bonk

en-noun

bonk (countable and uncountable, plural bonks)

onomatopoeic

imitative

“[…] It’s not like I’m just looking for a bonk, is it? This is something a bit different.” ¶ “Quite,” said Nick—though bonk was a troublingly casual way of referring to something which preoccupied him so much.

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 2, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(informal, countable, chiefly UK) An act of sexual intercourse.


screaming abdabs

...not noticing the sud smells anymore or belts over my head that gave me the screaming ab-dabs when I first came in the factory at fifteen...

1959, Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, page 34:

1971, New Scientist, page 80, by the EBSCO Publishing Firm,
Meanwhile, down the road a piece, another British firm has had an attack of the abdabs.

... Robert played all the time on his dummy keyboard and it drove Edna near mad, gave her the screaming abdabs as she put it.

1986, Anthony Burgess, The Pianoplayers, page 201:

‘This place doesn't ‘aif give me the screaming ‘abdabs.’ ‘And how!’ I agreed. All those small creatures that had once vibrated with life, now frozen ...

2003, Marian Babson, The Cat Who Wasn't a Dog:

It's a nice night, and I’da darned sight rather take a walk out than see you work yourself into a fit of the screaming abdabs. I don't blame you, ...

(British, slang) A state of extreme nervousness.


carer

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

Have you thought of a job as a carer for disabled people?

They retired early to be a full-time carer for their partner.

He said Robins had not been in trouble with the law before and had no previous convictions. Jail would have an adverse effect on her and her three children as she was the main carer.

2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian:

Her business was a one-woman outfit that offered accredited first-aid training courses for teachers, carers, sports coaches, antenatal classes, workplace groups, and the police; the classes ranged from basic defibrillator training to what was now called psychological first aid.

2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 211:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Someone who regularly looks after another person, either as a job or often through family responsibilities.

مُقَدِّم الرِّعايَة

someone who regularly looks after another person


anti-devolutionist

(British) opposed to the devolution of central powers to the individual nations and regions


curses

Fisherman: '1 PLAY COIN FOR 100 GOLD, A BOUNTIFUL TRADE, IF I'D BE SO BOLD!' / Shovel Knight: 'NOT NOW' / FISHERMAN: 'CURSES! THE THOUGHT OF THIS BURDEN UPSETS ME, BUT THAT'S WHAT A LIFE OF ADVENTURING GETS ME!'

2014, Yacht Club Games, Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope, Nintendo 3DS, level/area: Armor Outpost:

(UK, dated or humorous in the US) Expression of annoyance or frustration.


slump

Probably of North Germanic origin: compare Danish slumpe (“to stumble upon by chance”), Norwegian slumpe (“happen by chance”), Swedish slumpa (“to sell off”). Compare also German schlumpen (“to trail; draggle; be sloppy”), dialectal Dutch slompen (“to walk clumsily”).

cog

The road was all slumps of holes.

1880, William Hugh Patterson, A Glossary of Words in Use in the Counties of Antrim and Down:

It was neither seemly nor befitting that so great an occasion should have its solemnity defaced by leaping-poles or four hands crossed cradlewise to convey the bridal finery over “slump” or “quakkin'-qua[g]”!

1911, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, Rose of the Wilderness, page 165:


terrace

Borrowed from French terrasse, from Old Occitan terrassa, from terra (“land”). Doublet of terrasse.

The cameraman's pace slowed down as he approached what his mind said was where Sian lived. Like all the other houses in the street, it was a Victorian terrace with a postage stamp of an overgrown garden between its front wall and the street.

2016, Jane Killick, Mind Power: Perceivers #4:

(UK, informal) A single house in such a group.

(in the plural, chiefly British) The standing area of a sports stadium.


tester

For testern, teston, from French teston, from Old French teste (“the head, the head of the king being impressed upon the coin”). See tester (“a covering”), and compare testone, testoon.

der

When after their beaſtly ſport and pleaſure Mounſieur Libid[inoſo] heat of luſt was ſomewhat aſſwaged, and ready to goe, féeling his pocket for a venereall remuneration [i.e., a copper coin] finds nothing but a Teſter, or at leaſt ſo little, that it was not ſufficient to pleaſe dame Pleaſure for her hire. [...] My Ladie would not beléeue Monſ. Libid. a great while, but ſearched and féeled for more coine, [...]

1602, S[amuel] R[owlands], “How a Citizen was Serued by a Curtizan”, in Greenes Ghost Havnting Conie-catchers. […], London: Printed [by Peter Short?] for R[oger] Iackson, and I. North, […], →OCLC; republished in The Complete Works of Samuel Rowlands: 1598–1628: Now First Collected, volume I, [Glasgow]: Printed [by R. Anderson] for the Hunterian Club, 1880, →OCLC, page 42:


minging

en-adj

minging (comparative more minging, superlative most minging)

more minging (comparative)
most minging (superlative)

From Scots mingin (“stinking”), present participle of ming (“to stink”), from Middle English mengen (“to mix”), from Old English mengan (“to mix”).

Once, Cookie even tried to get me to give it a go with Jez – can you believe the nerve of that? 'Why would I want to do that? He's minging.' 'Why not? It won't hurt. He never gets a shag.' 'No, Cookie. Bloody hell.' He hasn't got a clue. 'Wouldn't you be jealous?' 'No.' 'You're an idiot. Why do you think he never gets a shag?' 'Why?' 'Because he's minging!' 'So? I'm minging. We're all minging. None of us are exactly page three, are we, Billie?'

2011, Melvin Burgess, Kill All Enemies, Penguin UK, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Very unattractive; ugly.

Cleaners are always prime suspects for office thefts but in my long experience it's nearly all employees, with a tiny remainder down to traditional burglary. My advice is to presume the Nike-clad cleaner innocent and take personal stuff home, especially minging sportswear.

2011, Lucy Kellaway, The Answers: All the office questions you never dared to ask, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 82:

How can you shag bare lads? / Is your fanny not stinging? / I bet your fanny's fucking minging

2016 December 3, Millie B (lyrics and music), “Soph Aspin Send”, performed by Millie B:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Unclean or dirty; disgusting and foul-smelling.


like the back end of a bus

Not really fighting over her (puns aside). When you get a current beau and an ex, full of booze and testosterone, meeting up, their common interest isn't much of an issue in the subsequent display of machismo. I think she looks like the back end of a bus but, to them, she was a 'possession'.

2001, "Richard", "A sign of our times...", demon.local http://groups.google.com/group/demon.local/browse_thread/thread/3e3e39af204c46cb/06729fc6d595ef98?lnk=st&q=%22the+back+end+of+a+bus%22&rnum=21#06729fc6d595ef98

Must admit, I like the *original* 911s - the original, late-1960s ones back before they fitted bulgey wheelarches and silly tea-tray rear spoilers. They look much more like delicate, precision instruments compared with the later 'sledgehammer" versions [which IMHO are about as attractive as the back end of a bus].

2002, Tanuki the Raccoon-dog, “I drove a...”, in uk.rec.cars.modifications (Usenet):

You surely can't be comparing Alicia Witt with Sarah Fergusson? Alicia Witt looks stunning, while the duchess of Pork looks like the back end of a bus.

2004, David Platt, “DUCHESS OF YORK NUDE”, in uk.politics.misc (Usenet):

‘You’ve got a face like the back end of a bus,’ he spat, his eyes raw and burning. Then he grinned, his yellow-stained teeth spreading across his mush [...]

2005, Will Hadcroft, Anne Droyd And Century Lodge:

As I once told him, being British, looking like the back end of a bus or weighing 30 stone, was utterly irrelevant to the posting i made

2006, "sheelagh", "Bookie: Did you adopt the blind cat?", rec.pats.cats.health+behav http://groups.google.com/group/rec.pets.cats.health+behav/browse_thread/thread/d6ce604519cdefbb/a5f305d13e68a960?lnk=st&q=%22the+back+end+of+a+bus%22&rnum=10#a5f305d13e68a960

(simile, colloquial, British, derogatory) Very unattractive.


NGA

National Graphical Association
w:National Graphical Association

(UK, historical) Initialism of National Graphical Association.


neighbourly

neighbourly (comparative more neighbourly, superlative most neighbourly)

more neighbourly (comparative)
most neighbourly (superlative)

She's so neighbourly that she always holds a welcoming party for new residents.

I got the impression you were looking for something, and it crossed my mind to ask you what that might be. Just being friendly, sir, just being neighbourly.

2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, pages 4–5:

(British, Canada) Showing the qualities of a friendly and helpful neighbour.


instal

en-verb

instal (third-person singular simple present instals, present participle installing, simple past and past participle installed)

instals (present singular third-person)
installing (participle present)
installed (participle past)
installed (past)


sozzled

en-adj

sozzled (comparative more sozzled, superlative most sozzled)

more sozzled (comparative)
most sozzled (superlative)


solidus

From Middle English solidus, from classical Latin solidus (“solid”), see below. Doublet of sol, sold, soldo, solid, sou, and xu.
In numismatic and weight senses, via medieval Latin solidus (“various coins”), from Late Latin solidus (“a gold coin of the Roman Empire”). In chemical sense, via German Solidus, coined by H.W.B. Roozeboom in his 1899 Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie, Stöchiometrie, und Verwandtschaftslehre (XXX, page 387).
In typography, from the shilling mark originally being an abbreviation (a long s ⟨ſ⟩), of Medieval Latin solidus meaning shilling.

der

slash (typography)
solidus (coin)
solidus (disambiguation)

(typography) Synonym of slash ⟨/⟩, originally (UK) in its use as the shilling mark and now its formal designation by the ISO and Unicode.


ming

en-verb

ming (third-person singular simple present mings, present participle minging, simple past and past participle minged or meint or ment or meynt)

mings (present singular third-person)
minging (participle present)
minged (participle past)
minged (past)
meint (participle past)
meint (past)
ment (participle past)
ment (past)
meynt (participle past)
meynt (past)

From Middle English mingen, mengen, from Old English mengan (“to mix, combine, unite, associate with, consort, cohabit with, disturb, converse”), from Proto-West Germanic *mangijan (“to mix, knead”), from Proto-Indo-European *menk- (“to rumple, knead”). Cognate with Dutch mengen (“to mix, blend, mingle”), German mengen (“to mix”), Danish mænge (“to rub”), Old English ġemang (“mixture, union, troop, crowd, multitude, congregation, assembly, business, cohabitation”). More at among.

cog

(UK, Ireland, dialectal) To produce through mixing; especially, to knead.


ming

17 September 1811, [Description of] Counterpart of Demise from John Thorold to John Wilson of Grantham, Lincolnshire Archives, Ref. Thor 1/2/ZA25/4 Published by The National Archives, Accessed 19 June 2022.
Property: 1. 6 acres of land in ming with a meadow of Glebe land of the rectory of Grayingham.

(UK, Lincolnshire, obsolete, land) The state of being under mixed ownership; land under mixed ownership, particularly without physical demarcations designating ownership.


ming

en-verb

ming (third-person singular simple present mings, present participle minging, simple past and past participle minged)

mings (present singular third-person)
minging (participle present)
minged (participle past)
minged (past)

(UK, Ireland, slang) To be unattractive (person or object).

