cop on

en-verb

cop on (third-person singular simple present cops on, present participle copping on, simple past and past participle copped on)

cops on (present singular third-person)
copping on (participle present)
copped on (participle past)
copped on (past)
cop-on (alternative)

You'll get in trouble with the boss if you don't cop on.

Drink, drink and more drink. Ulster Bank, College Green, was filled with sore heads for the entire month of the world cup. I knew it was time to start copping on when my housemate, O'Dea, who was a much harder drinker than I ever was, said to me, 'Jaysus, I was fierce worried about you during the World Cup, you were on the lash every fuckin' night, fallin' home in some state.'

2006, Johnny Fallon, Party Time: Growing Up in Politics, Mercier Press, published 2006, →ISBN, page 110:

After a while, though, we matured and copped on.

2011, Donnacha O'Callaghan, Joking Apart: My Autobiography, Transworld Ireland, published 2011, →ISBN, page 124:

The inference was clear. You Irish were all very naughty and it's time you copped on and grew up.

2011 October 23, Daniel McConnell, “Tough rehab, yes -- but mind you don't end up killing the patient”, in Irish Independent:

“Cop on, Anne Marie,” her parents said. “Time to be normal now.”

2024 March 16, Antonia Cundy, “The Opus Dei diaries”, in FT Weekend, page 18:

(Ireland, informal, idiomatic) To stop behaving immaturely; behave, grow up.

(Ireland, informal, UK, dialect) To come to understand; twig, cotton on.


whinge

whinge (third-person singular simple present whinges, present participle whingeing or whinging, simple past and past participle whinged)

whinges (present singular third-person)
whingeing (participle present)
whinging (participle present)
whinged (participle past)
whinged (past)
winge (alternative)
quhynge (alternative)

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

From a northern variant of Old English hwinsian (“to whine”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwinisōn (“to whine”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwīnan (“to whine”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwey- (“to hiss, whistle, whisper”). Cognate with German winseln (“to whine, whimper”).

der

Argh! He has been whinging about it all night, even though he knows there's nothing we can do.

I know it won't help but sometimes it feels better to whinge about the things that annoy me.

"'D' ye hear what's come ower ye now,' continued the virago, 'ye whingeing Whig carles? D'ye hear wha's coming to cow yer cracks?"

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

You crossed her last wish in death and yet you sulk with me because I don’t whinge like some hired mute from Lalouette’s.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

Mostly, they were wingeing about the lousy cook and the same thing served too often

1992, Sky Phillips, Secret mission to Melbourne, November, 1941, page 45:

His wife will winge her bloody head off, but Nev will come good.

1993, Michael Fisher, The Nightmare Man, page 169:

"I'm miserable," Sam proclaimed, plodding behind with his shoelace flapping. "Nobody ever gives me butter-pies when I need them." / "Shut up," said Jonathan. "Stop wingeing."

2002, Diana Wynne Jones, A Tale of Time City, page 41:

2012, John Lyons, The Australian, 1st Dec issue, Action stations as sea giants stay vigilant on the frontline
"You know the problem these days with young people? Get them to carry a 500-pound bomb and within 30 seconds they're making noises," he says, imitating a whingeing sound.

(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland) To whine; to complain, especially in an annoying or persistent manner.


whinge

whinges (plural)
winge (alternative)
quhynge (alternative)

Her whinges grew even shriller and more annoying the longer we had to listen to them.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) A cry.

I know you don't like it, but your whinges won't solve the problem!

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) A peevish complaint.


peeler

From the surname of Sir Robert Peel, who established the Irish constabulary and London's police force; compare bobby, from the given name.

A peeler man who heard the din came in to see the show;
He tried to run the bushman in, but he refused to go.
And when at last the barber spoke, and said "'Twas all in fun—
'Twas just a little harmless joke, a trifle overdone."

1892, Banjo Paterson, The Man from Ironbark:

I’d covered pretty nearly two miles before I came across a peeler, — and when I did the man was cracked — and he thought me mad, or drunk, or both. By the time I’d got myself within nodding distance of being run in for obstructing the police in the execution of their duty, […] Holt was out of sight.

I was standin' there and the car came down the street with the two peelers comin' after them and I'm standin' here with [my son] in my arms.

2004, Alice McIntyre, Women in Belfast: How Violence Shapes Identity, →ISBN, page 57:

How do you fight back to get your right back to walk free down the street when your name and address singles you out for every Peeler on the beat?

2004, “Don’t Hand Me Over”, in The Box Set 1964-2004(2004) No.2, performed by Christy Moore:

Special Irish Branch was looking for Fenians in South Kensington; going from there to a Catholic church for Easter Mass was very nearly the stupidest thing Eliza could do, short of walking into Scotland Yard and cursing the peelers out in Irish.

2011, Marie Brennan, With Fate Conspire, →ISBN:

It was Jem and Georgie that was in mortal danger, true, but there was not one of us that wanted the peelers asking us questions.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A police officer.


duck's arse

ducks' arses (plural)
duck's ass (alternative)

(British, Ireland, informal, vulgar) A hairstyle in which the hair is swept back along the sides of the head to meet in a point at the back, thus resembling a duck as seen from behind.


fuck all

I've learned fuck all.

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland, vulgar) Nothing at all or very little.


fuck all

If you can't do this then there's fuck all hope for you.

There was fuck all else he could have done.

There are fuck all decent pubs around here.


bugger all

You may not like paying taxes, but there's bugger all you can do about it.

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland, vulgar) Nothing.


paraffin

en-noun

paraffin (countable and uncountable, plural paraffins)

paraffins (plural)
paraffine (alternative dated)

From Latin paraffinum, from parum (too little) + affinis (related, affinity). Therefore low affinity or being chemically neutral.

She poured paraffin on the dry floors and on the pandanus-mats, and then she set fire.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 57”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

(UK, Ireland) A petroleum-based thin and colourless fuel oil.


rib

From Middle English rib, ribbe, from Old English ribb (“rib”), from Proto-West Germanic *ribi, from Proto-Germanic *ribją (“rib, reef”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rebʰ- (“arch, ceiling, cover”).
Cognate with Dutch rib (“rib”), Norwegian ribbe (“sparerib”), Norwegian ribben (“rib”), Low German ribbe (“rib”), German Rippe (“rib”), Old Norse rif (“rib, reef”), Serbo-Croatian rèbro (“rib”).
(wife or woman): In reference to the creation of Eve from Adam's rib in the Bible.

ребро

shaping and supporting member in an aircraft wing

(Ireland, colloquial) A single strand of hair.


compere

A borrowing of French compère (“partner, accomplice”), from Old French comper, from Late Latin compater (“godfather”), from Latin com- (“with”) + pater (“father”). Doublet of compeer, compadre, and goombah.

doublet

Every year I am the compere for our Church Quiz Night.

The compere came onto the stage holding the gold envelope that contained the winner's name.

2008, Kerry Katona, The Footballer's Wife, →ISBN, page 157:

Not only for his fighting expertise but also reminiscent of a compere in a cabaret show working the crowd, as a build up to the main event.

2012, Steve Taberner, The Wigan Hammer: The Autobiography by Steve Taberner, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 249:

They were barely settled when the final song came to an end; the audience began to applaud and after a few more seconds the voice of the compere came over the PA.

2012, Sue Welfare, One Night Only, HarperCollins, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

master of ceremonies
master of ceremonies

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A master of ceremonies, especially for a television, variety, or quiz show.


skint

en-adj

skint (comparative skinter or more skint, superlative skintest or most skint)

skinter (comparative)
more skint (comparative)
skintest (superlative)
most skint (superlative)

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

The "penniless" sense is attested since 1925 and is derived from a variant of skinned

There were a mixture of local people with cold, pinched faces and skint and harassed looking tourists sitting around fondling their itchsome facial hair, their tongues lolling into fizzy yellow pints of lager.

2000, Tim Bradford, Is Shane MacGowan still alive?:

Mr Grave proceeded to give a stern warning to those “errant pupils” who, against the rules, had been smuggling their mobile phones into school. This was just about everyone, though Zoe was far too skint to even dream of ever owning one.

2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(slang, UK, Commonwealth, Ireland) Penniless, poor, impecunious, broke.


aubergine

en-noun

aubergine (countable and uncountable, plural aubergines)

Bislama: obesin

Unadapted borrowing from French aubergine, from Catalan albergínia, from Arabic اَلْبَاذِنْجَان (al-bāḏinjān, “the aubergine”), from Classical Persian بَادِنْجَان (bādinjān), from بَاتِنْگَان (bātingān), from Sanskrit वातिङ्गण (vātiṅgaṇa, “the plant that cures the wind”), from Dravidian, ultimately from Proto-Dravidian *waẓVtV. Cognate with Malayalam വഴുതനങ്ങ (vaḻutanaṅṅa), Hindi बैंगन (baiṅgan). Doublet of brinjal.

der

اَلْبَاذِنْجَان

Solanum melongena
Solanum melongena#Translingual

(British, Ireland) An Asian plant, Solanum melongena, cultivated for its edible purple, green, or white ovoid fruit; eggplant.

(British, Ireland) The fruit of this plant, eaten as a vegetable.


welly

From welne, a dialectal variant of well-nigh.

A person exceedingly hungry says, "I'm welly clem'd; I'm almost or well-nigh starved." It is the ordinary appeal of a beggar in the streets, when asking for food.

1853, Notes & Queries, volume 8, page 64:

(obsolete, UK, Ireland, dialect) Almost; nearly.


snigger

British variant pronunciation and spelling of snicker.

Here the unfeeling Toad broke into a snigger, and then pulled himself together and tried to look particularly solemn.

1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 255:

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A partly suppressed or broken laugh.

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A sly or snide laugh.


snigger

en-verb

snigger (third-person singular simple present sniggers, present participle sniggering, simple past and past participle sniggered)

sniggers (present singular third-person)
sniggering (participle present)
sniggered (participle past)
sniggered (past)
snicker (alternative)

[…]presently the Mole's spirits revived again, and he was even able to give some straight back-talk to a couple of moorhens who were sniggering to each other about his bedraggled appearance.

1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, page 22:

Peter, after the manner of man at the breakfast table, had allowed half his kedgeree to get cold and was sniggering over a letter. Sophia looked at him sharply. The only letter she had received was from her mother. Sophia's mother was not a humourist.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

(intransitive, chiefly UK, Ireland) To emit a snigger.


motor factor

(British, Ireland, chiefly in the plural) A retail supplier of car parts and accessories.


lege

(UK, Ireland, slang) A legend; colloquially used to describe a person who is held in high regard.


hospital pass

His first touch was horrid – a hospital pass to Juliano Belletti – but from that moment on his eye-catching football was wonderful to witness.

2009 (23 November), Mark Fleming "Kakuta puts rare talent on display", The Independent (London)

Flood popped out a careless off-load deep in the French 22 to allow a clearing kick to snuff out the danger, and when Nick Easter tried to rumble from deep within his own 22 his hospital pass to Tuilagi triggered another knock-on.

