pongy

en-adj

pongy (comparative pongier, superlative pongiest)

pongier (comparative)
pongiest (superlative)

2001, Ken Campbell, Home, in John O′Connor, Scripts and Sketches, Heinemann Educational, UK, page 79,
Look, they′ve even put a pair of old pongy socks exactly like mine in the corner by the door, exactly like I bunged them last Sunday. Mind you, they are a bit pongier than I remembered. But mind you, they would get pongier over the week.

Moments later, a small, sobbing figure would emerge—dirty as a rat and smelling pongier than the rottenest egg.

2005, James Duncan, Sweets That Eat Children!, page 2:

In France, Époisses is known as the pongiest of its 500-odd cheeses; in the UK 19 humans and an electronic nose voted Vieux-Boulogne the world's smelliest cheese.

2010, Lonely Planet staff, The Europe Book: A Journey Through Every Country on the Continent, page 57:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Having a bad smell.


gee

en-verb

gee (third-person singular simple present gees, present participle geeing, simple past and past participle geed)

gees (present singular third-person)
geeing (participle present)
geed (participle past)
geed (past)

It didn't gee with what he had been trained to preach and think about about his religion, you know.

1918, Mary Stanbery Watts, The Boardman Family, page 342:

I did use a few of the items, in Elinor's handwriting, to check the writing on the letter that was in the box with the money. It geed.

(UK, dialect, obsolete) To agree; to harmonize.


cull

But you don't want no dealings with that cull. A darker villain I never did see.

1997, Chris Hunt, Duval's Gold, page 58:


shower

→ Hindi: शावर (śāvar)

→ Japanese: シャワー (shawā)

→ Korean: 샤워 (syawo)

→ Pashto: شاور (šāwar)

→ Persian: شاور (šâvar) (Dari)

→ Urdu: شاوَر (śāvar)

From Middle English shour, from Old English sċūr, from Proto-West Germanic *skūru, from Proto-Germanic *skūrō, probably from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱēwer- (“north; north wind; cold wind; rain shower”). Cognate with Dutch schoer, German Schauer, Old Norse skúr, Norwegian skur, Swedish skur, Danish skur, Russian север (sever).

der

You all behaved like a shower, now you are to be treated like a shower

1956, Private's Progress (motion picture)

(chiefly Ireland, UK, Australia, derogatory) A shower of shit.

But when I tweeted it out, most of the responses (from the more than one million viewers) were along the lines of: 'what do you expect from this shower?

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

(British, informal, in the singular) A group of people perceived as incompetent or worthless.


trouser

en-verb

trouser (third-person singular simple present trousers, present participle trousering, simple past and past participle trousered)

trousers (present singular third-person)
trousering (participle present)
trousered (participle past)
trousered (past)

(transitive, British, Ireland, informal) To put (money) into one's trouser pocket; to pocket.

Your aunt told him to pack Upjohn's bags, and the first thing he saw when he smacked into it was the speech. He trousered it and brought it along to me.

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

Barr, 34, trousered the money from the pub in Lugton, Ayrshire, between January 2016 and February 2018.

2021 September 7, “Greedy pub worker’s assets targeted after he’s convicted of £40,000 embezzlement: Graham Barr trousered over £35,000 while working at the Canny Man in Lugton”, in Daily Record:

(transitive, British, Ireland, informal) To secretively steal (an item or money) for personal use.

Politicians know how to look after themselves. Derry Irvine, Blair’s old boss, trousered a pension fund worth £2.3 million after just five years as Lord Chancellor - all courtesy of the tax payer.

2010, Richard Littlejohn, Littlejohn’s Britain, page 348:

2021 July 14, “Towns trouser cash as billions earmarked for ‘levelling up’ in U.K.”, in The Guardian:

Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, said: “To see the boss of Shell trouser more than £6million while bills are crippling families and countries scrabble around trying to ditch Russian gas is abhorrent.

2022 March 10, “Shell boss earns £6.3million in a year as households and motorists face cost of living crisis”, in Mirror:

The founder and boss of CMC Markets is set to trouser £20million via the company’s dividend payments, even as the group’s profits and revenue fall.

2022 June 9, “CMC Market boss and House of Lords member Peter Cruddas set for bumper dividend as trading platform’s profits and revenue slide”, in thisismoney.co.uk:

Worse still, the driving motivation for all too many of the bosses of water companies appears to be not to improve the environment or to secure London’s water supply but rather to trouser obscene salaries and bonuses

2022 July 4, Feargal Sharkey, “Our taps could run dry and greedy bosses should be prosecuted, writes FEARGAL SHARKEY”, in Daily Mail:

The whopping sum will now be up for grabs on Tuesday when punters will have another chance to trouser the lifechanging amount.

2022 July 17, “LUCKY NUMBERS Euromillions - £191million jackpot rolls over AGAIN with whopping cash prize up for grabs on Tuesday”, in The Sun:

A small piece of the Stone of Destiny broke off during the operation at Westminster Abbey — and Ian's son, Jamie Hamilton, still has it. / "My father had the presence of mind to trouser it and got it set in a brooch, and gave the brooch to my mother," Jamie says.

2022 November 7, Marc Fennell, Rosanna Ryan, “When England invaded Scotland, the Stone of Destiny was stolen. Centuries later, four Scots stole it back”, in Australian Broadcasting C RN:

As an example, in the final three months of 2022 (usually a fallow period for airlines), Ryanair trousered a comfortable £222 million in profits - essentially £2m per day.

2023 April 19, Christian Wolmar, “We need a cross-party transport policy that supports net zero”, in RAIL, number 981, page 34:

(transitive, British, Ireland, informal) To take and keep (something, especially money, that is not one's own); to pocket.


ruddy

en-adj

ruddy (comparative ruddier, superlative ruddiest)

ruddier (comparative)
ruddiest (superlative)

From Middle English ruddy, rody, rudi, from Old English rudiġ (“reddish; ruddy”), from rudu (“redness”), equivalent to rud (“redness”) + -y. Compare Icelandic roði (“redness”).
The British slang sense expressing irritation is presumably a euphemism for bloody.

“Of all the damn silly fatheaded things!” she vociferated, if that's the word. “With a million ruddy names to choose from, these ruddy Creams call one ruddy son Wilbert and the other ruddy son Wilfred, and both these ruddy sons are known as Willie. Just going out of their way to mislead the innocent bystander. You'd think people would have more consideration.”

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “XVIII AND XX”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

Michael, you have been sitting on your butt for the last two hours! Why didn't you mow the ruddy lawn?!!

1991, Lynn Johnston, What, Me Pregnant? (For Better or For Worse) (comic), page 37:

I shall monitor your behaviour carefully during Marge’s visit. If, at the end of it, you’ve toed the line and kept to the story, I’ll sign your ruddy form.

1999, J. K. Rowling, chapter 2, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Bloomsbury:

If he moved a muscle, they would both be in DEEP TROUBLE.
“It must have been a bird, Mr Big,” said Dad.
“Ruddy big bird,” muttered the little man. “Now we have to get out of here before the fuzz start sniffing around. Fingers, get the Rolls resprayed and change the number plates in case they trace it.”
“Yes, guv’nor.”

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

(British, Australia, slang, not comparable) A mild intensifier, expressing irritation.


ruddy

“So, you made quite a splash on Question Time, my homeless pal,” he continued. “Ruddy hilarious. Ha ha ha!”

2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

'You're not ruddy going anywhere,' he said, slamming the door behind him.

2017, June Francis, When the Clouds Go Rolling By:

(British, slang) A mild intensifier, expressing irritation.


starve

en-verb

starve (third-person singular simple present starves, present participle starving, simple past starved, past participle starved or (obsolete) starven)

starves (present singular third-person)
starving (participle present)
starved (past)
starved (participle past)
starven (obsolete participle past)
starve (infinitive)
starve (first-person present singular)
starved (first-person past singular)
starve (present second-person singular)
starvest (archaic present second-person singular)
starved (past second-person singular)
starvedst (archaic past second-person singular)
starves (present singular third-person)
starveth (archaic present singular third-person)
starved (past singular third-person)
starve (plural present)
starved (past plural)
starve (present subjunctive)
starved (past subjunctive)
starve (imperative present)
starving (participle present)
starved (participle past)
starven (archaic participle past)

From Middle English sterven (“to die, perish”), from Old English steorfan (“to die, perish”), from Proto-West Germanic *sterban, from Proto-Germanic *sterbaną (“to become stiff, die”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terp- (“to lose strength, become numb, be motionless”); or from Proto-Indo-European *sterbʰ- (“to become stiff”), from *ster- (“stiff”); or a conflation of the aforementioned. Cognate with Scots stairve, sterve (“to die, perish, starve”), Saterland Frisian stjerwa (“to die”), West Frisian stjerre (“to die”), Dutch sterven (“to die”), German Low German starven (“to die”), German sterben (“to die”), Icelandic stirfinn (“peevish, froward”), Albanian shterp (“sterile, unproductive, barren land”).

cog

while the grass grows, the steed starves

I was half starved waiting out in that wind.

Wheniver he wor starved, he used to get th' seck o' coils ov his back, an' walk raand th' haase till he gat warm agean.

1869 February, John Hartley, The original illuminated clock almanack:

One i' th' morning an' me starv'd to th' death wi' waitin' up.

1886, A Queer Supper, John Heywood, section 8:

Sometimes he remarks, “ ’Tis these dreadful frostis that spiles everything. ’Tis enough to sterve anybody.”

1898, J. Arthur Gibbs, “When the May-Fly is Up”, in A Cotswold village; or, Country Life & Pursuits in Gloucestershire, London: John Murray, →OCLC, page 164:

(transitive, British, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire) To kill with cold; to (cause to) die from cold.


trout pout

Chosen for the rhyme and suggesting the grimace of a fish's mouth.

(slang, UK) The exaggerated, grotesque result of injection of excessive quantities of collagen into the lips in order to make them appear fuller.


balk

From Middle English balok, ballok (“knob”), from Old English bealluc (“testicle”, literally “little ball”). Doublet of ballock and bollocks.

inh

(UK dialectal) A small brass ornament fixed at the top of a wand.


bilk

en-verb

bilk (third-person singular simple present bilks, present participle bilking, simple past and past participle bilked)

bilks (present singular third-person)
bilking (participle present)
bilked (participle past)
bilked (past)

Uncertain; perhaps a variant form of balk.

(intransitive, UK) To steal fuel from a self-service filling station by driving away without paying after filling the fuel tank or other container; to commit a drive-off.


bobble

* (noun): from bob + -le (diminutive suffix).
* (verb): from bob + -le (frequentative suffix).
Compare bauble.

(British) Elasticated band used for securing hair (for instance in a ponytail), a hair tie


bumble

* Verb: Frequentative of boom and/or bum, equivalent to bum + -le.
* Noun: From the verb.

