peak organisation

en-noun

peak organisation (plural peak organisations)

But comparisons at peak organisation level are useful as a kind of aggregate data. In addition, such organisations have often given a lead to member unions on the treatment of women, and the position of women unionists in peak organisations may well serve as an example to member unions.

1986, Joni Lovenduski, Women and European Politics: Contemporary Feminism and Public Policy, page 172:

1997, James Elliott, Tourism: Politics and Public Sector Management, Routledge, UK, page 187,
A peak organisation seeks to represent all the companies within that industry. There are several peak organisations in the tourism industry.

2005, Alfred C. Aman, Jr, Globalisation, Democracy, and the Need for a New Administrative Law, Michael Likosky (editor), Privatising Development: Transnational Law, Infrastructure and Human Rights, Brill Academic Publishers, UK, page 289,
Peak organisations are not at all typical in the U.S., but the economic discourse that increasingly dominates much of regulation, and certainly, the raison d′etre for privatisation, narrows the discourse in such a way as to make most groups sound essentially the same. There may be no peak organisation, per se, but the discourse is so similar that this may be a distinction without a difference.

(UK) An organisation which represents an entire sector of industry or the community to the government, often incorporating other organisations in that area.


extract the Michael

en-verb

extract the Michael (third-person singular simple present extracts the Michael, present participle extracting the Michael, simple past and past participle extracted the Michael)

extracts the Michael (present singular third-person)
extracting the Michael (participle present)
extracted the Michael (participle past)
extracted the Michael (past)

Facetious alteration of take the mickey.

(UK, slang, humorous) Synonym of take the mickey


single yellow line

en-noun

single yellow line (plural single yellow lines)

She hugged the single yellow line, but she drove fast.

He knew it would be risky parking on a double yellow line, or even a single yellow line, at this hour, but in a side street off the back of Kensington Church Street he found areas demarcated on the roadway with white lines.

1999, Ruth Rendell, A Sight for Sore Eyes:

At half past eleven, Roy Grace parked his Alfa Romeo on a single yellow line outside the unlit shop window of a dealer specializing in retro twentieth-century furniture.

The postman in question was parked on a single yellow line with parking-time restrictions.

2007, Barrie Segal, The Parking Ticket Awards: Crazy Councils, Meter Madness and Traffic Warden Hell:

(UK) A single yellow line painted at the side of a road to show that parking is permitted only at specified times.


double yellow line

double yellow line (plural double yellow lines)

The person who parked their car on the double yellow line may be a doctor who has been called urgently to the house of a critically ill patient ...

1995, Nina Fletcher, Janet Holt, Ethics, law, and nursing:

I'm sorry, you were parking on a double yellow line, you've got a ticket.

1998, Ruth Gairns, Stuart Redman, True to life: English for adult learners.:

1999, Ruth Rendell, A site for sore eyes:

When he reached the street Claber and the girl were crossing the road to a Mercedes coupé, parked on a double yellow line.

2001, Julian Symons, A Three-Pipe Problem:

(UK) A pair of yellow lines painted at the side of a road to show that parking is not permitted at any time.


-side

Deeside, Humberside, Merseyside, Tameside, Teesside

(chiefly UK) Forms proper nouns naming the conurbation around a river.


Lady Muck

(UK) An appellation given to a woman who behaves in a perceived aristocratic manner.


Lord Muck

(UK) An appellation given to a man who behaves in a perceived aristocratic manner.


reem

en-adj

reem (comparative reemer or more reem, superlative reemest or most reem)

reemer (comparative)
more reem (comparative)
reemest (superlative)
most reem (superlative)

Of unclear origins, popularised by Joey Essex. Possibly derived from cream or ream.

The cast of The Only Way Is Essex have tried every fake tan in the universe and insist this is best before a reem night out.

2011 June 13, Julie McCaffrey, “Forget a suntan, fake it, safely bake or soothe it”, in The Mirror:

Imagine a totally reem Hogwarts where Harry Potter looks like he should be in a Wham! video while Hermione's always on her pink BlackBerry and trying to catch Ron's attention by rolling up her skirt higher and higher.

2012, Becci Fox, Confessions of an Essex Girl: A Smart, Sexy and Scandalously Funny Expose, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

Room service: The reemest way to get food! […] The party royal is the most reem though because he goes to Vegas.

2014, Joey Essex, Being Reem, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(UK, chiefly Essex, slang) cool, excellent; desirable; sexy.


bring-and-buy

There was a bring-and-buy on in the village green.

(UK, New Zealand) A small-scale sale where people bring items to sell and buy others' items. The money raised usually goes towards charity.


claykicker

(slang, historical, UK, military) A member of a tunnelling engineering squad in World War I.


sadster

You see, when it comes to buying a car, people who'd haggle with the milkman turn into sadsters with 'empty my wallet' writ large on their foreheads.

I'm not a friendless sadster, just looking for some good company & see what gives from there!

1999, nice bloke, “Decent, witty, sober, passionate man available”, in uk.local.essex (Usenet):

(UK, slang) A socially inadequate or undesirable person; a saddo or loser.


gobful

The Professor, in order fittingly to celebrate this golden moment, leaned back in his chair, lit the worst cigar ever sold west of the Mississippi River, and blew five large gobfuls of smoke into the face of Mr. Gilhoolie, directly above him.

1926, Robert H. Davis, Irvin S. Cobb, Over My Left Shoulder, page 20:

One after another, gobfuls of mash are gobbled up.

1989, Robert McLiam Wilson, Ripley Bogle, published 1998, page 121:

The reps sat in the only beam of midwinter afternoon sunlight, and they guzzled paté, crackers, gobsful of spring onions, lettuce done in varnish, they farted and burped and read business contracts to one another,[…].

1992, Barry Dickins, Post Office Restaurant and Other Stories, page 42:

They stood, mouths open and teeth bared, till the yolk-like film that seeped from their gums had slid to form small gobfuls, at which time, one after the other like a Gatling gun, they spat the slime at Pemmell′s face.

2002, John Scott, “Warra Warra”, in Peter Craven, editor, The Best Australian Stories 2002, page 311:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, slang) A mouthful.

“[…]But when you speak of love, I am no longer old. I am absolutely full of it. I have crammed great gobsful of it into my music.”

1921, Charles David Isaacson, Face to Face with Great Musicians, volume 2, page 197:

Three of them were full already – the diggers had scooped up great gobfuls of concrete and soil.

2005, L.J. Adlington, The Diary of Pelly-D, unnumbered page:

Mr Laxton:[…]I once had a conversation with someone who was a permanent secretary — a top-notch civil servant in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — who was in the business of handing out big gobfuls of money — billions here, there and everywhere.

2009, British House of Commons East Midlands Regional Select Committee, East Midlands Development Agency and the Regional Economic Strategy: First Report of Session 2008-09, page 29:

(UK, slang, by extension) A large portion or amount.

The neighbours were having a noisy party so I went and gave them a gobful.

2007, Gideon Haigh, article in The Guardian, reprinted 2008, The Warne-Muralitharan Trophy: Marrige of Inconvenience, Inside Out: Writings on Cricket Culture, page 54,
But his erstwhile colleague Jason Gillespie believes that the Sri Lankan probably expects it: ‘With Murali coming out he always cops a gobful in Australia and he′ll be expecting to cop that again. He might have to grin and bear it. […] ’

I usually cop gobfuls from opposition fans, which is fair enough. They pay their money to come along and give it to the players they don′t like.

2011, Barry Hall, Michael Cowley, Pulling No Punches, unnumbered page:

—-Cheeky southern blert, a sey an am about ter give im a real gobful but then a don′t bother. It woulden be werth it like.

(UK, Australia, slang) A blast of verbal abuse, usually considered justifiable.


Munro bagger

Also, among party employees, being a Scot or a Munro-bagger, or both, is a good path to promotion.

1993, Andy McSmith, John Smith: playing the long game, page 218:

(UK, sometimes derogatory) A mountaineer who aims to climb as many of the Munros (Scottish mountains higher than 3,000 feet) as possible.


trimphone

From trim + phone, originally a trademark, with trim explained as Tone Ring Illuminator Model.

Song thrushes normally have a large song repertoire, and Slater suggests that the trimphone sound has been taken up because it is sufficiently similar to the normal songs to be learned and imitated[…]

1983 April 14, New Scientist, volume 98, number 1353:

While an acoustic coupler can be used with ordinary telephones, it cannot be used with modern trimphones[…]

1986, Barry Strickland-Hodge, Barbara Allan, Medical information: a profile, page 54:

(UK) A luxury telephone of the 1960s with a then-innovative electronic ringer and illuminated dial.


old mate

Old mate dropped by and we watched the cricket for a bit.

(colloquial, Australia, New Zealand, UK) In general, any person, whose specific identity can be deduced from context.


slotten

slotten (comparative more slotten, superlative most slotten)

more slotten (comparative)
most slotten (superlative)

From a dialectal past participle of slit.


vanilla slice

Strain 1162 was isolated from a vanilla slice that was incriminated in a second outbreak originating in the same bakery, six weeks after the first outbreak.

1941, Studies from the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories and School of Hygiene, University of Toronto, volume 12, page 852:

1978, Association of Public Health Inspectors (UK), An Examination of the Bacteriological Quality of Retail Vanilla Slices, Environmental Health, Volume 86, page 67,
One hundred and thirty-three vanilla slices, purchased from shops in the County of West Yorkshire, were examined to determine the numbers and type of bacteria present at the time of purchase.

She passed the answering machine as she brought over a tray with the coffee and a vanilla slice that she′d divided unevenly.
‘Homemade?’ I asked, as she handed me the larger portion.

2003, David Philip Reiter, Liars and Lovers, Australia: Interactive Press, page 197:

2011, Vicky Daddo, Meeting My Renaissance Man, Stephen Thompson (editor), Mythic Resonance, Specusphere, Australia, unnumbered page,
‘Vanilla slice,’ he said, his voice directed at the glass cabinet. […] I pulled back the tray with the vanilla slices and he ducked down like a meerkat on sentry duty.

Leaving Lady Margaret to do battle with the bookies, I bought myself a country-baked vanilla slice. The biggest, mouth-watering vanilla slice I′d ever laid eyes on. Then, cake clutched in both hands, face sticky with creamy custard—not the chewy rubbery custard found in store-bought slices—I wandered over to the catching pen in readiness to catch Ben′s dog at the end of the race.

2012, June Whyte, Muzzled: A Kat Mckinley Greyhound Mystery, Untreed Reads, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia) A snack similar to a mille-feuille, consisting of a layer of vanilla custard or cream between two layers of pastry.


budge up

en-verb

budge up (third-person singular simple present budges up, present participle budging up, simple past and past participle budged up)

budges up (present singular third-person)
budging up (participle present)
budged up (participle past)
budged up (past)

‘Budge up, yeh great lump,’ said the stranger.

