leukaemia

leukaemia (countable and uncountable, plural leukaemias)

1979, Medical Association of South Africa, South African Medical Journal, Volume 55, Issues 1-14, page 9,
On the other hand, adult respiratory distress syndrome is a prominent complication in patients with acute leukaemia and to this must be added the whole spectrum of opportunistic infections.

1992, Charles L. Sawyers, The bcr-abl Gene in Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia, Owen N. Witte (editor), Cancer Surveys, Volume 15: Oncogenes in the Development of Leukaemia, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, page 37,
The molecular biologists′ vision that the cloning of the chromosomal translocations found in human leukaemias would lead to the identification of the genes that cause these leukaemias has become a reality with the demonstration that the fusion protein generated by the chromosomal translocation found in chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) can induce leukaemia in mice (Daley et al, 1990; Kelliher et al, 1990).

2009, M. C. G. Israëls, The Shortcomings of Animal Research in Leukæmia, Ciba Foundation Symposium, Leukaemia Research, page 28,
In transmitted mouse leukaemia the cells remain fixed in type, but tissue culture methods applied to human acute leukaemias show that these cells are not fixed in type.

2010, Sheryl Persson, Smallpox, Syphilis and Salvation: Medical Breakthroughs That Changed the World, Exisle Publishing, NSW, page 283,
There are different types of childhood leukaemia, which can be classified as acute or chronic. In children, about 98 per cent of leukaemias are acute.


lass

term-label

(archaic except UK, dialectal, informal or poetic)

From Middle English las, lasce, lasse (“female infant or child; young woman”), probably from Old Norse laskwa (“unmarried”, adjective).
cognates
* Scots lass, lassie

der

[…] I'll tell ye that after we are done wi' our supper, for it will may be no be sae weel to speak about it while that lang-lugged limmer o' a lass is gaun flisking in and out o' the room.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 101:

[…] I'll tell you that after we are done with our supper, for it will maybe not be so well to speak about it while that long-eared rogue of a maidservant is going capering in and out of the room.

[S]ure aneugh, the lass washed clottered blood aff the carpet the neist day.

[1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Letter XI. The Same [Darsie Latimer] to the Same [Alan Fairford].”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 234:

She fleyed Johnnie awa' frae the door when he was for daffin' wi' the serving lasses.

[1927 July, John Buchan, “The Black Wood by Day”, in Witch Wood, London: Hodder and Stoughton, published August 1927, →OCLC, page 90:

(Northern England, Scotland) A female servant; a maid, a maidservant.


fine

From Middle English finen, fynen, from Old French finer, finir. See finish (transitive verb).

(UK, law) A sum of money or price paid for obtaining a benefit, favor, or privilege, as for admission to a copyhold, or for obtaining or renewing a lease.


mucker

Fancy a pint, me old mucker?

(UK, slang, Southern England, Northern Ireland) Friend, acquaintance.


batty

From bottom, possibly influenced by botty or butt.

For example, recent Jamaican 'raga' lyrics by Buju Banton and Brand Nubian attach the affirmation of black identity to crude animosity towards homosexuality and contain offensive language against the 'batties' as icons of non-blackness.

1996, Rudi Bleys, The geography of perversion:

(Jamaica, UK, Canada, derogatory) A homosexual man.


comprehensive

Borrowed from late Middle French compréhensif, from Late Latin comprehēnsīvus, from Latin comprehendō.

Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.

2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:

comprehensive school
comprehensive school


chatty

en-adj

chatty (comparative chattier, superlative chattiest)

chattier (comparative)
chattiest (superlative)

Now there are plans to put up a cheap and chatty wooden fence which will not provide anything like the security the old wall did and it will not have the same character.

2014, Ian Robson, “Fenham residents campaign against plans to replace wall with wooden fence”, The Chronicle:

(British, Australia, New Zealand, dated or dialect) Infested with lice; or, (figuratively) dirty, worn or of poor quality; lousy.


wallop

en-noun

wallop (countable and uncountable, plural wallops)

From Middle English wallopen (“gallop”), from Anglo-Norman [Term?], from Old Northern French walop (“gallop”, noun) and waloper (“to gallop”, verb) (compare Old French galoper, whence modern French galoper), from Frankish *wala hlaupan (“to run well”) from *wala (“well”) + *hlaupan (“to run”), from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to run, leap, spring”), from Proto-Indo-European *klaub- (“to spring, stumble”). Possibly also derived from a deverbal of Frankish *walhlaup (“battle run”) from *wal (“battlefield”) from Proto-Germanic [Term?] (“dead, victim, slain”) from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“death in battle, killed in battle”) + *hlaup (“course, track”) from *hlaupan (“to run”). Compare the doublet gallop.

der

(UK, Scotland, dialect) A quick rolling movement; a gallop.


gentleman

Chinese Pidgin English: gentleman

→ Danish: gentleman

→ Esperanto: ĝentlemano

→ French: gentleman

desctree

→ Russian: джентльмен (džentlʹmen)
→ Armenian: ջենտլմեն (ǰentlmen)
→ Georgian: ჯენტლმენი (ǯenṭlmeni)

→ Mohegan-Pequot: gundermon

→ Polish: dżentelmen

→ Portuguese: gentleman

→ Spanish: gentleman

→ Yiddish: דזשענטעלמען (dzhentelmen)

[ˈd͡ʒɛɾ̃.ɫ̩.mən]

From Middle English gentilman, morphologically gentle + man, partial calque of Old French gentilhome.

Being a gentleman, Robert was entitled to shove other commoners into the gongpit but he still had to jump out of the way of the knights to avoid the same fate himself.

And when their ſcattered armie is ſubdu’d:
And you march on their ſlaughtered carkaſſes,
Share equally the gold that bought their liues,
And liue like Gentlmen in Perſea, […]

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:

But when Adam delued, and Eue ſpan,
VVho was then a Gentleman?

1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:

“[…] This is Mr. Churchill, who, as you are aware, is good enough to come to us for his diaconate, and, as we hope, for much longer; and being a gentleman of independent means, he declines to take any payment.” Saying this Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.

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

(chiefly historical) A man of gentle but not noble birth, particularly a man of means (originally ownership of property) who does not work for a living but has no official status in a peerage; (UK law) an armiferous man ranking below a knight.


aver

From Middle English aver, avere (“workhorse; any beast of burden (?); things which are owned, possessions, property, wealth; state of being rich, wealth; ownership, possession”) [and other forms], and then either:
* from Old French aver, aveir, avoir (“possession, property; (collectively) beasts of burden; domestic animals; cattle”) (modern French avoir (“asset, possession”)), from aveir, avoir (“to have”), from Latin habēre (“to have, hold; to have, own (possessions)”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ-, *ǵʰeh₁bʰ- (“to grab, take”); or
* from Old English eafor (“workhorse; tenant’s obligation to transport goods”), further etymology uncertain.

nb...

auer, auere, aueyr, auoir, auoyre, aveer, aveir, avoir, avour, hauoir, hauour, hauoyr, haveour, haver, havoir, havoire, havour, havur, havyor, havyour, havyoure, hawere, hower

inh

(British, dialectal, archaic) A beast of burden; chiefly a workhorse, but also a working ox or other animal.


savage

en-adj

savage (comparative more savage, superlative most savage)

more savage (comparative)
most savage (superlative)

From Middle English savage, from Old French sauvage, salvage (“wild, savage, untamed”), from Late Latin salvaticus, alteration of Latin silvaticus (“wild"; literally, "of the woods”), from silva (“forest", "grove”).

der

– I'll see you in detention.
– Ah, savage!


bulldog

→ French: bouledogue

→ German: Bulldogge

→ Portuguese: buldogue

From bull + dog, in reference to bullbaiting.

[…] and was confronted by a “bulldog,” a proctor's assistant in charge of discipline, who asked if he was a member of the university since he wasn't wearing a gown, and he was able to say that he wasn't, […]

2019, Thomas Merton, Patrick F. O'Connell, Medieval Cistercian History (page lxxiii)

(UK, Oxford University slang) One of the proctors' officers.

"... playing bulldog in the yard so I know you're fit enough to fight. Have you decided when you're coming back?”

2008 08, Christ Kennedy, Two Sons Nelson, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 304:

[…] playing bulldog on the plaza in front of the meeting hall.

2010 April 29, Bill Svelmoe, Spirits Eat Ripe Papaya, Wipf and Stock Publishers, →ISBN, page 138:

[…] playing bulldog, that game where you have two teams, one team runs and the other one catches. You have to run from […]

2018, Avril Brock, Pam Jarvis, Yinka Olusoga, Perspectives on Play: Learning for Life:

Once Tyson skidded on some wet leaves when he and his friends were playing Bulldog in the park. As he lay on the ground they all laughed at him, even Ajay, and although he'd twisted his ankle, what hurt most was his pride.

2018 June 14, Irvine Welsh, A.L. Kennedy, Meera Syal, John Niven, Pauline Melville, Daisy Buchanan, Christopher Brookmyre, Zoe Venditozzi, Nina Stibbe, Mike Gayle, Murray Lachlan Young, Barney Farmer, 24 Stories: of Hope for Survivors of the Grenfell Tower Fire, Random House, →ISBN:

(chiefly UK, sometimes capitalized) The children's game of British Bulldog or Red Rover.


gallon

→ Cebuano: galon

→ Czech: galon

→ Portuguese: galão

→ Serbo-Croatian: galon

→ Swahili: galoni

→ Turkish: galon

From Middle English gallon, galoun, galun, from Old Northern French galun, galon (“liquid measure”) (compare Old French jalon), from Late Latin galum, galus (“measure of wine”), from Vulgar Latin *galla (“vessel”), possibly from Gaulish [Term?], ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“goblet”). Cognate with Ancient Greek κύλιξ (kúlix, “cup”), Sanskrit कलश (kalaśa, “jar, pitcher; measure of liquid”). Related to Old French gille (“wine measure”) (from Medieval Latin gillō (“earthenware jar”)), Old French jale (“bowl”), Old French jaloie (“measure of capacity”).

cog

(British, Canada) exactly 4.54609 liters; an imperial gallon


nappy

Probably shortened from napkin (but possibly a corruption of French nappe, since napkin is already a diminutive) + -y (diminutive ending).

The baby did a poo in her nappy.

You will notice that disposable nappies are sold in boy and girl versions. They vary in where the thickest padding is provided.

1995, Jennie Lindon, Lance Lindon, Leandra Negrini, Caring for Young Children, page 60:

Other equipment required was soap for hand washing and washing of nappies, a washing line for the drying of nappies,[…].

2005, Medical Association of Malawi, “Malawi Medical Journal: The Journal of Medical Association of Malawi”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 17, page 39:

You could burn disposable nappies (not a very practical option); otherwise, it′s probably best to take a supply of large plastic bags or nappy sacks with you and to dispose of them as thoughtfully as you can.

2008, Isabelle Young, Healthy Travel: Asia & India, 2nd edition, Lonely Planet, page 275:

In response we mailed hundreds of nappies to students in halls. On the nappy was a simple message, IT'S A LOT EASIER TO PUT ON A CONDOM.

