mixed origins

en-adj

mixed origins (comparative more mixed origins, superlative most mixed origins)

more mixed origins (comparative)
most mixed origins (superlative)

w:Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

(UK, of a person) Having mixed racial, ethnic, or national parentage or ancestry. This term was promoted as an alternative to “mixed race” in a 1994 resolution of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, in part because of its correlation to mid-twentieth-century British laws using the phrase “race or ethnic or national origins”, but did not see wide use outside of the UK anthropology field.


all found

My grandmother told me how she used to work as a maid, and was paid £3 a week all found.

(UK) With living essentials, such as meals and accommodation, provided at no cost.


moving pavement

en-noun

moving pavement (plural moving pavements)

Britain's first "moving pavement", the 104-yds.-long Travolater linking the Waterloo & City Tube station with the L.T. concourse at the Bank, London, was brought into use on September 27.

1960 November, “News in Brief”, in Trains Illustrated, page 649:


moving staircase

moving staircase (plural moving staircases)

In terms of the income scale British society has been compared to a group of people on a moving staircase. While the staircase as a whole moves upwards the relative position of the people on it remains largely unchanged.

2008, John Irwin, Modern Britain: An Economic and Social History, page 27:


RCEP

(UK, government) Abbreviation of Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.


stack it

en-verb

stack it (third-person singular simple present stacks it, present participle stacking it, simple past and past participle stacked it)

stacks it (present singular third-person)
stacking it (participle present)
stacked it (participle past)
stacked it (past)

[…] as I was stepping down, put my foot into a dog-made hole and once again, totally stacked it onto a sickled ankle. This one HURT and I was yelling and screaming for a good few minutes […]

2006 October 7, glitterfairy, “How long should a sprained ankle take to heal??”, in Dance.net, XP.COM, retrieved 2020-11-17:

She did a close fly by (which, of course, I wasn’t ready for) but I did get a few shots before she stacked it and came back for a chat.

[2010 November 28, “By ‘ek, it’s ‘ot (and more kite surfing)”, in Charlie's World, retrieved 2020-11-17:

Bieber’s Saskatoon stack comes after he stacked it during a fist-fight in Cleveland which was caught on camera earlier this month

2016 June 19, Tom Williams, “Watch Justin Bieber Stack It, Fall Off Stage While Fixing His Pants”, in Music Feeds, Evolve Media, retrieved 2020-11-17:

One of the guys ran off the stage as soon as the woman put on a strap on and he stacked it as he tried to get away.

2017 May 10, bomberH, “Memory Lane... Pleasure Rooms”, in Spurs Community, retrieved 2020-11-17:

(slang, chiefly UK) To fall over; to topple.


base rate

(finance) A benchmark interest rate, from which other interest rates are calculated; a policy rate.

(finance, UK) Especially, the interest rate at which the Bank of England lends money to commercial banks.


clock on

clock on (third-person singular simple present clocks on, present participle clocking on, simple past and past participle clocked on)

clocks on (present singular third-person)
clocking on (participle present)
clocked on (participle past)
clocked on (past)

(literally, UK) To record one's time of arrival at work, traditionally by inserting one's card into a timestamping machine.

(by extension, UK) To begin work at the start of the day or start of one's shift.


lob-on

She pulled me shoes and socks off and then pulled off me trousers and underpants and threw them onto the chair. I heard lads in the barrack room say that they'd had a lob-on that were so hard it hurt. Now I believed them.

2014, Alan Watkins-Groves, Buying The Programme, page 74:

He had to have a lob on to achieve that and he told her that she felt 'so good'.

“Well, get me dick out and give it a jostle or something, darling, I've had a lob on all the way up here.”

(UK, slang) An erection; an erect penis.


Bath bun

Bath buns (plural)
bath bun (alternative)

From the English city of Bath, where it originated.

[…] the old Bath Bun was simmering as he wrote it.

1968, The British Journal of Photography, volume 115, page 3:

'Nice that the Bath bun's out today.'

2015, Sid Finch, The Little Book of Cockney Rhyming Slang:


below stairs

below-stairs (alternative)
belowstairs (alternative)

a. 1631, John Donne, letter to H. Goodere, in Letters to Severall Persons of Honour written by John Donne, London: Richard Marriot, 1651, pp. 158-159,
My daughter Constance is at this time with me; or the emptinesse of the town, hath made me, who otherwise live upon the almes of others, a houskeeper, for a moneth; and so she is my servant below stairs, and my companion above:

It vvas his younger Siſters Chamber, that I vvas in, and as there vvas no Body in the Houſe, but the Maids belovv Stairs, he vvas it may be the ruder: […]

1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 21:

[…] those fortunate bachelors, or other gentlemen of pleasure, who so manage their entertainment of compromising company that even the austerest housekeeper, occupied and competent below-stairs, never feels obliged to give warning.

1904 November 10, Henry James, chapter XI, in The Golden Bowl, volume I, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, 1st book (The Prince), 2nd part, pages 200–201:

In the tiny below-stairs office a moody-looking matron took the papers and signed him into the ledger.

1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 4, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC, page 57:

1972, Robertson Davies, The Manticore, Toronto: New Canadian Library, 2015, Part 2, Chapter 1,
Children always lived closer to the servants than their elders, and Caroline and I never knew where we stood with anybody, and sometimes found ourselves hostages in dark, below-stairs intrigues.

Having lived the stereotype of the penniless artist in Paris, Soutine was drawn not to the glamour of the roaring 1920s, but to those in the world below stairs[.]

2017 November 17, Skye Sherwin, “Chaïm Soutine’s Pastry Cook of Cagnes: a portrait of youth, but not innocence”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, historical) In or pertaining to the lowest levels of a large house where the house staff work and are accommodated, contrasted with above stairs where the owning family reside.

(UK, historical, as noun) The areas of a large house in which house staff work, or the staff that work there.


gropper

Enjoyed a wide range of Sedge warblers, heard a gropper, and saw a spoonbill, and our first house martins and swifts of the year. The avocets were grand (nearly 50 of them) and not as argumentative as usual at his time of the year.

2001 April 29, Michael J Davis, “A grand day out and request for help”, in uk.rec.birdwatching (Usenet):

These overwhelmingly male gatherings remind me of paparazzi flocks I’ve encountered. Like a reluctant celebrity, the Pallas’s “gropper” (twitchers have their own language, as well as paparazzi-style ripping yarns about this trip or that shot) was skulking in the bushes.

2017 September 25, Patrick Barkham, “Twitchers and groppers: when birdwatching turns ugly”, in The Guardian:

(UK, informal, birdwatching) The grasshopper warbler.


rail replacement service

en-noun

rail replacement service (plural rail replacement services)

If there's one phrase that deters people from taking the train, it is: "A rail replacement service will operate on this route."

2020 November 18, Christian Wolmar, “Rail replacement buses: the system needs changing”, in Rail, page 34:

bus replacement service
bus replacement service#English

(UK, transport) Synonym of bus replacement service.


centre punch

(UK) Alternative spelling of center punch.


MLU

MLU (countable and uncountable, plural MLUs)

(UK, healthcare) Initialism of midwife-led unit.


chip pan

(UK) A cooking vessel designed for the deep-frying (cooking by immersion in hot oil) of chips (thin potato strips).


City editor

(UK) A newspaper editor responsible for the paper's coverage of affairs in the City of London (the UK's main financial centre), and thus, by extension, coverage of business and finance in general.


ILR

indefinite leave to remain
indefinite leave to remain#English

(UK, law) Initialism of indefinite leave to remain.


flying picket

(UK) A person or group of people who can be rapidly deployed to different locations in order to picket workplaces (take part in blockades or other protests) during an industrial dispute (dispute between workers and employers).


all-figure number

all-figure number (plural all-figure numbers)

(UK, telecommunications, historical) A telephone number consisting purely of digits, introduced in the 1960s to replace numbers that began with an alphabetic code for the exchange.


Unicef

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Alternative letter-case form of UNICEF (not used in North America)


JCVI

w:Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation

(UK, medicine) Initialism of Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.


blue plaque

As an aside, Luddendenfoot once had a famous (or perhaps infamous) clerk - drunkard Branwell Brontë, brother to the famous Brontë sisters and writers. He was sacked from his post in March 1842 after an audit revealed a discrepancy in the books. Today, a blue plaque on the Jubilee Refreshment rooms at Sowerby Bridge station commemorates him.

2021 July 28, Paul Bigland, “Calder line captures picturesque Pennines”, in RAIL, number 936, page 66:

(chiefly UK) A permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a historical link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site.


rail wagon

For general liquids other than those pre-heated or highly inflammable, these 1,030gal containers may be filled either on rail wagons or on the Bulkrane.

1961 November, “Talking of Trains: The "Bulkrane" project of British Railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 656:

(UK, rail transport) Any railway goods wagon.

(UK, rail transport) A flat wagon used for carrying railway rails.


dialling code

In the UK, the dialling code for Coventry is 024.

From the UK, the international dialling code for China is 0086.


mind the shop

en-verb

mind the shop (third-person singular simple present minds the shop, present participle minding the shop, simple past and past participle minded the shop)

minds the shop (present singular third-person)
minding the shop (participle present)
minded the shop (participle past)
minded the shop (past)


breast the tape

breast the tape (third-person singular simple present breasts the tape, present participle breasting the tape, simple past and past participle breasted the tape)

breasts the tape (present singular third-person)
breasting the tape (participle present)
breasted the tape (participle past)
breasted the tape (past)

(UK, athletics) To win a race by hitting the tape with the chest


form book

(British) An annual book produced showing the results for the year's horse races together with comments on each runner.

It is a certainty, given the form book, that this prime minister will be condemning us to many more months of wage restraint.

(British, figurative) The past performance of something or someone.


booking hall

In 1958, it was reported that for "the fourth year in succession, staff of four South London stations have combined to decorate the booking hall at Peckham Rye station". They installed a nativity scene, models of Father Christmas, and a sleigh driven by huskies, and Christmas trees were placed around the station.

2023 December 27, David Turner, “Silent lines...”, in RAIL, number 999, page 29:

'Halls' and 'offices' are more distinct, with some stations featuring a booking hall as well as a booking office. As Bill Fawcett notes in a 2015 architectural history of British railway stations, booking halls sometimes doubled as waiting rooms and were accompanied by a booking office.

2024 March 6, Dr Joseph Brennan, “England's booking offices of distinction”, in RAIL, number 1004, page 56:

(rail transport, UK) Synonym of ticket hall.


Cubitopolis

From Cubitt + -o- + -polis, after the builder and developer Thomas Cubitt (1788–1855).

(obsolete, UK, slang) The Warwick Square and Eccleston Square districts of London, England.


slammock

(UK, regional) A slattern or awkward person.


come Yorkshire over

He was not blind to the natives' faults; he amusingly describes how one "who might have thriven in one of our large towns came Yorkshire over him," by bringing him an india-rubber ball which, instead of being solid, was stuffed inside with chewed leaves.

