cheque

→ Albanian: çek

→ Amharic: ቼክ (ček)

→ Arabic: شِيك (šēk, šīk)

→ Gulf Arabic: چيك (cek)

→ Armenian: չեկ (čʻek)

→ Asturian: cheque

→ Azerbaijani: çek

→ Belarusian: чэк (ček)

→ Bengali: চেক (cek)

→ Breton: chekenn

→ Bulgarian: чек (ček)

→ Burmese: ချက် (hkyak)

→ Catalan: xec

→ Czech: šek

→ Danish: check

→ Dutch: cheque

→ Estonian: tšekk

→ Finnish: sekki, šekki, shekki

→ French: chèque

→ Galician: cheque

→ Georgian: ჩეკი (čeḳi)

→ German: Scheck

→ Hebrew: צֵ׳ק (chéq), שֵׁיְק (shéq)

→ Hindi: चेक (cek), चैक (caik)

→ Hungarian: csekk

→ Icelandic: tékki

→ Irish: seic

→ Japanese: チェック

→ Kazakh: чек (çek)

→ Kyrgyz: чек (cek)

→ Lao: ເຊັກ (sek)

→ Latvian: čeks

→ Lithuanian: čekis

→ Macedonian: чек (ček)

→ Malay: cek

Indonesian: cek

→ Marathi: चेक (cek)

→ Mongolian: чек (ček)

→ Norman: chèque

→ Northern Kurdish: çek

→ Norwegian: sjekk

→ Occitan: chèc

→ Odia: ଚେକ୍ (cek)

→ Persian: چک (ček)

→ Polish: czek

→ Portuguese: cheque

→ Punjabi: ਚੈੱਕ (caikka)

→ Romanian: cec

→ Russian: чек (ček)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: чек

Latin script: ček

→ Slovak: šek

→ Slovene: ček

→ Spanish: cheque

→ Swahili: cheki

→ Swedish: check

→ Tajik: чек (ček)

→ Telugu: చెక్కు (cekku)

→ Thai: เช็ค (chék)

→ Turkish: çek

→ Turkmen: çek

→ Ukrainian: чек (ček)

→ Urdu: چیک (cek)

→ Uzbek: chek

→ Vietnamese: séc

→ Welsh: siec

A variant of check influenced in spelling by exchequer.

I was not carrying cash, so I wrote a cheque for the amount.

They do not, however, all deal with the same banker, and when A gives a cheque to B, B usually pays it not into the same but into some other bank.

1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, published 1920, page 62:

1999, Sam Seunarine, Office Procedures for the Caribbean, 2nd edition, reprinted 2001, page 126,
Sometimes abbreviations are used (which would be explained on the statement) and only the last three figures of the cheque number may be given. ‘Sundries’ are cash or cheques paid into the account.

You can avoid dealing with paper cheques — written or printed — by paying your bills online.

2007, Eric Tyson, Tony Martin, Personal Finance for Canadians for Dummies:

2009, R. Rajesh, T. Sivagnanasithi, Banking Theory Law & Practice, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, page 206,
The daily cheque clearings began around 1770 when bank clerks met at the Five Bells (a tavern in Lombard Street in the City of London) to exchange all their cheques in one place and settle the balances in cash.

(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland) A draft directing a bank to pay money to a named person or entity.

tjek

a note promising to pay money to a named person or entity


oughtn't

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) (US, Philippines, dated, rare) ought not (negative auxiliary).


mightn't

Her driver was new to the country; he mightn't be prepared for the leaping of the yellow water down dry arroyos, swift as the pouncings of a cat, or the snake-like slidings of tons of loosened rock and clay from the steep potreros […]

1931, Mary Hunter Austin, Starry Adventure, page 274:

“But, mightn’t there have been something unusual about the Stimatis contract itself?” [Perry Mason cross-examining Roger Correll.]

1963, Perry Mason, The Case of the Greek Goddess (Television Season 6, Episode 25)

"But at night she would still think the same thing: mightn't it be that he wouldn't come to see her anymore?"

1974, Mario Vargas Llosa, Conversation in the Cathedral: A Novel, Harper & Row (First Rayo Edition, 2005), page 275

(British) might not (negative auxiliary)


shan't

From shall + -n't; contraction of shalln't or shall not, historically via shannot.

I shan't be coming back after the way you've treated me today.

That's not a threat, sir, for they have played fair with me, and I sha'n't sacrifice a penny of their money—unless they force me to do so. But—I'm in control. I'm sitting pretty. They can't unseat me, and I warn them not to try.

1922, Rex [Ellingwood] Beach, “chapter XXIV”, in Flowing Gold, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, by arrangement with Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 290:

(UK, Ireland, colloquial; archaic in US, Canada; dated in Australia, New Zealand) Contraction of shall not (negative auxiliary).


defenestration

en-noun

defenestration (countable and uncountable, plural defenestrations)

Holy Roman Emperor
Johann Philipp Abelin
Theatrum Europaeum

From New Latin defenestratio, from dē (“from; out”) + fenestra (“window”) + -atio (suffix indicating an action or process); compare Middle French défenestrer (modern French défenestrer), défenestration, Italian defenestrazione and
German Fenstersturz. The verb defenestrate was formed later.

Be that as it may, his defenestration was coldly abrupt, and in his place, the Football Association resurrected a veteran manager and former England star in Joe Mercer for seven games.

2005 September 4, The Sunday Times, London:

With Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid gone from the cabinet, it could all be over for Boris Johnson – although quite how long it will take his enemies to finish him off is not at all clear and his defenestration does not look immediate.

2022 July 5, Andrew Sparrow, “As Sunak and Javid quit cabinet, is it all over for Boris Johnson?”, in The Guardian:

(British) The high-profile removal of a person from an organization.


needn't

I've worked many's the time to make up for the wages he's squandered, and I need a drop to keep up my strength. Take it good and leave it good, that's what I do; and if Jem did the same, he'd be welcome to it for all I should say to him, and he needn't sign no more than me. The [temperance] pledge is a very good thing for them as can't manage theirselves, and its kind in you, Mr. Watts, to come round and talk to the people, and get the drunkards to leave off the drink; but, bless you, I needn't sign.

1871 April 1, M. A. Paull, “‘I Needn’t Sign.’ (A Story for Wives, Founded on Fact.)”, in The Western Temperance Herald: The Official Organ of the Western Temperance League, volume XXXV, number 4, London: Houlston & Sons, 65, Paternoster Row; Yeovil: Clinker & Tite, →OCLC, page 54:

‘Oh no,’ said the boy casually. ‘I won’t think much about them, mother. You needn’t worry. I wouldn’t worry, mother, if I were you.’ / ‘If you were me and I were you’, said his mother, ‘I wonder what we should do!’ / ‘But you know you needn’t worry, mother, don’t you?’ the boy repeated.

1926 July, D[avid] H[erbert Richards] Lawrence, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, Harper's Bazaar, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Corporation, OCLC 1639362

There were perhaps half a dozen occasions on which he might have withdrawn and returned to the life that had been marked out for him. He needn't have been tortured in South Africa; he needn't have written his book; he needn't have taken the job with Sablich's; having taken the job, he needn't have become associated with Thrushcross Grange and Jimmy Ahmed.

1975, V. S. Naipaul, Guerrillas, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN:

Of course, since he's Judy's lover he had to say she's got nicer legs! It's true he needn't have been so assertive about it. That wasn't very tactful towards poor Li; Li is right when she says that Fred is an egoistic lout. A terrible lout.

1996, Karel Čapek, “The Yacht on the Lagoon”, in M. Weatherall, R. Weatherall, transl., War with the Newts, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, →ISBN, page 75:

We needn't swing the bludgeon when bargaining is still on the table. We needn't beat our plowshares into swords so long as we can browbeat or otherwise befuddle our enemy into believing our way is the best way—the only way. Thus, we needn't bloodily and bodily slay a foe when we can startle, stifle, and, when need be, snuff out any flame of resistance to our will.

2010 October, Haha Lung with Christopher B. Prowant, Mind Warrior: Strategies for Total Mind Domination, New York, N.Y.: Citadel Press, →ISBN, page 2:

She needn't argue with Renee and Marian (she is speaking to them again) about the Black Panthers. She needn't worry that Lydia seems to be taking too many and more frightening drugs. She needn't keep it from Adam that she is smoking pot with her friends; […]

2011, Mary Gordon, The Love of My Youth, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, page 195:

(negative auxiliary, chiefly British, formal or literary) Need not.


reception

reception (countable and uncountable, plural receptions)

/ɹɪˈsɛp.ʃn̩/

Borrowed from Middle French reception, from Latin recipiō(n) (“the act of receiving; reception”), from recipiō (“receive”), from re- (“back”) + capiō (“I hold”).

der

(UK, education) The school year, or part thereof, between preschool and Year 1, when children are introduced to formal education.


sick

From Middle English sik, sike, seek, seke, seok, from Old English sēoc (“sick, ill”), from Proto-West Germanic *seuk, from Proto-Germanic *seukaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sewg- (“to be troubled or grieved”).
See also West Frisian siik, Dutch ziek, German siech, Norwegian Bokmål syk, Norwegian Nynorsk sjuk, Danish syg; also Middle Irish socht (“silence, depression”), Old Armenian հիւծանիմ (hiwcanim, “I am weakening”).
The "very good, excellent" sense is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of "in poor health". Compare similar semantic development in terrific and wicked.

cog

take a day's sick leave for some other purpose. go down like a cup of cold sick / go down like a cup of sick

often implying some level of deceit as in

[…] they're spitting and belching chunks of lentilly gunk. Looks like sick.

2003, Lynsey Calderwood, Cracked: Recovering After Traumatic Brain Injury, page 132:

The bogan, true to form, laps it up like a dog does its own sick.

2010, Michael Jayfox, E. Chas McSween, Intravenus DeMilo, Enron Hubbard, Hunter McKenzie-Smythe, Flash Johnson, Things Bogans Like, Sydney: Hachette, page 80:

(British, colloquial) (especially in the phrases on the sick and on long-term sick) Any of various current or former benefits or allowances paid by the Government to support the sick, disabled or incapacitated.


sick

en-verb

sick (third-person singular simple present sicks, present participle sicking, simple past and past participle sicked)

sicks (present singular third-person)
sicking (participle present)
sicked (participle past)
sicked (past)

I woke up at 4 am and sicked on the floor.

(British, Australia, colloquial) To vomit.


glass

glass (third-person singular simple present glasses, present participle glassing, simple past and past participle glassed)

glasses (present singular third-person)
glassing (participle present)
glassed (participle past)
glassed (past)

From Middle English glas, from Old English glæs, from Proto-West Germanic *glas, from Proto-Germanic *glasą, possibly related to Proto-Germanic *glōaną (“to shine”) (compare glow), and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰel- (“to shine, shimmer, glow”). Cognate with West Frisian glês, Dutch glas, Low German Glas, German Glas, Swedish glas, Icelandic gler.

JUDD. Any trouble last night?
LES. Usual. Couple of punks got glassed.

I often mused on what the politicians or authorities would say if they could see for themselves the horrendous consequences of someone who’d been glassed, or viciously assaulted.

2002, Geoff Doherty, A Promoter's Tale page 72

One night he was in this nightclub in Sheffield and he got glassed by this bloke who’d been just let out of prison that day.

