golden

en-adj

golden (comparative more golden or goldener, superlative most golden or goldenest)

more golden (comparative)
goldener (comparative)
most golden (superlative)
goldenest (superlative)

From Middle English golden, a restored form (due to the noun gold) of earlier Middle English gulden, gylden, gilden ("golden"; > English gilden), from Old English gylden (“golden”), from Proto-West Germanic *gulþīn, from Proto-Germanic *gulþīnaz (“golden, made of gold”), equivalent to gold + -en.
Cognate with Dutch gouden, gulden (“golden”), German gülden, golden (“golden”), Danish gylden (“golden”). Doublet of gilden. More at gold.

gloss

"golden"; > English <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">gilden</i>

der

[ˈɡɒʊ̯ɫ.dn̩]

kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

Many anti-fog variety goggles are available, but if you don't get that type, just rub a little spit on the lenses before you put them on in the water and you'll be golden.

2007, Colin Barr, Steve Katai, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Triathlon Training, Penguin, →ISBN, page 28:

Therefore, the task ahead is easy. When the spotlight is on you, never let the audience down and you'll be golden.

2009, Mark Wiskup, Presentation S.O.S.: From Perspiration to Persuasion in 9 Easy Steps, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

If all of the marks line up perfectly, then you're golden, and you can continue on with finishing up the installation.

2011, Wayne R. Dempsey, 101 Projects for Your Porsche Boxster, Motorbooks, →ISBN, page 68:

(UK, slang, predicative) Fine, without problems.


aerodrome

→ Irish: aeradróm

* (aircraft): In the obsolete sense of “flying machine” coined by American aviation pioneer Samuel Langley in 1897, from Ancient Greek ἀεροδρόμος (aerodrómos, “traversing the air”).
* (airfield): In the sense of “airfield”, from aero- + -drome, a suffix formed in analogy with hippodrome (“horse racecourse”), from Ancient Greek.

der

(British) An airfield equipped with air traffic control facilities and hangars as well as accommodation for passengers and cargo; an airport.


casual

/ˈkɛʒ(ʉː)əl/

From Middle French casuel, from Late Latin cāsuālis (“happening by chance”), from Latin cāsus (“event”) (English case), from cadere (“to fall”) (whence English cadence).

(British, Australia, New Zealand) A worker who is only working for a company occasionally, not as its permanent employee.

brigádník

a worker who is only working for a company occasionally

At 15, he became a casual: one of the label-wearing, wedge-flicking, swaggering hooligan peacock boys who dominated the north-west when I was growing up. Casuals were working-class lads (called Perry boys in Manchester) who loved football, fighting and brilliant sportswear.

2019 September 14, Miranda Sawyer, “Mark Leckey: ‘There has to be a belief that art has this power, this charisma'”, in The Guardian:

(UK, historical) A member of a group of football hooligans who wear expensive designer clothing to avoid police attention; see casual (subculture).

I was a boy in 1922 or 1923, when buses first started to run between the village and the town; there were tramps, casuals as they were called; the whole pattern of my boyhood was knit into a very loaded atmosphere of human character.

1983, Reg Butler, Reg Butler, London: Tate Gallery London, page 14:


cooker

→ Welsh: cwcer

From cook + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (patient suffix) (apple; one who is cooked).

(chiefly UK, Ireland, except in compounds) An appliance or utensil for cooking food.


exhibition

en-noun

exhibition (countable and uncountable, plural exhibitions)

/ɛksɪˈbɪʃən/

He was a scholarship boy who had won an Exhibition to Oxford, and then, like so many others, had found himself thrown upon the slave market of pedagogy.

1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 352:

Despite a couple of rustications, he gained an exhibition to Cambridge.

2016 November, Jonathan Meades, “Inside Job”, in Literary Review:

(UK) A financial award or prize given to a student (who becomes an exhibitioner) by a school or university, usually on the basis of academic merit.


artillery

artillery (countable and uncountable, plural artilleries)

From Middle English artillerie, from Old French artillerie (“collection of military engines, crossbows, lances etc.”), from artillier (“to equip, provide with contraptions”), alteration of atiller (“to arrange, adjust, put on clothes or, especially, pieces of armour”) (influenced by art), itself from Vulgar Latin *apticlō < **apticulō, from Latin aptō (“to make capable”).

der

(UK, Ireland, slang) A gun, or multiple.


gelt

en-noun

gelt (usually uncountable, plural gelts)

In the basic sense of "money", attested since the early 16th century, initially from (an Early New High German continuation of) Middle High German gelt (modern German Geld), from Old High German gelt (“payment, money”), or in some cases from (an Early Modern Dutch continuation of) Middle Dutch gelt. Later, and in the Jewish-related senses, from Yiddish געלט (gelt). The German, Dutch and Yiddish words are all from Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”). Doublet of native words geld and yield.

der

That nothynge had / There of theyr awne / Neyther gelt nor pawne.

c. 1529, John Skelton, The Tunning of Elynour Rummyng, section 610:

It amounts to not above 12000 Fr. Rhenish, yearly, in bare gelt.

1591 (1685), Henry Wotton, in Reliquiae Wottonianae, 616

The is no Gelt to be got.

c. 1698, B. E., A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew:

I saw him at the house of my parents; I in my earliest youth, he approaching to fourscore. He was on his way to collect the Dominie's gelt; for the Dutch always took care the stipend to the minister should be competent, that so he never might be straitened 'to desire a gift.'

1816, Egbert Benson, in a memoir read before the New York Historical Society [in 1816], quoted in History of the School of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church (1883), page 22

"And yet," said Captain Dalgetty, "my second and greatest difficulty remains behind; for, although I hold it a mean and sordid thing for a soldado to have nothing in his mouth but pay and gelt, like the base cullions, the German lanz-knechts, whom I mentioned before; […] yet, ex contrario, a soldier's pay being the counterpart of his engagement of service, it becomes a wise and considerate cavalier to consider what remuneration he is to receive for his service, […]

1852, Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose And, The Black Dwarf:

Have bought some farm land in Rio Grande Valley which should bring in a sizeable bundle of gelts come cotton picking time.

1948, William Burroughs, letter, 5 Jun 1948

The miser, a-seeking lost gelt, / The doughboy, awaiting the battle, / May possibly know how I felt / While the long years dragged by as the dealer / As slow as the slowest of dubs, / Stuck out the last helping of tickets / 'Till I lifted—the Bullet of Clubs!

1969, Robert L. Vann, The Competitor, volumes 2-3, page 135:

(originally UK, especially thieves' cant and Polari, later Judaism and general slang) Money.

especially thieves' cant and Polari; later Judaism and general slang; especially thieves' cant and Polari; later Judaism and general slang


upright

From Middle English upright, uppryght, upriht, from Old English upriht (“upright; erect”), from Proto-Germanic *upprehtaz, equivalent to up- + right. Cognate with Saterland Frisian apgjucht (“upright”), West Frisian oprjocht (“upright”), Dutch oprecht (“upright”), German Low German uprecht (“upright”), German aufrecht (“upright”), Swedish upprätt (“upright”), Icelandic uppréttur (“upright”).

muntant

any vertical part of a structure, especially one of the goal posts in sports

(obsolete, hunting, dialect, British) The tips of the antlers of a young deer.


statute mile

Weights and Measures
weights and measures

(UK) The mile of 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards, distinguished from the traditional mile of 5,000 feet employed before the 1593 Weights and Measures Act.


favourite

Attested from the 1580s, borrowed from Middle French favorit, from Old French favorit or Italian favorito (“favoured, favourite”), past participle of Italian favorire (“to favor”), from favore, from Latin favor (“good will, favor”), from the verb faveō (“I favour”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂weh₁yeti (“to be favourable to”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to shine, glow light”). Doublet of favori.

This is my second favourite occupation.

The Nanny is one of Pippa's favourite shows, but tonight the pleasure of mindlessly blobbing out in her usual Sunday-laid-back-luxury style...

2004, Brigid Lowry, Guitar Highway Rose:

Preferred or liked above all others (unless qualified).

I just saw a movie with all my favourite actors in it.

Belonging to a category whose members are all preferred or liked over nonmembers.


favourite

A person who is preferred or trusted above all others.


favourite

en-verb

favourite (third-person singular simple present favourites, present participle favouriting, simple past and past participle favourited)

favourites (present singular third-person)
favouriting (participle present)
favourited (participle past)
favourited (past)


shako

Borrowed from French shako, from Hungarian csákó (“cylindrical military dress hat worn by the Hungarian hussars from the 18th century to World War I”).


assistant

From Middle French assistant, from assister.


kibosh

Possibly a variant of bosh (“nonsense”).

Still I wish you a 'Appy New Year, if you care for the kibosh, old Chappie, / Though 'taint 'Igh Art Cards full o' gush and green paint 'll make you and me 'appy. / Wot we want is lucre and larks, love and lotion as much as you'll carry!

1885 January 3, ’Arry [pseudonym], “’Arry on ’Appiness”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume LXXXVIII, London: […] Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 4, column 1:

Gar'n! Gives me the 'ump, all this kibosh 'bout morals, and taste, and all that.

1887 April 9, ’Arry [pseudonym], “Studies from Mr. Punch’s Studio. No. XXIV.”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume XCII, London: […] Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 172, column 2:

(British, slang, obsolete, rare) Bosh, nonsense.


kibosh

She was, in very Sooth, among the highest of the Rollers, but Hiram stood for the Bills with nary a Whimper. He was proud to be the Husband of the Lady Ki-Bosh of the Local Knickerbockers.

1904 March, George Ade, “Rugged Hiram and Hiram’s Giddy Wife”, in Breaking into Society, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 34:

(British, slang, obsolete, rare) Chiefly preceded by the: fashion, style.


pupil

From Middle English pupille, from Anglo-Norman pupille (“orphan”), from Latin pūpillus (“orphan, minor”), variant of pūpulus (“little boy”), from pūpus (“child, boy”).

The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Diſcharge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extinguiſh the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and conſequently of all the reſt, they being all correi debendi, lyable by one individual Obligation, which cannot be Diſcharged as to one, and ſtand as to all the reſt.

1668 December 19, James Dalrymple, “Mr. Alexander Seaton contra Menzies” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 575

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

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

(dated outside UK) A learner at a school under the supervision of a teacher.


rosebud

(British, sometimes as a term of endearment) A pretty young woman.


tilly

From WWII British Army usage Tilly (“name of a range of British Army vehicles”), from utility.

After a fortnight's careful nursing my leg healed and I was packed off in a tilly (utility truck) with my kit-bag to join my comrades at Fairmilehead.

1978, Ada F Kay (A. J. Stewart), Died 1513-born 1929 / King's Memory, page 83

One night soon after our arrival in Belgium, four of us set off to a dance in a rest centre, behind the lines, for the forces. We drove across a snowy waste in a tilly truck, singing "Lilly Marlene".