(UK, Ireland, slang) To be foul-smelling.


post mortem

From Latin post (“afterwards”) + mortem, from mors (“death”).

(British, university slang, obsolete) At Cambridge, a second examination for those who were "plucked" or failed in the first.


crocked

en-adj

crocked (comparative more crocked, superlative most crocked)

more crocked (comparative)
most crocked (superlative)

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

St Johnstone boss Derek McInnes had made two changes, with Callum Davidson, who has now recovered from injury, the replacement for crocked fellow defender David McCracken and David Robertson taking the place of Chris Millar in midfield.

2011 October 1, Clive Lindsay, “Kilmarnock 1 - 2 St Johnstone”, in BBC Sport:


steaming

en-noun

steaming (countable and uncountable, plural steamings)

(UK, informal) A form of robbery in which a large gang moves swiftly and violently through a bus or train.


steaming

en-adj

steaming (comparative more steaming, superlative most steaming)

more steaming (comparative)
most steaming (superlative)

‘Will it help or hinder if I tell you I was steaming that evening and remember nothing, full stop?’

2021, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water, Viking, page 6:


UNISON

(British, labor union) A public-sector trade union in the United Kingdom.


ASTMS

(British, historical, trade union) Initialism of Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs, a trade union.


AScW

Association of Scientific Workers
w:Association of Scientific Workers

(British, labor union) Abbreviation of Association of Scientific Workers.


pay-as-you-go

From pay + as you go (“while one progresses”).

com

From January 2, passengers will be able to use contactless pay-as-you-go between London and Reading.

2020 January 2, “First official Transport for London trains operate to Reading”, in Rail, page 10:

(British) A payment method where the charge of a service is taken automatically, usually in small amounts, after the usage, in contrast of paying before usage. Used especially of mobile phones and transport ticketing.


exhibitioner

(British) A student at secondary school or university who has been awarded an exhibition. The exhibition usually involves a financial prize and may include the right to wear a distinctive gown, especially at the University of Oxford.


ruck

en-verb

ruck (third-person singular simple present rucks, present participle rucking, simple past and past participle rucked)

rucks (present singular third-person)
rucking (participle present)
rucked (participle past)
rucked (past)

Compare Danish ruge (“to brood, to hatch”), itself related to Proto-Germanic *hraukaz (“heap, stack”).

Bot now thei rucken in here nest
And resten as hem liketh best.

c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC:

The Rauen rook'd her on the Chimnies top,
And chatt'ring Pies in dismall Discords sung.

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi]:

(UK, dialect, obsolete) To cower or huddle together; to squat; to sit, as a hen on eggs.


discretise

discretise (third-person singular simple present discretises, present participle discretising, simple past and past participle discretised)

discretises (present singular third-person)
discretising (participle present)
discretised (participle past)
discretised (past)

(transitive, British) Alternative form of discretize


lambast

lambast (third-person singular simple present lambasts, present participle lambasting, simple past and past participle lambasted)

lambasts (present singular third-person)
lambasting (participle present)
lambasted (participle past)
lambasted (past)

Labour frontbencher Louise Haigh (Shadow Transport Secretary for heaven's sake!) initially lambasted TOCs before the handful of specialist rail commentators fell on her tweets and she changed her tune, refocusing her fire on Government.

2023 August 9, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Disinterested and dishonest”, in RAIL, number 989, page 3:


tweedle

tweedle (third-person singular simple present tweedles, present participle tweedling, simple past and past participle tweedled)

tweedles (present singular third-person)
tweedling (participle present)
tweedled (participle past)
tweedled (past)

said to be imitative, probably influenced by wheedle. Compare teedle, toodle, twiddle

onom

imitative

I am afraid that the knowing author of the “cracking a-crib” book would be flummoxed by tweedling.

1925, Eustace Jervis, Twenty-five Years in Six Prisons, page 17:

Girls, smokes, bit of smack, mossing, tweedling; a very democratic villain, Mr Salvatore.

(UK, slang) To sell fake jewellery as genuine.


tweedle

imitative

Reggie had a way with him. People trusted him, and he could always pick up a few pounds when he needed them from the jargoons and the tweedle.

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

(UK, slang) A confidence trick in which fake jewellery is sold as genuine.


ROC

Translingual: ROC

(UK, military) The Royal Observer Corps, a United Kingdom defence organisation (1925 to 1992).


Hon

Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament

(British, politics) Honourable (in the titles of Members of Parliament)


scarlet fever

en-noun

scarlet fever (countable and uncountable, plural scarlet fevers)

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

(attraction to soldiers): In allusion to the red coats they used to wear.

According to Henry Mayhew, it was here that housemaids and nursemaids walking in the park to and from their place of work often first encountered “the all powerful red coat” and “succumbed to Scarlet Fever.” Soldiers were by no means unaware of the impact their dashing uniforms and well-groomed military air could have on young women, and deployed these features to their advantage.

2019, Hallie Rubenhold, The Five, page 79:

(UK, slang, obsolete, uncountable) Romantic attraction to soldiers in preference to other people.


colourise

en-verb

colourise (third-person singular simple present colourises, present participle colourising, simple past and past participle colourised)

colourises (present singular third-person)
colourising (participle present)
colourised (participle past)
colourised (past)

(British spelling) British standard spelling of colorize.


honourable

en-adj

honourable (comparative more honourable, superlative most honourable)

more honourable (comparative)
most honourable (superlative)

From Middle English honourable, from Old French honorable, honurable, from Latin honōrābilis, from honōrō (“I honour”); cognate with Italian onorabile, Spanish honorable. By surface analysis, honour + -able. In this sense, largely displaced Old English ārfæst.

It was aptly said by Newton that "whatever is not deduced from facts must be regarded as hypothesis," but hypothesis appears to us a title too honourable for the crude guessings to which we allude.

1846, George Luxford, Edward Newman, The Phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany: Volume 2, Part 2, page 474:


honourable

So she invites her father and sister to a second day's dinner (if those sides, or ontrys, as she calls 'em, weren't served yesterday, I'm d—d), and to meet City folks and littery men, and keeps the Earls and the Ladies, and the Honourables to herself.

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


geezer

From guiser. Compare also German Low German Kieser (“an obstinate person; brute; savage”).

cog

You are a silly young geezer.

1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 19, in Right Ho, Jeeves:

See the hoverboard-riding geezer? This close to payin' a G for a shot of my cousin Calvin's molars.

2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane, spoken by Nathan (Simon Manyonda):

(informal, chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, dated in the US) A male person.

Coordinate term: chav

Geezers need excitement / If their lives don't provide 'em this, they incite violence / Common sense, simple common sense

2002, “Geezers need excitement”, in Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets:

He turned out to be a proper geezer who was willing to listen to my proposition that if he took the door at the Ministry, I would pay him £400 a month to mark my cards.

2003, Carlton Leach, Muscle, John Blake Publishing, →ISBN:

He was a bit of a geezer. Used to box with the Krays when he was a young 'un.

2009, Dreda Say Mitchell, Geezer Girls, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

When I'd first met Adam, at work when we were both 23, the fact that he seemed a little rough around the edges appealed to me. He was a bit of a geezer, a joker, one of the lads.

2013, Charlotte Ward, Why Am I Always the One Before 'The One'?, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, chiefly Cockney, slang) Someone affable but morally dubious; a wide boy.

Hi, geezer, you alright?

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Term of address for a male.

He'd flirt and boat, but never wrote / A note to his old geezer.

1882, J. F. Mitchell, Jimmy Johnson's Holiday:

This frizzle-headed old geezer had a chin on her as rough well, as rough as her family, and they're rough 'uns.

(archaic, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Wife; old woman.


brook trout

en-noun

brook trout (plural brook trout or brook trouts)

brook trout (plural)
brook trouts (plural)

(British) A fish of the subspecies Salmo trutta fario, the brown trout.


hade

Probably a dialectal or variant form of head.

… certeine arable landes some of them havinge hades of meadow and grasse grounde lieinge in the Southe fielde of Einsham.

1615, in a Map in Corpus Christi College, Oxon, quoted in Wright's English Dialect Dictionary

6 rodes with hades at both ends. 2 Landes 4 ro. with hades.

1635, Terrier, quoted in Wright's English Dialect Dictionary

And oxen wyl plowe in tough cley … And whereas is now suerall pastures, there the horse plowe is better, for the horses may be teddered, or tyed upon leys, balkes, or hades, whereas oxen may not be kept: and it is used to tedder them, but in fewe places.

1534 [original], Anthony Fitzherbert, Husbandry, republished as Ancient Tracts concerning the Management of landed Property, republished, in The Monthly Review, or Journal (1767), page 270

[Item] . . . . . [w]th hades at both endes in the furlong called longe Furlonge of Thomas Vades on the north side and the aforesaide Mr [Bury] [so]wth side.

1955, Ecclesiastical Terriers of Warwickshire Parishes, volume 22, page 36:

(British, dialects, obsolete) A headland; a strip of land at the side of a field upon which a plough may be turned.


goon

→ Portuguese: guna

Alice the Goon
Peter Sellers
Popeye
Spike Milligan
The Goon Show

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ-
Proto-Indo-European *-ōm
Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm
Proto-Indo-European *-ō
Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ
Proto-Germanic *gumô
Proto-West Germanic *gumō
Old English guma
Middle English gone?
English gooney
English goon
Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony (“simpleton”), used circa 1580, of unknown origin. Perhaps a familiar term derived from Middle English gone, a variant of gome (“man, person”). Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (circa 1839). The term goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (circa 1921). Compare Scots goni, guni (“a bogey, bugbear, hobgoblin”), dialectal Swedish gonnar (“elves, goblins”, plural).
* Sense 1 ("hired thug"; circa 1938) is largely influenced by the comic strip character Alice the Goon from the Popeye series.
* Sense 3 ("fool") was reinforced by the popular radio program, The Goon Show, starring Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers.
* Sense 5 ("guard") was influenced by both sense 1 and sense 3, though not by The Goon Show reference, which arose about 10 years after WWII.

unk

unknown

cog

(UK, World War II, PoW slang) A German guard in a prisoner-of-war camp.

World War II; PoW slang; World War II; PoW slang


bonnet

→ Scottish Gaelic: bonaid

From Middle English bonet, from Middle French bonet (Modern French bonnet), from Old French bonet (“material from which hats are made”), from Frankish *bunni (“that which is bound”), from Proto-Germanic *bundiją (“bundle”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie”).
Compare also Late Latin abbonis, obbonis (“ribbon of a headdress”), also of Germanic origin, from Frankish *obbunni, from *ob- (“above, over”) + *bunni.
Cognate with Old High German gibunt (“band, ribbon”), Middle Dutch bont (“bundle, truss”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌱𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌹 (gabundi, “bond”). More at over, bundle.

der

The car is burgundy red, wide and elegant, ten years old but still the boys are impressed and they run to touch it, pressing sticky handprints against the polished bodywork and trying to climb up onto the bonnet.

