bird-nesting

Let's go bird-nesting.

1934, Henry G. Lamond, An Aviary On The Plains, page 189:

They [the boys] all had catapults […]. In summer they used to go fishing and bird-nesting.

1939, George Orwell, Coming Up for Air, London: Victor Gollancz, page 56 (Penguin 1962 edition):

(UK, Australia) The, formerly common, hobby of looking for birds' nests, often with the intention of collecting the eggs.


oralise

en-verb

oralise (third-person singular simple present oralises, present participle oralising, simple past and past participle oralised)

oralises (present singular third-person)
oralising (participle present)
oralised (participle past)
oralised (past)

(chiefly UK) To speak out something that is written, to turn something written into something oral.


oralisation

en-noun

oralisation (countable and uncountable, plural oralisations)

(chiefly UK) The act or an act of oralising; the act or an act of turning something written into something oral.


end-of-the-pier

A reference to the pleasure piers in British seaside resorts, which often featured music hall entertainment and were popular working-class holiday locations.

Meanwhile, that butt of the end-of-the-pier comedian's joke, the mother-in-law as dictatorial hag, has become a figure associated with nostalgia for the days when workingmen's clubs were just that (and, indeed, marking a time when generations were forced to live cheek-by-jowl in the same household).

1999, Andrew Blaikie, Ageing and Popular Culture, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 156:

It seems a simple yes or no question, but actually compresses a complex group of ideas - about sexuality, gender, meaning and the figurative history of sculpture - into something you might expect from an end-of-the-pier comedy routine.

2002, Frieze: Contemporary Art and Culture:

The production employed the John Barry Seven to re-work the songs of Gilbert & Sullivan, setting them against the dancing of Lionel Blair, with eye-rolling, end-of-the-pier jokes from Mike and Bernie Winters and Tommy Cooper.

2009, Christopher Fowler, Paperboy, Random House, →ISBN, page 180:

(UK, usually derogatory) Pertaining to a bawdy, old-fashioned style of broad comedy.


nidgeting

(UK, East Anglia, historical) The visiting of neighbours' houses to summon the midwife and other women to a birth.


restrategise

en-verb

restrategise (third-person singular simple present restrategises, present participle restrategising, simple past and past participle restrategised)

restrategises (present singular third-person)
restrategising (participle present)
restrategised (participle past)
restrategised (past)

(intransitive, chiefly UK) To form a new strategy.


county court

(UK, except Scotland) A civil court which deals with civil cases, such as divorce.


spanner in the works

en-noun

spanner in the works (plural spanners in the works)

throw a spanner in the works

put a spanner in the works

(chiefly UK) Something that disrupts smooth operation or functioning.


triple lock

He refused to rule out changes to the pensions triple lock and said a new windfall tax on energy profits was on the table.

2022 October 17, “Jeremy Hunt shreds Truss’s economic plans in astounding U-turn on tax”, in The Guardian:

(UK, finance) A policy whereby the state pension is increased every year to match either price inflation, earnings growth, or a third fixed rate, whichever is highest.


CCJ

(UK) Initialism of county court judgement.


thick tea

Her appearance, her dress, her manners; what they were pleased to term her "stand-offishness"; her shortcomings as a housekeeper; her ignorance in the matter of mending under-linen; her novel-reading and piano- playing — all these had been toothsome morsels, far more enjoyable than the heavy pies, the thick chops, and the sardines which figured in that horrible Mesopotamian meal known as a "thick tea;" and had been picked to the very bone.

1864, George Augustus Sala, Edmund Hodgson Yates, Temple Bar - Volume 12, page 220:

He can read them in a pleasing manner, to his wife and his family, after a five o'clock thick tea, and the reviews will be enriched with the interesting and improving observation made during the perusals.

1868, Shirley Brooks, Sooner Or Later, page 344:

"It's unnatural in a gell like Marian Ashurst to think so much o' money and What it brings," would be a frequent remark at one of those private Helmingham institutions* known as "thick teas."

This was used both at meal-times and for a reading room, breakfasts with tea, dinners, whereat roast-beef and plum-pudding were frequent visitors, "thick teas," and suppers of beer and cheese, supplying the bodily, as a supply of English newspapers satisfied the mental appetites of the inmates.

1874, Reports on the Vienna Universal Exhibition of 1873:

The month's housekeeping wound up that night with a "thick tea" in honor of Lieutenant Worthington's arrival, which taxed all the resources of the little establishment. ... fresh eggs for an omelette, and chickens' breasts smothered in cream ...

1886, Susan Coolidge, What Katy Did Next, page 130:

So many informal meals are required during the summer months, whether as light refreshments at tennis parties, or more substantial "thick teas” and “ early suppers,” that a constant change of sweet dishes is desirable.

1890, Bazaar Exchange and Mart, and Journal of the Household:

(chiefly British, dated) High tea or an informal late afternoon or early evening meal, more substantial than afternoon tea.


white nigger

(US, UK, slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) An Irish person, especially an immigrant to the United States.

(US, UK, slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) An Italian person, especially an immigrant to the United States.


cattle wagon

The 1950 programme of C.I.E. [in Ireland] provides for building 300 more cattle wagons, 200 covered goods wagons, and 30 more goods brake vans.

1949 November and December, “Notes and News: Rolling Stock Programme, C.I.E.”, in Railway Magazine, page 407:

(rail transport, UK) a covered or uncovered goods wagon (mostly formerly) used for the transportation of live cattle.


unscavengered

The streets not being subjected to the influence of any police laws, were permitted to remain unpaved, were unscavengered, and consequently became the receptacles of the most disgusting offal.

1833, The Westminster Review, volume 18, page 387:

(UK, archaic) Not cleaned by a street sweeper.


ballast wagon

(rail transport, UK) a hopper wagon used to carry ballast (stone) for railway track maintenance purposes.


do the dirty on

en-verb

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

does the dirty on (present singular third-person)
doing the dirty on (participle present)
did the dirty on (past)
done the dirty on (participle past)

(idiomatic, transitive, UK, Australia, informal) To treat (someone) in an unfair manner; to cheat or betray.


RTC

(UK, emergency services) Initialism of road traffic collision.


hopper wagon

Reshaping [of British Railways] initiated the development of what would become merry-go-round trains, delivering coal non-stop to power stations in newly built hopper wagons.

2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 48:

(rail transport, UK) A railway goods wagon which is used to transport bulk materials in a hopper, the load being usually discharged through the bottom of the wagon.


keep cave

keep cave (third-person singular simple present keeps cave, present participle keeping cave, simple past and past participle kept cave)

keeps cave (present singular third-person)
keeping cave (participle present)
kept cave (participle past)
kept cave (past)

Used at Eton College, Berkshire, England. See cave (“look out, beware”).

I vote we go down and explore. No one will come up this time o' day. We needn't keep cavé.

1899 January, Rudyard Kipling, “An Unsavoury Interlude”, in Stalky & Co., London: Macmillan & Co., published 1899, →OCLC, page 73:

I'll keep cave for ten minutes.

1911, Cosmo Hamilton, “Why Cupid Came to Earl’s Court”, in Short Plays for Small Stages, page 9:

Pip was mounting guard at the shed, and had undertaken to get Judy safely away, and Bunty had been stationed on the back verandah to keep cave and whistle three times if there was any danger.

1912, Ethel Turner, Seven Little Australians, page 154:

(British, school slang) To maintain vigilance.


NICE

w:National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

(UK) Acronym of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.


chucky egg

And we'll have chucky eggs for dinner and chicken for our tea.

Maria was spooning runny egg into Alex's eager little mouth. 'There's a good boy. ...You love your chucky egg don't you?'

2011, Marilyn Glenn, Our Fragile Lives, Strategic Book Publishing, →ISBN:

So, anyway, for your chucky egg do you want toast soldiers or bread and butter?

2016, James C. Lee, The End of the Pier, Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN:

(UK, regional) A chicken egg, especially a boiled egg.

GORDON. (Almost sadly.) Oh Roy, my poor little chucky egg. No one believes, mate.

1997, Tim Firth, Neville's Island: A Comedy in Thick Fog, Dramatists Play Service Inc, →ISBN, page 80:

“Hello, chucky egg,” I said.

2013, Marie Browne, Narrow Escape, Accent Press Ltd, →ISBN:

How could her father have made a princess out of an ordinary living breathing girl, who was so wholly unconnected with her and her family, when she had only ever risen to being a “chucky egg” or a “little ducky” in his eyes?

2015, Jane E. James, The Long Weekend, Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN:


snool

Contraction of snivel. Compare drool, from drivel.

(UK, dialect, archaic) An abject, cowardly person who submits tamely to others.


snool

snool (third-person singular simple present snools, present participle snooling, simple past and past participle snooled)

snools (present singular third-person)
snooling (participle present)
snooled (participle past)
snooled (past)

(UK, dialect, archaic, intransitive) To submit tamely to others.


Esperantise

Esperantise (third-person singular simple present Esperantises, present participle Esperantising, simple past and past participle Esperantised)

Esperantises (present singular third-person)
Esperantising (participle present)
Esperantised (participle past)
Esperantised (past)

British standard spelling of Esperantize.


boggo

What's more, it's deeply treaded and should last nearly as long as a boggo P-Zero.

2003, Autocar, volume 236, numbers 6-9, page 47:

(UK, slang) bog-standard; ordinary; unexceptional


removal van

(UK) An enclosed vehicle which is used for moving furniture and other belongings when moving house.

stěhovací vůz

a vehicle for moving furniture and other household goods


tiddy

en-adj

tiddy (comparative tiddier, superlative tiddiest)

tiddier (comparative)
tiddiest (superlative)

(UK, informal) Alternative form of diddy (“very small, tiny”)


yarb

The medicine is nat'ral yarbs, pure yarbs; yarbs must cure me.

1857, Herman Melville, The Confidence-man: His Masquerade, page 165:

He was then generally known by the soubriquet of Yarb, or Yarb Man, as he preferred to be hailed, for the reason that he always carried with him a collection of yarrow, tansy, snake root, squaw root, choice buds and barks […]

1906, George Banghart Henry Swayze, Yarb and Cretine, page 60:

Yarrow, or milleflower, was an exception; everybody still gathered that in large quantities to make 'yarb beer'.


long-bonneted

Whilst they sat they heard the whirr of a motor car, and a long-bonneted limousine came into view and stopped opposite the gates, and a lady got out.

1927, Edgar Wallace, chapter 11, in The Man Who Was Nobody:

This is from the same school—it’s a long bonneted, rear drive coupe after all—but here the masses are more centralised and better controlled.

2015 April 16, Ollie Marriage, “First Drive: Mercedes-Benz AMG GT GT S Premium 2dr Auto”, in Top Gear:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) (of a motor vehicle) Having a long bonnet.


boom-boom

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

"If he thinks that, he should live in a loony bin." "He already does." "Ha ha ha ha ha ha boom-boom!"

