collywobbles

Probably from colic (“severe pains that grip the abdomen”) + wobble (“unsteady motion”). Alternatively, it has been suggested that the word derives from colly (“coal dust”) (in the sense of someone becoming ill from breathing in such dust), or that it is a corruption of cholera.

Petunia’s off school today with a touch of the collywobbles.

Collywobbles, the gripes.

[1823, [Francis Grose]; Pierce Egan, “Collywobbles”, in Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, […], London: […] [Samuel] Hooper and [Henry] Wigstead, […], →OCLC:

I know I have something else to say to you, but unfortunately I awoke this morning with collywobbles, and had to take a small dose of laudanum with the usual consequences of dry throat, intoxicated legs, partial madness and total imbecility; and for the life of me I cannot remember what it is.

1894 September 10, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Letter XLIII”, in S[idney] C[olvin], editor, Vailima Letters: Being Correspondence Addressed by Robert Louis Stevenson to Sidney Colvin […], London: Methuen and Co. […], published 1895, →OCLC, page 343:

"I deeply regret," answered Liza, "but my royal 'ighness 'as got the collywobbles."

1897, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 3, in Liza of Lambeth, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published [1921], →OCLC, page 36:

The prefect was there again and it was his voice that was saying that he was to get up, that Father Minister had said he was to get up and dress and go to the infirmary. And while he was dressing himself as quickly as he could the prefect said: / ― We must pack off to Brother Michael because we have the collywobbles!

1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter I, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 20:

"D'ye hear, Richard? Now's your chance," repeated Ned, not to be done. "There's a pot o' money in it. A very different thing this, I can tell you, from running round dosing people for the collywobbles. I know men who are raising the splosh to get in, any way they can."

1917, Henry Handel Richardson, chapter V, in Australia Felix, part III, New York, N.Y.: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton & Co., →OCLC, page 260:

Often preceded by the: a stomach ache or an upset stomach.

mahanpuru

(informal, chiefly humorous) stomachache or an upset stomach

I don’t like walking through the forest at night. It gives me the collywobbles.

This business of getting Bill educated has just about given me the collywobbles. You wouldn't think to look at the boy, that he could possibly be such a tragic misfit in school.

1943, Mary Ruth Sandifer, American Lay Opinion of the Progressive School, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, →OCLC, page 21:

(by extension) Often preceded by the: anxiety, fear, uneasiness.

mahanpuru

(informal, chiefly humorous) anxiety, fear, uneasiness


sort code

(banking, UK, Ireland) A code assigned to a specific branch of a bank.


lavant

Uncertain. Possibly from Middle English *lavand, *lavant, lavande, present participle of Middle English laven (“to stream, pour out a stream, wash”), from Old English lafian (“to pour water on, wash, lave, bathe, ladle out”), equivalent to lave + -and; or from Old French lavant, present participle of laver (“to wash”). See lave.

der

Lavants, are land springs, which break out much, on the downs of Sussex, Hants, and Wilts. The country people say, that when the Lavants rise, corn will be dear; meaning, that when the earth is so glutted with water as to send[…]

1815, James Dallaway, A History of the Western Division of the County of Sussex: Including the Rapes of Chichester, Arundel, and Bramber, with the City and Diocese of Chichester, page 112:

In this part of Hampshire a bourn is called a lavant, and after long internals when a lavant rises at Hambledon, some of the springs rise from, or quite close to[,] the churchyard itself.

1891, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, page 15:

About five miles south of Petersfield, in a valley among the chalk hills, is the village of Charlton. No permanent stream flows through this vallet, but eastward of the village a remarkable "lavant" occurs. This lavant is a flow of water from springs in the chalk of an uncertain and intermittent nature, which occur in the winter or early spring, depending on the time and degree of the winter rainfall and the consequent saturation of the chalk. The lavant springs occur at varying elevations, depending on the nature of the seasons; the higher the lavant, the greater is the flow of water, […]

1894, Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, Proceedings, page 54:

[…] an intermittant stream (locally known as a "lavant," but in many parts called a "bourne") appears in the valley bottom […]

1928, Water and Water Engineering, page 316:

The cold wet weather continued unabated during February and the underground springs ('lavants') began to break out of the chalk hills ominously early.

2007, Richard Mabey, Gilbert White: A Biography of the Author of The Natural History of Selborne, University of Virginia Press, →ISBN, page 147:

(UK dialectal) A shallow or more or less intermittent spring, or the stream of water (bourne) which feeds and springs forth from such a spring.

How it did rain! It ran down the street in a lavant.

(UK dialectal) A violent flow or rush of water.


get the sack

en-verb

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

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

(idiomatic, chiefly British) To be dismissed from employment.


city banker

(British) A banker, stockbroker or other financial worker in the City.

(British, rhyming slang, derogatory) A wanker.


have up

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

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

In the police courts it is not uncommon to hear that such and such low persons have been "had up" for "cat and kitten sneaking," i.e., stealing quart and pint pots.

1867, Jacob Larwood, John Camden Hotten, The History of Signboards, page 177:

"He broke a dog's leg with a stone, and there was some talk of having him up for it, but the people were afraid of him, and no one would prosecute."

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

2007, Saturday October 27, Don't write off religion - it can be the key to a stable family, by Anne Karpf in The Guardian
If Richard Dawkins had his way, a fair number of you and, as it happens, me, would be had up for child abuse. According to him, that's what religious indoctrination of children by their parents is.

(transitive, idiomatic, UK) To accuse, arrest, try for a criminal act.


brunie

While the lines were running to the bottom, seeking the fish far below, the men smoked or cut bait, and the younger ones took a surreptitious bite of a brunie, for skippers thought it a sign of softness if their men wanted food and drink too soon.

1997, Alexander Fenton, The Northern Isles: Orkney and Shetland, page 590:

(UK, dialect) A kind of scone made with flour or oatmeal.


GRC

(UK) Initialism of gender recognition certificate.


cornflour

en-noun

cornflour (usually uncountable, plural cornflours)

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

(British) A very fine starch powder derived from maize (US corn) used in cooking as a thickener, to keep things from sticking, or as an anti-caking agent.


AVRE

(British, military) Acronym of Armoured Vehicle, Royal Engineers.


wifebeater

wifebeater (countable and uncountable, plural wifebeaters)

From wife + beater. The sleeveless shirt acquired the nickname by association with men who commit domestic violence. The lager, being relatively strong, was thought to lead to drunken disputes.

And then we were walking back alleys, trudging through the drifts of chip papers, the bottles and empty cans of wifebeater[…]

But Stella shouldn't really be drunk in pints the same way our dads used to drink bitter or mild that was effectively half as strong. Drink Stella in goblets like people do in its native country and, hey presto! It's no longer 'wifebeater'.

2011, Pete Brown, Three Sheets to the Wind:

(uncountable, UK, colloquial) Stella Artois, a brand of lager beer.


bring out

en-verb

bring out (third-person singular simple present brings out, present participle bringing out, simple past and past participle brought out)

brings out (present singular third-person)
bringing out (participle present)
brought out (participle past)
brought out (past)

Eating strawberries always brings me out in a rash.

To elicit, evoke, or emphasize (a particular quality).

(chiefly British) To cause a visible symptom, such as spots or a rash, in (a person).

His new job has noticeably brought him out.

(chiefly British) To make (a shy person) more confident.

Acme sweets have just brought out a tasty new chocolate bar.

(chiefly British) To place (something new for public sale) on the market; roll out.


scrumpy

en-noun

scrumpy (countable and uncountable, plural scrumpies)

(UK, Ireland) A rough cider, normally more alcoholic than usual, and typically produced through natural fermentation.


hooved

From Middle English hoved, hovyde, from Old English ġehōfod (“hoofed, hooved”), equivalent to hoof + -ed.


NAO

w:National Audit Office (United Kingdom)

(UK) Initialism of National Audit Office.


sowl

From Middle English sowel, souel, suvel (“food eaten with bread; food in general”), from Old English sufel, sufol (“anything (especially relish) eaten with bread; sowl”), from Proto-West Germanic *sufl, from Proto-Germanic *suflą (“entremets, viands”), from Proto-Indo-European *seu-, *sew- (“juice; moisture; rain”). The word is cognate with Danish sul (“sowl”), Middle Dutch suvel, zuvel (Dutch zuivel (“dairy products”)), Middle Low German suvel, süvel, suffel (“sowl”), Old High German sufil, sufili, Old Norse sufl, Norwegian suvl, sovl, sul (“milk porridge; food eaten with bread, porridge or soup”), Saterland Frisian süfel (“dairy products”), Swedish sovel (“sowl”), West Frisian suvel (“dairy products”).

cog

Good lorjus days, whot whofo times ar' theese! / Pot-baws ar scant, an dear is seawl an cheese!

1812, Tim Bobbin [pseudonym; John Collier], “Reader. Hear a Spon-new Cank between th’ Eawther and His Buk.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of Tim Bobbin, Esq. Containing His View of the Lancashire Dialect, […], Salford: Printed by Cowdroy & Slack, […], →OCLC, page 16:

It [the word pittance] does not signify the whole share of each individual in a conventual meal, but merely that smaller portion of more tasty viands which in frugal housekeeping is used to give relish to the bread or pottage constituting the substance of the meal; what is still called sowl or sowling in some parts of England. The Pembrokeshire peasant says, "I have not had a bit of sowl to my bread for these six months".

1850 May 10, Hensleigh Wedgwood, “English Etymologies [continued]”, in Proceedings of the Philological Society, volume IV, number 97, London: Printed by Richard and John E. Taylor, […], →OCLC, page 249:

What was called "souling," or "sowling," was practised by the female portion of the poor, who visited their more wealthy neighbours, demanding "sowl," which signified, in its provincial acceptation, any condiment eaten with bread, such as meat, fish, &c., but especially cheese.

1857, L. P. Barnaschone, “Manners and Customs of the People of Tenby in the Eighteenth Century”, in J. Williams ab Ithel, editor, The Cambrian Journal, volume IV, London: Published under the auspices of the Cambrian Institute; Longmans & Co., J[ohn] Russell Smith, and J. Petheram; Tenby, Pembrokeshire: R. Mason, →OCLC, page 185:

All Souls' Day was celebrated by souling, a custom going back to pre-Reformation days: soul cakers and mummers toured the village begging for a soul cake – a plain, round, flat cake seasoned with spices.