1880, The London Quarterly and Holborn Review, volume 53, page 413:

[B]efore I left Huddersfield I had the satisfaction of captaining a team which won most of its matches against the leading Yorkshire towns, though Sheffield 'came Yorkshire over us' by making us play upon the wooden floor of their Drill Hall. The Yorkshire children were almost bilingual. The youngsters talked broad dialect in the playground, yet answered incorrect English in class.

1930, Alfred Perceval Graves, To Return to All that: An Autobiography, page 208:

(transitive, UK, slang, obsolete) To cheat or deceive.


snake tart

Muffin-cap agreed to show him the spot upon condition he would treat him with a “snake-tart” at the Eel-pie-house hard by.

1842, The New Monthly Magazine, page 351:


Greenwich goose

en-noun

Greenwich goose (plural Greenwich geese)

(UK, slang, obsolete) A Greenwich pensioner.


Rag and Famish

In allusion to the imaginary characters Ensign Rag and Captain Famish.

(UK, slang, obsolete) The Army and Navy Club in London, England.


forakers

(UK, obsolete, slang, Winchester College) The toilet.


Massacre of the Innocents

the Massacre of the Innocents (canonical)

(UK, politics, humorous) The abandonment of potentially useful measures at the end of a session in the House of Commons, since there is no time to pass them.


banner repeater

banner repeater (plural banner repeaters)

Banner-Repeater signals tend to be provided in locations where drivers receive insufficient warning of the main signal, thereby effectively increasing the sighting distance for the main signal.

2020 December 30, David Allen, “Unusual signals...”, in Rail, page 64:

(rail transport, UK) A type of railway signal which shows the aspect of a signal ahead of it, normally used in a situation where the main signal is hidden from view, for instance where there is a curve in the track.


Mutton Walk

However this might be, the pain occasioned by the sudden movement of TALLYHO, who had not yet learned to trip it lightly along the mutton walk, induced the sufferer to roar out most lustily, […]

(UK, slang, obsolete) The saloon at Drury Lane Theatre, once a popular gathering-place.


scufter

Nothing like being dead for putting the scufters off the scent.

1947, Robert Briffault, New Life of Mr. Martin, page 56:

(UK, North Country, dated, slang) A policeman.


Burdon's Hotel

(obsolete, UK, slang) Whitecross Street Prison, London, England.


Pig and Tinderbox

the Pig and Tinderbox (canonical)
Pig and Tinder-box (alternative)

(UK, slang, obsolete, humorous) The Elephant and Castle.


beetle-squasher

(dated, British, slang) Synonym of beetle-crusher (“a large flat foot”).


brozier

en-verb

brozier (third-person singular simple present broziers, present participle broziering, simple past and past participle broziered)

broziers (present singular third-person)
broziering (participle present)
broziered (participle past)
broziered (past)

The miserable fact is, I am completely broziered, cut down to a sixpence, and have left town.

1808, Thomas Morton, The Way to Get Married: A Comedy, in Five Acts, page 9:

(transitive, UK, slang, obsolete) To bankrupt.

[…] and as dinners were not always up to the mark, according to their ideas, they sometimes sought advantage from it, and took to "broziering" their Dame.

1892, William Hill Tucker, Eton of Old: Or, Eighty Years Since, 1811-1822, page 82:

(transitive, UK, slang, obsolete) To steal provisions from the larder of (the school housekeeper).


brozier

(transitive, UK, slang, obsolete) A bankrupt person.

(transitive, UK, slang, obsolete) The school prank of stealing provisions from the housekeeper's larder.


Skimmery

(UK, slang, obsolete) St Mary Hall, Oxford, England, a medieval academic hall of the University of Oxford, incorporated into Oriel College in 1902.


according to Gunter

according to Cocker
according to Cocker#English

(dated, colloquial, British, idiomatic) Synonym of according to Cocker.


transfer test

(UK, Ireland, education) An examination administered to some students in their last year of primary education, governing admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools that use academic selection.


tripartite system

(UK, Ireland, education, historical) The division of state-funded secondary education into three types of school: grammar school, secondary technical school, and secondary modern school; used between 1945 and the 1970s in England and Wales, and from 1947 to 2009 in Northern Ireland. Performance in the 11-plus examination determined which type of school a student would attend.


any hole's a goal

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-any hole's a goal.wav

See, I don't really like screwing men, although any hole's a goal and all that, but women are soft and smooth and weak and small. They're easy to grab, easy to control.

2015, J.S. Law, The Dark Beneath, →ISBN, page 19:

“Probably because you were only thinking about one thing.” She smothered her own thoughts and feelings as she took on the necessary role. “That's what men are like, right? Any hole's a goal?”

2018, Emma Newman, A Split Worlds Omnibus: Between Two Thorns, Any Other Name, and All Is Fair, page 94:

"Of course I knew that it all goes to the same place," she beamed back at him. "I can't believe how nice you are to me. I mean you're right, my throat really has been getting pretty sore lately, and any hole's a goal." She had no idea what this meant, but it sounded like the right thing to say.

2020, Vanessa Morse, “There's Something about Gabby”, in Daddies Explicit... Anthology, page 594:

Being a virgin is not cool (the cool people are not virgins). I heard at my secondary school, that kids get battered if they're a virgin. Sexual promiscuity, for the most part, elicits a positive peer response. Any hole's a goal. Britain has more sexually active under-18s than any other country in Europe. We also have the highest number of teenage mothers and the highest teenage abortion rate in Western Europe.

2021, Kerry Louise Stalker, Life, One Big Existential Crisis, page 69:

(UK, vulgar) Any receptive sex partner (or orifice) is acceptable.

em tempos de guerra qualquer buraco é trincheira

en tiempos de guerra cualquier agujero es trinchera


ONS

The government’s statistics agency said suits[…] were not bought often enough to make it into the basket of 733 representative goods and services selected to measure the UK’s cost of living. They have been replaced in the ONS basket with a “formal jacket or blazer”.

2022 April 18, Rupert Neate, “The end of the suit: has Covid finished off the menswear staple?”, in The Guardian:

Office for National Statistics
w:Office for National Statistics

(UK) Initialism of Office for National Statistics.


vinnied

en-adj

vinnied (comparative more vinnied, superlative most vinnied)

more vinnied (comparative)
most vinnied (superlative)

(UK, Devon, dialect, obsolete) mildewed or sour


loose-coupled

It consists exclusively of loose-coupled open mineral wagons and a guard's brake van; owing to the isolation of the branch the last-named is equipped with a first aid box and a jack, to enable any emergency to be dealt with rapidly.

1940 December, Charles E. Lee, “The Wenford Mineral Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 643:

The line here rises in the up direction, for the most part on a 1 in 132 gradient, and three spring-operated catch points—Basildon West, Basildon and Vange—are provided at intervals on the up line between the two stations, to derail any runaway wagons of a loose-coupled freight train.

1961 December, “Talking of Trains: Derailment near Laindon”, in Trains Illustrated, page 717:

(rail transport, UK, historical) Of older railway wagons, having a chain coupling between them, without the buffers on each wagon touching those of the next wagon when the train was in motion.


Norwich Pharmacal order

en-noun

Norwich Pharmacal order (plural Norwich Pharmacal orders)

First granted in 1974 in the case of Norwich Pharmacal Co. v Customs and Excise Commissioners.

(UK, Ireland, law) A court order granted against a third party which has been innocently mixed up in wrongdoing, forcing the disclosure of documents or information.


working party

(UK) A committee or group appointed to study and report on a particular question and make recommendations based on its findings.


cross-Channel

The continued growth of cross-Channel traffic, the urgent question of the renewal of the short-sea fleet of the B.T.C. and its installations, and the possible entry of Britain into the Common Market make an early decision on the tunnel highly desirable, if not vital.

1961 December, “The Channel Tunnel—a realistic proposal”, in Trains Illustrated, page 722:

The TSSA said that access to the furlough scheme should be reinstated for the cross-Channel operator to protect jobs, while the RMT said a financial 'safety net' was needed to prevent Eurostar "tipping over". It follows similar but unheeded calls made at the very start of the pandemic, when international travel fell by more than 95% and Eurostar was forced to scale back its operation to just one service between London and Paris each day.

2022 January 12, “Network News: Unions urge government to provide financial support for Eurostar”, in RAIL, number 948, page 6:

(UK) Usually relating to anything that takes place across the English Channel, as opposed to other channels.


crossrail

A crossrail link to Aberdeen and Stonehaven is planned.

2004, Bernard Ingham, Gerry Hassan, The Political Guide to Modern Scotland: People, Places and Power, Politico's Publishing:

We need to change the name of the Manchester Hub. Crossrail for the north of England is a better term, otherwise people will view it as a Greater Manchester project and will miss out on exactly what it is actually going to do.

2010 February 15, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee, quoting Professor Begg, Priorities for investment in the railways: third report of session 2009-10, Vol. 2: Oral and written evidence, The Stationery Office, →ISBN, page 7:

The proposal to build a second Crossrail line would create a new high-frequency, high-capacity rail line running south west to north east across London.

2013 June 27, Great Britain: H.M. Treasury, Investing in Britain's future, Stationery Office, →ISBN, page 25:

(UK, rail transport) A commuter rail line that crosses a major city through a tunnel and which continues for a significant distance into the surrounding areas, generally with relatively high speeds and widely spaced stations compared to an underground or metro.


wag it

en-verb

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

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

(UK, slang, dated) Synonym of play the wag (“to play truant from school”).


big jobs

(UK, informal) number two (the act of defecation)


and have done with it

and be done with it
and be done with it#English


Rag

(UK, slang, obsolete) Synonym of Rag and Famish (“the Army and Navy Club in London, England”).


PCHR

Personal Child Health Record
w:Personal Child Health Record

(UK) Initialism of Personal Child Health Record.


queer as a coot

(simile, UK, informal) Ostentatiously homosexual.

(simile, UK, informal) Someone considered very strange.


how very dare you

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-how very dare you.wav

Catchphrase from British TV comedy series The Catherine Tate Show (first broadcast in 2004). An illogical blend of how dare you with "how very rude" or similar.

'How very dare you! I'm a respectable lady, I'll have you know. I've never left my key ring in anyone's fruit bowl.' I feign outrage. I know what he's referring to, but it's still fun teasing him.

2015, Carmel Harrington, Every Time a Bell Rings:

There was something 'how very dare you' about Jeremy Corbyn's recent temper tantrum in rebuttal of the charge that the company he kept reflected badly on him.

2017, Howard Jacobson, The Dog's Last Walk (and Other Pieces):

(British, humorous, emphatic) Synonym of how dare you.


OGC

Office of Government Commerce
w:Office of Government Commerce

(UK, historical, 2000–2011) Initialism of Office of Government Commerce.


wood burner

wood burners (plural)
wood-burner (alternative)

(UK) A heater or stove that burns wood for fuel.


brake tender

By the beginning of April at least seven green-liveried diesel brake tenders had been delivered to Toton depot and were being tested with B.R. Sulzer Type 4 diesels.