2009, Chris Arnold, Ethical Marketing and The New Consumer, page 55:

(British, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand) An absorbent garment worn by a baby or toddler who does not yet have voluntary control of their bladder and bowels or by someone who is incontinent; a diaper.


mad

en-adj

mad (comparative madder, superlative maddest)

madder (comparative)
maddest (superlative)

From Middle English mad, madde, madd, medd, from Old English ġemǣdd, ġemǣded (“enraged”), past participle of ġemǣdan, *mǣdan (“to make insane or foolish”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to change; damage; cripple; injure; make mad”), from Proto-Germanic *maidaz ("weak; crippled"; compare Old English gemād (“silly, mad”), Old High German gimeit (“foolish, crazy”), literary German gemeit (“mad, insane”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (gamaiþs, “crippled”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- ("to change"; compare Old Irish máel (“bald, dull”), Old Lithuanian ap-maitinti (“to wound”), Sanskrit मेथति (méthati, “he hurts, comes to blows”)).

gloss

New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

It's mad that I got that job back a day after being fired.

(UK, Ireland, informal) Bizarre; incredible.


mad

He was driving mad slow.

It's mad hot today.

He seems mad keen on her.

(slang, chiefly New York, African-American Vernacular, UK and Ireland, dialectal) Intensifier; to a large degree; extremely; exceedingly; very; unbelievably.

all over the place like a mad woman's custard


park

building

antonym(s) of “a piece of ground in or near a city”

From Middle English park, from Old French parc (“livestock pen”), from Medieval Latin parcus, parricus, from Frankish *parrik (“enclosure, pen, fence”). Cognate with Dutch perk (“enclosure; flowerbed”), Old High German pfarrih, pferrih (“enclosure, pen”), Old English pearroc (“enclosure”) (whence modern English paddock), Old Norse parrak, parak (“enclosure, pen; distress, anxiety”), Icelandic parraka (“to keep pent in under restraint and coercion”). More at parrock, paddock.

cog

A country's tank park or artillery park.


seaman

From Middle English seeman, seman, from Old English sǣmann. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Seemon (“seaman, sailor”), West Frisian seeman (“seaman, sailor”), Dutch zeeman (“seaman, sailor”), German Low German Seemann (“seaman, sailor”), German Seemann (“seaman, sailor”), Swedish sjöman (“seaman, sailor”), Norwegian sjømann (“seaman, sailor”). Equivalent to sea + -man.

(British, Navy) A person of the lowest rank in the Navy, below able seaman.


take up

en-verb

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

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

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

elfogad

to accept (a proposal, offer, request, etc.) from

(transitive) To set about doing or dealing with (something).

(transitive, chiefly British) To pay off, to clear (a debt, loan, mortgage, etc.).


whack

Uncertain. Originally Scottish; probably onomatopoeic, but compare Middle English thakken < Old English þaccian (whence Modern thwack by conflation with whack). Sense 6 of the verb is likely a semantic loan from Malay hentam (“to strike; to do something carelessly”).

sl

I don’t care about much wine afterwards—I take my whack at dinner—I mean my share, you know; and when I have had as much as I want I toddle up to tea.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 39, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

“It’s damned tame, whatever it is, comin’ in here at feedin’ time an’ gettin’ its whack of fish.”

1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter 2, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1 (The Wild), page 16:

“[…] O'Cannon's a taxpayer. He pays his whack towards the upkeep of the State School up in town—”

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VII, in Capricornia, New York: Appleton, page 108:

For one thing I had a splendid supper when I got on board—a whack of cold, lean beef and pighells, bread, butter ad lib., tea, and plenty of good bread.

1951, Katherine Mansfield, Letters to John Middleton Murry, 1913-1922:

There were problems over the installation of the engine and the handling. The team had paid top whack for the two Coopers, but the company gave them no help at all.

2014, Anthony Pritchard, Grand Prix Ferrari, page 203:

(originally UK cant, somewhat dated) A share, a portion, especially a full share or large portion.


whack

en-verb

whack (third-person singular simple present whacks, present participle whacking, simple past and past participle whacked)

whacks (present singular third-person)
whacking (participle present)
whacked (participle past)
whacked (past)

Recently I was over in Ireland, I love the place, proper fishing, can't whack it!

(UK, chiefly in the negative) To surpass; to better.


block

→ Dutch: block

→ German: Block

→ Irish: bloc

→ Manx: block

→ Maori: poraka

→ Norwegian: blokk

→ Polish: blok

desctree

→ Russian: блок (blok)
→ Armenian: բլոկ (blok)
→ Yakut: блок (blok)

→ Spanish: block

→ Vietnamese: lốc

From Middle English blok (“log, stump, solid piece”), from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from Middle Dutch blok (“treetrunk”), from Old Dutch *blok (“log”), from Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“thick plank, beam, pile, prop”). Cognate with Old Frisian blok, Old Saxon blok, Old High German bloh, bloc (“block”), Old English bolca (“gangway of a ship, plank”), Old Norse bǫlkr (“divider, partition”). More at balk. See also bloc, bulk.

طَابُوقَة

substantial often approximately cuboid piece

թաղամաս

group of buildings demarcated by streets

Solitary confinement
solitary confinement


consultant

From French consultant, present participle of consulter, from Latin cōnsultāre (“to deliberate, consult”), frequentative of cōnsulere (“to consult, deliberate, consider, reflect upon, ask advice”), from com- (“together”) + -sulere, of uncertain origin.

der

(medicine, UK, Ireland) A senior hospital-based physician or surgeon who has completed all specialist training and has been placed on the specialist register in their chosen speciality, roughly equivalent to an attending physician in North America.


beak

Unknown; originally cant; first recorded in 17thC; probably related to obsolete cant beck "constable".

They take up men, Dick, for going about in women's clothes, and vice versaw, I suppose. You'll bail me, old fellaa, if I have to make my bow to the beak, won't you?

1859, George Meredith, chapter XXXVIII, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

Harry looked rather bulky, you know, Tom, and the slop (policeman) says, 'Hallo, what you got here?' and by [blank] he took us both before the beak.

1866, Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers:

Thus does history repeat itself, and that foolish beak, with Tom Linden before him, was but Felix judging Paul.

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:

That an unnamed 22-year-old will be up before the Colchester beak in March under the Road Traffic Act's recherché section 3 – covering inconsiderate driving and with a maximum fine of £5,000 – may at first sight seem a facetious use of court resources.

2014 January 24, Matthew Norman, “Hercules of the Yard can fix boorish Britain: There's a long list of possible miscreants for the Essex PC who made a splash over a puddle [print version: 25 January 2014]”, in The Daily Telegraph, page 27:

In 1854, ill health forced Henry [Fielding] to stop running the organisation that later became the Bow Street Runners, London's first professional police force, and John [Fielding] took over. This despite having lost his sight in a naval accident at the age of 19. He was known as the Blind Beak, and was said to be able to recognise as many as 3,000 criminals by their voices alone.

2014 April 12, Christopher Middleton, “Dream home: one of Chelsea's most historic houses is for sale: We deliver our verdict on a London landmark that comes with an impeccable legal pedigree [print version: What price justice? In this case, a cool £14.5m]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property), London, page P9:

justice of the peace
justice of the peace

(slang, British) A justice of the peace; a magistrate.


sportsman

→ Korean: 스포츠맨 (seupocheumaen)

→ Russian: спортсме́н (sportsmén)

→ Welsh: sbortsmon

On the contrary, the difference between the worse male and female sportsmen was 54 ms. Among the male sportsmen [...]. Among the female sportsmen [...]

2014, Libor Flemr, Jiří Němec, Kateřina Kudláčková, editors, Physical activity in science and practice: Conference Proceedings | In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University in Prague [Prague, 19-21 June 2013], page 237:

In both cases the female sportsmen were Nordic skiers.

2008, Atko Viru, Adaptation in Sports Training, Informa Healthcare USA, New York, p. 227 (Chapter 9: Gender Differences in Training Effects, sub-chapter Metabolic Capacities in male and female Athletes)

(UK) A man who engages in sports; an athlete.


necessary

en-noun

necessary (plural necessaries or necessarys)

necessaries (plural)
necessarys (plural)

/ˈnɛsəˌsɛɹi/

/ˈnɛsəˌsɛɹi/

From Middle English necessarye, from Old French necessaire, from Latin necessārius (“unavoidable, inevitable, required”), variant of necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”), probably from ne or non cessum, from the perfect passive participle of cēdō (“yield; avoid, withdraw”); see cede.
Older use as a noun in reference to an outhouse or lavatory under the influence of English and Latin necessārium, a medieval term for the place for monks’ “unavoidable” business, usually located behind or attached to monastic dormitories.

der

It soon became fashionable for even the poorest families to have a necessary not far from their cabin. […] The more affluent settlers painted their necessarys in bright colors and carved their names on the doors.

2009, Don Corbly, The Last Colonials, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 67:

(chiefly UK, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, archaic, euphemistic, usually with the definite article) A place to do the "necessary" business of urination and defecation: an outhouse or lavatory.

Rhode Island; Massachusetts; Rhode Island; Massachusetts


twister

From Middle English twyster, equivalent to twist + -er.

“I don't know if it's my imagination, Kipper,” I said, “but something gives me the impression that at moment of going to press you aren't too sold on Bobbie.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Oh, I wouldn't say that. Apart from wishing I could throttle the young twister with my bare hands and jump on the remains with hobnailed boots, I don't feel much about her one way or the other.”

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

(British, colloquial) A crook, a villain.


"Two 99s please. And your story." The ice cream was in insulated compartments and he scooped it out […]

2008, Ian Pattinson, Global Weirding, →ISBN:

'Two 99s for you, young man. A Fab? Yes, here you are, madam. A Mivvi coming up.' As he handed over the ices, the kids ran or just sauntered off. I don't know if the ice-cream man thought some adult was going to appear and pay for the lot, […]

2011, On The Cobbles: Jimmy Stockin, →ISBN:

'Two 99s, please.' Copper Pie held them while I searched for the right money. […] Copper Pie was still on the ground, holding the ice creams […]

2012, T. M. Alexander, A Thousand Water Bombs, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland) An ice cream cone with a chocolate flake inserted into the ice cream.


liquor

en-noun

liquor (countable and uncountable, plural liquors)

From Middle English licour, from Anglo-Norman licour, from Latin liquor (“fluidity, liquidness, a fluid, a liquid”), from liquere (“to be fluid or liquid”); see liquid. Doublet of liqueur.

der

(UK, cooking) A parsley sauce commonly served with traditional pies and mash.


American football

tlb

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei)

"Chain mail, or an American football suit - that's what you'll want."

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

A team sport similar to rugby football, played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end.


swish

en-adj

swish (comparative swisher or more swish, superlative swishest or most swish)

swisher (comparative)
more swish (comparative)
swishest (superlative)
most swish (superlative)

This restaurant looks very swish — it even has linen tablecloths.

