Personal Social Health Education

Personal Social Health Education (uncountable)

The Health Education Program mission is to provide basic information about the Believing that many of the health problems found in American Indian and Why is Personal Social Health Education not compulsory in schools?

1981, J Cowley, K David, T Williams, Health education in schools:

Most primary schools are now doing a great deal to promote social, emotional and behavioural skills (SEBS) either through the whole school environment or specifically through the framework of the National Healthy School Standard or the Personal Social Health Education (PHSE) Citizenship curriculum.

2006, Tina Rae, Ruth MacConville, Teaching Peer Support for Caring and Co-operation, →ISBN:

In most schools, teachers are less and less able to live on small academic islands, and will be likely to be involved in the delivery of programmes such as Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE), Citizenship and/or Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) as part of their duties as a form tutor.

2012, Peter Fleming, Becoming a Secondary School Teacher, →ISBN:

Current laws regarding SRE which is taught as part of Personal,Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) are somewhat confusing, outdated and open to wide interpretation.

2013, S. Elley, Understanding Sex and Relationship Education, Youth and Class:, →ISBN:

Yet unsurprisingly, the levels of knowledge about the Holocaust held by non-history specialists was significantly lower than those who were history specialists. Only 7 per cent of those teaching Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) thought that the systematic mass murder of the Jewish people began in 1941 with the invasion of the Soviet Union — a fact which was known by 49 per cent of history teachers.

2014, M. Gray, Contemporary Debates in Holocaust Education, →ISBN:

(British) A school subject in which students are taught important facts of life not covered in other subjects, such as sexual relationships, drug abuse and so on.


meader

From Middle English *medere, from Old English mǣþere (“a mower”), equivalent to math + -er.


lanthanium

en-noun

lanthanium (countable and uncountable, plural lanthaniums)

From Ancient Greek λανθάνω (lanthánō, “to escape notice”), because it had gone long undetected in mineral ores; + -ium (“a chemical element”).


scruffle

(UK, dialect, Northern England) A scuffle; a physical fight or struggle.


scruffle

en-verb

scruffle (third-person singular simple present scruffles, present participle scruffling, simple past and past participle scruffled)

scruffles (present singular third-person)
scruffling (participle present)
scruffled (participle past)
scruffled (past)

(transitive, UK, dialect, Northern England) To scuffle; to wrestle.


winge

winge (third-person singular simple present winges, present participle wingeing or winging, simple past and past participle winged)

winges (present singular third-person)
wingeing (participle present)
winging (participle present)
winged (participle past)
winged (past)

Mostly, they were wingeing about the lousy cook and the same thing served too often

1992, Sky Phillips, Secret mission to Melbourne, November, 1941, page 45:

His wife will winge her bloody head off, but Nev will come good.

1993, Michael Fisher, The Nightmare Man, page 169:

"I'm miserable," Sam proclaimed, plodding behind with his shoelace flapping. "Nobody ever gives me butter-pies when I need them." / "Shut up," said Jonathan. "Stop wingeing."

2002, Diana Wynne Jones, A Tale of Time City, page 41:

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, slang) Alternative form of whinge


portaloo

From a trademark of Portakabin Ltd, based on portable and loo.

The valleys and hillsides looked pretty chewed up by all the maneuvers, portaloos dotted the landscape, but the fauna seemed to appreciate the fact that the U.S. Army—unlike the Bavarian hunters outside the box—were shooting blanks.

2009, James Der Derian, Virtuous war: mapping the military-industrial-media-entertainment network:

On what would once have been the front lawn there is now a prefabricated hut and a portaloo.


hold hard

hold hard (third-person singular simple present holds hard, present participle holding hard, simple past and past participle held hard)

holds hard (present singular third-person)
holding hard (participle present)
held hard (participle past)
held hard (past)

Originally an expression used in riding or driving, now general.

Hold hard: here come the sheep.

(UK, dated, Rhode Island, often imperative) To remain still; to stop suddenly.


bunk-up

Give us a bunk-up and I'll get your ball back.

(UK, informal) A manoeuvre in which one person is pushed upwards by another, or others, in order to climb over a fence or similar obstacle.


stoor

stoor (third-person singular simple present stoors, present participle stooring, simple past and past participle stoored)

stoors (present singular third-person)
stooring (participle present)
stoored (participle past)
stoored (past)

From Middle English storen, *sturien, from Old English *storian, variant of styrian (“to stir, move”), from Proto-Germanic *sturōną (“to turn, disturb”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)twer-, *(s)tur- (“to rotate, twirl, swirl, move”). Cognate with Dutch storen (“to disturb”), Middle Low German stören (“to stir”), German stören (“to disturb”), dialectal German sturen (“to poke, root”). See stir.

inh

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To move; stir.

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To move actively; keep stirring.

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To rise up in clouds, as smoke, dust, etc.

(transitive, UK dialectal) To stir up, as liquor.

(transitive, UK dialectal) To pour; pour leisurely out of any vessel held high.


stoor

(UK dialectal) Stir; bustle; agitation; contention.

(UK dialectal) A sufficient quantity of yeast for brewing.


Broonite

Introduced in a comic strip by the satirical magazine Private Eye, styled on The Broons and referring to Gordon Brown's Scottish accent.

(UK, humorous) Alternative form of Brownite


Del Boy

Nickname of Derek Trotter, a character of this kind in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses.

confidence trickster
confidence trickster


Downs

(UK, slang, obsolete, historical) Tothill Fields Bridewell, a prison located in the Westminster area of central London between 1618 and 1884.


doggy woggy

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

(UK, childish or endearing) A dog, especially a small one.


Harry Hun

Lieutenant George: Great Scott sir, you mean, you mean the moment’s finally arrived for us to give Harry Hun a darned good British style thrashing, six of the best, trousers down?

1989, Ben Elton and Richard Curtis, “Captain Cook”, episode 1 of season 4 of Blackadder

“[…] All the blokes were off shootin’ Harry Hun. […]”

2002, Brian Hughes, The Greyminster Chronicles, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 124:

So it didn't seem much of an option, leaning against a tree waiting for Harry Hun.

2003, Michael Dobbs, Never Surrender, Sourcebooks Landmark, published 2007, →ISBN, page 106:

(UK, slang, derogatory) A name used to represent the German people.


St. Paul's

We could go up to St. Paul's after lunch.


London Town

From London + Town. Compare Old English Lundentūn (literally “London town”).

cog

There was a man from London Town, Who was so very wise, He jumped into a bramble bush And scratched out both his eyes.

1906, Sarah Stone Williams, The Man from London Town, page 5:

The last other black face she'd seen had been at a tournament in London Town where her lord's son had fought.

2012, Richard Monaco, Lost Years: The Quest for Avalon:

To be in London Town on a Sunday morning is to be awakened by the music of many church bells, which provides an extraordinary experience in itself.

2014, George M. Goritz, Shakespeare, Wall Street and My Arabian Nights Adventures, page 36:

So it went on for a long time—hunger and poverty for poor Dick, with nothing but his dreams of London Town to give him happiness.

2014, E. Nesbit, Fairy Tales for Young Readers:

(UK, chiefly London, traditional or poetic) London, predominantly the central fifteen or so boroughs.


twazzock

I am fully aware that I sound like the worst kind of pseudo-intellectual twazzock […]

2008, Stephen Fry, Don't Mind your Language:

(UK, derogatory) a stupid or annoying person.


under lock and key

If it was him we can have him under lock and key in 24 hours.

(US, UK, idiomatic) imprisoned with little or no chance of escape; locked up.

It is the policy of the organization to keep unused check supplies safeguarded under lock and key.

2008, Edward J. McMillan, Model Policies and Procedures for Not-for-Profit Organizations, page 239:

(US, UK, idiomatic) safely guarded; locked away.


wazzer

Can anyone tell me what happened to the Morning crew on GWR? I go away for a bit and when I come back there ^([sic]) gone and replaced by a pair of wazzers!

2003, Darracq Shawe, “Where's the morning crew?”, in uk.local.bristol (Usenet):

(UK, derogatory) A stupid or annoying person; a wazzock.


peckled

en-adj

peckled (comparative more peckled, superlative most peckled)

more peckled (comparative)
most peckled (superlative)

Either from peckle (though attested earlier), or an alteration of speckled.

Jacob the patriarch, by force of imagination, made peckled lambs, laying peckled rods before his sheep.

[…]the herons and the cranes and the coots and the didappers and the water hens and the teals and the curs and the drakes and the sheldrakes and the peckled fowls and the flocking sheep, all, all the sirenic and the not-so-sirenic sounds that they let out at the instant of their near-deaths.

1972, Edna O'Brien, Night, Mariner Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 30:


street pigeon

(UK) a rock pigeon living in an urban environment.


leaving do

(colloquial, Ireland, UK) A party or other celebration held in honour of someone leaving their job.


Swiss Re Tower

The building was commissioned by Swiss Re, a global reinsurance company.

(UK, historical) 30 St Mary Axe, a commercial skyscraper in the City of London.


Old London Town

(UK, chiefly London) London, predominantly the central fifteen or so boroughs.


geog

(UK, informal) Geography, mainly as a school subject.


Munroist

(UK) One who has climbed all of the Munros (Scottish mountains of more than 3,000 feet in height).


softly softly

Reduplication of softly. Likely an allusion to softly, softly, catchee monkey or a similar phrase.

Second, this lack of divergence is also the outcome of the EU's softly-softly approach to human rights and democracy in Morocco.

2003, Annette Jünemann, Euro-Mediterranean relations after September 11, →ISBN:

(UK, often hyphenated) Discreet, low-key, careful.


softly softly

We couldn't get him back into training before Christmas time because he picked up an injury at the Cheltenham Festival last year and we had to go softly softly.

2006 April 28, “Royal heads Betfred field”, in RTE Sport, Ireland, retrieved 2009-06-22:

(UK) In a very tactful, careful, or nondisruptive manner.


ice pop

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

(UK, Philippines) A frozen snack consisting of flavoured ice in a tube; a freeze pop.


clever arse

No, don't be a clever arse. Did you or did you not eat all the ice cream?

(British, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A person who annoyingly tries too hard to impress with their cleverness; a clever dick.


'phone

“I wonder if Miss Fulton has forgotten?” “I expect so,” said Harry. “Is she on the ’phone?”

1918 August, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Bliss”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 127:


'phone

en-verb

'phone (third-person singular simple present 'phones, present participle 'phoning, simple past and past participle 'phoned)

'phones (present singular third-person)
'phoning (participle present)
'phoned (participle past)
'phoned (past)


Pru

So, against its original aims in buying the firm — but convinced by Mr Ball that this was the direction in which to go — the Pru followed.

Also during the 1990s, the Pru aggressively jumped into the group insurance business, the purchase by companies of insurance policies for groups of workers.

In B2B situations where The Pru and Equitable Life jointly provide products, the business has tended to shift towards The Pru.

2006, Frances Brassington, Stephen Pettitt, Principles of marketing:

(UK, informal) Prudential plc, a financial services company based in the United Kingdom.


off one's chump

See chump (“the head”), and compare off one's head.

