kiddhoge

The girls had been out to the oat-stacks, each with a kiddhoge (cloth) over her eyes to pull out a stalk and see when she'd be getting married.

In the back of the meetinghouse, on the same side as the defense, sat an old woman with a black kiddhoge over her head and a young woman holding a baby wrapped in a blanket.

2005, Michael C. White, The Garden of Martyrs, →ISBN, page 142:

(Ireland) Any cloth worn over the head or shoulders as a shawl, blindfold, etc.


voteen

(Ireland) An ostentatiously pious person.


crawthumper

From craw + thumper, suggesting a person who is always beating (thumping) their chest (craw), a gesture of piety and submission.

(Ireland, colloquial) An ostentatiously pious person.


naggin

a naggin of whisky

(especially Ireland) A small measure of spirits; alternative form of noggin.


oul

en-adj

oul (comparative more oul, superlative most oul)

more oul (comparative)
most oul (superlative)

Throth they wor tarra; jist the five months oul".

1983, William Forbes Marshall, John the Liar:

(Ireland, Mid-Ulster) Alternative form of ould.


termon

From Irish tearmann, from Middle Irish termonn (“church land affording right of sanctuary”), from Latin terminus (“limit”). Doublet of term and terminus.

der

Another time, when Patrick was at rest in the end of night, at Tiprad-Cernai, in Tir-Tipraid, the angel went to him and awoke him. Patrick said to him: "Is there anything in which I have offended God, or is His anger upon me?" "No," said the angel; "and you are informed from God," added the angel, "if it is it you desire, that there shall be no share for any else in Eriu, but for you alone. And the extent of the termon of your see from God is to Droma-Bregh, and to Sliabh-Mis, and to Bri-Airghi."

1874, James O'Leary translating Saint Patrick, Tripartite Life:

Hugh MacMahon out of the way, he in October 1591 partitioned Monaghan (with the exception of Donnamyne, which belonged to the Earl of Essex) among the principal gentlemen of the MacMahons, the termon or ecclesiastical lands being reserved for English officials.

c. 1900, Robert Dunlop, Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900 : Fitzwilliam, William (1526-1599)

(Ireland, historical) An area of land belonging to a church or monastery


McAlpine's Fusiliers

After Sir Robert McAlpine, a major employer of Irish workmen, and (possibly) the military appearance of a group of men with shovels over their shoulders.

He'd left his homeland at fifteen, seeking his fortune on the motorways of Britain with McAlpine's Fusiliers before migrating to Sydney.

2006, Kevin Noble, Baghdad Trucker, Durham: Northern Writers, page 92:

(Ireland, UK, informal) The Irish immigrant labour force in Britain in the early 20th century.


Mahound

Mahounds (plural)
Mahoun (alternative)
Mahoune (alternative)

From Middle English Mahown, from Anglo-Norman Mahun, Old French Mahum, Mahom, shortened from Mahomed (“Muhammad”) (see Muhammad for more). Compare mammet.

And there were vessels that are wrought by magic of Mahound out of seasand and the air by a warlock with his breath that he blares into them like to bubbles.

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

(chiefly Ireland, Scotland, archaic) The Devil.


shandrydan

(dated, Ireland, humorous, derogatory) A vehicle; a carriage or cart.


stocah

From Irish stócach and Scottish Gaelic stòcach (“an idle fellow who lives on the industry of others, a lounger”).

uder

hee faith is the life of a peasant or churle ; but thenceforth becommeth either an horseboy, or a stocah to some kerne, inuring himselfe to his weapon, and to the gentlemanly trade of stealing

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

(Ireland, obsolete) A layabout or good-for-nothing


one and one

Tonight the long procession for the fish and chip shop, 'Two one and ones, Mister Savallo, and plenty of salt and vinegar.'

1979, Dominic Behan, Teems of Times and Happy Returns, page 86:


telerecording

en-noun

telerecording (countable and uncountable, plural telerecordings)

(television, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A recording of a television broadcast made while it is being transmitted, especially by filming the picture from a monitor screen; the process of making such a recording.


musha

‘Musha, God be with them times!’ said the old man. ‘There was some life in it then.’

1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 149:

Och! musha bedad, man alive, but it's a fine counthry over here, and it bangs all the jewel of a view we do be havin' from the windys, begorra!

1901, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Penelope's Irish Experiences:

When her neighbour, Mrs. Ryan, looked in, she could not forbear mentioning the expected call, and was further elated because Mrs. Ryan at once remarked: "Sure, 'twill be Bessy he's after," though she herself, of course, disclaimed the idea, saying: "Och musha, ma'am, not at all."

1895, Barlow Jane, Strangers at Lisconnel:

Well, here now, here's five hogs to begin with; and, musha, but I never thought I'd be spending my loose change that way.'

1841, Charles Lever, Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2):

(Ireland, archaic) An expression of surprise.

(Ireland, often ironic) An expression of sympathy.


hurler on the ditch

hurler on the ditch (plural hurlers on the ditch)

(Ireland, idiomatic) A person standing on the side of a hurling field issuing (unsolicited and usually unwanted) instructions to the hurlers.

(figuratively, Ireland, idiomatic) An opinionated person who offers (unsolicited and often unwanted) advice on the best way to handle a situation.


glaum

en-verb

glaum (third-person singular simple present glaums, present participle glauming, simple past and past participle glaumed)

glaums (present singular third-person)
glauming (participle present)
glaumed (participle past)
glaumed (past)

Alteration of dialectal clam, claum (“to grope or grasp ineffectually, snatch”), from Middle English *clammen, *clemmen, from Old English clæmman, clemman, from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan, from Proto-Germanic *klamjaną. In some senses, likely influenced by clamber. Compare dialectal glaump, glamp (“to grasp, snatch at, clutch, grope", also "gulp”), Scots clam, claum (“to grope or grasp ineffectually, snatch”), Norwegian klemme (“to seize with claws”), Middle High German klemmen (“to squeeze”). Doublet of glom. Related also to English clamp.

cog

My heart, for fear, gaed sough for sough, / To hear the thuds, and see the cluds / O' clans frae woods, in tartan duds, / Wha glaum'd at kingdoms three.

1789, “The Battle of Sherramuir”, Burns, Robert (lyrics):

"Few get what they glaum at."

1895, The Chautauquan: Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, page 194:

She plays a game of blind-man's bute, / Glaums at the first she touches; / Even if the coof has coin enough, / She multiplies his riches.

"Katty, Katty Regan, for God's sake" he cried, all in a breath, his voice wild and high with surprise and despair, his hand glauming at nothing. Only with her last word had her own voice broken from her, letting him know whose[…]

1914, Joseph Mary Plunkett, The Irish Review, page 246:

... used to be always embracing me Josie whenever he was there meaning him of course glauming me over and when I said I washed up and down as sar as possible asking me did you wash[…]

2008 April 17, James Joyce, Ulysses, Oxford Paperbacks, →ISBN, page 695:

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(Scotland, Ireland) To grasp or snatch (at), usually feebly or ineffectually; to grope (at) with the hands, as in the dark.


wisha

From Irish mhuise, originally a euphemism for A Mhuire! (“O Mary!”) in calling upon the Virgin Mary. Compare Irish muise.

"Wisha! wisha," says I. "A pound of chops," says he, "coming into the Mansion House."

1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 156:


Swaddler

Nobody is taking any interest in the fine subtle Irish language, apart from mean Swaddlers who try to lure the Irish to join their new cursed religion

May 14 1827, Humphrey O'Sullivan, The Diary of Humphrey O'Sullivan:

(derogatory, dated, Ireland) A member of the Methodist Church in Ireland.


kitchen roll

en-noun

kitchen roll (countable and uncountable, plural kitchen rolls)

Nigella suggests draining the grated carrot in kitchen roll before using it, to absorb the excess liquid – but in a more conventional recipe, this doesn't seem necessary.

2012 March 15, Felicity Cloake, The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) (a roll of) thick absorbent paper used especially in kitchens for wiping up spills etc.


seannachie

seannachies (plural)
schenachy (alternative)
seannachy (alternative)
senachie (alternative)
senachy (alternative)
sennachie (alternative)
sennachy (alternative)
shanachie (alternative)
shanachy (alternative)
shenachie (alternative)

From Irish seanchaí and Scottish Gaelic seanchaidh, from Old Irish senchaid.

Take a glass of wine, Sir Arthur, and drink down that bead-roll of unbaptized jargon, that would choke the devil - why, that last fellow has the only intelligible name you have repeated - they are all of the tribe of Macfungus - mushroom monarchs every one of them; sprung up from the fumes of conceit, folly, and falsehood, fermenting in the brains of some mad Highland seannachie.

1816, Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary, Oxford University Press, published 2002, page 65:

(Ireland, Scotland) a bard, genealogist, or storyteller in Gaelic culture.


IPCC

Irish Peatland Conservation Council
w:Irish Peatland Conservation Council

(Ireland) Initialism of Irish Peatland Conservation Council.


gobstruck

en-adj

gobstruck (comparative more gobstruck, superlative most gobstruck)

more gobstruck (comparative)
most gobstruck (superlative)

(slang, chiefly UK, Ireland) gobsmacked; astonished; astounded


America at home

Originally, and literally, the state of enjoying the comfortable life associated with emigrating to America while remaining "at home" in Ireland (thus having the best of both worlds). E.g.:
* Conyngham Crawford Taylor (1887) The Queen's jubilee and Toronto "called back" from 1887 to 1847, page 387: “As landlords in Canada expect their tenants to pay their rent when due, Mr. Kilbride would not improve his position by emigrating to this country, as, to use a common Irish expression, he appears to have a "very good America at home."”
* 1971, Thomas P. Flanagan, Seanad Éireann debates 19 May 1971 Vol.70 no.4 p.5 c.292:
*: She asked me if I was the man who was in charge of the turf production and I said I was. She began to praise me and bless me because she said they had England and America at home. In other words, the earnings from turf production on a family basis were equivalent to what they would have got in England and America if the family had emigrated.

"Tis America at home," Hickey said, putting turf on the smoking fire.

1962 October 6, Edna O'Brien, “Come Into The Drawing Room, Doris [later retitled "Irish Revel"]”, in The New Yorker, page 52:

"Tis America at home," James said as he nodded to the waitress for more coffees.

1979, Edna O'Brien, “A Woman by the Seaside”, in A Rose in the Heart (short story collection), →ISBN, page 111::

Lemonade was poured into glasses and the meal was toasted. 'This is America at home,' Moran boasted. Bowls of trifle followed. 'We'll burst!' He and everybody were happy.

1990, John McGahern, Amongst Women, →ISBN, page 62:

[…]the water when it rained filled up the tank and then we could flush away our doosie. Do-be, it was America at home, let me tell you, but then when the fine weather came it was up the ladder and down, bringing pump water up to fill the tank[…]

2000, Christopher Nolan, The Banyan Tree, →ISBN, page 177‑8:

(Ireland, informal, dated) The height of luxury, comfort, or modernity.


accommodation on arrival

(travel, UK, Ireland) Hotel accommodation provided as part of the price of a package holiday, with the passenger not being advised of the hotel's name or location until arrival at the resort.


stoater

She was a wee stoater with beautiful ringlets down to her shoulders.

