bane

en-noun

bane (countable and uncountable, plural banes)

The noun is derived from Middle English bane (“person or thing that destroys life, murderer, slayer; person who destroys the soul; destruction of life, death, doom; poison”), from Old English bana (“person or thing that causes death, murderer”), from Proto-West Germanic *banō, from Proto-Germanic *banô (“killer, murderer, slayer; death, bane”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen- (“to slay, kill; to strike”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌽𐌾𐌰 (banja, “wound”)
* Old Frisian bona (“death; murder”)
* Old Norse bani (Danish bane (“death; murder”), Icelandic bani (“bane, death”), Swedish bane (“death; murder”)), Old Norse ben (“(moral) wound”)
* Old English ben, benn (“mortal injury; wound”)
* Old High German bano (“death”) (Middle High German ban, bane)
* Old Saxon bano (“death; murder”), beni (“mortal injury; wound”)

inh

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

напаст

cause of misery or ruin — see also affliction

(uncountable, UK, dialectal, veterinary medicine) A disease of sheep in which breakdown of tissue occurs; rot.


bane

en-verb

bane (third-person singular simple present banes, present participle baning, simple past and past participle baned)

banes (present singular third-person)
baning (participle present)
baned (participle past)
baned (past)
bane (infinitive)
bane (first-person present singular)
baned (first-person past singular)
bane (present second-person singular)
banest (archaic present second-person singular)
baned (past second-person singular)
banedst (archaic past second-person singular)
banes (present singular third-person)
baneth (archaic present singular third-person)
baned (past singular third-person)
bane (plural present)
baned (past plural)
bane (present subjunctive)
baned (past subjunctive)
bane (imperative present)
baning (participle present)
baned (participle past)

(UK, dialectal, veterinary medicine) To cause (sheep) a disease, especially the rot (“a disease in which breakdown of tissue occurs”).


boilerplate

en-noun

boilerplate (countable and uncountable, plural boilerplates)

The Star (1788)
boilerplate
boilerplate (spaceflight)

From boiler + plate. First use appears c. 1793 in the periodical Star.

(UK) The rating plate or nameplate required to be affixed to a boiler by the Boiler Explosions Act (1882).


mono

Shortenings, ultimately from the prefix mono- (“one, single”).

(slang, UK, Australia) A bicycle or motorcycle trick where the front wheel is lifted off the ground while riding.


para

en-adj

para (comparative more para, superlative most para)

more para (comparative)
most para (superlative)


bene

bene (comparative benar, superlative benat)

benar (comparative)
benat (superlative)
ben (alternative)
bien (alternative)

UK C16. Probably from Latin bene or Italian bene.

Egad, you carry a bene blink aloft. Come to the ken alone—no! my blowen; did not I tell you I should bring a pater cove, to chop up the whiners for Dawson?

1828, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman, page 383:


bene

benes (plural)
ben (alternative)
bien (alternative)

Stowe your bene!


zee

tlb

(chiefly US, Newfoundland, Philippines, increasingly in Canada, UK, Australia)

→ Tagalog: zi

1670s US variant of zed (which see for more), by analogy with other letters such as bee, dee, tee and vee, and standardized by Noah Webster.

zee-bar.

Time to get some zees.

(colloquial, usually in the plural) Sleep.


zee

en-verb

zee (third-person singular simple present zees, present participle zeeing, simple past and past participle zeed)

zees (present singular third-person)
zeeing (participle present)
zeed (participle past)
zeed (past)

(intransitive, informal) To sleep or nap. (Compare zzz, catch some z's.)

(intransitive, rare) To zigzag; to move with sharp alternating turns.


vice

(UK) Alternative spelling of vise (“mechanical screw apparatus used for clamping”).


mummy

mummies (plural)
mommy (alternative US)
mummie (alternative)

From mum + -y (diminutive suffix), related to mom and mommy, from mother.

“Oh, mummy, would you like the loveliest daughter-in-law in the world? Oh, mummy, I must marry Flora Dewsley. But I know I am not nearly good enough, mummy. She knows nothing of the world and its wickedness, and I — Well, mummy, at school, a fellow learns everything. And no man is perfect, is he, mummy?[…]”

1926, John Steinbeck, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 198, page 9:

Meeting mummy after this visit was not exactly easy.

1927, Harper's Magazine, volume 155, page 188:

“[…]What′s your problem, you little shit? Proud of yourself, for ruining Mummy′s life?” I was careful to use the insipid falsetto the experts commend. “You′ve got Daddy snowed, but Mummy′s got your number. You're a little shit, aren′t you?″

2003, Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin, published 2010, unnumbered page:

2004, Dennis Child, Psychology and the Teacher, Continuum International Publishing, page 91,
‘ […] We have to ask mummy if we can go to Rajah′s mummy′s house (Rajah′s mummy is the owner of the dog). We can if mummy says “yes”. […] ’

Darla stared at her father and said, Mummy, Mummy, Mummy!
Marjorie wheezed and said, Father. You. Are. Filthy!
Joe said Daddy′s muddy! Daddy′s muddy!
Darla stared at the darkened doorway where Howard stood, saying, Mummy, Mummy, Mummy, each time a little louder, each time a bit more shrilly,[…].

2009, Paul Harding, Tinkers, published 2010, unnumbered page:

(chiefly UK, New England, usually childish) mother.


zed

→ Greek: ζεντ (zent)

→ Hindi: ज़ेड (zeḍ)

→ Japanese: ゼット (zetto), ゼッド (zeddo)

→ Korean: 제드 (jedeu)

→ Malay: zed

→ Marathi: जेड (jeḍ)

→ Russian: зэд (zɛd)

→ Thai: แซด (sɛ̂t)

→ Welsh: sèd

From Middle English zed, zedde, zede, from Old French zede, from Late Latin zeta, from Ancient Greek ζῆτα (zêta), from Hebrew ז (zayin) with influence from beta, eta and theta. Letter had rare nonstandard usage in Old English, such as in bezt, where it represented "ts" (compare the German, Italian, and Finnish pronunciation of Z). For the sleep sense, see zzz. The zombie sense comes from the initial letter. Doublet of zeta. Cognate to Spanish zeta, German Zett, French zède, Italian zeta, and perhaps Portuguese zê.

zed-bar

I'm going to go get some zeds.


zed

zed (third-person singular simple present zeds, present participle zedding, simple past and past participle zedded)

zeds (present singular third-person)
zedding (participle present)
zedded (participle past)
zedded (past)

Zedding hogs. Sleep sippers and spitters. Look at 'em cooking in their own snoring heat. One nose after another.

I guess I must have zedded, for I find a police officer, the same one that nicked me, shaking me.

1992, David Robins, Tarnished vision: crime and conflict in the inner city:

"Zedding away." "God, I was having the most awful dream. That you'd got lost by the sea and I couldn't find you and something was chasing me, me and Evie."

We were zedding hell-bells up the hill towards Cervione, with a bank of road metal and a precipice on our left...

1931, Reginald Rankin, The Collected Works of Lt. Colonel Sir Reginald Rankin:

Licking his lips, his hand zedded on my thigh and he commented, penetratingly, that it wasn't pussy, but that driving the unmade road wasn't at all bad.


go off

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

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

Bugger—the milk's gone off already!

1987 September 3, Unpalatable Treatment, New Scientist, page 20,
But to cast out a technique that could not only reduce the incidence of food poisoning but could also allow us to move away from another bete noire of the “technophobes” — chemical treatment to prevent stored grain from going off— is daft

Don′t expect to store fragile food like fish, poultry and meat in the refrigerator at home for a long period of time, as it will go off quickly.

2005, Neil Perry, The Food I Love, page 13:

Although there is a popular myth about camel milk ‘never going off’, experience shows that pasteurised packaged camel milk does not keep any better than its cow equivalent, and seems to lose its flavour faster.

2005, Nancy Abeiderrahmane, “Modern Dairy Products from Traditional Camel Herding: An Experience in Mauritania”, in Bernard Faye, Palmated Esenov, editors, Desertification Combat And Food Safety: The Added Value Of Camel Producers, page 156:

(intransitive, UK, Australia, Canada) To putrefy or become inedible, or to become unusable in any way.

I've got to get the panels aligned quickly now because the epoxy resin will go off within 20 minutes or so.

(intransitive, chiefly UK, of epoxy resins) To cure; to set.

We can only hope she'll go off soon.

(intransitive, slang, UK, archaic, of a woman) To get married.


ord

From Middle English ord (“point, point of a weapon, beginning”), from Old English ord (“point, spear-point, spear, source, beginning, front, vanguard”), from Proto-West Germanic *oʀd, from Proto-Germanic *uzdaz (“point”), of obscure origin (see *uzdaz).
Cognate with North Frisian od (“tip, place, beginning”), Dutch oord (“place, region”), German Ort (“location, place, position”), Danish od (“a point”), Swedish udd (“a point, prick”), Icelandic oddur (“tip, point of a weapon, leader”). See also odd.

cog

"[...] But such is life — hard upon hard from ord to end; and if I had not been made of the best of neat-leather, the longer in water the tougher, I would have melted away with my tears long ago!"

[...] Tell me wholly as it was From ord to end how it did pass When first your father was of me ware.

1924, Adriaan Jacob Barnouw Esmoreit, An ingenious play of Esmoreit: the king's son of Sicily:

(now chiefly UK dialectal) A point of origin; a beginning.

When a man came from Sutherland into Caithness over the Ord [of Caithness, in the southern tip of the county], he was called an ord-louper .

(now chiefly UK dialectal) A point of land; a promontory.

Saul drew his sword, And ran even upon the ord. — Cursor Mundi.

And touched him with the spear's ord. — Romance of Sir Otuel.

Hadubraht, the son of Hiltibrant, said, "Gladly gifts should be received; ord (spear's point) against ord.

1814, Henry William Weber, Robert Jamieson, Sir Walter Scott, Illustrations of northern antiquities:

(now chiefly UK dialectal) The point or edge of a weapon.


flan

Borrowed around 1846 from French flan (“cheesecake, custard tart, flan”), or in some uses (in reference to Spanish/Latin American flans) later from Spanish flan (itself from the French), both from Old French flaon (whence also Middle English flaon, flaun (“pie; cake”)), from Late Latin fladō (“flat cake”), from Frankish *flaþō (“flat cake”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“broad, flat”); compare German Fladen. Akin to Old High German flado (“flat cake, offering cake”). Doublet of flathe.
Although the -n is generally believed to derive from the Late Latin accusative form (fladonem) of fladō (“flat cake”), it might alternatively derive from an inflected form of the Frankish word (such as the Frankish accusative *flaþan, or the like). For a similar case, see garden.

cog

The menu includes a number of excellent fish dishes such as the […] broccoli flan.