“Ay, sure ’ave ur; and wot the devil I be to do agin that there Snooks, as ’ll lie through a brick wall, I beant able to say. I be pooty nigh off my chump wot wi’ one thing and another.”

1883, Richard Harris, The Humourous^([sic]) Story of Farmer Bumpkin′s Lawsuit, Gutenberg eBook #30551:

1888, Rolf Boldrewood (Thomas Alexander Browne), A Sydney-Side Saxon, Gutenberg Australia eBook #0607291,
‘ […] I′m not off my chump, no more than you are, and I haven't smelt spirits since last Christmas.’

1890, Catherine Martin, An Australian Girl, 2002, Margaret Ellen Allen (biographical information), Rosemary Campbell (introduction and notes; editor), University of Queensland Press, page 90,
It put him off his chump entirely. He went completely to the bad.

Such luck as he was going for was literally impossible, and he was regarded as “off his chump,” as someone put it expressively.

1891, The Australian journal: A Weekly Record of Literature, science, and Art, volume 26, page 477:

What with the shock of him going in this awful rash way, and thinking myself a made man by that chance, I was nearly off my chump for a week.

1899 September – 1900 July, Joseph Conrad, chapter VI, in Lord Jim: A Tale, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1900, →OCLC:

I'm going away. He's off his chump, he is. I dont want no balmies teaching me.

1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act II, page 125:

So I′m back to square one, worrying again about whether I′m off my chump even considering doing an MA in Creative Writing, MAICW.

2010, Gwyneth Daniel, The Word Mountain, page 53:


fittie

Everyone knows someone who's single, despite all evidence that they shouldn't be. So the next time your friend mentions a fittie who just shouldn't be on the market, demand to be introduced.

2009, Charlotte Ward, It's Not Me, It's You, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(UK, slang) A sexually attractive person.


LMS

London, Midland and Scottish Railway
w:London, Midland and Scottish Railway

(UK, rail transport) Initialism of London, Midland and Scottish Railway.


flid

Clipped form of thalidomide, a drug that caused birth defects, with the initial consonant modified by th-fronting.

Kung Fu Flid, title of a 2009 movie about a thalidomide victim turned action hero

A person with birth defects caused by thalidomide.


Rusky

(UK, mildly derogatory, ethnic slur) Alternative form of Russki


piss money up the wall

piss money up the wall (third-person singular simple present pisses money up the wall, present participle pissing money up the wall, simple past and past participle pissed money up the wall)

pisses money up the wall (present singular third-person)
pissing money up the wall (participle present)
pissed money up the wall (participle past)
pissed money up the wall (past)

(UK, idiomatic, vulgar) To waste money, normally through ineptness in business.


stag do

From stag + do (“party”), alteration of stag party.

The Duke’s own stag do is reported to have been held on a Devon estate, Hartland Abbey, where he and close friends indulged in drinking, clay pigeon shooting, surfing and games.

2018, The Telegraph: Duke of Cambridge arrives at the Royal Wedding with Prince Harry:


pip pip

Gee-Gee struck a Fifth Avenue attitude. "Home, James. My car and chauffeur awaits me lord in the alley. Pip-pip, big stuff."

1937 October, “Brant House” [pseudonym; G. T. Fleming-Roberts], “‘No End by Death’”, in Secret Agent “X” in The Assassins’ League, Springfield, Mass.: Periodical House, Inc., OCLC 20615773; reprinted [Doylestown, Pa.?]: Wildside Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8095-7175-8, page 24

"Right," Templeton said cheerfully, clapping his hands together. "Well, I'm going to leave you two kids to enjoy your champagne breakfast. Pip pip!"

2013, Kim Foster, chapter 14, in A Beautiful Heist, New York, N.Y.: Kensington Publishing Corp., →ISBN:

"Cheerio Michael," he said loudly. "We'll go fly-fishing again soon, my boy." / "Pip pip, Mr Stevens."

2013, Garry Bushell, Face Down (Face Trilogy), [Chatham, Kent?]: Caffeine Nights Publishing, →ISBN:

(British, colloquial) Goodbye; cheerio, toodeloo (toodle-oo), toodle pip (mostly used by the upper classes).

Pip pip! What's going on here?

I can do a French accent or a German accent or a British accent. (Doing British accent) Pip, pip! Lovely day, isn't it?

1990, Gail Golden (book), Grant Golden (music and lyrics), A Little Bit of Magic, Denver, Colo.: Pioneer Drama Service, →OCLC, page 1:

(British, colloquial) A general greeting, mostly used by the upper classes.

Pip pip! Let's get out there and knock the stuffing out of 'em!

(British, colloquial) Used to create enthusiasm, mostly by the upper classes.


on a go-slow

We'll have to wait: the camera's on a go-slow.


curse it

(UK, mildly vulgar) expression of annoyance.


sod it

(UK, Ireland) expression of surprise, contempt, outrage, disgust, boredom, frustration.


bloody Nora

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, dated) Expression of surprise, irritation, etc.


sod a dog

"Sod a dog." He shook his head. "She'll have a rant, then forgive me."

"Sod a dog, will you look at that? I've never seen so many CD's. Ya got a record store right here in yer room."

(UK, Ireland, mildly vulgar) Expression of surprise or annoyance.


blimey O'Riley

If you're the O'Reilly, they speak of so highly, / Why blime me, O'Reilly, you're doing quite well.

1915, Harry S. Miller (lyrics and music), “Blime Me, O’Reilly (You’re Doing Quite Well) [cover title: Blime Me Mr. O’Reilly but You’re Looking Mighty Well]”, New York, N.Y.: The Cadillac Music; Springfield, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.: A. H. Goetting, →OCLC, page 5:

(UK, Ireland) An expression of surprise or frustration.


damn and blast

(British, mildly blasphemous) Used to express anger.


damn and blast

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang

(British, Cockney rhyming slang, motor racing) Last.


heavens above

Heavens above, what was this? A red lamp swinging, on their line, to stop them! Brake, reverse, throw the steam against her. What's this we're into?

1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 54:

goeie hemel ! lieve help ! goeie genade !


fart-arse

(British, slang, derogatory) Term of abuse.


fart-arse

fart-arse (third-person singular simple present fart-arses, present participle fart-arsing, simple past and past participle fart-arsed)

fart-arses (present singular third-person)
fart-arsing (participle present)
fart-arsed (participle past)
fart-arsed (past)

No good fartarsing about, […]

2008, Tom Holt, Falling Sideways, Orbit books, →ISBN, page 24:

For the last couple of years, the coaches at the Raiders have never given him much of a chance. They've been fart-arsing him around.

2009 May 29, David Campese, “Terry Campese's made it on own merits”, in Herald Sun:

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To waste time or opportunities; to dawdle.


go-slow

(UK, Ireland) A period of time spent in an unusually slow fashion.

Indiscipline results in chaos, confusion and diffusion or results. It give rise to strikes, ‘go-slows’, absenteeism, leading to loss of production, profits and wages. […] The features of code of discipline:
(i) It prohibits strikes and lock outs without proper notice and also prohibits intimidation, victimization, go-slow tactics, violence, coercion or instigation by both parties.

2018 October 8, Nwanne Titus Freeman Ifeanyi, “LABOUR UNREST AND INDUSTRIAL PEACE”, in 8th Annual Youth Peace Conference, Godfrey Okoye University, pages 5, 7:

(UK, Ireland, Nigeria) Deliberate slow working as a protest during an industrial dispute.


blimey O'Reilly

[1915, Harry S. Miller (lyrics and music), “Blime Me, O’Reilly (You’re Doing Quite Well) [cover title: Blime Me Mr. O’Reilly but You’re Looking Mighty Well]”, New York, N.Y.: The Cadillac Music; Springfield, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.: A. H. Goetting, →OCLC, page 5:

(UK, Ireland) Alternative form of blimey O'Riley


lanch

[…] difficult to cultivate, on account of the outcrop thereon of a large bed of flints
called locally a 'lanch' or 'lanchet.'


court card

Unlike the numbered cards, these represent people of the kind that might be found at a royal court.

(chiefly UK, historical, deltiology) A postcard measuring approximately 4·75″ × 3·5″, in use mainly in the United Kingdom circa 1894–1902.


fuck-a-doodle-doo

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fuck-a-doodle-doo.wav

(UK, vulgar) Expression of frustration, contempt or boredom.

- I can play 'Don't Look Back in Anger' on guitar.
- Well fuck-a-doodle-doo.

(UK, vulgar) Conveys sarcastic admiration or happiness; whoop-de-doo.


Swinging Sixties

[Mary] Quant's happy perpetuation of the mythology is hardly surprising as she was part of the Chelsea Set, a group of creative entrepreneurs consisting mostly of upper-class artists, photographers and writers such as Alexander Plunckett-Green and Nell Dunn, who together with (American) mass media such as Time Magazine (scrutinized in Chapter 4), dreamt up what we now conceive of as the Swinging Sixties.

2016, Sebastian Groes, British Fictions of the Sixties: The Making of the Swinging Decade, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 3:

(UK, US) An often nostalgic name for the 1960s.

teens · twenties · thirties · forties · fifties · sixties · seventies · eighties · nineties

Gay Nineties · Naughty Nineties · Roaring Twenties · Dirty Thirties · Swinging Sixties


hill station

In 1854, General Barter, C.B., was a subaltern in the 75th Regiment, and was doing duty at the hill station of Murree in the Punjaub.

1897, Andrew Lang, chapter 4, in The Book of Dreams and Ghosts:

At 6.25 a.m. today Mr Nehru, who had gone to sleep last night "fresh and fit" after his short holiday at a hill station, had a stroke.

1964 May 28, Victor Anant, “Indians' anxious look at the era after Nehru”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 2009-06-10:

For builder Rakesh Prajapati, the ideal weekend is trekking up the wild path to reach hill station Matheran.

2006 October 15, Vijay Singh, “From Navi Mumbai, chilling is a drive away”, in Times of India, retrieved 2009-06-10:

(chiefly British, South Asia, Myanmar) In South and Southeast Asia, a small community located at a relatively high elevation which serves as a retreat or vacation location during the hot summers; historically, a village or military post so used by colonial officials.


ogin

Unclear. Among various suggestions, it may be a corrupted form of hogwash (“swill”), of noggin (“a small measure of an alcoholic drink”), or of ocean.

Nobody has yet put up a suitable argument for *never* going into the ogin to help someone who can't raise their own head above the surface...

2004 April 6, DannyBoy, “Man Overboard Statistics....”, in uk.rec.sailing (Usenet):

(UK, chiefly nautical and navy) A large body of water including the sea or the ocean.


East End

Coordinate term: West End

But O Cook, O Thomas Cook & Son,[…]with ease and celerity, could you send me to Darkest Africa or Innermost Thibet, but to the East End of London, barely a stone’s throw distant from Ludgate Circus, you know not the way!

1903 October, Jack London, chapter I, in The People of the Abyss, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

(colloquial, UK, chiefly London) The east end of London, generally regarded to be east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames.


sodding hell

(UK, Ireland, vulgar, mildly blasphemous) expression of contempt, frustration, etc.


goodness gracious me

goodness gracious
goodness gracious#English

(idiomatic, UK) Alternative form of goodness gracious


blooming hell

(UK, slang, blasphemous) Synonym of bloody hell


hell and Tommy

If you refuse, there will be hell and Tommy.