2003 November 28, “Surprise Party” (00:28 from the start), in The Basil Brush Show, season 2, British Broadcasting Corporation:

(British) Used to draw attention to a pun or weak joke.


nonprovided

(UK, education, historical) Of a school: not operated and funded by the school board.


noncompounder

(UK, historical) A Jacobite who was not a compounder.


PPF

Pension Protection Fund
w:Pension Protection Fund

(UK, pensions) Initialism of Pension Protection Fund.


NUT

National Union of Teachers
w:National Union of Teachers

(UK, historical) Initialism of National Union of Teachers.


gooseberryish

gooseberryish (comparative more gooseberryish, superlative most gooseberryish)

more gooseberryish (comparative)
most gooseberryish (superlative)

Dave and Jo were beginning to talk between themselves more and more, Debbie was beginning to feel a bit gooseberryish. She contented herself watching the independence debate programme showing on the pub TV set.

(UK, informal) Of a person: feeling neither necessary nor wanted in a given situation.


Cres

(UK, in street addresses) Abbreviation of crescent.


NSI

National Savings and Investments
w:National Savings and Investments

(UK, finance) Initialism of National Savings and Investments.


dairous

dairous (comparative more dairous, superlative most dairous)

more dairous (comparative)
most dairous (superlative)

“Jim, we'll jist ha' a dash-an-darras.” “No, Voord, 't'll mak' en auver dairous, I want ha' Nelly dered.”

1867, Jim and Nell: a dramatic poem in the dialect of North Devon

(UK, archaic, dialectal, Devon) bold; daring


fanny pad

(US, UK, automotive, slang) An unsprung separate pillion seat on a motorcycle.


presettled

(UK) Of a European citizen: having resided in the United Kingdom for less than a certain time period and thus not yet regarded as being settled there.


Abram sham

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Alternative form of Abraham sham


Abraham Newland

en-noun

Abraham Newland (plural Abraham Newlands)

From Abraham Newland (1730–1807), chief cashier at the Bank of England, whose signature appeared on every banknote issued by the Bank from 1782 to 1807.

For fashion or arts, should you seek foreign parts, / It matters not wherever you land, / Jew, Christian, or Greek, the same language they speak, / That's the language of Abraham Newland: / Oh, Abraham Newland! / Wonderful Abraham Newland! / Tho' with compliments cramm'd, you may die and be d—d, / If you hav'n't an Abraham Newland.

(archaic, British slang) A British banknote.


do Abram

en-verb

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

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

(archaic, UK, slang) Synonym of sham Abraham


Abraham sham

From Abraham man (“a beggar who pretends to be ill”) + sham (“trickery, hoaxing”).

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Feigned sickness or distress.


Abraham-cove

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Abraham man.

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Synonym of Abraham man


Abraham cove

[…]and an "Abraham cove"—that is to say, an animal driven to desperation by cold and hunger.

1892, David Law Proudfit, The Man from the West:

Funny, but her words made him smile. "Ahh, Mary my love, how I missed your saucy tongue."
My love? The beard splitter. The Abraham cove. She wasn't his love. "Burn in hell."


mislippen

mislippen (third-person singular simple present mislippens, present participle mislippening, simple past and past participle mislippened)

mislippens (present singular third-person)
mislippening (participle present)
mislippened (participle past)
mislippened (past)

(transitive, British, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To neglect.

I thought it best to slip out quietly though, in case she should mislippen something of what we're gaun to do— [...]

1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume I (The Black Dwarf), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 75:

(transitive, British, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To suspect; to be suspicious of.


pull a sickie

pull a sickie (third-person singular simple present pulls a sickie, present participle pulling a sickie, simple past and past participle pulled a sickie)

pulls a sickie (present singular third-person)
pulling a sickie (participle present)
pulled a sickie (participle past)
pulled a sickie (past)

But not all excuses for pulling a sickie are equal, it seems.

2015 November 7, Lucy White, “The most acceptable reasons to take a sick day revealed”, in The Independent:

We decided to check exactly what your boss can - and can't - do to employees who bunk off, tune in at work, slide off to the pub or pull a sickie.

2016 June 16, James Andrews, Julia Rampen, “Can you be sacked for watching England-Wales at work? These are your rights”, in Daily Mirror:

(slang, UK, Australia, New Zealand) To skip work or school or avoid an obligation by pretending to be sick.

ilmoittautua sairaaksi

to feign illness so to take time off work


probouleutic

Their probouleutic function is in place when Parliament does not proceed by commission, and when business must be digested for a house reluctant to remain long in attendance.

1921, The Scottish Historical Review - Volume 18, page 165:

This probouleutic (primary discussion) format worked alongside Elizabeth's informal and ad hoc consultations with individuals.

2004, James Daybell, Women and politics in early modern England, 1450-1700, page 75:

Even when probouleutic discussion was opened up to a larger number of individuals - as on 6 October - meetings continued to operate independently of the privy council. Restricting probouleutic debate to a small group of personally selected councillors was particularly appropriate for an issue - Elizabeth's marriage - which she defined as one of the arcana imperii ('mysteries of state') reserved for her own judgement qand on which she had sought to restrict debate in council, parliament and public debate since her accession.

2005, Natalie Mears, Queenship and Political Discourse in the Elizabethan Realms, →ISBN, page 36:

(UK, by extension) Pertaining to preliminary discussion before discussion in council, parliament, or other public debate.


quanked

en-adj

quanked (comparative more quanked, superlative most quanked)

more quanked (comparative)
most quanked (superlative)

(UK, dialect, obsolete) Overpowered by fatigue.


autem cove

Oh! where will be the culls of the bing / A hundred stretches hence? / The bene morts, who sweetly sing, / A hundred stretches hence? / The autum-cacklers, autum-coves, / The jolly blade who wildly roves; / And where the buffer, bruiser, blowen, / And all the cops and beaks so knowin', / A hundred stretches hence?

1859, George Washington Matsell, The Vocabulum: or Rogues Lexicon, A Hundred Stretches Hence:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A married man.


bousing ken

My doxy stays for me in a bousing ken, brave captain.

1607–10, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girl, act 5, scene 1:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A pub; a public house; a tavern.


play Old Gooseberry

en-verb

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

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

(archaic, idiomatic, UK) To suddenly put a stop to a disturbance by force or threats.

I'll play old Gooseberry with the office, and make you glad to buy me out at a good high figure, if you try any of your tricks with me.

1843–44, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit:

(archaic, idiomatic, UK) To play the devil; to make mischief.


don't ring us, we'll ring you

don't call us, we'll call you
don't call us, we'll call you#English

(chiefly UK) Synonym of don't call us, we'll call you


autem jet

From autem (“church”) + jet (“black”), referencing the colour of a priest's vestments.


autem gogler

Autem-Gogglers, a Crew of Religious Canters, pretending to be persecuted Camisars, or French Prophets, distorting their Faces with ridiculous Grimaces, &c. and laying Claim to Inspiration, in order to gather People about them, with intent to rob, plunder, or pick Pockets.

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A religious- or spiritual-based con artist or scam operator.

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Hence, a conjuror or fortuneteller.


autem prickear

Count me as an Autem Cackler , or Prickear, if you prefer ."

2023 September 20, G. Wayne Miller, Unfit to Print: A Modern Media Satire, Crossroad Press, →ISBN:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A Dissenter; a Protestant who is not a follower of the Established Church (i.e. Church of England, Church of Scotland, etc).


miss off

miss off (third-person singular simple present misses off, present participle missing off, simple past and past participle missed off)

misses off (present singular third-person)
missing off (participle present)
missed off (participle past)
missed off (past)

The Chinese and Malays tend to miss off the 's' for plurals from words in English, making it sound quaint and unfinished.

I missed off the thing too about being a pretty good reader of human body language.

2015, Gary Russell, Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation:

(transitive, UK) To drop; leave off; omit.


abier

Poor soul! Her man died only the other day, and now she lies abier.

(UK, dialect, West Country, Somerset) Dead but unburied.


land agent

The duties of an Irish land agent comprise a great deal of office work, drawing up agreements with tenants, receiving rent, superintending agricultural and all landlords' improvements, sitting as magistrate and representing the landlord when the latter is absent at poor-law meetings, road sessions, and on grand juries.

1904, S. M. Hussey, The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent, →ISBN:

It was a relationship quite different from that of the late-eighteenth-century steward who was evolving into the salaried land agent so characteristic of the nineteenth century.

1992, D. R. Hainsworth, Stewards, Lords and People: The Estate Steward and His World in Later Stuart England, →ISBN, page 251:

However a study of the cautious development of land law will also demonstrate the evolution of the modern estate manager's role through that of steward and then land agent, particularly well summarised in F.M.L. Thompson's Chartered Surveyors - The Growth of a Profession.

2010, Douglas Scarrett, Property Asset Management, →ISBN:

I can truly say its prevention has been the great difficulty of my life as a land agent. The collection of rent is almost always easy on a well-managed estate ; but the prevention of subdivision is almost always difficult.

2011, W. Steuart Trench, Realities of Irish Life, →ISBN, page 131:

(chiefly UK) A professional employed to manage an estate; steward or estate manager.


registered post

No packet marked on the outside with the declared value of the contents, as required in the case of insurance, may be sent to a country of the Postal Union by registered post, and Postmasters are instructed to refuse packets so marked which are presented for Registration.

1920, Great Britain Post Office, Post Office Guide, page 71:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Alternative form of registered mail


covess

Shuter prevailed on him to step into one of these houses, just to see a little fun, as he called it, at the same time, assuring the doctor, that no harm might be apprehended, as he was well acquainted with the cove and covess, that is, the landlord and landlady.

1789, George Parker, Life's Painter of Variegated Characters in Public and Private Life, 2nd edition, published 1800, page 153:

Ah, Bess, my covess, strike me blind if my sees don't tout your bingo muns in spite of the darkmans. Egad, you carry a bene blink aloft. Come to the ken alone—no! my blowen; did not I tell you I should bring a pater cove, to chop up the whiners for Dawson?

1828, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman, page 383:


right-on

en-adj

right-on (comparative more right-on, superlative most right-on)

more right-on (comparative)
most right-on (superlative)

"They [women who cohabitate] do not support the girls they live with and yet the girls do all the things a wife does for her husband, the cooking, the laundry, the housework, and sometimes she even supports him while he finishes school!" (To which one right-on middle-aged woman in the audience responded, "So we did the same thing only we had a piece of paper which made it legal!"

1974 April 13, Barbara Piccirilii, “Landerslander”, in Gay Community News, page 9:

The most telling thing about them is that both portray what they see as right-wing as 'the other', and so as less revolutionary and less right-on.

2002, Liz Stanley, Sue Wise, Breaking Out Again: Feminist Ontology and Epistemology, →ISBN, page 51:

Sid was greying, and small and very right-on when it came to the left. To Mr Grumble, Sid looked like another BTC, graduate tree-hugger, the type that hitchhiked around Tajikistan, or worked in the local library, or charity shop; the sort who would bother him in the street to complete some marketing survey.