2009, Dennis Canavan, Let the People Decide: The Autobiography of Dennis Canavan:

All legs and boobs and bare brown backs. Two stoaters.

2015, Catherine Forde, The Drowning Pond, →ISBN:

'Mind we saw a couple o' young lassies that time comin' oot and goin' intae the Co-op,' a man said. 'Fuckin' stoaters, man.

2016, BRM Stewart, Digital Investigations, page 90:

(Scotland, Ireland) A beautiful girl or woman.

Towards the end perhaps there were slight signs of tiring fingers but there is no doubt that, in the words of the cognoscenti, this was a stoater of a performance.

1984, Glasgow (Scotland). College of Piping, Piping Times - Volume 37, Issues 5-7, page 38:

There'll be other Christmases. But let's just promise future presents to each other'll be stoaters.

1992, Plays International - Volume 8, page 44:

Then Eric made a sudden quantum leap and realized that they absolutely must must MUST do a science-fiction version of Noel Coward's enduring and much-loved old stoater, Private Lives.

1993, Robert Farrar, State of Independence, →ISBN, page 89:

'That's a great dog you've got there,' he said. 'That's a real stoater.

1997, Flamingo Book of New Scottish Writing, page 5:

(Scotland, Ireland, more generally) Anything especially nice.

El Hakim's party won a mere trifle, but stood what poor Captain Scott was wont to term "a stoater" on Merlin, a good but uncertain horse, who had "lost" him in the trial at home.

1858, The Irish metropolitan magazine, page 117:

Owners back their horses for such “stoaters,” in short distance races, where a start is everything, that, in too many cases, woe betide the backs and pockets of the lads if they do not jump off in a twinkling.

1860, Sporting Magazine - Volume 36, page 306:

When it was known before starting the sum Lord Portsmouth stood on his filly, there was a perfect furore to back her, as a pony would be ' a perfect stoater ' for him ; and his commission, it was understood, considerably exceeded that sum.

1863, Baily's Magazine of Sports & Pastimes - Volume 5, page 96:

(Scotland, Ireland, horse racing) A horse that wins against the odds.

With this, Vinet lent him such a swinging stoater with the pitchfork souse between the neck and the collar of his jerkin, that down fell signor on the ground arsyversy, with his spindle shanks wide straggling over his poll.

1892, François Rabelais, Master Francis Rabelais, page 327:

Then you see, and it's so old a trick you'd think we'd have been prepared for it at our age, he draws back his left hand to punch me bang on the conk if I'm following his eyes right, and just as I'm wondering whether to duck or parry, he lets fly with his right and cops Davey's wee cousin a stoater on the left ear.

1976, Alex Hamilton, James Kelman, Tom Leonard, Three Glasgow writers:

Michael smacked him in the face with everything he had, a real stoater

2007, Christopher Brookmyre, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, →ISBN, page 400:


seat only

(travel, UK, Ireland, dated) A package holiday rate without confirmed accommodation reservations, or using a dummy reservation, enabling the tour operator to sell charter airline seats in competition with the airlines.


back to back ticket

en-noun

back to back ticket (plural back to back tickets)

(travel, UK, Ireland) Any of a series of airline tickets, issued with overlapping travel dates, used to circumvent airfare minimum stay requirements.


absolute state

From state as used in phrases such as look at the state of you, with the intensifier absolute.

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

The absolute state of the West

When he came in from the rain he was in an absolute state.

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

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

Just like mum used to make – without the lecture at the absolute state of you!

2016 December 30, Meher Mirza, “The Essential Guide To Combating A Hangover In Mumbai”, in The City Story, archived from the original on 2017-06-24:

The absolute state of you! How did you get that dirty that quickly?

2017 August 3, Oliver Astley, “The beautiful baby snow leopards which are now at Twycross Zoo”, in DerbyshireLive, the online edition of the Derby Telegraph:

(Internet slang, originally UK, Ireland) A particularly dishevelled, sorry or contemptible condition.


beway

From by way equivalent to be- + way. Compare German wegen (“because of, by reason of”).

cog

[...] an' then hee'l turn him roon behint-afore an' play treeks, till collie gems at him; an' then beway o' makin friens again, hee'l Btreek an' pat him, [...]

1832, the mirror of literature, amusement, and instruction:

Be gannies," suggested Larry, " I think the best way would be for the three iv us to give the artichokes at the fire below, a warm reception beway iv a do sure, an' it'll soften the bargain wid ould Hardrade."

1857, Celtic Union, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

[...] is waistit and destroyit be divers personis that slais the dere and cunyngis thairof, and pasturis bestis thereintill masterfully beway of dede, [...]

1864, John Fullarton, Historical memoir of the family of Eglinton and Winton:

This young man afterwards became a member of Parliament from Scotland, and was for many years Grand Master of the [...] that week into as good English as he can and write it beway of version, being allowed to paraphrase it in his own way, [...]

1951, American Classical League, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

Wan was in front, beway he was the ginral, walkin' wid his chin up, proud as a paycock.

(dialectal, Ireland, Scotland, US) By way; because.


gobsmack

en-verb

gobsmack (third-person singular simple present gobsmacks, present participle gobsmacking, simple past and past participle gobsmacked)

gobsmacks (present singular third-person)
gobsmacking (participle present)
gobsmacked (participle past)
gobsmacked (past)

Back-formation from gobsmacked and gobsmacking.

(transitive, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To astonish, to render temporarily stuck for words.


nail varnish

en-noun

nail varnish (countable and uncountable, plural nail varnishes)

(UK, Ireland) A cosmetic lacquer applied to the fingernails or toenails.


arseholed

en-adj

arseholed (comparative more arseholed, superlative most arseholed)

more arseholed (comparative)
most arseholed (superlative)

By the time the doors opened he was arseholed on rum and got progressively more arseholed until he could take no more and fell over at about twelve o'clock.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, rare, vulgar, slang) drunk


Gammon

Travelling Community
Travelling Community

(Ireland) the Shelta or Cant language of the Irish Travelling Community.


fairy lights

en-noun

fairy lights pl (normally plural, singular fairy light)

Through the trees ahead came odd strains from the dance band in the Casino, and now I could see many twinkling fairy lights and detect moving figures.

1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page i. 13:

I managed to put quite a lot of small baubles on the top of the tree that way and helped drape the long string of fairy lights around it, […]

2010, Trisha Ashley, Twelve Days of Christmas, HarperCollins, →ISBN:

A constant, slightly defocused, dinner party with relaxed glamorous friends, carrying on just outside the kitchen door, under the fairy lights.

2023 September 23, Tim Hayward, “Not so easy does it”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 19:

(UK, Ireland) Small electric lights on a strand which are used decoratively, especially on Christmas trees.


munya

en-adjective

munya (comparative more munya, superlative most munya)

more munya (comparative)
most munya (superlative)


halting site

(Ireland) A council-sponsored campsite for members of the Travelling Community.


off-the-peg

Modern mothers seem not to have time to make dollies' wardrobes from scraps of this and that. As most of their own clothes are bought off the peg, not many scraps are available, and indeed many of them cannot sew.

1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 211:

(of clothing, UK, Ireland) ready-made in a range of standard sizes (not tailor-made)


(UK, Ireland, taxation) The end-of-year tax certificate given to each employee by their employer.


conacre

en-noun

conacre (countable and uncountable, plural conacres)

(Ireland) An agricultural system of letting land in small patches or strips, usually for tillage.

(Ireland) A strip of land that is let under this system.


conacre

en-verb

conacre (third-person singular simple present conacres, present participle conacring, simple past and past participle conacred)

conacres (present singular third-person)
conacring (participle present)
conacred (participle past)
conacred (past)

(Ireland) To underlet a proportion of, for a single crop; said of a farm.


a fuck sight

Withnail: I tell you I've a fuck sight more talent than half the rubbish that gets on television.

(UK, Ireland, colloquial, vulgar, uncountable) A large amount; a lot.


a fuck sight

(UK, Ireland, colloquial, vulgar) A lot; a great deal.


shit all

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


get to fuck

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) Go away!; Fuck off!

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) Expression of disagreement and/or disbelief.


get one's arse in gear

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

gets one's arse in gear (present singular third-person)
getting one's arse in gear (participle present)
got one's arse in gear (participle past)
got one's arse in gear (past)

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To start performing a task effectively or start behaving better in general; to shape up.


tangler

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

(Ireland, historical) A paid middleman at a fair or market.


high cross

(Ireland, UK) a large free-standing Celtic cross made of stone and often richly decorated.


red sauce

en-noun

red sauce (countable and uncountable, plural red sauces)

(Ireland, British dialectal) Tomato ketchup.


penal rosary

From its use as a discreet form of prayer during Irish penal times when Catholic prayer was forbidden by the British.

(Ireland, historical) A small set of rosary beads, consisting of a single decade of beads with a cross, attached to a ring.


haggart

the very meadows in which he had assisted at harvest time in filling the load of sweet hay on the car, for the purpose of stacking in the haggart

1827 December, Gerald Griffin, “Tales of the Munster Festivals”, in The London Magazine, volume 19, page 493:

Jack escaped out of a back window which looked into the haggart, where the cows were kept every night.

1856 'One of the rakes of Mallow' "Ireland thirty years since" The Sporting Magazine (London: Rogerson & Texford) May 1856, p.366

Mr. Lowe remarked also the little ornamental wooden gate, the work of Mat's own hands, that led to the kitchen-garden invariably called the "haggart" in this part of the world which was fenced all round by a thick thorn hedge, with a little privet and holly intermixed here and there.

1879 Charles Kickham Knocknagow : or, The homes of Tipperary Chapter 7 "NORAH LAHY. THE OLD LINNET'S SONG." (Dublin : J. Duffy) 13th ed. (1887), p.50

(Ireland, dated) A farmyard or small enclosed field; a vegetable patch or kitchen garden.


manjo

(music, Ireland, informal) A mandolin-banjo


Free-Stater

From free state + -er (supporter) or + -er (demonym suffix).

(Ireland, historical) One of those in Ireland who supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty.


strong flour

strong flour (countable and uncountable, plural strong flours)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A wheat flour with a high gluten content, which produces bread with high rising, and long lasting properties.


plouter

en-verb

plouter (third-person singular simple present plouters, present participle ploutering, simple past and past participle ploutered)

plouters (present singular third-person)
ploutering (participle present)
ploutered (participle past)
ploutered (past)
pleiter (alternative)
plotter (alternative)
plowter (alternative)

As I did not want to plowter about any more in the drizzle and the dark, I put my waterproof over the muzzle of one gun, and made a sort of wigwam with two or three rammers that I found, and lay along the tail of another gun, wondering where Vixen had got to, and where I might be.

1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Servants of the Queen”, in The Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC, page 187:

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England, dialect) To splash around in something wet; to dabble.

He's left th' yate ut t' full swing, and miss's pony has trodden dahn two rigs uh corn, un plottered through, raight o'er intuh t' meadow!

1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter IX, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 187:

[O]f course he prefers plottering about the house [...]