1900, Eyre Hussey, On Account of Sarah, page 219:

But Gurney gets beyond a joke, my boy, with his drinking and what not. We must have the blighter shifted out of this district for good, or it will be hell and Tommy for all of us.

1932, John Brandane, Straw-feet, page 233:

(UK, slang, dated) Utter ruin or destruction.


my sainted uncle

(UK) An expression of surprise or alarm.


lawks a-mercy

(UK) A minced oath for "Lord have mercy".


bleeding heck

(UK, slang) minced oath for bleeding hell.


Georgie Porgie

(UK) alternative form of George not used as a given name but often nominally.


bleeding hell

(UK, slang, mildly blasphemous) Synonym of bloody hell


God in heaven

(UK, mildly blasphemous) Expression of alarm or amazement.


get off of someone's cloud

get off of someone's cloud (third-person singular simple present gets off of someone's cloud, present participle getting off of someone's cloud, simple past and past participle got off of someone's cloud)

gets off of someone's cloud (present singular third-person)
getting off of someone's cloud (participle present)
got off of someone's cloud (participle past)
got off of someone's cloud (past)

Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!

(UK) to refrain from pestering a person.


green man

Coordinate term: red man

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A small figure of a walking man illuminated in green on a traffic light at a pedestrian crossing, indicating that it is safe to cross the road.


forlet

forlet (third-person singular simple present forlets, present participle forletting, simple past and past participle forlet)

forlets (present singular third-person)
forletting (participle present)
forlet (participle past)
forlet (past)

From Middle English forleten (“forsake, reject, renounce, omit, lose, forgive”), from Old English forlǣtan (“to leave”), from Proto-Germanic *fralētaną (“to leave, dismiss”), equivalent to for- + let. Cognate with Scots forleet (“to forsake, abandon”), Saterland Frisian ferläite (“to forlet, abandon”), West Frisian forlitte (“to forlet”), Dutch verlaten (“to desert, abandon”), German verlassen (“to leave”), Swedish förlåta (“to excuse, forgive, remit”).

cog

to forlet your sins

I soothly quoth, then say, to you, for that each such, he that forlets wife his, be-out unclean lust doing forth-lying thing, doeth (works) he doeth the same to sin, …

1807, The Gothic Gospel of saint Matthew

But, by my soul, I dare well swear His wretched life he shall forlet [...]

1834, Samuel Astley Dunham, A History of Europe During the Middle Ages - Volume 4:

… whether his mind and his soul were deadly and perishing, or it were aye living and eternal; and again, about his good, what it was, and what good was best for him to do, and what evil to forlet.

1920, Alfred (King of England), Pope Gregory I, Paulus Orosius, King Alfred's books - Page 11

[...] and then, if upon mature deliberation, when our mind is staid and our senses settled, the thing appear to be naught, we are to hate and abhor it, and in no wise either to forlet and put off, or altogether to omit and forbear correction, like as they refuse meats who have no stomach nor appetite to eat.

2014, Philemon Holland, Plutarch, Plutarch's Moralia - Page 121:

(transitive, archaic or UK dialectal) To abandon; give up; leave; leave behind; forsake; desert; neglect.

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To forget.


millionaire shortbread

en-noun

millionaire shortbread (usually uncountable, plural millionaire shortbreads)

From the association of millionaires with luxury.

(UK) a light snack consisting of an oblong piece of shortbread with a layer of caramel and then another of hard chocolate on top.


watch the world go by

en-verb

watch the world go by (third-person singular simple present watches the world go by, present participle watching the world go by, simple past and past participle watched the world go by)

watches the world go by (present singular third-person)
watching the world go by (participle present)
watched the world go by (participle past)
watched the world go by (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-watch the world go by.wav

I think I'll just sit under this tree and watch the world go by.

Watching the world go by is so much fun that I have to tear myself away to catch my next service - LNER's 'Highland Chieftain' worked by a bi-mode Class 800 Azuma, [...].

2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75:

(UK, idiomatic) To pause and remain still whilst doing nothing but surveying the environment around oneself.


daily disposable

en-noun

daily disposable (plural daily disposables)

(UK) A type of contact lens that can be used for one day only and is thrown away at the end of the day when it is no longer needed.


town walls

town walls pl (normally plural, singular town wall)

(UK, plural only) A large historic line of walls encircling a town that normally dates back at least to the Middle Ages.


praise the Lord

A present subjunctive clause inherited intact from a time when English was freely productive of them. It is semantically equivalent to praise be to God. The zero morph difference from the imperative form allows parsing as a command synchronically.

“There was a time when the homosexual demanded marriage,” he added with an exasperated chuckle. “Praise the Lord, that time is past. PRAISE THE LORD!” he commanded.

2021, Truscott Jones, chapter 1, in For the Common Good: What Happens When the Powerful Get Desperate?, Saint Petersburg, Fla.: BookLocker, →ISBN, page 8:

(UK, mildly blasphemous) Stereotypical exclamation used in mockery of Christianity.


slapsies

(UK, hand games, children's games) A children's game in which the players position themselves in a circle and each place one hand in the centre (normally on top of a table or other item of furniture). An ordinal number or another word such as "last" or "penultimate" is then called out by someone and whoever draws their hand away from the circle at that position has their hand slapped by the other players.

hand games; children's games; hand games; children's games


transition town

transition town (plural transition towns)

environmentally friendly
environmentally friendly

(UK, Ireland) A town in the British and Ireland that is a member of the Transition Towns movement and is striving to develop a higher standard of living and an environmentally friendly future.


clunch

clunch (countable and uncountable, plural clunches)

Perhaps related to clump. Compare hump, hunch; lump, lunch, etc.

clunch pit

The manor-house stands near the church, and is a large convenient old house built of clunch, stone, &c. with good gardens and walks adjoining to the river side.

1736, Charles Parkin, History of Norfolk, volume 6:

(UK) A traditional building material mostly made of chalk or clay.


dehire

en-verb

dehire (third-person singular simple present dehires, present participle dehiring, simple past and past participle dehired)

dehires (present singular third-person)
dehiring (participle present)
dehired (participle past)
dehired (past)

(transitive, UK, India) To terminate use under a lease of.


smiler

From Middle English smyler, smylere; equivalent to smile + -er.

You're asking for a punch in the smiler!


meemaw

meemaw (third-person singular simple present meemaws, present participle meemawing, simple past and past participle meemawed)

meemaws (present singular third-person)
meemawing (participle present)
meemawed (participle past)
meemawed (past)

Possibly related to maw (“mouth; opening”).

On working days weavers who had jobs were already meemawing across the racket of looms as the van delivered and in hot weather, with weaving shed doors open, the sound bombarded the streets.

2011, Ernest Dewhurst, Pennine Childhood, →ISBN:

Bill, who had nudged the other customer out of the shop and locked the door, meemawed at him to wait.

2013, Nick Oldham, Critical Threat, →ISBN:

Basically, you meemawed anything you didn't want people to overhear, even when there was no one around to listen in.

2013, Lisa Riley, Never Judge a Book by its Cover: The Autobiography, →ISBN:

(intransitive, UK, dialect) To mouth words so that they can be heard over noise (or later so that they cannot be overheard), originally in the cotton industry of Lancashire.


people carrier

(UK, Ireland) A car or minivan designed for spaciousness.


you can't say fairer than that

/juː ˈkɑːnt seɪ ˈfɛəɹə ðn̩ ˌðæt/

/ju ˈkænt seɪ ˈfɛəɹəɹ ðən ˌðæt/

En-au-you can't say fairer than that.ogg

An informal way of expressing that one cannot say that anything is better or more fair than the matter being evaluated.

(British, idiomatic, informal) That is fair, good, or reasonable; one cannot hope for a better decision or outcome.

bolje ne može

that is fair, good or reasonable; one cannot hope for a better decision or outcome


house of correction

en-noun

house of correction (plural houses of correction)

(UK, historical) A kind of residential penitentiary facility, built after the passing of the Elizabethan Poor Law (1601), where those who were "unwilling to work", including vagrants and beggars, were set to work.


in aid of

- What's that coaster in aid of?

- This table gets stained by cups very easily.

(UK, informal) for the sake of, for (usually placed at the end of a question when quizzing a person about why they have done something)


hunk of junk

(UK, US, informal) A worthless or malfunctioning piece of mechanical or electrical equipment.

бракма́

worthless or malfunctioning piece of equipment


breaktime

breaktime (countable and uncountable, plural breaktimes)

It tends to evaluate the liking for, and the acceptance of, the pupils in their class as peers, rather than asking children to specifically select their friends, breaktime and home companions.

1992, David Freer, Towards Open Schools: Possibilities and Realities for Non-Racial Education in South Africa, page 130:

The significance of breaktimes as a mechanism for children to develop social competence is highlighted in much of Peter Blatchford's work.

2006, Brigette Bishop, Promoting Friendships in the Playground: A Peer Befriending Programme for Primary Schools, page 4:

Designed by architects working for Norman Foster, it had no playground and no morning breaktime.

2010, Karen Littleton, Clare Wood, Judith Kleine Staarman, International Handbook of Psychology in Education, page 231:

(UK) A break for schoolchildren between lessons.


brass-neck

en-verb

brass-neck (third-person singular simple present brass-necks, present participle brass-necking, simple past and past participle brass-necked)

brass-necks (present singular third-person)
brass-necking (participle present)
brass-necked (participle past)
brass-necked (past)

(idiomatic, UK, Ireland) To behave boldly or shamelessly.


brass-necked

en-adj

brass-necked (comparative more brass-necked, superlative most brass-necked)

more brass-necked (comparative)
most brass-necked (superlative)

I was at Stansted airport with my wife, younger kids and a niece the other week to take a flight to Dublin; one provided by that brass-necked, self-proclaimed champion of the air-travelling masses Michael O'Leary and his low-cost trailblazer Ryanair.

2007 August 6, Dave Hill, “Plane sailing?”, in The Guardian:

“Humbug”. That word may sink him. “Unfit” was Corbyn’s sombrely measured term. Brazen, brass-necked, thrashing about wildly in proclaiming the 11 supreme court justices “wrong”, Boris Johnson’s performance last night defied all democratic dignity.

2019 September 26, Polly Toynbee, “Boris Johnson’s brutish parliamentary performance defied all democratic dignity”, in The Guardian:

(idiomatic, UK, Ireland) Nervy; cheeky; shameless.


great crest

(UK, informal, rare, birdwatching) the great crested grebe.


red-leg

red-legged partridge
red-legged partridge

(UK, birdwatching) The red-legged partridge.


Womble

Elisabeth Beresford
The Wombles
Wimbledon Common

Created by author Elisabeth Beresford; they originally appeared in a series of children's novels from 1968. The name was suggested to the author by her young daughter's mispronunciation of the place name "Wimbledon" as "Wombledon" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/8226039/Elisabeth-Beresford.htmlhttps://www.tidybag.uk/people/interview-with-elisabeth-beresford-daughter/. The books centre on the activities of a group of the creatures who live on Wimbledon Common.

