tarrier

The Roman Catholic slang variation is possibly derived from Saint Erasmus being labeled as a "tarrier of time" before torture and execution for his beliefs.

Wouldnae even offer Jock Stein – your greatest ever manager – a seat on the board 'cause he wasnae a Tarrier.

2011, Christopher Brookmyre, The Sacred Art of Stealing:

It was the Irish “tarriers” working on the railroad that provided the context for the folk ballad that began […]

2015, Peter I. Rose, They and We, page 47:

(slang, derogatory, UK) A Roman Catholic of Northern Ireland or Scotland.


Little Englander

en-noun

Little Englander (plural Little Englanders)

(British, derogatory, modern) A bigoted, xenophobic, and nationalistic English person.

(British, derogatory, modern) Someone unaware of the world outside England.

(British, archaic) Someone who advocated an end to the British Empire.


hotter

Unable effectively to give chase to the hotters for fear of endangering the lives of pedestrians and motorists, the police had been forced to play a waiting game[…]

1992, David P. Waddington, Contemporary Issues in Public Disorder, page 209:

(UK, slang) One who steals a vehicle in order to joyride.


hotter

en-verb

hotter (third-person singular simple present hotters, present participle hottering, simple past and past participle hottered)

hotters (present singular third-person)
hottering (participle present)
hottered (participle past)
hottered (past)

The jolting, hottering motion of the waggon, the splashing of the water, and the dark and narrow passage, all concur to produce a strange effect […]

1833, Thomas Sopwith, An account of the mining districts of Alston Moor, Weardale and Teesdale in Cumberland and Durham, page 137:

(UK, dialect, Northern England, dated) To vibrate; to rattle.


switchback

The noun is derived from switch (“to turn (a train) from one railway track to another using a switch”, verb) + back (“so as to reverse direction and return”, adverb).
The verb is derived from the noun.

compound

The WR faction claims that the Westbury route is better adapted to high speed, to which advocates of the SR route are apt to retort that the effect of modern diesel traction on schedules over the Salisbury–Exeter switchback has yet to be measured (the speed potential between Waterloo and Salisbury is scarcely disputable) […]

1964 March, “News and comment: Which way to the west?”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing, page 147:

A railway track on which there are steep ascents and descents, a train moving partially or fully by the force of gravity using the momentum generated when descending to travel up an ascending part of the track; especially (British, dated), such a track built for fun rides at an amusement park; a type of rollercoaster.

mäkinen rata

The switchback road to Diabaig - pronounced 'Jer-vague' - passes through some of the most exhilarating scenery in Scotland. […] With a final swoop, the road plummets down into Diabaig, where cottages are dotted across the slopes of a rocky semi-circle.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 151:

(chiefly British) A path or road having a series of steep ascents and descents.


bit on the side

en-noun

bit on the side (plural bits on the side)

I'm married to Paula, but Jackie, my bit on the side, is far more fun.

(slang, British, New Zealand, Australia) A secondary lover, a mistress.


play the field

en-verb

play the field (third-person singular simple present plays the field, present participle playing the field, simple past and past participle played the field)

plays the field (present singular third-person)
playing the field (participle present)
played the field (participle past)
played the field (past)

(UK, horseracing) To cut one's losses by betting on every racehorse other than the crowd favorite.


shafted

en-adj

shafted (comparative more shafted, superlative most shafted)

more shafted (comparative)
most shafted (superlative)

(slang, UK, Ireland) Cheated; screwed; ripped off.


aularian

/ˌɔːˈlɛə.ɹi.ən/

From stem of Late Latin aularis (from Latin aula (“a hall”), from Ancient Greek αὐλά (aulá)) + -ian.

(UK, Oxford University) A member of a hall rather than a college.


fabby

fabby (comparative fabbier, superlative fabbiest)

fabbier (comparative)
fabbiest (superlative)

(slang, British) fabulous, very good, excellent


carbon nanofibre

en-noun

carbon nanofibre (plural carbon nanofibres)

carbon nanofiber
carbon nanofiber#English

(chiefly British) Alternative spelling of carbon nanofiber.


carbon oxysulphide

carbon oxysulfide
carbon oxysulfide#English

(chiefly British) Alternative spelling of carbon oxysulfide.


paralytic

en-adj

paralytic (comparative more paralytic, superlative most paralytic)

more paralytic (comparative)
most paralytic (superlative)
paralytick (alternative obsolete)
parlatic (alternative Ireland)
palatic (alternative Geordie)
pallatic (alternative Geordie)

/ˌpæɹəˈlɪtɪk/

Borrowed from French paralytique, from Latin paralyticus, from Ancient Greek παραλυτικός (paralutikós, “paralyzed”).

der

Are the para-olympics the events in which the olympians, having finished their events in the normal olympics, go out and get pissed and then compete again?
ie: the para-olympics become the paralytic olympics.

1996 August 18, Ben McCulloch, “Para-olympics”, in aus.jokes (Usenet):

I'm amazed I survived so much drunken driving. Once he was so paralytic he even made me drive, and I was about 14 and barely able to see above the steering wheel. At least it was an automatic.

1999 January 3, David McLoughlin, “Gundagai - Last Use Of Line?”, in aus.rail (Usenet):

He hasn't even been openly accused of anything bar drinking himself paralytic at a time that, in hindsight, was inconvenient.

2001 May 24, Peter Ryan, “ablett no from hall of fame”, in aus.sport.aussie-rules (Usenet):

On returning to his friends at the bar he remarked " there's a fellow in the jaxx and he's just paralytic. He must be heading for the boat and didn't quite make it."

2002 April 16, C e r b e r u s - T h e D o g O f H e l l, “On the Isle of Man.”, in free.jokes (Usenet):

(UK, Australia, Ireland, slang) Very drunk.


apple-pie bed

(British) A shortsheeted bed in which a sheet is folded back on itself halfway down as a practical joke so that the victim cannot get into it.


get to grips with

en-verb

get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> to grips with

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

gets to grips with (present singular third-person)
getting to grips with (participle present)
got to grips with (past)
got to grips with (UK participle past)
gotten to grips with (US participle past)

(idiomatic, chiefly UK) To deal (with something) decisively, or to confront (it) head on.

Estonia were struggling to get to grips with the game while Ireland were showing a composure and guile that demonstrated their experience in play-off ties.

2011 November 11, Rory Houston, “Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland”, in RTE Sport:

(idiomatic, chiefly UK) To battle (with something).

[…] autism is the integral explanation of the phenomenon Kafka in all its expressions, and autism can explain the mystery of Kafka like no other of the interpretations proposed by literary scholars and critics in the history of Kafka research. […] The search by Kafka in his writing was for the unknown perspective in his fellow human beings which could put him at ease but he never managed to find it. He intuited this other state of mind and his writing is a testament of his search for this alien state of mind or self-consciousness which he tried to describe via parables, animal stories, aphorisms and images. His problem was that he could not get to grips with reality, more specifically his own reality, because he could not live with it.

2017 May 16, Jerry Stuger, “Kafka and Autism. The Undisclosed Logic Behind Kafka’s Work”, in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, volume 47, →DOI, pages 2336–2347:

(idiomatic, chiefly UK) To gain an understanding (of something).


recce

en-noun

recce (countable and uncountable, plural recces)

recces (plural)
recco (alternative)
reccy (alternative)

1953, J. (Julian) Maclaren-Ross, The Weeping and the Laughter: A Chapter of Autobiography
Visiting the town on what in the more recent war we called a recce, she arranged a tennis-match with Dolly, guessing that the girl would be a bad loser.

As he climbed into the car, his recce of the space behind the seats was still a little too obvious despite best efforts at subtlety.

2006, Vincent Tuckwood, Karaoke Criminals:

I'm afraid you two will have to go on a bit of a recce sometime soon.

He'd be over at Christmas to do a proper sort-through of Velerie's things, but in the meantime could Shannon have a quiet recce and make sure everything was secure?

2016, Laurence Fearnley, The Quiet Spectacular, →ISBN, page 92:

Rona disappeared into the little kitchenette and Nicol made a recce of the room.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 279:

1946, United States. Congress. American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, Hearings Before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack
There appears a captured photograph showing cruiser or battleship recovery of an old Jap float recce plane.

These record imagery from all three recce sensors - IR, EO and SAR.

2006, Tony Holmes, US Marine Corps And RAAF Hornet Units of Operation Iraqi Freedom:

Reconnaissance (recce) patrols were the most effective solution that the British and Indian Army designed to identify Japanese units and their intentions, as these could move through the jungle without alerting the enemy to their presence.

2006, Hew Strachan, Big Wars And Small Wars: The British Army and the Lessons of War in the 20th Century:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, military slang) Reconnaissance.


recce

en-verb

recce (third-person singular simple present recces, present participle recceing, simple past and past participle recced or recce'd or recceed)

recces (present singular third-person)
recceing (participle present)
recced (participle past)
recced (past)
recce'd (participle past)
recce'd (past)
recceed (participle past)
recceed (past)
recco (alternative)
reccy (alternative)

→ Malay: riki

I told the boys to stock up with all they could, and went back to the village to recce for someone to pay as per orders.

1961, John Sibly, You'll Walk to Mandalay: A Novel:

Take him down there with Entry Two and recce first. If he can't confirm it, we pull out.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, military slang) Reconnoitre.


growan

en-noun

growan (countable and uncountable, plural growans)

From Cornish growan (“gravel”).
Compare Armorican grouan (“gravel”), Cornish grow (“gravel, sand”).

(UK, mining) A decomposed granite, forming a mass of gravel, as in tin lodes in Cornwall.


strid

From Middle English stryd, a byform of stryde, stride. See stride (noun). The noun term comes from the appearance that the river may be crossable with a stride.

The pair have reached that fearful chasm,
How tempting to bestride!
For lordly Wharf is there pent in
With rocks on either side.
This striding-place is called THE STRID,
A name which it took of yore:
A thousand years hath it borne that name,
And shall a thousand more.

1807, William Wordsworth, The Force of Prayer, 17-24:

On through narrow strids and roaring cataracts, where Tom was deafened and blinded for a moment by the rushing waters

1862 August – 1863 March, Charles Kingsley, “(please specify the page)”, in The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby, London, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., published 1863, →OCLC:

(UK, Northern England, dated) A narrow passage between a gorge or chasm.


Glasto

“He wants to come to Glasto with us,” I replied, “but doesn't understand that you can't just swap a ticket or get one at the last minute. Glasto has so many layers of security these days it's like Fort Knox.”

Sir Elt insisted the Killers frontman was the “first person I thought of” to invite to his Glasto set[.]

2023 June 27, Metro, London, page 3, column 4:

(UK, informal) The Glastonbury festival of performing arts.


Doris

(British, slang) One's girlfriend, wife or significant other.

Fella at work, right? He's met this Doris on a park bench, at lunch time, and he's started going out on like, dates with her!

