have-a-go hero

en-noun

have-a-go hero (plural have-a-go heroes)

Jack Straw today admitted that he was "always uneasy" about the government's refusal to offer greater protection for have-a-go-heroes as he explained plans to review the laws on self-defence.

2007 September 27, Deborah Summers, “Straw reveals past as have-a-go hero”, in The Guardian:

(British, informal) An ordinary member of the public who intervenes, often at personal risk, to stop a troublemaker, hooligan or ne'er-do-well in the act of committing a crime.


fit for purpose

en-adj

fit for purpose (comparative more fit for purpose, superlative most fit for purpose)

more fit for purpose (comparative)
most fit for purpose (superlative)

But what ScotRail has now is a superb train that is fit for purpose. Turbostars were OK, certainly one of the best of the late 1990s glut of new designs. But were they really a good travel experience for 180 miles from Glasgow to Inverness? No, they were not (and I speak from experience). These HSTs offer a much better train for such a journey.

2019 October 23, Pip Dunn, “The next king of Scotland”, in Rail, page 55:

(British, Australia) appropriate, and of a necessary standard, for its intended use.


stean

→ Welsh: ystên

From Middle English stene (“waterpot”), from Old English stǣna (“stone jug, a stean, a pot of stone or earth”) and Old English stǣne (“pitcher, jug”), from Proto-West Germanic *stainijā (“stone vessel”). Cognate with Old High German steinna (“pot, saucepan”). Doublet of stein.

cog

(UK, dialectal) A large box of stones used for pressing cheese; a cheese-press.


ANPR

(UK, Australia, transport) Initialism of automatic number plate recognition.


shrammed

en-adj

shrammed (comparative more shrammed, superlative most shrammed)

more shrammed (comparative)
most shrammed (superlative)

There was a bitter wind and she looked shrammed in her thin dress.

(dialect, Southern British) Of a person, cold (in temperature); shrivelled with cold.


palæography

en-noun

palæography (countable and uncountable, plural palæographies)

We should like to have them collected by Dr. Young; whose acuteness and learning seem calculated to subdue the difficulties of palæography.

1822, Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H. in The Edinburgh Quarterly Review, number 26, page 195 (quoted in: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=V3cDAAAAMAAJ&q=%22whose+acuteness+and+learning+seem+calculated+to+subdue+the+difficulties+of+Palaeography%22&dq=%22whose+acuteness+and+learning+seem+calculated+to+subdue+the+difficulties+of+Palaeography%22&ei=xLrOSIfPEZDoigHFnqSGDA&pgis=1 & http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FQsQAAAAYAAJ&q=%22whose+acuteness+and+learning+seem+calculated+to+subdue+the+difficulties+of+Palaeography%22&dq=%22whose+acuteness+and+learning+seem+calculated+to+subdue+the+difficulties+of+Palaeography%22&ei=xLrOSIfPEZDoigHFnqSGDA&pgis=1)

PALÆOGRAPHY. The study of antient documents, called by modern antiquaries ‘Palæography,’ is too extensive a subject to be canvassed at length in a work like the present.

1840, Charles Knight, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, page 149

Judging from the palæography of the inscriptions, they may have been in use from the age of Augustus to that of Marcus Aurelius, or even of Severus.

1858, Samuel Birch, History of Ancient Pottery, page 196:

The study of the caligraphy, or penmanship, of ancient MSS. is replete with interest; and the art of deciphering ancient writings, or palæography, has received of late years some of the attention it deserves.

1864, Thomas John Gullick and John Timbs, Painting Popularly Explained, page 101 (second edition; first edition published in 1859)

Palæography is the study of ancient handwriting from surviving examples.

1885, Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, Encyclopædia Britannica XVIII, page 143:

1898, Joris-Karl Huysmans (translated by Clara Bell), The Cathedral, Chapter X
Now they are editing and printing a musical Palæography, one of the most learned and abstruse of modern publications.

1913, Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11, “Palæography”
The art of deciphering ancient writing in manuscripts or diplomas. It is distinguished from epigraphy, which provides rules for reading carved inscriptions, and from diplomatics which studies the intrinsic character of written documents, while palæography concerns itself only with written characters and the classification of documents by their external characters.
[…] palæography has become the basis of all study of historical, religious, or literary texts. There are as many branches of palæography as there are different kinds of writings, but the science of Oriental written characters is as yet hardly formed.
[…] Kopp, in his “Palæographia Critica”, laid the foundations for Oriental palæography, while devoting himself exclusively to Semitic languages.

The transition from Birc(h)- to Birt- is obscured by the palæography of -t(h)-, -c(h)-, undistinguishable in many sources.

1970, J. McN. Dodgson, Survey of English Place Names, The University Press, page 72:

(chiefly UK, dated) Alternative form of paleography (study of ancient forms of writing).

Principles of palæography*— The value of palæontology; meaning of archæan land masses; search for ancient shore-lines; reconstruction of original […] ancient mountains.

1896, The Geographical journal, number 8, page 67:

(chiefly UK, obsolete) Alternative form of paleography (paleogeography).


HBOS

Pseudo-acronym, presumed from Halifax plc + Bank of Scotland following a company merger

(UK, historical) HBOS, a former British bank and insurance company.


beer money

(UK, historical) Money given to soldiers in the British army, in lieu of beer and spirits.


fucked off

en-adj

fucked off (comparative more fucked off, superlative most fucked off)

more fucked off (comparative)
most fucked off (superlative)

I sat in the kitchen, all fucked off / Imagining over and over what they were all doing behind my back

2004, The Streets (lyrics and music), “Empty Cans”, in A Grand Don’t Come for Free:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic, vulgar) annoyed, irritated


white English bulldog

en-noun

white English bulldog (plural white English bulldogs)

English, from English Butcher's Alaunt, a name given the breed by early English settlers in southern Georgia in reference to the old Butcher's Alaunt of England, a predominantly white dog of similar type and function.


standard fare

standard fare (countable and uncountable, plural standard fares)

Anyone found travelling without a valid ticket will be issued with a standard fare of £100 which must be paid within 21 days. This charge will be reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days.

2011, “Standard Fare”, in Transport for Greater Manchester:

(British, Ireland, countable, by extension) The price charged to passengers who travel without buying tickets in advance on certain public transport systems (especially British bus and tram systems) (compare penalty fare).

tarkastusmaksu

price charged to passengers who travel without valid tickets


yah boo

I don't care about your stupid party anyway, so yah boo to you.

(British) An expression of derision or scorn.


moither

en-verb

moither (third-person singular simple present moithers, present participle moithering, simple past and past participle moithered)

moithers (present singular third-person)
moithering (participle present)
moithered (participle past)
moithered (past)


Heath Robinson

In reference to the drawings by William Heath Robinson.

Among the many Heath Robinson contraptions he devised were the Light Vessels (the Sun and the Moon) which would ferry the rescued Light-Particles back to their land of origin along the Milky Way.

1998, Samuel Lieu, Manichaeism in Central Asia and China, →ISBN, page 16:

And that is how we came to mow our lake weed, although we eventually found it easier to tie two ropes, one to each side of the inner tube, and to pull the Heath Robinson contraption back and forwards across the water with Chris and I standing on opposite banks, each holding one of the lines.

2014, Ivan M. Donaldson, The Truant from Medicine: A Memoir, →ISBN:

(chiefly UK, attributive) Anything ingenious (and often complex) but absurdly impractical or even useless.


ronson

From Ronson, manufacturer of lighters, in reference to their 1940s jingle "Lights first every time".

(British, military, slang, obsolete) M4 Sherman tank - due to the proclivity of Shermans to burst into flames from a single hit


claver

en-noun

claver (countable and uncountable, plural clavers)

Emmy found herself entirely at a loss in the midst of their clavers.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 26, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

(UK, Scotland, dialect) Frivolous or nonsensical talk; prattle; chatter.


claver

en-verb

claver (third-person singular simple present clavers, present participle clavering, simple past and past participle clavered)

clavers (present singular third-person)
clavering (participle present)
clavered (participle past)
clavered (past)

(UK, Scotland, dialect) To gossip or chit-chat.


wide boy

Related to wide awake, i.e. sharp-witted, open-eyed, with wide open eyes.

Much amusement at Westminster about David Mellor, a wide boy if ever there was one. Someone tapped his girlfriend's phone and sold the tape to The People. Very funny stuff—all about how knackered he was.

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A man who lives by his wits, wheeling and dealing.


rasterise

rasterise (third-person singular simple present rasterises, present participle rasterising, simple past and past participle rasterised)

rasterises (present singular third-person)
rasterising (participle present)
rasterised (participle past)
rasterised (past)


dinner lady

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Ten years to the month after Jamie Oliver began his school food revolution – with the help of a formidable dinner lady called Nora Sands at Kidbrooke school in south London – a small inner-city primary on the other side of the Thames is doing its best to give it a new lease of life.

2015 April 4, Sally Weale, “The new dinner lady: 10 years on, can an Ottolenghi chef prove Jamie Oliver's revolution wasn't a flash in the pan?”, in The Guardian:

(British, informal) A woman employed to serve food in a school or work canteen.


HATO

(British) Acronym of Highways Agency traffic officer.


Highways Agency

(British, historical) An executive agency of the Department for Transport in the United Kingdom with responsibility for managing the core road network in England; superseded by Highways England.


HA

(British) Initialism of Highways Agency.


RAIB

(British, rail transport) Initialism of Rail Accident Investigation Branch.


meeja

That's the life of the busy meeja type, I suppose.

Monkey noted at Victoria Real's post-Big Brother party that when it comes to debauchery, digital types are outdoing their meeja counterparts.

2000 September 29, “Big Brother's sordid secrets”, in The Guardian:

(UK, slang, humorous or derogatory) media (communications industry)


I say

desc

Solombala English: асей (asej, “English sailor”)

→ Swahili: aisee

I say! That's impressive!

I say, what is the meaning of this?

Adrian thought it worth while to try out his new slang. ‘I say, you fellows, here's a rum go. Old Biffo was jolly odd this morning. He gave me a lot of pi-jaw about slacking and then invited me to tea. No rotting! He did really.’

1991, Stephen Fry, chapter III, in The Liar, London: William Heinemann, →ISBN, page 26:

(British, dated) An exclamation of surprise or protest.

I say! ... John ... Are you still there? If you're going into town could you get some eggs?

(British) An exclamation used to call someone or attract someone's attention.


Blu-Tack

It was an April Fool hoax, of course. 31200 had been rigged up with a single lightweight wooden [name] plate (loosely held on by Blu Tack).

2024 January 10, Chris Gilson, “RAIL's famous five...”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 27:

(British, New Zealand, Australia) A solid putty-like adhesive, originally blue in colour, used to secure items to walls and other surfaces.