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 18: Penelope]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 703:

So one night after they had all had supper in the kitchen and old Sinclair had gone pleitering out to the byres, old Mistress Sinclair had up and nodded to Kirsty […].

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 21:

There's certainly a small boat that people plouter about in.

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England, dialect) To potter.


plouter

plouters (plural)
pleiter (alternative)
plotter (alternative)
plowter (alternative)

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England, dialect) The act of ploutering, or splashing about.


eident

en-adj

eident (comparative more eident, superlative most eident)

more eident (comparative)
most eident (superlative)

From Scots eident, Scottish form of ithand.

far off through the hedges some eident body was at work with a lawn-mower, clinkle-clankle, a bairn was wailing in a bairn's unease as Chris dug and raked […]

1934, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Grey Granite (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 553:

(Scotland, Ireland) Busy, industrious, diligent.


spacky

spacky (comparative spackier, superlative spackiest)

spackier (comparative)
spackiest (superlative)

From spack + -y, ultimately from spastic.

(UK, Ireland, slang) incompetent or physically uncoordinated


nancy boy

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) Alternative spelling of nancyboy.


sea pike

Belone belone
Belone belone#Translingual

(UK, Ireland) The garfish or needlefish, Belone belone.


farrand

From Middle English farand, farende, farinde, from Old English farende (present participle of Old English faran (“to set forth, go, travel, wander, proceed”)), from Proto-Germanic *farandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *faraną (“to go, fare, travel”), equivalent to fare + -and. More at fare.

der

farand (alternative)
farant (alternative)
farent (alternative)
farrant (alternative)
farren (alternative)

A sore matter for a sinner to be corrected, and yet to go light-farrand under it.

Likely he was, right fair and well farrand, Manly and stout, […]

1756, William Hamilton, A New Edition of the Life and Heroick Actions of the renoun'd Sir William Wallace, etc.:

My farand friends farewell ! so near my heart, / My dowsome cow, my good old mare, and cart !

When, four years before, Ainsworth took land next his own and rebuilt the farmstead "on a new-farrand plan," he had felt a secret irk against him, […]

1893, K. Snowden, Tales of the Yorkshire Wolds:

(obsolete, Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) Having a specified form or disposition; fashioned.


boat train

In 1906 the cross-channel service was inaugurated between Fishguard and Rosslare Harbour. For this the Great Southern & Western Railway built two boat trains of corridor stock, with a restaurant car (57½ ft. in length), to run between Rosslare and Cork.

1943 July and August, “Restaurant-Car Services in Ireland”, in Railway Magazine, page 210:

With extra traffic, numerous boat trains to and from Southampton Docks, and working of empty stock, his job, like that of most signalmen, is no sinecure.

1954 September, 'South Western', “Shawford Junction Signalbox”, in Railway Magazine, page 604:

In January BR were attacked by three of the country's major shipping companies for the poor standards of boat train services run from Tilbury and Southampton Docks.

1964 March, “News and Comment: Stormy passage for BR boat trains”, in Modern Railways, page 153:

(UK, Ireland, travel, rail transport) A travel service with a train timed to arrive at a ferry port in time for the onward travel by ferry (or vice versa). Alternatively, a service scheduled to connect with the arrival or departure of an ocean liner.


pinkeen

From pink (“minnow”) + -een (“diminutive”).

Phoxinus phoxinus
Phoxinus phoxinus#Translingual

(Ireland) A little fish; especially the minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus.


-een

Borrowed from Irish -ín (diminutive suffix).

man + -een → maneen (“little man”)

(Ireland) Used to form the diminutives of nouns in Hiberno-English.

poitín → poteen

(Ireland) Used to anglicise the Irish -ín suffix when anglicising Irish nouns.


bonham

From Irish banbhán (“piglet”), altered under the influence of the surname Bonham.

A bonham is defined as a young pig up to the age of 12 weeks old.

1953 December 18, R. A. O'Connor, "A Study of Factors Which Determine The Supply of Pigs" Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol. XXIX, Part II, 1953/1954, p.61 fn.2


loodheramaun

loodheramauns (plural)
looderamawn (alternative)

Borrowed from Irish liúdramán (“loafer”).

there was an old one there with a cracked loodheramaun of a nephew

Baah! Adam was a damn fool, a looderamawn if you like.

I found a looderamawn in Dalkey Village by the name of Teague McGettigan.

1964, Flann O'Brien, The Dalkey Archive:


swiftie

Near-synonym: swift half

A bar and clubhouse will be in place at Tallaght for the big kick-off in 2001. Until then there is a modest bar at the Morton Stadium, but Rovers fans tend to have a swiftie at various spots in town before heading to the match.

2000 November, “Dublin”, in Peterjon Cresswell, Simon Evans, edited by Dan Goldstein, The Rough Guide to European Football: A Fans’ Handbook 2000–2001, London: Rough Guides Ltd, →ISBN, page 331:

‘I thought we’d go to Cuba.’ He says it like he’s suggesting we go down the road to the local pub for a swiftie.

2008, Carole Matthews, All You Need Is Love, London: Headline Review, →ISBN, page 79:

(UK, Ireland, informal) An alcoholic drink that is consumed quickly.


shitting planks

He gave a little wave and then turned back to the computer, sweating. He was shitting planks now. He had to do this thing properly.

2006, Stephen J. Martin, Rock and a Hard Place, 1st edition, Cork: Mercier Press, →ISBN, page 368:

(slang, vulgar, Ireland) Extremely frightened.


snedging

And, in a country that's publicly elected a seat-sniffer – a hobby which I believe is known as snedging, if you were wondering about the correct term, which you would've been. [The "seat sniffer" was Troy Buswell, leader of the opposition Liberal Party in Western Australia]

2008 May 3, Dianne Butler, “Nine has a gaping hole in its schedule after Underbelly ends”, in The Courier-Mail:

While it caused scenes of wild mirth in the house, we hope it helps bury the last of those snedging memories.

2009 November 11, James Jeffrey, “Word drops, so do pants”, in The Australian:

(idiomatic, vulgar, Ireland, Australia) Sniffing the saddles of women's bicycles, or seats on which they have been sitting, for sexual gratification.


with ages

I haven't seen John with ages.


thickie

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) a dimwit or idiot


on the blanket

(historical, UK, Ireland) Wearing a blanket instead of prison clothes (as a protest by political prisoners who wanted to distinguish themselves from criminals).


come-all-ye

en-noun

come-all-ye (plural come-all-ye's or come-all-yes)

come-all-ye's (plural)
come-all-yes (plural)

As come-all-you, with Hiberno-English second-person plural pronoun ye.

(Ireland, sometimes derogatory) A come-all-you; a popular Irish ballad.


shot with a shovel

I don't approve of petticoat government, as a general thing, but I'll be shot with a shovel if it ain't necessary with fellows like Stanhope!

1867 February 16, Sarah Johnson Cogswell Whittlesey, “Bertha the beauty: A story of the southern revolution”, in The Field and Fireside, page 2:

I'll kill him for leaving you here all on your own. He should be shot with a shovel for thinking it's right to go off and leave you ...

2009, Cathy Kelly, What She Wants, page 490:

I'm probably going to be shot with a shovel for this but I've always thought 1972's "Ziggy Stardust" was a lesser album than 1971's "Hunky Dory" – but personal opinions aside - you can't argue that the 2012 Remaster isn’t anything but a wonder.

2015 September, Mark Barry, “David Bowie - Five Years 1969-1973”, in Vine Voice:

(Ireland) Severely admonished; castigated.


heads or harps

Copper coins minted in Georgian Ireland had the head of the British monarch on the obverse and the Irish harp on the reverse. The phrase "heads or harps" remained common even after 1823, when Irish minting ceased and only British coinage circulated; it was still current when the Irish Free State restored the harp on its newly introduced coins in 1927.

A quarrel happened between two shoeblacks, who were playing at what in England is called pitch farthing, or heads and tails, and in Ireland, head or harp.

1802, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Maria Edgeworth, “The Dublin Shoeblack”, in Essay on Irish Bulls, London: J. Johnson, page 128:

...he took out his purse, and, extracting half-a-crown, threw it up to the ceiling, saying,
“Well, Dot—head or harp? If you’re right, you have them.”
“Harp,” cried Dot.
They both examined the coin. “They’re yours,” said Frank, with much solemnity...

1848, Anthony Trollope, “XVI Brien Boru”, in The Kellys and the O'Kellys, volume II, London: Henry Colburne, page 55:

There was a family of peasants who never could make up their minds; they decided everything by a toss-up. The head of the family had settled the amount of dowry he got with his wife by ‘heads or harps,’ and when he died he left his land to be tossed for by his two sons.

John P. Frayne, editor (1970), Uncollected prose by W. B. Yeats, volume 1, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 28

He dearly loves to smoke cigarettes and many of them, and he has an insurmountable weakness for the recondite mysteries of "Pitch and Toss," and when he has mastered the intricacies of the game, can foretell by repeatedly turning a copper in his hand while the stakes are revolving in the air whether they will settle on the ground heads or harps up.

1905 August 17, “The News-Vendor”, in The Weekly Irish Times, Dublin, page 6:

He looked up as they came nearer. ‘Hey, lads. Lookin’ for a game?’
‘A game?’ Victor said.
‘Pitch an’ toss.’ He spun the ha’penny, watched it fall between two broken pieces of brick and cocked his foxy head at the two boys. ‘Heads or harps?’
‘Harps,’ Victor said.
‘You win,’ Denis Doyle said.

1972, Brian Cleeve, Cry of morning, London: Corgi, →ISBN, page 210:

JIMMY. Heads or harps?
TONY. Heads.
JIMMY. (Tosses the coin onto the back of his hand.) Hard luck. Ha ha ha.

1988, Billy Roche, “A Handful of Stars; Act 1; Scene 1”, in The Wexford Trilogy, →ISBN:

Christina twirls on straps like a spinning coin that hasn’t decided if it will land on heads or harps.

2019 September 16, Tom Swift, “Winging It”, in RTÉ Culture, RTÉ:

“HEADS or harps?”

2021 November 11, Dermot Crean, “Toss Of A Coin To Decide Venue For Kerins O’Rahillys V Dr Crokes”, in Tralee Today:


eaten bread is soon forgotten

Promised increases in productivity following previous pay rises never materialised -- as eaten bread is soon forgotten -- but we'll be paying for the crumbs for a long time to come.

2008 July 6, Ciara Kelly, “We're paying the price of union power”, in Irish Independent:

Eaten bread is soon forgotten, as we do seem to quickly forget the immense funding we did receive from the EEC and then the EU over 30 years, culminating in almost IR£1bn in the late 1990s, under Albert Reynolds's time as Taoiseach.

2011 August 13, Mary Sullivan, “We must live on less, but can our TDs?”, in Irish Independent:

It is obvious that eaten bread is soon forgotten by anyone asking teachers to take another one for the team.

2012 February 27, Noreen Flynn, “Further pay cuts for teachers”, in The Irish Times:

(Ireland) Kind deeds or favors are often forgotten by the beneficiary once they have been performed.


on the hop

Judy: A couple of times I went on the hop.