2014, Andrew-Henry Bowie, The Death of Mr. Grumble, →ISBN:

Ukip said that it was saddened that "synthetic outrage" from the "right-on media" had forced Read to withdraw the single and announced that the full profits would be donated to the Red Cross Ebola Outreach programme.

2014 October 23, Laura Pitel, “Charity refuses money from Ukip calypso song”, in The Times, number 71335, page 2:

(now chiefly UK, now often derogatory) Possessing political and social views that are considered to be fashionable and left-wing.


unket

unket (comparative more unket, superlative most unket)

more unket (comparative)
most unket (superlative)


bolshiness

‘Live as free men — but not (if St Peter will forgive a free translation) as a cover for bolshiness or bloody-mindedness.’

1970, John A. T. Robinson, Christian Freedom in a Permissive Society, Westminster: Press, page 212:

I reflect on how easily the building could fall victim to squatters and, in a moment of bolshiness, think it would serve the negligent owners jolly well right.

2009, Anna Nicholas, chapter 8, in Goats from a Small Island: Grabbing Mallorcan Life by the Horns:


miscapitalisation

en-noun

miscapitalisation (countable and uncountable, plural miscapitalisations)

(UK) Alternative form of miscapitalization


gallock

Unknown. Perhaps derived from Old English gagol (“foolish”) + -ock, in the sense of "foolish person; fool"; or possibly from the same origin as French gauche.

(UK, dialectal, Northern England) The left hand.


gallock

en-adj

gallock (comparative more gallock, superlative most gallock)

more gallock (comparative)
most gallock (superlative)

(UK, dialectal, Northern England) left-handed or left-footed

(UK, dialectal, Northern England) clumsy; awkward


bumshoving

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

“Cycling isn't permitted in the gardens, but I dare say you can walk your bike.” ¶ Leo hadn’t learnt his mock-pompous tone yet. “I dare say bumshoving isn't permitted either,” he said.

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:


monocolour

Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and UK standard spelling of monocolor.


blicant

blicant (comparative more blicant, superlative most blicant)

more blicant (comparative)
most blicant (superlative)

From Middle English blycande, blykkande, blikande, variants of blikiende, blikinde (“shining”), equivalent to blike + -and.


bene bowse

Why, where is the ken that hath the bene bowse.

1566, Thomas Harman, A Caveat Or Warning for Common Cursetors, Vulgarly Called Vagabonds, London: Reeves and Turner, published 1871, page 118:

This is bene bowse, this is bene bowse, / Too little is my skew. / I bowse no lage, but a whole gage / Of this I'll bowse to you

1641–42, Richard Brome, A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, act 2:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Good beer.


ravenstone

From a calque of German Rabenstein, equivalent to raven + stone.


dimber

dimber (comparative more dimber, superlative most dimber)

more dimber (comparative)
most dimber (superlative)

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Pretty; neat.


damber

Happen we seen there was a damber in the ruffmans, and since we'd no yen t' deck the chates, we'd ha' binged a wast but for the rhino we was promised.

1994, Amanda Scott, Dangerous Illusions, →ISBN:

The gallows laugh is the dying man's joke, or famous last words. As already noted, the crowds of spectators at Tyburn or Newgate hangings in the eighteenth century used to admire people who died laughing: 'I was the capper, see,' says Daniel Then. 'We had the cull all set up and then something went wrong. The others got away but I got nabbed, ha ha ha!' And 'Ha, ha ha,' roars the crowd in appreciation of the jest as the trap is sprung, 'the damber died game.'

2010, Eric Berne, What Do You Say After You Say Hello?, →ISBN:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A rascal; a dishonest person; a man belonging to a criminal gang.


dimber damber

First, a new name is given him, by which he is ever after to be called; then, standing up in the middle of the assembly, and directing his face to the dimber damber, or principal man of the gang, he repeats the following oath, which is dictated to him by some experienced member of the fraternity.

1812, Robert Goadby, The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew, new edition, original published 1745, W. Salter Tiverton, page 280:

Dick Turpin must be one of us. He shall be our dimber damber.

1837, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, page 208:

Smasher has the ear of every dimber damber in the city.

1992, Suzannah Davis, Dance of Deception, →ISBN, page 140:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) The leader of a group of thieves or vagrants.


upright man

I hope then you can cant, for by your cudgels, you sirra are an upright man.

1611, Thomas Middleton, The Roaring Girle:

And the gentry had kind hearts, and would have given baith lap and pannel to ony puir gypsy; and there was not one, from Johnnie Faa the upright man, to little Christie that was in the panniers, would cloyed a dud from them.

(archaic, UK, thieves' cant) The leader of a group of thieves or vagrants.


dimber mort

Tip me the clank, like a dimber mort as you are; trim a ken for the gentry cove; he is no lanspresado, or I am a kinchin.

Look'ee Benno, if you're a-hiding of some dimber mort aloft there I'm the cove to——

1918, Jeffery Farnol, Our Admirable Betty:

Liz, he says, why trine for a make, when you can wap for a winne. I'm no dimber mort, I says. Don't ask you to be a swell mollisher, sister, coves want Miss Laycock, don't look at your mug. So I begin to sell my mother of saints.

1988, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Country's Good, act 2, scene 1:

Look at 'er, Jay, 'ave ye ever seen a better dimber mort?

2015, Erica Monroe, Beauty and the Rake:

(archaic, UK, thieves' cant) A pretty girl.


dimber cove

'Tis a dimber cove,' whispered one of the younger men to a companion.

Is it Mr. Gramp you want, m'dimber-cove?

1901, Fergus Hume, The Millionaire Mystery:

"Come now, Benno my dimber cove," cried Jerry at last, "what's the game? What ha' ye brought me here for? Tip us the office!"

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A gentleman.

I seen his son once—Mr. Charles Avondale. Cor, he's a dimber cove! Hair like gold, and eyes as'd put blue violets to shame. He ever come here?

'Dimber cove, though, ain't he?'¶ 'Except his hair,' the other girl said. 'I don't care for this newfangled fashion, neither wig nor powder.'¶ 'But a fine colour,' Betsy-Ann said, thinking it would be a pity to powder such hair: like dulling a raven's wing.

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A handsome man.


TUC

An early instance, says the TUC, of the kind of unholy alliance between lawyers, police, government and News International that exemplifies the "malign and corrosive" influence of Rupert Murdoch on the British establishment.

2011 July 27, Jon Henley, “Rupert Murdoch and the battle of Wapping: 25 years on”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Trades Union Congress
w:Trades Union Congress

(UK) Initialism of Trades Union Congress.


webshite

(UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar, derogatory) A bad website.


-mans

Cognate with English -ment, French -ment and Italian -mente.

darkmans ← dark

lightmans ← light

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Appended to adjectives to form nouns meaning "the state of being (the adjective)", "the quality of being (the adjective)", or "the measure of being (the adjective)".

Cheapmans ← Cheapside

Gracemans ← Gracechurch Street Market

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Substitute for part of another word to disguise meaning.


ruffmans

Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you.

1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring Girl”, in Arthur Henry Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 4, published 1885, act 5, scene 1, pages 128–129:

Happen we seen there was a damber in the ruffmans, and since we'd no yen t' deck the chates, we'd ha' binged a wast but for the rhino we was promised.

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Woods, hedges or bushes.


lightmans

And then to the Trin'de on the chutes, in the lightmans / The Bube & Ruffian cly the Harman beck & harmans.

1612, Thomas Dekker, Lanthorne and Candle-light:

Why, you would not be boosing till lightman's in a square crib like mine, as if you were in a flash panny?

1828, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, Pelham, Or, Adventures of a Gentleman:

Mr. Kestrel's out to dinner with some of his pals, and he 'most never comes home till lightmans.


wapping moll

From wap (“to engage in sexual intercourse”) + moll (“woman”).

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A prostitute.


mort wap-apace

From mort (“woman”) + wap (“to engage in sexual intercourse”) + apace (“quickly, rapidly, with speed”).

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) An experienced prostitute.

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A sexually active woman.


wapping mort

From wap (“to engage in sexual intercourse”) + mort (“woman”).

She was as willing as the wapping mort whose tunnel you chiselled last week.


wapping dell

From wap (“to engage in sexual intercourse”) + dell (“young woman”).

And wapping Dell, that niggles well, / And takes loure for her hire.

1665, Richard Head, The English Rogue, page 45:

Buss her, wap in rogue’s rum lingo, for, O, my dimber wapping dell.

1922, James Joyce, “Proteus”, in Ulysses, page 47:


wapping cove

From wap (“to engage in sexual intercourse”) + cove (“man”).

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A man who frequently hires prostitutes.


wapping ken

From wap (“to engage in sexual intercourse”) + ken (“house”).

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A brothel.


wappened

wappened (comparative more wappened, superlative most wappened)

more wappened (comparative)
most wappened (superlative)

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

From wap (“to engage in sexual intercourse”).

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Deflowered; not a virgin.

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Wanton; immoral; unchaste; lewd.

This is it / That makes the wappened widow wed again / She, whom the spi-house and ulcerous sores / Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices / To th' April day again.

c. 1605–1606, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, act 4, scene 3:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Foundered; worn-out; exhausted; broken.


S.I.

Civil Procedure Rules 1998, S.I. 1998/3132 (L. 17)

statutory instrument
statutory instrument#English

(UK, Canada, Australia, law, in citation) Initialism of statutory instrument.


SOPO

(UK, law) Initialism of sexual offences prevention order.


coloursome

coloursome (comparative more coloursome, superlative most coloursome)

more coloursome (comparative)
most coloursome (superlative)


red band

It was an extension of the American Trusty system, as was the appointment of other selected prisoners to be 'Red Bands'.

1967, Harley Cronin, The Screw Turns, page 51:

A red band was a trusty prisoner who could go anywhere in the prison. His job was taking mail to the main office and delivering any other messages for the screws or staff. Red bands had a bad name amongst the rest of the prisoners.

(UK) A trusty; a trusted prisoner given special privileges.


gorg

That suit is gorg!


wage packet

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) An envelope or similar package in which a salary is given to a worker


loo paper

(British, informal) synonym of toilet paper


gentry mort

No gentry mort hath prats like thine, / No cove e'er wap'd with such a one.

1707, John Shirley, “The Maunder's Praise of his Strowling Mort”, in The Triumph of Wit:

Chastity sighed in profound relief. To know a gentry mort like this was the most wondrous event of her life, and she craved her approval more than she did God's.

2006, Sally Watson, The Outrageous Oriel:

You said I wasn't to use cant around a gentry mort, and here she's using it more than me.

2015, Sabrina Jeffries, The Art of Sinning:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A gentlewoman; a lady.


workish

workish (comparative more workish, superlative most workish)

more workish (comparative)
most workish (superlative)

(British, dialectal) Fond of work; diligent; industrious.


PPEist

(UK, informal) A student of Philosophy, Politics and Economics.