2004, Shawn Blore, Alexandra de Vries, Frommer's Brazil, →ISBN, page 175:

(chiefly UK, Australia) Baked tart with sweet or savoury filling in an open-topped pastry case. (Compare quiche.)


into

From Middle English in-to, from Old English intō, equivalent to in + to. Cognate with Scots intae.

do

taking distinct arguments to distinct values

enough sense to pound sand into a rathole

it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God

knock someone into the middle of next week

you can't put the toothpaste back into the tube

Five into three is fifteen.

w:Oxford English Dictionary#Electronic versions

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(British, archaic, India, mathematics) Expressing the operation of multiplication.


paedophilia

en-noun

paedophilia (countable and uncountable, plural paedophilias)

Yes, really. Blanchard has expanded the DSM's "paraphilia" section (where crimes such as paedophilia and exhibitionism go) to include transvestic disorder.

2012 December 9, Paris Lees, “Transgender people get a status update”, in The Guardian:

British standard spelling of pedophilia.


corned beef

corned beef (countable and uncountable, plural corned beefs)

corned beefs (plural)
corn beef (alternative)
corn-beef (alternative)
cornbeef (alternative)
corned-beef (alternative)

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

From corn (“to preserve (meat) in coarse corns of salt”, verb); (chief officer): rhyming slang for chief.

Steve and I raced for the building and began climbing the wall, before any of the screws knew what was happening. […] The Corned Beef came out first and initiated the ploy to get us down.

1999, Alex Alexandrowicz, David Wilson, The Longest Injustice: The Strange Story of Alex Alexandrowicz:

(UK, prison slang, historical) The chief officer of a prison.


cad

Short for caddie, from Scots, from French cadet, from dialectal capdet (“chief, captain”), from Latin capitellum, diminutive of caput (“head”).

(UK, Ireland, obsolete, slang) An idle hanger-on about innyards.


rubble

rubble (countable and uncountable, plural rubbles)

Inherited from Middle English rouble, rubel, robel, robeil, from Anglo-Norman *robel (“bits of broken stone”). Presumably related to rubbish, originally of same meaning (waste material, bits of stone, rubble). Ultimately presumably from Old Norse rubba (“to huddle, crowd together, heap up", possibly also "to rub, scrape”), from Proto-Germanic *rubbōną (“to rub, scrape”), related to Proto-Germanic *reufaną (“to tear”), *raubōną (“to rob, steal, plunder”), perhaps via Old French robe (English rob (“steal”)) in sense of “plunder, destroy”; see also Middle English, Middle French -el.

der

(UK, dialect, in the plural) The whole of the bran of wheat before it is sorted into pollard, bran, etc.


dab

Irish: daba

From Middle English dabben (“to strike”), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Old Icelandic dabba (“to tap, slap”), perhaps ultimately imitative. Compare also with Middle Dutch dabben (“to pinch, knead, fumble, dabble”) (Dutch dabben (“(of a horse) to stamp with the forelegs”)), Dutch deppen (“to dab”), possibly German tappen (“to fumble, grope”).
The noun is from Middle English dabbe (“a strike, blow”), from the verb. Related to tap. Compare also drub, dub.
African-American sense of “playful box” perhaps influenced by dap (“fistbump”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

cog

One had Glash's dabs on it and a half-inch of Macallan at the bottom.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 132:

(chiefly in the plural, dated, British) Fingerprint.


fax

From Middle English fax, from Old English feax (“hair, head of hair”), from Proto-West Germanic *fahs, from Proto-Germanic *fahsą (“hair, mane”), from Proto-Indo-European *poḱsom (“hair”, literally “that which is combed, shorn, or plucked”), from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“to comb, shear, pluck”). Cognate with Dutch vas (“headhair”), German Fachs (“head-hair”), Norwegian faks (“mane”), Icelandic fax (“mane”), Sanskrit पक्ष्मन् (pákṣman, “eyelash, hair, filament”).

cog

(obsolete or UK dialectal) The hair of the head.


commons

At the same time, the fashion at Oxford of confining lunch to a "commons" of bread and butter and a glass of beer till the crew reaches Putney (when a little meat is allowed,) is unreasonable.

1875, Walter Bradford Woodgate, "Oars and Sculls," and How to Use Them (page 125)

(obsolete, UK, Oxford University) Food served at a fixed rate from the college buttery, distinguished from battels.


moot

en-adj

moot (comparative more moot, superlative most moot)

more moot (comparative)
most moot (superlative)

From Middle English mōt, ȝemōt, from Old English *mōt, ġemōt (“meeting”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtą, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to encounter, come”). Cognate with Scots mut, mote (“meeting, assembly”), Low German Mööt (“meeting”), Moot (“meeting”), archaic Dutch (ge)moet (“meeting”), Danish møde (“meeting”), Swedish möte (“meeting”), Norwegian møte (“meeting”), Icelandic mót (“meeting, tournament, meet”). Related to meet.

cog

[…] :indeed we were obligd to hawl off rather in a hurry for the wind freshning a little we found ourselves in a bay which it was a moot point whether or not we could get out of: […]

1770, Joseph Banks, The Endeavour Journal of Sir Joseph Banks, January 4, 1770 (published 1962)

[T]he uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Cetology is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 32”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

1903, Walter Crane, Lewis F. Day, Moot Points: Friendly Disputes on Art and Industry Between Walter Crane and Lewis F. Day:

The extent to which these Parisian radicals ‘represented’ the French people as a whole was very moot.

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 477:

(current in UK, rare in the US) Subject to discussion (originally at a moot); arguable, debatable, unsolved or impossible to solve.


jab

Originally a Scottish (unclear if Scots or Scottish English) form of English job (“peck, poke, thrust”), from Middle English jobben.

Our dog was exposed to rabies, so the whole family went to a clinic to get our jabs.

(British) A medical hypodermic injection (vaccination or inoculation)

A 'painless' sticking plaster flu jab that delivers vaccine into the skin has passed important safety tests in the first trial in people.

2017 June 28, Michelle Roberts, “Painless flu jab patch for people scared of injections”, in BBC News:

(British, Australia, New Zealand, sometimes Philippines) A vaccination, whether or not delivered via conventional injection.


jab

en-verb

jab (third-person singular simple present jabs, present participle jabbing, simple past and past participle jabbed)

jabs (present singular third-person)
jabbing (participle present)
jabbed (participle past)
jabbed (past)

(slang, UK) To give someone an injection.


mac

(UK, US, Canada, Australia, slang, offensive, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Scottish descent, used in driving culture to denigrate someone for poor/slow/amateurish driving responses, a reference to the frugality of Scottish people.


macintosh

He is sausaged into several overcoats and wears a brown macintosh under which he holds a roll of parchment.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 15: Circe]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 481:

(British) Alternative form of mackintosh (“a raincoat”).


pyjamas

en-noun

pyjamas pl (plural only, attributive pyjama)

desc

→ Arabic: بِيجَامَا (bījāmā)

→ Arabic: بِيجَامَا (bījāmā)

→ Bulgarian: пижа́ма (pižáma)

→ Catalan: pijama

→ Czech: pyžamo

→ Dutch: pyjama

→ Estonian: pidžaama

→ Finnish: pyjama

desctree

→ French: pyjama
→ Romanian: pijama
→ Turkish: pijama

→ German: Pyjama

→ Greek: πυτζάμα (pytzáma)

→ Lithuanian: pižama

→ Italian: pigiama

→ Norwegian: pysjamas

→ Persian:

Dari: پیژامه (pīžāma)

Iranian Persian: پیژامه (pižâme)

Tajik: пижома (pižoma)

→ Portuguese: pijama

→ Russian: пижама (pižama)
→ Armenian: պիժամա (pižama)
→ Azerbaijani: pijama
→ Georgian: პიჟამა (ṗižama)
→ Kazakh: пижама (pijama)
→ Kyrgyz: пижама (pijama)
→ Tajik: пижама (pižama)
→ Turkmen: pijama
→ Uzbek: pijama

→ Spanish: pijama

→ Ukrainian: піжа́ма (pižáma)

→ Yiddish: פּיזשאַמע (pizhame)

/pɪˈd͡ʒɑːməz/

/paɪˈd͡ʒɑːməz/

From Hindi पैजामा (paijāmā) / Urdu پائِجامَہ (pāijāma), from Classical Persian پایجامه (pāyjāma), archaic form of پاجامه (pājāma).

bor

Urdu پائِجامَہ (pāijāma)

The performer opens one of the small drawers and takes out two sets of pyjamas.

1973, John Clucas Cannell, The Secrets of Houdini, Dover Publications, US, page 231

She wasn′t sure if Lena looked more surprised by her clobbering hug or the sight of her pyjamas on the bright New York City sidewalk.

2007, Ann Brashares, Summers of the Sisterhood: Forever in Blue, page 178:

British standard spelling of pajamas (“clothes for sleeping in”).

They too revert to simpler, non-western clothes—saris, dhotis, and pyjamas.

2010, Lucy Norris, Recycling Indian Clothing: Global Contexts of Reuse and Value, Indiana University Press, page 34:

British standard spelling of pajamas (“loose trousers worn by men and women in South Asia”).

(cricket) British standard spelling of pajamas.


snitch

Origin uncertain. Perhaps an alteration of Middle English snacche (“a trap, snare”), snacchen (“to seize (prey)”, whence modern English snatch). Compare also Middle English snik snak (“a sudden blow, snap”). Alternatively, perhaps from a dialectal variant of sneak, from Middle English sniken, from Old English snīcan (“to creep; crawl”). More at sneak.

cog

'Yah, I wouldn't git a second-'and dress at a pawnbroker's!'
'Garn!' said Liza indignantly. 'I'll swipe yer over the snitch if yer talk ter me. [...] "

1897, W.S. Maugham, Liza of Lambeth, chapter 1:

He added in conclusion that he strongly disliked the police coming and sticking its nose into his affairs and, since the horror which such actions inspired in him was not far from making him wish to vomit, he extracted from his pocket a silken square of the colour of the lilac flower (the one that isn’t white) but impregnated with Barbouze, the Fior perfume, and with it dabbed his snitch.

1960, Barbara Wright (tr.), Zazie in the metro, Penguin Classics, translation of Zazie dans le métro by Raymond Queneau, published 2001, →ISBN, page 96:

On one level clearly emblematic of her class status, “she’d have really looked down her snitch at me”), Virginia Woolf's nose, both Bennett and his audience would know, signifies as well the far more frightening power, the phallic power, attributed to women, strong women in particular.

1978, Brenda R. Silver, quoting Alan Bennett, Virginia Woolf icon, University of Chicago Press, published 1999, →ISBN, Take Seven: British Graffiti: Me ,I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Sammy And Rosie Get Laid, page 158:

‘Yes, I’m a witch! I wiggle my snitch![...]’

1994, Christine Marion Fraser, Noble Beginnings, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 74:

Bluenoze: Blow your nose to clear your snitch of whatever it is you've been snorting and read the postings again.

