the world and his wife

The world and his wife were at the opening – we could barely move.

1957 July 4, General Secretary, The Textile Institute, A Guide to Careers: No. 32: Textile Technology, New Scientist, page 42,
The world and his wife are the customers for whom the textile industry supplies the greatest necessity next to food, and some of the greatest luxuries.

The punk explosion of 1977 prompted the world and his wife to pick up guitars, just as they had grabbed washboards in the skiffle era 20 years before.

1986 April, Jessica Berens, “Scots on the Rocks”, in Spin, page 29:

1972 (1905), Natsume Sōseki, Aiko Ito, Graeme Wilson (translators), I Am a Cat (吾輩は猫である), Volume 2, 2002, combined edition, page 187,
“ […] But they have to consider what the world and his wife will say, and when dealing with the world one simply cannot be too careful.”

“Why not just hire a crier to go around the city, telling all the world and his wife — all the world and our wives — we had our turns riding Connie to hounds?”

1998, Kasey Michaels, Indiscreet, published 2000, page 229:

2001, advertisement, quoted in 2001, Guy Cook, The Discourse of Advertising, page 112,
Gripping stuff, Subaru four-wheel drive. The world and his wife′s favourite in fact.

(hyperbolic, chiefly UK, Australia) Everyone; a great crowd; a jumbled assortment of people.


rip the piss

en-verb

rip the piss (third-person singular simple present rips the piss, present participle ripping the piss, simple past and past participle ripped the piss)

rips the piss (present singular third-person)
ripping the piss (participle present)
ripped the piss (participle past)
ripped the piss (past)

(UK, Ireland, intransitive, slang, vulgar) To ridicule or mock severely.


billy cart

From billy (“male goat”) + cart, referring to the former practice of hitching a cart behind a large goat.

1954 December, Rotary Reporter: Brief Items on Club Activities around the World, The Rotarian, page 38,
Whether you call them billy carts or soap-box racers, they're one and the same: homemade, four-wheeled, motorless racers that depend on a downhill course for their speed. […] In Coffs Harbour, Australia, for example, the Rotary Club recently held its third annual Billy Cart Derby for cars in two divisions: homemade racers and special championship cars.

It was in the billy cart, I suppose, that I had my first-ever races.

2004, Jack Brabham, Doug Nye, The Jack Brabham Story, page 19:

A few wheels and a crate to make a billy cart would probably be acceptable, or the odd old alarm clock, but nothing more.

2006, Alan Greenhalgh, Gathers No Moss, page 20:

The kids wanted a hole put in a piece of piping to make an axle for a billy-cart, but we had no drill, so Mac stood the steel pipe up against a gum tree, up with the rifle and shot a hole clean through it. The kids were delighted - they put a bolt through and screwed the nut in place and they had a billy-cart.

2007, Ruby Langford Ginibi, Don't Take Your Love to Town, page 98:

(UK, Australia) A rudimentary child's cart; a soapbox car.


twattock

I find it chuffin' alarming because your dinner is s'posed to end up there, not start out there, y'daft twattock! Now bend over.

2008, Lynn Connolly, Close Encounters... of the Shirley Kind:


diddums

Contraction of did 'em (they) do something (to you)?.

(UK) A term of commiseration to a child who has suffered a mildly painful situation.


sprack

en-adj

sprack (comparative more sprack, superlative most sprack)

more sprack (comparative)
most sprack (superlative)

From Middle English sprak, from Old Norse sparkr, sprekr (“lively”) and/or Old Norse sprækr (“lively”), from Proto-Germanic *sparkaz, *sprēkijaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)er(a)g- (“to strew, sprinkle”). More at spark.

der

She was apprenticed as a 'pupil teacher,' at fourteen years of age, and deemed to have a more than ordinary chance of doing well and getting on, for she was clever, and what is called 'sprack' in the part of the country where she lived.

1864, Jean Ingelow, chapter 1, in Studies for Stories: Emily's Ambition:

"Yes, that I be, and I 'ave a little boy, he be a sprack little chap."

1916, J. H. Morgan, Leaves from a Field Note-Book:


werry

Better let me make you up a little fire, the nights is werry cool," continued Ben.

1857, Frank J. Webb, The Garies and Their Friends:

"We must be off if we're to lie at Uxbridge overnight; for there hath been rain beyond, sir, and the roads be werry deep."

I spent a werry plessant arternoon there, and drove home in style on the Box Seat of a reel Company's Bus. The nex day I went to Higate Wood, another of the grate works of the good old Copperashun.

1890, Various, Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, August 30, 1890.:


TCCB

(UK, cricket, historical) Initialism of Test and County Cricket Board.


two-up-two-down

Mansions and workers' two-up-two-downs sprawled all over the town, higgledy-piggledy.

1992, Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century: The perspective of the world:

Houses from Second to Fifth Street were two-up-two-downs and had few amenities, no bathrooms, and were therefore cheap to rent. Some had no hot water.

2005, Mark Crinson, Urban memory: history and amnesia in the modern city:

(UK) A traditional house with two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs.


umbrella company

en-noun

umbrella company (plural umbrella companies)

(UK) A company that acts as an employer to fixed-term contractors, usually through an employment agency.


hail and ride

(UK) A system of public transport in which the vehicle only stops if a passenger or pedestrian specifically signals to the driver.


prinks

(UK, university slang, humorous) Contraction of pre-drinks.


podge

Perhaps from pudsy (“plump”), which could be a diminutive of pud (“child's hand, forepaw”).


podge

Compare German Patsche (“puddle, mire”).


wall plug

(UK) A fixing that allows screws to be fitted into masonry walls, a dowel or screw anchor.


ooer

(UK) Said to acknowledge a double entendre or something that sounds sexually suggestive.


oo-er

Oo-er, how peculiar.

(UK) An expression of surprise or befuddlement.

So, I went around the back with her...

Oo-er!

(UK) Said to acknowledge a double entendre or innuendo.


cocking of a snook

cocking of a snook (plural cocking of snooks)

(UK, derogatory, as a gesture) A disrespectful gesture; a snook.


pranny

Uncertain; perhaps compare prat, fanny, prannet.

And stop staring at my daughter, man! She's got nothing but bubs and a pranny like any other gal!

1985, Paul Quarrington, The life of Hope:


nosethirl

From Middle English nosethirl. By surface analysis, nose + thirl. Compare nostril.

proud Encelade, whose wide nosethrils burnd / With breathed flames, like to a furnace red [...].

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


overgo

en-verb

overgo (third-person singular simple present overgoes, present participle overgoing, simple past overwent, past participle overgone)

overgoes (present singular third-person)
overgoing (participle present)
overwent (past)
overgone (participle past)

From Middle English overgon, from Old English ofergān (“to pass over, beyond, across, traverse, cross, transgress, overstep, overrun, overcome, overspread, conquer, come upon, overtake, seize, attack, pass off, pass away, end, overreach”), equivalent to over- + go. Cognate with Dutch overgaan, German übergehen, Swedish övergå.

inh

He did not rave, he did not stare aghast, / For all those visions were o'ergone, and past […]

1818, John Keats, “(please specify the page)”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:

(intransitive, UK, dialectal) To pass by, pass away; often, to go unnoticed.


tricast

(British) A specific kind of horse race betting, made by choosing the first three horses home in the correct order.


tanglesome

en-adj

tanglesome (comparative more tanglesome, superlative most tanglesome)

more tanglesome (comparative)
most tanglesome (superlative)


kelter

Fiscal—Something has been out of kelter at Washington these two years with regard to the rigid application of appropriations, at least in the Indian Department.

1851, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers:

—All over, resemblance to a particular object, as a ship in bad kelter: "she's a privateer all over."

1867, William Henry Smyth, The Sailor’s Word-Book:

It was intimated to me that such "frivolousness" was out of kelter with the profession of a Christian.

1910, Alexander Irvine, From the Bottom Up:

(British dialectal, US, chiefly in the negative) Archaic form of kilter (“(good) condition, form, or order; fettle”).


kelter

(obsolete, British dialectal) Rubbish; trifle; hodgepodge.


penny for them

penny for your thoughts
penny for your thoughts#English

(UK) Alternative form of penny for your thoughts


honour system

(British, Canada) Alternative spelling of honor system


get one's eye in

en-verb

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

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

(chiefly UK, sports) To become accustomed to the playing conditions, and thus bring one's hand-eye coordination to a reasonable level.

Having thus got my "eye in" for Bledii, numerous casts in my drive and garden footpaths were explored, and turned out to be those of B. opacus

1881, The Entomologist's monthly magazine, page 163:

To know fiddles and judge them you must be always looking at them. For a time, at least, I got my eye in by dwelling on the best models.

1898, Hugh Reginald Haweis, My musical life, page 217:

Why, I myself, old hand as I am, after being away for some months about town, or looking at other things, can't get my eye in and down to it for two or three days; then it kind of comes natural.

1899, Arthur Lakes, Prospecting for Gold and Silver in North America, page 259:

Roberto then took three swings, but did not move his legs or hips, just the arms and wrists-he was merely getting his eye in.

1973 March, Baseball Digest, volume 32, number 3, page 20:

He felt elated. Till now he had been living too much in the past, he decided. Time to get my eye in again.

1974, John Le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, page 95:

She had now got her eye in. A 10000-ton tanker heading for Tunisia with powerful escort got no farther than the north coast of Sicily.

1997, His Majesty's Submarines, page 53:

Once I'd got my eye in, it was quite impossible — without looking away first — to see the ceiling as flat again.

2008, Poppy Adams, The Sister, page 147:

Someone who has 'got their eye in' has internalized an ability to draw to scale. While the new recruit stops all the time to take measurements, the drawing of someone with 'their eye in' flows.

2009, Leo Duff with Phil Sawdon, Drawing - The Purpose, page 21:

(chiefly UK) To develop a perceptual skill, especially visual.


ducket

Uncertain; perhaps a variant of dovecote. First attested in the late 1900s.

Access to the veranda is by means of hinged doors, and a deep ducket or projection is provided on each side to form a lookout.

1952 January, “British Railways Standard Wagons”, in Railway Magazine, page 59:

(historical, British) A windowed, box-like structure mounted to the top or side of the brake van of a train, from which the guard has a clearer view along the railway track.


keep one's eye in

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

keeps one's eye in (present singular third-person)
keeping one's eye in (participle present)
kept one's eye in (participle past)
kept one's eye in (past)

A man must have some work to keep his eye in and his muscles at work.

1906 July 19, Mr. Crooks, The parliamentary debates, volume 161:

He'd have a beer first, just to keep his eye in; and afterwards he would have a little of the hard stuff.

1968, John Le Carré, A Small Town in Germany, page 29:

He went trap-shooting to keep his eye in, out of season

1981 July, Nadine Gorimer, “July's People”, in Mother Jones Magazine, volume 6, number 6, page 46:


Cottager

From the name of the stadium, Craven Cottage.

(UK, soccer) Someone connected with Fulham Football Club, as a fan, player, coach etc.