BNOC

(British, university slang, sometimes facetious) Acronym of big name on campus.

university slang; sometimes facetious; university slang; sometimes facetious


latesome

latesome (comparative more latesome, superlative most latesome)

more latesome (comparative)
most latesome (superlative)

From Middle English latesom, latsom, latsum, from Old English lætsum (“slow; late”), equivalent to late + -some.

"By gane Times and latesome Changes," [...]

1818, Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review:

[...] but if I should take of your cattle, and so I think for to do; for I have no oxen to get your corn with, nor none I cannot get carried, for every man is so busy with their own (21st August); for weather is so latesome in this country (Kinalton, Notts) that men can neither well get com nor hay-[...]

1843, The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge:

(chiefly UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) Marked by lateness; characteristically late


SABS

(UK, military, historical) stabilized automatic bombsight


e-gram

(UK) A diplomatic telegram transmitted electronically.


green welly brigade

(UK, colloquial, derogatory) Upper-class people who engage in hunting, riding, and similar outdoor pursuits.


duck and dive

en-verb

duck and dive (third-person singular simple present ducks and dives, present participle ducking and diving, simple past and past participle ducked and dived)

ducks and dives (present singular third-person)
ducking and diving (participle present)
ducked and dived (participle past)
ducked and dived (past)

So what next? For now, at least, the prevailing wisdom in Europe is that people need something to divert them from the ongoing nightmares elsewhere. […] Best, some insist, to keep the show on the road and then duck and dive in the event of further Covid-19 issues.

2021 January 12, Robert Kitson, “Is it morally right for rugby to host the Six Nations in a pandemic?”, in The Guardian:

(UK, colloquial) To operate in a skilfully shifty or evasive manner.


prawn sandwich brigade

Coined in the press in reference to a comment by Manchester United captain Roy Keane in 2000: "Away from home our fans are fantastic, I'd call them the hardcore fans. But at home they have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches, and they don't realise what's going on out on the pitch."

association football
association football

(UK, derogatory) People who attend association football matches (or other sporting events) primarily to enjoy luxury boxes and corporate hospitality, rather than to support a team.


swingorilliant

en-adj

swingorilliant (comparative more swingorilliant, superlative most swingorilliant)

more swingorilliant (comparative)
most swingorilliant (superlative)

From swinging and brilliant; associated with Smash Hits magazine, where it probably originated.

There's never been a more happening time to have a Speccy or SAM - it's completely swingorilliant!

1990 July, “Game Thrills”, in Crash, number 78:

I have Now 1 - Now Smash Hits 30 swingorilliant hits of the '80s

1997, Kyzer, “Old CD`s!!”, in uk.people.teens (Usenet):

The perennially perky Sarah of the swingorilliant Same Difference from series four said at the time that her bullying was prompted by her strong desire to sing and perform.

2009, Keeley Bolger, How To Win The X Factor:

Smash Hits. Swingorilliant pop mag invented in the hoary old Seventies, v. good in the Eighties […]

2016, Sylvia Patterson, I'm Not with the Band: A Writer's Life Lost in Music:

(slang, UK, humorous) fine; excellent; swinging


plain chocolate

en-noun

plain chocolate (countable and uncountable, plural plain chocolates)


sluds

(mining, UK, Cornwall, obsolete) half-roasted ores


my Lady

peers of the realm
peers of the realm#English

(UK) Used in direct address to female peers of the realm, usually now excluding duchesses and, potentially, the Lords Spiritual.

(UK) Used in direct address to female bishops.

(UK) Used in direct address to the female Lord Mayors of certain important cities, including London and Canterbury.

(UK) Used in direct address to certain female judges, particularly High Court Judges and above.


snelly

en-adv

snelly (comparative more snelly, superlative most snelly)

more snelly (comparative)
most snelly (superlative)

From Middle English snelly, snellych, snellik, snellich, from Old English snellīċe (“rapidly, quickly, with activity”), from snellīċ (“moving quickly; swift”), equivalent to snell + -ly.

inh

The snaw drives snelly through the dale.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) quickly; sharply; acutely; coldly

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, in speech) sharply; severely; tartly; curtly


black as Newgate's knocker

en-adj

black as Newgate's knocker (not comparable)

(UK, simile) Completely black in colour.


Bremoaner

(British, derogatory) Someone who complains about or rejects the result of the 2016 referendum in which Britain voted to leave the European Union.


chummo

(UK, informal, mostly as a term of address) chum; friend


form room

One morning, maybe three weeks after my last grapple with Penny, Thomson came roaring into our form room. ‘Oi, Fleming, you spastic. Guess who I knobbed last night?’

1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 17:


shortsome

shortsome (comparative more shortsome, superlative most shortsome)

more shortsome (comparative)
most shortsome (superlative)

From short + -some. For sense development from short to amusing, compare merry.

[...] and when the weather confined me within doors, my pencil and my violin made the time "unco shortsome."

1827, Thomas Dibdin, The Reminiscences of Thomas Dibdin:

There's seven maries in your bower, / There's seven o them and three, / And I'll send them to good greenwood, / For flowers to shortsome thee.

'Twould be a dreary, lonely spring at Carlyle without shortsome Jane to add color to her days.

2009, Liz Curtis Higgs, Fair Is the Rose:

(UK dialectal, Scotland) Marked, or characterised by shortness; (by extension) amusing; enjoyable


licksome

licksome (comparative more licksome, superlative most licksome)

more licksome (comparative)
most licksome (superlative)

Uncertain. Possibly from lick + -some, or perhaps a dialectal variant of likesome, or a merger of both.

(UK dialectal) Pleasant; agreeable; amiable; handsome; neat


LIB

Liberal Democrat Party
w:en:Liberal Democrats (UK)

(politics) Abbreviation of Liberal Party.

(UK, politics) Abbreviation of Liberal Democrat Party.

Abbreviation of Liberal Party.
Abbreviation of Liberal Democrat Party.


smexting

In the two weeks following the smoking ban, texting across Orange’s network of 17 million mobile phone users shot up by 7.5 million texts, leading Orange to dub the trend ‘smexting’.

2007 August 5, “Smokers Turn To Their Phones As They’re Sent Outside”, in Orange Mobile:

Hence the arrival of a new “trend” for “smexting”: an increased number of text messages being sent because smokers (now forced to hang outside since the adoption of a smoking ban in England on July 1) are spending their time tapping away on their mobile phones.

2007 August 6, Bobbie Johnson, “What the hell is smexting?,””, in The Guardian:

Ever since the public smoking ban was set in the UK, a record number of text messages have been sent, a phenomenon the Daily Mail has dubbed, "smexting".

2007 August 12, Bianca Bartz, “The SMS Phenomenon Caused By Smoking Bans”, in TrendHunter:

The British mobile carrier Orange reported a surge in texting when the ban went into effect, but the company claims that people were smexting friends who might help them to quit.

2007 October 24, Jonathon Keats, “Jargon Watch: Bacn, Google Government, Smexting”, in Wired News:

"Rule number four," I said, "no texting." “No smexting?” Maxine asked. “No texting, period. That's where we get into trouble.”

2014, Nora Olsen, Maxine Wore Black, →ISBN:

I feel bad for this young age, though. You're living in a world now that's tough. Cellphones, this phone, that phone, texting, smexting—every freakin' thing there is.

2016 October 28, Misha Sesar, “We Asked Seniors What They Really Think About Millennials and Trump”, in Vice:

(chiefly UK) Sending SMS messages while smoking in the designated outdoor areas.


public health funeral

en-noun

public health funeral (plural public health funerals)

So called because they are governed by the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984.

pauper's funeral
pauper's funeral#English


new bug

Hello, chappie... You a new bug?

1987 September 17, Richard Curtis, Ben Elton, Dish and Dishonesty (Blackadder the Third), season 3, episode 1, spoken by Pitt the Younger (Simon Osborne):

From the other end Porter was glaring at them. "Hey you! New bug!" The bath fell silent.

1993, Michael Morpurgo, The War of Jenkins' Ear:


big shop

I do a monthly big shop and get bits in between. I think I would be better off planning meals for the week and going weekly.

2007 July 23, Angela, “Food shopping: Weekly or Monthly?”, in Netmums, retrieved 2016-11-17:

These changes, experienced by all the "Big Four" supermarkets, suggest that the era of the once-a-week big shop is nearing an end.

2014 October 5, Katie Hope, “The death of the weekly supermarket shop”, in BBC News:

A lot of consumers are moving away from one big shop a week to ‘basket shopping’. They visit two or three times a week to top up.

2016 May 4, Emma Reynolds, quoting Brian Walker, “Woolies’ woes promise cheaper prices for customers”, in new.com.au:

If they are trying to get people to enjoy their time there, whether going out for a meal, to the cinema or for a big shop, they don’t want to be keeping an eye on the clock.

2016 October 27, Aaron Sims, quoting Rosalind Eastland, “Shoppers speak out against car park fines in Yate”, in Gloucestershire Gazette:

If your order is under the threshold, you’ll have to pay a delivery charge, which can vary from £1.49 to £6 depending on what you purchase. So try and do a big shop rather than lots of little ones.

2016 November 8, “Amazon launches Certified Refurbished store selling cheaper electronics”, in BT.com, archived from the original on 2016-11-12:

(idiomatic, UK, Australia) A large, regular purchase of groceries; as opposed to ad hoc or impulse purchases.


do a runner

en-verb

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

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

(UK, informal) to leave somewhere hurriedly.


spud bashing

I managed to get on jankers (punishment) a couple of times and did a bit of spud bashing.

2004, David Sinnett-Jones, Passion for Life: Adventure Against the Odds, →ISBN, page 39:

You six will report to the chief cook to begin your two-week spud bashing duty until we dock at Singapore.

2012, Joe P. Plant, Up to Their Necks - the Story of a National Serviceman, →ISBN, page 184:

Dad met Mr Draper one day and asked if he had a bit of work for us kids to earn some pocket money. Yes he had, so the three of us went to his farm to do a bit of spud bashing.

2015, Derek Gambie, Tall Tales from Hadley, →ISBN, page 58:

(UK, slang) The chore of peeling potatoes, especially when given as a punishment.


Empire

Wine from Portugal and France showed an irregular downward tendency over the period, while Empire wine from Australia and British South Africa rose rapidly, the former increasing nearly threefold between 1925 and 1927.

1966, Richard Stone, D.A. Rowe, The Measurement of Consumers' Expenditure and Behaviour in the United Kingdom, 1920-1938, volume 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →OCLC, page 179:

Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth of Nations

(British, dated, of wine) Produced in a dependency of the British Empire or Commonwealth of Nations.


ROTL

(UK) Initialism of release on temporary licence: a form of parole for prisoners


wisker

Suppose I tell her some damn'd wisker; why, that's but m' old Dog-trick.