(transitive, UK, colloquial) To strike (someone), particularly in the face, with a drinking glass with the intent of causing injury.


knock

knock (third-person singular simple present knocks, present participle knocking, simple past and past participle knocked)

knocks (present singular third-person)
knocking (participle present)
knocked (participle past)
knocked (past)

From Middle English knokken, from Old English cnocian, ġecnocian, cnucian (“to knock, pound on, beat”), from Proto-West Germanic *knokōn, from Proto-Germanic *knukōną (“to knock”), a suffixed form of *knu-, *knew- (“to pound on, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *gnew-, *gen- (“to squeeze, pinch, kink, ball up, concentrate”). The English word is cognate with Middle High German knochen (“to hit”), Old English cnuian, cnuwian (“to pound, knock”), Old Norse knoka (compare Danish knuge (“to squeeze”), Swedish knocka (“to hug”)).

knock someone into the middle of next week

(transitive, British, slang, dated) To impress forcibly or strongly; to astonish; to move to admiration or applause.


barrow

From Middle English berwe, bergh, from Old English beorg (“mountain, hill, mound, barrow, burial place”), from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰérǵʰos, from *bʰerǵʰ-. Doublet of berg and bergh.
Cognate with Scots burrow (“mound, tumulus, barrow”), Saterland Frisian Bäirch, Bierich (“mountain”), West Frisian berch (“mountain”), Dutch berg (“mountain”), Low German Barg (“mountain”), German Berg (“mountain”), Danish bjerg (“mountain”), Swedish berg (“mountain”), Norwegian berg (“rock, mountain, hillock, rock bottom”), Icelandic berg (“mountain”), bjarg (“rock”), Northern Luri برگ (berg, “mountain,hill”), Polish brzeg (“bank, shore”), Russian бе́рег (béreg, “bank, shore, land”).


barrow

From Middle English barowe, barwe, barewe, from Old English bearwe (“basket, handbarrow”), from Proto-West Germanic *barwā, *barwijā, from Proto-Germanic *barwǭ, *barwijǭ (“stretcher, bier”) (compare Low German Berwe, Old Norse barar (plural), Middle High German radebere (“wheelbarrow”)), from *beraną (“to bear”). More at bear.

cog

The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

In contrast, the Westminster Gazette in 1912 was much more positive about railway staff, praising the "...army of porters hustling and bustling hither and thither with barrows groaning under the weight of bags and baggage and... the ever-patient and long-suffering guards, courteously giving information and advice to the querulous passengers... to the porter the Christmas season means a continuous round of heavy labour, extremely tiring to both nerves and temper, and this fact the public too often seem either to forget or ignore."

2022 December 14, David Turner, “The Edwardian Christmas getaway...”, in RAIL, number 972, page 35:

(British) A small vehicle used to carry a load and pulled or pushed by hand.


lite

From Middle English lit, lut (“little”), from Old English lȳt.


lite

en-adj

lite (comparative liter, superlative litest)

liter (comparative)
litest (superlative)


lite

en-verb

lite (third-person singular simple present lites, present participle liting, simple past and past participle lited)

lites (present singular third-person)
liting (participle present)
lited (participle past)
lited (past)

From Middle English liten, from Old Norse hlíta (“to rely on, trust, abide by”). Cognate with Icelandic hlíta (“to comply”), Swedish lita (“to trust, rely on, depend on, confide in”), Danish lide (“to trust”).


lite

(British, dialect) The act of waiting; a wait.


lawyer

From Middle English lawier, lawyer, lawer, equivalent to law + -yer.


flip-flop

→ Japanese: フリップフロップ (furippu-furoppu)

Onomatopoeic. Most probably an imitation of the sound produced when walking in them.

the necessity for yet another place at which to buy a polo shirt or a pair of flip-flops may not be apparent to the town's residents

30 August 2004, The New Yorker,, page 38

(US, UK, Fiji) A sandal consisting of a rubber sole fastened to the foot by a rubber thong fitting between the toes and around the sides of the foot.


thong

From Middle English thong, thwong, thwang, from Old English þwong, þwang, þweng, þwæng (“thong, band, strap, cord, strip of leather; phylactery”), from Proto-West Germanic *þwangi, from Proto-Germanic *þwangiz, *þwanguz (“coercion, constraint, band, clamp, strap”), from Proto-Indo-European *twenk- (“to squeeze, press, pressure”). Cognate with Scots thwang, thwayng, thang (“thong”), Middle Low German dwenge (“clamp, jaws, steel-trap”), German Zwinge (“vise, clamp”), Danish tvinge (“clamp”), dialectal Norwegian tveng (“shoestrap, shoelace”), Icelandic þvengur (“strap, thong, latchet”).

cog

She was impressed by her friend's confidence to wear a thong on the crowded beach.

(UK, US) An item of clothing, usually an undergarment or swimwear consisting of very narrow strips designed to cover just the genitals and nothing more.


tie

From Middle English teye (“cord, chain”), from Old English tēag, tēah (“cord, chain”), from Proto-West Germanic *taugu, from Proto-Germanic *taugō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dewk-. Compare Danish tov, Icelandic taug.

The FA Cup third round tie between Liverpool and Cardiff was their first meeting in the competition since 1957.

(sports, British) A meeting between two players or teams in a competition.

eliminatoria

sports: a meeting between two players or teams in a competition


bracket

From earlier bragget, *bracket, from Middle English *braget, *braket (attested in braket nail), from Old French braguette (“the opening in the fore part of a pair of breeches, one's fly”), a diminutive of Old French brague (“knickers, britches”), from Old Occitan braga, from Latin brāca (“pants”), from Transalpine Gaulish *brāca, from Proto-Germanic *brāks, an early form of Proto-Germanic *brōks (“leggings, breeches, trousers”).

kllapë

generically any of “(”, “)”, “[”, “]”, “{”, “}”, “⟨”, “⟩”, “<”, “>”, etc.

Any of the characters “(”, “)”, “[”, “]”, “{”, “}”, “⟨”, “⟩”, “<”, “>”, or the like, used in pairs to enclose parenthetic remarks, sections of mathematical expressions, etc.

(UK) “(” and “)” specifically, the other forms above requiring adjectives for disambiguation.


caucus

tlb

(US, Canada, Israel, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, archaic in UK, not used in the European Union)

Unknown. Often claimed to be from an Algonquian language; transcribed words such as cawaassough and caucauasu meaning "counselor, elder, adviser" appear in early texts. A popular folk etymology attested in Great Leaders and National Issues of 1896 stated: "In the early part of the eighteenth century a number of caulkers connected with the shipping business in the North End of Boston held a meeting for consultation. That meeting was the germ of the political caucuses which have formed so prominent a feature of our government ever since its organization." American Heritage Dictionary states the term is taken from the Caucus Club of Boston in the 1760s, possibly from Medieval Latin caucus (“drinking vessel”).

bor

He conferred with Mr. Warren of Plymouth upon the necessity of giving into spirited measures, and then said, "Do you keep the committee in play, and I will go and make a caucus against the evening; and do you meet me."

1788, William Gordon, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment, of the Independence of the United States of America:

A usually preliminary meeting of party members to nominate candidates for public office or delegates to be sent to a nominating convention, or to confer regarding policy.


producer

→ Azerbaijani: prodüser

→ Danish: producer

→ Dutch: producer

→ Hungarian: producer

→ Japanese: プロデューサー (purodyūsā)

desctree

→ Russian: продю́сер (prodjúser)
→ Kazakh: продюсер (prodüser)

/pɹəˈdʒuːsə/

(UK, Ireland, slang) An arrest for speeding after which the driver is allowed seven (in the UK) or ten (in Ireland) days to produce his/her driving licence and related documents at a police station.


cos

Clipping of cos lettuce, variously derived from the Greek island of Kos and from Arabic خس (ḵass, “lettuce”).

(chiefly UK) Synonym of romaine lettuce, a long-leaved variety of lettuce.


cos

Taking the shortcut through the alleyway by the Jobcentre Plus, just cos I can, we arrive at my flat within minutes.

2021, Isabel Waidner, Sterling Karat Gold, Peninsula Press, page 161:

(UK, Ireland, South Africa, African-American Vernacular) Informal spelling of 'cause (“because”).


farmer

desc

→ Kashubian: farmôrz (Canada, United States)

→ Yiddish: פֿאַרמער (farmer)

From Middle English fermour (“a steward, bailliff, collector of taxes”), from Old French fermier (“a farmer, a lessee, husbandman, bailliff”), from Medieval Latin firmarius (“one to whom land is rented, a collector of taxes, deputy”), from firma; equivalent to farm + -er. Compare Old English feormere (“a purveyor of a guild, a supplier of food, a grocer, farmer”). More at farm.

inh

(agent noun) Someone or something that farms, as:

(strictly, especially British) More specifically, a farm owner, as distinguished from a farmworker or farmhand as a hired employee thereof.


tea cosy

en-noun

tea cosy (plural tea cosies or tea cozies)

She had just finished knitting a tea cosy decorated with a floral pattern.

(British) An insulating cloth covering, shaped to fit over a teapot to maintain warmth.


torrid

en-adj

torrid (comparative torrider, superlative torridest)

torrider (comparative)
torridest (superlative)

From Latin torridus, from torreō (“parch, scorch”).

Tomás O'Leary had a torrid time behind the forwards, fumbling on the floor, hesitant with his kicks.

2010 January 24, Eddie Butler, “"Rugby must beware leaping from the lenient to draconian over gouging"”, in The Guardian:


ginger

ginger (comparative more ginger or (rare) gingerer, superlative most ginger or (rare) gingerest)

more ginger (comparative)
gingerer (comparative rare)
most ginger (superlative)
gingerest (rare superlative)

/ˈd͡ʒɪnd͡ʒɚ/

He’s going to get an interview about ten o’clock, making the old gentleman predict war, and we’ll get out the gingerest kind of a special on the strength of it!

1899 April 1, Richard Stillman Powell [pseudonym; Ralph Henry Barbour], “The President and Tom Collins”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 171, number 40, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 626, column 2:

Wherefore, although for my own car I want the “gingerest” possible engine, I realise that it has shortcomings for the general market and I would commend to designers the ideal of an engine that shall be as “woolly” as possible, so long as its artificially restricted dimensions shall not cause its owner to find himself unable to tackle respectable gradients.

1921 January 29, W. Harold Johnson, “[The Automobile World.] My Ideal Small Car Specification”, in Country Life: The Journal for All Interested in Country Life & Country Pursuits, volume XLIX, number 1277, London, page lxvi, column 1:

“Coney Island” is by far the best picture the Hip has had. That says very little for a house that has held the worst, but this F. B. O. [Film Booking Offices] will do business this week for the Hip because it more than makes good under one of the gingerest of names. And a name that should draw by itself.

1928 February 15, “Coney Island”, in Variety, volume XC, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Variety, Inc., →ISSN, page 27, column 3:

They, the Rabbis, for better or for worse, were very ginger with this question.

2006, John W. McGinley, About the King’s Choice to Build His Palace Right on Top of a Dunghill: (Or, How to Conceptualize Jewishly), Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 540:

After a very ginger landing, everyone aboard was able to see up close how lucky they had been to reach base.

Moving very slowly, taking extremely ginger steps, the woman felt beads of sweat dripping down from her body.

