relative majority

relative majority (plural relative majorities)

(UK) A plurality (A number of votes which is greater than the number of votes gained by any others, but which is less than a majority.)


secondary fire

Coordinate term: primary fire

(UK) A minor fire, generally outdoors and not harming people or damaging property.


primary fire

Coordinate term: secondary fire

(UK) A major fire, generally occurring in a building or vehicle and involving rescues or fatalities.


macaroni pudding

en-noun

macaroni pudding (countable and uncountable, plural macaroni puddings)

(chiefly British) A traditional rice and custard pudding made with macaroni.


NMW

National Minimum Wage
w:National Minimum Wage

(UK, law, politics, finance) Initialism of National Minimum Wage.


Yewtree

en-verb

Yewtree (third-person singular simple present Yewtrees, present participle Yewtreeing, simple past and past participle Yewtreed)

Yewtrees (present singular third-person)
Yewtreeing (participle present)
Yewtreed (participle past)
Yewtreed (past)

From Operation Yewtree, an investigation by British police forces into historic sex offences primarily linked to Jimmy Saville. The name Yewtree (from yew tree) was randomly selected from a list of neutral terms.

Having been born in the late 80s, I remember Saturday night TV through a child’s eyes. Unfortunately, most of the people who were on it have now either died, been Yewtreed, or gone nuts.

2013 May 28, Bradley Steptoe, “I Tracked Down Mr Blobby’s Lair”, in VICE:

Anyway, this is the last Yewtreed edition of the show until we get to Christmas, when both end-of-year specials are scuppered by their hosts, which is a bit inconvenient.

2016 January 6, Steve Binnie, Feeling Like a Number One, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 197:

There was a brief return to Dubai after an Operation Yewtreeing that came to nothing, but Jim’s next gig of any note was the 2014 series of Celebrity Big Brother.

2018 November 22, Marina Hyde, “Jim Davidson gets stuck in an eco protest and bags his biggest audience for years”, in The Guardian:

(UK, slang) To investigate historic sexual offences as part of Operation Yewtree, or otherwise reveal or allege someone (especially a celebrity active in the 1970s and 1980s) to be a paedophile or abuser.


RIRO

rubbish in, rubbish out
rubbish in, rubbish out#English

(UK, computing) Acronym of rubbish in, rubbish out.


top whack

(slang, UK) The highest possible price or payment.


wag-wanton

en-noun

wag-wanton (countable and uncountable, plural wag-wantons)

Compound of wag + wanton, referring to the shaking of Briza flowers in the breeze.

quaking grass: any of a genus, Briza, of grasses


like a plasterer's radio

en-adj

like a plasterer's radio (not comparable)

The portable radios used by plasterers and other builders while working tend to end up thickly covered in plaster and paint.

A track mark ran down through his remaining chest hair like a napalm strike in a Vietnamese jungle, and the flaking skin of his Latin torso now looked like a plasterer's radio.

2017 March 22, David Ross, The Man Who Loved Islands, Orenda Books, →ISBN:

It was an epic run to Montalcino, with Cadel Evans leading home a field of dancing statues: the rain left the entire peloton looking like a plasterer's radio by the end.

2023 May 25, Carlton Kirby, Sticky Bottle: The Cycling Year According to Carlton Kirby, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 33:

There was one blagger, another fucking Londoner called Mad Mikey, who'd parked his motor down at Leith Docks and came back to see it covered in seagull shit, looked like a plasterer's radio, and that was it for him.

2024 March 1, Tony Black, Last Orders: An anthology of short stories, McNidder & Grace, →ISBN:

(UK, slang) Thickly covered with some substance.

But, if you have a daughter, does it torture you? The thought of her getting fucked? Some dude getting stuck in? Her face like a plasterer's radio?

2017 March 22, Mark Catley, Scuffer, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

The seemingly never-ending streams of ectoplasm emanating from his musket soon had me coated like a plasterer's radio.

2018 April 8, Becky Clark, Fiction Can Be Murder, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN:

While I brush my teeth, he describes the explicit dream he's just had about his missus. 'She had a face like a plasterer's radio.'