Wombles are a bit like teddy bears to look at but they have real claws and live underneath Wimbledon Common and devote their lives to ‘tidying up’ all the things those untidy Human Beings leave behind.

1968, Elisabeth Beresford, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(UK) A fictional pointy-nosed furry creature. They are supposed to live in burrows, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in creative ways.

(UK, as 'the Wombles') A nickname of Wimbledon Football Club.


womble

(British, colloquial) A person from the Wimbledon area of London, England.


sawbill

red-breasted merganser
red-breasted merganser


Lady Amherst's pheasant

en-noun

Lady Amherst's pheasant (plural Lady Amherst's pheasants)

Named after one Lady Amherst who introduced the species to Bedfordshire from China.

Chrysolophus amherstiae
Chrysolophus amherstiae#Translingual

(UK) A colourful pheasant, Chrysolophus amherstiae, indigenous to China but also found in Bedfordshire.


brass neck

[to have] a neck like a jockey's bollocks

This year's commemorations of the start of World War One are a stark reminder of the sacrifices politicians make with other people's lives – except nowadays they'll do so wearing a Help for Heroes t-shirt (almost entirely covering their brass necks). When it comes to the hypocritical lauding of the armed forces while simultaneously shafting them, no one does it better than this government.

2014 March 18, John Hyde, “Help for Heroes? Not from this government”, in The Law Society Gazette, archived from the original on 2014-03-20:

That’s why it’s particularly outrageous for the government to sneak out its rubbish “blueprint” for cycling and walking on Easter Sunday, and having the brass neck to try to spin its laughably small investment in cycling and walking as a genuine attempt to make them people’s choice for shorter journeys and to reduce the rate of cyclists killed or seriously injured.

2016 March 27, Helen Pidd, “Government's laughable cycling blueprint does nothing to boost safety”, in The Guardian:

Theresa May’s former chief of staff has accused the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator, David Frost, of having a “brass neck” after he said the UK government had “blinked first” in negotiations.

2020 September 6, Jessica Elgot, “UK's chief Brexit negotiator has 'brass neck', says former May aide”, in The Guardian:

(idiomatic, UK, Ireland) Gall, shamelessness, cheek.

And it will need a strong hand to wield that knife, and it will need a steady nerve besides, because they have necks of brass, these aristocrats, I tell you: brass necks, all of them!

2010 [2006], Robert Harris, Imperium (Cicero Trilogy), Random House, →ISBN, page 72:

Mostly, though, open data acts as a deterrent against committing fraud in the first place, since it would take the brassiest of brass necks to post a fake dataset on a public website.

2020, Stuart Ritchie, Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science, Random House, →ISBN:

(idiomatic, UK, Ireland) A person with gall.


French partridge

French partridge (plural French partridges)

Alectoris rufa
Alectoris rufa#Translingual

(UK) A red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa).


white-tailed sea eagle

white-tailed sea eagle (plural white-tailed sea eagles)


St James's

(UK) The area of Central London on the north side of the above park (OS grid ref TQ2980, postcode SW1).


English partridge

English partridge (plural English partridges)


barny

So he said she should have said, and we had a bit of a barny, like.

1983, Marilyn Porter, Home, Work, and Class Consciousness, page 78:

(UK, Australia, slang) Alternative form of barney (“argument or fight”)


spotshank

(UK, birdwatching, informal) The spotted redshank.


spot-red

(UK, birdwatching, slang) The spotted redshank.


Scottish Borders

(UK) The areas of Scotland and England adjacent to the border between the two countries.


red-legged partridge

red-legged partridge (plural red-legged partridges)

(UK) Any partridge of species Alectoris rufa.


sea swallow

There was a light breeze off the land; it was scarcely strong enough to lift the heavy fog which lay over the skerries and the naked cliffs, from which the scared sea-gulls flew and hovered around us with their hoarse cry; the sea-swallows uttered their ringing "Tree, tree," and the oyster-catchers their mocking "Click, click!" which has caused so many an unsuccessful sportsman to smile.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 181:

Sterna hirundo
Sterna hirundo#Translingual


ringed dove

Columba palumbus
Columba palumbus#Translingual

Streptopelia decaocto
Streptopelia decaocto#Translingual

(UK) the collared dove, Streptopelia decaocto.


Billy Wix

(UK, dialect, East Anglia) The barn owl, Tyto alba.


roseate tern

Sterna dougallii
Sterna dougallii#Translingual

(UK) A species of tern, Sterna dougallii.


quist

From Middle English quiste, quyste, quyshte, variants of Middle English couschot, cowschote, cowscott, from Old English cūsċeote (“wood pigeon, ringdove”). Doublet of cushat.

inh

It got me thinking about other names we used to call things when we were younger that for some reason as I got older we stopped doing.¶ For example the common woody was a quist, and the sparrow that we so used to love hunting on the summer hedgerows, once the wheat had been cut, were "spugs or spuggies"

2012 June 26, tegater [username], “Quists, spugs and egg and bacon”, in The Hunting Life Forums:

(UK Midlands) The wood pigeon, Columba palumbus.


kingy

From kingfisher + -y (“diminutive suffix”).

Alcedo atthis
Alcedo atthis#Translingual

(UK, slang, birdwatching) the kingfisher, Alcedo atthis.


goldie

Young "baldies" look just like "goldies" and are often shot by mistake.

[…] the golden eagle is the champion predator. And the most handsome, according to ornithologists, who affectionately call their subjects "goldies".

Golden eagles took up old eyries on Hebridean sea cliffs only after the white-tailed sea eagle became extinct. Goldies may hunt seabirds but never fish, and they always resort to flying inland for rabbits or hares as preferred prey.

2009, John A. Love, A natural history of St. Kilda:

Something which is golden in color.
(UK, birdwatching) The golden eagle.

Something which is golden in color.
The golden eagle.

“Each time the golden plover moved, its dunlin attendant followed, but when the goldie flew off to land on a wooden post, it triggered a bizarre cameo.

2005, Mark Cocker, Richard Mabey, Birds Britannica:

Both grey and golden had the folk name "whistling plover" in Britain, but you know from the habitat that Burns must have had the goldie in mind in his line, The deep-toned plover gray, wild whistling on the hill

2009, Jeremy Mynott, Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience:

Dunlins, 'the plover's page', lay their eggs in wetter flows, usually those having a complex of small pools; we often watched the dunlins following the goldies.

2010, Desmond Nethersole-Thompson, Waders: their Breeding, Haunts and Watchers, page 107:

Something which is golden in color.
(UK, birdwatching) The golden plover.

Something which is golden in color.
The golden plover.


in the light of

In the light of faith I gain wisdom in the wisdom of the Word your Son; in the light of faith I am strong, constant, persevering; in the light of faith I have hope: It does not let me faint along the way.

1980, Catherine of Siena, translated by Suzanne Noffke, The Dialogue, New Jersey: Paulist Press, page 365:

2005, Simon Blackburn, “hermeneutic circle," entry in The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, page 165,
Similarly, we may hold that the past can only be understood in the light of the present, and the present only understood in the light of the past.

In the light of cases such as this, one should perhaps be careful about suggesting general disapproval of ‘consumer’ objections to wind farm development.

2007, Jane Holder, Maria Lee, Environmental Protection, Law and Policy: Text and Materials, page 712:

(figuratively, chiefly UK and Canada) Based on conclusions derived from (a source of knowledge, evidence or inspiration).


lorryload

(UK) As much as a lorry can hold; a truckload.


tufty

From tuft(ed duck) + -y (diminutive suffix).

Buoyant. That's a tufty. Well, tufted duck, to be formal, but the name always sounds more like tufty duck, and there is something inspiringly matey about a tufty: we are on nickname terms with the bird at first glance.

2005, Simon Barnes, “Tufted Duck”, in A Bad Birdwatcher’s Companion … Or A Personal Introduction to Britain’s 50 Most Obvious Birds, London: Short Books, →ISBN, page 101:

Aythya fuligula
Aythya fuligula#Translingual

(British, informal) The tufted duck (Aythya fuligula).


gardening leave

Goodchild had accepted an offer to move from UBS to Coutts, and because the two banks are in direct competition he was, as he expected to be, put straight on to "gardening leave".

2008 August 1, Melissa Viney, “The secret garden”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Until September Mr Orcel was head of the investment bank at Switzerland’s UBS. He had been due to succeed José Antonio Álvarez in April, after “gardening leave”.

2019 January 19, “Andrea Orcel’s move from UBS to Santander falls through”, in The Economist, →ISSN:


garden leave

In reference to the time a person can work on their garden during their paid leave.

We think he's going to start working for our competitor, so we've put on him on garden leave so he doesn't take all of our latest ideas.

The use of a garden leave clause means that the employee is allowed to stay at home (in the garden!) on full pay but is not allowed to work for anyone else during the life of the notice period.

2004, Janice Nairns, Employment Law for Business Students, second edition, Pearson Education, →ISBN, page 128:

(UK) A period of paid leave before termination of employment, often including non-compete contract clauses.


wase

From Middle English wase (“torch”), related to Middle Low German and Middle Dutch wase (“bundle of straw, torch”), Danish vase (“wisp of straw, bundle”), Swedish vase (“a sheaf”).

cog

a waze of strawe in his hande.

1565, Thomas Harding, A Confutation of a Booke Intituled An Apologie of the Churche of England:

(UK, dialect) A bundle of straw, or other material, to relieve the pressure of burdens carried upon the head.


jenny wren

There would have been no one to superintend him, except a squirrel perhaps or a jenny wren, at which he might have winked.

1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 75:

Troglodytes troglodytes
Troglodytes troglodytes#Translingual

(UK) The wren, Troglodytes troglodytes, especially as considered (in nursery-rhymes, etc.) as the wife or sweetheart of robin redbreast.


niblike

en-adj

niblike (comparative more niblike, superlative most niblike)

more niblike (comparative)
most niblike (superlative)

All my togs were so niblike and splash

1878, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, page 201:


Mount Caburn

(UK) A hill located just east of the town of Lewes in the county of Sussex in the United Kingdom.


I believe you, thousands wouldn't

You weren't working on germ warfare five years ago." "Non-lethal," she cries. "Oh, how you can not see." "Well, I believe you, thousands wouldn't[…]

2004, Sandra Newman, The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done: A Novel, →ISBN, page 185:

(British, Ireland, sarcastic) Used to indicate that the speaker does not put faith in something they have just heard.


cozzie

If it′s hot, take your cozzie (swimsuit) and towel to Bondi Beach or Manly.

2008, Marc Llewellyn, Lee Mylne, Australia For Dummies, page 145:

Got my new cozzie ready for tomorrow – summer has finally arrived!

2010, L. J. Adlington, The Diary of Pelly D, unnumbered page:

Cat's wandered down the garden on the pretext of using the pool so she takes her towel and cozzie.