1999 September 27, "billy", “Re: Babies Having Babies”, in uk.media.tv.misc (Usenet):

Question: do benign bacteria live in one's snitch and keep the other, nastier ones at bay ?

1999 March 26, G Greenway, “Re: aah-cho!!”, in alt.gothic (Usenet):

Have a perpetual dew drop hanging from your snitch

2001 July 27, catmandoo, “Re: Please help me to be 'correct'.”, in uk.local.isle-of-wight (Usenet):


yob

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

Backslang for boy. The second sense was likely influenced by hobnob and/or yokel.

2005 January 10, Melissa Jackson, “Music to deter yobs by”, in BBC News:

Yes, it's holiday time again for British yobs – and the rest of us can flee to those parts of Abroad which the louts ignore, or just cringe in shame at home.

2009 August 8, Janet Daley, “The real reason for all those louts on holiday”, in The Telegraph:

But while doing 70mph on the A1, a hooded yob threw rock^([sic – meaning a rock]) from a grass verge onto the windscreen of the family’s Jeep, causing it to swerve.

2017 March 27, Keiran Southern, “'We could have been killed': Fury at yobs who bricked windscreen with baby girl in car”, in Chronicle Live, retrieved 2017-03-28:

Three local yobs have also joined, but they have not reckoned on a redoubtable Conductor and two local revenue protection officers who soon escort them off the train!

2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 57:

(derogatory, chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A person who engages in antisocial behaviour or drunkenness.


unco

‘Ye should tear up this carpet, Robbie,’ Uncle Peter called back over his shoulder. ‘It's most unco wearisome when a body′s leg-weary.’

1920, Tod Robbins, “Who Wants a Green Bottle?”, in Freaks And Fantasies, published 2007, page 70:

Jamie has met only two kids of women: the mainly elderly and unco good who belong to his father's congregation, and those who drink in pubs and shebeens used by nearly penniless medical students.

1996, Alasdair Gray, “The Story of a Recluse”, in Every Short Story 1951-2012, Canongate, published 2012, page 267:


gate

Borrowed from Old Norse gata, from Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ. Cognate with Danish gade, Swedish gata, German Gasse (“lane”). Doublet of gait.

(British, Scotland, dialect, archaic) Manner; gait.


gormless

en-adj

gormless (comparative more gormless, superlative most gormless)

more gormless (comparative)
most gormless (superlative)
gaumless (alternative)
gawmless (alternative)

From dialectal English gaum (“heed, attention”) + -less (“without”), from Old Norse gaum, from Proto-Germanic *gaumaz, *gaumō (“heed, attention”). The ‘r’ found in this spelling is a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English.

suffix

Did I ever look so stupid: so gormless as Joseph calls it?

1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XXI, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

But Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter.

There was a sort of gormless unstoppability about him that she found rather fascinating.

1990, Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures, page 171:

Hmm. Made an excuse, did he? Not as gormless as he looks in press photographs, then.

2007 July 21, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “The Wedding, Auntie Muriel”, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter; 7), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 141:

“Don’t just stand there looking gormless. There’s plenty of work to do in the back.”

2015, Adele Abbott, Witch Is When Everything Went Crazy, page 33:

(chiefly UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, of a person) Lacking intelligence, sense or understanding; foolish.

vypatlaný

lacking intelligence or understanding; foolish


tabnab

Nautical slang of obscure origin. Attested from the 20th century. Compare nab and possibly table.

He comes outside when weather's fine / To hang his singlets on the line, / And then returns - he needs no bell - / The scouse, or Sunday's duff to share; / The stokers tabnabs need his care; / The sea sounds far away in there, / Ssssssssh, like the hush in a conch-shell.

1928, Malcolm Lowry, “The Cook In The Gallery”, in The Collected Poetry of Malcolm Lowry, UBC Press, published 1992, page 39:

(slang, British, Navy) A small item of food offered at break times, normally the morning break.


fine

From Middle English finen, fynen, from Old French finer, finir. See finish (transitive verb).

(UK, law) A sum of money or price paid for obtaining a benefit, favor, or privilege, as for admission to a copyhold, or for obtaining or renewing a lease.


rasher

Unknown origin. Said to be an alteration of rasure.

He was a man who made his tent comfortable wherever he pitched it, and long before Altamont’s arrival, had done justice to a copious breakfast of fried eggs and broiled rashers, which Mr. Grady had prepared secundum artem.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 44, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

He received us in his quietly genial fashion, ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal.

1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Wikisource:

He toasted his bacon on a fork and caught the drops of fat on his bread; then he put the rasher on his thick slice of bread, and cut off chunks with a clasp-knife, poured his tea into his saucer, and was happy.

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

Would you like a bite of something? None of your damned lawdeedaw airs here. The rich of a rasher fried with a herring?

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

Thick-cut, thin-cut or flavoured, sometimes there is nothing nicer than a rasher on toast or a crispy rasher as part of a full fry up.

2010 March 25, “Put to the test: Back rashers”, in Irish Independent:

(UK, Ireland) A strip of bacon; a piece of bacon.

Now another layer of forcemeat, then rashers of ham, then forcemeat. Cover the surface with three rashers of fat bacon and a bayleaf; cover with paste, and bake for two hours in a moderate oven, covering the top with a piece of[…]

1874, John Charles Buckmaster, Buckmaster's Cookery: Being an Abridgment of Some of the Lectures Delivered in the Cookery School at the International Exhibition for 1873 and 1874 : Together with a Collection of Approved Recipes and Menus, page 172:

“A pound of tea at one-and-three, / And a pot of raspberry jam, Two new-laid eggs, a dozen pegs, / And a pound of rashers of ham.”

1896, Henry Davenport Northrop, Joseph R. Gay, Irvine Garland Penn, The College of Life Or Practical Self: A Manual of Self-improvement for the Colored Race ... Giving Examples and Achievements of Successful Men and Women of the Race ... Including Afro, page 622:

On March 24 : For breakfast - cocoa, two rashers of bacon, 2 oz. of dry oatmeal, and 1 oz. of cream. For dinner - 2 oz. of cooked meat, […]

1916, Royal Society of Medicine (Great Britain), Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, page 54:

We could see the circus performers eating tremendous breakfasts, with all the savage relish of their power and strength: they ate big fried steaks, pork chops, rashers of bacon, a half dozen eggs, great slabs of fried ham and great[…]

1989 May 1, Thomas Wolfe, Francis E. Skipp, The Complete Short Stories Of Thomas Wolfe, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 203:

12 rashers of British smoked dry-cured streaky bacon

2017 February 16, Sarah Randell, A Pot of Marmalade: The ultimate guide to making and cooking with marmalade, Saltyard Books, →ISBN:

Reggie pulls out a rasher of beef jerky from his back pocket and pulls off a bite with a distinct “Snap!” He then sits down next to Siggy, opposite the two girls.

(Can we date this quote?), Joe Romanoski, Michelle Randell, The Farborough Scare, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 76:

(UK, Ireland) A strip, a piece (of something, such as ham, bacon, etc).


gaff

Unknown. Possibly from Etymology 1, via a sense of “a place that will be robbed” in criminal argot; possibly from Etymology 2, via a sense of "cheap theatre"; possibly from Romani gav (“village”) (whence German Kaff (“village”)).

We're going round to Mike's gaff later to watch the footie.

"Steady on, mate. How was I to know this was your gaff? I was lookin' for somewhere to kip."

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 56:

And like I said, I was so fuck-faced that I forgot I'd moved and let myself back into my old gaff.

1993, Tristan Hawkins, Pepper, London: Flamingo, →ISBN, page 106:

Am I alone in feeling smug (if slatternly) about the news that super-clean homes are a breeding ground for infection? Apparently, all that bleach is bad not just for germs but for children's immune systems, too, and paradoxically causes more disease than it prevents. Not round my gaff. Oh no. My standards of housekeeping are so abysmally low that my eldest daughter was three years old before she even developed a temperature.

2015 April 4, Judith Woods, “I knew it! Spring cleaning is bad for your family's health [print version: Vindicated at last! It's healthier to be a slatternly housewife, p. 28]”, in The Daily Telegraph, archived from the original on 2015-04-09:

Man will enter the gaf with crown
Gun shot spin his head right round

2019 April 30, “The Godfather”, Ink (lyrics), 0:37–0:40:

The term ‘free gaf’ is music to any teenage ears in Dublin, while the term ‘wreak the gaf’ should fill any parent with dread. The term ‘gaf’ means ‘house,’ so when parents are away […]

2019 November 7, Erike Sanker, “20 mad Dublin slang phrases that only make sense to locals”, in Ireland Before You Die (IB4UD):

(Ireland; British, especially Dublin, Manchester, MLE, Cockney and Glaswegian; slang) A place of residence.

especially Dublin; Manchester; especially Dublin; Manchester

Significantly, the setting is a gaff, a low, illegal theatre, and not one of the legitimate East-End stages.

2004, Kerry Powell, The Cambridge Companion to Victorian and Edwardian Theatre, page 273:

(UK, slang, dated) A disreputable, low-end theatre.


situation

situations (plural)
scituation (alternative hypercorrect obsolete)

From Middle English situacioun, situacion, from Middle French situation, from Medieval Latin situatio (“position, situation”), from situare (“to locate, place”), from Latin situs (“a site”). By surface analysis, situate + -ion.

der

‘Let me hear another sound from you,’ said Scrooge, ‘and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your situation!

1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:

When he was nineteen, he suddenly left the 'Co-op' office, and got a situation in Nottingham.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Chapter 3”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

You take a morning paper from the top of the stack
And read the situations from the front to the back
The only job that's open need a man with a knack
So put it right back in the rack Jack.

1946, Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler, Choo Choo Ch'Boogie:


Michaelmas

Michaelmases (plural)
Mihilmas (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English Michelmasse, Myghelmesse; equivalent to Michael + -mas.

(UK, Ireland, law, education) Ellipsis of Michaelmas term.


lido

After Lido (Lido di Venezia), an island with a long beach in Venice, Italy, site of Europe’s first modern beach resort (1857), from Italian lido (“beach, shore”), from Latin litus (“shore”) (hence also English littoral (“of the shore”)). The name is aspirational, evoking glamorous Venice; compare Venetian Pool, another outdoor pool named for Venice.

(British) Part of the sea by a beach sectioned off for swimming and other aquatic activities.


manoeuvre

From Middle French manœuvre (“manipulation, manoeuvre”) and manouvrer (“to manoeuvre”), from Old French manovre (“handwork, manual labour”), from Medieval Latin manopera, manuopera (“work done by hand, handwork”), from manu (“by hand”) + operari (“to work”). First recorded in the Capitularies of Charlemagne (800 AD) to mean "chore, manual task", probably as a calque of the Frankish *handwerc (“hand-work”). Compare Old English handweorc, Old English handġeweorc, German Handwerk.