2008 June 27, Michael Holden, “Michael Holden's All ears”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(British, slang) A woman, especially when older or unattractive.


mam

Alteration or clipping of mama. Compare Scots mam, Early Scots mame (“mother”), mamye (“wet nurse”), Saterland Frisian Määme (“mother”), West Frisian mem (“mother”).
Alternatively, possibly either conserved from or influenced by earlier Brythonic language.

She'd sit by the fire, arms crossed, demanding that Ruby spike her tea with a cinder. But Ruby would never give in to her demands, no matter how much her mam begged. There was no alcohol in the house now; Arthur had made sure of that in an effort to get Mary sober.

(UK, Ireland, regional, informal, colloquial) Mum, mom; diminutive of mother.


mam

There was another teacher […] who came to class fairly often wearing a thin silk blouse and NO BRA. Her 'mams' bounced appropriately, which was of course utterly FASCINATING for every boy in the class.

She focused her entire mind on that moment she had shared with Shan, the softness of her mams, the wetness of her lips.

2022, Craig W. Stanfill, The Prophecy of the Heron:

(UK, slang, chiefly in the plural) A woman's breast.


goodness me

(idiomatic, UK, Ireland) An expression of mild surprise.


strides

2004, Marion Houldsworth, Red Dust Rising: The Story of Ray Fryer of Urapunga, Central Queensland University Press, 2011, Boolarong Press, page 97,
So he gave him one boot. I said, ‘One boot′s no bloody good! Give him two boot[s]!’ So he chucks over another boot, and a pair of strides.

He went upstairs and changed into a fresh pair of strides, nipped into the bathroom and gave his hands and face a quick rinse and threw on a clean pullover.

2006, Smiley Brymer, The Universal Naked Linesman, AuthorHouse, page 173:

His mother used to have to buy two pair of strides for him, cut the legs off one and sew them onto the other.

2007, Antony Agar, Queensland Ringer, page 211:

I thought of Des and May′s daughters, then of Gleaves, and resolved to borrow a pair of strides from Cliff, to keep the tie-wearing penile-challenged toss-bag oaf ma case.

1994, Irvine Welsh, The Acid House, published 2008, unnumbered page:


on the hoof

The literal sense concerning livestock has no more to it as a sum of parts than the corresponding sense of on foot does. A reference to humans being on the hoof occurs in a text from England in 1691.

Near-synonym: extempore

But billets need not be a great issue, and it is possible that, apart from the first and last nights, choice can be made 'on the hoof'. When on the road, consultation with the map and the clock will indicate when to start looking.

To make such an expensive commitment without properly thinking about how best to help travellers on low incomes shows that the policy was developed on the hoof.

2020 January 2, Christian Wolmar, Rail, page 70:

Stunned NHS [National Health Service] bosses have described the brutal scrapping of so many managers as “vandalism”. They have claimed it will strip back ICBs [integrated care boards] so much that they will not be able to properly discharge their duties to commission key services and oversee the quality of NHS care in their areas. “This smacks of reckless policymaking, done on the hoof to please the Treasury rather than considering what is best for patients who have been without the care they deserve for so long,” said [Helen] Morgan.

2025 May 6, Denis Campbell, “Ministers admit failing to assess impact of thousands of NHS job cuts in England. Exclusive: Failure to assess impact of axing thousands of NHS managers described by critics as reckless”, in The Guardian:

(UK, informal, idiomatic) Without proper thought or preparation; done as one goes.

spontaan

informal: without proper thought or preparation


the whole world and his dog

the whole world and his dog pl (plural only)

I'd love to go to the Harry Potter opening, but the whole world and his dog will be there and I don't like crowds

(British, idiomatic) Everybody; too many people; a huge crowd.


anti-marketeer

(British, dated) someone who was opposed to Britain or Ireland joining the "Common Market" (European Union)


drink-driving

A man has been arrested in Huoshan county near Luan for drink-driving after he rang up the police by mistake and then challenged an officer to a fight,[…]

2014 October 9, Wu Nan, “Drink-driving bungle; Fake goods up in flames; Ex-official denies gambling”, in South China Morning Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2014-10-12, China Insider:

Another outcome of rising motor car use was the increased danger around Christmas through drink-driving, which became a matter of particular concern among policy makers.

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

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Operation of a motor vehicle after recently consuming an alcoholic beverage.

A reformed alcoholic with an “appalling” history of drink-driving between three and five times the legal limit was jailed yesterday.

2008 June 26, Rae Wilson, “Ex-alcoholic jailed for repeat drink-driving”, in Sunshine Coast Daily, Australia:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, law) A criminal offence committed by a person who operates a vehicle when the measured amount of alcohol in his or her blood exceeds the legal limit.


drink-driver

drink-drivers (plural)
drink driver (alternative)

(chiefly British and Australia) A person who engages in drink-driving.

A drink driver is anyone who is over the legal alcohol limit for driving.

2008, “Drink driving”, in Kent County Council, UK, retrieved 2008-06-26:

(chiefly British and Australia, law) A person who operates a motor vehicle when legally intoxicated.

spritbilist

person who operates motor vehicle when drunk


bullseye

bullseyes (plural)
bull's-eye (alternative)
bull's eye (alternative)

→ German: Bullauge (calque)

→ Esperanto: bovokulo (calque)

From bull's + eye. May have come from the practice of English archers shooting an arrow through the eye socket of a bull's skull as a test of skill. The connection to philately comes from the shape of the key plate or vignette.

(UK, historical, obsolete slang) A crown coin; its value, 5 shillings.


bump off

en-verb

bump off (third-person singular simple present bumps off, present participle bumping off, simple past and past participle bumped off)

bumps off (present singular third-person)
bumping off (participle present)
bumped off (participle past)
bumped off (past)

(chiefly UK, idiomatic) To cut class; to play truant.


chipper

chipper (third-person singular simple present chippers, present participle chippering, simple past and past participle chippered)

chippers (present singular third-person)
chippering (participle present)
chippered (participle past)
chippered (past)

[a squirrel] […] eyeing me inquisitively, chippering, and shaking his tail

1884, Clinton Hart Merriam, The Mammals of the Adirondack Region, Northeastern New York:


locum

"I asked about his Joes, he said the Joes could look after themselves and if Jack was bothered about them he could send a locum."

(British, Australia, informal) Ellipsis of locum tenens.

-- "I suppose you wouldn't like to do a locum for a month on the South coast? Three guineas a week with board and lodging." -- "I wouldn't mind," said Philip. -- "It's at Farnley, in Dorsetshire. Doctor South. You'd have to go down at once; his assistant has developed mumps. I believe it's a very pleasant place."

1915, W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage, chapter 116:

(British, Australia, informal) A period working as a locum tenens.


have one's Weetabix

have one's Weetabix (third-person singular simple present has one's Weetabix, present participle having one's Weetabix, simple past and past participle had one's Weetabix)

has one's Weetabix (present singular third-person)
having one's Weetabix (participle present)
had one's Weetabix (participle past)
had one's Weetabix (past)

From a slogan used to advertise the cereal Weetabix.

(UK, Ireland) To prepare to exhibit plenty of vitality or strength or other superior performance.


commandry

British standard spelling of commandery.


acyclovir

en-noun

acyclovir (countable and uncountable, plural acyclovirs)

(pharmacology) US and UK spelling of aciclovir.


scathe

scathe (countable and uncountable, plural scathes)

scathes (plural)
scath (alternative)
skaith (alternative)
scaith (alternative)

From Middle English scath, scathe [and other forms], from Old Norse skaði (“damage, harm; loss; death; murder”), from Proto-Germanic *skaþô (“damage, scathe; one who causes damage, injurer”, noun) (whence Old English sċeaþa, sċeaþu (“scathe, harm, injury”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keh₁t- (“damage, harm”). Cognate with German Schaden (“damage, harm”).
cognates
* Scots skaith
* Dutch schade
* German schaden
* Norwegian skade
* Swedish skada
* Icelandic skaði
* Polish szkoda
* Russian шко́да (škóda)
* Belarusian шко́дa (škóda)
* Ukrainian шко́да (škóda)

nb...

scade, scate, schath, schathe, schatht, sckathe, skade, skaith, skaithe, skagh, skate, skath, skathe, (Northern England, Northwest Midlands, Scotland) scaith, scaithe, schaithe, schath, schathe, skaith, skaithe, skaitht, (in names) scait, skeithe

der

(countable, Scots law, obsolete) An injury or loss for which compensation is sought in a lawsuit; damage; also, expenses incurred by a claimant; costs.


scur

en-verb

scur (third-person singular simple present scurs, present participle scurring, simple past and past participle scurred)

scurs (present singular third-person)
scurring (participle present)
scurred (participle past)
scurred (past)

Here he whistled , and the animal , who was scurring over the field , and occasionally kicking up his heels , instantly returned with a gentle neigh

1843, George Henry Borrow, The Bible in Spain:

(intransitive, obsolete, UK, dialect) To move hastily; to scour.


no-one

(chiefly British, Commonwealth and often Canada, Ireland) Alternative form of no one.


donkey's years

1876 or earlier. Possibly chosen because donkeys can be long-lived animals. Despite the similarity, pre-dates and likely not directly related to donkey's ears, a less frequently used rhyming slang term for years.

donkeys' years (alternative)
donkey's (alternative)

Didn't you ask him how long it had been in his possession?
I can't recollect that. I might have done so.
Didn't he say for years and years and donkey's years?

With a heavy make-up, you’ll be the cutest vamp I’ve seen in donkey's years.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic) A long time, years and years.


ten pound tourist

en-noun

ten pound tourist (plural ten pound tourists)

ten pound tourists (plural)
ten-pound tourist (alternative)

From ten + pound (“unit of currency”) + tourist.
An allusion to the immigrant′s contribution (in sterling) paid for passage to Australia under an assisted immigration scheme, the remainder being paid by the Australian government. The scheme operated from 1946 to 1982; in 1973 the immigrant contribution was increased to £75.
The term tourist refers to the obligation (only) for participants to remain in Australia for two years; some elected to return after this time.

In 1971 my own (Anglo-Celtic) parents traveled from the “Mother country” (the United Kingdom) as assisted immigrants, among the last of the “ten-pound tourists.” My brother and I traveled free (see Appleyard et al. 1988).

2003, Ian Maxwell, Notes: Phat Beats, Dope Rhymes: Hip Hop Down Under Comin′ Upper, page 251:

Billy′s parents were ‘ten pound tourists’, arriving in Australia in 1962.

2006, James Knight, Just Doing My Job, unnumbered page:

I became a ten-pound tourist, and emigrated to Australia. While I was there, I saw nobody from Trinity - apart from John Castle on the silver screen in Melbourne, starring in a film with Katherine Hepburn, which hardly counts. Nearly five years later, to miners′ strikes and the three-day week, I returned,[…].