2009, Franklin Newman, The Prophetess of Bromfryel: The Knights of Callistor, page 509:

My face hurt like a son of a bitch every time I placed even the gingerest of fingertips on it, but from what I could see from my reflection in the broad blade of my letter opener, it still hadn’t swollen.

2011, Craig Russell, chapter 5, in The Deep Dark Sleep (Lennox; 3), London: Quercus, →ISBN, page 106:

To walk, each crutch he kinda hopped forward a little and used his torso to drag his legs after, using them as the gingerest element of a tripod.

2013, T. D. Badyna, chapter 4, in Flick, Whistle-Bit Books, →ISBN, page 44:

Silence settles once more between us all, filled only by the gingerest of clinks of forks reluctantly hovering over flesh.

2015, James Hannah, “Rib”, in The A to Z of You and Me, London: Black Swan, Transworld Publishers, →ISBN, page 221:

(chiefly British, regional, Canada, US) Very careful or cautious; also, delicate, sensitive.


ginger

Cockney rhyming slang: ginger beer, queer.

/ˈd͡ʒɪnd͡ʒɚ/

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang

(UK, Cockney rhyming slang) A homosexual.


ginger

/ˈd͡ʒɪnd͡ʒɚ/


reference

en-noun

reference (countable and uncountable, plural references)

From Middle French référence, from Medieval Latin referentia, nominative neuter plural of referēns, present participle of referō (“return, reply”, literally “carry back”). Morphologically refer + -ence.

verwysing

academic writing: identification of a source

(UK, Ireland) A person who provides this information; a referee.


shadow

shadow (countable and uncountable, plural shadows)

From Middle English schadowe, schadewe, schadwe (also schade > shade), from Old English sċeaduwe, sċeadwe, oblique form of sċeadu (“shadow, shade; darkness; protection”), from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz (“shade, shadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“darkness”).
Cognates:
Cognate with Scots scaddow, schaddow (“shadow”), Saterland Frisian Skaad (“shade, shadow”), Dutch schaduw (“shadow”), German Schatten (“shadow, shade”), Norwegian skodde (“fog, mist”), Irish scáth (“shadow”), Ancient Greek σκότος (skótos, “darkness, gloom”) (whence English scoto-).

cog

(UK, law enforcement) A trainee, assigned to work with an experienced officer.


billiards

→ Irish: billéardaí

→ Welsh: biliards

From French billard, originally referring to the wooden cue stick, diminutive of Old French bille (“log, tree trunk”), from Vulgar Latin *bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile (“large tree, tree trunk”)), from Proto-Celtic *belyos (“tree”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰolh₃yos (“leaf”), from *bʰleh₃- (“blossom, flower”).

(games, British) A two-player cue sport played with two cue balls and one red ball, on a snooker sized table.


peep

Back-formation from peeps, a shortened form of people.


haunt

en-verb

haunt (third-person singular simple present haunts, present participle haunting, simple past and past participle haunted)

haunts (present singular third-person)
haunting (participle present)
haunted (participle past)
haunted (past)

From Middle English haunten (“to reside, inhabit, use, employ”), from Old French hanter (“to inhabit, frequent, resort to”), from Old Northern French hanter (“to go back home, frequent”), from Old Norse heimta (“to bring home, fetch”) or/and from Old English hāmettan (“to bring home; house; cohabit with”); both from Proto-Germanic *haimatjaną (“to house, bring home”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“village, home”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“village”).
Cognate with Old English hǣman (“to cohabit, lie with, marry”); related to Old English hām (“home, village”), Old French hantin (“a stay, a place frequented by”) from the same Germanic source. Another descendant from the French is Dutch hanteren, whence German hantieren, Swedish hantera, Danish håndtere. More at home.

cog

[…]haunte thi silf to pite [or pitee].

c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, […], volume I (in Middle English), Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC, I. Timothy 4:7, columns 1, 2:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.

Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.

a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, edited by Margaret Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […] John Daye, […], published 1570, →OCLC:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To practise; to devote oneself to.


toad in the hole

en-noun

toad in the hole (countable and uncountable, plural toads in the hole)

(UK, Ireland) A traditional English dish of roasted sausages (or formerly other kinds of meat) in batter.

toad in the hole

there's nothing equivalent in Finnish cuisine


score

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

From Middle English score, skore, schore, from Old English scoru (“notch; tally; score”), from Old Norse skor, from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“incision; tear; rift”), which is related to *skeraną (“to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“cut”). Cognate with Icelandic skora, Swedish skåra, Danish skår. Related to shear.
For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.

der

DEVLIN:You know the apple and core. Head might cost you a score, or more if you want a meat show on all fours.

2012 September 9, “Deepest Shame (New Machine Remix)”, performed by w:Plan B (musician),Chip,Devlin:

(British, slang) Twenty pounds sterling.

Above the harbour, steeply up the hill, run The Bolts, narrow stepped passages, equivalent of The Scores of Lowestoft and The Rows of Great Yarmouth.

1975, John Seymour, The Companion Guide to the Coast of North-east England, page 206:

(UK, regional) In the Lowestoft area, a narrow pathway running down a cliff to the beach.


random

en-adj

random (comparative more random, superlative most random)

more random (comparative)
most random (superlative)

→ German: random

→ Hungarian: random

From earlier randon, from Middle English randoun, raundon, from Old French randon, from randir (“to run, gallop”) (whence French randonnée (“long walk, hike”)), from Frankish *randiju (“a run, race”) or Old Norse rend (“a run, race”), both from Proto-Germanic *randijō, from *rinnaną (“run”, verb), from Proto-Indo-European *(H)r̥-nw- (“to flow, move, run”). Cognate with Middle Low German uprinden (“to jump up”), Danish rende (“to run”). See run.

cog

That's a rather random fact!

I can't believe he would say that. That's so random!

out of the ordinary
out of the ordinary#Adjective

(UK, slang) Being out of the ordinary; unusual or unexpected; odd, strange, bizarre.


putt

(British, motorcycling, slang) A motorcycle.


Bangla

(Singapore, Malaysia, British, offensive, ethnic slur) A Bangladeshi.


minor

en-adj

minor (comparative more minor, superlative most minor)

more minor (comparative)
most minor (superlative)

antonym(s) of

serious, grave, severe, dangerous, fatal, life-threatening, acute (informal)

From Middle English minor, menor, menour, etc., from Latin minor (“lesser; young; young person”) both directly and via Norman and Middle French menor, menour, etc. Doublet of minus but not mini-. Cognate with minister, minify, Minorca, Menshevik, and possibly minnow. Compare Latin minimum and minuō, Old High German minniro, Cornish minow.

der

He whipt her with a foxes taile, Barnes minor,

c. 1593, Henry Chettle, Kind-harts Dreame, sig. C2

And he whipt her with a foxes taile, Barnes maior.

Espionage... was a field that had sophisticated itself since the distant time when Patullo Minor... had enthralled his school-fellows with his hazardous escapades.

1978, John Innes Mackintosh Stewart, Full Term, page 250:

Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option, particularly:

(UK, dated) The younger of two pupils with the same surname.


minor

byvak

subject of secondary undergraduate study

Let my minor pass, you fellows!... Here, Chudleigh, just make room there.

(UK, rare, obsolete) The younger brother of a pupil.


peculiar

From Latin pecūliāris (“one's own”), from pecūlium (“private property”), from pecus (“cattle”).

Peculiar in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

(UK, canon law) an ecclesiastical district, parish, chapel or church outside the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese in which it is situated.


nasty

en-adj

nasty (comparative nastier, superlative nastiest)

nastier (comparative)
nastiest (superlative)

From Middle English nasty, nasti, naxty, naxte (“unclean, filthy”), whence also Early Modern English nasky (“nasty”), of obscure origin. Probably from earlier Middle English *naskty, *naskedy, from Middle English *nasked (“dirty, messy”) + -y, ultimately of North Germanic origin (comparable to Danish nasket (“dirty, foul, unpleasant”), Swedish naskot (“dirty, filthy”), Swedish naskig, naskug (“nasty, dirty, messy”)), themselves all probably related to Proto-Germanic *hnaskuz (“tender, soft”). Likely doublet of nesh and nosh. Cognate with Scots nastie, nestie (“dirty, filthy”).
Alternative theories have also been proposed, which include:
* From Low German nask (“nasty”) + -y.
* From Old French nastre (“bad, strange”), shortened form of villenastre (“infamous, bad”), from vilein (“villain”) + -astre (pejorative suffix), from Latin -aster.
* Middle Dutch nestich, nistich ("nasty, dirty, unpleasant" > Modern Dutch nestig (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)), perhaps ultimately connected to the Scandinavian word above, or related to *nest (“nest”).
* Other suggestions include Old High German naz (“wet”), hardening of English nesh(y) (“soft”), or alteration of English naughty.
* Modern use of the word is sometimes attributed to the popular and often derogatory 19th century American political cartoons of Thomas Nast, but the word predates him.

unc

obscure

gloss

"nasty, dirty, unpleasant" > Modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">nestig</i> (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)

There was a nasty period during the First World War when the family's allegiance was called into question - not least because one of the Schroders had been made a baron by the Kaiser.

(chiefly UK) Awkward, difficult to navigate; dangerous.

Moving into the middle ages, William the Conqueror managed to rout the English and rule the country, then see off numerous plots and assassination attempts, before his horse did for him in a nasty fall, killing him at 60.

(chiefly UK) Grave or dangerous (of an accident, illness etc.).


muggle

en-verb

muggle (third-person singular simple present muggles, present participle muggling, simple past and past participle muggled)

muggles (present singular third-person)
muggling (participle present)
muggled (participle past)
muggled (past)

Origin unknown; attested in Berkshire, Devonshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Lancashire, Somersetshire, Staffordshire, the West Country, Wiltshire, and Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. The word is possibly a variant of muddle.

And zo thay muggled along, 'till tha volks all begun to make giame on them.

1872, Agrikler [pseudonym; Joseph Edwards], “Tha Man as Coodent Plaze Nubbody”, in Rhymes in the West of England Dialect. […], 2nd edition, Bristol, Somerset: Leech and Taylor, […], →OCLC, page 39:

I might have a made out to muggle along if so be Mister Jolly would a rised my wages, or the Union could a kept on taken care o' this last poor little un, till sich time as I might a married some'un to keep the childern tidy; [...]

1873, [Edward Jenkins], “Justices’ Justice and Statutes at Large”, in Little Hodge, author’s edition, New York, N.Y.: Dodd & Mead, […], →OCLC, page 102:

She might truly be said "to muggle along;" everything in her house was in the greatest state of confusion, and, it must be added, dirt.

1877 May, [Frances Hariott Wood], “The Old Red School-house”, in W[illiam] Meynell Whittemore, editor, Sunshine for 1877. […], number 185, London: William Poole, […], →OCLC, chapter VI (Widow Lawrence’s Story), page 77, column 2:

He rose to no eminence and got through life somehow, ‘muggled along,’ as Somersetshire people say.

1889, [John Hutton Balfour Browne], “Popular”, in Times and Days: Being Essays in Romance and History, London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 28:

MUGGLE, [...] To muddle along, to live in a muddling, haphazard way.