1694, “Amphitryon”, in Echard, Laurence, transl., Plautus's Comedies, Amphitryon, Epidicus, and Rudens, Made English, translation of Amphitryon by Titus Maccius Plautus:


streeker

(UK, Scotland, dialect) One who lays out a dead body; a professional attendant of the dead


stodger

Fortunately, the school shop was on hand to repair some of the omissions, and two pence would suffice for a cup of tea and a 'stodger'.

1962, Richard Desmond Hill, A History of St. Edward's School, 1863-1963, page 130:


scratty

en-adj

scratty (comparative more scratty, superlative most scratty)

more scratty (comparative)
most scratty (superlative)

Odd that her head, so small now with the scratty cap of hair, was still heavy enough to dent the pillow down.

1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus, published 2014, page 87:

Her charm was in the toss of her head as she climbed the scratty trees that lined the River Rundle.

2004, David Nobbs, Sex and Other Changes, page 2:

Oriental girls – and how did she think she could compete with them? Abi Righton, poor skin, scratty hair, wonky teeth.

2010, Susan Hill, The Shadows in the Street:

(colloquial, chiefly UK) Thin, meagre; unkempt.


registration county

en-noun

registration county (plural registration counties)

(UK, Ireland, historical) A statistical unit used for the registration of births, deaths and marriages, for the output of census information, and (in Scotland) for land registration.


crack one off

en-verb

crack one off (third-person singular simple present cracks one off, present participle cracking one off, simple past and past participle cracked one off)

cracks one off (present singular third-person)
cracking one off (participle present)
cracked one off (participle past)
cracked one off (past)

(intransitive, UK, slang, vulgar, usually of a male) To masturbate to orgasm.


shadow factory

en-noun

shadow factory (plural shadow factories)

[...] but common prudence demanded, even before the outbreak of war, that details should not be disclosed which might reveal to a potential enemy the positions of "shadow factories" and air bases, and the location of stores of munitions, petrol, food, and so forth.

1939 November, Charles E. Lee, “Railways and the War — I”, in Railway Magazine, page 313:

(UK, historical) An aircraft factory in the World War II era, partly staffed by people from the motor industry, that was kept hidden from enemy aircraft.


wosbird

(UK, West Country, Wiltshire, obsolete) A term of reproach.


chocolate digestive

chocolate digestive (plural chocolate digestives)

(UK, Ireland, Canada) A digestive biscuit with a chocolate coating on one side.


victim surcharge

victim surcharge (plural victim surcharges)

(UK, law) An additional financial penalty, levied on a convicted criminal, that goes into a pool to be distributed to victims of crime.


mungaree

Borrowed from Italian mangiare (“to eat”). Doublet of mangarie.

(slang, dated, UK, Australia, New Zealand) food


Marmitegate

The day “Marmitegate” dominated the front pages of British newspapers, the company reported a 3.2 percent rise in quarterly sales - with a 0.4 percent drop in the number of goods sold comfortably offset by a 3.6 percent increase in prices.

2016 October 20, Martinne Geller, “Unilever's 'Marmitegate' shows strain on consumer industry”, in Reuters UK:

In his first comments since last month’s “Marmitegate” stand-off, Dave Lewis said consumers should not be asked to pay “inflated prices” due to fluctuations in currencies, such as the post-referendum slump in the pound.

2016 November 17, “Tesco chief warns brands not to make UK shoppers pay for weak pound”, in The Guardian:

The chief executive of Unilever, the consumer goods giant at the centre of Marmitegate, said Britain should “get used to” price rises triggered by a slump in the pound after the Brexit vote.

2017 January 26, Zlata Rodionova, “Brexit: Unilever boss says Britain should 'get used to' price rises after slump of pound sterling”, in The Independent:

Sainsbury’s and Asda are preparing a joint assault on the grocery industry’s biggest suppliers if their blockbuster merger is approved, in a move that will revive memories of the Marmitegate price row between Tesco and Unilever.

2018 December 15, “Sainsbury's and ASDA plan joint assault on suppliers”, in Telegraph:

(UK, informal) A 2016 controversy in which Marmite and related products had their prices increased by the manufacturer, blamed on a fall in the pound after Brexit, and leading to the temporary withdrawal of those products from Tesco supermarkets.


banksman

It was signalled forward by a banksman and as it passed him at low speed, the amber lights on the level crossing illuminated, […] The banksman was facing away from the crossing when signalling the lorry driver and did not notice the crossing's activation for about five seconds, […] After being alerted by another member of staff, the banksman ordered the lorry to reverse as the barriers started to lower.

2020 January 2, “Safety procedures addressed after Essex level crossing near-miss”, in Rail, page 15:

(UK, civil engineering) The person who directs the operation of a crane or larger vehicle from the point near where loads are attached and detached.


rabbit in the headlights

rabbit in the headlights (plural rabbits in the headlights)

deer in the headlights
deer in the headlights#English

(UK, Australia) Synonym of deer in the headlights


lammiger

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A lame person; a cripple.


pasty tax

(UK, informal) The British tax on hot snacks, proposed in 2012, that led to the Pastygate controversy.


Pastygate

(informal, UK) A 2012 British controversy around taxation of hot snacks such as pasties, where Conservative ministers were said to be out of touch with the eating habits of ordinary people.


Gategate

From gate + -gate, since the controversy involved a policeman asking MP Andrew Mitchell to leave Downing Street by a different gate.


Plodgate

From plod + -gate, because of the involvement of a police officer.


riding officer

(UK, historical) A person employed around the coastlines of Britain in the 18th century to investigate smuggling.


relieving officer

relieving officer (plural relieving officers)

(UK, historical) A person employed to evaluate the cases of people applying for relief, and to allocate funds or authorize entry to the workhouse.

(UK, university slang, obsolete) One's father.


waterguard

(UK, historical) A division of customs responsible for the control of people, vehicles and vessels arriving into and departing from the United Kingdom. It ceased to exist in 1972.


shoggly

en-adj

shoggly (comparative more shoggly, superlative most shoggly)

more shoggly (comparative)
most shoggly (superlative)


outdoor officer

en-noun

outdoor officer (plural outdoor officers)

(UK, historical) A customs officer who worked outside the custom house, visiting the docks, warehouses, etc.


Toffee

In reference to two toffee shops that were located in Everton village at the time the club was founded.

(informal, UK, soccer) A fan or member of Everton F.C..


show flat

It was a show flat. The living room windows have a heavy curtain. The bathroom does not have an outside window. There is no glass in the front door.

2010, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Lords: Committee for Privileges and Conduct, Stationery Office, The conduct of Baroness Uddin, →ISBN:

Regardless of where the show flat is, developers have come up with techniques to make the flats look a lot larger than they actually are.

2015, Yujing Fun, Cloaking White-Collar Crime in Hong Kong's Property Sector, →ISBN:

A show flat was built in the premises of the school run by the mediating NGO. For the DDA engineer interviewed, the show flat was a way to explain the housing project to Kathputli Colony's residents. The explanations provided by a manager from the private firm stressed another point: the purpose of the show flat was to present it to the DDA for its approval, and not to elicit residents' views.

2015, Véronique Dupont, David Jordhus-Lier, Catherine Sutherland, The Politics of Slums in the Global South, →ISBN:

(chiefly UK) A newly built, decorated, and furnished flat that is intended as an example rather than to be rented.


save the furniture

en-verb

save the furniture (third-person singular simple present saves the furniture, present participle saving the furniture, simple past and past participle saved the furniture)

saves the furniture (present singular third-person)
saving the furniture (participle present)
saved the furniture (participle past)
saved the furniture (past)

An allusion to rapidly removing as much furniture as possible from a building threatened by fire, flood, or a similar disaster. Compare French sauver les meubles.

[S]winging progressives were keen to consolidate the diving Labor vote and save the furniture so that a reasonably-sized progressive opposition party could live to fight another day.

2013 October 4, Christopher Drew, “Why the Greens were the real election losers”, in ABC News, Australia, retrieved 2016-12-04:

A week after a headline in a Montreal newspaper suggested the NDP Leader’s numbers are so low it is time to “save the furniture,” he is still battling aggressively.

2015 October 4, Gloria Galloway, “Mulcair touts NDP as only way for western Canadians to oust Tories”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 2016-12-04:

In other words, the PLP could unite behind an experienced figure who would take them to a dignified defeat but would save the furniture.

2016 March 9, John McTernan, “Jeremy Corbyn's days are numbered if MPs stand firm”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2016-12-04:

(idiomatic, UK, Canada, Australia) To salvage something positive from a calamitous situation, especially one involving the reputation or fate of a political party.


acculturalisation

UK and Australia spelling of acculturalization


mid-terrace

They pooled the considerable sums and added another huge mortgage, this time based on two substantial incomes, and bought, at the start of the 1980s, the elegant, tall mid-terrace in Canonbury they still owned […]

So they still weren't really speaking when they found themselves at their destination for the evening – a Victorian mid-terrace on three floors almost identical to their own – and suddenly obliged to affect looks of anticipation and pleasure.

2016, Jonathan Dodds, A Spell in Winter:


Cinderella club

en-noun

Cinderella club (plural Cinderella clubs)

Named after the poor girl from the fairy-tale Cinderella.

(UK, historical) A philanthropic group of the late nineteenth century, existing to provide food and entertainment for poor children.


ViSOR

(UK, law) Initialism of Violent and Sexual Offenders Register.


chuddy

(UK, New Zealand, youth slang) chewing gum


chummage

chummage (usually uncountable, plural chummages)

(obsolete, UK, slang) The lodging of several people in a single apartment.

What will you take to be paid out?’ said the butcher. ‘The regular chummage is two–and–six. Will you take three bob?’ ‘And a bender,’ suggested the clerical gentleman. ‘Well, I don’t mind that; it’s only twopence a piece more,’ said Mr. Martin. ‘What do you say, now? We’ll pay you out for three–and–sixpence a week. Come!’

1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers 42

(obsolete, UK, slang) A fee paid by a prisoner to be able to lodge in shared rooms within a prison.


Lord Privy Seal

(politics, UK) The fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, the position is now considered to be sinecure.


coppy

From a diminutive (with + -y) of Middle English *cop, found in Middle English copstole, copstule (“a kind of stool”).


shemmy

(UK, slang) Alternative form of chemmy (card game)


chemmy

We use him for eloping with heiresses, getting involved in drug scandals, and running illegal chemmy parties.

(UK, slang, card games) The card game called chemin de fer.


TETS

The driver had three hundred quid in his pocket when he died - he was going to put a deposit on a car for his daughter after his shift. That's not the action of a suicide. I suppose some good came out of it, with TETS.

2011, Christopher Fowler, Bryant and May Off the Rails, →ISBN, page 128:

The accident led to the introduction of TETS, or Trains Entering Terminal Stations (London Underground) or alternatively Moorgate Control (National Rail), named after the disaster and introduced on all dead-end terminal stations.

2015, Richard M. Jones, End of the Line - The Moorgate Disaster, →ISBN, page 166:

(UK, railway) Initialism of Trains Entering Terminal Stations: a failsafe device for stopping trains that are entering a station at the end of a railway line.