The system also reacts to unexpected traffic situations and handles them independently by employing evasive manoeuvres within the lane or by braking manoeuvres

2021, “Mercedes-Benz self-driving car technology approved for use”, in Fleet news:

UK, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand spelling of maneuver.


manoeuvre

en-verb

manoeuvre (third-person singular simple present manoeuvres, present participle manoeuvring, simple past and past participle manoeuvred)

manoeuvres (present singular third-person)
manoeuvring (participle present)
manoeuvred (participle past)
manoeuvred (past)

Three pairs of double doors are provided on each side, wide enough to take pallet trucks, and strengthened floors to allow the trucks to manoeuvre inside the vehicle.

1959 November, “Talking of Trains: S.R. Motor Luggage Vans”, in Trains Illustrated, page 523:

(transitive) UK, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand spelling of maneuver.


manœuvre

She delighted in schemes and in projects; she governed her husband by a series of manœuvres, whose only fault was their being entirely wasted; as a simple wish, openly expressed, would have answered every purpose.

1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter III, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 25:

[…] but then it came of itself: it was not elicited by meretricious arts and calculated manœuvres; and one had but to accept it — to answer what he asked […]

Gregson and Lestrade had watched the manœuvres of their amateur companion with considerable curiosity and some contempt.

1886, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet:

Peter, forging ahead with the bag, stopped to see the result of these manœuvres.

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 131:

[…] we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous manœuvre.

1940, Winston Churchill, We shall fight on the beaches:

All early accounts agree that one of Stalin’s characteristics was ‘laziness’ or ‘indolence’ - which Bukharin impressed on Trotsky as Stalin’s ‘most striking quality’. Trotsky remarked that Stalin ‘never did any serious work’ but was always ‘busy with his intrigues’. Another way of putting this is that Stalin paid the necessary attention to the detail of political manœuvre.

1968, Robert Conquest, “The Purge Begins”, in The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties, Macmillan Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, pages 74–75:

[…] and the belief that states had increasingly little room for manœuvre if they wanted their people to benefit from it.

2003, David Miller, Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, page 7:

(UK, formerly Australia) Alternative form of manoeuvre.


manœuvre

manœuvre (third-person singular simple present manœuvres, present participle manœuvring, simple past and past participle manœuvred)

manœuvres (present singular third-person)
manœuvring (participle present)
manœuvred (participle past)
manœuvred (past)

We can ask how long it was before the team scored its first goal; or how long the centre-forward spent in manœuvring the ball towards the goal; and even how long the ball was in flight between his kicking it and its going between the goal-posts. But we cannot ask how many seconds were occupied in the scoring of the goal.

1954, Gilbert Ryle, “dilemma vii: Perception”, in Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, page 103:

Mr.Marples has thus manœuvred himself into a corner.

1963 June, “Second thoughts on Beeching”, in Modern Railways, page 362:


inn

From Middle English in, inn, from Old English inn (“a dwelling, house, chamber, lodging”); akin to Icelandic inni (“a dwelling place, home, abode”), Faroese inni (“home”).

cog

Leicester Inn

(British, dated) The town residence of a nobleman or distinguished person.


hooter

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

Suddenly, far down and beyond the toun there came a screech as the morning grew, a screech like an hungered beast in pain. The hooters were blowing in the Segget Mills.

1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe, page 34:

When the right-away was given, Driver Gibson would give a sonorous blast on Cardean's deep-toned hooter, and amid a flurry of swirling steam the train would move majestically out, with nearly half the city of Carlisle—or so it would appear—as onlookers on the platform.

1945 May and June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 152:

A chime whistle, presented to the L.M.S.R. by American model railway enthusiasts in 1939, is installed now as a works hooter at Crewe Works, as its height precludes its use on a British locomotive.

1946 September and October, “Notes and News: Locomotive Whistle Gift”, in Railway Magazine, page 322:

(British) A siren or steam whistle, especially one in a factory and used to indicate the beginning or the end of a working day or shift.


fer

“[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. They watch it all th' time b'cause they know blame well there ain't hardly room fer their feet fer th' pikers an' tin-horns an' thimble-riggers what are layin' fer 'em. […]”

1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock:

‘Got summat fer yeh here – I mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.’

1997, J.K. Rowling, chapter IV, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(dialectal, especially British) Pronunciation spelling of for.


greenhouse

From green + house ("house for growing greens"), in reference to the produce grown within.

In the slang of the Royal Air Force man, the cockpit of his plane is the ‘pulpit’ or ‘office’, the glass covering over it the ‘greenhouse’.

(UK military slang, dated) The glass of a plane's cockpit.


block

→ Dutch: block

→ German: Block

→ Irish: bloc

→ Manx: block

→ Maori: poraka

→ Norwegian: blokk

→ Polish: blok

desctree

→ Russian: блок (blok)
→ Armenian: բլոկ (blok)
→ Yakut: блок (blok)

→ Spanish: block

→ Vietnamese: lốc

From Middle English blok (“log, stump, solid piece”), from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from Middle Dutch blok (“treetrunk”), from Old Dutch *blok (“log”), from Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“thick plank, beam, pile, prop”). Cognate with Old Frisian blok, Old Saxon blok, Old High German bloh, bloc (“block”), Old English bolca (“gangway of a ship, plank”), Old Norse bǫlkr (“divider, partition”). More at balk. See also bloc, bulk.

طَابُوقَة

substantial often approximately cuboid piece

թաղամաս

group of buildings demarcated by streets

Solitary confinement
solitary confinement


get off

en-verb

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

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

sundat

to move from being on top of (something)

afhalen van ...

to move (something) from being on (something else)

lakata koskemasta

to stop touching or interfering with something or someone

He couldn't get the infant off until nearly two in the morning.

(transitive, UK) To make (someone) fall asleep.

If I wake up during the night, I cannot get off again.

I'd like to get off with him after the party.

(intransitive, slang, UK) To kiss; to smooch.


earn

earn (third-person singular simple present earns, present participle earning, simple past and past participle earned)

earns (present singular third-person)
earning (participle present)
earned (participle past)
earned (past)

Probably either:
* from Middle English erne, ernen (“to coagulate, congeal”) (chiefly South Midlands) [and other forms], a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnan (“to run”) (with the variants iernan, irnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow, run; to melt”), both from Proto-Germanic *rinnaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to move, stir; to rise, spring”); or
* a back-formation from earning (“(Britain regional, archaic) rennet”).

nb...

(chiefly Middle English from Southwest England and Southwest Midlands, and Early Middle English) eorne, eornen, herne, hurnen, uerne, urne, urnen, hurnen, (Early Middle English, Southwest Midlands) eærne, earnæ, heorne, hirnen, irne, irnen

back-formation

(transitive, archaic) To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.


stag party

(British, Canada) A bachelor party; a party held for a man who is about to be married.


hen party

(British, Australia) A bachelorette party; a party held for a woman who is about to be married.


bake

From Middle English baken, from Old English bacan (“to bake”), from Proto-West Germanic *bakan, from Proto-Germanic *bakaną (“to bake”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₃g- (“to roast, bake”).
Cognate with West Frisian bakke (“to bake”), Dutch bakken (“to bake”), Low German backen (“to bake”), German backen (“to bake”), Norwegian Bokmål bake (“to bake”), Danish bage (“to bake”), Swedish baka (“to bake”), Ancient Greek φώγω (phṓgō, “roast”, verb).

cog

A fish bake made with cod chunks, sliced parboiled potatoes, […]

2009, Dictionary of Food: International Food and Cooking Terms from A to Z, →ISBN:

If you happen to have small, heat-proof glass or ceramic pots in your kitchen (known as ramekins) then you can make this very easy pasta bake in fun-size, individual portions.

2009, Rosalind Peters, Kate Pankhurst, Clive Boursnell, Midnight Feast Magic: Sleepover Fun and Food:

(especially UK, Australia, New Zealand) Any of various baked dishes resembling casserole.


duvet

From French duvet, from Middle French duvet, from Old French duvet (“down, the feathers of young birds”), alteration of dumet, dumect, which in turn derives from dum, dun (“down, feathers”), from Old Norse dúnn (“down, down feather”), from Proto-Germanic *dūnaz (“down”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, fume, raise dust”).
Cognate with Icelandic dúnn (“down”), Danish dun (“down”), German Daune (“down”), Dutch dons (“down”). More at down.

der

(British, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada) A quilt or usually flat cloth bag with a filling (traditionally down) and usually an additional washable cover, used instead of blankets; often called a comforter or quilt, especially in US English.


on the piss

From on (“regularly taking”) + the + slang piss (“any alcoholic drink”).

We're going out on the piss tonight. Want to come?

Life is meaningless, when I've been on the piss.

2008, Colin Shaddick, Isn't Sex Noisy, →ISBN, page 50:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, vulgar) Drinking alcoholic beverages to excess.


flay

en-verb

flay (third-person singular simple present flays, present participle flaying, simple past and past participle flayed)

flays (present singular third-person)
flaying (participle present)
flayed (participle past)
flayed (past)
fla (alternative)
fley (alternative)
flee (alternative)
fly (alternative)
fleg (alternative)
flae (alternative)
flea (alternative)

From Middle English flayen, flaien, fleien, from Old English *flīeġan ("to cause to fly, put to flight, frighten"; found only in compounds: āflīeġan), from Proto-Germanic *flaugijaną (“to let fly, cause to fly”), causative of Proto-Germanic *fleuganą (“to fly”).

gloss

"to cause to fly, put to flight, frighten"; found only in compounds: <i class="Latn mention" lang="ang">āflīeġan</i>

inh

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To cause to fly; put to flight; drive off (by frightening).

If they'd let me have my way, I could have flayed him into shape

1979, “The Trial”, in The Wall, performed by Pink Floyd:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To frighten; scare; terrify.

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To be fear-stricken.


flay

flays (plural)
fla (alternative)
fley (alternative)
flee (alternative)
fly (alternative)
fleg (alternative)
flae (alternative)
flea (alternative)

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A fright; a scare.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Fear; a source of fear; a formidable matter; a fearsome or repellent-looking individual.


monitor

monitors (plural)
monitour (alternative)

desc

→ Thai: มอนิเตอร์ (mɔɔ-ní-dtəə)

→ Thai: มอนิเตอร์ (mɔɔ-ní-dtəə)

From Latin monitor (“warner”), from perfect passive participle monitus (“warning”), from verb monere (“to warn, admonish, remind”). Warship sense is from USS Monitor, the first ship of this type.

So, as she did not like the masters to be prying about the play-ground out of school, she chose from among the biggest and most trustworthy of her pupils five monitors, who had authority over the rest of the Boys, and kept the unruly ones in order.

1871, Henry William Pullen, The Fight at Dame Europa's School:

But it was not so—at least, not always—for though they fell out among themselves, they united their forces against the common enemy—the monitors!