All the shabby railway buildings in front of the station concourse have either been removed or transformed into a shopping complex and swish homes.

2020 June 3, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: Cambridge”, in Rail, page 23:

(British, colloquial) sophisticated; fashionable; smooth.


rare

rare (comparative rarer, superlative rarest)

rarer (comparative)
rarest (superlative)

From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere (“rare, uncommon”), from Latin rārus (“loose, spaced apart, thin, infrequent”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“friable, thin”). Replaced native Middle English gesen (“rare, scarce”) (from Old English gǣsne), Middle English seld (“rare, uncommon”) (from Old English selden), and Middle English seldscene (“rare, rarely seen, infrequent”) (from Old English seldsēne).

cog

For the adverb (e.g. rarely) see Thesaurus:occasionally

Sees her reflection in a butcher shop.
She finds it all quite rare
That her meat's all vanity fair.

1981, Chris Difford (lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocal), "Vanity Fair" (song)


smoker

All grins and tuxes at some charity smoker in a city-centre hotel.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 129:

(informal, dated, UK, Cambridge University) A social event featuring sketches, songs, etc., whether or not smoking is carried out.


Jr

(British) A title used after a son's name when his father has the same name.


cave

Borrowed from Latin cavē, second-person singular present active imperative of caveō (“to beware”). Used at Eton College, Berkshire.

Ssh! Cave! Mum's the word! Not 'arf, or what?

1989, Ben Elton, Richard Curtis, Private Plane (Blackadder Goes Forth), season 4, episode 4, spoken by Lt. George (Hugh Laurie):

(British, school slang) look out!; beware!


chase

en-noun

chase (countable and uncountable, plural chases)

From Middle English chacen, from Anglo-Norman chacer, Old French chacier, from Late Latin captiāre, from Latin captāre, frequentative of capere. Compare French chasser (“to hunt”, “to chase”), Spanish cazar (“to hunt”), Portuguese caçar (“to hunt”)
, see Norwegian skysse (“to hunt”).
Doublet of catch and related to capture.
Displaced native Old English ōht, ēhtnes, and wāþ. Broadly overtook Old English huntaþ.

Outside, the stately oaks, rooted for ages in the green ground which has never known ploughshare, but was still a chase when kings rode to battle with sword and shield and rode a-hunting with bow and arrow, bear witness to his greatness.

1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 14, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

(British) A large country estate where game may be shot or hunted.


noodle

en-verb

noodle (third-person singular simple present noodles, present participle noodling, simple past and past participle noodled)

noodles (present singular third-person)
noodling (participle present)
noodled (participle past)
noodled (past)

The origin of the noun is uncertain; it is possibly a variant of noddle (“the head”). The verb is derived from the noun.

(intransitive, British, dialectal, informal) To engage in frivolous behaviour; to fool around or waste time.


Mr

In recent months Mr Balaji had publicly spoken out against artificial intelligence company OpenAI's practices, which has been fighting a number of lawsuits relating to its data-gathering practices.

2024 December 14, Alys Davies, “OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment”, in BBC:

British standard form of Mr.. Abbreviation of mister.

British standard form of Mr.. Abbreviation of March.


chunder

en-noun

chunder (countable and uncountable, plural chunders)

Unknown and debated origin. Possibly a shortening of Chunder Loo, itself a presumed rhyming slang for spew (said to be derived from the cartoon character “Chunder Loo of Akim Foo”, drawn by Norman Lindsay for a series of boot-polish advertisements in the early 1900s), but the rhyming slang usage is not actually recorded. Alternatively, possibly from the nautical phrase "*Watch under!" ("Look out below!"), used to warn people on lower decks that someone above was vomiting over the side of the ship, though this is likewise unsubstantiated and may simply be due to folk etymology. Also possibly from tunder, a dialectal pronunciation of thunder; or borrowed from Scots *junder, junner, chunner (“to bump, knock against", also "to break or spill the contents of”), a frequentative form of jund, chund, jundie (“to jog, jostle, annoy, upset”). First attested in c. 1950.

unk

Unknown and debated origin

I had puke streamers hanging from both nostrils; it wasn′t as watery as my chunder usually is (from drinking).

1996 April 24, Andrew Shore, “Nose Chunder (was Re: Grogan Epidemic at ERR)”, in alt.tasteless (Usenet):

(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, slang) Vomit.

I would guess it points up the difference between the involuntary chunder where you cannot choose the time place or direction, and the self-induced chunder which facilitates further consumption of alcohol after your theoretical limit is reached.

2001 September 9, John Dean, “‘chunder’”, in alt.usage.english (Usenet):

(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, slang) An act of vomiting.


chunder

en-verb

chunder (third-person singular simple present chunders, present participle chundering, simple past and past participle chundered)

chunders (present singular third-person)
chundering (participle present)
chundered (participle past)
chundered (past)

unk

Unknown and debated origin

I come from a land down under / Where beer does flow and men chunder / Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder? / You better run, you better take cover

1980, Colin Hay, Ron Strykert (lyrics and music), “Down Under”, performed by Men at Work:

2008, Isabelle Young, Tony Gherardin, Central and South America, Lonely Planet, page 70,
There are plenty of winding roads, diesel fumes, crowded public transport and various less than sweet odours to get you chundering when you′re on the move in this part of the world, so take a good supply of motion sickness remedies if you know you′re susceptible to this.

“You might have chundered,” said Kate, laughing, “but at least you didn′t get any on yourself—sign of a true lady.”

2009, William Efford, Picaroon, page 313:

Pretty soon just about everyone onboard was leaning over the rail chundering like sick dogs.

2010, Norman Jorgensen, Jack′s Island, page 3:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, slang) To throw up, to vomit, particularly from excessive alcohol consumption.


tater

Representing an aphetic pronunciation of potato. Compare patater (“potato”), 'mater (“tomato”), and 'naner (“banana”).

We ate them taters up real good.

I went into the dining-room, and sot down afore a plate that had my name writ on a card onto it; and I did walk into the beef and 'taters and things about east.

1884, Hiram Bigelow, Family Companion, letter, quoted in Dictionary of Americanisms, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, page 198:

For sandwiches, you might sink your teeth into a Cape Cod reuben with crispy cod, Swiss and coleslaw with tater tots or sweet potato fries, fried chicken and waffle sandwich with maple aioli, or bacon jam burger — maple bourbon bacon jam, gorgonzola, fried egg, arugula, tomato.

2022 June 12, Lauren Daley, “How to eat through Blackstone Valley in a weekend”, in Boston Globe:

While Linder prefers his taters cut skinny, as they are in restaurant iterations of the dish, his co-author, the television chef Johanna Westman, says she prefers them thick, as in her Grandma Alva’s recipe.

2023 December 20, Eric Kim, “A Creamy, Melty Potato Casserole That’s Outrageously Easy to Make”, in The New York Times Magazine:


clapboard

en-noun

clapboard (countable and uncountable, plural clapboards)

From Middle English clapholt, from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch klapholt. The part "holt" was later calqued to "board".

(archaic, UK) An oak board of a size used for barrel staves.


pod

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English *pod ("seed-pod, husk, shell, outer covering"; attested in pod-ware (“legume seed; seed grain”)), itself possibly from Old English pād (“an outer garment, covering, coat, cloak”), from Proto-West Germanic *paidu, from Proto-Germanic *paidō (“coat, smock, shirt”), from Proto-Indo-European *baiteh₂- (“woolen clothes”). If so, then cognate with Old Saxon pēda (“skirt”), German dialectal Pfeid, Pfeit (“shirt”), Gothic 𐍀𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌰 (paida, “mantle, skirt”), and perhaps Albanian petk (“gown, garment, dress, suit”) and Ancient Greek βαίτη (baítē, “goat-skin, fur-coat, tent”).

unc

uncertain

gloss

"seed-pod, husk, shell, outer covering"; attested in <i class="Latn mention" lang="enm">pod-ware</i> (“legume seed; seed grain”)

ncog

cart, that is clouted and shod,
cart ladder and wimble, with perser and pod

1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […], 1810, →OCLC:


sportswoman

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

(UK) A woman who engages in sports; a female athlete.


hanging

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

nonlemma

MUGSEY: Yeah. You fancy ‘im don’ you.
LEANNE: No I don’t. Shut yer mouth.
MUGSEY: Your mum said he’s gonna end up just like his dad.
LEANNE: She don’ even know Bingo. Anyway, I don’t fancy ‘im, ‘e’s hanging.

(UK, slang, of a person, originally Manchester) Ugly; very unattractive; disgusting.


fancy

en-verb

fancy (third-person singular simple present fancies, present participle fancying, simple past and past participle fancied)

fancies (present singular third-person)
fancying (participle present)
fancied (participle past)
fancied (past)

From Middle English fancien, fantasien, fantesien, from Old French fantasier, from the noun (see above)).

I fancy a burger tonight for dinner.

Do you fancy going to town this weekend?

(British) Would like; have a desire for.

I fancy that girl over there.

How can you fancie one that lookes so fierce, / Onely diſpoſed to martiall Stratagems? / UUho when he ſhal embrace you in his arms / UUil tell how many thouſand men he ſlew.

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 III, scene ii:

(British, informal) To be sexually attracted to.


deaf

en-adj

deaf (comparative deafer, superlative deafest)

deafer (comparative)
deafest (superlative)

From Middle English deef, from Old English dēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *daub, from Proto-Germanic *daubaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). Cognate with Ancient Greek τυφλός (tuphlós, “blind”). See also dumb. Doublet of daff, dof, and dowf.

اَلصُّمّ

unable to hear, used as a substantive: deaf people considered as a group

a deaf nut; deaf corn

If the season be unkindly and intemperate, they [peppers] will catch a blast; and then the seeds will be deafe, void, light, and naught.

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

(obsolete, UK, dialect) Decayed; tasteless; dead.


pinta

From the pronunciation of pint of milk. Compare cuppa.


hundreds and thousands

PIE word
 *ḱm̥tóm
From hundreds + and + thousands. Sense 2 (“tiny balls or strands of multicoloured sugar”) is from the fact that the confectionery is made up of numerous sugar pieces.

So there you have them - Onoda, Gund, Eclipse - all squidged together on the same spoon, their flavours intermingling under a bleeding crust of hundreds-and-thousands.

2003, Neil Wills, “Surfers′ Paradise”, in Third Way, page 12:

Hundreds and thousands, commonly yet boringly called “sprinkles” in North America, are enough to make any child smile. Sprinkled over a cookie and sandwiched around creamy ice cream makes for sheer bliss!

2007, Pippa Cuthbert, Lindsay Cameron Wilson, Cookies!, New Holland Publishers (UK), archived from the original on 2016-09-17, page 96:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Tiny balls or strands of multicoloured sugar, sprinkled over ice cream, desserts or party foods.


section

en-verb

section (third-person singular simple present sections, present participle sectioning, simple past and past participle sectioned)

sections (present singular third-person)
sectioning (participle present)
sectioned (participle past)
sectioned (past)

From Middle English seccioun, from Old French section, from Latin sectiō (“cutting, cutting off, excision, amputation of diseased parts of the body, etc.”), from sectus, past participle of secāre (“to cut”). More at saw.

der

Tribunals were set up as watchdogs in cases of compulsory detention (sectioning). […] Informal patients, however, could be sectioned, and this was often a fear of patients once they were in hospital.