1995, G. H. Fagan, Culture, Politics and Irish School Dropouts, page 26:

(slang, Ireland) Playing truant from school.


hairy molly

Possibly from hairy + Irish malaí (literally “eyebrows”)

(Ireland, idiomatic) A hairy caterpillar.


the full shilling

It served her well, as her husband Bill, a small, quiet man, sustained shell-shock in the war and although pleasant, was not the full shilling. Whenever he wandered over to me to start a conversation I would always feel very uncomfortable.

2006, Chris Sullivan, Broad Soldiers: Tom Grove Goes Naked, page 39:

She shook her head, sighing deeply. 'There are times when I wonder is he the full shilling at all?[…]

2008, Geraldine O'Neill, Tara's Destiny:

(UK, Ireland, chiefly in the negative) In control of one's mental faculties; sane; all there.


rameish

From Irish ráiméis (“nonsense, poppycock”), from Norman romance. Doublet of romance.

Don't listen to him, said my father. He talks rameish.

2011, Dermot Healy, Sudden Times, . Random House, →ISBN, page 139:


rameish

en-verb

rameish (third-person singular simple present rameishes, present participle rameishing, simple past and past participle rameished)

rameishes (present singular third-person)
rameishing (participle present)
rameished (participle past)
rameished (past)
rawmaish (alternative)

‘She’s so childish to be going on with all that kind of rawmaishing out of her,’ Kate snapped.

1987, Maeve Binchy, Firefly Summer, . Random House, →ISBN, page 439:

“I hope he wasn’t delayed rameishing on with some customer today of all days,” Benny heard her mother say to Patsy.

1990, Maeve Binchy, Circle of Friends, . Random House, →ISBN, page 15:

Mario grinned and in a perfect parody of her voice said: ‘And it’d tear the ears off you to listen to this one rawmaishing all day!’

1995, Martina Cole, The Jump, Hachette UK, →ISBN:


council housing

Living in council housing made life more affordable for her family.

(UK, Ireland) Housing provided (and usually built) by the local authority at a low rent, typically intended for those on low incomes.


arsebreath

arsebreaths (plural)
arse breath (alternative)
assbreath (alternative)
ass-breath (alternative)
ass breath (alternative)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, often vulgar, offensive) An annoying or contemptible person with bad breath.

Hey arsebreath, I am on my own site its^([sic]) only because one of your lot, Paul Crichton started this thread with a cross post that you are seeing my messages.. If you want to have a go at someone, then have a pop at that twat..

2000 January 30, Steve Crooks, “Re: Biassed referee”, in alt.sports.soccer.manchester.united (Usenet):

That you had to go to the bother of explaining what you would call humour does nothing for the way you attempted to convey it, does it, arsebreath, eh?

2005 February 10, Gloria Goitre, “Re: Don't fuck with me, boys!!”, in 24hoursupport.helpdesk (Usenet):

Tiny correction:
 It is between THE NEWSGROUP and you, arsebreath.

2007 April 22, Jos Flachs, “Re: What Are They Praying For At VTech?”, in alt.atheism (Usenet):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, often vulgar, offensive) Any annoying or contemptible person.


arse breath

Stop spamming to ahww or prepare to pay the price, arse breath.

1998 January 21, MozzWolF [username], “Re: Hessian Studies Center - The Jewel of L.A.”, in alt.fan.karl-malden.nose (Usenet):

Like it or not, arse breath, Wenger knows how to pick up players unknown to others and guide them to world class form.

2001 June 26, Muppet [username], “Re: Arsenal Sign Inamoto”, in alt.sports.soccer.manchester.united (Usenet):

Nothing to do with my parents, arse breath.

2008 August 7, nofarkenway [username], “Re: Labor's Grocery watch website launched”, in aus.politics (Usenet):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, often vulgar, offensive) Alternative form of arsebreath.


rising of the moon

en-noun

rising of the moon (plural risings of the moon)

From the ballad "The Rising of the Moon" (c1865), recounting a battle between the United Irishmen and the British Army during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

And the peelers and the landlords
and the risings of the moon
And if ever I return again,
'twill be too bloody soon".

1981, Johnny McEvoy, The Ballad of John Williams:


heads of the bill

Mr. Monck Mason then a young barrister, on a motion that the heads of the bill should be committed, displayed great talents, liberality and thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles of political economy, in a luminous speech.

1813, Mathew O'Conor, The History of the Irish Catholics from the Settlement in 1691: With a View of the State of Ireland from the Invasion by Henry II, to the Revolution:

(Ireland, law) Early draft of a bill usually agreed at cabinet but not yet published.


the dear knows

Unclear. Bliss and Dolan suggest a conflation of dear, as in "oh dear" or "the Dear Lord", and deer, by analogy with the conflation in Irish of Fiadha "God" and fiadh "deer".

O thou, whom poets call Melpomene,
Who hast inspir'd, the dear knows how many
In ancient times to sing O Dear O's
On hapless fates of unknown heroes,

1806 'Caleb Thistle' "How are the mighty fallen!" in The Evening Fire-side; or Literary Miscellany (Philadelphia; 10 May 1806) Vol.II No.19 p.147

I know where I’m going,
I know who’s going with me,
I know who I love,
But the dear knows who I’ll marry.

19th century Anonymous Irish or Scottish ballad, I Know Where I’m Going

And there it sits, spreading rubbish about because of the cats, and smelling like the Dear knows what.

2004, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Dear Departed, page 205:

(Ireland, dated) God knows; nobody knows

Then she gave a little sigh and said: ‘Ah, well! We did our best, the dear knows.’

1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “A Mother”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 173:

The dear knows your father worked hard enough for the money he is laying out on your education.

1939, Flann O'Brien, chapter 1, in At Swim-two-birds:

(Ireland, dated) God knows; of course, certainly, nobody could doubt


one age with

Is Bill thirty years old now? I thought he was one age with our Sarah.


still got one's communion money

Implying that the person still has the small monetary gift they were given for their First Communion in their youth.


clash of the ash

From the use of ash wood in the manufacture of hurleys. Chosen for the rhyme.

(Ireland, informal, idiomatic) hurling (the sport)


Irish Traveller

Irish Traveller (plural Irish Travellers)

Irish Travellers (plural)
Irish Traveler (alternative)

(Ireland) A member of an indigenous nomadic ethnic minority in Ireland, the Pavee.

Gypsy

the Pavee are not descendants of the Romani


Traveller

Travellers (plural)
Traveler (alternative)

The auctioneer said he had no animus against Travellers but that some headstones verged on “monstrous”.

2024 March 3, Rory Carroll, “‘A clash of cultures’: Irish opinion split over Travellers’ elaborate headstones”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(Ireland) Ellipsis of Irish Traveller, a member of a nomadic ethnic minority in Ireland.


rahoonery

Derived from the suburb of Rahoon in Galway where residents expelled Travellers from their camp by force in 1969; + -ery.

In a widely publicized incident in 1968, residents of Rahoon, a housing estate on the outskirts of Galway City, picketed a proposed official campsite in their area and forced the city to abandon work on it. A year later, a group of residents still angry because several Traveller families remained camped near the abandoned site armed themselves with sticks and attacked the families. They uprooted tents and physically pushed the Travellers and their belongings into the street. The incident gave rise to a new word in the national lexicon, "rahoonery," meaning violently anti-Traveller sentiment and action.

1986, Sharon Gmelch, Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman (Biography), →ISBN, page 237:

(Ireland) Violently anti-Traveller sentiment and action.


Minceirtoiree

McDonagh traces the origins of Travellers back to at least the twelfth century by referring to Traveller-like characters in Irish mythology and emphasizing connections between Traveller language, referred to as Shelta, Gammon, Cant or Minceirtoiree, which literally means "Traveller Talk," and Old Irish.

2007, Colleen Anne Hynes, Strangers in the House: Twentieth Century Revisions of Irish Literary and Cultural Identity, Austin: University of Texas, page 147:

(Ireland) Shelta, a language spoken by Irish Travellers.


Imbolc

Uncertain; common explanations include the following:
* From Old Irish i mbolg (“in the belly”), referring to pregnant ewes.
* From Old Irish imb-fholc (“to cleanse or wash oneself”), referring to a ritual cleansing.
* Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ- (“to milk; milk”), though the connection between the milking of animals and the festival is not clear. Some descendants of this root have meanings related to cleansing (for example, Persian مالیدن (mâlidan, “to rub, smear”), Sanskrit मर्जति (marjati, “to clean, wipe”)), so the root could also have the sense of purification.

noncog

[T]hat the ancient Irish, at some remote period, did divide the year into the three seasons of Samh, summer, Gamh, winter, and Imbolc, spring (omitting the Foghmhar, or autumn), is quite evident from the fact, that Cormac Mac Cuileannain and the other old glossarists, explain Samhain, or November eve, by Samh, summer, and fuin, the end; that is, the end of Samh, or summer.

1862 June 10, Eugene O’Curry, “Lecture XXX. [Of Music and Musical Instruments in Ancient Erinn.]”, in W. K. Sullivan, editor, On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish. A Series of Lectures, volume III (Lectures, Vol. II), London, Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate; Dublin: W. B. Kelly; New York, N.Y.: Scribner, Welford, & Co., published 1873, →OCLC, page 217:

Invite, but never command, friendly spirits, faeries, or elementals to join you as you wish. In some traditons it is common to invite ancestors to join you, especially during the dark days from Samhain to Imbolg when it is believed that the portal between our dimensions is at its thinnest.

1994, Edain McCoy, “Appendix Three: Outline for Ritual Construction”, in A Witch’s Guide to Faery Folk: How to Work with the Elemental World: […], St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publishers, published 2004 (13th printing), →ISBN, page 354:

In the Celtic world many celebrations were built around the ancient calendar of events or great feasts. The four great feasts of the year were Samhain (1st November), Imbolg (1st February), Bealtaine (1st May) and Lughnasa (1st August). Notice that each of the feasts begins each of the four seasons of the year – winter, spring, summer and autumn.

2002, Liam Lawton, “How Can I Repay the Lord”, in Song of My People, Dublin: Veritas Publications, →ISBN, page 28:

The Festival of Imbolc commences on February eve, or January 31, and usually concludes on February 2. Imbolc has three major associations: the veneration of fire and water, the quickening of new life in the womb, and the lactation of ewes. The association of Imbolc with fire comes from its place as the midpoint between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox.

2007, Judy Ann Nock, “Season Three: Imbolc: First Light in the Dark of Winter”, in The Provenance Press Guide to the Wiccan Year: Spells, Rituals, Holiday Celebrations, Avon, Mass.: Provenance Press, Adams Media, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN:

Never leave incense, candles, or anything else burning when you are not in the room to ensure you will be around for many more Imbolcs to come.

2015, Carl F. Neal, Imbolc: Rituals, Recipes & Lore for Brigid’s Day (Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials), Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn Publishers, →ISBN:

Brigid has also been described in relation to the different cycles as the Earth Mother. […] In another version of the Threshold Rites, a sheaf of wheat from the Samhain harvest was placed outside doors of homes on the eve of January 31. Some believed that the Goddess was present in the sheaf in her winter Cailleach form. Upon Imbolc, the sheaf becomes the infant Goddess Brigid once again, marking the fragile beginnings of the new agricultural cycle.