Palace

Crystal Palace Football Club
w:Crystal Palace Football Club

(UK, soccer) Ellipsis of Crystal Palace Football Club (“a football team from London”).


arsemunch

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, sometimes vulgar, humorous, slang) Alternative form of assmunch


arseface

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang, derogatory or offensive) A contemptible person.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang, derogatory or offensive) An ugly person.


scummer

(UK, soccer, slang, derogatory, offensive) A supporter of Southampton F.C..


knicks

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

“People never notice you when you are looking half- decent. During the sales I was in a communal changing room and was stripped down to my knicks — and not my best car accident knickers either — when a woman said, ‘Aren’t you that woman off the telly?’ and everyone stared.”

2003 February 9, “The Greenham Common girl done good”, in The Times:

Despite all the attention focused on Beth, when Gossip performs, they are without doubt a band: Nathan and Hannah Billie, the drummer, being just as cartoon charismatic as Beth herself, though perhaps less likely to strip to their knicks and dive-bomb the crowd.

2009 July 5, Miranda Sawyer, “Everything that you think is weird is normal to me”, in The Observer:


gamebook

(UK) A written record of the game that has been shot in a certain area (date, hunter, species, etc.).


pop sock

After her show, designer Miuccia Prada blamed the accidents on the pop socks worn by the models inside their platform sandals, making them impossible to grip.

2008 September 28, Charlie Porter, “Heels prove too tall an order for Milan models”, in The Observer:

(chiefly UK) A type of short, knee-high stocking with an elasticated top.


copperfasten

copperfasten (third-person singular simple present copperfastens, present participle copperfastening, simple past and past participle copperfastened)

copperfastens (present singular third-person)
copperfastening (participle present)
copperfastened (participle past)
copperfastened (past)

/ˈkɒpəˌfɑːsn̩/

From copper + fasten. From copper sheathing of ship hulls (to protect from damage by marine organisms. Originally copper sheathing but non-copper bolts were used, leading to corrosion. Later copper bolts (fasteners) were also used, eliminating corrosion issues. Literal sense from 18th century, metaphorical sense attested 1948.

We had some striking examples of what happens when a guy gets so big for his britches that any pal of his is automatically a copper-fastened genius.

1948, The Evening Independent, November 1948

This brings to an end a ten-year campaign by Pol O Murchú and other Irish language activists to copperfasten rights to have Irish language legislation made available […]

2010 “Supreme Court rules on law translation”, RTÉ News, May 6, 2010

(transitive, figuratively, British, Ireland) To reinforce, strengthen; to make permanent, embed.


WIWAL

(UK, Internet slang) Initialism of when I was a lad/lass.


Nana

(informal, originally British) A governess.


dize

dize (third-person singular simple present dizes, present participle dizing, simple past and past participle dized)

dizes (present singular third-person)
dizing (participle present)
dized (participle past)
dized (past)

From Middle English *disen, from Old English *disan, *disian, from *dise (“bunch of flax on a distaff”), from Proto-Germanic *disanō (“distaff”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Middle Dutch disen (“to dress or prepare a distaff with flax for spinning”), Middle Low German dise, disene (“bunch of flax, distaff”).

cog

(transitive, UK dialectal) To put tow on a distaff.


tn

(chiefly UK, Commonwealth except Canada, Ireland) Abbreviation of trillion.


youth worker

At the moment, she’s a youth worker with the local council, primarily dealing with teens who’ve got into trouble. “I think I can save them,” she says. “Open their eyes to uni or a job.” But she can’t save any money on two contracts, one of which is zero-hours and the other guaranteeing only nine hours’ pay a week.

2023 August 17, Aditya Chakrabortty, “Can’t pay and they really do take it away: what happens when the bailiffs come knocking”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Australia) A person who works with youngsters, to promote informal education.


Cameronite

From the surname of David Cameron, former British Prime Minister (2010–2016) + -ite.

(chiefly British, informal) A supporter of David Cameron or his policies.


AHB

(UK, rail transport) Initialism of Automatic Half Barrier, a type of level crossing


surgical spirit

(UK, medicine) Ethanol with small quantities of additives (typically 2% castor oil and 0.5% methyl salicylate), used primarily as a topical antiseptic.

leikkaussprii

ethanol with small quantities of additives


rammy

en-adj

rammy (comparative more rammy, superlative most rammy)

more rammy (comparative)
most rammy (superlative)

Galen takes exception at mutton, but without question he means that rammy mutton which is in Turkey and Asia Minor […]

(now UK regional) Of a food, taste, odour etc.: like a ram; pungent, rank.


hen do

From hen + do, by analogy with hen party.


stail

(UK, obsolete) Alternative form of stale (“a long, thin handle, as of mops, rakes, etc.”)


ICB

integrated care board
w:integrated care board

(UK, healthcare) Initialism of integrated care board.


Triple Crown

(horse racing, UK) The three greatest thoroughbred races of the year restricted to three-year-olds: the 2,000 Guineas Stakes, Derby Stakes (aka "Epsom Derby"), and St. Leger Stakes


BTEC

The adjective derives from a semi-ironic belief some students have that BTEC qualifications are "easier" than other equivalent qualifications.


absobloodylutely

Result of tmesis between absolutely + -bloody-.

Theatre is marvellous, he says, absobloodylutely marvellous.

2006, Bearnárd O'Riain, Running to Stand Still, page 212:

(British, slang, euphemistic) absolutely


on the turps

From on (“regularly taking”) + the + slang turps (“any alcoholic drink”).

1992, Di Morrissey, The Last Rose of Summer, 2011, Read How You Want, EasyRead Large Edition, page 201,
‘Been on the turps last night, I′d say,’ whispered Tony to Odette.
‘He′ll start to steady down and focus after three cups of my tea,’ laughed Odette.

You might spot the odd parliamentarian on the turps at the Backbencher, a pub opposite the Beehive where rubbery puppets of NZ pollies are mounted trophy-style on the walls (David Lange is a beauty).

2010, Brett Atkinson, Sarah Bennett, Scott Kennedy, New Zealand′s South Island, Lonely Planet, page 107:

1998, Harry Bowling, When the Pedlar Called, 2010, Headline Publishing, eBook, unnumbered page,
Frank an′ ′is ole woman don′t get on, yer see, an′ ′e′s gone on the turps ter drown ′is sorrows.

Out on the water, Jonesy and I also talked about the similarity of the bond we felt with a fellow adventurer after, say, a challenging bushwalk, and the camaraderie of a huge night on the turps with your mates.

2009, James Castrission, Crossing the Ditch, HarperCollins, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia, slang) Drinking alcohol to excess.


barkled

barkled (comparative more barkled, superlative most barkled)

more barkled (comparative)
most barkled (superlative)

'Aven't you got a drink, Missis, for a man when he comes home barkled up from the pit?

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 2”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

(UK regional) Encrusted, especially with dirt and grime.


pancheon

The poem was finished, he took the bread out of the oven, arranging the burnt loaves at the bottom of the panchion, the good ones at the top.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

(now UK regional) A shallow dish used to stand milk while the cream separates, or in which to bake bread.


water-blob

Then she sat on the bank with her hands full of flowers, mostly golden water-blobs.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 11”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

Caltha palustris
Caltha palustris#Translingual

(UK regional) The marsh marigold, Caltha palustris, or any of various similar plants.


noser

You got your grade back already? Let's have a noser!

(British, slang) An indulgence in nosiness or other curiosity.


eat in

en-verb

eat in (third-person singular simple present eats in, present participle eating in, simple past ate in, past participle eaten in)

eats in (present singular third-person)
eating in (participle present)
ate in (past)
eaten in (participle past)

to go

antonym(s) of “eat a meal on the premises”; as an instruction

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

(UK) To eat a purchased meal on the premises where one bought it, rather than taking it away.

itt/helyben fogyaszt

to eat a purchased meal on the premises where one bought it, rather than taking it away


subspeciality

(UK) Alternative spelling of subspecialty


popsy

Pilots are often interested in nothing but popsies, kites, and beer.

1943, H. E. Bates, There's Something in the Air:


waker

en-adj

waker (comparative more waker, superlative most waker)

more waker (comparative)
most waker (superlative)

From Middle English wakyr, from Old English wacor, waccor (“watchful, vigilant”), from Proto-West Germanic *wakr, from Proto-Germanic *wakraz (“awake, watchful”), equivalent to wake + -er.
Cognate with Scots wakir (“watchful”), Dutch wakker (“awake”), German wacker (“awake, alert, capable, brave”), Swedish vacker (“wakeful, watchful, fair, comely”). Also precisely cognate with Sanskrit वज्र (vájra, “adamantine”), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wóǵ-ros (“strong, lively”), and therefore a doublet of vajra. Further related through the same Indo-European root to vigil, vigor, and vegetable.

inh

(now chiefly UK dialectal) Watchful; vigilant; alert.


sea dragon

(UK, dated) An ichthyosaur (Age of Dinosaurs delphine marine reptile)


repmobile

(UK, slang, sometimes derogatory) A car of a kind popular with sales representatives.


ecotown

(UK) Any of a number of government-sponsored new towns which are intended to achieve exemplary standards of sustainability


other side

This is boring. What's on the other side?

(UK, slang, dated) The other television channel (when only two were available).


thioguanine

en-noun

thioguanine (countable and uncountable, plural thioguanines)

/ˌθʌɪ.ə(ʊ)ˈɡwɑː.niːn/

(pharmacology) US and UK spelling of tioguanine.


mufti day

“Is it Halloween already?”
 “Erm, no…” spluttered Zoe. “It’s, er, mufti day at school, you know, where you can wear whatever you like.”

2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(Australia, British, New Zealand) A day on which school pupils are allowed to wear casual clothes which would on any other day be against the school's uniform policy.


green-fingered

en-adj

green-fingered (comparative more green-fingered, superlative most green-fingered)

more green-fingered (comparative)
most green-fingered (superlative)

Your basil is doing well, you must be green-fingered.

1989, University of Idaho College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Range Sciences, Alfred W. Bowers Laboratory of Anthropology, Women in Natural Resources, Volumes 8-10, page 23,
Some of the most green fingered may also want to propagate and graft on our existing specimens.

2002, Margaret Smith, Aspects of Teaching Secondary Geography: Perspectives on Practice, The Open University, page 250,
Failing that, the more green-fingered students may be encouraged to volunteer time to maintain the garden,which should be low-intervention maintenance to preserve the area for wildlife.

My garden was rather outstanding, the work of Mrs Poole and myself during our more green-fingered moments.

2007, Andrew O'Hagan, Be Near Me, page 122:

NATURE'S most green-fingered creatures, ants have been cultivating gardens of tasty fungus for 50 million years, according to scientists.

2006, Augustus Brown, Why Pandas Do Handstands: And Other Curious Truths about Animals, page 200:

Cherries were first cultivated in the region by Richard Harrys, one of the Tudor era′s most green-fingered and forward-looking experts.