2010, Barbara Trapido, Sex and Stravinsky, unnumbered page:

(chiefly New South Wales, Canberra, UK) A swimming costume (especially a female swimming costume).


my giddy aunt

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-my giddy aunt.wav

(British, Ireland) An exclamation of astonishment, confusion, despair, etc.: my sainted aunt, my sainted uncle.


gee-gees

He lost all his money on the gee-gees.

I put some money on the gee-gees last week, and I've got to see a bloke about it.

(UK, slang, plural only, usually with 'the') horse racing.


freephone

From free + phone, perhaps after the Freefone (0800 number) service introduced in 1985 in the UK.

If they are not marketed properly they can easily be viewed as a poor man's freephone. Therefore, if such a service is to succeed, it needs to be promoted...

1997, Peter Murley, Gower handbook of customer service:

One reason for the increase in public contact with companies has been the introduction of freephone, or toll-free, services.

2000, Owen Hargie, Dennis Tourish, Handbook of communication audits for organisations:

Adding a freephone telephone number does increase response...

2001, Dave Patten, Successful marketing for the small business:

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A service offering telephone calls free of charge to designated numbers.


fag break

(UK, Ireland, slang) A brief cessation of work, activity etc. in order to have a cigarette.


ready salted

From early crisps that, having previously been shipped with a separate twist of salt, were later salted in advance.

(UK, of crisps) Seasoned with salt but no other flavoring.


Eve's pudding

After the Biblical Eve, who transgressed by eating an apple.

(UK) A pudding made from apples and Victoria sponge cake mixture.


Highland wildcat

en-noun

Highland wildcat (plural Highland wildcats)


leading seaman

non-commissioned officer
non-commissioned officer

(Australia, UK, Navy) A non-commissioned officer in the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Navy, ranking above able seaman and below petty officer.


master-at-arms

Episode 12, The Cyclops
Then he was telling us the master at arms comes along with a long cane and he draws out and he flogs the bloody backside off of the poor lad till he yells meila murder.

(UK, Navy) A warrant officer or chief petty officer responsible for discipline aboard a naval ship.

רַב נַשָׁק

a warrant officer or chief petty officer responsible for discipline aboard a naval ship

commissioned officer
commissioned officer

(UK, Army) A commissioned officer responsible for overseeing all fitness training in subordinate units.


nauther

en-adv

nauther (comparative more nauther, superlative most nauther)

more nauther (comparative)
most nauther (superlative)

From Old English nauþer, nawþer, from na + hwæþer.


warrant officer class 1

en-noun

warrant officer class 1 (plural warrant officers class 1)

warrant officer class 2
warrant officer class 2

regimental sergeant major
regimental sergeant major

(UK, Army, Navy, Marines) A warrant officer in the British Army, Royal Marines, and Royal Navy, ranking above warrant officer class 2. In the army the rank held by a regimental sergeant major.


warrant officer class 2

warrant officer class 2 (plural warrant officers class 2)

(UK) NATO rank OR-8 in all British armed services.

warrant officer class 1
warrant officer class 1

company sergeant major
company sergeant major

(UK, Army) A warrant officer in the British Army ranking above staff sergeant and below warrant officer class 1; company sergeant major

(UK, Marines) A warrant officer in the Royal Marines ranking above colour sergeant and below warrant officer class 1.

(UK, Navy) A warrant officer in the Royal Navy ranking above chief petty officer and below warrant officer class 1.


yowe

From Middle English yowe, yeue, forms of ewe, from Old English eowu. Compare Scots cognate yowe.

The ram was marked wi' keel at the reet o' the tail an' the yowes upon their hips.

1902, James Thomson, Recollections of a Speyside parish:

(dialectal, UK, Scotland) A ewe; a female sheep.


haematuria

haematuria (countable and uncountable, plural haematurias)


NuLab

New Labour rendered in Orwellian Newspeak.

We are totally opposed to the creeping privatisation of these services which NuLab has indicated it will commence once this election is safely out of the way.

2001, Patrick Harrington, Cliff Morrison, Third Way Manifesto:


fettler

How's tha' doing fettler?

(slang, UK, Lancashire) A friend or mate


combination room

combination room (plural combination rooms)

(UK, Cambridge University) A common room.


common room

He was […] none of your free-and-easy companions, who would scrape their boots upon the fire-dogs in the common room, and be not at all particular on the subject of spittoons; […]

1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 10.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 289:

Any expected permanent way checks are indicated daily on a map in the enginemen's common room.

1950 June, N. H. Bousfield, “Angers, a French Provincial Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 371:

(UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand) A shared lounge found in dormitories, universities, military bases, etc.


barnacle

Uncertain, with long-debated origin. From Middle English barnakille, from earlier bernake, bernekke, most likely from Old Northern French bernaque (“barnacle”) (compare French barnache), probably from Medieval Latin barneca (“limpet”), probably from Gaulish (compare Welsh brennig, Irish báirneac), from Proto-Celtic *barinākos, from *barinā (“rock, rocky ground”) (compare Old Irish barenn (“boulder”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷr̥H- (“hill, mountain”) + Proto-Celtic *-ākos, from Proto-Indo-European *-kos, *-ḱos; for sense development, compare Ancient Greek λέπας (lépas, “rock”) which gave λεπάς (lepás, “limpet”).
First attestations referred to the goose, with corresponding folklore (q.v.).

der

(archaic, British, slang, in the plural) A pair of spectacles.


skilder

en-verb

skilder (third-person singular simple present skilders, present participle skildering, simple past and past participle skildered)

skilders (present singular third-person)
skildering (participle present)
skildered (participle past)
skildered (past)

(UK, Scotland, dialect, obsolete) To beg; to pilfer; to skelder.


white metal

en-noun

white metal (countable and uncountable, plural white metals)

(UK, auctions) Silver that cannot be labeled as silver in the UK because it does not bear an Assay Office mark.


look-in

(idiomatic, UK) A chance to participate, compete, or succeed.


exagramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of exagram


roulement

(British, military) a short deployed tour for a major combat unit or other grouping of personnel on a continuing operation.


responsion

/ɹɪˈspɒnʃən/

(UK, education, historical, in the plural) The first of three examinations once required for an academic degree at the University of Oxford; nicknamed the little go and generally taken around the time of matriculation.


0800 number

the 0800 number advice line receives over five hundred calls a year

1995, Sheena Carmichael, Business Ethics: the new bottom line, →ISBN, page 41:

It is an alternative to a 0800 number where the callee bears the full cost of the call.

2002, Julie K. Petersen, Fiber optics illustrated dictionary, →ISBN, page 1046:

The important point about direct response is that it should not just be advertising with an 0800 number

2006, Frances Brassington, Stephen Pettitt, Principles of marketing, →ISBN, page 838:

(UK, New Zealand) A telephone number beginning with 0800; these numbers are free for the caller because the call is paid for by the company or organisation being called.


trilliard

From French trilliard, equivalent to tri- (“three”) + -illiard.

We read of milliards, and even trilliards, of roubles, marks, francs and dollars, but we do not comprehend them in the sense of visualising and retaining a clear-cut picture of what the figures really imply.

1922, Industrial Peace, volume 10, London: St. Catherine Press, page 167:

2003, François Cardarelli, Column in a table, Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins,
Power of ten ...UK, France (n rule) million billion billiard trillion trilliard

(UK, Australia, dated, rare) One thousand long scale trillions, or one short scale sextillion; equal to 10²¹ (1 followed by twenty-one 0s).

triiliardo

1021, a thousand million million million (a billion trillion) — see also sextillion


euthanase

en-verb

euthanase (third-person singular simple present euthanases, present participle euthanasing, simple past and past participle euthanased)

euthanases (present singular third-person)
euthanasing (participle present)
euthanased (participle past)
euthanased (past)

Back-formation from euthanasia. Compare euthanize.

1988, British Small Animal Veterinary Association, World Small Animal Veterinary Association, The Journal of Small Animal Practice, Volume 29, page 258,
One affected red and white pup was euthanased and the eyes sent for histological examination.

Mice from each treatment group, including negative controls, were euthanased seven days after the last feed.

2003, R. Fuller, Gabriela Perdigón, Gut Flora, Nutrition, Immunity and Health, page 188:

On one occasion I euthanased a horse because of sand colic. The girl's mother, who lived in Perth, and didn't observe the incident, complained to the Board. She stated that horses don't die of colic and I was required to give reasons why I euthanased the horse.

2010, Jal Maxwell, Square Peg - Round Hole, page 56:


two bob

(UK, Australia, obsolete) Two shillings; a florin.

Less flashy in its post-modernism than the MI6 building, more sober in its brick-framed glass curtain walling, Sally Malone would have pointed out that this was the two-bob side of the block, as against the half-crown riverbank site of the other building.

1999, Barry Maitland, The Chalon Heads: A Kathy and Brock Mystery, page 181:

Judging from the spectrum and the brightness Dr Stickland “wouldn′t give two bob either way”.

1975 September 4, “Monitor: Nova Honda brightens the night sky”, in New Scientist, page 515:

(idiomatic, UK, Australia, often attributive) A trivially small value.


personation

en-noun

personation (countable and uncountable, plural personations)

(UK) The act of voting in an election by impersonating someone else.


zeptogramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of zeptogram


yoctogramme

(rare, British) Alternative spelling of yoctogram


like a train

I could not get a shot in. They turned in my direction and came like a train. I stopped the first and the others spilled round him at a frightful speed. I was in the eddy of the first beast, as it were. I got in another shot at an angle behind the ear and down he went.

1949, Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell, Karamojo safari, page 85:

"That tide's coming in like a train, and if the Raider breaks up, the currents will drag them under!" Her voice was desperate. "I don't see 'ow anyone can get to them!" It was true.

1994, Sheila Garrigue, The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito, →ISBN, page 17:

Aspinall was suspended for the first three games but we started like a train. We took ten points from the first twelve, beating Leeds 4—0 at home with Hilaire and Blake coming back, and we went to the top of the league.

2005, Alan Ball, Playing Extra Time, →ISBN, page 221:


a little bit of bread and no cheese

/ə ˌlɪtl̩ ˈbɪt‿əv ˈbɹɛd‿n̩ nəʊ ˈt͡ʃiːz/

/ə ˈlɪt(ə)l ˈbɪt‿əv ˈbɹɛd‿n̩ noʊ ˈt͡ʃiz/

En-au-a little bit of bread and no cheese.ogg

Onomatopoeic; the bird’s song is thought to resemble the rhythm of the phrase.

The song of the yellow-hammer consists of little more than a monotone, repeated quickly several times, some emphasis being laid on the last note, which is also uttered at greater length. It is almost the only bird whose note is heard in the heat of a summer's day. The cow-boys in some parts of the country have given the following interpretation to the yellow-hammer's song:— "A lit—tle bit of bread, and no cheese."

1839 July 13, “British Birds”, in The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume VIII, number 467, London: Charles Knight & Co., […], →OCLC, page 266, column 1:

In Devonshire it [the yellowhammer] goes by the names of "Little-bread-and-no-cheese," and "Gladdy." Of the latter name I do not know the origin; that of the former is clear enough; for if the words "A little bit of bread and no cheese" be chanted rapidly in one note, descending at the word "cheese," the performance, both in matter and style, will bear a close resemblance to the bird's song.