2015, Courtney Weber, “Imbolc: Brigid the Springtime Goddess, the Mother, and the Midwife”, in Brigid: History, Mystery, and Magick of the Celtic Goddess, San Francisco, Calif.: Weiser Books, Red Wheel/Weiser, →ISBN, page 149:

(British, Ireland) A Gaelic and Wiccan festival celebrated on 1 or 2 February which marks the beginning of spring.

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Penguin Books
University of Wales Press

聖布里吉德節 /圣布里吉德节

Gaelic and Wiccan festival which marks the beginning of spring

Yule • Imbolc • Ostara • Beltane • Litha • Lammas


breakfast roll

(Ireland) A bread roll filled with elements of a traditional fry up.


act the maggot

en-verb

act the maggot (third-person singular simple present acts the maggot, present participle acting the maggot, simple past and past participle acted the maggot)

acts the maggot (present singular third-person)
acting the maggot (participle present)
acted the maggot (participle past)
acted the maggot (past)

(Ireland) To play around in a foolish or annoying manner.


act the jennet

act the jennet (third-person singular simple present acts the jennet, present participle acting the jennet, simple past and past participle acted the jennet)

acts the jennet (present singular third-person)
acting the jennet (participle present)
acted the jennet (participle past)
acted the jennet (past)
act the jinnet (alternative)

Nobody knew, at least we never did, whether it was from just acting the jennet or out of badness that he called Babs by that name.

6 June 2004, Hugh Leonard, A night with Hilton and Michael, Sunday Independent


Mam

Need a cwtch from Mam I do.

(informal, Wales, Ireland) One’s mother.


polyester Protestant

en-noun

polyester Protestant (plural polyester Protestants)

I recently was astonished by the following phrase, "Polyester Protestants" being used to describe those whom I have delineated as Anglicans by conviction. This phrase was reported to me by a member of the community in a prestigious institution in Dublin suburbia and is in current use. It is reported to me as being used in that institution by cradle members of the Church of Ireland to describe fellow community members who are Anglicans by conviction.

2013 October 22, Michael Jackson, “Facing up to failings in Church of Ireland’s view of the other”, in Irish Times:

(Ireland, informal, derogatory) A newcomer in the Church of Ireland; an Irish Anglican by conviction.


cattle crush

(UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) An enclosure for livestock to keep them from moving while being examined, marked, or given veterinary treatment.


talk the legs off a pot

en-verb

talk the legs off a pot (third-person singular simple present talk the legs off a pots, present participle talk the legs off a potting, simple past and past participle talk the legs off a potted)

talk the legs off a pots (present singular third-person)
talk the legs off a potting (participle present)
talk the legs off a potted (participle past)
talk the legs off a potted (past)

Near-synonyms: talk someone's head off, talk someone's arm off, talk someone's leg off, talk the ears off someone, talk someone under the table

I thought John would never shut up. He could talk the legs off a pot.

(Ireland, humorous, idiomatic) To talk a lot.


crocodile clip

(UK, Ireland, Africa, Australia) An alligator clip.


flaithiúlach

en-adj

flaithiúlach (comparative more flaithiúlach, superlative most flaithiúlach)

more flaithiúlach (comparative)
most flaithiúlach (superlative)

Dan has always been very flaithiúlach with his money.

(Ireland) Generous (often in an ironic sense).


rubbish in, rubbish out

garbage in, garbage out
garbage in, garbage out#English

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative form of garbage in, garbage out.


cuddly toy

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Synonym of soft toy.


diddley-eye

(Ireland, informal, often derogatory) Old style traditional Irish music, typically with tin whistles, banjos, and bodhrans.


partitionism

(Ireland, politics) The treatment of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as distinct.


graduate tax

(UK, Ireland) A proposed method of financing higher education, whereby graduates would pay their tuition costs as additional income tax.


gobdaw

The ignorant self-opinionated sod-minded suet-brained ham-faced mealy-mouthed streptococcus-ridden gang of natural gobdaws!

1968, Myles Na Gopaleen, The Best of Myles: A Selection from ‘Cruiskeen Lawn’, MacGibbon and Kee, page 81

(Ireland, slang) A foolish or pretentious person.


scuttered

scuttered (comparative more scuttered, superlative most scuttered)

more scuttered (comparative)
most scuttered (superlative)

Last night I went out on a night on the town and came home absolutely scuttered

Eventually, Lydia extended an olive branch. “Were you drinking at the funeral, Mum? Maybe you don't remember ringing because you were scuttered.” “I wasn't scuttered.” “What did you have at the do?” “Two Baileys.”

2010, Marian Keyes, The Brightest Star in the Sky, Penguin Publishing Group, page 197:

(Ireland, especially Munster) Very drunk.


clapped out

clapped out (comparative more clapped out, superlative most clapped out)

more clapped out (comparative)
most clapped out (superlative)
clapped-out (alternative)

Accusations of letting a service run down deliberately will always be made if, to quote one local case, a mostly empty mid-day train continues to run, while in the same service an early morning train is discontinued, causing: (a) six men to lose their jobs; (b) four men to go on to permanent night shift by the grace of their employer; and (c) four others to buy a clapped-out van between them to get to work.

1964 November, E. N. Bellass, “Some questions for Mr. Mugliston”, in Modern Railways, pages 329–330:

For now, the intensive Valleys services remain in the hands of increasingly clapped-out Class 150/2s.

2024 November 13, Paul Bigland, “Much to admire... but pockets of neglect”, in RAIL, number 1022, page 49:

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Exhausted, worn out.


O'Neillism

(Ireland, politics) The policies of Terence O'Neill (1914–1990), fourth Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.


Paisleyism

(Ireland, politics) The policies of Ian Paisley (born 1926), Northern Irish politician.


suck it and see

en-verb

suck it and see (third-person singular simple present sucks it and sees, present participle sucking it and seeing, simple past sucked it and saw, past participle sucked it and seen)

sucks it and sees (present singular third-person)
sucking it and seeing (participle present)
sucked it and saw (past)
sucked it and seen (participle past)

THE old maxim for testing wild schemes is summed up in the immortal phrase “suck it and see”.

1980 August 21, “Suck it and see”, in New Scientist, volume 87, number 1215, →ISSN, Forum, page 609:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Try it out.


substitute teacher

en-noun

substitute teacher (plural substitute teachers)

(Canada, US, India, Ireland) A supply teacher.


lorry driver

lorry drivers (plural)
lorry-driver (alternative)

(British, Ireland, India, Pakistan) A person employed to drive a lorry (truck).


polling booth

(British, Ireland, Canada, Australia) A voting booth.


road bowling

(Ireland) A game of skill where a heavy metal ball is thrown along a pre-determined course of rural roads, with the winner being the team with the fewest throws.


me fein

This is a photo of Jimmy, Tim, me fein, and Steve.


dargle

From the River Dargle, a popular spot for such trips.

Says my aul' one to your aul' one "Will ye come to the Waxies' dargle?"

Early 1900s, Traditional, Waxies' Dargle (song)

(Ireland, Dublin, dated) A day excursion; a picnic out of the city.


waxie

From wax + -ie, from the use of wax to waterproof cobblers' thread.


erenagh

Borrowed from Old Irish airchinnech, from Proto-Celtic *ɸare-kʷenno- (“extremity, end”); see *kʷennom (“head”).

der

(Ireland, history, ecclesiastical) The head of a clan occupying church lands under a bishop in Gaelic Ireland.


erenaghy

If the clan in which the erenaghy was vested became extinct, the bishop could not keep the lands in his own hands but must instal a new erenagh family

1973 Kenneth Nicholls, Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the Middle Ages, Gill and Macmillan, ISBN 7171 0561 X p.113

(Ireland, history, ecclesiastical) the office of erenagh


drink link

Humorously suggesting that it is a convenient source of money for alcoholic drinks.

This particular ATM was known as the 'drink-link'. It was good to know she would get money any time, for an extra round or a taxi home — assuming she could still remember her PIN number.

2000, William Cullen, Doris Lehniger, B for Business, page 91:

'Yes, and CCTV on the drink link and at Fabio's chipper.'


Weeshie

(Ireland, informal) A nickname for the male given name Aloysius


hedge school

(historical, Ireland) A rudimentary school in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland, held outdoors or in a house or barn.

scoil chois claí

a rudimentary school in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland


up sticks

en-verb

up sticks (third-person singular simple present ups sticks, present participle upping sticks, simple past and past participle upped sticks)

ups sticks (present singular third-person)
upping sticks (participle present)
upped sticks (participle past)
upped sticks (past)
up stick (alternative)

up + sticks, plural of stick (“a mast or part of a mast of a ship; a yard”).

(UK, Ireland, sailing, slang) To put up the mast of a ship in preparation for sailing.

Both of these conquered more and more of India, till at length the Rajput city of Delhi was captured, and then the disgusted Rajputs ‘upped sticks’ and fled before Islam and the Turk, and finally settled amid the inaccessible mountains and jungles and occasional fertile valleys of what is known as Rajputana or Rajasthan.

1934, George Fletcher MacMunn, The Living India: Its Romance and Realities, London: George Bell & Sons, →OCLC, page 17:

If a doctor had to do an operation in a sailing ship, you upped sticks and went before the wind, he said.

1945, James Lansdale Hodson, The Sea and the Land: Being some Account of Journeys, Meetings, and What Was Said to Me in Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Holland between March 1943 and May 1945, London: Victor Gollancz, →OCLC, page 24:

Once she starts playing that infernal instrument all hours of the day and night, she can think of nothing else and sooner or later she ups sticks and is gone.

2012, Jane Rusbridge, Rook, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 154:

For such a strategy to work we needed thousands of contractors to up sticks and leave and I never thought that was going to happen.

2012 November 2, Philip Ross, Freedom to Freelance: Beginning the Fight against IR35, 3rd edition, [Raleigh, N.C.]: Lulu, →ISBN, page 158:

There are too many examples of successful entrepreneurs who have upped sticks and gone elsewhere.

2013 February 2, “If in doubt, innovate”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 2016-03-18:

For Paddy Groggy, upping sticks and moving elsewhere wasn't a viable option at this stage in his life.

2014, William Forde, “Author's Foreword”, in The Life and Times of Joe Walsh (Tales from Portlaw; 8), [s.l.]: William Forde, published July 2016, →ISBN, page 12:

(UK, Ireland, figurative, colloquial) To prepare to move; to pack up; to go and live in a different place.


Partridgean

en-adj

Partridgean (comparative more Partridgean, superlative most Partridgean)

more Partridgean (comparative)
most Partridgean (superlative)
Partridgian (alternative)

From Partridge + -an. From the fictional character Alan Partridge, a self-obsessed radio DJ.

Speaking of glaring faults, howsabout Rio Ferdinand’s for starters? This, at least, is one properly footballing ‘Hot Topic’ the Partridgean hacks have managed to find room for, though I note it took him cocking up in an England shirt for them to do so.

