duck-arsed

en-adj

duck-arsed (comparative more duck-arsed, superlative most duck-arsed)

more duck-arsed (comparative)
most duck-arsed (superlative)
duck arsed (alternative)
duckarsed (alternative)

All the girls, with the exception of May Callan, were squat, and as the country phrase had it—"duck-arsed." They were made for work, for breeding.

1949, Patrick Kavanagh, Tarry Flynn: A Novel, Devin-Adair Co., page 78:

I'm delighted that you should admire Beecham. A pompous little duckarsed bandmaster who stood against everything creative in the art of his time.

1963, John Fowles, The Collector, Pan Books paperback ed. (1965), p. 178

(slang, chiefly British, indelicate, sometimes insulting, vulgar) Having or pertaining to broad hips and large, bulging buttocks.

indelicate; sometimes insulting; indelicate; sometimes insulting

(chiefly British, informal) Having or pertaining to a hairstyle of the type called a duck's arse.


white paper

white papers (plural)
whitepaper (alternative)
white-paper (alternative)

→ Malay: kertas putih (calque)

→ Polish: biała księga (calque)

(British, Ireland, European Union, government, politics) A parliamentary document announcing or proposing a government policy or action.


set square

Descartes extended this classification by introducing his set-square compass. This is mechanism of sliding set squares that "push" each other... .

2008 January, Michel Serfati, “A Note on the Geometry and Descartes's Mathematical Work”, in Notices of the American Mathematical Society, volume 55, number 1, pages 50–51:

(UK) A flat triangular piece of plastic or other material, having corners of precise angles, used in technical drawing

триъ́гълник

flat triangular piece of plastic or other material used in technical drawing


ammonium sulphate

ammonium sulfate
ammonium sulfate#English

(British) Alternative spelling of ammonium sulfate.


dilling

(UK, dialect, obsolete) The runt of a litter.


blighter

From blight (something that impedes development or growth, or spoils any other aspect of life) + -er.

suffix

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, often disrespectful) A person, usually male, especially one who behaves in an objectionable or pitiable manner.


shopping centre

en-noun

shopping centre (plural shopping centres)

shopping centres (plural)
shopping center (alternative US)

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

The streets radiated out from the new shopping centre like the spokes of a wheel.

1968, Carl Ruhen, The Key Club, Sydney: Scripts, page 20:

(British, Australia) A large retail outlet consisting of several shops.


cock-eyed

en-adj

cock-eyed (comparative more cock-eyed, superlative most cock-eyed)

more cock-eyed (comparative)
most cock-eyed (superlative)


thruppence

en-noun

thruppence (countable and uncountable, plural thruppences)

"For thruppence you can buy one, full right to the brim."

1971, Richard Sinclair with Caravan, “Golf Girl”, in In the Land of Grey and Pink:


when it's at home

en-adv

when it's/he's/she's at home (not comparable)

when it's (canonical)
he's (canonical)
she's at home (canonical)

Who is Nelson Mandela when he's at home?

(idiomatic, British) (of a person) In reality; in fact; when it comes down to it.

Feng shui? What on earth is that when it's at home?

(idiomatic, British) (of a topic) Plainly; in plain English; at its most basic level.

qu'est-ce que ça mange en hiver?

intensifying a question about something unfamiliar


tich

After the music hall comedian Harry Relph (1867–1928), who used the stage name Little Tich. This referred to a supposed resemblance to the claimant in the Tichborne Case.

(British, colloquial) A very small person.


police blotter

(US) A register, maintained by the desk sergeant, of people arrested or brought in for questioning to a police station; (UK) charge sheet.


holiday camp

The history of these televised contests can be, in part, traced back to holiday camps, according to Annette Hill, professor of media and communication at Lund University, Sweden: "The best talent shows are great entertainment, full of warmth and empathy," she says. "If you look back at Butlins in the UK in the 1930s and 1940s, it was mainly a working-class holiday camp that offered a whole entertainment experience and at the heart of it were the people known as the Red Coats, who had to provide a warmth of atmosphere."

2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How talent shows became TV's most bizarre programmes”, in BBC:

(British) An enclosed resort providing accommodation (often in chalets) and entertainment, generally aimed at families.

camp de vacances

Enclosed resort providing accommodation and entertainment, generally aimed at families


flotation cost

(British, finance) The selling cost or distribution cost of issuing new securities.


CRB

Criminal Records Bureau
w:Criminal Records Bureau

(UK) Initialism of Criminal Records Bureau.


planning permission

en-noun

planning permission (countable and uncountable, plural planning permissions)

/ˈplænɪŋ pəˈmɪʃən/

/ˈplænɪŋ pɚˈmɪʃən/

The term was possibly introduced by the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 (10 & 11 George VI, chapter 51) of the United Kingdom.

If I am not sure whether what I want to do needs planning permission, how can I find out? You can write to your Local Planning Authority and ask them to give you a ruling (or, as the Act [the Town and Country Planning Act 1947] calls it, a 'determination') whether you need planning permission or not, and if you disagree with their ruling you can appeal to the Minister.

1949, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Central Office of Information (Great Britain), Town and Country Planning: The 1947 Act; 144 Questions and Answers, number 9, London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, →OCLC, question 15, page 8:

At the Newcastle end, the first intention was to erect a steel lattice tower above the platforms at Newcastle Central station, immediately over an existing telecommunications apparatus room, but planning permission for a tower of the required height could not be obtained.

1964 August, “The NER's microwave radio-telephone begins work”, in Modern Railways, page 129:

The real wealth of information that could be drawn from planning permissions and refusals concerning housing, offices, industry, shops, etc., remains a largely untapped source and a number of assertions appear in the daily press and elsewhere about delays in granting planning permissions which only too often cannot be either confirmed or refuted, let alone be judged against statistics showing the wider context of the implementation of planning permissions.

1978, J[ohn] T[erence] Coppock, L[eonard] F[rank] Gebbett, “Review No. 15: The Statistics of Town and Country Planning”, in W[ynne] F[rederick] Maunder, editor, Land Use […] and Town and Country Planning […] (Reviews of United Kingdom Statistical Sources; VII), Oxford: Published for the Royal Statistical Society and the Social Science Research Council by Pergamon Press, →ISBN, section 1.4 (Survey for Plans), paragraph 1.4.1, page 113:

Difficulties arise when a use is abandoned and resumed. The question is whether planning permission is needed for resumption. Where a new planning permission is granted and implemented, the old use rights are lost. Planning permission runs with the land once implemented; cessation of use does not prevent resumption later on (this is particularly important in mineral working). Whereas a planning permission may be replaced by another planning permission, which is implemented, it is normally only uses that did not originally have planning permission that can be abandoned.

1997, Keith Thomas, “Legal Aspects of Development Control”, in Development Control: Principles and Practice, London, Bristol, Pa.: UCL Press, →ISBN, page 46:

The UK has possessed a land-use planning system since 1948 which allows substantial discretion in the consideration of the environmental implications of new development. It is possible for local planning authorities (LPAs) to prepare plans in which environmental policies are emphasised and to refuse development, or to impose conditions for planning permissions, for environmental reasons.

2003, Christopher Wood, “EIA [Environmental Impact Assessment] in the UK”, in Environmental Impact Assessment: A Comparative Review, 2nd edition, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2013, →ISBN, page 52:

Northumberland County Council will need to grant itself planning permission to build the stations in its area (Ashington, Bedlington, Bebside, Newsham and Seaton Delaval) and will need to receive planning permission from North Tyneside Council for Northumberland Park station.

2021 June 16, Philip Haigh, “North East passenger plans take an important step forward”, in RAIL, number 933, page 28:

(British, construction, law) Legal permission granted by a government authority to construct on one's land, or to change the use of the land.

George VI
Sandleford
Town and Country Planning Act 1947
West Berkshire Council

omgevingsvergunning

legal permission granted by a government authority to construct on one's land, or to change the use of the land


collective investment scheme

collective investment scheme (plural collective investment schemes)

The definition of primary importance is of course the definition of "collective investment scheme" itself. That is to be found in s.235 of FSMA 2000.

2003, Jonathan Fisher, Jane Bewsey, The Law of Investor Protection:

If a fund is structured as a collective investment scheme, it cannot be marketed to the general public unless it is authorized.

2003, Theodor Baums, Andreas Cahn, Hedge Funds:

(British, finance) A way of investing money with other people to participate in a wider range of investments than may be feasible for an individual investor, and to share the costs of doing so.


arsey

en-adj

arsey (comparative more arsey, superlative most arsey)

more arsey (comparative)
most arsey (superlative)
arsy (alternative)

First few months in, I was arsey as hell. Thought they were a right bunch of wankers.

2000, Peter Billingham, Sensing the City Through Television: Urban Identities in Fictional Drama, page 50:

"Oh, we had that singer in the other day and they were really arsey with us, and we only kept them waiting half an hour' - and I go, 'Hang on a minute, that's a long time and they've probably been doing lots of work that day and I think that it's actually justified for them to get annoyed.'"

2002 October 28, Simon Hattenstone, quoting Sophie Ellis-Bextor, “Sophie's world”, in The Guardian:

Work experience as an arsey teenager is pretty straightforward: disappear into the storeroom, smoke a few cigarettes, text your mates and watch the minute hand tick slowly by. If there's nowhere suitable to hide, all you need is a vacant computer and you can chat to your skiving associate in the building next door.

2007 April 30, Jon Bentham, “How to...... do work experience”, in The Guardian:

Maybe Hanna Frost, for all of her arsey mannerisms, really did know what she was doing.

2011, Lotte Daley, Faking It, Penguin, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Unpleasant, especially in a sarcastic, grumpy or haughty manner.


chiselled

chiselled (comparative more chiselled, superlative most chiselled)

more chiselled (comparative)
most chiselled (superlative)

But I thought he looked beautiful, and also like a man. He was tall and blond, chiselled and muscular.

2022, Rosie Brooks, Flo, Grosvenor House Publishing, →ISBN:


Mumping Day

(British, historical) December 21st, St. Thomas's Day, a day for begging before Christmas.


tink

'Most have white eyes, which ain't natural in any beast, tame or wild, and they are considered unlucky - the tinks calls 'em moonpies, and most will avoid settling on farms where they are kept.

2000, David Brian Plummer, Merle: The Start of Dynasty, →ISBN, page 11:

Her family had a name that marked them out as tinks, only they weren't tinks anymore.

2014, Alastair Macleod, The Traveller's Tale, →ISBN:

'Well, you should feel right at home,' Flannigan said. 'You love a bit of thieving, you and the rest of the fucken tinks you grew up with in the Emerald Toilet.'