(UK, Ireland, dialect) A Eurasian bittern.


cam

→ Welsh: cam

PIE word
 *ǵómbʰos
Recorded since the 16th century, from Dutch kam (“cog of a wheel; originally, comb”) (cognate with English comb, and preserved in modern Dutch compounds such as kamrad, kamwiel (“cog wheel”)). Doublet of comb.

der

Cum doun t' cam' soid

1861, Dean Ramsay, Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character:

(UK, dialect) A ridge or mound of earth.


chit

en-verb

chit (third-person singular simple present chits, present participle chitting, simple past and past participle chitted)

chits (present singular third-person)
chitting (participle present)
chitted (participle past)
chitted (past)

From Middle English *chit, *chitte, from Old English ċīþ (“germ, seed, sprout, shoot”), from Proto-Germanic *kīþą (“sprout”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵī-, *ǵey(H)- (“to divide, part, split open, sprout”).
Cognate with Middle Dutch kiede (“sprout”), dialectal German Keid (“sprout”). Doublet of chive (etymology 2) and scion.

doublet

I have known it chit in seven hours after it had been thrown forth of the Cistern and within three days come enough; the Maltster being forced to stir it six, seven or eight times a day,

1721, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry: Or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land, page 217:

(intransitive, British, dialect) To sprout; to shoot, as a seed or plant.

(transitive, British, dialect) To damage the outer layers of a seed such as Lupinus or Sophora to assist germination.

Gardeners argue among themselves about how necessary chitting is, but I stick with tradition and do chit my seed potatoes.

2010, Geoff Stebbings, Growing Your Own Fruit and Veg For Dummies, page 173:

(transitive, British, dialect) To initiate sprouting of tubers, such as potatoes, by placing them in special environment, before planting into the soil.


chuff

en-adj

chuff (comparative more chuff, superlative most chuff)

more chuff (comparative)
most chuff (superlative)

15th century, dialectal, from Middle English chuffe (“a rustic, boor”), in noun sense “stupid fellow”. Adjective sense “surly, displeased” from 1832.

inh

He refused to subscribe, he who had always given so largely to the cause; he was chuff, haughty, overbearing, and seemed bent upon antagonising every prominent suggestion that was made.

1872, Edward Spencer, “A Slight Toothache”, in The Southern Magazine, volume 11, page 86:

So I set out in the clear cold night, and began to think that great lords and ladies are not at all as well off as poor people thinks, with so much fine meat and drink wasted about them, and they having no wish for them; for I felt very chuff and uncomfortable, and was glad that I could not be in the same way again for six weeks and more to come.

1875, Patrick Kennedy ·, The Banks of the Boro: A Chronicle of the County of Wexford, page 106:

"I am afraid of Lady Frances. And Miss Audrey can be very rude. She was very chuff with me on New Year's Day.” “She won't be chuff with you in my presence,” said Evelyn.

2020, L.T Meade, A Very Naughty Girl, page 39:

Well, I didn't mean with my eyes, Neb; so don't be so chuff on a fellow.

2020, George Manville Fenn, Sail Ho!, page 242:

(British) Surly; annoyed; displeased; disgruntled.

such chuff Fellows , who would not willingly allow their Children any Pleasures

1728, Francis Gentleman, A Trip to the Moon, page 196:

Says Paddy , “the old one, faith, looks very chuff, though, But loves that big blackguard, I mean Lundy snuff, though;

The chuff old Joe to vex has come, The Doctor—who but he?—Parnell, and all the Irish scum, Have noisy vowed to be.

1878 January 24, “The Song of Big Ben”, in Truth, volume 3, page 114:

Neville Custance is a very chuff Boy indeed as I ever saw, seem displeased & cross with every thing - would not eat a bit of Cake when brought to him.

1978, James Woodforde, edited by John Beresford, The Diary of a Country Parson, 1758-1802, page 387:

(UK, dialect) stupid; churlish; loutish.


chuff

en-verb

chuff (third-person singular simple present chuffs, present participle chuffing, simple past and past participle chuffed)

chuffs (present singular third-person)
chuffing (participle present)
chuffed (participle past)
chuffed (past)


chuff

1520s, in sense “swollen with fat”; circa 1860, British dialect, in sense “pleased”. Possibly related to “coarse, stupid, fat-headed” sense (see etymology 1 above). Or, perhaps a euphemistic alteration of fuck or another expletive.


chuff

Oh chuff off! I'm so chuffing fed up with all of the spam posts on my timeline.

(UK, euphemistic) Used as a replacement for obscenities, particularly fuck.


chug

chug (third-person singular simple present chugs, present participle chugging, simple past and past participle chugged)

chugs (present singular third-person)
chugging (participle present)
chugged (participle past)
chugged (past)

Blend of charity + mug (“to violently rob on the street”)

blend

I got chugged in the town centre today.

(transitive, UK slang, derogatory) To solicit charitable donations on the street, particularly in a persistent manner.


codder

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A gatherer of cods or peas.


cosh

There is no need here to digress on the advantages or otherwise of using a 'cosh' in schools […]

1959, Iona Opie, Peter Opie, The lore and language of schoolchildren, page 374:

Often, he walked around the room with the cosh in his hand, taking slashes at legs that happened to stray sideways […]

2019, John Loveday, The Boy from Rod Alley, page 115:


cove

Britain ante-1570. From Romani kodo (“this one, him”), perhaps change in consonants due to lower class th-fronting, or Romani kova (“that person”).

Don’t call Major Pendennis an old cove, if you’ll ’ave the goodness, Lightfoot, and don’t call me an old cove, nether. Such words ain’t used in society; and we have lived in the fust society, both at ’ome and foring.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

At one point, a friendly-looking sort of cove with silver hair and a grandfatherly kind of face beamed at him […]

2012, Terry Pratchett, Dodger, →ISBN, page 326:

(British, dated, informal, thieves' cant, Lewis) A fellow; a man.


cowl

From Middle English cuuel, from Old French cuvel (“vat”), diminutive of cuve, from Latin cūpa (“tub, cask, tun, vat”).

(obsolete, British) A vessel carried on a pole, a soe.


chaw

en-verb

chaw (third-person singular simple present chaws, present participle chawing, simple past and past participle chawed)

chaws (present singular third-person)
chawing (participle present)
chawed (participle past)
chawed (past)

An unexplained variation of chewen (“to chew”). First attested in the sixteenth century. See chew for more. Cognate with Middle Dutch cauwen ("to chew"; whence Dutch kauwen), obsolete Dutch kauw (“the act of chewing, that which is chewed, chewed mass, wad of tobacco”), Middle Low German kauwen, kauen (“to chew”). Compare also Old English ġecow (“that which is chewed, food”) and *ġeċēaw (“chewing”), whence Middle English icheu (“gnawing, biting”).

gl

"to chew"; whence Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">kauwen</i>

cog

Some pikey's chawed my bike.


cony

conies (plural)
coney (alternative)
cunny (alternative)
connie (alternative)

From Middle English cony, back formation from conies (plural), from Anglo-Norman conis, the plural of connil (“rabbit”), from Latin cunīculus, of unknown origin. Cognate to Dutch konijn, German Kaninchen, Spanish conejo, and Portuguese coelho. The original pronunciation was /ˈkʌni/ (for the spelling, compare honey and money), but the similarity to cunt (and particularly homophony with cunny) led through taboo avoidance both to the word's displacement in the main by rabbit and bunny and to the spelling-pronunciation /ˈkəʊni/ becoming standard.


crump

en-adj

crump (comparative more crump, superlative most crump)

more crump (comparative)
most crump (superlative)

a crump loaf

(UK, Scotland, dialect) Hard or crusty; dry baked


cue

cues (plural)
kue (alternative)
kew (alternative)
que (alternative)

From Middle English cu (used for half a farthing, from q as an abbreviation for Latin quadrāns (“quarter of an as”)), from Latin cū, kū. Compare French ku.

(obsolete, UK, universities) A small portion of bread or beer; the quantity bought with a farthing or half farthing and noted with a q (for Latin quadrāns (“farthing”)) in the buttery books.


culver

From Middle English culver, from Old English culufre, culfre, culfer, possibly borrowed from Vulgar Latin *columbra, from Latin columbula (“little pigeon”), from Latin columba (“pigeon, dove”).

Had he ſo doen, he had him ſnatcht away, / More light then Culuer in the Faulcons fiſt.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 281:

The palsie plagues my pulses
when I prigg yoͬ: piggs or pullen
your culuers take, or matchles make
your Chanticleare or sullen

c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)

Then he walked on a little and came to a goodly cage, than which was no goodlier there, and in it a culver of the forest, that is to say, a wood-pigeon, the bird renowned among birds as the minstrel of love-longing, with a collar of jewels about its neck marvellous fine and fair.

1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Uns al-Wujud and the Wazir’s Daughter al-Ward Fi’l-Akmam or Rose-in-Hood. [Night 376.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume V, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 49:

Columba palumbus
Columba palumbus#Translingual

(now UK, south and east dialect or poetic) A dove or pigeon, now specifically of the species Columba palumbus.


dais

daises (plural)
daïs (alternative)
deas (alternative)
deis (alternative)

From Middle English deis, from Anglo-Norman deis, from Old French deis, dois (modern French dais), from Latin discum, accusative singular of discus (“discus, disc, quoit; dish”) (Late Latin discum (“table”)), from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “discus, disc; tray”), from δικεῖν (dikeîn, “to cast, to throw; to strike”). Cognate with Italian desco, Occitan des. Doublet of desk, disc, discus, dish, disk, and diskos.

doublet

[page 211] The Mer-man he stept o'er ae deas, / And he has steppit over three: / "O maiden, pledge me faith and troth! / O Marstig's daughter, gang wi' me!" […] [pages 213–214] Notes on The Mer-man. […] I remember having seen in the hall of the ruined castle of Elan Stalker, in the district of Appin, an old oaken deas, which was so contrived as to serve for a sittee; at meal-times the back was turned over, rested upon the arms, and became a table; and at night the seat was raised up, and displayed a commodious bed for four persons, two and two, feet to feet, to sleep in. I was told, that this kind of deas was formerly common in the halls of great houses, where such œconomy, with respect to bed-room, was very necessary.

1806, “The Mer-man, and Marstig's Daughter”, in Robert Jamieson, editor, Popular Ballads and Songs, from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions; with Translations of Similar Pieces from the Ancient Danish Language, and a Few Originals by the Editor, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co. Edinburgh; London: Cadell and Davies, and John Murray, →OCLC, pages 211 and 213–214:

DAIS, Dess, Deas […] A long board, seat or bench erected against a wall. […] A pew in a church

[1808, John Jamieson, “DAIS, Dess, Deas, s[ubstantive]”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: … In Two Volumes, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed at the University Press; for W[illiam] Creech, A[rchibald] Constable & Co., and W[illiam] Blackwood; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, T[homas] Cadell & W. Davies, and H. D. Symonds, →OCLC:

(historical, northern British) A bench, a settle, a pew.


dey

deys (plural)
daie (alternative)
deie (alternative)
deye (alternative)

From Middle English deye, deie, daie, from Old English dǣġe (“maker of bread; baker; dairy-maid”), from Proto-West Germanic *daigijā, from Proto-Germanic *daigijǭ (“kneader of bread, maid”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to knead, form, build”). Cognate with Swedish deja, Icelandic deigja (“dairy-maid”); compare dairy, dough, lady.

der

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid.


dibble

en-noun

dibble (countable and uncountable, plural dibbles)

Hanna-Barbera
New York Police Department
Top Cat

From the character of Officer Charlie Dibble, a New York Police Department officer, in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Top Cat (first broadcast in the US in 1961, and in the UK in 1962 under the title Boss Cat).