1962 June, “Motive Power Miscellany: London Midland Region”, in Modern Railways, page 423:

(rail transport, UK) A railway vehicle which provided extra braking on freight trains with unfitted wagons (without automatic brakes) hauled by diesel locomotives, which being generally lighter than steam locomotives had less braking power. With the phasing out of unfitted wagons the brake tenders became redundant.


cliff lift

A branch of rail transport that seems to been rather neglected by historians is that concerned with cliff railways, of which a fair number exist in Great Britain. This is probably because these lines are overshadowed by the more spectacular funicular railways in Switzerland and other mountainous regions; perhaps, too, because of the general habit of referring to them as "cliff lifts," which tends to associate them with the vertical indoor type.

1951 August, P. W. Gentry, “Cliff Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 514:

(transport, UK) A funicular that runs between the top and the bottom of a cliff, usually at a seaside location.


rubber heels

[…] Going in to do the work of the Rubber Heels.'
She asked what the Rubber Heels were, when they were at home.
'The Rubber Heels, heart, are the police investigation department. […]

2003, John E. Gardner, The Streets of Town, page 14:

[…] their programme may actually have served to enhance the attractiveness and legitimacy of CIB work, a job much reviled in the heyday of The Sweeney when the 'rubber-heels' brigade of A10 were portrayed as yet another hurdle in the pursuit of villains and justice.

2012, Frank Leishman, Paul Mason, Policing and the Media, page 147:

(UK, dated, informal) Police officers tasked with investigating corruption within the police force.


pipe the side

pipe the side (third-person singular simple present pipes the side, present participle piping the side, simple past and past participle piped the side)

pipes the side (present singular third-person)
piping the side (participle present)
piped the side (participle past)
piped the side (past)

(UK, nautical) To salute a distinguished visitor arriving on a warship by playing the boatswain's pipe.


idiot's lantern

en-noun

idiot's lantern (plural idiot's lanterns)

The idea of restoring a car is very tempting on many levels, whether it is the sense of achievement in having saved a 2CV from the scrap man, the acquiring and exercising of new skills, better use of your time than hours glued to the idiot's lantern or last but not least, the chance to save some hard earned money.

2007, Mark Paxton, The Essential Buyer's Guide: Citroën 2CV, Veloce Publishing, page 51:


jocteleg

joctelegs (plural)
jockteleg (alternative)

1836, Joanna Baillie, Witchcraft, Act 1, p.41.
'O you ugly witch! show your elrich face from behint the hangings there, an' I'll score you aboon the breath wi' a jocteleg.'

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) Pocketknife.


tumpty

(UK, dated, dialect, Shropshire) A small, solid or padded stool, footstool or pouf.


early closing

The index to stations does not show early closing days or stations with car parks.

1962 July, “Talking of Trains: The new all-line timetable”, in Modern Railways, page 10:

(UK, dated) The practice of business premises in a town closing for one afternoon each week.


clapperdudgeon

(UK dialectal, archaic) A beggar who would apply blood or sores to his body in order to gain attention and attract more alms.


car-sleeper

The Car-Sleeper is a British Railways ingenuity that has caught the Continental fancy. The convenience of the car for the short-distance journey is undeniable—but not so its comfort and relaxation for the long haul. The Car-Sleeper doesn't attempt to challenge the car's attractions for the start of the journey or its usefulness at destination; but it relieves driver and passengers of the strain of a gruelling long-distance drive, [...].

1962 July, Marcus Newman, “By Car-Sleeper to Switzerland”, in Modern Railways, page 48:

(rail transport, UK) A sleeping car train which also includes vehicles for carrying passengers' motor cars.


shower of shite

shower of shite (plural showers of shite)

(vulgar, chiefly UK, Ireland, very uncommon) Alternative form of shower of shit.


family allowance

family allowance (plural family allowances)

(UK) A former type of social security payment made to families with children; now replaced by child benefit.


gouch

en-verb

gouch (third-person singular simple present gouches, present participle gouching, simple past and past participle gouched)

gouches (present singular third-person)
gouching (participle present)
gouched (participle past)
gouched (past)

The TV is everyone's go-to when they're off and gouching in the house.

2020 November 21, Christina O'Neill, “40 things to do while staying at home during Tier 4 lockdown”, in Glasgow Live:

(UK, slang) to feel drowsy due to the effects of heroin


unfulfil

unfulfil (third-person singular simple present unfulfils, present participle unfulfilling, simple past and past participle unfulfilled)

unfulfils (present singular third-person)
unfulfilling (participle present)
unfulfilled (participle past)
unfulfilled (past)


Oxfordish

en-adj

Oxfordish (comparative more Oxfordish, superlative most Oxfordish)

more Oxfordish (comparative)
most Oxfordish (superlative)

(UK, colloquial) Resembling or characteristic of the English city of Oxford.


Oxfordish

"[…] Did I not forbid all these nicknames and all this Oxfordish, by proclamation, last Long."
"Last Long?"
"Hem! last protracted vacation."

(UK, colloquial, dated) The slang spoken at the University of Oxford.


all standing

[…] and then with a terrific crash the ship brought up all standing, and we were hurled against the bridge screens by the force of the collision.

2008, Robert C. Stem, Destroyer Battles: Epics of Naval Close Combat:

A couple of girls were standing alongside an ambulance drawn up next to the lorry, out of which they had apparently just crawled, having slept all standing, as all had I suppose.

1917, Edward Percy Stebbing, At the Serbian Front in Macedonia, page 77:

No man had aught to cover him save his blankets, in which he slept “all standing,” i.e., with his clothes on.

1925, Fitzhugh Green, Our Naval Heritage, page 106:

(UK, naval) Wearing one's clothes, for example while sleeping.


field ambulance

en-noun

field ambulance (plural field ambulances)

(British and Commonwealth, chiefly historical) A military mobile medical facility set up on or near the battlefield in order to provide initial medical treatment to the wounded.


wakeman

(UK, historical) A man employed to preside over a nightly curfew in the city of Ripon, England.


Gronk

(British, rail transport) A British Rail Class 09 locomotive.


signal lad

Signal lads are employed at the panel-operated boxes to record train times. A small replica of the track diagram with simplified track circuit indications and the general circuit telephone concentrators are incorporated in their desk, as here at Tonbridge.

1962 August, G. M. Kichenside, “Resignalling for the Kent Coast electrification—Phase II”, in Modern Railways, page 113, photo caption:

(rail transport, UK) A young man employed in a signalbox to record the times of trains as they pass through the area served by the signalbox.


third time lucky

third time's a charm
third time's a charm#English


euhemerisation

euhemerisation (countable and uncountable, plural euhemerisations)

(UK) Alternative form of euhemerization.


fanackapan

term of endearment
term of endearment#English

(dated, chiefly British) A term of endearment, used especially when addressing a child.


prat around

en-verb

prat around (third-person singular simple present prats around, present participle pratting around, simple past and past participle pratted around)

prats around (present singular third-person)
pratting around (participle present)
pratted around (participle past)
pratted around (past)

(British, Ireland, intransitive, informal) To behave foolishly.


extension lead

(electronics, UK, Ireland) extension cord


above a bit

Eh Polly! Aw do you love thee above a bit.

He did vex me above a bit.


that's done it

(UK, informal) Used to express annoyance or announce that one has reached the limit of one's patience or temper.


groaning board

(UK, historical) A platter of food traditionally given to the mother of a household around the time of childbirth.


conditional unconditional

en-noun

conditional unconditional (plural conditional unconditionals)

(UK, education) An offer of a place at a particular university for a student, regardless of their performance in examinations, on the condition that they agree to choose that university over any other.


egg flip

egg flip (countable and uncountable, plural egg flips)


yawnups

(UK, Yorkshire, dialect, obsolete) A stupid person.


yowlring

(British, dialectal, obsolete) Alternative form of yoldring (“yellowhammer”).


ferry wagon

One train ferry wagon, with the inscription "On hire to L.N.E.R.," was carrying British prisoners; and another odd sight was an L.N.E.R. container on a German flat wagon, offering "Door to Door Transport."

1946 March and April, “Notes and News: Train Watching in a P.O.W. Camp”, in Railway Magazine, page 117:

The first of 150 Continental-type four-wheel ferry wagons ordered by B.R. have been received for the Harwich/Zeebrugge train ferry service. Built by the Pressed Steel Co., the vans have a maximum capacity of 20½ tons in ordinary and 18 tons in express freight service.

1962 October, “New ferry wagons for B.R.”, in Modern Railways, page 225:

(rail transport, UK, dated) Any type of goods wagon built for train ferry traffic to and from continental Europe.


precarisation

precarisation (usually uncountable, plural precarisations)

British standard spelling of precarization.


trip working

trip working (countable and uncountable, plural trip workings)

The provision of the new yard permitted closure of four existing installations, between which there was a great deal of trip working.

1962 October, G. Freeman Allen, “The New Look in Scotland's Northern Division—II”, in Modern Railways, page 267:

(rail transport, UK, uncountable) The operation of short-distance freight trains, e.g. between goods yards.


cassabully

(UK, Cornwall, dialect, obsolete) wintercress


zhooshy

en-adj

zhooshy (comparative zhooshier, superlative zhooshiest)

zhooshier (comparative)
zhooshiest (superlative)
jujy (alternative)
zhoozhy (alternative)
zhushy (alternative)
zhuzhy (alternative)

First to catch out eye are the zhooshy ombre coloured cushions, Stravklint, and duvet set, Pipstakra but that's just the tip of the flatpack iceberg.

2019 July 31, Kylie Klein-Nixon, “Ikea: Five things in the 2020 catalogue we hope to buy in New Zealand”, in Stuff:

(originally Polari, British, Australia, New Zealand, slang) Showy, flashy, ornate.


faffage

(UK, informal) Time-wasting or preparatory tasks; faffing about.


halliblash

(UK, Lancashire, dialect, obsolete) A great blaze, or something that dazzles.


yezzy

yezzy (comparative more yezzy, superlative most yezzy)

more yezzy (comparative)
most yezzy (superlative)

"They tell me tha's bin takken for murdher," David began, addressing the trembling wanderer, "but that's o a mistake, so keep thi mind yezzy abeaut it."

1894, John Trafford Clegg, David's Loom: A Story of Rochdale's Life in the Early Years of the Nineteenth Century, page 259:


yonside

(UK, dialect, obsolete) On the other side.


yonside

(UK, dialect, obsolete) On the other side of.


policeman's helmet

(UK, uncountable) The invasive plant Impatiens glandulifera.


Brummagem

(UK, colloquial, dialect) The city of Birmingham, England.


bullimong

From Middle English bulimong from bule (“bull”) + imong (“mixture”).

(UK, obsolete) A mixture of oats, barley, etc. sown to provide cattle feed.


cattle dock

The depot covers an area of 57 acres and consists of a shed 480ft by 207ft to handle both forwarded and received traffic, a combined office and amenities block, weighbridge and a cattle dock.