2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France:

Brian Maguire is booked for the challenge on Leo McLoone, who was chasing a hospital pass from Mark McHugh.

2012 (5 August), As It Happened - SFC quarter-finals RTÉ

(figuratively, sports, British, Australia, Ireland) A poorly executed pass to a team-mate, who is likely to lose the ball as a result. (Originally rugby union, where the recipient of a hospital pass is a sitting duck for a hard tackle.)


back of beyond

First attested in the Scottish novelist Walter Scott’s The Antiquary (1816; see quotation). It is quite possible that Scott anglicised a rural expression rather than coined it himself—something he did numerous times with other phrases.

[Y]ou, wi’ some o’ your auld warld stories, that the mind o’ man canna resist, whirl’d them to the back o’ beyont to look at the auld Roman camp—[…]

1816, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in The Antiquary. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 36:

It was a regular outside bush township, and though the distance oughtn't to have much to say to people's honesty, you'll mostly find that these far-out back-of-beyond places have got men and women to match 'em.

1882, Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms:

"I thought I should like to go near the sea — to some quite tiny country place at the back of beyond."

1920, Margaret Pedler, The Hermit of Far End:

To the "Sou' West" we owe such jolly little back-o'-beyond stations as Whithorn and Portpatrick.

1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 3:

We began to take Santa Claus to the kids at the isolated sidings for the same reason men all over Australia on the lines back o' beyond did [...] we didn't want them to miss that magic.

1969, Patsy Adam-Smith, Folklore of the Australian Railwaymen, Melbourne: Macmillan, page 151:

(chiefly British, Ireland and Australia, informal; usually with in, sometimes at or to) A very remote place.


mitch

mitch (third-person singular simple present mitches, present participle mitching, simple past and past participle mitched)

mitches (present singular third-person)
mitching (participle present)
mitched (participle past)
mitched (past)
mich (alternative)
mych (alternative)
myche (alternative)
meech (alternative)
meach (alternative)
miche (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English mychen, müchen (“to rob, steal, pilfer”), from Old English *myċċan (“to steal”), from Proto-West Germanic *mukkjan, from Proto-Germanic *mukjaną (“to waylay, ambush, hide, rob”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mūg-, *(s)mewg- (“swindler, thief”). Cognate with Scots mich, myche (“to steal”), Saterland Frisian mogeln (“to act secretively and deceitfully”), Dutch mokkelen (“to flatter”), Alemannic German mauchen (“to nibble secretively”), German mogeln (“to cheat”), German meucheln (“to assassinate”), Norwegian i mugg (“in secret, secretly”), Latin muger (“cheater”). Related to mooch.

cog

"Did you ever mitch school?" he asked.
"No. But I think this is what it would feel like."

1983, Bernard MacLaverty, Cal, Chapter 4. (p.115 in the 1998 Vintage paperback edition)

John said he was going to mitch the last lesson today.

I was young once. God, the things we used to get up to in the seminary. Me and a bunch of the lads there, once we mitched off to see a Dana concert.

1996, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, "Old Grey Whistle Theft" (Father Ted TV episode)

(Ireland, Wales, ambitransitive) To be absent from (school) without a valid excuse; to play truant, to skive off.


Norrie

en-noun

Norrie (countable and uncountable, plural Norries)

(Ireland, slang, countable) A person from the north side of Cork City, Ireland.


jackeen

From Jack + -een (“little”), from Jack being a common English name.

A buckeen, a jackeen, a squireen, or any of the intermediate classes.

1840, Fraser's Magazine, volume 22, page 320:

Jackeens loitering about the Dublin theatres.

(Ireland, derogatory) An arrogant lower-class person, especially in Dublin.

To the sellers in the market, to the barmen and barmaids, to the beggars who importuned him for a lob Mr Dedalus told the same tale, that he was an old Corkonian, that he had been trying for thirty years to get rid of his Cork accent up in Dublin and that Peter Pickakafax beside him was his eldest son but that he was only a Dublin jackeen.

1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter II, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 105:

(Ireland, derogatory, ethnic slur) Synonym of Dubliner, especially (obsolete or historical) an excessively Anglophile one.


sallow

en-adj

sallow (comparative sallower, superlative sallowest)

sallower (comparative)
sallowest (superlative)
salley (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English salowe, from Old English salu, from Proto-West Germanic *salu, from Proto-Germanic *salwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *selH-.
See also Dutch zaluw, dialectal German sal; also Irish salach (“dirty”), Welsh halog, Latin salīva, Russian соло́вый (solóvyj, “cream-colored”), and - through Frankish - French sale.

The girls are mostly Slavic-pretty, long-limbed with high cheekbones, sallow skin and green eyes. They are the closest thing to supermodels that Mulhuddart has ever seen.

2007 December 23, David McWilliams, We must begin the culture debate:

A yellow undertone is often found on people with sallow skin – e.g. Asian.

17 January 2012, Aisling, "Am I pink or yellow? How to choose the right foundation tone. And what is the deal with Mac foundations?" beaut.ie

She had such lovely sallow skin, the handsome high cheekbones of the north with the brown conker-colour eyes and the dark silken hair.

2012 June 13, Billy Keane, “I feel so much for Mickey. Maybe there is peace for him in sport”, in Irish Independent:

(Ireland) Of a tan colour, associated with people from southern Europe or East Asia.


take the mickey

en-verb

take the mickey (third-person singular simple present takes the mickey, present participle taking the mickey, simple past took the mickey, past participle taken the mickey)

takes the mickey (present singular third-person)
taking the mickey (participle present)
took the mickey (past)
taken the mickey (participle past)
mickey-take (alternative)
take the Michael (alternative)
take the mick (alternative)
take the micky (alternative)

Possibly from Cockney rhyming slang “to take the Mickey Bliss” (for take the piss).

Are you takin’ the mickey? You’ll get yer ’ead bashed in.

For the last eight years, taking the mickey out of George Bush has been great, victimless fun. Like taking candy from babies or shooting aquatically-challenged fish in size-challenged barrels.

2008 November 15, Kenneth Nguyen, “Who's laughing now?”, in The Age newspaper:

(intransitive, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, idiomatic) To ridicule or mock.


mitching

miching (alternative)
micking (alternative)

As soon as she was out of the front gate, my father would say, ‘Come along, son: let's go mitchin'!’ and we'd go out to the shed at the back [...].

1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 6:


muppet

Sally is such a muppet, the way she always misses the train.

Some muppet has parked a car at the bus stop.

You impudent muppet, diu lay! You may be able to hoodwink people over in the UK, but not those of us over here.

1996 April 18, soc.culture.singapore (Usenet):

'Honestly, Ellie, I don't know why you bother.' 'Err, because I need to squeeze my size twelve self into a size eight wedding dress?' She rolls her eyes. 'You're such a muppet. Why didn't you just buy a bigger size? Dieting is pointless.'

2011, Ruth Saberton, Ellie Andrews Has Second Thoughts, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

There was a silence while Miranda tried to form a sentence that wouldn't antagonise her friend. Or was she a friend? Would a proper friend have set her up with such a – such a muppet?

2011, Penny Smith, Summer Holiday, HarperCollins UK, →ISBN:

The truth was I'd love to be in the school team but I wouldn't get picked anyway: most of the kids think I'm a real muppet, a gormo who's into bird-watching and if I tried to join in, they would just rib me, so I don't bother to show any interest.

2012, Diane Perry, Red Kite, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 29:

Scrappy set off to run out through the dog flap, but Katie caught hold of him (as he was such a muppet he'd be in danger – as usual – of ending up under the wheels of whoever's Chelsea tractor was scrunching its way up the gravel driveway).

2012, Jane Reynolds, Just Good Friends?, eBook Partnership, →ISBN:

Anyway here was a message now, from 'Geordie', sent to Jack and cc-ed to the rest of his male colleagues. Subject line: 'You've been replaced with a real muppet.'

2020, Dan Brotzel, Hotel du Jack: And Other Stories, Sandstone Press Ltd, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, derogatory) An incompetent or foolish person.


immersion

en-noun

immersion (countable and uncountable, plural immersions)

From late Middle English, borrowed from Late Latin immersiō, immersiōnem (“dipping”).

потапяне

the act of immersing or the condition of being immersed

She left the immersion on all the time, while I had been reared under pain of death to turn it off as soon as the bathwater was heated.

2020, Kathleen MacMahon, Nothing But Blue Sky, Penguin, →ISBN:

(British, Ireland, informal) An immersion heater.


red diesel

The fuel is coloured with red dye to prevent illegal use on public roads.

(British, Ireland) Untaxed diesel fuel intended to be used on private property.


traditional county

en-noun

traditional county (plural traditional counties)

Traditional counties of the British Isles

(Ireland) any of the historical sub-national divisions used for the purposes of geographic demarcation, local government, and sport.


swot

en-verb

swot (third-person singular simple present swots, present participle swotting, simple past and past participle swotted)

swots (present singular third-person)
swotting (participle present)
swotted (participle past)
swotted (past)
swat (alternative)

From a dialectal English word, from Middle English swot, swat, from Old English swāt (“perspiration; sweat”), from Proto-Germanic *swaitą (“sweat”). More at sweat.

inh

(intransitive, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To study with effort or determination.


footy

en-noun

footy (countable and uncountable, plural footies)

association football
association football

(uncountable, UK, Ireland) Football (association football) (soccer in US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand).


salute

en-verb

salute (third-person singular simple present salutes, present participle saluting, simple past and past participle saluted)

salutes (present singular third-person)
saluting (participle present)
saluted (participle past)
saluted (past)

Borrowed from Latin salūtō (“to greet; to wish health to”), from salūs (“greeting, good health”), related to salvus (“safe”).

bor

I saluted Bill at the concert, but he didn't see me through the crowd.

(Ireland, informal) to wave, to acknowledge an acquaintance.


Baz

There was me and Baz – Barry Stevens, my DS – in one car.

2003, Peter Robinson, Aftermath: An Inspector Banks Mystery, unnumbered page:

(British, Ireland, Australia) A diminutive of the male given name Barry.

That's what Baz—Basil Younger——said when I put it to him.

2005, Reginald Hill, Who Guards a Prince, page 169:

(British, Ireland, Australia) A diminutive of the male given name Basil.


Garda

Gardai (plural)
Gardaí (plural)
garda (alternative)

From Irish Garda (“guardian”), from Irish Garda Síochána (“Guardian of the Peace”) and Garda Síochána na hÉireann (“Guardian of the Peace of Ireland”) after the model of the French Third Republic's civilian French gardiens de la paix, from Old French guarde, from guarder (“to guard”), from Frankish *wardēn, from Proto-Germanic *wardāną. Doublet of guard, guardian, and warden.

der

Sure don't mind the Gardaí they say. They can't see in.

2013, Eimear McBride, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, Faber & Faber, published 2014, page 115:

(inexact, chiefly Ireland, chiefly in the plural) Synonym of police generally.