1980, Once Upon a Ward: V.A.D.s' Own Stories and Pictures, page 119:


smashing

en-adj

smashing (comparative more smashing, superlative most smashing)

more smashing (comparative)
most smashing (superlative)

From smash + -ing. As a synonym for wonderful, the term first appeared in the United States in the early twentieth century, and possibly derives from the sense of smash used in smash hit and similar terms. Popular folk etymology connects the term to the broadly homophonous Irish is maith sin or Scottish Gaelic 's math sin ("that is good"), but this has been described as "improbable", and does not appear in the etymological dictionaries.

We had a smashing time at the zoo.

Um, the reason for this call is because I haven’t told you for seven hours that I love you, which is a scandal! And even if we weren’t getting married tomorrow, I’d ask you to marry me anyway. Yes I would, because you are smashing!

2010, Toby Whithouse, “The Vampires of Venice”, in Doctor Who, season 5, episode 6, spoken by Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill):

(originally US, now British and Ireland) Wonderful, very good or impressive.


pickle

en-noun

pickle (countable and uncountable, plural pickles)

→ Dutch: pickles

→ French: pickles

→ Irish: picil

→ Korean: 피클 (pikeul)

→ Portuguese: picles

→ Spanish: pickles, picle

→ Welsh: picil

From Middle English pikel (“spicy sauce served with meat or fish”), borrowed from Middle Dutch, Middle Low German pekel (“brine”). Cognate with Scots pikkill (“salt liquor, brine”), Saterland Frisian Piekele (“pickle, brine”), Dutch pekel (“pickle, brine”), Low German pekel, peckel, pickel, bickel (“pickle, brine”), German Pökel (“pickle, brine”).

cog

(UK) A sweet, vinegary pickled chutney popular in Britain.


haul

From Middle English hālen, hailen, haulen, halien (“to drag, pull; to draw up”), from Old French haler (“to haul, pull”), from Frankish *halōn (“to drag, fetch, haul”) or Middle Dutch halen (“to drag, fetch, haul”), possibly merging with Old English *halian (“to haul, drag”); all from Proto-Germanic *halōną, *halēną, *hulōną (“to call, fetch, summon”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, cry, summon”). The noun is derived from the verb.
Cognates
The word is cognate with Danish hale (“to haul”), Middle Dutch halen (“to draw, fetch, haul”), Dutch halen (“to fetch, bring, haul”), Old Frisian halia, Saterland Frisian halen (“to draw, haul, pull”), Low German halen (“to draw, pull”), Old High German halôn, holôn, German holen (“to fetch, get”), Norwegian hale (“to haul”), Old Saxon halôn (“to fetch, get”), Swedish hala (“to hale, haul, pull, tug”), and related to Old English ġeholian (“to get, obtain”).

cog

Four goals scored by a single player in a match can be described as a 'haul', while five goals is unofficially a 'glut'.

2020 October 23, “What is a brace in soccer?”, in Goal:

(British, soccer) Four goals scored by one player in a game.


furlough

en-noun

furlough (countable and uncountable, plural furloughs)

From Dutch verlof (“furlough”), probably from Middle Low German verlōf (“furlough, permission”) (possibly via German Verlaub), from the verb verlōven (“to allow”), from Old Saxon far- + levian (“to give over, leave”).
From Middle Low German also German Verlaub, Danish forlov. Doublet of leave.

der

(British) especially one granted to a missionary.

A leave of absence or vacation.
especially one granted to a missionary.


points

(rail transport, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Movable rails which can be used to switch a train from one railway track to another.

výhybka

movable rails used to switch a train from one track to another


biscuit

en-noun

biscuit (countable and uncountable, plural biscuits)

Tok Pisin: bisket

→ Bengali: বিস্কুট (biskuṭ)

→ Burmese: ဘီစကွတ် (bhica.kwat)

→ Cebuano: biskuwít, biskwit

→ Fiji Hindi: biskut

→ Gujarati: બિસ્કિટ (biskiṭ)

→ Hausa: bìskît

desc

ביסקוויט//בִּיסְקְוִיט

→ Hebrew: ביסקוויט /בִּיסְקְוִיט (bískvit)

→ Hiligaynon: biskwit

desctree

→ Hindi: बिस्कुट (biskuṭ)
→ Jarawa: biskuʈ (“biscuit”)

→ Indonesian: beskit, biskit

→ Japanese: ビスケット (bisuketto)

→ Korean: 비스켓 (biseuket)

→ Malay: biskut

→ Marshallese: petkōj

→ Punjabi: ਬਿਸਕੁਟ (biskuṭ)

→⇒ Scottish Gaelic: briosgaid

→ Spanish: bísquet, bísquete

→ Swahili: biskuti

→ Sylheti: ꠛꠤꠍꠇꠥꠐ (bisókuṭ)

→ Tagalog: biskuwit

→ Thai: บิสกิต (bís-gìt)

→ Urdu: بسکٹ (biskiṭ)
→ Ushojo: بسکٹ (biskiṭ)

→ Yoruba: bisikíìtì

→ Zulu: bhisikidi

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From earlier bisket, from Middle English bisquyte, from Old French bescuit (French biscuit); doublet of biscotto.

Weighed myself at the gym and have hit 10st 8lb, a sure sign of things getting out of control—so I can’t even console myself with a chocolate biscuit.

(UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, sometimes Canada, rare in the US and the Philippines) A small, flat, baked good which is either hard and crisp or else soft but firm; a cookie.

koekie

small, flat baked good — see also cookie, cracker

cheese and biscuits

water biscuits

digestive biscuits

(UK, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia) A cracker.


-bloody-

Absobloodylutely!

Were it not for the tattoos, honestly, they'd be able to stand on one foot for hours and truly focus and not think once about how they forgot to set the Sky+ for The Daily Show a-bloody-gain.

2010 October 17, Hadley Freeman, “Tattoos: what makes one spiritual and another Katona-esque?”, in The Guardian:


scheme

→ Irish: scéim

→ Malay: skim

Borrowed from Medieval Latin schēma (“figure, form”), from Ancient Greek σχῆμα (skhêma, “form, shape”), from ἔχω (ékhō, “I hold”). Doublet of schema. Compare sketch.

der

It was all too dear. They all just put their prices up because it was out in the scheme.

2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 101:

“You can’t really say to the kids in the schemes [Scottish council estates]^([sic]): don’t do drugs, they’ll wreck your life, you’ll never get a job or a house or buy nice things.”

2023 July 2, David Barnett, quoting Irvine Welsh, “‘Choose drugs?’ 30 years after he wrote Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh says life is tougher now”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

(UK, chiefly Scotland, colloquial) A council housing estate.

(UK, pensions) A portfolio of pension plans with related benefits comprising multiple independent members.


fluffer

(UK) One who is employed to clean the tracks in the tunnels of the London Underground.


flit

en-verb

flit (third-person singular simple present flits, present participle flitting, simple past and past participle flitted)

flits (present singular third-person)
flitting (participle present)
flitted (participle past)
flitted (past)

From Middle English flitten, flytten, from Old Norse flytja (“to move”), from Proto-Germanic *flutjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow; run”). Cognate Icelandic flytja, Swedish flytta, Danish flytte, Norwegian flytte, Faroese flyta. Compare also Saterland Frisian flitskje (“to rush; run quickly”).

cog

After this manner did the late Warden of Barchester Hospital accomplish his flitting, and change his residence.

1855, Anthony Trollope, The Warden, →ISBN, page 199:

[…] we can't give any one house-room just now, for every Christmas Eve such a pack of Trolls come down upon us that we are forced to flit, and haven't so much as a house over our own heads, to say nothing of lending one to any one else.

1859, “The Cat on the Dovrefell”, in George Dasent, transl., Popular Tales from the Norse:

(UK, dialect) To move house (sometimes a sudden move to avoid debts).


crackling

en-noun

crackling (countable and uncountable, plural cracklings)

To make chicken crackling, use 500 g (1 lb 1V2 oz) chicken skin. Wash and remove excess fats.

2011 February 28, Arlene Diego, Step by Step Cooking Filipino: Delightful Ideas for Everyday Meals, Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd, →ISBN, page 54:

(cooking, in the singular in British) The crispy rind of roast pork.


wigger

Blend of white + nigger. First use appears c. 1988. See cite below.

I have often heard the word "wigger" used to describe a white person who supposedly acts and talks "black," while the same type of taunting is put upon a black person who supposedly acts "white."

1988 April 20, “How race-conscious are high school students today?”, in The Washington Post, number ?, Washington, D.C., →ISSN, →OCLC, column ?:

To some extent wiggers are simply the most visible examples of a very American brand of teenage rebellion.

1999, Leonard Steinhorn et al., By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race, page 178:

And I just do not got the patience
To deal with these cocky Caucasians
Who think I'm some wigger who just tries to be black...

cultural appropriator
cultural appropriator

(derogatory, ethnic slur) A white person, typically young and male, considered to be overly infatuated with African-American or (UK) Afro-Caribbean culture, a cultural appropriator.


minge

From Angloromani mintš, from Romani minʒ (“female genitals”), probably from Old Armenian մէջ (mēǰ, “middle, midst; inside, interior; the middle part of the body; loins, reins; waist; belly, abdomen; back”). Doublet of medius.
Alternate etymology: from the Latin mingere (“to urinate”), synecdochically used to describe the organ through an associated function (possibly ironically or euphemistically).

der

Last week, she ended up on a binge / She got off her tits and showed the bouncers her minge

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

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) The pubic hair and vulva.


cutting

en-noun

cutting (countable and uncountable, plural cuttings)

[T]he railway, however, will require a farther outlay to render it complete, though the locomotive engine has passed over every foot of ground from Liverpool to Salford. The slopes of the cuttings want dressing, and several of them want protecting with foot walls.

1832, “Documents in Relation to the Comparative Merits of Canals and Railroads, Submitted by Mr. Howard, of Maryland, […]. (Doc. No. 101) [No. 7. Observations upon the Cost of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.]”, in Executive Documents, Printed by Order of the House of Representatives, at the First Session of the Twenty-second Congress, […] In Seven Volumes, volume III, Washington, D.C.: […] Duff Green, →OCLC, page 211:

We flash across the level. / We thunder thro' the bridges. / We bicker down the cuttings. / We sway along the ridges.

1876, William Ernest Henley, “[Poem] XXI”, in A Book of Verses, 3rd edition, New York, N.Y.: Scribner & Welford, published 1891, →OCLC, page 77:

No borrow pit excavation was necessary, and 41,000 cu. yd. were removed from cuttings by excavating machines.

1944 November and December, “Increasing G.W.R. Line Capacity”, in Railway Magazine, page 367:

On the descent the line is often in cuttings; some are high, such as at Scarcroft, where a cut through firestone and fireclay was necessary, and near Bardsey, where the line threads a deep tree-lined gorge.

1961 February, D. Bertram, “The lines to Wetherby and their traffic”, in Trains Illustrated, page 101:

(countable, UK) An open passage at a level lower than the surrounding terrain, dug for a canal, railway, or road to go through.

zářez

open passage dug for a canal, railway, or road


lurgy

Eric Sykes
Michael Quinion
Spike Milligan
The Goon Show

A nonsense word popularized by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes, scriptwriters for a 9 November 1954 programme of The Goon Show, “Lurgi Strikes Britain”, about the outbreak of a highly dangerous, highly infectious and—as it turns out—highly fictitious disease known as “the Dreaded Lurgi”.
Folk etymologies include:
* a corruption and contraction of allergy. This is not supported by the use of the hard /ɡ/ in lurgi (rhyming with Fergie), as allergy has a soft 'g' /dʒ/.
* based on the Northern English dialectal phrase fever-lurgy (“lazy or idle”).

the dreaded lurgy

He was helped, of course, by his presentational skills, still present here despite a sore throat and what seemed to be a spot of the perennial conference lurgy.

2011 October 5, Jonathan Freedland, “David Cameron's speech fails to match the gravity of the times”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, slang) A fictitious, highly infectious disease; sometimes as a reference to flu-like symptoms.

Blocked nose, watering eyes, a sore throat – the signs of a cold are all too familiar. Here are seven ways to dodge the lurgy, or shrug it off sooner[.]

2019 January 6, Nicola Davis, “Seven ways to dodge a cold – or recover faster”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, slang) Any uncategorised disease with symptoms similar to a cold or flu that renders one unable to work.


brick and mortar

(UK) Buildings, especially domestic housing.


luncheon meat

luncheon meat (countable and uncountable, plural luncheon meats)


rates

(British, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong) Taxes, usually on property, levied by local government.


piazza

From Italian piazza. Doublet of piatza, place, and plaza.

(UK) A roofed gallery or arcade (for example around a public square or in front of a building).


get down

en-verb

get down (third-person singular simple present gets down, present participle getting down, simple past got down, past participle (UK) got down or (US) gotten down)

gets down (present singular third-person)
getting down (participle present)
got down (past)
got down (UK participle past)
gotten down (US participle past)

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

Mummy, can I get down please?

(intransitive, British, informal, of a child) To leave the table after dining.


SAT

en-noun

SAT (countable and uncountable, plural SATs)

Statutory Assessment Test
w:National Curriculum assessment

(British) Acronym of Statutory Assessment Test, a national curriculum assessment, or exam.


boy racer

By this time in the evening, the city was mainly quiet, with one exception, boy racers; young men out to impress each other, as well as the city's young females, periodically tore along the street, in a variety of cars, booming out ‘musical’ bass rhythms, apparently oblivious of the speed limits and any concern for anybody else.

2006, Geoff Porter, Little Bites of Australia, page 240:

He and his boy racer mates used to spend every Friday and Saturday nights spreading diesel across the roads and racing their cars.

2006, Jan Colley, Melting the Icy Tycoon, page 51:

2011, Andy Frankham-Allen, Seeker, Untreed Reads, unnumbered page,
The sound of music pumping from the arcades was one thing, this was a standard sound expected in a seaside resort, but the cacophony of the boy racers was not.

(UK, New Zealand) A young man who drives recklessly fast, especially one who participates in gatherings of car-culture enthusiasts and/or in illegal street racing.

เด็กแว้น

young man driving recklessly, participating in illegal street racing, etc.


supergrass

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

From super- + grass, from grass (“an informer”).

I have to tell the hon. and learned Gentleman that I do not know the facts which led to that decision. On the other hand, although it is an unpleasant fact of life, there are now and again occasions on which, in order to achieve convictions against really bad villains, it is necessary to use people who are termed supergrasses.

1979 July 23, Havers, Michael (Attorney-General), “Witnesses (Immunity From Prosecution)”, in Hansard, volume 971, Parliament of the United Kingdom, page 64:

In several cases the supergrass spent days in the witness box giving evidence of scores of offences allegedly committed by many individuals over a period of years.

2000, D. Walsh, Bloody Sunday and the Rule of Law in Northern Ireland, page 241:

(UK, slang) An informer providing substantial quantities of information on criminal or terrorist activities to the police.


Paki-bashing

(British, derogatory) In skinhead culture the act of physical or verbal attacks by non-Asians against Pakistanis or other people originating from North Africa, the Middle East or the Indian subcontinent, and predominantly of a Muslim background.


wight

From Middle English wight, from Old Norse vígt, neuter of vígr (“skilled in fighting, of age”), from Proto-Germanic *wīgaz (“fighting”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to fight”). Cognate with Old English wīġ.

Then spake Much the milner son, / Ever more well him betide! / ‘Take twelve of thy wight yeomen, / Well weapon’d by thy side. / Such one would thyselfë slon, / That twelve dare not abide.’

a. 1450, “Robin Hood and the Monk”, in Frank Sidgwick, editor, Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws, published 1912, page 98, lines 29–34:

Ye do you to my father's stable, / Where steeds do stand baith wight and able; / Strike ane o' them upo' the back, / The swiftest will gie his head a wap.

a. 1828, “Leesome Brand”, in Peter Buchan, editor, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, volume 1, published 1828, page 39, lines 21–24:

(UK dialectal, obsolete) Strong; stout; active.


schooner

Attested ca. 1715, of uncertain origin. Said to be derived from dialectal scoon (“to skim over water”). Compare also shunt (“to cause to move (suddenly)”).

Boycott any pub that bans work clothes, allows customers to reserve tables or only sells beer in schooners. That is less a pub, more a private members’ club.

2018 June 6, Tony Naylor, “The new rules of pub etiquette: don't flirt with bar staff or steal the glasses”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK) A glass for drinking a large measure of sherry.


slipper

en-verb

slipper (third-person singular simple present slippers, present participle slippering, simple past and past participle slippered)

slippers (present singular third-person)
slippering (participle present)
slippered (participle past)
slippered (past)

1981, Andrew Loudon, Staffroom mole leaks secret of his school's beatings book, Daily Mail and General Trust, World Corporal Punishment Research
"One boy was slippered five times in four days for offences such as missing detention, fooling about and being out of bounds."

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) To spank with a plimsoll as corporal punishment.


first class

- How was your holiday? - It was first class.


surgery

en-noun

surgery (countable and uncountable, plural surgeries)

/ˈsɜːd͡ʒəɹi/

From Middle English surgerie, from Old French surgerie, from Latin chirurgia, from Ancient Greek χειρουργία (kheirourgía), from χείρ (kheír, “hand”) + ἔργον (érgon, “work”). Doublet of chirurgy.

I dropped in on the surgery as I was passing to show the doctor my hemorrhoids.

Surgery is from six to seven o’clock. If you wanted to bring a dog in, that would be your best time.

1972, James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small:

(British) A medical practitioner’s office hours.

Our MP will be holding a surgery in the village hall on Tuesday.

(British) Any arrangement where people arrive and wait for an interview with certain people, particularly a politician. cf. clinic.

fogadóóra

any arrangement where people arrive and wait for an interview with certain people, particularly a politician


lamp

en-verb

lamp (third-person singular simple present lamps, present participle lamping, simple past and past participle lamped)

lamps (present singular third-person)
lamping (participle present)
lamped (participle past)
lamped (past)

From Middle English laumpe, lampe, from Old French lampe (“lamp, light”), from Latin lampas (“torch, lamp, light”), from Ancient Greek λαμπάς (lampás, “torch, lamp, beacon, light, meteor”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂p- (“to shine”). Cognate with Lithuanian lópė (“light”), Welsh llachar (“bright”). Displaced native Old English lēohtfæt (literally “light container”).

cog

All for the pleasure of lamping a twat in the face.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 337:

(UK, slang) To hit, clout, belt, wallop.

(UK, Ireland) To hunt at night using a lamp, during which bright lights are used to dazzle the hunted animal or to attract insects for capture.


fall off the back of a lorry

en-verb

fall<,,fell,fallen> off the back of a lorry

fall off the back of a lorry (third-person singular simple present falls off the back of a lorry, present participle falling off the back of a lorry, simple past fell off the back of a lorry, past participle fallen off the back of a lorry)

falls off the back of a lorry (present singular third-person)
falling off the back of a lorry (participle present)
fell off the back of a lorry (past)
fallen off the back of a lorry (participle past)

(idiomatic, British, euphemistic) Of an item of merchandise, to come into a person's possession without having been paid for; to have been acquired illegally.


turning

From Middle English turnyng, turnynge, from Old English tyrning, turnung, equivalent to turn + -ing.

Take the second turning on the left.

Except for turnings with a deflated rear tire as an outerside tire, difference in the performance is small between fixed control and manual control.

1974, Shoichi Sano, “Steering and Handling Characteristics of a Vehicle when Fail-safe Tire is Deflated”, in Fifth International Technical Conference on Experimental Safety Vehicles, page 909:

(UK, Ireland) A turn or deviation from a straight course.


growler

From growl + -er. Sense "jug" is 19th century American slang, of uncertain origin.

Now, on first impression, a pork pie - or a ‘growler’ if you're from Yorkshire - looks like a delicious snack.

2008 August 22, Christina McDermott, The Guardian:

On our first meeting he'd asked me if I dyed my hair. I told him I did and his follow up^([sic]) question had been the much under rated^([sic]), "What colour's your growler then?"

2007, Cesca Martin, Agony Angel, Troubadour Publishing, pages 125–6:


woof

woof (third-person singular simple present woofs, present participle woofing, simple past and past participle woofed)

woofs (present singular third-person)
woofing (participle present)
woofed (participle past)
woofed (past)

The interjection and noun are onomatopoeic. Interjection sense 2 (“used to express strong physical attraction for someone”) probably alludes to the eager barking of a dog.
The verb is probably derived from the interjection and the noun. Verb sense 1.2 (“to eat (food) voraciously”) may be influenced by or, alternatively, derived from wolf (“to eat (food) voraciously, devour, gobble”).

[N]othing makes me feel better than to see my dog's woofing down their food.

2007 June 5, Patricia O’Grady, “Feeding a Homemade Diet”, in Woofing It Down: The Quick & Easy Guide to Making Healthy Dog Food at Home, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 23:

The dog doesn't bark, it just stares at Tom. Tom pulls out the steaks. […] Tom throws them over and the dog woofs them down.