1881, Talbot Baines Reed, chapter X, in The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's:

He learned that a monitor should assist the teachers in distributing worksheets, maintaining class discipline, helping classmates in need and so on.

(Can we date this quote?), Pearl Poon, Class Monitor Election, Hong Kong ICAC Comics:

(Hong Kong, Singapore, archaic in British) A student leader in a class.


The form number designated by Britain's HM Revenue and Customs department.

2012, Forbes, Has Unconventional Oil Production Peaked?
Get any concessions wrong in advanced markets, and CEO’s know they’ll pay a very heavy price on stock markets. ‘P45’s’ all round, and that’s before we consider any national flags involved, or the small fact that host nations are piling on pressure to get pumps working, donkey’s nodding and receipts rolling in.

(UK, Ireland) A form that an employee receives when they terminate their employment, detailing income for social security and taxation purposes for the current financial year.


nip

en-verb

nip (third-person singular simple present nips, present participle nipping, simple past and past participle nipped)

nips (present singular third-person)
nipping (participle present)
nipped (participle past)
nipped (past)
gnip (alternative)
knip (alternative)

From late Middle English nippen, probably of Low German or Dutch origin, probably a byform of earlier *knippen (suggested by the derivative Middle English knippette (“pincers”)), from Middle Low German knîpen, from Old Saxon *knīpan, from Proto-West Germanic *knīpan, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *knīpaną (“to pinch”).
Related to Dutch nijpen, knijpen (“to pinch”), Danish nive (“pinch”); Swedish nypa (“pinch”); Low German knipen; German kneipen and kneifen (“to pinch, cut off, nip”), Old Norse hnippa (“to prod, poke”); Lithuanian knebti.

Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you.

1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring Girl”, in Arthur Henry Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 4, published 1885, act 5, scene 1, pages 128–129:

The twelfth is a beau-trap, if a cull he does meet, / He nips all his cole, and turns him into the street.

1712, J. Shirley, “The Black Procession”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris, verse 4, published 1896, page 38:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) To steal; especially to cut a purse.


nip

nips (plural)
gnip (alternative)
knip (alternative)

A novice nip, newly arrived in London, went one afternoon to the Red Bull in Bishopsgate, an inn converted to a playhouse.

1977, Gãmini Salgãdo, The Elizabethan Underworld, Folio Society, published 2006, page 27:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A pickpocket.


sheath

From Middle English sheth, shethe (“holder for a sword, knife, etc., scabbard, sheath”) [and other forms], from Old English sċēaþ (“sheath”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþiju, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþiz (“sheath; covering”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect, split”) (possibly from the notion of a split stick with a sword inserted).
The English word is cognate with Danish skede, Dutch schede, Icelandic skeið, German Scheide, Low German scheed, Norwegian skjede.

nb...

chethe, scǽð, scaþ, schede, schete, scheth, schethe, seaþ, seeth, seth, sethe, shæþ, shede, sheethe, sheith, (Southwest) ssethe, sseþe, (early forms) scæðe, scaþe, seaþe


waxy

From Middle English waxi, wexy, equivalent to wax (“soft oily substance”) + -y.

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


earwig

en-verb

earwig (third-person singular simple present earwigs, present participle earwigging, simple past and past participle earwigged)

earwigs (present singular third-person)
earwigging (participle present)
earwigged (participle past)
earwigged (past)

From Middle English erwigge, from Old English ēarwicga, from ēare (“ear”) + wicga (“insect”), so named from a popular belief that they are able to penetrate a person's head through the ear.

He had heard nothing from Fin, or anyone else, since the angry exchange the other night and was worried about how things were going, but he couldn′t ask about the LeMotts, not with Mum earwigging.

2007, Russell K. Lewis, In a Moment...: Book One of the Ley of the Land, page 381:

The nameless earwigging writer scrawled in his notebook that “MS and CT also considered that such low life would have a greater pride and satisfaction in life if they could themselves be cooked and served still bleating to rich diners.″

2007, Cat Rambo, Jeff VanderMeer, The Strange Case of the Lovecraft Café: The Surgeon′s Tale and Other Stories, page 89:

This man turned up on the last train, wanting a room, and his name had been odd enough to stay in the children′s minds as they earwigged—not something you ever do, Jonty.

2010, Charlie Cochrane, Lessons in Seduction, page 100:

We are meeting at a friendly, higher-end Shanghai brunching spot beloved of expats—cramped and informal enough that one of the three bankers at the next table is cheerfully earwigging our conversation.

2017 December 1, Leo Lewis, “Eric Cantona on seagulls, fixing Man Utd and why you can't buy passion”, in Financial Times:

(transitive, UK, slang) To eavesdrop on.


haem

en-noun

haem (countable and uncountable, plural haems)

Haem is ubiquitous, abundant and necessary for energy metabolism. Most bacteria have a haem biosynthesis pathway, but nevertheless, since haem is a major source of iron (an essential metal), microbes take up exogenous haem to retrieve iron.

2010, Pierre Cornelis, Simon Andrews (editors), Iron Uptake and Homeostasis in Microorganisms, page 17:

Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and UK standard spelling of heme.


conservative

en-adj

conservative (comparative more conservative, superlative most conservative)

more conservative (comparative)
most conservative (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French conservatif, from Latin cōnservō (“to preserve”). Equivalent to conserve + -ative.

We have always been conscientiously attached to what is called the Tory, and which might with more propriety be called the Conservative, party.

(British, politics) Relating to the Conservative Party.


petrolhead

2004, Roger Austin Learmonth, Petrolhead: The Life and Times of a Classic Car Buff, →ISBN:

2009, Stuart Prebble, Grumpy Old Drivers: The Official Handbook, unnumbered page,
In the early years it had been very much a series for people I believe are known by the curiously unappealing term ‘petrolheads’. Since most petrolheads are probably out in the evenings, burning up the rubber or the tarmac or whatever it is that petrolheads do, the show had a fairly limited audience.

(colloquial, UK, Ireland) A car enthusiast.


pisshead

(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, derogatory, vulgar, slang) A person who regularly overindulges in alcoholic drink.


smackhead

(UK, derogatory, slang) A person who regularly uses heroin.


nondescript

nondescripts (plural)
non-descript (alternative)

From non- + descript (from Latin dēscrīptus, past participle of dēscrībō).

By a nice British compromise, the enforcement car — visible just then as a white spot on the television screen — has nothing externally to show its police affiliation, but unlike the CID's nondescripts, carries two large policemen in uniform.

1970, Peter Laurie, Scotland Yard: a study of the Metropolitan Police, page 118:


tranter

tranters (plural)
traunter (alternative)

Through the open doorway of a small inner room on the left hand, of a character between pantry and cellar, was Dick Dewy’s father, Reuben, by vocation a ‘tranter’, or irregular carrier.

1872, [Thomas Hardy], “II: The Tranter's”, in Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School, volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, →OCLC, part I, page 13:

1879, William Barnes, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, Dobbin Dead
An’ he met wi’ zome yew-twigs the men had a-cast
Vrom the yew-tree, in churchyard, the road that he past.
He wer pweison’d. (1.) O dear, ’tis a hard loss to bear,
Vor a tranter’s whole bread is a-lost wi’ his meäre;

...the persons tenanting these few houses included two retired military officers, one old navy lieutenant, a small farmer and tranter, a relieving officer and registrar, and an old militiaman […]

1929, Florence Hardy, The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1841-1891:


trapezium

en-noun

trapezium (plural trapeziums or trapezia)

Recorded since 1570, learned borrowing from Late Latin trapezium, from Ancient Greek τραπέζιον (trapézion, “irregular quadrilateral”, literally “a little table”), diminutive of τράπεζα (trápeza, “table”). Doublet of trapeze.

uder

(geometry, British, Australia, New Zealand) A quadrilateral with two sides parallel.

(restrictively) A quadrilateral with two sides parallel and two sides non-parallel.


tumbler

(UK, Scotland, dialect, obsolete) A kind of cart; a tumbril.


omy

(obsolete, UK, dialect) Mellow, as land.


pad

1554, "bundle of straw to lie on", probably from Low German or West Flemish pad (“sole of the foot”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to pass”), which would make it related to both path and find.

unk

probably


pad

From Middle English pade, padde, from Old English padde, from Proto-West Germanic *paddā, from Proto-Germanic *paddǭ (“toad”). Cognate with Dutch pad, German Low German Pad (“toad”), dialectal German Padde, Danish padde, Swedish padda, Icelandic padda (“toad”), and possibly to English paddle. Doublet of pode


pad

From Dutch pad or Middle Low German pat (“path”). Doublet of path.

And when the map shows that the creek will no longer take him where he wants to go, then he looks for an animal pad and follows it, getting down on his belly and wriggling under thorny bush when he has to.

1999, Julia Leigh, The Hunter, Faber & Faber 2012, p. 36

(British dialectal, Australia, Ireland) A path, particularly one unformed or unmaintained; a track made by animals.

A Pad came pacing down the way : / The Cur, with never-ceasing tongue , / Upon the passing trav'ler sprung

1720, John Gay, “Fables”, in Poems on Several Occasions:

These free-born sounds proceeded from four pads / In ambush laid, who had perceived him loiter / Behind his carriage; and, like handy lads, / Had seized the lucky hour to reconnoitre

1819–1824, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London, (please specify |canto=I to XVII):

(British, obsolete) A robber who infests the road on foot; a highwayman or footpad.

(British, obsolete) A tramp or itinerant musician.


pad

Perhaps

(British, dialectal) A type of wickerwork basket, especially as used as a measure of fish or other goods.


page

From Old French page, possibly via Italian paggio, from Late Latin pagius (“servant”), probably from Ancient Greek παιδίον (paidíon, “boy, lad”), from παῖς (paîs, “child”); some sources consider this unlikely and suggest instead Latin pagus (“countryside”), in sense of "boy from the rural regions". Used in English from the 13th century onwards.

der

(British) A youth employed for doing errands, waiting on the door, and similar service in households.


par

en-noun

par (countable and uncountable, plural pars)

(UK) An amount which is taken as an average or mean.


park

building

antonym(s) of “a piece of ground in or near a city”

→ Dhivehi: ޕާކު (pāku)

→ Georgian: პარკი (ṗarḳi)

⇒ Hokkien: 拋車 /抛车 (pha-chhia)

→ Irish: páirc

→ Japanese: パーク (pāku)

→ Scottish Gaelic: pàirc

⇒ Teochew: 拋車 /抛车 (pa¹ cia¹)

→ Welsh: parc

From Middle English park, from Old French parc (“livestock pen”), from Medieval Latin parcus, parricus, from Frankish *parrik (“enclosure, pen, fence”). Cognate with Dutch perk (“enclosure; flowerbed”), Old High German pfarrih, pferrih (“enclosure, pen”), Old English pearroc (“enclosure”) (whence modern English paddock), Old Norse parrak, parak (“enclosure, pen; distress, anxiety”), Icelandic parraka (“to keep pent in under restraint and coercion”). More at parrock, paddock.

cog

A country's tank park or artillery park.


quite

A development of quit, influence by Anglo-Norman quite. Doublet of coy, quit, quiet, and quietus. For an analogous semantic development from the same root, compare Armenian շատ (šat).

doublet

“That's a rather ugly colour for a house, don't you think?” — “Quite.”