2003, Jon McGregor, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, page 189:

People were reluctant to slam a bonnet shut in those days. One just did not slam bonnets and doors.

2004, David Spencer, quoted in Don Loffler, The FJ Holden: A Favourite Australian Car, page 217:

By about 20 ms, there is contact between the bonnet leading edge and the pedestrian upper leg/pelvis on the struck side, the severity of which depends on the vehicle shape.

2009, Ciaran Simms, Denis Wood, Pedestrian and Cyclist Impact: A Biomechanical Perspective, page 38:

Stoll was still standing on the car bonnet with the catch of his large-calibre repeating rifle off.

2009, Stefan Aust, Anthea Bell, Baader-Meinhof: the inside story of the R.A.F., page 308:

(Australia, British, New Zealand, South Africa, Commonwealth, automotive) The hinged cover over the engine of a motor car; a hood.


twos

(UK, prison slang) The cells located on the first floor.


kate

Fringilla montifringilla
Fringilla montifringilla#Translingual

(UK, dialect, Kent) The brambling finch, Fringilla montifringilla.


clump

en-verb

clump (third-person singular simple present clumps, present participle clumping, simple past and past participle clumped)

clumps (present singular third-person)
clumping (participle present)
clumped (participle past)
clumped (past)

From Middle English clompe, from Old English clymppe, a variant of clympre (“a lump or mass of metal”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“mass, lump, clump; clasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *glembʰ- (“lump, clamp”).
Alternatively, possibly from Middle Dutch clompe or Middle Low German klumpe (compare German Klumpen). Doublet of klomp. Cognates include Danish klump (probably from Low German as well). Compare Norwegian Bokmål klump.

der

There is his poor little cap hanging up on the door; and there on the table is the knife he chipped a piece out of through not minding the mark on the knife machine, and I clumped his head for him, poor lamb!

1912, Mrs. Coulson Kernahan, The Go-Between, page 79:

(transitive, UK, regional) To strike; to beat.


be mother

en-verb

be mother (no third-person singular simple present, present participle being mother, no simple past, past participle been mother)

being mother (participle present)
been mother (participle past)

Pouring tea is traditionally the mother's role in a family setting.

Ah, here are the cakes and tea; shall I be mother?

They went to a cafe and had afternoon tea.
'Shall l be mother?' Marcus said, lifting a utilitarian brown teapot, all cosied up in something that looked like a bobble hat.

2009, Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News?, page 277:

'Be mother, will you, Charity? Teile and Letizia have a watered-down version.'
So they had a pleasant tea, although Charity kept an anxious eye on the clock, keen not to outstay her welcome.

(idiomatic, British) To pour out tea for others.


ring of steel

closed-circuit television
closed-circuit television

(British) A form of civil protection (using closed-circuit television, control zones and restricted access) that effectively seals off city centres and financial districts; used in Northern Ireland and the City.


tic-tac

(British) a system of sign language used by bookmakers at racecourses to communicate odds and bets; an associated group of words for each sign


forestall

forestall (third-person singular simple present forestalls, present participle forestalling, simple past and past participle forestalled)

forestalls (present singular third-person)
forestalling (participle present)
forestalled (participle past)
forestalled (past)

From Middle English forestallen (“to forestall, intercept, ambush, way-lay”), from forestalle (“a forestalling, interception”), from Old English foresteall (“intervention, hindrance of justice, ambush”), from fore- (“ahead of, before”) + steall (“position”), equivalent to fore- + stall.

inh

(UK, law) To obstruct or stop up, as a road; to stop the passage of a highway; to intercept on the road, as goods on the way to market.


short sharp shock

en-noun

short sharp shock (plural short sharp shocks)

Coined by W. S. Gilbert in the song "I Am So Proud" from The Mikado, referring euphemistically to a beheading.

While COVID-19 has provided a short, sharp shock to the industry, the end hopefully appears to be in sight.

2020 December 2, Mark Phillips, “Rebuilding Rail in the 2020s”, in Rail, page 47:

(chiefly British) A regime intended to deter crime by making an immediate severe impact.


semi-skimmed milk

(UK) Milk from which about half of the cream has been removed.


racecourse

By Savernake the train was 4½min early; we then had the thrill of sweeping through Newbury at 95 m.p.h.—and one wonders if any of the punters on the neighbouring racecourse had any eyes for our flying cavalcade as we swept by, for it was a race day—[...].

1964 June, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 387:

(British, Australia) A racetrack where horse races are run.

хиподрум

(UK) a racetrack where horse races are run


rollover

rollover (countable and uncountable, plural rollovers)

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

(British) In the National or European lottery, the situation in which a jackpot that has not been won is carried over to the next week.

siirtyminen ensi kierrokselle

Britain: in the National or European lottery, the situation in which a jackpot that has not been won is carried over to the next week


ey

Inherited from Middle English ei, i, ie, from Old English ēġ, īġ, īeġ, from Proto-West Germanic *auwju, from Proto-Germanic *awjō (“watery land, floodplain, island”), earlier *agwjō ~ *ahwjō (literally “(that which is) of the water”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂ (“flowing water”) + *-yeh₂.

der

Now it will be seen that each of the three small streamlets named forms, at its junction with the larger river into which it flows, an ey, or island, of this latter kind — Crip's-ey, Dom's-ey, and Pin's-ey, respectively; and I suggest that, from these three eys, each of the three streams indicated derived the final element of its name.

Runnymede Bridge is situated on an 'ey' – a small gravel islet close to the river bank.

2009, Julie Wileman, War and Rumours of War, page 81:

(UK) A small island formed by the buildup of silt or gravel at the confluence of two rivers or streams.


letting

House lettings are holding up despite fears that the buy-to-let boom could be running out of steam, according to specialist lender Paragon Mortgages.

2002 June 15, John Cranage, “No fear of slump in lettings”, in Birmingham Post, archived from the original on 2016-02-08:


dashed

en-adj

dashed (comparative more dashed, superlative most dashed)

more dashed (comparative)
most dashed (superlative)

It's a dashed shame that Tarquin failed all his A-levels — we were hoping to get him into Oxford.

I'll be dashed if I gan another step for less 'an oaf.

1824 May 15, “Kiddywinkle History, No. II”, in Blackwood's Magazine, page 540:

I'll be dashed if I squash in with any domestic staff.

1939, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 8, in Uncle Fred in the Springtime:

(British, dated, informal, euphemistic) Damned.


south-east

en-noun

south-east (usually uncountable, plural south-easts)

(chiefly UK) Alternative form of southeast


south-east

en-adj

south-east (not generally comparable, comparative more south-east, superlative most south-east)

more south-east (comparative)
most south-east (superlative)


front bottom

Never before had she experienced the excitement that ebbed and flowed inside her. Her panties were soaking. In the past few months lovemaking with Angus had been a problem because she could not summon any fluid in her front bottom.

2009, David Silverman, Twinkle, page 107:

[…] and made her less interested in sex than usual, he supposed. That had never been a problem with Lalla. Nothing was a problem with Lalla—she could even fire ping-pong balls out of her front bottom, […]

2010, Wendy Holden, Farm Fatale: A Comedy of Country Manors, page 128:

(British, slang, euphemistic) The female genitalia; the vulva.


CIS

(UK, business) Initialism of Construction Industry Scheme.


chop suey

en-noun

chop suey (countable and uncountable, plural chop sueys)

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

From Cantonese 雜碎／杂碎 (zaap⁶ seoi³, “mixed and broken”).

To someone who had spent part of their youth visiting a grandmother in Singapore, a lot of the food they served didn’t seem particularly Chinese to me: the flavour of chop suey with its chicken or pork or prawns, or chow mein, or the omeletty foo yung, never seemed quite right.

2011, Clarissa Dickson Wright, A History of English Food, London: Random House Books, →ISBN, page 455:

(Canada and British) Steamed bean sprouts served in a semi-thick sauce, and mixed with a choice of meat and/or vegetables.


efter

[…] E was an Efter, that went to the play; / F was a Fogle he knapped on his way; […]

1846, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of London, page 60:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A thief who frequents theaters.


parting

parting (countable and uncountable, plural partings)

Margaret Thatcher’s 80s power suits were scrutinised; David Cameron’s switching of his parting was national news (Cameron later nominated his barber for an MBE); and eyebrows were raised at Theresa May’s favourite and incongruous Frida Kahlo bracelet.

2019 September 13, Hannah Jane Parkinson, “Canvas of lies: what Dominic Cummings' dress sense tells us about Brexit”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(British) The dividing line formed by combing the hair in different directions.


earthly

From Middle English erthely, erthlich, ierðlich, from Old English eorþlīċ, corresponding to earth + -ly. Cognate with Old Norse jarðligr (“earthly”).

He arched his eyebrows over the summons. "The poor devil has not an earthly!" said he. "He's lucky to have a summons. Usually they act on a warrant."

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

‘Then I didn't have a chance when I stood you a drink?’ I said. ‘Not an earthly!’ she said and laughed; but when I left she kissed me good-night.

1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 315:

(UK, colloquial) A slightest chance (of success etc.) or idea (about something).


rug

Uncertain; probably of North Germanic origin; perhaps inherited via Middle English *rugge (suggested by Middle English ruggy (“hairy, shaggy, bristly”) and rugged (“hairy, shaggy, rugged”)), from Old Norse rǫgg (“shagginess, tuft”), from Proto-Germanic *rawwō (“long wool”), probably related to *rūhaz (“rough”), related to English rag and rough.
Cognate with dialectal Norwegian rugga (“coarse coverlet”), Swedish rugg (“rough entangled hair”), related to English rag and rough. Compare also Old English rȳhe (“rug, rough covering, blanket”).

cog

They then cut down a quantity of gum-tree leaves for a bed, and threw their rugs upon them ready for bed-time.

1855, William Howitt, A Boy′s Adventures in the Wilds of Australia: or, Herbert′s Note-Book, page 254:

Furnish every sleeping apartment with a sufficient number of toilet utensils and bedsteads, and sufficient bedding so that each bed shall be provided with a mattress, two sheets, a rug, and, in winter time, not less than one additional rug.

1906 July 27, Government Gazette of Western Australia, page 2297:

1950 April, Dental Journal of Australia, Volume 22, page 181,
My own son had a bunny rug of which he was very fond and on being put to bed he would always demand his “bunny rug to suck his finger with.″

1958, Arthur Hailey, John Castle. Runway Zero-Eight. Bantham Books
She tucked in a rug round the woman. “How’s that?” The woman nodded gratefully.

He brought with him a rug and a sheet, and lay down by the fire.

1997, Alan Sharpe, Vivien Encel, Murder!: 25 True Australian Crimes, page 22:

(UK, Australia) A (usually thick) piece of fabric used for warmth (especially on a bed); a blanket.


posser

(UK) A tool for possing, or agitating laundry in a tub. It usually takes the form a bell shape or a circular plate with holes and vertical handle attached at the centre.


poss

en-verb

poss (third-person singular simple present posses, present participle possing, simple past and past participle possed)

posses (present singular third-person)
possing (participle present)
possed (participle past)
possed (past)

Piers Plowman
A cat […] possed them [the rats] about.