1998, Diana Gittins, Madness in its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913-1997, Routledge, →ISBN, page 45:

The doctor then sectioned her, making her an involuntary patient, and had her moved to a secure ward.

a. 2000, Lucy Johnstone, Users and Abusers of Psychiatry: A Critical Look at Psychiatric Practice, Second edition, Routledge, published 2000, →ISBN, page xiv:

After explaining that for 7 years, from ’88 to ’95, I was permanently sectioned under the Mental Health act, robbed of my freedom, my integrity, my rights, I wrote at the time;- […]

2006, Mairi Colme, A Divine Dance of Madness, Chipmunkapublishing, →ISBN, page 5:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) To commit (a person) to a hospital for mental health treatment as an involuntary patient. So called after various sections of legal acts regarding mental health.


nursery

en-noun

nursery (countable and uncountable, plural nurseries)

Carolina Stanley
Fritz von Uhde
Kunsthalle Hamburg
María Eugenia Vidal

From Middle English noricerie, norserye (“children's nursery; state of being fostered or nursed; education, upbringing”) [and other forms], from Old French norricerie, nourricerie, from norrice, nourrice (modern French nourrice (“childminder, nanny; wet nurse”)) + -erie (suffix forming feminine nouns). Norrice and nourrice are derived from Late Latin nūtrīcia (“wet nurse”), from Latin nūtrīcius (“that nurses or suckles; nourishing”), from nūtriō (“to breastfeed, nurse, suckle”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- (“to flow”). The English word may be analysed as nourice, nurse + -ery (suffix forming nouns meaning ‘place of’).

refn

From the collection of the Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

nb...

norceri, norcerie, norcery, norcerye, norisri, norisrie, norisserie, norisserye, norserie, norserye, norsheri, norshery, norysrye, nursery

де́тска я́сла

place where nursing or the raising of children is carried out

разса́дник

place where anything is fostered and growth promoted

(countable) A place where nursing (“breastfeeding”) or the raising of children is carried on.

(UK, chiefly British) An institution for small children who not yet have begun primary school during daytime (when their parents work); a daycare centre.

я́слі

place where the pre-school children of working parents are supervised during the day — see also nursery school


scrap

en-noun

scrap (countable and uncountable, plural scraps)

From Middle English scrappe, from Old Norse skrap, from skrapa (“to scrape, scratch”), from Proto-Germanic *skrapōną, *skrepaną (“to scrape, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *skreb-, *skrep- (“to engrave”).

(UK, in the plural) A piece of deep-fried batter left over from frying fish, sometimes sold with chips.


vend

From French vendre, from Old French vendre, from Latin vendere, from vēnum (“(something for) sale”) + dare (“to give”).

(UK, Australia, dated) The total sales of coal from a colliery.


leeway

leeway (countable and uncountable, plural leeways)

From lee (“side away from the wind”) + way.

[...] there was plenty of opportunity to modernise in the years up to 1939, but since then the Second World War and its aftermath of expenditure rigidly controlled by Government held up any progress until at last the purse-strings were unloosed five years ago. But an enormous amount of leeway needs to be made up.

1960 April, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 209:

(British) An adverse discrepancy or variation in a cumulative process, usually in the phrase make up leeway.


tumble

en-verb

tumble (third-person singular simple present tumbles, present participle tumbling, simple past and past participle tumbled)

tumbles (present singular third-person)
tumbling (participle present)
tumbled (participle past)
tumbled (past)

From Middle English tumblen (“to fall over and over again, tumble”), frequentative of Middle English tumben (“to fall, leap, dance”), from Old English tumbian, from Proto-Germanic *tūmōną (“to turn, rotate”). Cognate with Middle Dutch tumelen (whence Dutch tuimelen), Middle Low German tumelen, tummelen, German taumeln and Danish tumle.

der

Speaking of this language, a costermonger said to me: "The Irish can't tumble to it anyhow; the Jews can tumble better, but we're their masters. Some of the young salesmen at Billingsgate understand us, — but only at Billingsgate; […]

1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor:

(obsolete, UK, slang) To comprehend; often in tumble to.


bean

→ Fiji Hindi: biin

From Middle English bene, from Old English bēan, from Proto-West Germanic *baunu, from Proto-Germanic *baunō (“bean”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰabʰ- (“bean”). Cognate with Scots bene, bein (“bean”), West Frisian bean (“bean”), Dutch boon (“bean”), German Bohne (“bean”),
Swedish böna (“bean”),
Danish bønne (“bean”), Norwegian bønne (“bean”), Icelandic baun (“bean”), Latin faba (“bean”), Russian боб (bob, “bean”), Serbo-Croatian бо̏б/bȍb. Doublet of fava.

(British, slang, archaic) A guinea coin.

I haven't got a bean.

(British, slang, chiefly in the negative) Money.


sponge

en-noun

sponge (countable and uncountable, plural sponges)

→ Hindi: स्पंज (spañj)

→ Japanese: スポンジ (suponji)

→ Korean: 스펀지 (seupeonji)

→ Pashto: سپنج (spanj)

→ Welsh: spynj

→ Malay: span

From Middle English sponge, from Old English spunge, taken from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek σπογγιά (spongiá), from σπόγγος (spóngos).

(countable, uncountable, British) A type of steamed pudding.


tame

en-verb

tame (third-person singular simple present tames, present participle taming, simple past and past participle tamed)

tames (present singular third-person)
taming (participle present)
tamed (participle past)
tamed (past)

From Middle English tamen (“to cut into, broach”). Compare French entamer.

inh

In the time of famine he is the Joseph of the country, and keeps the poor from starving. Then he tameth his stacks of corn, which not his covetousness, but providence, hath reserved for time of need.

1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC:

(obsolete, UK, dialect) To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out.


deffo

en-adj

deffo (comparative more deffo, superlative most deffo)

more deffo (comparative)
most deffo (superlative)

From definitely or definite + -o (diminutive suffix).

I know for certain they′re not speaking to each other, that′s for deffo, not that I′ve even seen them in the same room over the last week to confirm their silence.

2003, Grace Dent, LBD: it′s a girl thing, page 45:

‘An infection. Nothing serious. They′ll have some colour in them soon, for deffo.’

2009, Joe Stretch, Wildlife, unnumbered page:

“Couldn′t say for deffo, probably at least fifteen years old, but I know they don′t make them like these any more for exactly the reason you′ve just seen. The security systems shite.”

2009, Stephen Leonard Lancashire, Immaculate Deception, page 271:

Needles wilted under the force of Pegg′s demand, his eyes widened and he seemed to shrink in size, and I can′t say for deffo but I think he probably wet himself.

2010, Simon Pegg, Nerd Do Well, page 25:

(colloquial, Australia, UK, Ireland, Canada, usually with for) Definite.


deffo

He told me that he's deffo going to be there tonight.

And I deffo don′t believe in me, cos I′m a proper knobhead, aren′t I, and always have been.

2009, Nick Leather, Billy Wonderful, page 12:

It′s weird, but even though Dosser was only grounded for like two weeks, I was actually starting to kind of miss him, and I deffo would′ve loved to have gone for a good old-fashioned crow-hunt that Saturday afternoon,[…].

2011, Andrew Fitzpatrick, Strictly Legal, page 128:

‘[…]And no giving in at the slightest whimper. Agreed?’
‘Deffo!’ He couldn′t see my fingers crossed behind my back.

2011, Maggie Graham, Me and My Animals, page 142:

(colloquial, Australia, UK, Ireland, Canada) Definitely.


slot

en-verb

slot (third-person singular simple present slots, present participle slotting, simple past and past participle slotted)

slots (present singular third-person)
slotting (participle present)
slotted (participle past)
slotted (past)

From Middle English slot, from Old French esclot, likely from Old Norse slóð (“track”). As a gambling machine, via clipping of slot machine. Compare sleuth. The scheduling (calendar) sense is by a metaphor whereby the time span is equated with the segment of a page or part of a device that represents it.

One young soldier told me he couldn't bear to shoot the wild game in Rhodesia, but he had no trouble "slotting" floppies. "The more I kill," he said, "the better I feel. They're ruining everything for us."

1978 Spring, Collins Reynolds, editor, The Bridge, volume 3, number 1, Center for Research and Education, page 31:

Two males and a female from Northern Ireland had been identified, tracked and 'slotted'.

2012, Davy Thompson, Uniforms and Boats, page 59:

They fired into the air on automatic and I thought, here we go, all I need is for one of these rounds to come down and slot me through the head.

2013, Andy McNab, Bravo Two Zero: The 20th Anniversary Edition, page 184:

(slang, British, Rhodesia, sometimes elsewhere in the Commonwealth) To kill.


slot

From Middle English slot, from Middle Low German slot or Middle Dutch slot, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *slot, from Proto-Germanic *slutą, related to the verb *sleutaną (“to lock”). Cognate with Dutch slot, German Schloss (“door-bolt”).
The verb is probably from Middle Dutch sluten (“to close, to lock”) (Modern Dutch sluiten (“to close”)).

der

to slot a door

(obsolete, transitive, UK, dialectal) To shut with violence; to slam.


hundredweight

en-noun

hundredweight (plural hundredweight or hundredweights)

hundredweight (plural)
hundredweights (plural)

→ Middle Bengali: *হন্দর্দ (*hondord)

Bengali: হন্দর (hondor)

The hundredweight of 112 avoirdupois lbs. becomes general in the period before me, and is employed for the commoner kinds of materials.

1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume IV, page 209:

A measure of weight containing a hundred pounds, variously understood as

(UK, chiefly historical) A unit of measurement containing 112 avoirdupois pounds (eight stone or about 50.8 kg).


firkin

From Middle Dutch *vierdekijn, diminutive of vierde (“fourth”), from vier (“four”); equivalent to fourth + -kin.

23 Hen. VIII, cap. 4... The barrel of beer is to hold 36 gallons, the kilderkin 18 gallons the firkin 9. But the barrel, kilderkin, and firkin of ale are to contain 32, 16, and 8 gallons.

1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 205:

But for his other guests he let bear in the massy cups of silver, and the great eared wine jars holding two firkins apiece, and he let pour forth to the Witches and the Foliots, and they drank the cup of memory unto King Gorice XI., slain that day by the hand of Goldry Bluszco.

1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, London: Jonathan Cape, page 31:

Barrels came in firkins, nine gallons; kilderkins, eighteen gallons; halves, twenty-seven gallons; barrels, thirty-six gallons and hogsheads, fifty-four.