1981, Geoffrey Scard, Squire and Tenant: Life in Rural Cheshire, 1760–1900 (History of Cheshire; 10), Chester, Cheshire: Chester Community Council, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 93:

(British, dialectal) A dainty; a relish; a sauce; anything eaten with bread.

sovel

dainty; relish; sauce; anything eaten with bread


keep oneself to oneself

en-verb

keep oneself to oneself (third-person singular simple present keeps oneself to oneself, present participle keeping oneself to oneself, simple past and past participle kept oneself to oneself)

keeps oneself to oneself (present singular third-person)
keeping oneself to oneself (participle present)
kept oneself to oneself (participle past)
kept oneself to oneself (past)

(chiefly UK) To be introverted; to stay away from others.


give a light

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

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

I don't think I ever heard / A single little civil word from those guys / But you know I don't give a light

1976, Brian May (lyrics and music), “Tie Your Mother Down”, in A Day at the Races, performed by Queen:

White man, white man / Don't you give a light / For the blood you've shed?

1976, Brian May (lyrics and music), “White Man”, in A Day at the Races, performed by Queen:

(British, Ireland, idiomatic, slang) To care.


teacake

(British) A flat, round bread bun, usually containing currants, sultanas or peel and often served toasted and buttered with tea.


register office

en-noun

register office (plural register offices)

(UK, Ireland) The local office in which births, marriages and deaths are registered, and in which civil marriages are conducted and recorded.

matrika

the local office in which births, marriages and deaths are registered, and in which civil marriages are conducted


wassock

(British) Alternative spelling of wazzock


knocknobbler

(British) A person engaged by a church to eject unruly dogs and children from acts of worship.


stony broke

From stony (“like a stone”) + broke, after earlier stone broke.

He had arrived at a crisis of impecuniosity compared to which the small circumstance of being pebble-beached and stony-broke might be described as comparative affluence.

1890, Albert Barrère et al., A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant, volume II, page 120:

(UK and Australia, slang) Alternative form of broke: without any money.


telephone kiosk

telephone kiosk (plural telephone kiosks)


perspex

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Any tough, transparent plastic that is used instead of glass for windows.


toast rack

(UK, computing, slang) The ZX Spectrum 128k+ home computer, having a large heat sink built into the keyboard, shaped like a toast rack.


kingcup

He told me how the wise toad who squats among the kingcups by the stream in summer has a very precious jewel in his head.

1979, Angela Carter, ‘The Erl-King’, The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, published 2006, page 99:

Caltha palustris
Caltha palustris#Translingual

(British, dialectal) Any of various species of buttercup, or the marsh marigold, Caltha palustris.


coper

Related to Dutch kopen (“to buy”), German Low German kopen (“to buy”). Compare copeman.

(British) A floating grogshop supplying the North Sea fishing industry.


coper

en-verb

coper (third-person singular simple present copers, present participle copering, simple past and past participle copered)

copers (present singular third-person)
copering (participle present)
copered (participle past)
copered (past)

(British) To supply the North Sea fishing industry from a floating grogshop.


swad

Swad, in the north, is a peascod shell — thence used for an empty, shallow-headed fellow.

(UK, dialect, obsolete, Northern) A cod, or pod, as of beans or peas.


stoicheiometry

(UK) Alternative spelling of stoichiometry


yodeller

(British) Alternative spelling of yodeler


unlicenced

en-adj

unlicenced (comparative more unlicenced, superlative most unlicenced)

more unlicenced (comparative)
most unlicenced (superlative)


rockier

Gilbert White writes, "I have consulted a sportsman who tells me that […] often there are amongst them little parties of small blue doves which he calls rockiers. The food of these numberless migrants was beechmast and some acorns."

1887, Edwin Lester Linden Arnold, Bird Life in England, page 182:

(UK, dialect, archaic) A small blue dove.


fibreboard

en-noun

fibreboard (countable and uncountable, plural fibreboards)

British and Canada standard spelling of fiberboard.


donkey's ears

1916 UK, from British rhyming slang, rhyming with years, due to donkey’s ears being long.

Now for my first bath for what the men call ‘Donkey’s ears’, meaning years and years.

(British, idiomatic) A long time, years and years.


put the shits up someone

en-verb

put the shits up someone (third-person singular simple present puts the shits up someone, present participle putting the shits up someone, simple past and past participle put the shits up someone)

puts the shits up someone (present singular third-person)
putting the shits up someone (participle present)
put the shits up someone (participle past)
put the shits up someone (past)

He would put the shits up me by phoning me in the middle of the night

2000, James Berryman, A Sting In The Tail, page 165:

(British, slang, vulgar) To scare someone, or give them a fright.


Nato

(UK, generally proscribed in North America) Alternative letter-case form of NATO.


prestation

From Latin praestatio (“a performing, paying”), from praestare: compare French prestation.

der

(UK, law, obsolete) A payment of money; a toll or duty.

(UK, law, obsolete) The rendering of a service


serjeant-at-arms

(UK, historical) An officer who attends upon the Lord Chancellor with the mace, and who executes various writs of process in the course of a Chancery suit.

(UK) A similar officer who attends on each House of Parliament, and arrests any person ordered by the House to be arrested. The post still exists with respect to the UK House of Commons, but is largely ceremonial.


pranged

en-adj

pranged (comparative more pranged, superlative most pranged)

more pranged (comparative)
most pranged (superlative)

She's pranged. I'm pranged. This is paranoia run amok.

Most of them look like they haven't slept for days; they're pranged or pinned, edgy and paranoid.


flitterjigs

This word has its origins in the 19th-century English spoken in county Donegal in the northwest of Ireland, where the local people are believed to possess the largest lexicon of both English and Gaelic in Ireland.

(British, slang) An item of clothing that is in tatters or ribbons.


thousand and one

Gregory L. Peck (2010) Exercise for the Mind, Body and Soul: Pathway to a Better Life, →ISBN, page 11: “There are always a thousand and one reasons not to do something. But there are also always a thousand and one reasons to do something, particularly exercise.”

(UK) alternative form of thousand one (US form)


sipe

From Old English sipian, related to seep.
* around 888 AD, K Aelfred, translation of Boethius, Chapter 33, para.5 ,
: "Seo eore hit helt & be sumum dæle swil, & for am sype heo bi eleht."


sipe

en-verb

sipe (third-person singular simple present sipes, present participle siping, simple past and past participle siped)

sipes (present singular third-person)
siping (participle present)
siped (participle past)
siped (past)

(intransitive, British) To drain, to filter through peat or reeds; to seep.


fandabidozi

en-adj

fandabidozi (comparative more fandabidozi, superlative most fandabidozi)

more fandabidozi (comparative)
most fandabidozi (superlative)

Corruption of English fantastic (“great, smashing, super”) by Wee Jimmy Krankie of Scottish comedy duo The Krankies.

Those potatoes are fandabidozi - can I get the recipe?

It might be indonesian - being half-dutch we used to have a lot of indonesian food at home - nasi foreng and the like. Which by the way is fandabidozi.

1996 July 1, "Carolyn", “Re: SHOARMA”, in uk.food+drink.misc (Usenet), retrieved 2008-04-07:

just watched it...fucking fandabidozi... honestly good shit!!!

2003 April 25, "bod", “donie darko...fuck the american dream up the arse!!!!”, in alt.horror (Usenet), retrieved 2008-04-07:

Wow, wouldn't it be fandabidozi if we could get that for it now?

2003 May 8, "IT Dealers Ltd", “Re: WTS:-2,000 8mb Simms”, in uk.adverts.computer (Usenet), retrieved 2008-04-07:

(reply to a query about what use a roamer has in the real world) Fandabidozi for for geometry, arithmetic, spatial awareness, logical thinking, deduction, problem solving...

2005 June 24, "Ellie", “Re: Scott got another email - in my inbox.”, in uk.education.staffroom (Usenet), retrieved 2008-04-07:

(in reply to a previous poster announcing they'd not smoked for over three weeks) This is Fandabidozi Crystal!

2007 May 23, "Barbara-eve done it @ last!!!", “Re: I MADE IT THREE WEEKS!!!”, in alt.support.stop-smoking (Usenet), retrieved 2008-04-07:


trone

From Middle English trone (“a wooden beam or post used in public weighing, scale, balance”), from Anglo-Norman trone, tron (whence also Anglo-Latin trona), from Old Norse trönur (“a frame or framework on which trunks of trees are laid to be cut by the saw”), plural of trana, trani (“trunk, snout, name of a ship or sword”, literally “crane”). Cognate with Danish trane (“crane”).

der

(UK, dialect, Scotland, obsolete or historical) A form of weighing machine for heavy wares, consisting of two horizontal bars crossing each other, beaked at the extremities, and supported by a wooden pillar.


headshunt

(rail transport, British) A short length of track, provided to release locomotives at terminal platforms, or to allow shunting to take place clear of main lines.


lickle

(chiefly UK, Caribbean, childish or regional) little


heads of agreement

Finally, on July 10, 1984, Heads of Agreement were signed. Three extra drafting rounds were necessary in order to formally sign the Renegotiated Agreement.

1995, Wolfgang Peter, Arbitration and Renegotiation of International Investment Agreements, page 116:

(law, former, British) A document stating the intent of the parties to enter into a binding agreement as outlined in the document.


twatfaced

en-adj

twatfaced (comparative more twatfaced, superlative most twatfaced)

more twatfaced (comparative)
most twatfaced (superlative)

(UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar, idiomatic) fucked, pissed, drunk as a skunk


twatted

twatted (comparative more twatted, superlative most twatted)

more twatted (comparative)
most twatted (superlative)

(vulgar, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Extremely drunk, intoxicated

What kind of a cold-hearted bitch does that, You stinky twatted sadistic whore.

2004, Shane Feldman, Burn: A Bipolar Memoir, page 114:

(vulgar, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, in combination) Having a particular sort of vagina or vulva.

(vulgar, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Extremely or profoundly injured, usually as a result of deliberate action by another party.


gainly

gainly (comparative gainlier or more gainly, superlative gainliest or most gainly)

gainlier (comparative)
more gainly (comparative)
gainliest (superlative)
most gainly (superlative)

From Middle English gaynly, geȝȝnlike, geynliche, equivalent to gain (“straight, direct, convenient, favourable, kindly”, adjective) + -ly (adverbial/adjectival suffix).

suffix

(UK dialectal) Proper; suitable; becoming.


GOBLin

(British, rail transport, informal) Acronym of Gospel Oak to Barking Line, a railway line in north London.


wodge

He paid a wodge of dosh for his new motor from the car dealership.

[…] if Eben comes to me with that there hankychy and slips a big wodge of hard Hamsterdam ’bacco and a square bottle o’ stuff as hasn’t paid dooty into my hands in the dark some night, what am I to do?

1900, George Manville Fenn, chapter 16, in The Lost Middy:

I lifted the lid off the second tureen and uncovered a wodge of macaroni, stone-cold and stuck together in a gluey paste.

1963, Sylvia Plath, chapter 14, in The Bell Jar, London: Faber & Faber, published 1971:

Bad food, bad drinks, no decent pubs, no laughter in public, and dodgy money-changers hissing that communism was shit and who then disappeared, leaving us with wodges of worthless notes.