Hun

From Old English Hūnas, Hūne (both plural), from Late Latin Hunni, from Koine Greek Οὗννοι (Hoûnnoi), borrowed through Middle Iranian. Cognate with Old Norse húnir, Old High German Hunni. See also etymology of Xiongnu.
Compare Sogdian [script needed] (xwn), Sanskrit हूण (hūṇa), and 匈奴 (OC *hoŋ-nâ) (c. 318 BCE) > *hɨoŋ-nɑ (Eastern Han), which Schuessler (2014:264) proposes to be transcription of foreign *Hŏna ~ Hŭna. More at Huns.
As a derogatory term for Germans popularized by Rudyard Kipling, reacting to Germany's proposal that the Royal Navy be used to collect debts from Venezuela.

(slang, derogatory, UK, Ireland) A Protestant.

(slang, derogatory, UK, Ireland) A Rangers Football Club supporter; an Orangeman.


Muppet

Diane Sawyer
Elmo
Jim Henson
Kevin Clash
Muppet

Coined by Jim Henson as an alteration of puppet. Henson had claimed the word was a blend of marionette + puppet, but later recanted.

'I'll come, if you like,' Paul says. 'I'm not asking you, Muppet,' Kit snaps.

English version: I'm A Cockney Geezer, You Muppet. No, you are an upper middle class, public school educated wanker (it takes one to know one) and I feel I must apologize to everyone on behalf of the land of my birth for the many crimes to cinema committed in the wake of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).

2011, Julian Hoxter, Write What You Don't Know, page 45:

She tilts her head towards him, and whispers in his ear, “Of course I do, you Muppet. I keep telling you to trust The Source and our guides; don't I?"

2013, Guy Dance, Soul Brigade: The Mission of Light, page 245:

What's your fucking name you Muppet? I won't ask you again.

2018, Peter D. Bull, Undercover, page 13:

Not that kind of atmosphere, you Muppet. A cut it with a knife atmosphere.

2021, Margaret de Rohan, The Icarus Affair:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Eastern US, South Africa, slang, derogatory) Alternative form of muppet (fool).


North

English surname, from the adjective north. This is also translated from other surnames of the same meaning, such as Irish Mac an Ultaigh (“son of the Ulsterman”), Ulster being the northern part of Ireland.

The northern part of a region (alternative letter-case form of north), especially:


Orange

Some senses from French Orange, from Latin Aurasiō, from Gaulish. Other senses from the common noun orange, ultimately from Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga, “orange tree”).

(Ireland, informal) a Loyalist or a member of the Orange Order; someone, usually a Protestant, who advocates keeping Northern Ireland under British control.


Republican

(British, Ireland) An Irish nationalist; a proponent of a united Ireland.

It was confident both that the Republicans would never put it out to put Cosgrave in, and that Fine Gael was equally against the Republicans.

1970, The Republic of Ireland: an hypothesis in eight chapters and two intermissions:

(chiefly Ireland, now rare) A member or supporter of Fianna Fáil, a centre-right party in Ireland.


Rose

* As an English, Scottish, French, Walloon, Danish, Jewish (Yiddish רויז (royz)), and German surname, all from the noun rose. Also adapted from foreign forms of the same meaning such as Hungarian Rózsa, Rozsa, Slovak Róža, Czech Roza, etc. Compare Larose. The surname may be matronymic, but more probably topographic from residence by rose bushes or the sign of a rose, or a nickname from rosy complexion.
* Also as an English surname, from a Norman name of Germanic origins, likely made up of Proto-Germanic *hrod (“fame”) and *heid (“kind, sort, type”), ultimately evolved from *hrōþiz. Introduced to England in the form Roese or Rohese.
* As an English and Scottish surname, variant of Ross.
* As a Slovene surname, Americanized or Italianized from Rože, from a short form of Erazem (from Latin Erasmus), compare Rozman.

(Ireland, informal) A regional contestant in the annual Rose of Tralee contest.

(Ireland, informal) The winner of that year's contest.


Sellotape

en-noun

Sellotape (usually uncountable, plural Sellotapes)

Brand name, from cellophane tape. The first letter was changed to avoid infringing the then-extant trademark on cellophane.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) A brand of adhesive tape (and similar products) similar to Scotch tape (US).


Stick

The Officials were known as the "Stickies" because they sold stick-on lilies to commemorate the Easter Rising. This was used to contrast from the nickname for the Provisionals, the pinnies (pejoratively pinheads), who used pinned-on lilies, though the latter nickname disappeared.


Trinity

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


Yank

“This time,” he General Alphonse-Pierre Juin] told the Yanks, “you have not crossed to win new victories but to preserve peace. […]”

1951 June 11, “The Yanks Are Coming: U.S. shows world we are playing for keeps as 4th Division leaves to join Eisenhower's NATO army”, in Life, page 38:

(slang, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, UK, sometimes derogatory ethnic slur, by extension) An American: someone from the United States.


mn

mn. (alternative)
mln. (alternative)
mln (alternative)

(chiefly British, Commonwealth except Canada, Ireland) Abbreviation of million.


rota

Borrowed from Latin rota (“wheel”). Doublet of rotor and ruote.

[The manager] instituted a rota for having the players attend supporters’ club meetings throughout the season, telling them it was part of the job of being a footballer.

2014 July 25, Paul Rees, “‘We got off the coach and the National Front was there … People spat at us’”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland) A schedule that allocates some task, responsibility or (rarely) privilege between a set of people according to a (possibly periodic) calendar.


wally

'Don't be such a wally,' Ruby said. 'Felicity is way smarter than you could ever hope to be.'

2014, Richard Newsome, The House of Puzzles, page 111:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A fool.


hoover

The Hoover Company
Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum
hoover

Genericized trademark of Hoover, the brand name of one of the first vacuum cleaners, which was sold by The Hoover Company. The American company was founded by William Henry Hoover (1849–1932) and his son Herbert William Hoover, Sr. (1877–1954). The surname Hoover is an Anglicized version of the German Huber, originally designating a landowner or a prosperous small-scale farmer.

"What do you do about dogs that don't like Hoovers?" […] At the first opportunity place the Hoover in the area where your dog is lying calmly, and since it is normally the noise that sends it into those fits of anger, it should be unconcerned with a silent machine. Continue to place the Hoover in those areas that your pet is relaxing until it is familiar with the Hoover being in such close proximity. […] By continuing to distract your pet each time the Hoover is switched on but stationary, you should be able to move it a little closer without causing your pet any alarm.

2006, William Houston, Party Tricks for Dogs, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN:

And the brooms lined up behind the buckets, and the dusters, dustpans, cloths and brushes, feather dusters and sweepers all lined up bravely to do battle with the thousand upright Hoovers. The Hoovers charged, engines roaring and bags fully inflated.

2011, Terry Jones, Evil Machines, Clerkenwell, London: Unbound, →ISBN:

Vacuuming the house is a very quick way of sprucing it up simply because you can use the hoover to push everything out of the way. Cleaning an average-size room is also the exercise equivalent of ten minutes on the Nordic Skier, while changing the hoover bag is the mental equivalent of doing a Rubik's cube in a dust storm.

2014, Guy Browning, How to Be Normal: A Guide for the Perplexed, London: Atlantic Books, →ISBN:

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.


hoover

en-verb

hoover (third-person singular simple present hoovers, present participle hoovering, simple past and past participle hoovered)

hoovers (present singular third-person)
hoovering (participle present)
hoovered (participle past)
hoovered (past)
Hoover (alternative)

I need to hoover this room.

This time Robbie was dreaming about Mr Spatchley's ducks. They had all come alive and were flying around the office whilst Robbie desperately tried to hoover the floor. There were ducks everywhere, on the desk and mantelpiece and padding around on the floor, knocking things over and quacking indignantly.

2000, Tanya David, Dennis Pepper, comp., “Dogends”, in The New Young Oxford Book of Ghost Stories, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 30–31:

In the freshly hoovered living room of her house in Wokingham, Thelma Dawnton was distinctly miffed.

2006, Stella Rimington, Secret Asset, London: Hutchinson, ISBN 978-0-09-180024-6; republished New York, N.Y.: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4000-7982-7, page 210

In honour of my visit, he'd gotten rid of 'most' of the cobwebs, and washed and hoovered the walls next to the bed. Hoovered the walls? What sort of creatures were living in the gaps in the stone that would need to be hoovered out?

2009, Ariel Leve, The Cassandra Chronicles, London: Portobello, →ISBN:

After I'd eaten my dinner on Saturday, Mum said I could start earning some money by hoovering the lounge. She got the hoover out, plugged it in and said that she would come and inspect the carpet after she had finished clearing the dinner things away. […] I had started off hoovering the carpet, but after about twelve pushes I got a bit bored.

2015, Kes Gray, Daisy and the Trouble with Piggy Banks, London: Red Fox, →ISBN:

(ambitransitive, British, Ireland) To clean (a room, etc.) with a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.

I'd hoover, iron or dust, but I hated doing windows.

[…] she was always in trouble for not hoovering behind the bed picked up what I could of it still there after he hoovered […]

2001, Ali Smith, Hotel World, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN:

A woman from a funding agency visited the station for a meeting early one morning, and when she arrived I was doing the hoovering. My colleague introduced us and we chatted for a bit. Then she asked me what my job was and I told her 'station manager'. She looked really puzzled, and asked 'so why are you doing the hoovering?' I answered, 'because the floor was dirty.'

2005, Ally Fogg, Phil Korbel, Cathy Brooks, Steve Lee, “Money and Monitoring”, in Community Radio Toolkit, Manchester: Radio Regen, →ISBN, page 78:

Up and down the wooden stairs of the house in Cambridge large balls of dust and dog hair bounced. Toby wondered whether John Lambert III, if he'd stuck around, would have hoovered. The hoover stopped and the man wound in the cord, admiring his handiwork. The silence pounded against Toby's eardrums. It seemed that real men hoovered.

2007, Olivia Liberty, Falling, London: Atlantic Books, →ISBN:

(intransitive, British, Ireland) To use a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.


whisht

From Middle English qwyst, whisht, whist, imitative, though perhaps influenced by other verbs in wh- used in the imperative or by hust (adjective).

onom

imitative

wheesht (alternative)
weesht (alternative)
whish (alternative)
whist (alternative)

“You must have loved him very much,” she said.
“Whisht,” said the old woman, “there’s a word that you must never use until there's marrying between you […]”

1952, Neville Shute, chapter 9, in The Far Country, London: Heinemann:

(Ireland; British, especially Scotland, Northumbria) Shush, silence, be quiet!


fanny

en-noun

fanny (countable and uncountable, plural fannies)

19th century. Ultimately from Fanny, pet form of the name Frances. Compare dick, John Thomas, mickey.

Her dress was so short you could nearly see her fanny.

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, vulgar) The female genitalia.


Norn Iron

/ˈnɔːn ˈaɪɹən/

From an exaggerated pronunciation of Northern Ireland in a broad Belfast accent.

(Ireland, endearing slang) Northern Ireland.