1987, Keith Dunstan, The Amber Nectar, Ringwood: Vicking O'Neil, page 81:

(British) A varying measure of capacity, usually being a quarter of a barrel; specifically, a measure equal to nine imperial gallons.


rubbish

en-adj

rubbish (comparative more rubbish or rubbisher, superlative most rubbish or rubbishest)

more rubbish (comparative)
rubbisher (comparative)
most rubbish (superlative)
rubbishest (superlative)

Inherited from Middle English robous (“rubbish, building rubble”), further origin uncertain; possibly from Anglo-Norman rubous, rubouse, rubbouse (“refuse, waste material; building rubble”), and compare Anglo-Latin rebbussa, robousa, robusium, robusum, rubisum, rubusa, rubusium (although the Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Latin words may be derived from the English word instead of the other way around, as there are no known Old French cognates of the word). The English word may be related to rubble, though the connection is unclear. Possibly derived ultimately from Old Norse rubba (“to huddle, crowd together, heap up", also possibly "to rub, scrape”), from Proto-Germanic *rubbōną (“to rub, scrape”). Compare Swedish rubba (“to move, displace, dislodge, upset”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

This has been a rubbish day, and it’s about to get worse: my mother-in-law is coming to stay.

Disk interfaces have been around since the year dot, as people soon realised that the microdrive was unreliable, unstable and generally rubbish for the storage of anything, useless except as a rather small beermat.

1989 June, Phil Snout [pseudonym; Phil South], “Rage Hard”, in Matt Bielby, editor, Your Sinclair, number 42, London: Dennis Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 82, column 1:

A-level students will study Russell Brand's views on drugs and Caitlin Moran's Twitter feed alongside more conventional literature in a new A-level that was immediately denounced as "rubbish" by sources at the Department for Education.

2014 May 6, Richard Adams, “English A-level with Russell Brand and Dizzee Rascal on reading list under fire”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) Exceedingly bad; awful.


rubbish

en-verb

rubbish (third-person singular simple present rubbishes, present participle rubbishing, simple past and past participle rubbished)

rubbishes (present singular third-person)
rubbishing (participle present)
rubbished (participle past)
rubbished (past)

In my judgment, it is not Christian—I think that is the proper way to put it—to rubbish the leaders of our trade union movements, both employers' and workers'. [...] The employers are quite right in rubbishing this section. The recently retired Chief Ombudsman rubbished it. The insurance guild, not exactly known as a militant trade union until recently, has rubbished it. Twenty-nine leaders in our community have rubbished it.

1977 August 17, A[rthur] J[ames] Faulkner, “Human Rights Commission Bill”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): Third Session, Thirty-eighth Parliament (House of Representatives), volume 412, Wellington: E. C. Keating, government printer, published 1978, →OCLC, pages 2307–2308:

We're messing around at work, the three of us, getting ready to go home and rubbishing each other's five best side one track ones of all time [...]

1995, Nick Hornby, chapter 13, in High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 122:

Oh, there is fuel enough for the memoirs, even if Marion's eyes glaze over, periodically, during tea or one of Corrie's rather awful lunches [...]. The names flow forth, and are rubbished or extolled, [...]

2011, Penelope Lively, chapter 1, in How It All Began, London: Fig Tree, Penguin Books, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2012, →ISBN, page 11:

'It's the first real acting job I've had and he completely rubbishes it. My career will be over before it even starts.' / 'I wouldn't take it too personally,' Shelley said as she reloaded the café dishwasher. 'Bryn Dwyer rubbishes just about everything. [...']

2012, Melanie Milburne, chapter 1, in The Virgin’s Price, London: Mill & Boon Sexy, →ISBN:

Such irresponsible comments seem to me clearly an attempt for political reasons to rubbish a past that was of a far better quality than anything that exists today.

2020 May 20, Barry Doe, “McLoughlin unfair with opinion of late-BR rail”, in Rail, page 65:

Delia's Complete Cookery Course is still in print more than 40 years since its first publication. “Everybody did rubbish it,” she says.

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

(transitive, chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) To criticize, to denigrate, to denounce, to disparage.

haukkua

to criticize, denigrate — see also criticize, denigrate


windle

The modus operandi somewhat recalls the stratagem of Gideon, for the birds—chiefly thrushes, blackbirds, fieldfares, redwings (locally "windles"), and starlings (smaller birds being disregarded)—terrified by the noise, and dazed by the lantern glare, suffered themselves to be taken by the hand, or, if roosting aloft, as was the case on still nights, to be knocked down with the poles which the lads carried.

1908, W. F. Rose, edited by William White, Notes and queries, page 48:


tush

(UK, obsolete slang) Clipping of tusheroon, itself an alternative form of tosheroon.


demob

demob (third-person singular simple present demobs, present participle demobbing, simple past and past participle demobbed)

demobs (present singular third-person)
demobbing (participle present)
demobbed (participle past)
demobbed (past)

When Lil’s husband got demobbed, I said— / I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself, / Hurry up please its time / Now Albert’s coming back, make yourself a bit smart. […] think of poor Albert, / Hes been in the army four years, […]

1922 October, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Part II. A Game of Chess.”, in The Waste Land, 1st book edition, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, published December 1922, →OCLC, page 22:

(British) To demobilize; to release someone from military service.


demob

en-noun

demob (countable and uncountable, plural demobs)

[…] word was, some men were getting their demob quicker than others.

2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 37, in Small Island, London: Review, page 365:

(UK) Demobilization; release from military service.


handbag

en-verb

handbag (third-person singular simple present handbags, present participle handbagging, simple past and past participle handbagged)

handbags (present singular third-person)
handbagging (participle present)
handbagged (participle past)
handbagged (past)

From hand + bag. The music genre is named from women dancing around a pile of their handbags in nightclubs. The verb is a reference to Margaret Thatcher's handbag.

‘Apparently Birt happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time on Sunday afternoon. Virginia saw him and handbagged him. She really was very cross.’

1995, Nicholas Jones, Soundbites and Spin Doctors, London: Cassell, →ISBN, page 202:

My favourite part of the whole day was being handbagged by a reader who was quivering with rage and said, ‘You've changed everything!’ and complained about everything, even how easy the crossword was, as Dower filmed every foam-flecked word.

2010, Rachel Johnson, A Diary of the Lady, London: Fig Tree, →ISBN, page 168:

(British, transitive, humorous) To attack verbally or subject to criticism (typically used of a woman).


mong

(British, Ireland, slang, offensive, derogatory, dated) A person with Down's syndrome.

Can't you see you don't belong / You're a stupid little fucking mong

2016 May 5, “Thinking He's Hard (Little T Reply)”, performed by Soph Aspin:

(British, Ireland, slang, offensive, derogatory) A stupid person.


aerofoil

/ˈɛəɹ.əˌfɔɪl/

We may look upon this figure as representing in section a theoretical wing-form, or aerofoil

1907, Aerodynamics, constituting the first volume of a complete work on aerial flight, page 163:


range

Japanese: レンジ (renji)

Korean: 레인지 (reinji)

From Middle English rengen, from Old French rengier (“to range, to rank, to order,”), from the noun renc, reng, ranc, rang (“a rank, row”), from Frankish *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“ring, circle, curve”). Doublet of ring.

der

(obsolete, UK, dialect) A bolting sieve to sift meal.


shite

en-noun

shite (usually uncountable, plural shites)

From the Middle English shite, schite, scīte (“excrement”), cognate with Middle Low German schīte, Middle High German schīze, Dutch schijt. Compare Middle English shitel, scitel, scytel (“dung, excrement”), from Old English sċitel. More at shit. Doublet of scheisse.

That’s a load of shite.

Look at all this shite.

(chiefly UK, Ireland, vulgar) Shit; trash; rubbish; nonsense

He's a useless shite.

(chiefly UK, Ireland, vulgar, derogatory, uncommon) A foolish or deceitful person.


shite

en-adj

shite (comparative more shite, superlative most shite)

more shite (comparative)
most shite (superlative)

The film was utter shite.

(chiefly UK, Ireland, vulgar) Bad; awful; shit.


shite

Shite! I left my wallet at home.

(chiefly UK, Ireland, vulgar) An expression of annoyance or dismay.


shite

en-verb

shite (third-person singular simple present shites, present participle shiting, simple past shited or shit or shat, past participle shited or shitten)

shites (present singular third-person)
shiting (participle present)
shited (past)
shit (past)
shat (past)
shited (participle past)
shitten (participle past)

From Middle English schiten, from Old English sċītan (“to defecate, shit”), from Proto-West Germanic *skītan, from Proto-Germanic *skītaną (“to defecate”), from Proto-Indo-European *sḱeyd-, *skeyt- (“to vomit, retch, shit”, literally “to shed”). Cognate with Dutch schijten (“to shit”), German scheißen (“to shit”), Swedish skita (“to shit”), Irish sceith, sgeith (“act of spewing, vomiting, shedding”), Albanian shqit (“to tear, separate”).

inh

[…] it still softened my heart to see a man hurt so badly he sobbed and shited on himself.

2004, Robert Morgan, Brave enemies, page 38:

He would probably have a head full of locks. Who has time to be pretty when people are hurting? Crying. Shiting on themselves trying to beat heroin.

2007, Talonie Starr, Growth Manifesto, page 173:

I have eaten a dishful of curds,
And I have shitten your mouth full of turds.

2011, Douglas Bruster, Eric Rasmussen, Everyman and Mankind:

(UK, chiefly Scotland, Ireland, vulgar) To defecate.


bushel

From Middle English busshel, from Old French boissel, from boisse, a grain measure based on Gaulish *bostyā (“handful”), from Proto-Celtic *bostā (“palm, fist”) (compare Breton boz (“hollow of the hand”), Old Irish bas), from Proto-Indo-European *gwost-, *gwosdʰ- (“branch”).

(UK) The iron lining in the nave of a wheel.


blackberry

From Middle English blakberie, blakeberie (“brambleberry”), from Old English blacu berġe, blæcberġe (attested in plural blaca berġan, equivalent to black + berry.

absolute state like in Syriac but not attested

ܦܛܠ (pṭal) (indeclinable) (neither means blackberry reliably but also thornbush, bramble. briar)

פטל (*pṭal) (indeclinable) (neither means blackberry reliably but also thornbush, bramble. briar)


mild

From Middle English milde, from Old English milde (“mild”), from Proto-Germanic *mildijaz (“mild”), from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to beat, pound, grind”).
Cognate with Scots mild, myld (“mild”), Saterland Frisian milde (“mild”), West Frisian myld (“mild”), Dutch mild (“mild”), Low German milde (“mild”), German mild (“mild”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bokmål mild (“mild”), Icelandic mildur (“mild”), Latin mollis (“soft, gentle”), Lithuanian malonus (“pleasing, pleasant, kind”), Old Norse mildr.

cog

'Let me get this for the lady,' I said to Fange, who was pulling her a pint of mild.

1998, Robert Rankin, The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag, page 112:

But Stella shouldn't really be drunk in pints the same way our dads used to drink bitter or mild that was effectively half as strong.

