish: babaí

Popularized in online usage by the "How is babby formed?" meme from the mid-2000s.

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(UK, US, also Internet slang) Pronunciation spelling of baby


metalled

(UK, of a road) Surfaced, tarred, covered in stone or crushed rock (usually tar-coated).


threety

He hath threety-six votes of the greatest barrons of the shyre to ninteen very mean ones, wherof syv have no right to vote; there is not so much as doubt of that matter heir.

1690, Letters and state papers chiefly addressed to George, Earl of Mellville

Kecept Paid to Andrew Marshall Smith in Gorballs for Threety howes and tuo Axes at 12"1 p. pss. p.

1696-1707, Papers relating to the ships and voyages of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies

To James Jaffray for threety young plantin bought at Monimusk at 3/4 per piece.

… who made shose of Neill Campbell, servitor to Collin Campbell younger of Glendarule, to be his clark compeared personally Archibald McKellar now in Glenlean of the age of threety years …

1705-1742, The Justiciary Records of Argyll and the Isles

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland, obsolete or nonstandard) Thirty.


cheap as chips

From being inexpensive, similar to chips (“French fries”).

(British, New Zealand, Australia, simile) Very cheap, not costing much.


happy as a pig in shit

He's "happy as a pig in shit". "This is what I really enjoy, working with film-makers," he says.

1998 March 6, Nick Hasted, “Film: Will movies kill the soundtrack star?”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-08-06:

And he pays generous tribute to Noble who, he says, actively encouraged him . . . to venture further into the classics with Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Henry IV. "Speaking purely as a director, I was happy as a pig in shit."

2002 January 12, Michael Billington, “Culture: ‘It's like being in love’”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2014-08-06:

"I am as happy as a pig in shit—you can quote me on that—doing what I'm doing at the moment."

2013 September 6, David Wroe, “Abbott adviser handed new paid role as envoy”, in The Age, Australia, retrieved 2014-08-06:

Beauty products are the one thing that I waste my money on. Give me a hundred bucks and plop me in the nearest Duane Reade, and I’m happy as a pig in shit.

2014 August 5, Megan Reynolds, “Tried & Tested: 10 Hippie Beauty Treatments”, in The Frisky, US, retrieved 2014-08-06:

(chiefly UK and Ireland, idiomatic, vulgar, simile) Extremely happy; obviously satisfied and carefree.

cieszy się, jakby mu kto w kieszeń nakakał


ropy

en-adj

ropy (comparative ropier or more ropy, superlative ropiest or most ropy)

ropier (comparative)
more ropy (comparative)
ropiest (superlative)
most ropy (superlative)
ropey (alternative)

From Scots roupy (“husky; hoarse”), from Scots roup (“hoarseness, huskiness, any inflamed condition of the throat”).

bor

The very poultry in the coop / Began to pine away and droop— / The cock was first to go; / And glad we were on all our parts, / He used to damp our very hearts / With such a ropy crow.

Although Britain’s migration figures are ropey, other data point in the same direction.

2012 September 8, “Emigration: On The Road”, in The Economist:

(UK, Ireland, colloquial) Of poor quality; in poor health.


aggrandisement

en-noun

aggrandisement (countable and uncountable, plural aggrandisements)

Evelyn was but one of many. Reckless, loving pleasure and ease; with much of worldly wealth and aggrandisement to tempt him on the other side of the question; yet was he heart and soul devoted to the Stuarts...

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 174:

What is clear is that Chelsea will live a different reality without Abramovich and there is a strong chance that it will not be as exciting. In football terms, he was the ideal owner: no money constraints; an individual motivated purely by aggrandisement, to succeed year after year.

March 11 2022, David Hytner, “Chelsea are in crisis but there is no will to leave club on their knees”, in The Guardian:

(British) Alternative form of aggrandizement.


cupset

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

Gary: It'll Be Cupset for Andy

[…] a landmark point of the season, with fans and commentators alike eagerly awaiting a 'cupset'.