(obsolete, UK, dialect) To push; to dash; to throw.


steamer

From steam + -er. The steamer duck or steamer (sense 6.2) is apparently named for its resemblance to a paddle steamer when swimming rapidly.

(British, crime, slang) A member of a youth gang who engages in steaming (robbing and escaping in a large group).

(British, Scotland, slang) A drinking session.


steamer

From steam tug, rhyming slang for mug (“a gullible or easily cheated person; a stupid or contemptible person”).

(British, slang) A mug.
A gullible or easily cheated person.

(British, slang) A mug.
A stupid or contemptible person.

(British, slang) A homosexual man with a preference for passive partners.


read someone the riot act

read someone the riot act (third-person singular simple present reads someone the riot act, present participle reading someone the riot act, simple past and past participle read someone the riot act)

reads someone the riot act (present singular third-person)
reading someone the riot act (participle present)
read someone the riot act (participle past)
read someone the riot act (past)

From read the Riot Act. See sense 2. The Riot Act is a historical British Act of Parliament enacted in 1714, which stated that once a statutory warning was read out to rioters and they failed to disperse within one hour, then authorities may use any force to disperse them with impunity.

(British, Commonwealth, archaic, historical) To give a formal warning for a riotous assembly to disperse, usually through reading a section of the Riot Act.


welsher

(British) Alternative spelling of welcher


muffin

→ Chinese: 瑪芬 /玛芬 (mǎfēn)

→ Danish: muffin

→ Esperanto: mafino

→ Finnish: muffini, muffinssi, muffinsi

→ French: muffin

→ German: Muffin

→ Japanese: マフィン (mafin)

→ Korean: 머핀 (meopin)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: muffins

→ Polish: muffin

→ Portuguese: muffin

→ Russian: ма́ффин (máffin)

→ Swedish: muffins

→ Yiddish: מאָפֿין (mofin)

From earlier moofin, probably a diminutive of Low German Muffe ("small cake"; Muffen (plural)), from Middle Low German muffe (“small pastry”). An alternative, and phonologically less plausible theory suggests a connection to Old French (pain) moflet (“roll”, literally “soft (bread)”).

gl

"small cake"; <i class="Latn mention" lang="nds">Muffen</i> (plural)

ncog

(British) A type of flattish bun, usually cut in two horizontally, toasted and spread with butter, etc, before being eaten; an English muffin.

(UK dialect, Northern England, especially Manchester) A roll, bap or cob, which may or may not be flat or toasted.


welcher

(British, offensive slang) A Welshman or person of Welsh descent.


Verulam

Latin Verulamia, being the name of the Roman settlement on the same site.

(British) Baron Verulam, Viscount St Albans.

(British) Synonym of Verulamium (“ancient Roman town”). A town in Britannia, Roman Empire; near the modern city of St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, UK.


as the actress said to the bishop

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the occupation of actress was commonly associated with prostitute. The phrase plays on the contrasting natures of an actress or prostitute on one hand and a presumably (although possibly not actually) chaste bishop on the other.

Heavens, that's a big one – as the actress said to the bishop.

The important thing was where you do it, not what you do (as the actress said to the bishop)

1976, David Widgery, The Left in Britain:

"Oh, well," offered Andrews wryly, as she peeled a piece of fruit, "nothing like a hot banana — as the actress said to the bishop." She then apologized for the tacky sexual quip, explaining, "It just slipped out — as the actress said to the bishop."

1998, Timothy White, The Entertainers: portraits of stardom in the twentieth century:

He has, as the actress said to the bishop, been an unconscionably long time coming,[…]

1999, Michael Sprinker, Ghostly demarcations: a symposium on Jacques Derrida's Spectres of Marx:

(UK, humorous) Used to highlight a sexual ambiguity in an innocent remark.


JCR

(education, UK) Initialism of junior common room (in British universities).


mummy's boy

(chiefly UK) Alternative spelling of mama's boy


Squarial

(British) A flat, diamond-shaped aerial (antenna) for receiving satellite television signals; it became obsolete in the 1990s.


party political broadcast

en-noun

party political broadcast (plural party political broadcasts)

(British) a short radio or television broadcast made by a political party


UCAS

(British) Acronym of Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.


statementing

(British, education) formal official assessment of a child as having special needs.


stonking

For instance he might see a White-eared Honeyeater, a not uncommon bird in the heathy areas at Bunyip, but in his excitement to call it, something in his brain scrambled and came out as: `White-cheeked Honeyeater!' White-cheeked Honeyeater is an absolute stonking crippler in Victoria, but Stu was not actually trying to string a rarity, he'd just got such a flood of new information swirling around his brain that sometimes it got jumbled up.

2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 67:

(slang, British, Australia) impressively large; exciting


brilliance

brilliance (usually uncountable, plural brilliances)

From brilliant + -ance. Compare French brillance.

bansay

The quality of being exceptionally effulgent

What brilliance it took from Harry Kane to control the cross and place the ball into the top corner.

(chiefly British) Magnificence; resplendence.


earner

Those Japanese radios were a nice little earner: we sold all of them by lunchtime.

(British, Australia) A profitable product or scheme; something that brings in good money.


ticketing

ticketing (countable and uncountable, plural ticketings)

(UK, mining, dated) A periodic sale of ore in the mining districts, in which buyers wrote their bids upon tickets.


CSE

CSE (countable and uncountable, plural CSEs)

John left school with eight CSEs.

Certificate of Secondary Education
w:Certificate of Secondary Education

(UK, education, historical, countable) Initialism of Certificate of Secondary Education, a former examination in UK schools; a pass achieved in this examination.


demain

(obsolete, British, law) A demesne, especially the ancient demesne claimed by William the Conqueror.


fickle

en-verb

fickle (third-person singular simple present fickles, present participle fickling, simple past and past participle fickled)

fickles (present singular third-person)
fickling (participle present)
fickled (participle past)
fickled (past)

From Middle English fikelen, from fikel (“fickle”); see above. Cognate with Low German fikkelen (“to deceive, flatter”), German ficklen, ficheln (“to deceive, flatter”).

cog

(transitive, UK dialectal) To puzzle, perplex, nonplus.


sleeper

Compare Norwegian sleip (“a sleeper (a timber); as adjective, slippery, smooth”). See slape.

The train, minus the three abandoned trucks, again proceeded at a slow pace, with a pump trolley doing pilot ahead ; this was very necessary as a great many sleepers were found to have been burnt underneath the fishplates.

1901, George Gipps, The Fighting in North China (up to the Fall of Tientsin City), Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, →OL, page 40:

I should imagine that the smooth riding and the quietness of the diesel or electric cab, coupled with the effect on the eyes of endless successions of sleepers disappearing from sight immediately under the driver's eyes, might in time have a soporific effect, so that the company of a second man, who can assist in signal observations when he is not at work in the engine cab, seems highly desirable in such conditions.

1961 July, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 401:

(rail transport, British) A railroad tie.


puff

en-noun

puff (countable and uncountable, plural puffs)

From Middle English puff, puf, from Old English pyf (“a blast of wind, puff”), imitative. Cognate with Middle Low German puf, pof.

onomatopoeic

imitative

Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?

1938, P. G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters:


ablutions

(plural only, UK, military) The location or building where the showers and basins are located.


bags

en-verb

bags (third-person singular simple present bagses, present participle bagsing, simple past and past participle bagsed)

bagses (present singular third-person)
bagsing (participle present)
bagsed (participle past)
bagsed (past)

Grammatical extension of third-person singular form of bag (“make first claim on something”).

So you were thrilled, and we picked out the mare for Harriet, and you bagsed the black, and I had the chestnut, and we all rode away one day.

2006, Jill Golden, Inventing Beatrice, page 81:

Mum bagsed being the priestess who got to dangle Stone over the volcano by his ankles.

2007, Debra Oswald., Getting Air, page 66:

Battered armchairs and a sofa were bagsed first; they were more comfortable than the school chairs that could get hard.

2008, Kate Dellar-Evans, Best of Friends: The First Thirty Years of the Friendly Street Poets, page 13:

‘Hey, it′s my turn in the front,’ Kalista called as she realised her brother had bagsed the front seat.

They used to share the water as kids, and for some reason Irene always managed to bags the first bath; Riva made do with the soapy second.

2016, Laurence Fearnley, The Quiet Spectacular, →ISBN, page 214:

(Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK) To reserve for oneself.


rhododendron

en-noun

rhododendron (plural rhododendrons or rhododendra)

rhododendrons (plural)
rhododendra (plural)

The obsolete sense derives from Latin rhododendron (“oleander”), from Ancient Greek ῥοδόδενδρον (rhodódendron, “oleander”), from ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”) + δένδρον (déndron, “tree”). The modern sense comes through the intermediary of the genus name Rhododendron.

щхъачей

flowering shrub in the genus Rhododendron

dwarf rhododendron Rhododendron anthopogon)

great white rhododendron (Rhododendron decorum

Pontic rhododendron
pontic rhododendron#English

Rhododendron ponticum
Rhododendron ponticum#Translingual

Any of various flowering shrubs in the genus Rhododendron, especially

(UK) Pontic rhododendron, common rhododendron (Rhododendron ponticum)


plop

en-noun

plop (countable and uncountable, plural plops)

Imitative of the sound, or perhaps a variant of plap.

onom

Imitative


plop

en-verb

plop (third-person singular simple present plops, present participle plopping, simple past and past participle plopped)

plops (present singular third-person)
plopping (participle present)
plopped (participle past)
plopped (past)

onom

Imitative


West Lothian question

Coined by Enoch Powell MP in 1977 after series of similar questions originally raised by Tam Dalyell, MP for West Lothian.

(British, politics) The anomaly whereby Scottish MPs can vote on issues affecting England, but English MPs cannot vote on Scottish issues.


wazzock

Possibly from wiseacre, influenced by pillock, or possibly wazz + -ock. First attested in the 1984 novel When the Martians Land in Huddersfield by Mike Harding. Harding (born 1944) later claimed that he "used it when I was a kid,” it being “fairly common in the north, in Lancashire and Yorkshire”, and suggested that the term came from the instrument used to fling a monarch's excrement out the window.

I turn, as I must, to Mr Trump. His comments about Muslims are wrong. His policy to close borders, if he is elected as President, is bonkers. If he met one or two of my constituents in one of the many excellent pubs in my constituency, they may well tell him that he is a wazzock for dealing with the issue in that way.

2016 18 January, Victoria Atkins MP, House of Commons debate concerning Donald Trump

(British, Ireland, Northern England, derogatory, slang) A stupid or annoying person.


stick and carrot

en-noun

stick and carrot (plural sticks and carrots)

carrot and stick
carrot and stick#English

(especially UK) Alternative form of carrot and stick


drop a bollock

en-verb

drop a bollock (third-person singular simple present drops a bollock, present participle dropping a bollock, simple past and past participle dropped a bollock)

drops a bollock (present singular third-person)
dropping a bollock (participle present)
dropped a bollock (participle past)
dropped a bollock (past)

(British, idiomatic, intransitive, vulgar slang) To make a mistake.


streamer

From Middle English stremer, stremere, equivalent to stream + -er.