2008, Christopher Somerville, Walks in the Country Near London, page 98:

(chiefly UK) Having a seemingly natural gardening ability.


kiss arse

en-verb

kiss arse (third-person singular simple present kisses arse, present participle kissing arse, simple past and past participle kissed arse)

kisses arse (present singular third-person)
kissing arse (participle present)
kissed arse (participle past)
kissed arse (past)

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic, sometimes vulgar, colloquial) Alternative form of kiss ass, to curry favour with the powerful by obsequious flattery.


plastic plod

(UK, slang, derogatory) A police community support officer, a PCSO.


PCSO

Police community support officer
w:Police community support officer

(UK) Initialism of Police community support officer.


good value

He is a good value—earnest, sympathetic, solid to the bone and not overcomplicated—just the way you′d hope your undertaker would be.

2007, Richard Ford, The Lay of the Land, page 95:

(UK, Australia, idiomatic, slang) Someone who is friendly and easy-going.

‘Not anymore,’ she said, quickly ‘But he′s worth his weight in gold at a party. He always has something to say, and most of the time it′s interesting. That reflects well on me for inviting him.’
‘He is a good value.’

2003, David Philip Reiter, Interactive Publications, Liars and Lovers, page 79:

Hugh Grant is always good value, and Martin Freeman and Joanna Page do very well as a couple who fall in love while working as stand-ins for what is apparently an expensively produced hardcore porn film.

2003 November 21, Peter Bradshaw, “Love Actually”, in The Guardian:

Friday, 17 July 1981
Yesterday: morning with Germaine Greer – she is a good value, stimulating company and completely ridiculous: for the original feminist she is hilariously man-mad.

2010, Gyles Brandreth, Something Sensational to Read in the Train: The Diary of a Lifetime, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia, idiomatic, slang) Someone who is funny or witty.


clomiphene

en-noun

clomiphene (countable and uncountable, plural clomiphenes)

(pharmacology) UK and US spelling of clomifene.


belongership

/bɪˈlɒŋəʃɪp/

/bɪˈlɔŋɚʃɪp/

/bɪˈlɑŋɚʃɪp/

He's got his Hong Kong belongership now. All his papers are in order. As long as he keeps out of trouble I can't touch him.


belonger

All British subjects (i.e., any Commonwealth citizens) born in Hong Kong were belongers.

1999, Yash P. Ghai, Hong Kong's new constitutional order, page 158:

(UK) One who has close ties to a specific overseas territory, normally by ancestry, and is therefore granted certain rights.


qualified majority

qualified majority (plural qualified majorities)

three-fifths qualified majority

two-thirds qualified majority

(chiefly UK) A majority in a vote that reaches a preset threshold value significantly larger than 50%, such as ²⁄₃, often required instead of a simple majority for reaching a decision; particularly on important matters, such as modifying the bylaws of an association.


BAME

Coordinate term: BME

Ryan, Pollock and Antonelli (2009) reported that several teachers in Canada ‘struggle’ to interact with students of BAME origin who were often ‘othered’, in particular, those of migrant origin.

2019, Tony Bush, Les Bell, David Middlewood, Principles of Educational Leadership & Management, SAGE Publications Limited, →ISBN, page 225:

Ironically, there is some evidence that BAME parents want white teachers and leaders for their children, a form of ‘reverse racism’, suggesting that neocolonial attitudes persist through different generations.

2019, Paul Miller, Christine Callender, Race, Education and Educational Leadership in England, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 82:

(UK) Initialism of black, Asian, and minority ethnic.


Paki shop

(UK, Ireland, offensive slang, derogatory) A corner shop run by a Pakistani or any other person of South-West and North-West Asian descent. Hence also any corner shop.


gyno

gyno (countable and uncountable, plural gynos)

(UK, US, Australia, informal) Clipping of gynecologist.


trialist

From trial (“test; experiment; court proceedings”) + -ist.

suffix

The following Saturday morning, with other members of the committee, I was on the touchline observing the trialists in action. It was a very good trial, with plenty of exciting talent on view.

1998, Bill Samuel, chapter 7, in Rugby: Body and Soul, Edinburgh: Mainstream, page 88:

1998, John Gordon, Three Sheep and a Dog, Auckland: Reed, Chapter 8, p. 107,
Event I, the long head […] ends with the hold: sheep at a standstill in a 20-metre ring and held there, with the dog and triallist balanced on either side.

2012, Robert Earnshaw, Earnie: My Life at Cardiff City, Bedlinog: Accent, Chapter 4, p. 22,
A [Youth Training Scheme] place would be the first step on the ladder, a contract with the club which would see you move from triallist to employee, someone the club was willing to invest in.

(sports, chiefly UK) An athlete who participates in a trial (competition to select players for a team); a person who enters a dog (especially a sheepdog) in a competition.


hollo

‘Hollo!’ he cried. ‘The blind’s down!’ I had noticed, when we were outside, that the blind was down at the front room window.

(UK, dated) hello (expressing puzzlement or discovery)


workly

en-adj

workly (comparative more workly, superlative most workly)

more workly (comparative)
most workly (superlative)

From Middle English *workly, *werklich, from Old English *weorclīċ (“suitable for work”) (attested in unweorclīċ), equivalent to work + -ly. Compare Scots warkly (“diligent, industrious”), West Frisian werklik (“real, actual”), Dutch werkelijk (“real, actual, factual, effective”), German wirklich (“real, actual, true, substantial”), Hunsrik werklich, Swedish verklig (“real, actual, true”).

gloss

attested in <i class="Latn mention" lang="ang">unweorclīċ</i>

cog

(UK dialectal) Diligent; industrious; given to work.


noice

en-adj

noice (comparative noicer, superlative noicest)

noicer (comparative)
noicest (superlative)

'Ye be noice chaps,' said John, looking steadily round. 'What's to do here, thou yoong dogs?'

1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby:

“The Celtics won. Noice.”

2023 August 31, William Meny & Paul Simms, “A Weekend at Morrigan Manor” (15:51 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 9, spoken by Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch):

(originally UK, pronunciation spelling, slang or humorous) Nice.


nature's scythe

en-noun

nature's scythe (plural nature's scythes)

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

Love's meadow happy Dick with nature's scythe was mowing.


scriggle

en-verb

scriggle (third-person singular simple present scriggles, present participle scriggling, simple past and past participle scriggled)

scriggles (present singular third-person)
scriggling (participle present)
scriggled (participle past)
scriggled (past)

(UK, dialect) To squirm, wriggle or squiggle.


financial year

As yet, we don't know what the comparable figures will be like for the current financial year which ends in March 2022, but we can have a good stab at approximating them.

2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 22:

(British, accounting) Synonym of fiscal year


one-up-one-down

(UK) A traditional house with one room upstairs and one room downstairs.


tricker

[W]e pull'd aſide the Tricker, and obſerv'd, that according to our expectation the force of the Spring of the Lock vvas not ſenſibly abated by the abſence of the Air.

1659 December 30 (date written), Robert Boyle, “[Experiment 14]”, in New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and Its Effects, (Made, for the Most Part, in a New Pneumatical Engine) […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] H[enry] Hall, printer to the University, for Tho[mas] Robinson, published 1660, →OCLC, page 89:

(British, dialectal, obsolete) A trigger.


solebar

The underframe, which has been designed to take buffing loads of 200 tons both on the centre coupler and on the retractable side buffers, consists of two centre girders from which cantilevers project to support the solebars, which in turn carry the bodyside structure.

1951 May, “British Railways Standard Coaches”, in Railway Magazine, page 327:

The shuttle locomotive body is a conventional stress-skin monocoque structure, with longitudinal members at solebar and cantrail levels.

1995, Roger Ford, “Locomotives”, in Colin J. Kirkland, editor, Engineering the Channel Tunnel, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, Rolling stock, page 178:

The bolster to solebar weld on one side, and the weld between the solebar and the front headstock on the other side had broken completely.

2001, A.P.Brights, N. Kirk, S. Manteghi and P.J. Murrell, edited by Brain S. Neale, Forensic engineering: the investigation of failures, Thomas Telford, →ISBN, Ladbroke Grove crashworthiness accident investigation, page 16:

[...] the original Chalice built coaches have a deep solebar, while the Keef coaches were much shallower.

2001, Peter Scott, A History of the Butlin's Railways: The Story of Billy Butlin's Amusement Park and Holiday Camp Miniature Railways, Including Other Associated Railways and Transport Systems, →ISBN, page 72:

Sometimes the door also cuts off main structural components such as the solebar or cantrail.

2005, Jan Prockat, Developing large structural parts for railway application using a fibre reinforced polymer design, Univerlagtuberlin, →ISBN, Lightweight Design, page 44:

(rail transport, UK, Australia) One of the longitudinal beams running along either side of a railway vehicle, onto which the bodywork is mounted, in passenger-carrying vehicles usually forming the side or the base of the floor.


spence

From Middle English spence, spense, borrowed from Middle French despense, from Medieval Latin dīspēnsa, noun use of feminine of Latin dīspēnsus, past participle of dīspendere (“weigh out”).

(UK, dialect, dated) A buttery or pantry


knockback

He got a few knockbacks today when he tried to give his resume out at the local shops.

The only other knockback in the Port Kembla-Wollongong district was from Benny Westwood of the Advance Tyre Service. He, too, ordered us off the premises.

1987, Rupert Lockwood, War on the Waterfront: Menzies, Japan, and the Pig-Iron Dispute, page 199:

1995, Heather Hogarth, Your First Job: Getting It, Keeping It, and Going Further, MacMillan Education Australia, page 82,
So you′ve had a knockback. All right, we don′t all get the first job we apply for.

They asked matter-of-fact questions about harrowing tales that the victims had been trying to tell other media outlets, only to receive knockback after knockback for more than a year.

2010, Chris Rau, Dealing With the Media: A Handbook for Students, Activists, Community Groups and Anyone Who Can′t Afford a Spin Doctor, page 3:

Nicole Kidman got a knockback because Su-Man was too busy whipping a certain Oscar-winning French actress into shape.

2010, Tony Parsons, Tony Parsons on Life, Death and Breakfast, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia, informal) A rejection; a refusal.


old sweat

(British, military slang, chiefly World War I) An experienced soldier.

A lifelong buddy of mine, this Herring, linked to me by what are called imperishable memories. Years ago, when striplings, he and I had done a stretch together at Malvern House, Bramley-on-Sea, the preparatory school conducted by that prince of stinkers, Aubrey Upjohn MA, and had frequently stood side by side in the Upjohn study awaiting the receipt of six of the juiciest from a cane of the type that biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder, as the fellow said. So we were, you might say, rather like a couple of old sweats who had fought shoulder to shoulder on Crispin's Day, if I've got the name right.

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

(British, military slang) A veteran soldier or war veteran.

(British, slang, figuratively) Someone experienced in his or her field.


diethylstilboestrol

(pharmacology) UK spelling of diethylstilbestrol.


bummaree

The bummaree is the jobber or speculator on the fish-exchange. Perhaps on every busy morning 100 men buy a quantity of fish, which they account likely to be remunerative, and retail it, or dispose of it in lots to the fishmongers or costermongers. Few if any of these dealers, however, are merely bummarees. A salesman, if he have disposed of the fish consigned to himself, will turn bummaree if any bargain tempt him. Or a fishmonger may purchase twice the quantity he requires for his own trade, in order to procure a cheaper stock, and “bummaree” what he does not require.