2015, Andrew O'Hagan, The Illuminations, →ISBN, page 47:

(chiefly British and Ireland, offensive) A member of the travelling community. A gypsy.


mind you

These shirts are very expensive. Mind you, they are excellent quality.

Mind you, it was not an outing I would recommend as relaxing.

1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 47:

Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. There was a great deal of them, lavish both in material and in workmanship.

1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

(idiomatic, colloquial, chiefly UK) Used to introduce a qualification or contrastive statement, especially when toning down or rectifying

ceci dit

introducing a qualification or contrastive statement


front yard

(UK) An enclosed and often primarily utilitarian area to the front of a house or similar residence, typically having a hard surface or paving.

forgård

enclosed hard-surfaced area to the front of the house


driving licence

en-noun

driving licence (plural driving licences)

The unnamed driver appeared before the South East Traffic Commissioner in late November, to receive a six-month HGV driving ban. It followed an earlier court appearance when he was fined a means-tested £715 and given six points on his driving licence for driving without due care and attention.

2022 December 14, “Network News: HGV driver banned after Coulsdon bridge bash”, in RAIL, number 972, page 7:

(UK, Ireland) A driver's licence; an official identification document which states the recipient may drive a motorised vehicle.


piss artist

He pulled over to the roadside the policeman walked up to the door Goth had got the window wound down by now, all the copper said to him “get out the van Goth” he just fell out the van laughing, the policeman saying what’s funny Goth. He then said I am painter and decorator by trade and you said it get out the van Goth, Van Goth is a famous Dutch artist, so the policeman replied this you are a piss artist, he then said to Goth get the rear light sorted out, because next time I’ll charge you with a defective rear light.

2006, James T. Long, Knights of the Far East, page 144:

“Yeah, but I’m no drinker, I’m a drunk. A piss artist, a tosspot. I’m sloshed 24/7. Last week I had to use a rope to keep my trousers up, because I was trembling so hard each morning that I couldn’t be arsed with a belt.”

2014, T.M.Simmler, In Vino Veritas:Shaking Frenzy, page 73:

I despised people who got drunk, I referred to them as ‘piss artists, and I had nothing but contempt for them, nothing but contempt for these people, who fell around drunk, who were incoherent when they spoke.

2015, Mary Addenbrooke, Survivors of Addiction: Narratives of Recovery, page 77:

(Australia, British, Ireland, slang) Someone who is frequently drunk (pissed).

Just as aspirant poets are weighed down with the weight of prior aesthetic achievements and are driven by an Oedipal desire to supersede their literary forebears, so too todays band of offensive advertisers are beset by the saprogenic accomplishments of the promotional piss artists of times past, P.T.Barnum in particular.

2001 June 7, Stephen Brown, Marketing: The Retro Revolution, page 218:

Piss-artists all of them, charlatans who'd rather paint a cold fish than a ripe peach.

2009, Siriol Troup, Beneath the Rime, page 83:

[…]the strap-line on the neon sign set over the entrance of the three-storey mock Art Deco building proclaims. Lit up there, in glowing red and yellow, is a cheese-ball that looks like a piss artist's impression of the HIV retrovirus.

And to create a diversion you have been suing Thomas Ferreira for torture and barbarous acts, on the simple grounds that he supposedly, I quote 'hung your client upside-down above a toilet bowl full of excrement, wrists and ankles bound with scotch tape, wrapped in high-tension electric cables corroded by acid?' Facts for which there is no proof, other than a photograph of the toilet bowl […]He logged in as administrator but couldn't identify Juliette's computer. Impossible to get his hands on it. And yet she had to be connected to the network? The junior piss-artist had managed, therefore, to set up her own firewall, she was undetectable, a regular submarine.

2015, Pascale Pujol, Little Culinary Triumphs:

(British, slang) Someone who frequently ridicules or shows contempt for others (takes the piss).


money scrivener

money scrivener (plural money scriveners)

(finance, British) A person who produces the loan of money to others.


Scouserati

From a blend of Scouser (“person from Liverpool”) + literati (“well-educated people, intellectuals”).
Usage is noted in 2007, then gained acceptance by a supplement to the Liverpool Echo newspaper on 1 January 2008, the day Liverpool began its year as European Capital of Culture. The supplement listed 366 people as "The Scouserati - the 366 most influential Scousers on the planet".

blend

(UK, colloquial, neologism) Notable or influential people whose place of birth or residence is in the city of Liverpool or its surrounding region.


yank off

en-verb

yank off (third-person singular simple present yanks off, present participle yanking off, simple past and past participle yanked off)

yanks off (present singular third-person)
yanking off (participle present)
yanked off (participle past)
yanked off (past)

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

(UK, Ireland, vulgar) To jack off, to masturbate.


wark

From Middle English werk, warch, from Old English wærc, wræc (“pain, suffering, anguish”), from Proto-Germanic *warkiz (“pain”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to make, work, act”). Cognate with Swedish värk (“ache, pain”), Icelandic verkur (“pain”). Related to work.

der

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Pain; ache.


reauthorise

en-verb

reauthorise (third-person singular simple present reauthorises, present participle reauthorising, simple past and past participle reauthorised)

reauthorises (present singular third-person)
reauthorising (participle present)
reauthorised (participle past)
reauthorised (past)
reauthorize (alternative)

(British) To authorize again; to give new authority to.


autocue

/ˈɔː.təʊˌkjuː/

/ˈoː.təʉˌkjʉː/

/ˈoː.tɐʉˌkjʉː/

From auto- + cue, originally a trademark.

(trademark, UK) Any of several devices that display words for a person to read aloud.


-lings

From Middle English -linges, variant (with genitive -es) of Middle English -ling (adverbial suffix), equivalent to -ling + -s. Compare Dutch -lings (adverbial suffix), German -lings.

(now UK dialectal) forming adverbs, generally of condition or situation


repopularise

repopularise (third-person singular simple present repopularises, present participle repopularising, simple past and past participle repopularised)

repopularises (present singular third-person)
repopularising (participle present)
repopularised (participle past)
repopularised (past)
repopularize (alternative)

(British, transitive) To make popular again.


penny stock

Every so often, the practice reappears in the trading of “penny stocks”—cheap, rarely traded, shares. Years ago when volume was thinner, it was said to be common in blue chips too.

2000 August 10, “The price is wrong”, in The Economist, →ISSN:

(finance, UK, US) A highly speculative stock selling for less than one dollar or pound per share and quoted in cents or pence.


genericise

genericise (third-person singular simple present genericises, present participle genericising, simple past and past participle genericised)

genericises (present singular third-person)
genericising (participle present)
genericised (participle past)
genericised (past)

/dʒɪˈnɛɹ.ɪˌsaɪz/


footmuff

(British) A cover for a baby's feet or legs which attaches through the harness of a pushchair, stroller, or travel system.


market garden

Descending a narrow tree-lined lane the carriage passed into a leisurely winding road, bounded by market-gardens and the River Val.

1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 5

(chiefly UK) A garden whose produce is mostly intended for sale.

horta

a garden in which vegetables are raised for sale at a market

pleasure ground

section of a large garden not intended for edible plants

vegetable garden

garden or section of garden for edible plants intended for personal or household use

orchard

farm, garden, or section of garden for trees bearing edible fruit


body snatcher

body snatchers (plural)
bodysnatcher (alternative)
body-snatcher (alternative)

From body + snatcher. Later use highly influenced by the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers and its repeated adaptation into film, wherein aliens begin replacing humans with pod people.

ligrøver

One who secretly removes without right or authority a dead body from a grave

No men could have behaved more admirably than my Imperial bearer companies, or 'body snatchers,' as the men used to call them.

1917, General Buller, quotee, Military Medicine, volume 40, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 341:

Freezing conditions in the hills make essential the quick evacuation of wounded, and their regimental mates are full of praise for the sterling job done by the cheerful, tireless “body-snatchers” of the Battalion.

1951, Great Britain. Army. Royal Army Medical Corps, Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, volumes 96-97, J. Bale, Sons & Danielson, Limited, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 410:

Tom dismounted and led Toby toward a group of men standing by a stack of stretchers. “Hey, you body snatchers,” he called out. “I have a wound that needs dressing.” He tied Toby to a stretcher.

2011, Robert W. Mackay, Soldier of the Horse, TouchWood Editions, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 185:

(British, military, slang) A stretcher-bearer.


tallage

en-noun

tallage (countable and uncountable, plural tallages)

tallages (plural)
talliage (alternative)
tailage (alternative)
taillage (alternative)

From French taillage, from tailler (“to cut”).

The land tax, in its modern shape, has superseded all the former methods of rating either property, or persons in respect of their property, whether by tenths or fifteenths, subsidies on land, hidages, scutages, or tallages

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

(UK, law, obsolete or historical) A certain rate or tax paid by barons, knights, and inferior tenants toward the public expenses.


cadgy

en-adj

cadgy (comparative more cadgy, superlative most cadgy)

more cadgy (comparative)
most cadgy (superlative)

(UK, Scotland, dialect) cheerful or mirthful, as after good eating or drinking

(UK, Scotland, dialect) frolicsome; wanton


wibble

Unclear; possibly originates in the British Roger Irrelevant comic strip, then popularised by Your Sinclair magazine and the comedy Blackadder.

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

(British, slang) Meaningless or content-free chatter in a discussion; drivel, babble.


wibble

en-verb

wibble (third-person singular simple present wibbles, present participle wibbling, simple past and past participle wibbled)

wibbles (present singular third-person)
wibbling (participle present)
wibbled (participle past)
wibbled (past)

(British, Internet slang) To make meaningless comments.


notelet

(British) A notecard; a small folded sheet of notepaper, often with a decorative design on the front, intended for a short letter or note.


pot plant

pot plants (plural)
pot-plant (alternative)
potplant (alternative)

Pot-plants on spindle-legged stands lurked in wait for an incautious gesture.

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 60:

Then there was the sound of transport, too heavy a sound for a private car, and headlights showed up the withered pot-plants in Crabbe's porch.

1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 494:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A plant growing in a flowerpot; a houseplant.


paddling pool

(UK) A pool, often inflatable, only able to contain enough water to paddle as opposed to swim; a kiddie pool.


gasper

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

Standing on the corner like a just-got-in-town jasper / I'm on a street corner with a gasper

1975, “Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)”, in Nighthawks at the Diner, performed by Tom Waits:

The engineer shivers in the bright chill and lights a gasper of his own and tells Madame Psychosis through the intercom that the whole range of levels is fine.

1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 183:


pip emma

From pip (“P”) + emma (“M”) in RFC WWI signalese.

On the spot, ready to the last button, at twelve pip emma.