2020, Ian Horan, “The Return of Tom Fuller”, in Psychotic Episodes: Another Collection of Crazy Stories, [Morrisville, N.C.: Lulu.com], →ISBN, page 64:

(originally British, Royal Air Force slang, informal) To eat (food) voraciously; to devour, to gobble, to wolf.


spoof

en-noun

spoof (countable and uncountable, plural spoofs)

Coined by the English comedian Arthur Roberts (1852–1933) in 1884 as the name of a card game involving deception and nonsense.

The British journalist and author Richard Boston supplies an illustrative example of a drinking game once commonly played in British public houses but which has since faded from use: The game Spoof involves three or more players concealing between zero and three coins or similar small objects in a clenched fist that they hold in front of their body or place on the bar counter or table. Players are then prompted to correctly guess the total number of coins held by all players. As the game progresses, correct guesses allow players to drop out until the final round, in which the "loser," determined by making an incorrect guess, is punished by being required to buy the next round of drinks.

2015, Thomas Thurnell-Read, “Drinking Games”, in Scott C. Martin, editor, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Alcohol: Social, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Reference, →ISBN:

(countable, British, historical) A drinking game in which players hold up to three (or another specified number of) coins hidden in a fist and attempt to guess the total number of coins held.


get out

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

Just get out.

(UK, Ireland, slang) Expressing disapproval or disgust, especially after a bad joke.


Judy

Then I ring the bell at this door marked Slocum, and who appears but a tall young Judy with black hair who is without doubt beautiful, but who is so skinny we have to look twice to see her […]

To steal a housewife's purse might mean that her children would have to go hungry; but what of that, if the flash young “dip” could gain admiration from his mates by boasting that he had “frisked a judy's cly and lifted a skinful of bunce”?

1959, Frank Clune, Murders on Maunga-tapu, page 10:

(slang, chiefly UK, Liverpool) A girl or woman.


quango

From the initial letters (the first two letters for the first word) of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization. Coined by American president of the Carnegie Foundation Alan Pifer in 1967.

coinage

The strongest link to the State, however, occurs with quangos, (quasi-NGOs), and the many umbrella groups that also thrive on State support. Many of the new parties realized after their Sturm und Drang years that they still needed regular contacts with the 'civil' world and that their civilian support base had been seriously eroded.

1998, Ferenc Miszlivetz; Katalin Ertsey, “Hungary: Civil Society in the Post-Socialist World”, in Alison van Rooy, editor, Civil Society and the Aid Industry: The Politics and Promise, London: Earthscan, OCLC ISBN 978-1-85383-553-7; republished as Civil Society and the Aid Industry (Earthscan Library Collection, Aid and Development; 3), London; Stirling, Va.: Earthscan, 2013, ISBN 978-1-84971-042-8, page 78

Various state committees and quangos had had stands; government and opposition ministers had attended.

2009, China Miéville, The City & The City:

(UK, government, often derogatory) An organization that, although financed by a government, acts independently of it.

autorité administrative indépendante

квазиавтономная неправительственная организа́ция

полуавтономная неправительственная организа́ция


one-to-one

en-adj

one-to-one (comparative more one-to-one, superlative most one-to-one)

more one-to-one (comparative)
most one-to-one (superlative)

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

a one-to-one discussion

a one-to-one teaching session

(chiefly UK) Involving direct communication between two people.


pillar box

(UK, Ireland) A free-standing item of street furniture in the form of a short, red pillar with a slot for posting letters.


slough

Maxwell Township, Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota

From Middle English slough (“muddy place; swamp; mire”), Old English slōh, probably from Proto-Germanic *slōhaz.

inh

"That comed - as you call it - of being arrant asses," retorted the doctor, "and not having sense enough to know honest air from poison, and the dry land from a vile, pestiferous slough.

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

Notwithstanding this discrepancy, however, and though, taught by experience, I hastened to agree with her that the secret of her birth was not likely to be discovered in a moment, nor by so simple a process as the journey to Norwich, which I had been going to suggest, it was natural that we should often revert to the subject, and to her pretensions, and the hardship of her lot: and my curiosity and questions giving a fillip to her memory, scarcely a day passed but she recovered some new detail from the past; as at one time a service of gold-plate which she perfectly remembered she had seen on her father's sideboard; and at another time an accident that had befell her in her childhood, through her father's coach and six horses being overturned in a slough.

1897, Stanley John Weyman, chapter IV, in Shrewsbury:


watershed

From water + shed, a calque of German Wasserscheide, a compound of Wasser (“water”) + scheiden (“to divide”).

(hydrology, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) The topographical boundary dividing two adjacent catchment basins, such as a ridge or a crest.

вададзе́л

boundary between adjacent catchment basins

(Canada, British, television, radio) The time during the day which material of a more adult nature (e.g., violence, swear words, or sex) may be broadcast on television or radio, either one permitted by law or one contrived from convention (e.g. when children are not watching).

dos rombos

time after which adult material may be broadcast


rating

In the Royal Navy the ratings, in order, are: ordinary seaman, able seaman, leading seaman, petty officer and chief petty officer.

Fifty officers and seven hundred and fifty ratings from the two British ships were picked up by the Japanese, together with the survivors from the Pope

1950, Winston S. Churchill, “The Hinge of Fate”, in The Second World War, volume 4, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 149:

(nautical, British) An enlisted seaman not a commissioned officer or warrant officer.


grange

From Middle English graunge, borrowed from Old French grange (“granary; barn; small farm”), from Vulgar Latin *grānica, from Latin grānum (“grain”).

der

What tell'st thou me of robbing? / This is Venice. My house is not a grange.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], line 120:

(British) A farm, with its associated buildings; a farmhouse or manor.


poorly

en-adj

poorly (comparative poorlier or more poorly, superlative poorliest or most poorly)

poorlier (comparative)
more poorly (comparative)
poorliest (superlative)
most poorly (superlative)

to report one's child poorly

We talk about Kim, who is very poorly now. He can hardly see at all, and his legs are suppurating.

2008, Carla van Raay, “The Passing of a Friend”, in The Price of Passion, London: Ebury Press, →ISBN, page 241:

A hospital was established very quickly – beds and clean sheets and skilled care – then by ambulance my cousin and I were taken to Celle and here hospital staff were wonderful. […] particular attention was given to my cousin who was poorlier than me […]

2011, Peter Liddle, quoting Manya Stern, “Manya Stern – A Polish Jewess, Life under German Occupation, Forced Labour in Germany, and Survivor of Bergen-Belsen”, in Captured Memories 1930–1945: Across the Threshold of War: The Thirties and the War, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military, →ISBN, section two (1939–1945), subsection “On the Home Front”, page 334:


chuffed

chuffed (comparative more chuffed, superlative most chuffed)

more chuffed (comparative)
most chuffed (superlative)

From dialectal (northern England, not Scotland) chuff, originally meaning “puffed with fat”. First attested in 1957.

Then when Karen got him on her morning show he was chuffed as a haemophiliac with a foolproof razor

1992, Vincent O'Sullivan, Palms and Minarets: Selected Stories:

Got to the video shop in a state / But chuffed it wouldn't be late

2004, “It Was Supposed to Be So Easy”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), A Grand Don’t Come For Free, performed by The Streets:

“I'm chuffed,” she said, putting the kettle on. He gave her that wonderful smile. “Why, exactly?” “Why do you suppose we drink so much strong tea?” “Habit. It's a drug within the bounds of the law.” “Very true!” “Why are you so chuffed, Edda?”

2014, Colleen McCullough, Bittersweet: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 131:

As he arrived on the red carpet Michael said: 'It is my first nomination and I could not be more chuffed.' Well, he could be more chuffed. And that was if he was to win the Olivier honour.

2015, Willie Robertson, Michael Ball - The Biography, John Blake Publishing, →ISBN:

I sold a rug to someone on marketplace and they just sent me this picture with the message “little man is chuffed”

2023 April 5, Travis Greenwood, quoting lucindalvngstn, Cuteness, archived from the original on 2024-08-23:

(UK, Ireland, informal) Very pleased or satisfied; delighted.


chuffed

From chuff, "a coarse or stupid fellow".

(UK, Ireland, dialect) Displeased; gruff.


transit

en-noun

transit (countable and uncountable, plural transits)

From French, from Latin transire (“to go across, pass in, pass through”), from trans (“over”) + ire (“to go”).

der

Beufort road, Birkenhead, about 17.15 June 19 2013, white transit overtakes and swerves left into junction almost taking my front wheel.

(UK, Ireland) A Ford Transit van, see Transit.


Glasgow kiss

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

Refers to the supposed belligerence of Glaswegians.

(British, euphemistic, humorous) A sharp, sudden headbutt to the nose, usually resulting in a broken nose.


Slush Puppie

Blend of slush + hushpuppy, a trademark.

(British) A slushie, a slush, a nonalcoholic drink made of small ice crystals flavored with syrup.

Slush Puppy

an alcoholic drink; not to be confused with slush puppy


nobble

en-verb

nobble (third-person singular simple present nobbles, present participle nobbling, simple past and past participle nobbled)

nobbles (present singular third-person)
nobbling (participle present)
nobbled (participle past)
nobbled (past)

After 12 successive league wins[…]Charlton were nobbled by the First Division's no-hopers, who profited from a goalkeeping bloomer then held on to their lead for dear life.

2000 March 12, Stuart Barnes, “Swindon stunner for Curbishley”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Their core belief, unsupported by evidence or logic, is that homes are unaffordable because investors drive up prices.[…]Australians for Affordable Housing appears to think that nobbling investors will strike a telling blow for first-time buyers: remove negative gearing and increase capital gains tax, and homes will be affordable.

2011 October 22, Terry Ryder, “Affordable-housing lobby out to nobble investments”, in The Australian:

Google has come out fighting after Twitter claimed that changes to its search engine nobble results to favour Google+, damaging the internet.

2012 January 11, Gavin Clarke, “Google attacks Twitter's search bias claim”, in The Register:

His main fear is that the fledgling technology could have its wings clipped by traditional manufacturers, who will doubtless view it as a threat to their livelihoods, and do all in their powers to nobble it.

2012 September 9, “3D printing: Difference Engine: The PC all over again”, in The Economist:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) To injure or obstruct intentionally.

The jury was nobbled to delay unanimous verdict.

Unlike "noble" vigilantes, the police and court facilities which exist are said to be inefficient and corrupt, and juries are said to be easily "nobbled" or intimidated.

2000, Italo Pardo, Morals of Legitimacy: Between Agency and System, page 122:

For example jury trials were reformed to allow majority verdicts, so that criminals could less easily nobble them.

2002, Kevin Jefferys, Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown, page 107:

Here, though, Picot's overbearing power, and the fact that the bishop was an absentee, meant that the sheriff could use threats to "nobble" the judges.

2012, Mark Hagger, William: King and Conqueror, page 75:

(UK, Ireland, slang) To gain influence over by corrupt means or intimidation.

podmáznout

to gain influence by corrupt means or intimidation


nobble

(UK, slang) A deliberate act of injury or obstruction.


Belisha beacon

Named after Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport who introduced them in 1934.

A police constable concealed in a doorway in City Road, Finsbury, saw a youth of seventeen, who had two others with him, climb a Belisha beacon and break the globe with his fist. It was the hundredth beacon globe to be broken in Finsbury since November.

1935 January 10, “Cyclists air their grievances on road safety”, in The Guardian:

(British, Ireland) A tall black and white pole topped by a flashing orange globe, placed on either side of the road at zebra crossings; mostly now replaced by more sophisticated arrangements.


fizzy drink

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A non-alcoholic, carbonated beverage such as lemonade or cola.


flog

flog (third-person singular simple present flogs, present participle flogging, simple past and past participle flogged)

flogs (present singular third-person)
flogging (participle present)
flogged (participle past)
flogged (past)

From Middle English *floggen (suggested by flogge (“hammer, sledge”), from Old English *floggian, a stem variant of Proto-Germanic *flukkōną (“to beat”), itself a secondary zero-grade iterative with unetymological -u-, derived from *flōkaną.
The original zero-grade iterative *flakkōną had been misinterpreted as an o-grade. See flack (“to beat”), also as a dialectal noun "a blow, slap". Cognate with Scots flog (“a blow, stripe, flogging”, noun), Scots flog (“thin strip of wood”), Norwegian flak (“a piece torn off, strip”).
Alternatively, a back-formation from flogger, from Low German flogger (“a flail”).

cog

And then there's my part time job at Telstra Bigpond flogging their cable network for just $67.55/month long term cost, a BARGAIN, and the other part time job flogging Foxtel at something like $50/month.

2001 January 26, Paul Edwards, “Optus $5/month 5110, T10 and 2288 only 4 days”, in aus.comms.mobile (Usenet):

Flanders was able to flog his piece of land, for which he had originally paid £4,000, to one of the largest gold-mining corporations for something like a couple of million smackers.

2007, Dave Lee (jazz musician), Nothing Rhymes with Silver 2, page 78:


fairy cake

(UK, Ireland) A small cake baked in a small paper cup; a cupcake.


engaged tone

(UK, Ireland, telephony) An audible signal to the calling party that indicates failure to complete the requested connection; a busy signal


ex-directory

(UK, Ireland) Of a telephone number or its owner: not in the directory; unlisted.


brass monkeys

From the phrase cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey - supposedly a reference to the brass container for cannon balls on a British man-of-war (but this seems to have been discredited).

Blimey, it's brass monkeys out there today.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic, informal) Very cold.


loudhailer

As Ukrainian forces struggled to hold the flattened city, it was claimed that civilians in captured territory were being deceived into leaving shelters to be bussed out to Russian camps by soldiers wielding loudhailers.

2022 March 24, Daniel Boffey, “Ukraine sinks Russian ship as Moscow accused of forcible deportations from Mariupol”, in The Guardian:


bunk off

en-verb

bunk off (third-person singular simple present bunks off, present participle bunking off, simple past and past participle bunked off)

bunks off (present singular third-person)
bunking off (participle present)
bunked off (participle past)
bunked off (past)

We all bunked off school yesterday to watch the football.

“You better be off to school now, young lady. You don’t want to be late…”
“I suppose so,” mumbled Zoe. Sometimes she wondered why she didn’t just bunk off like so many of the others.

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


chancer

Actually, that's exactly what O'Dowd is doing in Get Shorty, presenting a taciturn thug with chewed up charm, a chancer pitching a movie in Hollywood.

2018 June 6, Peter Crawley, “Get Shorty: Chris O’Dowd as a chewed-up, charming chancer”, in Irish Times, retrieved 2022-08-29:

From then on, Emin became fixed in many minds as the drunken chancer who boasted about her promiscuity and called it art.

2024 May 29, Simon Hattenstone, “The radical, ravishing rebirth of Tracey Emin: ‘I didn’t want to die as some mediocre YBA’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, slang) A scheming opportunist.


car park

/ˈkɑɹ ˌpɑːɹk/

It is important also that we improve car park security.

1998, House of Lords, Parliamentary Debates, page ccxxxv:

The dog lumbered his way across the car park to a point where he had to cross Emmons′s path.

2006, Richard Mechan, The State Is Not Immune, page 9:

Beyond the car park a rough old track ran uphill.

2010, John Marsden, The Ellie Chronicles: Incurable, unnumbered page:

Follow the road to the car park and boat ramp at Buffalo Creek.

2011, Richard Thomas, Sarah Thomas, David Andrew, Alan McBride, The Complete Guide to Finding the Birds of Australia, page 119:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, Hong Kong) An outdoor area or a building where cars may be parked.

(Australia, New Zealand) A rectangular section, usually marked by painted lines, designated for the parking of a single car.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, figuratively, humorous) A road with serious traffic congestion preventing the movement of vehicles.


naff off

naff off (third-person singular simple present naffs off, present participle naffing off, simple past and past participle naffed off)

naffs off (present singular third-person)
naffing off (participle present)
naffed off (participle past)
naffed off (past)

Oi, you cheeky slag / Naff off

2003, “Mind Out”, in Asylum Speakers, performed by Foreign Beggars ft. Skrein:

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A mild version of fuck off


bubble and squeak

en-noun

bubble and squeak (countable and uncountable, plural bubble and squeaks)

(food): Named from the sounds during cooking.

“But if she had rank and title?”
“Rank and title! Bubble and squeak! No, not half so good as bubble and squeak. English beef and good cabbage. But foreign rank and title!—foreign cabbage and beef!—foreign bubble and foreign squeak!”

1853, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VIII, in “My Novel”; Or Varieties in English Life […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book eighth, page 348:

“Better have it—better have it first. No hurry. What've you got in the pot that smells so good?”
“Bubble and squeak, sir.”
“Bubble and squeak! Ah!” And with those words the agent withdrew to where, in a farm wagon drawn up by the side of the road, three men were solemnly pulling at their pipes.

1915, John Galsworthy, chapter XVIII, in The Freelands:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Cabbage and mashed potatoes etc. fried together.


dustbin

From dust + bin, as used for disposing of dust and other rubbish.

Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.

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

(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) A bin for holding rubbish until it can be collected; a garbage can.


pelican crossing

pelican crossing (plural pelican crossings)

Short for pedestrian light-controlled crossing.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A pedestrian crossing with traffic-lights operated by pedestrians


parkie

(UK, Ireland, slang) A parking or traffic warden.


pushchair

/ˈpʊʃ.t͡ʃɛə(ɹ)/

He reversed the pushchair out of the shop and continued towards his errands.

The Key Train Requirements document, released in July by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), includes a new clause covering people travelling with pushchairs. It highlights the need for space in carriages for unfolded pushchairs or prams, separate from areas for wheelchairs and cycles. It also recommends extending seat reservations to include pram spaces.

2023 August 9, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Family-friendly travel: new standard covers pushchairs”, in RAIL, number 989, page 26:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A small carriage in which a baby or child is pushed around; a stroller or baby buggy.


hosepipe

In a hot three-week drought that had begin in July he could have saved it, despite the hosepipe ban. But he had been too busy to haul full buckets the garden's length.

(UK, South Africa, Southern US) A flexible pipe for carrying water or other liquids; a garden hose.


invigilator

/ɪnˈvɪd͡ʒɪleɪtəɹ/

From invigilate + -or, from Latin invigilatus, past participle of invigilo.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A person who supervises students during an examination; a proctor

(chiefly UK, Ireland or archaic) A person who supervises a gallery at a museum.


parky

en-adj

parky (comparative parkier, superlative parkiest)

parkier (comparative)
parkiest (superlative)

Uncertain, but probably from parky above or from dialectical pronunciation of perky.

Gene Hunt: [seeing a woman in a sari] A bit parky to be out in just her nighty.

2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3:

(British, informal) Synonym of chilly: somewhat cold but not extremely so.


grubber

He could, moreover, no longer be tempted to the Grubber, for all chocolate and sweets were taboo.

1925, The Oxford Outlook, numbers 34-43, page 158:

I remember the grubber which smelt of potato chips and chocolate and the steam-heated library with books about monasteries that no one else seemed to look at, and I remember the fresh weedless lawns between the school buildings […]

1960, Rupert Croft-Cooke, The Altar in the Loft, page 210:


mains

I plugged it into the mains and it blew up!

We don't have mains power out here, only a generator.

mains electricity, mains voltage

(chiefly British) The domestic electrical power supply, especially as connected to a network or grid.


up the duff

Unknown; the OED states that the phrase was originally Australian. Possibly related to in the pudding club (duff is a type of pudding) and thus related to dough.

Lynda up the duff—what odds do you put on that, eh, Mr Clever Dick, eh? That's shut his gob. That's put a crease in his brand-new suit.

1987, David Leland, Wish You Were Here, spoken by Lynda Mansell (Emily Lloyd):

At 19, he was married (‘only because she was up the duff’ he explains gallantly).

1994, The Daily Telegraph, quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, page 88, 2nd edition, 2005:

“Well, when he found out that my gran was up the duff, he went back to his native Norway (or it might have been Sweden)[…].”

1998, Tracey Ullman, Tracey Takes On..., page 98:

It just means that some daft wee hairy that gets knocked up the duff has tae get oan the bus tae Carlisle tae get cleaned oot.

1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 191:

The great coalface of fuckwits; the fly-by-nighters, who do their five years in Bondi, befriend a Roosters player, get a good coke dealer, meet some tight westie bitch who′s moved here while she works a job in PR, they fall in love, she gets up the duff and then they have to buy a house in Condell Park and they′re gone[…].

2008, Sam de Brito, The Lost Boys, page 14:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial, slang) Pregnant.


doss

en-verb

doss (third-person singular simple present dosses, present participle dossing, simple past and past participle dossed)

dosses (present singular third-person)
dossing (participle present)
dossed (participle past)
dossed (past)

Perhaps from Latin dorsum (“the back”), i.e. what one lies on when sleeping; perhaps from English dialect doss (“a hassock”).

I am going to doss tomorrow when the match is on.

(intransitive, British and Ireland) To avoid work, shirk, etc.

I normally have to doss in shop doorways or park benches.

(intransitive, British, slang) To sleep, especially in the open or in a derelict building because one is homeless.


doss

en-noun

doss (countable and uncountable, plural dosses)

I am going to have a doss tomorrow.

(slang, British and Ireland) The avoidance of work.

Circumnavigating the world in a canoe is no doss.

(slang, British and Ireland) An easy piece of work.

(slang, dated, British and Ireland) A place to sleep in; a bed.

(slang, dated, British and Ireland, by extension) Sleep.


barrister

From bar (a collective term for lawyers or the legal profession) and the suffix -ster.

Postmen, binmen, dock workers, even barristers are now on strike. Where will all this end?

2022 September 7, Philip Haigh, “Comment: More strikes and poor morale”, in RAIL, number 965, page 3:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) A lawyer with the right to speak and argue as an advocate in higher lawcourts.

адвока́т

lawyer with the right to speak as an advocate in higher lawcourts


orientate

en-verb

orientate (third-person singular simple present orientates, present participle orientating, simple past and past participle orientated)

orientates (present singular third-person)
orientating (participle present)
orientated (participle past)
orientated (past)

From orient + -ate or a back-formation from orientation.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, intransitive) To face a given direction.

He[…]stood for a moment, orientating himself exactly in the light of his knowledge.

He came out of the station and took some time to orientate himself.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, reflexive) To determine one's position relative to the surroundings; to orient (oneself).

Try to orientate your students towards the science subjects.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, transitive) To position (something), to align relative to a given position.


plonker

“You kept the hat! You bloody plonker!” “Fuck me.” “And now look at you, bouncing off the cars like a bouncing idiot.” “Fucking hell!” “Is he gonna be alright?”

2020 May 20, Jemaine Clement, “The Return” (: from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 2, episode 7, spoken by Nadja (Natasia Demetriou):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, derogatory) A fool.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A penis.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, dated) A man who sanctions sexual relationships between his girlfriend and his male friends.


slaphead

(UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A bald person; somebody with a shaved or hairless head.


crank

From Dutch or Low German krank, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *krank, from Proto-Germanic *krangaz, *krankaz (“bent; weak”). Cognate with Scots crank, krank, German krank (“sick”).

John is a crank because he talks to himself.

Persons whom the Americans since Guiteau’s trial have begun to designate as ‘cranks’—that is to say, persons of disordered mind, in whom the itch of notoriety supplies the lack of any higher ambition.

The raw meat cranks are in dead earnest. They think that raw food is the manna of heaven.

1901 July 19, “Gleanings”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 10, page 318:

But do you know what isn't in the school books? That old Rossum was mad. Seriously, Miss Glory, you must keep this to yourself. The old crank wanted to actually make people.

c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act 1:

(informal, British, dated in US) A person who is considered strange or odd by others, and may behave in unconventional ways.


sellotape

en-noun

sellotape (countable and uncountable, plural sellotapes)

From genericized trademark Sellotape, from cello(phane) + tape. The spelling with S- was to avoid an existing trademark on the word Cellophane itself.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Adhesive tape.


sellotape

en-verb

sellotape (third-person singular simple present sellotapes, present participle sellotaping, simple past and past participle sellotaped)

sellotapes (present singular third-person)
sellotaping (participle present)
sellotaped (participle past)
sellotaped (past)

The door was slightly ajar, with a newspaper cartoon sellotaped to it:

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 258:

(transitive, British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) To seal with adhesive tape.


sticking plaster

en-noun

sticking plaster (plural sticking plasters)

As I live, these covered parts of him were checkered with the same squares as his face; his back, too, was all over the same dark squares; he seemed to have been in a Thirty Years’ War, and just escaped from it with a sticking-plaster shirt.

1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 3:

(New Zealand, British) An adhesive bandage used in dressing wounds


nark

Uncertain. Perhaps from Angloromani nok (“nose”), from Romani nakh, from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀡𑀓𑁆𑀓 (ṇakka), ultimately a doublet of nose.

So I went and laid down on the grass. While laying there I piped a reeler whom I knew. He had a nark (a policeman's spy) with him. So I went and looked about for my two pals, and told them to look out for F. and his nark.

1879 October, J[ohn] W[illiam] Horsley, “Autobiography of a Thief in Thieves’ Language”, in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XL, number 240, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 505, column 1:

the bystander. […] She thought you was a copper's nark, sir. / the note taker [with quick interest] Whats a copper's nark? / the bystander [inapt at definition] It's a—well, it's a copper's nark, as you might say. What else would you call it? A sort of informer.

1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act I, pages 109–110:

When we got to the Chief of Police's office a crowd of the most dreadful-looking scoundrels, obviously police narks, informers, and spies of every kind, were hanging about outside the door.

1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XII, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:

(British, Ireland, slang) A police spy or informer.


CP

CP (countable and uncountable, plural CPs)

(British) Initialism of county primary or community primary (school)


tannoy

A genericised trademark of Tannoy Ltd, a manufacturer of public address systems. "Tannoy" is a syllabic abbreviation of tantalum alloy, which was the material used in a type of electrolytic rectifier developed by the company.

Although the supermarket tannoy was bravely broadcasting Rigoletto, its meat counter was thick with wurst and its wine shelves loaded with Liebfraumilch.

1987, Christina Hardyment, “Harlekins and Gondolas”, in Heidi’s Alp: One Family’s Search for Storybook Europe, Book Club edition, New York, N.Y.: The Atlantic Monthly Press, →OCLC, page 163:

Terry Putnam, from Weymouth, adds: "Riding home from Bristol a few days ago, as we approached Weymouth the guard announced over the tannoy 'The next station is Weymouth - please remember to take all your luggage and children with you...'"

2020 August 12, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, page 70:

public address system
public address system

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) A public address system.


tannoy

en-verb

tannoy (third-person singular simple present tannoys, present participle tannoying, simple past and past participle tannoyed)

tannoys (present singular third-person)
tannoying (participle present)
tannoyed (participle past)
tannoyed (past)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, transitive, intransitive) To transmit, or communicate with, by means of a public address system.


Darth Vader

"Darth" is a blend of dark + death (the derivation from Dark Lord of the Sith is a later development).
"Vader" is traditionally explained as being from Dutch vader (“father”). However, the idea of Vader's fatherhood was only developed for The Empire Strikes Back (after the character was introduced), making this improbable. It is more likely a shortening of invader or from the surname Vader.

When the new GEX stock (Darth Vaders!!) are in service, and the inevitable happens and they break down, EWS will no doubt trundle along to rescue it

1999 September 17, gl1, “Gatwick Express New Stock Nose Cones”, in uk.transport.london (Usenet):

What was modified so that 73s could haul (or push) and heat air-con stock on Gatwick Express (pre Darth Vader) - the locos or the coaches?

2005 January 5, Peter Masson, “What future for the MK3's?”, in uk.railway (Usenet):

Is there not also a degree of commonality with the Darth Vader units of Gatwick Express, which are likely to join the Southern fleet when (if) the GatEx franchise is terminated?

2006 February 11, Tony Polson, “First Capital Connect want more 319s from Southern”, in uk.railway (Usenet):

(informal, British, rail transport) A British Rail Class 460 train.


high street

From Middle English high strete, highestrete, haye-strete, hye strete, heiȝe strete, from Old English hēahstrǣt (“high road”), equivalent to high + street.

(UK, Ireland, parts of New England) The main street of any town.

Woolworths has had a presence on the UK High Street for almost a century.

2008 December 27, “Woolworths store closures begin”, in BBC:

(UK, Ireland) Mainstream shops, banks, etc. that can be found on such a street, in contrast to more specialist shops and services.

(UK, Ireland) Physical, bricks and mortar shops, in contrast to Internet shops.


Maundy money

(British) A special coinage given to the deserving poor in a religious ceremony performed by Anglicans on Maundy Thursday.


chump

Origin uncertain; probably a blend of chunk and lump or stump, or perhaps a nasalised variant of chub (“someone chubby, something thick”). Compare Icelandic kubbur (“block of wood, chip (computing)”), Old Norse kumbr for kubbr (“block of wood”), English chop.

unk

uncertain

cog

(UK, slang, obsolete) A person's head or face.


conkers

(British, games) A game for two players in which the participants each have a horse-chestnut (known as a "conker") suspended from a length of string, and take turns to strike their opponent's conker with their own with the object of destroying the opponent's conker before their own is destroyed.


sarky

en-adj

sarky (comparative sarkier, superlative sarkiest)

sarkier (comparative)
sarkiest (superlative)

Full of Coxon's trademark sarky lyricism, this 14-track concept album celebrates and laments the bittersweet nature of love, avoiding being dull or mawkish by being so gorgeous and satisfyingly coherent.

2006 February 19, Nosheen Iqbal, “Graham Coxon, Love Travels at Illegal Speeds”, in The Observer:

It would seem that during his Bournemouth team’s recent 2-1 defeat at Sheffield United, referee Jon Moss gave the hosts some “soft fouls” and made “little sarky comments” that “didn’t help”.

2020 February 12, Scott Murray, “Dan Gosling, Jon Moss and breath-freshening hard candy”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Sarcastic.


muck about

en-verb

muck about (third-person singular simple present mucks about, present participle mucking about, simple past and past participle mucked about)

mucks about (present singular third-person)
mucking about (participle present)
mucked about (participle past)
mucked about (past)

It was only a joke. We were only mucking about.

The only time I walk out on singin' is when there's muckin' about and youse don't take it serious.

1957, Ray Lawler, The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Sydney: Fontana Books, published 1974, page 68:

(informal, intransitive, British, Australia) To be playful; full of fun and high spirits; to not treat the situation seriously.


boffin

Origin unknown; a number of possible etymologies have been suggested, but no conclusive evidence exists.
One strong theory conjectures a connection from the "Mr. Boffins" of English novels, such as in Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.

unknown

Origin unknown

intello

(informal) person with specialized knowledge or skills

In fact, a fighting friend of mine said that he could hardly walk in any direction in this war without tumbling over a scientist who had got in the way. In the Royal Air Force, where the concentration of scientists is perhaps greatest, they have a pet name for them. They call them “Boffins.” Why, I do not know. I said to a young friend of mine in the Air Force, “Why do you call scientists ‘Boffins’?” He said, “I don’t know. What else would you call them?”

[1942 February 3, Henry T[homas] Tizard, “Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. Luncheon.”, in Journal of the Institute of Petroleum, volume 28, number 219, London: The Institute of Petroleum, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-09-30, page 58:

With a rare and beautiful ease one can now ring up a boffin, as I did the other day, and say: "As a price for not opposing our Parliamentary Powers for a new marshalling yard, the Council at X demands that the bridge over X Lane shall have 16 ft. 6 in. headroom. This means steepening our gradient from 1 in 70 to 1 in 65 for half a mile on a 20-chain curve. What difference will this make to the loads of Type "2", "3" and "4" diesels please?". Back comes the answer.