2012, John Sweeney, ‘At War with Ceausescu’, Literary Review, number 399:

MAIRE MIRKIN (played by Brid Brennan):”Sit down please the both of you. You’ve intruded right into the middle of our nightcap, young man. I was just about to serve a toddy to Hector and myself. Can I fix you one?”. ARM (played by Cosmo Jarvis): A wha…? HECTOR: Do, dear, yeah. And, um (clicks tongue) cut us a few wodges of brack while you’re at it.

2020 January 6, Joe Murtagh, Colin Barrett, 01:18:44 from the start, in Calm With Horses (film), spoken by Hector (David Wilmott):

(chiefly UK, Ireland, colloquial) A bulk mass, usually of small items, particularly money; a wad


kick up the arse

en-noun

kick up the arse (plural kicks up the arse)

(UK, slang, vulgar) A severe reprimand, especially one to motivate someone into doing something.


RCN

The RCN’s general secretary, Pat Cullen, has stressed that nurses do not want to strike but feel obliged to do so because, with soaring inflation, the government’s pay offer amounts to a real-terms cut in their salaries after a decade in which the value of experienced nurses’ pay has already fallen by 20%.

2022 December 15, “Tens of thousands of UK nurses go on strike in first such industrial action in NHS history”, in The Guardian:

Royal College of Nursing
w:Royal College of Nursing

(UK, medicine) Initialism of Royal College of Nursing, a registered trade union for nursing.


APEX

w:Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff

(British, trade union) Acronym of Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff.


gainstand

en-verb

gainstand (third-person singular simple present gainstands, present participle gainstanding, simple past and past participle gainstood)

gainstands (present singular third-person)
gainstanding (participle present)
gainstood (participle past)
gainstood (past)

From Middle English gainstanden, corresponding to gain- + stand. Compare againstand.

He perceived three French Gentlemen, who alone, with an incredible and undaunted boldnesse, gainstood the enraged violence, and made head against the furie of his victorious armie.

And you, now last in accusing us of these most odious crimes, whereof we be most innocent, ye and your brethern, I say, in teaching this your pestilent doctrine, and accusing us who gainstand your devilish errors, do plainely declare what ye have already intended, if God by his great power bridle not your furie.

1856, John Knox, The works of John Knox: Volume 5:

It was the New Castle built upon Tyne to gainstand the Scots, who then and for some centuries afterwards sadly troubled these rough borderers, and in turn were sadly troubled by them.

1874, The Gentleman's magazine, volume 237:

And therefore I conclude that they who gainstood his commandment resisted not the ordinance of God.

1888, Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell, The living age: Volume 177:

(transitive, UK dialectal) To stand against; resist, oppose; withstand.

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To make or offer resistance.


to all intents and purposes

1500s, English law, originally “to all intents, constructions, and purposes” (found in an act adopted under Henry VIII in 1547).

To all intents and purposes the case is closed.

This treaty is to all intents and purposes no longer viable.

With the arrival of the cold war, relations between the two countries (for this is, to all intents and purposes, what they became after the end of the war) were almost completely broken off, with whole families split for the ensuing decades, some for ever.

2011 December 19, Kerry Brown, “Kim Jong-il obituary”, in The Guardian:

Have you heard the word "gadgetbahn"? It's a portmanteau coined to describe transport proposals that, to all intents and purposes, ought to be delivered using proven railway technology... and yet go out of their way to be anything but a railway.

2020 November 18, Gareth Dennis, “Can Cambridgeshire plan transform transportation?”, in Rail, page 64:

(idiomatic, British) For every functional purpose; in every practical sense; in every important respect; practically speaking.


bedrel

(UK dialectal) A bedridden person; a helpless cripple.


mean

mean (third-person singular simple present means, present participle meaning, simple past and past participle meant)

means (present singular third-person)
meaning (participle present)
meant (participle past)
meant (past)

From Middle English menen (“to intend; remember; lament; comfort”), from Old English mǣnan (“to mean, complain”), Proto-West Germanic *mainijan, from Proto-Germanic *mainijaną (“to mean, think; complain”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyn- (“to think”), or perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meyno-, extended form of Proto-Indo-European *mey-.
Germanic cognates include West Frisian miene (“to deem, think”) (Old Frisian mēna (“to signify”)), Dutch menen (“to believe, think, mean”) (Middle Dutch menen (“to think, intend”)), German meinen (“to think, mean, believe”), Old Saxon mēnian. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish mían (“wish, desire”) and Polish mienić (“to signify, believe”). Non-Indo-European cognates include Finnish mainita (“to mention”), Finnish meinata (“to mean, to plan, to intend”) Estonian mainima (“to mention”), Northern Sami máinnastit (“to tell”). Related to moan.

cog

Thanne morned Mede · and mened hire to the kynge / To haue space to speke · spede if she myȝte.

c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, section III:

They were forced to mean our estate to the Queen of England.

1560 (1677), Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. iii. (1677), page 144

If you should die for me, sir knight, There's few for you will meane, [...]

1803, Sir Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, page 276:

All the tyme of his sickness he never said, "Alace!" or meaned any pain, whilk was marvellous. Never man died in greater peace of mind or body.

1845, Wodrow Society, Select Biographies:


mean

en-adj

mean (comparative meaner, superlative meanest)

meaner (comparative)
meanest (superlative)

From Middle English mene, imene, from Old English mǣne, ġemǣne (“common, public, general, universal”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamainī, from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz (“common”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change, exchange, share”). Doublet of common.
Cognate with West Frisian mien (“general, universal”), Dutch gemeen (“common, mean”), German gemein (“common, mean, nasty”), Danish gemen, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (gamains, “common, unclean”), Latin commūnis (“shared, common, general”) (Old Latin comoinem).

cog

He's so mean. I've never seen him spend so much as five pounds on presents for his children.

(chiefly UK) Ungenerous; stingy; tight-fisted.


smeddum

From earlier smitham, smytham, from Middle English smedma, from Old English smedma, smeodema, smedema (“fine flour, pollen meal, meal”).

(UK dialectal, Northern England) Ore small enough to pass through the wire bottom of a sieve.

(UK dialectal, Northern England) A layer of clay or shale between two beds of coal.


linksland

en-noun

linksland (usually uncountable, plural linkslands)

(British) A coastal zone of topsoil-covered sand between the beach sand and mainland soil.


straight away

This item is urgent, so please start on it straight away.

(idiomatic, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Very soon; quickly; immediately.


poor show

(informal, dated, British) Used to express disapproval or dissatisfaction


yark

en-verb

yark (third-person singular simple present yarks, present participle yarking, simple past and past participle yarked)

yarks (present singular third-person)
yarking (participle present)
yarked (participle past)
yarked (past)

From Middle English ȝarken, ȝerken, from Old English ġearcian (“to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply”), Proto-West Germanic *garwakōn, from Proto-Germanic *garwakōną (“to prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to grab, take, rake”), equivalent to yare + -k. Related to Old English ġearc (“ready, active, quick”), ġearu (“prepared, ready, equipped, complete, finished, yare”). More at yare.

cog

[...] Yet thou hast given us leather to yark, and leather to bark, [...]

1881, Walter Gregor, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland:

(transitive, UK dialectal) To make ready; prepare.


transmat

Attested since the 1950s, from transmit or transfer and matter; perhaps popularized by the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

One of these days.., they'll invent a Transmat that'll set you down anywhere.

1959 June 14, Laurence Janifer, “Obey that Impulse!”, in Future Science Fiction, number 43, page 40:

Three lines of workers began to vanish into the transmats, heading for their homes in the android compounds of five continents, […]

1970 June 14, Robert Silverberg, “The Tower of Glass”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 30, number 3, page 83:

TIME LORD: Ah. Welcome, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What's going on? Don't you realize how dangerous it is to intercept a transmat beam?
TIME LORD: Oh, come, Doctor, not with our techniques. We Time Lords transcended such simple mechanical devices when the universe was less than half its present size.

1975, Terry Nation, Genesis of the Daleks (Doctor Who, season 12, serial 4), opening dialogue

You are in a TRANS-MAT unit. You see a faulty control panel with a button on it.

1983, The Long Way Home (video game published with 16/48 Magazine)

LYNDA: Oh, that's the transmat. Scrambles your head — I was sick for days.

2005, Russell T Davies, Bad Wolf (Doctor Who series 1, episode 12)

(British, science fiction) A teleporter; a fictional device that transfers/transmits matter from one location to another without the object traversing the intervening distance as itself.


transmat

en-verb

transmat (third-person singular simple present transmats, present participle transmatting, simple past and past participle transmatted)

transmats (present singular third-person)
transmatting (participle present)
transmatted (participle past)
transmatted (past)

It wasn't far enough away to think about transmatting and besides, that was no longer a viable option, what with vandals having wrecked some of the booths in the area.

1991, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Carmen Carter, Robert Greenberger, Doomsday World (Star Trek: The Next Generation; 12), Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 171:

'No, you're not,' Blandish put in smoothly 'You're transmatting down with me. I'll head the away team and I'll consent to let you advise.'

1999, Paul Magrs, Jeremy Hoad, The Blue Angel (Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Adventures; 27), BBC Worldwide, →ISBN, page 36:

Donna twisted her neck around to try to find the Doctor, but she realised that she'd been transmatted alone.

2010, Mark Michalowski, Shining Darkness (Doctor Who: New Series Adventures; 27), BBC Worldwide, →ISBN, page 17:

(British, science fiction, transitive, intransitive) To teleport; to (cause to) travel via transmat device.


Pinewood

(British) An English film and television studio complex in Buckinghamshire.


legitimisation

en-noun

legitimisation (countable and uncountable, plural legitimisations)

(British) Alternative spelling of legitimization


LBSCR

(rail transport, British) Initialism of London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.


RATO

RATO (countable and uncountable, plural RATOs)

(UK, aviation, military) Initialism of rocket-assisted takeoff., an auxiliary rocket engine in a detachable unit that provides extra power for the takeoff of an aircraft.


Sprinter

diesel multiple unit
diesel multiple unit

(rail transport, British) A British diesel multiple unit of class 150, 153, 155, 156, 158 or 159.


whid

Perhaps from Old English cwide (“word, speech”).


goat's cheese

goat's cheese (countable and uncountable, plural goat's cheeses)

[…]it may easily become so to an enlarged extent when goat′s cheese shall be offered in our markets.

1905, United States Bureau of Animal Industry, Annual Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry, page 340:

2002, New Statesman, Volume 131, Issues 4577-4585, page 47,
On the other hand, goat′s cheeses made by the British equivalents of Mme Blondeau, though you feel you ought to like them, never seem as inspired as their French counterparts.