1851, Henry Mayhew, “Of the Forestalling of Markets and the Billingsgate Bummarees”, in London Labour and the London Poor:

(UK, dated) A porter or dealer of fish at Billingsgate Fish Market in London.

(UK) A person fulfilling a similar function at the Smithfield Meat Market in London.


up oneself

en-adj

up oneself (comparative more up oneself, superlative most up oneself)

more up oneself (comparative)
most up oneself (superlative)

I don't like her; she is really up herself.

Don't be so up yourself.

2010, Deb Fitzpatrick, 90 Packets of Instant Noodles, Fremantle Press, page 151,
They′re older and taller and more up themselves.

There was a lot of yard bitching about Michelle, who was getting more and more up herself.

I had felt too that Putin was far grander than before, much more up himself, a bit peevish.

2012, Alastair Campbell, The Burden of Power: Countdown to Iraq - The Alastair Campbell Diaries, unnumbered page:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Smug; arrogant; self-important and self-satisfied.


fundholding

en-noun

fundholding (countable and uncountable, plural fundholdings)

general practitioner
general practitioner

(UK, historical) A former system of state funding of general practitioners in which they were allocated a budget for services by the local hospital.


crotched

en-adj

crotched (comparative more crotched, superlative most crotched)

more crotched (comparative)
most crotched (superlative)

Are you, madam, '(returned the officious chamber-maid)' then determined to go moping with that crotched old woman into the country?

1754, Miss Smythies, The History of Lucy Wellers, page 42:

The officer is away about the guagin' business, and the men have Billy Short in with them, purtendin' to be crotched with some sperrits from an ould run, that he gives to them, to have the evening a hearty one;

1843 January, “The Smuggling Run”, in The Dublin University Magazine, volume 21, page 85:

"You telling me the crotched old merc actually gives a crap now?" he asked.

2011, General Rage, When There Was a Tomorrow:


bumfluff

From bum + fluff, from its resemblance to the sparse hair on the buttocks.

He still had bumfluff on his cheeks, he was that young. About once a month he used to shave it off, and come skiting about it. I smiled at the memory of him all lathered up, grinning at me through the mirror as he went to work on the bumfluff.

1983, John Carroll, Token Soldiers, Boronia, Vic.: Wildgrass Books, →ISBN, page 247:

Dad'd kill me for doing this. It's so obvious that I mustn't touch his shaver, he's never even told me not to. […] His shaver came closer to the bumfluff on my upper lip ... closer ... It bit me! I unplugged it. Oh God. Now my bumfluff had a ridiculous patch missing.

2006, David Mitchell, Black Swan Green: A Novel, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN:

There was a basic core of twelve: hard, canny females, with a few young males coming into their strength, just beginning to grow manes: bumfluff lions.

2008, Simon Barnes, How to be Wild, London: Short Books, →ISBN, page 18:

In my peer group I looked the oldest because I had bum fluff. Who can forget bum fluff? Wispy growths of hair around your chin that you thought made you look like Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

2008, Christian O'Connell, The Men Commandments: The Bible for Blokes from the Daddy of Breakfast Radio, London: Collins, →ISBN:

Sometimes the post-pubertal life stage of a young male figure is indicated by the appearance on his cheeks of ‘bum fluff’ or an incipient beard. […] The pictorial context would, therefore, suggest that the representation of ‘bum fluff’ on the cheeks of a male youth usually indicates that he has passed beyond the limits of minority status and has already reached at least his eighteenth year when in civic, legal, military and social terms he was accorded new roles and responsibilities not appropriate to the status of those who were still paides, or boys.

2012, Lesley A. Beaumont, Childhood in Ancient Athens: Iconography and Social History (Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies), London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 27:

There was me, Eddie, Wilco and a guy called Bobby Thomlinson who we never went around with much because he wore a lot of crushed velvet and had bumfluff. Our thinking was he could get the tickets because, thanks to the bumfluff on his face, he looked much, much older than the fourteen-years-old that he was.

2013, Rikki Brown, Frankie Vaughan Ate My Hamster: Growing Up in the East End, Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, →ISBN:

There was no way I was twenty-one. I looked nineteen at a push. Maybe sixteen-and-a-half, which is what I was. Big though – not fat – but tall. No baby-face and no bum-fluff moustache. The fisher boys had their bum-fluff moustaches and they looked total pricks.

2016, James Yorkston, Three Craws, Glasgow: Freight Books, →ISBN:

(Australia, British, New Zealand, derogatory) The first, sparse beard growth of an adolescent.


green labelling

(British, Canada spelling) Any of various labelling systems intended to help customers make informed choices concerning the environmental consequences of the manufacture, use and disposal of a product.


bastille

French Revolution
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
William Cobbett
William IV
storming of the Bastille

The noun is derived from Middle English bastile, bastel (“fortification for attack mounted on a barge or wheels; projecting part of a fortification, bastion, turret; fortified encampment of a besieging army; structure carrying armed men on an elephant’s back; (figuratively) refuge, shelter; protector”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman bastile, bastille, Middle French bastille, and Old French baastel, basstel (“fortification; fortified tower; temporary fortification constructed for attack or defence; (small) castle or fortress”) (modern French bastille; compare Medieval Latin bastīle), from bastide (“fortification; fortress”) with the ending modified after nouns ending in -ille (from Latin -īle (suffix forming place names)). Bastide is derived from Old Occitan bastida (“fortification; (Provence) country mansion”), from bastir (“to build, construct”) + -ida (suffix forming nouns); while bastir is from *bastīre, from Frankish *bastijan (“to sew; to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *bast (“fibre; rope”), from Proto-Germanic *bastaz (“fibre; rope”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- ~ *bʰasḱ- (“bundle, heap, load”) but this is disputed.
Sense 2.1 (“jail or prison, especially one regarded as mistreating its prisoners”) is from the Bastille in Paris, France. Known in full as the Bastille Saint-Antoine, it was a former fortress used as a prison by the French monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Bastille was stormed by a crowd on 14 July 1789 at the start of the French Revolution and later demolished, becoming an important symbol for the French Republican movement.
Sense 2.2 (“workhouse”) was possibly popularized by the English politician William Cobbett (1763–1835) who opposed the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (4 & 5 William IV, chapter 76; often called the “New Poor Law”). This Act made relief or welfare for poor people only available through workhouses, and ensured that the working conditions were harsh so that only the truly destitute would apply for relief.
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* Late Latin bastile (“wooden siege tower”), bastilla, bastillia, bastillus, bastellum (“fortification; wooden siege tower”)

nb...

bastayle, bastele, bastell, bastelle, bastil, bastill, bastyle, bastyll, bastylle, (Northern England) baistell,

nb...

Commencing with the Accession of William IV.

J. Booker; Longman, Rees, Orme, and Co.; J. M. Richardson; Parbury, Allen, and Co.; J. Hatchard and Son; J. Ridgway; E. Jeffery and Son; J. Rodwell; Calkin and Budd; R. H. Evans; J. Booth; and T. C. Hansard.

cog

(British, derogatory) Synonym of workhouse (“an institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work”)


seedcorn

(UK, economics) Financial assets set aside for the generation of future profits.


scraight

en-verb

scraight (third-person singular simple present scraights, present participle scraighting, simple past and past participle scraighted)

scraights (present singular third-person)
scraighting (participle present)
scraighted (participle past)
scraighted (past)

An' stop they scraightin' childt, Do shut thy face! - From "The Collier's Wife", a dialect poem by D. H. Lawrence

(UK, regional) To cry; to clobber; to conk.


at the coal face

From being in a coal mine, at the face where the mining is actually occurring, especially in dark, cramped, dirty, hazardous conditions. Compare front line and trenches, of similar formation.

(UK, idiomatic) Directly engaged in the operations of a business, rather than in a hands off, managerial position.


fibrescope

(British) An instrument, consisting of a fibre optic bundle, used to observe inaccessible areas


winterbourne

[ˈwɪ̃.ɾɚˌbɝːn]

From winter + bourne (“seasonal brook or stream”), partly also from the placenames Winterborne, Winterbourne, which are derived from Old English winterburna (“stream that is full in winter”), from winter (from Proto-Germanic *wintruz, further etymology uncertain) + burna (“stream”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”)). The Old English word appears to have survived only in placenames.

inh

[F]rom the graveyard itself burst up one of those noble springs known as winter-bournes in the chalk ranges, which, awakened in autumn from the abysses to which it had shrunk during the summer's drought, was hurrying down upon its six months' course, a broad sheet of oily silver, over a temporary channel of smooth green sward.

1848, [Charles Kingsley], “The Philosophy of Fox-hunting”, in Yeast: A Problem. […], London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1851, →OCLC, pages 14–15:

(British) A stream that only flows in winter or after wet weather, particularly in an area rich in limestone.


muttonheaded

en-adj

muttonheaded (comparative more muttonheaded, superlative most muttonheaded)

more muttonheaded (comparative)
most muttonheaded (superlative)

“And I suppose you're delighted?” “Of course I am.” “Yes, of course you are! I can well imagine that it's your dearest wish to see that unfortunate muttonheaded girl become the wife of a man who lets off stink bombs in night clubs and pinches the spoons and has had three divorces already and who, if the authorities play their cards right, will end up cracking rocks in Sing-Sing. That is unless the loony-bin gets its bid in first. Just a Prince Charming, you might say.”

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

(British, slang) Being a muttonhead; stupid or foolish.


lovey

“Now, my lovey, eat it up like a good girl,” said nurse, setting her lips in a way that Bertha knew, and that meant she had come into the nursery at another wrong moment.

1918 August, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Bliss”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 118:

(UK) An informal mode of address (associated most often with actors and the like).


boggard

Uncertain, but likely from Lancashire, Yorkshire etc dialectal variants of bug (“goblin; terrifying thing; etc.”), equivalent to bog + -ard.

A Boggarde, spectrum.

He thinks every bush a boggard, i.e. a bugbear or phantasm.

1768, John Ray, A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs, published 1818, page 123:

Boggle, Boggart, a fearful object, a hobgoblin.

1855, F.K. Robinson, Glossary of Yorkshire Words, page 17:

(UK dialectal) A bogey: a ghost, goblin, or other hostile supernatural creature, especially a small local spirit haunting gloomy places or the scenes of violence.


stilboestrol

en-noun

stilboestrol (countable and uncountable, plural stilboestrols)

(pharmacology) UK spelling of stilbestrol.


shorthold

(UK, law) Describing a tenancy that exists for an agreed term, at the end of which the property may be recovered by the landlord.


forcasten

en-adj

forcasten (comparative more forcasten, superlative most forcasten)

more forcasten (comparative)
most forcasten (superlative)

Originally the past participle of obsolete forcast (“to cast away”); also from Middle English forcasten, a variant of forcast (“rejected, cast away”), past participle of forcasten (“to cast away, reject”), of North Germanic origin, compare Danish forkaste (“to reject”), Swedish förkasta (“to reject”), equivalent to for- + cast.