Remember this story about police hunting a metal detector enthusiast suspected of digging 20 holes in a school playing field in Cornwall? It’s taken a rather unusual twist. Pop superstar Robbie Williams appears to have ’fessed up to the crime. The former Take That star, who is a keen metal detecting enthusiast, retweeted the West Briton newspaper’s version of the story, telling ‘Dibble’ – a Mancunian slang term for the police which comes from the character Officer Dibble in the cartoon Top Cat – to ‘do one’, vowing the police will never catch him alive.

2016 May 12, “maxc73”, “Robbie Williams ‘confesses’ to digging holes in school’s playing field”, in The Herald, Plymouth, Devon, archived from the original on 2017-03-16:

(slang, British, originally Manchester, countable) A police officer, especially one serving with Greater Manchester Police.

Watch out, lads! Here comes the dibble!

In Moss Side they called the police Dibble, after Officer Dibble in the cartoon Top Cat, so the name had sprung from that.

2002, Colin Ward, 'Chubby' Chris Henderson, “Revelling in It”, in Who Wants It?, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN:

Bein' in the dibble [police] is no cakewalk when you're black. / If you don't get fitted, then you'll prob'ly get the sack.

2008, Theodore Dalrymple [pseudonym; Anthony Malcolm Daniels], “How Not to Do It”, in Not with a Bang but a Whimper: The Politics and Culture of Decline, Chicago, Ill.: Ivan R. Dee, →ISBN, pages 125–126:

They shoved me in the back of a police van and started driving to the cop shop. I was sitting in the sweatbox, wondering how the Dibble had got onto me so quickly, when I heard a voice from another section of the van say, 'Are you P from Macclesfield?'

2013, Colin Blaney, Hotshot: The Story of a Little Red Devil:

(slang, British, originally Manchester, uncountable) Preceded by the: the police.


dobbin

dobbin (countable and uncountable, plural dobbins)

From Dobbin, a common name given to workhorses.

(UK, dialect, uncountable) Sea gravel mixed with sand.


doff

en-verb

doff (third-person singular simple present doffs, present participle doffing, simple past and past participle doffed)

term-label

(chiefly literary and dated except Northern England)

doffs (present singular third-person)
doffing (participle present)
doffed (participle past)
doffed (past)
doff (infinitive)
doff (first-person present singular)
doffed (first-person past singular)
doff (present second-person singular)
doffest (archaic present second-person singular)
doffed (past second-person singular)
doffedst (archaic past second-person singular)
doffs (present singular third-person)
doffeth (archaic present singular third-person)
doffed (past singular third-person)
doff (plural present)
doffed (past plural)
doff (present subjunctive)
doffed (past subjunctive)
doff (imperative present)
doffing (participle present)
doffed (participle past)

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

Lipton
Masson Mill
Thomas Lipton
doffing cylinder

PIE word
 *h₂epó
The verb is derived from Late Middle English doffen (“to take off (clothing); to remove (headwear) as a sign of respect; to remove (grease) by skimming”), a contraction of Middle English do off, don off, from Old English dōn of, from dōn (“to do; to put; to take off, remove”) + of (“from; off”). Dōn is derived from Proto-West Germanic *dōn (“to do; to place, put”), from Proto-Germanic *dōną (“to do; to make; to place, put”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”). By surface analysis, do + off. Compare don (by surface analysis, do + on), dout (do + out), dup (do + up).
The noun is derived from the verb.

свалям

to remove or take off (something worn on the body such as armour or clothing, or something carried)

снемам

(transitive) to remove or tip (a hat or other headwear) in greeting or salutation, or as a mark of respect; (intransitive) to remove or tip a hat or other headwear in greeting or salutation, or as a mark of respect

VVhy art thou troubled Herod? vvhat vaine feare / Thy blood-revolving Breſt to rage doth move? / Heavens King, vvho doffs himſelfe vveake fleſh to vveare, / Comes not to rule in vvrath, but ſerve in love.

1646, Richard Crashaw, “Sospetto d’Herode. Libro Primo.”, in Steps to the Temple. Sacred Poems, with Other Delights of the Muses, London: […] T. W. for Humphrey Moseley, […], →OCLC, stanza 65, page 72:

(reflexive, archaic except UK, dialectal) To undress (oneself); to divest, to strip.


dogger

(British) A participant in the sexual activity of dogging.


dole

From Middle English dol, from Old English dāl (“portion, share, division, allotment”), from Proto-Germanic *dailą (“part, deal”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰayl- (“part, watershed”). Cognate with Old Church Slavonic дѣлити (děliti, “divide”). More at deal.

cog

(British, dialectal) A void space left in tillage.


drib

en-verb

drib (third-person singular simple present dribs, present participle dribbing, simple past and past participle dribbed)

dribs (present singular third-person)
dribbing (participle present)
dribbed (participle past)
dribbed (past)

From dialectal English drib (compare also drub), a variant from Middle English drepen (“to hit, strike, slay”), from Old English drepan (“to strike, kill, overcome”), from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to hit, strike”).

inh

(transitive, now chiefly British, dialectal) To beat; thrash; drub.

(transitive, now chiefly British, dialectal) To scold.

(transitive, now chiefly British, dialectal, marbles) To strike another player's marble when playing from the trigger.


dubber

"Well, Sal, you mum your dubber pretty generally, but when you do slacken your glib you may as well do it civilly."

1857, Hidden Links; Or the Schoolfellows. A Tale, volume 2, page 233:

"Shut your dubber. Think you're a regular duchess, you do, eh? I ain't answering no more questions."

2010, Emily Hendrickson, The Fashionable Spy:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A person's mouth or tongue.


duff

en-noun

duff (countable and uncountable, plural duffs)

Uncertain; probably related to Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).


duff

en-adj

duff (comparative duffer, superlative duffest)

duffer (comparative)
duffest (superlative)

Why do I always get a shopping trolley with duff wheels?

From its surface, he insisted, plain food became ambrosia, water nectar, and the duffest dope would blow your mind.

1996, Catherine Merriman, State of Desire, page 155:

The band developed its sound, shamblingly at first, on the road, in an era before thousands of blog or YouTube users could form an opinion of a band based on some MySpace demos and a duff early gig in Tacoma.

2008 May 18, R J Smith, “Death Cab Is Up for the Long Haul”, in New York Times:

All the other parts were played by a gallery of Dickensian character actors, including Thorley Walters, Francis Matthews and, yes, Michael Ripper, who lent gravitas to the duffest dialogue lines.

2009, Christopher Fowler, Paperboy, page 225:

(UK) Worthless; not working properly, defective.


gage

en-noun

gage (countable and uncountable, plural gages)

(archaic, UK, slang, metonymic) A drink.

Troll us a stave, my antediluvian file, and in the mean time tip me a gage of fogus, Jerry

1834, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, volume 2, page 353:

GAGE, a small quantity of anything; as “a gage of tobacco,” meaning a. pipeful; “a gage of gin,” a glassful.

1864, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary, page 140:

(archaic, UK, slang) A small quantity of anything.

I bowse no lage, but a whole gage / Of this I'll bowse to you.

1641–42, Richard Brome, A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, act 2:

Harry. To pay, Moll, for I must hike.
Moll. Did you call me, Master?
Harry. Ay, to pay, in a Whiff.
Moll. Let me see. There's a Grunter's Gig, is a Si-Buxom; two Cat's Heads, a Win; a Double Gage of Rum Slobber, is Thrums; and a Quartern of Max, is three Megs: — That makes a Traveller all but a Meg.
Harry. Here, take your Traveller, and tip the Meg to the Kinchin.

1747, Helen Berry, anonymous quotee, The Life and Character of Moll King, late mistress of King's Coffee House in Covent Garden, quoted in "Rethinking Politeness in Eighteenth-Century England", Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, published 2001, page 75, volume 11, series 6:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A quart pot.


gannet

From Middle English ganet, gante, from Old English ganot, from Proto-West Germanic *ganat, *ganatō, from Proto-Germanic *ganatuz, *ganutô (“gander”), ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *ganzô.
Cognates
Cognate with Dutch gent, Middle Low German gante, German Ganter, Ganser, all “gander, male goose”.

(chiefly British, South Africa) A voracious eater; a glutton.


gannet

en-verb

gannet (third-person singular simple present gannets, present participle ganneting, simple past and past participle ganneted)

gannets (present singular third-person)
ganneting (participle present)
ganneted (participle past)
ganneted (past)

She was no longer in the company of her older sister and mother who had often scolded her for ganneting down her food.

Gaynor Kay, Pebble in the Grass (page 115)

(chiefly transitive, informal, British) To wolf down, gobble or eat (something) voraciously.


geyser

desc

→ Bengali: গিজার (gijar, “water boiler”)

→ Hindi: गीज़र (gīzar, “water heater”)

From the name of a particular Icelandic geyser which is mentioned as early as the 1760s in The Annual Register, as “Geyser, a wonderful spring in the valley of Haukadal”. From Geysir (“Gusher”), the Icelandic name of the hot spring in Iceland (see Wikipedia), from the verb geysa (“to gush”), from Old Norse geysa (“to gush”). Doublet of gusher.

Where a Geyser or hot-water heater is used it is a good and wise precaution to see that the bath-room, &c., when it is used is well ventilated.

1902, William Paton Buchan, Plumbing: A Text-book to the Practice of the Art Or Craft of the Plumber:

Water was heated either on the gas stove, or on a wall mounted gas-fired "geyser" heater.

1998, Gordon S Riess, Confessions of a Corporate Centurion: Tales of International Adventures:

It was here I saw a geyser gas water heater in a bathroom for the first time. (I was afraid of it).

2002, Alaine Polcz, One woman in the war: Hungary, 1944-1945:

(British, archaic) An instantaneous, and often dangerous, hot water heater.

проточен бойлер

archaic: hot water heater — see also hot water heater


gilt

en-noun

gilt (usually uncountable, plural gilts)

Formed in English from the verb gild (“to cover in gold”). Compare gold and German Geld.

att

"Formed in English" struck me as quite odd. Is it really just English? Should it have said "Middle English" there?

позлата

gold or other metal in a thin layer; gilding

However, as asset prices slumped over the week – including UK government bonds, or gilts – those banks required more collateral to offset the pension funds’ liabilities, forcing the funds to dump assets and raise cash at short notice.

2022 September 29, Kalyeena Makortoff, Sarah Butler, “‘I’d never seen anything like it’: how market turmoil sparked a pension fund selloff”, in The Guardian:

(countable, finance, UK) A security issued by the Bank of England (see gilt-edged).


gilt

From Middle English gilt, gylt, from Old Norse gyltr; compare geld and yelt.

(UK, regional) A young female pig, at or nearing the age of first breeding.


goer

From Middle English goere, equivalent to go + -er. Compare German Geher (“goer, walker”).

Norman: Is your wife a ... goer ... eh? Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge nudge.