Teletext

(UK, Ireland) A text-based information retrieval system using television sets with a suitable decoder; developed by the BBC.


munchie

An anglicisation of Irish muintir na hAite (literally “people of the place”).

bor

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

(Ireland) A person who lives in a Gaeltacht area of Ireland.


oxter

Apparently from Middle English *oxtere, *oxte, from Old English ōxta, ōhsta, related to Old English ōxn (“armpit”), Old English eax (“axis, axle”), and eaxl (“shoulder”). See also axis and axon.

And begob there he was passing the door with his books under his oxter and the wife beside him and Corny Kelleher with his wall eye looking in as they went past, […]

‘It's a small beast,’ he said. ‘I could carry it under my oxter.’

1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 90:

(chiefly Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) The armpit.


fetch

Heldref Publications
University Press of Kentucky

Uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested:
* From fetch-life (“(obsolete, rare) a deity, spirit, etc., who guides the soul of a dead person to the afterlife; a psychopomp”).
* From the supposed Old English *fæcce (“evil spirit formerly thought to sit on the chest of a sleeping person; a mare”).
* From Old Irish fáith (“seer, soothsayer”).

inh

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

Southern US, African-American Vernacular, obsolete

In these dilapidated articles of dress she had, on principle, arrayed herself, time out of mind, on such occasions as the present; for this at once expressed a decent amount of veneration for the deceased, and invited the next of kin to present her with a fresher set of weeds: an appeal so frequently successful, that the very fetch and ghost of Mrs. Gamp, bonnet and all, might be seen hanging up, at any hour of the day, in at least a dozen of the second-hand clothes shops around Holborn.

1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, “The Reader is Brought into Communication with Some Professional Persons, and Sheds a Tear over the Filial Piety of Good Mr. Jonas”, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 236:

I think it was a fetch. [...] Folk say a fetch is seen at its departing / From a cold house whence it shall lead a soul; / But this comes like a child-birth closing in, / And so perchance it does but signify / The consciousness of death that breaks in all.

1905, Gordon Bottomley, Midsummer Eve, Harting, Petersfield, Hampshire: Pear Tree Press, →OCLC; republished in King Lear’s Wife, The Crier by Night, The Riding to Lithend, Midsummer Eve, Laodice and Danaë: Plays, London: Constable & Company, 1920, →OCLC, page 159:

Several farm maidservants meet to see their future lovers' spirits on Midsummer Eve, but see only the "fetch" or double of one of them, foretelling her death.

1921, Sterling Andrus Leonard, “Bibliography of Plays for Reading in High Schools”, in Sterling Andrus Leonard, editor, The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays: […], Boston, Mass.: The Atlantic Monthly Press, →OCLC, page 300:

"If you're after some money," said the millionaire, "move that cat out of the way." Catweazle shook his head. "Mayhap 'tis a fetch." Victor was very taken aback. "A fetch?" he gulped. "That's a witch in the shape of a cat, isn't it?" "Ay," said Catweazle calmly.

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 80:

(originally Ireland, dialectal) The apparition of a living person; a person's double, the sight of which is supposedly a sign that they are fated to die soon, a doppelganger; a wraith (“a person's likeness seen just after their death; a ghost, a spectre”).


johnny

Alternative letter-case form of Johnny, diminutive of John.

toilet

place or device for urination and defecation

[H]e declared, like a real Irishman, that 'if he were a living man when he died, he would not give a single johnny of whisky either at his wake or his funeral.'

1867, William Dool Killen, Memoir of John Edgar, page 108:

(Ireland, slang, archaic) A half-glass of whisky.


hols

Where are you off to on your hols this year?

"A lot of queer things happened to me in the hols," said Eustace mysteriously.

1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 1, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998:

(UK, Ireland, informal) Holidays (time off work or time spent travelling).


rat-arsed

en-adj

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

more rat-arsed (comparative)
most rat-arsed (superlative)

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

I got completely rat-arsed last night, and ended up tied naked to a lamp post. I'm not going to do that again.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial, mildly vulgar) Extremely drunk.


arrah

"Whisht! whisht! Of what are ye thinking, ye silly gossoons? Will ye bring down the peace officers upon ye, and take out the bit o' the night in the prison, instead o' drinking me health, as ye may, and me helping to do that same? Arrah! Why should ye glower and snarl at each other, like a kennel o' mad puppies, when it's the brave frolic ye may have together?

1913, anonymous author, chapter VI, in Live to be Useful or, The Story of Annie Lee and Her Irish Nurse:

"Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see?
"Arrah, Tim, mavourneen, why did you die?"

c. 1850s, Anonymous, Finnegan's Wake (folk song)

(archaic, slang, chiefly in Ireland) An expletive.


arse about

en-verb

arse about (third-person singular simple present arses about, present participle arsing about, simple past and past participle arsed about)

arses about (present singular third-person)
arsing about (participle present)
arsed about (participle past)
arsed about (past)
arse-about (alternative)

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) Alternative form of arse around.


arse about

You've got this arse-about!

For the dome of the belly turned arse about has its parallel in the eye that falls out like the contents of a broken egg and that in its evocation of and preempting of regeneration becomes, in Bataille's novel, unremittingly erotic and polymorphously perverse.

1995, David Wills, Prosthesis, Stanford University Press, page 207:

Strike me if wasn't thinking old Colonel Bill had got it arse about.

2007, L. J. Spears, Jack Flagg, page 66:

‘This is arse-about, you know,’ I said. ‘You′ve got the athletic skills, and I'm the one going mountain climbing.[…].’

2008, Kieran Kelly, Aspiring, Pan MacMillan Australia, page 65:

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) The wrong way round; exactly opposite to that which is desirable; contrary; conceptually inverted; wrong.


gobsmacked

en-adj

gobsmacked (comparative more gobsmacked, superlative most gobsmacked)

more gobsmacked (comparative)
most gobsmacked (superlative)

As if smacked (“hit”) in the gob (“mouth (Irish / Scottish gaelic)”).
Attested since 1959, from Northern English dialect, particularly Liverpool, popularized via television.

That wad mack im about yam sick, so ower Ilkla' moor bar-tat wish un best of luck at Ilkley Station, and when he landed back Martha wad be fare gob smacked at the yarns he wad tell 'er about Yorkshire clod-hoppers.

1925 December 10, A Yorkshire Clod-Hopper, “From a Yorkshire Clod-Hopper”, in The Bee-keepers' Record, volumes 49-53, J. Herrod-Hempsall, retrieved 2018-06-08, page 175:

We were as appalled and stunned and confused and gobsmacked (punched on the mouth) as anyone else.

1989 August 7, Glenn Frankel, “Salman Rushdie's Life on the Run”, in Los Angeles Times:

"I guess the word would be gobsmacked," Barclay said, of his reaction. "I am stunned."

2008 June 16, Caroline Mallan, “Linwood Barclay novel wins a plug on key UK book list”, in Toronto Star, Canada, page A2:

Peterik told CNN that the use of the song caught him by surprise.
“I was gobsmacked,” he said. “We were not asked about this at all. The first time we saw it was on national TV.”

2015 September 9, Todd Leopold, “Band unhappy with use of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ for Kim Davis”, in CNN:

Far from the stage, a woman approached them and said she could tell they were big fans, so she was upgrading them to the front row. “We were absolutely gobsmacked,” Ryan said.

2023 August 10, Matthew Cantor, “‘Paul McCartney winked right at me’: the fans who buy nosebleed seats – and get whisked to the front”, in The Guardian, UK:

A hospital consultant who treated Sergei and Yulia Skripal after they were poisoned with the nerve agent novichok was “gobsmacked” when Yulia woke and began trying to get out of bed four days after the attack.

2024 October 31, Steven Morris, “Consultant who treated Yulia Skripal ‘gobsmacked’ when she woke up, inquiry hears”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, slang) Flabbergasted, astounded, speechless, overawed.


gherkin

gherkins (plural)
gerkin (alternative archaic)

From a form of Dutch gurk, an archaic variant of augurk (“small pickled cucumber”), from Low German, from Middle Low German agurke, augurke, probably via Slavic (compare Polish ogórek), from Byzantine Greek ἀγγούριον (angoúrion, “cucumber”). The underlying Dutch form may be a diminutive (gurkijn) or perhaps more probably the plural (gurken), which was then associated with the English suffix -kin (itself incidentally from Dutch or Low German). Compare German Gurke.

der

(UK, Ireland) Pickled cucumber regardless of size; a pickle


beat Banaghan

en-verb

beat Banaghan (third-person singular simple present beats Banaghan, present participle beating Banaghan, simple past beat Banaghan, past participle beaten Banaghan)

beats Banaghan (present singular third-person)
beating Banaghan (participle present)
beat Banaghan (past)
beaten Banaghan (participle past)

The Classic 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue speculates "perhaps Banaghan was a minstrel famous for dealing in the marvellous."

"'Jack Palmer, as I'm a sinner,' cried Titus. 'Why this beats Banaghan. Arrah ! Jack, honey, what does this mean ? Is it yourself I see in such company?'"

1837, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood (Revised) http://books.google.com/books?id=RRoGAAAAQAAJ, page 147

"He watched her as she slowly disappeared, and shook his head with a puzzled air. ¶'This beats Banaghan, and he beats --'"

1875, F.J. Hall, Conquered at Last, page 325:

"'So you see, it was a gallimaufry of a mess until you appeared.' ¶ 'Beats Banaghan,' agreed the boy."

1988, Maureen O'Donoghue, Winner, page 178:

"Whenever he can find an audience, Doherty will spin some tale of local history or ancestral lineage in that inimitable Irish blend of fact and blarney. 'He beats Banaghan,' as the Irish saying goes of one who tells wonderful stories."

2004, David Kales, The Phantom Pirate: Tales of the Irish Mafia and the Boston Harbor Islands, →ISBN, page 2:

(idiomatic, Ireland) To tell wonderful stories, or something which is amazing and remarkable.


PD

en-noun

PD (countable and uncountable, plural PDs)

The Progressive Democrats (PDs) are the junior partner in the governing coalition led by Bertie Ahern and his Fianna Fail party. […] Mr McDowell, a formidable barrister with a reputation as a political hothead, was elected leader of the PDs unopposed […].

2006 September 11, Owen Bowcott, “Outspoken justice minister to be Ireland's deputy leader”, in The Guardian:

Progressive Democrat
Progressive Democrat#English

(Ireland, politics, historical) Initialism of Progressive Democrat.


PD

Progressive Democrats
w:Progressive Democrats

(Ireland) Initialism of Progressive Democrats, a former political party disbanded in 2008.


diver

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


V sign

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A gesture of contempt or insult made by raising the index and middle fingers with the palm inwards; apocryphally originated by English bowmen at Agincourt (in actuality attested only from 1901).


NTA

w:National Transport Authority (Ireland)

(Ireland) Initialism of National Transport Authority.


daddy longlegs

daddy longlegs (plural daddy longlegs or daddy longlegses)

daddy longlegs (plural)
daddy longlegses (plural)
daddy-longlegs (alternative)
daddy-long-legs (alternative)

/ˈdædɪ ˈlɒŋ(ɡ)lɛɡz/

From daddy + longlegs. First attested in 1810s. Preceded by father longlegs, attested from 1740s.