2009, Sebastian Balfour, Laurie Howes, Michael De Larrabeiti, Anthony Weale, editors, Trinity Tales: Trinity College Dublin in the Sixties, page 154:

(Australia, UK) An assisted immigrant to Australia from Britain, from the decades following World War II.


amain

en-adv

amain (comparative more amain, superlative most amain)

more amain (comparative)
most amain (superlative)
amaine (alternative)

From a- (prefix with the sense ‘at; in; on; with’, used to show a state, condition, or manner) + main (“force, power, strength”). Main is derived from Middle English mayn (“strength”), from Old English mæġen (“strength”), from Proto-Germanic *maginą (“might, power, strength”), *maginaz (“strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *megʰ- (“to be able”).

der

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

The waggonway lay near the Windmill Hills and went down the north side of the hills to the Rivir Tine, and at the Coal steath [= staithe] Mathew Gray lived. I was about hauf way down the bank when thur was two Waggons Coming after me Amain [= broken loose and running away].

1820s (date written), Anthony Errington, “Saving Men on the Waggonway”, in P. E. H. Hair, editor, Coals on Rails: Or The Reason of My Wrighting: The Autobiography of Anthony Errington, a Tyneside Colliery Waggon and Waggonway Wright, from His Birth in 1778 to around 1825 (Liverpool Historical Studies; no. 3), Liverpool: […] [F]or the Department of History, University of Liverpool [by] Liverpool University Press, published 1988, →ISBN, page 38:


soz

Rhotacism of sorry; sorry + -z. Documented since at least 1987. Compare appaz (“apparently”), tomoz (“tomorrow”).

I'd like to apologise, unreservedly, to pigs everywhere, but especially those on my farm […] So Hermes pig collars all round to my herd and soz soz soz.

1996 September 1, “Dear Annie: Ready to wear”, in Independent on Sunday:

I'm soz about what happened.

1999, “Love Comes to Royston Vasey”, in The League of Gentlemen, season 1, episode 5, spoken by Henry Portrait and Ally Welles:

Soz Mike, I thought you were showing me a fool proof way of going xna

2001, Jocyber, “Morning'”, in alt.fan.scarecrow (Usenet):

Soz for bringing it up again, but it is good to have a healthy attitude towards this..!!!!

2002, *Patrick-Blue*, “Soz I Missed This (look) ??”, in alt.sports.soccer.everton (Usenet):

U2 says soz for online snafu [title]

2005 February 7, John Oates, “U2 says soz for online snafu”, in The Register:

Does it auto update when the disc is inserted or will i^([sic]) get the option to ignore the update?¶ Or do i^([sic]) just DL pal games to be on the safe side?¶ Soz for all the questions but wanna make sure I get it right

2007, >{daZza}<, “Wii info”, in alt.warez.uk (Usenet):

“Soz, babe, I should probably mingle and talk to more people. It was so nice to see you, though.” “Ok, maybe we can catch up soon.” “Yeah, I don't know. I'm really busy lately. So, like, yeah, I don't know. Uh, say his to Sarah for me. though.”

2020 August 10, Michael Cusack, “Maddison's Birthday Party” (7:43 from the start), in YOLO: Crystal Fantasy, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Maddison (Naomi Higgins):

(slang, chiefly UK or Internet) Synonym of sorry.


furrier

From Middle English forreour, from Old French forrier, forrour, feureur. See foray.

The Furriers sent before, to divide the Quarters.

1637, Robert Monro, chapter 1, in Monro, His Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment (called Mac-Keyes-regiment) Levied in August 1626, page 33:

(historical, British) A person who secures accommodation for an army.


strang

en-adj

strang (comparative stranger, superlative strangest)

stranger (comparative)
strangest (superlative)

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Alternative form of strong.


WAG

Back-formation from WAGs (“wives and girlfriends”).

back-formation

The World Cup WAGs are a good example of this. The younger girls, nicknamed the ‘hen-night crowd’ and led by Colleen McLoughlin, dance on tables and drink until the early hours while No. 1 WAG Victoria Beckham remains aloof, dining sedately with Ashley Cole’s fiancee, Cheryl Tweedy.

2006 July 2, Lucy Rock, The Observer, page 20:

In Wimbledon, the tennis WAGs and - just as excitingly - HABs (Husbands and Boyfriends) have been appearing courtside, enthusiastically cheering on their beloved other halves with a degree of style.

association football
association football

(informal, UK, Ireland) A wife or girlfriend of a sports star or other celebrity, originally and especially of an association football player.


delope

en-verb

delope (third-person singular simple present delopes, present participle deloping, simple past and past participle deloped)

delopes (present singular third-person)
deloping (participle present)
deloped (participle past)
deloped (past)

The old man raised his arm as though it had been palsied, and fired, of course without effect. The other principal immediately deloped, much to the satisfaction of my friend and all present.

1868, Andrew Steinmetz, The Romance of Duelling in All Times and Countries, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, page 107:

Scuddy said simply, “You deloped, Lord Harry. I was very proud of you.” “Deloped? Come, Scuddy, one delopes with a pistol. Our duel was with foils.”

2003, Catherine Coulter, Lord Harry, Penguin, →ISBN, page 326:

(obsolete, Ireland, British) To fire a gun into the air in order to end a duel.


imposition

en-noun

imposition (countable and uncountable, plural impositions)

From Middle English imposicioun, from Old French imposicion, from Latin impositio.

(UK, school or university slang) A task imposed on a student as punishment.


FCA

Financial Conduct Authority
w:Financial Conduct Authority

(British, finance) Abbreviation of Financial Conduct Authority.


cashpoint

cashpoints (plural)
cash point (alternative)

A genericization of Cashpoint, originally a registered trademark of Lloyds Bank introduced in 1972, from cash + point.

Gordon Brown today urged police across England and Wales to offer to walk the last mile home with people who feel unsafe after they visit the cashpoint.

2009 May 12, Alan Travis, “Gordon Brown urges police to walk people home from cashpoint”, in The Guardian:

automated teller machine
automated teller machine

(UK, Ireland, banking) An automated teller machine.


Blair's babes

Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament

(British, colloquial) The large number of female Labour Members of Parliament elected at the general election of 1997 in the UK.


fry up

Though fattening, a fry up is without doubt my favourite way to start the day.

full English breakfast
full English breakfast

(British, idiomatic) a breakfast made of tomatoes, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, bacon, sausages, hash browns, baked beans, black pudding, chips, toast and mushrooms (or any combination thereof); full English breakfast


go down the pan

en-verb

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

goes down the pan (present singular third-person)
going down the pan (participle present)
went down the pan (past)
gone down the pan (participle past)

The project would seriously go down the pan if Mrs. Foster weren't here to keep it on the straight and narrow.

go down the toilet
go down the toilet#English

(euphemistic, idiomatic, British) Synonym of go down the toilet: to fail; to degenerate rapidly.


handbags

From handbag + -s; in sense “fight”, clipping of handbags at dawn, handbags at ten paces (1980s).

2011, Daniel Sperling, Ant McPartlin: 'Pub scuffle was just handbags', Digital Spy
"It was just a scuffle in a pub, a bit of… handbags. Nine times out of ten, people are nice to us."

(UK, slang) An insignificant fight or argument.


handbags

Person A: Not another cheeseburger, Marcia?

Person B: What's it to you?

Person A: Well, you're fat enough as it is.

Person B: You can talk!

Person C: Ooh - handbags ladies!

(British, slang) Said jocularly in response to a particularly derogatory, bitchy or catty dialogue; calm down; cool it.


puggle

puggle (third-person singular simple present puggles, present participle puggling, simple past and past participle puggled)

puggles (present singular third-person)
puggling (participle present)
puggled (participle past)
puggled (past)

British dialect (Hertfordshire, Essex), from pug (“to poke”) + -le (“frequentative suffix”).

suffix

1833, "Javelin," Two Days with the East Sussex, in Sporting Magazine, 2nd Series, Volume 6, page 236,
In concluding my remarks on the East Sussex Hounds, I must observe, that perhaps they have the worst and most difficult country in the world to hunt through, intersected with immense woods, and slotted with some thousands of sheep, besides being naturally a very cold-scenting soil; consequently the hounds puggle more than is pleasing to the eye, have little or no dash, but are very patient and very perfect in working up to their fox, and are probably much surer killers than any other hounds […] .

(UK, regional) To coax (a rabbit) from a burrow by poking a stick down the hole and moving it about; to delve into a hole in order to locate an animal.

1828, "Philip Fidget," The Confessions of Philip Fidget, in The Spirit and Manners of the Age, New Series, Volume 1, page 417,
I am no sooner seated by a fire, but my hand instinctively fumbles after the poker, and I proceed to puggle the glowing embers, until (except timely warning prevent) I have displaced the whole into the fender.

He puggled around in the oil cavity with his little lead pencil until it slipped out of his fingers and went down into the oil cavity.

1919, James Francis Hobart, Millwrighting, McGraw-Hill, page 222:

(UK, regional) To poke around a hole with a stick, as to explore, remove obstacles, etc.


bugger up

en-verb

bugger up (third-person singular simple present buggers up, present participle buggering up, simple past and past participle buggered up)

buggers up (present singular third-person)
buggering up (participle present)
buggered up (participle past)
buggered up (past)

Tok Pisin: bagarap

/ˈbʌɡə(ɹ)ʌp/

I've buggered up the sudoku somehow and can't finish it.

Well, he only buggers up one sentence, and that's the first one. He says, 'Shut up, blek.' But from that point on, it was OK because I helped him with it. If I'd been there, I would have told him to say, 'Shut up, black', exactly the same as an American accent.

2016 March 15, David Dale, “John Jarratt talks new show Territory Cops and a murderous return in Wolf Creek”, in The Sydney Morning Herald:

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, informal) To break or spoil something, or make it inoperative, useless etc.

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, informal) To injure or harm (someone).


drawing room

drawing rooms (plural)
drawing-room (alternative)
drawingroom (alternative)

It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room.

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

(British, somewhat dated outside of India) Any room where visitors may be entertained; now, the living room.

(British) A multifunctional room that can be used for any purpose in a palace or castle.

The concluding ceremony came off at twelve o’clock on the day of departure; when Miss Twinkleton, supported by Mrs. Tisher, held a drawing-room in her own apartment (the globes already covered with brown Holland), where glasses of white-wine and plates of cut pound-cake were discovered on the table.

1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1870, →OCLC:

[A] great deal of conversation had taken place about the drawing-room, and whether or not young ladies wore powder as well as hoops when presented, and whether she was to have that honour: to the Lord Mayor's ball she knew she was to go.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

‘Mrs Vane of Castle Marling is staying with us; she came up to present my child at the last Drawing-room but I think I heard something about her dining out to-day.’