Since he also demonstrated that the A-streamers in his sample showed enhancement of measured intelligence over their primary school careers while the B-streamers showed deterioration, it can be seen what a far-reaching effect such decisions may have had upon child performance.

1984, Anthony Gale, Antony J. Chapman, Psychology and Social Problems, page 82:

(UK, education, in combination) A pupil belonging to a particular stream (division by perceived ability).


physiotherapy

en-noun

physiotherapy (countable and uncountable, plural physiotherapies)

(British) Therapy that uses physical techniques such as massage, ultrasound, heat, and exercise.

fisioteràpia

therapy that uses physical techniques such as massage and exercise


redneck

Compound of red + neck. Compare rooinek. The term originally characterized farmers that had a red neck, caused by sunburn from long hours working in the fields.

(UK, archaic, 19th and 20th centuries, religious slur) A Roman Catholic.


indicator

From Late Latin indicātor (“one who points out”), from Latin indicō (“point out”); see indicate.

der

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, automotive) A turn signal; each of the flashing lights on each side of a vehicle which indicate a turn is being made to left or right, or a lane change etc.


moonlight

en-verb

moonlight (third-person singular simple present moonlights, present participle moonlighting, simple past and past participle moonlighted)

moonlights (present singular third-person)
moonlighting (participle present)
moonlighted (participle past)
moonlighted (past)

From Middle English monelight, from Old English mōnan lēoht (“moonlight”, literally “moon's light, light of the moon”). Equivalent to moon + light. Cognate with Scots munelicht ~ muinlicht, West Frisian moanneljocht, Dutch maanlicht, German Mondlicht.

inh

(British, dated) To carry out undeclared work.


tutor

From Middle English tutour, from Old French tuteur (French tuteur), from Latin tūtor (“a watcher, protector, guardian”), from tueor (“protect”); see tuition.

der

(UK) A university officer responsible for students in a particular hall.


cockle

From Middle English cokel, cokkel, kokkel, cocle, of uncertain origin. Perhaps a diminutive of Middle English cokke, cok (“cockle”), from Old English cocc (found in sǣcocc (“cockle”)) + -le; or perhaps from Old French coquille, from Vulgar Latin *cocchilia, from conchylia, from Ancient Greek κογχύλιον (konkhúlion), diminutive of κογχύλη (konkhúlē, “mussel”), of Pre-Greek substrate origin.

Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond
w:Rossiter W. Raymond

(mining, UK, Cornwall) The mineral black tourmaline or schorl.

Edward H[enry] Knight
w:Edward H. Knight


TOE

en:Theory of everything
en:toe (disambiguation)

(UK, medicine) Initialism of transoesophageal echocardiogram.


trig

You might as well smite that saw with your fist ; you might as well put a trig under the dam and stop it, as to practise on him

1850, Sylvester Judd, Richard Edney and the Governor's Family:

(UK) A stone, block of wood, or anything else, placed under a wheel or barrel to prevent motion; a scotch; a skid.


Bart

The First Lord's daughter proud,
Snubbed earls and viscounts nightly—
She sneered at barts aloud.
And spurned poor Joe Golightly.

(UK) Abbreviation or diminutive for baronet, later replaced by Bt. It is a post-nominative title; the pre-nominative is Sir (e.g. Sir John Smith Bart.).


money-spinner

But on April 13 it 'scrambled' a rake of Mk 2s and dual-braked 'Black 5' 45212 to start its lucrative summer money-spinner two days later.

2024 May 1, “Network News: West Coast Railways runs 'Jacobite' with Mk 1 and Mk 2 combination”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 9:

(UK, Australia) Something that generates a continuous income.


wonky

en-adj

wonky (comparative wonkier, superlative wonkiest)

wonkier (comparative)
wonkiest (superlative)

From English dialectal wanky, alteration of Middle English wankel (“unstable, shaky”), from Old English wancol (“unstable”), from Proto-West Germanic *wankul (“swaying, shaky, unstable”).

inh

It seemed likely that he would need First Aid when those wonky steps yielded, at length, to the well-known law of gravitation.

1932, Frank Richards, The Magnet: The Terror of the Form:

(chiefly British, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) Feeble, shaky or rickety.


mawk

From Middle English mawke, moke, a contraction of mathek, maddok, from Old Norse maðkr (“maggot”), a diminutive of a base from Proto-Germanic *maþô (“worm”) (compare Old English maþa), from Proto-Indo-European *mat-, *mot- used in reference to insects and vermin. Cognate with Danish maddike, Swedish mask, archaic English maddock (modern maggot).


baths

There is a baths on the other side of the road.

(UK) A building containing a public swimming pool or shower facilities; originally a place having individual cubicles where people without bathrooms could have a bath.


plod

en-noun

plod (usually uncountable, plural plods)

(UK, mildly derogatory, uncountable, usually with "the") the police, police officers

(UK, mildly derogatory, countable) a police officer, especially a low-ranking one.


dextrous

en-adj

dextrous (comparative more dextrous, superlative most dextrous)

more dextrous (comparative)
most dextrous (superlative)

The man, who with his right hand (or indeed with either, hand that by habit is the moſt dextrous) endeavours to help and aſſiſt another, exerts his whole ſtrength, and is generally enabled to compaſs his friendly deſign; or if a blow is neceſſary to be given, the dextrous hand hits the desired mark, and gives juſt the force deſigned; whereas a blow given through paſſion, with the aukwardneſs of a weak-handed ſtroke, may beat out an eye, flatten a noſe, or indeed aiming at an enemy may ſometimes hit a friend.

1754, Sarah Fielding, Jane Collier, The Cry: A New Dramatic Fable, volume 1, page 189:

Yet the ſubjects of the Byzantine empire were ſtill the moſt dextrous and diligent of nations;

1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume 5, page 471:

"[…]She was renowned as one of the most dextrous horse thieves and horse breakers in the tribe, and seldom permitted an expedition to go on a raid without her presence. The translation of her Apache title was ‘Dextrous Horse Thief’."

1979, Donald E. Worcester, The Apaches: Eagles of the Southwest, University of Oklahoma Press, page 53:

Its fingers are longer, more flexible, and more dextrous than those of monkeys and can be moved individually.

1992, Richard A. Gabriel, The Culture of War: Invention and Early Development, Greenwood Publishing Group, page 1:

(chiefly UK) Alternative spelling of dexterous.


Buggins's turn

Earliest recorded use is by Admiral Fisher, later First Sea Lord, in a 1901 letter.
'Buggins' is a humorous invented surname, suggestive of a man of mediocre ability.

He will be appointed on the principle of Buggins's turn.

1919, Memories, John Fisher (reprinting a 1917 letter to him from an unnamed Privy Councillor) http://www.archive.org/stream/memoriesbyadmira00fishuoft#page/38/mode/2up
I remembered your old saying "Some day the Empire will go down because it is Buggins's turn."'

(idiomatic, British) A humorous, disparaging term for the appointment of a person by rotation or promotion, on the basis of length of service (it being that person's "turn") rather than merit or level of qualification.


endeavoured

British standard spelling of endeavored.


earthed

(UK, Ireland) Grounded, connected electrically to the ground.


chequebook journalism

checkbook journalism
checkbook journalism#English

(chiefly British) Alternative spelling of checkbook journalism


splosh

en-noun

splosh (countable and uncountable, plural sploshes)

Onomatopoeic. Connected with splash and splish; compare also slosh.

Give us a cup of splosh, love.

(uncountable, UK, slang) Tea (the drink).


shattered

en-adj

shattered (comparative more shattered, superlative most shattered)

more shattered (comparative)
most shattered (superlative)

I stayed up all night working, and now I'm completely shattered.

(British, colloquial) Extremely tired or exhausted.


enrol

en-verb

enrol (third-person singular simple present enrols, present participle enrolling, simple past and past participle enrolled)

enrols (present singular third-person)
enrolling (participle present)
enrolled (participle past)
enrolled (past)

(British, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Canada) Standard spelling of enroll.


potless

en-adj

potless (comparative more potless, superlative most potless)

more potless (comparative)
most potless (superlative)

(British, slang) Lacking in funds; without assets; poor.


-z

Rhotacism of /ɹ/. Attested since at least 1987.

Barry + -z → Baz

Sharon + -z → Shaz

Jeremy + -z → Jez

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Forms nicknames, especially of personal names.

sorry + -z → soz

tomorrow + -z → tomoz

apparently + -z → appaz

(UK) Forms colloquial variants of words.


brainstorm

From brain + storm. In the sense of "problem-solve", devised as a method of group creative problem-solving by advertising executive Alex F. Osborn and his employees, who coined the term based on the image of using "the brain to storm a problem". First use appears c. 1945. In the sense of "seizure, convulsion, brain activity", from the unrelated idea that it resembles a storm in the brain. First use appears c. 1861.

2005 October 5, "Iguchi hit ruins Red Sox's night", BBC Online, 5 October
A terrible fielding error from Tony Graffanino proved costly. … Aaron Rowand collected an RBI double to get them off the mark before Graffanino's brainstorm. Juan Uribe hit a roller to the second baseman, who let the potential inning-ending double-play ball roll under his glove, leaving runners at first and third bases.


screeve

en-verb

screeve (third-person singular simple present screeves, present participle screeving, simple past and past participle screeved)

screeves (present singular third-person)
screeving (participle present)
screeved (participle past)
screeved (past)

In view of the slang nature of the term, probably from Polari screeve (“write”), from Irish scríobh, eventually from Latin scrībō (“write”). Doublet of shrive.

(obsolete, UK, slang) To draw with chalks on a pavement or sidewalk.

(obsolete, UK, slang) To write begging letters.


fitness

en-noun

fitness (usually uncountable, plural fitnesses)

From fit + -ness. First attested in the 16th century, with the physical sense from 1935.

(UK, slang) The condition of being attractive, fanciable or beautiful.


letterbox

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

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A box into which mail is put.

A collection point for mail intended for onward delivery, a secure box or receptacle for this purpose.

A wad of junk mail was pushed through the letterbox in the front door and dropped onto the mat.

A delivery point for mail, a box, compartment or slot for this purpose.


softy

(informal, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A soft drink containing no alcohol.


sprat

From Middle English sprotte, from Old English sprot. Older source is unknown. Cognate with German Sprotte, Dutch sprot. Compare sprout.

The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.