He winked at Parsons. "If I'm any judge, she must've bin a right little goer in 'er day."

1990, Hampton Charles, Advantage Miss Seeton, page 45:

'[…](Intimate, man to man) Eh, I bet she's a goer, int she sunshine? She's got a fair pair of knockers on her too.'

2001, Peter Buse, Drama + Theory: Critical Approaches to Modern British Drama, page 102:

'I can tell that yer a right little goer, hey Larsie?!' I call over two slappers and slip them a few hundred! Before I know it me and Lars and the two slappers are rolling around a giant bed with the hungriest genitals in Gay Paree!

2001, Edna Walsh, Bedbound and Misterman, →ISBN, page 22:

(British, slang) A person, often a woman, who enjoys sexual activity.

pakkaus

slang: person who enjoys sexual activity


grout

en-noun

grout (countable and uncountable, plural grouts)

grouts (plural)
grewt (alternative)
groute (alternative)
grut (alternative)

From Middle English growte, grut, from Old English grūt (“dregs; coarse meal”), from Proto-Germanic *grūtą (compare Dutch gruit (“dregs”), German Grauß, Norwegian grut (“ground”)), lengthening of Proto-Germanic *grutą, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to grind, rub”). Related to grit.


hap

(UK, Scotland, Western Pennsylvania) A wrap, such as a quilt or a comforter. Also, a small or folded blanket placed on the end of a bed to keep feet warm.


hob

Related to hub, but the ultimate origin of both words is obscure.

And the first sound in the house was the bang, bang of the poker against the raker, as Morel smashed the remainder of the coal to make the kettle, which was filled and left on the hob, finally boil.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 2, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) The top cooking surface on a cooker; a cooktop. It typically comprises several cooking elements (often four), also known as 'rings'.


hod

Probably an alteration of hot (“(Northern England, Scotland) large basket for carrying earth, etc.”), from Middle English hott, hote, hotte (“large basket or pannier for carrying earth, etc.; unit of measure for grain; hut or shed (perhaps originally of wattlework); lump of dirt (?)”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman and Old French hote, hotte (“large basket carried on the back”) (modern French hotte (“carrying basket”)), from Frankish *hotta (“basket”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *hud- (“to shake”) (see further at etymology 1), ultimately an onomatopoeia of the swaying movement of such a basket (compare Middle Dutch hotten (“to jolt; shake”)).
Cognates
German Hotte (“wooden basket carried on the back; (specifically) basket for collecting grapes from a vineyard”) (Rhineland, Swabia), Hutte (“basket for collecting grapes from a vineyard”) (Alsace, Switzerland)
Late Latin hotta, hottus (“hod”)

col

Cognates

[…] Fanny, forgetful of her young-ladyism and her sixteen years, had boxed Tom's ears, and Tom, resenting the insult, had forcibly seated her in the coal-hod, where he held her with one hand while he returned the compliment with the other.

1869–1870, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “New Fashions”, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1870, →OCLC, page 31:

My friend comes home and finds his dressing-gown and slippers in front of the fire. He is tired and cross, and doesn't want to sling ashes nor bang a coal-hod. But the sight of the fire makes him feel better at once, and if there be no fire, there are no ashes.

1884, John McGovern, “Wedded Life”, in The Golden Censer: Or, The Duties of To-day, the Hopes of the Future, Chicago, Ill., Columbus, Oh.: Union Publishing House, →OCLC, page 266:

The household uses of copper are principally for cooking utensils and a variety of miscellaneous items, such as urns, bowls, hods, lamps, candlesticks, vases, book ends, and ash trays.

1938, Raymond B[artlett] Stevens et al., “Copper Utensils and Hollow or Flat Plate”, in Trade Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom: Digests of Trade Data with Respect to Products on which Concessions Were Granted by the United States, volume IV, Washington, D.C.: United States Tariff Commission, →OCLC, page 3-42:

(originally British, dialectal and US) A receptacle for carrying coal, particularly one shaped like a bucket which is designed for loading coal or coke through the door of a firebox.


hone

en-verb

hone (third-person singular simple present hones, present participle honing, simple past and past participle honed)

hones (present singular third-person)
honing (participle present)
honed (participle past)
honed (past)

French hogner (“to grumble”), which could be a cross of honnir (“to disgrace, shame”) and grogner (“to grunt”).

Such tunges ſhuld be torne out by the harde rootes,

c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.

Hoyning like hogges that groynis and wrotes.

(UK, US, Southern US, dialect, intransitive) To grumble.

He lies pitying himself, honing and moaning to himself

1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:

(UK, US, Southern US, dialect) To pine, lament, or long.


jigger

→ Catalan: gigre

From jig + -er (agent suffix). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German gīga (“fiddle”).

He made the discovery that the bikestand was vacant and the machine gone. "Where the thump's my jigger?" he exclaimed.

1932, Frank Richards, “The Complete Outsider”, in The Magnet:


jigger

jiggers (plural)
gigger (alternative)
gyger (alternative)
jegger (alternative)

A slang term of unknown origin, originally meaning prison. Oxford English Dictionary suggests that its origin might be the same as Etymology 1, above.

On getting to the top of the stair, to my disappointment there was a padlock upon the garret jigger; I wheep't out my chive, broke it up, and picked the padlock with the back-spring.

1821, David Haggart, The Life of David Haggart, page 98:

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

1828, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter LXXXIII, in Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman, page 402:

Sizing up the padlock, Mac slapped at a webbing pocket for his lock jiggers, but felt nothing.

2010, Mark Abernethy, Second Strike, →ISBN, page 19:

The question is, where did he get this jigger from? You don't buy them at ironmongers, you know.' He handled the bright instrument lovingly. As he moved the handles the two tiny levers opened and shut like the mandibles of a Picasso crab.

2012, Michael Gilbert, Sky High, →ISBN, page 183:

(slang, UK) Ellipsis of jigger gun (“lock pick”).


jot

jot (third-person singular simple present jots, present participle jotting, simple past and past participle jotted)

jots (present singular third-person)
jotting (participle present)
jotted (participle past)
jotted (past)

The verb is possibly onomatopoeic, suggesting a jerking motion. The noun is derived from the verb.

Nowe is iuſte iuſtice, ſo iotted out of iointe, / That ye here vniuſtely, ſtande at deniall, / To do me iuſtice, and wolde by power ryall: / Directe mine acquitall or condemnacion, / Euen as wyll in both: weith your acceptacion.

1556, John Heywood, chapter 24, in The Spider and the Flie. […], London: […] Tho[mas] Powell, →OCLC; republished as A[dolphus] W[illiam] Ward, editor, The Spider and the Flie. […] (Publications of the Spenser Society, New Series; 6), Manchester: […] [Charles E. Simms] for the Spenser Society, 1894, →OCLC, page 110:

(transitive, obsolete except British, dialectal) To jerk or jolt (something); to jog.


kern

From Middle English kerne, from Middle Irish ceithern. Doublet of quaternion.

The villain kernes Who keep me fettered here.

1856, William Edmondstoune Aytoun, Bothwell:


lasher

There is Basildon - and Hurley - and Pangbourne, with its roaring lasher

1869, Charles Kingsley, Madam How and Lady Why:

They paddled on in silence till they came to the lasher. Together they hauled the punt over the rollers ... Through the network of branches moonlight drifted, making ... water, rushing foam-streaked from the lasher, eerie and fantastic.

1914, Coningsby Dawson, chapter 3, in The Raft:


lawing

A shilling for breakfast, three shillings for dinner, including a pint of old port, eighteen-pence for a snug supper — such were the charges of the inn of Saint Ronan's under this landlady of the olden world, even after the nineteenth century had commenced ; and they were ever tendered with the pious recollection, that her good father never charged half so much, but these weary times rendered it impossible for her to make the lawing less.

1824, Sir Walter Scott, St. Ronan's Well, page 9:

Late at e'en, drinking the wine, And ere they paid the lawing, They set a combat them between, To fight it in the dawing.

1925, George Wharton Edwards, The Book of Old English Ballads, →ISBN:

A Spanish legend has it, that there was a cave at Salamanca, where he constantly maintained seven scholars, on condition that when they had finished their studies, the seventh should pay the lawing.

2012, Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, →ISBN, page 1024:

(UK, Scotland, obsolete) Money owed for a service rendered.


lither

en-adj

lither (comparative more lither, superlative most lither)

more lither (comparative)
most lither (superlative)
lidder (alternative)

From Middle English lither, lyther (“deceitful; evil; false; treacherous; sinful, wicked; leading to cruelty, injustice, or wickedness, perverted; of a country: filled with wicked people; cruel, fierce; dangerous, deadly; frightening; grievous, painful; harmful, injurious; miserable, paltry, poor, worthless; feeble, sluggish; cowardly”) [and other forms], from Old English lȳþre (“bad, wicked; base, mean, wretched; corrupt”) [and other forms], from Proto-Germanic *lūþrijaz (“bad; dissolute; neglected; useless”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- (“limp, slack”).
Sense 1.2 (“flexible, supple; agile, lithe”) is influenced by lithe.
Cognates
Dutch lodder (“wanton person”), loddering (“drowsy; trifling; wanton”)
German liederlich (“dissolute”), German lotterig (“slovenly”), lüderlich (“slovenly”)
Old English loþrung (“delusion, rubbish, nonsense”), loddere (“beggar”)

nb...

ledyr, leither, leother, leoðre, lether, lethir, lethire, lethur, leðere, lidder, liddyr, lider, lithere, lithre, lithur, liðere, luder, luither, luithere, luiþer, luther, luthere, luthre, luthur, luðer, luðere, luðre, luþur, luyþer, lyder, lydir, lydyr, lythyr, lythyre, lyþere,

col

Cognates

After the same manner a Monk (I mean those lither, idle, lazie Monks) doth not labour and work, as do the Peasant and Artificer: doth not ward and defend the countrey, as doth the man of warre: cureth not the sick and diseased, as the Physician doth: doth neither preach nor teach, as do the Evangelical Doctors and Schoolmasters: doth not import commodities and things necessary for the Commonwealth, as the Merchant doth: therefore is it, that by and of all men they are hooted at, hated and abhorred.

1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “Why Monks are the Out-casts of the World; and wherefore Some Have Bigger Noses than Others?”, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume I, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, 1st book, page 120:

"It is thine own laziness, thou false English blood, that doest nothing but drink and sleep," retorted the page, "and leaves that lither lad to do the work, that he minds as little as thou."

1820, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 85:

Secondarily, let him which laboureth in his vocation be prompt and active; let him be watchful and able to abide labour; he must be no lither-back, unapt, or slothful fellow. Whatsoever he doth, that let him do with faith and diligence.

[1850, Henry Bullinger [i.e., Heinrich Bullinger], “Of the Fourth Precept of the Second Table, which is in Order the Eighth of the Ten Commandments, Thou Shalt Not Steal. Of the Owning and Possessing of Proper Goods, and of the Right and Lawful Getting of the Same; against Sundry Kinds of Theft. The First Sermon.”, in H. I., transl., edited by Thomas Harding, The Decades of Henry Bullinger, Minister of the Church of Zurich, volume II (The Third Decade), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] University Press [for the Parker Society], →OCLC, page 32:

Thus he [Rabelais] sketched an education which might have befitted a great King, without a word of ribaldry or scorn, and in such a spirit as proves that he gravely condemned the lazy, lither system of the monasteries.