1962 December, “Talking of Trains: Walsall sundries concentration depot”, in Modern Railways, page 367:

(rail transport, UK, dated) A pen on a platform in a railway goods yard for cattle travelling by rail.


loading bank

(rail transport, UK, dated) A platform, often with a ramp at one or both ends, provided in a railway goods yard for the purpose of loading and unloading goods wagons.


daddocky

daddocky (comparative more daddocky, superlative most daddocky)

more daddocky (comparative)
most daddocky (superlative)


Eirean

From Eire + -an. "Éire" is the official Irish-language name of the state under its 1937 Constitution. In the United Kingdom "Eire" was used in English, officially until 1949 and unofficially for decades longer. The adjective "Eirean" was invented accordingly. See names of the Irish state.

Clause 1 of this Bill enables the Parliament of Northern Ireland to make legislative provisions for hydro-electric, drainage, water and other schemes to be operated on both sides of the border in conjunction with the Eirean authorities.

1947 June 13, George Oliver "NORTHERN IRELAND BILL" Hansard HC Deb vol 438 c1468

Since Eire was a neutral country the Air Force could not place its own rescue-launches on her coasts, but the life-boats in Eire were part of the single life-boat fleet of the British Isles, and the Institution was able, with the consent of the Eirean Government, to do what the Air Ministry asked of it.

1957, “Lifeboats and Lifesaving”, in Encyclopaedia Brittanica, volume 14, page 26:

At the outset I must make it plain that I have no objection to the principle of the Anglo-Eirean Free Trade Agreement. On the contrary, I am in favour of full co-operation with Eire in trade, commerce and tourism from which both countries can derive considerable economic advantage.

1967 November 30, James Hamilton [later Duke of Abercorn] "NORTHERN IRELAND (MEAT INDUSTRY)" Hansard HC Deb vol 755 c797

1982 December 16, "NORTHERN IRELAND RESIDENTS AND EIREAN PASSPORTS" Hansard HL Deb vol 437 c834WA

(British, obsolete, deprecated) of the state called Eire or the Republic of Ireland, as distinct from the island of Ireland


Eirean

Adjectives become missiles when used by an Eirean. The word “elegant,” for instance, is used by Mr. O'Casey as if it were a synonym for unmentionable crimes. It is applied to every non-Eirean he mentions.

1945 November 30, St. John Ervine, letter to The Spectator

As things are, Ulstermen are being kept more successfully in Ulster than Eireans are being kept in Eire.

1956 July 21, “Was Ulster Right?”, in The Economist, page 215:

The tragedy was that Northern Ireland (Scottish) Protestants thought themselves like the British. Northern Ireland (Irish) Catholics thought themselves like Eireans (proper Irish).

1996, Robert McLiam Wilson, Eureka Street, Arcade, published 1997, →ISBN, page 163:

(British, obsolete, rare, deprecated) A citizen of Eire


Eireann

Borrowed from Irish Éireann "Ireland's; of Ireland", genitive case of Éire, "Ireland".

The neutrality, however, causes some peculiar situations, such as that arising from the prohibition of uniforms other than those of the Eireann Defence Forces and the Diplomatic Corps. This would be simple if no one from Eire were a sailor, soldier, or airman in the British Forces, but thousands of them are, and as such they may not wear mufti unless on leave from the B.E.F.

1940 May, “The Irish Railways Today”, in Railway Magazine, page 295:

An Eireann member of the Forces can, however, elect to take his discharge here and stay here for good or proceed to Eire and return within the period of demobilization leave, that is eight weeks, and then remain.

1945 December 10, Sir William Jowett, "IRISH VOLUNTEERS AND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT" Hansard HL Deb vol 138 c540

1971 November 30, "EIREANN CITIZENS IN GREAT BRITAIN" Hansard HL Deb vol 326 cc140-2

(British, politics, obsolete, deprecated) Alternative spelling of Eirean.


arm in crook

1849, Anne Beale, Traits and Stories of the Welsh Peasantry, London: George Routledge, No. 5, p. 104,
We were determined not to let go of one another this time, so we went on, arm in crook again;

‘The proper way is for the bridesmaids to walk together,’ suggested Fancy.
‘What? ’Twas always young man and young woman, arm in crook, in my time!’ said Geoffrey, astounded.

1872, [Thomas Hardy], chapter I, in Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School, volume II, London: Tinsley Brothers, →OCLC, part V, pages 198–199:

Once outside the gate, Frederick and Karl stride ahead, arm in crook, their heads tilted close so as not to drop anything important between them.

2015, Gavin McCrea, Mrs Engels, Melbourne: Scribe, page 28:

(UK, dialectal, dated, of two people) With arms linked together.


Pencourt

(UK, journalism) Barrie Penrose and Roger Courtiour collectively.


parlour palm

parlour palms (plural)
parlor palm (alternative)

British standard spelling of parlor palm.


dinner man

Based on dinner lady. This was traditionally a female occupation.

(British, informal) A man employed to serve food in a school or work canteen.


alchochoden

To his judicial astrology , And trowl the Trine , the Quartile , and the Sextile , Platic aspect , and Partile , with his Hyleg , Or Alchochoden , Cuspes , and Horoscope

1625 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Staple of Newes. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

(obsolete, UK, dialect, astrology) The planet which bears rule in the principal places of an astrological figure when a person is born.


user-worked

A near-miss between a Greater Anglia Class 755 and two cars on a user-worked level crossing near Wroxham is being investigated by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB).

2021 March 10, “RAIB investigates near-miss at user-worked crossing”, in RAIL, number 926, page 18:

(rail transport, UK) Of a level crossing, one where a railway crosses a right of way such as a road on private land, a footpath or a bridleway. Any gates or barriers provided often need to be operated manually, with some crossings requiring users to telephone a signaller to check that it is safe to cross.


IOPC

Independent Office for Police Conduct
w:Independent Office for Police Conduct

(UK) Initialism of Independent Office for Police Conduct.


second-gear valuation

en-noun

second-gear valuation (plural second-gear valuations)

From the notion that the agent not only is doing a drive-by evaluation but also is not even necessarily doing it slowly: second gear rather than first gear (low gear).

(UK, informal) The assignment of a property to a tax band by an estate agent who evaluates the property while driving past it.


APTU

(UK, historical) Initialism of anti-poll tax union.


monomark

From mono- + mark. The original company, British Monomarks Ltd, launched its service in 1925.

(UK, historical) A short alphanumeric sequence used in place of a postal address.


pupil premium

(UK, education) A grant awarded by the government to schools in England for the benefit of disadvantaged students.


knobend

No, I'm fuckin ' delited dat meself an ' Derek leave youse two alone fer two bleedin' minits te go te de jax, an' wen we come back, yer givin' it lodes te some knobend ! ”

2003, Donal Ruane, Tales in a Rearview Mirror, page 170:

We'd bother beforehand when some knobend took exception to Fred's accent. Within seconds, a team of boys from Kelty was on the scene, and the knobend was removed.

2011, Adrian Searle, The Hope That Kills Us:

That isn't to say there aren't “knobends” in the voluntary sector – there are plenty of them. But the ethos of the sector is about positive social change for the better, and breaking taboos of all kinds is part of this.

2019, Jen Wight, Rattled: Overcoming Postpartum Psychosis:

(UK, Ireland) Alternative form of knob-end.


knob-end

knob-ends (plural)
knobend (alternative)
knob end (alternative)
nob end (alternative)
nob-end (alternative)

He appreciated a man giving head as much as anyone, and he was sure as hell gonna enjoy the feel of his knob-end slipping between Casey's hungry lips.

2006, Marc Holland, Mark Stone: Secret Agent, page 30:

Lenny Plant thought the world of his foreskin, appreciating the benefits it bestowed on his knob-end.

2014, Andrew Price, Poor Enid, page 343:

(UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar) The glans penis

Why did these knob-ends so much want us to fail?

2001, Hamish MacDonald, The Gravy Star, page 51:

Nothing ever sickened me more than pre-season friendlies, when English teams would come over and total knob-ends would actually show up at the matches to cheer on the foreign side.

2006, Johnny Fallon, Party Time: Growing Up in Politics, page 157:

That's it, you pair of knob-ends.

2010, Kimberley Chambers, The Betrayer, page 150:

(UK, Ireland, slang, offensive, vulgar) A stupid or contemptible person


infant school

(UK) A primary school, generally for children aged between four and seven.


Piccadilly butcher

Piccadilly butcher (plural Piccadilly butchers)

In reference to their savage onslaught upon the crowd on the occasion of the arrest of Sir Francis Burdett at his house in Piccadilly.

The mob in the meantime holloaed out, "No Corn Bill!" While they were proceeding in this manner, a cry was raised that "the Piccadilly butchers were coming."

1875, The Law Magazine and Review, page 554:

"In 1810, my father very nearly had his head cloven by a Piccadilly butcher when merely looking on to see Sir Francis Burdett taken to the tower."

(obsolete, UK, slang, derogatory) A member of the regiment of Horse Guards, or "Royal Blues".


monkey boat

(UK, slang) A long, narrow kind of half-decked canal boat.


Stinkomalee

Coined by Theodore Hook, apparently Blend of stink + Trincomalee, perhaps because some cow-houses and dunghills stood on the original site.

(UK, slang, derogatory, obsolete) The University of London.


carry me out

(UK, informal) Exclamation of pretended astonishment on hearing news too good to be true, or a story too marvellous to be believed.


schism-shop

(UK, slang, obsolete) A Dissenters' meetinghouse.


snake and pygmy pie

snake and pygmy pie (plural snake and pygmy pies)

steak and kidney pie
steak and kidney pie


Paddy's Goose

"Paddy's Goose," or the "White Swan," as it is called by its owner, is perhaps the most frightful hell-hole in London. The very sublimity of vice and degradation is here attained, […]

1870, Daniel Joseph Kirwan, Palace and Hovel, Or, Phases of London Life, page 633:

To-day the White Swan, better known as Paddy's Goose, once one of the vilest dance-houses in Ratcliff Highway, is to be opened as a Mission Hall by the Wesleyan Methodist Home Mission, […]

1890, Francis Edward Smiley, The Evangelization of a Great City, page 209:

(UK, slang, obsolete) The White Swan, a celebrated public house in Ratcliff Highway, east London, England.


Newgate knocker

Newgate knocker (plural Newgate knockers)

Supposed to resemble the knocker on the prisoners' door at Newgate.

(UK, slang, obsolete) A lock of hair worn twisted back toward the ear.


never trust me

Pet[ruchio]. Now for my life Hortentio feares his Widow.
Wid[ow]. Then neuer truſt me if I be affeard.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 227, column 2:

Never trust me if I had not a suspicion from the first that 'twas that ill-looked fellow B— who made that story Mr. D— told you.

1888, Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-1654:

(UK, slang, obsolete) Used in oaths, suggesting that one should never be trusted again if what one says now is not true.


muffin worry

But Benedict has not only changed his manner and his habits, he has got new duties, and where his wife goes he may go, and ought to go. He can no longer claim exemption from solemn dinners, from weary muffin-worries, […]

1864, The Habits of Good Society, page 99:

I wish she was at the bottom of the sea, or else having muffin worries in her musty old London lodgings — anything but coming here and turning everything into gall and vinegar.