2020 February 6, Chris Atkins, A Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a Prisoner, Atlantic Books, →ISBN:

He was our brickie and started every sentence with: " If I was still a young man," followed by such gems of wisdom as: " I'd leave her looking like a plasterer's radio," […]

2024 September 28, Laurence Seidler, Busy Being Born, Book Guild Publishing, →ISBN:

(vulgar, especially) Covered with semen.

Thickly covered with some substance.
Covered with semen.


VCI

(UK) Initialism of Video Collection International.


Hardware Village

(UK, slang, obsolete) The city of Birmingham, England.


rontogramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of rontogram


quectogramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of quectogram


ronnagramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of ronnagram


quettagramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of quettagram


flexi-schooling

(UK, education) An education regime involving both homeschooling and being taught at school.


tomorrow's chip paper

From the use of old newspaper to wrap fish and chips.

There was no Internet in the 1800s and any poor reviews would end up, quite literally, as tomorrow's chip paper, while the more favourable ones would immediately become part of the official press release.

2016 April 22, Amanda van Eck Duymaer van Twist, Minority Religions and Fraud: In Good Faith, Routledge, →ISBN, page 193:

After a pause that may have accommodated a small sigh, Tom replies. 'Sorry, but it's useful for people.' Then his voice becomes exaggeratedly friendly. 'Don't worry, tomorrow's chip paper and all that.'

2021 April 30, Jenny Cutts, The Invisible Body, Stopped Clock Press, →ISBN:

'People will be more interested in that than in anything Denny Hinckley writes. His articles will be tomorrow's chip paper.'

2021 February 4, Hania Allen, The Ice Hotel: a gripping Scandi-noir thriller, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(UK, colloquial) Unimportant or ephemeral news; a story that will soon be forgotten.


canerow

Compound of cane + row, reflecting the figurative evocation of rows of sugar cane in a sugar plantation.

(Caribbean, UK, chiefly in the plural) One of a set of rows of tightly braided hair close to the scalp, forming a hairstyle, of African origin.


builder's breakfast

(UK) A large cooked breakfast; a full breakfast.


TV programme

television program
television program#English

(UK) Abbreviation of television program.


television programme

en-noun

television programme (plural television programmes)

(UK) Alternative spelling of television program


Keeling schedule

Keeling schedule (plural Keeling schedules)

Named after British Member of Parliament Edward Herbert Keeling.

named-after

Despite its merits, the Keeling schedule has drawbacks. It represents a duplication on the statute book.

1997, Alec Samuels, “Use of the Keeling Schedule”, in Statute Law Review, volume 18, number 3, page 250:

The Keeling schedule is a schedule in the new statute setting out the old statute (or part of it) as it will read after amendment by the new statute.

2013, Ronan Cormacain, “Keeling Schedules and Clarity in Amending Legislation”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 1, number 15, page 93:

The UK Government published a set of Keeling Schedules on 10 May 2023 for the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill version 2.

2023 July 7, “New development - Keeling Schedules published for the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill”, in Reynolds Porter Chamberlain:

(UK, law) In a bill or enactment, a schedule that shows how provisions of existing enactments would be amended.


shoot the cat

2013, Anita Mills, Miss Gordon's Mistake
“ […] I am telling you the man is as sick as a— a—”
“A dog,” Roland supplied. “Shot the cat twice after we got him to bed.”


don hand

(UK, dialect) A skilful person; a dab hand.


death-hunter

(UK, slang, obsolete) A peddler who sold lurid accounts of murderers' dying speeches and confessions.

(UK, slang, obsolete) An undertaker (funeral director).


do a power of good

en-verb

do a power of good (third-person singular simple present does a power of good, present participle doing a power of good, simple past did a power of good, past participle done a power of good)

does a power of good (present singular third-person)
doing a power of good (participle present)
did a power of good (past)
done a power of good (participle past)

A spell in the army will do these delinquents a power of good.

I feel much better. The week at the health spa did a power of good.

(UK, transitive, intransitive) To be highly beneficial (to someone).


toffee-nose

(chiefly UK, Ireland, derogatory) A snobbish or condescending individual.


noncing

(UK, Ireland, derogatory, prison slang) The act of having sexual intercourse with someone under the age of 16.