1862, C[harles] A[lexander] Johns, “The Yellow Hammer. Emberíza citrinella.”, in British Birds in Their Haunts, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; […], →OCLC, page 192:

[A]s twilight sets in, the Yellow Hammer may still be heard, and is perhaps the last bird to give a parting note to the retiring day, with the exception of his congener the Corn-Bunting, who sings till it is quite dusk. Country people imitate the note of the Yellow Hammer by the words, "a little bit of bread and no cheese," the accent on the last word; but sometimes the utterance alters in tone, the request being for a "little bit of bread and no cheese," the last word being dropped and the accent on the penultimate.

1871–1881, H[enry] E[eles] Dresser, “Emberiza citrinella. (Yellow Bunting.)”, in A History of the Birds of Europe, […], volume IV, London: […] [Taylor and Francis for] the author, […], →OCLC, page 4:

[T]he yellowhammer, who also had words as well as tune, sang his refrain of "a little bit of bread and no cheese," with a tremendous emphasis on the no; […]

1875, [Walter Besant, James Rice], chapter VIII, in With Harp and Crown. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 139:

It is delightful to hear the yellowhammer's song—his only song: "A little bit of bread and no c h e e s e."

1896, “the Amateur Angler” [pseudonym; Edward Marston], “Spring and Summer Rambles”, in By Meadow and Stream: Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Places, London: Sampson Law, Marston and Company […], →OCLC, page 38:

There were several sorts of little birds, twittering different songs. The first one sang—“Who’s bin digging-up my nuts? Who’s-been-digging-up my nuts?” And another sang—“Little bita bread and - no - cheese! Little bit - a - bread an’ - no - cheese!”

1911, Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes, London, New York, N.Y.: Frederick Warne & Co., →OCLC, page 21:

"A little bit of bread and no cheese!" cry the yellowhammers petulantly. But no one takes any notice of them.

1931 May 20, Louis Golding, “A Rosary of Lovely Places”, in The Commonweal: A Weekly Review of Literature, the Arts and Public Affairs, volume XIV, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Calvert Publishing Corporation, →OCLC, page 74, column 1:

The Africans, it seems, have the British countryman's habit of making a phonetically similar sentence out of a bird's call. The yellow-hammer, for instance, is supposed to say "a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese". In Zande, the laughing dove calls urugu nolu akpi akpi, which can be translated as "the planter of eleusine [a local cereal] will die".

1961 January 26, “Notes and Comments: Bird Calls and Beer Drinking in African Language”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 9, number 219, London: IPC Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 197, column 1:

In Europe the song of the Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) can be heard, with a little poetic licence, as ‘a little bit of bread and no cheese’, the Quail (Coturnix coturnix) as ‘wet my lips’.

2015, Nick Baker, “Feathered and Flighty: Birds”, in The Complete Naturalist, London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Natural History, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 51:

Emberiza citrinella
Emberiza citrinella#English

(British, idiomatic) Used to represent the song of the yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella).


butt-woman

My thoughts always revert to the angry butt-woman when the second chapter of St. James' Epistle is read in its ordinary course.

1862, Margaret Goodman, Experiences of an English Sister of Mercy, London: Smith and Elder, page 26:

"It was more like a funeral than a wedding," said the butt-woman, who was the sole spectator of the ceremony, with the exception of the bride's uncle and aunt, told her friends afterwards.

1892 September, Annie Thomas, “The Honourable Jane.”, in Belgravia: a London magazine, volume 79, page 10:

The butt-woman was just setting forth the need of money for church repairs but she interrupted herself when she found me studying monuments.

1909 March, Edna Bourne Holman, “At Herrick's home in Devon”, in Scribner's Magazine, volume XLV, number 3, page 259:

(obsolete, chiefly British) A female lay church worker who tends the pews in a church; a sextoness.


fusome

en-adj

fusome (comparative more fusome, superlative most fusome)

more fusome (comparative)
most fusome (superlative)

From Middle English *fussom, equivalent to fouse (“eager, ready, brave, noble”) + -some.

suffix

What pleas'd him best, the warmed up some keal, And RALF dud mak a varra fusome meal,

1785, Tim Bobbin, The Lancashire Dialect: Containing the Adventures and Misfortunes of a Lancashire Clown:

Whya nowt but weel , she seems a varra conny fusom wife, en I hear they hoffer et dea varra weel, en baith draas yaa way, en gitten ther lile farm varra connoly stockt;

1840, Ann Wheeler, The Westmoreland Dialect in Four Familiar Dialogues, page 48:

(UK, dialect, obsolete) Handy, deft-handed, workmanlike.

She was...as douce and fewsome as ony woman's bairn

1867, Eliza Lynn Linton, Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg:

(UK, dialect, obsolete) Neat; handsome, comely, shapely, attractive.


FACT

Federation Against Copyright Theft
w:Federation Against Copyright Theft

(UK) Initialism of Federation Against Copyright Theft.


OLE

The problem started with damage to overhead line equipment (OLE - the railway's electrification system), which halted a Great Western Railway service.

2024 August 21, Philip Haigh, “Stranded trains: problems for passengers and operators”, in RAIL, number 1016, page 52:

(rail transport, UK) Overhead line equipment.


pontage

en-noun

pontage (countable and uncountable, plural pontages)

From Latin pons, pontis (“a bridge”): compare French pontage.

They pay no Toll for Goods which they have in Right of the Church , and were formerly by the common Law discharg'd from Pontage and Murage

1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe […], →OCLC:

(UK, law, obsolete) A duty or tax paid for repairing bridges.


CMA

CMA (countable and uncountable, plural CMAs)

(UK, countable) Initialism of computer-marked assignment (that uses scan sheets)


young'un

"Jesus Christ! Was my folks refined. My mam she wouldn't think-a lettin' us young'uns call a pee pot a pee pot. A chamber's what she called it... And by God! Us young'uns had ter call the pee pot a chamber or git our God damn necks wrang."

1946, Elizabeth Metzger Howard, Before the Sun Goes Down, page 31:

(Southern US, African-American Vernacular, British West Country, Northern England, informal) Child.


go through the mill

en-verb

go through the mill (third-person singular simple present goes through the mill, present participle going through the mill, simple past went through the mill, past participle gone through the mill)

goes through the mill (present singular third-person)
going through the mill (participle present)
went through the mill (past)
gone through the mill (participle past)

All know the high estimation debtors held the Act 1861, by the number who went "through the mill" at the close of 1869.

(UK, slang, obsolete) To go through bankruptcy.


air-raid warden

en-noun

air-raid warden (plural air-raid wardens)

capofabbricato

person who defends a building during an air raid

A person whose responsibility was to defend a particular building during an air raid, ensure the blackout was complete, and assist civilians to an air-raid shelter.

(UK, historical) A member of an Air Raid Precautions organization, dedicated to protecting and sheltering civilians from air raids during World War II.


jacksie

(slang, UK) Alternative spelling of jacksy


yelper

From Middle English yelpere; equivalent to yelp + -er.

(UK, dialect) The avocet (so-called from its sharp, shrill cry).


sugar momma

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative spelling of sugar mama


flu friend

(UK) A designated friend or relative who collects medicine on behalf of a person with flu who has been advised to remain at home.


daleside

With time, nutrients are leached from the organic material, rabbits graze the vegetation, and the species become more typical of daleside communities.

1999, C. Philip Wheater, Urban habitats:

(UK, often attributive) The side of a dale.


up hill and down dale

I have a great deal of sympathy with scientific doubters, and with those who test psychicism up hill and down dale and are not satisfied.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 275:

We bought a 1969 dark green VW Beetle which I immediately named "Doodle Bug," and off we went. The car did not give us a minute's trouble throughout the trip — up hill, down dale, across uncharted wastelands between super highways.

1980 December 6, Nancy Walker, “Toodle-Oo, Doodle”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 20, page 12:

(UK, US, Australia, idiomatic) Here and there; everywhere.


DA-notice

(UK) A defence advisory notice, an official (but unenforceable) request to news editors not to publish or broadcast items on specified subjects for reasons of national security.


D-notice

D-notice (canonical)
also Notice D (canonical)
D-notices (plural)

Newspapers are afraid upon all sorts of minor counts, publishers, with such valiant exceptions as the publishers of this matter, are morbidly discreet; they get Notice D to avoid this or that particular topic; there are obscure boycotts and trade difficulties hindering the wide diffusion of general ideas in countless ways.

1940, H. G. Wells, The New World Order, Alfred A. Knopf, published 1940, page 15:

His mistake was to select a heavy English Sunday paper which occasionally ran his pieces. The D-Notice forbidding all reference to these events was there ahead of him.

1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 18:

(UK, historical) A defence notice; an official request to news editors not to publish or broadcast items on specified subjects for reasons of national security (replaced in 1993 with the DA-notice).


arse around

en-verb

arse around (third-person singular simple present arses around, present participle arsing around, simple past and past participle arsed around)

arses around (present singular third-person)
arsing around (participle present)
arsed around (participle past)
arsed around (past)

Quit arsing around and get to work!

Gob, he’s not as green as he’s cabbagelooking. Arsing around from one pub to another, leaving it to your honour, with old Giltrap’s dog and getting fed up by the ratepayers and corporators.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 299:

[…] up in London you arse around and go to the local and meet the boys and perhaps take in a flick, and then when you go to bed you find you’ve spent a quid and wonder where in hell it went and what you got for it.

1944, Nevil Shute, chapter 2, in Pastoral, London: Pan Books, published 1964:

It’s part of a whole lot of home-movie stuff I’ve just bought at Christie’s. Most of it’s too madly dull for words—you know, gay young things arsing around with no shame.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 284:

(intransitive, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To behave in a clownish, irresponsible or inefficient manner.


brussen

(UK, dialect, obsolete, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire) burst


sadcase

(UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A pathetic, unfashionable or socially inept person.


lith

From Middle English lith, lyth, from Old English liþ (“limb, member, joint, tip of finger, point”), from Proto-Germanic *liþuz (“limb”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots lith (“part of the body, joint”), West Frisian lid (“part of the body, member”), Dutch lid (“limb, member, section”), Middle High German lit (“limb, member”), Swedish led (“joint, link, channel”), Icelandic liður (“item”), Dutch lid (“part of the body; member”) and gelid (“joint, rank, file”), German Glied (“limb, member, link”).

cog

(UK dialectal) A limb; any member of the body.

lith and limb;  out of lith

he departed with the lady / & brouȝt her to Camelot / Soo as they rode in a valey it was ful of stones / and there the ladyes hors stumbled and threwe her doun that her arme was sore brysed and nere she swouned for payne / Allas syr sayd the lady myn arme is oute of lythe wher thorow I must nedes reste me

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book III:

(UK dialectal) A joint; a segment or symmetrical part or division.


lith

From Middle English *lith, from Old Norse hlið (“a gap, gate, space”), from Proto-Germanic *hlidą (“door, lid, eyelid”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to conceal, hide”). Cognate with dialectal Norwegian lid, led (“an opening in a fence”), Scots lith (“a gap in a fence, gate opening”), Old English hlid (“lid, covering, door, gate, opening”). More at lid.

cog

(UK dialectal) A gate; a gap in a fence.