2009 October 14, Richard Kurt, “Fergie frenzy hides the faults”, in Irish Examiner:

Paul Sexton, presenting The Queen of Soul: the Legend of Aretha (Radio 2), had a bouncy introduction that bordered on the Partridgean. Over two nights, he explained, the programmes would explore Franklin's move "from the church to the charts". They would, he added, "say RESPECT to a true original".

2011 August 1, Elizabeth Mahoney, “Radio Review: The Queen of Soul: the Legend of Aretha”, in The Guardian:

He was less revolted by squatting by the end of the film, but for most viewers the unintentional Partridgean comedy would have been the best reason for watching. “You can’t film me pissing,” he said indignantly to the camera crew when using the facilities in one squat.“You can listen.”

2012 December 7, Tom Sutcliffe, “Television review: A Young Doctor's Notebook - Daniel Radcliffe is innocent and Jon Hamm is knowing in this hamfisted show”, in The Independent:

Forde proved his point across the Bank Holiday weekend, tweeting snaps of such Partridgean gems as Blackburn's clarfication that his son Simon was NOT named after Simon Bates.

2013 May 7, Jack Seale, “Tony Blackburn's Alan Partridge-style memoir gains cult status on Twitter”, in Radio Times, archived from the original on 2013-06-19:

Well, it's wet and it's miserable on the day that Leicester City's footballers have been dreading for weeks, for this is the day that they have to tackle this: "The Hill," intones a somewhat Partridgean local TV news reporter in the early 1980s, on an old clip of the players in question embarking on their pre-season training. The camera promptly pulls back to reveal our man on the spot in a decidedly elevated position; the "this" in question is one of three giant mountains of muck and rubble on a patch of waste ground.

2013 July 26, Barry Glendenning, “How Sunderland's Paolo Di Canio is reviving the pre-season pain principle”, in The Guardian:

And so to the meat of You Have Wives?, whose Partridgean dedication page reads: "Written at the Villa Francia, Lanzarote, Canaries. The authors would like to thank Villa Plus for helping with the difficult internet connections."

2013 August 8, Marina Hyde, “Is it Dynasty or the BBC weather centre? It's sometimes hard to tell”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland) Self-important but bathetic; unable to distinguish the meaningful from the trivial and therefore prone to absurdity.


ballyboe

(Ireland, historical) A townland in Ulster.


monged

monged (comparative more monged, superlative most monged)

more monged (comparative)
most monged (superlative)

(UK, Ireland, slang) intoxicated; under the influence of alcohol or other drugs


rompering

(Ireland, historical, transitive) The abduction of a victim to a room where they are tortured and murdered.


winter sun

(UK, Ireland, travel) The off-season holiday market, typically to destinations in North Africa and Southern Europe.


in the nip

/ɪn ðə ˈnɪp/

The streaker ran across the playing field in the nip.

Father Dougal: Those women were in the nip!

1998, Graham Linehan & al., "Speed 3", Father Ted Series 3, Episode 3, Channel Four

(Ireland, UK, idiomatic, informal) Nude.


God be with the days

God be with the days when people had respect for their elders.

(Ireland, informal) A phrase alluding to better days of yesteryear, often followed by the thing the speaker regrets losing.


red man

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

In reference to Native Americans, generally accepted to have originated as a reference to their skin color; see redskin for more.

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A small figure of a standing man illuminated in red on a traffic light at a pedestrian crossing, indicating that it is not safe to cross the road.


flight of earls

(Ireland, historical) the departure into exile of the Irish chieftain Hugh O'Neill and his followers in 1607.

So farewell you boys and girls, another bloody flight of Earls, Our best asset is now our best export too.

1987, Liam Rielly, Song: Flight of Earls:

The 'flight of earls' theme with its various threnody on the decay of rural Irish life in song, ballad, play and fiction was everywhere […]

1994, Brendan Kennelly, Dark fathers into light, page 40:

(Ireland, poetic) the mass emigration of the younger population in the 1970s and 1980s due to unemployment.


bolloxology

Instead I was talking about Nietzsche, or some bolloxology, trying to impress her instead of getting a plan together.

2008, Gerry Ryan, Would The Real Gerry Ryan Please Stand Up:

Bob said that that was bolloxology. I hadn't heard that term in years. Bolloxology! Anyway, after some lively debate and some give and take of bolloxology we left them in the room.

2009, Dónal Óg Cusack, Come What May: The Autobiography:


fong

1996, Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes, Scribner-Simon & Schuster, New York: 1996, p 147.
'Get away from my door or I'll come out and give every one o' ye a good fong in the hole of yeer arse.'


pawkiness

But to wallow in your own phrases, to be rejoiced by the savour of your own shrewd pawkinesses, to feel your rhythm balanced and yet sober – that is a pleasure beyond most, and an inexpensive one at that.

1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not... (Parade's End), Penguin, published 2012, page 12:

(Scotland, Northern England, Ireland) Something that is pawky; something arch or shrewd; a subtlety.


romper room

From Romper Room, name of a children's television series. See romp.

(Ireland, historical) A room where victims are tortured and murdered, associated with the Ulster Defence Association.


pyore

(regional, US, Ireland) Alternative form of pure.


tatterara

/tætəˈɹɑːɹɑː/

[tæt̪əˈɹɑːɹɑː]

tattarara (alternative)
tatarara (alternative)

In the midst of our fun, a tremendous tatterara of the dining-room bell struck upon our hearts.
" That is Sir Charles himself," cried Jones ; " I know his impatient ring."

1852, M.G. Robinson, The life and adventures of James Kelly O'Dwyer, volume II, London: Richard Bentley, page 307:

Thus it was in Belfast, where a publisher invited the most terrible tatterara in the Spring of 1976 by publishing a very slim volume, "Best Belfast Jokes" under the rather original imprint Minnie-Ha-Ha Press.

1976 The Recorder (American Irish Historical Society) Vol.37, p.37

Very soon I heard the tatterara coming up the road. 'They're coming!' I said and I was all agog.

1991 Bryan MacMahon [translation from the Irish of Peig Sayers] Peig: The Autobiography of Peig Sayers of the Great Blasket Island →ISBN (Syracuse University Press), p.58

(Ireland, dated) commotion, noise; fuss, bother


bell end

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


geezerish

geezerish (comparative more geezerish, superlative most geezerish)

more geezerish (comparative)
most geezerish (superlative)

He wore old-fashioned boxers, she knew (because of the few times his washing machine had been on the fritz and she'd let him do laundry at her place), which should have been geezerish but was actually kind of mysterious and sexy.

2008, Lisa Plumley, Home For The Holidays:

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Resembling or characteristic of a geezer, or common man.


orangie

orangies (plural)
Orangeman (alternative)

From orange + -ie, referring to the Orange Order.

(Ireland, offensive, slang) A pro-British Ulster Protestant.


Denjoe

2 Years: DenJoe Lee Townsend

1919, Arkansas. Office of the Attorney General, Biennial Report of the Attorney General, page 618:

...black hole radiance and inflation as exponential scaling was explored with Yuhong Zhang [16, 40, 41] partly based on work on critical phenomena done earlier with Denjoe O'Connor [42].

2012, Norma G. Sànchez, Antonino Zichichi, String Gravity and Physics at the Planck Energy Scale, →ISBN, page 226:

Deeply regretted by his sister Sheila (O' Donovan), Brothers-in-law P.J and Denjoe, Sister-in-law Norma,Nephew's and Nieces (Richard, Liz, Kate and Michael 0' Donovan, Bernard, Michael, Sheila and Liz Moynihan and Michael Firth) grandnieces, grandnephews, great-grandniece, great-grandnephew, Paddy and Margaret Lane, cousins and exceptionally kind neighbours and friends.

2016 October 11, “Obituaries (Johnny Cronin)”, in The Corkman:

(Ireland, informal) A diminutive name for someone named Denis Joseph.


mearing

(Ireland) A boundary between pieces of land.


faggot vote

(UK, Ireland, historical) The vote granted to a faggot voter, exploiting loopholes in the regulations.


sod this for a game of soldiers

sod that for a game of soldiers (alternative)

Near-synonyms: screw this, fuck this; see also Thesaurus:screw this

"All that grovelling. It's no wonder most people say, 'Sod this for a game of soldiers'. It's a very odd person who retains practising religion."

1996 December 8, Caroline Sutton, “My First One-in-a-Bath Romp, by Father Ted”, in Sunday Mirror:

In the middle of a very hot mixed-up fight one of our men remarked drily on his radio "What price this for a game of soldiers!"

1941, James Lansdale Hodson, Through the dark night: being some account of a war correspondent's journey, meetings and what was said to him in France, Britain, and Flanders during 1939-40, V. Gollancz Ltd., page 343

A cold gust of wind fans your face, you shiver slightly, you have been standing still, "get moving," you say to yourself, only another hour to do, the rifle is heavy, brrrr, blow this for a game of soldiers, they have no consideration at all.

1952, Hashomer Hatzair, Forging the link: a handbook of Hashomer Hatzair, page 108:

(UK, Ireland) Expressing exasperation or impatience with a situation.


skive off

en-verb

skive off (third-person singular simple present skives off, present participle skiving off, simple past and past participle skived off)

skives off (present singular third-person)
skiving off (participle present)
skived off (participle past)
skived off (past)

(UK, Ireland, informal) To skive; to play truant; to slack off.


AIB

(banking, Ireland) Initialism of Allied Irish Banks.

(banking, Ireland, historical) Initialism of Anglo Irish Bank.


rubbish bag

I need to take the rubbish bag out.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) A plastic bag produced for the disposal of household waste.


ouncil

He is our rate collector and ouncil weigh-master, and his son is our market clerk.

1877, Local Government and Taxation of Towns Inquiry Commission (Ireland), “Minutes of Evidence: Naas, March 19, 1877: William Samuel Gray”, in Report, Part III (Command papers), volume C-1787, page 93, §77:

You have got an ouncil?—Yes.
What commodities do you weigh on that ouncil?—Hay and straw principally; mangolds and turnips.

1891, Royal Commission on Market Rights and Tolls, “Kilmallock—Co. Limerick; Mr. J.J. O'Sullivan, merchant, examined”, in Minutes and reports on Ulster, Leinster and Munster, November 1st, 1888, to January 7th, 1889; Vol.X (Command papers), volume C-6268-IV, pages 140, §§21,136–21,137:

Are there not some private individuals in the town having ouncils or weighbridges?

1891, Royal Commission on Market Rights and Tolls, “Tipperary, 1st November 1889 [sic]; Mr. George Caldwell examined.”, in Minutes and reports on Ulster, Leinster and Munster, November 1st, 1888, to January 7th, 1889; Vol.X (Command papers), volume C-6268-IV, page 49, §17.938:

(Ireland, obsolete) Scales for weighing produce at a market


pay rise

pay rises (plural)
payrise (alternative)

Whelan called the offer "risible", describing it as a "land grab for all the terms and conditions we have negotiating over the years". He demanded a no-strings pay offer that recognises the "significant cost of living increases" since the last pay rise in 2019.