Daddy longlegs adults are weak flyers, falling onto the water surface in the lightest of breezes, and even on calm days.

2004, Bill Hansford-Steele, African Fly-fishing Handbook, page 316:

(UK, Ireland) The cranefly; any insect of the suborder Tipulomorpha.


fey

en-adj

fey (comparative feyer or more fey, superlative feyest or most fey)

feyer (comparative)
more fey (comparative)
feyest (superlative)
most fey (superlative)

From Middle English fey (“fated to die”), from Old English fǣġe (“doomed to die, timid”), from Proto-West Germanic *faigī, from Proto-Germanic *faigijaz (“cowardly, wicked”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyk- (“ill-meaning, bad”).
Akin to Old Saxon fēgi, whence Dutch veeg (“doomed, near death”), Old High German feigi (“appointed for death, ungodly”) whence German feige (“cowardly”), Old Norse feigr (“doomed”) whence the Icelandic feigur (“doomed to die”), Old English fāh (“outlawed, hostile”). More at foe.

cog

(chiefly Scotland, Ireland) Possessing second sight, clairvoyance, or clairaudience.


smart arse

smart arses (plural)
smart-arse (alternative)
smartarse (alternative)

‘That Howard kid is a smart-arse little bugger!’

1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 51:

(idiomatic, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) One who is particularly flippant or insolent or tends to make snide remarks or jokes.


takeaway

Italian: takeaway

Swedish: takeaway

I couldn't be bothered to cook, so I bought a takeaway curry.

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, Hong Kong, sometimes Philippines) (Of food) intended to be eaten off the premises from which it was bought.


(British, Ireland, etc., historical) Abbreviation of two pence, tuppence (in pre-decimalisation currency, never used for 'two new pence').


MSA

en-noun

MSA (countable and uncountable, plural MSAs)

motorway service area
w:motorway service area

(UK, Ireland) Initialism of motorway service area.


lamping

(UK, Ireland) A form of hunting at night, during which bright lights or lamps are used to dazzle the hunted animal or to attract insects for capture.


CBA

CBA (countable and uncountable, plural CBAs)

classroom-based assessment
classroom-based assessment#English

(Ireland, education) Initialism of classroom-based assessment.


personal video recorder

personal video recorder (plural personal video recorders)

(television, Canada, UK, Ireland) A device that can record broadcast television programmes, or the images from a video camera, for subsequent playback through a television set


Godspeed

Godspeed (countable and uncountable, plural Godspeeds)

Godspeeds (plural)
God-speed (alternative)
God speed (alternative)
godspeed (alternative)
good speed (alternative)

From Middle English God spede, short for God spede þe, God spede yow, etc., from God + spede, singular subjunctive form of speden (“to help, further, cause to prosper”), equivalent to God + speed. Compare God bless, God damn.

If I don't leave you at the back of God-speed before long, I'll give you the mare and the horse too.

1858, Anthony Trollope, “Frank Gresham’s First Speech”, in Doctor Thorne. […], volume I, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 124:

mrs george. I have earned the right to speak. I have dared: I have gone through: I have not fallen withered into the fire: I have come at last out beyond, to the back of Godspeed. / the bishop. And what do you see there, at the back of Godspeed?

1908 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Getting Married”, in The Doctor’s Dilemma, Getting Married, & The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, London: Constable and Company, published 1911, →OCLC, page 278:

(originally Ireland) In back of Godspeed: a distant, remote, or unknown place.


deadly

en-adj

deadly (comparative deadlier or more deadly, superlative deadliest or most deadly)

deadlier (comparative)
more deadly (comparative)
deadliest (superlative)
most deadly (superlative)

From Middle English dedly, dedlych, dedlich, from Old English dēadlīċ (adjective), from Proto-West Germanic *dauþalīk, from Proto-Germanic *dauþalīkaz (“deadly”, literally “deathly”). By surface analysis, dead + -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian dodelk (“deadly”), West Frisian deadlik (“deadly”), Dutch dodelijk (“deadly”), German tödlich (“deadly”), Swedish dödlig (“deadly, fatal, mortal”), Icelandic dauðlegur (“mortal”).
The adverb is from Middle English dedliche, from Old English dēadlīċe (adverb), from the adjective.

cog

(informal, Australian Aboriginal, Ireland, Newfoundland) Excellent, awesome, cool.


flex

en-noun

flex (countable and uncountable, plural flexes)

From Latin flexus, past participle of flecto (“to bend”).

(uncountable, chiefly UK, Ireland) Any flexible insulated electrical wiring.


curate

→ Welsh: curad

Borrowed from Medieval Latin cūrātus (“one who has been curated, a curate”), a substantivation of the perfect passive participle of cūrō. Doublet of curato and curé. Equivalent to cure + -ate (noun-forming suffix).

bor

‘Here, Pat, give us a g.p., like a good fellow.’ The curate brought him a glass of plain porter. The man drank it at a gulp and asked for a caraway seed. He put his penny on the counter and, leaving the curate to grope for it in the gloom, retreated out of the snug as furtively as he had entered it.

1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Counterparts”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 107:


bhoy

(West Coast Scottish, Ireland) Eye dialect spelling of boy.


tuppence

en-noun

tuppence (countable and uncountable, plural tuppences)

By surface analysis, two + pence, collective plural of penny.
Same for the definition: "Ellipsis of tuppence worth (“one’s opinion”)" however, this idiom is derived from this fact; in Britain it used to cost two pence ("tuppence") to post a letter, usually holding one's opinion.

ellipsis of

Milk has gone up to tuppence ha’penny a pint.

In less than four days twenty-three men had paid their tuppences to Henery, who ’ad been made the seckitary.

1909, W. W. Jacobs, “Prize Money,”, in Sailor's Knots:

‘Miss Brindle rich?’ said Aunt Maggie. ‘Bless you, she hasn’t tuppence to rub together.’

1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 11:

(UK, Ireland, informal, dated) Two pence (in pre- or post-decimalisation currency).

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic) Ellipsis of tuppence worth (“one’s opinion”).

"Fucksticks!" When some smart-arse bastard gives me my comeuppance / "Fucksticks!" When it’s ages since I’ve seen a lady’s tuppence

2011, Kunt and the Gang, Fucksticks (song)

The lady confided to the nurse helping her up off the examination couch, and told her “He put his hand up me funnel and made me tuppence bleed!”

2012, Richard Johns, Diagnosis of the Soul: The Long Road to the Beginning:

(UK, Ireland, slang, euphemistic, usually childish) The vulva or vagina.


telephone box

(British and Ireland) A small enclosure housing a public telephone (usually a payphone).


tinker

(US)

From Middle English tynkere, perhaps from Old English *tincere, from tin (“tin”) + *cere, as in bēocere (“beekeeper”).

if ifs and ands were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers' hands

(dated, chiefly British and Ireland, offensive) A member of the Irish Traveller community or of other itinerant groups; a gypsy.


DFAT

w:Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

(Ireland, Australia) Acronym of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.


The total number of counties in the island of Ireland.

a 32-county tour

32-county republic

(Ireland, British) Covering the whole of the island of Ireland, including both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.


PP

en-noun

PP (countable and uncountable, plural PPs)

planning permission
planning permission#English

(British, Ireland) Initialism of planning permission.


scallion

scallions (plural)
scullion (alternative)

From Middle English scaloun (“shallot”), from Anglo-Norman scalun (variant of Old French eschaloigne), from a Proto-Romance derivation of Vulgar Latin *escalonia, from Latin Ascalonius (in caepa (“onion”) Ascalonius, "shallot"), from Ascalo (“Ascalon”), from Ancient Greek Ἀσκάλων (Askálōn, “Ascalon, an ancient port city in the Levant”), borrowed from Biblical Hebrew אַשְׁקְלוֹן (ʾašqəlôn).

der

Allium fistulosum
Allium fistulosum#Translingual

(now chiefly US, Ireland) A spring onion, Allium fistulosum.

(now chiefly US, Ireland) Any of various similar members of the genus Allium.


locked

'Drunk. Battered. Ar meisce. In a state of alcohol-induced intoxication.' […] Nadine and I once watched the news and had a shot of absinthe every time someone said unnatural. We were absolutely locked.'

2021, Samantha Shannon, The Mask Falling, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 99:


fadge

Uncertain, but potentially from or related to Old English faċġ (“flat-fish, plaice, flounder”).

(Ireland) Irish potato bread; a flat farl, griddle-baked, often served fried.


toerag

"I know James Potter's an arrogant toerag," she said, cutting across Snape.

2007, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, USA: Arthur A. Levine Books, page 674:

“I’m not racist; I don’t mind people coming in if they respect Irish people. But the likes of the toerags coming into this country – they’re not vetted and are causing havoc.”

2023 November 24, Rory Carroll, “‘Government is not listening’: anger over immigration spills into riot on Dublin’s streets”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(derogatory, British, Ireland) A worthless or despicable person.


headmaster

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A male headteacher.

مُدِير

the most senior master in a school (male)


bonce

Bonce (various), the head, called also "crust, chump." From bonce, a marble of larger size than ordinary, used by boys.

1889, Barrère and Leland, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, page 158:

To see Nina herself Nick had to crane round the big white bonce of Norman Kent, who was as sensitive to music as he was to conservatives, and kept shifting in his seat.

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 9, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:

2010, Skins, Season 4 Episode 8, "Everyone".
Cook: I don't think you know what I am, mate. ... I'm a fucking waste of space. I'm just a stupid kid. I got no sense. A criminal. I'm no fucking use, me. I am nothing. So, please... please... get it into, you know, into your bonce... that you killed my friend. And... I'm Cook. I'M COOK!

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) The human head.


coroner

From Middle English coroner, from Old French curuner, from Medieval Latin custōs placitōrum corōnae (“guardian of the crown's pleas”). The function was originally to protect royal properties.

(Commonwealth, Ireland, Japan, law) A public official who presides over an inquest into unnatural deaths, and who may have (or historically had) additional powers such as investigating cases of treasure trove.


grotty

en-adj

grotty (comparative grottier, superlative grottiest)

grottier (comparative)
grottiest (superlative)

Clipping of grotesque + -y. Piecewise doublet of grody, the American equivalent. Compare Middle English groti, grooti (“slimy, muddy”), from Old English grotiġ (“earthy, dirty”) (modern dialectal English groaty, Scots grotty), which is equivalent to groat + -y. Compare also Scottish Gaelic grod (“rotten, lousy, terrible”), Middle Irish grot (“bitter, sour”).
Originated or popularised by the 1964 film A Hard Day's Night, starring the Beatles and written by Alun Owen.

ncog

George: I wouldn't be seen dead in them. They're dead grotty.
Simon: Grotty?
George: Yeah, grotesque.

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Unpleasant, dirty, slovenly or offensive.


geez

Hi geez, you alright?