1960 April, G. F. Fiennes, “Unpunctuality - the cause and the cure”, in Trains Illustrated, page 244:

An essential difference between a boffin and a back room boy, as [Robert] Watson-Watts points out, is that the boffin does not stay in the back room but emerges to poke his nose into other peoples[’] business. It is quite wrong to use the word ‘boffin’ simply to describe a scientist or a technician; a boffin is essentially a middleman, a bridge between two worlds, […]

1991, R[obert] Hanbury Brown, “Radar and the Battle at Night”, in Boffin: A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy and Quantum Optics, New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon.: Taylor & Francis Group, →ISBN, page 57:

He devoted six years to building the probe and, breaking with boffin tradition, transformed himself into an extroverted fundraiser to sell it to a public and government largely indifferent to space exploration. […] In fact, he's still busily rallying support for Beagle 2’s successor. Will he succeed? Can a lone boffin maintain a nation’s appreciation for exploration? [Colin] Pillinger could single-handedly determine whether the boffin remains a modest backroom boy or claims a lasting spot in the limelight.

2004 September, Nicole Dyer, “Rebirth of the Boffin”, in Mark Jannot, editor, Popular Science, volume 265, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Time4 Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 160, columns 2–3:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland, informal) An engineer or scientist, especially one engaged in technological or military research.

— Well, last year I used to have a friend Charley [Charley was in the top sets for English, mathematics and French] but this year he doesn't speak to me any more and every time I see him he's hanging around with boffins like. When I go round to his house, now and again, he's always got his 'O' level and 'A' level books open and he's always concentrating on his work. Hanging around with boffins. / — What are boffins? / — People who work. Stay in all the time. Never go out, go down the town or nothin. And always get good letters home and pats on the back by teachers.

1995, John Abraham, “Organizational Differentiation and Polarization: Setting, Social Class and Pupil Values”, in Divide and School: Gender and Class Dynamics in Comprehensive Education, London, Bristol, Pa.: The Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 55:

The opportunities for producers in the interactive multimedia environment are boundless. The boffins writing software programs for interactive multimedia will not be the producers of corporate communications. They need today's producers to bring their communication skills to the interactive domain, […]

1995, Bob Turnbull, “Corporate Video”, in Tom Jeffrey, editor, Film Business: A Handbook for Film Producers, 2nd edition, North Ryde, N.S.W.: AFTRS Publications, published 1998, →ISBN, page 35:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland, informal, by extension) A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward.

(loosely) an intellectual; a smart person.


standing

en-noun

standing (countable and uncountable, plural standings)

→ German: Standing

From Middle English standyng, stonding, stondung, from Old English *standung, equivalent to stand + -ing.

"There was no garage at Lathbury Road, but we had standing for two cars in front of the house."

1992, P. D. James, The Children of Men, page 28:

"The engineering crisis boiled down to roads, hard standing, and waste."

2000, Bob Breen, Mission Accomplished, East Timor, page 149:

(British) Room in which to park a vehicle or vehicles

(UK, slang, obsolete) The location on a street where a market trader habitually operates.


squiffy

en-adj

squiffy (comparative squiffier, superlative squiffiest)

squiffier (comparative)
squiffiest (superlative)

Unknown; possibly coined in the 19th century.

In the Palace bar. I'd been there an hour or so with two or three other chaps. I was a bit squiffy.

1992, J. B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls, Heinemann, →ISBN, page 51:

His champagne glass was constantly refilled by the man who might or might not have been a butler, so that by the time they actually sat down to play, Ramsay was decidedly squiffy.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) slightly drunk or intoxicated; tipsy

To this day I cannot and will not wear a tie properly. On the one or two occasions I have worn them since I left school, I've worn them squiffy, on purpose.

2004, Jude Rawlins, Cul De Sac: Lyrics, Prose & Poems 1987-2004, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 11:

The graphics make your eyes go squiffy.

2005, Catherine Soanes, Angus Stevenson, editors, The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition), Oxford University Press:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Crooked, askew; awry


porridge

en-noun

porridge (usually uncountable, plural porridges)

Variant of pottage (“thick soup or stew”), influenced by porray (“stew of leeks”). The "prison sentence" sense comes from the British tradition of serving prisoners porridge for breakfast.

keep one's breath to cool one's porridge

save one's breath to cool one's porridge

A dish made of grain or legumes, milk or water, heated and stirred until thick and typically eaten for breakfast.

(chiefly British) Oat porridge; oatmeal.

Just do your porridge and keep your head down.

(British, slang, uncountable) A prison sentence.

pap

breakfast cereal dish — see also oatmeal


gully

→ French: gollé

→ German: Gully

Origin uncertain. Possibly from a variant of Middle English golet (“esophagus, gullet”), from Old French goulet, from Latin gula (“throat”). Shift in meaning in Middle English to "water channel, ravine" may have been influenced by Middle English gylle, gille, galle (“deep narrow valley, ravine”); see gill.
Alternatively, from a diminutive of dialectal gull (“fissue, chasm”) + -y (diminutive suffix). See gull, gullick.

unc

uncertain


skew-whiff

en-adj

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

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

From skew + weft.
The expression 'skew weft' dates at least from the 18th century as a term used by handloom weavers, typically in northern England. It was used originally to describe fabric which was out of alignment, and the term survives today in the manufacture of glass fiber cloth.
The word weft does not derive from 'whiff' as in a puff of air (as suggested elsewhere). The modern spelling comes from a corruption of 'skew-wift' whose sound developed colloquially in spoken English from the original. Bow weft also exists.

I hung up that picture, but it looks skew-whiff to me.

“[…]I′ve just been looking up at them and it seems to me that Cassiopeia′s Chair is a bit more skew-whiff than usual. Either it′s been moved or we′re heading the wrong way.”

1971, Blackwood′s Magazine, volume 309, page 497:

I nudged him to remember what was surely the best day of his life—when he had walked serenely through the milling throng, moist-eyed, and sheepish grin more skew-whiff than ever, in the starling-shrieking, jabbering cockpit of that tumbledown stadium at Delhi on Christmas Eve in 1981.

1984, Punch, Volume 286, Part 1, page 87:

His genially skew-whiff posture for the camera may be intended to deflect easy attempts to get an angle on him.

1997, Australian Literary Studies, volume 18, University of Tasmania, page 199:

Johnson replied, with a shake of his massive head so vigorous that his ill-fitting wig became even more skew-whiff:[…].

1999, Alan Wall, The Lightning Cage, page 4:

He wasn′t wearing shoes or a jacket and tie, and his front stud was undone, so that the white collar stood up skew-whiff.

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

In a gorgeous old stone-fronted house at a skew-whiff angle to the road, this main-street, mainstream eatery serves big breakfasts, pizzas, burgers, lasagne, focaccias, bruschetta and salads.

2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin, Lonely Planet, page 112:

The Cat is a large, comfortable space with a great atmosphere and skew-whiff 1950s decor (a Melbourne trademark).

2009, Justine Vaisutis, Australia, Lonely Planet, page 530:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) Askew; lopsided, not straight.


dodgy

dodgy (comparative dodgier, superlative dodgiest)

dodgier (comparative)
dodgiest (superlative)

From dodge (verb) + -y. First used in mid-19th century England.

Asked why, a spokesman gave a dodgy answer about legal ramifications.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Evasive and shifty.

Never listen to dodgy advice.

The dodgy old machine kept breaking down.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Unsound and unreliable.


helter-skelter

en-noun

helter-skelter (countable and uncountable, plural helter-skelters)

In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten ("to hasten; to raise an alarm"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.

der

He is finishing, this week, a remarkable thing called a helter skelter: This is a circular building 50 feet high which people climb, by means of an interior winding stair. At the top they each take a seat in a semicircular wooden trough which curls around the outside of the house, gradually leading towards the ground with a terrific rush, they slide down this and are rapidly delivered on to the grass below.

1905 September 30, The Independent, Footscray, Vic, page 2, column 4:

For gentler sliding fun, you can take a ride on the helter-skelter.

2015, Louise Spilsbury, Ride that Rollercoaster!, page 12:

(chiefly British) An amusement ride consisting of a slide that spirals down around the exterior of a tapering central tower.


rigour

en-noun

rigour (countable and uncountable, plural rigours)

From Middle English rigour, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French rigor, from Latin rigor (“stiffness, rigidity, rigor, cold, harshness”), from rigere (“to be rigid”). Compare French rigueur.

der

(British) Misspelling of rigor (“rigor mortis”).


mufti

en-noun

mufti (countable and uncountable, plural muftis)

Ultimately from Arabic مُفْتِي (muftī, “fatwa-deliverer”, literally “deliverer of formal opinion”).

der

He had a suit of summer mufti, and a broad-brimmed blue beaver hat looped with leaves broken from the hedgerows in the lanes, and a Leander scarf tucked full of flowers: loosestrife, meadowrue, orchis, ragged-robin.

1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, hardback edition, Duckworth, page 91:

The innate reluctance of the Englishman to make himself conspicuous has stood him here in good stead. Except on special occasions, the British officers are almost always in mufti.

1921 October, Maxwell H. H. Macartney, “An Ex-Enemy in Berlin to-Day”, in The Atlantic:

The neutrality, however, causes some peculiar situations, such as that arising from the prohibition of uniforms other than those of the Eireann Defence Forces and the Diplomatic Corps. This would be simple if no one from Eire were a sailor, soldier, or airman in the British Forces, but thousands of them are, and as such they may not wear mufti unless on leave from the B.E.F.

1940 May, “The Irish Railways Today”, in Railway Magazine, page 295:

The sailors in mufti returned with 140 quarts of Bar's Leak, half of which was poured into the condenser.

2002 April 3, Dave Wilma, “First nuclear submarine U.S.S. Nautilus visits Seattle and crew secretly buys Bar's Leak on June 3, 1958”, in HistoryLink.org: Essay 3739:

(uncountable, Australia, British, New Zealand) A civilian dress when worn by a member of the military, or casual dress when worn by a pupil of a school who normally would wear uniform.


quieten down

en-verb

quieten down (third-person singular simple present quietens down, present participle quietening down, simple past and past participle quietened down)

quietens down (present singular third-person)
quietening down (participle present)
quietened down (participle past)
quietened down (past)

As the lights dimmed the audience quietened down.

(intransitive, British) To become quieter.

Diplomacy can only begin when the violence quietens down.

(intransitive, British) To reduce intensity of an activity.

The teacher did her best to quieten the children down.

(transitive, British) To make someone or something become quieter.


take the piss

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

tlb

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang, idiomatic, transitive)

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

Possibly from piss-proud (“falsely presenting as successful”). In which case taking the piss out of would mean deflating their false pride, usually through disparagement or mockery. As the piss-proud metaphor became dated, taking the piss out of someone came to refer to disparagement or mockery itself, regardless of the pride of the subject. Eventually the shortened, intransitive form taking the piss became common.

You know, cos he was like taking the piss out of them and they took the piss out of him.

1987, Judy Vermorel, Sex Pistols: the inside story, page 16:

A lot of that stuff that people take the piss out of all the time is actually useful.