2024 May 1, Mel Holley, “Network News: New action from ASLEF to hit Bank Holiday services”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 14:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, rest of Commonwealth, sometimes Canada) An increase in salary or wages.


kirby grip

kirby grips (plural)
kirby pin (alternative)

After the English manufacturers: Kirby, Beard & Co. Ltd. of Birmingham. Pre-dates the invention of the “bobby pin”. For the etymology of the surname, see Kirby.

(UK, Ireland) A type of double-pronged hairgrip


Slavonic studies

(humanities, UK, Ireland) Alternative form of Slavic studies.


put him in to get him out

Coined by Irish revolutionary Michael Collins.

coin

(Ireland, politics, historical) An election poster catchphrase, and rallying cry, for imprisoned Republicans to be elected to parliament.


twattery

their ‘I’m a pirate!’ shtick was once mildly amusing[…]but 15 years of cheeseball folk/power metal[…]and general yo-ho-ho-ing twattery have flogged any vestiges of entertainment out of it.

2022 June 24, Dave Everley, “Alestorm's Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum: "all the joyless enthusiasm of a dog licking its balls"”, in Metal Hammer:

(UK, Ireland, slang) obnoxious or antisocial behaviour


blackmouth

From black + mouth.
For the origin of the pejorative "Presbyterian", several theories exist:
* A specialisation of a dialect sense "liar, slanderer, foul-mouthed person" applied to political radicals.
* Ulster Scots refusing to take the "Black Oath" imposed in 1639;
* Covenanters eating blackberries or blaeberries while hiding in the wilds during the The Killing Time.

(derogatory, Ireland, dated) a Presbyterian


sugar mummy

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative form of sugar mama.


sugar mamma

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative spelling of sugar mama.


solo run

For a start Minister Varadkar, without seeking approval from on high, set off on a solo run informing the public that not everything in the pie-in-the-sky programme for Government was achievable.

2014 September 20, “Varadkar's solo runs show he's the wild card in the Government pack”, in Enniscorthy Guardian:

Ireland strives to nudge the EU towards “a more just” position but avoids solo runs, said Holohan, who noted that France and other members had echoed its call for a ceasefire. “We want to remain within the European consensus.”

2023 November 20, Rory Carroll, Lisa O'Carroll, quoting Niall Holohan, “‘It’s part of our psyche’: why Ireland sides with ‘underdog’ Palestine”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(figurative, Ireland) Action taken without consultation of colleagues or approval of superiors.


woegeous

en-adj

woegeous (comparative more woegeous, superlative most woegeous)

more woegeous (comparative)
most woegeous (superlative)

Perhaps a blend of woeful and atrocious or outrageous; or playful analogy with gorgeous.

The weather forecast is woegeous. Imagine being stuck in a field in Galway with the wind and the rain lashing down.

2008, Kate Thompson, Love Lies Bleeding, New Island, →ISBN, page 47:

She's pig ugly, cap'n. I've never seen a more woegeous body shape without a BC Rich logo on it!

2008 (2 March), "Doctor J" comment #16 in thread "EBMM Petrucci on chrisguitars, someone here snap this up quick!" on Boards.ie

Unfortunately, the Good Lord has proven himself something of a miser with regard to this year's gift. The Senior Cup team this year is – not to put too fine a point on it – bloody woegeous.

2012, Paul Howard, Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, The Miseducation Years, O'Brien, →ISBN, page 135:

But in nearly every other way the ex-coppers are hopeless as PIs. Oh woegeous.

2012, Marian Keyes, The Mystery of Mercy Close Ch.5 p.35 (Penguin 2012

(Ireland, colloquial) Of poor quality; woefully bad; awful.


woegeous

I love him woegeous, ye know.

1998, Pat Kinevan, “The nun's wood”, in Fishamble, Pigsback: first plays, New Island, published 2002, →ISBN, page 433:

(Ireland, colloquial) Awfully; extremely.


woegeously

en-adv

woegeously (comparative more woegeously, superlative most woegeously)

more woegeously (comparative)
most woegeously (superlative)
wojusly (alternative)

Within the first few months of our time here, I got woegeously drunk at a New Years Eve party, fell up a flight of stairs and woke up at home with a rice cooker and two packets of crisps.

2013 (6 August) Ceire Sadlier, "Missing my ‘day one’ friends" The Irish Times

(Ireland, colloquial) in a woegeous manner; to a woegeous degree


your man

... from the work of John Gilroy, whose animal cartoons and painful puns are still used to this day, to modern masterpieces such as the surfing ad (which led the Irish singer-songwriter Christy Moore to ponder "how yer man stayed up on that surfboard after fourteen pints of stout").

2002, Geoff Wallis, Mark Connolly, Margaret Greenwood, The Rough Guide to Dublin, page 122:

No, your man there with the kind of hooded eyes, talking to Tom O'Reilly. That's Frank Purcell, the general secretary.

2004, May O'Brien, Clouds on My Windows: A Dublin Memoir, page 151:

Your man is talking away but it's not dramatically correct to have him just jawing on and on, when there's no movement.

2005, John Doyle, A Great Feast of Light: Growing Up Irish in the Television Age, page 81:

"What did yer man want?" "Dunno, couldn't understand him."

2008, Andrew Higgins Wyndham, Re-imagining Ireland, page 29:

(Ireland) That man, the man in question.


guardian of the peace

en-noun

guardian of the peace (plural guardians of the peace)

From the Irish name for the police force, Garda Síochána (literally “Guardians of the Peace”).


drop the hand

en-verb

drop the hand (third-person singular simple present drops the hand, present participle dropping the hand, simple past and past participle dropped the hand)

drops the hand (present singular third-person)
dropping the hand (participle present)
dropped the hand (participle past)
dropped the hand (past)

(Ireland, dated) To engage in sexual petting.


Ulster Says No

(Ireland, UK, historical) A unionist mass protest campaign against the provisions of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement which gave the government of the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in Northern Ireland's government.


Magdalene laundry

en-noun

Magdalene laundry (plural Magdalene laundries)

Named after Mary Magdalene, traditionally associated with prostitution and patron saint of penitent sinners.

(historical, chiefly Ireland) A religious facility in which prostitutes and unmarried mothers were kept, usually against their will, as a source of forced labour to launder clothes.


workshare

workshare (countable and uncountable, plural workshares)

(UK, Ireland) A cooperative funding arrangement between multiple governments whereby the costs of a contract are divided between several governments who benefit from that contract.


stotious

en-adj

stotious (comparative more stotious, superlative most stotious)

more stotious (comparative)
most stotious (superlative)
stocious (alternative)
stoshious (alternative)

He'd been in the pub earlier so that he was pretty well stotious by the time Willa and Ina arrived. As the hours went by Willa herself became a little tipsy and her mother-in-law warned her she'd better watch she didn't get her bairn drunk.

2007, Joan Lingard, After You've Gone, Allison & Busby, →ISBN:


cotton bud

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Synonym of cotton swab.


out-tray

(British, Ireland) A desktop organizer; outbox.


Auntie Beeb

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, affectionate nickname) The BBC.


posh wank

Mark bought a packet of condoms so that he could have a posh wank.

(slang, vulgar) An act of male masturbation with a condom placed over the penis.


ratton

rattons (plural)
ratten (alternative rare)

From Middle English ratoun, from Anglo-Norman ratoun and Middle French raton, corresponding to rat + -oon.

“A Yorkshire burr,” he affirmed, “was as much better than a Cockney’s lisp, as a bull's bellow than a ratton’s squeak.”

1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Mr. Yorke (continued)”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 67:

To dark is still used in Swaledale (Yorkshire) in the sense of to lie hid, as, 'Te rattens [rats] mun ha bin darkin whel nu [till now]; we hannot heerd tem tis last fortnith'.

1873, Richard Morris, Walter William Skeat, “Glossarial Index”, in Specimens of Early English, volumes II: From Robert of Gloucester to Gower, A.D. 1298—A.D. 1393, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 490:

(now Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) A rat.


rightify

en-verb

rightify (third-person singular simple present rightifies, present participle rightifying, simple past and past participle rightified)

rightifies (present singular third-person)
rightifying (participle present)
rightified (participle past)
rightified (past)

(Ireland, dialect) To put right; to rectify.


blow-in

This had been her local when she worked in Central. All the waitresses knew her by name. Now she was a blow-in.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 389:

Maybe it's none of my business as a blow-in, but I loved helping someone local, in return for what I have been given by the people of Achill over the last 25 years.

2023 August 5, Lauren Murphy, quoting Lisa Fukuda, “Sounds of Achill”, in Irish Independent Magazine, page 11:

(Ireland, Australia) Someone who has only recently arrived in an area or community; a newcomer.


bollocks up

bollocks up (third-person singular simple present bollockses up, present participle bollocksing up, simple past and past participle bollocksed up)

bollockses up (present singular third-person)
bollocksing up (participle present)
bollocksed up (participle past)
bollocksed up (past)

The webpage didn't display properly because I bollocksed up the formatting.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) To fail to do correctly; to make a mess of.


WEEE

From the title of the European law: Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (2003).

You may wish to ensure that your WEEE is stored in a safe, secure area.

2007, Department of Health: Estates and Facilities Division, The Treatment, Recovery, Recycling and Safe Disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, The Stationery Office →ISBN, page 16

Further improvements to the system should include better enforcement for retail outlets, as some major supermarket chains that sell electrical and electronic products do not accept WEEE.

2011, OECD, OECD Environmental Performance Reviews OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway 2011, OECD Publishing →ISBN, page 180

To establish a better understanding on recovery/remanufacturing flows is therefore paramount for enterprises to apply sensible recovery/remanufacturing strategies to recover diverse WEEE.

2013, Weidong Li, Jörn Mehnen, Cloud Manufacturing: Distributed Computing Technologies for Global and Sustainable Manufacturing, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 125:


mé féiner

As far as he was concerned, de Valera just fixed things for himself. He was a mé féiner.

2015 June 29, Eoghan Plunkett, quoted in Ronan McGreevy "On 1916, and why Michael Collins 'was a pup'" The Irish Times

(Ireland, derogatory) Someone who acts from self-interest, rather than the common good or the national interest.


guard's van

(UK, Ireland, rail transport, historical) The last carriage on a passenger train which was occupied by the guard, consisted of storage space for parcels, bicycles, etc, and sometimes had an emergency brake.


make shit of

make shit of (third-person singular simple present makes shit of, present participle making shit of, simple past and past participle made shit of)

makes shit of (present singular third-person)
making shit of (participle present)
made shit of (participle past)
made shit of (past)

My friend made shit of that CD she borrowed off me.

(transitive, Ireland, idiomatic, colloquial, vulgar) To ruin or destroy.


betagh

From Irish biatach, from Middle Irish bíatach (“providing food”), ultimately from bíad (“food”).

Their unfree status meant not only unfavourable tenurial conditions for the betaghs but also incapacity to plead on their own behalf in the king's courts where they were represented instead by their lord.

1999, Brendan Smith, Colonisation and Conquest in Medieval Ireland: The English in Louth, 1170-1330, Cambridge University Press, page 79:

(Ireland, historical) A tenant that provides food for a household. On Anglo-Norman manors, these workers were servile to their lords.


scraugh

en-noun

scraugh (countable and uncountable, plural scraughs)

The sod, or scraugh, which had been used to cover the mouth of the vessel, and prevent the bones which it contained from falling out, still held together.