[1903, “MUGGLE, v.¹ and sb.²”, in Joseph Wright, editor, The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes IV (M–Q), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 195, column 1:

"He has whiskers and whuskers but no wapers; / He whiffles and whaffles and muggles along;" / Thus ran the headlines of the morning papers; / The reporters all put to sea in a flong.

1934, Margaret, Lady Rhondda, editor, Time and Tide, volume 15, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1016, column 1:

[T]he tractor struggles and muggles through the overgrown tour path, the tall grass whispers on the bottom of our cage, [...]

2010 October, Paul Tremblay, “Tour: Slipshod Safari”, in We Will Never Live in the Castle, Toronto, Ont.: ChiZine Publications, published April 2013, →ISBN:

(intransitive, UK, Ireland, dialectal) Often followed by along: to live or work in an unorganized and unplanned way; to muddle along.


wicked

From Middle English wicked, wikked, an alteration of Middle English wicke, wikke (“morally perverse, evil, wicked”). Of uncertain origin. Possibly from an adjectival use of Old English wiċċa (“wizard, sorcerer”), from Proto-West Germanic *wikkō (“necromancer, sorcerer”), though the phonology makes this theory difficult to explain. Alternatively, perhaps related to English wicker, Old Norse víkja (“to bend to, yield, turn, move”), Swedish vika (“to bend, fold, give way to”), English weak.
The "excellent, awesome" sense is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of "evil, mischievous". Compare similar semantic development in terrific and sick.

cog

The band we went to see the other night was wicked loud!

(slang, New England, British) Very, extremely.


wicked

(British, dialect, chiefly Yorkshire) Infested with maggots.


trucker

From Middle English *trukere (“one who disappoints, a deceiver”), from Middle English trukien (“to fail, run out, disappoint”), equivalent to truck (“to fail”) + -er (agent noun suffix). Compare trooker.

suffix

(derogatory, UK dialectal) One who has done something offensive; a deceitful, dishonest, or disreputable person; a deceiver; a cheat.

(derogatory, UK dialectal, Scotland) A rogue; rascal; miscreant; a ne'er-do-well.


trucker

en-adj

trucker (comparative more trucker, superlative most trucker)

more trucker (comparative)
most trucker (superlative)

(derogatory, UK dialectal, Scotland) Dishonest; resulting from or inspired by dishonesty.


knocking shop

[A]lways reminds me of one of the costlier knocking-shops, you know—'Maison Japonaise' …

1945, Evelyn Waugh, “Epilogue”, in Brideshead Revisited […], 3rd edition, London: Chapman & Hall, →OCLC, page 300:

Bloody nonsense, "All come together"... Sounds like the motto of a knocking shop in Marrakesh.

1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:

Mr Clark, an unrepentant philanderer now gone to the knocking shop in the sky, recorded for posterity his liaisons with Valerie, Josephine and Alison Harkess.

2004 June 12, Vikram Dodd, “Coven's footnote to Clark diaries”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

[It] had made Mick's heart soar, if only briefly, at the thought that he and Alma might outlive the monster breeze blocks that were used to smash their home ground into crack dens, knocking shops and a despairing dust that settled everywhere on people's heartstrings.

2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, page 30:

(chiefly Australia, British, New Zealand, slang) A brothel.


Christmas

The proper noun is derived from Middle English Cristemasse, Criste-mas (“Christmas Day; season of Christmas; Christmas festivities”) [and other forms], from Old English Cristes mæsse (“Christmas”, literally “Christ’s mass”), from Crist (“Christ”) + -es (possessive marker) + mæsse (“a mass (celebration of the Eucharist)”). The English word is analysable as Christ + -mas (suffix denoting a holiday or sacred day).
The noun, adjective, and verb are derived from the proper noun.
Adjective sense 1 (“red and green in color”) refers to these colors being traditionally associated with Christmas.

suffix

[T]he antient Britons employed for the decoration of their houſes, or, more properly ſpeaking, of their bovvers, branches of ever-green, in invitation to the ſpirits: a cuſtom, vvhich, hovvever the motive may be aboliſhed, is retained to this inſtant. That kind of verdure vvhich is uſed to deck the vvindovvs, and old halls, vve novv, by metonymy, call Chriſtmas.

1766, [John Cleland], “Essay on the Musical Waits at Christmas”, in The Way to Things by Words, and to Words by Things; […], London: […] L[ockyer John] Davis and C[harles] Reymers, […], →OCLC, page 96:

"Vere does the mince-pies go, young opium eater?" said Mr. Weller to the fat boy, as he assisted in laying out such articles of consumption as had not been duly arranged on the previous night. The fat boy pointed to the destination of the pies. "Wery good," said Sam, "stick a bit o' Christmas in 'em.[…]"

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “A Good-humoured Christmas Chapter, […]”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 290:

Two of the girls carry between them on a stick what they call "the garland", […] The "garland" in shape reminds me of the "Christmas" which used to form the centre of the Christmas decorations in Yorkshire some few years ago, except that the latter had a bunch of mistletoe inside the hoops.

1893 September, Percy Manning, “[Folk-lore Miscellanea.] May-Day at Watford, Herts.”, in Folk-lore: A Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution, & Custom, volume IV, number III, London: David Nutt, […] for The Folk-lore Society, →OCLC, page 403:

(informal or British, regional) Sprigs of holly and other evergreen plants used as Christmas decorations; also (generally), any Christmas decorations.

oksa joulukoristeena

sprigs of holly and other evergreen plants used as Christmas decorations


wheel

we'll (one pronunciation along with the wine–whine merger)

From Middle English whel, from Old English hwēol, from Proto-West Germanic *hwehwl, from Proto-Germanic *hwehwlą, *hweulō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷlóm, *kʷékʷlos, *kʷékʷléh₂, reduplication of *kʷel- (“to turn”) and a suffix (literally "(the thing that) turns and turns"). See also West Frisian tsjil, Dutch wiel, Danish hjul; also Tocharian B kokale (“cart, wagon”), Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “cycle, wheel”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬑𐬭𐬀 (caxra), Sanskrit चक्र (cakrá); and Latin colō (“to till, cultivate”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B käl- (“to bear; bring”), Ancient Greek πέλω (pélō, “to come into existence, become”), Old Church Slavonic коло (kolo, “wheel”), Albanian sjell (“to bring, carry, turn around”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (caraⁱti, “it circulates”), Sanskrit चरति (cárati, “it moves, wanders”). Doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cycle, and cyclus.

агьежь

a circular device facilitating movement or transportation

peix gros

person with a great deal of power or influence

(UK, slang, archaic) A crown coin; a "cartwheel".


yam

en-verb

yam (third-person singular simple present yams, present participle yamming, simple past and past participle yammed)

yams (present singular third-person)
yamming (participle present)
yammed (participle past)
yammed (past)

Ultimately from Fula nyaamude (“to eat”) or a cognate Fula-Wolof term.

“If I was that snake I’d just open my jaw and yam that fool up in one bite!”

2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 78:


pope

Jamaican Creole: puop

Tok Pisin: pop

→ Hindi: पोप (pop)

→ Urdu: پوپ (pop)

From Middle English pope, popa, from Old English pāpa, from Vulgar Latin papa (title for priests and bishops, esp. and by 8th c. only the bishop of Rome), from early Byzantine Greek παπᾶς (papâs, title for priests and bishops, especially by 3rd c. the bishop of Alexandria), from late Ancient Greek πάπας (pápas, title for priests and bishops, in the sense of spiritual father), from πάππας (páppas, “papa, daddy”).

der

This is the only piece in which the author has given a hint of his religion, by ridiculing the ceremony of burning the pope, and by mentioning with some indignation the inscription […]

1830, Alexander Pope, The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, page xxi:

As York's succession was challenged by burning the pope, the Duke of Monmouth was again heralded in the city as a Protestant alternative.

2005, Gary S. De Krey, London and the Restoration, 1659–1683, →ISBN, page 182:

(Roman Catholicism and generally) An honorary title of the Roman Catholic bishop of Rome as father and head of his church, a sovereign of the Vatican city state.

(UK) An effigy of the pope traditionally burnt in Britain on Guy Fawkes' Day and (occasionally) at other times.

Byfleet-river, wherein are very large pikes, jack, and tench ; perch, of eighteen inches long ; good carp, large flounders, bream, roach, dace, gudgeons, popes, large chub, and eels.

1792, William Augustus Osbaldiston, The British Sportsman, Or, Nobleman, Gentleman and Farmer's Dictionary of Recreation and Amusement, page 176:

It resembles the perch (unfortunately for itself) in having a very long and prickly fin on its back, advantage of which is taken by the boys about Windsor, who are very fond of 'plugging a pope.' This operation consists in fixing a bung in the sharp spines on the poor pope's back fin, and then throwing him into the water.

1862, Francis T. Buckland, Curiosities of Natural History, page 230:

Popes are caught whilst gudgeon-fishing with the red worm, but they are sometimes a great nuisance to the perch-fisher, as they take the minnow.

1865 January 14, Astley H. Baldwin, “Small Fry”, in Once a Week, page 105:

Gymnocephalus cernua
Gymnocephalus cernua#Translingual

(British) The ruffe, a small Eurasian freshwater fish (Gymnocephalus cernua); others of its genus.

Alca genus; 6 species, including the razorbill, the penguin, the pope, and others.

1759, “Linnæus's Systema Naturæ”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, page 456:

The Pope: This is a very singular bird; it is about the size of our widgeon, or somewhat larger, but is not quite so large as the duck: the head is large and rounded; the eyes are small, and stand forward on the head, and lower down than in the generality of birds [...]

1773, John Hill, “Alca”, in A General Natural History, volume 3, page 442:

"About a hundred yards further North" says Troutbeck, "is a 'subterraneous' cavern called the Pope's Hole, about fifty fathoms under the ground, into which the sea flows, so called from a sort of bird which roosts in it by night, about ninety feet high above the level of the water."!! [...] It derives its name from its being a place of shelter to some puffins, vulgo "popes".

1822, George Woodley, A view of the present state of the Scilly Islands, pages 264–5:

The Norsemen catch great numbers of these popes, parrots, or lunder, as they are variously named, and train dogs to go into the holes where the puffin has its nest, lying in it with feet in the air.

1864, Charles Issac Elton, Norway: The Road and the Fell, page 94:

I was informed by a fisherman that there were now hundreds of gannets in the channel off Plymouth, and that he had also met with some puffins (which he called "popes")

1874, J. Van Voorst, Zoologist: A Monthly Journal of Natural History, page 3904:

Fratercula arctica
Fratercula arctica#Translingual

(UK regional, Cumberland, Cornwall, Devon, Scotland) The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica).


tableau

Unadapted borrowing from French tableau, from Old French tablel (“a surface which is used primarily for painting”).

(UK, dated) Hence, an arrangement of actors in static positions on stage, having the effect of pointing up a particular moment in the drama, conventionally revealed by opening tableau curtains (known as "tabs").


poo

en-noun

poo (countable and uncountable, plural poos)

մեծ գործ (mec gorc) (euphemism, literally "big work")

That doggy's doing a poo.