1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant, page 90:


prefab

(British) A single-storey prefabricated home built in many British cities immediately after World War II, intended to have a short life, but in a few cases still in use.


noughts and crosses

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, games) A two-player game played on a three-by-three grid, in which players take it in turns to place their respective symbol (either a nought or a cross) in a cell of the grid, the objective being to form a row, column or diagonal of three of one's own symbol.


gagging for it

Having a strong desire for something; especially sex.


mooch

en-verb

mooch (third-person singular simple present mooches, present participle mooching, simple past and past participle mooched)

mooches (present singular third-person)
mooching (participle present)
mooched (participle past)
mooched (past)

From Middle English moochen, mouchen (“to pretend poverty”), from Old French muchier, mucier, mucer (“to skulk, hide, conceal”), from Frankish *mukkjan (“to hide, conceal oneself”), from Proto-Germanic *mukjaną, *mūkōną (“to hide, ambush”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mūg-, *(s)mewgʰ- (“swindler, thief”).
Cognate with Old High German mūhhōn (“to store, cache, plunder”), Middle High German muchen, mucken (“to hide, stash”), Middle English müchen, michen (“to rob, steal, pilfer”). More at mitch.
Alternate etymology derives mooch from Middle English mucchen (“to hoard, be stingy”, literally “to hide coins in one's nightcap”), from Middle English mucche (“nightcap”), from Middle Dutch mutse (“cap, nightcap”), from Medieval Latin almucia (“nightcap”), of unknown origin, possibly Arabic. More at mutch, amice.

inh

These chaps that mooch about, as Hyde was doing, pick up all sorts of odds and ends. He may have pinched them from a chemist’s shop.

1922, J. S. Fletcher, The Middle of Things, New York: A. Knopf, page 161:

With 79 minutes gone, the most celebrated team of the modern age had been reduced to bunch of mooching, stumbling yellow-shirted spectators.

2019 May 8, Barney Ronay, “Liverpool’s waves of red fury and recklessness end in joyous bedlam”, in The Guardian:

(British) To wander around aimlessly, often causing irritation to others.

I'm tired of driving you all over and sick of you living in my house, mooching my food.

2019, Susan Alice Bickford, Dread of Winter:

(transitive, chiefly British) To steal or filch.


mooch

Jack wouldn't be arriving for another ten minutes, so I had a mooch around the garden.


crumpet

en-noun

crumpet (countable and uncountable, plural crumpets)

17th century, either from crompid cake (“wafer, literally, curled-up cake”), from crompid, form of crumpen (“to curl up”); cognate to crumpled. Alternate etymology is from Celtic; compare Breton krampouezh (“crepe, pancake”) and Welsh crempog (“pancake”).
Sense of “desirable woman” attested 1936, possibly as cockney rhyming slang for strumpet; alternatively, compare tart (“loose woman, prostitute”) (itself possibly cockney rhyming slang for heart or sweetheart). Note that muffin has a similar sense, and that, in 19th and early 20th centuries, "Muffins and crumpets" was a familiar street-cry in UK.

Joan Bakewell was famously described as "the thinking man's crumpet".

John and his mates have gone out to find themselves some crumpet.

The regulars are all guys, a varied selection, my friends. There's Sammy—small, wiry, dark-haired. A hat manufacturer, crumpet mad—always chatting up different birds.

1969, Jackie Collins, The Stud, reprint edition, Simon & Schuster, published 1999, →ISBN, page 32:

Our lives are saturated with middle-class crumpet Benedict Cumberbatch - but does he deserve the attention, asks Michael Hogan

2014 November 12, Michael Hogan, “Have we reached peak Benedict Cumberbatch?”, in The Telegraph:

(UK, slang, dated, countable, uncountable) A sexually attractive person or, collectively, people; usually referring to women.


middling

en-adj

middling (comparative more middling, superlative most middling)

more middling (comparative)
most middling (superlative)

The noun is probably from middle (noun) + -ing; the adjective is most likely derived from the noun, and the adverb from the adjective.

I am in a middling Way, between Healthy and Sick, hardly ever without a little Giddineſs or Deafneſs, and ſometimes both: So much for that.

1728 September 18, [Jonathan] Swift, “[Letters on Several Occasions.] Letter XXIII. To the Same [Dr. Thomas Sheridan].”, in Miscellanies, 4th edition, volume XIII, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley in Pall-mall, published 1751, →OCLC, page 125:

“And how’s that chest of yours?” demanded Mrs. Morel. / He smiled again, with his blue eyes rather sunny. / “Oh, it’s very middlin’,” he said.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Strife in Love”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 200:

(colloquial, regional British) In fairly good health.


middling

St. Jerom ſeated, a middling ſized upright plate, from J. Palma, dated 1596. I think this is one of the fineſt prints by this great maſter. The drawing is admirable, and the engraving is executed with the utmoſt freedom.

1785, Joseph Strutt, “HENRY GOLTZIUS”, in A Biographical Dictionary; Containing an Historical Account of All the Engravers, from the Earliest Period of the Art of Engraving to the Present Time; and a Short List of Their Most Esteemed Works. …, volume I, London: Printed by J. Davis, for Robert Faulder, New Bond Street, →OCLC, page 343:

Iwami, otherwise Sekisju, is two days journey long, going from ſouth to north, a middling good country, producing plenty of cannib, and affording ſome ſalt.

1811, Engelbert Kempfer [i.e., Engelbert Kaempfer]; J[ohann] G[aspar] Scheuchzer, transl., “The Division and Sub-division of the Empire of Japan into Its Several Provinces; as also of Its Revenue and Government”, in The History of Japan; republished in John Pinkerton, editor, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World; Many of which are Now First Translated into English. Digested on a New Plan, volume VII, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row; and Cadell and Davies, in the Strand, →OCLC, page 665

(colloquial, regional British) Fairly, moderately, somewhat.

(colloquial, regional British) Not too badly, with modest success.


fluff

en-noun

fluff (countable and uncountable, plural fluffs)

From earlier floow (“woolly substance, down, nap, lint”), also spelt flough, flue, and flew, from West Flemish vluwe,
of uncertain ultimate origin:
* Compare Old English flōh (“that which is flown off, fragment, piece”) - see flaw
* Possibly representing a blend of flue + puff; compare Middle Dutch vloe, or perhaps onomatopoeic; compare dialectal English floose, flooze, fleeze (“particles of wool or cotton; fluff; loose threads or fibres”), Danish fnug (“down, fluff”), Swedish fnugg (“speck, flake”).
* Alternatively, West Flemish vluwe may derive from French velu (“hairy, furry”), from Latin villūtus (“having shaggy hair”), from villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”).
For words of similar sound and meaning in other languages, compare Japanese フワフワ (fuwafuwa, “lightly, softly”), Hungarian puha (“soft, fluffy”), Polish puchaty (“soft, fluffy”),Romanian puf (“down, peachfuzz, soft hair of some animals, powderpuff”).

onomatopoeic

onomatopoeic

cog

(UK, roleplaying games) A form of roleplaying which is inconsequential and not related to the plot; often used in the context of (but not limited to) filling time.

"What?" cried the counter-man, indignantly. "Been a railwayman all these years, and don't know what fluff is? Why, 'pon me word, you deserve to get the sack!"

1900, The Railway Magazine, volume 7, page 560:

(UK, slang, obsolete) Short change deliberately given by a railway clerk, to keep back money for himself.


fluff

en-verb

fluff (third-person singular simple present fluffs, present participle fluffing, simple past and past participle fluffed)

fluffs (present singular third-person)
fluffing (participle present)
fluffed (participle past)
fluffed (past)

onomatopoeic

onomatopoeic

A genial counter-man told Mr. Manners that, if he played artful, he might even now obtain the position of outside porter; you got no pay there, but you could gain a moderate competency by fluffing.

1900, The Railway Magazine, volume 7, page 559:

(UK, slang, obsolete) To deliberately shortchange (a railway customer) and keep the money for oneself.


south-west

en-noun

south-west (usually uncountable, plural south-wests)

In Chuchow in the south-west of Chekiang, as we learn from a Shaoshing letter, rebel soldiers have, before the arrival of the soldiers sent by the Governor, killed the magistrate of Sian city named Wu.

1901, “Native Account of the Situation”, in The Boxer Rising: A History of the Boxer Trouble in China, 2nd edition, Shanghai Mercury, Ltd., →OCLC, page 60:

(chiefly UK) Alternative form of southwest


south-west

en-adj

south-west (not generally comparable, comparative more south-west, superlative most south-west)

more south-west (comparative)
most south-west (superlative)


south-west

Little detailed information is available on the series of violent shocks which occurred in Hopeh province, north-eastern China, in March 1966. The earthquake of 7 March (No. 184), whose epicentre was located in the region of Hsing-t’ai, about 400 km south-west of Pekin, probably caused extensive damage since the magnitude was 7 and the focus shallow.

1970, “Earthquakes”, in Annual summary of information on natural disasters 1966, Belgium: Unesco, →OCLC, page 26:


orthopaedics

(British) Alternative spelling of orthopedics


sithee

Sithee, ther's a bowt here at's comin lowse, best to get it aat an a new-un in.

(UK, Yorkshire, Lancashire) See thee; variously used as a farewell (i.e. I will see you later) or an admonition to pay attention (= see here)


bluebottle

* blue + bottle From resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles.
* (police officer): From the colour of the uniform.

Batemans Bay, New South Wales
bluebottle

[…] comic writers […] have never failed to make capital out of the New Police, Peel's Raw-Lobsters, Peelers, Blue Bottles, &c., &c.

1878, Charles Hindley, The life and times of James Catnach, page 206:

COOMBE: He got the clinch only last week — eighteen months. You see it's no good having anybody here as ain't got a^([sic]) unblemished character. We don't want to have the bluebottles come sniffing round here, do we?

1882, Henry Herman, Henry Arthur Jones, The Silver King:

(UK, Australia, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A police officer.


marmalade dropper

en-noun

marmalade dropper (plural marmalade droppers)

Suggesting the idea of an astonished person dropping marmalade at the breakfast table while reading or hearing the news.

2023 'The return of David Cameron: What is going on?', BBC News.
"Just because something is a marmalade dropper, doesn't make it a good idea."

(British, informal) Highly stunning information, especially something learned from the news media.


hopping

hopping (countable and uncountable, plural hoppings)

Alternative spelling (C17) of hoppe, from Middle French houbelon

Hopping Down in Kent, Alan Bignell (1977).

(British) hop picking, the practice of picking hops; for Londoners a holiday period working in the hop gardens of Kent.


Bonfire Night

Guy Fawkes Night
Guy Fawkes Night#English


BBFC

British Board of Film Classification
w:British Board of Film Classification

(UK) Initialism of British Board of Film Classification.


panto

panto (countable and uncountable, plural pantos)

(British, informal) Clipping of pantomime.


ionising

en-adj

ionising (comparative more ionising, superlative most ionising)

more ionising (comparative)
most ionising (superlative)

(British) Alternative spelling of ionizing


sus

The committee […] said ‘sus’ had acquired a symbolic significance out of all proportion to its significance as a criminal charge.

2002, Simon James, British Government: A Reader in Policy Making, page 84:

(UK, informal) Suspicion (in terms of a sus law).


runner bean

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

(chiefly British) The pods, sliced, as a vegetable.


squish

en-noun

squish (countable and uncountable, plural squishes)

Apparently an alteration of squash, influenced by obsolete squiss (“to squeeze”). Cognate with Scots squische, squies (“to crush, squeeze”). Compare also French esquicher from Old Occitan esquichar (“to squeeze, squish”). See also squeeze, squelch.

cog

Where they are loaves and joints melt as snow in the sunshine; bowls of cream are of no more account than acorn-cups filled with dew; and the 'squish'—as they call the mother's home-made marmalade—has to be renewed daily; […]

There was a time when the “squish” manufactured by Mr. Frank Cooper at Oxford was not known very extensively outside the world of undergraduates. With the march of events though the fame of Cooper's Oxford marmalade has become world-wide, and the natural consequence is that a new factory has had to be built to cope with the increased business.