(chiefly UK) Indicates agreement; exactly so.


knackered

en-adj

knackered (comparative more knackered, superlative most knackered)

more knackered (comparative)
most knackered (superlative)

I've got this job in a warehouse just now and it finishes quite early but I'm dead knackered at the end of the day so I don't know about going out and like studying every night.

2002, Robert Edenborough, Effective Interviewing: A Handbook of Skills and Techniques, pages 97–98:

2003, Hugh Dauncey, Geoff Hare (editors), The Tour de France, 1903-2003: A Century of Sporting Structures, Meanings and Values, Frank Cass Publishers, London, 2005, page 225,
Then, it all just gets worse and worse, you don't sleep so much, so you don't recover as well from the day's racing, so you go into your reserves, you get more knackered, so you sleep less... It's simply a vicious circle.

So my joy at hearing his voice quickly turns to a paroxysm of anxiety as he manages by exhausted gesture and sound to let us know how knackered he feels, how desperate to get horizontal, almost from the first moment he lands in the chair.

2009, Grace Maxwell, Falling & Laughing: The Restoration of Edwyn Collins, page 84:

In the course of this discussion, the (male) presenter, when uttering the word 'knackered', felt obliged to preface his animation of this word with “excuse my language”.

2020 November 12, Jim O’Driscoll, Offensive Language: Taboo, Offence and Social Control, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 48:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, sometimes offensive) Tired or exhausted.


knackered

From "ready for the knacker's yard" or "fit to be knackered", meaning "worn-out livestock, fit to be slaughtered and rendered".

In the end though he had to admit that the car was knackered...

2003, Simon Murphy, The Murders of Mutchrose Village, page 28:

We take an old knackered machine out to China and say, 'Copy that, brand new,' and they do.

2009, John Newton, Vance Miller - Kitchen Gangster?, page 82:

(UK, Ireland, South Africa, colloquial) Broken, inoperative.


lass

term-label

(archaic except UK, dialectal, informal or poetic)

From Middle English las, lasce, lasse (“female infant or child; young woman”), probably from Proto-Norse *laskwa (“unmarried”, adjective).
Cognates
Scots lass, lassie

col

Cognates

Come and dance, ye lads and lasses!

[T]heyr founders soules / Haue lost theyr beade rolles, / The mony for theyr masses / Spent amonge wanton lasses; […]

1521–1522, John Skelton, “Here after Followeth a Litel Boke Called Colyn Cloute, […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 327, lines 423–426:

Ste[phano]. Is it ſo braue a Laſſe? / Cal[iban]. I [i.e., aye] Lord, ſhe vvill become thy bed, I vvarrant, / And bring thee forth braue brood.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 12, column 2:

This is the prettieſt Lovv-borne Laſſe, that euer / Ran on the greene-ſord: […]

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], page 292, column 2:

The laſs i' th' red petticoat ſhall pay for all. Young men anſvver ſo vvhen they are chid for being ſo prodigal and expenſive, meaning they vvill get a vvife vvith a good portion, that ſhall pay for it.

1678, J[ohn] Ray, “An Alphabet of Joculatory, Nugatory and Rustick Proverbs”, in A Collection of English Proverbs […], 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] John Hayes, printer to the University, for W. Morden, →OCLC, pages 80–81:

[P]ray vvhich is the little Laſs that intends to be a Gentlevvoman?

1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 8:

Let the toaſt paſs, drink to the laſs, / I vvarrant ſhe'll find an excuſe for the glaſs.

1777 May 8 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The School for Scandal; a Comedy; […], Dublin: [s.n.], published 1780, →OCLC, Act III, scene [ii], page 40:

But one there is, the loveliest of them all, / Some sweet lass of the valley, looking out / For gains, and who that sees her would not buy?

1799–1805 (date written), William Wordsworth, “Book VIII. Retrospect.—Love of Nature Leading to Love of Man.”, in The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind; an Autobiographical Poem, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 208:

[S]he was the bonniest lass in our parochine and the neest till't.

[1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume I (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 309–310:

He was fond of a lass and fond of a glass, and fond of a ran-dan; […]

1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Black Andie’s Tale of Tod Lapraik”, in Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 172:

My audience to this not-too-easy operation was a small group of Scottish school lasses, who seemed (perhaps naturally) to find the proceedings somewhat mysterious, but at any rate amusing. I wished they would go away, but they didn't, so I had to get on with the job to the accompaniment of a background of giggles!

1952 February, H[enry] C[yril] Casserley, “Permanent Wayfarings”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 77:

A girl; also (by extension), a young woman.

Jenny Hill, a pale, overwrought, pretty Salvation lass of 18, comes in through the yard gate, leading Peter Shirley, a half hardened, half worn-out elderly man, weak with hunger.

1905, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Major Barbara”, in John Bull’s Other Island and Major Barbara: Also How He Lied to Her Husband, London: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1907, →OCLC, Act II, page 216:

(specifically) A female member of the Salvation Army; a hallelujah lass.

But firſt him ſeemed fit, that vvounded Knight / To viſite, after this nights perillous paſſe, / And to ſalute him, if he vvere in plight, / And eke [also] that Lady his faire louely laſſe.

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 14, page 388:

It vvas a Louer, and his laſſe, / VVith a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, / That o're the greene corne feild did paſſe, / In the ſpring time, the onely pretty rang [ring] time, / VVhen Birds do ſing, hey ding a ding, ding.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 205, column 2:

The youthfull Bull muſt vvander in the VVood; / Behind the Mountain, or beyond the Flood: / […] / VVith tvvo fair Eyes his Miſtreſs burns his Breaſt; / He looks, and languiſhes, and leaves his Reſt; / Forſakes his Food, and pining for the Laſs, / Is joyleſs of the Grove, and ſpurns the grovving graſs.

1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 106, lines 329–330 and 333–336:

There might ye ſee the pioney ſpread vvide, / The full-blovvn roſe, the ſhepherd and his laſs, / Lap-dog and lambkin vvith black ſtaring eyes, / And parrots vvith tvvin cherries in their beak.

1785, William Cowper, “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 3:

The love Leeby bore for Jamie was such that in their younger days it shamed him. […] "Hoo is your lass?" they used to cry to him, inventing a new game.

1889, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “Leeby and Jamie”, in A Window in Thrums, London: Hodder and Stoughton, […], →OCLC, page 166:

(especially Geordie, Wearside) A sweetheart.

[…] I'll tell ye that after we are done wi' our supper, for it will may be no be sae weel to speak about it while that lang-lugged limmer o' a lass is gaun flisking in and out o' the room.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 101:

[…] I'll tell you that after we are done with our supper, for it will maybe not be so well to speak about it while that long-eared rogue of a maidservant is going capering in and out of the room.

[S]ure aneugh, the lass washed clottered blood aff the carpet the neist day.

[1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Letter XI. The Same [Darsie Latimer] to the Same [Alan Fairford].”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 234:

She fleyed Johnnie awa' frae the door when he was for daffin' wi' the serving lasses.

[1927 July, John Buchan, “The Black Wood by Day”, in Witch Wood, London: Hodder and Stoughton, published August 1927, →OCLC, page 90:

(Northern England, Scotland) A female servant; a maid, a maidservant.

As fair art thou, my bonie laſs, / So deep in luve am I; / And I will luve thee ſtill, my Dear, / Till a' the ſeas gang dry.

[1794, Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose”, in Songs, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume IV, Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, published 1869, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 210:

"Hi, Juno, lass—hi, old girl; down, Daph, down," said Wardle, caressing the dogs.

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “A Pleasant Day, with an Unpleasant Termination”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 188:

(Scotland, familiar) A term of address for a woman, or a female animal.


drier

From Middle English driere, dreyere (“one who dries”), equivalent to dry + -er (agent noun suffix).

(chiefly British, Canada) Alternative spelling of dryer.


mad

en-adj

mad (comparative madder, superlative maddest)

madder (comparative)
maddest (superlative)

From Middle English mad, madde, madd, medd, from Old English ġemǣd, ġemǣded (“enraged”), past participle of ġemǣdan, *mǣdan (“to make insane or foolish”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to change; damage; cripple; injure; make mad”), from Proto-Germanic *maidaz ("weak; crippled"; compare Old English gemād (“silly, mad”), Old High German gimeit (“foolish, crazy”), literary German gemeit (“mad, insane”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (gamaiþs, “crippled”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- ("to change"; compare Old Irish máel (“bald, dull”), Old Lithuanian ap-maitinti (“to wound”), Sanskrit मेथति (méthati, “he hurts, comes to blows”)).

gloss

New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

It's mad that I got that job back a day after being fired.

(UK, Ireland, informal) Bizarre; incredible.


mad

He was driving mad slow.

It's mad hot today.

He seems mad keen on her.

(slang, chiefly New York, African-American Vernacular, UK and Ireland, dialectal) Intensifier; to a large degree; extremely; exceedingly; very; unbelievably.

all over the place like a mad woman's custard

get glad in the same britches one got mad in

get glad in the same pants one got mad in


dogging

en-noun

dogging (countable and uncountable, plural doggings)

Even that […] had been less awful than this date-rape opportunity and likely dogging hotspot, with its hasty skim of tarmac spread like cheap, stale caviar across the pink pedestrian tiles beneath […].

2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, page 21:

(UK, uncountable) The practice of having sexual intercourse in public places, especially parks, deliberately taking the chance of being watched.


award

en-verb

award (third-person singular simple present awards, present participle awarding, simple past and past participle awarded)

awards (present singular third-person)
awarding (participle present)
awarded (participle past)
awarded (past)

From Middle English awarden, from Anglo-Norman awarder, from Medieval Latin *exwardare, from Latin ex (“out”) + Medieval Latin wardare, guardare (“to observe, regard, guard”); see ward, guard, regard.

Do not award marks for data from previous questions.