I think Christ lieth like an old forcasten castle, forsaken of the inhabitants; all men run away now from Him.

1891, Samuel Rutherford, Letters of Samuel Rutherford:

(archaic, UK dialectal) Cast away, rejected; neglected; not used, cast off.


the quality

20 July 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian
I shall appear at the masquerade dressed up in my feathers, that the quality may see how pretty they will look in their travelling habits.

The rector kept open house on that day, but by degrees the “quality” gave up going, and the fair, of course, became disreputable, till at last it was put down as a nuisance.

I would have spoken further, but before I could get under way the door opened, revealing Ma Cream, and [my manservant Jeeves] shimmered silently from the room. Unless expressly desired to remain, he always shimmers off when what is called the Quality arrive.

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

[In 1919 Ireland.] ‘Be quiet, Ripon! It's not nonsense at all. Ripon's father calls us “fish-eaters” and “Holy Romans” and so on. So does Ripon. So will you, Major, when you're among the “quality”. In fact, you'll become a member of the “quality” yourself, high and mighty, too good for the rest of us.’

1970, James Gordon Farrell, Troubles, 1st edition, page 34:

Yet they did not pretend to be members of ‘the quality’, the people of fashion, the cosmopolitan beau monde or the ton, although they were not above harping on their exalted acquaintances among the nobility or the antiquity of their lineage when they saw fit.

2006, James Alan Downie, "Who Says She's a Bourgeois Writer? Reconsidering the Social and Political Contexts of Jane Austen's Novels", in Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 40, Nr. 1, Fall 2006

(UK, idiomatic, archaic) The upper class, the high society, the gentry; the people of quality.


HMRC

CThEM

abbreviation of (the equivalent of) Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

CThEF

abbreviation of (the equivalent of) His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

(UK) Initialism of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

(UK) Initialism of His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.


verd

(obsolete, UK, law) The privilege of cutting green wood within a forest for fuel.

(obsolete, UK, law) The right of pasturing animals in a forest


clogs to clogs in three generations

From the common use of clogs by manual workers in north England and following the style of similar phrases which have been attested since 1700. The particular phrasing is perhaps of Lancashire origin. Compare shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.

(UK) Wealth earned in one generation seldom lasts through the third (grandchild's) generation.

富不過三代 /富不过三代

wealth earned in one generation seldom lasts

minkä yksi sukupolvi rakentaa, sen toinen kasvattaa ja kolmas hävittää

wealth does not survive three generations


beal

en-verb

beal (third-person singular simple present beals, present participle bealing, simple past and past participle bealed)

beals (present singular third-person)
bealing (participle present)
bealed (participle past)
bealed (past)

From Middle English belien, from Old Norse belja (“to bellow, roar”).

(UK dialectal) To bellow, roar, or shout.


half cut

en-adj

half cut (comparative more half cut, superlative most half cut)

more half cut (comparative)
most half cut (superlative)

Originally jocular derivative of now rare use of cut in this sense, which dates from the 17th century, from cut in the leg, to have cut your leg, euphemism for being very drunk.

He had the girl's head on his shoulder but she was half cut and in her seventh heaven, so he just went on talking to me, proud of his English, you see.

1974, John Le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Folio, published 2009, page 233:

Drink up thy zider, drink up thy zider, For tonight we'll merry be. We'll knock the milk churns over and roll 'em in the clover, for the corn's half cut and so be we!

1975 July 14, “Drink Up Thy Zider” (track 6), in The Finest 'Arvest of The Wurzels, performed by The Wurzels:

Lucie Miller always loved Christmas back home in Blackpool. Her Mum running a still-frozen turkey under the hot tap at ten. Great-Grandma Miller half-cut on cooking sherry by eleven. Her Dad and her uncle arguing hammer and tongs about who was the best James Bond all through dinner.

2009, Death in Blackpool (The New Eighth Doctor Adventures; 4.01), Big Finish, publisher's summary:

You think: "That old fella's woken up still half-cut and put on his girlfriend's shoes by mistake."

2010 January 9, Alexis Petridis, “Ugg boots for men? No thanks”, in The Guardian:

(informal, UK, Ireland, Australia) Rather drunk.


kick into touch

en-verb

kick into touch (third-person singular simple present kicks into touch, present participle kicking into touch, simple past and past participle kicked into touch)

kicks into touch (present singular third-person)
kicking into touch (participle present)
kicked into touch (participle past)
kicked into touch (past)

(UK, sports) To kick a ball over the touchline in a game of rugby, often to avoid pressure from the opponent team in a difficult situation, to end injury time or to gain territory.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I'm going to kick it into touch.

With referee Mark Clattenburg at the centre of a new racism row, is football once more succumbing to a blight many thought had been kicked into touch?

2012 October 29, Barney Ronay, “Is the Premier League becoming racist again?”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic) To evade an issue; to stop from happening.


and that

Are we meeting Tom and that?

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) And the others; used after a name to denote the friends or social group of that person.


arsy versy

Alteration of arsa versa, a blend of an alteration of arse + vice versa, modeled on vicey versey.

1548, Nicholas Udall (translator), The Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the Newe Testamente, London: Edward Whitchurch, Volume 1, Luke 16,
Who would not haue iudged that same ryche man to haue been a perfecte exaumple and paterne of most welthie and happy state: and this poore Lazare man to be a paterne of vtter miserie? But felicitie is in nowyse to be measured by such thinges as fortune geueth to men in this lyfe. But in the matter that we nowe speake of, altogether was sodainly turned in and out clene arsie versy.

Dost thou not know that from the beginning the world goes arsie-versie.

1612, Benvenuto, The Passenger of Benvenuto:

[…] the estate of that flourishing towne was turned arsie versie, topside the otherwaie, and from abundance of prosperitie quite exchanged to extreame penurie.

1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., “The Description of Ireland”, in Chronicles of England, Scotlande and Irelande, page 26:

“You put your back up in the wrong place and you’re passive in the wrong place. You’ve got everything arsy-versy. […]”

1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York: Viking, page 457:

Us going in on foot and then the equipment being airlifted in is about as arsy-versy as you can get.

1989, Julian Barnes, chapter 8, in A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, New York: Knopf, page 194:

(idiomatic, British, vulgar) Tumbling upside down; head over heels; backwards.


wellingtonia

From the original taxonomic name, Wellingtonia gigantea, which was invalid because "Wellingtonia" had already been used for another plant. Probably named for the Duke of Wellington, who died the year before.

Sequoiadendron giganteum
Sequoiadendron giganteum#Translingual

(UK) A large coniferous tree, Sequoiadendron giganteum, from California.


oncost

From on- + cost, or from Middle English uncost (“additional expense”), from Middle Dutch oncost (“expenses, overhead”) (Modern Dutch onkost), equivalent to un- + cost. Cognate with German Unkost (“expenses”).

der

(UK dialectal, Scotland) The indirect expenditure incurred for the purpose of increasing the productive power of organised labour.


gdns

E. Norton (Machine Tools) Ltd., Grosvenor Gdns. House, Grosvenor Gdns., London […]

In Earl's Court, Barkston Gdns, very close to the tube, has a long row of perfectly pleasant hotels, all of which seem individual but clean and welcoming.

2004, Charles Godfrey-Faussett, Footprint England:

(UK, in street addresses) Abbreviation of gardens.


storeyed

(Canada, UK, Commonwealth) Alternative spelling of storied (“US spelling”) (Having the stated number of storeys (building levels))


lands preserved

(UK, Ireland) statement placed on signs or in newspaper ads, advising that hunting or shooting is not permitted on the property.


skew whiff

en-adj

skew whiff (comparative more skew whiff, superlative most skew whiff)

more skew whiff (comparative)
most skew whiff (superlative)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative spelling of skew-whiff


leaderene

leader with pseudo-feminine suffix, like -ine. Credited to Norman St. John-Stevas, in reference to Margaret Thatcher.

(UK) A female leader (especially an autocratic one)

Margaret Thatcher
Norman St. John-Stevas


tomoz

(UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Clipping of tomorrow.


tomoz

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Clipping of tomorrow.


Amherst

Amherst
Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst

From either Old English elm or Old Norse almr (“elm”) + Old English hyrst (“wood”). The town in Nova Scotia is named after Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst (1717–1797).

af

It does sound unusual about the Kalij and Amherst compared to their close relatives. […] I've noticed Amhersts tend to be a little more nervous when compared to Goldens. They may stay around, but once they get spooked, they will probably split for good.

1999 January 28, Dan Cowell, “Re: Free-ranging pheasants”, in sci.agriculture.poultry (Usenet):

Lady Amherst's pheasant
Lady Amherst's pheasant#English

(British) Ellipsis of Lady Amherst's pheasant..


compounder

1691–92, Anthony Wood (antiquary), Athenæ Oxonienses
The first of these two was a compounder, the other who was an accumulator, was lately made provost of Trin. coll. near Dublin, and on the 31st of March 1692 was nominated bish. of Kilmore.

(UK, archaic) One at a university who pays extraordinary fees for the degree he is to take.

(UK, historical) A Jacobite who favoured the restoration of James II, on condition of a general amnesty and of guarantees for the security of the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the realm.


grass on

en-verb

grass on (third-person singular simple present grasses on, present participle grassing on, simple past and past participle grassed on)

grasses on (present singular third-person)
grassing on (participle present)
grassed on (participle past)
grassed on (past)

What I was pissed off about, though, was him telling everyone that he'd only grassed on me because I'd grassed on him first, which was a total lie.


grass up

grass up (third-person singular simple present grasses up, present participle grassing up, simple past and past participle grassed up)

grasses up (present singular third-person)
grassing up (participle present)
grassed up (participle past)
grassed up (past)

My sister grassed me up to the caretaker! She thought she was doing me a favour — by grassing me up she was sure he'd let me off.

1999, Angela Devlin, Bob Turney, Going Straight: After Crime and Punishment, →ISBN:


oughtn't've

"Hell, mebbe we oughtn't've done that." Tony was regretful.

(UK, colloquial or dialectal) ought not to have


left hooker

From English left and hook + -er in the sense of the game of golf.

(UK, Ireland, colloquial, derogatory) A Roman Catholic, especially one of Irish descent.


ATOL

Air Travel Organisers' Licensing
w:Air Travel Organisers' Licensing

(UK) Acronym of Air Travel Organisers' Licensing.


growmore

From grow + more, originally a proprietary product manufactured and sold by the Growmore Company.

(UK) A general-purpose inorganic fertilizer for garden use.


WRNS

Women's Royal Naval Service
w:Women's Royal Naval Service

(UK, military, nautical) Initialism of Women's Royal Naval Service.


frankalmoign

From Norman French fraunch aumoyne, meaning "free alms".

(UK, historical) A form of land tenure in return for religious duty or service.


skinnymalinks

Uncertain. Possibly from a Scottish children's song, "Skinamalinky Long Leg," about a thin man and his adventures.

'But she's a skinnymalinks.'
'She had lots of puppyfat before puberty stretched her out. […]

1995, Emma Donoghue, Hood, Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 202:

Too often, the media have played down the positive aspects of bulimia, displaying endless photographs of skinnymalinkses, none of whom look as if they could down more than as^([sic]) dozen tubes of Pringles (haven't you tried them? oh but you must!) without leaving the lavatory in a state of disarray.