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

(British) Expansion of p.m.: in the afternoon or evening.


radial tyre

(British) Alternative spelling of radial tire.


sneap

sneap (third-person singular simple present sneaps, present participle sneaping, simple past and past participle sneaped)

term-label

(transitive, archaic or British, dialectal)

sneaps (present singular third-person)
sneaping (participle present)
sneaped (participle past)
sneaped (past)
sneep (alternative)
snipe (alternative)

The verb is a variant of snape, from Middle English snaipen (“to injure; of sleet or snow: to nip; to criticize, rebuke, revile”) [and other forms], from Old Norse sneypa (“to disgrace, dishonour; to outrage”), from Proto-Germanic *snaupijaną, from Proto-Germanic *snūpaną, *snūbaną (“to cut, snap”); further origin unknown.
The noun is derived from the verb.

der

To bite, nip, or pinch (someone or something).


superfund

A blend of superannuation (“retirement”) + fund.

blend

(British, Australia, finance) An investment vehicle for superannuation assets.


approvement

en-noun

approvement (countable and uncountable, plural approvements)

The whole learning of approvements (i. e. trial by the evidence of an approver) is now obsolete being superseded by the modern practice of allowing an accused person to turn evidence for the Queen without confessing the indictment.

1861, John Henry Willan, A Manual of the Criminal Law of Canada, page 7:

(UK, law, obsolete) A confession of guilt by a prisoner charged with treason or felony, together with an accusation of his accomplices and a giving evidence against them in order to obtain his own pardon.


Gherkin

After the shape of the building, which is like that of a gherkin.

(UK, informal) The building at 30 St Mary Axe, a distinctively-shaped skyscraper in London, England


hectogramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of hectogram.


megagramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of megagram: a metric ton or tonne.


advocation

advocation (countable and uncountable, plural advocations)

From Latin advocātiō. Doublet of advowson

(UK, law) The right of presenting to a vacant benefice or living in the church.


dishonourably

en-adv

dishonourably (comparative more dishonourably, superlative most dishonourably)

more dishonourably (comparative)
most dishonourably (superlative)
dishonorably (alternative)

(British) Alternative spelling of dishonorably.


ninepence

His wits were sent him for a token, \ But in the carriage crack'd and broken. \ Like commendation nine-pence, crookt \ With—to and from my love—it lookt.

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

(obsolete, British) A former British silver coin, worth nine old pennies.

I had sold it to her that morning for ninepence; the real price was a shilling, but it was somewhat shopworn.

1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 137:


twopenny

en-noun

twopenny (countable and uncountable, plural twopennies)

* From two + penny.
* (head): George Orwell explains this in Down and Out in Paris and London as rhyming slang: head > loaf of bread > twopenny loaf > twopenny.

When the Gauls attacked Rome, he hit upon the plan of pelting the soldiers with twopennies to make them believe they had plenty to eat.

1852, Edward Litt L. Blanchard, Freaks and follies of fabledom, page 93:

(British, countable, dated) A coin or stamp worth two pence.

(British, uncountable, obsolete) Ale sold for two pence per quart.

"It flew all to pieces; and didn't we get it! But look here, Merry, are you on?"
"Yes; tuck in your twopenny."
"No springing, mind."

(British, countable, slang, obsolete) A person's head.


sea rover

Compare Danish sørøver, German Seeräuber, Norwegian sjørøver, Swedish sjörövare.

(British, colloquial, archaic) A herring.


ring road

ring roads (plural)
ringroad (alternative)

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand, UK) A circumferential highway around a town, city, or other conurbation.


chundering

[…] – you don't get through the average possession without the odd gastric fiesta – but previous chunderings were picnics compared to the . . . the surrealist free-for-all to which I gave myself over that evening in my bathroom.

2007, Glen Duncan, I, Lucifer: Finally, the Other Side of the Story:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, slang) The act of vomiting.


slank

Compare dialectal slonk (“depression, hollow, slough”), slunk (“slough, hollow; mud”).

[…] The board of health had prohibited the sale of ice cut from the "slank," because water in the "slank" was said to be polluted. The ice dealers, however, contend that the city of Patterson has no right to pollute the river and thus hurt their business, […] stopping the sale of "slank" ice, […]

Van Zaun says that the fishing stopped 15 or 16 years before he testified - that would be about 1890. Mr. Shriner, one of the city's witnesses, says that he caught fish in one of the slanks in 1883 or 1885.

Passaic, N. J. - The storm will cause great delay in filling in the slank. The dirt which the workmen have been throwing in was washed away into the river.

1913, Municipal Journal, volume 35, page 506

(US and UK, dialectal) A depression, a low place in the ground, especially one at the side of a river, lake, or cove which is filled with water during freshet(s).


sleeving

sleeving (countable and uncountable, plural sleevings)

Pull up the sleeving along the cable, including the copper wire, then using a cigarette lighter heat the sleeving to make it shrink.

1996, A.L. Brown, Vehicle Security Systems: Build Your Own Alarm and Protection Systems, page 50:

(UK) Hollow flexible tube used as insulation for wires and cables.


smitham

Perhaps compare English smeddum (“fine powder, lump ore, etc.”).

cog

(UK, obsolete) Small lumps of ore which free miners scavenged because small quantities were exempt from payment of taxes. The practice ended in 1760 when the Duke of Devonshire challenged the tax exemption.


calyculus

calyculi (plural)
caliculus (alternative)

(botany, British) A group of bracts resembling an outer calyx.


chip shop

chip shops (plural)
chip-shop (alternative)
chipshop (alternative)

(UK, Ireland) A fast food outlet which sells fish and chips.

asklotti

UK: a fast food outlet which sells fish and chips


dialled

(British), (Canada), simple past and past participle of dial


have a bone in one's leg

en-verb

have a bone in one's leg (third-person singular simple present has a bone in one's leg, present participle having a bone in one's leg, simple past and past participle had a bone in one's leg)

has a bone in one's leg (present singular third-person)
having a bone in one's leg (participle present)
had a bone in one's leg (participle past)
had a bone in one's leg (past)

"Jimmy, run along to the shop and get some potatoes." / "I can't: I've got a bone in my leg."

(British, informal) Used as a fatuous excuse to avoid doing something.


collywobbles

Probably from colic (“severe pains that grip the abdomen”) + wobble (“unsteady motion”). Alternatively, it has been suggested that the word derives from colly (“coal dust”) (in the sense of someone becoming ill from breathing in such dust), or that it is a corruption of cholera.

Petunia’s off school today with a touch of the collywobbles.

Collywobbles, the gripes.

[1823, [Francis Grose]; Pierce Egan, “Collywobbles”, in Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, […], London: […] [Samuel] Hooper and [Henry] Wigstead, […], →OCLC:

I know I have something else to say to you, but unfortunately I awoke this morning with collywobbles, and had to take a small dose of laudanum with the usual consequences of dry throat, intoxicated legs, partial madness and total imbecility; and for the life of me I cannot remember what it is.

1894 September 10, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Letter XLIII”, in S[idney] C[olvin], editor, Vailima Letters: Being Correspondence Addressed by Robert Louis Stevenson to Sidney Colvin […], London: Methuen and Co. […], published 1895, →OCLC, page 343:

"I deeply regret," answered Liza, "but my royal 'ighness 'as got the collywobbles."

1897, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 3, in Liza of Lambeth, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published [1921], →OCLC, page 36:

The prefect was there again and it was his voice that was saying that he was to get up, that Father Minister had said he was to get up and dress and go to the infirmary. And while he was dressing himself as quickly as he could the prefect said: / ― We must pack off to Brother Michael because we have the collywobbles!

1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter I, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 20:

"D'ye hear, Richard? Now's your chance," repeated Ned, not to be done. "There's a pot o' money in it. A very different thing this, I can tell you, from running round dosing people for the collywobbles. I know men who are raising the splosh to get in, any way they can."

1917, Henry Handel Richardson, chapter V, in Australia Felix, part III, New York, N.Y.: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton & Co., →OCLC, page 260:

mahanpuru

(informal, chiefly humorous) stomachache or an upset stomach

I don’t like walking through the forest at night. It gives me the collywobbles.

This business of getting Bill educated has just about given me the collywobbles. You wouldn't think to look at the boy, that he could possibly be such a tragic misfit in school.

1943, Mary Ruth Sandifer, American Lay Opinion of the Progressive School, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, →OCLC, page 21:

(by extension) Anxiety, fear, uneasiness.

mahanpuru

(informal, chiefly humorous) anxiety, fear, uneasiness


sort code

(banking, UK, Ireland) A code assigned to a specific branch of a bank.


lavant

Uncertain. Possibly from Middle English *lavand, *lavant, lavande, present participle of Middle English laven (“to stream, pour out a stream, wash”), from Old English lafian (“to pour water on, wash, lave, bathe, ladle out”), equivalent to lave + -and; or from Old French lavant, present participle of laver (“to wash”). See lave.

der

Lavants, are land springs, which break out much, on the downs of Sussex, Hants, and Wilts. The country people say, that when the Lavants rise, corn will be dear; meaning, that when the earth is so glutted with water as to send[…]

1815, James Dallaway, A History of the Western Division of the County of Sussex: Including the Rapes of Chichester, Arundel, and Bramber, with the City and Diocese of Chichester, page 112:

In this part of Hampshire a bourn is called a lavant, and after long internals when a lavant rises at Hambledon, some of the springs rise from, or quite close to[,] the churchyard itself.

1891, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, page 15:

About five miles south of Petersfield, in a valley among the chalk hills, is the village of Charlton. No permanent stream flows through this vallet, but eastward of the village a remarkable "lavant" occurs. This lavant is a flow of water from springs in the chalk of an uncertain and intermittent nature, which occur in the winter or early spring, depending on the time and degree of the winter rainfall and the consequent saturation of the chalk. The lavant springs occur at varying elevations, depending on the nature of the seasons; the higher the lavant, the greater is the flow of water, […]

1894, Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, Proceedings, page 54:

[…] an intermittant stream (locally known as a "lavant," but in many parts called a "bourne") appears in the valley bottom […]

1928, Water and Water Engineering, page 316:

The cold wet weather continued unabated during February and the underground springs ('lavants') began to break out of the chalk hills ominously early.

2007, Richard Mabey, Gilbert White: A Biography of the Author of The Natural History of Selborne, University of Virginia Press, →ISBN, page 147:

(UK dialectal) A shallow or more or less intermittent spring, or the stream of water (bourne) which feeds and springs forth from such a spring.

How it did rain! It ran down the street in a lavant.

(UK dialectal) A violent flow or rush of water.


get the sack

en-verb

get the sack (third-person singular simple present gets the sack, present participle getting the sack, simple past got the sack, past participle (UK) got the sack or (US) gotten the sack)

gets the sack (present singular third-person)
getting the sack (participle present)
got the sack (past)
got the sack (UK participle past)
gotten the sack (US participle past)

(idiomatic, chiefly British) To be dismissed from employment.


city banker

(British) A banker, stockbroker or other financial worker in the City.