Blu-Tack

en-verb

Blu-Tack (third-person singular simple present Blu-Tacks, present participle Blu-Tacking, simple past and past participle Blu-Tacked)

Blu-Tacks (present singular third-person)
Blu-Tacking (participle present)
Blu-Tacked (participle past)
Blu-Tacked (past)

The power switch wasn't seated properly, and so I blu-tacked it into place.

(British, New Zealand, Australia) To fix with Blu-Tack.


frit

en-adj

frit (comparative more frit, superlative most frit)

more frit (comparative)
most frit (superlative)

Dialectal past participle of fright (“frighten”), formed on the model of bite:bit and light:lit. Compare the parallel formation fit (“fought”).

The right hon. Gentleman is afraid of an election, is he? Afraid? Frightened? Frit? Could not take it? Cannot stand it? If I were going to cut and run, I should have gone after the Falklands.

1983 Margaret Thatcher, Prime minister's questions, 19 April

“We shoulder life. We know its ins and outs. We've felt the draught at either end of it. What you're most frit of, that's our bread and jam, and none of us ain't got no time to spare on ignorant, bad-mannered little boys.”

2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, published 2016, page 272:


cross the aisle

en-verb

cross the aisle (third-person singular simple present crosses the aisle, present participle crossing the aisle, simple past and past participle crossed the aisle)

crosses the aisle (present singular third-person)
crossing the aisle (participle present)
crossed the aisle (participle past)
crossed the aisle (past)

Liberal members pounded their desks in delight as Social Crediter Horace (Bud) Olson (Medicine Hat) picked up his books and papers and crossed the aisle to take the last seat in the third row on the Government side. This symbolic gesture completed his defection.

1967 September 26, Geoffrey Stevens, “Kind thoughts, gentle words, then House reverts to form”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, page 1:

A Conservative member of Parliament crossed the aisle this weekend to join the resurgent Labor Party of Tony Blair.

1995 October 9, John Darnton, “Tories, With a Bagful of Woes, Are Hurt by a Defection”, in New York Times, retrieved 2008-09-27:

When asked by Duffy about rumours that he was being heavily courted by the Tories to cross the aisle and join them, Kilgour replied that they've opened "No doors."

2005 April 14, “Kilgour can't 'live with himself,' quits Grits”, in CTV.ca, retrieved 2009-04-01:

After Stronach's 2005 defection to Paul Martin's Liberals . . . . [a]t least one Tory MP openly called her a "whore" for crossing the aisle.

2007 April 16, David Olive, “Belinda accomplished much in relatively short time”, in Toronto Star, Canada, retrieved 2009-04-01:

(chiefly British and Canada, idiomatic, politics) Of a member of a parliament, to resign from one's political party and join another party, resulting in moving from one's currently assigned desk or seat in the legislative chamber to a new desk or seat physically located with the other members of one's new party.


kelk

kelk (third-person singular simple present kelks, present participle kelking, simple past and past participle kelked)

kelks (present singular third-person)
kelking (participle present)
kelked (participle past)
kelked (past)

(UK, dialect, obsolete, transitive) To beat.


kelk

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A stroke; a blow.


smegging

That was smegging hilarious.


send for

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

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

We all know that Family Guy sends for everyone.

(UK, transitive) To call out or diss, often in the form of a diss track; to roast.


oh my days

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“[…] Oh, my days, don’t ’ee say another word about either of ’em. I wish I’d never been born.”

1907, Mary Patricia Willcocks, The Wingless Victory, John Lane Company, page 391:

"Oh my days," said my mother and she sank into a chair.

1963, Will P. Rose, The Vanishing Village, Citadel Press, page 192:

‘Oh my fucking days,’ cried Biscuit, shaking his head. ‘We’re fucking jinxed, man.’

2001, Alex Wheatle, East of Acre Lane, Fourth Estate, →ISBN, page 33:

Then the nurse mentioned Epidural, oh my days I know i nearly passed out at the sight of the needle going into the spinal column, all the while that wretch is screaming blue murder in the next room, 'get it out'.

2004, "Kunjufu" (username), comment in "Fathers and Childbirth" (online forum topic), quoted in Barbara M. Newman and Philip R. Newman, Development Through Life: A Psychosocial Approach, Tenth Edition, Cengage Learning (2008), page 111

Jamal covered his face with his hands. ‘Oh my days . . .’

2006, Martyn Waites, The Mercy Seat, Pegasus Books, →ISBN, page 361:

Jessie was so amazed that she almost spilled her tea. “Oh my heavenly days!” she cried.

2008, Budge Wilson, Before Green Gables, G.P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 12:

(British, Ireland, euphemistic) An exclamation of astonishment or gleeful disapproval.


neven

neven (third-person singular simple present nevens, present participle nevening, simple past and past participle nevened)

nevens (present singular third-person)
nevening (participle present)
nevened (participle past)
nevened (past)

From Middle English nevenen, nevnen, nemmen, nempnen, nemnen, from Old English nemnan, nemnian (“to name, call, give a name to a person or thing; use such and such a name or title in speaking of a person or thing; enumerate; address, speak to; nominate; call upon the name of, address by name, invoke; mention by name, mention, relate”) and Old Norse nefna (“to name, call”); both from Proto-Germanic *namnijaną (“to name”). More at name.

Thou netherest of Nazareth, now nevened is thy name.

1995, Richard Beadle, Pamela M. King, York Mystery Plays:

(UK dialectal, transitive) To utter; mention the name of.

(UK dialectal, Scotland, intransitive) To tell or make mention of (a person or thing); specify; designate.


square bashing

(British, slang, military) Marching drills and other military exercises practiced on a parade ground.


guttle

The verb is possibly derived from gut (“belly”) + -le (frequentative suffix), perhaps influenced by guzzle (“to drink or eat quickly, voraciously, or to excess; to gulp down; to swallow greedily, continually, or with gusto”).
The noun is derived from the verb.

suffix

The top of the great stained glass windows at each end of the hall, are cut off to accommodate a new flat plaster roof;—the old Gothic one, with its rich groining and carved work, could not be renewed but at the expense of at least two guttles!

1817 October 4, William Hone, “The Guttlers, and the New Lord Mayor”, in The Reformists’ Register, and Weekly Commentary, volume II, number 11, London: […] William Hone, […], →OCLC, column 324:

You don't know what it is to want rum, you don't: it gets to that p'int that you would kill a 'ole ship's company for just one guttle of it.

1884, Robert Louis Stevenson, W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, “Admiral Guinea”, in Sidney Colvin, editor, The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Edinburgh edition, volume XXIII (Drama), Edinburgh: […] T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable for Longmans Green and Co.; […], published 1897, →OCLC, Act I, scene viii, page 199:

(UK, dialectal)
An act of swallowing voraciously.

[P]lague tak the greedy guttles, I wish they wud gie ae meal, out o' the five, to their head.

1839, “A devoted friend, to non-intrusion” [pseudonym], “Dedication. To the Farmers in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.”, in A Letter to William Maxwell, Esq., Younger, of Cardoness, Addressed to Him as a Candidate for Parliament: […], Manchester: Thomas Smith, […], →OCLC, page xv:

Our doctor used to call me a ravenous eater; my mamma remarked I was blessed with an excellent appetite; cook said I was ‘a rare good one for vittals;’ and James, my own brother, whom I loved almost as much as stewed beef, invariably called me a ‘guttles.’ This unkind nickname pained me. It was vulgar, and more un-Christianly because it was so cuttingly true.

[1866, Augustus Mayhew, “The Almanack of Successful Courtship; […]”, in Faces for Fortunes, new edition, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 330:

(UK, dialectal)
One who eats voraciously; a glutton.


clacker

Possibly a deformation of cloaca. Alternatively of imitative origin, from the sound of farting or testicles clacking.

(UK, US, vulgar, slang, often in the plural) A testicle.


expone

en-verb

expone (third-person singular simple present expones, present participle exponing, simple past and past participle exponed)

expones (present singular third-person)
exponing (participle present)
exponed (participle past)
exponed (past)

it belongs to you alone to expone the Covenant

1643, William Drummond of Hawthornden, Σκιαμαχία: or a Defence of a Petition tendered to the Lords of the Council of Scotland by certain Noblemen and Gentlemen:

(obsolete, UK or Scotland) To expound; to explain.

(obsolete, UK or Scotland) To expose; to imperil.


Americanise

Americanise (third-person singular simple present Americanises, present participle Americanising, simple past and past participle Americanised)

Americanises (present singular third-person)
Americanising (participle present)
Americanised (participle past)
Americanised (past)

British standard spelling of Americanize.


boiled sweet

(British) A hard sweet, made by boiling sugar, which gradually dissolves when sucked.


lant

Did Mr. Ellershaw speak to Mr. Marsden, when he was playing at lant with you?

1834, Sandford Tatham, Alexander Fraser, A Verbatim Report of the Cause Doe Dem. Tatham V. Wright:

(UK, dialect, Northern England) Obsolete form of lanterloo. (the card game)


rectal varicosity

en-noun

rectal varicosity (plural rectal varicosities)

(pathology) haemorrhoid (British), hemorrhoid (US)


flouse

en-verb

flouse (third-person singular simple present flouses, present participle flousing, simple past and past participle floused)

flouses (present singular third-person)
flousing (participle present)
floused (participle past)
floused (past)

(UK, dialect, transitive, intransitive) To splash.


chequing

(British and Canada) Alternative spelling of checking


amber gambler

The sins the foundation has identified include eating at the wheel, becoming a traffic-light hopping "amber gambler" and drinking and driving.

2007 December 24, “Drivers warned over the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’”, in Bolton News, UK, retrieved 2011-08-29:

(UK, idiomatic) A driver of a road vehicle who accelerates when the traffic lights change from green to amber (instead of stopping, as required by law), gambling that no vehicle will cross his or her path; a driver who starts off when the traffic lights show red and amber together, but not yet green.


goggle box

The goggle box became my own private giggle box, from out of which came the likes of Richard ‘Mr Pastry’ Hearne, Charlie Drake and I Love Lucy.

2012, Roger Foss, May the Farce Be With You, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:


lodgement

en-noun

lodgement (countable and uncountable, plural lodgements)

And in thy stead I've got a deal of judgement / Though heaven knows how it ever found a lodgement.

1819, Lord Byron, “Don Juan”, in Selected Poems of Lord Byron, Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, published 2006, Canto I, stanza 215, p. 111:

Is Envy then such a monster? […] since its lodgement is in the heart not the brain, no degree of intellect supplies a guarantee against it.

1924, Herman Melville, chapter 11, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.:

1934, T. S. Eliot, Chorus VII from 'The Rock' in Collected Poems, 1909-1962, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963, p. 162,
and man without GOD is a seed upon the wind: driven this way and that, and finding no place of lodgement and germination.

(British) Alternative spelling of lodgment


macaroni cheese

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(UK) A savory dish made from cooked macaroni and cheese sauce.