1995 April 9, Wallace Arnold, “Lunch and a little light bulimia with friends”, in The Independent:

'Oh, Lord, you've turned into a right skinnymalinks,' she noticed. 'Is that because of the boyfriend?'

1999, Marian Keyes, Last Chance Saloon, Poolbeg, →ISBN, page 423:

(informal, UK, dated in US) A skinny person.


old girl

(chiefly British) An alumna, especially of a public school.

Listen, old girl, I've got some news.

(UK) Affectionate term of address for a woman.


village bike

From the joke that "everyone gets a ride" (i.e. sexual intercourse).

He said of the girl complainant: 'She was the village bike.' 'What do you mean by that?' asked the Chairman. 'Everybody rode her,' was the reply. The idiom is evidently widely diffused, and there is little profit in trying to establish who invented it […]

1983, Philip Howard, A word in your ear:

The local people privately called Jean's mother 'The Village Bike', on which everyone got to ride. Jean had no way of knowing whether the man who lived with them was her father; the man himself may not have known.

Dexter wrote: > […] My charity is always extended to the local drunks of the village where I was brought up.
You were the village bike then?

2003, Effervescing Elephant, “Re: Stealth aircraft over Lincs”, in uk.local.lincolnshire (Usenet):

The boys nicknamed her the “village bike” and any lad who wanted affection or experience picked her up for the night.

2009, Annette J. Dunlea, Always and Forever:

She has a bit of a Village Bike reputation, and she usually wears her hair in two pigtails.

2009, Brent Crawford, Carter Finally Gets It:

My ex wife's a bit of a village bike, does that count? :-P

2012 May 15, Bob Milutinovic, “Re: Attn : TPG Techs”, in aus.computers (Usenet), retrieved 2014-09-23:

(UK, slang, derogatory) A local woman who is sexually promiscuous.


zoot

en-noun

zoot (countable and uncountable, plural zoots)

How many zoots you getting out of a 3.5? I’m hearing 4 is normal🥴

2020 October 13, @_OsoSandro11, Twitter:

Green’s Dictionary of Slang
w:Green's Dictionary of Slang

(uncountable, slang, UK) PCP; phencyclidine.


gay-ass

en-adj

gay-ass (comparative more gay-ass, superlative most gay-ass)

more gay-ass (comparative)
most gay-ass (superlative)

From gay + -ass; see derogatory sense of gay.

(UK, informal, vulgar, derogatory) Stupid; uncool; immature or puerile.


nobbut

From no + but. Compare Scots nae but, nae bit (“no more than, only, merely, just”).

He were nobbut a lad when he joined the army.

(UK, Northern England) nothing but; only; just


trackie

From tracksuit + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

Dylan was wearing a light trackie top in the colours of the flag.

2005, Peter Docker, Someone Else′s Country, ReadHowYouWant, published 2010, page 300:

‘I′ve fucking had it with this town,’ she said. ‘I go into the super last night, they reckon they seen me taking frozen stuff out of me trackie at the car. So I′m gonna walk around with fucking frozen peas down me trackie, right? Right?’

2005, Peter Temple, The Broken Shore, page 99:

Carriages crammed with more sportswear than JD, including what looks like an orange and black trackie, similar to Casey′s; some dad out with his kid. You get a better class of person in Wembley.

2006, Niven Govinden, Graffiti My Soul, Penguin, page 69:

Pulling on a pair of trackie pants and a jumper, she quietly unclipped the flyscreen and pushed up the old window and climbed through, landing outside with a hollow thud.

2009, Fleur McDonald, Red Dust, ReadHowYouWant, page 118:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) A tracksuit.


bivvy

Well, if you're willing to sub me a shant of bivvy, then I'll tell ya

2016, Christopher James, Sherlock Holmes and The Adventure of the Ruby Elephants, →ISBN:


test card

In 1967, the BBC needed a ‘test card’ for its new colour broadcasts, to be put on the screen when programmes were not being transmitted so engineers could adjust the quality of the picture.

2013, Chris McManus, Right Hand, Left Hand, Hachette, →ISBN:

(UK, television) A test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no programme is being broadcast (often at startup and closedown).


old chap

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

‘Well, look here, old chap,’ he said, ‘let's have strict business between friends. If you'll pay me back four quid at the end of term, you shall have the two pounds. How does that strike you?’

1903, P. G. Wodehouse, A Prefect's Uncle, A & C Black:

(UK, dated) Affectionate term of address for a man.

Withnail: You fill this with piss, take this pipe down the trouser, and sellotape this valve to the end of the old chap. Then you get horribly drunk, and they can't fucking touch you.

1997-99, various writers, Blue Jam
DR PERLIN: I'll need to have a look at your old chap.


mahoosive

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

Probably a blend of massive and a respelling of the letters hu in huge infixed in the former.

Well, I haven't had any real problems with it, it's not the most reliable ISP I've ever used (mahoosive understatement), but considering it's free it's not too bad.

2000 March 27, Laurence Bogle, “Re: DF”, in alt.fab.robert-jordan (Usenet):

I even said to someone look at them mahoosive mosquitoes!! […] I tell ya, between the mahoosive mosquitoes, bees & wasps and caterpillars, I was VERY happy to get back to the city & it's pollution.

2002 September 24, “Frothie” [pseudonym], “Re: More Mahoosive Spiders :S”, in alt.babylon5.uk (Usenet):

We do have a rather mahoosive store locally.

2003 October 10, “Catkins” [pseudonym], “Re: Just ‘done’ Tescos”, in freeserve.chat (Usenet):

Picture this: we had a fat tourist: wandering along in a mahusive pair of budgie smugglers (Speedo's), and wearing this ridiculous flower hat; pawing over a local girl.

2007 February 26, John P. Wood, Woody’s World Turns Left … into South East Asia, Bloomington, Ind., Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 247:

And on that note, I shall bid you all a fond au revoir. This scene-setting commentary will now end, and Phil Harlow will bring you all the action from the Stade de France before, during and after tonight's mahoosive match.

2007 October 20, Sam Lyon, “England v South Africa countdown”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2021-06-08:

Those destinations are the span of England. And it's not exactly a mahoosive country …

2010 January 23, “humble.life” [pseudonym], “Re: get this …”, in alt.support.depression (Usenet):

Rachel McAdams showed off a mahusive baby bump while out and about in Notting Hill, London late yesterday afternoon. Which could just about be the most exciting thing to ever happen, today.

2012 July 6 (updated 2012 September 25), Gilly Ferguson, “Is Rachel McAdams pregnant!? Let’s examine the evidence (the bump)”, in Daily Mirror, London: Reach plc, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-02:

Bass-thrum and glass-shard music swelled slowly in volume. Despite the sound's sweetness, its painful clarity, something in Ecko shivered – it jagged at his nerves like the old fingernails-down-a-blackboard trick. It was pure power, some ma-hu-sive engine that was just turning over, warming the fuck up.

2015 November, Danie Ware, “Muster”, in Ecko Endgame, London: Titan Books, Titan Publishing Group, →ISBN:

So if you're shy about going to the gym because there is always someone next to you using mahoosive weights, don't be. You do your weights, just make every workout count.

2019 June 17, Matt Goulet, quoting Henry Cavill, “Henry Cavill Reveals His Secret to Getting Big Arms”, in Richard Dorment, editor, Men’s Health, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Magazine Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-10-03:

(chiefly British, humorous, slang) Massive; huge; very large.


plain flour

en-noun

plain flour (usually uncountable, plural plain flours)

plain (“regular”) + flour.
The U.S. standard of identity comes from 21CFR137.105.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, cooking) A wheat flour with a medium gluten content, suitable for general use.

puolikarkea vehnäjauho

flour with medium gluten content, suitable for general use


fortypenny

(UK) Having a value or cost of forty pence.


antivenene

antivenene (countable and uncountable, plural antivenenes)

From anti- + venene (“venom”), from Latin venēnum (“juice; venom”). Doublet of antivenom and antivenin.

His conclusions are that (1) about the same quantity of anti-venene necessary to neutralise the venom in vitro is capable of doing so when the forner is injected into the bloodstream, and the latter sub-cutaneously ;

1898, Royal Microscopical Society (Great Britain), Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, page 623:

What he really means is that the recommended use of anti-venene does not entirely agree with one set of medical opinion.

1973, East African Wild Life Society, World Wildlife Fund, Africana, volume 5, page 5:

Now it became necessary to take venom from captured Taipans, so as to produce anti-venene, and to put it in hospitals right through the danger areas.

1978, Australian Broadcasting Commission, A Big Country: More Stories about the People of Australia, page 13:

(UK and Australia, medicine) Synonym of antivenom.


antiarmour

(British) Alternative spelling of antiarmor


washing line

/ˈwɒʃɪŋ ˌlaɪn/


Wren

From the similarity to WRNS, influenced by wrens (birds).

The characterisation of male officers as ineffectual chauvinists, and the offering of the Wrens as objects for Charlie's and the viewer's gaze, are mutually contradictory as well as uncomplimentary to all branches of the Navy.

2007, Jonathan R. Rayner, The naval war film: genre, history, national cinema:

There was plenty of work for Wrens in the training bases of the navy.

2008, Brian Lavery, CHURCHILL'S NAVY: THE SHIPS, MEN AND ORGANISATION, 1939-1945:

By the end of 1942 Wren officers were permitted to enrol on the meteorological course at RNC Greenwich, after which they were employed as fully qualified forecasters.

2008, Mark Barber, The British Fleet Air Arm in World War II:

(UK, informal) A female member of the Royal Navy (a member of the WRNS)


batwoman

(UK, military) A female batman (servant)


faceache

faceache (countable and uncountable, plural faceaches)

(UK, informal) A miserable-looking person.


patrial

From Latin patria (“fatherland, country”). The United Kingdom sense was first introduced by the Immigration Act 1971 (c. 77).

(UK) Relating to the right of abode in the United Kingdom by having a British parent or grandparent


patrial

(UK) One who has the right of abode in the United Kingdom by having a British parent or grandparent.


skeel

From Old Norse skjóla, from Proto-Germanic *skeulǭ.

The dairywoman now rolls the whole into one lump[…], closing the fingers, partially, at every stroke; thereby leaving it at the bottom of the skeel, exceedingly rough.

1789, William Marshall, The Rural Economy of Gloucestershire:

(UK, Scotland, dialect) A shallow wooden vessel for holding milk or cream.


battlebus

(UK, informal) A coach used as a mobile operational centre by a particular political party during an election campaign.


deprogramme

en-verb

deprogramme (third-person singular simple present deprogrammes, present participle deprogramming, simple past and past participle deprogrammed)

deprogrammes (present singular third-person)
deprogramming (participle present)
deprogrammed (participle past)
deprogrammed (past)

British and New Zealand standard spelling of deprogram.


hirn

From Middle English hirne, herne, from Old English hyrne (“horn, corner, angle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hurnijā, from Proto-Germanic *hurnijǭ (“horn, corner, angle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂-. Proto-Germanic *hurnijǭ is a diminutive form of *hurną, from which comes English horn.

inh

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Corner; nook; hiding-place.


disafforest

en-verb

disafforest (third-person singular simple present disafforests, present participle disafforesting, simple past and past participle disafforested)

disafforests (present singular third-person)
disafforesting (participle present)
disafforested (participle past)
disafforested (past)

The Charter of the Forests had for its object the disafforesting several of those tracts; the prevention of future afforestings: the mitigation and ascertainment of the punishments for breaches of the Forest Law.