1997 June 26, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], chapter IV, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter; 1), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(UK, intransitive, informal) To move or scoot over in order to make room for someone, especially when sitting.


Act of Parliament clock

en-noun

Act of Parliament clock (plural Act of Parliament clocks)

(UK, historical) A large clock, once hung in inns, erroneously thought to derive from a tax on clocks.


waff

en-verb

waff (third-person singular simple present waffs, present participle waffing, simple past and past participle waffed)

waffs (present singular third-person)
waffing (participle present)
waffed (participle past)
waffed (past)

(UK, dialect, archaic, intransitive) To bark; to woof.


mahusive

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

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

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

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

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

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

(chiefly British, humorous, slang) Alternative spelling of mahoosive


with knobs on

And although starting to talk about problem drug takers and demedicalization, when it came to talking about services, it fell back on the old medically dominated system, what Roger Lewis described as 'clinics with knobs on'.

1984, Anne Jamieson, Alan Glanz, Susanne MacGregor, Dealing with drug misuse: crisis intervention in the city:

And the same to you with knobs on!

The door opened a foot. Parker squinted out, looking like death on a Popsicle stick. With knobs on.

2005, Brad Whittington, Living With Fred:

(idiomatic, UK) (manner) Extremely; in a similar way, but taken to an extreme.


undern

From Middle English undern, ondern, from Old English undern (“third hour of the day; nine o'clock; morning”), from Proto-Germanic *undurniz (“interval”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥ter, *h₁enter (“between”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch onder, dialectal German Untern, dialectal Swedish undarn.

inh

(UK, dialectal) A light meal, particularly in the afternoon.


AWT

Armathwaite railway station
w:Armathwaite railway station

(transport, UK) Abbreviation of Armathwaite railway station.


by way of

Thoreau, too, come to think of it, was, by way of being a prophet, a pioneer in this Emancipation of Man from Bothery.

1898, H. G. Wells, “The Trouble of Life”, in Certain Personal Matters, pages 16–17:

"From what you tell me, he's by way of being the brains of the family."

1921, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Springtime:

(UK, often followed by being) Possessing the characteristics, nature, or standing of; in the state or condition of.

par le fait de

possessing the characteristics, nature, or standing of


dreshel

This gurt pig zays, I wants meat;
T'other one zays, Where'll ye hay et?
This one zays, In gramfer's barn;
T'other one zays, Week! Week! I can't get over the dreshel.

1923, Come Hither: A Collection of Rhymes and Poems for the Young of All Ages:

(UK, archaic) Alternative form of threshel


Boris bike

After former Mayor of London Boris Johnson, associated with the launch of the hire scheme.

Alan Waller, a sustainability analyst, says he is happy to be followed to the gym, provided the bikes are not referred to as "Boris bikes". "The scheme was secured under Ken Livingstone," he says. "Boris took all the credit. I try not to call them Boris bikes."

[2014 July 26, Paula Cocozza, “A day in the life of a London Boris bike”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

London’s blue “Boris bikes” are to be painted red under a seven-year sponsorship deal with Santander worth around £7m a year, it has been announced.

2015 February 27, Gwyn Topham, “‘Boris bikes’ to be painted red under Santander deal”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, informal) A bicycle offered for hire in London, England as part of a bike-share scheme launched in 2010.


Picrous Day

(UK, historical) A festival formerly celebrated by the tin miners of Cornwall on the second Thursday before Christmas.


permie

Even if you take six months off you will still earn more than most IT permies, and about three times as much as non-IT permies.

1999, Martin, “Bullying, Abuse and Harrrassment^([sic]), then Termination at work”, in uk.legal (Usenet):


money spider

(UK, Ireland) Any spider of the family Linyphiidae, or (loosely) any very small spider, superstitiously believed to bring financial good luck.


cessavit

(UK, law, obsolete) A writ given by statute to recover lands when the tenant has for two years failed to perform the conditions of his tenure.


wankerdom

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar) The state or essence of being a wanker (idiotic person).


King's shilling

en-noun

King's shilling (plural King's shillings)

I have taken the King's shilling, but perhaps if you came for me they would let me go back with you. I was a fool when I did it. I don't want to be in the army.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Strife in Love”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 182:

(British, historical) A shilling accepted by new recruits when agreeing to or tricked into enlisting into the British army or navy during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Queen's shilling

during reigns when the monarch is a queen regnant


garpike

(especially UK) A saltwater fish in the family Belonidae.


fuel poverty

(chiefly UK, Ireland, New Zealand) The inability of a household to keep adequately warm at a reasonable cost.


fuel-poor

en-adj

fuel-poor (comparative more fuel-poor, superlative most fuel-poor)

more fuel-poor (comparative)
most fuel-poor (superlative)

(chiefly UK, Ireland, New Zealand) Unable to keep one's dwelling adequately warm at a reasonable cost.


spazzer

None of the staff thought it was much fun, but the spazzers cheered up no end.

1991, Terry Johnson, Imagine drowning, page 19:

A PC isn't a console you spazzer gaylord

2003, mrgoat, “Which is the best console overall”, in uk.games.video.misc (Usenet):

"You accusing my mum of breeding a load of spazzers?"

2008, Patt Scott, Police Surgeon: Lethal Deception, page 5:

(UK, slang, offensive) A mentally retarded person.


gavver

"Yeah, the gavvers were after Dad for a bunch of stuff he'd done years ago — fake license plates, stolen cars, that dodgy Range Rover deal he had going..."

2007, Kevin Brooks, The Road of the Dead, page 177:

The gavver in the car had really rattled him.

2009, Kate Wild, Fight Game, Book 1, page 28:


face like a bag of spanners

en-noun

face like a bag of spanners (plural faces like bags of spanners)

Everyone is used to it now, David and Victoria Beckham are the King and Queen of the tabloids and every half-decent footballer is a star and a pin-up, even if he's got a face like a bag of spanners.

2006, Robbie Fowler, David Maddock, Fowler: My Autobiography, page 105:

More wrinkles than a tortoise, face like a bag of spanners.

2009, Ron Clooney, A Measure of Wheat for a Penny, page 275:

(UK, informal, humorous) A very ugly face.


skillo

en-adj

skillo (comparative more skillo, superlative most skillo)

more skillo (comparative)
most skillo (superlative)

Dan Dare's back, and what a completely skillo follow-up to the original.

1988, Dan Dare II (video game review in Your Sinclair issue 27, March 1988)

Win A Mountain. Ooops, sorry, that should read win a Mountain Bike - gosh wow a brilliant skillo give away if ever there was.

1990 January, “Competitions”, in Sinclair User, number 94:

Anyway, I love the Jet Set Radio soundtrack (as well as the game) and in particular the tracks by Guitar Vader. So after a bunch of web browsing I found Guitar Vader are selling their skillo album 'Die Happy' on Mp3.com*^([sic]).

2001, Tinman, “Lazy and stupid : Help me do my shopping”, in alt.digitiser (Usenet):

(UK, slang, 1980s-1990s) great, excellent


have a laugh

en-verb

have a laugh (third-person singular simple present has a laugh, present participle having a laugh, simple past and past participle had a laugh)

has a laugh (present singular third-person)
having a laugh (participle present)
had a laugh (participle past)
had a laugh (past)

Coordinate term: take the mickey

Near-synonym: have (someone) on

Some of the kids had a laugh and put glue on the teacher's chair.

Fifty quid for that piece of junk? You're having a laugh!

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic) To joke; kid around.

We had a great laugh yesterday at the funfair.

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic) To enjoy oneself; have fun.


pannum

Possibly from Italian pane (“bread”) or directly from Latin pānem, the accusative of pānis (“bread, loaf”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to feed, to graze”).

der

Here's Pannum and Lap, and good Poplars of Yarrum, / To fill up the Crib, and to comfort the Quarron.

1641–42, Richard Brome, A Joviall Crew, or, The Merry Beggars, published 1652, act 2:

As far as injun, pannum, and cheese, and a drop of heavy goes, you are perfectly welcome.

1844, Charles Selby, London by Night, act 1, scene 2:

I have a rorty gal, also a knowing pal, / And merrily together we jog on, / I doesn't care a flatch, as long as I've a tach, / Some pannum for my chest, and a tog on.

c. 1864, Alfred Peck Stevens, “The Chickaleary Cove”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris, published 1896, page 161:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Bread; food.

pannum-bound

said of a pauper or prisoner when his food is stopped


telly tennis

From telly + tennis, the game having a superficial resemblance to tennis.

The monitored heart-rate on a small screen, like a hesitant green version of the telly tennis he'd played in pubs or railway stations.

1976, Elaine Feinstein, The ecstasy of Dr Miriam Garner, page 101:

Hooked on telly tennis, or football? We've been carrying out some in-depth testing of (playing with) a TV games unit for you to build.

1979 October 4, New Scientist, volume 84, number 1175, page 48:

He finds them sitting at a small table holding a horizontal video tube and stands watching them play telly tennis.

1992, Mudrooroo (Colin Johnson), Long live Sandawara, page 61:

(slang, video games, UK, Australia) The game of Pong, or any TV game closely based on it.


revivor

There may be also a bill of revivor when the suit is abated by the death of any of the parties

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

(UK, law) revival of a suit which is abated by the death or marriage of any of the parties.


give a shite

en-verb

give a shite (third-person singular simple present gives a shite, present participle giving a shite, simple past gave a shite, past participle given a shite)

gives a shite (present singular third-person)
giving a shite (participle present)
gave a shite (past)
given a shite (participle past)

I'd carry a sandwichboard only the girl in the office told me they're full up for the next three weeks, man. God, you've to book ahead, man, you'd think it was for the Carl Rosa. I don't give a shite anyway so long as I get a job, even as a crossing sweeper.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16: Eumaeus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 574:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar, very uncommon) To care; mind; consider important.


rorty

en-adj

rorty (comparative rortier, superlative rortiest)

rortier (comparative)
rortiest (superlative)

19th century UK. Unknown etymology. Farmer (1903) categorises the term as costermongers' slang.

unk

Unknown etymology

"Tell us a good story, Rodney — one of your rorty ones." / Mr. Rodney shrivelled. / "I fear," he murmured — "I fear I am scarcely in the — er — rorty vein to-night."

1898, Robert Smythe Hichens, The Londoners, page 280:

But compared with the heavy, muffling darkness of the night in which the countryside was sunk, the lights looked positively rorty

1932, Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm:

Any speed any gear it doesn't matter. The 2Eleven's got an enormous powerband huge performance and the rortiest exhaust I've heard in an Elise-based car

2007 May 31, “Lotus 2-Eleven - Road Test First Drive”, in Autocar:

(British, informal) Boisterous, rowdy, saucy, dissipated, or risqué.


PSPO

(UK, law) Initialism of public space protection order.


primitia

en-noun

primitia (plural primitias or primitiae)

the primitias of your parsonage

1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:

(UK, law, obsolete) The first year's whole profit of an ecclesiastical preferment.


mitrailleur

(UK, military, obsolete) A rapid-fire team-served musket or rifle.

(UK, military, obsolete) The person in charge of such a weapon.


Spanish practices

Many in the newspaper business – including some who criticised Murdoch at the time – now concede that the end of Fleet Street's Spanish practices probably helped prolong the life of the British press by a good few decades.

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

(UK) Irregular practices in favour of the workers at a place of work, which are implied, but not specified, in the work contract.


sleeping partner

sleeping partner (plural sleeping partners)

Somewhat later, the Frenchman Charles Fourier was ridiculed for expecting day by day the sleeping-partner to turn up who would invest in his Phalanstère plan, which was based on ideas very similar to those sponsored by one of the greatest contemporary experts on finance.

1957 [1944], Karl Polanyi, chapter 9, in The Great Transformation, Beacon Press: Boston, page 108:

(UK, Ireland) A business partner who doesn't play an active role in running the day-to-day operations of a business, who instead, finances the business in the form of capital investment.

stiller Gesellschafter

a business partner who is not involved in the day-to-day business, but puts up capital


wendy

Toughen up, you big wendy.

(derogatory, slang, British, particularly northern UK) A wuss; someone who is particularly cowardly.


press tits

en-verb

press tits (third-person singular simple present presses tits, present participle pressing tits, simple past and past participle pressed tits)

presses tits (present singular third-person)
pressing tits (participle present)
pressed tits (participle past)
pressed tits (past)

'Press tits at four thirty a.m.'

2010, Frank Barnard, Blue Man Falling: A riveting World War Two tale of RAF fighter pilots:

[…] For the rest of my life / I'd take me a wife / A Wimpy bomb-aimer, / For he'd press a tit, / And I'd press a tit, / We'd all press tits together, […]

2011, Lewis Brandon, Albert Smith, Ian Smith, Night Flyer/Mosquito Pathfinder: Night Operations in World War II:

(UK, military, slang, RAF) To initiate a start-up sequence.


fordrive

fordrive (third-person singular simple present fordrives, present participle fordriving, simple past fordrove, past participle fordriven)

fordrives (present singular third-person)
fordriving (participle present)
fordrove (past)
fordriven (participle past)

From Middle English fordriven, from Old English fordrīfan (“to drive, sweep away, drive on, impel, compel, drive away, expel, overtax”), from Proto-West Germanic *fradrīban, from Proto-Germanic *fradrībaną (“to drive away, drive out, expel”), equivalent to for- + drive.
Cognate with West Frisian fordriuwe, ferdriuwe (“to expel”), Dutch verdrijven (“to expel”), German Low German verdrieven (“to drive away”), German vertreiben (“to expel, drive out, banish”), Danish fordrive (“to oust, expel”), Swedish fördriva (“to drive away, drive out, banish”).

cog

(transitive, UK dialectal) To drive away; expel.

(transitive, UK dialectal) To drive about; drive here and there; drive astray.


back labour

en-noun

back labour (usually uncountable, plural back labours)


take on the chin

en-verb

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

takes on the chin (present singular third-person)
taking on the chin (participle present)
took on the chin (past)
taken on the chin (participle past)

Elsewhere in Sweden recently, two underage girls pressed charges when a teenage boy exposed himself to them at a lake. The court decided, despite the victims' testimonies, that the offence was "not of a sexual nature" and dismissed it. But I'm guessing the girls didn't push for molestation charges because they were censorious prudes who would grow into knowing how to take such behaviour on the chin – they felt genuinely threatened, they took their concerns to court, and they deserved more than being told that they'd misread the situation all along.

2013 September 20, Holly Baxter, “Is masturbating in public a laughing matter?”, in The Guardian, retrieved 2014-01-06:

(idiomatic, transitive, UK) To accept without flinching or complaining.


NFA

Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said the case has been classified as "no further action" (NFA) due to lack of evidence.

2020 November 24, “Individuals linked to Chin Peng's ashes will not face charges - minister”, in Malaysiakini:

ACP Nik Ezanee closed the investigation by classifying it as no further action (NFA) after hearing about the woman's plight.

2021 January 31, Farik Zolkepli, “PJ police go the extra mile to help the needy”, in The Star:

Police have completed investigations into a Physical Education (PE) teacher who allegedly made a rape joke in front of his students at school, and have classified it as No Further Action (NFA).

2021 August 5, Muhaamad Hafis Nawawi, “Case of teacher who allegedly made rape joke classified as NFA”, in New Straits Times:

no further action
no further action#English

(law enforcement, criminal law, UK, Malaysia) Initialism of no further action; a potential outcome for a suspect from a police investigation.


NFA

NFA (third-person singular simple present NFAs, present participle NFAing or NFA'ing, simple past and past participle NFAd or NFA'd or NFAed)

NFAs (present singular third-person)
NFAing (participle present)
NFA'ing (participle present)
NFAd (participle past)
NFAd (past)
NFA'd (participle past)
NFA'd (past)
NFAed (participle past)
NFAed (past)

After that interview, I think we can NFA him.

(law enforcement slang, UK) To formally end the police investigation of a suspect with no further action.


die in the arse

die in the arse (third-person singular simple present dies in the arse, present participle dying in the arse, simple past and past participle died in the arse)

dies in the arse (present singular third-person)
dying in the arse (participle present)
died in the arse (participle past)
died in the arse (past)


doll's house

Adam Stockhausen's doll's-house production design is eye-wateringly precise, the black-and-white images of the city's ancient buildings (shot in Angouleme) deserve their own coffee table book

2021 July 12, Nicholas Barber, “The French Dispatch: Four stars for Wes Anderson's latest”, in BBC:

(UK) A miniature house used by children as a toy for recreating domestic settings.


DWP

So now Mahmood was in debt and his existing benefits were stopped because the DWP computer thought he was receiving universal credit.

2019 October 14, Robert Booth, “Computer says no: the people trapped in universal credit's 'black hole'”, in The Guardian:

Department for Work and Pensions
w:Department for Work and Pensions

(UK) Initialism of Department for Work and Pensions.


PAT

en-noun

PAT (countable and uncountable, plural PATs)

electrical engineering
electrical engineering

portable appliance testing
w:portable appliance testing

(electrical engineering, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia) Initialism of portable appliance testing.


wanchance

wanchance (usually uncountable, plural wanchances)

(UK dialectal) Ill luck; misfortune; calamity.


set-up

en-adjective

set-up (comparative more set-up, superlative most set-up)

more set-up (comparative)
most set-up (superlative)

set-up time. The time taken to SET UP a machine or to change it from making one product to another.

1990, John Bessant, Richard Lamming, Macmillan Dictionary of Production Technology and Management, Palgrave Macmillan UK, page 153:

(chiefly British) Alternative form of setup


set-up

Stevenage's first-half performance forced a change of formation from Newcastle at the break, as they brought on Nile Ranger for Leon Best and switched to a 4-2-3-1 set-up.

2011 January 8, Paul Fletcher, “Stevenage 3 - 1 Newcastle”, in BBC:

A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. This set-up solves several problems […].

2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):


shitebag

(UK, Ireland, vulgar, very uncommon) Alternative form of shitbag


wanse

en-verb

wanse (third-person singular simple present wanses, present participle wansing, simple past and past participle wansed)

wanses (present singular third-person)
wansing (participle present)
wansed (participle past)
wansed (past)

From Middle English wansen (“to decrease, diminish”), from Old English wansian (“to diminish”), from Proto-West Germanic *wansōn, a variant of *wanisōn, from Proto-Germanic *wanisōną (“to lessen”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty”). Cognate with Old Norse vansa (“to do too little, suffer loss”), Old Norse vansi (“lack, want”). More at wane.

cog

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To wane; waste, waste away; pine; wither.


offcome

(UK, dialectal, chiefly Scotland) An apology; excuse.

(UK, dialectal, chiefly Scotland) An escape or evasion by subterfuge or pretext; a way of avoiding or getting out of a difficult or uncomfortable situation.


latitat

Latin, meaning "he lies hidden", from latito.

This bill of Middlesex must be served on the defendant by the sheriff, if he finds him in that county; but , if he returns “non est inventus" then there issues out a writ of latitat to the sheriff of another county

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

(UK, law, historical) A writ based upon the presumption that the person summoned was hiding.


wandle

en-adj

wandle (comparative more wandle, superlative most wandle)

more wandle (comparative)
most wandle (superlative)


sheeprun

From sheep + run (“animal enclosure; place where something can run”).

1900, William Bulfin, Tales of the Pampas, quoted in 2003, Katherine Mullin, James Joyce, Sexuality and Social Purity, 63,
Over the richest sheepruns in the province of Buenos Ayres you may gallop during every hour of the summer without crossing a single rood of land that is not owned by some son of the Emerald Isle.

1910, Catherine Helen Spence, Jeanne Young (posthumous completion), Catherine Helen Spence: An Autobiography, 2004, page 26,
It had surprised him when he travelled overland to Adelaide to see from Willunga 30 miles of enclosed and cultivated farms, and it surprised me to see sheepruns close to Melbourne.

1978, Juliet Astley (Norah Lofts), Copsi Castle, page 67,
Here was she, cancelling her visit to the sheeprun, that part of Sheppey Lea of which she was most proud since it had been reclaimed literally from a waste of near-derelict land, all bracken and gorse and coarse grass.

When contemporaries complained that the extension of sheepruns left a trail of deserted villages they were commenting on the enclosures of the previous century, but later complaints bear witness to a more profound upheaval.

1979, Joan Simon, Education and Society in Tudor England, page 169:

The irony was that many of the Scottish Highlanders found themselves manning sheepruns in the antipodes having been eliminated from their own economy by precisely the same forces that had caused the Highland clearances.

1993, Eric Richards, “Margins of the Industrial Revolution”, in Patrick O′Brien, Roland Quinault, editors, The Industrial Revolution and British Society, page 221:

(UK, New Zealand, Australia) A sheep farm.


muppetry

(UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) The behaviour of a muppet; foolish incompetence.


suited and booted

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-suited and booted.wav

From suited (“wearing a suit”, adjective) + and + booted (“wearing a boot or boots”, adjective), the words chosen for the rhyme.

You can get Suited and Booted at such figures as will astonish you at the Star Store.

1876 November 30, “Local notices [advertisements]”, in Ja[me]s M. Cavaness, editor, Southern Kansas Advance, volume 8, number 47 (number 411 overall), Chetopa, Kan.: Jas. M. Cavaness, page 3, column 3:

Heroines will be suited and booted in tweeds this winter. Anyway, that is Dorothy Mackaill's latest street costume; a tweed suit and shoes of the same material trimmed with a little leather.

[1928 December 19, “Screen Life in Hollywood: Tailored shoes”, in Mandan Daily Pioneer, volume XV, number 198, Mandan, N.D.: Pioneer Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 4, column 5:

Jauntily suited and booted, Kathy Sheron (15), of Whitson-road, Huntington Station, New York, arrives in London to claim her prize. Kathy has won the Dave Clark Five—the British Beat Group—in a national contest, along with the title, "Miss Natural Wonder."

1965 August 7, The Guardian Journal, number J43,507, G34,027, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: T. Bailey Forman, →OCLC, page 3, column 3:

The ultimate in suede suited and booted for individualists [title]

1974 November, “The Ultimate in Suede Suited and Booted for Individualists [advertisement]”, in John H[arold] Johnson, editor, Ebony, volume XXX, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6:

In this novella, the TM [Talkative Man] meets Dr Rann, who claims to be a United Nations specialist, and unable to find a place for the strange visitor—who, as they used to say, was suited and booted—takes him to his own house.

1999, S. Krishnan, “Talkative Man [Introduction]”, in R[asipuram] K[rishnaswami Iyer] Narayan[aswami], edited by S. Krishnan, A Town Called Malgudi: The Finest Fiction of R. K. Narayan […], New Delhi, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2002, →ISBN, page 259:

A couple of suited and booted business types appeared by my side, tossing peanuts into their mouths and gawping at the screens as though they had never seen a television before. They couldn't be from the TV station or any of the production companies that made the shows, because they were far too formally dressed.

2002, Tony Parsons, chapter 13, in Man and Wife, special overseas edition, London: HarperCollins, published 2003, →ISBN, part 2 (Your Heart is a Small Miracle), page 132:

When Bobby and Elaine showed up at a candidate's night or event or at just another speaking engagement, the chairman was wearing a suit and tie and Elaine was suited and booted in a dress, heels, the whole nine yards.

2006, Flores Alexander Forbes, chapter 11, in Will You Die with Me?: My Life and the Black Panther Party, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, published July 2007, →ISBN, page 81:

Initially, his [Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar's] photograph was popularized through posters and pamphlets published and distributed by the RPI [Republican Party of India] for disseminating information about forthcoming meetings. The image was that of a suited and booted, westernized gentleman holding a copy of the Constitution in one hand. This image appeared to the common Dalits as a symbol of awareness through education and the fight for a better future. It also helped deconstruct the stereotypical notion of Dalits as being oppressed, suppressed and illiterate.

2006, Badri Narayan, “Visuals, Cultural Performances and Myths”, in Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics (Cultural Subordination and the Dalit Challenge; 5), New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, →ISBN, page 76:

When she finally slept, it was to dream relentlessly of Michael. One moment he would be standing behind his desk, suited and booted, the next they would be naked in bed together, his glare boring into her soul, […]

2020, M. S. Batham, chapter 6, in Love, Vengeance, and Lies, Garibaldi Highlands, Squamish, B.C.: eXtasy Books, →ISBN, page 64:

(originally South Asia) Dressed smartly, especially in business or formal wear.

puku yllään

dressed smartly, especially in business or formal wear


forwander

en-verb

forwander (third-person singular simple present forwanders, present participle forwandering, simple past and past participle forwandered)

forwanders (present singular third-person)
forwandering (participle present)
forwandered (participle past)
forwandered (past)

From Middle English forwandrien, equivalent to for- + wander.

Ah, I am full weary, lief, let me sleep, Forwandered and walked in this forest.

2009, Richard Beadle, Pamela M. King, York Mystery Plays:

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To wander until weary; wander far and wide.

[…] His courage, His purity, His meekness; His daily wakefulness to God's voice, the swiftness and brilliance of His speech for others, His silence under His own torments; His resorts—among the bruised, the prisoners, the forwandered of Israel, […]

1897, Sir George Adam Smith, The book of Isaiah:

The Lent term had pulled me down, a week of modest enjoyment thereafter in town had finished the work; and I drank in the sharp moorish air like a thirsty man who has been forwandered among deserts.

(transitive, UK dialectal) To weary with wandering; cause to wander until weary.


umgang

From Middle English umgang, umbegang (“circumference, circuit”), from Old English ymbgang, ymbegang (“going about, going round, circuit, circumference, surrounding belt, a winding course, bend, a going about a business”), from Proto-West Germanic *umbigang, from Proto-Germanic *umbigangaz, equivalent to um- + gang. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Uumgong, West Frisian omgong, Dutch omgang (“dealing, handling”), German Umgang (“dealings, handling”), Danish omgang (“game”). More at um-, gang.

(now chiefly UK dialectal) A round about; a way around; detour.

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) An instance of going or passing around; a trip.

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) A circuit; circumference.


breadcake

One [chip shop] offered extra peas, beans, curry or breadcake for just 10p with a full meal on Tuesday evenings […]


YELLIS

(UK, education) Year eleven information system: a mathematics and vocabulary test used to compare the performance of GCSE pupils.


autogas

en-noun

autogas (countable and uncountable, plural autogases or autogasses)

Blend of automotive + gas (originally a trade name "Autogas", but now a common noun)

Petrol ... 20.3% more than autogas ... The results conclusively demonstrate the carbon benefits of autogas vehicles

2005, Cars of the Future: Seventeenth Report of Session 2003-04 (British House of Commons):

Autogas powers more than 10 million vehicles in over 54 countries worldwide .... In terms of air-borne emissions of the principal regulated noxious gases, autogas is among the lowest emitters of all ...

2006, Class of 2006: industry report cards on environment and social responsibility (United Nations Environment Programme. Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics ):

Autogas is the common name for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) when it is used as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles.

2009, Frederic P Miller with Agnes F Vandome and John McBrewster, Autogas:

Liquefied Petroleum Gas
liquefied petroleum gas

(UK, Australia) Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)


steak and kidney pie

steak and kidney pie (countable and uncountable, plural steak and kidney pies)

It was while I was trying to turn this dish, in my imagination, into a decent helping of steak and kidney pie with all the trimmings that I was hailed by a hearty voice from across the table.

2009, John Mortimer, “Rumpole’s Slimmed-Down Christmas”, in A Rumpole Christmas, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, page 22:

(UK, Australia) A savoury pie made from beef, kidney, gravy and other ingredients.


Euro wasp

The debate over greater European integration took an unexpected twist yesterday with the arrival of Euro wasp in Britain.

2001 May 26, Stewart Payne, “Alarm over invasion of the Euro wasps”, in Telegraph (online):

(British) A median wasp (Dolichovespula media), an aggressive European wasp, which spread from the continent to Britain in 1980s.


whip-round

When the war ended, local businessmen had a whip-round to pay for rebuilding a destroyed airport terminal and the bombed-out shops on Tripoli Street in the city centre.

2013 October 5, “The can-do city”, in The Economist, page 69:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) A quick collection of money from a group of people, usually for a beneficial purpose.


YTS

Youth Training Scheme
w:Youth Training Scheme

(UK) Initialism of Youth Training Scheme.


spyhole

Then there is a shuffling sound, and the quiet slide of a spyhole cover.

2009 September 13, Ariane Sherine, “Golden shower”, in Guardian:


Accy

(UK, slang) The English town of Accrington.

(UK, soccer, slang) The football team Accrington Stanley F.C..


fat hen

Chenopodium album
Chenopodium album#Translingual

(UK) White goosefoot (Chenopodium album), a fast-growing weedy annual plant cultivated in some places and a weed elsewhere.

Blitum bonus-henricus
Blitum bonus-henricus#Translingual

(UK) Other species, such as Good King Henry (Blitum bonus-henricus)


Torygraph

Blend of Tory + telegraph, from the newspaper's political leanings; popularised by Private Eye magazine.

I thought, I'm not going to do my spring boxes and give a picture to the bloody Torygraph.

1993, David Hare, Lyn Haill, Asking around, page 169:

(UK, derogatory, informal) The Telegraph newspaper.


driveller

Well away from the centre of sanity is dwile flonking. In this game, or possibly sport, a circle of girters dances round a member of the opposing team who revolves in the opposite direction holding a driveller.

1976, Richard Boston, Beer and skittles, page 156:

(UK) The pole used to launch the beer-soaked cloth in the game of dwile flonking.


left-footer

(Roman Catholic): Said to allude to the practice of Irish farm labourers of digging with their left foot on one-eared spades such as loys and slanes that were designed to be operated in that way.

Jones shook his head knowingly. "I forgot you're a left-footer. Catholic by name, catholic by nature."

2011, Elena Forbes, Die with Me, →ISBN, page 382:

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


flick-knife

(British) Alternative spelling of flick knife


gym knickers

"But instead of going there, I sneaked into the Trunchbull's room. And after a speedy search I found the drawer where she kept all her gym knickers."

I never knew why they singled me out, though at the time I believed it was because my mother made me wear green gym knickers and everyone else's were navy or white.

1993 October 11, Angela Lambert, The Independent:

I remember being forced to do cross-country runs in horrible navy gym knickers, which is a nightmare when you're not exactly built like Paula Radcliffe [...].

2010 December 5, Gail Emms, The Guardian:

(UK) Large girls' underpants traditionally worn as shorts during school sports activities.


loun

en-verb

loun (third-person singular simple present louns, present participle louning, simple past and past participle louned)

louns (present singular third-person)
louning (participle present)
louned (participle past)
louned (past)

Uncertain. Compare Scots lounder (“to deal heavy blows on, thrash”).

cog

(UK dialectal, chiefly Northern England) To beat; thrash.


cocket

(UK, obsolete) A document issued by the bond office stating that duty has been paid and goods may be sold.

(UK, obsolete) An office in a customhouse where goods intended for export are entered.


cocket writer

(UK, dated) an official in the bond office whose duties included collecting duty on imported goods and issuing the relevant documentation.


youthy

I carried a 4x12 cab into the youthy for Thin Lizzy back in 1970 […]

2004, The Grate Denini, “No Persian Punch on BBC”, in uk.sport.horseracing (Usenet):

'If he's owt like the lads at the youthy, yeah,' Mary told her blithely.


snacket

(UK, archaic) Alternative form of snecket


WCA

(UK) Initialism of waste collection authority.


slunken

en-adj

slunken (comparative more slunken, superlative most slunken)

more slunken (comparative)
most slunken (superlative)

From the past participle of slink. Compare Scots slunken (“lank, emaciated, lean, sunken”), Norwegian slunken (“lean, lank”), Danish slunken (“lean, lank”).


bewith

From be + with, in the sense of what one can be with or do with.

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) A makeshift; substitute.


bewest

From Middle English be west, biwesten, from Old English be westan (“west, from the west”).

inh

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) To the west of.


DLR

Docklands Light Railway
w:Docklands Light Railway

(rail transport, UK) Initialism of Docklands Light Railway.


company sergeant major

en-noun

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

company sergeants major (plural)
company sergeant majors (plural)

warrant officer class 2
warrant officer class 2

(UK) An appointment in the army, the senior warrant officer in a company, usually held by a warrant officer class 2.


cottage hospital

cottage hospital (plural cottage hospitals)

Other listed health and welfare buildings at Swindon included the GWR Cottage Hospital (Grade 2 Listed), together with structures such as the (also Grade 2 Listed) railway cottages, school and lodging house, which create group value at the site.

2022 September 7, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railway towns and a social revolution”, in RAIL, number 965, page 56:

(UK) A small hospital, typically in a rural area.


Bennite

(UK) A supporter of the political views of former British politician Tony Benn.


Bennite

(UK) Relating to or conforming with the political views of Tony Benn.


where there's muck there's brass

(UK, Ireland) There is money to be made even in unpleasant, dirty jobs.


fratch

From Middle English fracchen (“to make a harsh or strident noise; creak”). Cognate with Scots fratch (“to quarrel”).

inh

-I ha' never had no fratch afore, sin ever I were born, wi' any o' my like; Gonnows I ha' none now that's o' my makin'.

1854, Charles Dickens, “read online”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC:

(UK) A dispute, a quarrel; a fight or brawl.


fratch

en-verb

fratch (third-person singular simple present fratches, present participle fratching, simple past and past participle fratched)

fratches (present singular third-person)
fratching (participle present)
fratched (participle past)
fratched (past)

"I am just talking to relieve myself, John. I know better than to fratch with anyone—at least I think I do."

1915, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Measure of a Man:

(UK, Yorkshire) To argue, to quarrel; to fight.


tin tabernacle

(UK) A church, usually nonconformist, clad in corrugated iron.


outhold

outhold (third-person singular simple present outholds, present participle outholding, simple past outheld, past participle outheld or (obsolete) outholden)

outholds (present singular third-person)
outholding (participle present)
outheld (past)
outheld (participle past)
outholden (obsolete participle past)

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

From Middle English outholden, equivalent to out- + hold. Cognate with Scots outhald (“to outhold”).

(UK dialectal) To hold out, endure; resist, withstand; keep out by force, exclude.


TMD

en-noun

TMD (countable and uncountable, plural TMDs)

traction maintenance depot
w:traction maintenance depot

(rail transport, UK) Initialism of traction maintenance depot.


schoolboy error

schoolboy error (plural schoolboy errors)

(UK, informal) A fundamental, simple mistake.


marching orders

/ˈmɑɹtʃɪŋˌɔɹɾɹ̩z/

Riled by a decision that went against him, Ziv kicked his displaced boot at the assistant referee and, after a short consultation between the officials, he was given his marching orders and the loudest cheer of the night.

2011 October 20, Michael da Silva, “Stoke 3 - 0 Macc Tel-Aviv”, in BBC Sport:

(UK) Dismissal: an instruction to leave.


forshame

en-verb

forshame (third-person singular simple present forshames, present participle forshaming, simple past and past participle forshamed)

forshames (present singular third-person)
forshaming (participle present)
forshamed (participle past)
forshamed (past)

From Middle English forshamen, from Old English forscamian (“to make ashamed, be ashamed, be modest”); equivalent to for- + shame.

inh

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England) To dare; presume; have the face to.


nothing ball

2010 Harry Redknapp, quoted in "Relegated Burnley produce comeback" (9 May 2010) ESPNsoccernet
I was very disappointed (with the first goal) because it was a nothing ball over the top, Brian Jensen was way out of position and should have been sweeping that up.

(sports, British) a ball which presents little attacking threat


dern

1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, Ch. XIV, How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings
So I just put my eye between the wall and the dern of the gate, and I saw him come up to the back door […]


Rota

en-proper noun

Rota (countable and uncountable, plural Rotas)

From Italian Rota, from Latin Rota, from Latin rota (“wheel”).

(UK, historical or obsolete) A club established by James Harrington in 1659 to advocate term limits and rotation of government offices; other similar clubs of the era.


munting

en-adj

munting (comparative more munting, superlative most munting)

more munting (comparative)
most munting (superlative)

how the freak did "that" get pregnant she was totally munting!!!!!

2009, Volkszone.com, messageboards 15 Apr 2009

Other thing is, does anyone here have the mud flaps on their Twingo, or are they completely munting, cause I was considering getting them cause I did have them on my current car, and love the fact that my bumpers don't get all dirty and muddy in the bottom corners

2009, Twingooc.com, messageboards, 21 Mar 2009


shorthand typist

en-noun

shorthand typist (plural shorthand typists)

(UK, dated) A person skilled in shorthand and typing.


not touch with a barge pole

En-au-not touch something with a barge pole.ogg

Probably derived from the barge poles that bargemen used to fend off wharfs and other boats.

(idiomatic, UK) To avoid something at all costs; to refuse to associate with something; (signifies a strong aversion).

not touch something with a ten-foot pole


meat draw

(Canada, UK) A raffle of meat, common in pubs and bars.


scoper

An allusion to the derogatory slur spastic, following the renaming of the National Spastics Society, a UK disability charity, to Scope in 1994.

(UK, slang, derogatory, offensive, dated) Synonym of spastic (“stupid, clumsy person”).


basha

(UK military slang) A makeshift shelter made from the above.


mauther

Uncertain; possibly originally a variant of mother.

KAS. Ay, I know -- Away, [TO HIS SISTER.] you talk like a foolish mauther.

c. 1610, Ben Jonson, The Alchemist, Act 4:

(archaic, UK, dialect) A girl, especially, a large awkward girl.

Cleave to a tight ship, my boy, as long as the wind blaeth, and while she lives upon the waters, she'll aye be a mauther to thee.

1823, Thomas Campbell, Samuel Carter Hall, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Colburn's new monthly magazine, volume 7, page 230:


abread

From Middle English abrede or on brede, from a- or on (“on”) + brede (“breadth”).

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) Abroad.


secondary modern

secondary modern (plural secondary moderns)

(education, British) In the UK, from 1944 to the 1970s, a secondary school for children who had failed the eleven plus examination.


gangrel

From Middle English gangrel, equivalent to gang + -rel. Compare gangling.

(UK, archaic) A child just beginning to walk; toddler.


done thing

I wanted to be called Linda but Aunt Angela said that was a common name, you know, not the done thing, so I have to be Bella...

"I was only 18 and was having back problems so I got regular cortisone injections. It was the done thing in those days, all the players were having them."

2000 August 12, Vivek Chaudhary, The Guardian:

(chiefly UK) Something done habitually or according to social norms, expectations, etc.


spondulicks

With just a few clicks / save your spondulicks / and you'll thank your stars that you went to GoCompare!

2009, Chris Wilkins, "Tenor" advert, for GoCompare:


fraist

en-verb

fraist (third-person singular simple present fraists, present participle fraisting, simple past and past participle fraisted)

fraists (present singular third-person)
fraisting (participle present)
fraisted (participle past)
fraisted (past)

From Middle English fraisten, freisten, frasten, from Old Norse freista (“to try, tempt, make trial of”), from Proto-Germanic *fraistōną (“to try”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to try, risk”). Cognate with Icelandic freista (“to tempt”), Swedish fresta (“to try, tempt, tantalise”), Danish friste (“to try, tempt”), Old English frāsian (“to ask, inquire, tempt, try”). More at fraise.

cog

Þen found he no frekes to fraist on his strenght.

(obsolete, transitive, intransitive, UK dialectal) To try; test; prove; put to the proof; make trial (of).

(obsolete, transitive, UK dialectal) To learn by trial; experience.


bad cess

Uncertain. Occurs in print at least as early as 1831, when Samuel Lover used the expression as one already long-established. He unambiguously stated the derivation of cess in the malediction bad cess to be an abbreviation of success. OED speculated that it either was from success or from assessment meaning a military or governmental exaction.

...and so says the king to himself, "the divil receave the dhrop of that wine they shall get," says he, "... bad cess to the dhrop," says he, "my big-bellied bishop, to nourish your jolly red nose..."

1831, Samuel Lover, Legends and Stories of Ireland:

Bad cess to me, but it's too provokin', so it is; — and why couldn't you tell me so at wanst?

1834, Samuel Lover, Legends and Stories of Ireland:

Bad cess to the villains, but it's themselves that put me into the hobble, the thievin' rogues of the world.

1836, Philip Dixon Hardy, Legends, Tales, and Stories of Ireland:

Seen it with the ould Canal Company, bad cess to them, and all. People are decent enough in ones and twos, and maybe even threes, but they're worse than a lot of bad-mannered dogs when they band together into a crowd.

1963, Michael Farrell, Thy Tears Might Cease, Hutchinson:

(British, Ireland) Bad luck, failure, or evil befalling.


lavy

en-adj

lavy (comparative lavier or more lavy, superlative laviest or most lavy)

lavier (comparative)
more lavy (comparative)
laviest (superlative)
most lavy (superlative)

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Lavish; liberal.


fagbutt

(UK, Ireland, slang, colloquial) The butt of a cigarette.


have on

en-verb

have on (third-person singular simple present has on, present participle having on, simple past and past participle had on)

has on (present singular third-person)
having on (participle present)
had on (participle past)
had on (past)

Near-synonym: have a laugh

Are you having me on?

Fifty quid for that piece of junk? He's having me on he is!

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) To trick or deceive deliberately; to play a prank on.

So what do you have on this weekend? I have nothing on myself.

(UK, colloquial) To have (something) scheduled.


suck a lemon

suck a lemon (third-person singular simple present sucks a lemon, present participle sucking a lemon, simple past and past participle sucked a lemon)

sucks a lemon (present singular third-person)
sucking a lemon (participle present)
sucked a lemon (participle past)
sucked a lemon (past)

From the grimace one sometimes gets from tasting the tartness of a lemon's citric acid.

I knew he must've woke up sucking a lemon when he didn't even say hello.

(idiomatic, UK) To be in a sour or negative mood.


queenie

There are no closed seasons for queenies or restrictions on fishing time or catches.

2015, Elizabeth Gosling, Marine Bivalve Molluscs, page 296:


super-injunction

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

Miss Perroncel was at the centre of a legal row in January when former England captain John Terry took out a super-injunction – a court order so secret that no one was supposed even to mention its existence – to stop any publication of allegations that he had had an affair with her.

23 August 2010, Steve Doughty, The Daily Mail:

BBC presenter Andrew Marr said on Tuesday he had taken out a superinjunction to protect his family's privacy.

26 April 2011, John Plunkett, The Guardian:

(UK) A legal injunction which also prohibits any mention of its existence to the media or public.


(UK, rail transport) Initialism of High Speed 1, a high-speed railway between London and the Channel Tunnel.


ampery

en-adj

ampery (comparative more ampery, superlative most ampery)

more ampery (comparative)
most ampery (superlative)

(UK dialectal) Weak; unhealthy; beginning to decay.


boomshanka

The phrase originated in an episode of the British television comedy series The Young Ones. The pilot episode, first aired in 1982 and entitled "Demolition", included a brief piece of dialogue by Neil, who was fantasizing about taking advantage of the impending demolition of their home to commit suicide:
* Neil: When they come, I'm going to hide in the wall cavity and pretend to be thermal insulation. And when they knock the wall down, boomshanka!
The phrase was also spoken by Neil in an episode entitled "Cash", which was first broadcast in 1984. The segment of dialogue, where Neil is composing a letter to his bank manager to request a loan, is as follows;
* Neil: I know, why not "Boomshanka"?
* Mike: It's hard to tell, Neil. What does it mean?
* Neil: It means, "May the seed of your loin be fruitful in the belly of your woman."
* Rick: A-ha! And what makes you think your bank manager is a man?
* Neil: Uhm... His beard.
* Mike: He'll never understand "Boomshanka". You'll have to write the whole thing out.
* Neil: Right, okay, here we go. "Darling Fascist Bullyboy: Give me some more money, you bastard. May the seed of your loin be fruitful in the belly of your woman, Neil."

(British, humorous) A wish of happiness.


smit

en-verb

smit (third-person singular simple present smits, present participle smitting, simple past and past participle smitted)

smits (present singular third-person)
smitting (participle present)
smitted (participle past)
smitted (past)

(transitive, UK, obsolete, dialect) To infect.


feal

en-adj

feal (comparative fealer or more feal, superlative fealest or most feal)

fealer (comparative)
more feal (comparative)
fealest (superlative)
most feal (superlative)

From Middle English fele, fæle (“proper, of the right sort”), from Old English fǣle (“faithful, trusty, good; dear, beloved”), from Proto-West Germanic *failī, from Proto-Germanic *failijaz (“true, friendly, familiar, good”), from Proto-Indo-European *pey- (“to adore”). Cognate with Scots feel, feelie (“cosy, neat, clean, comfortable”), West Frisian feilich (“safe”), Dutch veil (“for-sale”), Dutch veilig (“safe”), German feil (“for-sale”), Latin pīus (“good, dutiful, faithful, devout, pious”).

cog

But if it stands in humble hame The bed, — I'll say this far in't, — Is clean and feel as ony lair King ever lay on — and that is mair Than mony ane could warrant.

1847, Henry Scott Riddell, Poems, songs and miscellaneous pieces:

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) (of things) Cosy; clean; neat.

[…] when I care na to accompany ye to the kirkyard hole mysel, and take my word for't, ye'Il lie saftest and fealest on the Buittle side of the kirk; […]

1822, Allan Cunningham, “Death of the Laird Of Warlsworm”, in Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, volume 2, page 330:

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) (of persons) Comfortable; cosy; safe.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Smooth; soft; downy; velvety.


get on someone's tits

en-verb

get on someone's tits (third-person singular simple present gets on someone's tits, present participle getting on someone's tits, simple past and past participle got on someone's tits)

gets on someone's tits (present singular third-person)
getting on someone's tits (participle present)
got on someone's tits (participle past)
got on someone's tits (past)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) To annoy or irritate.


Met Office

Short for Meteorological Office, which was its official name until 2000.

(UK) The British national weather service.


fulth

From Middle English fulth, fulthe; equivalent to full + -th. Compare Old English fylleþ (“fullness”, in compounds) and Middle High German vüllede (“fullness”).

inh

—It was as though a garland of red roses / Had fallen about the hood of some smug nun / When irresponsibly dropped as from the sun, / In fulth of numbers freaked with musical closes, / Upon Victoria's formal middle time / His leaves of rhythm and rhyme.

Yes, these yonder are the vessels, / Which Don Juan Ponce de Leon / Hath with gear and crews outfitted / For the seeking of the island / Where, in lovesome fulth, the Water / Of Rejuvenescence welleth.

1911, John Payne, transl., The Poetical Works of Heinrich Heine: Now First Completely Rendered Into English Verse, in Accordance with the Original Forms, volume 3, page 134:

The man who looked after the clew (clough) spoke of the louth and fulth of the drain. (Lowness and fulness.)

1952, Yorkshire Dialect Society, Summer Bulletin, page 18:

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Fullness; abundance; plenty.

A lambe will fall to the grownde, or to eatinge of grasse, when it is aboute a moneth or five weekes olde; yett if it have its fulth of milke, it will forbeare the longer; and the lambes that forbeare grasse the longest, prove for the most parte, the straightest, and best quartered; and these usually that fall to grasse over soone, proove short runtish sheepe, and are of the shepheardes callede dumplinges, or grasse belly’de lambes.

1641, Henry Best, “Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641: Being the Farming and Account Books of Henry Best, of Elmswell, in the East Riding of the County of York”, in The Publications of the Surtees Society, George Andrews, published 1857, page 4 & 5:

1853, Michael Theakston, A List of Natural Flies that are Taken by Trout, Grayling, & Smelt, in the Streams of Ripon, W. Harrison (publ.), page 62.
When the weather is genial, at the times of hatching and coming on the water of these two flies, the trout generally take their fulth of them in preference to all others, when the natural flies only can succeed; but if rude, westling weather then prevails, it gives good imitations a chance.

1853, Michael Theakston, A List of Natural Flies that are Taken by Trout, Grayling, & Smelt, in the Streams of Ripon, W. Harrison (publ.), page 73.
THE stars of the spring are fading, but their splendour remains iu the trout! Fat and capricious, the gilded monarch selects his fulth from the good things that surround him.

A lamb falls to the ground, i.e., begins to eat grass instead of being suckled when about five weeks old, for then they have had their fulth of milk.

1924, Yorkshire Dialect Society, Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, page 41:

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Fill; sufficiency; repletion; satiety.


deflexion

en-noun

deflexion (countable and uncountable, plural deflexions)


know from a bar of soap

en-verb

know from a bar of soap (third-person singular simple present knows from a bar of soap, present participle knowing from a bar of soap, simple past knew from a bar of soap, past participle known from a bar of soap)

knows from a bar of soap (present singular third-person)
knowing from a bar of soap (participle present)
knew from a bar of soap (past)
known from a bar of soap (participle past)

After she won the lottery, Marge had long-lost relatives she didn't know from a bar of soap come up to her to ask for money.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, idiomatic, informal) To know; to be acquainted with (a person).


climbing frame

(UK, Ireland) A piece of playground equipment consisting of a set of interlinked bars on which children can climb.


have-a-go

(UK) daring, courageous, particularly in the face of unexpected adversity.


fucksticks

"Fucksticks!" When some other fucker pushes in a queue / "Fucksticks!" When you get caught short and really need a poo / "Fucksticks!" When I came a-tumbling off my BMX / "Fucksticks!" When I split my frenulum while having sex

2011, Kunt and the Gang, Fucksticks (song)

Would A Christmas Carol have been as popular if instead of saying 'Bah, Humbug!' Ebenezer Scrooge had said, 'Oh, Fucksticks!'? What's the funniest expletive you can imagine Scrooge exclaiming?

2018, Richard Herring, Emergency Questions: 1001 conversation-savers for any situation:

His eyes rolled back in his head and his slender form crumpled to the floor like someone had just cut his strings.
"Oh, fucksticks!" I breathed, rushing to him and pulling him into my arms.

2019, Kaye Draper, Gesa's Menagerie Box Set (books 7-9)

(UK, Ireland, colloquial, vulgar) Expressing frustration.


headish

en-adj

headish (comparative more headish, superlative most headish)

more headish (comparative)
most headish (superlative)


jolly-hockey-sticks

jolly-hockey-sticks (comparative more jolly-hockey-sticks, superlative most jolly-hockey-sticks)

more jolly-hockey-sticks (comparative)
most jolly-hockey-sticks (superlative)

From a catchphrase introduced in a BBC radio comedy programme, Educating Archie (1950)http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-jol1.htm.

Polly couldn't abide Pat Walsh's bossy, jolly hockey-sticks manner and her curious predilection for calling absolutely everyone "babe."

2003, Caroline Upcher, Falling for Mr. Wrong:

We had to march along behind one of our mistresses — they were all very jolly hockey-sticks. March to church and then a lockstep turn about the park, everyone staring at us, knowing where we were from.

2005, Jim Christy, The redemption of Anna Dupree, page 122:

There was a brigade of horsy women with enormous arses, moustaches and jolly-hockey-sticks ideas about everything walloping about in all directions, whose skins had weathered like leather and whose breath and hands always smelled of horse saliva and dung.

2006, Richard E. Grant, The Wah-Wah diaries: the making of a film:

Boarding-school life was a lot like Mallory Towers or St Clare's, the fictional jolly-hockey-sticks schools created by Enid Blyton. 'We would have midnight feasts, and I suppose it was a bit like the Blyton books,' recalls Susan Lawrence.

2008, Alison Bowyer, Dawn French: The Unauthorized Biography, page 19:

(UK) Wholesomely athletic and enthusiastic, in a manner stereotypically associated with traditional British public schools for girls.


Camford

(UK, education, rare) Synonym of Oxbridge


bouk

From Middle English bouk, from Old English būc (“belly, stomach, pitcher”), from Proto-West Germanic *būk, from Proto-Germanic *būkaz (“belly, body”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰōw- (“to blow, swell”). Doublet of bucket.
Cognate with Scots bouk, bowk, buik (“body, carcass”), Dutch buik (“belly”), German Bauch (“belly”), Swedish buk (“belly, abdomen”), Norwegian Bokmål buk (“belly”), Icelandic búkur (“torso”).
Compare puck, suck.

der

(UK dialectal) The trunk or torso of the body, hence the body itself.

(UK dialectal) The carcass of a slaughtered animal.


guest of Her Majesty

en-noun

guest of Her Majesty (plural guests of Her Majesty)


stepbairn

From Middle English stepbarn (“orphan”), from Old English stēopbearn (“orphan”), from Proto-West Germanic *steupabarn, from Proto-Germanic *steupabarną (“stepchild”), equivalent to step- + bairn. Cognate with Old High German stiofbarn (“stepchild”), Norwegian stebarn (“stepchild”) Danish stedbarn (“stepchild”), Swedish styvbarn (“stepchild”), Icelandic stjúpbarn (“stepchild”).

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) A stepchild.


stell

en-verb

stell (third-person singular simple present stells, present participle stelling, simple past and past participle stelled or stold)

stells (present singular third-person)
stelling (participle present)
stelled (participle past)
stelled (past)
stold (participle past)
stold (past)

From Middle English stellen, from Old English stellan (“to give a place to, set, place”), from Proto-West Germanic *stalljan (“to put, position”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, put, post, stand”). Cognate with Dutch stellen (“to set, put”), Low German stellen (“to put, place, fix”), German stellen (“to set, place, provide”), Old English steall (“position, place”). More at stall.

cog

How he escaped a broken neck in that dreadful place no human being will ever ken. The sweat, he has told me, stood in cold drops upon his forehead; he scarcely was aware of the saddle in which he sat, and his eyes were stelled in his head so that he saw nothing but the sky ayont him.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To place in position; set up, fix, plant; prop, mount.


to-draw

Partly from Middle English todrawen (“to draw toward, allure”), equivalent to to + draw, and partly from Middle English todrawen (“to draw away, distract, tear apart”), equivalent to to- + draw. More at todraw.

inh

(UK obsolete, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A resort; refuge; a place of shelter; that which stands one in stead.

(UK obsolete, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A newsmonger's house; a place or person resorted to by idlers; a hangout.


foregift

(law, chiefly British) A payment in advance; an advance payment or premium paid by a lessee on taking or renewing a lease, distinct from the rent.


amensh

en-adj

amensh (comparative more amensh, superlative most amensh)

more amensh (comparative)
most amensh (superlative)

(UK dialectal, Northern England) Equal; level.


gloppen

en-verb

gloppen (third-person singular simple present gloppens, present participle gloppening, simple past and past participle gloppened)

gloppens (present singular third-person)
gloppening (participle present)
gloppened (participle past)
gloppened (past)

From Middle English glopnen, from Old Norse glúpna (“to frighten, grieve, look downcast”), from Proto-Germanic *glupnōną (“to frighten, cause to stare”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰlub(ʰ)- (“to yawn, gape”). Cognate with Icelandic glúpna (“to put to shame”). More at glope.

der

"O Job! if you will help me," exclaimed Mary, brightening up (though it was but a wintry gleam after all), "tell me what to say, when they question me; I shall be so gloppened,* I shan't know what to answer." / *Gloppened; terrified.

1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2000:

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To be in fear; gaze in alarm or astonishment; look downcast

A pause before the intense guy cut in: "The Word of the Day is gloppen. Verb, transitive and intransitive. … One. To surprise or astonish. Two. To be startled or astonished. Gloppen."

2006, Jeremy Iverson, High School Confidential: Secrets of an Undercover Student, →ISBN, page 59:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To terrify; astonish; surprise.


chaunter

(UK, slang, obsolete) A street seller of ballads or similar songs.


special master

Daniel: You can't look at medical files, they're confidential.
Kate: That's why I need a special master.
Daniel: A special what?
Kate: A knowledgeable and impartial third party to review the files to report on what Corvis was gonna tell the US attorney without revealing any personal information. That's why I convinced the US attorney to appoint you.

2012 August 20, Lovesick (Perception), season 1, episode 6, spoken by Daniel Pierce and Kate Moretti (Eric McCormack and Rachael Leigh Cook):

Judge Cannon said the special master’s role would be “to review the seized property, manage assertions of privilege and make recommendations thereon, and evaluate claims for return of property.”

2022 September 6, Charlie Savage, “Special Masters and the Trump Records Investigation, Explained”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(UK, US, law) An authority appointed by a judge to make sure that judicial orders are actually followed.


kick over the traces

en-verb

kick over the traces (third-person singular simple present kicks over the traces, present participle kicking over the traces, simple past and past participle kicked over the traces)

kicks over the traces (present singular third-person)
kicking over the traces (participle present)
kicked over the traces (participle past)
kicked over the traces (past)

Refers to a horse kicking its legs over to the wrong side of the traces, straps of leather connecting it to the vehicle being towed.

Near-synonym: kick against the pricks

1920, A. E. W. Mason, The Summons, XXX: A Revolution in Sir Chichester,
"I remember that she once said to me, 'Women do get the worst of it when they kick over the traces,'" Hillyard resumed. "And undoubtedly they do. On the other hand you have McKerrel's hard-headed verdict, 'If these poor neurotic bodies had any work to do they wouldn't have so much time to worry about their troubles.' Who shall choose between them? And what does it matter now? Stella's gone. She will strain her poor little unhappy heart no more against the bars."

(UK, dated, informal) To rebel against authority; to defy orders or instructions.

niskuroida

to rebel against authority; to defy orders or instructions

Near-synonyms: live large, live beyond one's means, live high on the hog

(UK, dated, informal) To live overextravagantly; to come to grief by fast living.


cursitor

From Latin runner; in the legal sense, from Latin cursitor, from the words de cursu, applied in the statute to ordinary writs.

When actions are brought in the Courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, founded upon original writs issuing out of the Courts of Chancery (which writs, as stated in the Report of the 9th of April 1816, it is the duty of the Cursitors to make out) it has been the practice in certain cases for the Filacers of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas respectively, to receive from the Suitors the King's fines (if any) and also the fees payable to the Cursitors in respect of such original writs, and afterwards to account to the Cursitors for the fines and fees so received.

1817 December 20, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, “Second Report of the Commissioners for Examining into the Duties, Salaries and Emoluments, of the Officers, Clerks and Ministers, of the Several Courts of Justice, in England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed;—as to the Court of Chancery”, in Reports from Committees: Fever; Ireland; Courts of Justice: Session 27 January – 10 June, 1818, volume VII, [London]: [s.n.], published 6 April 1818, →OCLC, page 172:

(UK, law, obsolete) A clerk in the Court of Chancery whose business is to make out original writs.


head girl

(British) A girl chosen to lead a school's sixth form, whose duties may include representing the school and organising the prefects.


bar billiards

(UK) A game resembling billiards, sometimes found in public houses, with pegs and holes in the surface of the table instead of side and corner pockets.


chum up

chum up (third-person singular simple present chums up, present participle chumming up, simple past and past participle chummed up)

chums up (present singular third-person)
chumming up (participle present)
chummed up (participle past)
chummed up (past)

They have a practice of “chumming up” a new fellow-prisoner—beating him with old swords and staves kept in the prison for the purpose, to exact a fee of a half-crown.

1844 January 13, The Spectator, volume 17, number 811, page 28:

1849, John Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, revised by Henry Ellis, London: Henry G. Bohn, Volume 2, p. 452,
Mr. Miller. They are not very nice whom they chum up?
Boot. Not very; they would as soon chum you up as anybody else.

(obsolete, UK, prison slang, transitive) To initiate (a new prisoner) through a ritual involving beating him with sticks and swords, accompanied by music, to extort money from him.


DBS

Disclosure and Barring Service
w:Disclosure and Barring Service

(UK) Initialism of Disclosure and Barring Service.


man and boy

/ˌmæn n̩ ˈbɔɪ/

I’ve lived here forty years, man and boy.

(British) During one's manhood and boyhood; since one's childhood; all one's life.

világéletében

during one’s manhood and boyhood; all one’s life


rooped up

en-adj

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

more rooped up (comparative)
most rooped up (superlative)

I am rooped up.

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Northern England) Suffering from any affection of the throat or chest which renders the voice hoarse.


homefield

(UK, dated) A field adjacent to its owner's home.


smeggy

smeggy (comparative more smeggy, superlative most smeggy)

more smeggy (comparative)
most smeggy (superlative)

We'd been cooped up in a smeggy coach all the way from Leeds. No one told me how far it was to the south coast. And England's supposed to be small. It took us ages. Any road, we finally arrived, got parked and made for the chip shop.


crunkle

en-verb

crunkle (third-person singular simple present crunkles, present participle crunkling, simple past and past participle crunkled)

crunkles (present singular third-person)
crunkling (participle present)
crunkled (participle past)
crunkled (past)


feel someone's collar

feel someone's collar (third-person singular simple present feels someone's collar, present participle feeling someone's collar, simple past and past participle felt someone's collar)

feels someone's collar (present singular third-person)
feeling someone's collar (participle present)
felt someone's collar (participle past)
felt someone's collar (past)

If you carry on like that, the law will soon be feeling your collar.


haematoma

en-noun

haematoma (plural haematomas or haematomata or haematomae)

haematomas (plural)
haematomata (plural)
haematomae (plural)


roadman

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

And officers’ definition of ‘roadman’ could prove to be controversial. They described the term as a ‘teenager who involves themselves in smoking weed, no education, puffa jacket and man bag, acts hard on a bike’.

2018 September 10, Harley Tamplin, “Police hope this embarrassing ‘slang dictionary’ will help them engage with young people”, in Metro:

The roadman look is very working-class (although it can be made to appear high-end), and features key pieces like matching tracksuits, technical jackets (like Nike wind runners or lightweight Stone Island shells) running caps, ‘trainers’ (like any Nike Air Max or a Reebok Classic), bum/shoulder bags, and maybe even a scarf on colder days.

2020 January 30, Ross Dwyer, “What's A Roadman? A Brief Background Of The UK's Most Popular Style”, in Piff Minneapolis, archived from the original on 2020-11-24:

(British, chiefly MLE, slang) A member of a subculture characterised by their clothing (notably puffer jackets and sportswear) as street fashion and the music they listen to, notably drill music.


lager top

lager top (countable and uncountable, plural lager tops)

(UK) A shandy made from lager topped up with lemonade or lime juice.


statemented

(UK, education) Having been provided with a Statement of Educational Needs.


wagger-pagger-bagger

Jocular modification of wastepaper basket. See -er.

(Taking flowers from vase) If you don't mind, therefore, I shall deposit them in the wagger-pagger-bagger. (Drops flowers into waste paper basket.)

1948, John Courtenay Trewin, Plays of the year: Volume 1:

If only he hadn't woken himself in the night with ludicrous, fey notions which now thankfully lay at the bottom of the wagger-pagger-bagger—he punched the splintery door of the shed—damn it all to the bloodiest—

2009, H. S. Cross, Riding: Volume 2, page 364:

(UK, slang, dated, public schools) A wastepaper basket.


railway sleeper

railway sleeper (plural railway sleepers)

West's friends were so appalled by the nature of his death that they arranged for a wooden memorial in the churchyard of St Laurence's, constructed aptly from a railway sleeper.

2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Reading (1840)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 56:

(rail transport, chiefly UK) A railroad tie.


tolt

From Latin tolta, from tollere (“to take away”).

... for a plea pending in a seignorial court could be removed into the county court by a procedure called tolt, and from the county into the common pleas by a writ of pone.

1956, Theodore Plucknett, A Concise History of the Common Law, Butterworth & Co, page 104:

(UK, law, obsolete) A writ by which a cause pending in a court baron was removed into a county court.


sick as a parrot

(very disappointed): Apparently of sporting (soccer) origin.

Bridge was over the moon and Terry sick as a parrot as the game ended 4-2 following a late Chelsea penalty.

2010 February 25, Chris Boffey, “John Terry left empty-handed as Wayne Bridge gives him cold shoulder”, in The Guardian:

2010 December 7, Wirral Euro MP is sick as a parrot over England World Cup bid humiliation, Wirral Globe.

2011 July 29, John Walsh, Ingalls awesome but Workington Comets edged out, News & Star,
Team manager Tony Jackson said: “I’m as sick as a parrot as I’ve ever been. There’s no doubt we should have won this one if it hadn’t been for the riders we have who suffered knocks.”

(colloquial, simile, idiomatic, UK) Very disappointed; miserable.


plaw

en-verb

plaw (third-person singular simple present plaws, present participle plawing, simple past and past participle plawed)

plaws (present singular third-person)
plawing (participle present)
plawed (participle past)
plawed (past)

From Middle English plawen, playen, plaȝen, from Old English plagian, a dialectal (Anglian) variant of Old English plegian (“to move about quickly, play”). More at play.

cog

(transitive, UK dialectal) To boil; boil slightly; parboil.


limewood

en-noun

limewood (usually uncountable, plural limewoods)

From lime² (ultimately from Old English lind) + wood.

compound

But he would not publicly confirm his purchase of “Hercules and Achelous,” or another rarity that experts say he bought this year: a limewood figure of St. Catherine by the German Medieval sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider that went for $6.3 million at Sotheby’s in January.

2008 June 13, Carol Vogel, “Darkness Was Muse for a Master of Light”, in New York Times:

(UK) The wood from the lime tree or linden tree.


blens

(UK, dialectal, zoology, archaic) The common cod; codfish


wabs

a DVD of the noxious, abominably brilliant 1983 teen sex-comedy Screwballs. That's right, the one about a foxy cheerleader named Purity Bush and the six nerds who'll move heaven and earth to catch an eyeful of her tanktop-straining wabs.

1999 December 17, John Patterson, The Guardian:

But what of your wabs? After all, it's not like it's any easier to think of something to call your breasts. They sit on your ribcage, from the age of 13 onwards, and yet there's scarcely a word you can refer to them with that isn't going to make either you, or someone else, uncomfortable.


bliddy

Then there was thousands of the bliddy critturs left in the rabbuts' buries.


lowth

From low + -th. Cognate with Old Norse lægð.

"For I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angel nor rule, neither power, neither things present, neither things to come, neither height nor lowth, nor any other creature, shall lie able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

1843, Thomas Becon, John Ayre, The early works of Thomas Becon:

(UK dialectal, Northern England) Lowness.

(UK dialectal) (in the plural) Lowlands.


yowley

They're just as feerce as untyem'd goats, / An' all liked sowlgers dress'd; / They've a bunch ov hair upon their jaws / Just like a yowley's nest.

1863, Edward Corvan, A choice collection of Tyneside songs, page 56:

(dated, UK, dialect) The European yellowhammer.


nobbler

(UK, obsolete) A thimbleman's or cardsharp's accomplice or shill, who poses as a player of the game to suggest that it is easy to win.


wroo

From Middle English wro, wra, from Old Norse rá, vrá (“corner, nook”), from Proto-Germanic *wranhō (“angle, corner”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrenk- (“to turn, twist, bend”). Cognate with Scots wra, wray (“corner, nook”), Danish and Swedish vrå (“corner, nook, recess”).

der

(UK dialectal) An enclosure in a grass field, in which cattle are penned up at night.


forflutter

en-verb

forflutter (third-person singular simple present forflutters, present participle forfluttering, simple past and past participle forfluttered)

forflutters (present singular third-person)
forfluttering (participle present)
forfluttered (participle past)
forfluttered (past)

(transitive, UK dialectal) To disorder; discompose.


forflutter

(UK dialectal) A state of confusion or agitation.


pleck

From Middle English pleck, plek, perhaps a variation of plack, or perhaps from Middle Dutch plecke, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *plakkju, from Proto-Germanic *plakjō (“spot, stain”).
Cognate with West Frisian plak (“place, location, spot”), Dutch plek (“place, spot, patch”), Low German Plakk, Plakke (“spot, place, patch”). More at patch.


Aunt Sally

Apparently after My Old Aunt Sally, the title of a blackface minstrel song written by Dan Emmett in 1843.

But the novel is something more than a national institution; it has become the recognized channel of communication between the crank and his victims; it is the shooting gallery through which we fire our messages at that dear old Aunt Sally, the British Public.

1912 November 24, W. B. Maxwell, “The Future of the Novel”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

He is helpless, an Aunt Sally, a figure from a cartoon, a missionary in cassock and topi waiting with clasped hands and upcast eyes while the savages jaw away in their own lingo preparatory to plunging him into their boiling cauldron.

1999, J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace, Vintage, page 95:

IN FOUR years as India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh has come to resemble a bearded and turbaned Aunt Sally.

2008 June 26, “Manmohan Singh’s burning ambition”, in The Economist, →ISSN:

The finance minister, a true Aunt Sally figure, was dispatched to Moscow in search of backing.

2013 March 23, Kyran Fitzgerald, “Stakes couldn’t be higher”, in Irish Examiner:

(figurative, chiefly UK) A figure drawing criticism or ridicule, especially when prejudiced or unwarranted.


gro

(UK, in street addresses) Abbreviation of grove.


nancyboy

With Mum out of earshot, he continued: "I don't believe you did six girls. I think you're a liar. I think you're either a virgin or a nancyboy."

2003, Alan Grayson, Mile End, Ragged Sky Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 84:

This was Marcus, this effeminate, mincing nancyboy, picking his way fastidiously across the grass?

2009, Andrew Chapman, Pagan, →ISBN, page 303:

Always having to look over your shoulder for some prissy little nancyboy from the ACLU trying to get you bounced from the force.

2009, Peter S. Fischer, The Blood of Tyrants, The Grove Point Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 60:

(slang, derogatory, Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) Synonym of nancy: an effeminate man, especially an effeminate homosexual.


number six

Bessy knew it was called “Calverton's School” — and though many who attended it were big men who ought to have known their letters better, yet others were only youths, and a few quite little boys, who wore their hair in “number sixes” at the temples, when law had left them hair sufficient for such ornamentation.

1861, Frederick William Robinson, No Church, page 252:

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


yarrish

en-adj

yarrish (comparative more yarrish, superlative most yarrish)

more yarrish (comparative)
most yarrish (superlative)

The others are of a dry or yarrish taste and mixd with Whitesour make an incomparable Cider.

1900, Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, Report and transactions, volume 32:

(UK dialectal, archaic) Having a rough, dry taste.


querier

(UK, obsolete) A chimney sweep who goes door to door looking for work.


simple majority

en-noun

simple majority (plural simple majorities)

(UK, informal) Synonym of plurality: The largest share of the item being counted.


bootload

(UK) As much as the boot of a car can hold; a trunkload.


yeldrin

Alteration of earlier yowlring, equivalent to yellow + ring.

Bless the bramble and its berries —nor can we conjecture why it should be “a maltreated shrub,” any more than why the “Yellow Yeldrin” should in Scotland—and we believe in England too—be a maltreated bird.

1834, “The moral of flowers”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 35 (review of The Moral of Flowers by Rebecca Hey), page 811:

(archaic, dialect, UK, Scotland) The yellowhammer.


kirkmaister

From kirk (“church”) + maister (“master”), possibly a calque of Middle Dutch keercmeester (“churchmaster”).

calque

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A churchwarden


yarr

(UK, dialect) The plant Spergula arvensis, corn spurry.


kindful

en-adj

kindful (comparative more kindful, superlative most kindful)

more kindful (comparative)
most kindful (superlative)

From Middle English kindeful, kyndeful, equivalent to kind + -ful.

"Men and women, horses and asses, sheep and oxen, and all kindiful things"

1830, Robert Forby, The vocabulary of East Anglia:

(UK dialectal) Of, relating to, or denoting a specified kind or sort; kindly.


whitling

The whitling and the finner, or finnoc, have been supposed by many to be young salmon.

1803, Henry Mackenzie, Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland, page 377:

(UK, dialect) A young full trout during its second season.


wipe up

en-verb

wipe up (third-person singular simple present wipes up, present participle wiping up, simple past and past participle wiped up)

wipes up (present singular third-person)
wiping up (participle present)
wiped up (participle past)
wiped up (past)

You're not watching TV until you've wiped up!

(British, intransitive) To dry utensils, dishes etc. that have been washed.


what ho

What ho, Frobisher!

What ho, there! All who are within hearing, return without fear. Caesar has tamed the lion.

1912 February 6 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Androcles and the Lion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act II, page 44:

‘What ho!’ […] ‘Treasons, strategems and spoils.’

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, page 18:

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland, informal, dated) An exclamation of greeting, summons, or surprise.


ouze

Partly from Middle English woose, wose, woos, from Old English wōs (“juice, liquor, sap”); partly from Middle English wose, wase, from Old English wāse, wase (“mud, mire, marsh, slime”). Cognate with Low German wees (“wet, ooze, mire”), German Wasen (“sod, turf”), Icelandic veisa (“mire, bog”). More at ooze.


Kingo

(UK, military, slang) A member of the King's Liverpool Regiment, later the King's Regiment.


Africanisation

From African + -isation or Africanise + -ation.


badders

Jocular diminutive with the Oxford "-er".


polyocracy

(UK) The section of the left-wing political establishment typically educated at polytechnics (or similar new universities).


whizz-bang

Some other new chaps started blazing away, too. Fritz retaliated with machine-guns and whizz-bangs. No casualties.

1929 November, Robert Graves, chapter XII, in Good-bye to All That: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 139:

(British, military slang, historical) A small calibre shell from World War I.


Marley

From several different places in England, from Old English mære (“boundary”) or myrig (“pleasant”) or mearþ (“marten”) + lēah (“woodland clearing”). In the first case, equivalent to mere (“boundary”) + -ley (“lea”).

(chiefly British) A male given name transferred from the surname.


forhow

forhow (third-person singular simple present forhows, present participle forhowing, simple past and past participle forhowed)

forhows (present singular third-person)
forhowing (participle present)
forhowed (participle past)
forhowed (past)

From Middle English forhowien, from Old English forhogian (“to neglect, disregard, despise”), equivalent to for- + how. Cognate with Old Saxon farhuggjan, Old High German farhuggan.

inh

It was believed that handling any bird's eggs in the nest made the bird forhooie them, [...]

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To forsake; quit; abandon; desert.

Mind what this lass has undergane for you, Since ye did her so treach'rously forhow, [...]

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To cast off; scorn.


back-

From Middle English bak-, bac-, apheretic form of abak, aback (“aback”, adverb). See also aback.

backfriend


forgitty

en-adj

forgitty (comparative more forgitty, superlative most forgitty)

more forgitty (comparative)
most forgitty (superlative)


forlat

en-verb

forlat (third-person singular simple present forlats, present participle forlatting, simple past forleet or forlut, past participle forlatten or forlutten)

forlats (present singular third-person)
forlatting (participle present)
forleet (past)
forlut (past)
forlatten (participle past)
forlutten (participle past)

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To deal a blow; hit out.