(British, rhyming slang, derogatory) A wanker.


have up

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

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

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

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

"He broke a dog's leg with a stone, and there was some talk of having him up for it, but the people were afraid of him, and no one would prosecute."

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

2007, Saturday October 27, Don't write off religion - it can be the key to a stable family, by Anne Karpf in The Guardian
If Richard Dawkins had his way, a fair number of you and, as it happens, me, would be had up for child abuse. According to him, that's what religious indoctrination of children by their parents is.

(transitive, idiomatic, UK) To accuse, arrest, try for a criminal act.


bloodclaat

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

From Jamaican Creole bloodclaat (“blood cloth”).

bor

(chiefly Jamaica, UK, idiomatic, vulgar, slang) holy shit, fuck, damn


brunie

While the lines were running to the bottom, seeking the fish far below, the men smoked or cut bait, and the younger ones took a surreptitious bite of a brunie, for skippers thought it a sign of softness if their men wanted food and drink too soon.

1997, Alexander Fenton, The Northern Isles: Orkney and Shetland, page 590:

(UK, dialect) A kind of scone made with flour or oatmeal.


GRC

gender recognition certificate
gender recognition certificate#English

(UK) Initialism of gender recognition certificate.


cornflour

en-noun

cornflour (usually uncountable, plural cornflours)

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

(British) A very fine starch powder derived from maize (US corn) used in cooking as a thickener, to keep things from sticking, or as an anti-caking agent.


wifebeater

wifebeater (countable and uncountable, plural wifebeaters)

wifebeaters (plural)
wife beater (alternative)
wife-beater (alternative)

From wife + beater. The sleeveless shirt acquired the nickname by association with men who commit domestic violence. The lager, being relatively strong, was thought to lead to drunken disputes.

And then we were walking back alleys, trudging through the drifts of chip papers, the bottles and empty cans of wifebeater[…]

But Stella shouldn't really be drunk in pints the same way our dads used to drink bitter or mild that was effectively half as strong. Drink Stella in goblets like people do in its native country and, hey presto! It's no longer 'wifebeater'.

2011, Pete Brown, Three Sheets to the Wind:

(uncountable, UK, colloquial) Stella Artois, a brand of lager beer.


AVRE

(British, military) Acronym of Armoured Vehicle, Royal Engineers.


bring out

en-verb

bring out (third-person singular simple present brings out, present participle bringing out, simple past and past participle brought out)

brings out (present singular third-person)
bringing out (participle present)
brought out (participle past)
brought out (past)

Eating strawberries always brings me out in a rash.

To elicit, evoke, or emphasize (a particular quality).

(chiefly British) To cause a visible symptom, such as spots or a rash, in (a person).

His new job has noticeably brought him out.

(chiefly British) To make (a shy person) more confident.

Acme sweets have just brought out a tasty new chocolate bar.

(chiefly British) To place (something new for public sale) on the market; roll out.


scrumpy

en-noun

scrumpy (countable and uncountable, plural scrumpies)

(UK, Ireland) A rough cider, normally more alcoholic than usual, and typically produced through natural fermentation.


hooved

From Middle English hoved, hovyde, from Old English ġehōfod (“hoofed, hooved”), equivalent to hoof + -ed.


NAO

w:National Audit Office (United Kingdom)

(UK) Initialism of National Audit Office.


sowl

sowls (plural)
seawl (alternative)
sewl (alternative)
sool (alternative)
soul (alternative)
soule (alternative)
sow (alternative)
sowe (alternative)
sowel (alternative)
sowle (alternative)
sowli (alternative)

From Middle English sowel, souel, suvel (“food eaten with bread; food in general”), from Old English sufel, sufol (“anything (especially relish) eaten with bread; sowl”), from Proto-West Germanic *sufl, from Proto-Germanic *suflą (“entremets, viands”), from Proto-Indo-European *seu-, *sew- (“juice; moisture; rain”). The word is cognate with Danish sul (“sowl”), Middle Dutch suvel, zuvel (Dutch zuivel (“dairy products”)), Middle Low German suvel, süvel, suffel (“sowl”), Old High German sufil, sufili, Old Norse sufl, Norwegian suvl, sovl, sul (“milk porridge; food eaten with bread, porridge or soup”), Saterland Frisian süfel (“dairy products”), Swedish sovel (“sowl”), West Frisian suvel (“dairy products”).

cog

Good lorjus days, whot whofo times ar' theese! / Pot-baws ar scant, an dear is seawl an cheese!

1812, Tim Bobbin [pseudonym; John Collier], “Reader. Hear a Spon-new Cank between th’ Eawther and His Buk.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of Tim Bobbin, Esq. Containing His View of the Lancashire Dialect, […], Salford: Printed by Cowdroy & Slack, […], →OCLC, page 16:

It [the word pittance] does not signify the whole share of each individual in a conventual meal, but merely that smaller portion of more tasty viands which in frugal housekeeping is used to give relish to the bread or pottage constituting the substance of the meal; what is still called sowl or sowling in some parts of England. The Pembrokeshire peasant says, "I have not had a bit of sowl to my bread for these six months".

1850 May 10, Hensleigh Wedgwood, “English Etymologies [continued]”, in Proceedings of the Philological Society, volume IV, number 97, London: Printed by Richard and John E. Taylor, […], →OCLC, page 249:

What was called "souling," or "sowling," was practised by the female portion of the poor, who visited their more wealthy neighbours, demanding "sowl," which signified, in its provincial acceptation, any condiment eaten with bread, such as meat, fish, &c., but especially cheese.

1857, L. P. Barnaschone, “Manners and Customs of the People of Tenby in the Eighteenth Century”, in J. Williams ab Ithel, editor, The Cambrian Journal, volume IV, London: Published under the auspices of the Cambrian Institute; Longmans & Co., J[ohn] Russell Smith, and J. Petheram; Tenby, Pembrokeshire: R. Mason, →OCLC, page 185:

All Souls' Day was celebrated by souling, a custom going back to pre-Reformation days: soul cakers and mummers toured the village begging for a soul cake – a plain, round, flat cake seasoned with spices.

1981, Geoffrey Scard, Squire and Tenant: Life in Rural Cheshire, 1760–1900 (History of Cheshire; 10), Chester, Cheshire: Chester Community Council, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 93:

(British, dialectal) A dainty; a relish; a sauce; anything eaten with bread.

sovel

dainty; relish; sauce; anything eaten with bread


keep oneself to oneself

en-verb

keep oneself to oneself (third-person singular simple present keeps oneself to oneself, present participle keeping oneself to oneself, simple past and past participle kept oneself to oneself)

keeps oneself to oneself (present singular third-person)
keeping oneself to oneself (participle present)
kept oneself to oneself (participle past)
kept oneself to oneself (past)

(chiefly UK) To be introverted; to stay away from others.


give a light

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

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

I don't think I ever heard / A single little civil word from those guys / But you know I don't give a light

1976, Brian May, “Tie Your Mother Down”, in A Day at the Races, performed by Queen:

White man, white man / Don't you give a light / For the blood you've shed?

1976, Brian May, “White Man”, in A Day at the Races, performed by Queen:

(British, Ireland, idiomatic, slang) To care.


teacake

teacakes (plural)
tea-cake (alternative)

A baked good such as a cake or biscuit intended to be eaten with tea or at an afternoon tea.

(UK, chiefly Southern England) A flat, round bread bun, usually containing currants, sultanas or peel and often served toasted and buttered with tea.

Sometimes there was a Tunnock's wafer or (bastard) a chocolate marshmallow teacake in its red-and-silver foil.

2005 October 6, Nigel Slater, Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger, Penguin, →ISBN:

In 2014, captivated by the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, many found dancing teacakes and Scottie dogs great guilty fun.

2016 March 16, Christopher Harvie, No Gods and Precious Few Heroes: Twentieth-Century Scotland, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN:

A liquid meringue flooded from the seam where the dome met the biscuit, so that each teacake transformed into a melted snowman wearing a chocolate bowler hat.

2024 March 28, Olivia Ford, Mrs Quinn’s Rise to Fame: Meet the most unexpected heroine of 2024, Random House, →ISBN:

(UK, chiefly Scotland) A snack consisting of shortbread coated with meringue or marshmallow, coated in chocolate.


register office

en-noun

register office (plural register offices)

(UK, Ireland) The local office in which births, marriages and deaths are registered, and in which civil marriages are conducted and recorded.

matrika

the local office in which births, marriages and deaths are registered, and in which civil marriages are conducted


wassock

(British) Alternative spelling of wazzock.


stony broke

From stony (“like a stone”) + broke, after earlier stone broke.

He had arrived at a crisis of impecuniosity compared to which the small circumstance of being pebble-beached and stony-broke might be described as comparative affluence.

1890, Albert Barrère et al., A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant, volume II, page 120:

(UK and Australia, slang) Alternative form of broke: without any money.


knocknobbler

(British) A person engaged by a church to eject unruly dogs and children from acts of worship.


telephone kiosk

telephone kiosk (plural telephone kiosks)


coper

Related to Dutch kopen (“to buy”), German Low German kopen (“to buy”). Compare copeman.

(British) A floating grogshop supplying the North Sea fishing industry.


coper

en-verb

coper (third-person singular simple present copers, present participle copering, simple past and past participle copered)

copers (present singular third-person)
copering (participle present)
copered (participle past)
copered (past)
cooper (alternative)

(British) To supply the North Sea fishing industry from a floating grogshop.


perspex

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Any tough, transparent plastic that is used instead of glass for windows.


toast rack

toast racks (plural)
toastrack (alternative)

(UK, computing, slang) The ZX Spectrum 128k+ home computer, having a large heat sink built into the keyboard, shaped like a toast rack.


kingcup

He told me how the wise toad who squats among the kingcups by the stream in summer has a very precious jewel in his head.

1979, Angela Carter, ‘The Erl-King’, The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, published 2006, page 99:

Caltha palustris
Caltha palustris#Translingual

(British, dialectal) Any of various species of buttercup, or the marsh marigold, Caltha palustris.


swad

Swad, in the north, is a peascod shell — thence used for an empty, shallow-headed fellow.

(UK, dialect, obsolete, Northern) A cod, or pod, as of beans or peas.


stoicheiometry

(UK) Alternative spelling of stoichiometry.


yodeller

(British) Alternative spelling of yodeler.


unlicenced

en-adj

unlicenced (comparative more unlicenced, superlative most unlicenced)

more unlicenced (comparative)
most unlicenced (superlative)

(UK) Alternative spelling of unlicensed.


rockier

Gilbert White writes, "I have consulted a sportsman who tells me that […] often there are amongst them little parties of small blue doves which he calls rockiers. The food of these numberless migrants was beechmast and some acorns."