1874, Eliza Stephenson, Hope Meredith, page 118:

(UK, slang) An elderly lady's tea party.


Hob Collingwood

(card games, obsolete, UK, North Country) The four of hearts, considered an unlucky card.


Tooley Street tailor

Tooley Street tailor (plural Tooley Street tailors)

The "three tailors of Tooley Street" are said to have immortalized themselves by preparing a petition for Parliament bearing only their own signatures, which began, "We, the people of England..."

(UK, slang, archaic) A self-important, vainglorious person.


Spike Park

(UK, slang, obsolete) The Queen's Bench Prison in south London, England.


London Ordinary

(UK, slang, obsolete) The beach at Brighton.


egg-hot

Jennie Fox watched it with thoughtful pleasure, and the rest were chatting and telling of bygones, enjoying a glass of egg-hot; it being a custom for them to partake of this beverage on this particular night.

1881, Pearl Hyem, The fisherman's cove; or, Christianity realised, page 54:


Tories on bikes

So-called due to bicycles being commonly prescribed as an environmentally friendly form of personal transportation.

The only viable alternative for decades has been The Australian Greens, formerly a protest party, but now a progressive middle-class party. It’s a coalition of Tories on bikes, socially conscious baby boomers who live in architect-designed homes, and millennials who haven’t yet graduated from edgy liberalism to socialism.

2018 September 7, Ivan Mitchell, Daniel Lopez, “The Immodest Victorian Socialists”, in Jacobin, retrieved 2021-04-01:

A derogatory name for the Greens is "Tories on bikes"; they also oppose building on green belts around cities, and thus inadvertently encourage car commuting, with its attendant car pollution.

2019, Danny Dorling, Rule Britannia: Brexit and the End of Empire, Biteback Publishing, →ISBN, retrieved 2021-04-01:

But lest we forget the Green Party’s concern for the workers who make these cheap clothes in counties such as Bangladesh, the reality is that when it comes to employees’ rights they are merely Tories on bikes.

2020 September 11, Pat Flanagan, “Green Party out of touch with ordinary people and seem to like punishing poor”, in Irish Mirror, retrieved 2021-04-01:

(politics, derogatory, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) Members or supporters of a Green Party who are politically conservative.


O&G

Alternative form of obs and gynae (British, Commonwealth, not Canada)


obs and gynae

obs and gynae (countable and uncountable, plural obs and gynaes)

a physician in obstetrics and gynaecology


LTN

LTNs are areas closed to through-traffic, which allow people to drive to them but not through them, to prevent motorists using residential roads as shortcuts.

2021 June 19, “Hundreds protest over Oxford Low Traffic Neighbourhoods”, in BBC News:

In fact, LTNs are championed by the Oxfordshire county council; the separate Oxford City Council has cited the 15-minute city as an inspiration for its vision of the city in 2040.

2023 March 28, Tiffany Hsu, “He Wanted to Unclog Cities. Now He’s ‘Public Enemy No. 1.’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(UK, urban studies) Initialism of low-traffic neighbourhood.


fag packet

But what they have done is to make an announcement and then patch it up with a 'back of a fag packet' announcement... and then practically banned fag packets! […] The list may have sounded impressive as Rishi Sunak rattled them off in his speech, but it did not take more than a cursory examination to reveal that the fag packet had been used to draw it up.

2023 October 18, Christian Wolmar, “The back of a fag packet used for unworkable rail plans”, in RAIL, number 994, pages 44-45:


jobmistress

(UK, historical) A female job master (one who lets out horses and carriages).


roasting tin

(cooking, UK) A kitchen utensil used for roasting.


NPQH

w:National Professional Qualification for Headship

(UK, education) Initialism of National Professional Qualification for Headship.


neshly

en-adv

neshly (comparative more neshly, superlative most neshly)

more neshly (comparative)
most neshly (superlative)


stitched up like a kipper

en-adj

stitched up like a kipper (not comparable)

Probably from done up like a kipper and stitch up, or directly from kipper and stitch up.

(simile, UK, slang) cheated or exploited; treated unfairly


Blind Half-Hundred

So called because many members suffered from ophthalmia.

(UK, military, historical, slang) The 50th (Queen's Own) Regiment of Foot.


Grove of the Evangelist

(UK, slang, obsolete, humorous) The district of St John's Wood in London, England.


nap the regulars

en-verb

nap the regulars (third-person singular simple present naps the regulars, present participle napping the regulars, simple past and past participle napped the regulars)

naps the regulars (present singular third-person)
napping the regulars (participle present)
napped the regulars (participle past)
napped the regulars (past)

(UK, slang, obsolete) To divide up the booty.


medical Greek

Their form is like the "Medical Greek" of London medical students, who "poke a smipe" instead of smoking a pipe, and take a "stint of pout" for a pint of stout.

1898, The Pedagogical Seminary, volume 5, page 375:

(UK, historical) The English slang once used by medical students in London hospitals, involving deliberate spoonerisms.


mahogany flat

When ready for sea we went up to Greenhithe, that their lordships might inspect us, and then to Portsmouth, to take troops to Cork, a pleasant trip; but the troops left us a legacy of "mahogany flats," with which their beds were so swarming that we never got them under.

1892, Sir George Giffard, Reminiscences of a Naval Officer, page 45:


Norfolk Howard

Said to be an allusion to a person named Ephraim Bug, who advertised that in the future he would call himself by the more aristocratic name of Norfolk Howard.

All the insects he had sorted, / Placed in paper bags the insects, / In one bag the Norfolk Howards, / In one bag the fleas, the Jumpers […]

1888, James Arthur Lees, Walter J. Clutterbuck, B.C. 1887: A Ramble in British Columbia, page 244:

Speaking of advertising changes of name, a title by which those lodging-house pests, bugs, are now often known, that of Norfolk Howards, is derived from an advertisement in which one Ephraim Bug avowed his intention of being for the future known as Norfolk Howard.

1874, Henry Sampson, A history of advertising, page 278:


cat and kitten sneaking

In the police courts it is not uncommon to hear that such and such low persons have been "had up" for "cat and kitten sneaking," i.e., stealing quart and pint pots.

1867, Jacob Larwood, John Camden Hotten, The History of Signboards, page 177:

(UK, slang, obsolete) The theft of pint and quart pots and small pewter spirit measures from public houses.


old gentleman

(UK, slang, obsolete) A playing card that is almost imperceptibly longer than the others in the deck, used by cheats.


give someone his gruel

give someone his gruel (third-person singular simple present gives someone his gruel, present participle giving someone his gruel, simple past gave someone his gruel, past participle given someone his gruel)

gives someone his gruel (present singular third-person)
giving someone his gruel (participle present)
gave someone his gruel (past)
given someone his gruel (participle past)

Perhaps a reference to administering poison.

"Cruel! Cruel! Cruel!" he cried. "Yes, you gave him his gruel hot enough," answered Charlotte.

I have 'barkers' by Nock, Sir,
 With percussion locks, Sir,
 Will give you your gruel —
 hang me if I box, Sir

1856, Thomas Ingoldsby, The Ingoldsby Legends: Or, Mirth & Marvels, page 87:

(UK, slang, obsolete) To kill or trounce someone.


bellows to mend

This constitutes the process of respiration or breathing, and on its due performance will chiefly depend the health and usefulness of the animal. A horse calling “bellows-to-mend” is fit for little.

1859, James Crawford Ledlie Carson, The Form of the Horse, page 25:

A pause now took place, and some mutual feinting and dodging, it being 'bellows to mend' on each side.

1897, R. G. Allanson-Winn, Bertram Fletcher Robinson, Boxing, page 72:


Field-lane duck

en-noun

Field-lane duck (plural Field-lane ducks)

Field Lane was a low London thoroughfare leading from the foot of Holborn Hill to the purlieus of Clerkenwell.

(UK, obsolete, slang) A baked sheep's head.


needy mizzler

(UK, slang, obsolete) A shabby person; a tramp who runs away without paying for his lodging.


cold meat train

cold meat train (plural cold meat trains)

So called because this train used to convey corpses to Woking on behalf of the London Necropolis Company.

(UK, slang, obsolete, military) The last railway train of the night by which officers could reach Aldershot via the South Western Railway.


Dizzy

(UK, slang, humorous) Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881), 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, and twice prime minister of the United Kingdom.


EHCP

(UK, education) Initialism of education, health and care plan.


wodgy

en-adj

wodgy (comparative wodgier, superlative wodgiest)

wodgier (comparative)
wodgiest (superlative)

(colloquial, chiefly UK, Ireland) bulky, solid


NDPB

non-departmental public body
w:non-departmental public body

(UK, government) Initialism of non-departmental public body.


Seeley's pigs

From the surname, Seeley, of a member of parliament who called attention in the House of Commons to the waste of pig iron in the dockyards.

(UK, slang, obsolete) Unused blocks of iron kept in government dockyards.


dukey

dukeys (plural)
dookie (alternative)
dooky (alternative)

Delicate perfumes floated through the theatre; at the penny "dukey," fried fish and hot codlins reminded you more of food than fantasy.

1919, Thomas McDonald Rendle, Swings and Roundabouts: A Yokel in London, page 50:

Between the pieces were individual turns, comic songs and dances. […] Simpson, also the proprietor of a Dukey in Queen Square, Westminster, was the aristocrat of the Penny Gaffs.

1960, Theatre Notebook, volumes 14-16, page 122:


foont

Perhaps from French vingt (“twenty”), since a sovereign was worth 20 shillings.

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


French cream

An allusion to the French custom of taking brandy in one's tea instead of cream.


shoful

en-noun

shoful (countable and uncountable, plural shofuls)

From German Schofel (“worthless stuff, rubbish”), substantive use of schofel (“base, mean, worthless”), representing the German-Jewish pronunciation of Hebrew שפל (shāphēl, “low”).

bor

(obsolete, UK, slang, countable) A Hansom cab.

To discover […] how the honest poor are compelled to hob-and-nob with the “shoful pitcher” and the “gun,” it is necessary to visit the vast nursery-grounds of crime.

1863, Blanchard Jerrold, Signals of Distress in Refuges and Homes of Charity (etc.), page 2:

(obsolete, UK, slang, uncountable) Counterfeit money.


upon my sivvy

Sivvy is a clipped corruption of asseveration.

(UK, obsolete, slang) Upon my soul or honour; used to underline the truth of what one is saying.


gay tyke boy

The Sprig of Myrtle is matched with the pink of Bow—the gay tyke boys are all up in their stirrups at the news.

1850, William Thomas Moncrieff, An original collection of Songs, sung at the Theatres Royal, etc, page 107:

The Plate is a correct representation of the animation displayed upon this subject by the gay TYKE-BOYS; and most of their nobs for low cunning are able to get the “best of” the keenest barristers in the kingdom, […]

1870, Pierce Egan, Life in London, etc, page 260:


copus

tlb

(UK, slang, obsolete, Cambridge University)

PORSON, Whose very name conjures up the spirits of ten thousand wits, holding both sides, over a copus of Trinity ale and a classical pun, would not only frequently “steal a few hours from the night,” but see out both lights and liquids, and seem none the worse for the carouse.