芝士通心粉

dish made from macaroni and cheese sauce


chicken burger

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(Ireland, UK) A sandwich consisting of a piece of boneless, sometimes fried chicken served in a bun, typically hot (called a chicken sandwich in the US).


bish bash bosh

Throw in a love story early on and you're laughing. Write it up as a novel and, bish-bash-bosh, you've got the next Captain Corelli.

2001 June 1, Gareth McLean, “I like your altitude”, in The Guardian:

So infectious was Jamie’s trademark bish bash bosh enthusiasm that it may actually have been counterproductive.

2007 August 8, Gerard O'Donovan, “Last night on television”, in telegraph.co.uk, retrieved 2008-10-14:

(British, informal) Indicating the completion of a task with efficiency.


outerchange

From outer + change by analogy with interchange.

The five minute walk between Northwick Park and Kenton tube stations is a valid outerchange.

(British, chiefly London, rail transport) A connection between two stations within walking distance of each other but which are not physically connected; used especially where a journey involving such a connection can be done on a single ticket.


Conservative

"Avanti has literally broken records over the last six months for delays and cancellations, and the Conservatives' answer is to reward failure with millions more in taxpayer cash," said Labour Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh.

2023 April 5, “Network News: Conservatives accused of "rewarding Avanti's failure"”, in RAIL, number 980, page 6:

(politics) A member of a political party incorporating the word "Conservative" in its name.

(British, politics) A member of the Conservative party.


get you

Gary: Ssh. Miss is talking
Debbie: Ooh, get you! Since when have you ever wanted to listen to the teachers?

1996, Stepping Up: four play scripts for the classroom, Jane Lilliard and Mollie Hemens:

When Keanu Reeves falls apart, you just want to hiss "Ooh, get you!"

1998 January 16, “Film: Dancing with the devil”, in The Independent, London, England:

'I know that the thought of travelling with a cashmere wrap makes some people say 'ooh, get you,' Annalisa admits, 'but no one who has ever done it laughs!

2005 September 17, “The 50 Best Ways to Accessorise”, in The Independent, London, England:

(UK) An expression of encouragement, commonly used sarcastically.


every little helps

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"There's not much money - if that's what you mean."
"Approximately."
"Once all the debts are paid there will be very little."
"Nevertheless. Every little helps. The Brothers are sorely in need of it this weather."

1980, Bernard MacLaverty, 'Lamb' (novel), (Chapter 1, at page 11 in the 1981 King Penguin paperback edition)

(UK) Even the smallest things are helpful when towards a goal.

tota pedra fa paret

even the smallest things are helpful when towards a goal

les petits ruisseaux font les grandes rivières

un grano no hace granero, pero ayuda al compañero

take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves

a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step


good job

It's a good job that he was there to catch the vase when I dropped it.

Good job Sarah isn't scared of spiders: I don't think I could cope without someone to remove them.


ring sting

(British, slang, vulgar) Irritation of the anus as a result of eating spicy food.


brivet

en-verb

brivet (third-person singular simple present brivets, present participle briveting or brivetting, simple past and past participle briveted or brivetted)

brivets (present singular third-person)
briveting (participle present)
brivetting (participle present)
briveted (participle past)
briveted (past)
brivetted (participle past)
brivetted (past)

Once Melanie had left the house, I entered her bedroom and began to brivet around.

And all the time she'd be brivetting about on the sly with any good-for-nothing young rascals she could get hold on.

1920, Eric Leadbitter, Shepherd's warning, page 148:

(intransitive, British, West Midlands) To wander an area, or look through items, without specific purpose or to satisfy idle curiosity, especially in a furtive and illicit manner.


hiding to nothing

en-noun

hiding to nothing (plural hidings to nothing)

From horse racing, hiding (“beating”); to (“as used to express gambling odds”), e.g., 6 to 1. Literally, the phrase can be described as to bet on a contest whose outcome is at worst a beating, or at best nothing. A heavily favoured team in a sporting contest earns no credit for victory, but is shamed by defeat; this team is said to be on a hiding to nothing.

It would have been madness to encourage them to back the mare : in fact I was on a hiding to nothing whatever happened.

1915, James Forman Sloan, A. Dick Luckman, Tod Sloan, page 245:

No legitimate excuse for introduction existed, or could exist, and the odds looked like a hiding to nothing should Bayard attempt to force a meeting […]

1931, The Atlantic Monthly, Making of America Project, page 60:

It is a nasty situation and DFR knows that he is on a good hiding to nothing. He sometimes feels that he is the least understood and most unloved ATCO in [the UK]

1989, Dave Graves, A layman's guide to United Kingdom air traffic control, page 76:

This often makes it a nervous, hiding-to-nothing game in which disasters are so much more memorable than successes

2003, Robin Birn, The international handbook of market research techniques, page 543:

Company directors are on a hiding to nothing when it comes to trusting their reputations to the accounting statements for which they are responsible.

2003, Frank L. Clarke with G. W. Dean and Kyle Gaius Oliver, Corporate collapse: accounting, regulatory and ethical failure, page 39:

(idiomatic, British, informal) A situation in which victory has little or no value, but defeat has a huge cost.


push the boat out

en-verb

push the boat out (third-person singular simple present pushes the boat out, present participle pushing the boat out, simple past and past participle pushed the boat out)

pushes the boat out (present singular third-person)
pushing the boat out (participle present)
pushed the boat out (participle past)
pushed the boat out (past)

(British, idiomatic) To do something, especially spend money, more extravagantly than usual, particularly for a celebration.


carry the can

carry the can (third-person singular simple present carries the can, present participle carrying the can, simple past and past participle carried the can)

carries the can (present singular third-person)
carrying the can (participle present)
carried the can (participle past)
carried the can (past)

For Vajpayee, who is keen that he alone does not carry the can for his unwieldy alliance, it is a tough decision.

1998 April 25, Arati R. Jerath, "18 partners hunt for one voice," Indian Express (Bombay) (retrieved 21 Oct 2008)

You could reasonably argue that Brown himself should carry the can for much of the regulatory failure of the banks.

2008 October 16, Adrian Hamilton, “Comment: I wouldn't get too carried away by success if I were Brown”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2008-10-21:

They're not going to play the patsy where they carry the can for all the woes caused by a tanking in oil prices that's already happened.

2015 June 17, Rick Bell, “Alberta NDP government chooses not to kick province's oil industry when it's down”, in Calgary Sun, Canada, retrieved 2015-09-25:

(British, Canada, idiomatic) To take responsibility, especially in a challenging situation.


mystery tour

Each week an inconspicuous paragraph in the daily press carries a warning to travellers on the London Midland Region of the delays and diversions to be expected on account of the weekend's engineering works. In fact, Sunday travel on the West Coast route has now become a kind of mystery tour which can prolong the London-Glasgow journey to twelve hours or more.

1960 October, J. N. Faulkner, “The purgatory period of B.R. Modernisation”, in Trains Illustrated, page 584:

I recall, Anderson went on, the fine story of a Welsh mystery tour by bus from Cwmrhydyceirw in my constituency.

1999, Vernon Bogdanor, Devolution in the United Kingdom:

(British) A short-duration outing by coach to a destination that is not revealed in advance


gob stick

(archaic, UK, dialect or slang) A spoon.


sticky tape

en-noun

sticky tape (countable and uncountable, plural sticky tapes)


whatsit

Pass me one of those whatsits, will you?

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A thing (used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one cannot recall, or that one is embarrassed to say)


toothcomb

The noun is derived from fine toothcomb, a rebracketing of fine-tooth comb. The verb is derived from the noun.

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

The police went through all his possessions with a toothcomb.

[advertisement] [A] quantity of Pencil Cases, Fans, Tooth-combs, and Nail-brushes, a Pier-glass, and various other very useful articles.

1828 April 19, The Hobart Town Courier, Hobart, Tasmania, page 3, column 2:

When the Arabs speak of things as alike in respect of good qualities, they call them 'as like as the teeth of a tooth-comb;' whereas, if they speak of similarity in bad qualities, they say 'as like as the teeth of an ass.'

1850, Al Hariri of Basra, “The Makamah of Damietta. The Words of Hareth ibn-Hammam.”, in Theodore Preston, transl., Makamat: Or Rhetorical Anecdotes of Al Hariri of Basra […], London: […] W[illia]m H[oughton] Allen & Co., […]; Paris: B. Duprat, →OCLC, footnote 4, page 374:

Racks, shears and toothcombs here, sit down: / With such a shaggy, shockdog crown / Who but some rustic, clodpoll clown / Would think of venturing into town?

1853 January 14, James Henry, Notes of a Twelve Years’ Voyage of Discovery in the First Six Books of the Eneis, Dresden: Meinhold and Sons, →OCLC:

Thin-skinned dunces, too, in power, hate satire, to use Sidney [i.e., Sydney] Smith's simile, for the same reason as "fleas detest tooth-combs," because they cannot escape it.

1854, Octavius Freire Owen, “The Degenerate Bees”, in John Gay, The Fables of John Gay Illustrated. […], London: George Routledge & Co. […], →OCLC, footnote 2, page 228:

Ah, Sir, you needn't look. I never had nothing in my head since I was born, and I always use the toothcomb.

1868 March 1, Matthew Browne, “A Working Man’s Courtship”, in Norman McLeod, editor, Good Words, volume IX, London: Strahan and Co., […], →OCLC, letter XI, page 188, column 2:

Mr. John Oxley Parker exhibited the following miscellaneous objects found at Othona (Bradwell-juxta-Mare), [...] two pieces of Roman tooth combs, [...]

1873 August 1, “Annual General Meeting at Maldon, 1st August, 1873”, in Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society, volume V, part IV, Colchester, Essex: […] Museum, Colchester Castle, […] “Essex & West Suffolk Gazette” Office, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 318:

I wandered up and down the streets, vainly hoping to be struck by some brilliant inspiration that should select for me the sort of work to take in hand. I would be a crossing-sweeper, a shoeblack, a vendor of cherries, a seller of penny watches or tooth[-]combs.

1877, Douglas Straight, “Joey the Tumbler”, in Old Pictures in a New Frame, London: Frederick Warne and Co., […], →OCLC, page 29:

Queer thing, isn't it, that all the pretty things that please one are all irretrievably wrong, and everything that sets one's teeth on edge, and scratches through one's brain like a metallic tooth comb, are all scientifically exquisite.

1878, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], chapter XXIII, in Friendship […], volume II, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 259:

Gradually, as we became more wet, we grew more desperate, and before long floundered down as regardless of bumps as a bluebottle in a conservatory: at one moment slithering over wet slabs of rock to which damp tufts of moss were loosely adherent, at another climbing carefully over gigantic toothcombs of fallen trees, then plunging head foremost—sometimes not exactly head foremost—through jungle-like masses of long grass and dwarf brushwood.

1885, Clinton [Thomas] Dent, “A Day across Country”, in Above the Snow Line: Mountaineering Sketches between 1870 and 1880, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 121:

The only instrument that will adequately meet the case is a general Consular warrant under which the police shall be able to make a house to house search, swooping down upon any premises which they have reason to suspect, and, metaphorically speaking, drawing the contents through a tooth[-]comb.

1913 December 13, “The Smuggling of Arms”, in The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette: The Weekly Edition of the North-China Daily News, volume CIX (New Series), number 2418, Shanghai: […] North-China Daily News & Herald, Ld., →OCLC, page 791, column 3:

Word was passed to the Customs authorities, and every soul that left the ship was gone over with a toothcomb!

1924 March, Agatha Christie, “The Million Dollar Bond Robbery”, in Poirot Investigates, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, published 2007, →ISBN, page 126:

The Russians were suspicious as hell. I gather they went over the place with a toothcomb when they got back, looking for microphones and bombs and so on.

1957, Ian Fleming, “The Tunnel of Rats”, in From Russia, with Love, London: Vintage Books, published 2012, →ISBN, part 2 (The Execution), page 197:

I want you to go through its staff with the finest toothcomb you can lay your hands on, and to miss out nothing, absolutely nothing.

1981, Peter James, chapter 9, in Dead Letter Drop, London: Pan Books, published 2014, →ISBN, page 73:

Jeremy Purseglove went through the tables with a tooth comb, which helped no end with ecology and naming; [...]

1987, [John St.] Bodfan Gruffydd, “Acknowledgements”, in Tree Form, Size and Colour: A Guide to Selection, Planting and Design, London: E. & F. N. Spon, Chapman & Hall, published 1995, →ISBN, page xi:

I just want some assurance that HMRC [Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs] will go through the deal with a toothcomb to ensure that the taxpayer gets the proper benefit under the law of the tax that Vodafone should pay on the massive windfall profit that it is making.

2013 September 2, Margaret Hodge (chair), “Oral Evidence”, in Committee of Public Accounts, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Charges for Customer Telephone Lines: Twenty-seventh Report of Session 2013–14 […] (HC 617), London: The Stationery Office, published 11 November 2013, →ISBN, archived from the original on 2013-11-11, question 103, page Ev 16:

(British, chiefly figurative, sometimes proscribed) A comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search.


skar

en-adj

skar (comparative more skar, superlative most skar)

more skar (comparative)
most skar (superlative)

(UK, Scotland, dialect) wild; timid; shy


terraced house

(UK) A type of house which shares both sidewalls with the adjacent houses, typical of Victorian and Edwardian housing in English cities.


Grauniad

Deliberate misspelling of Guardian, coined by the UK satirical magazine Private Eye, implying that the Guardian newspaper was prone to typographical errors.

Good old Grauniad.

1984 [1981], Jonathan Lynn, Antony Jay, “The Right to Know”, in The Complete Yes Minister, →ISBN, page 135:

Stop along the road for papers; scan headlines, make sure that no late-breaking story displaced the Vanguard piece and that it's intact (ninety-five percent – a satisfyingly high score), check out Doonesbury in the Grauniad, then away.

Katherine Viner wants to appoints a "1 per cent correspondent" to hound the filthy rich. As befits a possible Grauniad editrix, the NUJ misspelt her name.

2015 February 24, Patrick Kidd, “Guardian Angels Declare”, in The Times, page 11:

His appointment marked the start of a daily corrections and clarifications column, a first for a UK newspaper, which has mined a rich seam of typos and other slips for which “the Grauniad” is fondly known.

2021 May 12, Elisabeth Ribbans, “Typo negative: the best and worst of Grauniad mistakes over 200 years”, in The Guardian:

(UK, newspapers, humorous) The Guardian, a British daily national newspaper.


Ugandan affairs

/juːˌɡændən əˈfɛəz/

Probably a variant of Ugandan discussions (“(UK, euphemistic, informal) sexual intercourse”), from discuss Uganda (“(UK, euphemistic, informal) to have sex”), said to have been coined by the English journalist and poet James Fenton (born 1949), based on a 1973 incident at a party at which the Irish journalist Mary Kenny (born 1944) explained why she was in the arms of a former Ugandan cabinet minister by saying they were “upstairs discussing Uganda”. The incident was reported by the British satirical and current affairs magazine Private Eye on 9 March 1973, which then popularized the expression by using it to refer to other sexual affairs.

Everyone known about them now; Rosemary has even been mentioned in Private Eye as "discussing Ugandan affairs with a gorgeous young American don."

1984, Alison Lurie, chapter 5, in Foreign Affairs, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, published November 1985, →ISBN, page 171:

'You sure they're not … er … discussing Ugandan affairs?' Rhona asked, citing the old euphemism for illicit sex.

1998, Cathy Kelly, chapter 13, in She’s the One, London: Headline Publishing Group, published 2011, →ISBN:

The fact that his [George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe's] "heavy workload" included many discussions of Ugandan affairs just shows how prescient Private Eye was when it adopted the phrase as a euphemism for the sexual indiscretion of politicians at least 15 years later.

2004 January 1, Alan Travis, “Call girls, drugs and Ugandan affairs shook cabinet: Ministers in the Heath government had to quit”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-12-01:

She [Margaret Thatcher] had been baffled by what Private Eye referred to as "Ugandan affairs" in relation to [Cecil] Parkinson's affair with Sarah Keays,^([sic – meaning Sara Keays]) saying: "I know it's untrue. He's never been to Africa."

2016 January 25, “Lord Parkinson – obituary: Thatcherite star whose career faltered after revelations of an affair with his former secretary”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:

(British, euphemistic, humorous) Often in the form to discuss Ugandan affairs: sexual intercourse, usually an extramarital affair.

BBC News
James Fenton
Mary Kenny
Private Eye


barmcake

Without these deprivations we would have missed the exquisite pleasure of a Spam barmcake, bought at a local cafe on pay day.

1975, Joan Markham, The Lamp was Dimmed: The Story of a Nurse's Training:

"More like his coffin if the barmcake tries to take on the river tonight. Och, but it'll serve him right."


hench

hench (comparative hencher, superlative henchest)

hencher (comparative)
henchest (superlative)

He's well hench.

That's a seriously hench doorman.

It caught me off guard because it was hench. My mind was like, ‘right, this burger’s hench’. I looked at it, right, ‘that look peng’, and it hit me two thirds of the way in, I clocked that the burger was not peng at all, it was just hench.

2016 December 9, Adam Boult, quoting Elijah Quashie, “These brilliant videos about London's takeaway chicken shops are a YouTube hit”, in The Daily Telegraph:

(UK, slang, MLE) Big, strong, and muscular.


polyfoto

Originally Polyfoto (“a commercial venture”), from poly- and photo.

(obsolete, British, photography) One of a series of 48 photographs (similar to photo booth photos) taken using a Polyfoto camera, which used a single glass plate negative, the operator turning a handle on the side to take each exposure and also move the plate.


polyfoto

en-verb

polyfoto (third-person singular simple present polyfotos, present participle polyfotoing, simple past and past participle polyfotoed)

polyfotos (present singular third-person)
polyfotoing (participle present)
polyfotoed (participle past)
polyfotoed (past)

(obsolete, British, photography) To take such a series of photographs.


at latter Lammas

According to one theory, Lammas Day (1 August) being an important day for settling accounts, latter Lammas signified the last day for settling accounts: in other words, judgement day. Thus, in worldly terms, at latter Lammas means never.


triculate

triculate (third-person singular simple present triculates, present participle triculating, simple past and past participle triculated)

triculates (present singular third-person)
triculating (participle present)
triculated (participle past)
triculated (past)

I ha' just finished triculating on her up like. She'll dew now.

1903, Charles Fielding Marsh, God's Scholars, page 109:

(British, dialectal, usually with "up") To beautify; to pretty


PMSL

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland, Internet slang, text messaging) Initialism of pissing myself laughing. (used to indicate great amusement)


ground game

en-noun

ground game (countable and uncountable, plural ground games)

1. Every occupier of land shall have, as incident to and inseparable from his occupation of the land, the right to kill and take ground game thereon, concurrently with any other person who may be entitled to kill and take ground game on the same land.

(British, law, uncountable) Rabbits and hares


midnight feast

I think we ought to have a midnight feast every term, you know! School doesn't seem really complete without that!

1944, Enid Blyton, The Second Form at St. Clare's:

(British) An informal meal of various snack foods, eaten at or around midnight, typically arranged and held in secret by children.


vell

en-verb

vell (third-person singular simple present vells, present participle velling, simple past and past participle velled)

vells (present singular third-person)
velling (participle present)
velled (participle past)
velled (past)

For velling, the share is made wide, with the angle or outer point of the wing or fin turned upward, to separate the turf entirely from the soil

1796, William Marshall, Rural Economy of the West of England:

(UK, dialect) To cut the turf from, as for burning.


vell

Compare Latin vellus (“the skin of a sheep with the wool on it, a fleece, a hide or pelt”), or English fell (“a hide”).

cog

(UK, dialect) The salted stomach of a calf, used in making cheese; a rennet bag.


alleygating

Alleygating has been shown to work. A number of criminal or anti-social acts can be curtailed or eliminated if security gates are installed.

(British) The erection of lockable gates at the ends of alleys and passages.


untick

en-verb

untick (third-person singular simple present unticks, present participle unticking, simple past and past participle unticked)

unticks (present singular third-person)
unticking (participle present)
unticked (participle past)
unticked (past)

(transitive) (UK) To uncheck; to remove a tick mark from.


miscapitalise

miscapitalise (third-person singular simple present miscapitalises, present participle miscapitalising, simple past and past participle miscapitalised)

miscapitalises (present singular third-person)
miscapitalising (participle present)
miscapitalised (participle past)
miscapitalised (past)

(UK) Alternative spelling of miscapitalize


eleven plus

From eleven + plus, eleven years being the minimum age of students taking the test.

The fact that late developers emerged, ripe for grammar school education, having 'failed' the eleven plus test, was embarrassing.

1967, Robert John Montgomery, Examinations: An Account of Their Evolution as Administrative Devices in England:

As one vociferous eleven-plus critic put it, when Winston Churchill was a boy he produced nothing more than "a large blob of ink" on his entrance exam.

2007, Stephen Murdoch, IQ: A Smart History of a Failed Idea:

(UK) An examination formerly administered to all students in their final year of primary education, now used only in a few counties of England and Northern Ireland.


wineberry

From Middle English wynberie, wynberie (“a grape or some other kind of berry”), from Old English wīnberġe (“grape”, literally “wine-berry”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīnabaʀi, from Proto-Germanic *wīnabasją (“wineberry; grape”), equivalent to wine + berry. Doublet of whimberry (“bilberry”).
Cognate with Dutch wijnbeer, West Frisian wynbei (“grape”), wiemer (“currant”), German Weinbeere (“grape”), Swedish vinbär (“currant”), Icelandic vínber (“grape”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌱𐌰𐍃𐌹 (weinabasi, “grape”).


grebo

en-noun

grebo (countable and uncountable, plural grebos)

The highlight of my school days was one day in the mid-70s. There was a sort of glam-rock cult called the Grebos back then who wore smartish Disco clothes […]

1998, "Bill Jillians", alt.journalism.gonzo (Internet newsgroup)

But the realistic side stepped in — y'know, if you're on the point of giving birth, you don't really need a bunch of grebos playing some dodgy old music downstairs.

2002, Glyn Brown, “Baxter Dury: Chip off the old Blockhead”, in The Independent on Sunday:

(slang, UK, countable, chiefly West Midlands) A greaser or biker; a member of any alternative subculture, as opposed to a chav or townie.

[…] they were soon pigeonholed under the banner of "grebo rock" […]

1995, Colin Larkin, The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music:

[…] focused on the hyper punk aspect of England's "grebo" movement […]

2002, Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide to Rock:

This debut album is a glorious grebo-fest.

2003, Peter Buckley, Jonathan Buckley, The Rough Guide to Rock:

(slang, UK, countable) A member of a United Kingdom subculture of the late 1980s and early 1990s, musically affiliated with garage rock and electronica, typically wearing baggy clothes and hair in high ponytails.


amber light

(British) An amber-coloured traffic light indicating that vehicles should stop unless it is unsafe to do so, approximately equivalent to the yellow light in the US.

(British, idiomatic) Hesitance to proceed; limited approval or permission to proceed.


patronisingly

en-adv

patronisingly (comparative more patronisingly, superlative most patronisingly)

more patronisingly (comparative)
most patronisingly (superlative)

(British, Australia) Alternative spelling of patronizingly


play silly buggers

en-verb

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

plays silly buggers (present singular third-person)
playing silly buggers (participle present)
played silly buggers (participle past)
played silly buggers (past)

"Look," he said, "it's just fate playing silly buggers with you. With me. With us. It's a complete coincidence."

1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 95:

(British, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, idiomatic) To act in a stupid or reckless manner.


sent to the Tower

Referring to the Tower of London, a famous prison.

(British, colloquial) imprisoned; punished.


barse

So the prospects for this were pretty bad, and truly the most exciting thing I got out of watching this was feeling a pool of cold sweat collect in the hairy part of my barse, so livid was I with the treatment of Hooper's original classic.

2000 March 13, death_hammer [username], “texas chainsaw 4”, in alt.horror (Usenet):

The padding is also way too thin and I'm constantly aware of the pressure on my barse (I think perinium^([sic]) is the correct term) - something I don't have with my other shorts or tights.

2002 September 5, bomba, “SR: Shorts Review”, in alt.mountain-bike (Usenet):

Going to be a cruiser style one me thinks, low seat making it easy to swing my leg over, laid back riding position, bit wide seat for my arse cheeks to sit on, rather than my barse being perched on a plank seat,

2012 March 28, Gazz, “After a mid size cruiser”, in uk.rec.motorcycles (Usenet):

(UK, vulgar, slang) The perineum of a man.


formularise

formularise (third-person singular simple present formularises, present participle formularising, simple past and past participle formularised)

formularises (present singular third-person)
formularising (participle present)
formularised (participle past)
formularised (past)

(British) To express as a formula, to formulate.


laddism

(British) Laddish beliefs and behaviours.


laddish

en-adj

laddish (comparative more laddish, superlative most laddish)

more laddish (comparative)
most laddish (superlative)

[…] versions of a laddish or protest heterosexual masculinity […]

2003, Linda McDowell, Redundant Masculinities?: Employment Change and White Working Class Youth:

This underachievement is linked to a laddish culture […]

2006, Carolyn Jackson, Lads and Ladettes in School: Gender and a Fear of Failure:

(British) Like a stereotypical Jack the lad: boorish, reckless, inclined to binge drinking, etc.


pieman

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

* From Middle English pyman (attested as a surname), equivalent to pie + -man.
* (caller in gambling games): Such games were once often run by sellers of pies as a sideline.

(UK, slang, obsolete) The man who called heads or tails in street gambling games of coin tossing.


promenader

(chiefly UK, music) An attender at, or devotee of, promenade concerts.


estate car

From estate; estate cars were originally designed for transporting people and luggage between railway stations and country estates.


tarty

tarty (comparative tartier, superlative tartiest)

tartier (comparative)
tartiest (superlative)

Atwood's Edible Woman offers a brilliant analysis of woman as consumable in consumer capitalism: when Marian turns out in a tarty hairdo and red dress...

1991, Gayle Greene, Changing the Story: Feminist Fiction and the Tradition:

The vice trust, with equal ingenuity, sent prostitutes dressed in their tartiest outfits into respectable neighborhoods to inquire about apartments for rent.

2004, Thomas A Reppetto, American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power:

Ravey Davy's flashy, trashy signature style doesn't seem to be quite as big a hit among the Boujis Boozers as I might have hoped. Maybe it'll get tartier as the season progresses and the climate allows for rising hemlines.

2007 February 24, Polly Vernon, “Posh versus grunge - the new bar wars”, in The Guardian:

(British, slang) Like a tart (promiscuous woman); slutty, whorish.


sink estate

(UK) A council estate characterised by high levels of economic and social deprivation, often associated with high crime rates.

ongelma-alue

council estate characterized by deprivation


Zimmer frame

From Zimmer Orthopaedic Ltd, the original manufacturer.

Aids, such as a Zimmer frame, walking stick, or foot-drop splint may be needed at some point by many patients.

1988, Derick T Wade, Stroke: A Practical Guide:

These are three- or four-legged frames, on wheels, which remind one of a modern-day Zimmer frame.

2006, Irina Metzler, Disability in Medieval Europe:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A walking frame.


council estate

A person who has grown up in a council housing estate is likely to be—indeed, visibly is—more middle class in outlook than a person who has grown up in a slum.

1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:

(UK) A housing estate consisting, entirely or principally, of council housing.

kaupungin vuokra-asuntoalue

a housing estate consisting of council housing


belt up

en-verb

belt up (third-person singular simple present belts up, present participle belting up, simple past and past participle belted up)

belts up (present singular third-person)
belting up (participle present)
belted up (participle past)
belted up (past)

(British, intransitive) To fasten one's seat belt.

(British, intransitive, colloquial, derogatory, usually in imperative) To stop talking or chattering; to shut up.


zimmer frame

the well-dressed, terminally ill defendant who stumbles into the dock, supported by a zimmer frame

She was leaning on a zimmer frame, peering up at them from under a bird's nest of uncombed grey hair.

2004, M C Beaton, Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative letter-case form of Zimmer frame


aerobridge

/ˈɛəɹ.əʊˌbɹɪdʒ/

(UK, aviation) Alternative form of airbridge: an elevated corridor connecting an airport to a plane.


dustcart

There were other disputes in Scotland, indeed in Glasgow, some affecting local authority services, and from the second day of coverage of the dustcart strike, reporting often linked them in bulletins; […]

2009, Peter Beharrell, Howard Davis, John Eldridge, Bad News, page 246:

Imagine your dismay if you'd been using film and not noticed the dustcart in the shot until you were back home, when your photos had been processed.

2014, Simon Whaley, Compass Points - Photography for Writers:

(UK, Ireland) A vehicle for collecting refuse.


do over

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

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

/ˈduːˌəʊvə(ɹ)/

If someone tries to do my guitar, and I don't want it to be done, it's between him and me. I don't call in Bill Wyman to come in and do him over for me, with one of his vicious ankle-twisters or Chinese burns.

1971 August 19, Robert Greenfield, quoting Keith Richards, “The Rolling Stone Interview: Keith Richard[s]”, in Rolling Stone, number 89, San Francisco, Calif.: Rolling Stone, →ISSN, →OCLC; republished in Cindy Ehrlich, editor, The Rolling Stones, [San Francisco, Calif.]: Straight Arrow Publishers, 1975, →OCLC, page 57, column 2:

I go to a match for one reason only: the aggro. […] [E]very night during the week we go round looking respectable … then if we see someone who looks like the enemy we ask him the time; if he answers in a foreign accent, we do him over; and if he's got any money on him we'll roll him as well.

1974, Paul Harrison, “Soccer’s Tribal Wars”, in New Society: The Social Science Weekly, London: Harrison Raison & Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 604; republished as Patrick Murphy, John Williams, Eric Dunning, Football on Trial: Spectator Violence and Development in the Football World, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 1990, →ISBN, page 86:

(transitive, British, slang) To beat up.


shaggable

en-adj

shaggable (comparative more shaggable, superlative most shaggable)

more shaggable (comparative)
most shaggable (superlative)

"Still think she's shaggable, Lee?" Di Earnshaw's thin mouth pursed. "Not unless you like singing falsetto."

2002, Val McDermid, The Wire in the Blood:

And as if to confirm what cycling shorts had suggested, the magazines that once determined what would make a girl shaggable now explained to me why I and most of the other sixty per cent would remain unshagged until our buns could crack the porcelain.

2003, James Birrell, The Manana Man, page 29:

(British, slang) Worthy of shagging; fuckable.


jumble sale

Today's children at Christmas-time take a cast-off toy to the Toy Service held in many churches, and it is a pretty sight to watch those tiny mites clutching their toys and parting from them. However, it has been said that they should take one which they really love, otherwise it is no sacrifice. What busy-bodies some of these grown-ups are! Do they send off their best clothes to the local jumble sale?

1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 35:

(UK, Ireland) A sale of used goods by individuals operating tables or stalls, usually held indoors and open to the public.


woz ere

What are couples up to when one reclines on the stones and is ridden by the other? Will our talk excite the vandal? He woz ere, like you are now […]

The wooden surfaces of these desks also made a wonderful surface on which to scratch your name for all posterity: "I woz ere" being a favoured phrase.

2004, Sue Cowley, Sue Cowley's A-Z of Teaching:

[…] but it quickly gets repainted with Lennon images, peace messages and inconsequential tourist graffiti of the "we woz ere" variety.

(British, slang) Was here. Frequently placed after the author's name in graffiti.


biccy

From a clipping of biscuit + -y (forming diminutives).

Unnoticed, little Wayne, having finished his second choccy biccy, had moved off […]

Max had a gorgeous round, pale face surrounded by light brown curls, and he would say things like, "May I have a biccy, Mummy?"

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, colloquial, sometimes childish) Alternative form of biscuit: a cookie.


shitey

shitey (comparative shitier, superlative shitiest)

shitier (comparative)
shitiest (superlative)

That's if the combined smell of minging socks, shitey trainers and a thousand farts clinging to the wallpaper doesn't put them off coming in here.

You know one of those wee shitey dogs that just yaps and yaps.

2008, John Richmond, The Birds Call Me Seb:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, vulgar, slang, very uncommon) Shitty, worthless.


rescue dog

(chiefly British) A homeless, lost or abandoned dog which has been, or will be, re-homed by an animal rescue centre or charity; a rescued dog


tuppenceworth

(UK, Ireland) Alternative spelling of tuppence worth


two pennorth

Here's my 'two pennorth'. Great British Railways (and NR meanwhile) should adopt the following policy: [...].

2021 November 17, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Salisbury: a media own goal”, in RAIL, number 944, page 3:

(UK, Ireland) Alternative spelling of two penn'orth


two penn'orth

That's just my two penn’orth; you can believe what you like.

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic, colloquial) One's opinion or thoughts.


two pennies' worth

That's just my two pennies' worth; you can believe what you like.

(idiomatic, UK, colloquial) One's opinion or thoughts.


tuppence worth

I bought a tuppence worth of humbugs

(UK, Ireland, dated) Two pennies' worth; goods or services with a value of two pennies.

That's just my tuppenceworth; you can believe what you like.

He had only a tuppence worth of success.

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic, colloquial) A small amount.


who's 'she', the cat's mother

Who's 'she' (canonical)
the cat's mother (canonical)

"She's coming on the trip with us too!"

"Who's 'she', the cat's mother?"

Sorry, Gran is coming with us too.

(idiomatic, somewhat dated, British, Ireland, New England) A rebuke especially directed towards children for having referred to a woman in the nominative case as "she", instead of by her name or an appropriately respectful title.


talk shite

en-verb

talk shite (third-person singular simple present talks shite, present participle talking shite, simple past and past participle talked shite)

talks shite (present singular third-person)
talking shite (participle present)
talked shite (participle past)
talked shite (past)

(slang, vulgar, UK, Ireland, very uncommon) To talk badly about something.

(slang, vulgar, UK, Ireland, very uncommon) To talk nonsense or to lie.


rateable value

(British) An official estimate of the value of a property used as a basis of local taxation


chat shit

chat shit (third-person singular simple present chats shit, present participle chatting shit, simple past and past participle chatted shit)

chats shit (present singular third-person)
chatting shit (participle present)
chatted shit (participle past)
chatted shit (past)

I shagged David Beckham last week. – Stop chatting shit; that's a load of bollocks.

(slang, vulgar, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To talk nonsense or to lie.

My brother came round and we were chatting shit for hours.

(slang, vulgar, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To have a casual or meaningless conversation.

Chat shit, get banged.

(slang, vulgar, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To untruthfully speak of another in a belittling, deprecative, slighting manner, either in person or in absentia.


kiss my arse

And here, I believe, the wit is generally misunderstood. In reality, it lies in desiring another to kiss your a— for having just before threatened to kick his; for I have observed very accurately, that no one ever desires you to kick that which belongs to himself, nor offers to kiss this part in another.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IX, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VI:

(vulgar, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative form of kiss my ass


keep one's hair on

keep one's hair on (third-person singular simple present keeps one's hair on, present participle keeping one's hair on, simple past and past participle kept one's hair on)

keeps one's hair on (present singular third-person)
keeping one's hair on (participle present)
kept one's hair on (participle past)
kept one's hair on (past)

All right, all right, just keep your hair on, mate.

“Oh, nothing, nothing!”
“Yes, there’s something. I mean to know!”
“Keep your hair on; it’s nothing.”
“Out with it!” cried Addie, scarlet with rage.
And he flew at Jaap’s throat.

1901, Louis Couperus, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, Small Souls:

1965 [Chatto & Windus], Margery Allingham, The Mind Readers, 2016, Penguin Random House (Vintage), page 138,
‘Keep your hair on, I don't see any crime. […] ’

“Sorry old chap—keep your hair on—but surely you knew just about everyone was siphoning off the odd bit, here and there?”

2014, Melvin Rea, The Island They Towed Away, AuthorHouse, page 233:

(idiomatic, British, Ireland, colloquial) To stay calm; to be patient; to calm down.


fellmonger

(British) Someone who sells or works with animal hides and skins.


Maundy coin

(British) Any of the specially minted coins given out by the reigning monarch on Maundy Thursday. Face values are 1, 2, 3, and 4 pence.


obstropulous

en-adj

obstropulous (comparative more obstropulous, superlative most obstropulous)

more obstropulous (comparative)
most obstropulous (superlative)

Modification of obstreperous after words ending in -ulous.

And you know, Jack (as we told him, moreover), that it was a shame to manhood, for a man, who had served twenty and twenty women as bad or worse, let him have served Miss Harlowe never so bad, should give himself such obstropulous airs, because she would die […]

1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe, volume IX:

He was thoroughly obstropulous to me last week!

1977, Goodbye Mr Grainger (Are You Being Served?), season 5, episode 6, spoken by Mrs Slocombe (Mollie Sugden):

(UK, obsolete, slang) Synonym of obstreperous


fuckwitted

fuckwitted (comparative more fuckwitted, superlative most fuckwitted)

more fuckwitted (comparative)
most fuckwitted (superlative)

But this fuckwitted spastic is too immobilised and confused to work that out and by then I'm well away, bristling with excitement and satisfaction.

1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN:

[…] jokes about stingy Jews, which make my blood boil and ensure lifelong hatred against the fuckwitted joker.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, vulgar, derogatory or offensive) Stupid; having the intelligence of a fuckwit.


I'm all right, Jack

From my vantage point at the large, shiny bar in the centre of the room, I could swear I spotted Harriet Harman with her trade unionist husband "I'm all right, Jack" Dromey.

2008 November 6, Bill Blanko, “Party politics”, in The Guardian:

(British) Indicates a selfish attitude, not worried about any problems one's friends and neighbours might have. Often associated with strikes and other trade union industrial actions.


rheumatics

You ain't subject to the whatdyecallems - the rheumatics, are you?

a. 1857, Edward Bradley, Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green:


chapess

My friends are the undergraduates, chaps and chapesses, and as long as I can pour good wine down their gullets and listen into the small hours […]

1990, Samuel Gorley Putt, Wings of a Man's Life:

[…] so naturally, we simply couldn't afford to have chaps and chapesses tying the knot and then not having babies after all that fuss.

Those revered as saints are usually very peculiar chaps and chapesses who succeeded in refusing life just short of actually killing themselves […]

(British, informal) A female chap; a woman.


wacker

Wackers are the inhabitants of the city of Liverpool – famed for their humour, football, dockers and judies. Wackers eat scouse and wet nellies. Wackers and Woollybacks are tough yet warm breeds. Although both are Northerners, they are different in many ways; culture and traditions and even language divides them.

1993, Anthony Griffiths, Scouse Wars, Bluecoat Press, →ISBN, page 6:

(UK, Liverpool) A Liverpudlian; a resident of Liverpool, England.


microneighbourhood

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


Maccy D's

Mum would kill me if she saw me in Maccy D's for breakfast.

We sat in Maccy D's for a little while before she started work in the afternoon.

2006, Jason Ellis, Banana Skins on the Table:

And anyway we went into the service station because he wanted a burger from Maccy D's and I wanted a Coke.

Tony H said: “Handy for something to eat simply .Great coffee. I like Macky Ds occasionally when I am out and about. It was clean and food was hot. So good!”

2019 December 21, Elle May Rice, “The best and worst McDonald's in Liverpool as rated by TripAdvisor”, in Liverpool Echo:


laddishness

(British) Laddish attitudes and behaviour; laddism.


on your bike

"On your bike!" he shouted at the reporter.


sonny Jim

Don't get uppish with me, sonny Jim: you're as dead as he is.

1978, Hugh Leonard, Da: A Comedy in Two Acts:

(British, informal, dated) A familiar or patronising term of address for a male person, especially during a rebuke or correction.


Jap's eye

From the supposedly slitlike eyes of the Japanese.

A catheter, right down the Jap's eye even — well maybe not that, not yet anyway.

2002, Julian Broadhead, Laura Kerr, Prison Writing:

(British, slang, vulgar, offensive) The urethral opening of the penis; the male urethral meatus.


window licker

I bet his family are a bunch of window lickers.

2005, Rob Blonde, T-Shirt Theory: What Girls Have in Common with T-Shirts:

...because too much of this Far-Right-Racial-Purity malarkey and you'll end up as a nation of window-lickers.

2008, T Edward Devilish, Kingdom of the Burning Cow:

(British, slang, offensive) A mentally handicapped person.


rummily

en-adv

rummily (comparative more rummily, superlative most rummily)

more rummily (comparative)
most rummily (superlative)

Rather rummily, that's exactly what I was thinking just now myself.

(UK, colloquial, dated) In a rum fashion; oddly, strangely.


rag-and-bone shop

en-noun

rag-and-bone shop (plural rag-and-bone shops)

Derived from the Victorian practice of literally collecting rags and bones from households for resale.

(British) A dealership selling cheap unwanted second-hand goods, or bric-a-brac, that have been collected for nothing as disposable items.


linhay

Home-side of the linhay, and under the ashen hedge-row, where father taught me to catch blackbirds, all at once my heart went down, and all my breast was hollow.

1869, R. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, section III:

[S]he went to the linhay, or lean-to shed, which formed the root-store of their dwelling.

1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, page 145:

While they stood there close to the old linhay a bird came flying round them in wide circles, uttering shrill cries.

(dialectal, south-west British) A shed or other outbuilding, originally open-fronted with a hay loft.


Walkerism

(British, sports, journalism) A form of words spoken by motorsports commentator Murray Walker that, due to grammatical errors, malapropisms, etc. is characteristic of his broadcasting style.


kitchen garden

vegetable garden
vegetable garden#English

(chiefly UK) Synonym of vegetable garden.


servery

(chiefly British) A place where food is served, either the surface itself or the room; a food counter or canteen/cafeteria service area.


quiet coach

On my way to PBO yesterday, having been ousted from the quiet coach by an announcement *specifically* banning laptop computers, I overheard more than I really wanted to about the BBC's arrangements for co-ordinating documentaries including special items about the war, and later the producer-lady's diary for the week and forthcoming hair appointments.

2001, Roland Perry, “GNER quiet coach includes laptops”, in uk.railway (Usenet):

...they may need to work on journeys so consider offering additional products and services, for example express check-in, quiet coach on a train journey...

2007, Gillian Dale, Helen Oliver, Travel and Tourism: Book 1:

(British) A rail coach on which unnecessary noise is discouraged.


Graeco-Roman wrestling

Coordinate term: freestyle wrestling

(UK) One of the two Olympic styles of wrestling, forbidding attacks below the waist.

kreikkalais-roomalainen paini

one of the two Olympic styles of wrestling, forbidding attacks below the waist


Chrimbo

The OED cites the first printed usage (of the variant spelling Crimbo) as being in 1928. They give John Lennon's 1963 usage in a Beatles' Fan Club Christmas single as the first recorded use of the variant form Crimble.

The thing is, The Montrose is cracker on a Thursday night, never mind that the Chrimbo lunacy season has kicked off good and proper.

"A Chrimbo pressie for me?" He peeped around the door.

2004, Amanda Boulter, Back Around the Houses:

(British, slang) Christmas, especially with regard to its more secular and commercial aspects.


mosher

The witness, aged 14, wept as she begged for an ambulance, saying: "This mosher's just been banged because he's a mosher."

2008 March 13, Paul Byrne, “Sophie Lancaster goth murder”, in The Daily Mirror:

(British, slang) A member of an alternative subculture; a grebo or goth.


bookable

The player was sent off for two bookable offences.

(British, sports) Warranting a booking (a yellow card).


harbourmaster

(British, Canada) Alternative spelling of harbormaster


harbourage

harbourage (countable and uncountable, plural harbourages)


righty

(UK, informal, politics) A right-wing person.


sacculus

Unadapted borrowing from Latin sacculus (“a little sack or bag”), diminutive of saccus (“a sack, bag, purse”). Doublet of saccule.


nother

From Old English nōhwæþer. Compare neither, nauther.

(obsolete outside UK and Caribbean dialects) Neither.


CPC

en-noun

CPC (countable and uncountable, plural CPCs)

electrical engineering
electrical engineering

circuit protective conductor
circuit protective conductor#English

(electrical engineering, UK) Initialism of circuit protective conductor.


lughole

That way, you got the perfect four-in-one gauge every time. If you were caught doing it any other way, you got a larrup round the lughole or a kick up the khyber.

2013, Ken Sears, The Boy From Treacle Bumstead:


Woolies

Running up through the crowds she looked at her watch and found she had still a half-hour to spare, saw her face as she whipped into Woolies[…]

1977, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, James Leslie Mitchell, A Scots Quair:

It's also possible to pop into Woolies and buy a pre-paid mobile phone for as little as $99 including a rechargeable SIM card[…]

Of course, the kids loved it, even toddlers were heard to garble "I'm a twisted firestarter" while dragging their hapless mums into Woolies to bag a copy.

2004, Martin C Strong, The Great Rock Discography:

(Australia, British, slang) Woolworths, a well-known chain of shops selling confectionery, stationery, etc.


oestrous

(British) Alternative spelling of estrous


gote

From Middle English gote (“a drain”), from Old English *gote (“drain, gutter”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *gutō (“gutter”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰewd- (“to pour”).
Cognate with Dutch goot (“a gutter, drain, gully”), German Gosse (“a gutter”). Related to Old English gutt (“gut, entrails”), Old English ġēotan (“to pour, pour forth, shed, gush, flow, flood, overwhelm, found, cast”). More at gut, yote.

cog

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A deep miry place.


filmgoer

(chiefly British) Person who regularly frequents movie theaters.


parlourmaid

(British) A maid who takes care of the parlour.


passivise

en-verb

passivise (third-person singular simple present passivises, present participle passivising, simple past and past participle passivised)

passivises (present singular third-person)
passivising (participle present)
passivised (participle past)
passivised (past)

(British, grammar) To render into the passive form.

whakahāngū

To render or convert into the passive form


playgroup

(UK, Hong Kong) An informal organised group providing care and activities for preschool children.


plughole

The plughole started to slurp loudly as the water went down it.

2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 28, in Small Island, London: Review, page 295:

He jabbed his fingers into his hair and worked the dirt from the follicles, watched it swirl away down the plughole, sandy granules, flakes of dust and ash.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 199:

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand, British) The hole at the bottom of a bath, sink or tub, which can be blocked using a plug; a drain (US)


perisher

Get off my lawn, you little perisher!

(British, informal) An annoying child, a brat.

'So I've come down to Coltonslough, being, as I understand, the dullest hole upon the earth's crust, and I mean to go in a perisher.' A 'perisher' was his expression. 'And I mean to read like old boots; so you may let your servant light me a fire, ...'

1865, Only a Clod, in Three Volumes, page 184:

Then he most times went in an awful perisher — took a month to it, and was never sober day or night the whole time. When he'd spent all his money he'd crawl out of the township and get away into the country more dead than alive, ...

1888, Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms: A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia, page 314:

He went in a perisher last night, laying aginst Sir Tatton Sykes for the Derby with a half-a-dozen thousand pound notes in his hands, all of which he will lose.

(British, Australia, obsolete) An extreme.


press-up

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

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Synonym of push-up (“exercise”)


punchbag

/ˈpʌnt͡ʃbæɡ/

/ˈpʌnt͡ʃˌbæɡ/

A tough bag, usually cylindrical, filled with air, sand, or other material, and suspended so that swings freely, which is punched or kicked when practising sports such as boxing or martial arts.

(figuratively) A person serving as an object of abuse.

Synonym of punching bag
A person serving as an object of abuse.


pull-in

(British) A rest stop; a place at the side of a road where drivers can rest.


bog brush

And it doesn't work, does it? Your hair is too coarse to flop like a wild Tay salmon or a swatch of Savile Row suiting, your hair bristles, like a bog brush, like a suburban doormat.

2003, Stephen Fry, The Stars' Tennis Balls, page 19:


coalface

Works of this kind are necessarily parasitic upon the research of other scholars and I should like to express my gratitude to all those whose hard labour at the coalface has made my own endeavours possible.

2006, Alexandra Walsham, Charitable Hatred: Tolerance and Intolerance in England, 1500-1700, Manchester University Press, →ISBN:

Lizzie had paid her own dues at the coalface of teething babies and gave the young mother an understanding grin in return.

2007, Cathy Kelly, Best of Friends, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 40:

However, my mother, who had been at the coalface of the marital collapse, felt the need to have an in-depth debrief.

2010, Emma Kennedy, The Tent, the Bucket and Me, Random House, →ISBN, page 105:

But we both know that all of this wonderful equilibrium comes at a cost: there is the tacit understanding that it's my turn to pursue my dreams whilst my husband slogs at the coalface.

2010, Alison Walsh, In My Mother's Shoes, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

(figurative, UK) A place where difficult or strenuous work is done.

While schools were seen to be at the coalface of administering arts education, teachers, artists and children were rarely consulted in relation to the development of arts education policy.

2006, Anne Bamford, The Wow Factor: Global research compendium on the impact of the arts in education, Waxmann Verlag, →ISBN, page 57:

By all means look at streamlining systems, look at changing the way that you produce public services for sure, but please do not cut at the coalface. That goes for a teacher, it goes for a policeman and it goes for a nurse.

2010, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, Exporting out of recession: third report of session 2009-10. Oral and written evidence, The Stationery Office →ISBN, page 20

I wondered which next superstar I might have the privilege of seeing live at the coalface of stardom in Hollywood.

2011, Fiona O'Loughlin, Me of the Never Never: The chaotic life and times of Fiona O'Loughlin, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

It’s been terrific doing six shows a week, but what with all the prep work for the programmes and the ever-increasing volume of new music to listen to, there’s not been nearly enough time left over for my family. And to be honest, after nearly 40 years at the coalface of new music, I think I need a bit of breather.

2023 September 3, Steve Lamacq, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(figurative, UK) A place where more tangible, practical, or direct work of an activity is done, as opposed to theoretical or managerial work.


Jobcentre

(British) A government-funded agency that helps the unemployed to find work.


go-faster stripe

en-noun

go-faster stripe (plural go-faster stripes)

Dad was the owner of a gold Ford Cortina with a black go-faster stripe and a raunchy-sounding engine.

1996 April 13, “Novelist Raffaella Barker remembers her father, the poet”, in The Independent:

Later, on the motorway, a car with go-faster stripes and spoilers overtakes us, horn blaring.

Rather, when Mrs Lee orders a red GT model with electric windows, a heated driving seat and go-faster stripes...

2003, Clare Morris, Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies:

Even the dumbest criminal is likely to look in his rearview at some point, and think, I wonder is that the same '69 Mustang with go-faster stripes […]

(British, humorous) A decorative horizontal stripe on the bodywork of a vehicle, imitating those found on racing cars.


infantilisation

(chiefly British) Alternative spelling of infantilization


good on someone

You got married? Good on you!

And he had a big smile like he really liked us and our wall. Black old teeth. Fat stomach. Well good on you. Good on all of you and your wall. Hee, hee, hee, hee.

1989, Patricia Grace, “Six by Six: Short Stories by New Zealand's Best Writers”, in Bill Manhire, editor, The Wall:

I have never forgotten his smile and the look in his eyes as he said, ‘Good on you, little brother.[…]’

2004, Willem Dijkstra, May You Live In Interesting Times, volume 1, page 301:

2009 October 27, House of Lords European Union Committee, Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers: 3rd Report of Session 2009-10, Volume II: Evidence, page 88,
Lord Renton of Mount Harry: […] I do not wish to be rude in saying this, but it is very easy for you as BlackRock because you are already a global, very big company and you are obviously hugely successful — good on you — but what about the alternative investment fund manager in one of the EU countries who wants to grow, wants to become more established in other countries, et cetera, surely for them there has to be some other international means, not just standing on national status and national passports.

(UK, Ireland, New England, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand) An exclamation of encouragement or congratulation: well done.


individual voluntary arrangement

individual voluntary arrangement (plural individual voluntary arrangements)

individual voluntary arrangements (plural)

(British) A formal alternative to bankruptcy, involving a flexible contract with creditors.


unappetising

en-adj

unappetising (comparative more unappetising, superlative most unappetising)

more unappetising (comparative)
most unappetising (superlative)

Mrs. Michael turned out to be a ravenous, fast-fading woman in a slashed skirt and a low blouse over an unappetising chest. While her husband did things in his shed, where he appeared to live, Pym inexpertly mixed the Yorkshire pudding and fought off her embraces...

(chiefly British) Alternative spelling of unappetizing


dicky bow

(British, informal) A ready tied or elasticated bowtie.


dicky-bird

We've not heard a dicky-bird about anything relating to his birthday.

(British, informal, from Cockney rhyming slang, used especially in negative constructions) A word; a brief chat.

I peeked into the cellar but there was nothing there. Not a dicky-bird.


unrecognisably

(chiefly British) Alternative spelling of unrecognizably.


traffic warden

(British, Hong Kong) A civilian employed by the police to regulate traffic and issue parking tickets.


bit of skirt

I never heard a word about a bit of skirt. Not like some blokes you meet — they're born out of one and they try to spend the rest of their lives getting back in.

2000, Roy Holland, Just a Bit Touched: Tales of Perspective, page 44:

Rosemary overheard him say that he did not usually grace such functions with his presence, but had been dragged along one January evening with the promise of a 'nice bit of skirt'.

2012, Jane Roberts, Triple Challenge: '69 to '70, page 24:

He slapped the visor back into place. “Tired?” Baldwin asked. “A bit. This case, you know. Been keeping me up all hours for weeks. Your bit of skirt is quite the woman, isn't she?” Memphis asked.

(UK slang, offensive) A woman, when regarded as a sexual object.


talent-spotter

(UK) An agent who seeks out potential talent for the entertainment industry.


jeweller's

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-jeweller's.wav

(British, Canada) A shop that sells jewellery


vapour pressure

en-noun

vapour pressure (plural vapour pressures)

(British) Alternative spelling of vapor pressure


randomisation

randomisation (countable and uncountable, plural randomisations)

(British) Alternative spelling of randomization


barghest

The etymology of this word is disputed; it is perhaps from Old English burh-ghest (“town-ghost”), or from German Berg-geist (“mountain spirit”) or Bär-geist (“bear-spirit”).

In English folklore, a barghest is a monstrous dog with huge claws and teeth. This creature is said to roam around Yorkshire, and anyone who sees the dog will die soon after. There are barghests reported in Tennessee. On the grounds of Rotherwood Mansion in Kingsport, a monstrous black dog is said to roam, howling mournfully. Locally, he's called "Hound of Hell." Again, anyone who sees this creature is certain to suffer imminent death.

1999, Charles Edwin Price, Mysterious Knoxville: Ghost Stories, Monster Tales, and Bizarre Incidents from the “Gateway to the Smokies”, Johnson City, Tenn.: The Overmountain Press, →ISBN, page 58:

"Folklore often portrays barghests as guardians who lead lost travelers home," I said, not answering his question in the least, or mentioning that more often barghests were considered portents of death.

2012, Kalayna Price, chapter 20, in Grave Memory: An Alex Craft Novel, New York, N.Y.: Roc Books, New American Library, →ISBN:

(mythology, British) A legendary monstrous black dog, said to possess large teeth and claws, and (sometimes) to be capable of changing form.

Yet another possibility is that the headless man is a barghest, sometimes referred to and spelled as 'barguest', 'bahrgeist' or 'boguest'. These are creatures primarily associated with the north of England – Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire and Lancashire. They assume at will the form of a headless man, a headless lady, a white cat, a rabbit, or dog, or a black dog. The barghest is a fiend that is attached to a particular place, more often than not an isolated piece of land, a wooded area, cloughs or wasteland. The barghest is known as a portent of disaster or death for those who see it; it is also said that death may not visit the person who sees the barghest but could kill a family member instead.

2016, Alexander L. Kaufman, “‘And Many Oþer Diuerse Tokens …’: Portents and Wonders in ‘Warkworth’s’ Chronicle”, in Jaclyn Rajsic, Erik Kooper, Dominique Hoche, editors, The Prose Brut and Other Late Medieval Chronicles: Books Have Their Histories. Essays in Honour of Lister M. Matheson, Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press in association with The Boydell Press and the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, →ISBN, page 61:

(mythology, British) Any ghost, wraith, hobgoblin, elf, or spirit.


jammie

en-adj

jammie (comparative jammier, superlative jammiest)

jammier (comparative)
jammiest (superlative)

(UK, colloquial) Alternative spelling of jammy (“lucky; especially undeservedly so”)


normal for Norfolk

(medicine, slang, UK, derogatory) Peculiar or odd.

(medicine, slang, UK, derogatory) Of a patient, having lesser intellect.


piffy on a rock bun

Age and etymology are uncertain; it existed in the 1930s and possibly derives from a music hall catchphrase. Some commentators (e.g. World Wide Words) suggest that piffy may have originally been patience, and the rock bun was simply a type of cake.

I hate your work parties: you always talk shop with your mates and leave me sat like piffy on a rock bun.

(slang, British, idiomatic) A person ignored or sidelined from an activity


woolly back

The Liverpool Echo suggests two possible origins for the term, both dating back to the early 1900s:
* It may be a term for scab workers brought into the city from surrounding towns to manually load and unload ships in the Liverpool docks; unloading ships, the dockers would carry the woollen bales on their backs, leaving wool on their clothes.
* It may be a term for men who delivered coal into Liverpool from mines surrounding the city, who wore sheep fleece to protect their backs.
Another suggestion is that it could have originated in the Middle Ages from non-resident Welsh and English people trying to avoid the entry fee at the Chester city walls on market day by sneaking in the livestock entrance with a sheep on their back.

(British, slang) Any unsophisticated person from the countryside.

landepaukku

slang: unsophisticated person from the countryside


not much cop

'Cause I'm not much cop at punching other people's Dads

This one-dimensionality makes Germinal a formidable national monument, but not much cop as a film.

1997, Jonathan Romney, Short Orders: Film Writing:

"Not much cop, this place, but I have to keep an eye out for my train. Now, what can I get you, miss?"

"I'm not much cop at the decorating lark, am I, Floss?" "Never mind, Dad."

(British, slang) Not very good; unimpressive.


cop it

en-verb

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

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

"Oh, you'll cop it," said the recruit. "The sergeant has been here twice looking for you."

1915, Lyman Abbott, Ernest Hamlin Abbott, Hamilton Wright Mabie, Francis Rufus Bellamy, The Outlook:

He shook his black, dishevelled hair ominously and said: "You'll cop it for this!"

1966, Maxim Gorky, Ronald Wilks, My Childhood:

I suppose he must have been all right, because you don't half cop it for killing a soldier.

1970, Alfred Edgar Coppard, Ninepenny Flute:

(British, slang) To get into trouble; to be punished.


jark

jark (third-person singular simple present jarks, present participle jarking, simple past and past participle jarked)

jarks (present singular third-person)
jarking (participle present)
jarked (participle past)
jarked (past)

At the end of the day, it was inevitable that the IRA would discover that its weapons were being jarked.

1996, Andy McNab, Immediate Action, page 365:

'Anna' and 'Mary' were involved in operations that drew on a variety of intelligence data: ‘jarking’; information from agents;[…]One of the weapons, perhaps the Armalite, had been ‘jarked’ by the ‘Det’ and tracked for some time.

2001, Peter Taylor, Brits:the War Against the IRA, page 255:

An especially creative method was known as “jarking,” which involved “the placing of tiny tracking devices on weapons in arms caches so their movements can be followed.”⁸

2010, Christopher C. Harmon, Andrew N. Pratt, Sebastian Gorka, Toward a Grand Strategy Against Terrorism, page 197:

The homes and safe houses he provided were bugged; the weapons hidden in empty houses were ‘jarked’ so the security forces could keep track of them, and the vehicles used to ferry weapons put under close surveillance.

2010, Ed Moloney, Voices from the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland, page 282:

(slang, military, British) To modify (weaponry) to disadvantage; especially, to attach a tracking device to and covertly monitor the location of (a weapon).


breathalyse

breathalyse (third-person singular simple present breathalyses, present participle breathalysing, simple past and past participle breathalysed)

breathalyses (present singular third-person)
breathalysing (participle present)
breathalysed (participle past)
breathalysed (past)

(chiefly British) Alternative spelling of breathalyze


housebuyer

(British, Ireland, Malaysia) Someone who buys a house


byelection

(Canada, New Zealand, often UK) Alternative form of by-election


minicab

(British, originally) A small car used as a taxi (rather than a traditional black cab).


black cab

So-called because they were originally painted black; nowadays they can be any colour, but are still referred to as black cabs.

Sitting in a black cab as it speeds away into the traffic, I check my bag. There, hiding in the bottom corner, I find a hand and body wash with the Caledonian Sleeper logo on it. I hadn't used it.

2023 February 8, Greg Morse, “Crossing the border... by Sleeper”, in RAIL, number 976, page 45:

(British) A traditional London-style taxi; a hackney carriage.


hackney carriage

en-noun

hackney carriage (plural hackney carriages)

(British, historical) A horse-drawn carriage for public hire.

It is clear the Tory party is on an ideological crusade against my industry. Its interference in London’s recent private hire review shows just how far the government will go to deregulate the UK hackney carriage trade.

2016 February 9, Trevor Merralls, “Uber is no better than an old-fashioned gangmaster – so London’s cabbies are striking”, in The Guardian:


winnet

(British, regional) A small piece of faeces stuck to the hairs around the anus of a mammal.


transport café

eating establishment
eating establishment

(UK, Ireland) A roadside eating establishment used especially by lorry-drivers; a truck stop


cruiserweight

(boxing, British, obsolete) light heavyweight


round bracket

(UK) Each of the signs ( and ); parenthesis, bracket (in a strict sense).


Guardianista

And so the Guardianista is prepared for a tragic story of injustice and retribution, brought about by the evil that stalks the dark corners of cyberspace.

2005, Tim Worstall, 2005: Dispatches from the Blogosphere:

[…] the shrieking 'Guardianista' class and poor old Trevor Norris, because Trevor Norris was a local pain in the arse who'd once opposed a Heath development […]

But if councils were still run part-time by engine drivers — not self-regarding, pious Guardianistas — at the very least we'd get our dustbins emptied once a week.

2007 December 10, “Better an engine driver than a Guardianista!”, in Daily Mail:

(British, slang, derogatory) A reader of the Guardian newspaper, regarded as middle-class, excessively liberal and politically correct, etc.


wibbly

en-adj

wibbly (comparative wibblier, superlative wibbliest)

wibblier (comparative)
wibbliest (superlative)

'We'll find some long branches and pull them out,' said Grace-Ella, trying her best to stay calm and confident even though she felt like a great big wibbly jelly.

2019, Sharon Marie Jones, Grace Ella: Witch Camp:


leam

en-verb

leam (third-person singular simple present leams, present participle leaming, simple past and past participle leamed)

leams (present singular third-person)
leaming (participle present)
leamed (participle past)
leamed (past)

From Middle English lemen, from Old English lȳman, from Proto-West Germanic *liuhmijan, from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“light, bright”).

der

(intransitive, UK, dialectal) To gleam; shine; glow.


leam

From Middle English leme, from Old English lēoma (“ray of light, beam, radiance, gleam, glare, lightning”), from Proto-Germanic *leuhmô (“light, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“light, bright”). Cognate with Icelandic ljómi (“gleam, ray, beam, flash of light”), Latin lumen (“light”).

cog

The Leams of the morning sun streamed through the half-closed shutters

1816, [Walter Scott], The Antiquary. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

(UK, dialectal) A gleam or flash of light; a glow or glowing.


blackback

great black-backed gull
great black-backed gull


fuckwittery

I've got a degree in total fuckwittery, but why is that a material fact, Richard? Nobody has denied that Lady Draycott was Joseph Pilgrim's mistress.

2001, Andy McSmith, Innocent in the House:

...the 'sameness argument' — 'challenge this whole fuckwittery about "I treat everybody the same'".

2002, Adrian Coyle, Celia Kitzinger, Lesbian and Gay Psychology: New Perspectives:

...and 'Three Lions' jingoistic fuckwittery that went on to lay karmic waste to record labels, live venues and rock mag institutions alike.

2004, Garry Mulholland, This Is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk and Disco:

"How the hell are we supposed to help them when they've got gold medals in fuckwittery — answer that, Sherlock!" She slammed her briefcase down...

That claim summed up the utter fuckwittery of horoscopes. It implied that either (i) all horoscopes prior to that were totally wrong...

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, vulgar, derogatory or offensive) Behaviour of a fuckwit; irksome foolishness.


ged

From Middle English gedde, from Old Norse gedda (“pike”), cognate with Icelandic gedda (“pike”), Danish gedde (“pike”).

(UK, dialect or heraldry) The pike or luce.