Sarf London

Pronunciation spelling of south, representing a th-fronting South London accent.

Nigel Kennedy, the English violinist, is noted for having acquired a working-class “Sarf London” speech in early adulthood, overcoming the heritage of an elite education as a gifted child at the Yehudi Menuhin school, in the course of which he was exposed to continuous input of RP.

1995, Kevin Durkin, “Language Development II: Social Dimensions of Acquisition and Use”, in Developmental social psychology: from infancy to old age, →ISBN, page 248:

Their stance as the most honest band in the world was offset by some nagging doubts: even some of their true believers felt that Strummer (real name John Mellors) came from too privileged a background to be genuinely angry, while Jones’s ‘Sarf London’ accent was considered suspect.

2003, Peter Buckley, editor, The Rough Guide to Rock, →ISBN, page 203:

‘I figured that all this Sarf London wideboy bit was just smoke.’

2006, Martyn Waites, Mary's Prayer, →ISBN, page 106:


running shoe

She used running shoes so that she wouldn't slip.

(British) trainer with sharp spikes in the soles.


overthwart

/əʊvəˈθwɔːt/

From Middle English overthwart, overthwert, overtwert, overquert, overwhart, equivalent to over- + thwart. Compare Dutch overdwaars (“across”), Danish overtvært (“across”).

[…] entrance, and access on all sides, by the felling of huge Trees overthwart one another, was quite barr’d up;

1670, John Milton, The History of Britain, London: James Allestry, Book 2, p. 42:

(archaic, UK dialectal) From one side to the other of.


snoozle

en-verb

snoozle (third-person singular simple present snoozles, present participle snoozling, simple past and past participle snoozled)

snoozles (present singular third-person)
snoozling (participle present)
snoozled (participle past)
snoozled (past)

She […] seemed absorbed in her occupation; desisting from it only to […] push away a dog, now and then, that snoozled its nose overforwardly into her face.

1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

(British, rare) To nuzzle affectionately.


confectioner's

(UK) A shop that principally sells confectionery


glutch

glutch (third-person singular simple present glutches, present participle glutching, simple past and past participle glutched)

glutches (present singular third-person)
glutching (participle present)
glutched (participle past)
glutched (past)

From Middle English glucchen, a variant of gulchen (“to drink greedily”). Doublet of gulch.

And now Robert Creedle will be nailed up in parish boards 'a b'lieve; and noboby will glutch down a sigh for he!

1887, Thomas Hardy, chapter 43, in The Woodlanders:


neshness

I should be inclined to think it was from general neshness of constitution.

1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, Chapter 41:

(British, dialect) The condition of being nesh.


kitchen paper

en-noun

kitchen paper (usually uncountable, plural kitchen papers)

(UK) Paper towels intended for kitchen purposes such as absorbing spillages and wrapping sandwiches.


laughing gear

2005, Brian Castro, The Garden Book, Giramond Publishing, NSW, page 110,
His dumb face made me believe him. I told him if he saw anything unusual to come and tell me. Sure, Mr Damon, he whimpered. Sure, Mr Damon...I could have knocked out his laughing-gear.

Wrap your laughing gear around these luscious Lebanese swamis (meat and spice wrapped in Lebanese bread).

2007, Danny Palmerlee, South America on a Shoestring, Lonely Planet, page 801:

You will recognize him instantly — a man with his laughing gear permanently attached to a liquor bottle.

2008, Teri Louise Kelly, Sex, Knives and Bouillabaisse, South Australia: Wakefield Press, page 59:

Wrap your laughing gear around fresh bread and tasty spreads to set yourself up for the day.

2008, Charles Rawlings-Way, New Zealand:

‘Get your laughing gear round that lot,’ Frank drawled as he put the chops, steaks and bangers on the table.

2009, Mark Abernethy, Second Strike, NSW: Allen & Unwin, page 586:

Despite having pretty mean teeth, it lacks the laughing gear of the pike and thus smaller baits tend to be used.

2012, Peter Kaminsky, Fishing For Dummies, UK: John Wiley & Sons, page 63:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, humorous, slang) The mouth.


BATNEEC

(UK, environmental regulation) Initialism of best available techniques not entailing excessive costs.


superloo

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

The French "superloos" are open 24 hours. They afford total privacy in an atmosphere of warm, clean-smelling air and piped-in music.

I shall certainly hear more about the superloo than drugs, and it will be genuine and spontaneous...

1987, George Marshall, In a distant isle: the Orkney background of Edwin Muir:

The city was promised 550 'free' pillars that could be turned into superloos with Muzak and heated seats, kiosks...

2000, Nick Cohen, Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the Preposterous:

...and the theatre and the travel agents and the superloos and the monument and the corners and the doorways and the altering light and diminishing crowds.

(UK, informal) A luxurious public toilet.


Hokey Cokey

(UK) A group dance performed in a circle, in which people move various of their body parts in and out of the middle, and shake them about.


pergal

(UK) A box containing a plastic bladder of milk (most commonly with three Imperial gallons of milk), used commercially in a refrigerated machine that dispenses the milk as needed for customers.


List 99

Those subject to a disqualification order, and those permanently included on the Protection of Children Act List, are also included on List 99 automatically.

2006, Great Britain Department of Health, Working together to safeguard children:

As changes are being made to List 99 (by including new offences that will merit automatic disqualification), additional individuals will be barred from working in daycare settings and as childminders.

2006, Ann-Marie McAuliffe, Alison Linsey, John Fowler, Childcare Act 2006: the essential guide:

Mr Hudson was placed on List 99, which bars dubious characters from teaching jobs.

The management of the registration of people considered to be unsuitable to work with children and placed on List 99 became increasingly complex […]

2007, Joyce Lishman, Handbook for practice learning in social work and social care:

(UK, historical) A confidential register of people forbidden to work with children, maintained by the Department of Education and Skills.


squeaky bum time

Attributed to Sir Alex Ferguson, famed Scottish association football manager and former player, it implies the sound made by moving around in a plastic seat while squirming under pressure. Ferguson had said "squeeze your bum time" (that is, clenching one's buttocks under pressure) but it was misheard by journalist Kevin McCarra and the misquote stuck.

"It's getting tickly now - squeaky-bum time, I call it."

2003 March 18, “Fergie just can't stop playing his mind games”, in Daily Express, page 62:

(informal, chiefly UK) Chiefly, an exciting part of a sporting event, particularly the final moments of a close game or season.


bathing box

Boatsheds and bathing boxes were strung along the beaches of Port Phillip Bay for the shelter of boats as well as the bodies of the affluent.

1999, Clarice Beckett, Rosalind Hollinrake, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Clarice Beckett: Politically Incorrect, page 28:

She watched until her father reached the wreck, waiting until he turned and began the return swim, then she started up the beach toward the tea-trees and the line of gaily painted bathing boxes.

2002, Alex Miller, Conditions of Faith, page 3:

His father had a franchise from the Burnaby estate that allowed only him to put bathing boxes on the south beach for which he paid a rent of perhaps a shilling per box.

2004, Peter McNiff, Stories from a Small Town: Anecdotal History Of Greystones, County Wicklow, page 45:


beach hut

2000, Michael Dregni, 101 Uses for an Old Farm Tractor, Voyageur Press, British Columbia, page 29,
Kenneth Anderson's 1940s John Deere Model H could also double as a beach hut or lifeguard stand.

Beach huts, owned or leased, are not habitable but can be used as a shelter and changing room on the beach.

2003, Barbara Segall, Jerry Harpur, Gardens by the Sea, page 123:

Installed in a stark London gallery, Emin's work symbolized the beach hut as icon of the seaside.

2006, Fred Gray, chapter C, in Designing the Seaside: Architecture, Society and Nature, page 176:

As you travel further south there is a string of mellow beach huts with Buddhist names such as Shanti and Nirvana, catering for small numbers of hip, adventurous young Israelis.

2010, Amelia Thomas, Michael Kohn, Miriam Raphael, Dan Savery Raz, Israel & the Palestinian Territories, Lonely Planet, page 395:

But you'll have to wait in line in the morning to reserve a beach hut, and one never gets used to the sad sight of parrots, toucans, and cockatoos squawking in their cages.

2011, Darwin Porter, Frommer's Caribbean, page 77:

(UK, Australia) A small, single-room building above high-water mark on a beach that is used for changing into swimming clothes, for recreation, or for temporary storage.


Lycra lout

The Daily Mail and Alun Michael might well have been right to think that Lycra louts were important to the public, but that does not make it an issue of high politics.

2001, Edward Page, Governing by numbers: delegated legislation and everyday policy-making:

Red traffic lights mean nothing to the Lycra lout, the psycho cyclist, the berk on a bike (Parsons 2002, 21).

2007, Paul Rosen, Peter Cox, David Horton, Cycling and society:

Is it my imagination, or is the world being taken over by Lycra louts with their arses in the air, their handlebars on the bitumen and their anti-erectile-dysfunction gel inserts firmly installed?

2007, Catherine Deveny, It's not my fault they print them:

(UK, slang, derogatory) An irresponsible cyclist, typically dressed in elastane cycling shorts and a cycling jersey and riding a racing bicycle.


fanny about

en-verb

fanny about (third-person singular simple present fannies about, present participle fannying about, simple past and past participle fannied about)

fannies about (present singular third-person)
fannying about (participle present)
fannied about (participle past)
fannied about (past)

Then he dithered and fannied about.

1977, Jon Fleming et al., Soldiers on Everest, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, page 97:

Johnson waited for an age while the barmen tossed bottles back and forth, poured luminous liquids into glasses from great heights, and fannied about with fruit and frivolities.

2007, Philip Bryer, None of Your Business, →ISBN, page 151:

Obviously, I smirk watching this chaos unfold, from my lofty moral vantage as a woman checking Twitter dozens of times a day, a woman who often presents her husband with meals consisting of fridge remnants as I'm too busy fannying about on the internet to cook or shop.

(chiefly British, intransitive, slang) To waste time or fool around; to engage in activity which produces little or no accomplishment.

... the mechanic who tidied up after the Krays, took care of business while the Twins were fannying around the clubland circuit.

2001, Iain Sinclair, Landor's Tower, →ISBN, page 287:

Out of all the random cities one gets to fanny about in Europe, all my flings are descending onto Luxembourg like a plague of horny man-teens.

2009 May 27, Lucy Hunt, “No more broken hearts?”, in iafrica.com, retrieved 2009-09-08:

(chiefly British, transitive and intransitive, slang) To wander about or prowl around.


controlee

(informal, UK) A person who is the subject of a control order.


control order

(UK, law) An order made by the Home Secretary to restrict an individual's liberty for the purpose of protecting members of the public from a risk of terrorism.


postcoded

The UK postcode list, known as the Postcode Address File (PAF), has been resold by the Post Office for years, even though more widespread use would ease the Post Office's task: postcoded letters are easier to sort and deliver.