(countable, chiefly UK, childish) A piece of feces or an act of defecation.


lounge

German: Lounge

Japanese: ラウンジ (raunji)

Korean: 라운지 (raunji)

Swedish: lounge

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from French s’allonger (“to lie down”). Compare French longer (“to walk along”). Compare also German lungern (“to hang or lounge around, linger”).

cog

The lounge was furnished in old English oak and big Knole settees. There were rugs from Tabriz and Kerman on the highly polished floor. […] A table lamp was fashioned from a silver Egyptian hookah.

1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 18, in The Subtle Minotaur:

(British) The living room or sitting room of a house.


major

en-adj

major (comparative more major, superlative most major)

more major (comparative)
most major (superlative)

From Middle English major, from Latin maior, comparative of magnus (“great, large; noble, important”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs (“greater”), comparative of *meǵh₂- (“great”). Compare West Frisian majoar (“major”), Dutch majoor (“major”), French majeur. Doublet of mayor.

(UK, dated) Indicating the elder of two brothers, appended to a surname in public schools.


lug

From Middle English luggen, possibly from Scandinavian source, (compare Swedish lugga, Norwegian lugge); also in English dialectal as lig (“to lug”). Noun is via Scots lugge, probably from Old Norse (compare Norwegian and Swedish lugg). Probably related to slug (“lazy, slow-moving”), which may be from similar source(s). See slow.

While shaving, the poor sod had a fit and cut part of a lug off.


lug

From Middle English lugge (“pole, stick, staff”).

inh

And from the bodies [of pines and oaks] the boughes and loftie lugges they beare.

eight lugs of grownd; / Into the which returning backe, he fell

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 11:

(UK, archaic, dialect) A measure of length equal to 16+¹⁄₂ feet.


fish finger

“Birds Eye fish fingers,” he said, “are made from cod, and when, a short while back there was talk of some strange deep sea varieties creeping into fish fingers, we, as a company spent £500 000 reassuring the consumer[…].”

1976, Fishing News International, volume 15, page 41:

Next week will solve your problems / But now, fish fingers all in a line

1977, “Ex-Lion Tamer”, in Pink Flag, performed by Wire:

After green peas, the product that most helped Birds Eye was fish fingers.

2007, Michael Symons, chapter XX, in One Continuous Picnic: A Gastronomic History of Australia, page 242:

2009, Linda Larsen, The $7 Meals Cookbook: 301 Delicious, Nutritious Recipes the Whole Family Will Love, Adams Media, MA, page 148,
Fish fingers are usually sold in very large packages, about 3–5 pounds.

If chip butties are the king of beige, fish finger sarnies are the queen. Home-made fish fingers are super-easy to make and freeze well, so make a large batch and keep them for a rainy day.

2012, Tom Herbert, Henry Herbert, The Fabulous Baker Brothers, unnumbered page:

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A rectangular stick of processed fish coated in breadcrumbs that is cooked by frying or grilling.


cot

Borrowed from Hindi खाट (khāṭ), from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀔𑀝𑁆𑀝𑀸 (khaṭṭā), from Sanskrit खट्वा (khaṭvā, “bedstead”).

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A bed for infants or small children, with high, often slatted, often moveable sides.


dumpling

A folk word, first attested in c. 1600s, apparently from a Norfolk (East Anglian) dialect, of uncertain origin:
* perhaps from some Low German word (compare dümpeln (“bobbing up and down”)),
* or from the rare dialectal adjective dump (“lump, of the consistency of dough”) (first attested in the late 1800s), + -ling (diminutive suffix), although dumpling is recorded much earlier. However, compare dumpy (“short and stout”).

(cooking) A ball of dough that is cooked and may have a filling and/or additional ingredients in the dough.

(chiefly UK) Specifically, a ball of dough used in stews and other sauced dishes; a thick noodle.


monkey

en-noun

monkey (plural monkeys or (obsolete) monkies)

monkeys (plural)
monkies (obsolete plural)

→ Chukchi: маӈкы (maṇky)

→ Coeur d'Alene: moonki

→ Irish: moncaí

→ Navajo: mágí

→ Scottish Gaelic: muncaidh

→ Tumbuka: munkhwele

→ Welsh: mwnci

Uncertain. May be derived from monk + -ey (diminutive suffix), or borrowed from Middle Low German Moneke, the name of the son of Martin the Ape in Reynard the Fox (which may represent an unattested colloquial Middle Low German *moneke, *moneken), itself of uncertain origin. Possibly derived from a Romance term represented by Late Middle French monne (whence Modern French mone (“monkey”)) or earlier Old French monnekin (“monkey”), originally Monnekin, the name of a monkey in Li Dis d'Entendement. Compare also Old French and Middle French monin (“monkey”). The French terms may have been borrowed from Italian monna (“monkey”), from Old Spanish mona (“female monkey”), itself a shortening of mamona, variant of maimón, from Arabic مَيْمُون (maymūn, “baboon”)). However, Old French monnekin may alternatively be unrelated to the other terms, instead being a borrowing of Early Middle Dutch mannekin (a diminutive of a personal name or surname; hence, nickname, literally “miniature man”).

gl

whence Modern French <i class="Latn mention" lang="fr">mone</i> (“monkey”)

der

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

you can take the monkey out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the monkey

A thousandth of a million squid or two monkeys
Or a whole fifty scores

2004, The Streets (lyrics and music), “It Was Supposed to Be So Easy”, in A Grand Don’t Come for Free:

(slang) Synonym of five hundred, especially (British) 500 pounds sterling or (US, dated) 500 dollars.


potato

en-noun

potato (countable and uncountable, plural potatoes)

Borrowed from Spanish patata, itself borrowed from Taíno batata (“sweet potato”).

(informal, UK) A conspicuous hole in a sock or stocking.


curriculum

curriculum (plural curricula or curriculums)

Borrowed from Latin curriculum (“course”), derived from currō (“run, move quickly”). Doublet of curricle.

Drawing on texts recommended in curricula and controlling for two countries with benchmarked curricula improves the external representativeness of the corpus.

2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 108:

(UK, Canada, Australia) The set of standards schools are required to teach all students.


cross

en-adj

cross (comparative crosser, superlative crossest)

crosser (comparative)
crossest (superlative)

From Middle English cross, cros, from Old English cros (“rood, cross”), perhaps from Old Irish cros (compare Welsh croes, Irish crois), perhaps from Latin crux (cruci). In this sense displaced native Middle English rood, from Old English rōd; see rood.
The sense of "two intersecting lines drawn or cut on a surface; two lines intersecting at right angles" without regard to religious signification develops from the late 14th century.
cognates
*Old Norse kross (“cross”)
*Icelandic kross (“cross”)
*Faroese krossur (“cross”)
*Danish kors (“cross”)
*Swedish kors (“cross”)
*German Kreuz (“cross”)
*Dutch kruis (“cross”)

She was rather cross about missing her train on the first day of the job.

Please don't get cross at me. (or) Please don't get cross with me.

1650/1651, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living
He had received a cross answer from his mistress.

(chiefly British, Ottawa Valley) Bad-tempered, angry, annoyed.


cross

en-verb

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

crosses (present singular third-person)
crossing (participle present)
crossed (participle past)
crossed (past)
cross (infinitive)

2022, Andrew Lang, Oxford
The reign of Mary was scarcely more favourable to letters. No one knew what to be at in religion. In Magdalen no one could be found to say Mass, the fellows were turned out, the undergraduates were whipped — boyish martyrs — and crossed at the buttery.

(UK, Oxford University, slang, obsolete, transitive) To mark a cross against the name of (a student) in the buttery or kitchen, so that they cannot get food there.


panda

→ Malay: panda

→ Japanese: パンダ (panda)

→ Korean: 판다 (panda)

→ Tagalog: panda

→ Thai: แพนด้า (pɛn-dâa)

Borrowed from French panda, of unclear ultimate origin but probably from the second element of nigálya-pónya, a local name for the red panda recorded in Nepal and Sikkim by Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800 or 1801 – 1894), an ethnologist, naturalist and the British Resident of Nepal, possibly from Nepali निँगाले (nĩgāle, “relating to a certain species of bamboo”) (the adjectival form of निँगालो (nĩgālo), a variant of निङालो (niṅālo, “Drepanostachyum intermedium, a species of bamboo”)) + a regional Tibetan name for the animal (compare regional Tibetan ཕོ་ཉ (pho nya, “messenger”)).
Attributive uses of sense 2 (“giant panda”) generally refer to that animal’s distinctive black and white coat colour.

der

Before the confrontation, the youth sighted a police personnel carrier, two dog patrol vans, a motorway style car, at least two pandas and one unmarked police car.

1975, Darcus Howe, editor, Race Today, London: Race Today Collective, →OCLC, page 279:

(British, law enforcement, colloquial) Short for panda car (“a black-and-white police car”).


mug

→ French: mug → French: meugue

→ Finnish: muki

→ Maltese: magg

→ Swedish: mugg

→ Welsh: mẁg, mỳg

Early 16th century (originally Scots and northern English, denoting "earthenware, pot, jug"), of unknown origin, perhaps from North Germanic (compare Swedish mugg (“mug, jug”), Norwegian mugge (“pitcher, open can for warm drinks”), Danish mugge), or Low German mokke, mukke (“mug”), German Low German Muck (“drinking cup”), Dutch mok (“mug”), also of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Old English muga (“stack”) and Old Norse múgr (“mass, heap (of corn)”). Compare also Middle English mug, mog (“a measure of salt”).
"Face" sense possibly from grotesque faces on certain drinking vessels. "Assault" sense of verb possibly from hitting someone in the face.

cog

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, derogatory, slang) A stupid or contemptible person.


mug

en-verb

mug (third-person singular simple present mugs, present participle mugging, simple past and past participle mugged)

mugs (present singular third-person)
mugging (participle present)
mugged (participle past)
mugged (past)

Madgbury showed game, drove Abbot in a corner, but got well Mugg'd.

1857, "The Leary Man", in Anglicus Ducange, The Vulgar Tongue
And if you come to fibbery, You must Mug one or two,

"Suppose they had Mugged you?" / "Done what to me?" / "Mugged you. Slogged you, you know."

1866 May 5, London Miscellany, page 102:

(transitive, obsolete, UK, Ireland) To strike in the face.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, slang) To learn or review a subject as much as possible in a short time; cram.


cant

From Middle English cant, kaunt, presumably from Middle Low German *kant, perhaps a slang word related to kant (“edge, rim”), from Medieval Latin canthus. Attested from the 13th or 14th century.