1900, Charles Whibley, “Introduction”, in [François] Rabelais, translated by Thomas Urquhart and Peter Le Motteux [i.e., Peter Anthony Motteux], edited by W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, Gargantua and Pantagruel […] (Tudor Translations; XXIV), volume I, London: David Nutt […], →OCLC, page lxiv:

(archaic or British, dialectal)
Lazy, slothful; listless.

Thou antique Death, vvhich laugh'ſt vs here to ſcorn, / Anon from thy inſulting Tyrannie, / Coupled in bonds of perpetuitie, / Tvvo Talbots vvinged through the lither Skie, / In thy deſpight ſhall ſcape Mortalitie.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii], page 113, column 2:

(archaic or British, dialectal)
Flexible, supple; also, agile, lithe.


lolly

en-noun

lolly (countable and uncountable, plural lollies)

(UK, Ireland, slang, uncountable) Money.


lye

Variant of lie (“to rest horizontally”) now used in a specialised sense; compare sett.

Brakevan lye. [same page in the main text] There is also an inclined lye for brakevans at each end of the yard.

1962 October, G. Freeman Allen, “The New Look in Scotland's Northern Division—II: The new Perth marshalling yard”, in Modern Railways, page 273, photo caption with indicating arrow:

(UK, rail transport) A short side line, connected with the main line; a turn-out; a siding.


mews

From Mewes, the name of the royal stables at Charing Cross, which is the plural of mew (“moulting (of falcons), falcon cage”).

What penned them there, with all the plain to choose?
 No foot-print leading to that horrid mews,
 None out of it.

1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXIII:

It was healthy and magnificient because one room, above a mews, somewhere near the river, contained fifty excited, talkative, friendly people.

1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, Vintage Classics, paperback edition, page 106

It was here in the kitchen, in the passage
In the mews in the harn in the byre in the market place[…].

1935, T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, Part II:

It was further proposed that a space of ground near these establishments should be appropriated to a mews for the convenience of persons requiring post horses, and for the standing of horses and carriages at livery.

1945 September and October, “The Origin of the Euston Hotel”, in Railway Magazine, page 266:

(British) An alley where there are stables; a narrow passage; a confined place.

istállósor

alley where there are stables; narrow passage; confined place


minter

From Middle English mynter, from Old English mynetere, from Proto-West Germanic *munitārī, from Latin monētārius; equivalent to mint + -er. Doublet of monetary.

(British, slang) An item in mint condition (especially a motor car)


mod

mod (countable and uncountable, plural mods)

It was “Mods” against “Rockers” and the police against both as this quiet seaside town of 28,000 exploded with teen‐age violence during the Easter weekend. […] The “Mods” or “Moderns” wear sharply cut Italian‐style suits and long, pointed “winklepicker” shoes. They ride motor scooters fitted with scores of gleaming accesories^([sic]).

1964 March 31, “Rival Teen‐Age Gangs Terrorize British Sea Resort”, in The New York Times:

(UK) A 1960s British person who dressed in such a style and was interested in modernism and the modern music of the time; the opposite of a rocker.


mort

mort (countable and uncountable, plural morts)

From Middle English mort, from Old French mort (“death”).

(UK, Scotland, dialect) The skin of a sheep or lamb that has died of disease.


mort

morts (plural)
mot (alternative)
mott (alternative)

UK circa 1560–1890. Unknown. Documented possibilities include:
* From mort (“A three-year-old salmon”), by equation of women with fish.
* From Welsh modryb (“aunt”)
* From Welsh morwyn (“maid, virgin”)
* From French amourette (“a crush”)
* From, or cognate with, Dutch mot (“pig, lewd woman”), from Middle Low German mutte.
* From French motte (“mound, esp. mons veneris”)
* From Romani mintš (“female genitals”). Cognate with English minge.

unk

Unknown

der

Male gypsies all, not a mort among them.

1621, Ben Jonson, The Gypsies Metamorphosed:

"Yes, master! I and my mort worships something besides good ale; don't we, Sue?" and then he leered at the mort, who leered at him, and both made odd motions backwards and forwards, causing the baskets which hung round them to creak and rustle, and uttering loud shouts of laughter, which roused the echoes of the neighbouring hills.

KINCHIN-MORTS, the Twenty-seventh and last Order of the Canting Crew, being girls of a year or two old whom the Morts (their Mothers) carry at their Backs in Slates (Sheets) and if they have no children of their own they[…]

1896, John Stephen Farmer, Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: A Dictionary ... with Synonyms in English, French ... Etc. Compiled by J.S. Farmer [and W.E. Henley], page 109:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A woman; a female.


mullah

en-verb

mullah (third-person singular simple present mullahs, present participle mullahing, simple past and past participle mullahed)

mullahs (present singular third-person)
mullahing (participle present)
mullahed (participle past)
mullahed (past)

But I mullahed him. He may have been four inches taller but I punched him through the ropes and knocked the granny and the grandad out of him.

The Sevens practice session was touch rugby, but every time Harvey got the ball, I absolutely mullahed him. I pushed him, dumped him on his arse, ran through him. Every time.

2016, Ben Cohen, Carry Me Home: My Autobiography, page 76:

(transitive, UK, slang) Alternative form of muller (“to beat, thrash”).


From Nan, pet form of the formerly very common female given names Anne and Agnes. As a nursemaid and grandmother, a clipping of earlier nana, from nanny under the probable influence of mama, also from Nan. Compare Mary.

We had my nan over for Christmas dinner.

(British, Ireland, Australia, Canada, endearing) Synonym of grandmother.


niggle

niggle (third-person singular simple present niggles, present participle niggling, simple past and past participle niggled)

niggles (present singular third-person)
niggling (participle present)
niggled (participle past)
niggled (past)

First attested in 1599. Origin uncertain, but likely borrowed from dialectal Norwegian nigla (“to be stingy, to busy oneself with trifles”), ultimately from Old Norse hnøggr (“stingy; miserly”), related to Old English hnēaw (“stingy; niggardly”). More at niggard.

bor

(intransitive, chiefly UK) To fidget, fiddle, be restless.

I can see him now with his one eye closed as he came niggling along, and didn't he just give me a grandfather's blessing!

1893, Fores's Sporting Notes & Sketches, page 177:

(intransitive, UK, dialect, archaic) To walk with short steps.


nitty

en-adj

nitty (comparative nittier or more nitty, superlative nittiest or most nitty)

nittier (comparative)
more nitty (comparative)
nittiest (superlative)
most nitty (superlative)
nittie (alternative)

From nit + -y. The “foolish, inane” adjective sense is from nit (“fool, nitwit”), possibly under the influence of nutty (“crazy, mad”).
The origin of the noun sense (“dope fiend, druggie”) is unknown, but could refer to a person who is under the influence of drugs to the extent that he or she is careless about personal hygiene and unkempt. Compare the verb nit (“to be a nitty”).

Stephen Colbert went overtime to get into the “nitty crazy” of President Donald Trump’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, noting that, he was shaken to his core, but “at 54, there’s not a lot of core left.”

2018 July 17, Melissa Lockyer, “Putin’s Press Conference with Trump Shook Stephen Colbert to His Core”, in Time, archived from the original on 2018-07-19:

(chiefly British, slang) Foolish, inane.


nob

Pronunciation spelling of knob.
Nobleman sense from white-nob (“white-head”) (18th century), referring to the powdered wigs used by those having or affecting upper middle-class status.

(by extension) (vulgar, slang, chiefly UK, Ireland) The penis; dick. (Also spelled knob.)

The masses have risen up and shot all their nobs.

1989, Richard Curtis, Ben Elton, Blackadder Goes Forth:

(slang, chiefly UK, Ireland) A wealthy or influential person; a toff.


nonce

1975.
Unknown, derived from British criminal slang. Several origins have been proposed; possibly derived from dialectal nonce, nonse (“stupid, worthless individual”) (but this cannot be shown to predate nonce "child-molester" and is likely a toned-down usage of the same insult), or Nance, nance (“effeminate man, homosexual”), from nancy or nancyboy. The rhyme with ponce has also been noted.
As prison slang also said to be an acronym for "Not On Normal Communal Exercise" (Stevens 2012), but this is likely a backronym.

1989 "assorted nonces, ponces and murderers, 'the worst men in the world' … on the nonce wing, where the child-killers, molesters and various perverts have to be protected from the other prisoners." (New Statesman, New Society, Volume 2, Statesman & Nation Publishing Company Limited)

(British, Ireland, derogatory) A sex offender, especially one who is guilty of sexual offences against children.

skinneri

(British, Ireland, prison slang, derogatory) A police informer, one who betrays a criminal enterprise

Shut it, ya nonce!

(British, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A stupid or worthless person.


ouster

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


ponce

tlb

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, derogatory, slang)

Uncertain, but probably an aphetic form of French alphonse (“kept man”), from the male given name Alphonse. Also sometimes connected to pounce or French pensionnaire (“pensioner, person living without working”).

ncog

A man living off another's earnings, especially a woman's.

Synonym of pimp, especially one hired by a prostitute as a tout, bodyguard, and driver.

pimp

Thanks Don, see you Don, off to sunny Spain now Don, fuck off Don. Lying in your pool like a fat blob laughing at me, you think I'm gonna have that? You really think I'm gonna have that, ya ponce.

2000, Sexy Beast (motion picture), spoken by Don Logan (Ben Kingsley):

Synonym of poof: an effeminate gay man; any similarly effeminate man.


ponce

en-verb

ponce (third-person singular simple present ponces, present participle poncing, simple past and past participle ponced)

ponces (present singular third-person)
poncing (participle present)
ponced (participle past)
ponced (past)

To borrow (something) from somebody without returning it.


prig

UK 16th century. Of unknown origin. Earlier noun senses ("tinker" and "thief"), as hyponyms of "undesirable person", may have informed later senses ("conceited person").

unk

unknown

These droncken Tynckers, called also Prygges.

1566, Thomas Harman, A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors:

(UK, Ireland, archaic, thieves' cant) A tinker.

Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig! He haunts / wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

Oh, why didn't he rob some rich old gentleman of all his walables, and go out as a gentleman, and not like a common prig, without no honour nor glory!

1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

But a policeman captur'd the naughty boy, / And gave the goose to Smiggs, / And said he was greatly bother'd / By a set of juvenile prigs.

a. 1890, William McGonagall, The Christmas Goose:

(UK, Ireland, archaic, thieves' cant) A petty thief or pickpocket.


pug

Origin unknown, possibly related to West Flemish pugge (“(adjective) small; (noun) short person; pet name derived from the first name Pugge”); though it is uncertain whether sense 1 (“senses relating to someone or something small”) and sense 2 (“senses relating to people”) are derived from the same source.
Sense 1.8 (“small demon”) was probably influenced by, though not a variant of, puck.

pentu

It is to be observed in this experiment, […] that the loss of weight by feeding (tegs or pugs) on turnips, is remarkable: […]

1808, Thomas Batchelor, “Live Stock”, in General View of the Agriculture of the County of Bedford. […], London: […] [B. MᶜMillan] for Richard Phillips, […], →OCLC, section 2 (Sheep), page 541:

Senses relating to someone or something small.