(transitive, British, education) (in an examination) To give marks for a correct answer.


awk

en-adj

awk (comparative more awk, superlative most awk)

more awk (comparative)
most awk (superlative)

From Middle English awke, from Old Norse ǫfugr, ǫfigr, afigr (“turned backwards”) (whence Danish avet (“backwards”), Swedish avig (“turned backwards”)), from Proto-Germanic *abuhaz. Cognate with German äbich, Gothic 𐌹𐌱𐌿𐌺𐍃 (ibuks, “turned back”). Akin to Sanskrit अपाच् (apāc, “turned away”). Compare dialectal Danish ave (“to turn”), Dutch averechts (“opposite, backwards, contrary”), Icelandic öfga (“to reverse”).

cog

[…] whose wild and madbrain humour nothing fitteth so just, as the stalest dudgen or absurdest balductum, that they or their mates can invent in odd and awk speeches […]

1815 Sir Egerton Brydges, Archaica: Harvey's Four letters, and sonnets, touching Robert Greene; Pierce's supererogation; [and] New letter of notable contents. Brathwaite's Essays upon the five senses, From the private press of Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, printed by T. Davison, p142

(obsolete, UK, dialect) Clumsy in performance or manners; not dexterous; awkward.


avail

en-noun

avail (countable and uncountable, plural avails)

From Middle English availen (“to be of use”), from Old French a (“to”) + vail from valoir (“to be worth”), from Latin valere (“to be worthy, strong”).

(British, acting) Non-binding notice of availability for work.


lurker

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

(archaic, UK, dialect) A small fishing-boat.

In every large town sham official documents, with crests, seals, and signatures, can be got for half-a-crown. Armed with these, the patterer becomes a ‘lurker,’—that is, an impostor; his papers certify any and every ‘ill that flesh is heir to.’

1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor; […], volume I (The London Street-folk. Book the First.), London: [George Woodfall], →OCLC, page 219:

(obsolete slang, UK) An impostor; a quack.


lurk

en-verb

lurk (third-person singular simple present lurks, present participle lurking, simple past and past participle lurked)

lurks (present singular third-person)
lurking (participle present)
lurked (participle past)
lurked (past)

From Middle English lurken, from Old Norse *lúrka, possibly from Proto-Germanic *lūrukōną (“to be lying in wait, lurk”), equivalent to lour + -k (frequentative suffix).
Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk lurka (“to sneak away, go slowly”), dialectal Swedish lurka (“to dawdle, be slow in one's work”), Saterland Frisian lüürkje (“to look secretly, spy”), West Frisian luorkje (“to lurk”), Middle Low German lûrken (“to deceitfully stalk”).

cog

As junior dogsbody, he was lurked with this mission.

2015, Andrew Gordon, The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command:

(UK, naval slang, transitive) To saddle (a person) with an undesirable task or duty.


lurk

(UK, Australia, slang, obsolete) A swindle.


aver

From Middle English aver, avere (“workhorse; any beast of burden (?); things which are owned, possessions, property, wealth; state of being rich, wealth; ownership, possession”) [and other forms], and then either:
* from Old French aver, aveir, avoir (“possession, property; (collectively) beasts of burden; domestic animals; cattle”) (modern French avoir (“asset, possession”)), from aveir, avoir (“to have”), from Latin habēre (“to have, hold; to have, own (possessions)”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ-, *ǵʰeh₁bʰ- (“to grab, take”); or
* from Old English eafor (“workhorse; tenant’s obligation to transport goods”), further etymology uncertain.

nb...

auer, auere, aueyr, auoir, auoyre, aveer, aveir, avoir, avour, hauoir, hauour, hauoyr, haveour, haver, havoir, havoire, havour, havur, havyor, havyour, havyoure, hawere, hower

inh

(British, dialectal, archaic) A beast of burden; chiefly a workhorse, but also a working ox or other animal.


ladies

As a lavatory for women, via misspelling of ladies'. Compare gents.

Pardon me, I need to visit the ladies.

(British, euphemistic) A ladies' room: a lavatory intended for use by women.


gentleman

Chinese Pidgin English: gentleman

→ Danish: gentleman

→ Esperanto: ĝentlemano

→ French: gentleman

desctree

→ Russian: джентльмен (džentlʹmen)
→ Armenian: ջենտլմեն (ǰentlmen)
→ Georgian: ჯენტლმენი (ǯenṭlmeni)

→ Mohegan-Pequot: gundermon

→ Polish: dżentelmen

→ Portuguese: gentleman

→ Spanish: gentleman

→ Yiddish: דזשענטעלמען (dzhentelmen)

[ˈd͡ʒɛɾ̃.ɫ̩.mən]

From Middle English gentilman, morphologically gentle + man, partial calque of Old French gentilhome.

Being a gentleman, Robert was entitled to shove other commoners into the gongpit but he still had to jump out of the way of the knights to avoid the same fate himself.

And when their ſcattered armie is ſubdu’d:
And you march on their ſlaughtered carkaſſes,
Share equally the gold that bought their liues,
And liue like Gentlmen in Perſea, […]

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

But when Adam delued, and Eue ſpan,
VVho was then a Gentleman?

1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:

“[…] This is Mr. Churchill, who, as you are aware, is good enough to come to us for his diaconate, and, as we hope, for much longer; and being a gentleman of independent means, he declines to take any payment.” Saying this Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

(chiefly historical) A man of gentle but not noble birth, particularly a man of means (originally ownership of property) who does not work for a living but has no official status in a peerage; (UK law) an armigerous man ranking below a knight.


faggot

From Middle English fagot, from Old French fagot (“bundle of sticks”), of uncertain origin. Unlikely from Old Occitan fagot or Italian fagotto, as these appear later than the Old French term. Compare also Italian fangotto and Spanish fajo (“bundle, wad”). Perhaps from a diminutive of Vulgar Latin *facus, from Latin fascis (“bundle of wood”). Compare also Old High German fazza (“bundle, load, burden”). Doublet of fagotto. Related to fascism (note that the Italian fascists also used a bundle of sticks as a symbol). See also: fag.
The senses relating to persons, though possibly originating as an extension of the sense "bundle of sticks", may have been reinforced by faygele, from Yiddish פֿייגעלע (feygele, “homosexual”, literally “little bird”), related to English fowl.

der

In the depth of, winter, however, a faggot of real French Sticks — although of little intrinsic value — may possibly enliven for a few moments an English Fireside.

1853, Sir Francis Bond Head, A faggot of French sticks: or, Paris in 1851, page 2:

Besides the logs and roots that simmered with turves and dung on the cottage fire, rapid heat for bread-making came from faggots - bundles of dry twigs about 4 ft long - which were fed into the oven, burned and then removed as ash before the dough went in.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 118:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, collective) A bundle of sticks or brushwood intended to be used for fuel tied together for carrying. (Some sources specify that a faggot is tied with two bands or withes, whereas a bavin is tied with just one.)

Today would be faggots in gravy and chocolate pudding with a white sauce. I didn't like faggots but picked at them and rolled the peas around my plate.

2008, Julie Hodgson, In My Father's Pockets, page 16:

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A meatball made with offcuts and offal, especially pork. (See Wikipedia.)

I appoynt thée no more continencie, than to eate while thy bellie is full, nor conﬅancie, but to brawle rather than burne: a filbert is better than a faggot, except it be an Athenian ſhe handfull: you know that Coſmoſophos, euer ſince your laﬅ mariage, how doth the father of your ſonne in law?

1591, T[homas] L[odge] of Lincolns, Catharos Diogenes in his Singularitie: Wherein is comprehended his merrie baighting fit for all mens benefits: Christened by him, A Nettle for Nice Noſes, London: Iohn Busbie, page 12; republished [Glasgow]: [Hunterian Club], [1875]:

she wants me to go to bed to her, and I won't, ... for she is as crooked as a ram's horn ... and as ugly as sin besides ; rot her, the dirty little faggot, she torments me.

1796, Theobald Wolfe Tone, Autobiography:

The woman, in accordance with the custom of the country, raised the Irish cry, in a loud melancholy wail ...
Darby, who prided himself on maintaining silence, could not preserve the consistency of his character upon this occasion ... "Your sowl to the divil, you faggot!" he exclaimed, "what do you mane? The divil whip the tongue out o' you! ..."

1834, William Carleton, The Midnight Mass:

he used to be pretending to be laid up with a sick voice doing his highness to make himself interesting for that old faggot Mrs Riordan that he thought he had a great leg of and she never left us a farthing all for masses for herself and her soul greatest miser ever was actually afraid to lay out 4d for her methylated spirit […]

1922, James Joyce, chapter 18, in Ulysses:

To me she is fractious, tiresome, and a faggot. Yet the subtle desirableness is in her, for me. As it is in the brown hen, or even a sow.

1925, D. H. Lawrence, Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine and Other Essays: .. Love Was Once a Little Boy:

MOTHER: To see who?
DA: You faggot, you; don't let on you don't know.

(UK, Ireland, dated, colloquial, derogatory, now offensive) A shrewish woman.

The Glasgow Herald thought that his attack on the faggots was too serious […]

1973, Ellen Reid Gold, Gladstone in Midlothian: A Rhetorical Analysis of His 1879 Campaign, page 114:

(UK, Ireland, historical, possibly now offensive) A faggot voter.

(UK, Ireland, dated, slang, now offensive) A lazy, weak, work-shy person.


on the game

UK late-19th century. However, the game as a euphemism for sexual activity dates to at least Troilus and Cressida (1602): "Set them down / For sluttish spoils of opportunity / And daughters of the game." Compare with the similar euphemism sport.

Oh please go on the game. It's a steady job and you'd be working from home.

1986 January 9, Ben Elton, Richard Curtis, Bells (Blackadder II), episode 1, spoken by Kate's Father (Edward Jewesbury):

What's he want it for anyway? Don't tell me he's going on the game.

1990 November 18, Andrew Davies, Michael Dobbs, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:

(UK, idiomatic, slang, euphemistic) Working as a prostitute.


savage

en-adj

savage (comparative more savage, superlative most savage)

more savage (comparative)
most savage (superlative)

From Middle English savage, from Old French sauvage, salvage (“wild, untamed”), from Late Latin salvāticus, alteration of Latin silvāticus (“wild”, literally “of the woods”), from silva (“forest; grove”). Doublet of sylvatic.

der

– I'll see you in detention.
– Ah, savage!


unitary

Outside the metropolitan areas most councils (English and Welsh counties, London boroughs, Scottish and Welsh unitaries, and Northern Ireland districts) are now elected en bloc every four years.

2005, John Greenwood, Robert Pyper, David Wilson, New Public Administration in Britain:


mag

"Why, of course you wanted to get in," Mr. Bucket asserts with cheerfulness; "but for a old gentleman at your time of life […] not to consider that if he don't keep such a business as the present as close as possible it can't be worth a mag to him, is so curious! You see your temper got the better of you; that's where you lost ground," says Mr. Bucket in an argumentative and friendly way.

1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

When all your tin is gone and spent,
 And you've not a mag for bread or rent

1861, Philip William Perfitt, The Pathfinder, page 377:


lair

From Middle English leir, leire, lair, lare, from Old English leġer (“couch, bed”), from Proto-Germanic *legrą, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-.