2006 April 20, Charles Arthur, “Living on the Street with No Name”, in The Guardian:


dog's dinner

to make a dog's dinner (of)

The Polizei had made a dog's dinner of this. Vera would have done better, no doubt of it. It now remained to be seen whether the Law would do better.

She must look like a real dog's dinner. No wonder he'd been looking over her head to the girl who took the coats.

1997, Norma Harrs, Where Dreams Have Gone:

Just think; without that Mrs Pankhurst and her wrecking crew jumping under racehorses (phwooar!) and chaining themselves to railings (kinky!), these young women would be out getting an education and respecting their own sexuality, not getting themselves up like dog’s dinners and being the passive playthings of men.

2004 March 6, Julie Burchill, “Welcome to the world of the Stepford Sluts”, in Times Online, retrieved 2010-11-29:

The folio text is unevenly spaced (the compositor made a dog's dinner of setting the text), with three spaces closed up...

2007, Mark Bland, Early Modern Manuscript and Printed Book Studies:

(Ireland, UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) A complete mess.


flumpence

(UK, colloquial, rare) A derisory amount of money


josser

/ˈd͡ʒɒsə(ɹ)/

As I neither answered nor raised my eyes Mahony exclaimed again: "I say... He's a queer old josser!"

1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “An Encounter”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC:

(UK, informal) A man, especially one who seems foolish or simpleminded.


thripple

From Middle English, attested as a plural therrepillis.

(UK, dialect) A ladder-like extension fitted to the front, rear, and sometimes sides of a haywagon or other towed agricultural trailer so as to increase its capacity.


fishmonger's

(UK) A shop that sells wet fish and seafood.


dring

dring (third-person singular simple present drings, present participle dringing, simple past and past participle dringed)

drings (present singular third-person)
dringing (participle present)
dringed (participle past)
dringed (past)

(UK, dialectal, transitive) To press; squeeze; crowd; push.


riblet

(UK) A cut of veal or lamb taken from near the rib


loblolly

en-noun

loblolly (countable and uncountable, plural loblollies)

From Yorkshire dialect lob (“boil”, literally “bubbling up”) + dialect lolly (“broth”).

(UK, dialect) A thick stew; lobscouse or similar.


gissa

This bloke comes up to his mate, and says "Ere," 'e says, 'gissa fag, tosh,' 'e says.

1952, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Shirley Brooks, Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, Sir Owen Seaman, Punch:

(Pacing up and down in front of the protesting ICKLES, threateningly.) C'mon, Emma, gissa hand here.

"An' you're gorgeous, here, gissa kiss."

(UK, slang, nonstandard, in imperative utterances) Give us a; give me a.


anythink

'Well, mother told me to ride acrost and see if you wanted anythink.

1901, Henry Lawson, Joe Wilson and His Mates:

"Lost anythink, Matey?" said he.

1911, Herbert George Wells, The New Machiavelli:

Now, Alfred," she said, "you mind out for baby cryin', and if she should 'appen to want for anythink, just give a call to Mrs. Thomas through the next door."

1913, Henry W. Nevinson, Essays in Rebellion:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(UK) Pronunciation spelling of anything.


Leader of the Opposition

Leader of the Opposition (plural Leaders of the Opposition)

(politics, UK) In a house of legislature following the model of the Westminster system (such as the UK House of Commons), the parliamentary leader of the largest political party not forming the government.

Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition in the United Kingdom

Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons


brickor mortis

I've certainly heard people complain of feeling "credit crunched", although I can't really imagine anyone using the term brickor mortis with a straight face.

[2009 January 14, Hilary Osborne, “Empty of pocket, rich in diction: The credit crunched dictionary”, in The Guardian:

(UK, informal, rare) A condition of the housing market in which very few houses are bought and sold.


go for a burton

en-verb

go for a burton (third-person singular simple present goes for a burton, present participle going for a burton, simple past went for a burton, past participle gone for a burton)

goes for a burton (present singular third-person)
going for a burton (participle present)
went for a burton (past)
gone for a burton (participle past)

Originated in the RAF in World War II. Unknown beyond that, but may have some association with beer. One version is that it was from a series of ads for Burton's beer which showed a group of people with one missing and the tag line "He's gone for a Burton".

[G]one for a Burton […] has, in the R.A.F., ousted gone West[.] "He is dead" may appear somewhat remote from "He has gone for a glass of Burton": but, then, all euphemisms do, at first, appear remote.

1945, Eric H Partridge, “Words Get Their Wings”, in College English, volume 7, number 1, page 27:

(British, of a person or object) To be lost, spoiled or destroyed.


reccy

[…] to look down on the reccy where young men were playing football to this ceaseless din.

2000, Peter Nichols, Diaries, 1969-1977, page 36:


done and dusted

1953, UK, with "dusted" alliterative and expressing "finishing touches". Compare home and hosed.

All to be done and dusted before the National Honey Show. After this the grand clear up.

(British, Ireland, idiomatic, of a task) Completed thoroughly and satisfactorily.

kua kēhi

an idiomatic expression - completed thoroughly


Johnny Foreigner

UK late-20th century. The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang says "first recorded in 1990 but in use earlier". From John or Johnny as a personified idea. Compare Johnny Canuck (“Canadian”), Johnny Crapaud (“Frenchman”), Johnny Reb (“Confederate American”).

No wonder Johnny Foreigner lays in supplies of the stale bread rolls whenever he appears over the horizon.

1983, Richard Ingrams, John Wells, Private Eye - Issues 550-575, page 70:

Mr. King's message was that Johnny Foreigner does it better than us. In Germany, in Japan and in the United States, these bottlenecks just do not happen.

1984 December 3, John Torode, “Why must training for tomorrow be a dead turn-off?”, in The Guardian, page 18:

A time when Johnny Foreigner knew his place. A time when beautiful women from other countries existed primarily to be seduced...

1999, James Chapman, Licence to thrill: a cultural history of the James Bond films:

...the constant threat of spontaneous outbreaks of singing on Centre Court by pop has-beens and the occasional ungentlemanly antics of Johnny Foreigner...

2004, Charles Godfrey-Faussett, Footprint England:

(UK, informal, derogatory) Foreigners collectively; people who are not British.


vinney

Variant of vinny (“mouldy”) used substantively, from Middle English *vinny, *finny, from Old English fyniġ (“mouldy”); related to vinew.

(UK, dialect, Dorset) A traditional blue cheese made in Dorset, England, from skimmed cows' milk.


nish

From German nichts (“nothing”) or possibly Yiddish נישט (nisht, “no, not”). Originally borrowed from Polari.

If you like the director you do it for nish, so Marcus Thompson got us all to do it for nothing.

1998 March 4, Janie Lawrence, quoting Ian Dury, “The Dury's Out”, in The Independent:

I've got nish to say to you. You can save your breath.

2017, Dreda Say Mitchell, Blood Mother: Flesh and Blood Trilogy Book Two, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

These fucking little smart arses download fucking tunes for nish.

2017 September 20, BBC Backstage Music Pass, Liam Gallagher (actor):


lippen

lippen (third-person singular simple present lippens, present participle lippening, simple past and past participle lippened)

lippens (present singular third-person)
lippening (participle present)
lippened (participle past)
lippened (past)

From Middle English lipnen (“to trust”), of obscure origin. Perhaps an alteration of Middle English litnen (“to trust”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hlíta, compare Swedish lita (“to trust, depend, rely on”).

cog

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To entrust; trust to (someone/something).

Do not lippen to him! / I was lippening on you.

"And never lippen to what you see from the window," she said. "The eye is deceitful as well as the heart."

1896, Margaret Oliphant, The Library Window:

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To trust; to expect; to depend or rely (on).


Union Flag

(nautical, British) The flag flown on ships of the government of Great Britain or the United Kingdom.


whiffle

en-verb

whiffle (third-person singular simple present whiffles, present participle whiffling, simple past and past participle whiffled)

whiffles (present singular third-person)
whiffling (participle present)
whiffled (participle past)
whiffled (past)

1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff + -le (“(frequentative)”) and (onomatopoeia) sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680.


gawm

gawm (third-person singular simple present gawms, present participle gawming, simple past and past participle gawmed)

gawms (present singular third-person)
gawming (participle present)
gawmed (participle past)
gawmed (past)

"Ay, 'tis indeed," she went on, "and Mistress Ruth has eyes an' ears, an' uses 'em to better purpose than some folks I know" — and she threw a significant glance at her bewildered better half — "as can only stand gaffin' and gawmin' at a body."

1885, Mary Catherine Rowsell, Traitor Or Patriot?: A Tale of the Rye-house Plot, page 278:

“Now, yah ha done! and don't be gawming there, yah soft-headed chawbacon. Go hoam to yar mother!”

1888, W. R. Credland, “A Farm in the Fens”, in Papers of the Manchester Literary Club, volume 14, page 267:

‘There, be off with you! how can I figure with you standin' gawmin' at me there like a stuck pig with an orange in its mouth!’

1897, J. Carmichael, “Man and Beast”, in Monthly Packet, page 392:

"What does he want," she said, "gawmin' at me as if a wor a wild beast show?"

1897, James Prior, Ripple and Flood: A Novel, page 368:

(UK, dialectal) Alternative form of gorm (gawk, gape)


SPAG

(UK, education) Acronym of spelling, punctuation and grammar: a set of criteria used in marking certain examinations.


unstreamed

(UK, education) Not divided into streams.


paper towel

(British) A sheet of absorbent paper dispensed in restrooms, usually used for drying washed hands.


fainites

(UK) A call for truce used in children's games.


Mothering Sunday

From the former British custom of visiting mother churches (q.v.) at Mid-Lent, which by the English Civil War had passed on to servants receiving leave to go a-mothering, visiting and providing small gifts to their families. Revived as a national tradition in the early 20th century after the model of Mother's Day in the United States.

...on Mothering Sunday, when all the ‘servant-lads’ and ‘servant wenches’ are, in some parts of the country, set at liberty for a day, to go and see their mothers...

1838, William Howitt, Rural Life in England, page 159:

Mary, it's twenty good year—twenty-one, come Mothering Sunday—'Since he was here at the farm.

1880, Arthur Joseph Munby, Dorothy, page 66:

"Mothering Sunday," the fourth Sunday in Lent, when absent sons and daughters—particularly the young apprentices—would return to their homes with some little present for both parents, but more especially for the mother... Imagine the... pride of the mother in the simple gift, and the admiration of the small brothers and sisters who gathered around and longed for the time when they also would be out in the great unknown world and could come "a-mothering."

1894 March, Mary B. Merrill, “Mothering Sunday”, in Mary Mapes Dodge, editor, St. Nicholas: a monthly magazine for boys and girls, volume 21, part 1, page 388:

Mothering Sunday is a British, Christian tradition. The Americans celebrate ‘Mother's Day’ later in the year.

2007, Susan Elkin, 100 Ideas for Secondary School Assemblies, page 12:

(UK) The fourth Sunday of Lent, three Sundays before Easter, now especially as a day to honor one's mother.

Laetare Sunday

usual liturgical name in Catholicism & Anglicanism

Refreshment Sunday

in reference to the customary relaxation of Lenten abstention on this day

Sunday of the Five Loaves

in reference to Catholic practices on this day