2011, Pete Brown, Three Sheets to the Wind:

(British) A relatively low-gravity beer, often with a dark colour; mild ale


slope

en-verb

slope (third-person singular simple present slopes, present participle sloping, simple past and past participle sloped)

slopes (present singular third-person)
sloping (participle present)
sloped (participle past)
sloped (past)

I sloped in through the back door, hoping my boss wouldn't see me.

She watched him disappear out of sight, before sloping back to her room.

2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(UK, colloquial, usually followed by a preposition) To try to move surreptitiously.


ACAS

(British) Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service


limpet

From Middle English lempet, from Old English lempedu (“lamprey”), borrowed from Medieval Latin lampreda, alteration of Late Latin lampetra (“lamprey”), whose further origin is unknown, though is traditionally thought to derive from lambō (“I lick, lap”) + petra (“stone, rock”). Doublet of lamprey, which came through Old French.

He stuck to me like a limpet all day!

(British) Someone clingy or dependent; someone disregarding or ignorant of another's personal space.


thack

thack (third-person singular simple present thacks, present participle thacking, simple past and past participle thacked)

thacks (present singular third-person)
thacking (participle present)
thacked (participle past)
thacked (past)

From Middle English thakken (“to stroke”), from Old English þaccian (“to touch gently, stroke, tap”), from Proto-West Germanic *þakwōn, from Proto-Germanic *þakwōną (“to touch lightly”), from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch”).
Cognate with Old Dutch þakolōn (“to stroke”), Old Norse þykkr (“a thwack, thump, blow”), Icelandic þjökka, þjaka (“to thwack, thump, beat”), Norwegian tjåka (“to strike, beat”), Latin tangō (“touch”). More at thwack, tangent.

cog

(transitive, obsolete except British, dialectal) To strike or thump (someone or something); to thwack.


smash

en-noun

smash (countable and uncountable, plural smashes)

→ Czech: smeč

→ Serbo-Croatian: smeč

→ Turkish: smaç

From a blend of smack + mash. Compare Swedish smask (“to smack with the lips”), dialectal Swedish smaska (“to smack, kiss”), Danish smaske (“to smack with the lips”), Low German smaksen (“to smack with the lips, kiss”).

cog

The driver and two passengers were badly injured in the smash.

(UK, Ireland, colloquial) A traffic collision.


smash

en-verb

smash (third-person singular simple present smashes, present participle smashing, simple past and past participle smashed)

smashes (present singular third-person)
smashing (participle present)
smashed (participle past)
smashed (past)

→ Catalan: esmaixar

(UK, Ireland, slang, obsolete) To pass counterfeit money.


merkin

Representing an aphetic pronunciation of American.

For all you non-'merkins: Most 'merkins are idiots, just like the residents of your country. See, most people are idiots. We just have idiots with a higher average income than you do, so they can afford to be better cretins.

1998 January 15, Vasilisha, “Internet Oracularities Digest #973”, in rec.humor.oracle.d (Usenet):

It is, unfortunately, an all-to-common assumption -- sort of like assuming that all posters here are 'merkins. Perhaps it's best to assume that all posters are vertebrates (I was going to type primates, but one of my neutered cats sent a post awhile^([sic]) back).

2000 August 2, John Monrad, “One group's thoughts”, in talk.origins (Usenet):

There is a brand of cheap, nasty aftershave over in Britain caller Que. About two quid a bottle and it's foul. Buy some and fly to Noo Yawk. Then sell it to a Murkin for forty bucks. Tell them it is Calvin Klein's British version.

2000 December 29, RampRat, “making money from stupid Murkins”, in alt.nuke.the.british (Usenet):

Well he did say he doesn't follow the sport so it is understandable that he isn't aware of the four year rotation (soon to be changed to 2 years if FIFA (the internatinal football body for you unknowing merkins) have their way). I couldn't tell you sod all about the 'World' Series as I don't follow Baseball.

2002 June 23, John of Aix, “Where Did The Merkin Footballers Go?”, in alt.nuke.the.usa (Usenet):

(British, slang, derogatory) An American.


boiler

→ Dutch: boiler

→ Japanese: ボイラー (boirā)

(UK, Australia, slang, derogatory) An old woman.


zoot suit

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

Zoot may be a Caló slang pronunciation of suit, thus making the term a tautology and reduplication.

Before his nap, Kaplan had put on all his clothes, including the wool-lined waterproof double-zippered survival suit nicknamed the zoot suit.

2019, Ellin Bessner, Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II:

(UK, military, slang) Synonym of goon suit (“waterproof rubber suit for pilots”)


tot

Borrowed from Scots tot, a shortened form of totum (“small child; tot”), of uncertain origin, perhaps shortened from totter (“to move in an unsteady way”),
Compare tottle, also Old Norse tottr (“name of a dwarf”), Swedish tutte (“small child”), Danish tommeltot (“little child”).

Whoe answeared like a toute, or a maddman, as he was, that he was for the Kinge.

a. 1660, A Contemporary History Of Affairs In Ireland:

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A foolish fellow.


tot

tot (third-person singular simple present tots, present participle totting, simple past and past participle totted)

tots (present singular third-person)
totting (participle present)
totted (participle past)
totted (past)

a totted debt

(UK, historical) To mark (a debt) with the word tot (Latin for "so much"), indicating that it was good or collectible for the amount specified.


hogshead

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

From Late Middle English hogshead, hagyshed, hogeyshed, hoggesyde, hokkeshed, Middle English hoggeshed, hogges-hed, hogeshed, hoggeshede, hoggesheed, hoggesheudes, hoggesheved, hoggishede, hoggisheed, hoggyssehed, hogyshed, hoogeshed (“measure of liquid capacity equivalent to about 63 gallons; large barrel or cask”, literally “hog’s head”), from hog, hogge (“swine, especially a castrated male swine”) + hed (“animal or human head”), equivalent to hog + 's + head. The connection between the cask and the head of a hog is uncertain, but may refer to the shape of the cask. The word has often been borrowed into other languages as “ox-head”.

[...] their vessels for use are made some of clay, of which sort some are so great as that they will containe more then one hogshead of water.

1632, attributed to J. Day, A Pvblication of Gviana’s Plantation: […], London: Printed by William Iones for Thomas Paine, […], →OCLC, page 15:

The best Veſſel for Conveyance, (if you carry above 20 Miles) is, a great Tun that holds five Hogſheads; but if no more than 10, 15, or 20 Miles, ordinary Hogſheads will do well enough. I know by Experience you may ſafely carry 300 Carps, ſix and ſeven Inches long, in one Hogſhead; but from ſeven to a Foot, not ſo many by a fourth Part.

1713, [Roger North], “Of Fishing for Carriage”, in A Discourse of Fish and Fish-ponds, […], London: Printed for E[dmund] Curll, […], →OCLC, page 62:

Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31½ gallons, a rundlet 18½ gallons.

1882, James E[dwin] Thorold Rogers, “Weights and Measures”, in A History of Agriculture and Prices in England […], volumes IV (1401–1582), Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 205:

Barrels came in firkins, nine gallons; kilderkins, eighteen gallons; halves, twenty-seven gallons; barrels, thirty-six gallons and hogsheads, fifty-four.

1987, Keith Dunstan, The Amber Nectar, Ringwood: Vicking O'Neil, page 81:

(British) A cask of a certain size; its volume used as a measure of capacity for liquids, containing 63 wine gallons, or about 52+¹⁄₂ imperial gallons (a half pipe).


foyer

Borrowed from French foyer (“hearth, lobby”), in turn from Vulgar Latin *focārium, from Late Latin focārius, from Latin focus (“hearth”). Cognate with Spanish hogar (“home”).

(UK) A hostel offering accommodation and work opportunities to homeless young people.


greeve

From Middle English gryve, grayve, from Old Norse greifi (“a count, earl, steward”), akin to Swedish and Danish greve (“a count, earl”), Old English ġerēfa (“reeve”). More at reeve.


cider

en-noun

cider (countable and uncountable, plural ciders)

→ Bulgarian: са́йдер (sájder)

→ Finnish: siideri

→ Jersey Dutch: sâiter

→ Japanese: サイダー (saidā)

→ Korean: 사이다 (saida)

[ˈsʌɪ̯ɾə(ɹ)]

From Middle English sider, cidre, sidre, from Old French cisdre, sidre (“beverage made from fermented apples”), from Medieval Latin sīcera, from Ancient Greek σίκερα (síkera, “fermented liquor, strong drink”), from Hebrew שֵׁכָר (šēḵār, “liquor”). Doublet of cyser. Displaced native English apple wine.

der

Apfelsaft (may be specified as trüber Apfelsaft)

са́йдер

non-alcoholic sparkling beverage (apple)

サイダー

non-alcoholic sparkling beverage (lemon-lime)

The procedures for cyser are identical to cider with a notable exception: honey is a much more complex sugar than cane or corn sugars, meaning honey takes a long time to clear and an even longer time (at least six months) to ferment out[…]

1995, Paul Correnty, The Art of Cidermaking, Brewers Publications:

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada) An alcoholic, often sparkling (carbonated) beverage made from fermented apples; hard cider; apple cider.


bin

en-verb

bin (third-person singular simple present bins, present participle binning, simple past and past participle binned)

bins (present singular third-person)
binning (participle present)
binned (participle past)
binned (past)

From Middle English bynne, from Old English binn (“crib, manger”), from Proto-West Germanic *binnu, *binnā, from Gaulish benna (“four-wheeled cart; caisson”) (compare Old Irish buinne, Welsh ben (“cart”), Old Breton benn (“caisson”)). Cognate with West Frisian bin (“wicker basket”), Middle Dutch benne (“basket”), whence modern Dutch ben (“wicker basket”), German Benne (“wheelbarrow”).

der

He put the bank statement in the shoebox marked "Bank Statements" and binned the rest.

2008, Tom Holt, Falling Sideways, Orbit books,, →ISBN, page 28:

(chiefly British, informal) To dispose of (something) by putting it into a bin, or as if putting it into a bin.

dumpen

informal: dispose of in a bin or as if in a bin

This splendid eloquence was promptly binned by the pope, […]

2002, Christopher Harvie, Scotland: A Short History, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 59:

The CC [Co-ordinating Centre] had long since binned the idea of catching the regular shuttle service, […]

2005, Ian Oliver, War and peace in the Balkans: the diplomacy of conflict in the former Yugoslavia, I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 238:

NR also wants more effort made to bin out-of-date 1970s technology, but only replacing it with equipment that meets customer needs, rather than high-tech kit just for the sake of it.

2021 September 22, Howard Johnston, “NR: stop firefighting and plan for long-term progress”, in RAIL, number 940, page 11:

(British, informal) To throw away, reject, give up.


hurdle

→ Japanese: ハードル (hādoru)

From Middle English hurdel, hirdel, herdel, hyrdel, from Old English hyrdel (“frame of intertwined twigs used as a temporary barrier”), diminutive of *hyrd, from Proto-Germanic *hurdiz, from Pre-Germanic *kr̥h₂tis, from Proto-Indo-European *kreh₂-. Cognate with Dutch horde, German Hürde.

inh

In treason, the corporal punishment is by drawing on hurdle from the place of the prison to the place of execution, and by hanging and being cut down alive, bowelling, and quartering: and in women by burning.