1760, Edmund Burke, “An Essay towards an Abridgment of the English History. […]”, in [Walker King], editor, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, new edition, volume X, London: […] [R. Gilbert] for C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], published 1826, →OCLC, book III, page 534:

(UK, law) To change the status of land from that of a forest to ordinary land.


ahint

From Middle English at-hinden, from Old English æthindan (“behind, after”), equivalent to at- + hind.


ahint

ahint the coonter he sat i' the shop

But the sight of her eyes was not a thing to forget. John Dodds said they were the een of a deer with the Devil ahint them; and indeed, they would so appal an onlooker that a sudden unreasoning terror came into his heart, while his feet would impel him to flight.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:


probator

(law, UK, obsolete) One who, when indicted for crime, confessed it and accused his accomplices in order to obtain pardon.


frowsty

en-adj

frowsty (comparative frowstier, superlative frowstiest)

frowstier (comparative)
frowstiest (superlative)

Origin unknown; possibly a variant of frowsy (frousy, frouzy, frowzy), etymology also unknown; and possibly related to Old French frouste (“decayed, in a state of ruin”). Compare also froughy, frow, frowy.

cog

He thought of getting back by half-past twelve, / And tot of rum to send him warm to sleep / In draughty dug-out frowsty with the fumes / Of coke, and full of snoring, weary men.

1917 May, Siegfried Sassoon, “A Working Party”, in The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, London: William Heinemann, published January 1918, →OCLC, stanza 6, page 29:

[T]he London theatres themselves, nearly all of them, the meanest, dirtiest, dingiest, fustiest, frowstiest edifices in the country.

1921, W[alter] L[ionel] George, “Playgrounds”, in A London Mosaic, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company, →OCLC, pages 15–16:

[W]hy are single rooms so much worse than double ones? Fewer, further, frowstier? Damper, darker, dingier? Noisier, narrower, nastier?

1968 September 11 (date written), Janice Rossen, quoting Philip Larkin, “Philip Larkin Abroad”, in Dale Salwak, editor, Philip Larkin: The Man and His Work, Basingstoke, Hampshire; London: The Macmillan Press, published 1989, →DOI, →ISBN, page 48:

Perhaps the very best people were in Paris, but there was enough going on in Brussels to replicate that older, frowstier form of society that was to Morgan's taste.

2000, Brian [John William] Thompson, “Going Home”, in A Monkey among Crocodiles: The Disastrous Life of Mrs. Georgina Weldon, London: Flamingo, HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, page 38:

Of an atmosphere: not fresh; close, musty, stuffy; of an object: having a musty, stale odour.


significavit

Latin, (he) has signified, perf. ind. of significare (“to signify”).

the Kings Courts can receive Significavits from none but the person to whom (if need be) they may write to discharge the Prisoner

(UK, law, historical) A writ issuing out of chancery, upon certificate given by the ordinary, of a man's standing excommunicate by the space of forty days, for the laying him up in prison till he submit himself to the authority of the church.


aggravator

An aggravator, or love curl, of a delicate roundness, hung low upon the imperial forehead, […]

1848, William Evans Burton, Waggeries and Vagaries, page 57:

(UK, slang, obsolete) Synonym of Newgate knocker (“a lock of hair worn twisted back toward the ear”)


tourn

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A spinning wheel.


yote

en-verb

yote (third-person singular simple present yotes, present participle yoting, simple past and past participle yoted)

yotes (present singular third-person)
yoting (participle present)
yoted (participle past)
yoted (past)

From Middle English yoten, yeten (“to pour”), from Old English ġēotan (“to pour”), from Proto-West Germanic *geutan, from Proto-Germanic *geutaną (“to pour”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰewd- (“to pour”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian joote (“to pour”), West Frisian jitte (“to pour”), Dutch gieten (“to pour”), German gießen (“to pour”), Danish gyde (“to pour”). Related to gush, geyser.

(UK dialectal) To pour water on; pour in.


tiswas

Possibly coined by the Royal Air Force. Possibly a blend of it + is + was. Compare tizzy.

It was her first ever visit to the capital and she was all of a tiswas.

(UK) A state of nervous excitement or confusion.


whang

whang (third-person singular simple present whangs, present participle whanging, simple past and past participle whanged)

whangs (present singular third-person)
whanging (participle present)
whanged (participle past)
whanged (past)

onomatopoeic

Imitative

I ought to have whanged him one in the eye.

(US, Scotland, British, dialect, slang) To whack or beat.


whang

Imitative

(British, Scotland, dialect, colloquial) A large piece or slice; a chunk.


whang

Debuccalized (/θw/ > /hw/) from Scots thwang, cognate to thong.

(UK, US, dialect, informal, dated) A leather thong.


chargehand

The most surprising thing was to discover that each job had its little tricks, peculiarities that had been learned in the experience of years, and one of the really pleasing features was the unlimited patience and kindliness of the chargehands and fitters, who would go to great lengths to teach the budding engineer all they themselves knew.

1944 September and October, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 283:

(UK) A person who is in charge of a small group of workers; a lesser foreman.


assenter

(UK, politics) One of the eight voters who endorse the proposer and seconder's nomination of a candidate for election to the parliament of the United Kingdom.


annet

From Middle English ende, enede, from Old English ened, æned (“drake, duck”), from Proto-West Germanic *anad (“duck”), from Proto-Germanic *anadz (“duck”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énh₂ts (“duck”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Oante (“duck”), West Frisian ein (“duck”), Dutch eend (“duck”), German Low German Aant (“duck”), German Ente (“duck”), Norwegian and Swedish and (“duck, mallard”), Icelandic önd (“duck”), Latin anas (“duck, drake”), Lithuanian antis (“duck, mallard”), Russian у́тка (útka, “duck”), Sanskrit आति (ātí, “aquatic bird”).

black-legged kittiwake
black-legged kittiwake

(UK, dialect, West Country, Cornwall, obsolete) A black-legged kittiwake.


Y-fronted

Underneath he was wearing white Y-fronted underpants.

1975, George MacBeth, The Samurai, page 54:

(UK) Having a Y-shaped seam, as Y-fronts do.

Squeezing open the kitchen door, Amy came face to face with Greg's baggy Y-fronted backside. 'Greg! Amy's here!' shouted Sophie, too late.

2007, Jackie Clune, Man of the Month Club, page 18:


pakamac

(UK) A lightweight mackintosh that can be folded up into a small pack when not in use.


outshop

en-verb

outshop (third-person singular simple present outshops, present participle outshopping, simple past and past participle outshopped)

outshops (present singular third-person)
outshopping (participle present)
outshopped (participle past)
outshopped (past)

Just over 50 years ago, in September, 1910, Eastleigh locomotive works outshopped their first newly constructed locomotive, Class S14 0-4-0 motor tank No. 101.

1961 March, C. P. Boocock, “The organisation of Eastleigh Locomotive Works”, in Trains Illustrated, page 159:

(UK) To send a railway vehicle out from a workshop or factory after construction or overhaul.


Geddes Axe

From Sir Eric Geddes, who chaired a UK government committee charged with finding unprecedented spending cuts in the 1920s.

The necessity for its maker, if he wishes to remain in business, to produce an efficient machine which shall at the same time be cheap, and therefore must be as simple as possible, has acted as a kind of "Geddes' Axe," (sic) sweeping away a number of inessential contrivances […]

1923, Rupert T. Gould, The Marine Chronometer, Holland Press, published 1960, page 209:

(UK) Any process tending to eliminate non-essential elements


forstand

forstand (third-person singular simple present forstands, present participle forstanding, simple past and past participle forstood)

forstands (present singular third-person)
forstanding (participle present)
forstood (participle past)
forstood (past)

From Middle English forstanden, from Old English forstandan (“to defend, help, protect, withstand, prevent, hinder, resist, oppose, benefit, avail, understand, signify, be equal to”), from Proto-West Germanic *frastandan (“to understand, oppose”), equivalent to for- + stand. Cognate with West Frisian ferstean (“to understand”), Saterland Frisian ferstounde (“to understand”), Dutch verstaan (“to understand”), German verstehen (“to understand”). Compare also Norwegian Bokmål forstå (“to comprehend, understand”), Swedish förstå (“to comprehend, understand”).

cog

How can I forstand your Professors, when they dinna forstand themselves.

1878, Samuel Smiles, Robert Dick: baker, of Thurso, geologist and botanist:

(transitive, UK dialectal) To understand; comprehend.


flexi

en-noun

flexi (countable and uncountable, plural flexis)

This is remarkable for those who want to trade on a flexi basis, because a trader can choose when he wants to trade–morning, noon or night.

2011, V. S. Somanath, International Financial Management, page 156:

(usually uncountable, UK) Clipping of flexitime.


rumness

(UK, colloquial, dated) Oddness, strangeness.


rumly

en-adv

rumly (comparative more rumly, superlative most rumly)

more rumly (comparative)
most rumly (superlative)

c. 1840–1850, Virgil's Aeneid, book v., translated by Thomas Moore
Thus rumly floor'd, the kind Acestes ran, / And pitying, raised from earth the game old man.

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


Gift Aid

(UK) A policy that enables charities to reclaim the income tax on donations from taxpayers.


offcomer

Similarly, there is jokey talk of the possibility of dynamiting offcomer homes in the village (just as the Welsh have done to English cottagers), and of beating up any offcomer who tells tales about Wanet to other offcomers […]

2005, Signe Howell, The Ethnography of Moralities, page 96:

They are offcomers, a neat appellation intended to highlight their lack of local family. This could be reinforced with suitable word associations; 'from down South' was typical, or something implying weirdness such as 'he is into art'.

2017, Ken West, R.I.P. Off!: Or The British Way of Death, page 4:


twiffler

(UK) A plate intermediate in size between a dinner plate and a side plate, about 9½ inches in diameter.


ossifrage

/ˈɒsɪfɹɪd͡ʒ/

From Middle French ossifrage, from Latin ossifraga (“osprey”), ossifragus (“osprey”), from ossifragus (“bone breaking”).

And their young Ospraies bee counted a kind of Ossifragi: from them come the lesser Geires, they againe breed the greater, which engender not at all. Some reckon yet another kind of Ægle, which they cal Barbatæ; and the Tuscanes, Ossifrage.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book X.] 3.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:

And we were just about
To turn and face the foe, as some tire bird
Barbarians pelt at, drive with shouts away
From shelter in what rocks, however rude,
She makes for, to escape the kindled eye,
Split beak, crook'd claw o' the creature, cormorant
Or ossifrage, that, hardly baffled, hangs
Afloat i' the foam, to take her if she turn.