Then would I in Plenty's lap,
For the first time take a nap;
Falling back in easy lair,
Sweetly slumb'ring in my chair;

1820, John Clare, “Address to Plenty in Winter”, in Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, page 50:

Wake ye, sleep ye, my hapless boy,
In this homeless house of care?
Lack ye the warmth of a mother's eye
On the cauldrife, lonely lair?

1843 June 10, William Thom, “Extract from a Letter to J. Robertson, Esq.”, in Rhymes and Recollections of a Hand-loom Weaver, 3rd edition, London: Smith, Elder and Co., published 1847, page 136:

(British dialectal) A bed or resting place.


lair

en-verb

lair (third-person singular simple present lairs, present participle lairing, simple past and past participle laired)

lairs (present singular third-person)
lairing (participle present)
laired (participle past)
laired (past)

The lee-light that December gies
Was lairing in the wast,
Whan Christy wi' her oa claes,
Was boun' to dree the blast.

1822, Hew Ainslie, “The Waesome Death O' Christy Ford”, in A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, Deptford: W. Brown, page 42:


rattler

/ˈɹætələ(ɹ)/

A freight train or, (chiefly British), a passenger train.


purveyor

purveyors (plural)
purveyour (alternative)

From Middle English purveiour (“one who procures or supplies necessities, provider; city, military, religious, or household employee in charge of provisions, steward; one in charge, overseer; one who goes ahead to prepare the way, forerunner; one who arranges accommodations for a traveller; (figurative) one who gathers greedily”), from Anglo-Norman purveour, Middle French pourveur, pourvoyeur, and (chiefly Northern) Old French purveour (“one who procures or supplies necessities or things in general; one who arranges or prepares something”) (modern French pourvoyeur), from porveoir, purveer, purveir (“to equip, furnish, provide, purvey; to foresee; to look at; to obtain, procure”) (modern French pourvoir) + -or (suffix forming agent nouns). Porveoir is derived from Latin prōvidēre, the present active infinitive of prōvideō (“to care for, look after; to foresee; to provide, see to”), from prō- (prefix meaning ‘before; forward’) + videō (“to see; to look out for, care for, provide, see to”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”)). By surface analysis, purvey + -or (suffix forming agent nouns denoting people or things which do the actions denoted by the stems). Doublet of proveditor and provedore.

surf

groom purveyor    yeoman purveyor

Let therfore firſt and principall care be for competent prouiſion of victuall, namely bread corne, the vſe wherof is ſeene to be farre more neceſſary, then any other thinge and let there bee made three Purueyghours, or principall victuallers, to haue the ouerſighte, and ſurueighe of all victual, and make prouiſion of the ſame accordinglye: […]

1576, Franciscus Patricius, “The Thirde Booke Entreateth of the Election, & Choise of Magistrates, in a Cõmon Weale: Of Moral Examples in Furderinge Their Offices and Duties in Seuerall: […] Of Carefull Prouision for Corne and Victualles, Needfull aswell in Peace as in Warres for the Publique Sustenation”, in Rycharde Robinson, transl., A Moral Methode of Ciuile Policie. Contayninge a Learned and Fruictful Discourse of the Institution, State and Gouernment of a Common Weale. […], London: […] Thomas Marsh, →OCLC, folio [27], verso:

[Y]et some there be of that nature, that though they be in private men, yet their evil reacheth to a general hurt, as the extortion of sheriffs and their sub-sheriffs, and bayliffes, the corruption of victuallers, cessors, and purveyors, the disorders of seneschalls, captaines, and their souldiers, and many such like: […]

1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC, page 144:

[T]he Treaſurer and purveiour generall of the armie in Armenia for the late vvars of king Tyridates [Tiridates I of Armenia], […] vvas enfranchiſed by the meanes of Nero, for 120000 Seſterces. But it vvas the vvarre that coſt thus much, and not the man.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VII.] Of Servants and Slaves.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 175:

The Queen's purveyors had been abroad, sweeping the farms and villages of those articles usually exacted during a royal Progress, and for which the owners were afterwards to obtain a tardy payment from the Board of Green Cloth.

1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 323:

One who purveys (“furnishes, provides; gets, procures”); a supplier; specifically, one in the business of supplying food or other necessary material goods; a provisioner.

(UK, historical) An officer who obtained provisions such as accommodation and food for the household of a monarch or some other high-ranking person; also, an officer in charge of obtaining provisions for an army, a city, etc.

hankkija

officer who obtained provisions for the household of a monarch or some other high-ranking person; officer in charge of obtaining provisions for an army, a city, etc.


broach

From Middle English broche, from Old French broche, from Vulgar Latin *brocca, originally a feminine form of Latin broccus, perhaps ultimately of Gaulish origin (see Scottish Gaelic bròg). Doublet of brochure.

(architecture, UK, dialect) A spire rising from a tower.


sac

But it is really the court-baron which represents the ancient assembly of the mark, while the court-leet represents the lord's jurisdiction of sac and soc, whether granted before or since the coming of William.

1876, Edward Augustus Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England, page 311:

In later times, if the lord had "sac and soc,” his court had the authority of the Court Leet; if he had the view of frankpledge the suitors at his court were free from attendance at the sheriff's tourn; his court was then in all points like the hundred court, but independent of the sheriff.

1882, William White, History, gazetteer, and directory, of Lincolnshire, page 21:

The grant of “sac and soc” did not always carry with it the right to hold a court, but frequently amounted only to the privilege of receiving the forfeitures the lord's men should incur in the Hundred court, or possibly to one-third of the revenues of the Hundred and Shire, which had formerly gone to the ealdorman.

1899 February, F. M. Cobb, “Early English Courts”, in The Western Reserve Law Journal, volume 5, number 1, page 16:

(UK, law, historical) The privilege, formerly enjoyed by the lord of a manor, of holding courts, trying causes, and imposing fines; now used only in the phrase sac and soc or soc and sac.


blow off

en-verb

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

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

Please avoid blowing off while we're in church.

(intransitive, euphemistic, UK, Australia) Synonym of fart.


poof

en-noun

poof (plural poofs or (less common) pooves)

poofs (plural)
pooves (plural uncommon)
pouf (alternative)

He recalls how everybody got called a ‘poof’ at Forrester High School in the seventies. Back then, only ‘wanker’ possibly rivalled it as the most common term of abuse. But The Poof was the Poof.

2015, Irvine Welsh, A Decent Ride, Random House, →ISBN, page 21:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, derogatory, colloquial) A gay man; especially one who is effeminate.


gents

A clipped form of gentlemen. As a room, via misspelling of gents', a clipped form of gentlemen's room.

Where is the gents? I need a slash.

A gents' toilet room might be found in a house that caters for the cheaper class of theatrical patronage, where the slangy language of the "goin' to the mat this aft?" style prevails. A gents toilet room is not found in the Southern Hotel. It either "men's" or "gentlemen's".

1898, The Hotel/Motor Hotel Monthly, volume 6, page 27:

London's first 'gents' public toilets were opened in Fleet Street in 1851, followed in 1852 by a 'ladies' toilet at 51 Bedford Street, Strand.

2000, Munroe Blair, Ceramic Water Closets, page 15:

One unidentified man spoke of how he was approached to "go to the Gents" with an MP at an event for young political activists while another man described how an MP invited his entire office staff to a gay bar.

2014 April 11, Charlotte Meredith, “The Palace of Sexminster”, in Huffington Post: United Kingdom:

(chiefly UK, informal euphemistic) A men's room: a lavatory intended for use by men.


icebox

→ Sabah Malay: aisbuk

pakastelokero

compartment of a refrigerator used as a freezer

(UK) A compartment in a refrigerator that is colder than the rest of the refrigerator and is used as a freezer.


fridge

en-verb

fridge (third-person singular simple present fridges, present participle fridging, simple past and past participle fridged)

fridges (present singular third-person)
fridging (participle present)
fridged (participle past)
fridged (past)

Probably imitative of the sound of chafing or rubbing.

A Man's body and his mind, with the utmoſt reverence to both I ſpeak it, are exactly like a jerkin, and a jerkin's lining;—rumple the one—you rumple the other. There is one certain exception however in this caſe, and that is, when you are ſo fortunate a fellow, as to have had your jerkin made of a gum-taffeta, and the body-lining to it, of a ſarcenet or thin perſian. […] [Y]ou might have rumpled and crumpled, and doubled and creaſed, and fretted and fridged the outſides of them all to pieces;—in ſhort, you might have played the very devil with them, and at the ſame time, not one of the inſides of 'em would have been one button the worſe, for all you had done to them.

1761, [Laurence Sterne], chapter IV, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume III, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC, pages 13–15:

The town spread upwards before them, smoking vaguely in the midday glare, fridging the crest away to the south with spires and factory bulks and chimneys.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “The Early Married Life of the Morels”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part I, page 20:

(transitive, archaic, chiefly British, dialectal) To chafe or rub (something).


range

Japanese: レンジ (renji)

Korean: 레인지 (reinji)

From Middle English rengen, from Old French rengier (“to range, to rank, to order,”), from the noun renc, reng, ranc, rang (“a rank, row”), from Frankish *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“ring, circle, curve”). Doublet of ring.

der

(obsolete, UK, dialect) A bolting sieve to sift meal.


Paki

Either a clipping of Pakistani or a back-formation from Pakistan. Doublet of Pak.

Their byword is Aggro (Aggravation) and their crucial enemies are hippies, homosexuals and Pakis (Pakistanis or Indians).

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

In these telephone calls and recorded messages the respondent, who held strong views on immigration and asylum policy and the provision of public support to immigrants and applicants for asylum, ranted and shouted and made reference to "Wogs", "Pakis", "Black bastards" and […] "Niggers".

2006, Paragraph 2, DPP v Collins ([2006] 1 WLR 2223)

(UK, Canada, by extension) Anyone whose origins are perceived to be from South Asia or the Indian subcontinent.


Paki

(British, Canada, derogatory, ethnic slur) Pakistani, or perceived to be Pakistani.


bally

He's just a bally idiot.

“My faith! It’ll be more bally corpse than bride, though, this journey.”

1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 145:

However, be that as it may and whether you liked the bally thing or didn't, the point was that it had vanished [...] It amazed me that I could have allowed myself to be let in for a binge of this description simply because a woman wished it. Too bally chivalrous for our own good, we Woosters, and always have been. [...] “When you hear me burst into song, you'll know there's peril afoot and you'll have plenty of time to nip out of the window.” “And break my bally neck?” [...] “Nothing can possibly go wrong.” “Just as you say, sir. But I still have that feeling.” The blood of the Woosters is hot, and I was about to tell him in set terms what I thought of his bally feeling, when I suddenly spotted what it was that was making him crab the act.

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

“Bunny has a bad heart.” She glanced toward the corpse in the hallway. “The bally fool... the stupid, bally fool.

1984, Armistead Maupin, Babycakes, page 134:

(British, dated, euphemistic) Bloody (used as a mild intensifier).


bally

That was a bally foolish thing to do, old chap!