1905, The Sphere: An Illustrated Newspaper for the Home, page VIII:

(uncountable, UK, slang, archaic) Marmalade.


bizzo

en-noun

bizzo (countable and uncountable, plural bizzos)

TOM: I knew you'd have to do the full bizzo, I knew it. You disgust me.

1993, Plays International, volume 9, page 41:

We don't want this to turn into one of those pie-in-the sky bizzos where you aim too high and then never end up doing it.

2007, David Free, A Dancing Bear, page 96:

2009, Alex Archer (a pseudonym; written in-house), Rogue Angel: Eternal Journey, Harlequin Enterprises, page 53,
None of my bizzo, really, but why was he after you?

Hong's calm started to crack coz he'd seen Dave do his one drink for himself bizzo many times over the years since they'd met.

(UK, Australia, slang) Business; a matter or matters of personal concern; a course of action.


journo

From journalist + -o (“diminutive suffix”). Australian.https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/journo

He′d been packed in with all the other journos, standing out only in that he was taller than most and didn′t make as much noise.

2000, Robert Bingham, Lightning on the Sun, page 34:

Journos and scribes are officially welcomed by the Taliban and then never given visas to enter. The Red Cross needs Talib approval for all journos before you can book a flight.

2003, USA International Business Publications, Afghanistan Business Law Handbook, page 254:

2004, Pam Austin, Bob Austin, Getting Free Publicity: The Secrets of Successful Press Relations, How To Books, Oxford, page 8,
And we hope that all women journos will forgive us if, in these pages, we use the word ‘he’ as shorthand for ‘he/she’ when referring to members of the Fourth Estate.

2007, Sara Voorhees, The Lumière Affair: A Novel of Cannes, Simon & Schuster, New York, page 22,
TV journos consider print journos to be snobs who write for other print journos (and are therefore read by a Lilliputian portion of the population). Print journos believe TV journos to be cretins who are worshipped blindly by the lowest common denominator.

2008 August 11, Namrata Joshi, Movie Review: Mission Istaanbul, Outlook, page 80,
His nubile wife (Shriya Saran), also a TV journo, calls him names like “mouthpiece of terrorists”.


paedo

(British, slang, countable) A paedophile.

(British, slang, uncountable) paedophilia.


paedo

(British, slang) Paedophile, paedophiliac.


goodo

“Now we′re cooking! It works!” crowed Bob. “And now before it grows dark let′s pour it off into our storage tanks.”
“Goodo, Bob. We rich now!” Ebony gloated.

1957, Horace Sawyer Mazet, Shark Fishing off the Great Barrier Reef, page 61:

“Goodo,” Picnic said, blinking. “Man, look at the quail.”

1984, Thomas Pynchon, Slow Learner: Early Stories, published 1995, page 40:

Some bantering responses joked about whether David May was connected to Brian May, and the rock group Queen, but most expressed a sense of relief that anyone was willing to come to the small-town, economically struggling club. Jo Tomlinson: ‘Goodo, a signing! Even though we did boo him last year...’

2004, David L. Andrews, Manchester United: A Thematic Study, page 203:

John held both my hands tightly, looking straight into my eyes for several moments. His eyes moistened, “I don′t know how to thank you – it′s been quite a spell since my Janeie has been happy.” Bob gleefully joined in, “Goodo Sport!...Goodo!”

2009, George W. Adams, Under the Southern Cross, page 111:

‘I have a sore elbow...’ I fib in a small whine, as I know she worries sometimes when I have too many nightmares.
‘Goodo. Well, let me “tiss” it better,’ she whispers back, so as not to wake Dad from his heavy, snoring slumber, and with her eyes still closed—as the surrounding bush continues to coo its soft night noises through her open bedroom window—she reaches out, finds my proffered elbow, and applies a kiss.

2010, Peter FitzSimons, A Simpler Time, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) Good; used to show approval or satisfaction.


doco

From documentary + -o (“diminutive suffix”).

Seibert has many complaints about nature docos, not the least of which is the music that seems to suggest that animals are constantly shadowed by symphony orchestras.

1994, Phillip Adams, Classic Columns, page 144:

Now we spend about a third of our time in the US working on docos, working with US wildlife.

I started thinking that I had to get back to where I was when I was put into the field to do docos [documentaries] and put in situations to capture sound as simply as I could and be sure to get what I could get.

2000, Tom Kenny, Sound for Picture: Film Sound through the 1990s, page 160:

(UK, Australia, informal) Abbreviation of documentary.


service station

service station (plural service stations)

→ Afrikaans: diensstasie (calque)

→ Dutch: servicestation


chavish

en-adj

chavish (comparative more chavish, superlative most chavish)

more chavish (comparative)
most chavish (superlative)

(derogatory, UK, slang) in the manner of or typical of a chav.


eggy

eggy (comparative eggier, superlative eggiest)

eggier (comparative)
eggiest (superlative)


bn

(chiefly British, Commonwealth except Canada, Ireland) Abbreviation of billion.


stony

stony (comparative stonier, superlative stoniest)

stonier (comparative)
stoniest (superlative)

From Middle English stony, stoni, stani, from Old English stāniġ, stǣniġ (“stony, rocky”), from Proto-Germanic *stainagaz (“stony”), equivalent to stone + -y. Cognate with Scots stany (“stony”), West Frisian stienich (“stony”), Dutch stenig (“stony, metalled”), German steinig (“stony, rocky, gravelly”), Swedish stenig (“stony, rocky, pebbly”).

cog

Seriously, Dedalus. I’m stony. Hurry out to your school kip and bring us back some money.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

(UK and Australia, slang) Short for stony broke: without any money.


CBI

(British) Initialism of Confederation of British Industry.


LegCo

/ˈlɛd͡ʒ.kəʊ/

Legislative Council
w:Legislative Council of Hong Kong

(British, Hong Kong) Acronym of Legislative Council, the unicameral legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.


LWT

London Weekend Television
w:en:London Weekend Television

(UK, television) Initialism of London Weekend Television.


rump

en-verb

rump (third-person singular simple present rumps, present participle rumping, simple past and past participle rumped)

rumps (present singular third-person)
rumping (participle present)
rumped (participle past)
rumped (past)

From Middle English rumpe, from Old Norse rumpr (“rump”), from Middle Low German rump (“the bulk or trunk of a body, trunk of a tree”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rumpō (“trunk of a tree, log”). The ultimate origin could be related to Proto-Germanic *hrimpaną (“to wrinkle”) (Dutch rimpel and German rümpfen (“to wrinkle”)); outside of Germanic, compare Ancient Greek ῥάμφος (rhámphos, “crooked beak”).
Cognate with Icelandic rumpur (“rump”), Swedish rumpa (“rump”), Dutch romp (“trunk, body, hull”), German Rumpf (“hull, trunk, torso, trunk”).
In the sense of remnant, first attested in the Rump Parliament of 1648; its original meaning here was a reference to the rotten, unclean hindquarters of an animal, gradually morphing to refer to the "remnant" aspect of the Parliament rather than its perceived unsavory nature.

cog

Seems this Stevie had a score to settle with some guy that had rumped him over a bundle of traveller's cheques and he thought by telling me this guy was the one that shot me I'd find him and kill him stone dead; […]

2007, Peter Gerrard, The Guvnor Tapes - Lenny McLean's Unpublished Stories, As Told By The Man Himself, Kings Road Publishing, →ISBN:

They'd been rumped out of half a kilo of charlie by a toeraf of a crack-head called Mad Mickey D from Bermondsey. And after he rumped them he was going round telling everybody that the Arifs were total fucking mugs. So they called him out for a drink one night, palled him up and then proceeded to get him paralytic.

2013, Horace Silver, Judas Pig, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:


dipper

desc

→ Kashubian: dyper (Canada, United States)

From Middle English dippere; equivalent to dip + -er.

(UK, India) The control in a vehicle that switches between high-beam and low-beam (i.e. dips the lights), especially when used to signal other vehicles.


sunbeam

From Middle English sonnebeem, sonne beem, from Old English sunnbēam, sunnebēam (“sunbeam”), equivalent to sun + beam.

DOCTOR: You seem to be our best bet so far, don't you think so, Mel? Mel? Where's Mel?
DEPUTY: No, no, no, sunbeam. You're coming with us.

1987, Doctor Who (TV series), Paradise Towers (aired 5 October)

(UK) Synonym of sunshine (“ironic form of address to an inferior or troublemaker”)


well, well

Well, well. What have we here?

(with sarcasm) Well, well. Look who's back. And they said we'd never see him again.

Wel, wel (Meander) thou art deepely read:
And hauing thee, I haue a iewell ſure:
Go on my Lord, and giue your charge I ſay,
Thy wit wil make vs Conquerors to day.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

Well, well, we must bide our time. Life isn't all beer and skittles; […]

1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:

well, well, well
well, well, well#English

(current in UK, but dated in the US and Canada) Synonym of well, well, well

current in UK; but dated in the US and Canada; current in UK; but dated in the US and Canada


plonk

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

From WWI military slang, derived by alteration of French vin blanc (“white wine”) by the law of Hobson-Jobson. Recorded earliest in the playful rhyming slang form plinketty-plonk. Possibly influenced by the sound of wine being poured into a glass.

The third category of wines is highly unattractive as these may only be sold as generic wines (white, red or rosé), without reference to any geographical location. Only surplus plonk and cooking wine would aspire to fall in this segment, which can be blended with any other wine - to any extent.

1998, Pierre Spahni, Swiss Wine Market Report, page 95:

Diesel took a large swallow out of the glass of red wine. He spluttered, choked, and spilled wine down one leg of his fawn colored pants. “My God,” he gasped, when he could speak. “What is that crap?”
“Why cheap red wine,” Ford displayed the label. “You know. Plonk.”

2003, Joan del Monte, Plonk Goes the Weasel, page 201:

2011, Charles Spence, Maya U. Shankar, Heston Blumenthal, Chapter 11: ‘Sound Bites’: Auditory Contributions to the Perceeption and Consumption of Food and Drink, Francesca Bacci, David Melcher (editors), Art and the Senses, page 229,
Given the results reported in this chapter, one obvious solution to the ‘plonk paradox’ (why cheap wine tastes good on holiday but terrible at home) would be to try and recapture some of these sensory impressions in one′s own living room, in order to enhance the flavour/pleasantness of the wine-drinking experience (and turn that horrible tasting wine into something that tastes really rather nice), and to elucidate the respective contributions of contextual effects on hedonic ratings.

(uncountable, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Cheap or inferior everyday wine.


plonk

Chris and that plonk had better be flushing the scum out.

(countable, derogatory, UK, Ireland, law enforcement slang) A female police constable.


moggy

Unknown, but probably originally Mog + -y, a Scots or Northern English variant of maggie (“girl”), from Maggie, a diminutive of Margaret and Margery. First attested in reference to mongrel cats in Cockney.