1835, Richard Gooch, Oxford and Cambridge Nuts to Crack, page 25:

We beg you would not stand fiddling about it, but be married forthwith, and then take chaise, and come […] all the way to Cambridge […] for our copuses and Welsh rabbits are impatient for you.

1855, Thomas Gray, William Mason, John Mitford, The Correspondence of Thomas Gray and William Mason, page 352:

A drink of ale mixed with spices, and varied by spirits, wines, etc.


butcher's mourning

Hats off, down there, you in the white hat and crape — you in the butcher's mourning — bonnet him — silence! Yes, says the Brahmin, the ceremony is about to begin; the national games are about to commence.

1855, William Calcraft, The Groans of the Gallows, page 13:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A white hat with a black mourning hatband.


shop-bouncer

This scheme has had a great run among the shop-bouncers, as has that of taking a boy in with them, when they first go into the shop, who, whilst the same examination of the goods is going on, contrives to put three or four pieces of handkerchiefs into the man's hat, which has been previously laid on the counter for the purpose.

1833, Thomas Wontner, Old Bailey Experience, page 372:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A shoplifter's accomplice who distracts the salesperson.


yh

Yh I can understand that.[…]Yh I agree with you on this, although links don't really kill it for me.

2010 December 1, Adam Rowney, “Why no real forum?!”, in rec.juggling (Usenet):

There is no point in me uploading this, since it is practically last minute, but yh....[…]So yh..

2014, Anastasios Maragiannis, Multidisciplinary Design Processes, 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 150:

Yh, I see.

2021, Roger Francis, Thank God For Atheism, AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

(UK, Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of yeah.


spacko

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

They pushed him in and began shouting at him: 'We don't want any 'Spackos' living here.'

2015, Paul Giannasi, Robina Shah, Tackling Disability Discrimination and Disability Hate Crime:

(British slang, derogatory) Synonym of spack (“clumsy, foolish, or mentally deficient person”).


Uppinghamian

(British) A student or alumnus of Uppingham School in Rutland, England.


Inland Revenue

(UK, taxation, historical) A British government department responsible for the collection of taxes (not including local taxes and customs and excise duties).


snogathon

(UK, slang) A prolonged period of kissing.


wet break

(UK, education) A school playtime when pupils are kept indoors because of rain.


Brown Book

(UK) An annual report to parliament from the Secretary of State for Energy.


I'll get my coat

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-I'll get my coat.wav

From a recurring sketch in British 1990s comedy series The Fast Show, in which a character embarrasses himself and announces "I'll get my coat" before departing.

(Internet slang, UK, humorous) An admission that one has embarrassed oneself and should leave.


ground wallah

(UK, military, aviation, slang, dated) An officer who does not fly aircraft.


on the debit side

On the debit side, I do not recommend the room service.

(idiomatic, British) On the negative or bad side of things.


JMI

(UK, education) Initialism of junior mixed infant (“designating a school that teaches both infant and junior age ranges”).


Jerry Lynch

It is now about the foulest specimen extant of that kind of backslum or alley where, a generation back, according to Hood, pigs and Irish were wont to rally. The pigs, except in the form of hocks, "Jerry Lynch" heads, and other portions of bacon, have been removed by Act of Parliament […]

1875, Henry Sampson, A History of Advertising from the Earliest Times, page 392:

(UK, Ireland, slang, obsolete) A pickled pig's head.


lump the lighter

en-verb

lump the lighter (third-person singular simple present lumps the lighter, present participle lumping the lighter, simple past and past participle lumped the lighter)

lumps the lighter (present singular third-person)
lumping the lighter (participle present)
lumped the lighter (participle past)
lumped the lighter (past)

(UK, slang, obsolete) To be transported as a felon.


pantile shop

In reference to the steeple-crowned or "pantile" hats of the attendees.

(UK, slang, obsolete) Synonym of meetinghouse (“building where Quakers assemble for worship”).


mud student

This dog was bred by a “mud student” in the Coldstream or Cornhill district, and had for his sire a dog Dandie, bred by Mr. Frain of Trows.

1865, Henry Hall Dixon, Field and Fern: Or, Scottish Flocks & Herds (South), page 188:

“Is he a new mud student?”
“He is not the cut of a mud student.”

1894, Rhoda Broughton, A Beginner, page 20:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A student of agriculture.


wobble shop

(UK, slang, obsolete) A shop that sells beer without a licence.


blue Billy

(UK, slang, obsolete) The refuse ammoniacal lime from gas factories.


Essex stile

(UK, slang, humorous, obsolete) A ditch.


Queen's tobacco-pipe

(UK, humorous, dated) Synonym of Queen's pipe (“furnace in which contraband tobacco is burned”).


a quid for a quod

(UK, obsolete, slang) A good turn to repay another.


psalm-smiter

(UK, slang, obsolete) A Ranter; one who sings at a conventicle.


red lane

Now this Malvoisie has a body, and slips down the red lane with an unctuous savour; but the very sweetness which would recommend it to the fancy of a raw drinker, does it damage […]

1852, The Royalist and the Republican, volume 1, page 108:

When you mean to save, begin with your mouth; many thieves pass down the red lane. The ale jug is a great waste.

1884, The Universal Household Assistant, page 128:


lift car

New lift cars were installed as part of the project.

2021 May 5, “News in Brief: New Macclesfield lifts”, in RAIL, number 930, page 27:

(UK) The passenger-carrying vehicle in a lift shaft.


T Level

(UK, education) A two-year technical course taken after GCSEs and equivalent to three A levels, developed to meet the needs of industry.


fifteening

From the British Board of Film Classification's 15 rating.

(UK, fandom slang) The practice of adding swearing to an English anime dub in order to get a higher age classification, which may attract more buyers.


Norway-plus

From the similarity to Norway's arrangement, with plus denoting the addition of a customs union outside of EFTA.

European Economic Area
European Economic Area

(UK, politics) A proposal for a post-Brexit settlement that would have consisted of membership of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Economic Area as an EFTA member state, combined with a separate customs union with the European Union.


shivering Jemmy

en-noun

shivering Jemmy (plural shivering Jemmies)

(obsolete, UK, slang) A person who goes half-naked on the streets in order to beg for money.


towzery gang

(UK, obsolete, slang) A group of swindlers who set up fraudulent auctions with shill bidders.


bubble company

bubble company (plural bubble companies)

(UK, slang, obsolete) A sham business that swindles people.


white satin

What did she want with money, except now and then for a drain of white satin.

1966, Henry Mayhew, Peter Quennell, London's Underworld, page 48:


chive-fencer

(UK, slang, obsolete) A hawker of cutlery in the streets.


bug-walk

Presumably in reference to the bedbugs that might infest it.

[…] Who, when he encounters an over-filled guest, / Either staggering homewards or taking his rest, / Sees him safe to his bug-walk […]

There would be no more visiting in that direction for a while, and back he would roost in his 'bug-walk'.


suck the mop

en-verb

suck the mop (third-person singular simple present sucks the mop, present participle sucking the mop, simple past and past participle sucked the mop)

sucks the mop (present singular third-person)
sucking the mop (participle present)
sucked the mop (participle past)
sucked the mop (past)

"Now then, poppy-head:" — this to the conductor of a rival omnibus before us — "how long am I to go on sucking the mop?"

(slang, idiomatic, UK, obsolete) Of a bus: to be deliberately boxed in by another so as to lose the opportunity to pick up passengers.


crack a crust

crack a crust (third-person singular simple present cracks a crust, present participle cracking a crust, simple past and past participle cracked a crust)

cracks a crust (present singular third-person)
cracking a crust (participle present)
cracked a crust (participle past)
cracked a crust (past)

Yet for all this I do not hear one giving him a good name, though there are many cracking a crust on his account.

1880, Arthur Hamilton, The Confessions of a Scribbler, page 80:

"Cracking a tidy crust, thank you, mate," Abe said sheepishly.

1947, Robert Briffault, New Life of Mr. Martin, page 270:

BIANCA: Well, it's a cooshy enough way to crack a crust...

1997, Eric Lane, Nina Shengold, Plays for Actresses, page 585:

(UK, slang, idiomatic, obsolete) To make a living.


smish

From earlier slang commission, from chemise or related.

He awoke shivering, his heart racing. His smish was soak'd.

2018, Jordy Rosenberg, Confessions of the Fox:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A shirt or chemise.


staggering bob

(UK, Ireland, obsolete) An animal slaughtered not long before it would have died from disease or accident.


Harry-soph

According to a 17th century chronicler, from Latin sophister Henricianus after King Henry VIII, but remodeled to fit a fanciful Ancient Greek *ἐρίσοφος (*erísophos, “very wise indeed”), from ἐρι- (eri-) + σοφός (sophós).

der

(UK, slang, obsolete) A student of law or medicine at Cambridge who, being of the same standing as the students in arts in his year, is allowed to wear a full-sleeved gown when they assume their BA gowns, though he does not obtain his actual degree so soon.


pongelow

Of Anglo-Indian origin, from an Indian language.

(UK, slang, obsolete) beer, or half and half


chatter-basket

(UK, informal, archaic) A talkative person; chatterbox.


flue-faker

The gipsy queen, too, of the flue-fakers was just behind in a donkey-tandem, escorted by a bodyguard of thin-legged gentry of the forked-radish pattern, kiddily togged.

1883, Lewis Strange Wingfield, Abigel Rowe, volume 3, page 23:


cushion-smiter

[…] they pass alternately into church and Dissenting chapel, where “Cushion smiters” once abounded.

1868, Dr. John Doran, Saints and Sinners: Or, In Church and About It, volume 2, page 293:

Who's preaching now? You speak like a cushion-smiter.

1888, James McGrigor Allan, A lady's four perils, volume 1, page 160:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A tubthumping clergyman or preacher.


Tib's Eve

St. Tibb's Eve (alternative)
St. Tib's Eve (alternative)
Tibb's Eve (alternative)

After Tib (or Tibb), a fictional woman of loose morals in 17th-century English plays. Such a woman would not be a saint and so there was no Saint Tib and therefore no Tib's Eve.

Marry you? I'll marry you on Tib's Eve!

(UK, slang, obsolete) A supposed future time that will never arrive.


finnuf

From Yiddish פֿינף (finf, “five”). Doublet of cinque, fin (“five currency units”), five, pimp (“five”), ponzu, punch (“beverage”), and sengi (“currency”).

doublet

Them that puts the most steam into it will get a finnuf slipped to 'em.

1927, Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb, Ladies and Gentlemen, page 129:

"Ya-ar, she's rich, ain't she? Wotjer think? I lay they got a 'aul! Sixty bob, may be. And crowns! And finnufs! Ar!"