1887, Edwin Lester Linden Arnold, Bird Life in England, page 182:

(UK, dialect, archaic) A small blue dove.


fibreboard

en-noun

fibreboard (countable and uncountable, plural fibreboards)

British and Canada standard spelling of fiberboard.


donkey's ears

1916 UK, from British rhyming slang, rhyming with years, due to donkey’s ears being long.

Now for my first bath for what the men call ‘Donkey’s ears’, meaning years and years.

(British, idiomatic) A long time, years and years.


put the shits up someone

en-verb

put the shits up someone (third-person singular simple present puts the shits up someone, present participle putting the shits up someone, simple past and past participle put the shits up someone)

puts the shits up someone (present singular third-person)
putting the shits up someone (participle present)
put the shits up someone (participle past)
put the shits up someone (past)

He would put the shits up me by phoning me in the middle of the night

2000, James Berryman, A Sting In The Tail, page 165:

(British, slang, vulgar) To scare someone, or give them a fright.


mean

mean (third-person singular simple present means, present participle meaning, simple past and past participle meant)

means (present singular third-person)
meaning (participle present)
meant (participle past)
meant (past)

From Middle English menen (“to intend; remember; lament; comfort”), from Old English mǣnan (“to mean, complain”), Proto-West Germanic *mainijan, from Proto-Germanic *mainijaną (“to mean, think; complain”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyn- (“to think”), or perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meyno-, extended form of Proto-Indo-European *mey-.
Germanic cognates include West Frisian miene (“to deem, think”) (Old Frisian mēna (“to signify”)), Dutch menen (“to believe, think, mean”) (Middle Dutch menen (“to think, intend”)), German meinen (“to think, mean, believe”), Old Saxon mēnian. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish mían (“wish, desire”) and Polish mienić (“to signify, believe”). Non-Indo-European cognates include Finnish mainita (“to mention”), Finnish meinata (“to mean, to plan, to intend”) Estonian mainima (“to mention”), Northern Sami máinnastit (“to tell”). Related to moan.

cog

Thanne morned Mede · and mened hire to the kynge / To haue space to speke · spede if she myȝte.

c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, section III:

They were forced to mean our estate to the Queen of England.

1560 (1677), Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. iii. (1677), page 144

If you should die for me, sir knight, There's few for you will meane, [...]

1803, Sir Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, page 276:

All the tyme of his sickness he never said, "Alace!" or meaned any pain, whilk was marvellous. Never man died in greater peace of mind or body.

1845, Wodrow Society, Select Biographies:


mean

en-adj

mean (comparative meaner, superlative meanest)

meaner (comparative)
meanest (superlative)

From Middle English mene, imene, from Old English mǣne, ġemǣne (“common, public, general, universal”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamainī, from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz (“common”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change, exchange, share”). Doublet of common.
Cognate with West Frisian mien (“general, universal”), Dutch gemeen (“common, mean”), German gemein (“common, mean, nasty”), Danish gemen, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (gamains, “common, unclean”), Latin commūnis (“shared, common, general”) (Old Latin comoinem).

cog

He's so mean. I've never seen him spend so much as five pounds on presents for his children.

(chiefly UK) Ungenerous; stingy; tight-fisted.


Nato

(UK, generally proscribed in North America) Alternative letter-case form of NATO.


prestation

From Latin praestatio (“a performing, paying”), from praestare: compare French prestation.

der

(UK, law, obsolete) A payment of money; a toll or duty.

(UK, law, obsolete) The rendering of a service


serjeant-at-arms

(UK, historical) An officer who attends upon the Lord Chancellor with the mace, and who executes various writs of process in the course of a Chancery suit.

(UK) A similar officer who attends on each House of Parliament, and arrests any person ordered by the House to be arrested. The post still exists with respect to the UK House of Commons, but is largely ceremonial.


pranged

en-adj

pranged (comparative more pranged, superlative most pranged)

more pranged (comparative)
most pranged (superlative)

She's pranged. I'm pranged. This is paranoia run amok.

Most of them look like they haven't slept for days; they're pranged or pinned, edgy and paranoid.


flitterjigs

This word has its origins in the 19th-century English spoken in county Donegal in the northwest of Ireland, where the local people are believed to possess the largest lexicon of both English and Gaelic in Ireland.

(British, slang) An item of clothing that is in tatters or ribbons.


thousand and one

Gregory L. Peck (2010) Exercise for the Mind, Body and Soul: Pathway to a Better Life, →ISBN, page 11: “There are always a thousand and one reasons not to do something. But there are also always a thousand and one reasons to do something, particularly exercise.”

(UK) Alternative form of thousand one (US form)


sipe

From Old English sipian, related to seep.
* around 888 AD, K Aelfred, translation of Boethius, Chapter 33, para.5 ,
: "Seo eore hit helt & be sumum dæle swil, & for am sype heo bi eleht."


sipe

en-verb

sipe (third-person singular simple present sipes, present participle siping, simple past and past participle siped)

sipes (present singular third-person)
siping (participle present)
siped (participle past)
siped (past)

(intransitive, British) To drain, to filter through peat or reeds; to seep.


fandabidozi

en-adj

fandabidozi (comparative more fandabidozi, superlative most fandabidozi)

more fandabidozi (comparative)
most fandabidozi (superlative)

Corruption of English fantastic (“great, smashing, super”) by Wee Jimmy Krankie of Scottish comedy duo The Krankies.

Those potatoes are fandabidozi - can I get the recipe?

It might be indonesian - being half-dutch we used to have a lot of indonesian food at home - nasi foreng and the like. Which by the way is fandabidozi.

1996 July 1, "Carolyn", “Re: SHOARMA”, in uk.food+drink.misc (Usenet), retrieved 2008-04-07:

just watched it...fucking fandabidozi... honestly good shit!!!

2003 April 25, "bod", “donie darko...fuck the american dream up the arse!!!!”, in alt.horror (Usenet), retrieved 2008-04-07:

Wow, wouldn't it be fandabidozi if we could get that for it now?

2003 May 8, "IT Dealers Ltd", “Re: WTS:-2,000 8mb Simms”, in uk.adverts.computer (Usenet), retrieved 2008-04-07:

(reply to a query about what use a roamer has in the real world) Fandabidozi for for geometry, arithmetic, spatial awareness, logical thinking, deduction, problem solving...

2005 June 24, "Ellie", “Re: Scott got another email - in my inbox.”, in uk.education.staffroom (Usenet), retrieved 2008-04-07:

(in reply to a previous poster announcing they'd not smoked for over three weeks) This is Fandabidozi Crystal!

2007 May 23, "Barbara-eve done it @ last!!!", “Re: I MADE IT THREE WEEKS!!!”, in alt.support.stop-smoking (Usenet), retrieved 2008-04-07:


trone

From Middle English trone (“a wooden beam or post used in public weighing, scale, balance”), from Anglo-Norman trone, tron (whence also Anglo-Latin trona), from Old Norse trönur (“a frame or framework on which trunks of trees are laid to be cut by the saw”), plural of trana, trani (“trunk, snout, name of a ship or sword”, literally “crane”). Cognate with Danish trane (“crane”).

der

(UK, dialect, Scotland, obsolete or historical) A form of weighing machine for heavy wares, consisting of two horizontal bars crossing each other, beaked at the extremities, and supported by a wooden pillar.


headshunt

headshunts (plural)
head shunt (alternative)

(rail transport, British) A short length of track, provided to release locomotives at terminal platforms, or to allow shunting to take place clear of main lines.


heads of agreement

Finally, on July 10, 1984, Heads of Agreement were signed. Three extra drafting rounds were necessary in order to formally sign the Renegotiated Agreement.

1995, Wolfgang Peter, Arbitration and Renegotiation of International Investment Agreements, page 116:

(law, former, British) A document stating the intent of the parties to enter into a binding agreement as outlined in the document.


lickle

(chiefly UK, Caribbean, childish or regional) little


twatted

en-adj

twatted (comparative more twatted, superlative most twatted)

more twatted (comparative)
most twatted (superlative)

(vulgar, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Extremely drunk, intoxicated

What kind of a cold-hearted bitch does that, You stinky twatted sadistic whore.

2004, Shane Feldman, Burn: A Bipolar Memoir, page 114:

(vulgar, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, in combination) Having a particular sort of vagina or vulva.

(vulgar, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Extremely or profoundly injured, usually as a result of deliberate action by another party.


twatfaced

twatfaced (comparative more twatfaced, superlative most twatfaced)

more twatfaced (comparative)
most twatfaced (superlative)

(UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar, idiomatic) fucked, pissed, drunk as a skunk


GOBLin

(British, rail transport, informal) Acronym of Gospel Oak to Barking Line, a railway line in north London.


gainly

gainly (comparative gainlier or more gainly, superlative gainliest or most gainly)

gainlier (comparative)
more gainly (comparative)
gainliest (superlative)
most gainly (superlative)

From Middle English gaynly, geȝȝnlike, geynliche, equivalent to gain (“straight, direct, convenient, favourable, kindly”, adjective) + -ly (adverbial/adjectival suffix).

suffix

(UK dialectal) Proper; suitable; becoming.


wodge

He paid a wodge of dosh for his new motor from the car dealership.

[…] if Eben comes to me with that there hankychy and slips a big wodge of hard Hamsterdam ’bacco and a square bottle o’ stuff as hasn’t paid dooty into my hands in the dark some night, what am I to do?

1900, George Manville Fenn, chapter 16, in The Lost Middy:

I lifted the lid off the second tureen and uncovered a wodge of macaroni, stone-cold and stuck together in a gluey paste.

1963, Sylvia Plath, chapter 14, in The Bell Jar, London: Faber & Faber, published 1971:

Bad food, bad drinks, no decent pubs, no laughter in public, and dodgy money-changers hissing that communism was shit and who then disappeared, leaving us with wodges of worthless notes.

2012, John Sweeney, ‘At War with Ceausescu’, Literary Review, number 399:

MAIRE MIRKIN (played by Brid Brennan):”Sit down please the both of you. You’ve intruded right into the middle of our nightcap, young man. I was just about to serve a toddy to Hector and myself. Can I fix you one?”. ARM (played by Cosmo Jarvis): A wha…? HECTOR: Do, dear, yeah. And, um (clicks tongue) cut us a few wodges of brack while you’re at it.