Chancellor

Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer#English

(UK) Ellipsis of Chancellor of the Exchequer.


I'm not being funny

Clara: Well, I'm not being funny, but those clothes aren't really suitable for having meetings with clients.
John: Really?
Clara: I think so – a shirt and tie, or suit and shirt would be better.

2009, Gavin Dudeney, Nicky Hockly, Learning English as a Foreign Language For Dummies, page 296:

I'm not being funny, but you make me nervous.

2011, Martin Stanley, The Gamblers, page 280:

You know, I'm not being funny, but, you know, when he's with all his cool new 'creative' mates. They ain't real, Tony. They ain't like us. They sit around, with ironic trousers on and three haircuts each, waiting to be discovered.

(UK, idiomatic) Used as a softening preface to a statement that might be taken as offensive or malicious.


twiny

en-adj

twiny (comparative more twiny, superlative most twiny)

more twiny (comparative)
most twiny (superlative)

(UK, North Country, dialect, archaic) fretful; uneasy


swaly

swaly (comparative swalier, superlative swaliest)

swalier (comparative)
swaliest (superlative)


two ha'pennies for a penny

Suggesting that somebody has so little money that they could not even exchange somebody's penny for two halfpennies.

I bet you he hasn't got two ha'pennies for a penny — they never have, these people.

1962, Edith Juliet Rich Isaacs, Theatre Arts, volume 46, page 114:

A lot of rowdy-dowdies, poverty stricken — blunt but true, they haven't got two ha'pennies for a penny — dirty, no interest in their children.

In that condition he hasn't got a halfpenny to scratch himself with — an irreverent departure from the pious 'not a penny to bless himself'; or two ha'pennies for a penny, nor a brass farthing or a penny to his name.

1980, Robert Barltrop, Jim Wolveridge, The Muvver Tongue, page 18:

(UK, idiomatic, dated, in negative constructions) Any money whatsoever.


CNDer

(British) A member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.


monged out

monged out (comparative more monged out, superlative most monged out)

more monged out (comparative)
most monged out (superlative)


gatter

But when I strove my flame to tell, / Says she, 'Come, stow that patter, / If you're a cove wot likes a gal, / Vy don't you stand some gatter?' / In course I instantly complied— / Two brimming quarts of porter, / With sev'ral goes of gin beside, / Drain'd Bet the Coaley's daughter.

Bet the Coaley's Daughter (traditional song)

(UK, slang, obsolete) Porter or other beer, or by extension any alcoholic drink.


general studies

(UK, education) A school subject that assesses reading and writing skills and awareness of current affairs.


dunnit

Bob's just finished painting the spare room. Looks good, dunnit?


Biscuitgate

(UK, humorous) A minor controversy of 2009, when prime minister Gordon Brown was accused of sidestepping questions about his favourite kind of biscuit during an online chat.


faffery

However, they were in my way and I had no time for such faffery.

2014, Oli Jacobs, Strange Days in High Wycombe, page 65:

(UK, slang) faffing about; unproductive wasting of time


arse-fuck

en-verb

arse-fuck (third-person singular simple present arse-fucks, present participle arse-fucking, simple past and past participle arse-fucked)

arse-fucks (present singular third-person)
arse-fucking (participle present)
arse-fucked (participle past)
arse-fucked (past)

You gotta write about sweet, tender, little girlies getting arsefucked like cheap little whores!!

1998, Sick Puppy Comix, number 8, Sydney, page 21:

I tried to clear my mind as I was sure that he had just admitted to being arse fucked and he wasn't stopping there[.]

2006, Dean Riley, The Reveller: Every Lie has Eighty Percent Truth, →ISBN, page 399:

These girls go into porn the minute they turn eighteen, believing it'll be all glitz and glamour, then get arse-fucked by the director at their first gonzo shoot.

2016, Ava Marsh, Exposure: The Most Provocative Thriller You’ll Read All Year, →ISBN, page 149:

(slang, vulgar, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To perform anal sex (on another).


manœuvering

(UK, gerund of manœuver) Obsolete spelling of manoeuvering.


fremsome

en-adj

fremsome (comparative more fremsome, superlative most fremsome)

more fremsome (comparative)
most fremsome (superlative)

(UK dialectal, Northern England) Unfamiliar.

(UK dialectal, Northern England) Unsocial.


yigh

I can't do it.

Yigh, thou can.

Taken from page 206 in Shorrocks (1999).

(UK, dialect, Lancashire) yes, used when contradicting.


toffee penny

(UK) A sweet consisting of a large flat circle of toffee.


Swarfega

Trade name. The company states that it derives from swarf, an old Derbyshire engineering term for oil and grease, and a variation of eager, i.e. eager to clean.

(UK) A heavy-duty gelatinous, thixotropic substance used to clean grease and oil, etc. from the skin.


stend

(UK, dialect, archaic, intransitive) To rear or leap.

(UK, dialect, archaic, intransitive) To walk with long strides.


gentleman's gentleman

en-noun

gentleman's gentleman (plural gentleman's gentlemen or gentlemen's gentlemen)

gentleman's gentlemen (plural)
gentlemen's gentlemen (plural)

Touchwood was by no means critically nice in his society, but was observed to converse as readily with a gentleman's gentleman, as with the gentleman to whom he belonged.

1823, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 13, in St. Ronan's Well, volume II:

[H]e put it away and, ringing the bell, demanded his valet. . . . In due time came a discreet knock and thereafter a discreet person entered, tall, quick-eyed, low-voiced, soft-stepping, he was a very model of a fashionable gentleman's gentleman.

1918, Jeffery Farnol, chapter 15, in Our Admirable Betty:

[H]e estimates that only 50 aristocrats still employ domestic staff (less than the number of London-based Russian plutocrats employing a gentleman's gentleman).

2007 November 15, Jasper Gerard, “Butlers: A Jeeves of my very own”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2016-01-16:

(chiefly British) A valet or a man's personal manservant.


yetling

yetling (countable and uncountable, plural yetlings)

From Middle English yetling, yetlyng, ȝetlynge, equivalent to yet (“to pour”) + -ling.

Scots ploughs, very neatly made, and covered with yetling, are the only kind used in this parish.

1794, John Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn Up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes, page 178:

Rollers are of different kinds, stone, yetling, wood. Each of these has its advantages.

1815, Henry Home (Lord Kames), The Gentleman Farmer: Being an Attempt to Improve Agriculture by Subjecting it to the Test of Rational Principles, page 54:

Having afterwards resolved upon renewing the armament, they instructed the Dean of Guild " to sell the auld pieces callit heidsticks being in the steeple to the gritest avail, and wair and bestow the money gotten therefor upon sufficient yetling ordinance to the common use of the burgh."

1884, The History of Old Dundee, Narrated Out of the Town Council Register, pages 212–213:

A caller burn runs wimpling clear, Out o'er its rocky bed ; Where sits the rural yetling chair, For youth and hoary head, To rest themselves beside the stream And hear its murmuring.

1896, John Geddie, The Water of Leith from Source to Sea, page 32:

(UK, chiefly Scotland, obsolete) Cast iron.

Still, it occurs to me that Yetlington is more probably indebted to its name from being the spot where " yetlings" were made. To this day the metal pot used by the muggers is known by that appellation in its immediate neighhourhood, and bears a striking resemblance to a sacred utensil used during the sacrifices of the Romans.

1842, Local Collections; Or, Records of Remarkable Events, Connected with the Borough of Gateshead, page 50:

Mother had lifted the yetling off the fire, and left it there," pointing to the middle of the room ; " and she comes running along and tumbles in.

1859, Jane Anne Winscom, Onward: or, The mountain Clamberers : a Tale of Progress, page 43:

A bronze yetling, or tripod caldron, with an angular handle at each side.

1880, John Collingwood Bruce, A Descriptive Catalogue of Antiquities, Chiefly British, at Alnwick Castle:

Baking in the turf-burning areas of the North Yorkshire Moors was also undertaken in a yetling, a cylindrical cast-iron vessel perhaps a foot in diameter and five inches in height which hung over the fire from a reckon-hook.

1987, Peter C. D. Brears, Traditional Food in Yorkshire, page 79:

(UK, chiefly Scotland, by extension) A small cauldron, or rounded pot, typically, but not always, made of cast iron.

A more recent conjecture traces a connection between it and the game still, or not long ago, played at New Year with yetlings or balls of cast iron on the sands near the Skilleys of Wemyss, in which, as in the North German Klotschiessen, the player who drives the ball to the goal in the fewest number of strokes wins.

1896, The County Histories of Scotland - Volume 4, page 231:

(UK, chiefly Scotland) A small cast iron ball.


ACPO

Association of Chief Police Officers
w:Association of Chief Police Officers

(UK) Initialism of Association of Chief Police Officers.


wheel round

en-verb

wheel round (third-person singular simple present wheels round, present participle wheeling round, simple past and past participle wheeled round)

wheels round (present singular third-person)
wheeling round (participle present)
wheeled round (participle past)
wheeled round (past)

(chiefly UK) Alternative form of wheel around


gob off

gob off (third-person singular simple present gobs off, present participle gobbing off, simple past and past participle gobbed off)

gobs off (present singular third-person)
gobbing off (participle present)
gobbed off (participle past)
gobbed off (past)

shoot one's mouth off
shoot one's mouth off#English

(UK, slang) Synonym of shoot one's mouth off


Sensi

(UK, slang, video games) Sensible Software, a British software house active during the 1980s and 1990s.

(UK, slang, video games) Sensible Soccer, a football video game series published by Sensible Software.


Cast Iron Shore

(UK) The banks of the river Mersey in south Liverpool, England.


watch-jobber

1881, Claudius Saunier, The Watchmakers’ Hand-Book, translated, revised and augmented by Julien Tripplin and Edward Rigg, London: J. Tripplin, Preface, p. vi,
In recent years the work of the ordinary watch-jobber and repairer has undergone considerable change. The apprenticeship he serves, if indeed it can be called a real apprenticeship, is shorter than formerly.

Between the High Street and the shingle beach, divided from the rest of the town by a drawbridge, was Portsmouth Point, ‘the Wapping of Portsmouth’, a picturesque, heterogeneous assemblage of taverns, liquor-shops, eating-houses, cook-shops, tailors, drapers, pawnbrokers, watch-jobbers, and trinket-merchants, backed by a warren of mean streets and alleys.

1975, G. J. Marcus, chapter 10, in Heart of Oak: A Survey of British Sea Power in the Georgian Era, Oxford University Press, page 144:

(obsolete, UK) A person who repairs and maintains watches.


Henry VIII clause

en-noun

Henry VIII clause (plural Henry VIII clauses)

Named after English King Henry VIII, who passed the Statute of Proclamations in 1539 that empowered him to legislate by proclamation.

(Australia, India, New Zealand, UK) A provision in a bill before Parliament, that enables the Government to amend the text of the bill once it becomes an Act of Parliament or to repeal the Act using secondary legislation.