1550, Francis Bacon, “A Preparation Toward the Union of Laws”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, Douglas Denon Heath, editors, The Works of Francis Bacon, volume VII, London: Longman, Green & Co., page 735:

Such a crew! Ah! many a wretch has rid on hurdles who has done less mischief than these utterers of forged Tales, coiners of Scandal, and clippers of Reputation.

1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, II.i:

Hurdles, with four, five, six wretches convicted of counterfeiting or mutilating the money of the realm, were dragged month after month up Holborn Hill. On one morning seven men were hanged and a woman burned for clipping

1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume IV, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

Behind flock'd wrangling up a piteous crew, / Greeted of none, disfeatur'd and forlorn— / Cowards, who were in sloughs interr'd alive: / And round them still the wattled hurdles hung / Wherewith they stamp'd them down, and trod them deep, / To hide their shameful memory from men.

1855, Matthew Arnold, Balder Dead, Part II, in The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840-1867, Oxford University Press, 1909, pp. 250-51, https://archive.org/details/cu31924013206499

(UK, historical) A sled or crate on which criminals were drawn to the place of execution.


through

From Middle English thrugh, thruch, thruh, metathetic variants of thurgh, thurh, from Old English þurh, from Proto-Germanic *þurhw (“through”), from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂kʷe, suffixed zero-grade from *terh₂- (“to pass through”) + *-kʷe (“and”). Cognate with Scots throch (“through”), West Frisian troch (“through”), German durch (“through”), Dutch door (“through”), Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌷 (þairh, “through”), Latin trans (“across, over, through”), Albanian tërthor (“through, around”), Welsh tra (“through”). See also thorough.

The Toronto Raptors are through to the NBA Finals for the first time in their history.

(chiefly UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, rare in Canada) (usually followed by "to") to achieve success in an exam, competition, etc. and progress to the next stage or a higher level.


grazier

/ˈɡɹeɪʒə(ɹ)/

Graziers on the tablelands are in dire straits because they do not have enough winter feed and will have to keep reducing stock.

(UK, historical) One who grazes cattle and/or sheep on a rural property.


scab

en-verb

scab (third-person singular simple present scabs, present participle scabbing, simple past and past participle scabbed)

scabs (present singular third-person)
scabbing (participle present)
scabbed (participle past)
scabbed (past)

From Middle English scabb, scabbe (also as shabbe, schabbe > English shab), from Old English sċeabb and Old Norse skabb, both from Proto-Germanic *skabbaz (“scab, scabies”), from Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- (“to cut, split, carve, shape”). Doublet of shab. Cognate with German Schabe (“scabies”), Danish skab (“scab, scabies”), Swedish skabb (“scab, scabies”), Latin scabies (“scab, itch, mange”). Related also to Old English scafan (“to scrape, shave”), Latin scabere (“to scratch”), English shabby.

der

I scabbed some money off a friend.

2004, Niven Govinden, We are the New Romantics, Bloomsbury Publishing, UK, page 143,
Finding a spot in a covered seating area that was more bus shelter than tourist-friendly, I unravelled a mother of a joint I′d scabbed off the garçon.

2006, Linda Jaivin, The Infernal Optimist, 2010, HarperCollins Australia, unnumbered page,
I′d already used up me mobile credit. I was using a normal phone card, what I got from Hamid, what got it from a church lady what helped the refugees. I didn′t like scabbing from the asylums, but they did get a lotta phone cards.

I′ve told Fred we can see a movie this weekend, but that just seems like a money-wasting activity. And I can′t keep scabbing off my best friend.

2010, Fiona Wood, Six Impossible Things, page 113:

(transitive, UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) To beg (for), to cadge or bum.


underground

/ˌʌndəˈɡɹaʊnd/

/ˌʌndɚˈɡɹaʊnd/

From Middle English undergrounde (adverb), equivalent to under + ground or under- + ground. Compare Dutch ondergrond, ondergronds, German Untergrund, Danish undergrunds.

London Underground

(chiefly British) Synonym of subway: a railway that is under the ground.


chorus

en-noun

chorus (plural choruses or (dated) chorusses or (rare) chori)

choruses (plural)
chorusses (dated plural)
chori (plural rare)

The noun is borrowed from Medieval Latin chorus (“church choir”), Latin chorus (“group of dancers and singers; dance”), from Ancient Greek χορός (khorós, “group of dancers and singers, choir, chorus; dance accompanied by song; round dance”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to encircle, enclose”) or *ǵʰoros. Doublet of choir and hora.
The plural form chori is from Latin chorī, from Ancient Greek χοροί (khoroí).
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

Enter Chorus. / Cut is the branch that might haue growne ful ſtraight, / And burned is Apolloes Laurel bough, / That ſometime grew within this learned man: […]

1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature [F3], recto:

Ya're as good as a Chorus my lord.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

Palinode. / Amo[rphus]. From ſpaniſh ſhrugs, french faces, ſmirks, irps, and all affected humours: / Chorvs. Good Mercvry defend vs.

1600 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Cynthias Reuels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act V, scene xi, page 267:

Enter Time, the Chorus. [stage direction]

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 289, column 2:

(by extension, chiefly British, theater, historical) An actor who reads the prologue and epilogue of a play, and sometimes also acts as a commentator or narrator; also, a portion of a play read by this actor.


cure

The mud was thick — the crossing clean — / A well dressed man, genteel of mien — / Walked through the first (he might be poor), / The sweeper muttered, "He's a Cure."

1855, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch (volumes 29-32, page 201)

(UK, slang, obsolete) An eccentric person.


nutter

From Middle English nutter, notere, equivalent to nut + -er.

That bird who's hanging' out with you is mad like cat piss / Like bread and jam, or a knife going with butter / Face it son, your missus is a nutter!

2005, “Your Missus Is A Nutter”, performed by Goldie Lookin Chain:

When I asked Mr Robinson why he'd made his own attempts, he said, 'It gets to be a bug. And I suppose I'm a nutter.'

2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 268:

(UK, Ireland, sometimes derogatory, informal) An eccentric, insane, crazy or reckless person.

kaheli

an eccentric, insane, crazy or reckless person


plumber

→ Irish: pluiméir

→ Welsh: plymer

From Middle English plumber, from Old French plummier (French plombier); from Latin plumbārius, from plumbum (“lead or lead shot”).

loodgieter

one who fits, etc, pipes for water, gas or drainage

(British, informal) In the Royal Navy, an apprentice, a boy aged 16 to 18, who is trained in technical skills at the Dockyard Schools to become an artificer.


reg

What's your reg and where are you parked?

registration number
registration number#English

(informal, UK) Short for registration number.

registration
Short for registration number.


rest

From Middle English reste, from Old French reste, from Old French rester (“to remain”), from Latin restō (“to stay back, stay behind”), from re- + stō (“to stand”). Replaced native Middle English lave (“rest, remainder”) (from Old English lāf (“remnant, remainder”)).

(UK, finance) A surplus held as a reserved fund by a bank to equalize its dividends, etc.; in the Bank of England, the balance of assets above liabilities.


frame

→ Korean: 프레임 (peureim)

→ Swahili: fremu

From Middle English frame (“profit, benefit, advantage; a structure composed according to a plan”), from the verb (above) and also from Old Norse frami (“advantage, fame, bravery, efficiency, privilege, honor”); and frame (“a framework or structure of any kind”) which is of uncertain origin. The latter is usually regarded as a derivative of former; however, compare the rare Anglo-Norman and Old French frame, fraine (“frame, framework”), itself of uncertain origin, which might be a borrowing from the English, from the Norse, or even possibly ultimately from Frankish *hramu (“frame”) related to Dutch raam (“window frame”).

der

a stocking frame; a lace frame; a spinning frame

(engineering, dated, chiefly UK) Any of certain machines built upon or within framework.


yelm

The noun is derived from Middle English yelm, from Old English ġelm (Anglia), ġilm (“bunch or handful (of plant stems)”), from Proto-West Germanic *galmi (“bundle or handful of plants”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“to flourish; green, yellow”) or *gʰel- (“to cut”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

inh

After the leaves had been removed, as many turnips were thrown together as would lie upon a circle four yards in diameter: yealms of wheat-straw were made, similar to such as are used for thatching, but longer, thicker, and formed with less precision: four tall stakes were then driven into the earth, each a yard from the heap, so as to form a square, each side of which would measure six yards. Two courses of yealms were next placed on the earth, so as to enclose the quadrangle indicated by the stakes; […]

1822 April 27, John Cowley, William Staines, “L.—On Preserving Turnips, &c. during the Winter.”, in Thomas Gill, editor, The Technical Repository, Containing Practical Information on Subjects Connected with Discoveries and Improvements in the Useful Arts, volume III, London: Printed by R. Watts, for the proprietors; published by T[homas] Cadell, […], published 1823, →OCLC, page 253:

Another useful implement of Mr. Williams' is his Patent Horse-rake. […] [A] ball working with the leverage of a handle keeps the teeth at their work, and is connected with the bar running underneath by a spring, and cannot lose the yealm.

1852 December 11, “The Smithfield Club Show—Agricultural Implements”, in R[ichard] A[rchibald] Brooman, editors, The Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette, volume LVII, number 1531, London: Robertson, Brooman, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 467, column 1:

The carts take them [mangold or mangelwurzel] to the place for graving, and the whole is so regulated that all are kept going. The grave is usually set out about eight or nine feet in width, and the slant upwards finishes in a point at about five to six feet in height. Straw or stubble is drawn out in "haulms" or "yealms" as for thatching, and with these the grave is securely thatched and made safe by spits of earth being thrown upon the sides.

1866, “a practical farmer” [pseudonym], “The Harvesting of the Mangold Crop”, in The British Farmer’s Magazine, volume XL (New Series), number CXXI, London: Rogerson and Tuxford, […], →OCLC, page 499, column 2:

He [the thatcher] is attended by a man to carry up the ‘yelms,’ […]

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Hamlet—Cottage Astrology—Ghost Lore—Herbs—The Waggon and Its Crew—Stiles—The Trysting-place—The Thatcher—Smugglers—Ague”, in Wild Life in a Southern County […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 124:

The thatcher then laid the ‘yelms’, or bunches of drawn straw, on the laths, beginning at the eaves and working up towards the ridge.

1952, L[ouis] F[rancis] Salzman, “Thatch, Tiles, Slates, Vanes”, in Building in England down to 1540: A Documentary History, revised edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press by Vivian Ridler […], published 1967, →OCLC, page 224:

(UK, dialectal) A bundle of straw laid out straight, chiefly to be used for thatching; a helm.


yelm

en-verb

yelm (third-person singular simple present yelms, present participle yelming, simple past and past participle yelmed)

yelms (present singular third-person)
yelming (participle present)
yelmed (participle past)
yelmed (past)

Horses thrive particularly well upon it [furze], and are exceedingly lively and hearty in their work; but I have usually given it to them mixed with chaff, containing one part hay, and two parts straw, yelmed together, and cut by a chaff-cutter.