2020 January 6, Joe Murtagh, Colin Barrett, 01:18:44 from the start, in Calm With Horses (film), spoken by Hector (David Wilmott):

(chiefly UK, Ireland, colloquial) A bulk mass, usually of small items, particularly money; a wad


kick up the arse

en-noun

kick up the arse (plural kicks up the arse)

(UK, slang, vulgar) A severe reprimand, especially one to motivate someone into doing something.


gainstand

en-verb

gainstand (third-person singular simple present gainstands, present participle gainstanding, simple past and past participle gainstood)

gainstands (present singular third-person)
gainstanding (participle present)
gainstood (participle past)
gainstood (past)
ganestand (alternative)

From Middle English gainstanden, corresponding to gain- + stand. Compare againstand.

He perceived three French Gentlemen, who alone, with an incredible and undaunted boldnesse, gainstood the enraged violence, and made head against the furie of his victorious armie.

And you, now last in accusing us of these most odious crimes, whereof we be most innocent, ye and your brethern, I say, in teaching this your pestilent doctrine, and accusing us who gainstand your devilish errors, do plainely declare what ye have already intended, if God by his great power bridle not your furie.

1856, John Knox, The works of John Knox: Volume 5:

It was the New Castle built upon Tyne to gainstand the Scots, who then and for some centuries afterwards sadly troubled these rough borderers, and in turn were sadly troubled by them.

1874, The Gentleman's magazine, volume 237:

And therefore I conclude that they who gainstood his commandment resisted not the ordinance of God.

1888, Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell, The living age: Volume 177:

(transitive, UK dialectal) To stand against; resist, oppose; withstand.

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To make or offer resistance.


RCN

The RCN’s general secretary, Pat Cullen, has stressed that nurses do not want to strike but feel obliged to do so because, with soaring inflation, the government’s pay offer amounts to a real-terms cut in their salaries after a decade in which the value of experienced nurses’ pay has already fallen by 20%.

2022 December 15, “Tens of thousands of UK nurses go on strike in first such industrial action in NHS history”, in The Guardian:

Royal College of Nursing
w:Royal College of Nursing

(UK, medicine) Initialism of Royal College of Nursing, a registered trade union for nursing.


APEX

w:Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff

(British, trade union) Acronym of Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff.


hardstanding

en-noun

hardstanding (countable and uncountable, plural hardstandings)

The caravans' concrete hardstanding was demolished by the council soon after.

The movement of certain types of lorries when loaded, and certain other transport is forbidden. On no account are vehicles to be moved off a good road or hard standing.

1940 January 29, Peter Lawless, “2 Days of Thaw, Rain, Ice & Melting Snow”, in The Daily Telegraph, number 26412, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, column 6:

"Thanks to the deck of an articulated lorry being similar to the rail vehicle, all we needed was some hardstanding and a bridging plate. Sometimes it pays to keep it simple," he says.

2021 September 8, Anthony Lambert, “On track for express parcels delivery”, in RAIL, number 939, page 41:

(British) Alternative form of hardstand.


to all intents and purposes

1500s, English law, originally “to all intents, constructions, and purposes” (found in an act adopted under Henry VIII in 1547).

for all intents and purposes (alternative)

To all intents and purposes the case is closed.

This treaty is to all intents and purposes no longer viable.

With the arrival of the cold war, relations between the two countries (for this is, to all intents and purposes, what they became after the end of the war) were almost completely broken off, with whole families split for the ensuing decades, some for ever.

2011 December 19, Kerry Brown, “Kim Jong-il obituary”, in The Guardian:

Have you heard the word "gadgetbahn"? It's a portmanteau coined to describe transport proposals that, to all intents and purposes, ought to be delivered using proven railway technology... and yet go out of their way to be anything but a railway.

2020 November 18, Gareth Dennis, “Can Cambridgeshire plan transform transportation?”, in Rail, page 64:

(idiomatic, British) For every functional purpose; in every practical sense; in every important respect; practically speaking.


bedrel

(UK dialectal) A bedridden person; a helpless cripple.


smeddum

From earlier smitham, smytham, from Middle English smedma, from Old English smedma, smeodema, smedema (“fine flour, pollen meal, meal”).

smitham (alternative)
smithum (alternative)
smiddum (alternative)

(UK dialectal, Northern England) Ore small enough to pass through the wire bottom of a sieve.

(UK dialectal, Northern England) A layer of clay or shale between two beds of coal.


linksland

linksland (usually uncountable, plural linkslands)

(British) A coastal zone of topsoil-covered sand between the beach sand and mainland soil.


straight away

This item is urgent, so please start on it straight away.

(idiomatic, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Very soon; quickly; immediately.


yark

en-verb

yark (third-person singular simple present yarks, present participle yarking, simple past and past participle yarked)

yarks (present singular third-person)
yarking (participle present)
yarked (participle past)
yarked (past)

From Middle English ȝarken, ȝerken, from Old English ġearcian (“to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply”), Proto-West Germanic *garwakōn, from Proto-Germanic *garwakōną (“to prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to grab, take, rake”), equivalent to yare + -k. Related to Old English ġearc (“ready, active, quick”), ġearu (“prepared, ready, equipped, complete, finished, yare”). More at yare.

cog

[...] Yet thou hast given us leather to yark, and leather to bark, [...]

1881, Walter Gregor, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland:

(transitive, UK dialectal) To make ready; prepare.


poor show

(informal, dated, British) Used to express disapproval or dissatisfaction


transmat

Attested since the 1950s, from transmit or transfer and matter; perhaps popularized by the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

One of these days.., they'll invent a Transmat that'll set you down anywhere.

1959 June 10, Laurence Janifer, “Obey that Impulse!”, in Future Science Fiction, number 43, page 40:

Three lines of workers began to vanish into the transmats, heading for their homes in the android compounds of five continents, […]

1970 June 10, Robert Silverberg, “The Tower of Glass”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 30, number 3, page 83:

TIME LORD: Ah. Welcome, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What's going on? Don't you realize how dangerous it is to intercept a transmat beam?
TIME LORD: Oh, come, Doctor, not with our techniques. We Time Lords transcended such simple mechanical devices when the universe was less than half its present size.

1975, Terry Nation, Genesis of the Daleks (Doctor Who, season 12, serial 4), opening dialogue

You are in a TRANS-MAT unit. You see a faulty control panel with a button on it.

1983, The Long Way Home (video game published with 16/48 Magazine)

LYNDA: Oh, that's the transmat. Scrambles your head — I was sick for days.

2005, Russell T Davies, Bad Wolf (Doctor Who series 1, episode 12)

(British, science fiction) A teleporter; a fictional device that transfers/transmits matter from one location to another without the object traversing the intervening distance as itself.


transmat

en-verb

transmat (third-person singular simple present transmats, present participle transmatting, simple past and past participle transmatted)

transmats (present singular third-person)
transmatting (participle present)
transmatted (participle past)
transmatted (past)

It wasn't far enough away to think about transmatting and besides, that was no longer a viable option, what with vandals having wrecked some of the booths in the area.

1991, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Carmen Carter, Robert Greenberger, Doomsday World (Star Trek: The Next Generation; 12), Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 171:

'No, you're not,' Blandish put in smoothly 'You're transmatting down with me. I'll head the away team and I'll consent to let you advise.'

1999, Paul Magrs, Jeremy Hoad, The Blue Angel (Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Adventures; 27), BBC Worldwide, →ISBN, page 36:

Donna twisted her neck around to try to find the Doctor, but she realised that she'd been transmatted alone.

2010, Mark Michalowski, Shining Darkness (Doctor Who: New Series Adventures; 27), BBC Worldwide, →ISBN, page 17:

(British, science fiction, ambitransitive) To teleport; to (cause to) travel via transmat device.


Pinewood

(British) An English film and television studio complex in Buckinghamshire.


legitimisation

en-noun

legitimisation (countable and uncountable, plural legitimisations)

(British) Alternative spelling of legitimization.


hollin

From Middle English holin, holyn (> English dialectal hollen, holm), from Old English holeġn, holen (“holly; prince, protector”), from Proto-West Germanic *hulis (“holly”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- (“to beat, break”).


LBSCR

(rail transport, British) Initialism of London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.


RATO

en-noun

RATO (countable and uncountable, plural RATOs)

(UK, aviation, military) Initialism of rocket-assisted takeoff, an auxiliary rocket engine in a detachable unit that provides extra power for the takeoff of an aircraft.


Sprinter

diesel multiple unit
diesel multiple unit

(rail transport, British) A British diesel multiple unit of class 150, 153, 155, 156, 158 or 159.


whid

Perhaps from Old English cwide (“word, speech”).


goat's cheese

goat's cheese (countable and uncountable, plural goat's cheeses)

[…]it may easily become so to an enlarged extent when goat′s cheese shall be offered in our markets.

1905, United States Bureau of Animal Industry, Annual Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry, page 340:

2002, New Statesman, Volume 131, Issues 4577-4585, page 47,
On the other hand, goat′s cheeses made by the British equivalents of Mme Blondeau, though you feel you ought to like them, never seem as inspired as their French counterparts.

Place goat′s cheese parcels alongsise the roast tomatoes

2007, Yvonne Short, Conservation Corporation Africa, A Kitchen Safari: Stories & Recipes from the African Wilderness, page 42:

2010, Amelia Thomas, Michael Kohn, Miriam Raphael, Dan Savery Raz, Israel & the Palestinian Territories, Lonely Planet, page 164,
Shai Seltzer, Israel′s most famous goat′s cheese maker, emerged wearing a white frock and thick white beard, an arrangement that made him appear like Charlton Heston when he played Moses in The Ten Commandments.

(chiefly UK) Alternative form of goat cheese.


ISA

ISA (countable and uncountable, plural ISAs)

individual savings account
w:individual savings account

(UK, finance) Initialism of individual savings account, a financial account for investment with special tax rules.


shirt lifter

shirt lifters (plural)
shirtlifter (alternative)
shirt-lifter (alternative)

From the imagined lifting of a long shirt to facilitate receiving anal sex.

(UK, Ireland, slang) Synonym of bottom: a gay man who is penetrated or prefers to be penetrated during anal sex.


Girl Guide

It′s cookie season every spring, from early April to mid-May, when hundreds of Girl Guides hit the street flogging boxes of trets in their annual fund-raising drive.

2002, Scott Mitchell, Secret Toronto: The Unique Guidebook to Toronto's Hidden Sites, Sounds & Tastes, page 117:

She was wearing the blue uniform of a Girl Guide.

2006, Richard Whittington-Egan, Molly Whittington-Egan, Murder on File: The World′s Most Notorious Killers, unnumbered page:

Daisy told the group that in Britain, Girl Guides wore uniforms.

2007, Susan Bivin Aller, Juliette Low, page 32:

(UK, Canada) A member of the Girl Guides, a world wide youth organisation for girls.