2014, Lee Price, Turning My Back On the Premier League:

(sports, British, slang) An upset in a Cup competition.


come down

en-verb

come down (third-person singular simple present comes down, present participle coming down, simple past came down, past participle come down)

comes down (present singular third-person)
coming down (participle present)
came down (past)
come down (participle past)

It's coming down heavily now.

Raju had got a job with a law firm in Singapore after coming down from Oxford.

2008, Preeta Samarasan, Evening is the Whole Day, Fourth Estate, page 24:

(intransitive, UK) To graduate from university, especially an Oxbridge university.


elfin safety

Rendering of health and safety with Th-fronting and H-dropping.

2007, Jonathan Ray, "My new best cellar", The Spectator, Spectator (8 December 2007),
Heaven knows what Elfin Safety would say.

occupational health and safety
occupational health and safety

(British, informal, derogatory, humorous) occupational health and safety, or the Health and Safety Executive


SQEP

(British) Acronym of suitably qualified and experienced person/personnel.


bakehouse

→ Welsh: becws, bacws, becos

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

From Middle English bakhows, bakhous, bachous, from Old English bæchūs (“bakery, bakehouse”), from Proto-West Germanic *bakahūs (“bakehouse”), equivalent to bake + house. Cognate with Scots bake-hous (“bakehouse, bakery”), Saterland Frisian Bakhuus (“bakehouse”), West Frisian bakkhûs (“bakehouse”), Dutch bakhuis (“bakehouse”), German Low German Backhuus (“bakehouse”), German Backhaus (“bakehouse, bakery”).


gobstopper

gobstoppers (plural)
gob stopper (alternative)
gob-stopper (alternative)

“Everlasting Gobstoppers!”’ cried Mr. Wonka proudly. “They're completely new! I am inventing them for children who are given very little pocket money. You can put an Everlasting Gobstopper in your mouth and you can suck it and suck it and suck it and suck it and suck it and it will never get any smaller!”

1964, Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, New York: A. A. Knopf, page 95:

Hence, gobstopper—something that stops the mouth. If you want to stop someone from prattling on, simply stuff a gobstopper in his or her mouth. The Everlasting Gobstopper, a jawbreaker that changes colors and flavors, was the brainchild of Roald Dahl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1964.

2014, Richard W. Hartel, AnnaKate Hartel, Candy Bites: The Science of Sweets, Springer, →ISBN, page 183:

(British, Ireland) A type of hard long-lasting candy, usually spherical in shape.


Munro

From Scottish Gaelic
* (mountains): Named after Scottish mountaineer Sir Hugh Thomas Munro.

named-after

(British) Any Scottish mountain having a height of more than 3,000 feet; named after Sir Hugh Thomas Munro, Scottish mountaineer


EE

(UK, historical) Initialism of English Electric.


UA

en-noun

UA (countable and uncountable, plural UAs)

unitary authority
unitary authority#English

(countable, UK, government) Initialism of unitary authority.


VN

VNs (plural)
V.N. (alternative)
V. N. (alternative)

But in addition, he adds to the tags of certain assistants the designation, “V.N.,” meaning veterinary nurse.

1963, American Veterinary Medical Association, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, volume 143, page 179:

Veterinary nurse applicants wanting to work for the Society have to follow the VN course (see Chapter One for details).

1999, Victoria Pybus, Working with Animals: The UK, Europe and Worldwide:

Alison Young joined a small animal practice in 1998 as a student veterinary nurse and whilst there gained her VN qualification.

2006, British Small Animal Veterinary Association, BSAVA Congress 2006: Scientific Proceedings, page 20:

(veterinary, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) Initialism of veterinary nurse.


jacket potato

The "jacket" is the tough outer skin formed by baking.