(UK, Ireland, slang) Informal address to a male.


spend a penny

en-verb

spend a penny (third-person singular simple present spends a penny, present participle spending a penny, simple past and past participle spent a penny)

spends a penny (present singular third-person)
spending a penny (participle present)
spent a penny (participle past)
spent a penny (past)

From the act of putting a (pre-decimal) penny in the slot of a pay-toilet cubicle.

I put on a lick of paint, slip over and spend a penny in Costing…I should technically use the one in Records but I've told them, that lavatory seat is a death trap.

1982, Alan Bennett, “A Woman of No Importance”, in The Complete Talking Heads, Picador, published 2010, →ISBN, page 14:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, dated, euphemistic) To use the toilet.


pernickety

en-adj

pernickety (comparative more pernickety, superlative most pernickety)

more pernickety (comparative)
most pernickety (superlative)
persnickety (alternative)

From Scots pernickety, persnickety, apparently from per- + nick (“a notch, mark, cutting retort”) + -et (“-ed”) + -y; equivalent to English per- + nick + -ety; literally, “marked up”, then “overly precise”. The alternative form persnickety, with s, may be due to substitution of Scots sneck (“a cut, notch”) for nick.
Compare also Scots variants pernicked, pernicket, pirnicky, and pernicky.

‘You must forgive me,’ he said. ‘I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It’s very pernickety and old-maidish really, but then when I’m working I generally have to eat my meals alone and it makes them more interesting when one takes trouble.’

1953, Ian Fleming, chapter 8, in Casino Royale, page 48:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Fussy; paying undue attention to minor details; fastidious.


carer

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

Have you thought of a job as a carer for disabled people?

They retired early to be a full-time carer for their partner.

He said Robins had not been in trouble with the law before and had no previous convictions. Jail would have an adverse effect on her and her three children as she was the main carer.

2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian:

Her business was a one-woman outfit that offered accredited first-aid training courses for teachers, carers, sports coaches, antenatal classes, workplace groups, and the police; the classes ranged from basic defibrillator training to what was now called psychological first aid.

2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 211:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Someone who regularly looks after another person, either as a job or often through family responsibilities.

مُقَدِّم الرِّعايَة

someone who regularly looks after another person


ossified

ossified (comparative more ossified, superlative most ossified)

more ossified (comparative)
most ossified (superlative)

At Wanda's house, two nights before the wedding, she, Jenny, and two other girls were doing shots with beer chasers while Tom and I and another guy watched as they all got ossified.


ming

en-verb

ming (third-person singular simple present mings, present participle minging, simple past and past participle minged or meint or ment or meynt)

mings (present singular third-person)
minging (participle present)
minged (participle past)
minged (past)
meint (participle past)
meint (past)
ment (participle past)
ment (past)
meynt (participle past)
meynt (past)
minge (alternative)
meng (alternative)

From Middle English mingen, mengen, from Old English mengan (“to mix, combine, unite, associate with, consort, cohabit with, disturb, converse”), from Proto-West Germanic *mangijan (“to mix, knead”), from Proto-Indo-European *menk- (“to rumple, knead”). Cognate with Dutch mengen (“to mix, blend, mingle”), German mengen (“to mix”), Danish mænge (“to rub”), Old English ġemang (“mixture, union, troop, crowd, multitude, congregation, assembly, business, cohabitation”). More at among.

cog

(UK, Ireland, dialectal) To produce through mixing; especially, to knead.


ming

mings (plural)
minge (alternative)
meng (alternative)


ming

en-verb

ming (third-person singular simple present mings, present participle minging, simple past and past participle minged)

mings (present singular third-person)
minging (participle present)
minged (participle past)
minged (past)

(UK, Ireland, slang) To be unattractive (person or object).

(UK, Ireland, slang) To be foul-smelling.


minging

en-adj

minging (comparative more minging, superlative most minging)

more minging (comparative)
most minging (superlative)

From Scots mingin (“stinking”), present participle of ming (“to stink”), from Middle English mengen (“to mix”), from Old English mengan (“to mix”).

Once, Cookie even tried to get me to give it a go with Jez – can you believe the nerve of that? 'Why would I want to do that? He's minging.' 'Why not? It won't hurt. He never gets a shag.' 'No, Cookie. Bloody hell.' He hasn't got a clue. 'Wouldn't you be jealous?' 'No.' 'You're an idiot. Why do you think he never gets a shag?' 'Why?' 'Because he's minging!' 'So? I'm minging. We're all minging. None of us are exactly page three, are we, Billie?'

2011, Melvin Burgess, Kill All Enemies, Penguin UK, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Very unattractive; ugly.

Cleaners are always prime suspects for office thefts but in my long experience it's nearly all employees, with a tiny remainder down to traditional burglary. My advice is to presume the Nike-clad cleaner innocent and take personal stuff home, especially minging sportswear.

2011, Lucy Kellaway, The Answers: All the office questions you never dared to ask, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 82:

How can you shag bare lads? / Is your fanny not stinging? / I bet your fanny's fucking minging

2016 December 3, Millie B, “Soph Aspin Send”, performed by Millie B:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Unclean or dirty; disgusting and foul-smelling.


judicial

judicial (comparative more judicial, superlative most judicial)

more judicial (comparative)
most judicial (superlative)

/d͡ʒuˈdɪʃəl/

judicial rent, judicial lease

(Ireland, historical) specified by a civil bill court under the terms of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881


nixer

2000, Patricia Scanlan, City Lives, Random House (Bantam Books), page 385,
'Ciara, you were getting very well paid. Over the odds in fact. And doing the odd nixer is a hell of a lot different from defrauding your employers,' Devlin retorted angrily.

2002 [Ashgate Publishing], Ullrich Kockel, Regional Culture and Economic Development, 2017, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 51,
Although this advice was given with a view to allowing Séamus to continue in farming while maintaining his factory job, the success of this innovation, which was largely financed by savings facilitated through ‘nixers’ and poteen sales – was such that Séamus quit his job, and is now enjoying a higher level of total income than before: His flock productivity has almost doubled, and quality improved considerably as the weaning rate rose.

2024, Seamus O'Rourke, Leaning on Gates, Gill (Gill Books), unnumbered page,
He asked me if I was interested in doing a nixer. I didn't know what a nixer was. I was so sheltered in my little safe nine-to-five working world that I didn't realise there was another world out there with less emphasis on clock-watching and more on making money.
'A nixer – a couple of evenings' work for cash.'
'Oh,' I said, 'that sounds good to me.'

(Ireland, slang) A job or income which is in addition to one's normal employment, generally done in the evening or on weekends; originally, work for payment that was not declared for taxation, now any work that is not part of one's regular job.


geezer

From guiser. Compare also German Low German Kieser (“an obstinate person; brute; savage”).

cog

You are a silly young geezer.

1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 19, in Right Ho, Jeeves:

See the hoverboard-riding geezer? This close to payin' a G for a shot of my cousin Calvin's molars.

2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane, spoken by Nathan (Simon Manyonda):

(informal, chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, dated in the US) A male person.

Geezers need excitement / If their lives don't provide 'em this, they incite violence / Common sense, simple common sense

2002, “Geezers need excitement”, in Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets:

He turned out to be a proper geezer who was willing to listen to my proposition that if he took the door at the Ministry, I would pay him £400 a month to mark my cards.

2003, Carlton Leach, Muscle, John Blake Publishing, →ISBN:

He was a bit of a geezer. Used to box with the Krays when he was a young 'un.

2009, Dreda Say Mitchell, Geezer Girls, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

When I'd first met Adam, at work when we were both 23, the fact that he seemed a little rough around the edges appealed to me. He was a bit of a geezer, a joker, one of the lads.

2013, Charlotte Ward, Why Am I Always the One Before 'The One'?, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, chiefly Cockney, slang) Someone affable but morally dubious; a wide boy.

Hi, geezer, you alright?

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Term of address for a male.

He'd flirt and boat, but never wrote / A note to his old geezer.

1882, J. F. Mitchell, Jimmy Johnson's Holiday:

This frizzle-headed old geezer had a chin on her as rough well, as rough as her family, and they're rough 'uns.

(archaic, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Wife; old woman.


hon

Clipping of come on with devoicing of /m/. Compare c'mon.

“Hon the Banner!” is the single-minded mantra being roared everywhere else.

2013 September 9, Rosita Boland, “Feelings of relief and anti-climax in Ennis car park”, in The Irish Times:

We're not normally impressed by this kind of stuff but h'on the lads! This is pretty good.

2016 August 17, Jennifer Dollard "Seagulls cover Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage'" Today FM

To coincide with the film’s release, GQ recently enlisted the actor to take part in a photoshoot in some of Dublin’s most beloved pubs. ... Hon Dublin!

2017 March 16, Amy O'Connor, “GQ did a swanky photoshoot in loads of Dublin pubs with the star of Beauty and the Beast”, in Daily Edge:

22:23 BIRDIE: Lowry (-2) can't find the bottom of the cup with his eagle putt but taps in for birdie. Hon the Offalyman. He's one behind the leaders, McGirt and Hoffman

2017 April 7, Johnny Watterson, John O'Sullivan, “Liveblog: US Masters: Day One”, in The Irish Times:

(Ireland, slang); (typically) cheering a sports team, especially a GAA team; exhortation or encouragement come on; congratulations well done, bravo.


rowan

en-noun

rowan (countable and uncountable, plural rowans)

(archaic, Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) Alternative form of rown (“fish-eggs”).


disciple

From Middle English disciple, discipul, from Old English discipul (“disciple, scholar”), from Latin discipulus (“pupil, learner”). Later influenced or superseded in Middle English by Old French deciple.

inh

(Ireland) A wretched, miserable-looking man.


indicator

From Late Latin indicātor (“one who points out”), from Latin indicō (“point out”). By surface analysis, indicate + -or; see indicate.

der

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, automotive) A turn signal; each of the flashing lights on each side of a vehicle which indicate a turn is being made to left or right, or a lane change etc.


bags

en-verb

bags (third-person singular simple present bagses, present participle bagsing, simple past and past participle bagsed)

bagses (present singular third-person)
bagsing (participle present)
bagsed (participle past)
bagsed (past)
baggs (alternative)

Grammatical extension of third-person singular form of bag (“make first claim on something”).

So you were thrilled, and we picked out the mare for Harriet, and you bagsed the black, and I had the chestnut, and we all rode away one day.

2006, Jill Golden, Inventing Beatrice, page 81:

Mum bagsed being the priestess who got to dangle Stone over the volcano by his ankles.

2007, Debra Oswald., Getting Air, page 66:

Battered armchairs and a sofa were bagsed first; they were more comfortable than the school chairs that could get hard.

2008, Kate Dellar-Evans, Best of Friends: The First Thirty Years of the Friendly Street Poets, page 13:

‘Hey, it′s my turn in the front,’ Kalista called as she realised her brother had bagsed the front seat.

They used to share the water as kids, and for some reason Irene always managed to bags the first bath; Riva made do with the soapy second.