Henry VIII clause
Statute of Proclamations


downgang

(UK dialectal, Yorkshire) A downhill way, usually a path way.


tyre chain

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Alternative spelling of tire chain.


play pussy

en-verb

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

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

(UK, military, slang) To conceal one's aircraft by taking advantage of cloud cover, moving from one cloud to another.


wankpuffin

“So stop being a wankpuffin and help me find the mines.”

2018, David Wood, Solomon Key, unnumbered page:

'He's an utter wankpuffin, Sloane. A twatbadger, a cockwomble, a dickbiscuit. He is a miserable piece of knobcheese and I hope he spends the rest of his life regretting what he did to you. […]

2020, Sophie Ranald, No, We Can't Be Friends, unnumbered page:

Don't leave me with this wankpuffin.

2022, Kristen Bailey, Am I Allergic to Men?, unnumbered page:

(UK, slang, vulgar, derogatory) A contemptible person.


up the Oxo Tower

In reference to the Oxo Tower, a building on the River Thames in London, formerly owned by the makers of Oxo stock cubes (whose brown colour is likened in this phrase to that of excrement).

> > You and your wimmin have been missing out.
>
> more an (female) arse man myself
Have you been up the Oxo Tower?

2012, joeh, “Re: Royal Family is all stuffy and dull”, in uk.politics.misc (Usenet):

Until recently, London has had only one building that works by way of a euphemism for bumming. Yes — the Oxo Tower on the South Bank has been the sole venue to allow people to post Facebook update statuses such as: 'First date with Grace last night. I took her up the Oxo Tower.'

2013 February 8, Caitlin Moran, “The Shard”, in The Times:

(UK, slang, humorous) Of sexual intercourse: anally.


national insurance

Introduced by the National Insurance Act 1911.

(UK, Ireland) A system of taxes paid by workers and employers, used primarily to fund state benefits.


down-calver

(UK, dialect) A cow or heifer that is about to calve.


ganzy

(UK, Yorkshire dialect) A pullover or sweater.


coster-monger

(British) Alternative form of costermonger


queer ken

From queer (“weird; odd”) + ken (“house”).

Fact is, / she’ll end up in the charpering carsey / of Jennifer Justice. What is this / queer ken she’s in?

2015 October 12, Adam Lowe, “Poem of the week: Vada That”, in The Guardian:

(dated, UK, thieves' cant and Polari) A prison.


badge of honour

en-noun

badge of honour (plural badges of honour)

Opposition to climate science has become not just the badge of honour for far-right politicians like Ukip’s Paul Nuttall. It has become the central tenet of their appeal to unreason.

2017 February 20, Paul Mason, “Climate scepticism is a far-right badge of honour – even in sweltering Australia”, in the Guardian:

(UK, Canada) Alternative form of badge of honor


trauma centre

(UK) A specialized section of a hospital intended to treat suddenly occurring life-threatening injuries and medical conditions.


monetisable

en-adj

monetisable (comparative more monetisable, superlative most monetisable)

more monetisable (comparative)
most monetisable (superlative)


flies' graveyard

en-noun

flies' graveyard (plural flies' graveyards)

The currants or raisins are supposed to resemble dead flies.

(UK, slang) A sweet pastry filled with currants or raisins.


Stewpot

Fuck, that is brilliant! That is inspired! What sauce! Get in! It's the economy, Stewpot!

2009 December 12, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Roger Drew, Sean Gray, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, Tony Roche, Will Smith, The Thick of It, season 3, episode 8, spoken by Cal Richards (Tom Hollander), BBC Four:

(British, slang) A nickname for somebody called Stewart or Stuart (as a given name or a surname).


menseful

en-adj

menseful (comparative more menseful, superlative most menseful)

more menseful (comparative)
most menseful (superlative)

From Middle English menskful, equivalent to mense + -ful.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Decorous; mannerly; respectful and worth of respect.


chancel repair liability

(British, law) the legal requirement for homeowners to pay for their local church's repairs


degenderisation

(British) Alternative spelling of degenderization


need one's bumps feeling

en-verb

need one's bumps feeling (third-person singular simple present needs one's bumps feeling, present participle needing one's bumps feeling, simple past and past participle needed one's bumps feeling)

needs one's bumps feeling (present singular third-person)
needing one's bumps feeling (participle present)
needed one's bumps feeling (participle past)
needed one's bumps feeling (past)

need one's head examined
need one's head examined#English

(UK, slang) Synonym of need one's head examined


blue badge

Fifty car parking spaces, a drop-off point, five spaces for blue badge holders and lighting masts are all included in the plan, as is cycle parking on the station forecourt and ticket vending machines.

2020 May 20, “Network News: Plan submitted for £18.6 million station at Soham”, in Rail, page 21:

(UK) A blue parking disc issued to disabled drivers that allows them to park on most double yellow lines


munchie box

(UK, chiefly Scotland) An assortment of fast foods — pizza, fries, doner kebab meat, etc. — sold together in a large flat box.


builder's mug

From builder + -'s + mug, from its being the stereotypical mug used by builders (stereotypically to drink builder's tea).

I glugged tea from a builder's mug.

2011 April 7, Tiffany Murray, Diamond Star Halo, Granta Books, →ISBN:

(UK) A large ceramic mug for hot drinks.

One standard builder's mug will feed 1 adult and 2 littles. Switch up the carrot for grated apple with a small handful of raisins for apple pie porridge.

2020 July 23, Rebecca Wilson, What Mummy Makes: Cook Just Once for You and Your Baby, Dorling Kindersley Ltd, →ISBN:

2 builder's mug basmati rice (170g)

(Can we date this quote?), Brad Hoskinson, Easy Curry Cookbook: Cook Delicious Curries with this Simple Guide, Brad Hoskinson, page 23:

1 builder's mug of coarse rolled large porridge oats ( 50g / person )

2023 April 13, Jamie Oliver, Billy and the Giant Adventure: The first children's book from Jamie Oliver, Random House, →ISBN:

(UK, informal) A unit of volumetric measure equivalent to the typical builder's mug, around 1/2-pint (10 oz.; 300 cc; 300 mL; 30 cL; 1 cup)


creamwove

en-noun

creamwove (countable and uncountable, plural creamwoves)

(UK) Wove writing paper that is cream in color.


more life in a tramp's vest

more life in a tramp's vest (uncountable)

A tramp's vest might be expected to be infested with living things such as fleas.

We had been used to the patter and banter of the Gorbals and, after a particularly dull conversation with one of our new neighbours, my mother told me that she'd 'seen mair life in a tramp's vest'.

2011, Colin MacFarlane, No Mean Glasgow: Revelations of a Gorbals Guy:

I'd seen more life in a tramp's vest than I had in this lad, and he just sat on the bike totally unconcerned as I approached him on foot.

2012, Martyn Johnson, What's Tha Up To Nah?:

(UK, slang) Used in comparisons to indicate that someone or something is devoid of life or animation.


not a bother on someone

He spent no more than a couple of hours in hospital, not a bother on him.

2005, Mary T. O'Connor, On the beat: a woman's life in the Gárda Síochána, page 112:

(UK, Ireland, regional) Someone is fine; all is well with someone.


Freedom Day

(UK, historical) 19 July 2021, on which the last remaining social contact restrictions due to COVID-19 were repealed.


dimbo

Blend of dim + dumbo, influenced by bimbo.


Gift-Aid

en-verb

Gift-Aid (third-person singular simple present Gift-Aids, present participle Gift-Aiding, simple past and past participle Gift-Aided)

Gift-Aids (present singular third-person)
Gift-Aiding (participle present)
Gift-Aided (participle past)
Gift-Aided (past)

What is even better is when couples decide in advance what they can afford to give to people who need help, and make sure their giving is tax efficient by Gift-Aiding it.

2007, Andrew Body, Growing together: the course: a complete marriage preparation programme:

(UK, transitive) To declare (a charitable donation that one is making) as eligible for Gift Aid.


ploughstaff

(UK) The hind part or handle of a plough.


fit note

(UK) A note issued by a doctor, indicating whether the patient is fit to work and under what conditions.


SHA

(UK, medicine) Initialism of strategic health authority.


coat-trailing

en-noun

coat-trailing (countable and uncountable, plural coat-trailings)

From the idea of deliberately trailing one's coat on the ground to entice another to step on it.

The Peshawar agent will often be an ambitious man "in a hurry," in which case he will push the forward policy, and amongst future Viceroys Aucklands, Lyttons, Lansdownes, and Elgins will be more frequent than Lawrences and Curzons, and then we shall have complications, coat-trailings, warlike movements, perhaps even wars, and they mean, as was the case through the 'nineties, extravagance trans-Indus, and crippling retrenchments or tax enhancements cis-Indus.

1904, Septimus Smet Thorburn, The Punjab in Peace and War, page 348:

It would still remain a perfectly good Bill without the Clause. Its presence in it is nothing but what I said earlier, namely, a typical example of coat-trailing.

1962, Northern Ireland Parliament Senate, Parliamentary Debates. The Senate Official Report, page 504:

I am not prepared to be involved or drawn into a controversy on the one hand with those who proposed to abolish the name in a coat-trailing political exercise or on the other hand with those who rose to that bait and opposed the decision to try to change the name, equally for reasons of political opportunism and coat-trailing.

1983, Northern Ireland Assembly, Official Report of Debates - Issue 8, page 118:

My own coat-trailing was totally ineffective, but the system of having an obvious road black, with 'cut-offs' behind and down side streets to catch those deliberately avoiding them proved useful.

2006, Peter Hinchcliffe, John T. Ducker, Maria Holt, Without Glory in Arabia: The British Retreat from Aden, →ISBN, page 182:

It was an Abwehr tradition for each of its officers to recruit his own agents. British M.I.6, who were responsible for the planting, obviously failed to do their coat-trailing either in the right places or with the right Abwehr officers.

2016, Barton Whaley, Turnabout and Deception, →ISBN:

(UK) A disingenuous act or arrangement intended to provoke a desired response.


aggrandisation

aggrandisation (usually uncountable, plural aggrandisations)

British standard spelling of aggrandization.


Dart

(UK, naval slang) An officer trained at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, England.


cock a deaf 'un

en-verb

cock a deaf 'un (third-person singular simple present cocks a deaf 'un, present participle cocking a deaf 'un, simple past and past participle cocked a deaf 'un)

cocks a deaf 'un (present singular third-person)
cocking a deaf 'un (participle present)
cocked a deaf 'un (participle past)
cocked a deaf 'un (past)

(UK, intransitive, slang) To turn a deaf ear; to refuse to listen, or pretend not to have heard.


court of honour

en-noun

court of honour (plural courts of honour)


geg in

en-verb

geg in (third-person singular simple present gegs in, present participle gegging in, simple past and past participle gegged in)

gegs in (present singular third-person)
gegging in (participle present)
gegged in (participle past)
gegged in (past)

Everyone in the underworld wanted to geg in on it to get credit for it [from powerful Haase when he got out].