JR

John Radcliffe Hospital
w:John Radcliffe Hospital

(UK, healthcare) Initialism of John Radcliffe Hospital; a large hospital in Oxford in the United Kingdom.


egg and spoon race

egg and spoon race (plural egg and spoon races)

(chiefly British, games) A race in which competitors must carry an egg on a small spoon and race to the finish line without dropping the egg.


shoegazing

/ˈʃuːˌɡeɪ.zɪŋ/

/ˈʃuˌɡeɪ.zɪŋ/

From shoe + gazing, because of the tendency of such performers to look down rather than at the crowd and the heavy use of effect pedals.

"[…]Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong here, Danny, but wasn't it you who told me that true shoegazing began and ended with Slowdive's 12-inch debut: the imaginatively titled, 'Slowdive'?”
“You're taking me out of context here, dude. What I meant was that it was the epoch of the genre. The other bands still made a valid contribution, they just didn't define the moment."

2006, James Buckley, Celebrate Myself, page 12:

Johansson and Sitek started out in more faithful lo-fi style before filtering the songs through an indie-rock sensibility that's equal parts postpunk-gothic, 4AD dreampop, shoegazing drone, and TV on the Radio epicness.

2011, Barney Hoskyns, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, page 491:

Then in 2003, they released Still Electric only on their website; with this album, they'd taken on more of a shoegazing style of rock, similar to Chapterhouse or Catherine Wheel.

2013, Pete Crigler, Majorlabelland And Assorted Oddities, page 91:

(British, music) A subgenre of alternative rock music popularised in early 1990s, characterised by a dreamlike sound making much use of effect pedals, and by a detached or introverted performance style.


golden syrup

golden syrup (usually uncountable, plural golden syrups)

(UK) A pale amber-coloured treacle produced as part of the process of refining cane sugar, used in cooking and as a spread.

黃金糖漿 /黄金糖浆

a pale amber-coloured treacle produced as part of the refining of sugar


mincer

(British, slang, derogatory) A homosexual male.


lucky dip

(UK) A game in which prizes are covered up and mixed together in a container, so that contestants can dip their hand into the container and randomly pull out a prize.


tell tales

en-verb

tell tales (third-person singular simple present tells tales, present participle telling tales, simple past and past participle told tales)

tells tales (present singular third-person)
telling tales (participle present)
told tales (participle past)
told tales (past)

(UK) To report someone for a wrongdoing.


swingeing

en-adj

swingeing (comparative more swingeing, superlative most swingeing)

more swingeing (comparative)
most swingeing (superlative)

/ˈswɪnd͡ʒɪŋ/

/ˈswɪnd͡ʒɪŋ/

From swinge + -ing. Swinge is derived from Middle English swengen (“to strike”), from Old English swengan (“to dash, strike; to cause to swing”).

swinger

one who swinges; anything very large, forcible, or astonishing

And when Occaſion did require, / In midſt of Houſe a mighty Fire, / Of black dry'd Earth and ſwingeing Blocks / Was made, enough to roaſt an Ox; […]

1716, W[illiam] M[offat], Hesperi-neso-graphia: Or, A Description of the Western Isle. In Eight Canto’s, 4th edition, London: Printed and sold by J. Baker, at the Black-Boy in Pater-Noster-Row, →OCLC, canto II, page 7:

"Let him pursue his own course," said Diggs, taking up a pen, and making some hasty memoranda on a sheet of paper. "We shall have swingeing damages—swingeing damages."

1855, William Harrison Ainsworth, “Abel’s Interview with the Miser—Unexpected Appearance of Randulph and Cordwell Firebras—Result of the Meeting”, in The Miser’s Daughter: A Tale, London, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] Routledge & Co., Farringdon Street; New York, 18, Beekman Street, →OCLC, page 123:

A shock for passengers by the Dover-Dunkerque "Night Ferry" is the swingeing increases in berth rates for those who are not travelling in the sleeping cars.

1962 December, “Beyond the Channel: European timetables: The winter train services”, in Modern Railways, page 413:

Every day produces more evidence that this hard Tory Brexit is a disaster in the making. Carmakers and other export manufacturers, fearing swingeing tariffs, are demanding special protections and exemptions or else they leave.