2016, Laurence Fearnley, The Quiet Spectacular, →ISBN, page 214:

(Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK) To reserve for oneself.


physiotherapy

en-noun

physiotherapy (countable and uncountable, plural physiotherapies)

(British, Commonwealth, Ireland) Therapy that uses physical techniques such as massage, ultrasound, heat, and exercise.

عِلَاج طَبِيعِيّ

therapy that uses physical techniques such as massage and exercise


wazzock

Possibly from wiseacre, influenced by pillock, or possibly wazz + -ock. First attested in the 1984 novel When the Martians Land in Huddersfield by Mike Harding. Harding (born 1944) later claimed that he "used it when I was a kid,” it being “fairly common in the north, in Lancashire and Yorkshire”, and suggested that the term came from the instrument used to fling a monarch's excrement out the window.

I turn, as I must, to Mr Trump. His comments about Muslims are wrong. His policy to close borders, if he is elected as President, is bonkers. If he met one or two of my constituents in one of the many excellent pubs in my constituency, they may well tell him that he is a wazzock for dealing with the issue in that way.

2016 18 January, Victoria Atkins MP, House of Commons debate concerning Donald Trump

(British, Ireland, Northern England, derogatory, slang) A stupid or annoying person.


letterbox

letterboxes (plural)
letter box (alternative)

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

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A box into which mail is put.

A collection point for mail intended for onward delivery, a secure box or receptacle for this purpose.

A wad of junk mail was pushed through the letterbox in the front door and dropped onto the mat.

A delivery point for mail, a box, compartment or slot for this purpose.


wonky

en-adj

wonky (comparative wonkier, superlative wonkiest)

wonkier (comparative)
wonkiest (superlative)

From English dialectal wanky, alteration of Middle English wankel (“unstable, shaky”), from Old English wancol (“unstable”), from Proto-West Germanic *wankul (“swaying, shaky, unstable”).

inh

It seemed likely that he would need First Aid when those wonky steps yielded, at length, to the well-known law of gravitation.

1932, Frank Richards, The Magnet: The Terror of the Form:

(chiefly British, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) Feeble, shaky or rickety.


earthed

(UK, Ireland) Grounded, connected electrically to the ground.


enrol

en-verb

enrol (third-person singular simple present enrols, present participle enrolling, simple past and past participle enrolled)

enrols (present singular third-person)
enrolling (participle present)
enrolled (participle past)
enrolled (past)

(British, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Canada) Standard spelling of enroll.


how do you like them apples

"I can't give you a raise now; if I did, this whole company would go bankrupt, and you wouldn't have a job at all. Now how do you like them apples?"

(colloquial, rhetorical question, Ireland, US) Used after an actual or proposed action with which the listener might be displeased, and also used after refuting an argument.


softy

(informal, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A soft drink containing no alcohol.


skit

skit (third-person singular simple present skits, present participle skitting, simple past and past participle skitted)

skits (present singular third-person)
skitting (participle present)
skitted (participle past)
skitted (past)

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Old Norse skjúta (“to shoot, dart, move quickly”), variant of skjóta. Compare flytja (“to move”). Alternately, perhaps a back-formation from skittish, which in turn may derive from Old Norse or another North Germanic language.

der

(transitive, Ireland, Liverpool, Merseyside) To make fun of.


noughts and crosses

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, games) A two-player game played on a three-by-three grid, in which players take it in turns to place their respective symbol (either a nought or a cross) in a cell of the grid, the objective being to form a row, column or diagonal of three of one's own symbol.


lads

Me and the lads have had a meeting in the bar and decided it's first-class family entertainment.

1998, Tom Stoppard., The Real Inspector Hound:

I loved saying lads . . . like I was a comrade . . . like I was one of them ... me and the lads . . . alright lads, eh ... Italy, no problem .

2000, Marie Jones., Stones In His Pockets:

(Northern England, Geordie, Ireland) A group of friends, regardless of gender. Often the lads.


bluebottle

bluebottles (plural)
blue-bottle (alternative)

From blue + bottle, after the resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles. In sense 3 (“cornflower”), via Middle English blewbothel. Sense 6 (“police officer”) is in reference to the colour of the uniform.

Batemans Bay, New South Wales
bluebottle

I will have you as soundly swing’d for this, you bluebottle rogue!

c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi]:

[…] comic writers […] have never failed to make capital out of the New Police, Peel's Raw-Lobsters, Peelers, Blue Bottles, &c., &c.

1878, Charles Hindley, The life and times of James Catnach, page 206:

COOMBE: He got the clinch only last week — eighteen months. You see it's no good having anybody here as ain't got a^([sic]) unblemished character. We don't want to have the bluebottles come sniffing round here, do we?

1882, Henry Herman, Henry Arthur Jones, The Silver King:

(UK, Australia, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A police officer.


bully

en-noun

bully (countable and uncountable, plural bullies)

From 1530, as a term of endearment, probably a diminutive ( + -y) of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”), from Middle Dutch boel, boele (“brother; lover”), from Old Dutch *buolo, from Proto-Germanic *bōlô (compare Middle Low German bôle (“brother”), Middle High German buole (“brother; close relative; close relation”) (whence German Buhle (“lover”)), Old English Bōla, Bōlla (personal name), diminutive of expressive *bō- (“brother, father”). Compare also Latvian bālinš (“brother”). More at boy.
The term acquired a negative connotation during the 17th century; first ‘noisy, blustering fellow’ then ‘a person who is cruel to others’. Possibly influenced by bull (“male cattle”) or via the ‘prostitute's minder’ sense. The positive senses are dated, but survive in phrases such as bully pulpit.

onomatopoeic

expressive

Frae Team Gut to Whitley, we' coals black an' brown
For the Amphitrite loaded, the keel had come down—
But the bullies ower neet had their gobs se oft wet,
That the nyem o' the ship yen an' a' did forget.

1824, Robert Gilchrist, “The Skipper's Erudition”, in A Collection of Original Local Songs, page 11:

(obsolete or dialectal, Ireland and Northern England) An (eldest) brother; a fellow workman; comrade


buffer

Such a buffer as Donnelly, / Ereland never again will see.

1821, Pierce Egan (the Elder), Boxiana; or, Sketches of antient and modern pugilism (page 117)


service station

en-noun

service station (plural service stations)

→ Afrikaans: diensstasie (calque)

→ Dutch: servicestation


bn

bn. (alternative)
bln (alternative)
bln. (alternative)

(chiefly British, Commonwealth except Canada, Ireland) Abbreviation of billion.


gen

Nose around any modest-sized station and the odds are you'll find that the chargeman's office doubles as a bashers' club, a place where shivering spotters can get warm and catch up on the gen.

2015, Nicholas Whittaker, Platform Souls: The Trainspotter as 20th-Century Hero:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Information.


plonk

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

From WWI military slang, derived by alteration of French vin blanc (“white wine”) by the law of Hobson-Jobson. Recorded earliest in the playful rhyming slang form plinketty-plonk. Possibly influenced by the sound of wine being poured into a glass.

The third category of wines is highly unattractive as these may only be sold as generic wines (white, red or rosé), without reference to any geographical location. Only surplus plonk and cooking wine would aspire to fall in this segment, which can be blended with any other wine - to any extent.

1998, Pierre Spahni, Swiss Wine Market Report, page 95:

Diesel took a large swallow out of the glass of red wine. He spluttered, choked, and spilled wine down one leg of his fawn colored pants. “My God,” he gasped, when he could speak. “What is that crap?”
“Why cheap red wine,” Ford displayed the label. “You know. Plonk.”

2003, Joan del Monte, Plonk Goes the Weasel, page 201:

2011, Charles Spence, Maya U. Shankar, Heston Blumenthal, Chapter 11: ‘Sound Bites’: Auditory Contributions to the Perceeption and Consumption of Food and Drink, Francesca Bacci, David Melcher (editors), Art and the Senses, page 229,
Given the results reported in this chapter, one obvious solution to the ‘plonk paradox’ (why cheap wine tastes good on holiday but terrible at home) would be to try and recapture some of these sensory impressions in one′s own living room, in order to enhance the flavour/pleasantness of the wine-drinking experience (and turn that horrible tasting wine into something that tastes really rather nice), and to elucidate the respective contributions of contextual effects on hedonic ratings.

(uncountable, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Cheap or inferior everyday wine.


plonk

Chris and that plonk had better be flushing the scum out.

(countable, derogatory, UK, Ireland, law enforcement slang) A female police constable.


moggy

Unknown, but probably originally Mog + -y, a Scots or Northern English variant of maggie (“girl”), from Maggie, a diminutive of Margaret and Margery. First attested in reference to mongrel cats in Cockney.

Cockney slang... ‘moggies’ for cats.

1911, John William Horsley, I Remember: Memories of a 'Sky Pilot' in the Prison and the Slum, page 254:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A domestic cat, especially (depreciative or derogatory) a non-pedigree or unremarkable cat.


scavenger

scavengers (plural)
skavenger (alternative)

Originally from Middle English scavager, from Anglo-Norman scawageour (“one who had to do with scavage, inspector, tax collector”), from Old Northern French *scawage, escauwage (“scavage”), Old French *scavage, escavage, alteration of escauvinghe (compare Medieval Latin scewinga, sceawinga), from Old Dutch scauwōn (“to inspect, to examinate, to look at”). Usually reinterpreted/re-analysed today as scavenge (which was originally a backformation from this word) + -er. Compare Old English sċēawung (“a showing, spectacle, examination, inspection, toll on exposure of goods”) and Dutch schouwing (“inspection”). More at show.

cog

(UK, Ireland, obsolete) A street sweeper.

(UK, Ireland, historical) A child employed to pick up loose cotton from the floor in a cotton mill.


harps

(Ireland) The side of a coin that bears an image of the Irish harp.


bellend

(UK, Ireland, vulgar) Alternative spelling of bell-end.


loon

From Middle English louen, lowen (“rascal; rogue”), probably of Middle Dutch or Middle Low German origin. Compare Dutch loen (“simpleton”). Or, related to sense 2, due to the bird's loud cry. Folk etymology associates it slang-wise with lunatic, though the latter may have influenced it; see loony.

(Ireland, historical) An English soldier of an expeditionary army in Ireland.


head

pinch punch first of the month (alternative)

en-au-pinch and a punch for the first of the month.ogg

‘Pinch and a punch for the first of the month.’ I nurse my wounded arm and look down at my giggling son.
'You just hit me.'
'No I didn't. That's what you do on the first of the month.'
'Who says so?'
He looks at me exasperated.

2009, Ellie Nielsen, Buying a Piece of Paris: A Memoir, page 208:

(British, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) Said on the first day of a new month, while pinching and punching someone as a prank (especially by children). The victim may respond with "a flick and a kick for being so quick" and the original attacker may reply with "a punch in the eye for being so sly".

It does not seem to be the Minister for the Environment's day, he has really had a pinch and a punch for the first of the month. He received a punch a few minute ago, and now he is being pinched. It is significant that the Bill is intended to come into force on 1 April next year. The Bill was promised in the Speech from the Throne. It has gone back and forth between departments, and ended up in caucus several times, ...