(UK, regional, archaic) Also used as a proper name: any of various animals, such as a ferret, hare, squirrel, or young salmon.

(specifically) Synonym of teg (“a sheep (originally a ewe) in its second year, or from the time it is weaned until it is first shorn”).

teg

[…] I heard her call him dear pug, and found him to be her favourite monkey.

1712 October 13 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “THURSDAY, October 2, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 499; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 454:

Its proper Povver to hurt, each Creature feels, / Bulls aim their Horns, and Aſſes lift their Heels, / 'Tis a Bear's Talent not to kick, but hug, / And no Man vvonders he's not ſtung by Pug: […]

1733, Alexander Pope, The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace, […], London [actually Edinburgh]: […] L[awton] G[illiver] and sold by A. Dodd […], E[lizabeth] Nutt […], →OCLC, page 13:

Take avvay the pug, ſaid I, to the attendants—Take it avvay vvhile any of it is left—They reſcued the ſtill ſmiling babe, and run avvay vvith it.

1753 (indicated as 1754), [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XLIII. Lady G. to Lady Grandison.”, in The History of Sir Charles Grandison. […], 2nd edition, volume VI, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by C. Hitch and L. Hawes, […], →OCLC, page 211:

Or, is the Monkey sick, he takes his bed; / Old Slop is sent for, to prescribe for Pug.— […]

1812, Peter Pindar [pseudonym; John Wolcot], “Tristia; or, The Sorrows of Peter: […]. Elegy.”, in The Works of Peter Pindar, Esq. […], new edition, volume V, London: […] J[ohn] Walker, G. Wilkie and J. Robinson, G. Robinson, […]; and G. Goulding and Co. […], →OCLC, page 297:

(specifically, obsolete) An ape, a monkey; also (by extension) a human child.

[T]here is a dead silence, till pug is well out of cover, and the whole pack well in: then cheer the hounds with tally ho! till your lungs crack. Away he goes in gallant style, and the whole field is hard up, till pug takes a stiff country: […]

1812, [Maria] Edgeworth, “The Absentee. Chapter VIII.”, in Tales of Fashionable Life (2nd series), volume VI, London: […] [Heney] for J[oseph] Johnson and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 93–94:

That spell was broken by the sight of poor wearied pug, his once gracefully-floating brush all draggled and drooping, as he toiled up the sheep-paths toward the open down above.

1848, [Charles Kingsley], “The Philosophy of Fox-hunting”, in Yeast: A Problem. […], London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1851, →OCLC, page 16:

Dear, delicate Madam, I am your little Paraquit, your Sparrovv, your Shock, your Pugg, your Squirrel.

1685 July (first performance), N[ahum] Tate, Cuckolds-Haven: Or, An Alderman No Conjurer. A Farce. […], London: […] J. H. and are to be sold by Edward Poole, […], published 1685, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 5:

Squirrels / Are not uncommon in the plantings on the broad edges, where they may be seen feeding on the deal-apples, as the Broadsmen call the fir-cones; nuts and acorns too they are fond of. […] Stoats sometimes chase them, but "pug" generally manages to escape, an[d] he can get to a tree first—he is a much more daring jumper.

1895, P[eter] H[enry] Emerson, “Shrew Mouse, or Rana, and Squirrels”, in Birds, Beasts and Fishes of the Norfolk Broadland, London: David Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 363:

(UK, regional, rare) A person or thing that is squat (“broad and short”).

Procedure would vary a little from household to household. Thus, the roast might be ceremonially borne out ahead of the departing ‘Pugs,’ or it might be left behind so that the lower servants could have second helpings.

1962, E[rnest] S[ackville] Turner, “The Female Branch”, in What the Butler Saw: Two Hundred and Fifty Years of the Servant Problem, London: Michael Joseph, →OCLC, page 119:

(UK, historical) Chiefly used by servants: A senior or upper servant in a household.


punter

[…] and having only peeped into a play-room at Baden-Baden when he hung on Dobbin's arm, and where, of course, he was not permitted to gamble, came eagerly to this part of the entertainment and hankered round the tables where the croupiers and the punters were at work.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 574:

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

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

Punters know the house usually wins, but most have no idea that bookies sharpen their edge via something called “stake factoring”, the process by which winning customers are dialled down, while losers are allowed to bet more.

2022 February 19, Rob Davies, “Revealed: how bookies clamp down on successful gamblers and exploit the rest”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) One who gambles or bets.

She's working the streets like she does every night / Pulling in punters left and right

2007, “Suzanne”, in Paint it Blacker, performed by Plan B:

Everybody knows your mum is a whore / Getting 'round Piccadilly looking for willy / Punters pull up and say "don't be silly"

2016 March 7, “Road Rage (Freestyle)”, performed by Little T (Josh Tate):

The number of UK pubs is falling and there is less consensus about how punters should behave. Here’s a guide to getting the most out of a trip to the boozer[.]

2018 June 6, Tony Naylor, “The new rules of pub etiquette: don't flirt with bar staff or steal the glasses”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A customer of a commercial establishment, frequently of a pub or (alternatively) of a prostitute.


purl

en-verb

purl (third-person singular simple present purls, present participle purling, simple past and past participle purled)

purls (present singular third-person)
purling (participle present)
purled (participle past)
purled (past)

From Old Norse purla (“to babble”), possibly ultimately from an imitative Germanic base related to Dutch polder, Norwegian puldra (“to gush”) and pulla (“to bubble”), Old English polr (“marsh”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

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

thin winding breath which purled up to the sky

1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC:

To rise in circles, ripples, or undulations; to curl; to mantle.


ream

From Middle English reme, rem, from Old English rēam (“cream”), from Proto-West Germanic *raum, from Proto-Germanic *raumaz (“cream”), from Proto-Indo-European *réwgʰmn̥ (“to sour [milk]”).
Cognate with Dutch room (“cream”), German Rahm (“cream”) (whence German Wolfram), Norwegian rømme (“sour cream”), Icelandic rjómi (“cream”). See also ramekin.

inh

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

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Cream; also, the creamlike froth on ale or other liquor; froth or foam in general.


ream

en-verb

ream (third-person singular simple present reams, present participle reaming, simple past and past participle reamed)

reams (present singular third-person)
reaming (participle present)
reamed (participle past)
reamed (past)
reem (alternative)
raim (alternative)

a huge pewter measuring pot […] which, in the language of the hostess, reamed with excellent claret

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To cream; mantle; foam; froth.


remit

From Middle English remitten, from Latin remittere (“to send, send back”). Compare Old French remettre, remetre, remitter.

WHO/TDR should prepare a volume containing ... important issues in the performance of studies that fall outside of the GLP remit.

2000: Scientific Working Group on Good Laboratory Practice issues, Handbook: Good Laboratory Practice read on World Health Organisation website at https://web.archive.org/web/20060325195225/http://www.who.int/tdr/publications/publications/pdf/glp-handbook.pdf on 14 May 2006

However, this is beyond the remit of this particular article.

2001: H. Meinardi et al, ILAE Commission, The treatment gap in epilepsy: the current situation and ways forward read at http://www.ilae-epilepsy.org/pubs/JAN2001.PDF on 14 May 2006

Next steps ... Create one IS organisation and extend remit to all HE activities.

2003: Andy Macleod, Cisco Systems, Pulling it all together - the 21st Century Campus read at http://www.ciscoeventreg.net/go/presentations/event3/a_macleod.pdf on 14 May 2006

2012, The Economist, Sep 29th 2012 issue, Chile's economic statistics: For richer—or poorer
Chile needs to gather together its statisticians into a single agency, such as a new and improved INE, and give it more autonomy and a broader remit.

As an adjunct to the new corporate plan, the sector produced a 20-page prospectus explaining how it would fulfil its remit, which was approved by the Minister.

2020 January 2, David Clough, “How InterCity came back from the brink”, in Rail, page 66:

(chiefly British) Terms of reference; set of responsibilities; scope.

vastuualue

terms of reference; set of responsibilities


rooky

(UK, slang, obsolete) rascally, rakish, scampish.


sapper

Borrowed from Middle French sappeur (French sapeur). By surface analysis, sap + -er.

By a remarkable piece of railway reconstruction work on the part of the Allied Forces—mainly South African railway construction troops—mines laid along the track by the retreating enemy were removed by sappers, and the German damage made good, within 7 days.

1944 March and April, “The Western Desert Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 73:

Billinge, from St Austell, was one of the first soldiers to land on 'Gold' beach on June 6 1944. He was a sapper attached to the 44 Royal Engineer Commandos and was one of only four to survive from his unit.

2020 October 21, “Network News: GWR train naming honours D-Day veteran Harry”, in Rail, page 17:

(British, colloquial) An officer or private of the Royal Engineers.


scat

scats (plural)
scatt (alternative)
skatt (alternative)

From Middle English scet, schat, from Old English sċeatt (“property, goods, owndom, wealth, treasure; payment, price, gift, bribe, tax, tribute, money, goods, reward, rent, a tithe; a piece of money, a coin; denarius, twentieth part of a shilling”) and Old Norse skattr (“wealth, treaure, tax, tribute, coin”); both from Proto-Germanic *skattaz (“cattle, kine, wealth, owndom, goods, hoard, treasure, geld, money”), from Proto-Indo-European *skatn-, *skat- (“to jump, skip, splash out”). Cognate with Scots scat (“tax, levy, charge, payment, bribe”), West Frisian skat (“treasure, darling”), Dutch schat (“treasure, hoard, darling, sweetheart”), German Schatz (“treasure, hoard, wealth, store, darling, sweetheart”), Swedish skatt (“treasure, tax, duty”), Icelandic skattur (“tax, tribute”), Latin scateō (“gush, team, bubble forth, abound”).

cog

(UK dialectal) A land-tax paid in the Shetland Islands.


scat

en-noun

scat (countable and uncountable, plural scats)

scats (plural)
skat (alternative)
skatt (alternative)

Origin uncertain. Both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster suggest derivation from Ancient Greek σκῶρ (skôr, “excrement”), compare English scato-, but Random House Dictionary suggests that the popular character of the word makes this unlikely. Perhaps from English dialectal scat (“to scatter, fling, bespatter”), or an alteration of shit, which is also used for "drugs, heroin".

Low black Clouds on it being ſoppoſed to prognoſticate Rain in the Places beneath it, it has been a ſtanding old Saw, When Haldon hath a Hat, Kenton beware a Skat.

1759, Andrew Brice, The Grand Gazetteer, or Topographic Dictionary, page 677:

(UK, dialect) A brisk shower of rain, driven by the wind.


septic

Short form of Cockney rhyming slang septic tank (“Yank”).

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

Typical septic. Can't understand why the rest of the world thinks he's a fuck-knuckle.

1998 April 21, Justin Downey, “Re: rachel is awful cute!”, alt.nuke.the.USA, aus.flame.usa, and alt.flame

“Didn′t enjoy the septics,” he says jokingly about the Americans.