2017 March 27, “The Observer view on triggering article 50: As Britain hurtles towards the precipice, truth and democracy are in short supply”, in The Observer, London, archived from the original on 2017-05-17:

After petrol rationing ended in 1952, the BTC was aware that more swingeing cuts had to be made, and a sinister message was conveyed by the loss of the meandering 38-mile route from Blisworth to Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1952, and the 25-mile Abergavenny-Merthyr Heads of the Valleys line in January 1958.

2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:


high road

high roads (plural)
highroad (alternative)

On Wednesday, the 27th, we arrived at a place called Tʻien-chin. Here we were not on the high road to Pekin, hence the excitement created by our arrival was greater than I had ever before witnessed.

Nov. 1, 1878, Rev. Miles Greenwood, “North China”, in The Mission Field, number 275, page 544:

There, a few yards before them, was the high road from Risingham to Shoreby, lying, at this point, between two even walls of forest.

1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 6, in The Black Arrow:

The highroad on the other side was frequented by few, for a nearer-hand way to the west had been made through the lower Moss.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

(chiefly British) A main road or highway.


Mediterranean Irishman

en-noun

Mediterranean Irishman (plural Mediterranean Irishmen)

Bart Blandino . . . refers to himself as a Mediterranean Irishman—an expression which never fails to amuse us.

1956 December 27, “Visiting Your Newspaper”, in Oswego Valley News:

(originally British, humorous, sometimes offensive) A person belonging to an Eastern Mediterranean national group, especially one which was subjected to a period of British rule or occupation, such as the Greeks or Italians.


greats

(UK, slang, universities, dated) The great go examination.


pay as you earn

(British) The national system whereby income tax and national insurance is deducted by an employer from the salary or wages of an employee.


PAYE

(British, finance) Initialism of pay as you earn.


shed a tear

en-verb

shed a tear (third-person singular simple present sheds a tear, present participle shedding a tear, simple past and past participle shed a tear)

sheds a tear (present singular third-person)
shedding a tear (participle present)
shed a tear (participle past)
shed a tear (past)

Now, in coming down here, I journeyed part of the way with a jolly old cock, who shed a tear with me every time the coach stopped […]

1848, Thomas Frost, Paul the Poacher, page 118:

(UK, Ireland, slang, obsolete) To take a dram, or glass of spirits.


highflier

highfliers (plural)
high flier (alternative)
high-flier (alternative)
high flyer (alternative)
high-flyer (alternative)
highflyer (alternative)

(UK, slang, obsolete) A writer of begging letters.


toppo

(British, colloquial, dated, used by the upper classes) top, great, the best


dressing room

dressing rooms (plural)
dressing-room (alternative)
dressingroom (alternative)

/ˈdɹɛsɪŋ ɹʊm/

/ˈdɹɛsɪŋ ɹuːm/

Going into a dressing-room full of established players was not easy. It was like Lancashire all over again only more so.

2005, Andrew Flintoff, “England Debut”, in Being Freddie: The Story So Far, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN:

As half-time approached with Everton desperate to get into the dressing room and regroup, Liverpool were awarded a penalty for [Phil] Jagielka's rash challenge on [Luis] Suarez. This time there was no disputing [Martin] Atkinson's decision, but [Tim] Howard rescued Everton by diving low to his left to keep out [Dirk] Kuyt's spot-kick.

2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0 – 2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2016-03-07:

A room used for dressing or changing clothes.

(UK) A changing room at a recreational or sports venue.


povo

en-adj

povo (comparative more povo, superlative most povo)

more povo (comparative)
most povo (superlative)
povvo (alternative)

Probably a blend of poverty + -o (diminutive suffix), owing to the term's Australian origins. Alternatively, borrowed from Portuguese povo (“common people; the working class”).

bor+

She went to some povo school down the street.