Cockney slang... ‘moggies’ for cats.

1911, John William Horsley, I Remember: Memories of a 'Sky Pilot' in the Prison and the Slum, page 254:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A domestic cat, especially (depreciative or derogatory) a non-pedigree or unremarkable cat.


jumble

en-noun

jumble (countable and uncountable, plural jumbles)

From Middle English jumbelen, alteration of jumbren, jombren, a variant of jumpren, frequentative of jumpen (“to jump”), equal to jump + -le. More at jumber, jump, jumper.

Hire a stall at a fair or sell your wares at a car boot sale. Adjust your jumble's price to something very reasonable and attractive for people to buy. Your income will depend on the quality and quantity of the jumble […]

2014, Ben Isacat, How to Do Animal Rights, page 110:

(uncountable, British) Items for a rummage sale.

"That's a nice coat," said Bella. "I used to have one like that. Got it at a jumble. But it didn't suit me. You look great in it."

1982, Hunter Davies, Flossie Teacake's Fur Coat:

(countable, British, informal) A rummage sale.


cream tea

cream tea (countable and uncountable, plural cream teas)

It is built around a wide centre street known as the Mall, one of the few semi-flat stretches in the area, & along the Mall one finds scores of English shops with pots of red geraniums at their doors, a proper hotel with good mahogany bedsteads & Peliti’s tearoom, where one drinks cream tea from fine china cups.

2011, Elle Newmark, The Sandalwood Tree, Emily Bestler Books / Washington Square Press, →ISBN, page 136:

Tea with cream, specifically (UK) clotted cream.

He scanned the next set of pictures and noticed that she was either on her own or with people who were considerably older than her. ‘Bingo,’ said Winters. ‘Ballroom dancing with another woman. Eating cream tea in the parochial club. Watching paint dry in the church hall. And there I was thinking ET was the only image system that could make me want to cry.’

2018, Mark Roberts, Killing Time, Head of Zeus Ltd, →ISBN:

(UK) An afternoon tea including cream tea and, usually, scones and jam.


tick off

en-verb

tick off (third-person singular simple present ticks off, present participle ticking off, simple past and past participle ticked off)

ticks off (present singular third-person)
ticking off (participle present)
ticked off (participle past)
ticked off (past)

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

Fred was ticked off by the teacher for playing around in class.

Having ticked us off in this way, the rascal had an elaborate description of rails at the pit mouth, and of a zigzag excavation by which funicular trains were to burrow into the earth.

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

(British, Australia, transitive, historically US) To reprimand.


buffer

Agent noun from obsolete verb buff (“make a dull sound when struck”) (mid-16c.), from Old French buffe (“blow”).
The “boatswain's mate” sense is said to be popularly explained by the mate being a “buffer”, that is intermediary, between officers and men, but various other explanations have also been proposed.

bufro

anything used to isolate or to minimise the effects of one thing on another

He decided to run for president of the POs' Mess against the Buffer, Chief Bosun's Mate Mal Crane, but the two had a face-to-face in his cabin one night in Narvik and sorted it out.

2001, Mark Higgitt, Through Fire and Water, page 43:

I happen to be on the brow handing my Bosun's Mate duties over to an Ordinary Seaman when the Buffer arrives with an unofficial Side-Party to man the brow with Bosun's Calls at the ready.

2015, Peter Broadbent, A Singapore Fling: An AB's Far-Flung Adventure:

(UK, nautical, slang) The chief boatswain's mate.


pudding rice

(chiefly British) a short-grained rice used to make rice pudding; also makes reasonable risotto


darter

(UK) Any of the dragonflies in the genus Sympetrum


praepostor

He rose, always in spite of himself, into the Doctor’s form, and for the last two years or so of his time was among the præpostors, though he never rose into the upper half of them.

1873–1884 (date written), Samuel Butler, chapter XLIV, in R[ichard] A[lexander] Streatfeild, editor, The Way of All Flesh, London: Grant Richards, published 1903, →OCLC, page 195:

(British) a prefect in some public schools


rice pudding

en-noun

rice pudding (usually uncountable, plural rice puddings)

(chiefly British) A milk pudding made from rice, milk, sugar and nutmeg.


wee-wee

wee-wee (countable and uncountable, plural wee-wees)

Reduplication of wee; onomatopoeic for the sound of urination.

(UK, childish) Urine.
(childish) An act of urination.

But because little girls' genitals are tucked away, it's easy never to refer to them at all. They become the part with no name. Even up-front women are flummoxed. Vagina? Fanny? Front bottom? Twinkie? Privates? Didge? Down there? Flower? Wee-wee? Tuppence?

1999, Lyn Gardner, “Don't mention the, er”, Guardian

‘Wee wee’ was the word my parent’s taught me to call my vagina.

2016, Emily-Jane Clark, “14 weird and wonderful words parents use for vagina”, Metro

(childish, slang, UK) The vulva or vagina.


scavenger

Originally from Middle English scavager, from Anglo-Norman scawageour (“one who had to do with scavage, inspector, tax collector”), from Old Northern French *scawage, escauwage (“scavage”), Old French *scavage, escavage, alteration of escauvinghe (compare Medieval Latin scewinga, sceawinga), from Old Dutch scauwōn (“to inspect, to examinate, to look at”). Usually reinterpreted/re-analysed today as scavenge (which was originally a backformation from this word) + -er. Compare Old English sċēawung (“a showing, spectacle, examination, inspection, toll on exposure of goods”) and Dutch schouwing (“inspection”). More at show.

cog

(UK, Ireland, obsolete) A street sweeper.

(UK, Ireland, historical) A child employed to pick up loose cotton from the floor in a cotton mill.


black tea

en-noun

black tea (countable and uncountable, plural black teas)

(British) A cup of tea served without milk.


bellend

(UK, Ireland, vulgar) Alternative spelling of bell-end


NIC

Despite propelling the tax burden to its highest peacetime level – through a combination of next April’s national insurance contributions (NICs) increase and a sharp rise in corporation tax due to take effect in 2023 – the chancellor painted himself as the champion of low taxes.

2021 October 27, Heather Stewart, “Johnsonism wins budget battle but will Sunakism win the war?”, in The Guardian:

national insurance
national insurance#English

(UK, finance) Acronym of national insurance contribution.


Winchester

From Middle English Wynchester, Winchestre, from Old English Wintanċeaster, from Latin Venta Belgārum (literally “Venta of the Belgae”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Celtic *wentā (“town, place”), Proto-Indo-European *h₁wen- (“place (?)”) + Old English ċeaster, from Latin castra (“camp”).
The bottle is named for the former customary units of the English city. The rifle is named named after American businessman Oliver Winchester (1810–1880). The computer disk is named for the rifle.

named-after

A city in and the county town of Hampshire, England.

(UK) Ellipsis of Winchester College; a prestigious public school in Winchester.


BBC English

received pronunciation
received pronunciation

(British) A form of received pronunciation formerly used in British broadcasting.


rancour

en-noun

rancour (countable and uncountable, plural rancours)

First attested as Middle English rancour in the early 13th century, from Old French rancor, from Latin rancor (“rancidity, grudge, rancor”), from ranceō (“be rotten or putrid, stink”), from which also English rancid.

uder

By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 4, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

British, Canada, and Australia spelling of rancor


pelf

en-noun

pelf (countable and uncountable, plural pelfs)

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

From Late Middle English pelf, pelfe (“stolen goods, booty, spoil; forfeited property; money, riches; property; valuable object”), possibly from Anglo-Norman pelf (a variant of pelfre (“booty, loot”)) and Old French peufre (“frippery; rubbish”); further etymology uncertain, possibly a metathesis of Old French felpe, ferpe, frepe (“a rag”). The English word is perhaps related to Late Latin pelfa, pelfra, pelfrum (“forfeited or stolen goods”), Middle French peuffe and French peufe, peuffe (“old clothes; rubbish”) (Normandy), and pilfer.

Now for women, in ſtead of laborious ſtudies, they have curious, needleworkes, Cut-workes, ſpinning, bone-lace, and many prettie deviſes of their owne making, to adorne their houſes, […] Which to her gueſts ſhe ſhews, with all her pelfe, / Thus far my maides, but this I did my ſelf.

1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Exercise Rectified of Body and Minde”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 4, page 282:

(uncountable, dated) Rubbish, trash; specifically (British, dialectal) refuse from plants.


head

en-au-pinch and a punch for the first of the month.ogg

‘Pinch and a punch for the first of the month.’ I nurse my wounded arm and look down at my giggling son.
'You just hit me.'
'No I didn't. That's what you do on the first of the month.'
'Who says so?'
He looks at me exasperated.

2009, Ellie Nielsen, Buying a Piece of Paris: A Memoir, page 208:

(British, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) Said on the first day of a new month, while pinching and punching someone as a prank (especially by children). The victim may respond with "a slap and a kick for being so quick" and the original attacker may reply with "a poke in the eye for being so sly".

It does not seem to be the Minister for the Environment's day, he has really had a pinch and a punch for the first of the month. He received a punch a few minute ago, and now he is being pinched. It is significant that the Bill is intended to come into force on 1 April next year. The Bill was promised in the Speech from the Throne. It has gone back and forth between departments, and ended up in caucus several times, ...

1981, Parliamentary Debates, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, page 3112:

Bugger, this wasn't the goods at all – this was a pinch and a punch for the first of the month. A letter in fact from Fire Commander Bruce stating that although he was in receipt of my application, neither he nor the Fire Commander of IB were certain of the Fire Service Commission's final policy for employment of women as operational firemen.

2007, Anne Barry, Playing with Fire, page 59:

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) More generally, a pair of attacks or setbacks at the start of something.


chiffchaff

/ˈt͡ʃɪf.t͡ʃæf/

Echoic of the repetitive "chiff-chaff" song of the European species, Phylloscopus collybita.
*
 Audio: (file)

onom

Echoic

I thought I heard something singing chiffchaff, chiffchaff. So I had a look and there was a chiffchaff.

(UK, onomatopoeic, uncountable) The song of the chiffchaff.


DOL

(UK) Initialism of deprivation of liberty.


dimethyl sulphoxide

dimethyl sulfoxide
dimethyl sulfoxide#English

(organic chemistry, chiefly British) Alternative spelling of dimethyl sulfoxide


dishonour

en-noun

dishonour (countable and uncountable, plural dishonours)

tlb

(UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa)

From Old French deshonor, equivalent to dis- + honour.

negotiable instrument
negotiable instrument

(law) Failure or refusal of the drawee or intended acceptor of a negotiable instrument, such as a bill of exchange or note, to accept it or, if it is accepted, to pay and retire it.


TVP

(UK) Initialism of Thames Valley Police.


set about

en-verb

set about (third-person singular simple present sets about, present participle setting about, simple past and past participle set about)

sets about (present singular third-person)
setting about (participle present)
set about (participle past)
set about (past)
set about (infinitive)

From set (verb) + about (adverb, preposition).

Two youths set about him.

Used with the preposition sense of about.

(UK, informal) To attack (someone); to set upon.