Homophone: Kant (in anglicized pronunciation)


tea

en-noun

tea (countable and uncountable, plural teas)

Gullah: tea

Jamaican Creole: tea

→ Abenaki: ti

→ Chickasaw: tii'

→ Cocopa: ṭi·

→ Cornish: té

→ Cree:

Canadian syllabic script: ᑎᕀ (tiy)

Latin script: tiy

→ Inuktitut: ᑏ (tii)

→ Irish: tae

→ Maori: tī

→ Malecite-Passamaquoddy: ti

desc

→ Mikasuki: ti'g'tlo'q, ji'gitlo'q (“kettle”) (from "tea kettle")

→ Panamint: tii

→ Scottish Gaelic: tì, teatha

→ Tamil: டீ (ṭī)

→ Telugu: టీ (ṭī)

→ Unami: ti

→ Welsh: te

Amoy
Amoy dialect
Dutch East India Company
Macao
Álvaro Semedo

First appears c. 1655, in the writings of Álvaro Semedo. From Dutch thee, from Hokkien 茶 (tê) (Amoy dialect), from Old Chinese, ultimately from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-la (“leaf, tea”). Introduced to English and other Western European languages by the Dutch East India Company, who sourced their tea in Amoy; compare Malay teh along the same trade route. Doublet of chai and cha (and, distantly, the first element of lahpet), from same Proto-Sino-Tibetan root; see discussion of cognates.
Cognates
The word for “tea” in many languages is of Sinitic origin (due to China being the origin of the plant), and thus there are many cognates; see translations. These are from one of two proximate sources, reflected in the phonological shape: forms with a stop (e.g. /t/) are derived from Min Nan tê, while forms with an affricate (e.g. /tʃ/) are derived from other Sinitic languages, like Mandarin chá or Cantonese caa4 (all written as 茶). Different languages borrowed one or the other form (specific language and point in time varied), reflecting trade ties, generally Min Nan tê if by ocean trade from Fujian, Cantonese caa4 if by ocean trade from Guangdong, or northern Chinese chá if by overland trade or by ocean trade from India.
Thus Western and Northern European languages borrowed tê (with the exception of Portuguese, which uses chá; despite being by ocean trade, their source was in Macao, not Amoy), while chá borrowings are used over a very large geographical area of Eurasia and Africa: Southern and Eastern Europe, and on through Turkish, Arabic, North and East Africa, Persian, Central Asian, and Indic languages. In Europe the tê/chá line is Italian/Slovene, Hungarian/Romanian, German/Czech, Polish/Ukrainian, Baltics/Russian, Finnish/Karelian, Northern Sami/Inari Sami. tê was also borrowed in European trade stops in Southern India and coastal Africa, though chá borrowings are otherwise more prevalent in these regions, via Arabic or Indic, due to earlier trade. The situation in Southeast Asia is complex due to multiple influences, and some languages borrowed both forms, such as Malay teh and ca.
Sense 10 (“information, especially gossip”) is originally from T standing for truth, which evolved into tea.

茶水

cheap or free tea in Chinese restaurants

紅茶 (こうちゃ, kōcha) (black tea, lit.: "red")

what does that have to do with the price of tea in China

I won't make it to the breakfast event, but I'll see you at the tea.

But the gorge of the Rush was not at all a nice place for travelling either. I mean, it was not a nice place for people in a hurry. For an afternoon's ramble ending in a picnic tea it would have been delightful.

1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia:

Tea was a very special institution, revolving as it did around the ceremony and worship of Toast. In a place [public schools] where alcohol, tobacco and drugs were forbidden, it was essential that something should take their place as a powerful and public totem of virility and cool. Toast, for reasons lost in time, was the substance chosen.

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, page 16:

(uncountable, UK) A light midafternoon meal, typically but not necessarily including tea.


aerial

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

From Latin āerius + -al, from Ancient Greek ἀέριος (aérios), from ἀήρ (aḗr, “air”).

(chiefly UK) A rod, wire, or other structure for receiving or transmitting radio, television signals etc.


course

→ Gulf Arabic: كورس (kōrs)

From Middle English cours, from Old French cours, from Latin cursus (“course of a race”), from currō (“run”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”). Doublet of cursus and cour.

polku

path that something or someone moves along

the course of true love never did run smooth

What's your course in university?
—Business studies. And you?

During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant[…]

1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond:

(UK, Ireland) an educational programme at a college or university leading to an academic degree or vocational qualification.


magazine

→ Burmese: မဂ္ဂဇင်း (magga.jang:)

→ Cebuano: magasin

→ Dutch: magazine

→ French: magazine

→ Portuguese: magazine

→ Italian: magazine

→ Gujarati: મેગેઝિન (megejhin)

→ Hebrew: מגזין (magazin)

→ Japanese: マガジン (magajin)

→ Kashubian: magazina (Canada, United States,)

→ Shan: မႅၵ်ႈၵၸိၼ်း (mēk kǎ tsín)

→ Shan: မႅၵ်ႈၵၸိၼ်း (mēk kǎ tsín)

→ Spanish: magacín

→ Turkish: magazin

→ Malay: magazin

From Middle English magasyne, from Middle French magasin (“warehouse, store”), from Italian magazzino (“storehouse”), ultimately from Arabic مَخَازِن pl (maḵāzin), plural of مَخْزَن (maḵzan, “storeroom, storehouse”), noun of place from خَزَنَ (ḵazana, “to store, to stock, to lay up”).

der

Most teletext "magazines" contain about 100 pages of information, typically including news headlines, weather reports, sports scores, video games, and stock prices.

1983, Channels of Communications, volume 3, page 41:

The operator is able to build Teletext magazines of, typically, 100 pages per magazine, specify transmission times […]

1984, Telecommunications, volume 18, page 89:

(television, UK, Ireland) A collection of Teletext pages.


fare

en-noun

fare (countable and uncountable, plural fares)

From Middle English fare, from the merger of Old English fær (“journey, road”) and faru (“journey, companions, baggage”), from Proto-Germanic *farą and *farō (“journey, fare”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“a going, passage”).

der

(countable, UK, crime, slang) A prostitute's client.


busy

From Middle English bisy, busie, from Old English bisiġ (“busy, occupied, diligent”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisīg (“diligent; zealous; busy”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian biesich (“active, diligent, hard-working, industrious”), Dutch bezig (“busy”), Low German besig (“busy”). The spelling with ⟨u⟩ represents the pronunciation of the West Midland and Southern dialects while the Modern English pronunciation with /ɪ/ is from the dialects of the East Midlands.

cog

I remember playing on a building site once and coming across a five-pound note. I could hardly believe it when I spotted it poking out of the rubble. Excitedly, I ran straight home and gave it to my mum. I was hero of the hour until I got into trouble with the busies – the police – soon afterwards for pinching a bottle of milk from a float.

2016, Chris Graham, Five Minutes of Amazing: My Journey Through Dementia, London: Sphere, →ISBN, page 30:

(slang, UK, Liverpool, derogatory) A police officer.


pudding

en-noun

pudding (countable and uncountable, plural puddings)

→ Belarusian: пу́дынг (púdynh)

→ Burmese: ပူတင်း (putang:)

→ Chinese: 布丁 (bùdīng), 布甸 (bùdiàn)

→ Esperanto: pudingo

→ Estonian: puding

→ French: poudingue

→ Italian: puddinga

→? French: poutine (semantic loan)

desctree

→ French: pudding, pouding (post-1990 spelling)
→ Romanian: budincă
→ Turkish: puding

→ Dutch: pudding

→ German: Pudding

desc

→ Japanese: プディング (pudingu), プリン (purin)

→ Latvian: pudiņš

→ Lithuanian: pudingas

→? Michif: poutchine

→ Polish: pudding

→ Portuguese: pudim

→ Russian: пу́динг (púding)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: пу̀динг

Latin script: pùding

→ Spanish: budín, pudding, pudin, pudín

→ Swedish: pudding

→ Ukrainian: пу́динг (púdynh), пу́ндик (púndyk)

→ Welsh: pwdin

From circa 1305, Middle English podynge (“kind of sausage; meat-filled animal stomach”), puddynge, from Old French boudin (“blood sausage, black pudding”), from Latin botellus (“sausage, small intestine”). Doublet of boudin.
* An alternative etymology assumes origin from Proto-Germanic *put-, *pud- (“to swell”) (compare dialectal English pod (“belly”), Old English puduc (“wen, sore”), Low German puddig (“swollen”), Westphalian Puddek (“lump, pudding”), Puddewurst (“black pudding”). More at pout.

der

the proof of the pudding is in the eating

We have apple pie for pudding today.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Dessert; the dessert course of a meal.


bureau

Unadapted borrowing from French bureau, earlier "coarse cloth (as desk cover), baize", from Old French burel (“woolen cloth”), diminutive of *bure (compare Middle French bure (“coarse woolen cloth”), French bourre (“hair, fluff”)), from Late Latin burra (“wool, fluff, shaggy cloth, coarse fabric”); akin to Ancient Greek βερβέριον (berbérion, “shabby garment”). Doublet of burel and borrel, taken from Old French.

cog

(chiefly British) A desk, usually with a cover and compartments that are located above the level of the writing surface rather than underneath, and often used for storing papers.


loo

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

Uncertain, although usually derived in some way from Waterloo, the site of Wellington's 1815 victory over Napoleon, likely via a pun based on water closet. Other suggested derivations include corruptions of French l’eau (“water”), lieu (“place”), lieux d’aisances (“'places of convenience': a lavatory”), lieu à l’anglaise (“'English place': a British-style lavatory”), bordalou (“a diminutive chamber pot”) or gardez l’eau (“'mind the water'”), via Scots gardyloo, formerly used in Edinburgh while emptying chamber pots out of windows; the supposed use of "Room 100" as the lavatory in Continental hotels; a popularisation of lew, a regional corruption of lee (“downwind”), in reference to shepherds' privies or the former use of beakheads on that side of the ship for urination and defecation; or a clipped form of the name of the unpopular 19th-century Countess of Lichfield Lady Harriett Georgiana Louisa Hamilton Anson, who was the subject of an 1867 prank whereby her bedroom's namecard was placed on the door to the lavatory, prompting the other guests to begin speaking of "going to Lady Louisa".

I suppose it is unreal because we have been expecting it [sc. World War II] for so long now, and have known that it must be got over before we can go on with our lives. Like in the night when you want to go to the loo and it is miles away down a freezing cold passage and yet you know you have to go down that passage before you can be happy and sleep again.

1940, Nancy Mitford, chapter II, in Pigeon Pie, page 27:

Ensure that the tents are well-sited and clean, rubbish bins empty, and that the loos have toilet paper.

2006, Garth Thompson et al., The Guide′s Guide to Guiding, 3rd edition, page 160:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A lavatory: a room used for urination and defecation.

The lack of running water in rural areas often makes Western-style loos hygienic disasters. Suddenly the noncontact squat toilet doesn′t look like such a bad option any more (as long as you roll up your trouser legs).

2009, Katharina Kane, Lonely Planet: The Gambia and Senegal, page 275:

Waterless urinals are a great way of keeping the guys out of the cubicle toilets, keeping the urine separated from the solid waste (when using composting loos) and reducing water consumption if you have flush loos.

2010, Meegan Jones, Sustainable Event Management, page 206:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A toilet: a fixture used for urination and defecation.


sort

From Middle English sort, soort, sorte (= Dutch soort, German Sorte, Danish sort, Swedish sort), borrowed from Old French sorte (“class, kind”), from Latin sortem, accusative form of sors (“lot, fate, share, rank, category”).

(British, Australia, informal) A good-looking woman.


sort

en-verb

sort (third-person singular simple present sorts, present participle sorting, simple past and past participle sorted)

sorts (present singular third-person)
sorting (participle present)
sorted (participle past)
sorted (past)
sort (infinitive)

From Middle English sorten, from Old French sortir (“to allot, sort”), from Latin sortīre (“draw lots, divide, choose”), from sors.

der

‘Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming [title]

2024 February 25, Donna Ferguson, “‘Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming”, in The Observer:

(British, colloquial, transitive) To fix (a problem) or handle (a task).

If he comes nosing around here again I'll sort him!

(British, colloquial, transitive) To attack physically.


mater

From Latin māter (“mother”), partly via Late Middle English matere. Doublet of mata and mother. Ancestor of matrix.