1860, Ellen Wood, East Lynne, Penguin, published 2005, page 11:

(British) A levée where ladies are presented at court or to society.


tiger kidnap

tiger kidnap (third-person singular simple present tiger kidnaps, present participle tiger kidnapping, simple past and past participle tiger kidnapped)

tiger kidnaps (present singular third-person)
tiger kidnapping (participle present)
tiger kidnapped (participle past)
tiger kidnapped (past)

(British, criminal, slang) To abduct someone, or to hold someone hostage, in order to persuade someone else to assist in a crime.


tiger kidnap

(British, criminal, slang) An abduction or hostage-taking of this kind.


prill

prill (third-person singular simple present prills, present participle prilling, simple past and past participle prilled)

prills (present singular third-person)
prilling (participle present)
prilled (participle past)
prilled (past)

(intransitive, UK, dialect) To grow sour.

(intransitive, UK, dialect) To become tipsy.


JSA

Jobseeker's Allowance
Jobseeker's Allowance#English

(UK) Initialism of Jobseeker's Allowance.


YOP

(UK, slang, 1980s) A person employed under the Youth Opportunities Programme.


sod all

My holiday was rubbish: there was sod all to do.

(mildly vulgar, slang, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) Nothing.


ARP

en-noun

ARP (countable and uncountable, plural ARPs)

The small white squares painted above the footboard at the ends of S.R. passenger coaches were a wartime addition to show that the lighting arrangements of vehicles so marked had been altered to conform to A.R.P. regulations.

1946 September and October, “The Why and The Wherefore: A.R.P. Coach Lighting Regulations”, in Railway Magazine, page 325:

Air Raid Precautions
w:Air Raid Precautions

(British, dated) Initialism of Air Raid Precautions.


joint-stock company

joint-stock company (plural joint-stock companies)

合股公司

company with transferable ownership and unlimited shareholder liability

(business, finance, law, UK) A company with transferable ownership interests and limited shareholder liability.

shoqëri aksionare

company with transferable ownership and limited shareholder liability — see also public limited company


bist

From Middle English bist, beest, best, from Old English bist ("(thou) art"; second person singular of bēon (“to be”)), from Proto-Germanic *biusi (“(thou) art”), equivalent to be + -est. Cognate with West Frisian bist (“(thou) art”), Low German büst (“(thou) art”), German bist (“(thou) art”).

gloss

"(thou) art"; second person singular of <i class="Latn mention" lang="ang">bēon</i> (“to be”)

Thee bist rayther too much a feelosofer, I be afeard, for me.

1875, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch:

Lookee, thee bist purty, my love; lookee, thee bist purty: thee hast dove's eyes betwix thy locks; thy locks be like a flock o' ship fur thickedness.

"[…] Stay thee where tha bist, sit down on thi property; what's the sense of wanderen over the barren sea and maybe happenen an accident?"

Where bist goin'.
Where are you going?

How bist?
How are you?

(UK dialectal, Black Country, Bristol, West Country, Northern England) Used to form the second person singular of be.

Black Country; Bristol; Black Country; Bristol


Home Secretary

en-noun

Home Secretary (plural Home Secretaries)

(British) The British cabinet minister, responsible for law and order, who is head of the Home Office.


Home Office

(British, UK politics) The British government department, headed by the Home Secretary, responsible for security and law enforcement in England and Wales.

內政部 /内政部

ministry responsible for internal affairs


flatbed lorry

(British) a lorry with no sides, used to carry large, heavy objects


estate agent

(UK, Ireland) A person or company that acts in the sale, purchase, lease or maintenance of land, property, real estate etc for another.

سمسار

one acting for another in sale, purchase or lease of real estate


head boy

(British) A boy chosen to lead a school sixth form, whose duties may include representing the school and organising the prefects.


doodlebug

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

Soon after Richard was adopted, Orwell's flat was wrecked by a doodlebug.

2009, Robert McCrum, The masterpiece that killed George Orwell:

(informal, British) The V-1 flying bomb.

(entomology, UK) A cockchafer (genus Melolontha).


send down

en-verb

send down (third-person singular simple present sends down, present participle sending down, simple past and past participle sent down)

sends down (present singular third-person)
sending down (participle present)
sent down (participle past)
sent down (past)

He was sent down from Oxford for theft.

(transitive, UK, Ireland, usually Oxbridge slang, dated) To suspend or expel (an undergraduate) from university.


go up

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

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

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

(intransitive, British, dated) To attend university.


conveyancer

The wind-up is, that the father becomes bankrupt; the wife and daughters town-traders; the sons Greeks, Fancy-swells, Conveyancers (pickpockets), or Cracksmen (house breakers), and the New Drop is the last drop they ever take.

1822, A Morning in Cork-Street: or, Raising the wind, page 102:

Then will Lincoln's Inn change its sombre hue to Lincoln green. There will be no conveyancers, i. e. no thieves, no pickpockets.

1857, Mrs. Mathews (Anne Jackson), Tea-table Talk, Ennobled Actresses, and Other Miscellanies (page 209)


stitch up

stitch up (third-person singular simple present stitches up, present participle stitching up, simple past and past participle stitched up)

stitches up (present singular third-person)
stitching up (participle present)
stitched up (participle past)
stitched up (past)

[…] everyone knew the score, that he was being conned, used by business interests, the sort of scum we hated. It wasn't meant in a bad way, though, just that we could see he was being stitched up.

2000, John King, Human Punk, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 282:

You might think policing in the 1970s was different to policing today. […] However, some things haven't changed all that much particularly if you were 18 at the time as my correspondent, who we'll call Geoff, found. The sad fact is that you never forget being stitched-up and the experience can affect your negative judgment of and attitude to the police for the rest of your life.

2015, Roger Williams, “1970s Stitch-ups”, in Rough Justice: Citizens' Experiences of Mistreatment and Injustice in the Early Stages of Law Enforcement, Sherfield on Loddon, Hook, Hampshire: Waterside Press, →ISBN, page 75:

(British, Australia, slang) To maliciously or dishonestly incriminate someone; to set up (in the sense trap or ensnare)


hot flush

(UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A sudden, but brief, sensation of heat over the entire body; a common symptom of the menopause.

هِبَّة الْحَرَارَة

sudden sensation of heat, symptom of the menopause


hotfoot

From Middle English hot-fot, hot fot, equivalent to hot + foot.


desmond

From Desmond (“given name”); abbreviation of Desmond Tutu (South African archbishop); from Tutu (“surname”) which sounds like 2.2 (two-two).

(British, rhyming slang, education) A lower second class honours or 2.2 degree.


assigned servant

en-noun

assigned servant (plural assigned servants)

And be it further Enacted, by the authority and with the advice aforesaid, That the time during which every offender shall continue in or at any gaol, port, or place of confinement, penitentiary or factory, or as an assigned servant, shall be taken and reckoned in part discharge of the term of his or her transportation.

1831, British House of Commons, House of Commons Papers, volume 9, page 34:

To be sure, the assigned servant is liable to be called upon, even in the middle of the night, “upon any necessary occasion or emergency;” but as this is an affliction, incident to every servant, bond or free, we must not consider it in any manner as a drawback upon his general advantages.[…]In the first place, where is the master, who, upon receiving an assigned servant, applies himself with all his energy to reform him ?

1833, The Hobart Town Magazine, volume 1, page 71:

The assigned servant had the right to make a complaint of his master, but this was, in the nature of things, hardly more than a nominal limitation of the power of the master over the servant.

1949, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Sir John Franklin in Tasmania, 1837-1843, page 76:

An assigned servant had greater freedom than those in the Female Factory, but was away from the company and society of other women convicts, and under much closer 24-hour surveillance by the master or mistress of the house.

2005, Jeff Atkinson, Mary Proctor: Convict, Pioneer and Settler, page 36:

(UK, Australia, historical) A convict assigned to work as a servant for a free settler (either a male or female convict, and either a male or female settler).


hot up

en-verb

hot up (third-person singular simple present hots up, present participle hotting up, simple past and past participle hotted up)

hots up (present singular third-person)
hotting up (participle present)
hotted up (participle past)
hotted up (past)

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

Wait for the water to hot up before adding the salt.

I hotted up my scones.

(UK, Ireland) To increase in temperature.

The choice of a new leader hots up.

Bayern München hotted up the title race with a win.

(UK, Ireland, informal) To become more heated.

We move to Twankey's launderette, where the Aladdin/Bathroomdoor romance hots up.

1997, Theatre Record, volume 17, numbers 18-26, page 1644:

Arvind and Shiela's romance hotted up.

2001, Sayan Chatterjee, It all adds up to love, page 40:

(UK, Ireland, informal) To make or become more sexually appealing, enticing or exciting.


hunky punk

(British, West Country) a grotesque carving, usually of a squatting animal, on the side of a building, especially a church.


knuckle duster

knuckle dusters (plural)
knuckleduster (alternative)

“People like you will always be inferior to people like me ... Get fucking used to it,” the American soldier of fortune tells Leng during one of the film’s final blood-soaked battle scenes, as he prepares to puncture the Chinese hero’s throat with a razor-sharp knuckleduster.

2017 September 23, Tom Phillips, “China finds its own Top Gun and Rambo in wave of patriotic movies”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

(British, Australia) A weapon made of metal worn around the knuckles that strengthens the impact of a punch.


not on

It's just not on. We can't go breaking into another lawyer's office. I mean . . . it's just not something you can do.

1998, James P. Hogan, chapter 24, in Bug Park:

A feature of a situation may be influencing us although we do not realize it. From the agent's point of view the motivational power and direction of a consideration may not even be recognized. We often do not know why certain choices are just not on, and others so strangely attractive.

1998, Simon Blackburn, Ruling Passions: A Theory of Practical Reasoning, page 124:

2003, Dan Connell (author), Lionel Cliffe and Basil Davidson (introduction), Taking on the Superpowers: Collected Articles on the Eritrean Revolution, 1976-1982, page 325,
After a week or so, he and I determined that walking hundreds of miles behind guerrilla lines under these conditions was just not on for him, and he packed his equipment to return home.

(informal, British, Australia, Ireland) Unacceptable or impossible.


melo

en-noun

melo (countable and uncountable, plural melos)

Bar burlesque & Penleyan comedy I am becoming tolerant of this insipid British drama. Even bad melo doesn’t cause me to vomit as it did of old.

1889 December 24, Ernest Dowson, “To Arthur Moore”, in Desmond Flower, Henry Maas, editors, The Letters of Ernest Dowson, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, published 1967, →LCCN, page 121:

One is a melodrama about Bolshevism—the break up of the Armies in 1917—what one wd call a West End melodrama as opposed to a Lyceum melo.

1920 April 23, Aldous Huxley, “To Arnold Bennett”, in Grover Smith, editor, Letters of Aldous Huxley, London: Chatto & Windus, published 1969, page 183:

She learned to read and write on the road and between scenes backstage, under the tutorship of the “female heavy” of a melodrama company. Meanwhile Mary listened and learned of the world about her. She heard a very great deal of the chesty gossip of melo actors discussing “when I was with Belasco,” and came to learn that on this wonderful Broadway Belasco was master.