This is where, 30 years ago, the docking industry was destroyed, leading to one of the lengthiest industrial disputes in British history, causing a 20 per cent unemployment rate and casting Liverpool as a "povo city" (the jobless rate now stands at a respectable 4 per cent.)

2003 October 8, Carol Midgley, “It’s Grim Up North”, in The Times, number 67888, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4:

And he's really adorbs. I've been spending time with him and his community in this really povo area in the Western suburbs [sc. of Sydney]. I've been like reading to him and just chilling and stuff. It's legit a seriously tragic environment.

2013, Chris Lilley, Ja'mie: Private School Girl, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Ja'mie King, HBO:

The school wasn’t exclusively populated by the children of haughty elitists who wanted their baby geniuses shielded from povo “flat rats” either, (although I suspect there was a bit of that). Many wonderful, open minded people sent their children there, including middle class families who struggled financially to secure that promised leg up in life.

2017 June 17, Tara Kenny, “I was a poor kid at a wealthy private school. It gave me social mobility, but also a sense of shame”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

It feels “weirdly liberating” for him to now have thousands of people commenting under his videos about how they’re proud to be povvo.

2024 April 7, Eleanor Morgan, “Are you rich and ridiculous? TikTok comedian Shabaz Ali has you in his sights”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

(Australia, British, slang, derogatory) Poor, penniless.


povo

This area is full of povos.

(Australia, British, slang, derogatory) One who is poor, a pauper.


blind man's buff

From blind man's + an obsolete sense of buff, coming from Old French buffe (“blow”). First known usage from 1854.

That was a further clue; and here, indeed, young Mr. Dowse was getting "warm," as children say at blind-man's-buff, although, as a matter-of-fact, she had now been talking of George Miller at all.

1876, William Black, “An Encounter”, in Madcap Violet. […], volume III, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 74:

Smithsonian Books
w:Smithsonian Institution

(British, games) A game where one person is blindfolded and tries to catch the other players.

blindemol

game where someone is blindfolded and tries to catch the others


hoppings

(British) An traditional annual fair, usually at Whitsuntide, formerly associated with livestock markets.


non-league

Crawley missed two penalties but still edged out League Two Torquay to become the first non-league side to reach the FA Cup fifth round for 17 years.

2011 January 29, Chris Bevan, “Torquay 0 - 1 Crawley Town”, in BBC:

(British, soccer) Playing in a division below The Football League, being amateur or semi-professional teams.


takeover bid

(British) An attempt to buy a controlling share in a business.


cludge

‘Listen, hen, I better get going. Just need to visit the old cludge first.’

1994, Gordon Legge, I Love Me (Who Do You Love?), page 10:

Should I ever coin it in with a series of bonkbusters, I reflect, looking at the draughty – doubtless rat-infested – cludge, I should like to erect a similar statue, to all the nameless women throughout time who died on the toilet of cystitis.

2012, Caitlin Moran, Moranthology, Ebury Press, published 2012, page 48:


strapline

straplines (plural)
strap line (alternative)

(British) A memorable slogan attached to a commercial brand.


WTT

working timetable
working timetable#English

(rail transport, UK) Initialism of working timetable


HMAS

(initialism, nautical, military, UK, obsolete) His Majesty's Auxiliary Ship

(initialism, nautical, military, UK, obsolete) Her Majesty's Auxiliary Ship

(initialism, nautical, military, UK, obsolete) His Majesty's Armed Schooner

(initialism, nautical, military, UK, obsolete) Her Majesty's Armed Schooner


HMCS

Her Majesty's Courts Service
w:Her Majesty's Courts Service

(UK, historical) Initialism of Her Majesty's Courts Service.


HMCS

(UK, nautical, military, historical) Initialism of His (or Her) Majesty's Colonial Ship.


sizar

An alteration of sizer, from size (“fixed portion”) + -er.

(British) An undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge who receives an allowance for his college expenses or tuition, sometimes in return for doing a defined job.


meat and two veg

(British, Ireland, colloquial) A stereotypical standard dinner, with a meat and two kinds of vegetable.