Girl Guides

1935 July 16, Kenya Gazette, page 802,
The proviso to clause 5 makes it possible for existing Girl Guides organizations which were not formed and do not function under the authority of the Girl Guides Association to avoid the penalties prescribed by the Bill.

Baden-Powell enlisted his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell, to help him form the Girl Guides, when, at his first call to form the group, 6,000 girls registered.

2002, Robert T. Grimm, Notable American Philanthropists: Biographies of Giving and Volunteering, page 189:

A small satellite exhibition at Casa Loma (1 Austin Tce 416-923-1171) celebrates the contributions of Lady Mary Pellatt, wife of the castle′s builder, to Girl Guides in Canada.

2002, Scott Mitchell, Secret Toronto: The Unique Guidebook to Toronto′s Hidden Sites, Sounds & Tastes, page 117:

Hore-Ruthven accepted appointment as Governor of South Australia, arrived in Adelaide in May 1928, and began to travel the state by Moth aeroplane. He took an active role in the Boy Scouts, his wife in the Girl Guides.

2004, Brian Carroll, Australia's Governors General: From Hopetoun to Jeffery, page 103:

(UK, Canada) A worldwide youth organisation for girls. Known as Girl Scouts in the USA.


head

EN-AU ck1 from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious.ogg

En-au-from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious.ogg

That call I took as we arrived here was to tell me about another meeting with the AC tomorrow. More nit-picking and recommendations from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious.

2004, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Carnage on the Committee, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 134:

WHEN READING REPORTS from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious one may find a statement saying that "China doesn't like Japan very much."

2005 August 25, Aaron McKenna, “Chinese gaming firm PowerNet Technology to launch anti-Japanese wargame”, in The Inquirer:

Eating while driving is dangerous, says a new report from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious.

2006 August 19, Jonathan Goddard, “Distractions cause accidents ‘Shocker,’”, in Pocket-lint:

Once again, the solution comes from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious, but is worth repeating nonetheless.

2008 May 4, Tim Weber, “Analysis: Microsoft without Yahoo”, in BBC News:

(idiomatic, informal, UK, Australia) So obvious that it was unnecessary to say.


fubsy

en-adj

fubsy (comparative fubsier, superlative fubsiest)

fubsier (comparative)
fubsiest (superlative)

A fubsy, good-humoured, laughing, silly […] old maid.

1780, Madame d'Arblay, diary entry - May 1780:

“Pray,” said Doctor Waldron, addressing Mrs. Green, “who is that little fubsy lady, with scarce a morsel of neck, and all covered with ribbands, pursued by that long ghost of a man in the Spanish dress?”

1833, anonymous author, Frank Orby, page 11:

[…] seated upon the widow's little fubsy sofa […]

1837, Frederick Marryat, Snarleyyow, or, the Dog Fiend:

He knew she was nothing but a fubsy pig-pink whorelet and would elbow her face away when she attempted to kiss him after he had finished […]

1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle:


bureau de change

en-noun

bureau de change (plural bureaux de change or bureaus de change or bureau de changes)

bureaux de change (plural)
bureaus de change (plural)
bureau de changes (plural)

/ˈbjʊəɹ.əʊ.dəˌʃɒ̃ʒ/

Unadapted borrowing from French bureau de change (“office of exchange”).

ubor

A bureau de change, as has been seen, is certainly an institution or person subject to the Directive and it arguably enters into business relations with its customers.

2007, R. C. H. Alexander, Insider Dealing and Money Laundering in the EU: Law and Regulation, page 155:

Good private bureaux de change include the Shangani Bureau de Change (at the northern end of Kenyatta Road, near the Tembo Hotel), and the Malindi Bureau de Change (next to the ZanAir office, east of the port gates).

2009, Chris McIntyre, Susan McIntyre, Zanzibar, Bradt Travel Guides, page 159:

The network comprises Masterlink, a bureau de change, and a United Kingdom bank, along with a partnering MTO and a bank in Uganda.

2011, Isaku Endo, Jane Namaaji, Anoma Kulathunga, World Bank Working Paper No. 201: Uganda′s Remittance Corridors from United Kingdom, United States, and South Africa, page 21:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A place where foreign currency can be exchanged.

صِرَافَة اَلْعُمْلَات

a place where foreign currency can be exchanged


gastro

He had a bad case of gastro, but came right as rain the next day.

(colloquial, UK, Australia) Gastroenteritis


CCF

ccf (alternative)
Ccf (alternative)
C.C.F. (alternative)
C. C. F. (alternative)

Combined Cadet Force
w:Combined Cadet Force

(UK) Initialism of Combined Cadet Force.


cark it

en-verb

cark it (third-person singular simple present carks it, present participle carking it, simple past and past participle carked it)

carks it (present singular third-person)
carking it (participle present)
carked it (participle past)
carked it (past)
kark it (alternative)

A slang shortening of carcass + it. Not related to cark (“to worry”). Used frequently in Australia.

The guy was running, then he had a heart attack and carked it.

He′d always bragged about carking it before he hit twenty. When he turned twenty, he escalated the date of his demise to twenty-five.

1989, Kathy Lette, Girl′s Night Out, →ISBN, page 86:

If I hit the little shit too hard his parents could even sue me. There′s a fine line between self-defence and pure and simple mayhem. The little bastard might even cark it.

1998, Barry Westburg, Glenda & Me & Meathead Go For Broke: Rage of Angels: Expatriate Tales, page 74:

“Hi Bill. Zorah told you about Kate?”
“That she carked it? Yeh.” Translation: That she died. Yeah.
He flapped his hand in a go-away gesture and started toward the koalas, but not before I saw a haunted look in his eyes. Did he still care for Kate?

2010, Betty Webb, The Koala of Death, page 10:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To die.


prog

en-noun

prog (countable and uncountable, plural progs)

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

(UK, university slang, dated) A proctor.


headteacher

headteachers (plural)
head teacher (alternative)

I had to go and see the headteacher about my attitude.

(UK, Ireland) The most senior teacher in a school who is responsible for its management and administration.


inlaw

en-verb

inlaw (third-person singular simple present inlaws, present participle inlawing, simple past and past participle inlawed)

inlaws (present singular third-person)
inlawing (participle present)
inlawed (participle past)
inlawed (past)

From Middle English inlawen, inlaghen, from Old English inlagian, ġeinlagian (“to restore to the protection of the law, inlaw”), equivalent to in- + law.

The king, indignant that an attempt should be made to exempt the vast ecclesiastical lands from taxation at a time of national crisis, sequestrated the estates of the see of Canterbury, and copied John’s conduct in 1208 by outlawing the whole body of the clergy. Winchelsea in return excommunicated all those who refused to recognize the authority of the pope’s bull... Harassed by these domestic troubles, the king could not carry out his intention of sailing for Flanders in the spring, and spent the greater part of the campaigning season in wrangles with his subjects. He was obliged to come to a compromise. If the clergy would give him a voluntary gift, which was in no way to be considered a tax, he agreed to inlaw them.

1911, Charles William Chadwick Oman, "English History", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. IX, p. 497

(UK, law, historical, transitive) To clear of outlawry or attainder, to return to the protection of the law


beggar belief

beggar belief (third-person singular simple present beggars belief, present participle beggaring belief, simple past and past participle beggared belief)

beggars belief (present singular third-person)
beggaring belief (participle present)
beggared belief (participle past)
beggared belief (past)

It beggars belief to suppose that corporate policies can always pursue the best interests of a company.

In Shakespeare's day boys or men took the part of women, and how characters like Lady Macbeth and Desdemona were adequately rendered by youths beggars belief.

1907, Sidney Lee, Shakespeare and the Modern Stage:

"It beggars belief that delegates are given smartcards for free travel around the city, yet ordinary Glaswegians will still be forced to use a disjointed ticketing system."

2021 November 17, “Network News: Anger at delegates' preferential treatment for Glasgow smartcards”, in RAIL, number 944, page 13:

2022 September 23, 0:07 from the start, in As Putin goes for broke: What next after Ukraine annexation referendums? • FRANCE 24 English, spoken by François Picard, France 24, archived from the original on 2022-09-27:

(intransitive, chiefly UK) To appear implausible or unbelievable.


know-all

know-alls (plural)
know-it-all (alternative US)

(chiefly UK, Ireland) Someone who obnoxiously claims to be knowledgeable on a subject.


backplate

(UK, automotive) A rigid metal plate inside the brake drum, which supports the wheel cylinder, brake shoes, and other parts of a drum brake.


PGCE

(British, education) Initialism of Postgraduate Certificate in Education.


downland

From Old English dūnland, equivalent to down + land.

Hail! every distant hill, and downland plain!
Your dew-hid beauties Fancy oft unveils;

1789, Ann Ward Radcliffe, chapter 4, in The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, London: T. Hookham, page 93:

[…] I walked on to Canterbury early in the morning. It was now winter again; and the fresh, cold windy day, and the sweeping downland, brightened up my hopes a little.

1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:

I traversed the downland
Whereon the bleak hill-graves of Chieftains
Bulge barren of tree;

1898, Thomas Hardy, “My Cicely”, in Wessex Poems and Other Verses, New York: Harper, page 126:

Shortly after leaving Godshill, a lengthy climb begins through rolling downland country at 1 in 75, easing to 1 in 103.

1946 July and August, K. Westcott Jones, “Isle of Wight Central Railway—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 244:

The large cement works nearby are served by sidings, and strike a sudden jarring industrial note in the midst of the rural downland scene.

1953 February, H. A. Vallance, “To Brighton through the Shoreham Gap”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:

I was surprised to see that the plane had been wrecked, not on one of the hefty cliff faces of our mountain, but on a gentle green hillside, merging into downland.

1958, Muriel Spark, chapter 6, in Robinson, New York: New Directions, published 2003, page 66:

He drank another whisky then left the pub and climbed slowly up the downlands, bent as the trees and shrubs were bent.

2010, Howard Jacobson, chapter 12, in The Finkler Question, New York: Bloomsbury, page 278:

(UK) An area of rolling hills (downs), often grassy pasture over chalk or limestone.


campervan

campervans (plural)
camper van (alternative)

(Australia, New Zealand, British) A vehicle that provides both transport and sleeping accommodation.


BANES

(British) Acronym of Bath and North East Somerset, a unitary authority in South West England.


B&NES

(British) Abbreviation of Bath and North East Somerset, a unitary authority in South West England.


go off on one

go off on one (third-person singular simple present goes off on one, present participle going off on one, simple past went off on one, past participle gone off on one)

goes off on one (present singular third-person)
going off on one (participle present)
went off on one (past)
gone off on one (participle past)

I barely mentioned the band's name before he went off on one about how commercial the top forty is these days.