1855, Kilkenny Archaeological Society, Transactions of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society:

I also have the scraugh I took from the field behind the house, and every time I looks at it I thinks of the poor ould home.

1881, David Power Conyngham, The O'Donnells of Glen Cottage: A Tale of the Famine Years in Ireland:

Some thought that he must actually have swum under water till he was beneath the scraugh, so as to render rescue impossible and make sure of anathema!

1887, Chambers's Journal - Volume 64, page 543:


scorchio

* scorch (as in scorcher, scorching) + pseudo-Romance suffix -io (see for example, Italian -io, Portuguese -io, Spanish -iego). Coined for The Fast Show, a BBC comedy series, in the "Chanel 9 News" sketch: the TV news in a fictional Mediterranean country delivered in a Romance-sounding gibberish supposed to be the local language. The weather map was always very hot and sunny, described as "scorchio".

In "scorchio" heat, I trudge along the waterfront for a last visit with the crew.

2002, Shirley Hewett, The People's Boat: HMCS Oriole : Ship of a Thousand Dreams, Heritage House, →ISBN, page 159:

Pork and poultry (and this goes for geese and turkeys too): aim for the hotter side of warm, but not as far as scorchio.

2011, Allegra McEvedy, Big Table, Busy Kitchen: 200 Recipes for Life, Hachette UK, →ISBN, page 281:

The climate of the British Isles will be probably the mildest in Europe, and therefore the most desirable, but in the south temperatures, especially in cities, will be scorchio, to use the technical term

2011 July 7, Nicholas Lezard, "Turned Out Nice by Marek Kohn – review" (The Guardian: London)

It was a scorchio weekend and yesterday we saw the warmest day of the year so far, 29.7C recorded in Bournemouth, closer to home, 29.5C at Heathrow.

2013 July 8, Manali's weather blog (ITV: London)

2015 July 2, Zoe Forsey, “It’s scorchio outside and hotter in the bus station”, in Daily Gazette, Colchester:

(British, Ireland, slang, humorous) scorching hot (originally and especially of weather)

TV is very scorchio: a parade of go-go girls in bikinis mouthing songs as they prance around the studio.

1999 November 21, Tobias Jones, “Insider's guide to... Milan”, in The Independent, London:

If the Kerry footballers find themselves filling the time between league and championship next spring with a little less scorchio in their lives, they will only have themselves to blame.

2015 June 15, Malachy Clerkin, “Kerry start slowly but have plenty to spare against wasteful Tipp”, in The Irish Times, Dublin:

The Mambista crew are hosting hip upbeat jazzsters, Alice in Grooveland, who will be dreaming up a set of originals from their debut album ‘Skyline,’ alongside a scorchio mix of jazz, funk and Latin tunes with latex-tight grooves, catchy riffs and punchy solos.

2015 July 24, Mike Urban Weekender – What’s on around Brixton, Fri 24th – Sun 26th July (BrixtonBuzz)

(British, Ireland, slang, humorous, by extension) Sizzling, exciting, cool; sexy, racy.


fellermelad

fellermelads (plural)
feller-me-lad (alternative)
fellow-me-lad (alternative)

"Now then, young fellermelad," said S.P.C. Charles, "you comerlongerme. Best come quiet." He made a grab with the handcuffs.

1916, W.A. Darlington, “A Dress Rehearsal”, in Punch, volume 161, page 80:

"Well, young fellermelad, we'll present you all the Order of the Gallows, and set you on the road to—"

1926, Arthur Douglas Howden Smith, A Manifest Destiny:

"Ullo," I ses to meself, "ere's another o' these 'ere dratted young fellermelads lorst 'is way,' I ses.

1936, H.F.E, Punch, volume 190, page 146:

"Well, young fellermelad," said the expression, "we've just heard a lot of talk from you, but now what d'you do about this one?"

1941, Bruce Bairnsfather, Ian Dalrymple, Old Bill & son:

“This is somewhat different, my fine fellermelad, from our time in Hinjanchung.”

2008, Alan Burt Akers, Scorpio Invasion: Dray Prescot 40, Mushroom eBooks, →ISBN:

(humorous, UK, Ireland, usually with "young") A term of address for a young man.


badarse

en-adj

badarse (comparative more badarse, superlative most badarse)

more badarse (comparative)
most badarse (superlative)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Standard spelling of badass.


give out stink

en-verb

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

gives out stink (present singular third-person)
giving out stink (participle present)
gave out stink (past)
given out stink (participle past)

* give out + stink. Compare give stick, create a stink

(Ireland, colloquial) give out strongly; scold or chide severely


ball alley

A portion of it was still further desecrated ; up to a very recent period being used as a racket-court, or ball-alley

1855, Anthony Marmion, The ancient and modern history of the maritime ports of Ireland, p.300 (London: J.H. Banks)

Perhaps the single most poignant image in the book is of the handball champion Mickey Walsh, described by Healy as 'our last hero' tossing a ball to himself in the dilapidated ball alley.

2011, Keith Duggan, House of Pain: Through the Rooms of Mayo Football, →ISBN, page 58:

The school was partly in front of them and on fine evenings, the gable end was used as a ball alley and it was quite a gathering place for young people.

2013, November 6, Siobhan Lincoln, Ardmore Memory and Story - The Village "Roads And Houses" p.2 (Waterford Museum)

In Kilkenny City, there was also a tennis court in existence by 1798. This court later became known as a racket court and then a ball alley.

2015, Paul Rouse, Sport and Ireland: A History, →ISBN, page 60:

(Ireland) A place for playing handball, ranging in structure from a patch of hard flat ground beside a gable to an indoor four-walled court similar to a squash court.


dhrink

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(Mid-Ulster, Ireland) Pronunciation spelling of drink.


avourneen

From Irish a mhuirnín (“my darling”, literally “O darling (vocative)”), from Middle Irish múirn, from Proto-Celtic *mori, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to care for”), see also Latin memoria, Ancient Greek μέριμνα (mérimna, “care”).


Free State

(Ireland, UK, historical) The Irish Free State.

(Ireland) Irish republican term for the present-day Republic of Ireland.


free clothes association

A parody of the organisation's initials FCA, meaning Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil in Irish, and the fact that free uniforms were supplied.

(Ireland, dated, humorous) The Irish defence forces reserve.


water ouzel

water ouzels (plural)
water ousel (alternative)
water-ousel (alternative)

white-throated dipper
white-throated dipper

Cinclus cinclus
Cinclus cinclus#Translingual

(UK, Ireland) A white-throated dipper or European dipper, of species Cinclus cinclus.


laser card

Debit card: a genericized trademark, from Laser.

One is the proportion of the population who own credit cards or other forms of plastic payment cards such as laser cards.

2000, Ireland. Information Society Commission, Benchmarking Ireland in the information society:

The payment options have also been improved and it is now possible to pay by laser card.

2003, Orla O'Donnell, Peter C. Humphreys, 25. E-Government and the Decentralisation of Service Delivery, Institute of Public Administration, →ISBN, page 74:

The main features of ROS include facilities to: 1) file returns online; 2) make payments by laser card, debit instruction or by online banking for Income Tax only;

2013, OECD, Tax Administration 2013 Comparative Information on OECD and Other Advanced and Emerging Economies: Comparative Information on OECD and Other Advanced and Emerging Economies, OECD Publishing →ISBN, page 266


put the heart across one

en-verb

put the heart across one (third-person singular simple present puts the heart across one, present participle putting the heart across one, simple past and past participle put the heart across one)

puts the heart across one (present singular third-person)
putting the heart across one (participle present)
put the heart across one (participle past)
put the heart across one (past)

The cat put the heart across me when it jumped out from under the bed.


begorah

(Ireland) Alternative spelling of begorra.


Gat

The Irishman ordered an Irish whiskey and a pint of Gat which were brought to him.

2018, Team Golfwell, Absolute Best Adult Party Jokes, page 26:

(Ireland, slang) Alternative form of gat (“Guinness beer”).


cop off with

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

cops off with (present singular third-person)
copping off with (participle present)
copped off with (participle past)
copped off with (past)

Who was that bird you copped off with at the pub last night?

(transitive, UK, Ireland, slang) To successfully engage the company of someone for a period of time.


these islands

Circumlocution to avoid the word British in the phrase British Isles.

Since the Lions only play outside the British Isles or these islands, the opportunity for Irish nationalists to insist that the former description should not be used has not been taken.

2001, John McGarry, Northern Ireland and the Divided World: Post-Agreement Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 231:

In all documents jointly drawn up by the British and Irish governments, the archipelago is simply referred to as "these islands."

2010, World and Its Peoples, Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, page 8:

The west coast from Kerry north to Donegal has high cliffs interspersed with sandy beaches and one major estuary, that of the Shannon, the largest river in these islands.

2010, Clive Hutchinson, Birds in Ireland, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 16:

Same-sex marriage proposals have been greenlit in Jersey and Guernsey - meaning that Northern Ireland is the only remaining part of these islands where marriage equality continues to be blocked.

2016 April 26, Nick Duffy, “Isle of Man finally passes same-sex marriage”, in Pink News:

(chiefly Ireland, UK) The archipelago in the North Atlantic comprising Great Britain, Ireland and surrounding islands.


ABE

As the World Cup starts, it is interesting to note the large number of people around the world cheering on ABE to win, including many millions of British.

2012 June 12, The Chief, “OT: Come on ABE!!”, in alt.talk.royalty (Usenet):

'ABE' T-shirts will sell well north of the border this summer as the World Cup gets underway in Brazil.

2014, Scott Caladon, Darke Mission, Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 507:

2014 June 4, Gary Johnston, “It's obviously ABE at the World Cup, but who will you support?”, in The Herald:

(humorous, especially Ireland, Scotland and Wales) Initialism of anyone but England: any team playing a sports match against the England team.


fuster

fuster (third-person singular simple present fusters, present participle fustering, simple past and past participle fustered)

fusters (present singular third-person)
fustering (participle present)
fustered (participle past)
fustered (past)

Before the sun was at it's^([sic]) highest, I almost gave in (admitted) that the Jalap had me bet (beat), because there I was spending more time running like a redshank to the gripe and fustering (fumbling) with the galluses and my trousers, than at the mowing.

1987, Pat Nevin, Ireland, where Our Roots Go Deep, page 225:

And the poor spailpin fanach running like the devil, his clothes tearing on briars and brambles, and his feet soaking and dirty water running out of his boots, and the three big buckos giving him every dirty look if he fustered or faltered, looks that'd sour milk or peel paint from walls.

1997, Dan Yashinsky, Ghostwise: A Book of Midnight Stories, →ISBN, page 82:

If a bream or a perch or a pilchard or a bass revealed its iridescent stomach on the decks of my clipper-ship, whilst crewmen fustered and flapped below the wheelhouse with their buckets and tridents to parse the bycatch from the clustering glut of prawns we heaped onto ice, I would elevate the piscine interloper to my eye and watch it strive to communicate through the burden of air and without a tongue to maipulate language in an endearing or persuasive way.

2012, Kirk Marshall, The Signatory, →ISBN, page 100: