tuppenny

(British, dated) A coin or stamp worth two pence.

A Lord High Chancellor is a personage of great dignity, who should never, under any circumstances, place himself in the position of being told to tuck in his tuppenny, except by noblemen of his own rank.

(British, dated, juvenile) In the children's game of leapfrog, the head (perhaps named from a tuppenny loaf).


workshy

en-adj

workshy (comparative more workshy, superlative most workshy)

more workshy (comparative)
most workshy (superlative)

Workshy benefits claimants should stop watching daytime television and get a job.


bedhead

From Middle English bed-head, bedhede (also as beddeshed, beddes hede, beddes heed), equivalent to bed + head.

Holonyms: bedstead; bedframe (sometimes comeronymous)

[…] upon this he went up stairs in his shirt, and found the boy hanging in his belt to the staple within the bed-head, and no higher than would admit him to be on his knees, having only his shirt on.

1772, anonymous author, A True and Genuine Account of the Life, Trial, and Execution of James Bolland, London: self-published, page 2:

Feeling slightly ashamed of himself, he sat up against the bedhead.

1949, George Orwell, chapter 4, in Nineteen Eighty-Four:

There was a big black wrought-iron double bed, with a mosaic in the centre of the bedhead.

1977, Edna O'Brien, Johnny I Hardly Knew You, Penguin, published 1984, page 82:

A few miles from Skara Brae, you can see hearths, bedheads, and milk crate-style shelving in a cluster of stone houses that are joined by an internal corridor, like those of an apartment block. The houses are five thousand years old, older than the Egyptian pyramids.

2014, Christine Kenneally, chapter 8, in The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, New York: Viking:

(British) A vertical panel or board at the end of a bed where the pillow is placed.


mump

(UK, dialect, Somerset) A cube of peat; a spade's depth of digging turf.


loadsamoney

From loadsa + money. Originally the name and catchphrase of a vulgar character who flourished wads of banknotes, invented by British comedian Harry Enfield in the 1980s.

My hon. Friend entered the House in 1987, and I am sure that my hon. Friend will recall the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition talking about the "loadsamoney society" and the bad effect that that has had on crime rates.

1989 March 10, John Patten, parliamentary debates:

Questioned on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on whether he would be adopting a pre-election "loadsamoney" stance, Mr Blunkett said that there would be "substantial investment" but "loadsamoney will not be a term I'll be using".

2000 July 17, “Blunkett rejects 'loadsamoney' tag"”, in BBC News:

[see title]

2007 June 4, “Loadsamoney! West Ham set to join high rollers with £13m offer for Johnson; £90,000 a week.”, in Daily Mail, archived from the original on 2009-05-25:

(British, informal, humorous) Referring to the free flowing of money, to large amounts spent or earned, or to the perceived acquisitiveness and materialism engendered in society by a booming economy.


loadsamoney

(British, informal, humorous) A vulgar person who has gained a large amount of wealth and flaunts it whenever possible.


Bloody Sunday

We eat and drink while tomorrow they die / Sunday, Bloody Sunday / The real battle just begun / Sunday, Bloody Sunday

1983, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, in War, performed by U2:

(historical, British, Ireland) A 1972 event in Northern Ireland in which 14 civil rights protesters were shot and killed by a British Army regiment.


nervy

nervy (comparative nervier, superlative nerviest)

nervier (comparative)
nerviest (superlative)

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

Blackpool continue to thrive on the adrenalin rush of the end-of-season shoot-out and are heading for a second Wembley date in two years after negotiating a nervy path past Birmingham.

2012 May 9, John Percy, “Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2-3 on agg): match report”, in The Telegraph:

She has been asked on a date to see The Barber of Seville in the company of society’s wealthiest and most eligible bachelor, the Hon Jeremy Malcolm (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) who is bored by her nervy and untutored chatter.

2022 August 24, Peter Bradshaw, “Mr Malcolm’s List review – Regency romcom served with cake-icing of irony”, in The Guardian:

(British) Feeling nervous, anxious or agitated.


jack in

en-verb

jack in (third-person singular simple present jacks in, present participle jacking in, simple past and past participle jacked in)

jacks in (present singular third-person)
jacking in (participle present)
jacked in (participle past)
jacked in (past)

I've had enough of working nights, so I'm going to jack in my job.

I'm going to jack my job in.

And when I came round, after a couple of months of darkness, I found to my surprise that I had jacked in my course and was working in Record and Tape Exchange in Camden.

1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 26:

(transitive, idiomatic, British) To stop doing a regular activity, such as a job or studying.


mistal

Inherited from Middle English *mystal, from myx (“dung”) + stal (“shed”).
For the disappearance of /k/ before /st/, compare the disappearance of /x/ before /st/ in Anglian Old English hēst (“highest”), nēst (“nearest”), and sesta (“sixth”), surviving in Scots neest (“next”).


scrag

Perhaps related to Norwegian skragg (a lean person), dialectal Swedish skragge (old and torn thing), Danish skrog (hull, carcass); perhaps related to shrink.

(UK, slang, derogatory) A chav or ned; a stereotypically loud and aggressive person of lower social class.


put the wind up

put the wind up (third-person singular simple present puts the wind up, present participle putting the wind up, simple past and past participle put the wind up)

puts the wind up (present singular third-person)
putting the wind up (participle present)
put the wind up (participle past)
put the wind up (past)

P. G. Wodehouse
I find it extraordinarily difficult to explain why it is that she has always put the wind up me to such a frightful extent.

(informal, transitive, British) To frighten or disturb.


nursery school

en-noun

nursery school (countable and uncountable, plural nursery schools)

kindergarten

borrowed from German "Kindergarten"; mainly Canada, the U.S. and Australia

(Canada, British) An educational institution for small children (normally around 3 to 5 years old, who not yet have begun primary school).

çerdhe

a school for pre-school children — see also kindergarten


have the wind up

en-verb

have the wind up (third-person singular simple present has the wind up, present participle having the wind up, simple past and past participle had the wind up)

has the wind up (present singular third-person)
having the wind up (participle present)
had the wind up (participle past)
had the wind up (past)

(idiomatic, British) To be frightened or disturbed.


minikin

en-noun

minikin (countable and uncountable, plural minikins)

From Middle Dutch minnekijn (“darling, beloved”), from minne (“love”) (cf. minnesinger) and the diminutive suffix -kijn.

der

(uncountable, UK printing, dated) The size of type smaller than brilliant, standardized as 3-point.


brank

Compare Gaelic brangus, brangas, a sort of pillory, Irish brancas, halter, or Dutch pranger, fetter.

Your armour gude ye mauna shaw, / Nor yet appear like men o' weir; / As country lads be a' array'd, / Wi' branks and brecham on each mare.

1802, “Jock o’ the Side”, in Walter Scott, editor, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: […], volume I, Kelso, Roxburghshire: […] James Ballantyne, for T[homas] Cadell Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […]; and sold by Manners and Miller, and A[rchibald] Constable, […], →OCLC, 1st part (Historical Ballads), page 158:

(obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect, usually in the plural) A sort of bridle with wooden side pieces.


brank

en-verb

brank (third-person singular simple present branks, present participle branking, simple past and past participle branked)

branks (present singular third-person)
branking (participle present)
branked (participle past)
branked (past)

(UK, Scotland, dialect) To hold up and toss the head; applied to horses as spurning the bit.


brank

Probably of Celtic origin; compare Latin brance, brace, the Gallic name of a particularly white kind of corn.

One - third of brank-ground , or mixed with any other kind of grain or roots, is as large a proportion as can be given with safety

1842, William Blackwood, The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture:


get at

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

gets at (present singular third-person)
getting at (participle present)
got at (past)
got at (UK participle past)
gotten at (US participle past)


dab-handed

en-adj

dab-handed (comparative more dab-handed, superlative most dab-handed)

more dab-handed (comparative)
most dab-handed (superlative)

He is dab-handed at cricket.


Jiffy bag

Dutch: jiffybag

A British brand name (from jiffy) established in 1964.


dab hand

She's a dab hand in the kitchen.

(British) An expert; a very skilled person.


get into one's stride

en-verb

get into one's stride (third-person singular simple present gets into one's stride, present participle getting into one's stride, simple past and past participle got into one's stride)

gets into one's stride (present singular third-person)
getting into one's stride (participle present)
got into one's stride (participle past)
got into one's stride (past)

Tottenham were slow to get into their stride in a first 45 minutes characterised by Arsenal's defensive discipline - but once they moved through the gears the Gunners simply could not live with them.

2018 February 10, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham Hotspur 1 - 0 Arsenal”, in BBC:

As the passenger franchises got into their stride, remarkable levels of growth were recorded.

2024 January 10, 'Industry Insider', “Success built on liberalisation and market freedom”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 69:

(idiomatic, UK) To become familiar with something


conflab

Clipping of confabulation with an epenthetic l, which may be a humorous alteration done to suggest the word flab.


Hillsborough

From hills and borough. The village in New Brunswick was probably named in honour of British politician Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire (1718 - 1793). The civil parish is named after the village.

(British) A major football disaster at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield.


Vic

My next part at the Vic was Macbeth, with Judith Anderson. This play has a proverbial reputation for bad luck.

1949, Five Seasons of the Old Vic Theatre Company, page 5:

(UK, slang, historical, with definite article) The Royal Victoria Theatre, in London (now called the Old Vic to distinguish it from the New Vic Theatre in Staffordshire).


see off

see off (third-person singular simple present sees off, present participle seeing off, simple past saw off, past participle seen off)

sees off (present singular third-person)
seeing off (participle present)
saw off (past)
seen off (participle past)

A salesman came to my door, but the dogs soon saw him off.

Jon Walters and Rory Delap scored late goals as Stoke continued their unbeaten home start by seeing off Fulham with a dominant second-half display.

2011 October 15, Owen Phillips, “Stoke 2 - 0 Fulham”, in BBC Sport:

Only four units (455704/726/736/740) are yet scrapped, but the new Class 701s will soon see them all off.

2023 February 22, Howard Johnston, “Southern '313s': is the end now in sight?”, in RAIL, number 977, page 40:

You Keep Fucking Me is one of the highlights of a new exhibition of her paintings, all of them created since her diagnosis with a cancer that should, by rights, have seen her off.

2024 May 29, Simon Hattenstone, “The radical, ravishing rebirth of Tracey Emin: ‘I didn’t want to die as some mediocre YBA’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:


do a bunk

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

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

(British, slang, idiomatic) To escape or flee, especially under incriminating circumstances.

largarse

escape under incriminating circumstances


ratbags

(UK, colloquial, dated) A mild exclamation of dismay.


TIC

en-noun

TIC (countable and uncountable, plural TICs)

TICs must be admitted by a defendant in addition to the crimes for which they have been convicted.

offence to be taken into consideration#English

(countable, UK, criminal law, law enforcement) Initialism of offence to be taken into consideration.


swingle

en-verb

swingle (third-person singular simple present swingles, present participle swingling, simple past and past participle swingled)

swingles (present singular third-person)
swingling (participle present)
swingled (participle past)
swingled (past)

From swing + -le (frequentative suffix).

(obsolete, UK, dialect) To swing for pleasure.


jargoon

en-noun

jargoon (countable and uncountable, plural jargoons)

/d͡ʒɑɹˈɡuːn/

From French jargon, from Italian giargone, from Arabic زَرْقُون (zarqūn). Doublet of zircon.

[…] he would sigh and gently lay it aside with a slow shake of his head and the slightest raise of an eyebrow. He said that sometimes even “jargoons” or fake jewellery could be worthy of respect, […]

By the time the buyer had discovered his mistake, there was nothing he could do about it. Similarly with the 'jargoons', except that here the jewellery sold was fake from the start and the seller had to rely on faster talking and a quicker sale. […] Reggie had a way with him. People trusted him, and he could always pick up a few pounds when he needed them from the jargoons and the tweedle.

2013, John Pearson, The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins:

(UK, slang, countable) A fake ring or other jewellery sold as genuine.


bum chum

1989, Joseph Mills, Towards the End, Polygon, →ISBN, page 120,
‘That’s his pal,’ Beeny said to Doreen. ¶ ‘Bum-chum more like,’ John added.

2004, Phil Ferguson, Discontent, M-Y Books, →ISBN, page 83,
He was too busy playing the big, important businessman to care about anyone but himself, preferring the company of his bum chum, Pete, to me.

‘Gaylord!’ ¶ ‘Bum-chum!’ ¶ ‘Chutney Ferret!’

2005, S.J. Smith, Joe Public, Virtualbookworm Publishing, →ISBN, page 100:

(UK, derogatory slang) A male homosexual's partner; a male homosexual.


clear up

en-verb

clear up (third-person singular simple present clears up, present participle clearing up, simple past and past participle cleared up)

clears up (present singular third-person)
clearing up (participle present)
cleared up (participle past)
cleared up (past)

Accepting that incidents will always happen, what then matters is how quickly we can clear up the mess, something British Rail was better at. [...] I would turn up as quickly as possible in the on-call Hillman Avenger and assess how quickly we could clear up.

2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 43:

(UK, transitive, intransitive) To clean up.


colour sergeant

en-noun

colour sergeant (plural colour sergeants)

non-commissioned officer
non-commissioned officer

(British) A non-commissioned officer in some infantry regiments of the British army, equivalent in rank to a staff sergeant in most other armies. A colour sergeant ranks above a sergeant and below a warrant officer.


m'lord

1986, Ben Elton et al., Blackadder II, 3: "Money"
There's a priest wants t'see you, m'lord.
Well, tell him I'm Jewish.

2012, David Benioff et al., A Game of Thrones, 2.3: "A Man without Honor"
And, girl.
My lord.
Lowborn girls say "m'lord", not "my lord". If you're going to pose as a commoner, you should do it properly.

(British, now often historical or humorous, also law, in India) My Lord (used to address peers temporal, judges, etc).


sergeant major

sergeant major (plural sergeant majors or sergeants major)

sergeant majors (plural)
sergeants major (plural)

(British, plural sergeant majors) An appointment (not a rank) in the British Army and Royal Marines, denoting the most senior non-commissioned officer in a battalion, regiment or company.


toastie maker

Once you've tried a toastie from a toastie maker, you'll never want to eat regular sandwiches again.

(British) An electrical appliance used to toast sandwiches.


lance corporal

(British) A non-commissioned officer in the British Army and Royal Marines, ranking above private and below corporal. A rank with NATO code OR-3.


tightener

From tighten + -er. Referring to a meal, suggests the tightening of one's belt around the expanding waistline.

184?, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor
One proposed going to Hungerford-market to do a feed on decayed shrimps or other offal laying about the market; another proposed going to Covent-garden to do a 'tightener' of rotten oranges, to which I was humorously invited; […]

Now a belt like this is a great saving to a man inasmuch as he can save many a meal by wearing it; all you have to do if you want to save a meal is to buckle in a hole or two tighter, and you will feel as if you have had a tightener and will not miss your dinner for that day.

1876, William Green, Charles Hindley, The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, page 55:

(UK, slang, archaic) A large meal; a feast or blowout.


yourn

From Middle English youren. Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, yours. See also ourn, hern. Cognate with West Flemish joen (“yourn”).

Your room's in there, back of the office, an' you'll find some clothes there that the last man forgot to take with him. You ken have 'em, an' from the looks o' yourn you need 'em.

1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC:

(obsolete outside British and US dialects, especially Appalachia) Yours.


ourn

From Middle English ourn, ouren, from Old English ūrne and similar forms. Compare mine, thine; also compare and see hern. Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, ours, which see for more.

“Supposin',” continued Ward, “that we let two o' your men an' two o' ourn under Mr. Divine, shin up them cliffs back o' the cove an' search fer water an' a site fer camp—the rest o' us'll have our hands full with the salvage.”

(obsolete outside British and US dialects, especially Appalachia) Ours.


Janner

Derived from Cousin Jan (the Devonian form of John). See Janner for further explanation.

(British, dated, slang) An English person born within ten miles of the sea.

(British, dated, slang) Member of the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment.


Janner

(British, slang) The accent and colloquialisms of such people used by the people of Plymouth.


Janner

(British, slang, sometimes derogatory) Describing Plymouth's lower classes.


hisn

From Middle English hisen, ultimately corresponding to an alteration of his after mine, thine.

I will not show him this letter of yours, though you seem to desire it, lest it should provoke him to be too severe a schoolmaster, when you are his'n.

1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:

An' every feller felt ez though all Mexico wuz hisn.

1848, James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers:

But in the absolute whosen is often substituted, as in "if it ain't hisn, then whosen is it?" The imitation is obvious.

[1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 297:

(now dialectal, British and US, especially Appalachia) His.


give someone the heave-ho

en-verb

give someone the heave-ho (third-person singular simple present gives someone the heave-ho, present participle giving someone the heave-ho, simple past gave someone the heave-ho, past participle given someone the heave-ho)

gives someone the heave-ho (present singular third-person)
giving someone the heave-ho (participle present)
gave someone the heave-ho (past)
given someone the heave-ho (participle past)

I'm looking for work again because they gave me the heave-ho.

I accused her in set terms of giving me the heave-ho in order that she could mercenarily marry a richer man.

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

(idiomatic, British) To fire, expel or break up with someone.


give someone the old heave-ho

give<,,gave,given> someone the old heave-ho

give someone the old heave-ho (third-person singular simple present gives someone the old heave-ho, present participle giving someone the old heave-ho, simple past gave someone the old heave-ho, past participle given someone the old heave-ho)

gives someone the old heave-ho (present singular third-person)
giving someone the old heave-ho (participle present)
gave someone the old heave-ho (past)
given someone the old heave-ho (participle past)

Possibly a lot of them gained entry because there were so many other strange bees in the hive, but once they started to load up and run, the natives joined with the old ones and gave them the old heave-ho.

1947, Gleanings in Bee Culture v.75, A. I. Root Co., page 467:

Now I won't have to explain to her what sort of friend you really were and why I gave you the old heave-ho.

1968, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., “Fortitude”, in Playboy:

I think maybe that's why they gave me the old heave-ho from the convent.

1985, William M. Hoffman, As Is, Dramatists Play Service, Inc., published 1999, →ISBN, page 13:

The least she could do was crawl back into her severely stylish shell, so she wouldn't look pitiful when he gave her the old heave-ho.

1997, Linda Howard, Shades of Twilight, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 156:

So, she gave him the old heave ho!

2003, Garrison Flint, The Case of the Twisted Twins Murders: A Raymond Masters Mystery, G. F. Hutchison Press, →ISBN, page 89:

give someone the heave-ho
give someone the heave-ho#English

(idiomatic, British) Alternative form of give someone the heave-ho


bucca

Borrowed from Cornish bucca. Doublet of pooka and puck.

a fabled menagerie of fairies, buccas, sprites and giants

2008, Oliver Berry, Belinda Dixon, Devon, Cornwall & Southwest England, page 273:

(UK) A storm spirit in Cornish folklore, traditionally believed to inhabit mines and coastal communities.


hypothecate

hypothecate (third-person singular simple present hypothecates, present participle hypothecating, simple past and past participle hypothecated)

hypothecates (present singular third-person)
hypothecating (participle present)
hypothecated (participle past)
hypothecated (past)

/hʌɪˈpɒθɪkeɪt/

From Latin hypothecatus, past participle of hypotheco, hypothecare. This was in turn derived from Ancient Greek ὑποθήκη (hupothḗkē, “pledge”), from the verb ὑποτίθημι (hupotíthēmi, “to pledge as surety”).

uder

The levy needed primary legislation and permission from the Treasury to hypothecate the proceeds back into the new line. It meant that the Greater London Authority could borrow against future income from the levy.

2022 November 30, Peter Plisner, “Can land value capture set projects free?”, in RAIL, number 971, page 51:

(politics, British) To designate a new tax or tax increase for a specific expenditure.


houseman

A young houseman wearing his white coat and name-tag walked past us towards the apartment houses beside the lake.

2000, J. G. Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 184:

(chiefly UK) A medical graduate gaining practical experience in a hospital; a house officer.


lap sash seatbelt

en-noun

lap sash seatbelt (plural lap sash seatbelts)

From lap (“upper legs of a seated person”) + sash (“length of cloth worn over the shoulder”) + seatbelt (“restraining belt”).

[…]automobile accidents in which a casualty occurred in Victoria (Australia) during 1973 and 1974, Nelson (1974) has stated that from a clinical point of view the current lap-sash seatbelt-head configuration is not reducing the incidence of whiplash injuries to a significant extent.

1976, International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering, Medical & Biological Engineering, volume 14, page 263:

From 4 years to about 11 years, a booster seat, initially with a harness (until about 6 years) and then with an adult lap/sash seatbelt, offers the safest option for car travel.

1994, Frank Oberklaid, Leah Kaminsky, Your Child's Health, page 457:

Once your child doesn′t fit into a child car restraint at around four years of age, a booster seat can be used with an adult lap/sash seatbelt.

2004, Carol Fallows, Shayne Collier, Commonsense Guide for Australian Parents, page 23:

A precise description of mechanism of injury can guide the examination, eg flexion/extension injury over lap sash seatbelt is associated with small bowel injury and lumbar vertebral fractures.

2007, Stuart Crisp, Jo Rainbow, Emergencies in Paediatrics and Neonatology, Oxford University Press, page 106:

Bruce pushed the ultralight out of the hangar; I climbed in and fastened the lap-sash seatbelt.

2012, S Bailey, J Bailey, Head Over Heels: A Story Of Tragedy, Triumph and Romance in the Australian Bush, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia, automotive) A type of seatbelt which goes across the pelvis and then up and diagonally across the body; the conventional type found in most cars today.


fustilugs

(UK, dialect, archaic, rare) An unattractive, grossly overweight person.


governor-general

It is a historical and analytical study of the position of Viceroy and Governor-General in the Indian constitutional system.

1940, Abani Bhushan Rudra, The Viceroy and Governor-General of India, page xi:

The vulnerability of the Governor-General should not be overstated.

1997, New Zealand Law Journal, page 217:

2003, The Far East and Australasia 2003, Europa Publications, page 122,
The legislative power of the Commonwealth of Australia is vested in a Federal Parliament, consisting of HM the Queen (represented by the Governor-General), a Senate, and a House of Representatives.

(UK) An official appointed by the reigning British monarch to govern a Commonwealth realm as the monarch's representative.


poncy

en-adj

poncy (comparative poncier, superlative ponciest)

poncier (comparative)
ponciest (superlative)

From ponce (“kept man; pimp; effeminate man; homosexual man”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’).

suffix

I mean, you could tell he was a Pom all right, but he was trying, he didn't sound so poncy any more, [...]

1988, Janette Turner Hospital, “On Bea-particles and the Relativity of Scone Making”, in Charades, St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, published 2003, →ISBN, part I (Charade), page 100:

And in his ponciest voice he said, 'I do most humbly apologise.'

1992, Liza Cody, chapter 8, in Bucket Nut, London: Chatto and Windus, →ISBN; paperback edition, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1997, →ISBN, page 32:

Get off my land. Don't come back without a search warrant and by God it had better be signed by someone in authority, not your poncy boss.

1996, Beverley Harper, Storms over Africa, Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Macmillan Australia, →ISBN; republished Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2008, →ISBN:

He even helps make eggs Benedict, his namesake. Well, he's called Benedict, Anna's slightly poncey choice, but no one's ever called him that.

1997, Jacqueline Wilson, “Four in the Family”, in Girls in Love, London: Doubleday, →ISBN; 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, 2002, →ISBN:

We found a decent guesthouse to stay in and then went to a poncey restaurant for food (‘poncey’ meaning that meals and drinks for two cost 3 dollars instead of 2!)

2004, Warwick Allen, “Thailand (Part One)”, in Sweat, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 42:

You could tell from his long hair, grungy clothes, the poncey novel an newspaper on his dashboard an Coldplay album playin in his car that he was a muthafuckin coconut. So white he was inside his brown skin, he probably talked like those gorafied desis who read the news on TV. Probably even more poncier than the way how I used to talk. An think. Probly.

2006, Gautam Malkani, chapter 2, in Londonstani, London: Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2007, →ISBN, pages 20–21:

I'm not a person who finds meditation a doddle or to whom yoga comes naturally. To tell you the truth, I find the whole business a bit poncey and contrary to the way I used to see myself.

2014, Russell Brand, “Is Everybody In?”, in Revolution, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 39:

She also finds the “poncy” approach that dominates the modern restaurant trade utterly grating.

2023 July 15, Josh Noble, quoting Delia Smith, “‘Life is not a bowl of cherries’”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 3:

(chiefly British, Ireland, Commonwealth, derogatory, informal) Of, relating to, or (supposedly) characteristic of a ponce.

Intended to impress others, particularly in an excessively refined or ostentatious manner; affected, pretentious.

With sudden interest Morse turned up the volume [of the radio]: the voice was donnish, slightly effeminate. [...] 'Shert erp, you poncy twit!' he said aloud, got out of bed, pulled on his clothes, walked downstairs and dialled the speaking clock.

1976 April, Colin Dexter, chapter 38, in Last Seen Wearing, London: Pan Books, →ISBN; paperback edition, London: Pan Books, 2016, →ISBN:

It was Johannesburg's only regular gay bar in those days, and not even a proper bar. [...] Since apartheid was a way of life, only the ponciest of African queens, only the butchest of Indian dykes could appear—noncitizens acceptable, in this underworld that was deviant but uncourageous, so long as they were no more than bedding material.

1990, Dale Gunthorp, “Gypsophilia”, in Naomi Holoch, Joan Nestle, editors, The Vintage Book of International Lesbian Fiction, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, published 1999 (2010 printing), →ISBN, page 86:

After lunch, Her mother suddenly produced a poncy lace dress out of her bag and announced, 'This is the family christening dress, which you were christened in,' etc., etc. [...] Looking at it close to, I saw that it was even poncier than the other one.

1992, Simon Brett, How to Be a Little Sod, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN; republished London: Orion Books, Orion Publishing Group, 2011, →ISBN:

He wore a cream-colored linen suit of a cut and color designed expressly for garden parties, the kind of suit Tom would surely have called "poncy" had he seen it on another man.

2008, Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN:

None of the gallery staff took any notice of a gangly, stick-thin, nose-picking, acne-faced youth wearing a plastic imitation leather jacket, winkle-picker shoes and a greasy Mick Jagger hairstyle. We all looked like that in those days, except those poncey Mods.

2009, David Stedman, chapter 1, in That Terrible Shadowing: The Quest across Time for Caravaggio’s Killer, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicester: Matador, →ISBN, page 1:

Fixing your hair is also something that needs to be done in private (unless it is literally a quick pat and fluff). There are some who will happily stand in front of the mirror (there is only one mirror, you see, none of this fancy mirror-above-every-sink malarkey) and style their hair with pout and pose included, but they are usually too popular to get abuse about how poncey and womanly they look.

2011, Tom Clempson, “Last Break Hanging Out”, in One Seriously Messed-up Week in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Sam Taylor Jack Samsonite, London: Atom, →ISBN:

Chiefly of a male person: effeminate; gay, homosexual.


ploughshare

(British spelling) The cutting edge of a plow, typically a metal blade.


tombstoner

(informal, British) A person who engages in the activity of tombstoning.


Seifert fibred space

en-noun

Seifert fibred space (plural Seifert fibred spaces)

Seifert fiber space
Seifert fiber space#English

(topology, British) Alternative spelling of Seifert fiber space


fibre bundle

(topology, British, Canada) Alternative spelling of fiber bundle


Seifert fibre space

Seifert fibre space (plural Seifert fibre spaces)


homoeomorphic

(British, topology) Alternative spelling of homeomorphic


toucan crossing

toucan crossing (plural toucan crossings)

Punningly from pelican crossing and toucan (another bird), because "two can" cross at once (pedestrians and bicycles).

(British, regional) A pedestrian crossing equipped with traffic lights operated by the pedestrians, same as pelican crossing, but also allowing bicycles to cross.


throwe

(obsolete, UK, dialect) A turning lathe.


pig in the middle

monkey in the middle
monkey in the middle#English

(British) Synonym of monkey in the middle


ticket tout

Skinner told the court he was an experienced ticket tout who travelled the world buying and selling tickets and merchandise to sporting events, concerts and festivals.

2008 December 5, “Grand Prix ‘fakes’ men convicted”, in BBC News, retrieved 2008-12-16:

(British) A person who resells tickets for events at more than the official price.


buffer lass

(British, obsolete) A young woman employed at a factory cleaning and polishing cutlery.


gut barging

(British) A somewhat comical sport in which two fat men try to push each other off a mat using their bellies.


dod

Shunting discs (or "dods") are generously provided, and following modern practice, most of them permit a movement in any direction for which the road is set.

1951 October, Norman Crump, “Signalling at Thorpe-le-Soken”, in Railway Magazine, page 649:

(rail transport, UK) A ground signal, such as a shunting disc.


Yonner

From the use of the Lancashire dialect terms "yon" and "yonder".

(UK, slang, derogatory) An unsophisticated resident of the towns of Oldham, Rochdale or surrounding areas. Now more widely applied to residents of any the satellite towns of Greater Manchester who speak with a broad Lancashire accent. A Lancashire hillbilly or bumpkin.


focussed

en-adj

focussed (comparative more focussed, superlative most focussed)

more focussed (comparative)
most focussed (superlative)

When first sighted on the curve, outside the focussed beam, the signal aspects were faint and difficult to identify in a confused background.

1961 February, “Talking of Trains: Collision at Newcastle”, in Trains Illustrated, page 76:


lathing

From Middle English lathinge, from Old English laþung, from Proto-West Germanic *laþungu, equivalent to lathe (“to invite”) + -ing. Cognate with German Ladung, Einladung (“invitiation”).


alphabetised

(British) Arranged in alphabetical order.


patterning

en-noun

patterning (countable and uncountable, plural patternings)

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

From pattern + -ing.
The “filmed assault” sense dates from the 2020s. Its origin is uncertain but may relate to social patterning (“a pattern of social behavior”). Compare Multicultural London English pattern up (“to bring (someone) into line; to inflict violence (upon someone)”).

Coordinate term: happy slapping

It was a video posted on Snapchat showing an attack called "patterning" that was the catalyst in a chain of events that led to Olly losing his life.
Thames Valley Police explained that patterning is the humiliation of a young person which is filmed or photographed and then shared on social media. It's forwarded on and on, shared across different social media sites, multiplying the embarrassment for the victim.

2022 June 20, Marianna Spring, “A social media murder: Olly's story”, in BBC News:

Filming such violence and humiliation, and then sharing it online, has become known by the term "patterning" - with the aim of embarrassing victims even further by forwarding the videos across the web.

2022 September 1, Ed Thomas, “Child assaults: ‘If the police won’t do their job, we’ll do it for them’”, in BBC News:

‘Patterning’ is an extension of bullying by individual bullies and / or gangs seeking power and attention who, by using social media, are able to publicly ridicule victims beyond the confines of the playground to national and international audiences. Patterning is seen as ‘sport’, an amusement for the perpetrators without any consideration of the impact sharing such footage has on their victims.

2023 May 23, Sara Spinks, “The Dangerous Craze of ‘Patterning’”, in SSS Learning:

(UK, slang, neologism, uncountable) An assault or act of humiliation that is deliberately filmed to be shared on social media.


brattling

(in the plural, UK, East Anglia, Northamptonshire) Loppings from felled trees.


puggled

en-adj

puggled (comparative more puggled, superlative most puggled)

more puggled (comparative)
most puggled (superlative)

[…] there had been plenty to drink and plenty of trouble. Never have I known men who could get so puggled in a twinkling yet, somehow, still keep going.

1977, James Aikman Cochrane, Charlie Company:


disorientated

disorientated (comparative more disorientated, superlative most disorientated)

more disorientated (comparative)
most disorientated (superlative)


eddication

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(UK, dated, dialect) Pronunciation spelling of education.


honkers

honkers (comparative more honkers, superlative most honkers)

more honkers (comparative)
most honkers (superlative)


clarty

clarty (comparative clartier, superlative clartiest)

clartier (comparative)
clartiest (superlative)

CLART. To spread, smear, or daub. A flake of snow, when it is large and sticks to the clothes, is called a clart. So we have clarts, mud; clarty, muddy, sticky. Clarty-paps, a dirty sloven of a wife.

[1846, James Orchard Halliwell, “CLART”, in A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century. […], volumes I (A–I), London: John Russell Smith, […], →OCLC, page 252, column 1:

(British, Northern England and Scotland dialect) Sticky and foul; dirty, filthy, muddy.


instil

en-verb

instil (third-person singular simple present instils, present participle instilling, simple past and past participle instilled)

instils (present singular third-person)
instilling (participle present)
instilled (participle past)
instilled (past)

her only real object in this call had been to instil a general uneasiness into Diva’s mind about the coal strike

1922, Edward Frederic Benson, Miss Mapp, page 70:

"If we do not instil public confidence in the system, I fear the public will lose confidence and even fewer people will travel by rail."

2020 October 21, “Network News: Labour reiterates demand for full public ownership”, in Rail, page 7:

Australia, Ireland, and UK standard spelling of instill.


cheque card

Banks have decided to end cheque guarantee card payments from July 2011. / The 24 members of the current cheque card system said that they had made the move in order to reflect consumer trends, with the popularity of the payment method in "terminal decline".

2009 September 25, “Industry to close cheque card system”, in CompareAndSave.com:

(British, banking) A small plastic card issued by a bank or similar which is a guarantee of payment of cheques written by the cardholder (up to a specified maximum amount).


unrivalled

[T]his museum of the state of flux [Newmarket, Suffolk] has a climate unrivalled for the production of the British temperament. Not without a due proportion of that essential formative of character, east wind, it has at once the hottest sun, the coldest blizzards, the wettest rain, of any place of its size in 'the three kingdoms.'

1907, John Galsworthy, “The Happy Hunting-ground”, in The Country House, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, part I, page 33:


potter's rot

(British) A form of the disease silicosis, which can affect the lungs of potters, caused by breathing in large amounts of fine dust.


dishonoured bill

en-noun

dishonoured bill (plural dishonoured bills)

financial instrument
financial instrument

(British) A cheque or similar financial instrument whose payment has been refused.


tunnelball

1994, Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read, Chopper 4: For the Term of His Unnatural Life, 2012, Pan Macmillan Australia, unnumbered page,
They run the sports for ten days. This includes weightlifting, football, tennis, table tennis, cards, scrabble, chess, draughts, darts, quoits, volleyball, baseball, frisbee tossing, tunnelball, scramble ball, the piggyback race, the egg and spoon race, target handball, the spit the dummy contest, […] .

I went along to my children′s sports day and found myself cheering madly at the tunnelball games and when they played Chariots of Fire over the running races – it was all I could do not to get up and break the record for the four minute mile myself.

2006, Sonia Neale, Bad Mother′s Revenge, HarperCollins Australia, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia, games) A children's game in which players stand in line with their feet apart, making a tunnel with their legs, down which the lead player propels a ball back to the last player, who runs with it to the front of the line and repeats; played competitively between teams for speed, or by a single team for recreation or exercise.


revaluation

revaluation (countable and uncountable, plural revaluations)

(UK, pensions) The application of compound growth to the value of a pension benefit, specifically from the date of the member leaving the scheme (for example, moving to a different employer) to the date that the member starts receiving the benefit (typically retirement).


draught horse

British standard spelling of draft horse.


motorman

Coordinate term: brakeman

Near-synonym: engineer

Four years later, on May 27, 1898, he was promoted to fireman, and worked on all types of freight trains until November 27, 1911, when he was transferred to Heaton and became a motorman on the Tyneside electric services. After a spell of just over eight years as a motorman, he returned to Gateshead as a driver, and apart from a further short period as a motorman, he was employed at the Gateshead depot, first as a pilot driver, and then as a freight train driver.

1943 July and August, “Top Link Drivers: VII—Driver Matthew Morton, L.N.E.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 220:

The electric train motorman denied emphatically that he had misread this train's signals for his own and asserted that the inner home signal on the up main through line for his train was displaying a green aspect, with the indicator showing platform 14.

1961 March, “Talking of trains: Collision at Waterloo”, in Trains Illustrated, page 138:

But to no avail - the suburban (Sunday) service ground to a halt, with only 20 of the 268 motormen turning up for work on Boxing Day [1949]. Kempton Park races lost 10,000 visitors, with the cancellation of 12 extra race day trains.

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


manège

manège (countable and uncountable, plural manèges)

From French manège; cognate with French manier and English manage.

(UK) A riding arena (enclosed, but usually unroofed area, in contradistinction to a riding hall).

Reitbahn

not Manege = circus ring, riding hall arena


AONB

area of outstanding natural beauty
w:area of outstanding natural beauty

(UK) Initialism of area of outstanding natural beauty; a type of conservation area.


pencil crayon

You'll notice that all the illustrations are done in different media: some with pencil crayons, some with felts, some with paint, some with chalk pastels.

1989, Anne D. Forester, Margaret Reinhard, The Learners' Way, page 116:

(Canada, UK, Ireland) A coloured pencil.


mentalist

1997, I'm Alan Partridge (TV series), To Kill a Mocking Alan
Jed Maxwell: See you next week then. We'll have that pint.
Alan Partridge: Yep.
Jed Maxwell: ...go and see my brother.
Alan Partridge: No way, you big spastic! You're a mentalist!

In front a staff sergeant with the new Royal Caledonians was gassing about Scullion and the regiment. 'And this major's a total fucking mentalist,' he said. 'What's mental about him?' asked the lance corporal beside him.

2015, Andrew O'Hagan, The Illuminations, →ISBN, page 39:


strale

From Middle English stral, from Old English strǣl (“arrow”). More at streal.


wieldy

en-adj

wieldy (comparative more wieldy or (archaic) wieldier, superlative most wieldy or (archaic) wieldiest)

more wieldy (comparative)
wieldier (archaic comparative)
most wieldy (superlative)
wieldiest (archaic superlative)

From Middle English wẹ̄ldī, weldy (“agile, vigorous; of a shield: easy or satisfying to wield”), from wẹ̄lden, welde (“to govern, preside over, reign, rule; to command, control, dominate; to dwell, reside; to accomplish, bring about; to overcome, prevail; to handle (a tool, weapon, etc.), use”), from Old English *wielde, ġewielde (“controlling, dominant”), from Proto-West Germanic *waldī, from Proto-Germanic *waldiz (“manageable; powerful”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“to rule; powerful, strong”); analysable as wield + -y. Later uses of sense 2 (“capable of being easily wielded”) are likely a back-formation from unwieldy.

der

But the baron, who was neither ſo wieldy nor ſupple in his joints as his companions, flounced himſelf down with ſuch precipitation, that his feet ſuddenly tilting up, came in furious contact with the head of the marquis, […]

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “The Doctor Prepares an Entertainment in the Manner of the Ancients, which is Attended with Divers Ridiculous Circumstances”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 131:

She bore the proportions of a marchioness all over; that is, was more wieldy than a duchess, more unwieldy than a countess. […] [T]he Marchioness of Clanweary was wieldy and limp; she moved herself surprisingly, and if not for too long together, was a good walker; but her feet were too small for her in the long run.

1868 November, “Her Winning Ways. A Novel.”, in William Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine, volume CXLIII, number DLXXV, London: Hard Bentley, […], →OCLC, chapter IX (Starved at a Feast), page 513:

(obsolete except British, dialectal) Able to wield one's body well; active, dexterous.


Gog

(UK, slang) Synonym of North Walian: a person from North Wales.


misdirection

en-noun

misdirection (countable and uncountable, plural misdirections)

(UK, law) An error of law within a judgement committed by a judge or judges of a lower court, particularly as found by an appeals court.


flick knife

(British, Ireland) A type of knife which has the blade mounted on a pivot so that it can fold back sideways into the handle when not in use, but can flick out straight, usually with a spring-loaded mechanism, when required.


discoloured

en-adj

discoloured (comparative more discoloured, superlative most discoloured)

more discoloured (comparative)
most discoloured (superlative)

British standard spelling of discolored.


garibaldi

/ɡæɹɪˈbældi/

The jacket is named after Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, who wore a red shirt of similar appearance. The biscuit is also named after Garibaldi.

(British) a biscuit consisting of currants squashed between layers of flaky pastry.


green lane

(British) Any of several types of wide unsurfaced paths through the countryside, especially ancient ones once used for herding animals.

lôn werdd

unsurfaced path through the countrydside


Tans

Intuitively, on Bloody Sunday, the Tans recognized where their trouble lay: the Irish were playing their own game once again.

1931, John Bowyer Bell, To Play the Game: An Analysis of Sport:

Close quarter fighting did not suit them. It does not suit the Essex or the Tans.

1955, General Tom Barry, Guerilla Days in Ireland:

The Dawn contains two problems for its male protagonists: namely, Ireland's fight against the British forces, the RIC, and the Tans, and the patriotic commitment of the Malone family's sons.

1995, Lance Pettitt, Screening Ireland: Film and Television Representation:

(Ireland, British) The Black and Tans, a British irregular army group operating against Irish republicans in the War of Independence 1920/21.


passive armour

en-noun

passive armour (countable and uncountable, plural passive armours)

(British, Canada) Shielding that is chemically inert (unlike reactive armour) and does not require electricity or active sensors to operate. It is usually made of metal, ceramic, or in some cases, composite materials.


twerp

Of uncertain origin; originally British slang of the 1910s. In a letter, dated 6 October 1944, J. R. R. Tolkien mentions a contemporary of his at Oxford University T.W. Earp, calling him "the original twerp"; but no corroborating evidence for this etymology has come to light. Other suggestions include: a clipping of Antwerp (“type of racing pigeon that flew between Antwerp and London”); the onomatopoeic twirp (“imitation of the sound of a bird”); a dialectal variant of dwarf (compare Middle English dwerf); Welsh twp (“a fool”).

Now you've broken it, you twerp!

There's many an airman just finishin' his time. There's many a twerp signing on.

1940, Fred Godfrey (lyrics and music), “Bless 'Em All”performed by George Formby:


RNIB

w:Royal National Institute of Blind People

(UK) Initialism of Royal National Institute of Blind People.


kerb crawling

(British) The act of driving up roads seeking prostitutes or other women for sex


kerb crawler

(British) Someone who drives slowly along roads seeking sex from prostitutes or other women.


bonxie

From Scots bonxie, from Old Norse bunki.

Bonxies are more than happy to fly at you as you walk harmlessly across the moors, and they regularly clip people with a wing or extended foot […]

2006, Graham Uney, Backpacker's Britain: Northern Scotland:

It is the large brown bonxies that heckle me as I pass across the high moor and approach the sheep gate.

2020, Tim Ecott, The Land of Maybe, Short Books, published 2021, page 102:

Stercorarius skua
Stercorarius skua#Translingual

(UK, chiefly Shetland) The great skua, Stercorarius skua.


nibs

Vera, you are a gleam of brilliant modernity in our dim old cave of antiques — and their nibs, our ancestors." Peter waved disrespectfully to the portrait

1919, Robert Nichols, “The Secret”, in The Century, page 734:

Betsey Reed, Her Nibs, was just as witty and quaint as usual, sitting in state in her wheel chair and dominating everything and everybody.

1920, Oreola Williams Haskell with Ida Husted Harper, Banner bearers: tales of the suffrage campaigns, page 345:

You may also know that, during intermission, Paul and Linda were summoned to a room behind the royal box for a private chat with her nibs.

1983 June 5, “OFFSTAGE”, in Chicago Tribune:

"Your Nibs," I panted, "I am sent by the machine gunner man to tell you that ... "Please don't call me Your Nibs, and knock before you come in next time,

2004, Michael Arnold, A game with dice, page 59:

(slang, UK, after possessive pronoun) An important or self-important person.

(slang, UK, dated, 19th century, after possessive pronoun) Self.


play up

en-verb

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

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

Children who do not receive enough attention may begin to play up.

The radar system is playing up again.


play along

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

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

The con man plays his victims along until he senses the moment to ask for money.

(idiomatic, UK) To manipulate (someone).


hield

From Middle English held, from Old English hielde (“slope, declivity”), from Proto-Germanic *halþijōn, *halþijō (“inclination, slope”), from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to tilt, tip, incline”). Cognate with German Halde (“slope”), Danish hæld (“an incline, slope”).


ghost island

(UK, road transport) An area of road surface marked with cross hatching as a means of separating traffic or reducing speed, or to provide a safe area to turn right across approaching traffic.


gyppo

en-noun

gyppo (countable and uncountable, plural gyppos or gyppoes)

(UK, slang, offensive) Alternative spelling of gippo


scopie

I always thought we were paid more BECAUSE of the boredom factor. Certainly the air traffic sections worked just the same shifts, and stood their turn at ground defence like us scopies so no cause for a scopie premium there !

1999 February 24, Roger Gilmartin, “Leaving the RAF”, in uk.people.ex-forces (Usenet):

I don't regret joining as a scopie even though I wanted to be a Telecomms techie!

1999 March 1, Gordon Clark (author), “Re:Leaving the RAF”, in uk.people.ex-forces (Usenet):

Yup - Buchan scopie 75 - 77. What a good radar that was.

1999 August 19, Roger G, “Type 80 Radar”, in uk.people.ex-forces (Usenet):

Perhaps this site is something to do with the Scopies at Boulmer?

2000 February 23, Steve McNamara, “RAF Brownside”, in uk.rec.subterranea (Usenet):

(UK, military, slang) An aerospace systems operator (ASOp) or fighter controller (FC) in the Royal Air Force.


fack

From Middle English *fak, fec, fæc (“space, compartment”), from Old English fæc (“space of time, while, division, interval; period of five years, lustrum”), from Proto-West Germanic *fak, from Proto-Germanic *faką (“division, department, space”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-, *paǵ- (“to fasten, fix”). Cognate with West Frisian fek, Dutch vak (“section, compartment”), German Fach (“compartment”), Swedish fack (“compartment, box, department”), Latin pangō (“fasten, fix”). Doublet of Fach.

cog

(UK dialectal) One of the four stomachs of a ruminating animal; rumen; paunch.


fack

en-verb

fack (third-person singular simple present facks, present participle facking, simple past and past participle facked)

facks (present singular third-person)
facking (participle present)
facked (participle past)
facked (past)

(UK, Cockney, vulgar) Pronunciation spelling of fuck.


ratted

en-adj

ratted (comparative more ratted, superlative most ratted)

more ratted (comparative)
most ratted (superlative)


Bradshaw

From Old English brād + sceaga (“thicket”), equivalent to broad + shaw.

He was at breakfast at nine, and for the twentieth time consulted his Bradshaw to see at what earliest hour Dr Grantly could arrive from Barchester.

The "5th Mo. (May) 1939" issue of Bradshaw's Railway Shipping, and Hotel Guide for Great Britain and Ireland appears in a cream cover printed in blue and gold, and a prefatory note explains that, as 1939 is being celebrated as the centenary year of Bradshaw, it is intended to adopt this livery from now until the September issue inclusive. For October, the centenary month, Bradshaw will be published in a gold cover printed in red and blue.

1939 June, “Railway Literature: Bradshaw's Guide”, in Railway Magazine, page 465:

(British, rail transport) A former railway guide and timetable published by George Bradshaw. Publication ceased in May 1961.


greys

There was a clatter at the back of the gallery, a sharp word from a warder, and the men marched in in their prison greys, jackets too large, trousers too small.

'No one told me that I had to be dressed in Greys not Blues! When I appeared before the BOV I was told that I could not go in and see them because I was improperly dressed.'

Quoted in 1982, Geoff Coggan, Martin J. Walker, Frightened for My Life: An Account of Deaths in British Prisons (page 110)

“Drop your trousers!” I loosened the clasp on my prison greys and my trouser dropped to my ankles.

2013, Constantine Buller, Operation Dolby, page 266:

(UK, prison slang) Grey trousers and/or jackets worn by prisoners on relatively formal occasions.


Mossie

Form of mossie (“diminutive of mosquito”).

He leaned into the electric gunsight, aiming the Mossie at the left wingroot between engine and fuselage, where he knew there were fuel tanks — his right thumb mashed the control-column firing button.

1983, John Kelly, The Wooden Wolf, page 142:

The Mossies were still able to land before the bombers were over the Channel.

1993, Air League of the British Empire, Air Pictorial: Journal of the Air League, volume 55, page 8:

Almost 8,000 Mossies were built in Great Britain, Canada and Australia.

2003, Harold A. Skaarup, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. Warbird Survivors 2003: A Handbook on Where to Find Them, page 97:

(dated or historical, UK, military, informal, colloquial) A de Havilland Mosquito.


batchelor

[…] could Richard have anticipated that his elder brother, Sir Everard, taking to heart an early disappointment, would have remained a batchelor at seventy-two.

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], 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:


indorse

en-verb

indorse (third-person singular simple present indorses, present participle indorsing, simple past and past participle indorsed)

indorses (present singular third-person)
indorsing (participle present)
indorsed (participle past)
indorsed (past)

Alteration influenced by Medieval Latin indorsare of Middle English endosse, from Old French endosser (“to put on back”), from Latin dossum, alternative form of dorsum (“back”), from which also dorsal (“of the back”). That is, the ‘r’ was dropped in Latin dossum, which developed into Old French and then Middle English endosse, and then the ‘r’ was re-introduced into English via the Medieval Latin indorsare, which had retained the ‘r’; at the same time the ‘e’ (French) was changed to ‘i’ (Latin) (in-, rather than en-). Note that the alternative form endorse is now more common, retaining the restored ‘r’ but reverting to the initial ‘e’, rather than the Latinate ‘i’.

(British, India, rare) Alternative form of endorse


dosser

Illustrating the strength of feeling, some said Dorries was “never here and is as useful as a chocolate teapot”, while “Dosser Dorries” posters appeared in the area.

2023 October 20, “Labour takes Nadine Dorries’ former seat in Mid Bedfordshire byelection”, in The Guardian, UK:

(British, Ireland) Someone who dosses, someone known for avoiding work.


video nasty

→ Irish: físghránnán (calque)

(British, informal) A video recording depicting excessive gore and violence.

físghránnán

video depicting excessive gore and violence


doss down

doss down (third-person singular simple present dosses down, present participle dossing down, simple past and past participle dossed down)

dosses down (present singular third-person)
dossing down (participle present)
dossed down (participle past)
dossed down (past)

After the party, John let me doss down on the living-room floor.

The fastidious and solitary public-schoolboy [George Orwell] dosses down with tramps and tarts and forces himself to endure bedbugs and chamberpots and lockups.

2002, Christopher Hitchens, Why Orwell Matters, New York: Basic Books, →ISBN, page 10:

(British, slang) To sleep on someone's sofa or floor because there is no bed spare.


tuppenny-ha'penny

From tuppenny + ha’penny, i.e. “worth 2½ (old) pence”.

You’d think he’d lost a Rolex rather than that tuppenny-ha’penny old watch of his.

(UK, Ireland, chiefly derogatory) Very cheap.


shove ha'penny

(British) A game, traditionally played in pubs in Great Britain, in which players attempt to push coins so that they land between marked boundaries.


happy families

(British) A children's card game played with a pack of 44 picture cards that depict a father, mother son and daughter of 11 families mostly having occupational surnames (e.g. Mr Bun the Baker); players have to collect entire families


spang

spang (third-person singular simple present spangs, present participle spanging, simple past and past participle spanged)

spangs (present singular third-person)
spanging (participle present)
spanged (participle past)
spanged (past)

Uncertain. Cognate with Scots spang, and possibly related to English spank.

a. 1758, Allan Ramsay, epistle to Robert Yarde
But when they spang o'er reason's fence, / We smart for't at our own expense.

(intransitive, dialect, UK, Scotland) To leap; spring.

(transitive, dialect, UK, Scotland) To cause to spring; set forcibly in motion; throw with violence.


ha'

(British, colloquial) Abbreviation of half.


mawks

Of all the disgusting drabs we ever saw, this [Europa in Titian's The Rape of Europa] bears away the bell. She is, however, very well matched in the 'Risk.' What Jupiter could see in such a mawks, or what the mawks could see in such a Jupiter , we are at a loss to comprehend.

1866, Richard Redgrave, Samuel Redgrave, quoting Earl of Darnley, A Century of Painters of the English School: With Critical Notices of Their Works, and an Account of the Progress of Art in England, page 153:

Mother Mawks gathered her torn garments round her with a gesture of defiance , and sniffed the air as though she said, "Any one who wants to meddle with me will get the worst of it."

1891, Marie Corelli, The Hired Baby: With Other Stories and Social Sketches, page 22:

Then you must make do with Betty and some wench at Sotterley. God knows there's enough lazy mawks in my employ.

1990, Judith E. French, Lovestorm, Avon Books, →ISBN:

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

(UK, archaic) A prostitute or slovenly woman; a slut


sleeping policeman

en-noun

sleeping policeman (plural sleeping policemen)

We don't care much to figure out terms like "brolly" (umbrella) and "sleeping policeman" (speed bump).

2000 July 5, William Weir, “They're looking up 'Yankspeak' for the Oxford English Dictionary”, in CNN.com, retrieved 2007-09-18:

(British and Caribbean English, idiomatic) A speed bump.


dave

en-verb

dave (third-person singular simple present daves, present participle daving, simple past and past participle daved)

daves (present singular third-person)
daving (participle present)
daved (participle past)
daved (past)

From Middle English deven, deaven (“to make deaf”), from Old English dēafian (“to wax or become deaf”) and Old Norse deyfa (“to make deaf, make blunt, numb, soothe, allay”). Cognate with dialectal Norwegian døyva (“to deafen, make dull”).

cog

(transitive, UK dialectal) To assuage; soften; mitigate; relieve; calm; alleviate (pain).


mortgage lender

en-noun

mortgage lender (plural mortgage lenders)

(British) Any former mutual building society that is now a bank


unlisted

(UK, of a building) Not officially protected from demolition or alteration.


ASC

Association of Speakers Clubs
w:Association of Speakers Clubs

(UK) Initialism of Association of Speakers Clubs.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary
w:Avon and Somerset Constabulary

(UK) Initialism of Avon and Somerset Constabulary.


sterilisation

sterilisation (countable and uncountable, plural sterilisations)

(British) Alternative spelling of sterilization


yarrum

Here's Pannum and Lap, and good Poplars of Yarrum, / To fill up the Crib, and to comfort the Quarron.

1652, Richard Brome, A Joviall Crew: or, the Merry Beggars, play, first performed 1641:


rent boy

From rent (“to lease, let out”) + boy, a diminutive term for man.

Francis Urquhart: Got anything on him?
Tim Stamper: There was a whiff of scandal about ten years ago.
Francis Urquhart: Rent boy. In a train. To Red Hill. Yes. Wanted to sell his story but we bought it and hushed him up. Be ungentlemanly to bring that up. A man's private life should be private.
Tim Stamper: On the other hand, getting sucked off in second class is hardly prime ministerial behaviour.
Francis Urquhart: Yes, you have a point there.

1990, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 4:

An Irishman came up to him, bought him a drink, asked him if he was a rent boy, and agreed to give £40 for coming back.

1992, Donald James West, Buz De Villiers, Male prostitution, page 93:

Just then, a rent boy with perfect white teeth and a babyface flashed me one of those unforgettable Thai smiles.

2007, John Patrick, Dangerous Boys, Rent Boys, page 12:

(chiefly British, informal) A male prostitute, typically young and gay.


bag and baggage

Hudson personally would not face the music at that meeting and the business could hardly proceed for groans and hisses and cries of "Hudson! Hudson! Why is Hudson not here?" and so the ungrateful shareholders to whom Hudson had generously paid dividends out of their own capital cast out Hudson bag and baggage, including therein the agreement with the Newmarket Railway.

1941 December, Kenneth Brown, “The Newmarket & Chesterford Railway—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 533:

1989, John P. Murphy (annotator and editor), Jesuit Latin Poets of the 17th and 18th Centuries, page 85,
They did not wait the two months granted, but made a quick decision and picked up bag and baggage, and after leaving four Fathers to care for the Catholics, left on carts and on foot for Antwerp.

For many years, INS regulations required that deportable aliens be issued a "bag-and-baggage" letter notifying them of their obligation to appear for deportation at a time no sooner than seventy-two hours after service of the notice.[…]Sensibly, the INS amended their regulations in 1986 to eliminate the bag-and-baggage letter, instead assuring that the INS would hold the apprehended person for a minimum of seventy-two hours before removal,[…].

1998, David A. Martin, “Chapter 1: Obstacles to the Effective Enforcement of Immigration Laws in the United States”, in Kay Hailbronner, David A. Martin, Hiroshi Motomura, editors, Immigration Controls: The Search for Workable Policies in Germany and the United States, page 25:

With bag and baggage, they, along with about six hundred other servicemen of various US Forces, were herded into olive drab military buses and transported to San Francisco, where their ship was waiting, the USNS General Walker.

2002, Joseph H. Maddox, Save the Day, page 79:


bag and baggage

I could go from valley to valley and from hill to hill; I could “bring up” when it was necessary; and when my labours were finished in one place, I could go on, bag and baggage, to another.

1857, Robert Fortune, A Residence Among the Chinese, Digital Print, published 2012, page 94:

The summer camp was being dismantled, and the tribe, bag and baggage, was preparing to go off to the fall hunting.

1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter IV, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 3 (The Gods of the Wild):

In early February the North China Marines arrived, bag and baggage, decked out with full uniforms, overcoats and fur-lined hats.

2011, Stanford D. Carman, Wake And Reunion, page 125:

(chiefly UK) With all one's possessions.


linge

en-verb

linge (third-person singular simple present linges, present participle linging, simple past and past participle linged)

linges (present singular third-person)
linging (participle present)
linged (participle past)
linged (past)

From Middle English lengen (“to linger”), from Old English lengan (“to make long, lengthen”), from Proto-Germanic *langijaną (“to make long”). Cognate with Scots ling (“to lengthen, prolong, delay; tarry, continue”). More at linger.

cog

(intransitive, UK, dialectal, obsolete) To work hard.


CHAPS

(British) Acronym of clearing house automated payment system: a method of same-day banking transfer.


rubbish bin

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) garbage can, trash can.


street hockey

(British) An informal kind of hockey (field hockey) played on a quiet street.


fancy dress

en-noun

fancy dress (usually uncountable, plural fancy dresses)

And yet here he was, if one could credit one's senses, about to take part in a fancy-dress ball, a form of entertainment notoriously a testing experience for the toughest. And he was attending that fancy-dress ball, mark you--not, like every other well-bred Englishman, as a Pierrot, but as Mephistopheles--this involving, as I need scarcely stress, not only scarlet tights but a pretty frightful false beard.

1934, P. G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves:

Royal Mail worker Evette Chapman gathered a team of 12 colleagues to deliver post in fancy dress and raise money for a nurses' charity and patients in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton.

2020 November 18, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, page 71:

(UK, Australia) A costume, disguise to masquerade as something or someone else.


nobby

en-adj

nobby (comparative nobbier, superlative nobbiest)

nobbier (comparative)
nobbiest (superlative)

I'll come back in the course of the evening, if agreeable to you, and endeavor to meet your wishes respecting this unfortunate family matter, and the nobbiest way of keeping it quiet.

c. 1852-1853, Charles Dickens, edited by Levi C. Goodale and Charlie Lulledge, Works of Charles Dickens: Bleak House, published 1876, page 106:

"[…]What makes it worse,” she continued, in the extremity of confidence, “I heard those two cricketing men say just now, 'She's the nobbiest girl on the boat.' But I don't mind it, you know, Harry."

1873, Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes, page 291:

(UK, informal) Wealthy or of high social position; of or pertaining to a nob (person of great wealth or social standing).


knob jockey

tlb

(UK, vulgar, slang, derogatory, humorous)

Refers to a person who rides a knob (UK slang for "penis"), analagous to a jockey riding a horse.

Christ, she is a knob jockey of the old school. She's had more pricks in her than a pub dartboard.

2010, Geraint Anderson, Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile:

'I grab the rancid knob jockey by her filthy blonde locks and slap her hard across the face. She squeals and scrambles off the soiled sheets before falling into some stranger's groin—mouth open, naturally.'

2011, Paul Burston, Karen Mcleod, Men & Women:

Although reality was probably farther from my imagination than I suspected; after all, I was no knob jockey. That being said, I still felt like I'd had more than my fair share of lovers—none of whom turned out to be my Prince Charming.

[…] If we have time, I need to divert to Los Angeles, and find out if Charlie Li is coming back to work.” Jessica frowned. “I haven't heard from him since he married that Hollywood knob jockey.” Charlie Li had married famous movie actress Carly Stewart a few weeks earlier.

2019, T. M. Bilderback, Jim Dandy - A Justice Security Novel:


eggball

Australian rules football
Australian rules football

(British, slang) Rugby Union, rugby league, Australian rules football, American football, or any game played with an elliptical ball.


in-tray

(British, Ireland) A desktop organizer; inbox, in-basket.


funfair

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

(UK, Ireland) A travelling amusement park.


come unstuck

en-verb

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

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

“Well, if you must know,” he said, “she's broken the engagement.” This didn't get us any farther. We had assumed as much. You don't go calling people rats if love still lingers. “But it's only an hour or so,” I said, “since I left her outside a hostelry called the ‘Fox and Goose’, and she had just been giving you a rave notice. What came unstuck? What did you do to the girl?”

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

It is true that when political philosophers have tried to intervene directly in political life, they have usually come unstuck.

2003, David Miller, Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, page 9:

(idiomatic, British) To get into trouble, to have an accident or mishap, to go off the rails.


wankered

en-adj

wankered (comparative more wankered, superlative most wankered)

more wankered (comparative)
most wankered (superlative)

(British, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) Very drunk.


take it up the arse

en-verb

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

takes it up the arse (present singular third-person)
taking it up the arse (participle present)
took it up the arse (past)
taken it up the arse (participle past)

take it up the ass
take it up the ass#English

(British, Ireland) Alternative form of take it up the ass


on the trot

We played five gigs on the trot.

But they came up against an impressive force in Bayern, who extended their run to 10 wins on the trot, having scored 28 goals in the process and conceding none.

2011 September 27, Alistair Magowan, “Bayern Munich 2 - 0 Man City”, in BBC Sport:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic, informal) Successively, in succession; one after the other.

2001, 26 July, Liverpool Echo, "Man is jailed for '80s killing"
The former South London publican admitted at the Old Bailey that he "went on the trot" on Christmas Day, 1986 following a brawl at a party […]

It seemed the two POs were happy enough with the situation; if Cain went on the trot they would be in the clear with two grand each […]

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) on the run; fleeing


cess

For the first meaning below, the writings of Edmund Spenser, published 1633, point to a borrowing from Irish cís (“tax, tribute, cess, rent”), likely from Latin census.
Other senses: Uncertain. Occurs in print at least as early as 1831, when Samuel Lover used the expression as one already long-established. He unambiguously stated the derivation of cess in the malediction bad cess to be an abbreviation of success. The OED speculated that it either was from success or from assessment meaning a military or governmental exaction. The verb is attested in Middle English (cessen).

EUDOX[US] But what is that which you call Cess? it is a Word sure unused amongst us here; therefore (I pray you) expound the same. IREN[EUS] Cess is none other than that which you yourself called Imposition, but is in a kind unacquainted perhaps unto you; for there are Cesses of sundry sorts: one is the Cessing of Soldiers upon the Countrey; [...] Another kind of Cess is, the imposing of Provisions for the Governours Housekeeping, [...]

1595-1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland as it was in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth:

The act provides for a levy of a cess on all coal and coke despatched from collieries in India, at such rate, not less than twenty-five paise and not more than fifty paise per ton, as may be fixed by the Central Government.

1967, G. R. Madan, Indian Social Problems, volume 2, →ISBN, page 225:

Therefore it was proposed to levy a cess on local authorities which are entrusted with the duty of supplying water under the law by or under which they are constituted and on certain specified industries.

2006, The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Georg Thieme Verlag, page 76:

(British, Ireland) An assessed tax, duty, or levy; billeting.

"Bad cess may attend you, where are you scampering to, you rambunctious"—but she could go no farther; the tears burst from her, and she gave way, without farther resistance, to an explosion of grief.

1852 November, O’Hara Family, “Clough Fionn; or, The Stone of Destiny”, in The Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume XL, number CCXXXIX, Dublin: James McGlashan, […]; London: W[illia]m S[omerville] Orr and Company, →OCLC, chapter XI, page 557:

Midland has had good cess with using minute commercials eight television stations, cited as one example of modernizing its advertising.

1962, News for Farmer Cooperatives, Information Office, Farm Credit Administration:

It is good cess to feel the warmth and sincerity of this couple who fill the role of the Queen's representative in Canada.

Bad cess to it, b'ys! Where's the blessed ting, at all, at all? Bad cess to it!

2004, Kevin O'Malley, Inside, →ISBN, page 37:

(British, Ireland, informal) Usually preceded by good or (more commonly) bad: luck or success.


cess

cess (third-person singular simple present cesses, present participle cessing, simple past and past participle cessed)

cesses (present singular third-person)
cessing (participle present)
cessed (participle past)
cessed (past)

...according to the quantity thereof, we may cess the said rent and allowance issuing thereout.

1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the Present State of Irelande:


Mexican wave

Popularised during the 1986 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico.

1995, Shane Cloude, An Introduction to Electromagnetic Wave Propagation & Antennas, Springer, 0-387-91501-X, pages 3–4,
This is an important idea and can best be illustrated by analogy with a Mexican wave. Although the Mexican wave seems to involve the coherent motion of a large number of people, it is clear to those who have been involved, that the “trigger” for an individual to react is entirely spatially and temporally local, i.e. the individual reacts at the appropriate time and space point simply by waiting until his or her neighbours react.

2001, John Morgan, Debrett’s New Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners: The Indispensable Handbook, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 127,
The usual signals for standing are: at the arrival of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; […]; and every time the Colour passes in front of you. The effect can sometimes be like a rather well-dressed Mexican wave.

2007, Scott Hamilton, An Analog Electronics Companion: Basic Circuit Design for Engineers and Scientists, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 94,
A Mexican wave travels around a stadium very much more rapidly than a person could.

Now Australian cricket is reeling from its quadruple loss. Joining the hat trick of players exiting the game in 2007 – once-in-a-lifetime legend Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Damien Martyn – was the Mexican wave. Cricket Australia, which instituted the ban, acknowledged that it could be construed as ‘the fun police gone wrong’ but explained that it was the only way to stop people throwing things.

2009, Justine Vaisutis, Australia, Lonely Planet, page 47:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A phenomenon that primarily occurs at sports events, where the members of the crowd stand up and/or raise their hands in turn, creating the illusion of a wave passing through the crowd.


under the counter

en-adj

under the counter (comparative more under the counter, superlative most under the counter)

more under the counter (comparative)
most under the counter (superlative)

This morning he said he could not remember exactly where or how the invoice was written. It was used to cover up an under the counter payment from the sale of his land in Lucan.

2003 September 19, “Lawlor questioned at Planning probe”, in RTE News:

(British, Ireland, colloquial) In an underhand way, sneakily; unofficially, particularly with regard to payment or tax avoidance.


fluid ounce

Any of various units of volume used for liquid measure, all approximately 1.73–1.83 cubic inches or 28.4–30 milliliters.

(UK) A unit of volume equal to one twentieth of an imperial pint or approximately 28.4 ml


spearchucker

From spear + chucker, in the offensive sense, alluding to a stereotype of Africans as primitive savages who use spears in hunting and war.

The other night, Jackson's on the radio asking if anybody in the area has seen two spearchuckers winging it off on foot with a pile of nigger clothes in their hands. Jesus Christ. Spearchuckers? Niggers? The guy's KKK material.

1983, Maurice Punch, Control in the Police Organization, MIT Press:

9:45 A man across the circle from me shouted, "Hey spearchuckers! Hey spearchuckers! Why don't you turn bright red! Oh!, They're not spearchuckers, they're Indians.

1991, 1990 Witness Report: Chippewa Spearfishing Season : Violence, Ineffective Law Enforcement, and Racism:

Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australian

(British, US, Australia, offensive, ethnic slur, slang) A black (African or African-American or an Aboriginal Australian) person.


voe

Shetland and Orkney dialect, from Norn, from Old Norse vágr. Cognate with Swedish and Norwegian våg, and Faroese vágur. Doublet of way.

(British) A narrow sea inlet, particularly in the Shetland Islands, similar to a fjord.


Rudy

Stop your running around / Making problems in town / Rudy, a message to you, Rudy

1967, Dandy Livingstone (lyrics and music), “A Message to You Rudy”:

They dance the West Indian Reggae because it is the only old‐fashioned dance beat around and the total opposite of Pepsi‐Rock, the Plastic Ono Band and Jethro Tull and Blood, Sweat & Tears, all of which they naturally despise; and they also have a wary respect for West Indians in general and the Rudys in particular, the Jamaican street gangs who are older and tougher then^([sic]) themselves.

1970 March 29, Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(UK slang, historical) A rude boy; a member of a Jamaican street gang in the 1960s and 70s.


knobbing

(UK, vulgar, slang) A session of penetrative sexual intercourse.


blagging

en-noun

blagging (countable and uncountable, plural blaggings)

Matt Driscoll claimed that "blagging", or impersonating a third party, was used to secure the confidential information after receiving a tip that [Alex] Ferguson might be suffering from ill health. The former journalist added: "I was told sometimes you'd get a situation where if an investigator sent a fax to a GP or a hospital saying 'I'm his specialist, I need these details' it was incredible how often that would just get sent straight back."

2012, Alan Gillies, “Threats to the Security of Your Information”, in Data Protection for Slightly Bigger Companies, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 47:

(uncountable) The use of deception, guile, or persuasion to obtain something; (countable) an instance of this; a blag.

Usual petty-theft beginnings. Graduated to the bigger stuff—jump-ups, blaggings. Eventually controlled a few similar types down east somewhere.

1980, Anthony Heal, Man in the Middle, page 64:

(uncountable, criminal slang) Robbery; (countable) an instance of this.


tye

From Old English tīh (“plot of land”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīh. Cognate with Old Frisian ty (“thingstead”), Middle Low German tî, tigge, whence northern German Thie (“old thingstead, village square”).

cog

(British) A patch of common land, often a village green.


tronc

From French tronc des pauvres (“poor box”).

(British) A monetary pool, in which tips are collected and later shared out between all staff, e.g. in a restaurant.


copybook

(Quebec, UK) A notebook containing blank, often lined, pages for writing answers.


aestivoautumnal

From Latin aestīvus (“summer”) + autumnus (“autumn, fall”) + -al.

(British) Relating to or happening in summer and autumn.


LRC

Labour Representation Committee
w:Labour Representation Committee

(British) Initialism of Labour Representation Committee.


twining

en-noun

twining (countable and uncountable, plural twinings)

Canon Bryan Rowe, quoted in the article. It's going to take months to put right. But you won't hear any twining [Cumbrian dialect for moaning]. Nobody is going: 'Woe is us'. Everybody is just trying to help somebody else.

2009 November 23, agency., “Cockermouth starts journey back from flood devastation”, in The Guardian:

(British, uncountable, regional, Cumbria) complaining or grumbling


stockist

I need a replacement cartridge but I can't find a stockist.

But of all the tunes, the one she loved the most, and almost managed to capture in its entirety, was a song she had seen performed live back in the late 1970s, when she had first travelled to Britain with the hope of finding stockists for her clothing.

2016, Laurence Fearnley, The Quiet Spectacular, →ISBN, page 263:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A retailer or distributor who has stocks of a certain type of item for sale.


tiffin

tiffin (countable and uncountable, plural tiffins)

Chinese Pidgin English: tiffin

→ Macanese: tifim, tifinâ

Apparently from English tiffing, present participle of tiff (“to take a small drink, to sip”) (slang).

[…] I bought a pine-apple at the same time, which I gave to Sambo. Let's have it for tiffin; very cool and nice this hot weather.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Green Silk Purse”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 31:

That garden belongs to Manockjee Metta; that day many of us met and had tiffin and supper. At tiffin there were ten of us.

1845, A Detailed Report of the Proceedings on the Trial of the Eighteen Parsee Prisoners for Murder, before the Supreme Court, Bombay, on Wednesday, July 17, 1844. Also, an Appendix, Containing the Examinations, Depositions, and Confessions of the Prisoners after Trial. With a Petition to the Queen in Council, from the Native and European Inhabitants, on Behalf of the Prisoners, London: Samuel Clarke, 13 Pall Mall East, →OCLC, page 42:

"Bring sahib coffee at six in the morning; breakfast at nine; tiffin at one." / "What's that last one, Moro?" / "We had tiffin at Suez, and it means luncheon," interposed Morris. / "I didn't hear the word; but it is all right, and tiffin it is after this time. Come; are you going down-stairs, fellows?"

1895, Oliver Optic [pseudonym; William Taylor Adams], Across India, or, Live Boys in the Far East (All-over-the-World Library; 3rd ser.), Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard, Publishers, 10 Milk Street, →OCLC:

Had tiffin at 11.30 a.m. 1½ rations of rice with fried fish. Added frying oil and soup powder. Excellent, both in quantity and quality, but stomach is a bit troublesome. Can't wonder at it really!

2004, Harry Berry, My Darling Wife, or, How I Passed the Time of Day Between 18th April 1940 and 5th November 1945: Being the Unexpurgated Letters, Diaries and Other Scribblings of an Ordinary Soldier, Hertford: Authors OnLine Ltd., →ISBN, page 288:

Tiffin is an old colonial term. Often thought of as a snack taken with afternoon tea, tiffin is actually a light lunch eaten at midday. Indian colonial writings make numerous references to tiffin. […] Tiffin was not always the lightest of meals. In a 1904 account, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, an American travel writer and photographer, described the overindulgent culinary order of the day in colonial Calcutta: "The solid two-o'clock tiffin, following the heavy ten-o'clock breakfast, is so soon succeeded by the four-o'clock tea and the eight-o'clock dinner, that it is a surprise that any one survives the constant feasting which fills Anglo-Indian life."