1949, Theodore Bonnet, The Mudlark, page 216:

(UK, slang, archaic) A five-pound (£5) note; the sum of five pounds.


sold again and got the money

Costermongers' slang, from the announcement that used to be made when goods were sold.

(UK, slang, obsolete) Announced on having successfully deceived somebody.


cock one's toes

en-verb

cock one's toes (third-person singular simple present cocks one's toes, present participle cocking one's toes, simple past and past participle cocked one's toes)

cocks one's toes (present singular third-person)
cocking one's toes (participle present)
cocked one's toes (participle past)
cocked one's toes (past)

I'll be well pickled by the time I'm ready to cock my toes!

1951, The Irish Monthly, volume 79, page 191:

Captain Giles: Fianna Fáil would like to see you cock your toes but I hope they will not be able.

1955, Ireland. Oireachtas. Dáil, Díosbóireachtaí Párlaiminte: Tuairisc Oifigiúil, volume 151, page 123:


friendly lead

(UK, obsolete) A gathering at a public house, with songs, dancing, etc., to raise money for somebody who is in prison or otherwise in trouble.


everlasting staircase

en-noun

everlasting staircase (plural everlasting staircases)

(UK, obsolete, idiomatic, slang, historical) A prison treadmill.


fadger

(UK, slang, obsolete) A glazier's frame.


put the beggar on the gentleman

en-verb

put the beggar on the gentleman (third-person singular simple present puts the beggar on the gentleman, present participle putting the beggar on the gentleman, simple past and past participle put the beggar on the gentleman)

puts the beggar on the gentleman (present singular third-person)
putting the beggar on the gentleman (participle present)
put the beggar on the gentleman (participle past)
put the beggar on the gentleman (past)

He called for two gills of ale, and I took my share; but I was determined not to put the beggar on the gentleman, that was my phrase to him, being a fellow workman. And when they brought the two glasses of ale, I took mine, and gave it to a man of the name of Thomas Kay; […]

1838, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers, volume 11:

And there is the grandmother who says scornfully, if someone makes a good cake with poor icing, "That is putting the beggar on the gentleman".

1979, Harold W. Thompson, Body, Boots, and Britches, page 504:

(UK, idiomatic, slang, obsolete) To follow up something good with something inferior.


like one o'clock

Brought up as a gentleman, he was, if ever a man was. Ed’cated at no end of expense. Went into the Marshal’s house once to try a new piano for him. Played it, I understand, like one o’clock—beautiful! As to languages—speaks anything.

1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC:

I went over the fence like a shot, and ran like one o'clock for the trap, cussing and swearing as I went.

1899, H. G. Wells, Mr. Brisher's Treasure:

(UK, simile, slang, obsolete) Very quickly or vigorously.


Billy Barlow

Named after a real Billy Barlow, who (according to Hotten; see reference) was a well-known street character around the East End of London, and died in Whitechapel Workhouse.

[…] for at an election meeting in East Maitland in 1845 William Lipscomb, the local wit, said of the squatters that 'so far from being wealthy, they had produced more Billy Barlows than any other class'.

1960, Bill Wannan, A Treasury of Australian Humour, page 40:

[…] as Jerry White notes in his history of London in the nineteenth century: There were the clowns or “Billy Barlows”; jugglers, some on stilts, and slack-rope walkers; […]

2009, Dan Michael Worrall, The Anglo-German Concertina: A Social History, volume 1, page 49:

(UK, obsolete) A clown who performs in the streets.


sank work

Perhaps from the Old French sanc (“blood”), in allusion either to combat or to soldiers' red coats.

[…] even some of the 'honourable' men were reduced to this sweated 'sank work' for as little as 4s. to 6s. a week.

2002, John Burnett, Idle Hands: The Experience of Unemployment, 1790-1990, page 84:

Many master tailors keep more hands than they have employment for, especially in the slack. But no work means no pay. Some of those journeymen can't pay their bills and take home 'sank work' of custom-house and post clothing.

2017, Darlene A. Cypser, The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part II: On Stage, page 48:

(UK, historical) Work done by tailors on soldiers' clothes.


lad of wax

(UK, obsolete, slang) A male cobbler (shoe repairer).


twag

twag (third-person singular simple present twags, present participle twagging, simple past and past participle twagged)

twags (present singular third-person)
twagging (participle present)
twagged (participle past)
twagged (past)
twagg (alternative)

(UK, dialectal, Yorkshire) To play truant.


hungrisome

en-adj

hungrisome (comparative more hungrisome, superlative most hungrisome)

more hungrisome (comparative)
most hungrisome (superlative)
hungrysome (alternative Scotland)
hungrisum (alternative Scotland)

For thirty would not suit this hungrisome Quintin of ours.

1898, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Standard Bearer, page 102:

"She'm hungrisome, Captain, ” said Abner.

1925, Henry Williamson, Sun Brothers, page 77:

(UK dialectal, Scotland) Having a keen appetite, hungry.


rain napper

Within a few minutes, Mr. Fair, who was also the Sheriff, came into the building while closing his rain napper.

2010, Ann DeWitt, Kevin M. Weeks, Entangled in Freedom: A Civil War Story, page 17:

“Tonight I would trade every fancy racer for a hansom nag, or even for a rain napper.”

2015, Laurie R. King, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes:

“Glad to hear it,” he said. “Shoulda taken a rain napper, though. You're wet through.”

2016, Matthew J. Kirby, A Taste for Monsters:


wooden wedge

(UK, Cambridge University slang) Synonym of wedge: the person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical tripos.


go a raker

en-verb

go a raker (third-person singular simple present goes a raker, present participle going a raker, simple past went a raker, past participle gone a raker)

goes a raker (present singular third-person)
going a raker (participle present)
went a raker (past)
gone a raker (participle past)

1891, 3 April, Lie. Vict. Gaz.
Then he went a raker on the favourite for the St. Leger, but the brute was not even shopped.

Finally, rendered desperate by failure after failure, I went a raker for a horse that I had heard on unquestionable authority was a real 'good thing' for the Cambridgeshire. He came in last but one in the race, […]

1902, Finch Mason, Annals of the Horse-Shoe Club, page 195:

(UK, slang, archaic) To bet a large amount of money on a certain racehorse.


put the stunners on

put the stunners on (third-person singular simple present puts the stunners on, present participle putting the stunners on, simple past and past participle put the stunners on)

puts the stunners on (present singular third-person)
putting the stunners on (participle present)
put the stunners on (participle past)
put the stunners on (past)

George MacDonald, If I Had A Father
JACK: Well, you do put the stunners on me!

(UK, slang, archaic) To astonish greatly.


buckhorse

After a celebrated "bruiser" of the same name, said to have allowed anybody to strike him on the side of the face for a small sum of money.

[…] the hands of the same exalted young lady being also well calculated to give any man such a 'buckhorse' as would have sent him whirling round the presence-chamber […]

1870, George Musgrave Musgrave, A Ramble Into Brittany (volume 1, page 80)

(UK, slang, obsolete) A smart blow or box on the ear.


running powers

No wonder, then, that against a background of surging aggressive prosperity, South Wales built up during the last half of the nineteenth century a local railway system of great density and complexity, in which almost every company competed with every other in its area, and in which working agreements, running powers and strategic junctions ran riot across the railway map.

1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 158:

This was done, and in many cases still is done by the main-line railway groups, through the exercise of running powers, which on application to Parliament by the company using them have been granted for the express purpose of affording this access without the necessity for building independent tracks. In other cases, such running powers have been granted without recourse to Parliament, by voluntary agreement between the parties.

1940 May, “The Why and the Wherefore: Running Powers”, in Railway Magazine, page 318:

(rail transport, UK) Permission given in an agreement allowing one railway company to run trains over certain tracks belonging to another railway company.


flatty-ken

(UK, thieves' cant, obsolete) A public house whose landlord is ignorant of the practices of the thieves and tramps who frequent it.


skull-thatcher

Having been sent to London on a medical trip by his uncle, Mr. Quince, he had become smitten with a fair milliner — a skull-thatcher, anglice, a maker of straw bonnets, but with no more money in her purse than would buy a dose of salts […]

1828, Cumberland's Minor Theatre, page 5:

'Which accounts for your frequent attendance, loveliest of skull thatchers!' said Harry in a polite bantering tone, which did not make the intended sarcasm less apparent.

1859, J. W. Overton, Harry Hartley; or, Social science for the workers, volume 420, page 29:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A maker of straw bonnets.


Haymarket Hector

en-noun

Haymarket Hector (plural Haymarket Hectors)

You cannot have forgotten that when the late King took offence at an expression of Sir John Coventry's, he employed O'Brian, Sir Thomas Sands, and some other Haymarket Hectors, to cut off Sir John's nose as he returned home at night.

1899, Horace Smith, Walter Colyton: A Tale of 1688, page 121:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A thug, bully or pimp inhabiting the London neighbourhood of Leicester Square and the Haymarket.


star the glaze

en-verb

star the glaze (third-person singular simple present stars the glaze, present participle starring the glaze, simple past and past participle starred the glaze)

stars the glaze (present singular third-person)
starring the glaze (participle present)
starred the glaze (participle past)
starred the glaze (past)

(UK, obsolete, thieves' cant) To break a window in order to commit robbery.


LTT

Land Transaction Tax
w:Land Transaction Tax

(UK) Initialism of Land Transaction Tax.


AQA

(UK, education) Initialism of Assessment and Qualifications Alliance.


RATOG

(British, aviation, military) Initialism of rocket-assisted take-off gear.


on the sick

(UK, colloquial) In receipt of any of various current or former sickness, disability or incapacity benefits.


surge testing

Reading Borough Council will also be conducting surge testing in targeted areas, and has several test centres that may be better suited to residents in Bulmershe and Whitegates

2021 June 17, “Surge testing to start in Wokingham Borough to control spread of Covid-19 variant”, in Wokingham Borough Council News Centre, archived from the original on 2022-10-15:

(UK, neologism) Increased testing for, and tracing of, people with coronavirus within a particular area, in an attempt to study and limit the spread.


Perisher

A pun on periscope and perish, in allusion to the supposedly low pass rate.

(UK, naval, slang) The Submarine Command Course.


TSG

tactical support group
tactical support group#English

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of tactical support group.


ESO

(UK) Initialism of electricity system operator.


Sea Lord

The legend and sketch designs were submitted to the Board on 27th March 1916 and, after examining a model and the drawings, the Sea Lords generally favoured proposal 'B'; the extra weight involved being acceptable.

1976, Alan Raven, John Roberts, British Battleships of World War Two: The Development and Technical History of the Royal Navy's Battleships and Battlecruisers from 1911 to 1946, page 63:

(UK, naval, historical) Any member of the British Board of Admiralty who is also a serving admiral in the navy.


combined school

en-noun

combined school (plural combined schools)

The phrase, and the type of school, were originally proposed in the Plowden Report in 1967.