Coordinate term: pater

Their maters are all pals of my mater’s, and I don’t want to get them into trouble for aiding and abetting my little show, if you understand what I mean.

1919 June 14, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “A Damsel in Distress”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, number 50, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, chapter XX, page 57, column 1:

And then there’s the mater! Poor old mater! She goes about on tiptoe; she’s always watching me and pretending she’s not watching me; I believe she would like to have everything padded with feather beds. All the while she has been wanting me to do the goody book thing, get down on my knees and put my head in her lap and blub.

1923, Warwick Deeping, “John Stretton”, in The Secret Sanctuary (The Scherz Phoenix Books), Berne: Alfred Scherz Publishers, published 1945, →OCLC, page 32:

Strangled by the wishes of pater / Hoping for the arms of mater / Get to me the sooner or later

1985, Mick Hucknall, Neil Moss (lyrics and music), “Holding Back the Years”, in Picture Book, performed by Simply Red:

“Mater, you look well.” / “I am well. And you,” she said in that dryly prosaic deep voice of hers, “look healed.”

1997, Colleen McCullough, Caesar’s Women, page 17:

(British, slang, now chiefly archaic or humorous) Mother.


proper

From Middle English propre, from Anglo-Norman proper, propre, Old French propre (French: propre), from Latin proprius.

'I thought it was the American Associated Press.' 'Oh, they are on the track, are they?' 'They to-day, and the Times yesterday. Oh, they are buzzing round proper.'

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:

“Christmas Eve,” said Nabby Adams. “I used to pump the bloody organ for the carols, proper pissed usually.”

1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 202:

The kid towelled him up proper.

1957, Ray Lawler, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Sydney: Fontana Books, published 1974, page 32:

Don't you think you must have looked proper daft?

1964, Saint Andrew Society (Glasgow, Scotland), The Scots magazine: Volume 82

(UK, Ireland, colloquial) properly; thoroughly; completely.


carry

From Middle English carrien, from Anglo-Norman carier (modern French charrier); from a derivative of Latin carrus (“four-wheeled baggage wagon”), ultimately of Gaulish origin.


overegg

en-verb

overegg (third-person singular simple present overeggs, present participle overegging, simple past and past participle overegged)

overeggs (present singular third-person)
overegging (participle present)
overegged (participle past)
overegged (past)

From over- (prefix meaning ‘excessive; excessively’) + egg, from the phrase over-egg the pudding, a reference to adding too many eggs to a pudding and thereby ruining it.

affix

But hard riding men, in strange countries, are apt now and then to over-egg the pudding, as the Yorkshire landlord told his Grace of Cleveland.

1839 September, Nimrod [pseudonym; Charles James Apperley], “A Hunting Tour in the Midland Counties: The Quorn: The Belvoir: And the Cottesmore”, in Craven [pseudonym; John William Carleton], editor, The Sporting Review, a Monthly Chronicle of the Turf, the Chase, and Rural Sports in All Their Varieties, London: Rudolph Ackermann, […], →OCLC, page 187:

[Seymour] Hersh vilifies the [Richard] Nixon–[Henry] Kissinger team for the way they adapted the handling of the Vietnam "peace" talks to the sordid claims of the presidential election time-table, but he over-eggs the omelette. It is reasonable to criticise them for having pretended to the American people (and perhaps themselves) that there was some way to negotiate a peace which would preserve the independence of south Vietnam. It is not reasonable to argue, as Hersh does, that the U.S. might have been able to bomb its way to such a durable peace in the spring of 1973, if the White House had not been hamstrung by the debilitating effects of the Watergate scandal.

1983 October 8, Ian Davidson, “As they were [review of Kissinger: The Price of Power by Seymour M. Hersh]”, in Financial Times, number 29,140, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12, column 3:

[M]any British officials, as David Holden deduced from conversations with them in the Crescent bar in the mid-fifties, were 'afflicted with a familiar form of colonial myopia known as localitis' – […] Maybe Holden slightly overeggs the pudding.

1991, Glen Balfour-Paul, “Comparisons, without Odium”, in The End of Empire in the Middle East: Britain’s Relinquishment of Power in Her Last Three Arab Dependencies, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 1992, →ISBN, page 162:

[Hall] Caine over-eggs the omelette but it is still a strong story.

1997, Vivien Allen, chapter 24, in Hall Caine: Portrait of a Victorian Romancer, Sheffield, South Yorkshire: Sheffield Academic Press, →ISBN, page 353:

NML [Capital] insists Argentina is overegging the RUFO [rights upon future offers] worry: given that the country has appealed its case all the way up to the Supreme Court and been rebuffed, a judge is unlikely to deem any deal "voluntary".

2014 July 26, “Argentina’s debt saga: Unsettling times: The clock is ticking toward an Argentine default”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-25:

The men [in Pascal Rambert's play Actrice (2015)] fare less well: The husbands of both sisters overegg their Russian accents, with Jakob Öhrman, as the boisterous Pavel, left to utter inanities including, "The truth is in my alcoholism."

2017 December 22, Laura Cappelle, “2 French playwrights reclaim their works, bringing them home”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-08-23:

Janis Joplin sounds unerringly like Ray Stevens' Bridget the Midget in places. While Raise Your Hand is a pretty undeniable Stax-on-helium workout, her version of the Bee Gees' To Love Somebody is overegged.

2019 August 15, Bob Stanley, “‘Groovy, groovy, groovy’: Listening to Woodstock 50 years on – all 38 discs”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-05-08:

over-egg the pudding
over-egg the pudding

(transitive, idiomatic, originally UK, regional) Chiefly in over-egg the pudding: to spoil (something) by exaggerating it, or an aspect of it; to overdo.


special

From Middle English *special, especial, especiall, from Old French especial (whence also French spécial), from Latin speciālis (from speciēs). In this sense displaced native Old English synderlīċ. Doublet of especial.

And you can't trust a "Special" like the old-time copper when you can't find your way home.

1919, Fred W. Leigh, Charles Collins (lyrics and music), “My Old Man”performed by Marie Lloyd:

(British, colloquial) A special constable.


flag

en-noun

flag (countable and uncountable, plural flags)

From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape.
Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken (“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage (“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra (“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn (“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen (“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren (“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor (“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.

onomatopoeic

imitative

cog

(British, uncountable) The game of capture the flag.

Suppose you try a different tack, / And on the square you flash your flag?

1887, William Ernest Henley, Villon's Straight Tip to All Cross Coves:


steel

I was lugged before the beak, who gave me six doss in the steel. [...] six months in the Bastille (the old House of Corrections), Coldbath Fields.

1862, Havelock Ellis, The Criminal, page 162:

He said he had been in the “steel” (Coldbath Fields Prison) eight times.

1866, George Augustus Sala, Edmund Hodgson Yates, Temple Bar, volume 16, page 507:

This time I got two moon for assaulting the reelers when canon. For this I went to the Steel (Bastile^([sic]) — Coldbath Fields Prison), having a new suit of clobber on me and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).

1879, Macmillan's Magazine, volume 40, page 502:

(UK, crime, slang, obsolete) Coldbath Fields Prison in London, closed in 1877.


burgle

en-verb

burgle (third-person singular simple present burgles, present participle burgling, simple past and past participle burgled)

burgles (present singular third-person)
burgling (participle present)
burgled (participle past)
burgled (past)

In St. Louis, burglars burgle by daylight

1867 March 14, “This and That”, in Delaware Tribune, Wilmington, DE, page 1:

The New York World has coined a new verb -- "to burgle."

1867 August 24, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, page 8:

The language grows apace. A "cablegram" has been received, and $400 have been "burgled."

1868 February 13, Louisville Daily Courier, Louisvile, KY, page 4:

Burgled his safe and bolted with the tin.

1868, John Brougham, Much Ado About a Merchant of Venice, New York: Samuel French, page 13:

[S]he went and burgled three pears out of the dish ...

1869, Joanna H. Mathews, Bessie at School, London: James Nisbet & Co., page 183:

Conceive the Great Lexicographer admitting to his Dictionary such excrescencies as: "Burgle, verb active, To break into a dwelling-house,"

1870 February 5, “American Slangography”, in Punch, London, page 44:

Burglarize, to, a term creeping into journalism. ... The word has a dangerous rival in the shorter burgle.

1872, M. Schele De Vere, Americanisms: The English of the New World, New York: Charles Scribner, page 587:

When an American says, "I've been burgled" -- where an Englishman would say, "My house has been broken into by thieves" -- he succeeds in shortening the statement by more than half ...

1873 April 21, Albert Julius Mott, “Inaugural Address”, in Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, volume xxvii, London: Longman, Greens, Reader & Dyer, page 30:

Well, I hope to goodness the house won’t be burgled during the night.

1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Beryl Coronet”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2011:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To commit burglary.

And when scrum-half Ben Youngs, who had a poor game, was burgled by opposite number Irakli Abuseridze and the ball shipped down the line to Irakli Machkhaneli, it looked like Georgia had scored a try of their own, but the winger's foot was in touch.

2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:

Foden did his job admirably. The fact that both City goals came from burgling possession in the final third indicated how successfully City managed collectively to disrupt Real’s buildup play.

2020 August 7, Jonathan Liew, “Phil Foden stars to offer Manchester City glimpse of multiple futures”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, sports) To take the ball legally from an opposing player.


honeycomb

en-noun

honeycomb (countable and uncountable, plural honeycombs)

Alhambra
Oxford English Dictionary
United States Army

The noun is derived from Middle English hony comb, from Old English huniġcamb, from huniġ (“honey”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂ónks (“honey”)) + camb (“comb”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“peg; tooth; row of teeth”)). The English word is analysable as honey + comb. The Oxford English Dictionary posits that the arrangement of several plates of wax “hanging parallel to each other from the roof of the hive suggests a comb with its teeth”. The verb is derived from the noun.

kennosto

something resembling honeycomb in having numerous cells or small holes

hunaja

something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; something desirable or pleasant

honeycomb toffee

(countable, figurative) Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.

(uncountable, chiefly Australia, British, often attributive) A crumbly confection usually made by boiling together golden syrup, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, and water.


glut

From Middle English glotien, from Old French gloter, glotir (compare French engloutir (“to devour”), glouton (“glutton”)), from Latin gluttiō, gluttīre (“I swallow”). Akin to Russian глотать (glotatʹ, “to swallow”).

Four goals scored by a single player in a match can be described as a 'haul', while five goals is unofficially a 'glut'.

2020 October 23, “What is a brace in soccer?”, in Goal:

(British, soccer) Five goals scored by one player in a game.


wack

Clipping of wacker (“a Liverpudlian; a resident of Liverpool, England”)

clipping

A few well chosen words such as "Let's be having you wack!", works wonders. The dockers know that they've got a Scouse to deal with. I'm not saying that a Southerner couldn't handle the situation, but the job might well take longer.

1966, The British Journal of Photography, volume 113, H. Greenwood, page 17:

Leading Seaman Hanlon, a tough young man from the Liverpool docks, greeted him with, 'Wot's up with you, wack? Lost yer bleeding maor summat?'

2011, Douglas Reeman, Torpedo Run, Random House, →ISBN:

One of the young men stepped forward to explain. It was obviously an enthusiasm of his. 'Hey, Wack, gerron wiv it, eh?'