As far as I was concerned, we had a deal – she never went off on one about 'that's not a skirt it's a belt,' and I never went out dressed like a stripper.

2021, Andreina Cordani, The Girl Who...:

(British, colloquial) To launch into an animated diatribe, or passionate description or explanation of something.


TESSA

Tax-exempt special savings account
w:Tax-exempt special savings account

(British, finance, historical) Acronym of Tax-exempt special savings account.


neighbourliness

British standard spelling of neighborliness.


man on the Clapham omnibus

en-noun

man on the Clapham omnibus (plural (rare) men on the Clapham omnibus)

men on the Clapham omnibus (plural rare)

First put to legal use in a reported judgement by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR in the 1903 English Court of Appeal libel case, McQuire v. Western Morning News, who attributed it to Lord Bowen.

Near-synonyms: man on the Bondi tram, man on the Shau Kei Wan tram, reasonable person

(UK, law) Any hypothetical reasonable person used by the Courts in considering questions of reasonableness; an everyman.

(UK, by extension) Any ordinary person; everyman.


gaffa

A body – a corpse – my own, I think – wrapped in tape, suspended in gaffa.

2012, Katherine Angel, Unmastered, Penguin, published 2014, page 250:


go spare

en-verb

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

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

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

When he found out that someone had broken the window, he went spare.

The poor girl is going spare, stuck in the house all day with the kids like that.

(UK, informal) To become very angry; to become frustrated or distraught: see spare.

turhautua

to become mad (crazy, frustrated or distressed)


loke

From Middle English loke, from Old English loca (“a bar, bolt; enclosure, stronghold”), from Proto-Germanic *lukô, *lukǭ (“lock, clasp, shutter, opening”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend, turn”). Cognate with Icelandic loka (“clasp, latch, lock, bolt”). More at lock.

cog

(UK dialectal) The wicket or hatch of a door.

(UK dialectal) A close narrow lane; a cul-de-sac.


graticule

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

French, from Latin crāticula, diminutive form of crātis.

A grid of horizontal and vertical lines.


advowson

From Middle English avowson, from Anglo-Norman avouson, from Latin advocātiō. Doublet of advocation.

The advowson of the parsonages of Sempringham and Tirington, being the right of his father, he [St. Gilbert] was presented by him [his father] to those united livings, in 1123.

1866, Rev. Alban Butler, chapter IV, in The Lives of the Saints, volume II (February):

Advowson is the right to appoint the incumbent clergy of a parish, so three advowsons meant three incumbents.

2017, Ben Aaronovitch, The Furthest Station, Gollancz, page 88:

(UK, ecclesiastical law) The right to present a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church office.


knicker

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

(dated, dialect, UK, US) A kind of marble used in games, originally made of clay, baked hard and oiled.


aquaplaning

en-noun

aquaplaning (countable and uncountable, plural aquaplanings)

(automotive, UK) The loss of contact with the road because of surface water; the act of aquaplaning.


sweer

en-adj

sweer (comparative more sweer, superlative most sweer)

more sweer (comparative)
most sweer (superlative)
swear (alternative)
sweir (alternative)
swere (alternative)

From Middle English swere, sware, from Old English swǣr, swār (“heavy, of great weight, oppressive, grievous, painful, unpleasant, great, sad, feeling or expressing grief, grave, slow, dull, sluggish, slothful, indolent, inactive from weakness, enfeebled, weak”), from Proto-West Germanic *swār, from Proto-Germanic *swēraz, *swērijaz (“heavy”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“heavy”).

(UK dialectal) Reluctant; unwilling; disinclined.


farthingdale

farthingdales (plural)
farthingdeal (alternative)

(British, historical, 13th-19th C.) A unit of area equal to one quarter of an acre.


tartish

tartish (comparative more tartish, superlative most tartish)

more tartish (comparative)
most tartish (superlative)

a tartish dress


sneck posset

(idiomatic, British) A cold reception, closing the door on a visitor


caser

Possibly from Yiddish כּתר (keser, “crown”), from Hebrew כֶּתֶר (keter)

(slang, UK) A crown, a five-shilling coin.


jol

The old crystalline hills of the ‘Asir and Yemen, which to the west drop in a series of steps to the Tihamah or coastal plain, are to the east overlain by near horizontal strata of sedimentary rocks of which the oldest are probably the sandstones forming the Kaukab plateau and the newest, excluding recent deposits, are the Eocene limestones of the jol, the succession seeming more complete in the north.

1953, D. G. Bunker, “The South-West Borderlands of the Rub' Al Khali”, in The Geographical Journal, volume 119, →DOI:

An extensive, barren desert plateau, around 1,000-1,200 m in elevation, the jol, extends eastwards from Shabwa, dropping away northwards to the sands of the Rub al Khali.

2006, Masaa Al Jumaily, David P. Mallon, Abdul Karim Nasher, Nagi Thowabeh, “Status Report on Arabian Leopard in Yemen”, in Cat News, volume Special Volume 1, →ISSN, page 23:

(UK) A barren limestone plateau on the southern Arabian peninsula.


shit off

en-verb

shit off (third-person singular simple present shits off, present participle shitting off, simple past shat off or shit off, past participle shat off)

shits off (present singular third-person)
shitting off (participle present)
shat off (past)
shit off (past)
shat off (participle past)

'Oh, shit off!' she shouted.

1966, William Sansom, Goodbye: A Novel, page 162:

One girl was incensed at finding herself in the support unit one day because she was reported to have told a teacher to ' shit off ' when she claimed she had 'only' responded 'shut up.'

1984, Lynn Davies, Pupil Power: Deviance and Gender in School, →ISBN, page 13:

Well, bloody well take 'em and shit off.

2006, Keith Blackburn, Grandma's Garden, →ISBN, page 55:

(British, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar) Synonym of fuck off.


dog's breakfast

en-noun

dog's breakfast (plural dog's breakfasts)

So complex was the scheme that neither blacks nor whites could say for certain who had won. "A dog's breakfast," cried Laborite M.P. James Callaghan. "I say frankly that I do not begin to understand it."

1961 July 7, “Black Temper”, in Time, archived from the original on 2012-02-03:

Critics here are reserving judgement on whether ABC will do "Life in Mars" justice or make a dog's breakfast of it.

2008 May 18, David Usborne, “The Gene Genie gets an LA makeover”, in The Independent, retrieved 2008-06-09:

I'd trade one of their sublime sentences for the entire crop of sprawling, show-offy novels – dog′s breakfasts of facetiousness – that are currently the literary vogue.

2010, Kate Jennings, “Bouleversé”, in Trouble: Evolution of a Radical/Selected Writings 1970–2010, page 277:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic) An unappealing mixture; a disorderly situation; a mess.


BOGOFF

(British, rare) Alternative form of BOGOF: acronym for "buy one, get one for free".


PDC

Tensions threatened to boil over before the defending champion Gerwyn Price eventually overcame Kim Huybrechts in a sudden-death decider to reach the last 16 of the PDC World Championship.

2021 December 27, “Gerwyn Price beats Kim Huybrechts in fiery clash to keep title defence alive”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Professional Darts Corporation
w:Professional Darts Corporation

(UK, sports) Initialism of Professional Darts Corporation.


behaviouristic

en-adj

behaviouristic (comparative more behaviouristic, superlative most behaviouristic)

more behaviouristic (comparative)
most behaviouristic (superlative)

British standard spelling of behavioristic.


King's Counsel

head

King's Counsel (plural King's Counsel or King's Counsels, abbreviation KC)

King's Counsel (plural)
King's Counsels (plural)
KC (abbreviation)

When the case eventually came to court in December 1903, Wellcome’s team, headed by Moulton, contained three King’s Counsel; they had marshalled seventy-two witnesses and intimated that they could produce as many again.

1994, Robert Rhodes James, “‘A Morbid Misery’”, in Henry Wellcome, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 292:

Arrayed in front of him was a very expensive line-up of London’s best legal brains. Each director had his own team of two, and in some cases three, defence barristers. Including two King’s Counsels who represented the Official Receiver, there were a dozen silks in court.

2011, Martin Vander Weyer, “[Misfeasance] Wilful Neglect?”, in Fortune’s Spear: The Story of the Blue-Blooded Rogue Behind the Most Notorious City Scandal of the 1920s, London: Elliott and Thompson Limited, →ISBN, page 256:

(UK, Canada, New Zealand, occasionally Australia) An honorific status officially conferred on senior or meritorious barristers (and occasionally other kinds of lawyer) during the reign of a king.

(UK, historical) A barrister or advocate appointed by the Crown during the reign of a king.


HCI

Home Computer Initiative
w:Home Computer Initiative

(UK) Initialism of Home Computer Initiative.


broddle

en-verb

broddle (third-person singular simple present broddles, present participle broddling, simple past and past participle broddled)

broddles (present singular third-person)
broddling (participle present)
broddled (participle past)
broddled (past)
brode (alternative)


posey

en-adj

posey (comparative posier, superlative posiest)

posier (comparative)
posiest (superlative)

[…] I missed one of Freda's main revelations because I got distracted by the posey glide she was making across the room […]

1994, Theatre Record, volume 14, numbers 9-16, page 896:

(British, informal) Pretentious; posturing.


staycation

staycations (plural)
stacation (alternative)
stay-cation (alternative)

The noun is a blend of stay (at home) + vacation. The verb is derived from the noun.

It's holiday time again. Having invented the staycation – no, I don't like the word either – four years ago when we ran out of money and out of patience with French traffic, we are sticking to principle and, as we did four months ago, hanging out at Tom Hodgkinson's gaff in north Devon.

2009 August 31, Nicholas Lezard, “Down and Out in London”, in New Statesman, London: New Statesman Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2012-12-01, page 54:

Somewhere in the last few decades the stacation was substituted for the prestige and glamour of the trip abroad, and the recent flurry of low cost airlines all but cemented that as the new tradition for those that can afford it.

2012 October 24, Jeff Brazier, “The Joys of Camping”, in HuffPost, UK edition, archived from the original on 2017-07-01:

The rise in patronage partly reflects the growing trend for ‘staycations’ in the UK, in addition to Pitlochry’s status as the southern gateway to the world-famous Cairngorms National Park.

2019 December 4, Paul Stephen, “At the Heart of the Local Community”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 58:

Many families who had planned to go away for the easter holidays are now deciding to grab a tent and go on an isolated family camping stacations to ensure the kids are still entertained as many holiday resorts go on possible lockdown.

2020 March 16, Heather Carrick, “Coronavirus: Glaswegians stock up on camping gear before self-isolation”, in Glasgow Times, Glasgow: Newsquest (Herald & Times), →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-09-27:

(informal) A vacation spent at or close to home.

(British, Ireland) A holiday spent in one's own country without travelling abroad.