2011, Roger Rees, Out of Calamity: Stories of Trauma Survivors, unnumbered page:

“What′s the septics′ Achilles heel?” I said using the slang septic tank, meaning Yank.

2012, John Righten, The Benevolence of Rogues, page 97:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, rhyming slang, ethnic slur) An American, a Yank.


shill

en-verb

shill (third-person singular simple present shills, present participle shilling, simple past and past participle shilled)

shills (present singular third-person)
shilling (participle present)
shilled (participle past)
shilled (past)


shunt

shunt (third-person singular simple present shunts, present participle shunting, simple past and past participle shunted)

shunts (present singular third-person)
shunting (participle present)
shunted (participle past)
shunted (past)

From Middle English shunten, schunten, schonten, schounten, shont, shonte, shount, shounten, shunte (“to move rapidly or suddenly, jerk; to swerve, turn away; to avoid, dodge, escape, evade”), either:
* possibly a back-formation from Middle English shǒnen (“to decline to do, refuse; to abandon, forsake; to disdain, dislike, hate; to avoid, escape; to be afraid, fear; to be wary of”), from Old English sċunian, sċyniġan; see shun. Or
* an alteration of Middle English shunden, *schunden, *schinden, from Old English sċyndan, sċendan (“to hasten, hurry”) (as in āsċyndan (“to remove, take away”), from Proto-West Germanic *skundijan, from Proto-Germanic *skundijaną (“to compel, drive, push; to accelerate, rush, speed up”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kew(n)t- (“to rattle, shake”).
* from unrecorded Old English *sċunettan, a derivative of sċunian (“to shun, avoid”).
The English word is cognate with Danish skynde (“to hasten, hurry, speed”), Icelandic skynda, skunda (“to hasten”), Middle High German schünden (“to compel; to urge; to irritate”), Norwegian skynde (“to hurry, rush”), Swedish skynda (“to hasten, hurry; to scuttle, scurry”). Outside Germanic, compare Sanskrit स्कन्दति (skándati, “to dart, leap, spring, spurt or burst forth, ejaculate, assail, drop, split”), Albanian shkund (“to shake; to swig”).
As regards the noun sense, compare Middle English shunt (“swerve; sudden jerk”), derived from the verb.

cog

The main argument for the use of culpability as a categorizer is that some accidents can be said to be independent of the behaviour of at least one of the drivers, for example, being shunted when having stopped for a red light (in a slow and controlled manner, at least).

2017, Anders af Wåhlberg, “Traffic Accident Involvement Taxonomies”, in Driver Behaviour and Accident Research Methodology: Unresolved Problems (Human Factors in Road and Rail Transport), Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN:

(transitive, chiefly road transport, informal, British) To have a minor collision, especially in a motor car.

(transitive, obsolete, British, dialectal) To turn aside or away; to divert.

(finance, UK, historical) To carry on arbitrage between the London stock exchange and provincial stock exchanges.


shunt

At the first race in Brazil, I became involved in a four-car shunt. I won't go into too much detail now, except to say that the accident had nothing to do with me. […] Everyone else was avoiding the accident when [Jos] Verstappen lost control on the grass, came right into me – and off we all went. It was a huge shunt.

2017, Eddie Irvine, with Maurice Hamilton, “No Big Deal”, in Green Races Red, updated edition, London: CollinsWillow, →ISBN:

(chiefly road transport, informal, British) A minor collision between vehicles.


slat

en-verb

slat (third-person singular simple present slats, present participle slatting, simple past and past participle slatted)

slats (present singular third-person)
slatting (participle present)
slatted (participle past)
slatted (past)

Old French esclat. Doublet of slate and éclat.

Both head-peeces and habergeons were slat and dashed a peeces.

1609, Ammianus Marcellinus, translated by Philemon Holland, The Roman Historie, […], London: […] Adam Jslip, →OCLC:

(British, dialectal) To split; to crack.


sod

The Empire, in particular, was always thick with sods: they strolled side-by-side with the gay girls of the promenade, or stood, in little knots, exchanging gossip, comparing fortunes, greeting one another with flapping hands and high, extravagant voices.

1998, Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet, Virago (2018), page 207:

(UK, Ireland, vulgar, dated) Sodomite; bugger.

You mean old sod!

poor sod

unlucky sod

You silly sod.

(UK, Ireland, slang, mildly derogatory, formerly considered vulgar) A person; often qualified with an adjective.

I don’t care a sod.

(UK, Ireland, mildly vulgar) Any trifling amount, a bugger, a damn, a jot.


sod

(UK, Ireland, vulgar) expression of surprise, contempt, outrage, disgust, boredom, frustration.


sod

sod (third-person singular simple present sods, present participle sodding, simple past and past participle sodded)

sods (present singular third-person)
sodding (participle present)
sodded (participle past)
sodded (past)

(transitive, UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar) Bugger; sodomize.

Sod him!, Sod it!, Sod that bastard!

(transitive, UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar) Damn, curse, confound.


strop

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A bad mood or temper. A tantrum.


swatch

Unknown; originally used chiefly in the East of England.

It muſt be obſerved, that the paſſages, called Cockerlees, are no other than ſwatches through the Long-Sand.

1801, John Ritchie, “Instructions for Sailing in the Northern Part of the Bay of Bengal. Part I. Survey of the Coast from Point Palmiras to the Braces; of the Outlets of the Ganges, and of the Interjacent Rivers from Hughly River to Roymongul”, in [Joseph Huddart], editor, The Oriental Navigator; or, New Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, &c. &c. &c. …, 2nd edition, London: Printed and published by Robert Laurie and James Whittle, map, chart, & printsellers, No. 53, Fleet-Street, →OCLC, page 281:

The Swatch, or Swatch of no ground, a chaſm in the bank, is ſituated between the latitudes of 21° and 21° 22′ North, and the middle of it lies about 50 leagues Weſt of the meridian of the White Cliffs.

1804, Captain Ritchie [i.e., John Ritchie], “Directions for Crossing the Head of the Bay of Bengal”, in William Herbert, William Nicholson, Samuel Dunn, Gabriel Wright, editors, A New Nautical Directory for the East-India and China Navigation: …, 7th edition, London: Printed by S. Couchman, Throgmorton-Street, for and sold by William Gilbert, No. 148, Leadenhall-Street: Sold by A. Arrowsmith, Rathbone-Place; and Blacks and Parry, Leadenhall-Street, →OCLC, page 265:

Opposite the middle of the delta, at the distance of thirty or forty miles from the coast, a deep submarine valley occurs, called the "swatch of no ground," about fifteen miles in diameter, where soundings of 180, and even 300, fathoms fail to reach the bottom. […] As the mud is known to extend for eighty miles farther into the gulf, an enormous thickness of matter must have been deposited in "the swatch."

1853, Charles Lyell, chapter XVIII, in Principles of Geology […] , 9th edition, Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., Book II, page 279:

(UK) A channel or passage of water between sandbanks, or between a sandbank and a seashore.


tat

en-noun

tat (countable and uncountable, plural tats)

(uncountable, British) Cheap and vulgar tastelessness; sleaze.

tourist tat

And it agreed with the editorial cartoon which featured a newsman doing a live report in front of a smouldering building and saying, "And it seems millions of pounds of meaningless tat has been lost to the nation for ever."

2004 May 28, Thomas Sutcliffe, “Why Britart is a burning issue”, in The Independent:

(uncountable, British) Cheap, tasteless, useless goods; trinkets.


tat

(UK, gambling, slang, archaic) Alternative form of tatt (“a die, especially one that is loaded”).


tenner

[...] or, if you're feeling brave, a tenner. Tell your child they have a chance to win the fiver if they can [...]

2016, Rob Eastaway & Mike Askew, "Maths on the Go: 101 Fun Ways to Play with Maths", page 40:

The more a shop looks as though it trades in farthings and ha’pennies, the more tenners and twenties you can expect to hand over at the till.

2020 September 1, Tom Lamont, “The butcher's shop that lasted 300 years (give or take)”, in The Guardian:

I’ve visited Eton, there’s loads of places like it, and if that’s all you know, then you’ve definitely not had to worry about pulling a tenner out of the bank…

2023 March 5, Miranda Sawyer, quoting Jason Williamson, “Sleaford Mods: ‘The UK is like a crazy golf course – all we’ve got left are landmarks’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(informal, UK, Ireland) A monetary note (bill) whose face value is ten basic units of currency. Originally, a ten-shilling (half pound) note.

tízdolláros

more commonly specified with the currency:


tipper

(UK) A goods vehicle with a tippable body, used for carrying loose materials such as gravel or rubble; a tipper truck, tipper lorry, or dump truck.


toby

(British, New Zealand) The valve that mediates the connection between a mains water-supply and a premises's own plumbing.

1931, Eric Blair (the real name of George Orwell), "Hop-picking" in The New Statesman of 17th October 1931.
It is no wonder that itinerant agricultural workers travel on the toby and sleep in casual wards between jobs.


tusker

tuskers (plural)
tuskar (alternative)
toysker (alternative)
tushkar (alternative)
tushker (alternative)
twiscar (alternative)

From Old Norse torfskeri, from torf (“turf”) + skera (“to cut”), whence also Scottish Gaelic tairsgear, toirsgear and later forms like toirsgein (assimilated to sgian (“knife”)). Known in print from the early 19th century, but doubtless much older.

(UK, especially Scotland, Orkney, Shetland) A tool used in peat cutting, a type of spade similar to a cascrom.


vamp

en-verb

vamp (third-person singular simple present vamps, present participle vamping, simple past and past participle vamped)

vamps (present singular third-person)
vamping (participle present)
vamped (participle past)
vamped (past)

From Middle English vaumpe, vaum-pei, vampe (“covering for the foot, perhaps a slipper or understocking; upper of a boot or shoe”), or from Anglo-Norman vampe, *vaumpé (“part of a stocking covering the top of the foot”), from Old French avantpied, avantpiet, variants of avantpié, from avant (“in front”) + pié (“foot”).
Noun senses 2 and 3 (“a patch; something patched up or improvised”) appear to have been extended from sense 1 (“top part of a boot or shoe”). Sense 4 (“repeated and often improvised musical accompaniment”) was probably derived from sense 3, and sense 5 (“activity to fill or stall for time”) from sense 4.
The verb senses were derived from the noun. Compare also Middle English vaum-peien (“(uncertain) to repair (footwear) with a new upper or vamp; to fabricate an upper or vamp”).

cog

'I'll find my own fencing cove or else vamp it to a pawnbroker.'

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


vamper

en-verb

vamper (third-person singular simple present vampers, present participle vampering, simple past and past participle vampered)

vampers (present singular third-person)
vampering (participle present)
vampered (participle past)
vampered (past)

The temple of thy body, look with scorn,
Why doth that vamper'd glution eat no more

(UK, Scotland, dialect) To swagger; to make an ostentatious show.


whig

Probably from Middle English wheyȝe, weyȝe, wege, variant of whey. More at whey.