1923, Terry Ramsaye, “The Romantic History of the Motion Picture”, in Photoplay, page 41:

True life was melo about the first woman the George Cross. (As a stump word, ‘melo’ is short for ‘melodrama’.)

The Roots of Heaven..John Huston’s melo about elephant conservation.

“And a melo?” Miss Collins asked. Richard looked to Miss Joyce for help. “A melodrama! You don’t know?” A somewhat astonished Miss Joyce commented. “The only plays melo companies perform are melodramas. There are several of them touring out there,” broadly gesturing with her arm. “They’re known as ‘blood and thunders.’ A good melo actor can work all year round.[…]Melos are a good place for a young actor to start,” she added.

2012, Bill Thomas, Upstage, Downstage, Cross: An Actor Emerges in Early English 20th Century Theatre, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 155:

(informal, British) Abbreviation of melodrama.


roche

From Middle English roche; compare English rock and roach, as well as Old French roche.

(UK, regional) One of various types of rock or geological strata.


thunderbox

thunderboxes (plural)
thunder-box (alternative)
thunder box (alternative)

From thunder + box. Senses 1 and 2 (“portable commode; any lavatory or toilet”) are probably because of the noises that may be made while defecating.

Meantime the ICE [Institute of Consumer Ergonomics] experts are poring over their photographs, and making measurements, which, presumably, will go into a computer, and out will come the specification for the perfect thunderbox.

1974 June 13, Donald Gould, “A Groundling’s Notebook: Ice Waterloo”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 62, number 902, London: IPC Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 708, column 2:

In the old days, when there was a corrugated iron thunderbox, the Holts' guests were told to approach it with caution: where other thunderboxes had redback spiders, the local ones tended to have taipans.

1979, The Bulletin, volume 100, Sydney, N.S.W.: Australian Consolidated Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 35, column 1:

It's an invaluable open-sided box with no bottom and a hole in the top. Perch this over a hole in the ground and voila! you have a thunder box. Comfy to sit on and handsome as well.

1992, Gerald Durrell, “Crystal Country and beyond”, in The Aye-aye and I: A Rescue Mission in Madagascar, London: BCA, →ISBN, page 94:

A more macabre exercise in historical reconstruction follows the fate of those who, on the eve of the Great War, scrawled their names on the plaster of the ‘thunder box’—the toilet next to the dark house.

1998, Raphael Samuel, “The Lost Gardens of Heligan”, in Alison Light, with Sally Alexander and Gareth Stedman Jones, editors, Island Stories: Unravelling Britain: Theatres of Memory, Volume II, paperback edition, London, New York, N.Y.: Verso, published 1999, →ISBN, part II (English Journeys), page 128:

There are basically three types of toilets in provincial and national parks. The first are the pit toilets—"thunderboxes"—boxes painted white inside, centrally located in various sections of the campground. The second type of toilet looks like a thunderbox but houses an odour-free flushing toilet.

2004, Jayne Seagrave, “How to Be a Happy Camper”, in Terri Elderton, Karla Decker, editors, Camping With Kids: The Best Family Campgrounds in British Columbia and Alberta, Surrey, B.C.: Heritage House, →ISBN, page 20:

He [John Blashford-Snell] boobytrapped the ‘thunderbox’ and the next guardsman who sat down was met by a deafening blast. The guardsman and plastic loo seat were hurled one way, the loo paper another, but there were no injuries.

2005 May, Benedict le Vay, “Eccentric Pastimes”, in Eccentric Britain: The Bradt Guide to Britain’s Follies and Foibles, 2nd edition, Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire: Bradt Travel Guides; Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Eccentric Things We Do), page 57:

And finally he pointed to an old thunderbox and shovel. 'Our toilet block.' Everyone except Fly stared at that old thunderbox like it was from Mars.

2007, Shelley Birse, Blue Water High, Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Macmillan Australia, →ISBN, page 230:

We did not have any toilet facilities inside the building. However, after searching, we found small groups of thunderboxes over pits down on the slope in front of the building. These lonely thunderboxes had no protection from the weather, not even a hessian screen.

2013, Frederick Rennie From, “The German Barracks”, in That’s Enough, Freddy From!, Houston, Tex.: Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co., →ISBN, page 234:

(by extension, chiefly Australia, British, slang) Any lavatory or toilet, especially a rudimentary outdoor latrine or toilet, or an outhouse.


have a go

en-verb

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

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

I've never tried karate before, but I'm willing to have a go.

(intransitive, informal, UK, Australia) To make an attempt; to try.

próbować szczęścia

(intransitive) to make an attempt; to try

I heard you had a go at Jack the other night.

'Yes, me and Marty had a go when he didn't believe me about the girl.'

2008, John Chalmers, The Lady on the Rocks, page 27:

But there were occasions when someone or other had a go — when I was going to have a drink from the fountain, for instance, and had to stand on tiptoe at the side to reach the jet of water. Then it was that the clever dogs saw their chance to do something tough atmy expense […]

2004, Lars Saabye Christensen, Kenneth Steven, The Half Brother, page 314:

(intransitive, informal, idiomatic, UK, Australia) To attack someone physically; to have a fight.

My teacher had a go at me earlier, just for missing one sodding homework. I was fuming.

Except her dad had a go last time, the last time she'd brought home a detention slip for him to sign.

2008, Stella Duffy, Mouths of Babes, page 10:

He had a go because I'm on the dole and I had a go back because he deals pills and robs kids.

2016, Luke Barnes, Richard Milward, Ten Storey Love Song:

(intransitive, informal, idiomatic, UK, Australia) To tell off (especially unnecessarily or excessively), to criticise.

придираться

(idiomatic, intransitive) to shout at or tell off unnecessarily or excessively


asc

Wild Animals and Circuses (Wales) Act 2020 (2020 asc 2)

Act of Senedd Cymru
w:Act of Senedd Cymru

(UK, law, in citation) Initialism of Act of Senedd Cymru; formerly called Acts of the National Assembly for Wales, and only used for Acts passed after the change of name.


freeminer

(British) Someone who has earned the right to work his/her own mine in the Forest of Dean.


nighthawk

Caprimulgus europaeus
Caprimulgus europaeus#Translingual

(UK, regional) A nightjar, especially Caprimulgus europaeus (Eurasian nightjar).


atter

atters (plural)
attir (alternative)
etter (alternative)

From Middle English atter, ater, from Old English āttor, ǣttor, ātor (“poison”), from Proto-West Germanic *aitr, from Proto-Germanic *aitrą (“gland, matter”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyd-, *h₂oyd- (“tumor, abscess”), related to Ancient Greek οἶδος (oîdos, “swelling, tumour, abscess, produced by internal action”).
Cognate with Scots attir (“corrupt matter, pus”), Scots atter, etter (“poison, venom”), Shetlandic eter (“poison; bitter cold”), Old Norse eitr, Icelandic eitur (“poison”), Faroese eitur, Norwegian eiter (“venom”), Swedish etter (“poison, venom, virulence”), Danish edder, ædder (“venom”), Saterland Frisian Atter (“pus”), Dutch etter (“pus”), German Eiter (“poison, pus”).

cog

(archaic or UK dialectal) Poisonous bodily fluid, especially venom of a venomous animal, such as a snake, dragon or other reptile; corrupt or morbid matter from the body, such as pus from a sore or wound; bitter substance, such as bile.

(UK dialectal) Epithelium produced on the tongue.


atter

en-verb

atter (third-person singular simple present atters, present participle attering, simple past and past participle attered)

atters (present singular third-person)
attering (participle present)
attered (participle past)
attered (past)
attir (alternative)
etter (alternative)

(UK dialectal) to discharge, as a sore; clot; curdle; cake


hold-ups

Yet the conventions of cheating possess an odd kind of romance, of the love affair perpetually stalled in its first stages, when no one on the platform at Paddington knows you're only wearing hold-ups under your mac and you can briefly return to the drama of being the woman you thought had died of boredom somewhere on the thousand-and-eleventh trip to Waitrose.

2007 July 8, Lisa Hilton, “I cheated...”, in The Observer:

(UK, colloquial) Women's stockings designed to be worn without suspenders.


sculd

sculd (third-person singular simple present sculds, present participle sculding, simple past and past participle sculded)

sculds (present singular third-person)
sculding (participle present)
sculded (participle past)
sculded (past)
scould (alternative)
skuld (alternative)
skuild (alternative)

From back-formation of sculding. Related to Norwegian skulding (“accusation”).

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To accuse (someone) of wrongdoing, especially under the procedure known as sculding.


sculd

Related to Old Norse skilja (“to divide”).


stockjobber

stockjobbers (plural)
stock-jobber (alternative)

(chiefly British, trading) A stock exchange worker who deals only with brokers.

In this stock-jobbers’ heaven let us leave our dear countrymen for a little while, while I say a few words about the affairs of the people on the continent of Europe.

1888, William Morris, Signs of Change […] , London: Reeves and Turner, page 105:

(British, derogatory, trading) An unscrupulous stockbroker.


bottler

From Middle English boteller, botullere, equivalent to bottle + -er. Piecewise doublet of butler.

(British, slang) A person or group that fails to meet expectations, especially one prone to such failure.

choker

person or group prone to unexpected failure


Exchequer

(British) The government department that collects and manages revenue.


too hot to hold

"He made England too hot to hold him, fled to Central America, and died there in 1876 of yellow fever."

1901, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles, page 18:

(idiomatic, British) A place that has too much police activity to harbor a fugitive unnoticed.


VR

(British) Initialism of Victoria Regina (on coins, letterboxes, etc.) The royal cypher for Queen Victoria, queen regnant of Great Britain


cater-corner

/ˈkeɪtəˌkɔːnə/

/ˈkætəˌkɔɹnɚ/

Presumably a clipped form of cater-cornered, from cater + cornered, q.v., although catty-cornered is attested earlier (1838).

catacorner (alternative)
catercorner (alternative)
catty-corner (alternative)
kitty-corner (alternative)

(UK dialect, obsolete) Uneven, not square, as mislaid stones or people with a limping gait.


radge

(UK, dialect) Alternative form of rodge (“grey duck”).


scran

→ Welsh: sgram

Probably of North Germanic origin, from or cognate with Old Norse skran (“rubbish; marine stores”). Compare Icelandic skran (“junk”), Danish skrammel (“junk, lumber”). Doublet of scrawn.

der

Let wi gan and get some scran am starvin man!

I know there are many persons — some who are themselves poor — who 'never turn a beggar from their door,' but always give them a few browns (halfpence) or some scran (broken victuals).

1853, Charles John Chetwynd Talbot, Meliora, Or, Better Times to Come, page 247:

(UK, Ireland, slang) Food, especially that of an inferior quality; grub.


prickle

(UK, obsolete) A sieve of hazelnuts, weighing about fifty pounds.


cut it fine

en-verb

cut it fine (third-person singular simple present cuts it fine, present participle cutting it fine, simple past and past participle cut it fine)

cuts it fine (present singular third-person)
cutting it fine (participle present)
cut it fine (participle past)
cut it fine (past)

‘No, — I hadn’t time. I was due at the station, — I was cutting it pretty fine as it was.’