(UK, education) A school accepting pupils from age 4 to 12.


remand centre

remand centres (plural)
remand center (alternative)

(UK, Canada) A jail that holds people who are awaiting a trial or sentencing.


open prison

(UK) A prison with minimal restrictions on the prisoners.


dot-and-go-one

[…] I shouted, though with inward misgivings on account of my game leg; and we started off towards camp as fast as we could go — which is not saying much, as I could only get over the ground in a dot-and-go-one sort of way.

1893, The Boy's Own Annual, volume 16, page 805:

"I think the doctors messed it up a bit. They said he wouldn't limp or anything, but when he left here he was still completely dot and go one."

1928, Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train, page 127:

(UK, slang, archaic) Having a lame or limping gait.


sluice one's bolt

en-verb

sluice one's bolt (third-person singular simple present sluices one's bolt, present participle sluicing one's bolt, simple past and past participle sluiced one's bolt)

sluices one's bolt (present singular third-person)
sluicing one's bolt (participle present)
sluiced one's bolt (participle past)
sluiced one's bolt (past)

When his heart has been the least thing warmed with sluicing his bolt and cocking his broseley, he has told us strange stories of foreign countries, so that even old Zingary has turned up the whites of his eyes.

1845, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of London:


twelve godfathers

(UK, slang, obsolete) A jury of twelve people.


wokery

The backlash against corporate wokery is well under way. Victoria's Secret earlier this month rowed back on the diversity agenda after profits fell and it worked out that its typical customer just wants to look slim and attractive.

2023 October 29, Matthew Lynn, “It will take Unilever a long time to shed its woke nonsense”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-11-05:

(neologism, derogatory, chiefly UK) The opinions, actions, and behaviours associated with wokeism or wokeist ideologies.


VAdm

VAdms (plural)
vadm (alternative)
Vadm (alternative)
VADM (alternative)
V.Adm. (alternative)
VADM. (alternative)
VAdm. (alternative)
Vadm. (alternative)

(UK) Alternative form of vadm, abbreviation of vice-admiral.


famm

His famms are too cold to frisk.


backshunt

Another peculiarity of this branch is that, like the Chard line, it has no direct connection with the main line, a backshunt into a siding being necessary before this can be reached.

1939 December, John D. Hewitt, “Some Notable British Main Lines: II. Salisbury and Exeter, S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 412:

(rail transport, UK) A section of railway track which gives access to a siding (or another section of railway line) only by reversing direction; also a train movement which uses such track.


FDEA

(UK) Initialism of Food & Drink Exporters Association.


blow the gaff

blow the gaff (third-person singular simple present blows the gaff, present participle blowing the gaff, simple past blew the gaff, past participle blown the gaff)

blows the gaff (present singular third-person)
blowing the gaff (participle present)
blew the gaff (past)
blown the gaff (participle past)

(UK, slang, obsolete) To disclose a secret.

(UK, slang, obsolete) To inform against a person.


fly the blue pigeon

fly the blue pigeon (third-person singular simple present flies the blue pigeon, present participle flying the blue pigeon, simple past flew the blue pigeon, past participle flown the blue pigeon)

flies the blue pigeon (present singular third-person)
flying the blue pigeon (participle present)
flew the blue pigeon (past)
flown the blue pigeon (participle past)

(UK, slang, obsolete) To steal lead from the roof or other parts of a building.


blue pigeon flyer

en-noun

blue pigeon flyer (plural blue pigeon flyers)

(UK, slang, obsolete) One who steals lead from the roof or other parts of a building.


put someone's pipe out

en-verb

put someone's pipe out (third-person singular simple present puts someone's pipe out, present participle putting someone's pipe out, simple past and past participle put someone's pipe out)

puts someone's pipe out (present singular third-person)
putting someone's pipe out (participle present)
put someone's pipe out (participle past)
put someone's pipe out (past)

“I'll tell you something, too,” retorted the captain, duskily flushing. “I wouldn't sail this ship for the man you are, if you went upon your knees. I've dealt with gentlemen up to now.”
“I can tell you the names of a number of gentlemen you'll never deal with any more, and that's the whole of Longhurst's gang,” said Jim. “I'll put your pipe out in that quarter, my friend. Here, rout out your traps as quick as look at it, and take your vermin along with you. I'll have a captain in, this very night, that's a sailor, and some sailors to work for him.”

1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 10, in The Wrecker:

(UK, slang, archaic) To scupper someone's plans.


like old boots

Well, I worked like old boots; and all through the beastly long term I went on steadily creeping ahead of those two.

1905, The Windsor Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women, page 639:

(UK, slang, archaic) Synonym of like anything (“with plenty of effort, speed, etc.”).


kinchin cove

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) An orphan beggar boy trained to become a thief.

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A man who robs children.


go-along

A boy called Hewitt, awaiting transportation on the Euryalus hulk in the mid-1830s, told an interviewer that the swell-mob would often call into lodging-houses in order to recruit "go-alongs" for thieving expeditions: "boys are delighted [they] think it an honour to go with a swell-mob".

2002, Meg Arnot, Cornelie Usborne, Gender And Crime in Modern Europe, page 82:

(UK, obsolete, thieves' cant) A person duped into accompanying thieves during a robbery.


Gladstone claret

en-noun

Gladstone claret (countable and uncountable, plural Gladstone clarets)

After William Ewart Gladstone, who reduced the duty on French wines.


dimidium dimidiumque

Humorously Latinized version of "half and half", once used by students.

And when the young Anglo-Roma Gents went out between the acts, in order to imbibe dimidium dimidiumque, or gingiber, (doubtless the ginger-beer of the moderns,) they received at the theatre door […]

1848, Albert Smith, Angus Bethune Reach, The Man in the Moon, volume 3, page 107:

I was still fresh, which was something; a trifle warm perhaps, and well disposed towards a pint of the dimidium dimidiumque of the ancients had such been available, but, in default of nectar, I sought another comforter, […]

1893, Charles Thomas Paske, Frederick George Aflalo, Myamma: A Retrospect of Life and Travel in Lower Burmah, page 153:

(UK, slang, obsolete, humorous) half and half (mixture of ale and porter, or similar)


Master of the Rolls

Master of the Rolls (plural Masters of the Rolls)

The sense of a baker is a pun alluding to bread rolls.

What do I care for lawyers! Aʼnt I a baker and Master of the Rolls myself: […]

1828, George Cruikshank, The Universal Songster, Or Museum of Mirth, page 144:

(UK, slang, obsolete, humorous) A baker.


cold meat box

"Perhaps you have a charm for never growing any older?"
"No; but I could not lead such a life. I have already a bad cough."
"Ah, I see you already in the cold-meat box."

1899, Eugène Sue, The Works of Eugène Sue: Illustrated with Etchings, page 45:


head beetler

The line of flunkies, like a rijiment of tin men workin' on strings, all together threw up their hands in horror, a look on their face like someone stole their last penny, and the head beetler of them, bowin' till his three ends met, said, […]

1920, Seumas MacManus, Top o' the Mornin', page 161:

Later Mattie, the 'head beetler' of my father's family, arrived wearing his customary tweed jacket.

2016, Patrick Deeley, The Hurley Maker's Son:

(archaic, UK, dialect) The leader of a group of workmen.


scaldrum dodge

(UK, obsolete, slang) A beggar's trick of burning the body with a mixture of acids and gunpowder, so as to appear to have been injured in an accident.


daisy-kicker

Do you observe that stout fellow yonder, with a stick in his hand? He has been a Daisy-kicker, and, by his arts and contrivances having saved a little money, is now a regular dealer, and may generally be seen here on selling days.

There was a “daisy-kicker” there in a twinkling to take reins and lead the horses off for a drink and a rubdown, with the older ostler waiting hopefully by the stable doors to see if he might make money by putting them up for the night, […]

(UK, slang, obsolete) An ostler at a large inn.


hangman's wages

(UK, slang, obsolete) The sum of thirteenpence halfpenny.


put in the pin

en-verb

put in the pin (third-person singular simple present puts in the pin, present participle putting in the pin, simple past and past participle put in the pin)

puts in the pin (present singular third-person)
putting in the pin (participle present)
put in the pin (participle past)
put in the pin (past)

From the ancient peg tankard, which was furnished with a row of pins, or pegs, to regulate the amount which each person was to drink.

(UK, slang, obsolete) To refrain from drinking alcohol.


yoxter

[…] U was an Uptucker, fly with the cord; / V was a Varnisher, dressed like a lord; / Y was a Yoxter that eat caper sauce; / Z was a Ziff who was flashed on the horse.

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

(UK, slang, obsolete) A convict returned from transportation before his time.


cock-robin shop

en-noun

cock-robin shop (plural cock-robin shops)

(UK, slang, obsolete) A small, disreputable printing office.


cat's meat

Animals' lungs used to be sold as food for cats.

You must let him have all the jaw-work to himself, and give a holiday to your cat's meat.

1821, J. Burrowes, Life in St George's Fields:


Jack-in-the-water

(UK, slang, obsolete) An attendant at the watermen's stairs on the river and seaport towns.


shove in the mouth

shove in the mouth (plural shoves in the mouth)

Then he's the most comfortable ghost I ever heard of; for Theodore and I saw him not a week ago taking a shove in the mouth at old Mother Murly's in St. Martin's Lane, with two or three underlings of the gallery about him […]

(UK, slang, obsolete) A glass of spirits drunk quickly in one go.


shirtlifting

(slang, derogatory, UK, Australia) Of a man: effeminately homosexual.


problem page

(UK) The page on which an agony column appears; an agony column.


what's the betting

(UK, informal) How much do you want to bet that …?


aeroplane mode

aeroplane mode (countable and uncountable, plural aeroplane modes)

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Canada, South Africa, Malaysia) Alternative form of airplane mode.


turn queen's evidence

en-verb

turn queen's evidence (third-person singular simple present turns queen's evidence, present participle turning queen's evidence, simple past and past participle turned queen's evidence)

turns queen's evidence (present singular third-person)
turning queen's evidence (participle present)
turned queen's evidence (participle past)
turned queen's evidence (past)

(British, law) Of a person accused of a crime, to give evidence against one's accomplices in the hope of receiving a lighter punishment. Used when the monarch is female.


turn king's evidence

turn king's evidence (third-person singular simple present turns king's evidence, present participle turning king's evidence, simple past and past participle turned king's evidence)

turns king's evidence (present singular third-person)
turning king's evidence (participle present)
turned king's evidence (participle past)
turned king's evidence (past)

turn queen's evidence
turn queen's evidence#English

(British, law) Alternative form of turn queen's evidence (used when the monarch is male)


chapwoman

From Middle English chapwoman, by analogy with chapman.

(chiefly British, archaic) A woman who buys and sells; a female trader.


logarithmisation

(UK) Alternative spelling of logarithmization.


CAMHS

w:Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

(UK) Initialism of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.


VCP

vehicle checkpoint
vehicle checkpoint#English

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of vehicle checkpoint.


Ingerland

/ˈɪŋɡəˌlænd/

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

♪ Ingerland, Ingerland, Inger-la-and / Ingerland, Ingerland, In-ger-land ♪

(slang, UK, representing pronunciation used in football chants) England.