Place goat′s cheese parcels alongsise the roast tomatoes

2007, Yvonne Short, Conservation Corporation Africa, A Kitchen Safari: Stories & Recipes from the African Wilderness, page 42:

2010, Amelia Thomas, Michael Kohn, Miriam Raphael, Dan Savery Raz, Israel & the Palestinian Territories, Lonely Planet, page 164,
Shai Seltzer, Israel′s most famous goat′s cheese maker, emerged wearing a white frock and thick white beard, an arrangement that made him appear like Charlton Heston when he played Moses in The Ten Commandments.

(chiefly UK) Alternative form of goat cheese


ISA

ISA (countable and uncountable, plural ISAs)

individual savings account
w:individual savings account

(UK, finance) Initialism of individual savings account, a financial account for investment with special tax rules.


shirt lifter

From the imagined lifting of a long shirt to facilitate receiving anal sex.

(UK, Ireland, slang) Synonym of bottom: a gay man who is penetrated or prefers to be penetrated during anal sex.


Girl Guide

It′s cookie season every spring, from early April to mid-May, when hundreds of Girl Guides hit the street flogging boxes of trets in their annual fund-raising drive.

2002, Scott Mitchell, Secret Toronto: The Unique Guidebook to Toronto's Hidden Sites, Sounds & Tastes, page 117:

She was wearing the blue uniform of a Girl Guide.

2006, Richard Whittington-Egan, Molly Whittington-Egan, Murder on File: The World′s Most Notorious Killers, unnumbered page:

Daisy told the group that in Britain, Girl Guides wore uniforms.

2007, Susan Bivin Aller, Juliette Low, page 32:

(UK, Canada) A member of the Girl Guides, a world wide youth organisation for girls.


head

EN-AU ck1 from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious.ogg

En-au-from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious.ogg

That call I took as we arrived here was to tell me about another meeting with the AC tomorrow. More nit-picking and recommendations from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious.

2004, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Carnage on the Committee, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 134:

WHEN READING REPORTS from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious one may find a statement saying that "China doesn't like Japan very much."

2005 August 25, Aaron McKenna, “Chinese gaming firm PowerNet Technology to launch anti-Japanese wargame”, in The Inquirer:

Eating while driving is dangerous, says a new report from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious.

2006 August 19, Jonathan Goddard, “Distractions cause accidents ‘Shocker,’”, in Pocket-lint:

Once again, the solution comes from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious, but is worth repeating nonetheless.

2008 May 4, Tim Weber, “Analysis: Microsoft without Yahoo”, in BBC News:

(idiomatic, informal, UK, Australia) So obvious that it was unnecessary to say.


fubsy

en-adj

fubsy (comparative fubsier, superlative fubsiest)

fubsier (comparative)
fubsiest (superlative)

A fubsy, good-humoured, laughing, silly […] old maid.

1780, Madame d'Arblay, diary entry - May 1780:

“Pray,” said Doctor Waldron, addressing Mrs. Green, “who is that little fubsy lady, with scarce a morsel of neck, and all covered with ribbands, pursued by that long ghost of a man in the Spanish dress?”

1833, anonymous author, Frank Orby, page 11:

[…] seated upon the widow's little fubsy sofa […]

1837, Frederick Marryat, Snarleyyow, or, the Dog Fiend:

He knew she was nothing but a fubsy pig-pink whorelet and would elbow her face away when she attempted to kiss him after he had finished […]

1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle:


Girl Guides

1935 July 16, Kenya Gazette, page 802,
The proviso to clause 5 makes it possible for existing Girl Guides organizations which were not formed and do not function under the authority of the Girl Guides Association to avoid the penalties prescribed by the Bill.

Baden-Powell enlisted his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell, to help him form the Girl Guides, when, at his first call to form the group, 6,000 girls registered.

2002, Robert T. Grimm, Notable American Philanthropists: Biographies of Giving and Volunteering, page 189:

A small satellite exhibition at Casa Loma (1 Austin Tce 416-923-1171) celebrates the contributions of Lady Mary Pellatt, wife of the castle′s builder, to Girl Guides in Canada.

2002, Scott Mitchell, Secret Toronto: The Unique Guidebook to Toronto′s Hidden Sites, Sounds & Tastes, page 117:

Hore-Ruthven accepted appointment as Governor of South Australia, arrived in Adelaide in May 1928, and began to travel the state by Moth aeroplane. He took an active role in the Boy Scouts, his wife in the Girl Guides.

2004, Brian Carroll, Australia's Governors General: From Hopetoun to Jeffery, page 103:

(UK, Canada) A worldwide youth organisation for girls. Known as Girl Scouts in the USA.


bureau de change

en-noun

bureau de change (plural bureaux de change or bureaus de change or bureau de changes)

bureaux de change (plural)
bureaus de change (plural)
bureau de changes (plural)

/ˈbjʊəɹ.əʊ.dəˌʃɒ̃ʒ/

Unadapted borrowing from French bureau de change (“office of exchange”).

ubor

A bureau de change, as has been seen, is certainly an institution or person subject to the Directive and it arguably enters into business relations with its customers.

2007, R. C. H. Alexander, Insider Dealing and Money Laundering in the EU: Law and Regulation, page 155:

Good private bureaux de change include the Shangani Bureau de Change (at the northern end of Kenyatta Road, near the Tembo Hotel), and the Malindi Bureau de Change (next to the ZanAir office, east of the port gates).

2009, Chris McIntyre, Susan McIntyre, Zanzibar, Bradt Travel Guides, page 159:

The network comprises Masterlink, a bureau de change, and a United Kingdom bank, along with a partnering MTO and a bank in Uganda.

2011, Isaku Endo, Jane Namaaji, Anoma Kulathunga, World Bank Working Paper No. 201: Uganda′s Remittance Corridors from United Kingdom, United States, and South Africa, page 21:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A place where foreign currency can be exchanged.

صِرَافَة اَلْعُمْلَات

a place where foreign currency can be exchanged


gastro

He had a bad case of gastro, but came right as rain the next day.

(colloquial, UK, Australia) Gastroenteritis


CCF

Combined Cadet Force
w:Combined Cadet Force

(UK) Initialism of Combined Cadet Force.


cark it

en-verb

cark it (third-person singular simple present carks it, present participle carking it, simple past and past participle carked it)

carks it (present singular third-person)
carking it (participle present)
carked it (participle past)
carked it (past)

A slang shortening of carcass + it. Not related to cark (“to worry”). Used frequently in Australia.

The guy was running, then he had a heart attack and carked it.

He′d always bragged about carking it before he hit twenty. When he turned twenty, he escalated the date of his demise to twenty-five.

1989, Kathy Lette, Girl′s Night Out, →ISBN, page 86:

If I hit the little shit too hard his parents could even sue me. There′s a fine line between self-defence and pure and simple mayhem. The little bastard might even cark it.

1998, Barry Westburg, Glenda & Me & Meathead Go For Broke: Rage of Angels: Expatriate Tales, page 74:

“Hi Bill. Zorah told you about Kate?”
“That she carked it? Yeh.” Translation: That she died. Yeah.
He flapped his hand in a go-away gesture and started toward the koalas, but not before I saw a haunted look in his eyes. Did he still care for Kate?

2010, Betty Webb, The Koala of Death, page 10:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To die.


Wealden

(British) Of, from or relating to the Weald.


inlaw

inlaw (third-person singular simple present inlaws, present participle inlawing, simple past and past participle inlawed)

inlaws (present singular third-person)
inlawing (participle present)
inlawed (participle past)
inlawed (past)

From Middle English inlawen, inlaghen, from Old English inlagian, ġeinlagian (“to restore to the protection of the law, inlaw”), equivalent to in- + law.

The king, indignant that an attempt should be made to exempt the vast ecclesiastical lands from taxation at a time of national crisis, sequestrated the estates of the see of Canterbury, and copied John’s conduct in 1208 by outlawing the whole body of the clergy. Winchelsea in return excommunicated all those who refused to recognize the authority of the pope’s bull... Harassed by these domestic troubles, the king could not carry out his intention of sailing for Flanders in the spring, and spent the greater part of the campaigning season in wrangles with his subjects. He was obliged to come to a compromise. If the clergy would give him a voluntary gift, which was in no way to be considered a tax, he agreed to inlaw them.

1911, Charles William Chadwick Oman, "English History", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. IX, p. 497

(UK, law, historical, transitive) To clear of outlawry or attainder, to return to the protection of the law


headteacher

I had to go and see the headteacher about my attitude.

(UK, Ireland) The most senior teacher in a school who is responsible for its management and administration.


beggar belief

beggar belief (third-person singular simple present beggars belief, present participle beggaring belief, simple past and past participle beggared belief)

beggars belief (present singular third-person)
beggaring belief (participle present)
beggared belief (participle past)
beggared belief (past)

It beggars belief to suppose that corporate policies can always pursue the best interests of a company.

In Shakespeare's day boys or men took the part of women, and how characters like Lady Macbeth and Desdemona were adequately rendered by youths beggars belief.

1907, Sidney Lee, Shakespeare and the Modern Stage:

"It beggars belief that delegates are given smartcards for free travel around the city, yet ordinary Glaswegians will still be forced to use a disjointed ticketing system."

2021 November 17, “Network News: Anger at delegates' preferential treatment for Glasgow smartcards”, in RAIL, number 944, page 13:

2022 September 23, 0:07 from the start, in As Putin goes for broke: What next after Ukraine annexation referendums? • FRANCE 24 English, spoken by François Picard, France 24, archived from the original on 2022-09-27:

(intransitive, chiefly UK) To appear implausible or unbelievable.


prog

en-noun

prog (countable and uncountable, plural progs)

(UK, university slang, dated) A proctor.


know-all

(chiefly UK, Ireland) Someone who obnoxiously claims to be knowledgeable on a subject.


backplate

(UK, automotive) A rigid metal plate inside the brake drum, which supports the wheel cylinder, brake shoes, and other parts of a drum brake.


PGCE

(British, education) Initialism of Postgraduate Certificate in Education.


BANES

(British) Acronym of Bath and North East Somerset, a unitary authority in South West England.


B&NES

(British) Abbreviation of Bath and North East Somerset., a unitary authority in South West England.


campervan

(Australia, New Zealand, British) A vehicle that provides both transport and sleeping accommodation.


downland

Hail! every distant hill, and downland plain!
Your dew-hid beauties Fancy oft unveils;

1789, Ann Ward Radcliffe, chapter 4, in The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, London: T. Hookham, page 93:

[…] I walked on to Canterbury early in the morning. It was now winter again; and the fresh, cold windy day, and the sweeping downland, brightened up my hopes a little.