Working from home has allowed me more day-to-day ease – but my friend’s visit made me think I’ve perhaps become too comfortable with cutting things fine.

2025 May 14, Elle Hunt, “My hours seem to slip away. How can I manage my time better?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK) To achieve something at the last possible moment, or with no margin for error.

“O stop, stop,” cried the Mole in ecstacies: “This is too much!”
“Do you really think so?” enquired the Rat seriously. “It’s only what I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are always telling me that I’m a mean beast and cut it very fine!”

1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:


redcap

redcaps (plural)
red cap (alternative)
red-cap (alternative)

From red + cap.
In sense of "porter", 1890s US; compare contemporary Japanese 赤帽 (akabou), Chinese 小紅帽 /小红帽 (Xiǎo Hóng Mào). On Labor Day, 1890, John Williams, an African-American railway porter, tied a red ribbon to his black uniform cap to stand out from the crowd at Grand Central Terminal. The strategy was so successful that it was soon adopted by others in the profession, leading to the synecdochic use of redcap as a term for all railway porters.

(British) A member of the Royal Military Police a unit in the British army.

Carduelis carduelis
Carduelis carduelis#Translingual

(British, archaic) A European goldfinch, Eurasian goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis).

1876: Porter & Coates (pub.), Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
Lord Soulis he sat in Hermitage Castle,
And beside him Old Redcap sly; —
"Now, tell me, thou sprite, who are meikle of might,
The death that I must die?"

"What's a Brownie?" you say. Oh, it's a kind of a sort of a Bogle, but it isn't so cruel as a Redcap! What! you don't know what's a Bogle or a Redcap!

1890, Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales:

[…] the goblin had aroused the mercenary's ire. This seemed to bring out a formidable and hitherto unrecognized talent in the taciturn young man.
"Why cam' ye by my door?" The redcap brandished his pikestaff menacingly.
Redcap - A malevolent goblin easily distinguishable by their namesake red cap, fiery red eyes, claws and iron boots. They often appear as little old men, but can run very fast despite the boots. They reside in castles and watchtowers along the English-Scottish border, but will move their residence to avoid detection. They have sharp eagle’s talons which they use for weapons, but can easily be repelled simply by reading holy verse. http://www.vf11.com/legendsofvalhal/legendsofvalhal-post-814.html

2002, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Ill-Made Mute: The Bitterbynde:

After boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty little goblinlike creatures that lurked where there had been bloodshed […]

1999 July 8, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter; 3), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(British, folklore) A type of evil goblin or imp.


bougie

en-adj

bougie (comparative bougier, superlative bougiest)

bougier (comparative)
bougiest (superlative)
bourgie (alternative)
boojie (alternative)
boujee (alternative)

(British, Canada, slang) Fancy or good-looking, without the same connotations of snobbery or pretentiousness as in sense 1.


blackfriars

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) look out; beware


GBH

grievous bodily harm
grievous bodily harm#English

(British, law) Initialism of grievous bodily harm.


grievous bodily harm

(UK) Serious physical injury to a person, or the fact of causing such injury.


skiver

From skive (“play truant”) + -er. Probably from French esquiver (“slink away”).

A truant; one who is absent without permission, especially from school.


skiver

en-verb

skiver (third-person singular simple present skivers, present participle skivering, simple past and past participle skivered)

skivers (present singular third-person)
skivering (participle present)
skivered (participle past)
skivered (past)

From skive (“to shave”) + -er. Probably from Dutch schijf (“slice”), probably influenced by shive.

[…] it's I that wishes I could be sure 'twas malice, I'd skiver you, heels and elbows, on my sword, and roast you alive on that fire.

1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “The Dead Secret, Showing how the Fire-worker Proved to Puddock that Nutter Had Spied Out the Nakedness of the Land”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume I, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 102:

I'll finish heating the oven, and set you free to go and skiver up them ducks.

1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, “chapter 9”, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:


actual bodily harm

(British, law) Hurt or injury which interferes with the health or comfort of the victim and which is more than transient or trifling.


wap

wap (third-person singular simple present waps, present participle wapping, simple past and past participle wapped)

waps (present singular third-person)
wapping (participle present)
wapped (participle past)
wapped (past)

Sir, he said, I saw nothing but the waters wap and the waves wan.

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “How king Arthur commanded to cast his sword Excalibur into the water and how he was delivered to ladies in a barge”, in Le Morte d'Arthur, London: MacMillan & Co, published 1919, book 21, chapter 5, page 480:

I[…]wapped him over his head

2006, George Jachimowicz, The Wizard King:Book One:

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:

No gentry mort hath prats like thine, / No cove e'er wap'd with such a one.

1707, John Shirley, “The Maunder's Praise of his Strowling Mort”, in The Triumph of Wit:

Liz, he says, why trine for a make, when you can wap for a winne. I'm no dimber mort, I says. Don't ask you to be a swell mollisher, sister, coves want Miss Laycock, don't look at your mug. So I begin to sell my mother of saints.

1988, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Country's Good, act 2, scene 1:

(archaic, UK, thieves' cant) To engage in sexual intercourse.


codhead

From cod + -head, owing to the prevalence of fishing in the area of North Shields, River Tyne and the Headland area of Hartlepool and Whitby.

(British) A person from Grimsby, a fishing town in Lincolnshire, in the north of England.

(British) A person from Whitby, a town in North Yorkshire, in the northeast of England.

(British) A person from Fleetwood, a town in the northwest of Lancashire.


twonk

en-noun

twonk (countable and uncountable, plural twonks)

You dozy little twonk, Rodney. You bang again on the roof of my van like that and it won't be Frankie Goes to Hollywood, it'll be Rodney goes to hospital.

1985, Only Fools and Horses (TV series), "It's Only Rock and Roll" (episode)

The absolute state of you, Downey, you utter twonk. Like you have anything to do with the outcome of the bloody match! You need to confine this superstition malarkey to a flaming skip.

2015 February 11, Trev Downey, “Reasons to Believe”, in The Liverpool Offside:

(British, slang, countable) A stupid person.

What twonk you are talking!

(British, slang, uncountable) Nonsense; rubbish.


twonk

en-verb

twonk (third-person singular simple present twonks, present participle twonking, simple past and past participle twonked)

twonks (present singular third-person)
twonking (participle present)
twonked (participle past)
twonked (past)

(transitive, British, slang) To hit or slap.


hairdryer

hairdryers (plural)
hair drier (alternative)
hair-drier (alternative)
hairdrier (alternative)
hair dryer (alternative)
hair-dryer (alternative)

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

(chiefly UK) A small electrical appliance for drying hair, by generating a stream of hot air.


get one's knickers in a twist

get one's knickers in a twist (third-person singular simple present gets one's knickers in a twist, present participle getting one's knickers in a twist, simple past and past participle got one's knickers in a twist)

gets one's knickers in a twist (present singular third-person)
getting one's knickers in a twist (participle present)
got one's knickers in a twist (participle past)
got one's knickers in a twist (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-get one's knickers in a twist.wav

Swiss bank gets knickers in a twist over dress code guidelines [title]

2011 January 17, “Swiss bank gets knickers in a twist over dress code guidelines”, in The Guardian, sourced from Associated Press, →ISSN:

(idiomatic, British, Ireland, humorous, informal) To become overwrought or unnecessarily upset over a trivial matter.

vetää herne nenään

to become overwrought or unnecessarily upset over a trivial matter


Eton

en-proper noun

Eton (countable and uncountable, plural Etons)

From Old English *Ēatūn, from ea (“river”) + tun (“town”). See also the doublet Eaton.

(UK) Ellipsis of Eton College, a prestigious public school for boys in Eton.


level up

en-verb

level up (third-person singular simple present levels up, present participle leveling up or levelling up, simple past and past participle leveled up or levelled up)

levels up (present singular third-person)
leveling up (participle present)
levelling up (participle present)
leveled up (participle past)
leveled up (past)
levelled up (participle past)
levelled up (past)

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

From level + up. The video game sense is a calque of Japanese レベルアップ (reberu appu) using the SOV word order.

Boris Johnson should consider setting targets to level up the UK’s weakest regions to tackle widespread inequality, according to one of the government’s senior independent policy advisers.

2020 February 4, Phillip Inman, “Set targets to 'level up' regions, says Industrial Strategy Council”, in The Guardian:

Labour's Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds hit back at Sunak and said that his failure to greenlight major projects such as Northern Powerhouse Rail showed that government claims of levelling up the country were "not supported by the evidence".

2020 December 2, Paul Stephen, “Network News: Sunak focuses on jobs, infrastructure and 'levelling up'”, in Rail, page 7:

(transitive, literal and figurative) To raise to the same level or status; to improve so as to make as good as others.

(UK, specific) To reduce economic and developmental inequalities across the United Kingdom.


pedalo

pedalos (plural)
pedaloes (plural)
pédalo (alternative)

Borrowed from French pédalo, a registered trademark. By surface analysis, pedal + -o.

It is the prelapsarian Polynesia of free love, noble savagery, Kon Tiki rafting and Easter Island statuary, not the Levi’s-wearing, Toyota-driving, pédalo-pushing, efflorescent-cocktails-in-a-split-coconut-serving pseudo-paradise that awaits latter-day travellers.

2001, Stephen Brown, Marketing – the Retro Revolution, London: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 139:

On the other hand: I’m sorry the sculpture hurt your feelings. But it’s just art. It can’t harm you. You don’t have to like it – not at all – but it’s going to be gone in a month or so, and you can still use the pedalos while it’s there.

2018 August 16, Marina Hyde, “Sorry to break it to you, far-righters: James Bond is not on your team”, in The Guardian:

(UK, nautical) A small boat propelled by pedals that directly turn external paddles, used for recreation.


OAP

Old-Age Pensioner
old-age pensioner#English

(UK, Ireland) Initialism of Old-Age Pensioner.


parterre

Borrowed from French parterre (“on the ground”), from par (“on”) + terre (“ground”).

Brussels
Buckinghamshire
Cliveden
Parterre
Parterre (theater audience)
Taplow

(theater) A part of the section of theater seats located on the ground floor, on the same level as the orchestra.

(British) The part of the ground-floor section behind the stalls and underneath the galleries; the pit.


black babies

Jim met his wife when she was collecting for the black babies.

(Ireland, UK, idiomatic, potentially offensive) Third-world charities, the missions.


racialism

en-noun

racialism (countable and uncountable, plural racialisms)

From racial + -ism. Coined in 1882 based on the older use of "race" as a synonym of "nation, tribe, ethnic group", later senses (from 1890) from the use of "race" for racial categories.