2011, Graham Johnson, Druglord: Guns, Powder and Pay-Offs:

However, they would've come to watch Jay play, and she didn't want them gegging in on her social life.

2018, Debbie McGowan, Goth of Christmas Past, page 50:

(UK, informal, often used with "on") To intrude; butt or muscle in (on another's territory, property, romantic partner, etc.); to be nosy.


Kolpak

From Maroš Kolpak. A 2003 decision of the European Court of Justice which ruled that nationals of a country who have signed an association agreement with the EU have the same right of freedom to work as EU nationals.

(UK, cricket, rugby) A player from an overseas country, such as South Africa or the Caribbean.


Buff

(UK, military, mostly in plural) A member of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).


Buff

(UK, slang) A member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.


parking attendant

en-noun

parking attendant (plural parking attendants)

(UK) A person who issues tickets for parking violations.


soft toy

So far this year, SWR's lost property team has been looking after 19 soft toys (and counting) at London Waterloo station. The operator shared images and details of the toys on social media.

2021 September 22, “Stop & Examine”, in RAIL, number 940, page 94:

(British, Australia, South Africa) A toy made of a soft material, usually stuffed with cotton, straw, beans, or other materials, and typically intended as a plaything for children.


iceberg basement

iceberg basement (plural iceberg basements)

So called because the greater part of an iceberg remains below sea level.

According to Joe Gamp, a journalist for Express, Britons have complained about the palace's plan to build a two-story iceberg basement.

2018 June 26, “Prince William, Kate Middleton's 'Ridiculous' Basement Expansion Sparks Debate”, in International Business Times:

(UK, informal, derogatory) An extensive luxurious basement added to a home to avoid the difficulties of building an extension above ground.


BMC

British Motor Corporation
w:British Motor Corporation

(UK) Initialism of British Motor Corporation.


wind one's neck in

en-verb

wind one's neck in (third-person singular simple present winds one's neck in, present participle winding one's neck in, simple past and past participle wound one's neck in)

winds one's neck in (present singular third-person)
winding one's neck in (participle present)
wound one's neck in (participle past)
wound one's neck in (past)

(UK, informal, chiefly imperative) to stop talking or arguing; shut up.


EPQ

Extended Project Qualification
w:Extended Project Qualification

(UK, education) Initialism of Extended Project Qualification.


Monkmania

So what does the future hold for Monkman, and could this be the start of a long, successful career in media? He’s certainly had a lot of opportunities in the wake of ‘Monkmania’.

2017 August 4, Alex Nelson, “University Challenge star Eric Monkman on his new Radio 4 show – and ‘Monkmania’”, in iNews:

The University Challenge rivals who became a television cult are bringing “Monkmania” back with their own BBC show.

2018 August 18, Helena Horton, “‘Monkmania’ back as University Challenge rivals hit the road to uncover Britain’s genius”, in The Daily Telegraph:

His memorable appearance on the show sparked its own hashtag #Monkmania, on Twitter.

2020, Ellie Cambridge, Becky Pemberton, “Who is Eric Monkman and when did he appear on University Challenge?”, in The Sun:

(UK, informal) Enthusiasm for Eric Monkman as a contestant on University Challenge 2016–17.


square root of fuck all

en-noun

the square root of fuck all (uncountable)

For months, all things in Bobby's life had amounted to the square root of fuck all. Stan sat endlessly on his butt, doing the square root of fuck all. How much dishwashing soap was left? The square root of fuck all.

2011, Gordon W. Dale, Fool's Republic, page 167:

Nuclear power could save us, but the same people who won't let us burn coal also won't let us use nuclear because it might, possibly be dangerous if something bad happened, leaving us with the square root of fuck all to power our homes.

(UK, slang, vulgar, derogatory, rare) Absolutely nothing.


gearknob

And, anyway, you need to have some money left in the kitty to spend on some of the bewildering but often rather appealing options. Racing stripes. A red gearknob. Plastic wheel arch extensions.cars; a wooden wheel and walnut gearknob were available as dealer options.

2011, Jeremy Clarkson, Round the Bend, →ISBN:

The other day, l was driving along in my old Mini when the gearknob came off in my hand.

2012, James May, May on Motors, →ISBN, page 61:

Old plastic control switches, gearknobs and steering column levers sometimes end up in very poor condition, or are missing altogether.

2017, Enthusiast's Restauration Manual Series, How to Restore Classic Car Interiors: Repair • Restoration • Maintenance, →ISBN, page 128:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A knob that forms the handle for the gear lever on a car with manual transmission.


thousand million

Remark also that it is only for facility of counting that we have reckoned our universe as a thousand million suns; […]

1901, Sir Norman Lockyer, Nature - Volume 64:

(chiefly UK) Synonym of billion (sense 1)


titan primary school

titan primary school (plural titan primary schools)

Those are fine words, but the number of titan primary schools is soaring, with nearly five times the number of primary schools with over 800 pupils than in 2010.

2014, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), page 389:

(UK, education) A primary school with 800 or more pupils.


power centre

British and Canada standard spelling of power center.


fitness centre

British and Canada standard spelling of fitness center.


profit centre

British and Canada standard spelling of profit center.


entertainment centre

entertainment centre (plural entertainment centres)

entertainment center
entertainment center#English

British and Canada standard spelling of entertainment center.


tonal centre

British and Canada standard spelling of tonal center.


windcuffer

From wind + cuffer, from cuff (“hit, slap”); compare windhover.

A windcuffer hovered overhead.

1980, Hamish M. Brown, Hamish's mountain walk: the first traverse, page 51:

An auld ram alone huddled against the wind, that had swept clear the skies even of eagle, windcuffer, and goose. The scent of saltwater rode the wind over the freshwater loch, and the dry field-grasses rattled,

2012, GMW Wemyss, Sensible Places: essays on place, time, & countryside →ISBN, in Wiltonshire, England), page 6

I was gorse on the track beaconing the way,
I was seal in the sea, braving the swell,
I was windcuffer mounting the bitter winds,
I was cloud billowing higher than Hoy.

2012, Caitlín Matthews (born in Portsmouth, England), Bone Song, in John Matthews, The Book of Celtic Verse: A Treasury of Poetry, Dreams & Visions →ISBN

(UK dialectal, originally Orkney, rare) The common kestrel.


shooting brake

French: break

(historical, British, automotive) A vehicle used to carry shooting parties.


Northern

en-adj

Northern (comparative more Northern, superlative most Northern)

more Northern (comparative)
most Northern (superlative)

Les Dawson was a famous Northern comedian.

(British) Characteristic of the North of England (usually capitalised).


SDLT

In summary, the variation of a lease for consideration is generally chargeable to SDLT.

2006, Michael Thomas, David Goy, Stamp Duty Land Tax, page 172:


Crompton

Named for the installed Crompton Parkinson electrical equipment.

(British, rail transport) A British Rail Class 33 locomotive.


Slimes

(UK, slang) Slimelight, an alternative club night in London, established in the 1980s.


blue fire

en-noun

blue fire (usually uncountable, plural blue fires)

(UK, slang, dated) Sensational romanticism.


wind-grass

Any of a number of grasses:
(UK, Ireland) Apera spica-venti

Any of a number of grasses:
Apera spica-venti


gymslip mum

From the use of gymslips as part of traditional school uniform.


Daily Wail

(UK, slang, derogatory) The Daily Mail newspaper.


Baze

(UK, slang, obsolete) Bayswater Road, a street in London, England.


foxtress

From fox; modelled on terms like actress and songstress.

(UK, slang) A physically attractive woman.


ben mort

Towre out ben morts & towre, / Looke out ben morts & towre, / For all the Rome coues^([sic]) are budgd a beake, / And the quire coves tippe the lowre.

1610, Samuel Rowlands, “Towre Out Ben Morts”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris, published 1896, page 5:

Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you.

1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring Girl”, in Arthur Henry Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 4, published 1885, act 5, scene 1, pages 128–129:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Good woman.


namous

en-verb

namous (third-person singular simple present namouses, present participle namousing, simple past and past participle namoused)

namouses (present singular third-person)
namousing (participle present)
namoused (participle past)
namoused (past)

UK 19th century. Probably from Spanish vamos (“we go”) or vámonos (“let's go”). Possibly influenced by German nehmen (“to take”). Cognate with English vamoose.
Possibly backslang from summon.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:namous.

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) To run away; to leave; to depart.


namous

One boy (of the party) is always on the look out, and even if a stranger should advance, the cry is given of "Namous" or "Kool Eslop." Instantly the money is whipped-up and pocketed, and the boys stand chattering and laughing together.

1851, Henry Mayhew, “Gambling of Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 17:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Look out! Beware!


kinchin mort

My doxy I haue by the Salomon a doxy, that carries a kitchin mort in her ſlat at her backe, beſides my dell and my dainty wilde del, with all whom I'le tumble this next darkmans in the ſtrommel, […]

c. 1607–1610 (date written), Thomas Middleton; Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girle. Or Moll Cut-purse. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Archer, […], published 1611, →OCLC, [Act V], signature [K4], recto:

“I’ll pray for nane o’ him,” said Meg, “nor for you neither, you randy dog. The times are sair altered since I was a kinchin-mort.[…]”

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 97:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A female child, especially one carried by a beggar.


Llandoverian

(UK) A pupil of Llandovery College, Carmarthenshire, Wales.


VCSE

(UK) Initialism of voluntary, community or social enterprise.


IDST

(UK, slang, used in graffiti) Initialism of if destroyed still true.


bugger me backwards

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) Expression of surprise or amazement.


ekker

"Give me ekker," said Beatrice contemptuously. "There's no ekker in biking that I can see."

1920, Edmée Elizabeth Monica Delafield, The Heel of Achilles, New York: Macmillan, published 1921, page 63:

I hated sport, ekker, games, whatever they wanted to call it. And it was a fuck sight harder to get off ekker at Uppingham than it had been at prep school.

1997, Stephen Fry, Moab is My Washpot, page 183:

New bugs at Winchester can still buy Winchester Notions, which lists the school’s slang. Invaluable if you want to translate something like ‘First-year boys, not in college but keen on exercise, will take part in the cross-house matches after half-term, before evening prep, under the supervision of all masters, the governing body, and the two joint heads of school.’ In Winchester slang, that reads, ‘For Commoners looking for Ekker, Winkies in Cloister Time for the Junior Part will be held after Leave Out, before Toytime, in the presence of all Dons, the Go. Bo., the Aul. Prae and the Sen. Co. Prae.’

2013 September 7, Harry Mount, “Public-school slang continues to thrive, particularly in rural boarding schools”, in The Spectator, retrieved 2017-06-13:

(UK, school slang) Physical activity intended to improve strength and fitness.

(UK, school slang) Scholastic activity designed to develop or hone academic skills.


on one's beam ends

By analogy with a capsizing ship; see usage note at beam-ends.

(UK, dated) In a parlous or destitute state.