2008, Sarah Murray, Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat, New York, N.Y.: Picador, →ISBN, pages 88–89:

Tiffin work started with Raghunath Medge's father, who worked first of all at Bombay Churchgate station. When the British Raj was in power, then there was work at Churchgate. The people who worked at Girni had tiffin delivered to them. […] People went out early in the morning and tiffin was delivered later.

2013, Sara Roncaglia, Feeding the City: Work and Food Culture of the Mumbai Dabbawalas, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, →DOI, →ISBN, page 22:

(British, India) A (light) midday meal or snack; luncheon.

"Young memsahib, an empty tiffin box costs ten rupees in the market. With the food, it's worth maybe fifteen rupees. Do you think I could retire after I steal it?" the man said. “I'm getting late. Do you want your husband to get his lunch or not? That last one's for him, isn't it?" He jerked his chin at the tiffin Anahita was still hugging.

2011, Mahtab Narsimhan, The Tiffin, Toronto, Ont.: Dancing Cat Books, →ISBN:

(British, India) A box or container used to carry a tiffin.


tiffin

en-verb

tiffin (third-person singular simple present tiffins, present participle tiffining, simple past and past participle tiffined)

tiffins (present singular third-person)
tiffining (participle present)
tiffined (participle past)
tiffined (past)

Do you know that he tiffins with her three times a week, and every night, after leaving here, he finishes the evening in her society, sitting in the veranda and smoking cigarettes till all hours.

1884, B[ithia] M[ary] Croker, Pretty Miss Neville. A Novel. (Harper's Franklin Square Library; no. 363), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Bros., →OCLC, page 328:

Pack had been tiffining by himself to the right of the arch, and had heard everything.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Bisara of Pooree”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co., →OCLC, page 223:

Slept, tiffined, and read in heat of the day. At 4 p.m. hunted again, and finished the evening with a jolly good dinner.

1899, Henry Keppel, A Sailor's Life under Four Sovereigns, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co.; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Co., →OCLC, page 336:

And so I lay at Arashiyama which is near Kyoto, in a yellow straw tea-house overlooking the beautiful river of which I have written, my mouth full of fried mountain trout and my soul soaking in a great calm. […] The lady of the tea-house insisted upon screening us off from the other pleasure-parties who were tiffining in the same verandah, and we were left alone with the trout.

1988, Rudyard Kipling, “1889: Letter Six”, in Hugh Cortazzi, George Webb, editors, Kipling's Japan: Collected Writings, London, Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: The Athlone Press, →ISBN, page 98:

From the diary it would appear that the main activities were shooting, walking, and alternating meals on each other's boat. "We dined with them. They tiffined with us." "Tiffined with them. They dined with us."

2011, Elizabeth Clinch, Nicholas Clinch, Through a Land of Extremes: The Littledales of Central Asia (Legends and Lore Series), Seattle, Wash.: The Mountaineers Books, →ISBN, page 73:

(British, India, intransitive) To eat a (light) midday meal or snack.


Samaritans

(UK) A telephone helpline providing support to those at risk of suicide.


hybrid vigour

UK, Australia, and Canada spelling of hybrid vigor


underbridge

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

As to underbridges, the policy is to wait until the small underline bridges become due for renewal when they will be replaced by prestressed concrete structures.

1979 August, Michael Harris, “A line for all reasons: the North Yorkshire Moors Railway”, in Railway World, page 412:

Additionally, NR has been given permission to alter highway rights at the underbridge at Littleport station.

2020 December 2, “Network News: Green light for NR to close crossings”, in Rail, page 23:

(British) A bridge that allows traffic to pass under a road, river, railway etc.


overbridge

No major platform improvements have been possible in the past because the piers of an overbridge at the north end of the station prevented respacing of the tracks.

1951 May, “Track Layout at Euston”, in Railway Magazine, page 290:

On the subject of permanent structures, the NYMR has Grosmont Tunnel (lined throughout), but only five overbridges, three of the last-named being the County Councils's ^([sic]) reponsibility for repair.

(British) A bridge that allows traffic to pass over a road, river, railway etc.


safeguarding

en-noun

safeguarding (countable and uncountable, plural safeguardings)

We cannot have a culture that sees safeguarding as a separate add-on. It needs to be part of our DNA, as an expression of our love for one another and our commitment to the Gospel.

2022 October 14, Past Cases Review 2, National Safeguarding Steering Group of the Church of England, archived from the original on 2024-06-11, page 4:

(UK, Ireland, formal) Policies and actions for the protection of children and vulnerable adults.


guv'nor

“Now we have to get out of here before the fuzz start sniffing around. Fingers, get the Rolls resprayed and change the number plates in case they trace it.”
“Yes, guv’nor.”

2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland) An informal form of address to a man; see guv. This version is especially likely to be applied to the owner of a business or the landlord of a public house.


like death warmed up

like death warmed over
like death warmed over#English

(British, Ireland, Australia) Alternative form of like death warmed over


at the end of one's tether

(UK, idiomatic) At the limit of one’s patience; frustrated or annoyed.

jemandem reißt der Geduldsfaden (gleich)


remanet

(British, law, Parliament) A bill that has been postponed or deferred to another session.


remould

en-verb

remould (third-person singular simple present remoulds, present participle remoulding, simple past and past participle remoulded)

remoulds (present singular third-person)
remoulding (participle present)
remoulded (participle past)
remoulded (past)

He could not change that which has remoulded itself to resist change.

2019, Chigozie Obioma, An Orchestra of Minorities, Abacus (2019), page 505:


byname

From by- + name. Cognate with Dutch bijnaam (“nickname”), German Beiname (“nickname, epithet”), Swedish binamn, Danish binavn and Norwegian Bokmål binavn.

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A pseudonym; nom-de-plume.


racing car

[A] grey racing car drew up with a grinding of brakes and a sputter of gravel in front of the main entrance of Belpher Castle.

1919, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 6, in A Damsel in Distress:

Like some fine-tuned racing car, it kicks up a lot of its own dust.

1987 September 14, Jay Cocks, “Music: The Badder They Come”, in Time:

(UK, automotive, motor racing) A race car.


barken

barken (third-person singular simple present barkens, present participle barkening, simple past and past participle barkened)

barkens (present singular third-person)
barkening (participle present)
barkened (participle past)
barkened (past)

The poor patient knew at once his master's tongue, and lifting up one of his eyes, the other being stiff and barkened down, said in a melancholy voice, "Ah, master, do you think I'll get better?"

1828, David Macbeth Moir, The Life of Mansie Wauch:

"The best way's to let the blood barken upon the cut — that saves plasters, hinney."

1908, Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, or, The astrologer:

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To become hard or form a crust, like bark.

"And it wad far better become ye, Mr. Saddletree," continued his helpmate, "since ye say ye hae skeel o' the law, to try if ye can do onything for Effie Deans, puir thing, that's lying up in the tolbooth yonder, cauld, and hungry, and comfortless--A servant lass of ours, Mr. Butler, and as innocent a lass, to my thinking, and as usefu' in the shop--When Mr. Saddletree gangs out,--and ye're aware he's seldom at hame when there's ony o' the plea-houses open,--poor Effie used to help me to tumble the bundles o' barkened leather up and down, and range out the gudes, and suit a' body's humours--And troth, she could aye please the customers wi' her answers, for she was aye civil, and a bonnier lass wasna in Auld Reekie.

1818, Sir Walter Scott, The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Vol. 1., Illustrated:

(transitive, UK dialectal) To tan or dye with bark.


piss proud

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

From piss (“urine”) + proud. Appears in Francis Grose’s A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796):
: “PISS-PROUD. Having a false erection. That old fellow thought he had an erection, but his — was only piss-proud; said of any old fellow who marries a young wife”.

I fucked culture for being unnatural (it was nothing but the city's piss-proud erection).

1988, George O'Brien, Dancehall Days, page 150:

(British, vulgar) Having an erection when waking from sleep or, more generally or metaphorically, a false or "empty" erection.

And my guess is that his piss-proud father told him...

2000, Sandra Gulland, The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B, page 30:

Full of the strong beer brewed at the camp, the men boasted, piss proud of their sexual exploits.

2003, Maureen Jennings, Let Loose the Dogs, page 291:

(British, vulgar, by extension) Falsely proud, implying an outward display of success or virility belies a dubious reality.

(British, derogatory, dated) Denoting an old man who marries a young woman, implying the only erection he could muster would be prompted by the bladder.


tumbleweed moment

en-noun

tumbleweed moment (plural tumbleweed moments)

From the motif in western movies where the wind blows tumbleweeds through the scene, usually to establish that the place is desolate or empty.

…real life television news quizzes have the benefit of careful editing to remove the tumbleweed moments.

2004 July 14, Laura Davis, “Arts Diary: STAGE QUIZ”, in Daily Post, Liverpool, England:

When you’re wondering if they might just sit there self-consciously not saying anything (a tumbleweed moment) you need to get away from the centre-front, start moving around.

2005 April 1, Trevor Wright, How to Be a Brilliant English Teacher, Routledge, →ISBN, page 78:

Peter Gibson, of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “in a world of daft pranks, we want littering to be that tumbleweed moment, the joke that falls flat on its face.”

2005 December 19, Robert Stansfield, “Gimp ad to shame litter louts”, in The Mirror, London, England:

(British, figuratively, broadcasting) A period of stony, unresponsive silence.


out on the tiles

"I've had a pint of bitter and now I'm feeling better and I'm out on the tiles." - Led Zeppelin, Out on the Tiles (1970).

(idiomatic, British) Out for a night on the town.


black bag

The road was full of black bags awaiting the arrival of the dustbin men.

(UK, Ireland) A black plastic sack produced for the disposal of household waste.


give a toss

en-verb

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

gives a toss (present singular third-person)
giving a toss (participle present)
gave a toss (past)
given a toss (participle past)

“Tiles ... tiles ... splashback,” he burbled, trying to make himself heard over the crunching of diazepam tablets. Boris shrugged, not bothering to talk in meaningful sentences or even attempting to conceal the fact that he didn’t really give a toss.

2019 November 18, John Crace, “Boris Johnson gets down to the business of getting business down”, in The Guardian:

(British, Ireland, Australia, slang, chiefly in the negative) To care.


bird in the bosom

(idiomatic, UK, dated) A secret pledge that one makes for another.