The modern dogma of nationalism, as maintained by a class of theoretic politicians (and which might more properly be called racialism [italics in original] — leaving nationalism to denote the recent modified application of socialism in pol. econ.)

1890, Alden's Manifold Cyclopedia of Knowledge and Language, volume 25:

(British, dated) Tribalism, nationalism.


get one's leg over

en-verb

get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> one's leg over

get one's leg over (third-person singular simple present gets one's leg over, present participle getting one's leg over, simple past got one's leg over, past participle (UK) got one's leg over or (US) gotten one's leg over)

gets one's leg over (present singular third-person)
getting one's leg over (participle present)
got one's leg over (past)
got one's leg over (UK participle past)
gotten one's leg over (US participle past)
get a leg over (alternative)

It's all well and good having a relationship, but at the end of the day all I want to do is get my leg over.

(intransitive, slang, chiefly UK) To have sex


twoc

twoc (third-person singular simple present twocs, present participle twoccing or twocking, simple past and past participle twocced or twocked)

twocs (present singular third-person)
twoccing (participle present)
twocking (participle present)
twocced (participle past)
twocced (past)
twocked (participle past)
twocked (past)
twock (alternative)

From the legal term TWOC (“taken without owner's consent”).

Most familiarly, juveniles twoc cars. But, I suggest, readers twoc writings.

1994 Winter, John Hartley, “Twoccing and joyreading”, in Terence Hawkes, editor, Textual Practice, volume 8, number 3, page 2:

Joyriders are generally introduced to ‘twoccing’ by friends and it is seen as exciting, with many recounting the thrill, excitement and ‘buzz’ involved.

1998, Hazel Croall, Crime and Society in Britain, Longman, →ISBN, page 220:

James Harris also left a note saying "North Shields crew, if you don't keep it locked, it will get twocked" on the victim's TV

2015 June 22, Sara Nichol, “North Shields window cleaner poured bleach over victim's clothes when he burgled her house”, in Chronicle Live:

Security guard or not, Michael had jumped at the chance to steal, or in his parlance ‘twoc’, the bus.

2016, Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons & Rob Gibbons, Alan Partridge: Nomad, page 171:

A frustrated Kim, in a bright yellow waistcoat that looked like someone had made a hi-viz tabard out of Big Bird, twocked Vincent’s car and had a high octane 2mph crash with Dot Branning.

2016 October 18, Ian Hyland, “EastEnders has been a load of rubbish - but Kim's driving test could change that”, in Daily Mirror:

[The sentence was imposed in August by Judge Passfield, after he had pleaded guilty to taking a vehicle without consent.]

2023 November 28, Gareth Crickmer, “Sunderland man gets banned from drinking alcohol after twocking car, then gets caught out by ankle tag”, in Sunderland Echo:

(UK regional, slang) To steal (especially a car).


granary bread

en-noun

granary bread (countable and uncountable, plural granary breads)

(British) bread, not made from white or brown flour, that contains wheatgerm, whole grains and malt.


kati

katis (plural)
catty (alternative)
katti (alternative obsolete)
katty (alternative obsolete)

(rare, British, historical) A weight equivalent to about 1.5 pounds, adopted as a standard by British companies.


footballer

/ˈfʊtbɔːləɹ/

It is footballers though, rather than commentators, presenters or pundits, who when interviewed have provided some of the best Colemanballs.

2004, George Best, Scoring At Half-Time: Adventures On and Off the Pitch, →ISBN, page 259:

(soccer, UK) One who plays association football.


beignet

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

Borrowed from French beignet, ultimately of Frankish origin.

(UK) A fritter (with a fruit or vegetable filling).


dreng

Probably borrowed from Medieval Latin drengus, from Middle English dreng (“warrior, retainer”) or its source, Old English drenġ (“warrior, soldier”), from Proto-West Germanic *drangī, from Proto-Germanic *drangijaz, cognate to Old Norse drengr.

der

In the reign of K. Richard I, the Theines and Drenges of Northumberland were tallaged. They paid each of them 80 much de Dono (o).

1711, “Chapter XVII: Of Tallage”, in Thomas Madox, The Hiſtory and Antiquities of the Exchequer of the Kings of England, London: John Matthews, page 480:

Accordingly, long after the Conquest, the Thegns and Drengs of Northumberland, and the Drengs, Thegns, and Villeins of the bishopric of Durham, continued to be tallaged.

1862, “Appendix T: The Laws of King Henry the First”, in E. William Robertson, Scotland Under Her Early Kings: A History of the Kingdom to the Close of the 13th Century, volume 2, Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, page 513:

It is significant that, as Map 2 shows, the main concentrations of thegns and drengs are in the east of the territory that was apparently tributary to the Danish king in about AD 1000.

2000, “Society and Status”, in Birgit Sawyer, The Viking-age Rune-stones: Custom and Commemoration in Early Medieval Scandinavia, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 106:

(historical, UK) A kind of feudal free tenant with military duties, mentioned in the Domesday Book.


daylight robbery

en-noun

daylight robbery (countable and uncountable, plural daylight robberies)

From daylight + robbery, originally used literally to refer to robbery occurring in the daytime rather than at night, which was thought to be more audacious or risky.

(uncountable) The practice of cheating or of imposing an exorbitant charge for a product or service; (countable, rare) an instance of this.

je reinste diefstal

practice of cheating or of imposing an exorbitant charge for a product or service; an instance of this

(chiefly sports, uncountable) Conduct which unfairly deprives an opponent of an advantage or a win; (countable, rare) an instance of this.

A daylight robbery of a store carries with it a risk that the store clerk will be present and a confrontation will ensue, so grounds to fear a daylight robbery give rise to a reasonable inference that the defendant is armed and dangerous.

2006, Sarah N. Welling, “Stop and Frisk”, in Paul Finkelman, editor, Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, volume 3, Routledge, published 2013, →ISBN, page 1570, column 1:

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see daylight, robbery.


divider

intercalaire

separator used to divide sheets of paper

The median (US) or central reservation (UK) of a highway or other road where traffic in opposite directions are kept separated.


clem

en-verb

clem (third-person singular simple present clems, present participle clemming, simple past and past participle clemmed)

clems (present singular third-person)
clemming (participle present)
clemmed (participle past)
clemmed (past)
clam (alternative)

Inherited from Middle English *clemmen, *clammen, from Old English clemman, clæmman (“to press, surround”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“to squeeze”).
Cognate with Dutch klemmen (“to jam, pinch, stick”), German klemmen (“to jam, clamp; to be stuck, stick [to a surface]”).

cog

to jam, clamp; to be stuck, stick 􂀿to a surface􂁀

"[…] Here he's back home again, and without work, and without a penny, and thou knows t' little one and I were pretty well clemmed to death when thou got us a bit o' bread and meat last night. We were that!"

1889, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, Between Two Loves, Ch. VI, p. 110:

Who are half clemmed from year’s end to year’s end, and see no close to it, no hope, no finish but the pauper’s deals!

1919, Stanley J. Weyman, “IX. Old Things”, in The Great House:

(UK, dialect, transitive or intransitive) To be hungry; starve.


slosh

en-verb

slosh (third-person singular simple present sloshes, present participle sloshing, simple past and past participle sloshed)

sloshes (present singular third-person)
sloshing (participle present)
sloshed (participle past)
sloshed (past)

She greeted me with a bright smile, and said: “Back already? Did you find it?” With a strong effort I mastered my emotion and replied curtly but civilly that the answer was in the negative. “No,” I said, “I did not find it.” “You can't have looked properly.” Again I was compelled to pause and remind myself that an English gentleman does not slosh a sitting redhead, no matter what the provocation.

1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VIII:

(British, colloquial, transitive) To punch (someone).


come up

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

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

sure as the sun is going to come up tomorrow morning

I could tell from her expression that she was coming up already.

(British, slang, intransitive) To begin to feel the effects of a recreational drug.

nousta päähän

to begin to feel the effects of a recreational drug

(UK, Oxford University, intransitive) To arrive at the university. (Compare go down, send down.)


hockey stick

The game itself, though played by men, was probably meant to enact a mediation of the opposites of male and female, with a circular puck being the feminine symbol and the phallic hockey stick being the masculine symbol.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 184:

(British, field hockey) A stick used to handle the ball in field hockey, having a flat-faced hook at the end.


calipers

And simultaneously I raise my trouser cuff to reveal the leather straps and wicked steel calipers harnessing my right boot.

1988, Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice-Candy Man, Daunt Books (2016), page 4:


bowk

bowk (third-person singular simple present bowks, present participle bowking or bowkin, simple past and past participle bowked)

bowks (present singular third-person)
bowking (participle present)
bowkin (participle present)
bowked (participle past)
bowked (past)
bolk (alternative)

From Middle English bolken, bulken, alteration of earlier balken, from Old English bealcan (“to belch; utter”). Compare Dutch bulken (“to roar”), German bölken. More at bolk.

At that point another of my guests, a highly respected Newcastle art gallery owner by the name of Rashida, bowked up all over the floor behind me.

2004, Chris Donald, Rude Kids: The Unfeasible Story of Viz, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 275:

'Take yourself to bed then. And don't whine to me tomorrow about how you bowked your guts out all night.'

2009, Blythe Gifford, In the Master's Bed, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 64:

Firstly, aged perhaps five or six after polishing off a banana and a slice of bread and butter in the back room at tea time, taking my plate out to the kitchen, I managed to make it only as far as the spin dryer in the hall before bowking richly over the lino.

2010, Mike Harper, Little Mickey H: A Norbury Lad, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 107:

Misima bowked beside him, bent over double. They made twin streams of yellow bile in the heather.

2011, Erica Bell, The Voyage of the Shuckenoor, Interactive Publications, →ISBN:


mint sauce

en-noun

mint sauce (usually uncountable, plural mint sauces)

'Sure, I do. Joey comes here with me whenever I'm not busy with a flat and he's got the mint-sauce for the entrance fee.'


do one

en-verb

do one (third-person singular simple present does one, present participle doing one, simple past did one, past participle done one)

does one (present singular third-person)
doing one (participle present)
did one (past)
done one (participle past)

A contraction of several related longer expressions like do a runner, do a bunk, do a flit and do a moonlight flit

I am a northerner and if any daft apeth with a cob on wants to mither me about my accent, they can do one.

2019 March 20, Daniel Lavelle, The Guardian:

(UK, colloquial) To go away, to leave; to get lost.


infanteer

infanteers (plural)
infantier (alternative)

From Spanish infante (“soldier”) + -eer.

suffix

Spanish <i class="Latn mention" lang="es">infante</i>

The appointment of an infanteer from The Highlanders as the Sovereign's Piper shows that the events following Culloden are no longer raw in the memory. official web site of the British Monarchy

(UK, Canada, military) A soldier employed in any infantry role; an infantryman.


babooning

From baboon + -ing: in the sense of caning, because of the bright red buttocks (like those of a baboon) that result.