1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:

I traversed the downland
Whereon the bleak hill-graves of Chieftains
Bulge barren of tree;

1898, Thomas Hardy, “My Cicely”, in Wessex Poems and Other Verses, New York: Harper, page 126:

Shortly after leaving Godshill, a lengthy climb begins through rolling downland country at 1 in 75, easing to 1 in 103.

1946 July and August, K. Westcott Jones, “Isle of Wight Central Railway—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 244:

The large cement works nearby are served by sidings, and strike a sudden jarring industrial note in the midst of the rural downland scene.

1953 February, H. A. Vallance, “To Brighton through the Shoreham Gap”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:

I was surprised to see that the plane had been wrecked, not on one of the hefty cliff faces of our mountain, but on a gentle green hillside, merging into downland.

1958, Muriel Spark, chapter 6, in Robinson, New York: New Directions, published 2003, page 66:

He drank another whisky then left the pub and climbed slowly up the downlands, bent as the trees and shrubs were bent.

2010, Howard Jacobson, chapter 12, in The Finkler Question, New York: Bloomsbury, page 278:

(UK) An area of rolling hills (downs), often grassy pasture over chalk or limestone.


TESSA

Coordinate term: TFSA

Tax-exempt special savings account
w:Tax-exempt special savings account

(British, finance, historical) Acronym of Tax-exempt special savings account.


go off on one

en-verb

go off on one (third-person singular simple present goes off on one, present participle going off on one, simple past went off on one, past participle gone off on one)

goes off on one (present singular third-person)
going off on one (participle present)
went off on one (past)
gone off on one (participle past)

I barely mentioned the band's name before he went off on one about how commercial the top forty is these days.

As far as I was concerned, we had a deal – she never went off on one about 'that's not a skirt it's a belt,' and I never went out dressed like a stripper.

2021, Andreina Cordani, The Girl Who...:

(British, colloquial) To launch into an animated diatribe, or passionate description or explanation of something.


neighbourliness

British standard spelling of neighborliness.


man on the Clapham omnibus

en-noun

man on the Clapham omnibus (plural (rare) men on the Clapham omnibus)

men on the Clapham omnibus (plural rare)

First put to legal use in a reported judgement by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR in the 1903 English Court of Appeal libel case, McQuire v. Western Morning News, who attributed it to Lord Bowen.

(UK, law) Any hypothetical reasonable person used by the Courts in considering questions of reasonableness; an everyman.

(UK, by extension) Any ordinary person; everyman.


go spare

en-verb

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

goes spare (present singular third-person)
going spare (participle present)
went spare (past)
gone spare (participle past)

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

When he found out that someone had broken the window, he went spare.

The poor girl is going spare, stuck in the house all day with the kids like that.

(UK, informal) To become very angry; to become frustrated or distraught: see spare.

turhautua

to become mad (crazy, frustrated or distressed)


gaffa

A body – a corpse – my own, I think – wrapped in tape, suspended in gaffa.

2012, Katherine Angel, Unmastered, Penguin, published 2014, page 250:


graticule

French, from Latin crāticula, diminutive form of crātis.

(specifically, optics, British) A reticle.


loke

From Middle English loke, from Old English loca (“a bar, bolt; enclosure, stronghold”), from Proto-Germanic *lukô, *lukǭ (“lock, clasp, shutter, opening”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend, turn”). Cognate with Icelandic loka (“clasp, latch, lock, bolt”). More at lock.

cog

(UK dialectal) The wicket or hatch of a door.

(UK dialectal) A close narrow lane; a cul-de-sac.


cut-throat razor

en-noun

cut-throat razor (plural cut-throat razors)


advowson

From Middle English avowson, from Anglo-Norman avouson, from Latin advocātiō. Doublet of advocation.

The advowson of the parsonages of Sempringham and Tirington, being the right of his father, he [St. Gilbert] was presented by him [his father] to those united livings, in 1123.

1866, Rev. Alban Butler, chapter IV, in The Lives of the Saints, volume II (February):

Advowson is the right to appoint the incumbent clergy of a parish, so three advowsons meant three incumbents.

2017, Ben Aaronovitch, The Furthest Station, Gollancz, page 88:

(UK, ecclesiastical law) The right to present a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church office.


knicker

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

(dated, dialect, UK, US) A small ball of clay, baked hard and oiled, used as a marble in games.


aquaplaning

aquaplaning (countable and uncountable, plural aquaplanings)

(automotive, UK) The loss of contact with the road because of surface water. The act of aquaplaning.


farthingdale

(British, historical, 13th-19th C.) A unit of area equal to one quarter of an acre.


sweer

en-adj

sweer (comparative more sweer, superlative most sweer)

more sweer (comparative)
most sweer (superlative)

From Middle English swere, sware, from Old English swǣr, swār (“heavy, of great weight, oppressive, grievous, painful, unpleasant, great, sad, feeling or expressing grief, grave, slow, dull, sluggish, slothful, indolent, inactive from weakness, enfeebled, weak”), from Proto-West Germanic *swār, from Proto-Germanic *swēraz, *swērijaz (“heavy”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“heavy”).

(UK dialectal) Reluctant; unwilling; disinclined.


tartish

tartish (comparative more tartish, superlative most tartish)

more tartish (comparative)
most tartish (superlative)

a tartish dress


sneck posset

(idiomatic, British) A cold reception, closing the door on a visitor


shit off

en-verb

shit off (third-person singular simple present shits off, present participle shitting off, simple past shat off or shit off, past participle shat off)

shits off (present singular third-person)
shitting off (participle present)
shat off (past)
shit off (past)
shat off (participle past)

'Oh, shit off!' she shouted.

1966, William Sansom, Goodbye: A Novel, page 162:

One girl was incensed at finding herself in the support unit one day because she was reported to have told a teacher to ' shit off ' when she claimed she had 'only' responded 'shut up.'

1984, Lynn Davies, Pupil Power: Deviance and Gender in School, →ISBN, page 13:

Well, bloody well take 'em and shit off.

2006, Keith Blackburn, Grandma's Garden, →ISBN, page 55:

(British, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar) Synonym of fuck off


caser

Possibly from Yiddish כּתר (keser, “crown”), from Hebrew כֶּתֶר (keter)

(slang, UK) A crown, a five-shilling coin.


dog's breakfast

en-noun

dog's breakfast (plural dog's breakfasts)

So complex was the scheme that neither blacks nor whites could say for certain who had won. "A dog's breakfast," cried Laborite M.P. James Callaghan. "I say frankly that I do not begin to understand it."

1961 July 7, “Black Temper”, in Time, archived from the original on 2012-02-03:

Critics here are reserving judgement on whether ABC will do "Life in Mars" justice or make a dog's breakfast of it.

2008 May 18, David Usborne, “The Gene Genie gets an LA makeover”, in The Independent, retrieved 2008-06-09:

I'd trade one of their sublime sentences for the entire crop of sprawling, show-offy novels – dog′s breakfasts of facetiousness – that are currently the literary vogue.

2010, Kate Jennings, “Bouleversé”, in Trouble: Evolution of a Radical/Selected Writings 1970–2010, page 277:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic) An unappealing mixture; a disorderly situation; a mess.


BOGOFF

(British, rare) Alternative form of BOGOF: acronym for "buy one, get one for free".


behaviouristic

en-adj

behaviouristic (comparative more behaviouristic, superlative most behaviouristic)

more behaviouristic (comparative)
most behaviouristic (superlative)

British standard spelling of behavioristic.


PDC

Tensions threatened to boil over before the defending champion Gerwyn Price eventually overcame Kim Huybrechts in a sudden-death decider to reach the last 16 of the PDC World Championship.

2021 December 27, “Gerwyn Price beats Kim Huybrechts in fiery clash to keep title defence alive”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Professional Darts Corporation
w:Professional Darts Corporation

(UK, sports) Initialism of Professional Darts Corporation.


King's Counsel

head

King's Counsel (plural King's Counsel or King's Counsels, abbreviation KC)

King's Counsel (plural)
King's Counsels (plural)
KC (abbreviation)

When the case eventually came to court in December 1903, Wellcome’s team, headed by Moulton, contained three King’s Counsel; they had marshalled seventy-two witnesses and intimated that they could produce as many again.

1994, Robert Rhodes James, “‘A Morbid Misery’”, in Henry Wellcome, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 292:

Arrayed in front of him was a very expensive line-up of London’s best legal brains. Each director had his own team of two, and in some cases three, defence barristers. Including two King’s Counsels who represented the Official Receiver, there were a dozen silks in court.

2011, Martin Vander Weyer, “[Misfeasance] Wilful Neglect?”, in Fortune’s Spear: The Story of the Blue-Blooded Rogue Behind the Most Notorious City Scandal of the 1920s, London: Elliott and Thompson Limited, →ISBN, page 256:

(UK, Canada, New Zealand, occasionally Australia) An honorific status officially conferred on senior or meritorious barristers (and occasionally other kinds of lawyer) during the reign of a king.

(UK, historical) A barrister or advocate appointed by the Crown during the reign of a king.


HCI

Home Computer Initiative
w:Home Computer Initiative

(UK) Initialism of Home Computer Initiative.


broddle

en-verb

broddle (third-person singular simple present broddles, present participle broddling, simple past and past participle broddled)

broddles (present singular third-person)
broddling (participle present)
broddled (participle past)
broddled (past)


posey

en-adj

posey (comparative posier, superlative posiest)

posier (comparative)
posiest (superlative)

[…] I missed one of Freda's main revelations because I got distracted by the posey glide she was making across the room […]

1994, Theatre Record, volume 14, numbers 9-16, page 896:

(British, informal) Pretentious; posturing.


staycation

The noun is a blend of stay (at home) + vacation. The verb is derived from the noun.

It's holiday time again. Having invented the staycation – no, I don't like the word either – four years ago when we ran out of money and out of patience with French traffic, we are sticking to principle and, as we did four months ago, hanging out at Tom Hodgkinson's gaff in north Devon.

2009 August 31, Nicholas Lezard, “Down and Out in London”, in New Statesman, London: New Statesman Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2012-12-01, page 54:

Somewhere in the last few decades the stacation was substituted for the prestige and glamour of the trip abroad, and the recent flurry of low cost airlines all but cemented that as the new tradition for those that can afford it.

2012 October 24, Jeff Brazier, “The Joys of Camping”, in HuffPost, UK edition, archived from the original on 2017-07-01:

The rise in patronage partly reflects the growing trend for ‘staycations’ in the UK, in addition to Pitlochry’s status as the southern gateway to the world-famous Cairngorms National Park.

2019 December 4, Paul Stephen, “At the Heart of the Local Community”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 58:

Many families who had planned to go away for the easter holidays are now deciding to grab a tent and go on an isolated family camping stacations to ensure the kids are still entertained as many holiday resorts go on possible lockdown.