1981, Parliamentary Debates, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, page 3112:

Bugger, this wasn't the goods at all – this was a pinch and a punch for the first of the month. A letter in fact from Fire Commander Bruce stating that although he was in receipt of my application, neither he nor the Fire Commander of IB were certain of the Fire Service Commission's final policy for employment of women as operational firemen.

2007, Anne Barry, Playing with Fire, page 59:

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) More generally, a pair of attacks or setbacks at the start of something.


goody

(Ireland) Pudding made by boiling bread in milk with sugar and spices.


safeguard

en-verb

safeguard (third-person singular simple present safeguards, present participle safeguarding, simple past and past participle safeguarded)

safeguards (present singular third-person)
safeguarding (participle present)
safeguarded (participle past)
safeguarded (past)

From Middle English savegard, from Middle French sauvegarde, from Old French salve garde, sauve garde, reconstructed as safe + guard.

(UK, Ireland, by extension) To implement safeguarding.


prod

(Ireland, UK, slang, sometimes derogatory) Alternative letter-case form of Prod.


naff all

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Nothing (variant of fuck all).


bit of alright

en-noun

a bit of alright (plural bits of alright)

a bit of alright (canonical)
bits of alright (plural)
bit of all right (alternative)

2017 Bob McCabe: Masterpiece
“Simon's a bit of alright Mum,” she teased, “isn't he?”
Susan couldn't help being amused by Jane's playfulness.
“Yea, he's a bit of alright, alright,” she laughed.
“Wouldn't kick him out of bed on a cold Saturday night?” Jane retorted and the two women laughed together.

(chiefly British, Australia, Ireland) an attractive or sexy person.


oik

Unknown, early 20th century. Possibly onomatopoeic, in imitation of uncultivated speech.

The other three were gifted metal oiks, but Cliff was a musician, schooled in theory, transmitting from a private universe of inspiration and expertise.

2011, James Parker, “Rediscovering Metallica with a new bio”, in The Boston Phoenix:

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) a member of the lower classes.


tapping up

(UK, Ireland, of a rival football club) Making an approach to a player, under contract to another club, in order to attempt to negotiate a transfer.


gey

Originally a variant form of gay, now associated with distinct senses.

I am nae believer in auld wives' stories about ghaists, though this is gey like a place for them - But mortal, or of the other world, here they come! - twa men and a light.

1816, Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary, Oxford University Press, published 2002, page 207:

But I'll put a gold chain around his neck, An' a gey good chain it'll be.

2001, David Thomson, The People of the Sea: Celtic Tales of the Seal-folk, Canongate Books, page 213:

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) Very.


gey

en-adj

gey (comparative geyer, superlative geyest)

geyer (comparative)
geyest (superlative)

They were married next New Year's Day, and Ellison had begun to think himself a gey man in Kinraddie, and maybe one of the gentry.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 16:

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) Fairly good; considerable.


romper

en-verb

romper (third-person singular simple present rompers, present participle rompering, simple past and past participle rompered)

rompers (present singular third-person)
rompering (participle present)
rompered (participle past)
rompered (past)

James McCartan was about to be ‘rompered’, but not before those present poured themselves drinks.

2003, Martin Dillon, The Trigger Men: Assassins and Terror Bosses in the Ireland Conflict:

(Ireland, historical, transitive) To abduct (a victim) to a room where they are tortured and murdered; associated with the Ulster Defence Association.


old sod

old sods (plural)
ould sod (alternative)

It was good to be back on the ould sod.

1999, Dermot Bolger, Ladies' Night at Finbar's Hotel:

(US, Ireland) The old country; one's place of origin.


pear-shaped

en-adj

pear-shaped (comparative more pear-shaped, superlative most pear-shaped)

more pear-shaped (comparative)
most pear-shaped (superlative)

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

(slang, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) Wrong, awry, usually in the phrase go pear-shaped.


go pear-shaped

en-verb

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

goes pear-shaped (present singular third-person)
going pear-shaped (participle present)
went pear-shaped (past)
gone pear-shaped (participle past)
go pearshaped (alternative)
go pear shaped (alternative)

/ɡəʊ ˈpɛəʃeɪpt/

/ɡoʊ ˈpɛɚʃeɪpt/

Uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested:
* From the image of a solid rectangle “slipping down” into a pear shape, thus “the bottom drops out”.
** Similar thoughts about the work of either glassblowers or potters involve a theme of the work trending toward a sagging shape; such speculations may be only folk etymology.
* From the image of a balloon or football losing its spherical shape after being punctured.
* From an idea that people who shoulder the work — who have the responsibility on their shoulders — may descend into shirking, in which case their broad shoulders diminish as their body becomes pear-shaped.
Apparently the term was originally Royal Air Force slang, but came into common use by the 1990s.

nb...

A Dictionary and Reference to the Slang Euphemisms, Idiom and Usage—Past and Current—of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines

After the third attack run I was letting back down to low level, passing through about 100 feet on the way down, when there were two bangs very close together. The whole aircraft shook and things went "pear-shaped" very quickly after that.

1983, Jeffrey Ethell, Alfred Price, quoting Bob Iveson, “To Goose Green and Beyond, 26 May – 7 June”, in Air War: South Atlantic (The Air Combat Trilogy; 3), New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Publishing Company, →ISBN, pages 158–159:

Now the whole world economy seems to be going pear-shaped all at once[…].

1991 January 7, Tim Power, quoting David Coles, “The business of survival”, in Evening Post, Reading, Berkshire: Thames Valley Newspapers, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8, column 2:

Patsy dwells on this, as though on the last ordinarily weird thing she ever experienced, the last moment of sanity before it all went pear-shaped.

1993 October 16, Sally Vincent, “Lost boys”, in Peter Preston, editor, The Guardian Weekend, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8, column 1:

If you are asking people to make decisions, then it's very important that you support them when things go wrong, otherwise they'll never make one again … when things go pear-shaped, and occasionally they do, we try to treat it as a learning experience.

1998, Michael Armstrong, quoting Tina Mason, “Team Building”, in Managing People: A Practical Guide for Line Managers, London: Kogan Page, published 2001, →ISBN, part 2 (Managing People – the Basic Skills), page 39:

I hope you understand me / I ain't no preaching fucker and I ain't no do-goody-goody either / This is about when shit goes pear-shaped

2002 March 25, “Stay Positive”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets:

Once you've acknowledged that things have gone pear-shaped, you need to re-take control and move on.

2008, Nicholas Bate, “What to Do if It Goes Awry”, in Have It Your Way: 52 Brilliant Ideas for Getting Everything You Want, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Infinite Ideas Company, →ISBN, page 38:

[Gordon] Strachan was an experienced Scottish international who, under Alex Ferguson, had won European honours with Aberdeen and an FA Cup with Manchester United, but his relationship with his former mentor had gone pear-shaped.

2012, Dave Simpson, “Gary Speed – ‘Speedo’”, in The Last Champions: Leeds United and the Year that Football Changed Forever, London: Bantam Press, →ISBN, part 1 (The Rise), page 24:

They call for the economics syllabus to be rewritten to reflect the chasm between the confident mechanistic models they are still taught and the real economy which went pear-shaped.

2013 December 21, Malcolm Brown, “Without morality, the market economy will destroy itself”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-11-12:

There are a few cases that need to be covered, as they fall under the general umbrella of "what grids do when things go pear-shaped."

2017 November, Eric A. Meyer, Estelle Weyl, edited by Meg Foley, CSS: The Definitive Guide: Visual Presentation for the Web, 4th edition, Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media, published 22 January 2022, →ISBN, page 697:

(intransitive, especially UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, idiomatic) To go awry; to go wrong.

Bloomsbury Publishers
Bloomsbury Publishing
Royal Air Force
Weidenfeld & Nicolson


clanger

From clang (“loud ringing sound”) + -er.

In his speech, the best man got the bride's name wrong. What a clanger!

He dropped a real clanger when he criticized the paraplegic for not standing.

When a woman heckler at Rayleigh shouted, “No more clangers!” Brown proudly rejoined: “Now listen, dear. My latest clanger was to say that people should be allowed to buy houses at lower rates of interest than you can get them for at the moment. I stand by that.”

1965, Anthony Howard, Richard West, The Road to Number 10, page 215:

Furthermore if a person drops even a little clanger not only will he know but the others will know and the offender will certainly know that they know!

1976, Musical Opinion, volume 100, page 244:

‘I say,’ he added, changing the subject completely and leaning closer, ‘sorry to hear about that Riding-Hood debacle. Don′t let it get you down, eh? We all drop a serious clanger sooner or later.’

2006, Jasper Fforde, The Fourth Bear, published 2009, unnumbered page:

(chiefly UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, informal, often in the phrase drop a clanger) A very noticeable mistake; an attention-getting faux pas.


have someone's guts for garters

en-verb

have<has,,had> someone's guts for garters

have someone's guts for garters (third-person singular simple present has someone's guts for garters, present participle having someone's guts for garters, simple past and past participle had someone's guts for garters)

has someone's guts for garters (present singular third-person)
having someone's guts for garters (participle present)
had someone's guts for garters (participle past)
had someone's guts for garters (past)

en-au-have someone's guts for garters.ogg

By metaphor from the way that humans use animal intestines as catgut for various tensile applications; compare have someone's hide.

If you go out and play and get your clothes dirty, I'll have your guts for garters!

(idiomatic, British, Ireland, Commonwealth) To reprimand severely.


CAB

Criminal Assets Bureau
w:Criminal Assets Bureau

(Ireland) Initialism of Criminal Assets Bureau.


cantaloupe

cantaloupes (plural)
cantaloup (alternative)
canteloupe (alternative)
cantelope (alternative)

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

From French cantaloup, from Italian Cantalupo (a place name), from Italian canto + lupo, literally "howl of the wolf".
Named after a former Papal summer estate near Rome, where the melons were first grown after being introduced to Europe.

Cucumis melo Cantalupensis Group, a cultivar group melon with sweet aromatic orange flesh, including two main types:

(UK, Ireland) Cantalupensis Group sensu stricto, with non- or slightly netted rind, also known as true cantaloupe or European cantaloupe, found in the Middle East and Europe.


minted

en-adj

minted (comparative more minted, superlative most minted)

more minted (comparative)
most minted (superlative)

Marcus: We're very sorry.
Stylax: No, we're not. For all this guy knows, we could be mega-minted poshos in disguise.
Shopkeeper: It will be a superb disguise.
Stylax: Cheers.

2016 May 2, Sam Leifer et al., “Jugball”, in Plebs:

(chiefly British, Ireland, slang) wealthy


university of life

en-noun

university of life (plural universities of life)

I learned all I need to know from the university of life, not from books.

[BEAUFOY:] We are considerably out of pocket over this bally pressman johnny, this jackdaw of Rheims, who has not even been to a university.
BLOOM: (Indistinctly) University of life.

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

(idiomatic, chiefly UK and Ireland) The real world as a source of instruction, as opposed to a formal education.