(British, slang) Caning the backside profusely, an abusive initiation ritual to which trainee soldiers are subjected.


superannuation

en-noun

superannuation (usually uncountable, plural superannuations)

/ˈs(j)ʉːpəˌɹænjʉːˈæɪʃn̩/

From superannuate + -ion, from superannuated.

One of the principal objections to it was, that the period of service, after which superannuations were granted, was too limited,[…].

1823, Edmund Burke, editor, Annual Register: 1822, volume 64, page 137:

I think it would be harsh to deprive them of their superannuations without a knowledge of the circumstances under which they are proposed.

1840, John Henry Barrow, editor, The Mirror of Parliament, volume 4, page 2867:

A person must not discriminate by failing to supply superannuation or insurance, or in the terms on which, or in the way in which superannuation or insurance is supplied.

1991, John Godwin, Michael Costa, Julie Hamblin, Mark Duffy, David Patterson, Australian HIV/AIDS Legal Guide, page 465:

If an entity employs temporary residents who are eligible for the superannuation guarantee, then the entity is required to make superannuation contributions for them.

2010, Stephen J Marsden, Australian Master Bookkeepers Guide [2009/10], 3rd edition, page 578:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A retirement benefit fund, an accumulation of regular deductions from one′s wage or salary while employed and similar regular contributions from the employer, usually administered by an independent entity; a pension.


come on

en-verb

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

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

Overall, menstrual modernity in the form of a more efficient throwaway technology was seized on and celebrated, as was the opportunity to send your man off to the shop to get it if you came on suddenly.

2009, Jenny Diski, “Short cuts”, in London Review of Books, XXXI.20:

(intransitive, idiomatic, colloquial, UK) To get one's period, start menstruating.


MPS

Metropolitan Police Service
w:Metropolitan Police

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of Metropolitan Police Service.


cossie

From costume + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

“Let's not bother with cossies Jack. Let′s pretend it′s years ago.”
She remembered the times they had swum at Eleni beach totally naked, the moon and stars lighting the little waves as they rolled slowly to shore.

I struck off boldly, but soon found myself unaccountably labouring. The reason became abundantly clear when I stood up, clad only in two three-foot-long shoulder straps, with two stone of waterlogged cossie round my ankles.

2009, Brenda Sensicle-Creese, Sensicle, But Not Always, page 3:

She would just change now very quickly and then run down to Lingerie and—no, she thought, I won′t; I′ll go to the cossies first, because I don′t want anyone to see me carrying that parcel from Lingerie (which used a different patterned wrapping paper, printed with a lace and ribbom design) because they might guess what′s in it, or they might ask. So I′ll just go to the cossies first.

2009, Madeleine St. John, The Women in Black, page 72:


horsebox

(UK) A motor vehicle for transporting horses.

On October 31 [...] Laira "Grange" No. 6871 passed through Wolverhampton with a Holyhead-Didcot horsebox special.

1960 January, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 58:

(UK, rail transport, obsolete) A van-type railway vehicle specially built for the carriage of horses.


NUS

National Union of Students
w:National Union of Students

(UK) Initialism of National Union of Students.


Wilfred

An allusion to the newspaper cartoon strip Pip, Squeak and Wilfred.

(UK, military, World War I, slang) The Victory Medal.


filleted

en-adj

filleted (comparative more filleted, superlative most filleted)

more filleted (comparative)
most filleted (superlative)

I was filleted to be honest. It had taken its toll on me ... I'd probably had enough myself by that time in terms of being manager.

quoted in 2017, Edward Couzens-Lake, Norwich City The Nineties He'd had enough, later admitting to Rick Waghorn in his excellent book 12 Canary Greats

(UK, slang) Gutted; very disappointed or let down.


blokey

blokey (comparative blokier, superlative blokiest)

blokier (comparative)
blokiest (superlative)

Tennis isn't a blokey sport.

(UK, Australia, informal) Associated with the mainstream male culture, particularly blue-collar.


guv

Alternative phonetic spelling of gov, short for governor.

Spare two quid, guv? I 'aven't eaten since yesterday.

Right away, guv... I mean, sarge.

(UK, Ireland, chiefly London, informal) A form of address to a man, usually a stranger or a superior.

We cover up the window so the guvs can't see us.


Union Jack

(nautical, British) The flag, consisting of the flags of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland combined, flown on ships of the government of the United Kingdom.


scores

"On the phone you said you want a scores, you think I would come all the way here for a benners you prick!!!"

What's that smell in the chеst of drawers? / Young boy sellin' them benz and scores / Gotta get rich in desperate cause / Talk about drill, gotta mention moi

2024 September 5, Central Cee, Einer Bankz, Raye, “Moi”, performed by Central Cee and Raye, Columbia Records:

(slang, UK) A bag of cannabis worth £20.


gayer

Many ex-gayers are encouraged to bond with an older straight man from their church.

1999, Dann Hazel, Witness: gay and lesbian clergy report from the front:

shut the fuck up you gayer :)

2002, Marblehead Johnson, “universal is no more”, in alt.music.oasis (Usenet):

Facist ^([sic]) Frankie, PMSL, you gayers are funny.

2008, Frankie Carbone, “Frankie's passed out”, in uk.sport.football.clubs.liverpool (Usenet):

(chiefly UK, colloquial, derogatory) Somebody who is gay (in the sense of either homosexual or uncool).


turmit

turmits (plural)
turmat (alternative)
turmut (alternative)
tormit (alternative)
tummit (alternative)

1825, John Trotter Brockett, A Glossary of North Country Words in Use
TORMIT, TURMIT, a turnip.

1828, William Carr, The Dialect of Craven: In the West-Riding of the County of York
TURMAT, A turnip.

1863, Joseph Philip Robson (ed.), Songs of the bards of the Tyne; or a choice collection of original songs, chiefly in the Newcastle dialect
We hev taties and turmits like Rosemary toppin.

1857, Thomas Wright, Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English
TORMIT, s. A turnip. North.

1869, James Jennings, The Dialect of the West of England, particularly Somersetshire
Tur′mit. s. A turnip.

1890, John Drummond Robertson & Henry Haughton Reynolds Moreton, A Glossary of Dialect & Archaic Words Used in the County of Gloucester
TURMIT or TURMUT. sb. Turnip. [Common.]

1918, Joseph Arthur Gibbs, A Cotswold Village
“I be a turmut hower,
Vram Gloucestershire I came;


zun

Zome woys avore the zun is down,
So long’s the sky is clear;

1850, James Orchard Halliwell, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century:

GOOD bwye ta thee Cot! whaur tha dâs o’ my childhood
Glaw’d bright as tha zun in a mornin o’ mâ;

1869, James Jennings, The Dialect of the West of England, particularly Somersetshire:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(nonstandard, British) Pronunciation spelling of sun.


jacketing

en-noun

jacketing (countable and uncountable, plural jacketings)

jacketings (plural)
jacketting (alternative)

When they come home I'm more than half inclined to give them a good jacketing, but I'm glad to see them, and perhaps none the less because they cost me so much.

1872, Jonathan's Bunkum. [A satire on the Alabama Question.], page 15:

(countable, UK, dialect, archaic) A thrashing; a beating.


oppo

'I suppose you're referring to Fluker,' I told him, and he looked at me in stunned amazement when I explained that he was one of my old oppoes.

2012, Tony Orchard, Here's to our Far-Flung Empire:

“It's all right, chaps, the decorator's come. This 'ere is me old ’oppo Ginger Vernall.”

2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, published 2016, page 53:

(countable, UK, slang) A friend, associate or colleague.


brown sauce

brown sauce (countable and uncountable, plural brown sauces)

HP Sauce is a popular variety of brown sauce.

(British, Ireland) Any of many brands of bottled sauce based on malt vinegar, fruit and spices.

sos brown

bottled sauce made of vinegar, fruit and spices


ratty

en-adj

ratty (comparative rattier, superlative rattiest)

rattier (comparative)
rattiest (superlative)

From rat + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjective).

suffix

He got bad, he got ratty, he would take it out on people around him. He was mean when it turned against him.

(originally British) Annoyed, bad-tempered, irritable.


publands

warn the young — / keep from the publands in the port / or into sewerage you'll be flung.

Part love story, part thriller, and set in the publands of London's Earls Court,[…]

1985, Roger Omond, The Apartheid Handbook:

[…]publands of Earls Court, Hangover Square's protagonist, semi-alcoholic George Harvey Bone[…]

2007, John Harding, Patrick Hamilton: His Life and Work : a Critical Study, page 46:


ring off

en-verb

ring off (third-person singular simple present rings off, present participle ringing off, simple past rang off, past participle rung off)

rings off (present singular third-person)
ringing off (participle present)
rang off (past)
rung off (participle past)

I thanked him and rang off.

2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 68:

(intransitive, telephony, British, Australia) To disconnect at the end of a phone call.


topside

To detach the round bone, the biggest muscle of the round, the topside, must first be removed. This is done by cutting down to the round bone in a layer of connective tissue which separates the topside from the nuggle.

2004, Z. Farah, A. Fischer, editors, Milk and Meat from the Camel: Handbook on Products and Processing, page 116:

Slow roasting is better for lean or not so tender cuts such as topside or whole bolar blade, which are not suitable to be cooked very pink.

2008, Leanne Kitchen, The Butcher, Murdoch Books, page 27:

It is removed from its attachment to the silverside along the natural seam, and from the topside by a straight cut along the line of the femur bone.

2012, Graham Dodgshun, Michel Peters, David O′Dea, Cookery for the Hospitality Industry, 6th edition, Cambridge University Press, page 384:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) The outer side of a round of beef.


silverside

(British) The upper side of a round of beef.


country house

country houses (plural)
country-house (alternative)

Near-synonym: country seat

One of those utterly tedious amusements one only finds at an English country house on an English country Sunday. I don't think any one at all morally responsible for what he or she does at an English country house.

1909, Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband, act 3:

(especially British) A house serving as a weekend and holiday residence, used as a retreat from city life; traditionally and archetypically in the country, and especially of wealthy owners.

a country house look

(especially British) Such a house, even as a primary residence and even in an area that is no longer rural, but with an aesthetic in keeping with that traditional distinction of country ways.


saltbox

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

“I think I'd rather languish in the Salt Box at Newgate Prison wearing the Devil's Claws than to be married to that tree,” Kierney said.

Heather Herrman, The Corpse Queen, in 2017, Dark Screams (volume 6)

As expected, Peg was indeed cast for death and was moved to the 'salt box' (the condemned cell) in the Press-yard to be near the New Drop.

2018, Charles Palliser, The Quincunx: The Clothiers:

(UK, slang, historical) The cell in Newgate prison for a prisoner condemned to death.


ploughman

ploughmen (plural)
plowman (alternative)

From Middle English plowman, ploghmon, plouȝman, equivalent to plough + man. Compare Middle Dutch ploechman.

(British) Alternative spelling of plowman.