1802 September, O. [pseudonym], “On the Cultivation of Furze”, in The Commercial and Agricultural Magazine, volume VII, number XXXVIII, London: […] Vaughan Griffiths, […], →OCLC, page 201:

The straw, when delivered from the threshing machine, […] then comes down an inclined rack, nearly yelmed and ready for cutting into chaff. Three men yelm the straw, mixing it with a small quantity of green fodder, such as rye or tares.

1860 July 17, Samuel Jonas, “Letter from Mr. Jonas, Communicating a Plan for Cutting and Storing Straw Chaff to the Best Advantage”, in Transactions of the State Agricultural Society of Michigan; with Reports of County Agricultural Societies, for the Year 1859, volume XI, Lansing, Mich.: John A. Kerr & Co., […], published 1861, →OCLC, page 290:

MAYNARD, Robert, engineer,[…]—"Improvements in portable chaff-cutting machinery." Apparatus for straightening or "yealming" the straw, and additional means for bringing the straw forward to the knives.

1875 March 10, Office of the Commissioners of Patents, Chronological and Descriptive Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted, Containing the Abridgements of Provisional and Complete Specifications Delivered from March 4 to March 10, 1875, London: […] George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, […] [f]or Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, published 5 November 1875, →OCLC, page 187:

[T]wo or three women are busy ‘yelming’—i.e., separating the straw, selecting the longest and laying it level and parallel, damping it with water, and preparing it for the yokes.

We must now call attention to a patent yealming machine by Mr. [Robert] Maynard, and when attached to his combined chaff engine was one of the most attractive novelties in the Agricultural Hall. In using it, a man pitches the hay or straw on to an elevating endless rake, which draws up the material to the yealming apparatus which straightens it for the knife of the chaff-cutter. It is a well-known fact that unless the straw is properly yealmed by hand before it goes into the feeding box a large portion of it goes in sideways and passes out of the engine as cavings. Maynard's mechanical yealming machine does the work better and more regularly than is done by hand, so that there is a gain apart from the great saving of manual labour, consequently the general advantage is immense, because farmers see the practical benefit of the combination.

1884 January 17, “Home Farm: New and Improved Agricultural Machinery”, in Robert Hogg, editor, The Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener, and Home Farmer. A Chronicle of Country Pursuits and Country Life, including Bee-keeping, volume VIII (Third Series), London: [Robert Hogg], →OCLC, page 34, column 1:

The preparation of straw for thatch, which was known as ‘yelming’, consisted in damping it and ‘drawing’ it with a thatching-fork, or great comb, so as to get the straws parallel.

(transitive, intransitive, UK, dialectal) To choose and lay out (straw) straight to be used for animal fodder or thatching; to helm.


TIM

The service was originally reached in major cities by dialling the letters TIM (846) on a dial telephone.

(British) A nickname for the speaking clock.


Tim

(slang, derogatory, UK, Ireland) A Catholic.


electric fire

[A] skinny blonde of about twenty sitting in an armchair by an electric fire reading a true romance magazine.

1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 69:

An electric fire came next, followed by an umbrella and then a colander.

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 67:

He was watching television when I got in. The curtains were drawn, and he had dug out an old half-broken electric fire; it was extremely hot.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 2:

(UK, Ireland) A fire, stove or heater powered by electricity.


chimney

en-noun

chimney (plural chimneys or (archaic) chimnies)

chimneys (plural)
chimnies (archaic plural)

→ Bengali: চিমনি (cimoni)

→ Hindustani:

→ Hindi: चिमनी (cimnī)

→ Urdu: چِمْنی (cimnī)

From Middle English chymeney, chymney, chymne, from Old French cheminee, from Late Latin camīnāta, from Latin camīnus, from Ancient Greek κάμῑνος (kámīnos, “furnace”). Doublet of chimenea.

der

(British) The smokestack of a steam locomotive.


dogsbody

From dog + -s- + body. 1818, British navy slang, originally derogatory reference to unappetizing pease pudding (compare dog's breakfast), as if it were made of mashed dog meat. In 20th century applied to low-ranked sailors, thence menial servants in wider usage.

Who chose this face for me? This dogsbody to rid of vermin.

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

'Cause I, I wanna be anarchy! / No dogsbody!

1976, “Anarchy in the U.K.”, performed by Sex Pistols:

That's just Baldrick, my dogsbody.

1994, Blackadder (television production):

Furthermore, there are still rather backward opinions in our society about the role of a translator. A translator is often regarded as a linguistic dogsbody.

1995, Paul Kussmaul, Training The Translator, John Benjamins Publishing Co, page 146:

(British, Ireland) A person who does menial work, a servant.


palaver

en-noun

palaver (countable and uncountable, plural palavers)

→ Danish: palaver

→ Finnish: palaveri

→ German: Palaver

→ Hungarian: paláver

→ Swedish: palaver

Originally nautical slang, from Portuguese palavra (“word”), from Late Latin parabola (“parable, speech”). The term's use (especially in Africa) mimics the evolution of the word moot. As such, for sense development, see moot. Doublet of parable, parole, and parabola.

doublet

What a palaver!

Not for the first time, he reflected that it was not so much the speeches that strained the nerves as the palaver that went with them.

1985, Justin Richards, Option Lock, page 229:

What's the good of going through all this palaver of giving very small sums to very obscure charities?

1988, Lord Grimond, House of Lords vol 492 col 695

We fill up the bathtub for a proper bath maybe once a month because it is such a palaver. We have a 150 litre pot and a 60 litre pot that we have to fill up and boil on the wood stove which takes hours.

2021 February 22, “Life slows down’: the islander who swapped Shetland for living off-grid in a Norway forest”, in Shetland News:

(British) Mentally draining activity, either physical or fuss.


plough

en-verb

plough (third-person singular simple present ploughs, present participle ploughing, simple past and past participle ploughed)

ploughs (present singular third-person)
ploughing (participle present)
ploughed (participle past)
ploughed (past)

From Middle English plouh, plow, plugh(e), plough(e), plouw, from Old English plōh (“hide of land, ploughland”) and Old Norse plógr (“plough (the implement)”), both from Proto-Germanic *plōgaz, *plōguz (“plough”). Cognate with Scots pleuch, plou, North Frisian plog, West Frisian ploech, Low German Ploog, Dutch ploeg, Russian плуг (plug), German Pflug, Danish plov, Swedish and Norwegian plog, Icelandic plógur. Replaced Old English sulh (“plough, furrow”); see sullow.

der

The good Professor scolded, predicted that they would all be either gulfed or ploughed.

1863, Henry Kingsley, Austin Elliot, page 123:

You see, Miss Dodd, an university examination consists of several items: neglect but one, and Crichton himself would be ploughed; because brilliancy in your other papers is not allowed to count; that is how the most distinguished man of our day got ploughed for Smalls.

I knew one of that lot at Corpus; in fact, we were crammed by the same tutor for "smalls," and both got ploughed.

1895, Roger Pocock, The Rules of the Game:

(UK, university slang, transitive) To fail (a student).


regarder

(chiefly British, archaic) An official responsible for monitoring woodlands and forest areas and reporting to the court of regard.


blast

From Middle English blasten, blesten, from Old English blǣstan (“to blow, blast”), from Proto-West Germanic *blēstijan, from Proto-Germanic *blēstijaną. Possibly related to Middle High German blesten (“to stand out, plop, splash”).

noncog

(chiefly British, informal, mildly blasphemous) Used to show anger or disappointment: damn


kite

The noun is from Middle English kyte, kīte, kete (“a kite endemic to Europe, especially the red kite (Milvus milvus)”), from Old English cȳta (“kite; bittern”), from Proto-West Germanic *kūtijō, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *kūts (“bird of prey”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH-d- (“to cry, screech”). The English word is cognate with Scots kyt, kyte (“kite; bird of prey”), Middle High German kiuzelīn, kützlīn (“owling”) (modern German Kauz (“owl”)). Possibly a doublet of coot.
Sense 3 (“lightweight toy”) is from the fact that it hovers in the air like the bird.
The verb is derived from the noun.

leko

military aviation, slang: aircraft — see also aircraft

leija

sailing, slang: spinnaker — see also spinnaker

Brill (Scophthalmus rhombus) Also known as kite or pearl. Brill reaches a maximum length of 75cm (29½in). It lives in the Eastern Atlantic, from Iceland to Morocco, throughout the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

2010, “Fish and Seafood”, in Helena Caldon, Fiona Corbridge, Mary Scott, Belinda Wilkinson, editors, The Cook’s Book of Ingredients, London: Dorling Kindersley, →ISBN, page 69:

(British, dialectal) The brill (Scophthalmus rhombus), a type of flatfish.


fin

Yiddish language
fin
fin (disambiguation)

From Yiddish פֿינף (finf, “five”). Doublet of five, pimp, and finnuf.

(UK, formerly Australia, slang) a five-pound (£5) note; the sum of five pounds.


backsword

A stick with a basket handle, used in rustic amusements.

One afternoon, as the missionary and I were sitting outside our tents, my attention was attracted towards a group of sepahis engaged under a banyantree, playing the game of backsword […]

(UK, dated)
The game in which the stick is used.


blag

The origin of the noun is unknown. The verb is derived from the noun.

'What's he do, Micky?' / 'Armed blags is what I hear – s'posed to be one or two nice little tucks down to him that he didn't go for. He keeps well active. Someone told me he's putting one together now.[…]'

1977, G[ordon] F[rank] Newman, chapter 4, in Law and Order, St. Albans, Hertfordshire: Granada Publishing, published 1983, →ISBN, page 40:

Through Lenny I had met a character whom I shall call Billy. He was part of a blag team famous for a series of large-scale wage snatches.

1997, Stephen Smith, “Helter Skelter Years”, in Addict: An Incredible True Story with a Fairytale End, [United Kingdom]: Westworld International, →ISBN:

They're turning over any business that couldn't go running back to the Other People, sex shops and massage parlours, doing blags long after they went outta fashion, doing loads of drugs and not giving a fuck about keeping a low profile.

2000 April, J. J. Connolly, “April Fool’s Day 1997: Welcome to the Layer Cake”, in Layer Cake, London: Duck Editions, Duckworth Literary Entertainments, published July 2001, →ISBN, page 6:

Darlin' – I know your old man's keen for you to learn the ropes an' all that, but let's not forget who's running this blag, shall we?

2005, Echo Freer, chapter 1, in Diamond Geezers, London: Hodder Children’s Books, Hodder Headline, →ISBN, page 2:

(British, criminal slang) An armed robbery or robbery involving violence; also, theft.


blag

en-verb

blag (third-person singular simple present blags, present participle blagging, simple past and past participle blagged)

blags (present singular third-person)
blagging (participle present)
blagged (participle past)
blagged (past)

(transitive, British, criminal slang) To obtain (something) through armed robbery or robbery involving violence, or theft; to rob; to steal.