1999, Carole Zucker, In the company of actors: reflections on the craft of acting, page 152:

To tease, ridicule or mock (someone) (with out of).

He's either taking it easy or taking the piss by arriving at the eleventh hour.

2008, Will Swanton, Some Day: Inside the Dream Tour and Mick Fanning's 2007 Championship Win:

To subject those present to teasing, ridicule or mockery, or to show contempt.

I've got three exams on the same day! That's taking the piss!


conker

From 19th-century dialect conker (“snail-shell”); the game of conkers was originally played using snail-shells; from conch + -er or a variant of conquer.

His bald spot gleams like a burnished conker.

2006, Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa:

(British) A horse chestnut, used in the game of conkers.

pysen boced

horse chestnut used in the game of conkers


Grand Slam

(British, soccer) winning in each of the three UEFA cups - UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and Cup Winners' Cup (defunct).


prat

Unknown. Perhaps a specialised use of Etymology 1 (see above).

Those protestors will have achieved nothing good. They are stupid prats.

2023 June 29, Metro, London, page 10, column 3:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A fool, contemptible person.


rocket

From Italian rocchetta, from Old Italian rocchetto (“rocket”, literally “a bobbin”), diminutive of rocca (“a distaff”), from Lombardic rocko (“spinning wheel”), from Proto-West Germanic *rokkō, from Proto-Germanic *rukkô (“a distaff, a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it, used in spinning thread”). Cognate with Old High German rocco, rocko, roccho, rocho ("a distaff"; > German Rocken (“a distaff”)), Swedish rock (“a distaff”), Icelandic rokkur (“a distaff”), Middle English rocke (“a distaff”). More at rock⁴.
For the meaning development, compare fuselage, ultimately from Latin fūsus (“spindle, spinning wheel”).

gloss

"a distaff"; > German <i class="Latn mention" lang="de">Rocken</i> (“a distaff”)

The Burmese nurse who'd gone with her was crying, for which she'd no doubt get a rocket from matron.

1973, Elizabeth Mavor, A Green Equinox, Virago, published 2023, page 93:

While Solborg and Lemaigre were dreaming of revolts, Donovan had learned of Solborg’s insubordination and meddling. He sent him a “rocket” ordering him out of North Africa and back to Lisbon at once.

1980, David Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night: The Story of the French Resistance, Dutton, →ISBN, page 203:

(UK slang, originally military) A severe reprimand; a telling-off.

Figurative uses.
A severe reprimand; a telling-off.


minder

From Middle English mynder, mendowre (“one who has a good memory; bears in mind; watches over; a keeper”); equivalent to mind + -er.


gooseberry

From goose + berry. It is possible that the first element was originally something related to the gros- of French groseille and/or the kruis- of Dutch kruisbes but has been altered by folk etymology.

Robert and Susan were so in love with each other that nobody could go near them without feeling like a gooseberry.

"But," said Philippa dolefully, "if I go I'll have to be gooseberry, and that will be a new experience for Philippa Gordon."

1915, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “In the Park”, in Anne of the Island, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, →OCLC:

Kryten, you are a total gooseberry. Next time I play on the AR machine I'm going to give you some money and send you to the pictures.

1993 October 21, Rob Grant, Doug Naylor, Gunmen of the Apocalypse (Red Dwarf), season 6, episode 3, spoken by Dave Lister (Craig Charles):

en:person who is neither necessary nor wanted

(chiefly British) An additional person who is neither necessary nor wanted in a given situation.


waistcoat

→ Hindi: वास्कट (vāskaṭ)

desc

→ Japanese: ウェストコート (wesutokōto), ウェスクット (wesukutto)

→ Malay: weskot

→ Maori: wēkete

→ Punjabi: ਵਾਸਕਟ (vāskaṭ)

From waist + coat. Compare Yola wauscoat, wazcoote.

Coordinate term: gilet

Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.[…]A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

(chiefly British) A sleeveless, collarless garment worn over a shirt and under a suit jacket.


papoose

Borrowed from Narragansett papoos (“child”).

(UK) A backpack for carrying a baby, or specifically a cradleboard.


fagot

Most likely from Italian fagotto, from Latin fascis.

(UK, Ireland, obsolete) A person hired to take the place of another at the muster of a company .


Chelsea tractor

en-noun

Chelsea tractor (plural Chelsea tractors)

From Chelsea, a wealthy area of London in which this type of vehicle is popular, and tractor, an ironic allusion to a large, off-road vehicle, as a humorous juxtaposition between the vehicle's size and power and its use on low-speed roads in a city environment. Potentially also an allusion to their reputation for causing unnecessary traffic congestion, due to their unsuitability for small roads, in a similar fashion to tailbacks caused by tractors on rural roads.

This far up the hill was a maze of narrow streets choked with BMWs and Chelsea Tractors.

2011, Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London, Gollancz, published 2011, page 45:

As Simms and Murray note: “The part of the UK where the largest and most powerful 4x4s – so-called Chelsea tractors – are most popular is indeed the inner London borough of Kensington and Chelsea.”

2023 November 5, Andrew Anthony, “Monsters of the road: what should the UK do about SUVs?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, colloquial, derogatory) An SUV or 4x4 vehicle which is chiefly driven on urban or suburban roads for light duties, such as taking children to school.


quieten

en-verb

quieten (third-person singular simple present quietens, present participle quietening, simple past and past participle quietened)

quietens (present singular third-person)
quietening (participle present)
quietened (participle past)
quietened (past)

quieten the class

Take deep, deep breaths and quieten your mind while you contemplate what has been revealed within my latest journallings to you.

2013, Dianne Pegler, The Sacred Order of the Magi, page 149:

(transitive, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) To make quiet.

quieten down please, the speaker is going to start.

(intransitive, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) To become quiet.


piss-up

. . . passed: all bullshitted up for the pictures or a piss-up in the town.

1950, Jocelyn Greene, The Goose Cathedral, The Bodley Head, page 14:

Last night a bunch of them turned out to a pub near Edgeware [sic] Road tube (where a few of them had helped treat the injured on the 7th), and we had a good old-fashioned piss-up courtesy of Europhobia's generous readers.

2005, Tim Worstall, 2005: Dispatches from the Blogosphere, The Friday Project, p 228

Therefore with the blessing of Lizzie (herself too upset to attend) Rupert had arranged a sort of pre-wake piss-up in the function room of his London club with a malt whisky tasting, several real ales on tap and a takeaway curry delivered.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) A party where people consume alcohol.

couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery


minger

See minging (from Scots mingin) and -er.

Mike's new bird's a right minger! I wouldn't touch her with yours, mate!

Two suits [destroyed] in one day! Look at it, thanks to you, I couldn't even get on the cover of Minger Monthly!

2009, Doug Naylor, Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, spoken by The Cat (Danny John-Jules):

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


daffy

An allusion to an old medicine known as Daffy's Elixir.

1837-39, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
“Do you give the children Daffy, Mrs. Mann?” inquired Bumble, following with his eyes the interesting process of mixing.

[…] he failed repeatedly until he took over his famous house in Haymarket, where for many years, surrounded by such admirers as Byron, Tom Moore and Hazlitt, he smoked his yard of clay, drained his glass of 'daffy', and […]

1954, Denzil Batchelor, Big Fight: The Story of World Championship Boxing, page 44:

Within Castle Tavern, at Holborn, Charles Perth and Lord Lucan were drowning their disparate sorrows in a glass of daffy.

1991, Julie Caille, Change of Heart, page 255:


tarmac

en-noun

tarmac (countable and uncountable, plural tarmacs)

Clipping of tarmacadam, which is from tar + macadam (“crushed stones”). Originally a trademark owned by its inventor, Edgar Hooley.

How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […].

1922, Michael Arlen, “3/1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

(loosely, UK, Ireland, Canada) Any bituminous road surfacing material.

(UK, Ireland, Canada) The driveable surface of a road.


tarmac

en-verb

tarmac (third-person singular simple present tarmacs, present participle tarmacking or tarmacing or tarmaccing, simple past and past participle tarmacked or tarmaced or tarmacced)

tarmacs (present singular third-person)
tarmacking (participle present)
tarmacing (participle present)
tarmaccing (participle present)
tarmacked (participle past)
tarmacked (past)
tarmaced (participle past)
tarmaced (past)
tarmacced (participle past)
tarmacced (past)

To your left is a green lane, partly tarmacked with chippings, which leads up to a little car-parking area.

2008, Valerie Belsey, Exploring Green Lanes in North and North-West Devon, →ISBN, page 108:

Residents in Bolton are angry after workmen tarmaced only one half of their road leaving the other half strewn with potholes.

2014, Taking the rough with the smooth: Bolton residents anger over half-tarmaced road, ITV Granada

(British, Canada) To pave with tarmacadam or a similar material.


bangers and mash

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bangers and mash.wav

(British, New Zealand, informal) A meal of sausages and mashed potato, usually with onions and gravy added.

makkarat muusilla

Unfortunately, as you walk around these trails you might be unfortunate to see the reason in the form of helpings of bangers and mash at the side of the path (the mash of course being toilet paper).

2011, Paul Carpenter, The Moray Way and the Ben Macdui Trail, page 21:

(British, slang) Human faeces combined with toilet paper.


wog

The origins are not entirely clear. The term was first noted by the lexicographer F.C. Bowen in 1929, in his Sea Slang: a dictionary of the old-timers’ expressions and epithets, where he defines wogs as "lower class Babu shipping clerks on the Indian coast."
The most common theory is that it is a clipping of golliwog, which was first used as the name of a black-faced doll in Florence Upton’s 1895 book The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. A variety of folk etymologies exist, with the most common claiming that the word is an acronym for one of either westernized, worthy, wily, or wonderful preceding “Oriental gentlemen”. Another erroneous claim is that it was used in the mid 1800s, with WOGS (meaning Working On Government Service) stencilled on the shirts of Indian workers in Egypt.
The Scientologist sense is from the usage of L. Ron Hubbard, who apparently accepted the folk etymology from “worthy Oriental gentleman” but employed the term to mean “common ordinary run-of-the-mill garden-variety humanoid”.

perker

an offensive term for a dark-skinned person

'One of the little Indian girls whose name is Polly has just come in to ask, " Miss D., what is a wog? One white boy called me a polliwog, and I thought a wog must be something bad."'

1889, The American Missionary Volume 43 p. 81:

"The King Edward's Horse called the Indian Cavalry 'The Wogs'—which is the diminutive of 'Golliwogs',—a description that was very apt of these dark apparitions in khaki and tin-hats."

1921, Lionel James, chapter 18, in The History of King Edward's Horse, page 188:

(UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) Any person who looks in-between "white" and "black": originally specifically an Indian, but later also broadened to anybody of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean descent.