2019, Richard Woodman, Voyage East, Canelo, →ISBN:

(UK, Liverpool) A friendly term of address.


crust

en-noun

crust (countable and uncountable, plural crusts)

From Middle English cruste, from Anglo-Norman and Old French cruste, from Latin crusta (“hard outer covering”), from Proto-Indo-European *krustós (“hardened”), from *krews- (“to form a crust, begin to freeze”), related to Old Norse hroðr (“scurf”), Old English hruse (“earth”), Old High German hrosa (“crust, ice”), Latvian kruvesis (“frozen mud”), Ancient Greek κρύος (krúos, “frost, icy cold”), κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “crystal, ice”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬎𐬰𐬛𐬭𐬀- (xruzdra-, “hard”), Sanskrit क्रूड् (krūḍ, “thicken, make hard”).

cog

(British, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Northern US) A slice of bread cut from the end of a loaf; the heel.

to earn one's crust

Like most of us, I am frequently asked by friends and people I meet in business situations or round the dinner table what I do to earn my crust.

1999, Norman Longworth, Making Lifelong Learning Work: Learning Cities for a Learning Century, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 1:

(British, Australia, informal) A living.

“Well, all I can say is that if yer don't take yer dial outer the road I'll bloomin' well take an' bounce a gibber off yer crust.”

1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 90:


batter

en-verb

batter (third-person singular simple present batters, present participle battering, simple past and past participle battered)

batters (present singular third-person)
battering (participle present)
battered (participle past)
battered (past)

From Middle English bateren, from Old French batre (“to beat”), from Late Latin battere, from earlier battuere (“to beat, strike, fight”), of unknown origin; probably from Celtic or Germanic origin.

unc

unknown origin

That cocktail will batter you!

I was battered last night on our pub crawl.

(UK, slang, usually in the passive) To intoxicate.

the bible mentioned in the oath emitted this day , by Andrew Murison , as the book and bible from whence the printed leaves , battered on the B. L. Coy's notes , now challenged as forged , are alleged to be taken

1826, Thomas Beveridge, A Practical Treatise on the Forms of Process...:

(UK, obsolete) To coat in a paste-like substance; to fasten with a paste-like glue.


practical

From Middle English practical, practicale, praktycall, from Medieval Latin practicālis.

(British) A part of an exam or series of exams in which the candidate has to demonstrate their practical ability

практика

a part of an exam or series of exams in which the candidate has to demonstrate their practical ability


bobby

From the given name of Sir Robert Peel, who established London’s police force.

If I am wrong, and if Lessingham’s wrong, how do you explain his extraordinary insistence on taking it inside the cab with him, which the bobby describes?

(British, Ireland, Australia, slang) A police officer.

(British, Ireland, Australia, slang) A railway signaller.


video

en-verb

video (third-person singular simple present videoes, present participle videoing, simple past and past participle videoed)

videoes (present singular third-person)
videoing (participle present)
videoed (participle past)
videoed (past)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *weyd-der.
Proto-Italic *widēō
Latin videōbor.
English video
From the root vide of Latin videō (“I see”) + -o, formed in analogy to audio.

etymon

(British) To record using a video camera, to videotape

(British) To record a television program


ordinance

From Middle English ordinaunce (ca. 1300), from Old French ordenance (“decree, command”) (modern French ordonnance), from Medieval Latin ordinantia, from ordinans, the present participle of ordino (“put in order”) (whence ordain). Doublet of ordonnance.

der

An edict or decree, authoritative order.

(UK, pre-1992 universities, Commonwealth) Detailed legislation that translates the broad principles of the university's charter and statutes into practical effect.


macadamization

en-noun

macadamization (countable and uncountable, plural macadamizations)

/məˌkædəmɪˈzeɪʃən/

(British) The process of paving roads with macadam.


saloon

→ Finnish: saluuna

→ French: saloon

→ Russian: салун (salun)

→ Bengali: সেলুন (śelun)

→ Hindi: सैलून (sailūn)

From Occitan salon IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /saˈlun/ French salon, either augmentative of salle (“room”), or borrowed from Italian salone (“hall”), augmentative form of sala, salla (“room”); in both cases borrowed from a Germanic source such as Old High German sal (“house, hall”), from Proto-Germanic *salą, from Proto-Indo-European *sol-, derived from *sel- (“dwelling”). Doublet of salon.

A pint of beer in the saloon bar costs a penny more than in the public bar.

(British, dated) A lounge bar in an English public house, contrasted with the public bar.

обща зала

a large public room for use as a lounge on a ship

(British) A car with a boot or trunk compartment separate from the driver/passenger space; a sedan.


tram

→ German: Tram

→ Hindi: ट्राम (ṭrām)

desc

→ Urdu: ٹرام

→ Urdu: ٹرام

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Oxford University Press

Possibly from Low German traam (“tram, shaft of a barrow”), from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch trame (“narrow shaft, beam”), said to be ultimately from a lost West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) word, probably from Proto-Germanic *drum (“splinter, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“peg, post, boundary”), cognate with Latin terminus.
Compare Middle Low German treme; West Flemish traam, trame.
The popular derivation from the surname of the English pioneer tramway builder Benjamin Outram (1764–1805) is false: the term pre-dated him.
The sense of a rail vehicle derives from tram-way, in its earliest sense meaning literally a log-covered road, but later applied to the earliest wooden railways, used for transporting coal in carts which came to be called "trams".

der

Lizzie and she got a dozen of large bottles and the loan of a basket and we got a currant pan and a half-pound of cooked ham in the shop next door and got on the tram for Whitehall.

1981, Brendan Behan, edited by Peter Fallon, After the Wake: Twenty-one Prose Works including Previously Unpublished Material (Classic Irish Fiction Series), Dublin: The O'Brien Press, →ISBN:

(Australia, British, rail transport) A passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road (called a streetcar or trolley in North America).

The horse-drawn tram has vanished, and so will the trolley, and some eccentric Berlin writer in the twenties of the twenty-first century, wishing to portray our time, will go to a museum of technological history and locate a hundred-year-old streetcar, yellow, uncouth, with old-fashioned curved seats […]

1976 [1925], Vladimir Nabokov, “A Guide to Berlin”, in Details of a Sunset and Other Stories, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 93:

(British, historical) A car on a horse railway or tramway (horse trams preceded electric trams).


series

en-noun

series (plural series or (obsolete) serieses)

series (plural)
serieses (obsolete plural)

→ Japanese: シリーズ (shirīzu)

→ Korean: 시리즈 (sirijeu)

→ Burmese: စီးရီး (ci:ri:)

Attested from the 1610s; borrowed from Latin seriēs, from serere (“to join together, bind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, put together, to line up”). Related to desert, insert, sermon, and sorcerer.

مُتَسَلْسِلَة

in analysis: sum of the terms of a sequence

I enjoyed the third series of “Friends”.

(broadcasting, chiefly UK) Synonym of season (“one of the groups of episodes that together make up a whole series”)


spanner

Japanese: スパナ (supana)

Korean: 스패너 (seupaeneo)

Malay: sepana

Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more nut to screw in.

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) A hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts; a wrench.

مِفْتَاح إِنْجْلِيزِيّ m (miftāḥ ʔinglīziyy, literally “English key”)

га́ечны ключ m (háječny ključ, literally “nut key”)

га́ечен ключ m (gáečen ključ, literally “nut key”)

γερμανικό κλειδί n (germanikó kleidí, literally “German key”)

га́ечный ключ m (gáječnyj ključ, literally “nut key”)

гайкови́й ключ m (hajkovýj ključ, literally “nut key”)

Halfway through the production of Macbeth, the director found that the stage was smaller than he expected. This really threw a spanner in the works.

(UK, Ireland) A problem, dilemma or obstacle; something unexpected or troublesome (in the phrase spanner in the works)

You spanner, Rodney! I wanted some time, not a bunch of thyme!

(UK, Ireland, mildly derogatory) A stupid or unintelligent person; one prone to making mistakes, especially in language.


ky

I put on a big fanny of Ky, that is a straight-sided pot of cocoa for them returning.

2005, Patrick Halliday, Survival, page 24:

(UK, naval slang) Alternative form of kye (“cocoa”)


local

From Middle English local, from Late Latin locālis (“belonging to a place”), possibly also via Old French local; ultimately from Latin locus (“a place”).
The ring-theoretic senses derive from Krull, who first referred to Noetherian commutative rings with a unique maximal ideal as "Stellenring" (Stellen (“place”) + ring) in 1938. The term was inspired by algebraic geometry, where local rings encode information about the behavior of curves (surfaces, etc.) at points; hence, describe "local" behavior.

I got barred from my local, so I've started going all the way into town for a drink.

As they take me to my local down the street.

2010, “Nothing”, in Science & Faith, performed by The Script:

(British) One's nearest or regularly frequented public house or bar.


semi

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

The prefix semi- (from Latin) used as a noun.

2008, Elliott Placks, quoted in Helen Isbister, Morris Bryant, Property, Career FAQs, Australia, page 40,
I′m selling two side-by-side semis that are currently under construction, a waterfront apartment and a house in Rose Bay.

The smaller semis of the 1920s and 1930s were closely related to the three bedroom pre-1919 narrow fronted terraces, at least to the larger pre-1919 terraces.

2008, Barry Goodchild, Homes, Cities and Neighbourhoods: Planning and the Residential Landscapes of Modern Britain, page 52:

The roads were lined with cramped little semis and 1960s bungalows: Britain's cheapest houses, in their flimsy, pebble-dashed glory.

2012, Tim Moore, You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Around Unloved Britain, Vintage, →ISBN, page 150:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, informal) A semi-detached house.


wag

en-verb

wag (third-person singular simple present wags, present participle wagging, simple past and past participle wagged)

wags (present singular third-person)
wagging (participle present)
wagged (participle past)
wagged (past)

From Middle English waggen, probably from Old English wagian (“to wag, wave, shake”) with reinforcement from Old Norse vaga (“to wag, waddle”); both from Proto-Germanic *wagōną (“to wag”). Related to English way.
The verb may be regarded as an iterative or emphatic form of waw (verb), which is often nearly synonymous; it was used, e.g., of a loose tooth. Parallel formations from the same root are the Old Norse vagga feminine, cradle (Swedish vagga, Danish vugge), Swedish vagga (“to rock a cradle”), Dutch wagen (“to move”), early modern German waggen (dialectal German wacken) to waver, totter. Compare waggle, verb

inh

"My misfortunes all began in wagging, Sir; but what could I do, exceptin' wag?" "Excepting what?" said Mr. Carker. "Wag, Sir. Wagging from school." "Do you mean pretending to go there, and not going?" said Mr. Carker. "Yes, Sir, that's wagging, Sir."

1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “chapter xxii”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:

They had "wagged it" from school, as they termed it, which..meant truancy in all its forms.

1901, William Sylvester Walker, Blood, i. 13:

[…] she wagged English and Science just to go in his car […]

2005, Arctic Monkeys, “Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts”, in I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor:

(UK, Australia, slang) To play truant from school.


nait

From Middle English naite, from Old Norse neyte, neyti (“use”), from Proto-Germanic *nautiz (“use”).

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Use; profit; foredeal; advantage.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Use; end; purpose.