2020 March 16, Heather Carrick, “Coronavirus: Glaswegians stock up on camping gear before self-isolation”, in Glasgow Times, Glasgow: Newsquest (Herald & Times), →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-09-27:

(informal) A vacation spent at or close to home.

(British, Ireland) A holiday spent in one's own country without travelling abroad.


staycation

en-verb

staycation (third-person singular simple present staycations, present participle staycationing, simple past and past participle staycationed)

staycations (present singular third-person)
staycationing (participle present)
staycationed (participle past)
staycationed (past)

[...] I staycationed there this summer, enjoying the ancient town of Sandbach with Saxon crosses in its cobbled square; [...]

2010 September 14, Fiona Bruce, “Equitable Life (Payments) Bill: Second Reading”, in House of Commons Debates (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), volume 515, part no. 45, London: Parliament of the United Kingdom, archived from the original on 2010-09-21, column 763:

Having ‘staycationed’ with her sister in Kinnity, Co Offaly for the past four years, and with a budget of around €350, Bronwyn O’Brien says she’d just be happy to see the inside of a plane. “Although I didn’t mind holidaying at home, there’s nothing like getting on an airplane and feeling the heat hit your face the minute you arrive,” she tells.

2015 January 15, Dierdre Reynolds, “Sunshine Saturday: We’re all going on a summer holiday”, in Irish Independent, Dublin: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-05-11:

It's that time of the year when deleting Instagram seems like a sensible mode of self-preservation for people staycationing, or quite simply stuck on home soil, while others are hashtagging #HotGirlSummer all over the continent.

2019 August 16, Alice Newbold, “Is Anyone Else Suffering from Yacht Fatigue?”, in Vogue, London: Condé Nast, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-08-16:

Baz [Ashmawy] and his family are staycationing in Ireland this summer due to the Covid-19 pandemic

2020 August 5, Dara Browne, “Fam-cation: RTE’s Baz Ashmawy shares adorable snap of his mother and daughter on staycation in Co Limerick”, in The Irish Sun, Dublin: News Group Newspapers, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-08-07, photograph caption:

Over the last few weekends traffic is back with a vengeance, with families breaking out of lockdown to staycation in the UK and visit the coast, countryside and shops.

2020 August 5, Edmund King, quotee, “Weekend car use returns to pre-pandemic levels”, in Express & Star, Wolverhampton, West Midlands: Midland News Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-08-09:

RTE star Mary Kennedy has said that it is "so nice to explore our lovely country" as she staycations on Inis Oirr with her friend.

2020 September 25, Aine Conaty, “Merry Mary: RTE star Mary Kennedy says it’s ‘so nice to explore our lovely country’ as she staycations on Inis Oirr with pal”, in The Irish Sun, Dublin: News Group Newspapers, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-09-19, photograph caption:

(intransitive, informal) To spend a vacation at or close to home.

(British, Ireland) To take a holiday in one's own country as opposed to travelling abroad.


well-covered

en-adj

well-covered (comparative more well-covered, superlative most well-covered)

more well-covered (comparative)
most well-covered (superlative)

That simple dancing of well-covered matrons, laying aside for an hour the cares of house and dairy, remembering but not affecting youth, not jealous but proud of the young maidens by their side […] it would be a pleasant variety to see all that sometimes.

1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 26, in Adam Bede […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

"She wasn't much of a skeleton as I remember her," murmured Euphemia, "extremely well-covered."

1921, John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga, part 2, ch. 11:

The sculptor Botero—influenced perhaps by Maillol’s love of well covered women—created in 1981 an overweight, stumpy couple.

2003 March 20, Thomas Stuttaford, “Eat less and walk more to keep diabetes at bay”, in Times Online, UK, retrieved 2008-06-24:

(chiefly British, of a person, euphemistic) Fat, corpulent, full-figured.


darkmans

I have, by the salomon, a doxy that carries a kinchin mort in her slate at her back, besides my dell and my dainty wild dell, with all whom I'll tumble this next darkmans in the strommel […]

c. 1607–1610 (date written), Thomas Middleton; Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girle. Or Moll Cut-purse. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Archer, […], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page number):

Men were men then, and fought each other in the open field, and there was nae milling in the darkmans.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

Ah, Bess, my covess, strike me blind if my sees don't tout your bingo muns in spite of the darkmans.

1828, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

White thy fambles, red thy gan / And thy quarrons dainty is. / Couch a hogshead with me then. / In the darkmans clip and kiss.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 3]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) The night.


Colonel Blimp

From the name of a cartoon character created by Sir David Low.

(British) A stereotype of a pompous, ex-military middle-aged man, conservative and opposed to new ideas.


LTA

en-noun

LTA (countable and uncountable, plural LTAs)

lifetime allowance
lifetime allowance#English

(UK, pensions) Initialism of lifetime allowance.


philosophise

en-verb

philosophise (third-person singular simple present philosophises, present participle philosophising, simple past and past participle philosophised)

philosophises (present singular third-person)
philosophising (participle present)
philosophised (participle past)
philosophised (past)

"Not that the parting speech caused Amelia to philosophise, or that it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it was intolerably dull, pompous, and tedious; and having hte fear of her schoolmistress greatly before her eyes, Miss Sedley did not venture, in her presence, to give way to any ebullitions of private grief."

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Alternative spelling of philosophize


viviparous blenny

en-noun

viviparous blenny (plural viviparous blennies)

Zoarces viviparus
Zoarces viviparus#Translingual

(British) A fish in the family Zoarcidae, Zoarces viviparus.


focaliser

(British) Alternative spelling of focalizer


slop-basin

(British) A bowl for receiving the leavings of tea or coffee cups at table


custard cream

Coordinate term: gypsy cream

(British) A biscuit consisting of a soft, custard-flavoured layer sandwiched between two crisp biscuits.


soddenness

(UK) The state of being completely drunk.


FWK

framework knitter
framework knitter#English

(UK, census forms) Initialism of framework knitter.


civil enforcement officer

civil enforcement officer (plural civil enforcement officers)

(UK) A person employed to enforce parking, traffic and other restrictions and laws in England and Wales, formerly known as a parking attendant.


bloater paste

(British) A spread (a form of fish paste), made from bloaters, traditionally eaten on toast with afternoon tea


bloater

From bloat + -er, because they swell during preparation.

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

(British) A salted, and lightly smoked herring or mackerel.


bloater

From bloat + -er, in the sense of the person having a "bloated" appearance.


fish paste

fish paste (countable and uncountable, plural fish pastes)

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

(British) Any of several varieties of spread, made from physically processed cooked fish with the addition of some cereal, traditionally eaten on toast.


SWIFT

(UK) Acronym of South Wales Integrated Fast transit.


disinthral

en-verb

disinthral (third-person singular simple present disinthrals, present participle disinthralling, simple past and past participle disinthralled)

disinthrals (present singular third-person)
disinthralling (participle present)
disinthralled (participle past)
disinthralled (past)

(dated, British) Alternative spelling of disenthrall


shakehole

(British, Northern England) A steep-sided, often conical, depression caused by slumping of ground into a cavity beneath. Shakeholes may or may not contain a cave entrance and/or a stream sink.


swallet

Compare German Schwall (“a sea swell”), from schwellen (“to swell”). See English swell.

(UK, dialect, dated, mining, tin mining) Water breaking in upon the miners at their work.


shalk

From Middle English schalk, scalk, from Old English scealc (“servant; man, soldier, sailor”), from Proto-West Germanic *skalk, from Proto-Germanic *skalkaz (“servant, knight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to cleave, separate, part, divide”). Cognate with German Schalk (“joker”), Old Norse skálkr (“servant, rogue”) ( > Danish and Swedish skalk), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌻𐌺𐍃 (skalks, “servant”).


permanent wave

(British) A series of waves in the hair produced by means of chemical substances and heat; a perm


caucus race

From caucus (“regular party committee meeting of elected MPs”) + race (“contest between people”); a reference to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, chapter III "A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale", being a nonsensical satire thereof: all participants have to run in circles until an arbitrary end is called and everyone is declared a winner; Alice has to give prizes to them all, and being declared a winner too, the Dodo solemnly takes her thimble and awards it back to her.

With the dominant figure in U.S. politics forced to the sidelines for—perhaps—the rest of the year, the national political situation last week began to take on the unreal air of the Dodo's caucus race.

1955 October 17, "The Dodo's Dance", in Time magazine

The American economic system is beginning to resemble the caucus race in Alice in Wonderland. Is it not something of a contradiction to cut taxes to facilitate the resurgence of buying power that will increase the demand for appliances and, especially, vehicles —and at the same time enforce a reduction in demand for the petroleum fuels that must drive the cars and power the machines that will manufacture the appliances?

1975 February 17, John Rossouw, "To the Editors", in Time magazine

A more free and easy attitude prevailed in selecting research topics than today, when the funding squeeze keeps most academic scientists in a tight caucus race of grant getting and paper production that precludes forays into risky serendipitous pursuits.

1997, Christopher Scholz, chapter 1, in Fieldwork: A Geologist's Memoir of the Kalahari, Princeton University Press, →ISBN:

(originally British, idiomatic) A laborious but arbitrary and futile activity; an activity that amounts to running around in a circle, expending great energy but not accomplishing anything.


mithramycin

en-noun

mithramycin (countable and uncountable, plural mithramycins)

From [Term?] + -mycin (“antibiotic derived from Streptomyces”).


phall

“Misled how?” I toss this over in my mind as my fork tosses the murg phall, a suicidally hot Bangalore-style chicken curry designed for masochistic European taste, slowly oxidizing in my plate.

2010, Donald W. Bacon, Followed by Madness:

(UK) An extremely hot British-Indian curry, often billed as the hottest curry in the world.


Speccy

TETRIS (Mirrorsoft)
Yes, it's the game that makes Amiga and ST owners look at your Spectrum with real jealousy, 'cos the Speccy version of this classic Russian reaction-tester out performs the 16-bit ports every time.

1991, Stuart Campbell, "The YS Top 100 Speccy Games of All Time (Ever!)" (in Your Sinclair magazine)

Before you sit down in front of your Speccy to play an adventure, equip yourself with a pencil, eraser and plenty of paper. This so that you may draw a 'map' of the adventure as you move around.

1992 October, Larry Horsfield, “The SU Guide to Playing and Writing Adventure Games”, in Sinclair User, number 128:

1998, Bongo, “Emulation under threat (yes, Speccies too)”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet):

Developers wasted no time making games for the Speccy.

2003, Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games:

(computing, colloquial, chiefly UK) A Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer.


granny annexe

(UK, informal) An extension built to house an elderly relative.


pawky

en-adj

pawky (comparative pawkier, superlative pawkiest)

pawkier (comparative)
pawkiest (superlative)

[H]e generally meets her at one Signora Sporza's, a very pawky gentlewoman, who understands what's what as well as any woman in Naples […].