(UK, dialect, obsolete) Acidulated whey, sometimes mixed with buttermilk and sweet herbs, used as a cooling beverage.


winker

From wink (“blinking of only one eye”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

silmäniskijä

[H]e has shell'd out the lour for the occasion, and is travelling down to keep a wakeful winker on his retailers, and to take care that however they may chuse to lush away the profit, they shall at least take care of the principal. [Footnote ǁ: “Wakeful winker—A sharp eye.”]

p. 1821, “an amateur” [pseudonym], chapter XXVII, in Real Life in London; or, The Rambles and Adventures of Bob Tallyho, Esq. and His Cousin, the Hon. Tom Dashall, through the Metropolis; […], volume I, London: T. Johnson & Co., →OCLC, page 608:

With keener stare / The man's eyes scanned him, with the flare / Of yellow light full on his face, / As though his memory sought to trace / Something familiar in the lean / Clearcut young features and the clean / Blue winkers: then his own hard eyes / Twinkled, […]

1947, Wilfrid [Wilson] Gibson, “Section II”, in Coldknuckles, London: Frederick Muller […], →OCLC; republished as Coldknuckles (Faded Page; ebook #20141058), Canada: Distributed Proofreaders Canada, 13 October 2014, part I:

A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks.

We're like father and Aunt Nina, hanging on the wall in the library. Mother's got big black eyes, with winkers a rod long, and her hair shines like my velvet coat, and comes most to her feet.

1864, Mary J[ane] Holmes, “Six Years Later”, in Darkness and Daylight. […], New York, N.Y.: Carleton, […], →OCLC, page 368:

I had fallen down on my knees, with my back to the wind, and already the snow had drifted around me. I also found my eye-lashes frozen together, and I lost several winkers in getting rid of those solidified tears.

1915, Arthur Stringer, “Monday the Eleventh”, in The Prairie Wife […], Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 179:

His eyebrows are gone and his winkers, and he’s as red as a gobbler’s neck.

1931, B. M. Bower [pseudonym; Bertha Muzzy Sinclair], “The Native Son”, in Dark Horse: A Story of the Flying U, New York, N.Y.: Triangle Books, published January 1943, →OCLC, page 217:

(British, US, dialectal or slang) An eyelash.


wisp

en-verb

wisp (third-person singular simple present wisps, present participle wisping, simple past and past participle wisped)

wisps (present singular third-person)
wisping (participle present)
wisped (participle past)
wisped (past)

From Middle English wispe, wyspe, wips, wipse, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *wisp, *wips. Cognate with West Frisian wisp, Dutch wisp (“bundle of hay or straw”), Norwegian bokmål/Swedish/Bornholm Danish visp (“handful or bundle of grass, hay, etc.”). Akin also to Middle Dutch/Middle Low German wispel (“measure of grain”).


laker

From Middle English *lakere, *leikere, from Middle English laken, leiken (“to play, sport”), equivalent to lake (“play, sport”) + -er. More at lake.

(UK dialectal) One engaged in sport; a player; an actor.


moil

en-verb

moil (third-person singular simple present moils, present participle moiling, simple past and past participle moiled)

moils (present singular third-person)
moiling (participle present)
moiled (participle past)
moiled (past)
moile (alternative)
moyle (alternative)

From Middle English mollen (“to soften by wetting”), borrowed from Old French moillier with the same meaning, from Vulgar Latin *molliō, *molliare, from mollis (“soft”).


yoof

en-noun

yoof (countable and uncountable, plural yoofs)

Respelling of youth to correspond with a nonstandard pronunciation; th-fronting, in particular.

Slash'n'sideburn pop is what you get when Manc yoof grows up angry and facially bristling.

As for the yoof question, yes, there was an attempt to inject a certain spring into Mr Punch's aged step.

And London clubzine Chortler's Inc has featured a cartoon strip with a bumbling yoof TV presenter, again called Nobski.

Free Speech was one of those slightly cringey ‘let’s make politics relevant to da yoof’ programmes […]

2025 January 15, James Delingpole, “The day I was heckled for speaking about the rape gangs”, in The Spectator:

(British slang, sometimes attributive) youth (young person, young people or the state of being young)


bail

bail (countable and uncountable, plural bails)

From Middle English baille, from the Old French verb bailler (“to deliver or hand over”) and noun bail (“lease”), from Latin bāiulāre (“carry or bear”), from baiulus (“porter; steward”) (English: bailiff).

(law, UK) Release from imprisonment on payment of such money.

fiança

release from imprisonment on payment of such money

(law, UK) The person providing such payment.


bale

en-verb

bale (third-person singular simple present bales, present participle baling, simple past and past participle baled)

bales (present singular third-person)
baling (participle present)
baled (participle past)
baled (past)

(British, nautical) To remove water from a boat with buckets etc.


banker

From bank (“an elevation, or rising ground”) + -er (relational noun suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix).

But this was no storm, the bankers could have told him. It was break of the year.

1941, Ernestine Hill, My Love Must Wait, A&R Classics, published 2013, page 6:

(UK, dialect) A ditcher; a drain digger.


banker

Between them these engines work passenger trains on the Keith line, and also act as bankers up to Dava when required.

1944 January and February, W. McGowan Gradon, “Forres as a Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 23:

Because of a shortage of W.R. pannier tanks, two "E6" 0-6-2 tanks, Nos. 32410/5, were engaged as bankers on the Folkestone Harbour branch at the beginning of March; [...].

1960 May, “Motive Power Miscellany: Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 314:

(rail transport, British, Australia) A railway locomotive that can be attached to the rear of a train to assist it in climbing an incline.


beastly

en-adj

beastly (comparative beastlier or more beastly, superlative beastliest or most beastly)

beastlier (comparative)
more beastly (comparative)
beastliest (superlative)
most beastly (superlative)

From Middle English beestly, bestely, beastelich, equivalent to beast + -ly. Compare West Frisian bistachtich (“beastly”), Dutch beestachtig (“beastly”), German biestig (“beastly”).

beastly weather

Stop being so beastly to her!

And all the time, whenever we went to the Cedars, there was all sorts of silly fuss going on about the beastly wedding; boxes coming from London with hats and jackets in, and wedding presents—all glassy and silvery, or else brooches and chains—and clothes sent down from London to choose from.

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

“Yes, I’ve got the most beastly headache.”

1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 58:

"If you saw the care she takes over hoisting her beastly old carcass up and down those stairs, you could make a sure bet against her having another accident there."

1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 165:

(UK, dated) Abominable; very unpleasant; hideous.


bland

en-verb

bland (third-person singular simple present blands, present participle blanding, simple past and past participle blanded)

blands (present singular third-person)
blanding (participle present)
blanded (participle past)
blanded (past)

From Middle English blanden, blonden, from Old English blandan (“to blend, mix, mingle; trouble, disturb, corrupt”), from Proto-Germanic *blandaną (“to mix, blend”). Cognate with Icelandic blanda, Norwegian, Danish blande, Swedish blanda. See also blend.

inh

(transitive, UK dialectal) To mix; blend; mingle.

(transitive, UK dialectal) To connect; associate.


bland

en-noun

bland (countable and uncountable, plural blands)

blands (plural)
blaind (alternative)
blaund (alternative)

From Middle English bland, from Old English bland, blond (“blending, mixture, confusion”), from Proto-Germanic *blandą (“a mixing, mixture”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlendʰ- (“to grow turbid, dim, see badly, be blind”). Cognate with Icelandic blanda (“a mixture of liquids, especially of hot whey and water”).


blazer

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

From blaze + -er. Originates from the 'blazing' scarlet jackets worn by members of Lady Margaret Boat Club, the rowing club associated with St. John's College, Cambridge. Compare Old English blæsere, blasere (“burner, incendiary”, literally “blazer”).

(slang, UK) An older member of a sporting club, often with old-fashioned or conservative views.


brace

From Middle English brace, from Old French brace (“arm”), from Latin bracchia, the nominative and accusative plural of bracchium (“arm”).

(British, Cornwall, mining) The mouth of a shaft.

(British, chiefly in the plural) Straps or bands to sustain trousers; suspenders.


bream

From Middle English breme, from Old French breme, bresme, braisme, brasme (whence French brème), from Frankish *brahsma, *brahsima (whence Dutch brasem), from Proto-West Germanic *brahsmō (whence Old High German brahsma, brahsmo, brahsina, brehsina (whence German Brasse, Brachse (“bream”))), from Proto-Germanic *brahsmô, *brahsinō, *brahsmaz (“bream”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *brehwanaz (“shining, glittery, sparkly”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerek- (“to shine”) (see braid (verb)).

der

Abramis brama
Abramis brama#Translingual

(British) A species in that genus, Abramis brama.


brute

From Middle French brut, from Old French brut, from Latin brūtus (“dull, stupid, insensible”), an Oscan loanword, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”). Cognate with Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús), Persian گران (gerân) and Sanskrit गुरु (gurú) (English guru).

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

(archaic, UK, Cambridge University slang) One who has not yet matriculated.


cadge

en-verb

cadge (third-person singular simple present cadges, present participle cadging or cadgin, simple past and past participle cadged)

cadges (present singular third-person)
cadging (participle present)
cadgin (participle present)
cadged (participle past)
cadged (past)

Possibly a corruption of cage, from Old French.

Are ye gannin te cadge a lift of yoer fatha?

They moved about the bar incessantly, cadging cigarettes and drinks, with something behind their eyes at once terribly vulnerable and terribly hard.

1956, James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room, Penguin, published 2001, Part One, Chapter 2:

1960, Lionel Bart, “Food, Glorious Food,” song from the musical Oliver!
There’s not a crust, not a crumb can we find,
can we beg, can we borrow, or cadge […]

(US, British, slang) To obtain something by wit or guile; to convince people to do something they might not normally do.

vyloudit

slang: to obtain something by wit or guile

Another Atlas that will cadge a whole world of iniuries without fainting.

1607, Thomas Walkington, The Optick Glasse of Humors:

(UK, Scotland, dialect) To carry, as a burden.

(UK, Scotland, dialect) To hawk or peddle, as fish, poultry, etc.


calibre

en-noun

calibre (countable and uncountable, plural calibres)

(UK, Canada, etc.) Alternative form of caliber.


cater

en-verb

cater (third-person singular simple present caters, present participle catering, simple past and past participle catered)

caters (present singular third-person)
catering (participle present)
catered (participle past)
catered (past)

Probably ultimately from French quatre (“four”), possibly via cater (“change-ringing”), although Liberman argues for a derivation from a North Germanic prefix meaning "crooked, angled, clumsy" from which he also derives cater-cousin and, via Norse, Old Irish cittach (“left-handed, awkward”). He finds this more likely than extension of the dice and change-ringing term cater as an adverb, given the likely cognates in other Germanic languages. Caterpillar and caterwaul are unrelated, being derived from cognates to cat, but may have influenced the pronunciation of Liberman's proposed earlier *cate- or undergone similar sound changes.

The trees are set checkerwise, and so catred [Latin: partim in quincuncem directis], as looke which way ye wyl, they lye leuel.

1577, Barnaby Googe transl. Conrad Heresbach, Foure Bookes of Husbandry, Bk. II, fol. 69v:

‘Cater’ across the rails ever so cleverly, you cannot escape jolt and jar.

(UK dialect) To place, set, move, or cut diagonally or rhomboidally.