1871 Robert Browning,Balustrion's Adventure: A Transcript from Euripides, line 117–24


placitum

(UK, law, obsolete) A court, or cause in court.


Smiggy

(UK, Northern England) Traditional nickname for a person with the surname Smith.


traft

Probably from trough, Old English troh, trog.

(UK, dialect, Cornwall) A tray or trough for washing fish.


triff

As I remember it, Elite screwed up the first time it had a go at this one, and ended up having to get Gargoyle (who?) to cobble something together in about two weeks or something ridiculous. You wouldn't believe it, though. This one's triff through and through.

1989, Jonathan Davies, Scooby-Doo (video game review in Your Sinclair issue 46)

Our daughter thinks you're wonderful. “Cool” I think was the adjective she used. […] Or maybe it was “triff”.


messet

From the mixture of these, and other breeds, we have messets, lap-dogs, dancers, waps, mongrels, and an endless number of varieties and compounds for which it is difficult to find a name.

1806, John Bigland, Letters on Natural History:


regimental sergeant major

en-noun

regimental sergeant major (plural regimental sergeants major or regimental sergeant majors)

regimental sergeants major (plural)
regimental sergeant majors (plural)

warrant officer class 1
warrant officer class 1

(UK, Australia, army) The senior warrant officer in a regiment or battalion, usually a warrant officer class 1.


crocket

(obsolete, hunting, dialect, British) The tips of the antlers of an adult stag.


blue-rinse brigade

(UK, Australia, slang, derogatory) Elderly women with traditional, conservative views.


chavel

en-verb

chavel (third-person singular simple present chavels, present participle chavelling, simple past and past participle chavelled)

chavels (present singular third-person)
chavelling (participle present)
chavelled (participle past)
chavelled (past)

From Middle English chavel, from Old English ċeafl (“a bill, beak, snout, jaw, jaw-bone, cheek, cheek-bone”), from Proto-West Germanic *kafl, from Proto-Germanic *kaflaz (“jaw”). Doublet of jowl; see there for more.

inh

The bracken lay sere under the trees, broken and chavelled by the restless wild winds of the long winter.

1911, D. H. Lawrence, The White Peacock:


tracker mortgage

en-noun

tracker mortgage (plural tracker mortgages)

(UK, finance) A variable-rate mortgage where the amount of interest paid on the loan is linked to the Bank of England's base rate by a fixed differential.


supplicat

(UK, historical, universities) A petition, especially a written one, with a certificate that the conditions have been complied with.


absit

Borrowed from Latin absit (“let (him or her) be absent”), the third-person singular present active subjunctive of absum (“be absent”).

bor

In the evening, after some difficulty, he persuaded his tutor to give him an absit to sleep at Huntingdon that night, and drove over there after dinner in a fly with Egerton, Castleton, and Grey.

1868, George Charles L. Tottenham, Charlie Villars at Cambridge, page 198:

Another associated matter was the subject of a discussion, on one occasion only, on the effect of an absit on a student's residence if he used it to be away from Cambridge from Saturday to Monday 'as is allowed at at least one College'.

1983, W. W. Grave, Fitzwilliam College Cambridge, 1869-1969, page 53:

An exeat was needed to be away for the night and, in theory at least, an absit for the greater part of the day.

1992, Eric Lionel Mascall, Saraband: The Memoirs of E.L. Mascall, →ISBN, page 56:

The following week he wrot her. 'It is a most shameful thing that he should keep me on like this...I am awfully cross because now I am not able to come home for an absit [overnight leave] on Thursday which I very much wanted to do.'

2015, William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, →ISBN:

(UK) Formal permission to be away from a college for the greater part of the day or more.


underfelt

en-noun

underfelt (countable and uncountable, plural underfelts)

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

(UK) A layer of felt-like material laid underneath a wall-to-wall carpet


subtopia

subtopia (countable and uncountable, plural subtopias)

Blend of suburb + utopia, coined by British architectural critic and broadcaster Ian Nairn.

coin

In the 1890s and in the early years of the present century there was considerable building development in the area around Sanderstead, Warlingham and Oxted, where large villas were springing up. East Grinstead, Tunbridge Wells and Uckfield were growing fast, as was that loosely knit "subtopia"—neither town, village nor country—which is known collectively as Crowborough.

1960 November, H. P. White, “The evolution of train services on the Southern's Oxted line”, in Trains Illustrated, page 662:

Their bland don't-mind-me-meekness is all the more offensive for it, resulting in an energy vampire form of architecture. It's subtopia writ large if anything.

2023 September 23, Travis Elborough, “Traces of utopia”, in FT Weekend, House & Home, page 1:

(UK, derogatory) Sprawling suburbs, collectively.


between the hammer and the anvil

en-au-between the hammer and the anvil.ogg

Referring to the metal on a blacksmith's anvil, which is beaten with a hammer.

Yet for a time the nation was again placed between the democracy of the levellers and the despotism of the Stuarts, — between the hammer and the anvil.

1848, Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigné, The Protector, a vindication, page 250:

The sinner / Will testify / They'll suffer / When sacrificed on high / The burning sermons purge their evil words / Between the hammer and the anvil

1990, Judas Priest, Between The Hammer and the Anvil:

(chiefly UK, idiomatic) With the choice between two unpleasant or distasteful options; in a predicament or quandary.

بَيْنَ ٱلْمِطْرَقَةِ وَٱلسِّنْدَانِ

with the choice between two unpleasant or distasteful options

yuxarı tüpürürsən bığ; aşağı tüpürürsən saqqal


toppingly

en-adv

toppingly (comparative more toppingly, superlative most toppingly)

more toppingly (comparative)
most toppingly (superlative)

(UK, informal, dated) In a topping manner; splendidly, wonderfully.


prepper

Coordinate term: (US) preppy

‘We have a vacancy at a very nice little prepper in North Yorkshire. Cundall Manor.’


standfirst

The standfirst talked of “Jubilation as article 50 is finally served”.

2017 March 30, Jon Henley, Jane Martinson, The Guardian:

(UK, journalism) Explanatory text under the main heading of a news article, smaller than the heading but still larger than the main text.


wankle

en-adj

wankle (comparative more wankle, superlative most wankle)

more wankle (comparative)
most wankle (superlative)

From Middle English wankel, from Old English wancol, from Proto-West Germanic *wankul.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Weak; unstable; unreliable; not to be depended on.


inlock

(law, UK dialectal, Northern England) Any corner or part of a common field plowed up and sowed with oats, etc. and sometimes fenced in with a dry hedge while the lave of the field lies fallow and common.


spiffingly

en-adv

spiffingly (comparative more spiffingly, superlative most spiffingly)

more spiffingly (comparative)
most spiffingly (superlative)

(UK, colloquial) In a spiffing manner; wonderfully, marvellously.


foredeal

From earlier fordele, from Middle English foredel, foredele. Equivalent to fore- + deal. Compare Saterland Frisian Foardeel (“advantage, gain, benefit, profit”), Dutch voordeel, Low German fortel, German Vorteil (“advantage”), Danish fordel, Swedish fördel. More at fore-, deal.

cog

(UK dialectal, Scotland) The first place; lead; precedence; preference.

(UK dialectal, Scotland) Progress; advancement.


foredeal

en-verb

foredeal (third-person singular simple present foredeals, present participle foredealing, simple past and past participle foredealed)

foredeals (present singular third-person)
foredealing (participle present)
foredealed (participle past)
foredealed (past)

(UK dialectal, Scotland) To store; lay past; keep in reserve; hoard.


some mothers do have them

Popularised by the popular British comedy show Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em starring Michael Crawford as the clumsy and foolish Frank Spencer (although it had been in common British use for many years before then).

(UK) A colloquial and mildly pejorative reaction to a clumsy or foolish action.


NEB

National Enterprise Board
w:National Enterprise Board

(UK, historical) Initialism of National Enterprise Board.


wankerish

en-adj

wankerish (comparative more wankerish, superlative most wankerish)

more wankerish (comparative)
most wankerish (superlative)

Caroline underlines her copy with the Bic pen she always carries along with her sketching pencils. And I told her that was a wankerish thing to do, but she keeps right on doing it even in public.

1994, Edward Farrell Marsicano, No satisfaction: and, The happy time, page 67:

But I wasn't sorry to prod him a bit; his preciousness about the grind of years, or the loss of youth, was sometimes as wankerish as his arrogance.

2008, Dhivan Thomas Jones, Green Eros, page 176:

(slang, vulgar, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Like a wanker (obnoxious person).


tiddlywink

Sense 1 (“unlicensed beerhouse or pawnshop”) and sense 2 (“alcoholic drink”) are possibly related to tiddly (“(noun) alcoholic beverage; (adjective) somewhat drunk”).


rake over old coals

en-verb

rake over old coals (third-person singular simple present rakes over old coals, present participle raking over old coals, simple past and past participle raked over old coals)

rakes over old coals (present singular third-person)
raking over old coals (participle present)
raked over old coals (participle past)
raked over old coals (past)

(figuratively, British) To bring back old problems; to dig up old trouble.


ICI

Imperial Chemical Industries
w:Imperial Chemical Industries

(UK) Initialism of Imperial Chemical Industries.


sick note

Near-synonym: aegrotat

(UK) A note from a doctor certifying the patient is ill, and therefore unable to go to work, school, etc.

neschopenka

note from a doctor certifying a worker's or a student's sickness


shopping trolley

en-noun

shopping trolley (plural shopping trolleys)

2007, Scott Moeller, Chris Brady, Intelligent M&A: Navigating the Mergers and Acquisitions Minefield, John Wiley, UK, 2011, unnumbered page,
As Wal-Mart builds up its knowledge of what goes into your shopping trolley, it can aid the positioning of goods as well as the pricing of complementary goods.

Children are often placed in shopping trolleys; in the designated seats as well as in the trolley itself.
A fall from a shopping trolley is a regular occurrence, possibly due to diminished attention of the parents while shopping.

2010, Rob A. C. Bilo, Simon G. F. Robben, Rick R. van Rijn, Forensic Aspects of Pediatric Fractures, Springer, page 123:

Which payment system and shopping trolley software is right for you?[…]When you go to the supermarket or other retail outlet, you pick goodies off the shelves and put them in a shopping trolley.

2011, Kim Gilmour, Dan Matthews, Greg Holden, Starting and Running an Online Business For Dummies, UK, page 255:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A shopping cart.


wither-

From Middle English wither-, from Old English wiþer- (“again, against”), from Proto-West Germanic *wiþra-, from Proto-Germanic *wiþrą (“against, toward”), from Proto-Indo-European *wī-tero- (“further apart”), *wī- (“separate, alone”). Cognate with Low German wedder (“against”), Dutch weer (“again, back”), German wider (“against, contrary to”), wieder (“again”). More at with.

der

(now chiefly UK dialectal, Scotland) Prefix meaning: "against", "in opposition to"; "in return"; "counter-"; "contrary (to)"; "in the opposite direction (of or to)"; "backwards".


I've lost my keys

(UK) Indicates that the speaker has lost his or her keys.