1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt, published 2008, page 161:

1836, Joanna Baillie, Witchcraft, Act 1, p.36-37.
'Awa', ye pawky thief! Dost tu think that I'll herrie the laird's cellar for thee or ony body?—But there's the whisky bottle in my ain cupboard, wi' some driblets in it yet, that ye may tak; and deil a drap mair shall ye get, an thy tongue were as guizened as a spelding. I wonder wha learnt sic a youngster as thee to be sae pawky.

Those unacquainted with the pawky humor of the Scot will search unsuccessfully in reference books for mention of the elusive Colonel Boffin.

1991, Sydney Ross, Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science, Springer, page 32:

Just as a pun, to be a good pun, has to be not only a play on words but have a serious meaning, so pawky humour must carry sense. However the underlying humour is always there.

2010, J. A. Hadfield, Why Do We Laugh, Lulu.com, page 202:

(Scotland, northern British) Shrewd, sly; often also characterised by a sarcastic sense of humour.


beer snake

(British) A long, flexible construction of stacked, empty plastic beer cups, made by the crowd at long sporting fixtures (especially cricket matches)


autolyse

en-verb

autolyse (third-person singular simple present autolyses, present participle autolysing, simple past and past participle autolysed)

autolyses (present singular third-person)
autolysing (participle present)
autolysed (participle past)
autolysed (past)

(British) Alternative spelling of autolyze


mis-sell

mis-sell (third-person singular simple present mis-sells, present participle mis-selling, simple past and past participle mis-sold)

mis-sells (present singular third-person)
mis-selling (participle present)
mis-sold (participle past)
mis-sold (past)

The firm is defending itself against fresh allegations of mis-selling pensions.

(British, finance) To sell misleadingly, fraudulently, or in violation of laws or regulations.


squaddie

He'll turn out to be a squaddie— a Muslim squaddie. Exactly the kind of victim they're looking for.

2010, Mick Herron, Slow Horses, page 117:

Hard men from the high flats and off-dutie squaddies threw back their pints shoulder to shoulder in its spartan public bar.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 164:

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A private in the army.


potter around

potter around (third-person singular simple present potters around, present participle pottering around, simple past and past participle pottered around)

potters around (present singular third-person)
pottering around (participle present)
pottered around (participle past)
pottered around (past)

I like to relax pottering around the house doing this and that at the weekends.

(chiefly British) To potter, to be gently active doing various things in an almost aimless manner.


potter about

potter about (third-person singular simple present potters about, present participle pottering about, simple past and past participle pottered about)

potters about (present singular third-person)
pottering about (participle present)
pottered about (participle past)
pottered about (past)

I like to relax pottering about the house doing this and that at the weekends.

So after "pottering about" and "daudling" a little, we moved up State Street, still attended by the same honorary retinue.

1835, Dorah Mahony, Six Months in a House of Correction:

Each man helps himself, potters about the little place, and lounges on the bed with perfect freedom, as if in the habit of doing the same thing nightly, and so periodically reimbursed the landlord in a lump sum.

1884, Hartmann Henry Sultzberger, editor, All about Opium, page 176:

Slowly the hours crawled. His father got up; he heard him pottering about.

1913, D.H. Lawrence, chapter 12, in Sons and Lovers:

"I remember before we were married he used to potter about with a paint-box. But you never saw such daubs. We used to chaff him. He had absolutely no gift for anything like that."

1919, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 15, in The Moon and Sixpence:

Some ten years ago, an evening excursion train from the Walsall area to Manchester, when travelling well over the heavily-graded Walsall-Rugeley line, was brought to a stand at a level crossing at Hednesford by the tardiness of a gatekeeper, who was pottering about in his garden instead of attending to his duties.

1947 January and February, “Notes and News: Drivers' Reprisals”, in Railway Magazine, page 53:

[...] indeed, in April of that year five "E4s" were pottering about the port, [...].

1959 February, G. Freeman Allen, “Southampton—Gateway to the Ocean”, in Trains Illustrated, page 91:

(British) To potter, to be gently active doing various things in an almost aimless manner.


cock a snook

cock a snook (third-person singular simple present cocks a snook, present participle cocking a snook, simple past and past participle cocked a snook)

cocks a snook (present singular third-person)
cocking a snook (participle present)
cocked a snook (participle past)
cocked a snook (past)

(UK, idiomatic, derogatory, as a gesture) To perform a snook, a gesture of disrespect.


dimp

(UK, colloquial, chiefly Manchester) A small or short cigarette.

(UK, colloquial, by extension) The butt end of a cigarette, before it has been completely smoked; a half-smoked cigarette.


poet laureate

en-noun

poet laureate (plural poets laureate or poet laureates)

poets laureate (plural)
poet laureates (plural)

(British, historical) Formerly, an officer of the king's household, whose business was to compose an ode annually for the king's birthday, and other suitable occasions; now, a poet officially distinguished by such honorary title, the office being a sinecure.


skewwhiff

en-adj

skewwhiff (comparative more skewwhiff, superlative most skewwhiff)

more skewwhiff (comparative)
most skewwhiff (superlative)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Alternative spelling of skew-whiff


rejig

The verb is derived from re- (prefix meaning ‘again, anew’) + jig (“to move briskly; to move with jerks or vibrations”). The noun is derived from the verb.

prefix

(chiefly British) A rearrangement, a reorganization.


belter

From belt (“hit”) + -er (agent noun suffix).

When the second goal came, it was a belter - Fabregas launching an inch-perfect ball over the top for Van Persie to volley in without breaking stride.

2011 January 22, Ian Hughes, “Arsenal 3 - 0 Wigan”, in BBC:

(UK, informal) Anything that is particularly good of its class.

(British, informal) A very good-looking person.


Polyfilla

From the trade name of a brand of spackling paste.

He writes in well filled fourteeners, with individual words used not only vitally to convey the sense but also as a kind of metrical polyfilla.

1984, Gerardus Antonius Maria Janssens, Flor Aarts, Studies in Seventeenth-century English Literature, History and Bibliography:

Kierkegaard saw clearly that faith is not a kind of epistemic Polyfilla that closes the small cracks left by reason, but a mad leap across a chasm devoid of all reason.

2013 May 6, Julian Bagginni, “I Still Love Kierkegaard”, in Aeon:

(British) A metaphorical filler to minimize or obscure defects.


strike lucky

en-verb

strike lucky (third-person singular simple present strikes lucky, present participle striking lucky, simple past struck lucky, past participle struck lucky or (rare) stricken lucky)

strikes lucky (present singular third-person)
striking lucky (participle present)
struck lucky (past)
struck lucky (participle past)
stricken lucky (participle past rare)

(British) To have unexpected good fortune.


private candidate

en-noun

private candidate (plural private candidates)

(British) One who enters an examination without being enrolled as a student at the educational establishment where it is given.

privatist

person taking exams without being enrolled as a student


emma

(British, dated, World War I, signalese) M in RAF phonetic alphabet


ploughman's

I ordered a ploughman's, and Rich had the scampi and chips.

(British, informal) A ploughman's lunch.


O-level

(UK, dated) A subject-based qualification superseded in England by GCSEs, but still available as an international examination.


lose touch

en-verb

lose touch (third-person singular simple present loses touch, present participle losing touch, simple past and past participle lost touch)

loses touch (present singular third-person)
losing touch (participle present)
lost touch (participle past)
lost touch (past)

Francis Urquhart: I think Lord Billsborough is starting to lose touch a bit.
Tim Stamper: Shame. Used to be a hell of an operator in his day.

1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:

lose one's touch
lose one's touch#English

(idiomatic, UK) Alternative form of lose one's touch.


lie in

lie in (third-person singular simple present lies in, present participle lying in, simple past lay in, past participle lain in)

lies in (present singular third-person)
lying in (participle present)
lay in (past)
lain in (participle past)

I've got a day off tomorrow, so I might lie in till about 11.

(UK) To stay in bed (longer than usual).


trig point

(British) A fixed pillar with a metal housing for a theodolite on the top of a high point in the landscape; originally used for making Ordnance Survey maps.


alcatote

Unknown. The beginning may be related to elk or auk.

VVhy? you knovv I [am] an ignorant unable trifle in ſuch buſineſſe; an Oafe, a ſimple Alcatote; an Innocent.

c. 1635–1636 (date written), Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], The Fancies, Chast and Noble: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] P[urslowe] for Henry Seile, […], published 1638, →OCLC, Act IIII, page 54:

(British, dialectal, obsolete) A foolish oaf.


pedgill

pedgill (third-person singular simple present pedgills, present participle pedgilling, simple past and past participle pedgilled)

pedgills (present singular third-person)
pedgilling (participle present)
pedgilled (participle past)
pedgilled (past)

D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow
But at drawing, his hand swung naturally in big, bold lines, rather lax, so that it was cruel for him to pedgill away at the lace designing, working from the tiny squares of paper, counting and plotting and niggling.

(British, regional) To work hard and painstakingly at something; to plod or persevere.


leed

From Middle English lede, shortened variant of leden (“language”), from Old English lēoden (“popular or national language, native tongue”), from Old English lēod (“people, nation”). Cognate with Scots leed (“language”). More at lede.

inh

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Language; tongue.

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A national tongue (in contrast to a foreign language).

(UK dialectal, Scotland) The speech of a person or class of persons; form of speech; talk; utterance; manner of speaking or writing; phraseology; diction.


leed

From Middle English lede, led, leod, variant of Middle English leth, leoth (“song, poem”), from Old English lēoþ (“song, poem, ode, lay, verse”), from Proto-Germanic *leuþą (“song, lay, praise”), from Proto-Indo-European *lēw- (“to sound, resound, sing out”). Cognate with Dutch lied (“song”), German Lied (“song”).

der

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A strain in a rhyme, song, or poem; refrain; flow.

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A constant or repeated line or verse; theme.

(UK dialectal, Scotland) Patter; rigmarole.


God Save the King

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK) An expression of one’s patriotism and hope for the long life of the monarch, especially in his presence.

(UK) A formal statement at the end of many proclamations issued by the King or in his name.

The Queen is dead! God save the King!

(UK) A formal declaration following the death of a reigning monarch when the next monarch is male.


rowing boat

(British, nautical) Alternative form of rowboat


queue up

en-verb

queue up (third-person singular simple present queues up, present participle queueing up or queuing up, simple past and past participle queued up)

queues up (present singular third-person)
queueing up (participle present)
queuing up (participle present)
queued up (participle past)
queued up (past)

(British, intransitive) To queue (form a line while waiting).


brent goose

The first word is perhaps from branded, meaning brindled.

Branta bernicla
Branta bernicla#Translingual

(British) A small member of the goose family (Anatidae), Branta bernicla.


stonker

Every record he played was a stonker.

(British, slang) Something highly impressive.


mikvah

(especially UK) Alternative spelling of mikveh


choc ice

(UK) A block of vanilla ice cream with a chocolate (or chocolate-like) coating

(UK, ethnic slur) A black person considered to have assimilated into white culture; an Oreo.


khazi

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

Variant of carsey, from euphemistic Cockney corruption of Italian casa (“house”), possibly via Polari [Term?] and Sabir [Term?].

Carsey,... a w.c.

1961, Eric Partridge, Dictionary of Slang, page 1029:

You made a real thorough search? Everywhere? Outhouses, karzey, the lot?

1968, T.E.B. Clarke, chapter XIII, in Trail of Serpent, page 122:

(slang, chiefly UK) An outhouse or lavatory: a place used for urination and defecation.

Well, that plan's down the khazi.

Have you seen the carsy? Just a bucket with a seat on top.

1967, J. Burke, chapter V, in Till Death Us Do Part, page 84:

(slang, chiefly UK) A toilet: a fixture used for urination and defecation (also figurative).


trog

‘I'm sharing a cell with a couple of trogs who make you look like the swan of Avon.’

1984, Martin Amis, Money, Vintage, published 2005, page 253:


marmalize

marmalize (third-person singular simple present marmalizes, present participle marmalizing, simple past and past participle marmalized)

marmalizes (present singular third-person)
marmalizing (participle present)
marmalized (participle past)
marmalized (past)

Thought to be a humorous Blend of marmalade + pulverize

(informal, British) To defeat decisively; trounce.


paillasse

He served the Republic in comfort and ease, and had slept soundly on his paillasse in the little garret allotted to him in the Town Hall.

1908, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 29, in The Elusive Pimpernel:

(chiefly British) An under bed or mattress of straw.


chequing account

en-noun

chequing account (plural chequing accounts)

In the next town he wired money to his daughter’s chequing account and kept driving.

2009, Emily St. John Mandel, Last Night in Montreal, Picador (2015), page 149:

checking account
checking account#English

(British and Canada) Alternative spelling of checking account.


Salopian

en-adj

Salopian (comparative more Salopian, superlative most Salopian)

more Salopian (comparative)
most Salopian (superlative)

From Salop (an abbreviation of Anglo-Norman Salopesberia, from Old English Scrobbesbyrig (“Shropshire”)) + -ian.

der

the Romano-Salopian pottery found at Wroxeter

(British, chiefly Shropshire) of or from Shrewsbury


rose-coloured glasses

rose-colored glasses
rose-colored glasses#English

British standard spelling of rose-colored glasses.


admiral of the fleet

en-noun

admiral of the fleet (plural admirals of the fleet)

(military, UK) The highest rank in the Royal Navy and other Commonwealth navies, NATO grade OF-10, currently only ceremonial.

velkoadmirál

Top rank in the British Royal Navy; equivalent ranks in other navies — see also admiral, fleet admiral


queer fish

/ˈkwiːɹˌfɪʃ/

He’s known amongst us as the Arab. I’ve had my eye on him ever since he came to the place. A queer fish he is. I always have said that he’s up to some game or other.

To these people, native and European, he was a queer fish, but they were used to queer fish, and they took him for granted; the world was full of odd persons, who did odd things; and perhaps they knew that a man is not what he wants to be, but what he must be.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 54”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

Harry is a queer fish indeed. He is suspicious of everybody and everything.

1974 April 21, Vincent Canby, “Movie Review: The Conversation”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-02-24:

(dated, chiefly British) An odd or eccentric person.


backfriend

From back (adverb or noun) + friend. Sense 3 (“person who pretends to be someone’s friend”) may allude to a person who stays back instead of coming forward to help, and so is not a true friend.

They had vvings of goodvvill to fly vvith, but no vvebbes on their feete to ſvvimme vvith, for except the vvaterfoules had mercie vpon them, and ſtood their faithfull confederates and backe-friends, on their backes to tranſport them, they might returne home like good fooles, and gather ſtravves to build their neſts, or fal to theyr old trade of picking vvormes.

1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 49:

Tho they give us neither VVine nor Ale; yet if they give us a Cup of cold VVater in the time of need, in the name of Diſciple, in the name of Miniſters, they ſhall not loſe their Revvard. Novv, vvell's us for our Back-friend, he vvill ay maintain our Cauſe; […]

1707, Michael Bruce, “Sermon II. On Psalm 140. Verses 12, 13.”, in Good News in Evil Times for Fainting Believers, or The Summ of a Lecture upon Jeremiah 45 Chapter; […], [S.l]: [s.n.], published 1708, →OCLC, pages 63–64:

I would always have been able to keep up my spirits with the reflection, that I had, in case of the worst, a stout back-friend in this uncle of mine. But now I have seen him, and, woe worth him, there has been more help in a mere mechanical stranger than I have found in my own mother's brother, my countryman and a cavalier.

1823, [Walter Scott], “The Bohemians”, in Quentin Durward. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 123:

[“H]e said to me, ‘Adelle, I’m going out. I’ve got a backfriend to meet.’” / “A ‘backfriend’?” / “Yes. Evidently he had a late-night appointment with someone at Wabash. That was the way he liked to do it.”

1980, David Carkeet, chapter 4, in Double Negative […], New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, →ISBN, page 65:

(archaic) A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter.

[…] Corrie bit another atom from off the corner of his nail. He had a troublesome "back-friend" or "agnail," at which he often bit.

1866, E[liza] Lynn Linton, “Margaret and Ainslie”, in Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 121, column 2:

Synonym of hangnail (“a loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail”)

hangnail

A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe: / A VVolfe, nay vvorſe, a fellovv all in buffe: / A back friend, a ſhoulder-clapper, one that countermãds / The paſſages of allies, creekes, and narrovv lands: […]

c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94, column 1:

[…] VVeſtmorland thought it ſafeſt to checke the Scots, as the neerer and continuall backe-friends.

1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 26, page 628, column 1:

And ſo far is our Church from encroaching upon the Civil Povver, as ſome, vvho are Back-Friends to both, vvould maliciouſly inſinuate; that vvere it ſtripped of the very Remainder of its Privileges, and made as like the Primitive Church for its Bareneſs, as it is already for its Purity, it could chearfully, and vvhat is more, loyally, vvant all ſuch Privileges; […]

1666 December 5 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1692, Robert South, “A Sermon Preach’d at Lambeth-Chapel on the 25th of November, 1666. [Julian calendar] upon the Consecration of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. John Dolben, Lord Bishop of Rochester”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] H[eptinstall] for Thomas Bennet, […], →OCLC, page 206:

Let a man but ſet […] The Reſtleſs Importunities of Tale-bearers and Back Friends, againſt Fair VVords and Profeſſions only from the Teeth outvvard: Let him, I ſay, but ſet the One in Ballance againſt the Other, and he ſhall find himſelf Miſerable, even in the very Glutt of his Delights.

1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] XI. A City Mouse and a Country Mouse [Reflexion].”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, pages 11–12:

It is even as I suspected, my lord, […] Ye have back-friends, my lord, that is, unfriends—or, to be plain, enemies—about the person of the Prince.

1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 88–89:

It would have been well for me, if I had always had friends as able and as willing to stand forward in my defence as you are. But I have had back[-]friends instead, as well as enemies.

1827 November 22, Robert Southey, “Chapter XXXI. [Letter to Henry Taylor, Esq.]”, in Charles Cuthbert Southey, editor, The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey. […], volume V, London: […] [Spottiswoodes and Shaw] for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 321:

(obsolete) A person who pretends to be someone's friend; a false friend, a secret enemy.


vegeburger

/ˈvɛd͡ʒiːˌbɜː(ɹ)ɡə(ɹ)/

Blend of vegetable + burger, vegetarian + burger, or alteration of veggie burger.

Here the little girl eats a "vege-burger" and her sister drinks pomegranate juice, one of favorites at snack bar

1950 June 24, “Camp Parley of Methodist Group Slated”, in Los Angeles Times:

1 serving Vegeburger Loaf with non-fat mushroom gravy

1951, E. Virginia Dobbin, The low fat, low cholesterol diet: what to eat and how to prepare it, page 346:

(UK) Alternative spelling of veggie burger


flavourless

en-adj

flavourless (comparative more flavourless, superlative most flavourless)

more flavourless (comparative)
most flavourless (superlative)

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

British standard spelling of flavorless.


scrumple

en-verb

scrumple (third-person singular simple present scrumples, present participle scrumpling, simple past and past participle scrumpled)

scrumples (present singular third-person)
scrumpling (participle present)
scrumpled (participle past)
scrumpled (past)

...once a piece of paper has been scrumpled no amount of flattening will erase the fact that it has been treated that way

"The Man Who Never Was" by Ewen Montagu, published by J. B. Lippincott Company 1954 Page 87

Throw the first sheet unfolded. Throw the second scrumpled up into a ball. And throw the third after you have folded it into a paper airplane.

2011, Brian Clegg, Inflight Science: A Guide to the World from Your Airplane Window:

(British) To crumple, crush or wad (like a piece of paper).


hirple

hirple (third-person singular simple present hirples, present participle hirpling, simple past and past participle hirpled)

hirples (present singular third-person)
hirpling (participle present)
hirpled (participle past)
hirpled (past)

A word of unknown origin, first recorded in Scots sources from the late fifteenth century; but probably from Old Norse herpast (“to suffer from cramp”) the middle voice verb. Compare the Icelandic herpa (“to contract, to draw together”).

unk

unknown

cog

Get you on that bicycle and hurry on, and I'll hirple after you the best I can.

A woman hirpled along the corridor towards them with the aid of a walking frame.

2015, Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins, →ISBN, page 136:

Around lunchtime he hirpled down the corridor to the Gents.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 513:

(intransitive, Scotland, northern UK) To walk with a limp, to drag a limb, to walk lamely; to move with a gait somewhere between walking and crawling.


snig

en-verb

snig (third-person singular simple present snigs, present participle snigging, simple past and past participle snigged)

snigs (present singular third-person)
snigging (participle present)
snigged (participle past)
snigged (past)


snig

Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *snigilaz or *snagilaz; related to snail.

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909


pulse dialling

(British) Alternative spelling of pulse dialing


touch-tone dialling

touch-tone dialing
touch-tone dialing#English

(British) Alternative spelling of touch-tone dialing


tone dialling

(British) Alternative spelling of tone dialing


staw

staw (third-person singular simple present staws, present participle stawing, simple past and past participle stawed)

staws (present singular third-person)
stawing (participle present)
stawed (participle past)
stawed (past)

(UK, dialect, intransitive) To be fixed or set; to stay.


DRCP

(British) Director of Revenue and Customs Prosecutions